Skip to main content

When all is revealed


When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.
[Louis MacNiece, ‘The Sunlight on the Garden’]

You cannot hide everything
behind the façade of lies,
however beautiful the façade is.

What will pain you the most
and appal those who had stood in awe
will be the horror of the grin
that the mask had concealed hitherto.

Trade in dreams cannot go on forever,
false promises will breed barren fever,
the phantoms crafted in the past
won’t be quelled with rituals of exorcism,
confessions and angst will accompany.

When all is revealed
you won’t have the right
to seek pardon.





Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 19, 2014 at 4:24 PM

    Awesome When all is revealed you won’t have the right to seek pardon.....beautiful lines !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 19, 2014 at 8:08 PM

      I'm becoming more and more convinced that poetry can only come from the heart.

      Delete
  2. Renu VyasJuly 19, 2014 at 4:30 PM

    "You cannot hide..however beautiful the façade is.."
    So true..loved it ! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJuly 19, 2014 at 6:05 PM

    "You cannot hide everything
    behind the façade of lies,
    however beautiful the façade is"... Appreciate this reflection the most !

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 19, 2014 at 8:15 PM

    Absolutely ....nicely put every syllable

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 19, 2014 at 8:23 PM

      Thanks. I'm consoled that my feelings are apparently universal.

      Delete
  5. Nima DasJuly 20, 2014 at 6:53 PM

    Wow lovely lines,deep and meaningful . You can't hide behind lies forever,the truth shall reveal at some point of time. Didn't know you composed poetry too sir. Very nice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 20, 2014 at 7:19 PM

      I don't write poetry unless something happens to me personally which creates powerful ripples within me.

      Thanks for the appreciation, Nima.

      Delete
  6. Bushra MuzaffarJuly 21, 2014 at 7:40 AM

    I am wondering who is this 'khalnayayak' with a grin concealed behind the mask :)
    "trade in dreams cannot go on forever" ...these lines have lot of hurt and anguish....can feel it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 21, 2014 at 9:22 AM

      When the time comes I'll reveal it, Bushra. For now, I can only say that both in this poem and the last one (Puppet Show at Workplace) the 'you' refers to the same person.

      Delete
  7. ManiparnaJuly 21, 2014 at 11:45 AM

    Truth of life..revealed so profoundly in the lines... :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 21, 2014 at 5:56 PM

      Experienced truths tend to be profound, Maniparna.

      Delete
  8. Rajeev MoothedathJuly 21, 2014 at 12:23 PM

    you should write poetry more often!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 21, 2014 at 5:57 PM

      Thanks for the suggestion, Rajeev. But poetry comes to me only once in a while.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
18 comments
Read more

Dopamine

Fiction Mathai went to the kitchen and picked up a glass. The TV was screening a program called Ask the Doctor . “Dopamine is a sort of hormone that gives us a feeling of happiness or pleasure,” the doc said. “But the problem with it is that it makes us want more of the same thing. You feel happy with one drink and you obviously want more of it. More drink means more happiness…” That’s when Mathai went to pick up his glass and the brandy bottle. It was only morning still. Annamma, his wife, had gone to school as usual to teach Gen Z, an intractable generation. Mathai had retired from a cooperative bank where he was manager in the last few years of his service. Now, as a retired man, he took to watching the TV. It will be more correct to say that he took to flicking channels. He wanted entertainment, but the films and serial programs failed to make sense to him, let alone entertain. The news channels were more entertaining. Our politicians are like the clowns in a circus, he thought...
9 comments
Read more

Stories from the North-East

Book Review Title: Lapbah: Stories from the North-East (2 volumes) Editors: Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih & Rimi Nath Publisher: Penguin Random House India 2025 Pages: 366 + 358   Nestled among the eastern Himalayas and some breathtakingly charming valleys, the Northeastern region of India is home to hundreds of indigenous communities, each with distinct traditions, attire, music, and festivals. Languages spoken range from Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic tongues to Indo-Aryan dialects, reflecting centuries of migration and interaction. Tribal matrilineal societies thrive in Meghalaya, while Nagaland and Mizoram showcase rich Christian tribal traditions. Manipur is famed for classical dance and martial arts, and Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh add further layers of ethnic plurality and ecological richness. Sikkim blends Buddhist heritage with mountainous serenity, and Assam is known for its tea gardens and vibrant Vaishnavite culture. Collectively, the Northeast is a uni...
8 comments
Read more

The RSS and Paradoxes

The oldest racist organisation in the world is all set to celebrate the centenary of its existence. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded in 1925 with the specific goal of unifying the Hindus in India under a religious and cultural banner. The Indian Independence struggle that was going on in full force at that time was no concern of the RSS. Though it gave the liberty to its individual members to take part in the struggle, the organisation’s official policy was to stay clear of it altogether. That was only one of the many paradoxical ironies that marked the RSS which was a nationalist organisation that cared little for the Independence of the nation. Today, the Prime Minister of India is a man who was trained and nurtured by the RSS. Shashi Tharoor wrote a massive book on the paradoxes that underscore the personality of Mr Narendra Modi. The RSS and paradoxes go hand in hand, if we take Modi as a specimen of the organisation’s great achievements. Tharoor’s final asses...
8 comments
Read more