This is the story of that little boy,
The little boy who set out to be special,
Who looked up to superhero stories,
Who wanted to be a hero, who kept growing,
He was body-shamed,
He was discriminated against,
He was name-called,
He just forgave them all
He made servant leadership his calling,
When it got heavy, he looked up to the song,
"Teeja tera rang tha main toh, maula lele meri jaan"
I lived my life for you; you can take it if you wish
He focused on taking brickbats with a smile,
He focused on transcendence, to not worry about self,
but empathise and operate with compassion,
that the one who hurts is hurting out of their own pain,
He strengthened himself over time,
He taught himself a lot of subjects over time,
He developed new capabilities over time,
He let his emotions out through art
He was a normal boy,
a dark-skinned, thin boy,
just another kid, a nobody,
He developed himself
Today he stands as a servant leader,
Today he stands as a role model,
Today he is invited to inspire the youth.
Today he is leading a movement
He is strong; he can delay his vulnerability,
He has peaks of endurance; he is perseverant,
He is his army; he can take on the world for his people
But how has he developed himself? But does he even cry?
He sees John Abraham in Parmanu,
John is strong throughout the mission,
But John bursts out crying on his chair,
After the nuclear bomb is blasted, India is a nuclear power!
He sees the protagonist in Zero Dark Thirty,
She is strong, she is smart, she is resilient,
But once Bin Laden is caught,
She bursts out crying, the floodgates open
He sees himself in these heroes,
That self-sacrifice is what he wants to do,
That he belongs to these great people,
He wants to be them, and that's his purpose
He wants to be useful, he wants to help,
He is exhausted, he doesn't know,
He is happy being useful, seeing a smile
But when is living for himself?
He says their life is my life, with a smile,
But he doesn't want the others to get exhausted,
Isn't this hypocrisy? Why doesn't he practise
what he preaches? Why this double talk?
Well, he got wiser with time, and he had realized
He wants to be a long runner, not a short sprinter,
He realized the meaning of these words (his own words for a decade now)
He realized that he needs to live for himself
But he sees other young people getting exhausted,
He sees other young people suppressing their feelings,
To stay strong, they feel that they can manage their feelings,
But they are only piling up a debt, which piles up exponentially
He wants them to lower their guard,
To see the suppression, to see the exhaustion.
He fears that they may see their blind spots,
only after they collapse, and that would be too late!
He doesn't want them to collapse,
He chooses to be weak for a moment,
and wrote his feelings, his own vulnerabilities,
as a poem, so you can "lower your guard"
So you can acknowledge your feelings,
So you can truly embrace your feelings,
So you can grow as a hero,
not with self-sacrifice, but with self-love
So lower your guard,
Let your nervous system calm down,
There is no threat right now,
Lower your guard, live your life to the fullest!
Sunday, September 27, 2026
Lower your guard
Sunday, September 20, 2026
Rockstar
She said "You won't become a Spiderman"
"You wont become a Batman, a Dark Knight"
This is not a competition,
You won't get immediate results
Today, he didn't get triggered,
He didn't get defensive
He said "wait"
I am already the Dark Knight, what do you mean!
He is not a hero, he is the Artist,
He is not a winner, he the maverick,
He is not an achiever, he is the paradigm,
Who is he? He is the Original Gangster!
When your chips are down,
We brings the purest of humor,
To light up your heart,
and you feel pumped up, to win the world!
He is not understood, he empathizes,
He is an enigma, he is complex,
He is not understood from the inside,
He at times forgets himself
He loses himself, he supresses himself,
He loses his intuition, his analysis is all over,
He gets stressed, he loses his cool,
He has lost direction, until he realizes that
He never falls down, never, never ever
He has learnt to get up, get right up
with a smile, with humor, he can laugh it out
and get up with a roaring thunder welcoming him
Because he is the Dark Knight,
Because he is the Original Gangster,
Because he is the Renaissance,
Because he is himself, he is just being human
Because he is not an engima,
Because he is not complex,
Because he is just pure at heart,
Because he is just himself
It takes a man to stand his ground,
It takes a man, to embrace humor
It takes a man, to protect your people
It takes a man, to love yourself
Only a man, loves himself even more when wounded,
Only a man, channelizes suffering towards compassion,
Only a man, channelizes pain to bringout cleanest of humor,
Only a man can bring up smiles in the people he protects
He loves his wits,
He loves his sense of humor,
He loves his swagger,
He has the charm, he is the Dark Knight
When someone tells him something,
He sees care, he sees compassion, he sees a wound,
He lights up himself, He lights up her heart
With spontaneity, with timing, with humor
Fasten your seat belts,
Brace yourself for the adventure,
He is the Dark Knight, he is the Original Gangster
You've already set him on fire!
Thursday, September 10, 2026
The Home
The warrior sets out everyday,
on a mission, beyond self,
for everyone, he is the hope
he is the voice of the voiceless,
He can't afford to lose,
it is not his battle to lose,
he has lives to take care of,
so he is invested, very invested
But what happens to him?
Why is he too strong?
Why can't he just be human?
Why can't he be vulnerable?
Does he have a home to go?
Or is battleground his home?
He tells himself that the battleground is his home
He sacrifices himself in the supreme duty
But there is a little hope,
hidden deep inside him,
a hope of a home to go back to,
but why is the hope burried?
Has he locked the home?
Has he normalized the battleground?
How can he value his home?
So he be a little more human?
He is a vulnerable, weak human
that's how he was born,
the inner child is still alive,
waiting, waiting, the child gave up
So an adult grew up,
Who fights it all alone,
who enjoys responsibility,
who can take scars like an ornament
But he is a human, he deserves hope
and he found hope, a home to go to
but he is too lost in the battleground
he needs to see the home
He is a human to begin with
and a warrior only later
He may be the savior for the others
but he is a child, a human to his home
His home wants him to leave the scars behind
to rejuvenate, to be himself, to be vulnerable
to really find his ecstacy, his bliss
so he knows he has a home to go back to
There is ying in the yang
and yang in the ying
home in the battleground
and battleground in the home
Why do you not see the home?
Every bird has to go back to their nest
No matter how far you fly
The nest is where you go to
The warrior sees the truth, the home
but wonders, how did I miss it
now that I see light, at the end of tunnel
how do I now life to the fullest
The warrior is reflecting,
the child is smiling again,
the human is living again
It will be beautiful, for everyone!