Inconvenient Truth

 

10x13.5 inches; Pen and ink over graphite pencil on tinted drawing paper (Click on image to enlarge)

NO!
I DON’T want to hear about it!
I DON’T want to know!
There is no
Singular universal truth,
NO!
There is nothing
You can do
To
Deceive my mind
Into giving up my faith
In the truth I know.
You claim it is delusion!
Yes!
You liar! You spawn of filth!
No.
Your truth is not mine!
YOU are the deluded one.
You make me
Feel SO
Unsafe!
I want to throw up!
Why are you doing this
To
ME?
Are you not ashamed
Of Such disgrace?
No.
I will not break out
Of my truth!
It protects me
From the likes of you.
No b-itch!
It’s NOT denial.
Your rationale
Hurts my belief.
Your knowledge
Pricks my sentiments.
Curiosity
Is the worst temptation,
And knowledge
Shall truly be
The downfall of
Me!

Isolation

 

20.5x28.5 inches; Watercolour, pen and ink over graphite pencil on handmade paper (Click on image to enlarge)

 

Alone, but

Not like an ant

Wandering far

From the marked trail,

Way laid by the call of a Siren,

Unable to find its way back

To the scent of its people,

Going in circles for days,

Still hopeful

Unless a boot stamps

The life out of it.

Or like a bee

Buzzing around for hours

Inside a glass jar

In a candy shop,

Trapped by the lure of

Sweet promises,

Separated from its kin,

Finding death in the hands

Of a fly swatter.

 

But alone

Like lovers in a crowd,

Majnun in the desert,

Like the naive victim

In love with the tormentor.

Like seeking safety

Curling up in a closet,

Marooned on an

Uninhabited Island

Of one’s own inhibitions,

Or walled up within

A fortress in one’s head,

Avoiding the possibilities

Of infection,

Of failure, rejection and hurt.

Isolation

Of the unwanted;

Preventing what may happen

Deduced from what

We fear to become.

 

The plague trespasses

Over the land of

‘Happily-ever-after’

Leaving behind

A sole survivor. 

Pancha Mahabhoota 3 - Kshiti (earth)

12x16 inches; Pen drawing on acid free textured paper (Click on image to enlarge)

The End Of The World

Here, at the end of the world,
the flowers bleed
as if they were hearts,
the hearts ooze a darkness
like India Ink,
& poets dip their pens in
& they write.

"Here, at the end of the world,"
they write,
not knowing what it means.
"Here, where the sky nurses on black milk,
where the smokestack feed the sky,
where the trees tremble in terror
& people come to resemble them. . . . "

Here, at the end of the world,
the poets are bleeding.
Writing & bleeding
are thought to be the same;
singing & bleeding
are thought to be the same.

Write us a letter!
Send us a parcel of food!
Comfort us with proverbs or candied fruit,
with talk of one God.
Distract us with theories of art
no one can prove.

Here at the end of the world
our heads are empty,
& the wind walks through them
like ghosts
through a haunted house. 

- Erica Jong

Pancha Mahabhoota 1 - Marut (wind/air/storm)

 12x16 inches; Pen drawing on acid free textured paper (Click on image to enlarge)

Subway Wind

Far down, down through the city's great, gaunt gut,

The gray train rushing bears the weary wind;

In the packed cars the fans the crowd's breath cut,

Leaving the sick and heavy air behind.

And pale-cheeked children seek the upper door

To give their summer jackets to the breeze;

Their laugh is swallowed in the deafening roar

Of captive wind that moans for fields and seas;

Seas cooling warm where native schooners drift

Through sleepy waters, while gulls wheel and sweep,

Waiting for windy waves the keels to lift

Lightly among the islands of the deep;

Islands of lofty palm trees blooming white

That lend their perfume to the tropic sea,

Where fields lie idle in the dew drenched night,

And the Trades float above them fresh and free.

- Claude McKay

Guilty As Charged 6 - Avarice

8x8 inches (unframed); Watercolour and Pen drawing on Executive Bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

Greed's worst point is its ingratitude.

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist.

Guilty As Charged 5 - Vanity

8x8 inches (unframed); Watercolour and Pen drawing on Executive Bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

‘Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.’

- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Guilty As Charged 4 - Envy

8x8 inches (unframed); Watercolour and Pen drawing on Executive Bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

'The flower which is single need not envy the thorns that are numerous.'

- Rabindranath Tagore

Guilty As Charged 3 - Lechery

8x8 inches (unframed); Watercolour and Pen drawing on Executive Bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

A Shaikh beheld a harlot, and quoth he,

“You seem a slave to drink and lechery”;

And she made answer, “What I seem I am,

But, Master, are you all you seem to be?”

- Omar Khayyam

Guilty As Charged 2 - Wrath

8x8 inches (unframed); Watercolour and Pen drawing on Executive Bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

“I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.”

- William Blake quotes (English visionary Mystic, Poet, Painter and Engraver. 1757-1827)

Guilty As Charged 1 - Sloth

8x8 inches (unframed); Watercolour and Pen drawing on Executive Bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

"I am overcome by my own amazing sloth…Can you please forgive me and believe that it is really because I want to do something well that I don't do it at all?"

-Elizabeth Bishop, Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Award winner in 1970, and the recipient of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1976.

Promises of Promiscuity

20.5x28.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)
SOLD. In private collection

Our eyes avoid meeting

Like moths evading darkness

But words keep spilling around

Leading us by the hand

Into meandering alleys

Dead ends...

Of old forgotten cities.

We recognize the charade

Yet, we indulge

For the sake of appearances

A fleeting glance meets

Catches flame!

We see each in the eyes of the other

Burning, a mirror of mutual shame.

Don’t take off that mask of words

The fine web of silk will tear

Revealing the dark circles

Under our smiles.

Cracks will show

In the walls of our hearts

The emotions all piled up in a row.

Keep the doors and windows barred

The curtains down, shrouded...

For fear our precious image gets tarnished.

A masterpiece so carefully crafted

With half truths and ruse

By the dust of dreams, the bile of regret

And spotless virtue, as our muse.

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

Tiny Deceptions 4 - The Golden Fawn (Mirage)

3.5x5.5 inches; Watercolor and Pen drawing on executive bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

Under a sheepskin, a wolf may hide

Under a flower, a snake

Yet the fault lies in our pride  

If we can’t spot the fake

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

Tiny Deceptions 3 - The Red Herring (Fallacy)

5.5x3.5 inches; Watercolor and Pen drawing on executive bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

Ruthless mind brimming with unspoken words

Misleading glances hide cruel intent

Cloaks make the cuts deeper from pointy swords

Reality hurts when dreams are spent. 

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

Tiny Deceptions 2 - Two Faced Snake (Double Speak)

3.5x5.5 inches; Watercolor and Pen drawing on executive bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

Tell me this and tell me that,

Don’t reveal the fault

But riddle it with fat.

Serve it hot with a pinch of salt.

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

Tiny Deceptions 1 - The Little Birdie (rumor)

5.5x3.5 inches; Watercolor and Pen drawing on executive bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)

Words waft in the wind

Like dandelion seeds

Searching for a fertile mind

To germinate into cruel deeds.

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

Sebastian

12x12 inches; Watercolour and Pen drawing on executive bond paper (Click on image to enlarge)
SOLD. In private collection

Sliced by the hands of fate

Criss-crossing lanes

On the palm

Of your hand

Each turn

A choice you make

Each twist

The noose

Around your neck

Either Slackens

Or tightens

Without respite

No way out

Of the maze

Living with the choices

You make

Or dying for them

Whether the heart

Or the mind

You follow

You are twice martyred

And you believe

You have lived.

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

Amba

12x12 inches; Watercolour and Pen drawing on executive bond paper with (Click on image to enlarge)
SOLD. In private collection

Unwanted

Uprooted

Patronized

Tolerated

And yet unwanted

Bounced

From court

To court

Invalidated

In Love rejected

Undesired

Of being

Of soul

Denied

Defined Of existence

Limited

Constrained

Mutilated

Defamed

By vows and absence

Embraced

Consoled

Nurtured

Rejuvenated

Blooming in self love

Revolting

Offending

Sacrificing

Disregarding

What’s dictated from above

Defying

Denying

Slaughtering

Castrating

What’s accepted as respectable

Amba stands

Unchallenged

Yet vulnerable.

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

The Stigma Of Being An Ostrich

13.5x20.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)
SOLD. In private collection

‘Ostrich Syndrome’ is a term used in psychiatry to define a situation of willful ignorance towards uncomfortable situations. It is the refusal of acknowledging something which is blatantly obvious, because one does not want to deal with it. The syndrome is so named because one human, somewhere, believed that an ostrich sticks its head in the sand when faced with danger and the rumor spread like wild fire! Historians believe the saying may have risen from the writings of Pliny the Elder who wrote "...they imagine, when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed" Yet, there is evidence that this is not true. Fact is Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand or bush to ignore danger (They might do so while looking for food!); we humans do, metaphorically speaking. We are equipped with a defense mechanism called ‘willful ignorance’ which kicks in whenever we are faced with something which threatens our position of power, control or invades our comfort zone. We ignore and wish the threat away and when this does not work, we find a scapegoat to dump the blame on for all the misfortune that has befallen us and scream for retribution. The ostrich surely does not care (And for all we know it might be laughing at our dim-witted behavior) but what about other humans who become victims of stigma, violence and prejudice due to such ignorance? In this era of communication and information boom, it is criminal to remain willfully ignorant. It does not hurt to say, ‘I don’t know but I can find out!’ Awareness is just a click away, and all we do is withdraw more into our wells of ignorance. When we should be inspired to reach out and form more strong human bonds through informed human interactions, all we do is isolate ourselves more within our own castles protecting ourselves from imagined demons! Curiosity seems to have given up its ghost because the answers are so readily available! The power of our collective willful ignorance cannot be overstated and the poor ostrich (along with many other species including humans) is still victimized due to this ‘Human Ignorance Syndrome’! Ironic, isn't it?