Written for World Poetry Day 03/21/22

My love nest and my battlefield,

Both travel with me.

My playground and my life’s grind

Are only a thought away.

Come life, let’s entwine together 

Our resources, in a fixed embrace.

All I need sweet life, are 

Words, to take me away. 

Veenu Banga

Copyright composed 03/21/2022. 

World Poetry Day 2022.

 

Thinking of Susan in Gibson Country

 12/14/2021

Thinking of Susan in Gibson Country 

On the next leg of our journey. Hajltland. 

Had a hearty breakfast this morning. Alex and team came and chatted with us again. Nick came to tell us about the second part of the BBC program next week which will be about Delhi. 

Alex’s bride is half Finnish and half Indian. No wonder he’s such a cool guy. No hangups, open, culturally savvy and easily assimilates.

Grateful can be generous with showing appreciation. The lord provides, and overwhelms me sometimes with his Grace that is so magnanimously forthcoming. 

The drive was glorious going through the fabled Southern Highlands. The culture vulture Victorian Romantic historian amongst us of course gave us the lowdown of the wars between the Highlanders and the low landers aka the English. 

As we got closer north, there was snow on the mountains. In the summer these mountains would be purple with the heather we were told by our CVVRH cruise director. 

Boarding was pretty quick. Not much traffic at all. Much smaller vessel too as compared to the Stena ferries. Smaller cabins and bathrooms. 

Since we’re in upgraded cabins get to sit and be served in the Magnus lounge. Free drinks and bottles of water, fruits and cookies and newspapers and magazines. At table service. Jonathan was the host/ Matre de and served us dinner of something vegetarian. Curry rice and awesome soft rotis. Charged us only for one, because our first choice of leek and potato soup was not available. The chef came out to apologize for the soup getting over. 

These guys are so sweet here. Such excellent and exceptional customer service. You just have to look their way or even a half smile at them and they will come running and ask if there’s anything more they can do. Convinced that it’s just that way here. As was at Chakoo’s and Balbir’s. Good quality produce makes a huge difference.

9:37 pm now and in bed writing. Huge window starboard side, instead of a porthole. Water churning below and open sky with stars overhead. Took pictures of the moon in a clear sky with stars. Earlier a gorgeous crimson sky in the parking lot of Peggy Scotts Services. Was an awesome stop, great food and she brewed us fabulous hot black tea. So much to be thankful for. 

Quite a ways from midnight but sweet slumber beckons. All good, maybe in my dreams when I miss people, they will appear. As mundane as running into someone at a gas station. The sweet joys of surprise, that much the sweeter when shared. 

Veenu Banga

12/13/21

9:48 pm. 

PS. Was sitting in my drafts. All these posts that I don’t post. For some reason when I wrote this, I thought, ‘maybe nah, not this.’ Wonder why. Had posted about it being my father’s birthday. 

03/ 21/ 2022

11:00 am

Sent from my iPhone

Muses and musings

Oh, muses and their excuses, and muses and their uses. We’re always making too much of the muses. I wonder if the muse realizes, that it’s not really about them. Not always, not all the way. 

The creatively inspired are a generous species. They give of themselves to the process more than they to the muse. They can get so enamored in their process of expression, that it’s no longer then about the muse. It’s very essential in the creative process. To lose oneself, and disappear in the creation, creating by growing out from inside it. 

It’s not about whether one’s creation is good or bad- that’s the perception in the eyes of the beholder. The creative types more likely forget this fact. They can be happy only, only when they create/ write/ paint for themselves, not for an audience. That’s the thing to remember. 

Singers, songwriters, musicians, poets and artists are all  creatures of expression, which is a very personal experience. It’s their perception of the muse that manifests their creative expression, not necessarily the reality of the muse. They express what they feel. Sometimes, the pen takes over, most times actually, the words pour themselves out. As if they had been in there incubating all along, and destined to be expressed. 

Similarly, when we do not write, or do not create that which is yearning, and hankering to be given form, we abort and thus kill our untold stories. A certain sadness is almost a pre requisite and aids the creative process. However, if left unattended, sadness can quickly decompose and become toxic depression, causing neglect of when self care. In that sadness, out of that pain, we must seek joy. Finding joy in life is far more productive, than surrendering to grief. 

Muses abound everywhere. We don’t always write about beautiful things. Muses can also inspire introspection. I think that’s what happened to me two nights ago, as I watched Safari videos. This time it was not all pleasant. Rather it was most distressing. 

I wondered if in a previous life, I had been a predator? An animal perhaps like a hyena or a lion, or a hawk? Why else would I be pained watching these kinds of videos. 

It is so much more than killing life. What we cannot give, we have no right to take away. By cutting short a life, we take away potential, by depriving them of their growing years. We steal their experiences, their time on this earth. We deprive the souls of all the relationships they would have forged. We deprive them of their eternity, that their offspring may have produced. So in this life, if we are suffering, it’s good to remember, that we may be discharging our karmic debts. 

It’s far too complicated and there are many schools of thought. However, if we take into account the science, and that every action has a reaction, or what does up, must come down, it will be easier to bear our suffering. That is why, Sikh prayers always include the reciter to pray for the welfare of all.

On this good thought, I will call it a night. Thank you God for another day! 

Veenu Banga

21st January 2022 (night of 20th January)

2:34 am

What a pleasant surprise from SG!

My new love, Sky Guide, sent me a message earlier tonight, that the ISS is peaking in 5 minutes! Then K spotted it in the sky. And lo and behold, I pointed the App to the sky, and there it was, the ISS was with me all the way on my drive home! I actually took photos. 

Had a marvelous evening earlier, with Surinder. We enjoyed a nice dinner together at Chatwala near her house. Chana bhatura and masala dosa! She’s so lucky to have so many Indian restaurants in her area.

Grateful for all the gifts of togetherness, and awaiting the gifts of tomorrow! 

Veenu Banga

19th January

11:54 pm.

All the languages that I speak..

 With my smile! 

I can smile in English, I can smile in Panjabi, and I can smile in Hindi, and I can smile in every other language in the world! 

Veenu Banga

16th January 2022

11:53 pm

All creatures great and small

 The good Lord made them all.

Some time ago, I started thinking about planning a trip to either Kenya, the stories of which I have heard from friends, or to South Africa, which I thought may be a place to go for a Safari. 

Today, for some reason, I clocked on link on a Huff Post video, of a miraculous escape of a tiger cub, fleeing from a chase by a big hyena. The cub climbed a tree, and the hyaena, finally left in defeat. One video after another, not all with happy endings left me feeling quite sad.

Life is about perspectives. I imagined I would see swarms of graceful impalas, giraffes, and zebras, all roaming the wilds in free abandon. It never occurred to me that there may be the gangs of hyenas and lions and tigers looking to kill for food. Intellectually, we do know, but in reality, that’s not what one thinks about, when one plans to go on a Safari. I think I’ll pass. 

I couldn’t bear to see it on video, and I think witnessing it in reality will make me sick. Very sad and sobering reality of life. Really, it shouldn’t be so, because the civilized world is full of its own hyenas and lions and tigers and other birds of prey. 

Ugly hyenas. I wonder what their existence brings to the table in the whole scheme of nature. Wretched creatures. However, we should love them for what they are, and not judge them. After all they too were created by the same God who created us, or to be more accurate, they are a part of the creation, to which we belong. They probably think we’re murderous nobodies, who kill for whim. At least they kill for food. Such a shame, to be so oblivious. To be put in place by a hyenas. It’s all about perspective. Such is life.

It was cloudy all day. I had hoped to see the moonrise again today, but we did not have a minute when the clouds lifted. 

I had started the day with great optimism, and with much to write about. However, the wildlife and Safari videos were very disturbing, and impacted my mood. And then some other news stories followed, which were not very appetizing either, so an overall sourness pervaded over my thinking. I’m never going to watch that crap again. 

I forgot that I’ve broken off with You Tube. OP Nayyar’s music helped a bit, but I couldn’t listen to anything other than Deewana hua badal. By ‘that Pakistan guy’ and the female singer who is the ‘youngest Pakistani singer from the UK.’

Maybe I should try listening to that secret sacred song, that I keep in my heart, the music that one shares with only their very special loved ones. Even the name of the artist must not escape from one’s lips. Such is the secrecy surrounding that song, or your secret sacred song. 

On that note, I’ll close with a big thank you to everyone I encountered today. Without you in it, this day would not have been what it was. Good. We are all safe and Healthy. 

Grateful for the music, and the endless hours of joy it brings.

Veenu Banga

18th January 2022.

11:50 pm.