With confidence not dented by apprehension,
With passion not touched by skepticism,
With conviction not diluted by distractions,
With creativity not influenced by knowledge,
With excitement not dampened by experience,
With curiosity unblemished by incentives,
The kids toiled away to build their own,
Limited only by their imagination.

I watched awestruck and jealous,
Realizing the cost of growing up,
Trying hard to reverse the effect,
to adopt an uncolored view,
to shun the prejudices, 
to shed the cynicism,
to ignore expectations,
to avoid following a set path,
And carve my own.

Out of the shadows

Abandoned my shackles, 
emerged from my cocoon,
Broke the self inflicted rules,
Let down my guard, lowered my fences,
Shed the paranoia, embraced optimism,

To make myself more vulnerable,
Unsheathed from the potential enemy,
Unprotected from the impending peril,
Unprepared for the hidden surprises,

But also,
To give myself a chance 
To live the adventure,
To experience the adrenaline rush,
To conquer the realm of unknown,
To succumb to spontaneity,
And rediscover myself. 

  

Free spirit

A deluge of information,
A downpour of perceptions,
A torrent of opinions,
And I expend my energy
to fit them into a beautiful narrow bottle.

Filtered by the logical mind,
Sieved by the critical eye,
Morphed by inhibitions,
Treated to mask prejudices,
Refined to avoid conflict,
I fear it will be reduced to a trite concoction,
Devoid of originality and creativity.

So as I let the elegant verses trickle,
I resolve to find expression for the uncensored thought,
Not pruned to fit style or mellowed to suit the palate.

Art of design

Crafted to perfection, with an obsession to detail,
Indulging the senses, yet uncompromisingly utilitarian,
Neither flamboyant nor frugal,
Appeasing the dreamer and cynic alike,
Satisfying a common need, yet exclusive in its appeal,
A wonderful balancing act and game of strategy,
Where the consumer is as engaged as the creator,

I am a patron of the arts,
Not painitings or sketches,
Not music or theatre,
But the art of product design

Wiping the layers of dust that mask the paper,

Freeing the pen entangled in the cobweb,

Letting fresh air dilute the musty smell,

I wait patiently.. 

for thoughts to fill the mind,

for the battle to ensue,

for the strongest to claim its rightful place,

In the pages of this journal.

When the hiatus is long,

It takes time 

to rekindle the fire, 

to restore faith, 

to rebuild reputation,

But I wait patiently..

For there is no progress without challenge,

And no victory without a crusade,