Promises

On the 69th Indian independence day, here's a humble dedication to the men who leave everything behind to fight for our land. . .

Ask for something, won’t you Son?

I promise, I’ll try to get it for you, though I know

It’ll end up as a yet another unfulfilled promise

Promises that I always make and break

I now have stacks of promises to fulfill

Promises made in times of Joy

Promises made in utter confusion

Promises made while leaving you alone

The promise to get you a new toy

Promise of getting you books

Promise of being there with you

The promise of returning soon

As I write a yet another list of false promises

With a vacant smile, strangely, expecting

Your smiling face to appear on the page

To tell me that I broke a promise yet again

I know full well that this will end up

As a yet another letter in your neatly taped stack

From a father who carries with him just a bunch
Of unfulfilled promises made to his son

Ode to a Friend

This friendship day, my pen writes of my sister who also happens to be one of my best friends and of Priya (my besty) and of course of all of my lovely friends. .  . Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Friendship Day!

O my pen that writes of thee!

Though not mighty enough.

At this hour of the night

Under the soft glow of a full moon.

Writing a line, I pause

Take a full breath and wait

For my pen to work again.

O your image brighter than the moon!

I curse my inability to write more

O I concede! I can’t write more

For your image is far stronger 

Than my blue ink on a blank white page.  .  .

Haiku

Special thanks to +Kala Ramesh ma'am for teaching me the art of Haiku writing

long journey
pausing for water
I drink the moon

(First appeared in Cattails (youth corner), Jan'15 issue)

*                *               *

cotton candy vendor-
a penny less
in our piggy banks

*                *               *

sitting on a swing
watching the sky-
I miss my young mother

*               *               *

yellow light midst
the green leaves-
laburnums bloom

(First appeared in Cattails (youth corner), May '14 issue)

*               *              *

darkness unfolds
like a song. . .
granny's wordless tunes

(First appeared in Cattails (youth corner), Jan'15 issue)

*              *               *

The Escape

There was a purpose, of course. I don’t know of anyone

who has been on a pilgrimage to have ‘some fun’. Don’t you see the

lines of a resolve still etched on her sallow skin? The promise

she made to me, that of returning soon to rechristen herself

Emma the day after and begin a new life. Straightening

the mangled curls of her hair, as she ironed the

wrinkles on her night suit. Her tongue rolled

in a hurried succession, stumbling over the words

‘Communion’ and ‘Crucifixion’ as she stumbled

over the guitar strings as a kid, but played

‘silent night’ to perfection yesterday while

 narrating the plans of a pilgrimage the very next

morning. She repeated the stumbled words

And they escaped her tongue like a soft song. Today,

I tried hard to save the holy water from trickling away

from between the bony fingers of my cupped hands, or

was it the hope of seeing my daughter return, that

escaped? Or the loose page of bible on her lap? Or

a blank sheet with the word Emma on it? Or the shrill cry that

pierced the house before the receiver went mute in static?

(First appeared in the Teenage Wasteland Review, Spring 2015 issue)

x

Ode to the ones who have not been blessed

Bless the boy who has been sleeping

Under that Neem tree since the last two years

Wailing at night for the caress

Of a mother he never saw

And at dawn waiting for a sight

Of the father who left him here

Alone, Afraid . . .

Bless the child who works

For his little sister in the sun

Selling best- sellers at red lights

Offering discounts

On rags- to- riches stories

To luxury car owners

Unknowingly, Unaware . . .

Bless the girl who was sneered at

For “inviting the eyes of wolves

And letting herself be harassed”

Who now lives alone

And walks down the alley proudly

To tell them that she survived

Boldly, Bravely . . .

Watching Death

Dreading those unspoken words

We comforted each other

With a thought too far fetched

Those words, those unspoken words

Glared through our eyes

Yet, we dared not say it

“She’s breathing slow”

And we held our breaths

Trying to stay alone

Yet be nearer to her

Trying to be in peace

Yet break that silence

That spoke of death

And smelled of death

We watched her slipping away

In front of us

And we could do nothing

Apart from watching her dying impulse

Clutching her cold hands

Finally those unspoken words

Were said blatantly

“She’s no more”

And the silence ended

In a strange gush of warm breaths held back.

My Veils

I’m not just what you see

There’s another one lurching behind

And yet another behind that “me”

With a separate heart and a separate mind

There’s another one lurching behind

My veil which is a blatant lie

With a separate heart and a separate mind

All my personas, cleverly entwined

My veil which is a blatant lie

I drape around and I hide

All my personas, cleverly entwined

I conceal my other side

I drape around and I hide

The layers of my veiled self

I conceal my other side

So deep, none can delve

The layers of my veiled self

Will forever remain a mystery

So deep, none can delve

For I ain’t just what you see

There’s another one behind that “me”

The first time I sang a love song

The first time I sang a love song

Was not in that typical setting of a full moon night

With flowy Victorian gowns and black bows

Dominating a scene by the lake

Just a normal day out in the woods

When the dried leaves crunched with my steps

And I knew no one was there

To hear me croon a futile song

Learnt from an orphaned child

Who knew nothing more than the song

To sing to his little siblings when

He had to make them sleep without a meal

And as I sat pitching high and low

I could feel my heart crave

For something more than just the abstraction

Of a futile song escaping my mouth

Me, my Mum, Spinach and the beggar

“No mama, please, not spinach! This will be the fifth time in a month that we’ll be eating spinach.” This was me; yesterday evening at the Grocer’s in my neighborhood market. My mother did not say anything. Nor did she buy any other vegetable. We walked ahead talking as usual about traffic in particular. A few meters ahead, when we stopped at the fruit corner, a rickshaw came to an abrupt hall in front of me. The occupant, a lady kept sitting and while I kept wondering why did it stop so abruptly, I saw the lady looking at a beggar limping down the road. When he reached the rickshaw, she asked him “Do you want some food?” The beggar nodded. The lady without as much getting down the seat threw a bag of ‘mixed leftovers’ of a feast at him. He sat on the pavement and began eating hungrily as if he hadn’t seen food for days. I had never seen a person eat as hungrily and naturally, it touched me. When mama was finished with the shopping, she asked me “Why were you continuously looking at that beggar?” “He was very hungry” I said in a low tone and mama didn’t say anything more. On our way back home, I stopped at the Grocer’s “Won’t you buy spinach Mom?” My mum smiled.

Today the same spinach cooked by my mum tasted so different! I’ve never loved spinach as much! It felt as if I was enjoying a rare delicacy!

“I cried because I had no shoes. Till I saw a man with no feet” I’d always known this as a quote but, it is no longer just a quote for me.

Pantoum of the Night

As the night creeps in, breath by breath

The sky sighs and meets the sea

Clusters of an orangish glow

Cascading into the watery luster

The sky sighs and meets the sea

Singing a thousand wordless tunes

Cascading into the watery luster

The silver of the moonlight

Singing a thousand wordless tunes

Unfolding the darkness like a song

The silver of the moonlight

Awakens a thousand dreams

Unfolding the darkness like a song

With words lost into the waves

Awakening a thousand dreams

The night creeps in, breath by breath.

I'm Back!!

Hi readers!! I'm finally back after days of poring over voluminous books of Physics, Chemistry and Biology(thanks to my exams!) and yes, I finally know how to derive the formula of  magnetic field inside a toroid, I know what do we get when we put copper in silica lined converter and I know how is Human Insulin produced commercially, and a lot of other things!!
Well. . . All that aside, I'm finally free!! And as of now, here's something that came from my heart on one of my those "feel- good" days. Enjoy!!