Ode to Memory

For time being I am giving my sojourns on bike a rest....and will take it up later.

The seeds of this poem were sown during my college days - the 2nd year of Engineering. A friend of mine, Shailesh Kanchan, recited the first two lines - whether they were his own creation or he was reciting from his memory what he had read somewhere else....I do not know. But those lines remained engraved in my memory and what you are going to read is a result of introspection on those two lines.


Memory - is like a small child
walking along the sea shore
You never know which small pebble
he may pick up and keep amongst his treasure trove

Pebble picked up
may be big, may be small,
Whether it’s dull or beautiful
it might not matter at all.

Whenever lonely I sit
and do I always ponder
Old forgotten escapades
come flashing by Oh how I do wonder ?

Tragic or joyous, bitter or sweet,
like its own baby – all of them it nurtures,
And with nostalgia, at its leisurely pace
it muses at all the events that had occurred.

From my past, I carry these colossal imprints on me,
like an impaired child I do wonder,
Whether the impairments are something to be ashamed off
Or will it prove to be Thor’s Thunder !


What we are when we grow up - our eventual character (despite enormous attempts by our parents, teachers, et al to ingrain the best in us), how we think and conduct ourselves, our thinking processes and the way we respond to a situation are a result of what we have experiences during our childhood and growing up years (what we also call our formative years). Some are voluntary actions and some involuntary as they have become a second nature to us - for they are deep seated in us. Such is the effect of memory in and on our lives !

(Unlike most of my poems / couplets, this is one of the very few, where the words rhyme.)