To Quietude

To Quietude.

For sound travels more leisurely than light,

Keenly gathering moss along the lush slope of time.

And so, prolonged thunder follows the flash of lightning;

And so, applause rings long after the stage is emptied.

To Quietude.

For sound travels more leisurely than light,

Keenly gathering moss along the lush slope of time.

And so, heat multiplies for eons before a volcano erupts;

And so, sweat and tears are spent, unnoticed, for aeons before the conch of victory is finally heard.

To Quietude.

For sound travels more leisurely than light,

Keenly gathering moss along the lush slope of time.

And so, a bird flies artfully for long before it can sing it's song;

And so, the mind stumbles foolishly through the miles of life, before its laurels are announced.

To Quietude.

For sound travels more leisurely than light,

Keenly gathering moss along the lush slope of time.

And so, there is a simple gratitude owed to solitude;

And so, the unheard moments of character slip by whilst stringing the strains of victory in Quietude.

~Rishika Sudhir Dhody

An ode to the seashore

I stand at the seashore,

as my feet sink in the sand, 

being tickled by the lapping water;

I stand in wonderment,

How can one thing be everything and nothing?

I breathe in the salty air,

which announces the sea’s presence from far away;

and I wonder, how can one thing be both, salty and refreshing?

I gaze at the stillness beyond the waves,

and as a I remember the tales of mermaids,

I wonder how one thing can be so still and yet be filled with life?

As the waves play with my feet, 

I look across at all the rocks, which have been marked by the sea;

I wonder how one thing can be both endearing and scary?

I stand at the sea shore,

as my feet sink in the sand,

being tickled by the lapping water;

I close my eyes

and feel the wind pass me by,

at once, ferocious and playful;

and feel the sound of the sea

resonate with my being.

Engulfed in the wonderment,

I feel the stillness of time amongst all the motion;

I realize that even time stops

to pay homage to the sea,

The Sea, which is everything and nothing.

~Rishika Sudhir Dhody

Non Omnis Moriar

There was nothing about the scene that wasn’t picturesque; the blue sky, the regal peak, the crisp air, the disturbing stillness. He stood there alone, scanning the mountain from the foot, right up until the peak. Trying to find a crevice, that would fit him perfectly; For surely, he thought, that is what the mountain was meant for, to find that sweet spot.

He looked at each rise and fall of the mountain and tried to calculate the spot with the least probability of being affected by a landslide. He then brought out a pen and paper and estimated the height of every tree on the mountain. He used geometry to then find the nook and crannies with the most sunlight. As day turned to night, he worked assiduously by the moonlight, just standing by the mountain. Trying to find his place in the mountain.

As he started losing count of the variables and equations and his fingers grew stiff around his pencil, he grew frustrated with every stirring of the wind. Finally, frustrated he shouted into infinity, “Have you no mercy?! How savage is it to throw a child of the Earth into this complexity, just to find his crevice!”.

As he sat freezing in his defeat, recounting his convoluted calculations, a steady voice replied back, “Oh child of the Earth, there is no crevice for you, neither here nor in any corner of the infinite universe. And in that is the greatest mercy bestowed upon you. For the majestic mountain and it’s crevices will crumble in the face of the gale. But you, the child of the Earth, are not born to be destroyed, your soul walks hand in hand with infinity. There is no crevice which can contain you.”

~Rishika Sudhir Dhody