Cherry's World | Roy Cherian Cherukarayil's Philosophical Literature, Visual Arts and Music

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

UNSEEN TEARS

When the sun is up and in full cry,

And I play the tough role of a parent,

Sometimes being too protective

And sometimes chiding for crossing thresholds,

Often challenging the limits of our temperament,

We retire hurt and with thorns in our heart.

But when the moon and the stars shine,

And my little one has surrendered on sleep’s altar,

I kneel close to her bed

And watch her beautiful face as she sleeps.

Tears trickle down my cheeks,

As I realize that how much ever I parade,

Like a tough parent throwing my weight around,

I am still a slave in front of her,

Who never wants to hurt her or see her cry.

FOR MY WRITINGS, PLEASE VISIT THE LINKS BELOW (FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED):

POEMS OF LOST LOVE

Poetry book 'INDELIBLE ETERNAL ETCHINGS':

https://www.amazon.in/INDELIBLE-ETERNAL-ETCHINGS-emotions-unbridled-ebook/dp/B072J4L656/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=indelible+eternal+etchings&qid=1583428166&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/INDELIBLE-ETERNAL-ETCHINGS-emotions-unbridled-ebook/dp/B072J4L656/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=indelible+eternal+etchings&qid=1583428402&sr=8-1

STORIES

Short Story book 'A PEARL FROM EVERY OYSTER':

https://notionpress.com/read/a-pearl-from-every-oyster

https://www.amazon.in/Pearl-Every-Oyster-Stories-Shorter/dp/1948473151/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3GI23X9JIKQGK&keywords=a+pearl+from+every+oyster&qid=1583428674&sprefix=A+Pearl+from%2Caps%2C302&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Every-Oyster-Stories-Shorter-ebook/dp/B07948GRVC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1H9GU3Q8JNH29&keywords=a+pearl+from+every+oyster&qid=1583428722&sprefix=a+pearl+from+ev%2Caps%2C363&sr=8-1

For other countries, please visit the respective Amazon sites.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

DECIPHERING DREAMS – QUARANTINED CLOSE TO HOME

This post is a continuation of my series on dreams.

I see myself and my wife being detained at a point that is just a kilometre and a half from our home. In fact, this is on the top of a flyover on the side of the centre expanse. We have been asked to stay in one of the many tents setup there by the authorities. I believe that this is a quarantined zone due to the coronavirus spread. I see policemen and doctors walking around. I try pleading to them that our home is just close by and that my daughter is alone at home but they don’t give me an ear. I see that my chest is bare and that I am looking for some clothing to cover myself.

My wife is much more tense than me and gets into an altercation with the authorities, but they still don’t heed. Here too I see myself anxiously answering my mobile phone, logging into my laptop and working with it inside the tent. I anxiously check my mails to see if there is anything that I had missed out in the middle of these happenings.

When I wake up in the morning, I am happy that life is normal and that all I had gone through was just another dream. I have two big anxieties today, one being the thought of my daughter leaving me one day for her higher studies and subsequently for her career and the other being my performance in my job. And I could connect the images that I saw in my dream in some form to these anxieties.

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POEMS OF LOST LOVE

Thursday, February 25, 2021

SO NEAR YET SO FAR

When my daughter was pretty young, it had been easier to get her into a discussion with me, to play or to spend time over studies. The internet had not caught up then and chat machines and phones were not there. Once into her teens, her world became different, friends were anytime around on social media and chats and tastes and topics of a young adult like her became very different from mine. The Work From Home concept was not implemented then and although I had to travel about three and half hours everyday to office and back to home, I used to consciously find time on my return to spend with my daughter. I still found a way to connect with her through books, movies and songs.

With the coming of the coronavirus and the Work From Home concept, a lot changed. Extended hours of work and work calls kept me always glued to my laptop. When there were discussions in the family, she would voice out that the time I spent with her was pretty less. Yes, Work From Home has caused work to eat up a big part of my life. This has been so for more than a year.

Today, I consciously made some time during the lunch, tea and dinner sessions to watch a movie with my daughter. We had lots of things to talk, laugh and share and after a long time, I felt life was again smiling inside our home.

We had been so near to each other for more than a year but still felt as though we had been very far away. I realized that time management is going to be the key.

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POEMS OF LOST LOVE

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

THE LOVE FOR THE SEA AND THE FEAR OF BOAT RIDES

I love the sea and the boats and I have spent a lot of time sitting on boats that are pulled and kept ashore by the fisherfolk. As an artist, I love every vibration of the sea and everything around it.

I have had many opportunities to go for a water ride with my family during the several travels that we have had. They would try to talk and persuade me to hire a boat for all of us to go for a ride. I would politely refuse and discourage them citing some reason or the other. On very few occasions, I gave in to their persuasion and went along. This was for rides in small rivers but where the water was still deep though. While everyone else would be enjoying the ride, I would be very conscious and tense and wouldn’t be able to focus. It was fear inside me that was causing this. Nobody in my family knows swimming and that is something I thought would have really been useful for all of us. But again, will knowing swimming really help us to wade to safety from any type of waterbody? I am not sure.

Recently, on our trip to Langkawi, my family hired a boat for a travel to a small island. They told me that it’s on a shallow water and there is nothing to panic. Very reluctantly I stepped in as I did not want them to lose an opportunity. The boat started and soon it was going at a speed that I have never experienced before and we were actually going into deeper waters, first through a bay area and then straight into the sea. If I had known this earlier, I would have adamantly avoided this, but I was totally oblivious to this.

On reaching the island after the nail biting ride, I enjoyed every moment that nature unfolded in front of me.

I think in life too, it has happened to me, that I have been reluctant to take up something I loved because something connected to it was something I feared. May be what I need is an oblivious push.

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POEMS OF LOST LOVE

Saturday, February 20, 2021

A FRAME OF MIND FOR ART

Seeing my interest in art, especially writing, my father after reading my work, would tell me "Keep on writing". He would then add another embellishing sentence to it "Of course, you need a frame of mind to write". He never elaborated on what he meant and neither did I ask him anytime as to what specifically he was referring to.

It was just about ten years since I had entered my professional space and about seven years since I got married. He had observed as to how the professional space and the family space had had their impacts on me, both on the positive and negative side.

Today, when I sit back and think about those words, I believe what he meant was about how quickly I could recover from the impacts in these two spaces and get into a frame of mind that writing demanded. And I find it a real challenge today as almost everyday, there is something or the other that affects me from one or both these spaces.

Creating a frame of mind means creating a space for ourselves and that can happen only when we switch off from the other spaces.

I thought that sometimes I need to ignore certain things to create this frame of mind. This is probably what some mean when they say "Take things lightly". But then, artists are the most sensitive lot.

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Friday, February 19, 2021

CAN I BE LIKE THE SUN?

I have tried and failed and again tried and again failed. I always measure what I give or what I do for others and that makes me expect back the same from them.

The more I try to be like the sun, the more I realize that I am a mere mortal of this earth who can only give when there is a corresponding take.

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Thursday, February 18, 2021

THE POWER IN A FALL

"Sometimes there is immense power in a fall too. It's only that I have to realize and tap it".

This is one of the many lines I keep telling myself to resurrect from the dungeons of life.

Many times, the biggest victories I end up with come after the biggest falls. The humiliation of the setback and the burning desire to resurrect, fills me with truck loads of resilient energy.

Very much like hydropower plants that tap energy from falling waters, I should try and tap energy from my falls. It's a difficult process but it's really fruitful. I realize that every fall, big or small, has power in it.

What we see here is a relatively smaller and artificially created fall.

Location: Jurong Bird Park, Singapore

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POEMS OF LOST LOVE