Peer Pressure

Take a puff of cigarette, it looks so cool,

You haven't tasted alcohol, you must be a fool.

Everyone has a girlfriend, esp on Valentine's day,

To fit in with the crowd, you need to take weed if they say.  

As I scroll through the reels, of amazing foods and smiles, 

I have to have an awesome day, not tribulations and trials.

So I post my six packs, that just might be photo-shopped,

It spurs them into action- and off to the gym they hopped. 

 

Behaviors become norms, like when friends ace the test,

I have no options but to gear up, start giving studies my best.

When friends start launching companies, at the drop of a hat,

Its natural to start a venture, though it may turn into a stat. 

From PayPal to Flipkart, pressure shaped the Mafia dons,

To let external factors distort you, has both pros and cons.

 

Abstinence

I don't eat meat, I don't drink wine,

Sans cigarettes or weed, life seems just fine. 

I don't take sugar, I take only rock salt, 

I shun dairy products, I love animals to a fault. 

 

I don't consume Insta, I use only a feature phone,  

I don't use credit cards, never consume what you don't own. 

I follow real life friends, don't let 'who you might know' the algo decide,

I never hit the like button, tailoring the feed, to me, doesn't feel right. 

I search in private browser, don't click on sponsored links, 

I abstain from scrolling endlessly, and beat the algos methinks. 

I'm willing to pay premium, to hear in my order my song,

But to abandon myself to the algo, on so many levels seems wrong.

 

Many people go to great lengths, to feel a sense of power and control, 

But to me its gaining my autonomy back, to be defined by my choices is my goal.

Hindsight Bias

Someone asked me in an interview, a perplexing question,

If you were to travel 10 yrs in future, and on all steps you won,

What's the future self you are living, how at a party you'll introduce,

I could only think of as a poet- someone who'll daily produce.

 

Then they asked me to think, after 10 yrs a poet I'm not,

I belong to the dead poets society, have been left to rot, 

They invited me to think, why as a poet I never took off,

And list reasons why I failed, why on my poems people scoff.

 

I laboriously reasoned, why as a poet I couldn't be renowned,

Maybe I didn't write for the galleries, maybe the gatekeepers frowned,  

Maybe the security of a job, kept me amateur at this craft,

Maybe I realized there is no money, maybe I was not that daft.

 

When I look back in hindsight, I know why I'm no poet still,

I may find a scapegoat, but it wasn't about how to pay the bill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing For Victory

Private victory precedes, the one more public,

You lose the battle within, and then you fall sick.

You lose hope first, then the world turns grim,

As the motivation recedes, winning chances become slim.

If for others in your life, you want to care,

You have to love yourself first, you have to dare,

To be vulnerable to self, to treat oneself with compassion,

If you can love yourself, loving others will be all the fashion.

If you want to be known, for your generous acts,

You need to work on your intentions, you can't be lax.

You need to fight selfish urges, before fighting injustice outside,

You can reveal yourself fully, only once you have nothing to hide.

I've worked on myself for ages, waiting for this moment to shine,

I've won so many times in my head, that I should now win - it's high time. 

Principles of Growth

From a novice beginner, to an experienced pro,

It doesn't happen in a jiffy, there are stages to go.

Expertise at different levels, skills picked up on the way,

New behaviours beckon from future, old ones in the past stay.

The infant first learns to turn, the toddler first to crawl,

Progressing from level to level, it eventually stands tall.

Baby steps in a walker, are replaced with a confident gait,

As it starts to walk and run, to finish marathons it can't wait.

Academic progression too is linear, to join school you have to finish KG,

You won't be bestowed a doctorate, till you are above the level of a PG.

To master a field like piano or chess, you need to walk a thousand mile,

While you are starting and fumble, people look other ways and brush off with a smile.

Why should moral development be any different, I'll keep morphing as I grow,

Our character doesn't emerge fully formed, it grows daily as we till and sow.

Holi festivities

Festival of colours, festival of joy,

Some play it bold, some play it coy.

Drenched in water, or smeared with gulal,

Splash colours all around, especially on neighbour's wall.

Dance in the housing society, under the hose's jet,

Cover your mobile in plastic, so it doesn't get wet.

As the evening draws in, eat gunjiyas and snacks,

If bhaang makes you go haywire, have each other's back.

Burn an effigy of evil, on the prior night,

Patch up with old enemies, make everything right.

Celebrate with colours, or play with sticks,

Or play with flowers, or add grease to the mix.

Festivities are not rowdy, or sacred per se,

They reflect our true colours, and shades of grey.

Being Human

GenAI is all the rage, it can write beautiful code,

Between low code and no code, you can keep switching the mode.

It'll test for you, find bugs and fix, it will even optimize,

What used to be a fiefdom of programmers, it has helped to democratise.

GenAI is all the rage, it can provide a listening ear,

That a chatbot can counsel well, is the news of the year.

It'll paraphrase what you say, summarise, and also suggest some technique,

What used to be their monopoly, now psychologists future is bleak.

GenAI is all the rage, it can pen beutiful lines,

It sounds more authentic and real, I have heard from the grapevines.

The perfect rhythm and meter, the apt turns of phrase,

A million budding poets now, some brilliant, some blase.

Programmer, psychologist, poet, where do we draw the line,

The AI may take our jobs, but the human touch will keep us fine.