I Pine For You

In the white dusk

Outside the ever unsettled

Shaking journey

Across the never ending seas

The thick fog eases and the sea gull

Transformed into mallard singing

The song telling of ensuing and preceding

From above the Silver oaks

So near yet so far away.

Is that you I see across the orchids?

Sheltered below the Maple

Desperate, together, waiting

To trudge through

The fresh snow of spring

Into our world where we belonged

Where we belong

So far away from the growing dark

In this far away place.

Can you see, touch, feel,

Us as we shelter

Under the same maple

In rains, in heat

Across the decades

Craving to be one in the petrichor

Walking together

On the fallen pine needles

Forever.

                                           by   Ramakant Pande 

Someday

No struggling wistful hours

No intercepting threshold

With you the loadstar of a meandering

Life through starlit nights and seasons cold

I keep diving hard into sea of words

Yet fail to catch my breath

As they slip off over the net of shyness

As I so much want to profess

That the acorn tree where you first met me

Has been whispering ever since

You two are the lost part of each other

And someday you shall meet

The silver sheen of your bated breath

Will mist and melt the lost years

With each other we will touch like you did

In the living dream my heart steers

I’ve felt you in the colors of flowers

Seen you in the shape of clouds

My nights have been filled with dreams

Those memories of shared life arouse

Will you, I wonder, like in dreams

Wrap your arms, like a cozy sheet,

Around the one whose life is only you

On the blessed day we meet

Hesitate if you even for a moment in thoughts

Wondering if I can sense but not see

The person who is beneath the words

Those have flown over seas to me  

Will you then just hold out your hand?

I will in tight embrace see it melt

And look at you, assuage

The aggravated thirst we’ve felt

And hold your hands forever

And show you all the lonely walks

In bloom, in dog days, in fall across

As gushing streams over hope stalks

We’ll walk through ripening summer breeze

Into the mellow autumn’s rustling wind

And then in freshly fallen snow I’ll show

How I stood wherever I thought I glimpsed

A make believe footprint of you

With closed eyes and a fervent prayer

To tell you we’re one, not two

For it is a one soul we do share

There is just one footprint we would make

As I’ll hold you, treasure you, lift you above

 Two souls entwined, coalesced, merged

In a single seam of love.

          Ramakant Pande

Missed

Never thought

The sequestered house

Beneath the canopy

Once my home

Centre of my universe

And you and me

Mingled and blended

 Intertwined so

Like a shadow never noticed

In the dark.

The secluded house

And the life around

Must have been

Abuzz with

Chirping buzzing croaking

Bathed in ebullient euphoria

And your love

I never noticed

Before you were gone.

.... Ramakant Pande 

The Beginning

Inactive frozen Stillness

Of long and dark
Grey wintered Earth

Punished itself
To near death.

Now waking up, pushing

The weakening tantrums 

Of numbing iced chill.

Finally shaking the shivers

Giving way, retreating

Ice yielding water 

Trickling, forming streams. 

Losing

To a bright, orange glow

And Breaking 

Lavender blue dawn

Melting into fledgling

Warmth, comforting cosiness.

A wish of life,

Stems and roots

Breaking free
From iced land,

New leaves sprouting

Thawed aroma of

Fragrances through sprigs

Flowers bunching, spreading,

Growing breeze of wafted air

Crawling insects, flying bees humming

Green, bright, joy

And Sun

Alluringly mild

Yet the lovers delight

To a rapturous dance

Dismayed to the abrupt

Rough, tussled

Thundering winds, dark clouds

And back it goes, the rejoice.

Sudden rain 

Snowed, sleets,

Pellets of frozen rain 

Frosting demure buds

Beaten nosegay

Drooping heads

Brooding over the lost

New found love

It’s the harsh grey

Season of dead again

To silently

Acquiesce, accept, 
Surrender.

Yet and soon

Warm, sensual, genial again

And gushing water,
Dancing birds

In bright splendour
Swaying bloom

And the Sun

Urging, blessing
To live again

Here loving snugness

And instantly there

Wild, severe, pitiless

And again so motherly

In your victorious struggle

To life born again
Oh Spring! 

                     ... Sadhana & Ramakant

Rough Book Movie (2015) a must watch

Rough book movie (2015) is a candid look at the Indian education system where the actual issues that are real and have impacted the rest of lives of hundreds of thousands and have no solutions, have been highlighted in this movie through the eyes of a teacher who teaches the section D of a class where D is commonly accepted to represent the duffers. 

The whole point is to expose the lacunae in this country where children are pushed to coaching classes to pass college examinations and how the purpose of education has been defiled. How it has assumed the role of a career building system instead of supplying good citizens.

The lead role, Santoshi, the teacher of section D fights against the system. 

Directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan  and starring Tannishtha Chatterjee, Amman Khan and Kaizad Kotwal and Shawn Arranha, the creative producer of Hide and seek fame, this is a subtle movie and is a must watch. All we recommend is just go watch the movie. You are guaranteed to walk out of the theatre in an introspective mood – you are going to remember this movie for quite a long period.