My interview on Aakashavani

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8lXeL6gq1mda28tQmxZakNSMkE

Old Notebooks

I poured through my old notebooks
Lessons learned and long forgotten
I saw how I had changed in time
Perspectives, visions, writings and dreams
In these notes of the past I see
Friends, teachers, the best days ever
A line or two scribbled o'er the back ends
The pages have grown old and so have I
But fresh still are the smell of the memories
Ablaze still within the beats of the heart
The days spend in the sunlight,
The friendship shared beneath,
The triumphs of victory and joy
The blossoms of first love and uncertainties
What is this I wrote long ago ?
An alien language it seems so
I have no clue what to make of.
Yet I feel these lines trying to commute,
To tell a tale of times long forgotten.
"Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind ? "
No like Burns said 'tis for auld lang syne.
Men live and work for a better life
But lest we forget what is worth living for,
That gold may not be what we want, but-
The pieces of 'junk' lying forgotten in the loft,
Which posses the novelty of old days gone by,
Memories of days long forgotten and Innocence !


                                                                                                          Elvin Johnpaul

As these eyes meet my heart; 
Now this day has a new light
Now this city has a new beauty
Now this breeze has a new life.
Every moment feels like golden writing
In the book of my memories.
My mind is now speechless,
Is this illusion what you call love?
Magic in thy hands, sweetness in your words,
Ecstasy in motion,
The moment when the desires long forgotten,
Flowers into a new spring!
The dream that I never saw -
As an endless wave,
Will you fill up my heart?
In the heart of my memories
Will your face fade in everyday?

First Date

First Date

As I walk these grounds again
After what seems to have been an eternity
I still remember that day,
That evening of ever joy !
The heart only needs a moment,
It is written in golden letters in the soul !
I still remember that evening,
This place drenched in blue lights,
I can't remember anything more beautiful !
I still remember her smile,
How she walked with me in the drizzle,
Eyes of black, reflecting blue,
Hair smoother than the finest silk.
What did she say that day?
I can't remember, I don't know why.
But her voice, her sweet, sweet voice,
Still sings to me, even in the darkest of nights.
I live those moments every day,
Hoping for another day.
This is true that I let her go,
It broke my heart to do so.
But that's the beauty of life,
Nothing ever lasts forever, so
Seize the moments and live them,
Because memories never die !

Elvin Johnpaul

"This place drenched in blue lights"
I can't believe it's been three years

Age, life & tales

AGE, LIFE & TALES

What is age? But tis-

A measure of your experiences,

The weight of your sorrows, and

The brightness of the smiles,

You’ve seen in the ocean of time.

Where the sand drains to infinity,

A land men wander in eternity,

Knowing not where we trod.

Yet we meet, commute and live.

Time-what is it really?

Once lost, forever lost-how?

Why do men age with time?

Science speaks of lifecycles.

In time we wither and die

A moment once happened goes by

Never to be seen, yet we feel,

We remember the tales we lived.

Do you have a tale to tell?

Very often men exist but not live,

For they are dead at heart,

To the everlasting mystery that goes on,

And dead men tell no tales!

Tell me : "Are you alive or are you dead?"

Elvin Johnpaul

Through the Window

In a time when the window slowly opened
Without knowing, who came through it into my life ?
Who is vigilant in guard without blinking an eye ?
In the strong breeze, with a little desire 
Never a day bitter, nor hiding anything
Who sees day dreams with me ?
Even in my lies and my truths
Who walks like a shadow ?

Can you write a poem in a story ?
Can you express love through them ?
It is an experience which erases the boundaries of the heart
Can one express that through mere words ?
Even when I hurt you out of my stupidity
You didn't say a word but smiled into my eyes
You came to me when I didn't look for you
Without even saying the word

If I say it, I am a man of many faults
But still you filled my life with your love
More than I ever deserved
You became the mirror in which I saw the real me
Even then I didn't change for the better
Still you stood there with that love intact
Without even saying the word

The love story never told

When words and silence and eyes speak
The waves, the shore and the heart speaks
Sharing memories no one knew had flowered
The light breeze,
The blossoms in winter,
The tender ripples,
The radiant sky.
The love story never told !

RESOLUTE

_RESOLUTE

It is hard to see her with him

To have let her go, yet remain silent

To wonder what may have become

Had I not been so over my head

Even as the heart aches, the face but not a twitch

I cannot show weakness, I can’t falter

Letting go was painful, but the pain of now is more

Yet I don’t say a word of regret

Even as the heart is shattered to dust

Even as the last memory I cherished

Fades away like tears in rain

I won’t cry, nor shed a tear

I will stand here, I will stay here

For I know, I am infinite!

Elvin Johnpaul

I am Infinite !

AUTUMN

AUTUMN

Can men shed memories like trees in autumn?

But then both pain and joy would be lost

It is true that some are painful to remember,

Yet there is joy to remember and be remembered

Remembrance of friendship and love I shared

But I fear the loss and pain of tragedy

Why can’t life ever have a happy ending?

Stories make them look so...so...easy

The truth is we all live, we all die,

We all perish into the sands of time

Every inch of me shall perish in time

Yet I hope that an inch will survive,

To be remembered in the hearts I once loved.

Or will I also be shed like leaves in autumn?

Elvin Johnpaul

"Can men shed memories like trees in autumn?"

Last day as a teenager - Thank you for the memories

So last day as a teenager. How do I feel ? Brilliant!
Looking back the past 7 years, well they have been awesome grin emoticon
It is true that everything I kinda hoped for didn't happen these past years. But nevertheless I am happy and satisfied with what I got. All the friends I've made and the one's I've kept from childhood wink emoticon all the places I've visited. All the things I've experienced and especially the ones I did for the first time, I loved them all. Even though there have been a few set backs during these times I will always look back on the times that made me smile and be grateful to everyone for the journey. Now today a journey ends, but tomorrow a new adventure begins and I look forward to the days of my twenties (hopefully) the prime of my youth. I still have a lot to go, a lot to achieve and I hope I can achieve all of my good intentions and I hope everyone will be there with me to infinity and beyond.
So to sum up these past 7 years, I became a guitarist and member of a state winning orchestra team and played in a choir, became an English poet and won the university youth festival and came on radio,became a teacher and a librarian(sunday school smile emoticon ) won tons upon tons of quiz competitions back in school. Got full A+ in SSLC and full marks in +2. Met a lot of awesome people and made a ton of friends(and fell in you know wink emoticon ) and kept coming back with the fire alive after every single setback. So everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for the memories !

Minimalism and Grandiosity in Art

Is a little a lot ? It is a great question in the scheme of most arts. I always believed that the story or poem that you tell without explicitly stating it is the most beautiful of all. Very often minimalism in art can render a piece to this reading between the lines or looking beyond the physical appearances to find something within which means a lot more than it seems.

To some this may look like a bunch of lines but I see my childhood hero in all his glory

This summer I had a friendly argument with one of my colleagues. For a cultural evening both of us ended up planning performances that conveyed the same message. So naturally there was an argument that one should be cancelled............ Eventually both were held.
My performance leaned towards a minimalist approach while my colleague decided to go with an extravagant and colorful one. Sure the latter did get more applause from the audience for being more flashy. But when we edited the DVD of the evening later on, mine was found to hold up well on accounts of re-watch ability. Due to the fact that my teams performance was minimalist in style we didn't need to memorize many ques, hence the performance was pitch perfect. While the short comings of the latter was more obvious on film. Even with a minimalist approach I believe we were able to convey the message in a more efficient way. I always believe that people can and will appreciate subtlety. Some times you don't need to shove your idea down their throats.(No one likes that........ seriously no one, even though they may say otherwise).

Minimalism was also put to great use in the recent summer blockbuster Mad Max Fury Road. This movie reminded the general public that film is indeed a visual medium. You don't need hefty exposition to explain the story or emotions some times you should stick to telling the story with the camera or to put simply with pictures. With a few shots and several stares, grunts and body languages of the characters this film told a well crafted story than most bloated franchise films we see these days.The movie's story to put in one sentence is it's just one long 2 hour chase scene. But the matter in which George Miller and crew executed that chase scene made it one of my most memorable theater experiences ever.

"The only non subtle thing in mad max was the flaming guitar guy. But then it's A GUY PLAYING A GUITAR THAT SHOOTS FIRE and its awesome"

Another example that comes to mind is the game Shadow of the Colossus. I'll never forget my first play through of Team Ico's master piece,I remember being blown away by the epic scope and grandeur of the world of SotC. Yet there was minimal dialogue and plot to the story. It was basically just a story of you (the wanderer) trying to bring back this dead girl ( Mono) to life.You have your trusty steed (Agro) an ancient sword and your bow and arrows and you must defeat 16 colossi to save her and that's it.(An ancient entity called Dormin in the forbidden land were the game takes place makes a deal with you to bring Mono back to life in exchange for slaying the colossi) The game was basically the travel to and fighting these 16 behemoths. But saying it like that doesn't do justice to the excellence of this game.

"It is you. your sword and your horse against the whole world"

I think the beauty of SotC is how it immersed you in it's world with a minimalist approach. You didn't have any music during the exploration/journey sections in the game. It was you and your horse riding into the unknown with the sound of the wind and your steed's noise in the background. It really gave a haunting feeling to the sense of the loneliness the game was trying to convey.And the music applied in the battle segments did match each beat of emotion you would go through in each of the battles, from despair to excitement to even guilt. Also the landscapes took a minimalist art design in order to concentrate more on the colossi designs which turned out both beautiful and unique(Each one of them comes along with even more weirder and weirder designs than the last one. Part of the fun is getting to see what the next colossus look like and some might even scare you in your nightmares. The 10th and last one are the ones that come to mind here)

Also the fact that there was no unnecessary HODs or fancy upgrades and the undermining fact that your hero was your average normal guy gave a sense of realism to the game. It also gave a great deal of satisfaction in completing the game that knowing you, a regular guy took out these giants.I have yet to play a game that tops the experience I had playing Shadow of the Colossus for the first time.

Oh and that's a colossus, you have to take 16 of those things out to save your girl!

I never knew who I was, what I was doing there or why I was doing these things. I kinda made up my own story with my mind and let my imaginations and theories fly. I  wonder why most games and movies these days don't leave much to the interpretation of the viewer. No apparently they(developers) think that we all need to be spoon fed

Riding along and jumping on to the 13th colossus remains one of the most iconic sequences in gaming history

So in short I believe that providing minimal information in your art and leaving the rest ambiguous for the interpretations of the audience is in most cases better than shoving the blatantly obvious ideas down there throats.

Mother's Love (My first poem)

MOTHER’S LOVE

The most beautiful thing,

In the world is love

It is pure as the white milk

That comes from a cow

There are many types of love

But the one which is the most

Beautiful is a mother’s love to her child

She cares for him every time

Always on his side

Spending sleepless nights with

Him when he is sick

Cheering him on in his battle of life

Like this there are many types

Of love as pure as the color white

But still I shall never see

A more beautiful one than a mother’s love

 -Elvin J Paul

This was the first poem I ever wrote. Looking back at it now it is a small,typical poem that a kid of that age would have written. My poetry has definitely changed a lot from this poem to now. It doesn't have any deep philosophy like my newer works, but yet I can still look at it today and have a smile about a time when I was more simpler and definitely more innocent.

My first poem-published in LEO XIII HSS Alappuzha's school magazine of 2007-08

The wages of fear and the revolution of hope

“When the Thoughts went Red “

Or

“The wages of fear and the revolution of hope “

Behold the mother earth, witness the destruction,

The cries of agony that have become a gruesome familiarity.

Chaos reigns supreme on the playgrounds,

Where once new dreams sprouted green.

Justice to money and injustice to man.

Yet we are numb to these sorrows of pain

We turn a deaf ear and a blind eye

We turn a helpless hand to the needy

Are we so soul-less that we have become unaware-?

To the stench of the corpse?

The corpse of a society filled with dread and death.

People have lost hope – The will to fight on.

The life blood to live on in these dark times.

There may be prophets who preach of a better time to come,

That people who suffer now will be rewarded in afterlife.

But people need more than people who clutch books,

Preaching “blessed are the meek” to instill hope.

So then what? You may ask-

Should we pick up the axe? Fight fire with fire?

NO ! That would be giving into madness.

Blood however spilled is still red,

Red with anger, rage and corruption.

One must never give into this chaos.

For then the war will forever be lost.

This is true that there is something terribly wrong with this world.

But it isn’t something that we can’t fix.

We need to go back – look into thy hearts

Stare into the mirror of consciousness

Seeking the root of this wrong.

It was fear – fear made us weak.

The fear of losing oneself and love

The fear of standing up for what is right

This fear made us slaves to it’s will

We surrendered our wills at it’s feet.

The integrity of one’s opinion compromised.

Integrity – The last inch of a man.

It is small, it is fragile-

Yet it is the soul of one’s humanity.

Identity and freedom flow from it’s fount.

And now our freedom is subordinated by fear

Not the freedom of the republic

But the freedom of life and love

For freedom is not bound by physical lines

It is a perspective and a way of life.

Now it is bound by the chains of fear.

The time has come to break these chains.

To regain our integrity, to inspire hope.

But how? How do we face this terror?

For a man is mortal and can be gunned down.

Yet it only takes a man to win the battle.

A man to devote himself to the ideals

To be a light in this valley of darkness

To make himself a legend – an example

To remind us that ideas are bulletproof,

Ideas are eternal and last forever

Even after the man, who gave them is lost in memory

Ideas will live on in the hearts of men.

Remember words offer a means to meaning.

They form perspectives and visions.

Take these ideals, live them, and become incorruptible.

Long live revolution – The revolution of Hope, not of blood.

Remember there is still good in humanity.

Find it in your brothers and sisters.

Take it, preserve it, and let it prosper.

Water it with love and friendship.

Watch it flower the seeds of hope in man.

Let the children play in the grounds again.

Let the birds of peace fly again.

Let joy, happiness, love and comfort hold sanctuaries

In the heart of our descendants, generations hence.

Let us end the days of darkness.

There is a bright day and a new joy

O’er the horizon after the storm.

I lay down my life for that better world.

Where the man comes before money.

Where no man will cry out in agony.

Where love is the religion of all.

Where peace and justice will be more than just a word

But a perspective and a way of life!

I lay down my life for that world.

“It is a far, far better thing that I do,

Than I have ever done

 It is a far, far better rest I go to,

Than I have ever known”

                                                                                                             Elvin Johnpaul 

"This is the poem that won me the 1st prize in the English poetry writing competition in the Kerala University Youth Festival 2015 held on 18th March 2015 at FMNC Kollam "

INSPIRATION

INSPIRATION

The secret lies within a smile

As a bride’s face beneath her veil

For a smile changed my life

And saved me from madness

Once I thought all was but lost

Wounded by the treacherous world

Everywhere I saw a malicious gaze

Intending to harm anyone it meets

Amidst this gloom of darkness

A morning when the sun was a glimmer

Trembling in the twilight drizzle

Tears and rain alike laden on my face

Like a sword of light piercing the cloak of darkness

A friend gave me a smile

I realized then... as Light shined

Upon me and my conscience

Not hath a battle evil been victorious

No matter how long war ravages

Nor how long the dead are left to linger

Love and Light leads one on to new life

By the goodness in one’s heart

My friend lend me a smile

A light which led me in the dark

And shined brightly in my heart

Nightmares that haunted the night

Had been turned to scent of roses

A smile was all but enough

For remembrance that love is eternal

Friendship and its bonds immortal

Forever ethereal in the deep heart’s core

The clock of time chimes midnight

Yet I see the smile forever eternal

Like a song I hear in my sleep

Floating from a distant land to my dream

So when asked what inspires thou

Many would say the name of greats

But to me it was a smile a friend gave

That made all the difference

In life and love... always eternal

Elvin Johnpaul

" A smile was but enough "