Abhijit Naskar's Blog, page 11

“Human is a speck of order upon the fabric of chaos.” – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets

Human is a speck of order
upon the fabric of chaos –
tiny yet evident,
fragile yet unflinching –

a daring dot in the
vastness of the universe –
brutal to its historic core,
forged from the jungle ore,

yet eyes aiming at infinite stars,
with heart healing from past woe.

“Let there be gods – not one, not three, but billions upon billions…” – I Am The Naskar (Sonnet 2100), Neurosonnets

I am the Naskar,
and I bridge people.

Unlike religious salesmen,
I don't offer you a promised land -
because there is nothing to promise,
that land of love and life already exists -

it exists in your neurons - all you need to do is,
bring down the walls that keep you foreign,
all you need to do is, denounce the pills
that keep you alien in your own home.

And when I've drawn all my mortal breaths,
I'll take leave with one final declaration -
let there be gods - not one, not three,
but billions upon billions -

let each human be a god unto themselves -
without fear, without prejudice -
without superstition, without cynicism -
let each mind rise triumphant over malice.

If A Tree Falls (Sonnet) – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets (Now Out – Marks 10 Years of Naskar)

If A Tree Falls (Sonnet)

If a tree falls in the forest, but
nobody hears it, did it really fall!

If children are bombed to death,
but it’s omitted from the news,
did the children really die!

If people are massacred by law,
but it’s not on Netflix,
is it really a genocide!

If democracy is dismantled piece by piece,
but by government decree,
is it really illegal!

If the world is burnt to cinders,
but the privileged castles stay intact,
is the world really burning!

Anatomy of Conspiracy (Sonnet 2094-2095) – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets

The biggest conspiracy
in the world is to make people
think that there is a conspiracy,

because when people believe
in conspiracy, they get paranoid,
and a paranoid population is the ideal
consumer for various soothsaying items,

from guns, bombs and nuclear weapons,
to crystals, chemtrails, chakras,
magnets, gemstones, ouija, racial purity,
and plots of land in the afterlife.

Now, some of these items and ideas may be
harmless, others downright villainous,
but they are all part and parcel of
an insecure primate’s pursuit for control –
delusional though such control may be.

Conspiracy, superstition, conventional
or newage, it’s all about control,
either self-inflicted or institutionalized –
you are searching for order where there
is none, so your brain cooks up one,

just to keep you satisfied – and you
start seeing faces in the clouds,
or patterns in your star charts.

Keep your mind open, just not so open
that your brain starts leaking –
an empty attic is a primate’s olympus.

Science of Life, Class in Session (Sonnet 2087-2088) – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets

Nature doesn’t kill anybody,
nor does it save anybody –
life and death are human constructs,
just like beauty and the grotesque –

nature is above all that,
not in an almighty, all-knowing
sort of way, but more of
an indifferent sort of way –

because in nature, nothing’s born,
nothing dies, they just change shape,
and some of those shapes are sentient,
some intelligent, some neither –

and each identity gets restructured
as they go through the shape-shifting,
which includes restructure of sentience,
or non-sentience, as the case may be.

Same elements that make the nonsentient stars,
when they change shape into organic material,
such as humans, they produce sentience,
but as a human corpse decay into nature,

those elements get absorbed into the soil,
into trees, bugs, and all sorts of creatures,
thus they seep into a diverse range of
sentient and nonsentient materials –

and thus the cycle continues,
from the birth of the universe
till the end of the universe –
beyond that, I don’t know – nobody does –

it doesn’t matter what happens after,
what matters is, how you behave now.

DNA & Race (Sonnet) – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets

Ancestral roots count for nothing,
modern humans are identified by behavior.
In the end, all roots lead to Africa –
transcending roots we lay the human culture.

Beyond markers of immediate biological family,
DNA ancestry tests are practically meaningless.
There is no genetic test for ethnicity –
science declares sanctions on racism, not validation.

There is no White DNA, Black DNA.
There is no Muslim DNA, Jewish DNA.
There is no Aryan DNA, Dravidian DNA.
We’re made of stuff of the stars,
why do you still rot in the jungle gutter!

If you are seeking validation
for your bigotry and prejudice,
all we scientists can offer you are
directions to the nearest psychiatrist.

That Day I’ll Call You Human (Sonnet) – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets

I shall call you all human,
the day you bring down all borders,
like you brought down the Berlin wall.

I shall call you all human,
the day you abolish all military,
like you abolished the SS.

I shall call you all human,
the day you eradicate fundamentalism,
like you eradicated polio.

I shall call you all human,
the day you ban the oligarchs,
like you tackled corona.

If you can’t be a tsunami, be a flash flood –
if you can’t be a flash flood, be a garden hose,
and wash away the inhumanities around you.

Netflix and Genocide (Sonnet) – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets

Post-apocalyptic world will
never unfold like in the movies,
the post-apocalyptic world already
exists, may be not for you, as you’re
born on the lucky side of privilege –

but that world of drought, flood, famine,
plague and persecution already exists –
the post-apocalyptic world is now,
ten steps from the door of the privileged.

Privilege defines whether
it’s a post-apocalyptic world –
step outside the castle,
and apocalypse is everywhere.

Or you just Netflix and chill,
while human communities crumble!
Apes binge-watch the occupation,
deportation and genocide,
aloof from their smart-castle.

Humanitarian Engineer (The Sonnet) – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets

The burning scent of molten solder
is just as intoxicating to me
as the musky scent of soil drenched
in the first downpour of monsoon.

In the right human hands, a soldering iron
can solder the cracks in accessibility,
while in the hands of just clever apes,
soldering iron cooks up circuits of privilege,
while burning down the bridges of equality.

Any engineer can tell the voltage
of a battery from taste, but only
a humane engineer knows how to put
each volt and amp to humanitarian use.
The burnt fingertips count for something,
only when your innovation is catalyst for good.

What is Science, What is Holy (Sonnet) – Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets

There is no greater spiritual journey
than the rejection of prejudice,
there is no greater meditation
than self-imposed scrutiny.

Bringing a candle to a neighbor’s
home who had their power cut off,
is far holier than lighting
a thousand candles in the church.

If you bring electricity to a marginalized
community with a simple solar power kit,
it’s a far greater scientific achievement
than the gargantuan glories of the LHC.

There is no greater scientific achievement
than simple science solving big problems.
There is no greater holiness than trading
in the bible for a simple act of kindness.