Friday, June 17, 2011

single in the city...

Just when the sun hid behind the shopping mall,
He came to the balcony of his tenth floor singular existence in the city...

He looked down to see tiny toy cars moving fast
As if they were thrown down the road of the toy-land by some angry brat;
He kept on looking down the tiny trees, the tiny traffic guard standing like a small robot
Performing some kind of motorised arm movements;

He looked around...
And an eagle swooping down at great speed caught him,
It was coming down quick,
As if a fighter jet losing height...
But soon it gained a level
And after keeping with the level for some time,
It took a upward flight-
'Great job man!'
He cried aloud
As if he was cheering a fighter-pilot
Performing the riskiest manoeuvre;

Hours went by,
And he kept standing on the balcony,
 And images kept coming and receding...
Images varied-
Of female garments hanging loose,
Of sizzling bottles of potion arranged neat,
Of smoke coming out of someone's mouth,
Of psychedelic lights jumbling up shadows,

Evening turned to night...
He still stood still,
The toy cars of the road below became less frequent,
The robotic traffic guard sat down at its kiosk,
 And the moon peeped from behind the cell phone tower...

Images came rushing to him again...
No female garments
But a caressing hand,
No bottle of wine
But a candid smile,
No smoke with brown tinge
But that of an incense stick...
And the light glowed within
And he noticed...
Someone in a white robe and long black hair,
Coming to him, walking unbelievably on the thin air...
Just like a fairy with a wand!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The sea...

He was standing on the beach
Before the endless, lucid sea
And the waves lashing relentlessly on his feet...

Each of the waves receded to create a kind of something slipping away,
Under his feet...
And he felt perhaps he would just sink into the sands of the beach;

The blue waves with greyish white toppings came to him
Almost endlessly, as if he was part of the eternal design of being a witness to their movements...

The sky, being overcast, suited perfectly to the ambiance-
An ambiance of serene melancholy...
Of  a mild but grave murmur of waves...

He thought he did not just happen to be there,
Instead he believed himself to be a part of the whole picture...

And he looked up to the sky,
Trying to find a meaning in the shapes of the clouds,
For once he noticed a simple face of a dragon,
The next he discovered a candyseller with his cart...

He looked on
And on the western front,
Which had a reddish glow,
He saw the face of his beloved,
Red...as if vermillion smeared,
And the darkest streaks resembling her  unruly hair...

He forgot how long he stood there looking up
To his beloved's face in the clouds;
But the rain came,
First in ones and twos...
Then in torrents...

He just stood there,
He just wanted the salt,
He just wished the salt to be rubbed on his freckled skin...

The next moment
He thought,
He was deluged by a sea of tears...




Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Forsaken

'After living all these months , dear, with you, day in and day out,
I'm leaving...'
He wrote using his favored black pen with pointed tip
On a piece of paper, handmade,
And folded the paper twice-horizontally once,
And vertically next,
And stealthily kept the note under his pillow,
Looking cautiously, for the last time the face of her, calm, ignorant;
And he slipped out of the room, silently,
Knowing well that she would wake up soon,
Not finding him by her side, in her trance;

Outside the dawn was just breaking,
And the milkmen had started cycling up and down the street;
And the pigeons from the ancient attic of the old building across the street,
Had descended on the empty street, in search of grains perhaps...

He walked down the street till he reached the arterial road,
From where he could cast his last glance to the first floor balcony overlooking the pigeon-filled street,
The same balcony which gave birth to his life and poetry,
The same windows from where she could see him arriving or going out,
He looked up till his eyes reached the top of the building...


He couldn't believe what he saw-
For there on the terrace, he saw her standing looking straight to him, from that distance,
Her hair was afloat in the morning breeze;
He squinted his eyes to get a better look of her face, from that distance...
He could not get the better view...he tried nevertheless...
'Was it a smile or a frown?'
He asked himself and kept staring for a while,
Before the blaring horn of a state bus brought him to the ground...

ek purana mausam lauta...

'Ek purana mausam lauta,
Yaadein bhairen purbai thi...'

He hummed while busy packing his backpack
For his mind was far away from his home adopted;
He remembered how the rains kissed him from top to toe
And the naughty wind sent mild shivers down his drenched hair...

He knew that the road, dressed in its best attire-the darkest blue
Was waiting for him, all those years;
He knew he had to leave his home, adopted and shared,
For his mind had asked him to leave the memories bitter and sweet;

'How very cruel!'
She would say,
Seeing him packing up his bag,
And humming Gulzar all the way;
He knew all that-the nuances of cruelty and indifference...
He knew he was not doing anything unjust or wrong,
He was just slipping away, into oblivion...

'But its humiliating for me, isn't it?'
She would say, desperation pronounced all over her body and voice, trembling...
He would not answer,
He would just stare blankly for a while...

'I'm not evicting you...I'm just opting out'
He would say,
And Gulzar would nod, with assertion...

The State Funeral

At least they have given her The State Funeral With tongue cut,  She could not have spoken for  The rare award,  The police have done the th...