Random Thoughts

I remember

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:44:00 +0000

As a child, while I walked this path so many times
I never did think that one day life would be so different
that one day I would fall in love with this sunset

Today as I watch the winding road
meander into the shimmering woods
I remember those long lost days of childhood bliss
Those casual chilly evening walks
those soft soothing small talks
the regular bursts of infectious laughter
those ever stretching smiles of unbounded joy

And when, love, it took its first flight
soaring across the infinite sky
A hundred wishes were born together
painted with one never-dying belief
that love would endure every pain.

But soon, love was lost to love's demand
crushed and trampled,it hoped for revival,
Aching and crying, the heart, it bled.
The gift that was, is now no more.
And now I remember the pain
I rememeber our silent walk in the rain.

-BK

My Dreams My Thoughts My Wishes

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:05:00 +0000

Last night I dreamt,
I dreamt of the green meadows,
the misty valleys
and the beautiful mountains.
last night I dreamt of you

Last night I thought
I thought of the times we spent
laughing and playing
singing songs of everlasting love
last night I thought of you

Last night I wished
I wished for our life together
of happy sunshine
lighting up rainbow colored dreams
last night I wished for you

Every night I prayed,
I prayed that someday somewhere
I'll meet you once again
to live those dreams I dreamt with you
every night I prayed for you.

-BK

Life would go on....

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:53:00 +0000

When the sunlight melts into twilight
and the pale moon decks up the evening sky
I'll think of those magical moments we had
and my heart will mutter a silent cry

Far away from a distant land, I know
You would long to re-live our world of dreams
but entwined by the viscious tentacles of fate
you would succumb to destiny's unfair schemes

The fairylands would be there no more
and the woods would be lost in the mists of time
but the memories of these times will forever stay
when life was like a perfect rhyme

Life would go on as it always did
and the world would also be just the same
but somewhere deep within my heart,i would
long to keep alive that flickering flame.

-BK

Image credit

Reminiscence

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:14:00 +0000

How come I never realised your worth
when you were always there with me
and now when you have gone so far away
I realise that I have lost you forever

maybe it wasn't love
but it was the best thing I had ever felt
when for a moment I held your hand
as we walked in the drizzling rain.

splashing the rain water around
you laughed childishly at me
but lost in the whirlpool of mixed emotions
I smiled and I left your hand

life has gone a long way now
and fate has parted our ways
but on lonely rainy nights
I wish you were still there with me

To listen to the rain drops
whispering tales of long lost moments
to look in your eyes, to laugh with you
to hold your hand again..

-BK

Photo Source

It was dark like this the other day

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:56:00 +0000

It was dark like this the other day
when life, it turned the other way.

my world instantly came tumbling down,
and yesterday's king became today's clown.

As if to mourn my fate's call,
Nature cast a gloomy pall

Thundershowers lashed the earth
waking man from his blisfull mirth

My eyes sifted through the heavy rain
as i gauged the depth of my inner pain

blurred images played on my mind's eye
of countless moments that just passed us by

moments of sorrow, moments of joy,
lost in the midst of fate's whimsical ploy

life for me will ne'er be the same
coz i've lost my all in the final game

It was dark like this the other day
when life, it turned its face away.

-BK

That Night..

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:58:00 +0000

That night
I stared at the silent stars
and saw my world unfold around me
death and destruction all it was
speeding cars whizzing past
scattered limbs, broken hearts
a thousand screams rent the air
I looked around for a sign of peace
a loud explosion greets me there
burning houses , crying children
blood-smeared hands murderous eyes
victory for one death for the other
man kills man in the name of war
man kills man in the name of god
this is the world we've made for ourselves
this is the world we are leaving for our children..

-BK

Celebrating youth

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:33:00 +0000

From the unblemished childhood
Through the years of fragile adolescence
As time leads man to the threshold of adulthood,
Swelling with the sense of self-pride
He leaps out to welcome this new change.
And like a bird on its first flight,
His mind sets out to capture greater heights,
to explore the vastness beyond the horizons
with the eagerness to take in all that life could offer.
And, riding on this spirit of newfound freedom
with an insatiable quest for adventure
and an unquenchable thirst to achieve more,
he builds his dreams to eternity.

-BK

I'll wait for you

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 08:04:00 +0000

The moon smiles,
as it cradles in the arms of the night.
My heart cries,
as it realizes your absence by my side.
All the sweet kisses,
I gave you in my dreams.
All the beautiful dreams,
I had dreamt in your name,
How feebly have they all,
shattered before my eyes,
and how helplessly I realize,
that you will never be mine again.
But with a thousand
moonlit nights in your name,
and a thousand
beautiful dreams in my heart,
I’ll wait for you…

-BK

Christmas in Vatican

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:54:00 +0000

It would sound highly cliched if I were to say that I had always dreamt of spending Christmas in the Vatican. Honestly I never had such a dream. But ever since I knew that I would be in Rome during Christmas, I had made up my mind to visit the Vatican on the 25th.

This Christmas was special for me in many ways both good and bad. Firstly I was in Rome, in the vicinity of the Vatican, the heart of Christianity. Though I am not a very religious person, I still found it very exciting. Secondly, this was the first Christmas I spend without family, far away from home. And finally things were not well back home, dad was not keeping well for some time now.

My original plan was to attend the midnight mass on the eve of Christmas, which had to be abandoned since everything in Rome had closed down for the festival.So the 25th morning I took a bus to the Vatican city to be among the hundreds of thousands of people who have travelled miles to spend their Christmas in Vatican.

As they say " All roads lead to Rome " but on Christmas all roads in Rome lead to Vatican.As I got down from the bus and walked towards St Peter's Basilica, I could hear the distant sound of bells. From a distance I could see the Basilica, a standing testimony to the splendor and elegance of medieval architecture.Thousands of people gathered in the huge courtyard in front of the church to get a glimpse of the Pope as he appeared at the huge window of the Basilica to address them. This was something I had seen on TV for so many years and today it was happening right before me. I was in Vatican City standing in front of St Peter's Basilica on a Christmas morning watching the Pope deliver the message of God to the millions of believers across the world. I muttered a silent prayer. A prayer of thanksgiving , a prayer of forgiveness a prayer that got drowned by the chants of the exuberant multitude and the rhythmic tolls of the church bells...

Falling in Love

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:13:00 +0000

I feel a sweet softness within me
as the milk of love, flows through the intricacies of my heart.
The hardness around me melts into a soft tenderness
and a strange weakness grips my entire self.
My breath becomes heavier and deeper
as, for hours I stare into oblivion.
My eyes now thirst for one vision
and my mind is filled with that one thought
and amidst this peaceful chaos I realize
That unknowingly somewhere I have fallen in love.

-BK

On the Shores of Mandarmoni

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:08:00 +0000

It was another of those weekend trips I made in order to break out from the routine professional life. 6 of us, old college friends, got together and planned an outing to Mandarmoni, a secluded beach along the shores of the mighty Bay of Bengal.It was a 4 hours late-night journey by bus. The bus sped along the highway in the sparce midnight traffic. We got off at the main road closest to the beach which was another 30 minutes drive by car. The vehicle was arranged by the resort we were to put up with. The car took us into the countryside through the unlevelled narrow dark muddy roads, with the full moon adding a mysterious feel to it.

The narrow road suddenly widened and we were out in the open.In the begining it seemed that we were in the middle of nothing.Slowly my eyes got adjusted to the moonlight. The sight send a chill down my spines. Before me was a vast expanse of dark water, stretched as far as eyes could see, over millions and millions of miles. Huge waves with silver linings on their crests were furiously surging towards the shore. It reminded me of the ship-wreck scenes i have seen in movies. I looked at my watch. It was 2.00 am. What a weird time to watch the ocean, and with the moon making it more scary. The whole place looked so lonely, the dark ocean, the deserted beach with a couple of bamboo poles stuck into the sand. A piece of cloth tied to one of the pole was fluttering furiously in the wind.The car drove past the poles and headed towards the resort. We hit the bed right away, too tired for anything else.

I wanted to wake up in time to watch the sun rising up from the middle of the ocean. However i overslept and woke up to find the sun already way up in the sky. The whole place was so silent except for the intermittent chirping of the birds.We had a quick breakfast and headed for the beach. It was not crowded unlike most beaches. Few people were swimming not too far from the shore, while others chose to stand in waist deep water. The ocean didnt look eerie anymore, though it still had the aura of infinte power. We spend the entire day on the beach except for a short trip back to the resort for lunch.

In the evening we chose to sit down on the beach. The sand was slightly wet but very firm since the ocean had just receded following the low tide. We sat there for hours staring at the unbounded vastness infront of us, listening to the roars of the waves as they rolled furiously over the surface of the ocean. It filled me with melancholy, the feeling of lonliness, of loss and of being lost. Yet my mind was at peace and I was in perfect harmony absorbing the sights and sounds of nature. For the first time i felt that i was actually listening to nature. For me it was bliss, the bliss of solitude.

The winds blowing on my face,
reminded me of your touch.
And the murmuring stars
Whispered your name,
in the silence of the night.

Beneath the dark clouds

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:28:00 +0000

Beneath the dark clouds of gloom,
people yearn for a ray of hope.
A little hope that could sustain their lives,
as the deadly rot eats into the decaying society.
The decay creeps into human hearts,
wiping away the last drops of humanity.
And, when immorality rules the human minds,
Culture and tradition becomes things of the past
And, society becomes a barren stretch of lifeless monuments,
Where relationships are based on personal gains,
made and broken at each ones convenience,
where hearts are torn apart
and every drop of blood cries out for revenge.
And, when mankind survives at the edge of extinction
life becomes an ocean of death
death of humanity, of human feelings.

- BK

Memories

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:02:00 +0000

Through the broken window,
as the shimmering sunlight
lightens up darkened memories,
faint images, blurred by the ripples of time,
surfaces up,
against the calm ocean of my mind.
The ripples slowly spread across the surface
Leaving behind the reminiscence of days gone by.

-BK

Solitude

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:27:00 +0000

When the sun has dipped below the horizon,
And the moon rises to take its place
When the stars shower graces upon the tired earth
And the nocturnal insects resume their nightly chores
Far away from the touch of humanity
I sleep in the arms of solitude.

-BK

So many times

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:31:00 +0000

So many times,
My eyes met hers
And every time
my heart missed a beat
So many times I asked myself
Is it love or something else?

So many times,
I had felt her eyes on me
And had seen
that calm and distant look
So many times I had thought
Was it love or something else?

So many times,
I saw the smile on her face
And had seen
That sparkle in her eyes
So many times I had wondered
Was it for me or for someone else?

So many times,
On lonely moonlit nights
I held her hands
And kissed her in my dreams
So many times I cried silently
And hoped my dreams come true.

So many times,
I thought she wanted to say something
But she never did
And let her silence haunt my nights
Many, many times I had wished
If only I could know a girl’s heart.

-BK

The Hills of Darjeeling

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:08:00 +0000

It was in the summer of 2008 when I finally managed to make a trip to Darjeeling. We were a small group of 7 friends who decided to take a break and spend our weekend in the silent, peaceful valleys of Darjeeling. After traveling 8 hours by train we finally reached New Jalpaiguri. We hired a Sumo to take us through the three hours journey from New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling. It was one of the most memorable journeys I have ever made. I was completely awestruck by everything I saw around me, the terrain , the scenery, the huge mountains with white clouds resting on them. As we continued our journey up the mountains, I felt I was getting closer to heaven. The path that we were taking was a narrow road cut along the side of the mountain, with the mountain on one side and a sharp valley on the other. The first rays of the sun could be seen over the hills on the other side of the valley. The fresh mountain breeze was filling the Sumo, and my spirits too. The peace and tranquility of the whole place was slowly sinking in. Soon we passed Kuresong, a small but busy town set on the top of the mountains.

Kuresong was thriving with activity even at such early hours, with school children and elderly people stopping to stare into the Sumo as we passed them. They probably find it amusing that people invest so much time and money to spend their weekends in the mountains. We moved on climbing further up higher into the clouds. We could barely see the rugged terrain now, everything was covered in white smoke adding an eerie feel to it. Soon we were above the clouds. We could see the valley covered in white foamy blanket. Another 30 minutes drive and we entered the heart of Darjeeling, filled with tourists and local guides. There were Sumos parked all along the side of the road with lodges and hotels strewn all over the place. We moved into one of the many lodges. The rooms were pretty ordinary but the view from the balcony was worth millions. The lodge was built at the edge of the mountain with the balcony overlooking a deep valley stretching for many miles and bordered by mountains on the other side. We could see the clouds floating across the valley below. We spent 2 days and 2 nights exploring and admiring the scenic beauty of the place, the green mountains , the lush tea gardens , the deep valleys , the fresh mountain air , the misty mornings.... I feel that I left behind a part of myself amongst the hills of Darjeeling. The hills still haunt me, there is something which calls me back. Probably the memories of good times spend with good friends....

A Beautiful Day…

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:54:00 +0000

The first rays of the morning sun
seeps through the mountain clefts,
As the Heavenly Sphere,
furiously riding on its Golden Chariot,
pops up against the crimson sky.
The sea, now painted in wild colours,
heaves to welcome this new morn.
A new Day, a new Chapter begins,
taking life to a new Dimension.
New Hopes built on the ruins of old ones.
New Ambitions driven by new Desires.
Mankind welcomes this new day,
with new Destructions and a new War.
Humanity, the greatest enemy of itself,
squeezes out its own existence,
and all that’s left of this beautiful day,
are the grey mountains and the blue sea,
and the rest is painful History.

-BK

Those were the days

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:23:00 +0000

As I stand here and gaze,
up at the silent corridors.
My eyes search for that familiar face
that face I had sought after years ago
that slowly spreading smile
those deep dreamy eyes
that lit a thousand flames within me

Suddenly I was taken back in time
I was standing in the same place
surrounded by happy smiling faces
I look up to the crowded corridors
Among the faceless crowd one face stands out
So radiant, so distinct
So fresh like the morning flower
Standing there she seemed to hold
the key to all my happiness.
For a moment it seemed
she was looking at me, and then, she smiled
but I was lost long ago
lost in the mistiness of her eyes

Slowly the mist clears away
and I find myself back in the present
I am still staring at the empty corridors
the crowd has gone
the face has gone
Only silence prevailed
and a sad realization
that the flame I thought had died years ago
still flickered deep in my heart
beneath the thick layers of dust,
that has gathered with the passage of time.

-BK

Is it me?

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:04:00 +0000

Like a ripple in the calm waters
Something broke the stillness within me
For a moment I gazed at the skies
The rain blurring my sight
Far away in the horizon
A faint glimmer beckons
A new life awaits yonder
And behind me lies my past
buried in the eternity of time

thousands of unanswered questions
resonating within my mind
like a magnet something pulls me
but resisting everything
I hold myself back
the urge to give in is strong
yet the fear of change overpowers

like an inevitable dream
a shadow creeps along the wall
and crawls silently towards the faint glimmer
as I follow its obscured course
A thought like a thorn
Stuck in my mind
Is it me or someone else?

-BK

Are we alone?

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:17:00 +0000

Since the beginning of intellectual civilization, people have gazed at the silent stars and wondered whether mankind is unique or if there exists other intelligent beings, who contemplate and think like us, in the cosmos. In a Universe whose vastness and age are both beyond ordinary human understanding, our Earth seems to be a tiny speck and we ponder over the ultimate significance of the tiny but exquisite blue planet.

Are we alone in the Universe? Or are we just an instance of the general rule of the Universe? These questions led to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. In the late 20th century, scientists came upon the idea of scanning the sky and “listening “ for non-random patterns of electromagnetic emissions. SETI or Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence is the brainchild of that endeavor.

The idea of SETI began in 1959 with the publication of a paper in the British journal ‘Nature’ by Guiseppe Cocconi and Phillip Morrison. It discussed the probability of existence of alien civilization and the probable methods of detecting them. Around the same time a young astronomer, Frank Drake organized the first serious attempt to listen to possible radio signals from other civilizations. This programme, known as Project Ozma, was set up at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. Drake and two student assistants launched Project Ozma by pointing their new 85-feet wide radio telescope at the star Tau Ceti, 12 light years away, and loud pulsing signals burst from the loudspeakers. They performed a simple test, moving the telescope away from Epsilon Eridani. But when they pointed the telescope back at the star, it was quiet.

About a week and half later, the loud pulsing noise returned, but they soon figured out that the signal was coming from a passing plane. After 200 hours spent listening to Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, Project Ozma was over.

Since Project Ozma, there have been six or seven other such programmes, none yielding any encouraging results, but there have been intriguing signals. The so-called “Wow!” signal was a powerful burst of narrow frequency sound that came from the constellation Sagittarius. On Aug 15,1977, at the Big Ear Observatory near Columbia, Ohio, Jerry Ehman, a Franklin University astronomy professor and SETI volunteer, while monitoring extra terrestrial noise spotted something peculiar in the computer printout and wrote “Wow” in the margin. The Wow! Signal, as it’s been called ever since, was 30 times stronger than surrounding background noise.

It covered only a very small range of frequencies much smaller than any natural emission, and it appeared to have been turned on and off as the telescope was observing it. Despite searching that section of the sky, in the constellation Sagittarius nothing like it has been heard again. Wow! May indeed have been a Hi! from an alien but if so, the alien hasn’t bothered to try again.

Some scientists have attempted to estimate the number of advanced technical civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy, after considering factors like the number and the age of stars, the abundance of planetary systems and the possibility of origin of life within them. And what they came up with is around a million technical civilizations possible in our Galaxy alone. Of which, till date we have only been able to listen to about a thousand stars.

So are we really alone? Is the Earth unique, not only in the solar system but also in the Universe? How prevalent is life in the universe? Is it the result of independent stars or are planets “seeded”. Is evolution highly divergent or convergent? What is our destiny? Do cultures survive the death of their primary stars and of a collapsing universe?

Failure to discover extra terrestrial life could never possibly answer these questions in the affirmative, but the discovery of one such civilization would provide the needed counter- example and provide at least partial answers. And the day this happens, will herald the birth of anew science.

In the 45 years since the initial Project Ozma, many others have been carried out with more sensitive equipment, over much larger time frames – observing thousands of other stars. So far no conclusive alien signals have been detected, but we have only begun to scratch the surface. There is a long way to go. There are thousands of billions of stars in the universe. To complicate matters further there are millions of frequencies that a signal could be received on. It is possible that we just haven’t looked in the right place in the right time yet.

History of Communication

noreply@blogger.com (BK) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Today we live in what we call the ‘Space Age’, the age of satellite communication where a message is communicated across thousands of miles at the click of a button. Every second person on the road is busily engrossed in his cell phone communicating with someone else on some other road in some other place. We are so used to the ‘fast life’ that we don’t quite ponder, nor do we get the time to, about those times, not very long ago, when a message took days, weeks and months to reach its intended destination. And some of the messages by the time they reached had already lost their significance.

Today we associate communication with electronic communication. But if we go through the history of mankind we see that down the ages there have been several breakthrough developments in the field of communication each of which characterized that particular period. The first major achievement was man’s ability to make and recognize sound which developed to a more recognizable speech in the Nomadic Ages that separated man from the other animals that roamed the earth and laid the foundation for what we are today. Thus the nomadic man communicated using a limited stock of sounds and expressed his feelings through cave paintings.

Climbing the rungs of civilization as man moved from the caves to the fields and started growing his own crops, he invented a new form of communication – writing. The earlier forms of writing used symbols to represent words and were called ideographic writing which gave way to a more scientific and still prevalent alphabetic writing. Initial writing was mainly confined to inscriptions on the temple walls and clay tablets which gradually found its way to leaves and dried barks. Soon the first rolls of papyrus appeared making a larger impact on the society. This new mode of communication allowed a communicator who may be physically separated from the audience to communicate with a potentially unlimited number of persons. It helped in the sharing of knowledge and cultures which led to the development of society. It also enabled recording of historical events, ideologies and philosophies which were earlier passed down only by word of mouth.

The next significant revolution in the field of communication came with the invention of the Printing Press around the middle of the 15th century. For the next four hundred years print media proved to be the most powerful mode of communication. Printing also aided the dissemination of knowledge. Scientific journals could present carefully expressed arguments to interested readers. Political writers used this medium to influence the thinking of the public. General newsletters or newspapers attracted a mass readership that could be tapped by advertisers. Companies used this medium to advertise their products thus ensuring that they reach a wide range of consumers. Thus, commerce found a way to sell its wares through printed literature.

With the invention of electricity and the advent of the ‘electronics era’ the development of communication technology has taken an exponential growth. This includes several devices invented in the 19th and 20th centuries which made it possible to record sensuous images as well as words. Photography was the forerunner of this technology. Then there came the electric telegraph, the telephone, phonograph, motion-picture machine, radio, and television. Each device is capable of preserving aural or visual images and of projecting them to large and scattered audiences. Today a life without telephone or television would seem as impossible as a life with them would have seemed two hundred years back. The invention of artificial satellites aided in further speeding up the process of communication.

However the greatest and the most significant of them all was yet to come. It was in the year 1969 the United States Department of Defence launched ARPANET network, the forerunner of today’s Internet, which inter-connected all the computers in the department. It took another 14 years for the Internet to emerge when ARPANET splits civilian from military networks. And with the year 1991 began the reign of the World Wide Web which virtually brought the whole world at our fingertips. There is no limit to the amount or type of information that can be transmitted through it. Textual as well as audio-visual information can be transmitted across oceans and continents, all in the blink of an eye.

Over the last 200 years there has been huge advancements in the field of science and technology. One of the major factors for this is the free flow of knowledge. One man’s invention or discovery no longer remained confined within himself or his immediate associates. It reached out to a larger population inspiring more people to work on a particular invention thereby either making new inventions themselves or improving the original one. Hence we see that development of communication systems brought about advancement of science and technology which brought further development in communication systems. However this leaves a few questions hovering in our minds. Where is all this technology leading us to? Will this advancement of technology ever cease? What will be the next breakthrough invention? How will it affect the human society? Well... only time can tell.