Fantasise, I no more 
Farfetched vagary, holds no allure 
All foods taste the same, 
Unappetizing, Insipid, as I devour

Proximity discomforts me, 
Strangers and their small talks fascinate
Intransient, treaded bores me
Wandering off, getting lost, liberates

Eluding the charted lanes 
I knock no familiar doors
Exhuming my enshrined hankering, 
Breathing its last, comatose obscure

Am slamming the unknown doors, 
Hoping to find life that still breathes
In the bemused faces, accidental touch, unacquainted smiles of milieu 
I don’t fall in love with familiar anymore

I metamorphose into my amphibian twin
And make unfamiliar part of my tell tale
Speak their patois, eat their food 
Look their way, live their idyll 

Do you even see me!
Lost, rapt, I transformed right under your nose
I am my own manifestation 
The one you remember and the one you ignored

The world that was,

And this Nova’s Ark we are sailing in

Apparently will transport us to a new parallel cosmos

Generations down, the tales of testing times,

The memories of how we were disempowered precipitously,

By survivors, will be told

How vulnerable we were and how permeable it was

What we referred as, our avant-garde world

Forced to hibernate back in the caves,

Suddenly we are naked and disrobed

My friends, there’s more…

How we are put in our place, by the universe

And nature reclaims, taking its course

Awestruck, distant, we gaze out from this long glass shaft

The deer freely grazing in the lakeside meadows

And those from the swamp, merrily crossing the roads

A panther spotted in the vicinity

And shoal of dolphins made their way to the shore

The breeze turned pure, whilst AQIs soar

Poof went the smog, poof went the smoke

The last few dust particles still suspended in the air

Got washed down with the unseasonal shower

Snow capped Himalayas then emerged majestically, as though

Appeased, the long annoyed gods, Amarnath and Hemkunt abode

How much we humans had robbed off mother earth

Of her once ubiquitous treasures, leaving her violated and unrestored

We, the real pollutants with our toxins of ignorance and follies

Had threatened the inviolability to its peak

The Almighty up there finally took charge

And pressed the reset button, for the planetary settings to restore

Sending signs to revive life, through goddess Shakti in Navaratries,

Appending a new fasting norm of abstinence, by staying indoors

Well this too shall pass, and reside in the history forever

The mistakes we made and the lessons we learnt

The real test is when we stride past this tunnel

The life will bring us to a new beginning once more

In a state akin to being put in the purgatory

The calls then we make now will decide, whether

Our new world retreats to the old hell

Or embraces the path to the heaven’s door !

TOGETHER let’s make this world an equal and inclusive place!

Why wasn’t I heaven sent
Life just pushed me to a lonely descend
Weight of unsolved questions
Tied with my raveled knots
I was left to fight and fend

While those around me
Had it simple and straight
A natural tryst, a social norm
Gravitating effortlessly towards each other

I longed for that feeling
A gaze that beguiled
A touch that set my heart pulsating
Dribbled coloures in my listless life
No flutter, no quiver, no arousal
ever I felt, surrounded with
the most alluring ones in sight

Aching for love, desire
Un-quenched, nothing kindled my fire

And then that accidental touch
twirled my core, twanged some strings
My heart just soared
Rousing my whole being

A buddy, my playmate
I had known for years
Never did I fathom
could en flame the feeling
I was looking for, elsewhere

How I wanted that again
And how I hated wanting it
Guilt, self-loathing , deprecating
A queer truth it was, I wished to refrain

How I could tell them, my want was pure,
A sweet lust, finally firing my allure.
But why! Oh hell why me!

It must be my mother, who failed to care
Handed dolls to play with,
dressed me up like a girl
Or that kin, indulging me on sweets
His wandering hands, wanton touch
The price I paid for my puerile greed

My teacher? who loved my golden curls
Favoured me with a lassie’s role in the school theatre
Often she told me, am pretty like a girl
They all damaged me beyond repair

I wanted to be like most
Yet yearned to set free my ghost
To do the things that pleased my heart
To express myself as it felt no harm
But my right was this world’s wrong

Behind my back, how they leer
Sting my back sour,
their gestures and sneers
A stigma to the clan, am cut lose
My own parents think
I am the result of their past life sins

Can you imagine
living a life of a personified curse
A disgrace to those who brought me to this world
Ridiculed by this society, my friends, one and all

I wanted to die
And end this ordeal
Praying to be reborn normal,
I stood on the edge of that cliff
Mustering the courage to embrace death
to bury those fiery dreams with me
I was never meant to realize

Soft breeze, a light drizzle
And a perfect moment
to end for a new start
Just then a soft whisper
Quavered my senses
“There’s nothing wrong with you sweetheart
Just a little different from the rest, we are
Made for each other, though in this world a misfit
We are forever Together in it “

Courage is a luxury!

For those who ain’t got a choice
And for many it’s a way of life

The one who barters her body
And mortgages her soul
Every night
To buy…
A new lease of life
For her cancer bedeviled mother
Hope for her siblings
By paying for the hovel’s roof, school and food
Love and affection of her father
Fending for his daily alcohol appetite
Every morning
Stitching her tattered vagina
Innumerable miscarriages be the collateral damage,
She lives, yet a part of her dies
Courage to her is, quintessential !

A War hero
With a glass eye and a wooden hand
Crippled halfway down
Battered by a hidden landmine
Patriotism still beating his aging heart
Honesty still brimming through his veins
His glorious memories of battlefield, keeping him alive
Yet often rebuked by kith and kin, living off his pension
For never putting himself before the countrymen
Courage for him is a, hyperbolic expression!

And many more…
A slum dweller,
Choosing honest labour in the harsh sun
An impaired man, learning skills over asking for alms
An acid attack survivor, spreading smiles through her scarred, burnt face
A revolutionary poet, a fireman, a selfless activist…
Waking up each day, sticking their neck out
taking upon the challenge to bring a change
Starting with their wattle and daub
Fighting fires, radiating joy, standing up for each right cause
So many …
Not breaking, not bending, rising against all odds
Courage to them is, elemental !

For rest of us
Living a thousand lies
Camouflaging mediocrity under the la-di-da
Seeking refuge in ersatz emoticons
Basking in our faux pride
The battles are trivial
The triumphs are fake
Social media full of causeless war cries
Clueless, mindless, shying away from reality
Often we seek approval from ‘comments and likes’
Courage for us is, just adrenaline !

What do I make of…Your

Prolonged silence

Tacit promise

Terse note

 

Just the hunches of your

Unfinished conjecture

Unspoken words

Unexpressed feelings

Brusque touch

 

Distant… incoherent…inchoate…

I try to join them

Piece by piece

To complete a message

I long to receive!

 

None that I can

Touch… feel… grasp

Makes me wonder

If there was any?

Or I chased a mirage

Unreal and ersatz

Equal doesn’t have to be identical If it was so… The ether was similar to earth The fire and water were akin Like two fraternal twins The Yin and Yang stood for the same Not symbolizing the duality…

Source: Two Equal Halves

Love… Someone define I haven’t felt for a while Haven’t heard for sometime Haven’t seen it kindle The spark of late Transpiring the emotion Connecting the soul mates So celestial but blind To the r…

Source: Love

Love…

Someone define

I haven’t felt for a while

Haven’t heard for sometime

Haven’t seen it kindle

The spark of late

Transpiring the emotion

Connecting the soul mates

So celestial but blind

To the reason, corollaries

Just flows in songs and rhymes

Yes Love, sublime

 

Hey someone just whispered

The word Love again

Is it the one that resides

In the glint of eyes

Radiance of the halo

Colour of the blush

Gets etched on the heart

Engulfs in its gush

Whelms you to the core

Sways with its unimpeded flow

Makes your soul soar

Ah Love, divine

 

I reached out for a deeper view

Nothing of the ilk or hue

Oh, it was something else

But love

A need, a want, a greed

Sense of possession, conceit

Nothing selfless, nothing unconditional

Totally measurable and transactional,

Pragmatic, tangible

No Love, Sigh

 

Still aching to discover one day

Love as they say

Without a trace of alloy

Changing its properties

In its chaste form

No conditions , no norms

No similes, no metaphors

No whys, no wherefores

Only pure ore

No substitutes, no pseudonyms

Just Love, no synonyms

If Not Now…Then When Shall We !!.