You don’t have faith in
a person you test,
a passion you question,
a goal you rethink,
a dream you stifle,
a craft you conceal,
a belief you violate,
a god you make deals with,
a truth you ambiguate,
an identity you morph.
Careful.
If you’re constantly on the fence,
you’ll never get to the other side.
Copyright © Roshni Ramanan
You stole my Eros*
my passion to dabble
explore and create
as you caged my interest
You stole my support system
manipulating words
misrepresenting contexts
so I’m all yours
You stole my leisure
I danced consciously
giggled softly, never
belted tunes in the shower
You stole my time
editing my yesterdays
eroding todays
erasing happy tomorrows
I tried only
to steal your soul
But I couldn’t find
the thievery in me
Copyright © Roshni Ramanan
*Eros, according to Freudian psychology, is the life force that constitutes the will to live and instinctual impulses that lead to productivity. Its counterpart is Thanatos, the death instinct.
The guardian wood watches over
absorbing carbon molecules of pain
breathing out oxygen bubbles of relief
Under the wide-eyed curiosity
of hopeful, hanging leaves
a lone stream tries to find its way
It leaves the withered past
of raked brown behind
ventures towards greener pastures
of its own creation
Copyright © Roshni Ramanan
These are entries from my journal that I endeavour to consciously follow/ practice and I share them in the hope that they resonate with you.
61. Respect and listen to every opinion. Absorb that which makes sense to you.
62. Don’t try to rank, rate and measure everything. Life is more than numbers.
63. Don’t underpromise and over deliver or vice versa. Keep what you say you’ll do and what you do consistent.
64. Think things through and stick to your decisions.
65. Do you feel upset? Dead inside? The world couldn’t care less.
66. There are experiences, behaviours and people that will liberate you and those that will limit you. Choose to be free.
67. Plans work better if you prepare for potential obstacles in advance.
68. If you don’t believe in magic, you won’t find it.
69. There is joy in creating something.
70. If you acquire the learner’s mindset, you have a thrilling journey ahead.
71. Understanding your strengths, in no way, makes you arrogant.
72. It is fun to sass your friends. It is important to lift them up.
73. Looking beautiful may count. But, feeling beautiful makes all the difference.
74. Nothing is as sexy as an unapologetic personality, a good posture and a heartfelt smile.
75. Drown out all the noise, once a day, including the noise in your own head.
76. Just like you won’t deny a diabetic his insulin, don’t deny anyone mental health support.
77. Be self- aware of how you think, feel, speak, behave, learn and cope. Ultimately, ‘forever’ is with yourself.
78. You are more than one end of a binary. You are more than a dichotomy. You are multitudes wrapped in the blanket of one body.
79. Be your absolute favourite person in the world. Deserve the title.
80. Believe that you deserve the world. Now, work for it.
Feel free to add to the list …
Copyright © Roshni Ramanan
These are entries from my journal that I endeavour to consciously follow/ practice and I share them in the hope that they resonate with you.
41. If you never ask or never attempt, the ‘what if’ will haunt you forever.
42. Pretending to be what you’re not, gets exhausting too fast.
43. So, create a reality you don’t need an escape from.
44. Don’t complain about the ill effects of social media on social media. Deactivate your account.
45. You can build a life that is full of excuses or full of attempts.
46. Feeling curious, happy and thrilled is cool. Feeling sad, anxious and terrified is cool. Feel your feelings.
47. Sometimes, fine is as good as it gets. Be fine with it.
48. Cherish experiences.
49. Acquire skills.
50. Nothing lasting comes from causing another person pain.
51. Speak to your own self like you want to be spoken to by others.
52. Inspiration lies everywhere. Take note of it.
53. Failure teaches you so much more than success ever will.
54. Stand up for your beliefs.
55. Exemplify your values, so others acquire it from you. That is how you seed change.
56. Learn to say ‘So what?’
57. No one has all the answers. There is no one answer to the intangible.
58. ‘Should’ is aristocratic. Remove it from your dictionary.
59. Silence is the most fervent supporter of injustice.
60. Karma is a cognitive error called the Just World phenomenon.
Feel free to add to the list …
Copyright © Roshni Ramanan
These are entries from my journal that I endeavour to consciously follow/ practice and I share them in the hope that they resonate with you.
21. If you claim to be an adult, it is key to behave like one.
22. Celebrate your little victories. Small wins = Big difference.
23. However, remember to be modest. Most of what you’ve achieved has been accomplished before and could be accomplished again.
24. Stop believing in yourself and you’ve found the most certain way of losing the game.
25. Do not give unasked for criticism or advice.
26. It is okay, and at times necessary, to be the person that goes the extra mile.
27. There is some truth in the Positivity Bias and the Law of Attraction.
28. Settling is the worst way to fail because you are failing your own self.
29. Happiness is not achieving an arbitrary X or Y. Happy is right now.
30. Don’t waste time on unproductive mental gymnastics.
31. If you have time to hate someone, you have too much time.
32. No one deserves ten chances.
33. Don’t play mind games that reinforce stereotypes.
34. If you tell me, you can help me understand better.
35. Never trivialise anyone’s pain.
36. We all exist in the same world but live in different worlds.
37. If waking up seems painful, it is time to take a good hard look at your life.
38. Life is not a faraway fairy tale. Your story is today and right now. Write it well.
39. Don’t say goodbye on a sour note. It could be the last goodbye.
40. When something doesn’t feel right, there is a reason.
Feel free to add to the list …
Copyright © Roshni Ramanan
These are entries from my journal that I endeavour to consciously follow/ practice and I share them in the hope that they resonate with you. Here’s my first listicle on WP :
1. Life owes you zilch. You owe yourself everything.
2. Remember your roots. They speak volumes about why you are the way you are.
3. Run away from toxicity. Avoid it like the plague.
4. A therapist and a hundred self-help books, podcasts and films can’t change your life. You can.
5. The only way to find out if a technique, a habit or a piece of advice works, is to implement it.
6. Be you in every situation.
7. If being you doesn’t sound appealing, become a better you.
8. If you keep fighting losing battles, you won’t have any resources left for the ones you can actually win.
9. It is okay to have bad days, bad weeks and even bad months. What is not okay is denying that’s how you feel.
10. Emotional blackmail gets you nowhere.
11. For every reason there is to lie, there is a better reason, to tell the truth.
12. To identify the truly trivial, ask yourself if a bad experience is going to matter in a week, in a month and in a year.
13. Everyone’s path is different and equally important.
14. But, it helps to remember that you have it better than so many others.
15. Equality is a conscious choice. Practise it every day. Don’t be ageist, racist, sexist, homophobic etc. Inegalitarianism looks good, said no one ever.
16. Care enough to extend a helping hand.
17. It’s so easy to break someone. Try keeping them whole.
18. Being ‘manly’ is more about manning up to your flaws and being a man of your word, than any cultural stereotype.
19. If working at what you love is draining, reconsider it.
20. If you keep making excuses to postpone what you say you want, maybe you don’t want it all that bad.
Feel free to add to the list …
Copyright © Roshni Ramanan
You ask me
how to write Poetry
how to attain Poet status
You think
I pen my poems
like a focused jeweller
who strings careful beads
on silk threads
like an inventor
who calculates ingredients
to whip up the
fitting concoction
like a librarian
who explores all of
mind’s knowledge boats
to choose the apt sail
like a musician
who measures rhythm
tone, tune and lyric
to compose a hit
My friend
the truth is far from that
Inspiration streams
piercing through my head
like a thousand water pellets
through a thatched roof
Images, metaphors, rhymes
grip me, similar to
nature’s crisscrossing calls
I race with the ideas
that flow faster than light
Until I stop pursuing
and let myself be pursued
I become the words on the page
the nudging punctuations
the silly similes
the poignant visuals
the free-flowing verse
the tongue-in-cheek humour
the profound message
To answer your questions
I write Poetry by
letting poetry take over me
I attain Poet status
by becoming my poetry
This was inspired by and, in some ways, may be considered a continuation of
https://roshniramanan.wordpress.com/?s=art+is+born
Vermilion dots
stroll on my forehead
A blazing red march
My skin still fragrant from
the sandalwood bath
Anklets grab my legs like
friends playing kabaddi
Bangles jiggle merrily
to the step of my saunter
A jewel crowns my plait
Gold woven into black
Mehendi patterns on my palms
unveil secret cultural codes
A saree fondly draped
cradles my curves
I’m united with those
before and after me
in jasmine scented bonds
of tradition.
Kabaddi – An ancient contact group sport that originated from Tamil Nadu, India
Mehendi- A body art wherein the powdered paste of the henna plant is used
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