Wanting to see the world...

Wanting to see the world...
Before renouncing it...
My mind eagerly whirled...
Never letting me sit!


“Just show it what it wants!”,
One more voice in me said,
“Allow yourself some jaunts,
In a lulling soft tread!”


The lulled mind by me lured...
Was now much less restless.
This calm though, was secured,
By a pace more breathless!


If pace slowed the mind moaned,
Denied its feast of sights;
In mind's tow my limbs groaned,
Drained by these fancy flights!


“Just one more mile”, I thought,
“And that should be enough!”
The old urge though I fought,
Keeping my word was tough!


“To see more of the same,”
I ask my tired mind,
“Will you our whole life claim?
For ends you'll never find?”


The spent mind was silent,
And I could now sit still;
Though just for a moment,
I could muster my will.


In that moment I found...
That all I need is here!
But then somewhere around...
A stirring I could hear.


I told myself, “Stay still!”
But what did I just hear?
Now the mind will ask till
Its source is somehow clear.


Do I have everything...
That the stirred mind now seeks?
Or do I err sitting,
Unmoved when the World speaks?


Wanting to see this world...
Before renouncing it...
My mind eagerly whirled...
Never letting me sit!


So saying I look around...
And set out yet again...
Unseen sights still abound;
For things aren't where they'd lain!

-Arvind Iyer (1st July 2010)

Glue and glee

This is about a tourism promotion stall with a difference; one where I found brushes besides brochures, experienced creation of an artefact rather than mere conversation with an agent and instead of poring over coffee-table books, put together a table of my own!

What can beat the joy of doing it yourself?
So what if it's just a desk the size of an elf?

Unchanged in shape from Korea's ancient halls...
It's now a plaything's size in airport stalls.

The humble desk of which I will now speak...
Is fashioned neither of sandal nor teak.

Leftover chips from some far-Eastern woods...
By visitors' hands become goodwill's goods!

Legs, boards and drawers, each as a puzzle-piece...
Are in curious hands made whole with ease!

Watching this while in a bored wait we stand...
Why not we ourselves at this try our hand?

So thinking, my grown-up shyness I shun...
With some glue and more glee the desk I fashion!

The desk which to start with, plain pine has been,
Now awaits to get an ebony sheen...

To paint it black at first seems quite artless,
But some care it takes to get a coat spotless...

Up, down and from the sides if you peep...
A streak of pine from ebony might creep!

Returning to the jar a content brush...
I resume my journey with less haste and rush...

The toy desk was in its own right a stage...
For the play of childhood untouched by age!

While participating in the kyunsang desk-making activity 

at the Korean Traditional Cultural Experience Center, 

Incheon International Airport, Seoul, South Korea
7th January 2010