Words and Figures

Presenting the world of stats and sentences
With ways and means to confound the senses
Old-fashioned deceit with modern techniques and tools
to tap into the ocean of educated fools

Some privileged to have studied and seen
what others may have or not
Present words and figures making them mean
something that they are not
Cherry-picking from cluttered contamination
Bringing operators into operation
Working with a vigorous verve
to fit the squiggly curve
A likely-to-be-unlikely story
Basks in mathematically proven glory
Words and figures show up with a whole new meaning
Appearances often end up deceiving
The masses seeing and blindly believing
Share whatever they are receiving

A lifeline for the apparent indelibility
through solid support from questionable credibility
Strengthened by a mention of authority
Of modern-day masters or archaic texts
the commons, facing the apparent superiority
surrender in an unfortunate no-contest

A holy unholy nexus gets the wheels of power to turn
Ready to hit out at those who question, think, discern
Some see through the charade, some never can or never will learn

Waves of Colour

The waves of colour prepare to travel, to take flight

Controlled by those controlled by a powerful vision

Who send the travelling waves of colour on a mission

Ready to show the eyes a different light

Images, words, electromagnetic blasts

Looking to sway the numbers en masse

The travelling waves of colour cover up kinks

In sometimes cautiously complected stories

Paint the other side in a colour evil and gory

Catapult egos to dizzying heights of glory

Crashing with all their might into their task

Implanting seeds of questionable questions to be asked

Leaving behind a trail of vital stitches unraveling

The waves of colour carry on travelling

The more excited they grow, the more they turn numb

The further they try to go, the closer they seem to come

The more they try to differ, the more alike they appear

The starker they try to make their cover, the more it becomes sheer

Moving away from them all, with increasing distance,

Becomes more evident their similar existence

To those not swept one way by the travelling waves of colour

Images

Floundering in the maze

Where the rats run the race

The exits slammed

The machine programmed

The mind jaded

Images faded

The preoccupied mind

With no elan, no confident smirk

To pinpoint, to find

The corners where the images lurk

Wanting to recover, to rediscover

To uncover the images, to make them hover

To give them a lift, to keep them adrift

To stop them from descending into a rift

A chasm developed from just a little crack

Which deepened as the mind stepped further back

The mind finds an image that survived

Tries to give its all to keep it in the proper light

But a thousand lights arrive from far and wide

A delightful sight becomes blindingly bright

The image recedes in the riot of rays

Visions get flushed by flashes and blinkers

The mind is crazed in the midst of the glaze

But in some corner, the image still lingers

The Kingmaker

Through his pale eyes he watched the setting sun

He remembered his own sunshine and twilight hours

How he used to manipulate minds for fun

And toy with the person in the seat of power

The audiences of the cacophonic power riddle

Would see him content playing second fiddle

But only the handful whose ears were honed

Could recognise that he was setting the tone

Growing up learning never to easily believe

Always ready with another trick up his sleeve

So wily that many a brilliant stand

Came nowhere close to forcing his hand

Reveling in the role of the puppet master

Crafting everything from dreams to disaster

Tentacles crawling into every vacant space

Fingers fidgeting at a frenetic pace

But there was one frayed thread he chose to ignore

It snapped and suddenly, tensions began to soar

Not cautious enough to fill the tiniest gaps

They united and pointed to an imminent collapse

He now looked set to lose the game of the throne

The puppet master was strangled by strings of his own

His days of toppling crowns are now long gone

He sits in the cellar; only his tales live on

Lying in a corner, he waits for the dawn

Still hoping to find another well-positioned pawn 

App for enhancing Multitasking

The job market today is very competitive, and having the right skills is vital for any employee to grow professionally and climb up the corporate ladder. Multitasking is one among such important skills, and a tech startup has developed a smartphone app which will help users in developing their multitasking ability.

The leader of the app development team gave a brief insight into this new app, which is reportedly quite close to being released to the public. “It is mainly meant for two-wheeler drivers. They are often found to be practicing their multitasking skills as they go through the notifications or the numerous forwarded WhatsApp messages they receive in their groups while they are driving their two-wheeler. The app we are working on will send a notification to such multitasking motorcyclists when they are about to get into a collision.”

Elaborating further, the team leader says, “My philosophy is that the world is advancing technologically at a great pace, and it is necessary to catch up with such advancements and get over the old-fashioned practices and ways which are often wasteful in terms of time. Continuously watching the road, for me, is one such wasteful process. Some of the time wasted in keeping eyes on the road can instead be spent in more important activities like checking FB updates for whether your friends who were chilling in Wayanad at the time of the Nepal earthquakes were safe, or other important activities as per the user’s preference. Many two-wheeler drivers can be seen these days trying to perform such type of multitasking. But, it is currently not a safe practice and given the immense value of human resources, I believe that this app will add the much-needed dimension of safety to these multitasking attempts.”

When asked about the time required to react to the notification and properly control the vehicle, the team leader shared his observations on day-to-day life. “So many people who are installing new softwares manage to instantaneously read and agree to the terms and conditions. So many people are able to almost instantaneously forward a received WhatsApp message into all their groups; some go even further and show their ability to read, understand and put up a thumbs-up emoticon in the blink of an eyelid after some amazing shayari or other soul-stirring content is circulated in the WhatsApp groups. Also, there are several people who manage to buy articles on those mega sales on websites like Amazon and Flipkart, which usually get sold out moments after they start. Going by these metrics, reaction time should not be too much of a problem. When this app is installed, it will warn the users that they can expect notifications to pop up at any moment, sometimes in large numbers. This, I believe, will lead to great improvement in their alertness and attentiveness as well.”

Versions

Presenting the past and present through filtered light

Showing their apparent bounty or dearth of might

Far from providing a well-rounded insight

Free to exercise their choice of delight, spite or fright

Create a new version, then spray and pray

Hope for some people to sway along their way

Whether they win or whether they lose

is determined by the version they choose

Specially selected with a view to cash in

Neglecting versions that seem to be clashing

Ruthless reactions whenever a view

Comes to the fore in a different hue

The believers and adherents continue to adhere

Be it out of passion or be it out of fear

A more complete view is looked down upon

A more complete version frowned upon

There is often a dagger that dangles

There is often preparedness to strangle

There is often a web that entangles

A head that turns to seek a different angle

But rebel heads continue to turn

Renegade minds continue to learn

Pursuing the original, seeking the pristine

Looking through the glare of the manufactured sheen

The eternal contest continues as time unfolds

As happenings happen and versions are told

Riverfront Reminiscences

Bright lights shining like jewels in the night

An air of delight where happiness can take flight

Frolic shown in all its splendor

A place to create moments to remember

Bridges aplenty from bank to bank,

Ripples reflecting rays from rows of lamps

A play of light and architecture

Against the canvas of the night sky, a perfect picture

A limited frame, merely an illusion

Deceiving the eyes to jump to conclusion

Some often pay too heavy a price

For a false belief sometimes on the verge of delusion

People drawn like moths to a flame,

Towards an eden which is only a given name

Calm, gushing, endless ripples putting the senses at ease

A feeling of lightness brought on by the gentle, cooling breeze

And the acceptance as small sacrifice of the smell of stagnation

Along the way it picks up some stench

Gets more severe when tightened with the economic wrench

The path and process of free flow constricted,

Concealed by a fairytale deviously depicted

The stench of stillness hangs heavy in the air

Victimized by prejudice lies a sliver of despair

And an unnoticed but burgeoning yearning for change

A wish to meander away from the course

And a desire and fear of making a stand against the force