P2680 Hand-pulled rickshaw

While it might surprise you, the contrast in body mass index is rife and well in the city of joy, where it's not uncommon to find podgy women with groceries and a USB fan astride a hand-pulled rickshaw. The BMI does average out between her and the puller, a gaunt, almost skeletal apparition, but any suggestions of a wealth gap cannot be ascertained when such trips usually end with the rider refusing to pay or in high-pitched haggling for a few rupees. The lady then galumphs into her palace and continues to berate another mongrel of similar hardscrabble denomination, the house servant, for not being able to read her mind. 

The coils of human feces and the rudimentary sun are placeholders for the joy in the city. The artifacts of globalization and overeating are indigestion, that and a lack of public toilets, bad city planning, prarie dogging, and you get the picture, how to show, not tell, movement. The city is remarkably overjoyed with these and other types of protests that want to show you something isn't quite right, while the police and the enforcement are trying to tell, and allay all concern as mere childish annoyance. More coils. Smelly ones. 

The sun does what it does best: be sunny. But you can't tell; there's a brown haze of particulate human follies hanging over the city that, from a landing aircraft, signals I'm home. Feces floating towards god, or dust, or pollution. And since most of the energy of the state goes into accruing wealth for fourteen generations of beneficiaries, you can't blame them for negligence. At the national level, the leaders do it for their tycoon friends; at the state level, the beneficiaries are state level in their nefariousness, at least a promoter, a serial criminal of some sort, a psychopath of political repute, but certainly not the ordinary citizens. Those fools are use and throw, for votes. And you get them indoctrinated in a political party, and they fight like they're getting a cut of the loot, and the leaders laugh.

They don't. They get promises. Zillions of promises Promises to last a lifetime, at least the term, and then rephrase and repackage them, presto, the fools don't even notice. You dole out the same cheap, trite candies and more of those worn-out promises, but in shiny new covers, say, under a different party name, and they are back again with their tongues lolling out, like obedient dogs. You kill and maim a couple of thousand, and as long as there's no camera, it's as if it never happened, dissents or criticisms don't survive police plus goons. You buy the rest; most have shit their spines in their poop anyway. And that's how things work in a democracy. Easy-peasy. 

And with AI, a surveillance state mixed with state-of-the-art skullduggery will make it impossible for an incumbent to ever need to vacate the chair, no matter what. All kinds of Machiavellian schemes can be hatched to get people to rethink before they think; democracy won't survive; just as a namesake, but as an oxymoron.

P2679 mythological ram

Like mythological ram, crossbow in arm, 

I aim and maim the evil I see.

Every morning these big arse flies,

That now I hold in my truthful glee.

Disgusting but delicious methinks,

If fried with leftover puja ghee.

There will be need for chants,

To send its soul to the land of the free.

Yes mainly for research, they have a grant,

The Americans are crazy about it.

I'm worried about how they'll react,

If the fly spirit tells on me in a fit.

My tea is getting cold, I'm getting old,

Where is the old kingdom that I had.

After retirement I talk to myself,

And the general consensus is, I'm mad.

I may bite, but not in spite,

In playful mirth and cheer.

They whisper he's mad, it's sad,

Thus in fear people don't come near.

Thus said a chap, there's a gap,

In the thinking and doing of men.

So I go, where the mountains have snow,

Sit and meditate often.

This my world a fancy whirl,

Of confusing thoughts a mess.

When I'm gone, the fabric torn,

Then they'll see what's less.

P2678 Machiavellian Malanjan

In the carefree city of Kolkata, near the southern boondocks, I stumbled upon a rare botanical find. Life usually brims with surface phenomena that keeps folks on their toes, but this evening was different. First there was a cable fault, a massive power cut. And then this. 

With the loadshedding a thick veil of shadows was cast over the city, and I found myself lost in the narrow streets, navigating entirely by the flickering light of hurricane lamps. It was in this sort of moment of semi-darkness that I came upon the Machiavellian Malanjan. I chanced upon a secluded, loony, phosphorescent corner where this essence of deception and intrigue thrived. It was a peculiar hirsute plant that stood tall, its lightly lit tendrils weaving an intricate tapestry against the backdrop like the hairs of a ghost. Three faces emerged, each whispering a tale in my mind. 

At the very top, bathed in the ambient glow, was a face of unparalleled beauty—a captivating smile, that could entice the most guarded soul, a magical aura that exuded charm and allure, like the disarming duplicitous facade worn by those in positions of power. Its sparkling eyes concealed an abyss of deceit, enticing unsuspecting passersby closer and promising them a better life. This enchantress was a reflection of the corrupt politicians and rapacious business class; their smiles were as sweet as the city's beloved sweets, masking the venom that lay within. It spoke of backroom deals and unfulfilled promises, spinning a web of lies that ensnared the unsuspecting ordinary man, leaving them spellbound by empty rhetoric and false hopes.

Curiosity consumed me, and as I looked downward, I saw the second face of the Machiavellian Malanjan. Its hideous side, illuminated by the nervous glow of lamps, revealed teeth that mirrored the sharpness of a predator's fangs. This lower face, nestled within the shrubbery, held the essence of Kolkata's clandestine underbelly—a realm where corruption, deceit, and self-serving agendas thrived—the corrupt police officers, the conniving bureaucrats, the manipulative middlemen and exploitative officers. Its serpentine tongue slithered with the venomous whispers of bribery, extortion, and exploitation.

Yet it was the third face that sent a shiver through my spine. Positioned at the very bottom of the Machiavellian Malanjan, the face of religious fanaticism. Surrounded by thorny bracts mirroring Kolkata's crumbling infrastructure, this visage unveiled the rot within the city's social fabric—a society where prejudice and dogma overshadowed unity and compassion. Its wicked teeth bled with intolerance, while its slithering tongue dripped with venomous sermons, sowing discord.

Not merely a plant I saw, but a living embodiment of the city's trichotomy—a reflection of the human depravities that pervade its streets, beyond the smiles and promises, the intricate dance of deception that is this city. I fled. I ran as fast as I could in the darkness. 

P2677 My throat is dry

My throat is dry, I can't think why,

Nothing makes any sense anymore.

The desiccated land, jaundiced sand,

Mouth full of sores like never before.

The sun is hot, that's its job,

More than we can take.

The pond now a puddle,

Cloud seems an idea that's fake.

This is earth 3000 AD and it's dead,

Humans are critters like me.

Leftovers of the ancient ruins,

The cracks house us for free.

If you're reading this in the past,

You still have time to stop this.

Think what you're doing,

Would you call this future bliss?

P2676 This cup of tea

This cup of tea, shall set me free,

From darjeeling they say they pluck.

I doubt every word they say, nay,

I see the ceylon sticker is stuck.

Can't really trust, trust is bust,

Most people are just pests.

I do pest control, take over their soul,

Just ask them to write a few tests.

Calculus you have to know,

Trigonometry can save you too.

Higher algebra often a savior,

Otherwise you die coiled in glue.

Ramanujam there was a man,

Like a giant he roams the sky.

I just had a chat with him yesterday,

He said he's disgusted with human lie. 

P2675 I'm freezing my rear

I'm freezing my rear, ice I fear, 

Soon I'll drown I'm pretty sure. 

Trippy this trip I have my payment slip, 

Chances of refund seem to be poor. 

In rain and ice, twice the insurance price, 

For rescue they charge me more. 

Now look at me, not even a tree, 

Two young to die at eight and two score. 

The ship was mighty big, they served a fiesty pig, 

The food was great and gourmet good. 

Jolly well I, cannot like this simply die, 

I'm starving for hot sizzling food. 

May be I will freeze in a fickle flash, 

Not a long drawn marital pain. 

And thus in going I shall prove, 

Man's silly life just plain rotten vain. 

You never know when, you're shipwrecked, 

And then, the foothold slippery at best. 

Look around you now, find somehow, 

A lifeboat that sails in times of test. 

Man is a mere animal, there it ends, 

Everything is a spiders fancy web. 

Once you know, you can surely grow, 

Depend only on the cycles of Kreb. 

P2674 This they say

This they say, whoever be they may,

The crux of the matter sucks.

The world is mute, and that's not cute,

Tragedies come loaded in trucks.

Look around you, the selfish look,

Yes, you and your chosen safe.

Is that all, if it were others to make a call,

And it was you instead very unsafe? 

The species we are lives on trust,

Enabled by group think and tales.

The tales have now got screwy,

We're chasing our own tails.

Wake up stoic, there's no magic,

It's all really hard as rock you know.

Convenience is really inconvenient,

Time not an inexorable flow. 

We don't even have free will,

All from a puddle of roiled choice.

Whatever we do isn't destiny, 

But a twisted nature-nurture voice. 

Under our skin, dimensions within,

Things aren't really as they seem.

Fact may be weirder sometimes,

As if deep-fried in a dream.

P2763 Not hollow the hype

Not hollow the hype, fed in the pipe,

The AI of tomorrow is already here.

Going from narrow to wide,

The "how" however not clear.

But it's coming alive, it's a hive, 

As many copies as you can make. 

Doomer I'm not, scream while still hot, 

Some sense for goodness sake. 

In my bed the wheels in my head,

That spins the spinners of fib.

I see the misapplied sciences,

I'm glum and the people are glib.

But I want to speak out,

Want to be loud and very clear.

You can't fool around with this AI,

If you hold any of your lives dear.

This isn't a dumb bomb,

That waits for you in a box. 

It has volition and can decide,

What remains of you are only socks.

Lured in then left insecured, 

The AI bull in a china shop. 

Delicate and fragile this civilization, 

One shake of the bull and it'll stop. 

Rushing like mad, I think it's sad,

Profits over people yet again.

When will we learn, tell me WHEN,

Homo hemlock stops being vain? 

Hear, now then, my, this pen,

With these words I declare. 

Too many tools for too many fools,

This may become yet another snare. 

Genie is out, clotted power like clout,

It's still not too late to think.

Get the "right" people at the helm,

Otherwise, the rot will start to stink.

Not the holy hocus pocus, or circus, 

Nor any fictional character here. 

This may be it, the lid on us fit, 

The joke on us may be very near. 

This you see, my morning cup of tea,

A thought I wanted to share.

I'm just a puny bengali worm,

I'm sure no one would listen or care.

P2737

P2736 I say fuck the fucks

I say fuck the fucks, eat the ducks,

The chickens are already gore.

Fuck you all, for all you've not done,

The snake gets to even out the score.

And then my ghost wearing that boot,

I'll come with a swagger in style.

Then I'll press those nails you see,

Right on your face with a smile.

Fuck you all, assholes and bitches,

I hope you die a bloody stew. 

Let my spirit haunt your bastards alive,

And make sure that they die too.

No one's off the hook, until the guilty cook, 

In hot oil with garam masala mix. 

I'll spare no end, call my ghost friends,

For a night of gourmet dishes six.

The envious kin, glowing green their skin, 

Now on a plate with cabbage roll. 

They look serene and placid, 

In the past they've fucked my asshole. 

The eye-balls gouged out, sans clout, 

Their balls served separately on a tray. 

As a spirit I enjoy fermentation, 

My blood collection will be on display.

Every single fuck and what they did to me, 

Their crime in sordid detail read. 

Then the feast will start, bless my heart, 

I'm glad I am finally fucking dead

P2762

P2761 So holy my ball

So holy my ball, amount of seed so small,

What on planet plastic is wrong. 

I could be just sad, but I'm also mad, 

Today I'll drink fermented pee extra strong.

In the holy temple of the gods, the nitwit sods, 

Crowd the air and prayers out of me. 

They fart and shit even on god's goodly tit,

I only now go their for the food that's free. 

Holy halcyon, is another bullshit con, 

Just a way to steal underwear without you knowing. 

That's why I shit in my pants, 

To discourage these nincompoops from stealing. 

P2760

P2759 Kim is dim

Kim is dim, scam his schemes,

His balls heavy with dark desire.

Wants to fuck the rock, sucks putin's cock,

Habanero stuffed in his ass to fire his ire.

The Americans not afraid, they've said,

The south is enjoying a windfall.

Kim wants revenge, wants a monster strange,

Wants to give godzilla a booty call.

With AI and nukes, some lucky flukes,

Some friends he later can stab.

He plans to take over, one city at a time,

Starting with Timbuktu in rehab.

He shoots his nuclear shit,

But they pre-detonate in his ass.

Kim becomes a plume of soviet dust,

A gigantic, fat, bulbous, fart gas.

Koreans north and south shit in his statue's mouth, 

The dick dictator is decidedly dead. 

People pissing in their pants with joy, 

Vomit cheer on each other's head. 

North and south like brothers march, 

Towards a future bright as you can say. 

People build toilets in Kim's likeness, 

He gets shit on every day. 

P2758

P2757

P2756

P2755

P2754

P2753

P2725 Science

I distinctly recall the moment when I felt that if I needed to understand the world, I wouldn't get very far by asking the adults around me, who gave vague, evasive, contradictory, and incomplete answers or eluded to magic, myths, and established hearsay. Why these questions didn't bring on an existential crisis posed quite a bit of consternation to my nerves as a rather thick-skulled child, nervous about and unsure of the world I inhabited. I failed to understand how you could have a working reality when nobody seemed to know how it worked.

The quandary that led me down the rabbit hole was about how a puddle of water disappeared without a trace. The sultry summer heat had something to do with it, but I didn't see the water boil away, even when I looked at it closely. Calcutta in the eighties (which hadn't been renamed yet) had an ostentatious daily crisis with power (which is still a struggle), and I sat there in the dim light of the flickering kerosene lamp, wondering why.

At that age, subjects taught in class were undifferentiated and often taught by one teacher. The science bits were in one book. This was 1987 specifically, a prehistoric age before the internet, making it quite difficult for the present generation to conceive. And in that science book, I saw an illustration showing how water in a container changes into water vapor all the time at the surface with air. Little black circles were densely packed in the section where it said it was water and far apart, with arrows attached to them, where it said it was vapor.

I had an "aha!" moment. I realized that not only was this explanation the best attempt at the question, but if I studied the right subjects, I would get a less contradictory universe to ponder, and an even less contradictory one after that, and so on. And I fell in love. I knew I had made friends with someone who'd always have an answer because something told me I'd always have a lot of questions. It was one of the most memorable moments of my life. Science is the only true friend I have.

I'm almost half a century old, and frittered my life in a country that doesn't value people for their merit. Right now, if India manages to get a group of sane people to lead who can throw out this garbage political bullshit and focus on the issues of the people, the country might have a fighting chance. Otherwise, with the existing politicians and their sycophants who live in their curated parallel universe of make-believe India, there's only dystopia for the laity. 

Frankly I haven't seen mass psychosis like this, their hope hinging on some sort of a concocted holy hindu halcyon; I'm sure I'll be lynched by the mob as an atheist, when that's completed. Truth and honesty is anathema to most. The people can't choose if the choice is always looking back at some dramatized pristine myth. We need to look towards the future if any of our aspirations are to take off. It's only science that can save India or the world. 

 

P2751

P2750

P2749 And fuck you too

I don't have to hide my feelings about fucks,

Or suck up to caramel cocks.

If I don't like you and you're an asshole,

I choke you with your socks.

I'm sorry I'm not polite,

It's just the hockey stick injury on my head.

I had bled out all common fucking sense,

Now I'm just bloody my eyes always red.

And fuck you too,

I hope your corpse rots in parts.

The shit that I think you are,

Will be flushed down,

In free municipal ferry carts.

P2748

P2747

P2746

P2745

P2744

P2743

P2742

P2741 Shit on my nose

Shit on my nose, yuk so gross, 

An infidel did this to me. 

He will rot in hell, no hello from god I tell,

I want to drown him in the sea. 

But I sort of like the smell though, 

Can't say I hate the taste. 

Wonder what he ate last night, 

What cheese stuck in this paste. 

Cloud very loud, I'm not proud, 

Need to hide or quickly run. 

So much in my eyes, 

I can't praise the glory of the sun.

Also the sense of direction is fucked, 

Can't say I am in which axis or any. 

Spasmodic pieces in my nostrils, 

My mind vexed by issues so many. 

O holy spirit, if you see fit, 

Throw me a winning card. 

Also I need your help, 

To fuck this imbecile very hard.

Civilization fall to bits, people go to shits,

Entropy is a one way lane. 

But, be that as it may, I am not gay, 

Terrible is faith's constipated pain.

But poor hindu snot, this may is hot, 

On the balcony his ass was spread wide. 

I looked up, said what's up, 

To his diarrheal stew on a gravity ride. 

This is curious men without miss, with penis, 

And a propensity to look at inaugural fair. 

I shall not be a fool, control my drool,

When I see a hairy asshole in the air.

Plus too many of us, too few of them, 

Bound to get shit on our face. 

But before my mood murmurs low, 

Must murder millions to avenge my disgrace. 

P2740

P2739

P2738

P2737

P2736 Quite half complete

I'm quite half complete,

I've to rush to get back to be.

Time is short, slime bubbles of sort,

Floating in the morning sea.

Or maybe I'm a Boltzmann sketch,

I drift through space and time.

Every time I complete the sketch,

I solve for another prime.

What day is it, in what coordinates? 

Surely off axis when I run. 

The flying teapot was as nonplussed, 

As I was nonchalant.

Then opened a hole within a goal,

A span of an atom now fanning light years. 

Stretched specious space time, 

Hold on to your rears. 

I know I'm going to just be here, not somewhere, 

And where exactly is where?

Recursion is often hard to break, 

Without a hammer used with care. 

Now that may be an idea, 

I need my box of carpenter tools. 

I'll saw the milky-way in half, 

Andromeda always full of fools. 

The birds in my head chirping songs of the dead, 

Requiem to the mourning I yearn. 

A feeble hope in madness remains, 

Only when memories of self will burn. 

P2736