Friday, 1 November 2013

Semester 1.

     We are just one couple among many in our University. He wears blue checked shirts and I wear a blue hairband, sometimes blue skirts. We both love blue. The first guy who I dated also loves blue. But Tamo doesn't know that yet. He will, after reading this. Perhaps, he may get slightly sad to find out about this. Anyways, it is merely an insignificant affinity among us which I happen to remember. This first guy has a blog dedicated to me and writes about him and me in it. Talk about the incompatibility; we are the protagonist of two different stories which can never collide again. I am the lost character, the mysterious invisible girl in his stories. In my story, he is but a person who I first dated, who unsurprisingly changed me drastically, who I can never go back to, whose charming words I'd always avoid. He is a shadow of my past chasing me in vain.

     Everyday, we sit under the tree near the food court after lunch and talk. We talk about education, politics, society, condoms, my sisters and brother, his brothers, food etc. We also talk about Invictus, a movie we watched the night before. We secretly make fun of those random people who are unlucky enough to pass by us. They are a big time entertainment. We give them silly names and laugh casually. Sometimes it's the 'university studs', other times, it's the 'beauty queens', 'class toppers', 'meddlers' etc.

     Often the session gets interrupted in the sight of a certain professor with the phrase, 'There goes Mr. Philosopher' by either one of us, whoever sees him first. He walks briskly in the distance carrying a bag. He has sufficient white hair and a lean swift body. He is seldom accompanied by a woman of his age who has the same physique. Each time they seem to be indulging in a serious conversation as they both walk on the pavement in that same brisk pace. It looks a little fast for their age. His story goes a couple of weeks back.

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

The baby anklets

My little niece's feet that used to jingle
for all the hours of the day,
now unclad
and naked,
those soft ankles
followed
by silent
footsteps.

Monday, 7 October 2013

Commencement


In a foggy morning of January,
As she walks on the white snow, 
a trail of 
cold 
red 
beauty spots marks the path she took for the first time.
She knows not why her stomach hurts every full moon
Nor why she is frequently asked to halt at every station.
She
 is kept in isolation,


secluded from the rest of her family,
like in an island in ‘Cast Away’.
Her mind is clogged with doubts since the time she’s been barred from the courtyard.
But the little girl dare not sit still for a few seconds to wonder,
Not even once in a blue moon.
 

Eventuality



I was like a man split into half; a chopped onion, ready to be fried.
My head spun and my back ached while I lay in my bed all day.
Every morning, I was greeted by Miss Hope who got castrated recently.

Now the torment has been blown away by an erratic wind and 
I walk around wearing a pair of yellow and red slippers in the monsoon rain.







 

The man with the woman in a sari

We see a man 
waving at the couple who sits opposite to us,
as the train starts drifting from the platform.

The man’s hair has turned all white;
the woman still has some strands left.
She has a red round bindi stuck between her eyebrows,
a few red bangles stuck between two yellow bangles.
She rests her elbow on the window sill,
forgetting about her weakening body,
dreaming about meeting her daughter in the next 24 hours.

A few droplets streaming down the window glass, hang on the edge,
swinging and swaying with the rhythm of the train,
ready to fall any moment, bless the rain!

We sit silently,
Listening to Beady Eye’s ‘blue moon’, PJ’s ‘yellow ledbetter’, 
Radiohead’s ‘house of cards’, ‘no surprises’ one after another.
One after another, the songs creep into my left ear and his right ear,
while I muse, staring outside the window,
thinking about writing a new poem about this couple.
We shall reach their age years from now eventually.

The big rocks remain fixed beside the ponds outside.
The green and smoky weather feeds us all.
But the fresh foul smell of the city’s sewage still lingers inside the train.

Thursday, 12 September 2013

Bee Dance

Being stirred inside out,
shattered in a blow,
my tiny brain floated among the thunderous dark clouds.


You zoomed in on the screen,
 in the mist of Shillong
and colored the studio green.

The iron pieces cling onto you;
every single piece that has sunk into the loo.
You attract me like a magnet,
a moth brimming with mirth. 


I am the bee
submerged and soaked in honey,
saturated with passion and romance.

You were waiting for me,
like a withered leaf,
holding the lantern
so that I can see you beam;
The beam that enchants me
in a loop.

Your scent dissolves in the air,
dispersed around me
like the hari champa in our backyard.

Along the ripples of that fragrance,

The sweet scent of the bosom

The tiny trivial tales
tinkle like gales
tangled with the myth.

                                        His voice cracks
in the other end of the cable.
and I could hear her
melodious silent words wandering in the background.

We giggled and chuckled
choked with charms
from the same plate.

                                    Chaoba dreams in her hostel in China.
Amo breathes nine ranges of hills away from home.
                                    Echal lies at the bosom decorated with lonesome.

I look to my right,
Turn to the left.
But I see them none.
Only books in tons.