While we dreamt

Floating in a timeless space
Dreaming of long-ago days
All memories lay suspended
While the winds grew demented

The sun dipped low many a times
Church bells rang a million chimes
Seas brimmed over with tainted tears
Torrential rivers wept their despairs

Wild poppies that once ran over vast plains
Their seeds became dust while waiting for rains
Edgy and slippery and recently bare
A once snowy slope that ran out of its share

Towering skyscrapers razed to ground
And rebuilt a thousand times around
All lost in a little snort of slumber
While forests steadily turned to timber

Earth to concrete, to dirt, again
Streams to clouds, to drops of rain
Hundreds of thousands of circles of rust
While we dreamt, our dreams turned to dust

Woke up to find a different reality
Saw one another in all our frailty
Unnerved yet buoyant in primeval fervor
Tied as one in strands impossible to sever

Drifted in bewilderment for an unending moment
Uttered silent words which for ages were unspent
Grasped the minute-less hours that never came
Sank back to nothingness where it was still the same

Too much of nothing

Visualize a world where intelligence is evenly circulated
Everyone could be intellectual without being well-read
Money wouldn’t be so sought-after or fashionable
Poverty and the destitute would all seem a fable

No one would die of choked up arteries
No more kwashiorkor and marasmus casualties
Women would be free to eat all they want
And yet have trim and pert bottoms to flaunt

Not a soul would suffer from a broken heart
Each would have their share of love from the start
Luck and fortune would be things of the past
Pain and suffering would hardly ever last

No country would be able to go over-populating
Tropical rain forests would just grow back in
World heritage sites would be off UNESCO’s list
Endangered species would robustly exist

No place on the planet would be colder or hotter
If only osmosis weren’t restricted to water
Superlatives would swiftly sink into obscurity
Seems bizarre but I’d like some of this absurdity




This post found inspiration from random conversations with my friends Divya and Anant. This one's for you :)

Just another love story (II)

Feeling sorry for the lone girl standing quite away
From the noisy group of boys who barred her way
He felt that he ought to help her out
Maybe he should start by clearing her doubt

Bernoulli’s theorem was rather straightforward
But girls were dumb from what he had seen and heard
So in plain words he tried to elucidate
Things started out simply but it must have been fate

She was just another girl and all was fine
Or so he thought till he heard the grapevine
Someone mentioned she was crazy for him
But he did not think it was more than a whim

He did not have patience for useless rumour
He loved another, so this he wouldn’t humour
And thus, he decided to steer clear of her
As luck would have it, something else was in store

One love wanes then another appears
Days turn into weeks, then months, then years
When suddenly the intoxicated haze of alcohol and drowning sun
Brings the memory of the girl he has ignored for two autumns

A crazy impulse makes him dial her number
His brain is scrambled but he hopes to sound sober
She is surprised, no, shocked - but not as much as him
She is with someone else and his chances are grim

He disregards the whole episode as a one-off
But despite his efforts he is unable to laugh it off
Her changed loyalties don’t just prick his heart
It is more than wrenched and that is just the start

Perturbed by his own growing volatility
He feels it is not the time for stability
Yet there is an overriding urge to win her over
So he pursues her in a rather peculiar manner

He blows hot one day, blows cold the other
And discourages the girl till she can take no further
Then when she is finally on the verge of fleeing
He tells her he loves her with all his being

Both are dumbfounded at this confession
Warily they set out on an expedition
Into the labyrinthine world of love and affection
This was some years back but the journey has only begun

Just another love story (I)

It began with a random laboratory session
With Bernoulli’s theorem he left quite an impression
At first she was pleased someone bothered to explain
She found the boy rather considerate and sane

Gradually the lab classes began getting tougher
And with each passing day the boy seemed cuter
She started looking forward to the boring lecture
Girlfriends thought no one was crazier than her

She decided his saunter was simply fabulous
And that lazy drawl was beyond marvellous
His heart-warming smile was too divine
His sharp sense of humour was oh-so-fine

Each time they talked she tried to find
If he liked her back or was only being kind
He was beyond her, a concerned soul said
She alarmed herself with the tears she shed

She spent her days trying to catch his glimpse
Her friends did not say much but they could sense
She had taken the fall and was tumbling farther
Nobody could say what would become of her

Merciless love

Stinging from your brazen wittiness
Incensed at excessive unpretentiousness
Doubtful after recent disregard
Was previous reverence mere façade?

I find myself irate, unnerved
A mortified sob goes unheard

Your incorrigible madness is exhausting
Nonchalant statements so frustrating
The reluctance to amend in return for affection
Am I to you just a whimsical distraction?

I mope and think in trepidation
Should have chosen love with more precision

Then just like that you smile and beckon
I scowl and look away in slow deliberation
And from my window watch the sparrows
You amble over and stand too close

Then brush cool fingertips against my eyelashes
A sigh escapes you and forehead creases

Million murmured apologies and many thousand hushes
Wrapped in love while my anger turns to ashes
Misgivings are wiped out little by little
Sentiments are so vehement yet fickle

You mock my tears yet wipe them dry
Without this merciless love life would be awry.

Essence of the Mountain

Rustling conifers
Fragrant pine
Blushing horizon

Wailing wind

Craggy heights
Olive depths

Solitary boulder

Glowing hearth