Alopecia

Scarcely surprising when receiving an occasional jolt

In the sea of troubles, these are pretty rife

But when rattled by a fiery thunderbolt

Paralyzed you lie, coming to terms with life

So did I when I stood before the ruddy mirror

Combing, with the comb smoothly skating on the rink

When the black leaves residing on my head started to wither

Gently dropping on the sink, the realization began to sink

Abruptly stopped the humming

Of heart rending chartbusters

Horror in my eyes began brimming

A clarion call rang in my heart - "Stop it before it festers"

On the top left corner, not so far from the temple

A white patch of skin shone conspicuous

I connected the dots with the leaves that crumple

Regards to my looks, no doubt I had been a shade presumptuous

Since the inception of adulthood

I braved probes and audits of the hair

The gravity of parental examinations, I hardly understood

I threw caution to the winds, without a care

I ignored the pieces of advices

And the secrets so arcane

To avert, at any cost, the looming crisis

As I restart the game of honing the mane

I ignored the daily tablet of iron and zinc,

The weekly dab of shampoo and hardly oiled

I thought I still remained in the pink

Till today morning, when with horror I recoiled

I resisted the diet rich in fiber

Frugivorous intake I chose to eschew

Hardly surprising in the age of cyber

Decisions now left painfully to rue

Pizzas, burgers and fries embellished

The daily menu, copiously washed down

By Pepsi, Coke and the rot equally relished

Besides indulging to rectangular bars coloured brown

All along the cans of juices and A2, B-protein milk

Lay under-consumed in a corner of the fridge

As the eyes carefully sieved out the dairy milk silk

The conscience didn’t relent, heart hardly did budge

Lack of vitamins now slowly take effect

Aided and abetted by lack of sleep and stressed

Hours in front of magnetic screens, constitute colossal defects

As uprisings of hair fall need to be repressed

For the first time, the messages I brutally ignore,

Lie meaningfully open from Dr. Batra, the tyrant

Encouraging pictures of a balding head before

And not so balding post an extortionate hair transplant

I sit down and pen a long shopping list

Shampoos, Oils, creams, Conditioners, Hair gels

Vitamin Tablets, fibrous foods and the like to give you the gist

Before it is too late, I set off the alarm bells

To tackle the onset of a receding hairline

I will go to any friggin length

As my goals are ready, to achieve before Twenty Nine

Protect my hair, albeit, by just a hair's breadth

Musings of a Miniature Reptile

Yet another exacting week laden with issues

Surpassed. To restore a semblance of work-life stability

I desperately sought to re-energize enervated tissues

Helped on by a night of much needed somnal tranquility

Saturday morning, contenting myself to green tea and wafers, aberrations

From my usual menu, l meditatively ambled thru the hall

Paving way for dispiriting corporate ruminations

As a crackle directed my attention towards the papery wall

First thoughts were wilted leaves withering

Outside, aftermaths of the preceding night’s blizzard

Only to realize sounds were indicative of slithering

By a squirmy little pale greened lizard

It slowly crept up behind a beetle sitting dull

Blissfully unaware of the danger lurking at heel

Seconds later ensnared by the salivating pull

Of the lizard, as it embarked on its meal

As the lizard was halfway thru the munching

Keenly scrutinizing a nearby cricket taking flight

I scornfully resumed my own brunching

Cocking an eye at the lizard pitying its plight

It must be thinking, I surmised, the poor creature

"I am pitifully left to wallow

On walled edifices, to the mercy of nature

Little insects are all that I can swallow"

"Whilst my prehistoric ancestors, now long gone

Strode like colossuses on the surface of our planet

Ruling every piece of earth they set foot upon

It's miserable that I hardly land anything in my dragnet"

"Let alone the dinosaurs", pondered the lizard

"How I wish I could for one day return to roots more native

If only there were a portly wizard

Who could transfigure me to my not-so-distant relative"

"The deadly crocodile that infests rivers

Commands fear and awe from one and all

Indisputable fluvial emperor, sight of which sends shivers

Down the spine", mused the drop of crocodile on the wall

"Neither do I have the enviable agility

To glide and grab the far-off prey without a pause

Nor the resources, wherewithal or capability

To rip apart the hapless game with fanged maws"

"Leave aside the crocodile too, perhaps a shade too Utopian

At the least, I deserve something akin to my elder cousins

The Rupestrine Iguana or the Arboreal Chameleon, not a Dystopian

Reality - Relegation to the dregs of residential dustbins"

"Thankfully, regards my appetite I won’t inveigh

To the mysteries of evolution I will kowtow

A beetle a day keeps the doctor away

Suffices to serve as my living motto"

"All in all, of my existence, there isn't a fraction

Of awe-worthiness, except my walled perambulation

Courtesy Van Der Waals forces of attraction

If that’s a mere ounce of consolation"

The miniature reptile thus concluding cogitations in darkness

Sluggishly moved towards its zone of twilight

Snuggling comfortably in the dampness

Of the ramparts adjoining the flickering tubelight

Beneath the light, on a chair, four feet below

Nibbling the last of wafers, picking an apple

I sat, sighing, turning a despondent fellow

Staring bleakly ahead at the tribulations dispensed by life to grapple

Take the lizard’s case, I mused, effusing sympathy

"It considers its life as a rootless existence", I concluded in a gist

Exuding a virtuoso exhibition of reptilian telepathy

Which might have aroused the interests of any herpetologist

Inwardly though on self-introspection practically

I couldn’t but help feel the passing of identical themes

Of Self-pity gripping me not so antithetically

To that of the lizard's on absence of life in more exalted realms

We Indians, aren’t too different, aspersions  

Cast apart, we too were mighty rulers, with no close match

Falling eventual prey to divisive strategies of foreign incursions

Presenting a deplorable sight, slowly building from scratch

First the Greeks followed by The Arabs, The Mughal

Empire, and lately yet most impactfully, the Europeans, the prime invader

Plundered us, looting the country and its people of wealth so regal

Upshot of the rapacity - Our Esteem, Pride and honour plummeted rungs down the ladder

For the lizard atleast the evolutionary harbinger

Was purely biological, it needn’t suffer pangs of guilt

To Darwinism it rightfully will point its finger,

Unlike us men whose own fate, block by block we built

Nevertheless today as it remains destined

Pandering to indulgences of Mutual condolence

Human and reptilian fates remain intertwined

Nobody gives a bloody tuppence

On a note thus melancholic and near lachrymal

Two hearts now beating as one, to the lizard, my hat I doffed,

When rudely interrupted by my British Boss, I stopped waxing lyrical

The slave in me awoke, answered the phone and courteously coughed

Servitudinal remnants from the evening before, carefully canned overnight

Were back at the grand old stand again working with all their might

Silent Patriarchy

In August, his wife went preggers

He jumped up with a never before joy

On the road, he was nice to all the beggars

Silently wishing it would be a boy

Nine months later in May

His true colours he let unfurl

Cursing the same poor fellows all the way

To the hospital, to bring home his wife and baby-girl

The Weekend Guest

I started today a tad relieved

Nearing the end of a tiresome week

Little knowing I would end up being peeved

Ill, moody, and visibly weak

I looked forward to a frenziful Friday ahead

At a night pubbery, guzzling a beer or two

Post earning my daily bread

Instead landed home abrupt, day going totally askew

Something of a frightful aftermath

I should have possibly foretold

Considering that I had incurred the wrath

Of a sore throat and a bad cold

Five days spent in meetings galore

With team members from as far as Seattle

To as near as Bangalore

Preparing to ruthlessly embattle

Against threat of multi-varied aspects

Of deadlines for project chartering, resource allocation

And goals prioritization. Revolutionary grandiose projects

With the underlying theme of global tool standardization

Carrying over the strain from Greece where I honeymooned

I arrived most unfavorably on Monday with an unkempt beard

Courtesy of a day’s layover in Bahrain laying marooned

With misty eyes and sleep backlogs aplenty to be cleared

A solid twelve work hours per day on average

Spent this week. Too detailed, but sublime.

If anyone cares to hear, let’s engage

On a separate note in the interest of time

On the intricate nitty-gritties abound

In program management, but for now Ill aberrate

For at leisure, I can later expound

Once I mentally convalesce and physically ameliorate

Life is a curving freeway, with many a hairpin bend

A bed of thorns or a couch of roses

So are weekends as a class, my friend

Some spent hedonistically, some spent blowing noses