Fursat

 I can make a long list of things starting with what I want more of, more love, more sleep, more hours in my day, more time, more money, may be, more space, more hands, and it goes on*. 

The poem that I am thinking today is about leisure time, a type of time that seems to have shrunk or almost disappeared from our lives, I mean the time for doing nothing, just thinking, day dreaming, idling. 

Yes, that’s what I want, time to idle, with nothing to do, and more of it!

I want more Fursat (Carefree, idling, day dreaming time)

Yes, dil dhoondta hei vahi fursat ke raat din (Gulzar)

Simple translation of this line would be

“I miss those carefree days and nights, when we just idled around! 

This idling time, which was our own free time, when we did nothing, but spent time, is gone from this society that we live in. 

No one has such ‘carefree/idle time anymore!* 

We are all so busy! 

Don’t start me on mobile phones which have highjacked this one thing from our life, that was our own. 

Our free time. Social media, thanks to Information Technology, has filled it.

Even much before we evolved to having mobile phones attached to us as our hand and ear extensions, an 18th century poet had said 

“…there is no time to stand and stare”, (Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much With Us).

Yes, that’s the type of time, I am talking about. When you could just stand and stare , or sit and stare, take your pick!

It seems you are not doing anything, and yes, you actually are not!

So without much a do here is my poem (to be revised a few times of course, as it is just a pouring of haphazard ideas which hopefully will start to make some sense). 

Fursat 

Oh’ how I long to wake up, once again 

at a time, when every morning had a dawn, 

the grass glowing with dew drops to walk on.

where you found a mouse digging a tunnel of some kind,

and you looked at the Sun rise, 

with a grateful heart and a blank mind.

When mornings were followed by afternoons, 

with time to nap, read a book, 

chat to a friend over a pot of tea, about something,

or just sit in a nook

doing nothing, thinking about nothing.

And nights had evenings attached to them, 

you just walked, with no agenda, 

feeling the weather, noticing the season

and when the sun set,

and just as the first star came out, 

you might have smiled or cried for no reason.

And when you actually noticed, 

the golden specks of dust 

floating in the sunlight streaming in the room, 

and you had thought about 

floating in this river of time.

When listening to the silence, you had 

realised this connection to the sublime.

When you had felt the first drop, 

and smelled the earthy smell of rain, 

and thought of shedding some tears. 

When you saw the flowers 

growing on the road side, 

with no music blaring in your ears.

you smiled vacantly, and it was not your first!

Yes, I want more of that!

Yes, I want time, my time, 

to retune, to think, to idle, to live!** *