Then... I Met Love

I was a kite,
With my strings tied
To the railings of the window,
That opened to the sky.
I struggled through the wind;
My skin wounded -
I shut my eyes in fear!

I was a kite,
Flying in the gray fair of clouds,
Then I saw a rainbow...
I did not know,
When my strings were torn!

Chiseling drizzles, frightening thunders
Unruliness ruled over.
My wings were spread,
My eyes wide open;
The ether throbbed my heart!

I was a free bird,
Steering my flight in the blue sky.
Then I met love...
Now. . .
I live in a golden cage.

Growing Up

Tick-tock tick-tock
        Plays the music in the clock.
Time passes on -
        And I need a bigger sock.
Taller legs, curvy body...
        Oh, I've grown up!
No school, no home-works,
        I know how to make-up.

                                       
                                                     Lub-dub, lub-dub
                                                                  What did I hear?
                                                     Is it the same heart beat
                                                                  That I used to bear?
                                                     Erotic thoughts, stressed head.
                                                                   It's a race, I guess.
                                                     Losing pace, falling down...
                                                                   It seems the same mess.

Growing up is game then,
              We made it serious.
'Aging', 'maturity', 'experience'
              Being termed to be synonymous.
Neither drugs nor alcohol...
              Growing up is the addiction.
No vaccine, no cure
              It's resistant to every action.
               
                                                      It's the game of mind.
                                                                 I always thought so.
                                                      Did I really grow up?
                                                                 Oh yes! Oh no!!!

To My Father Whom I don't Remember

Yet another day comes -
When I am reminded of him;
Of the man who brought me to the world,
Of the man whose memories I can't recall.

I look at his photos...
A young man, with deep eyes smiles at me.
"Ah, he was handsome!" I sigh.
My mother smiles.
Her slow walk and her grey hairs strike me.
I try too hard to create an imaginary,
But a cool dude,
             who never crossed his thirties appears.
He would never age,
That's what I believed
And now I know it!

Life has been wonderful
                     without knowing him.
Perhaps...
Life would have been wonderful
                     being with him.

I don't remember my father;
But sometimes I miss him.
Whenever sadness confines me in its embrace,
A firefly visits.
I miss my father then,
                         Because I believe he never left me.

I miss him because I have never known him.
I miss him because...
Others have given memories of him
But I never had my own!
Sometimes I miss him
Because I want to see him grow old.
Sometimes I miss him
Because I want to know -
                         What it is to have a father,
As I've lived a life without having one!!

Black-Hole

Have you seen a black-hole?
                I did.
                Actually, I do.
It's not that I am an astronaut.
Neither did gravity ever forget to exert its effect on me.

I see it -
When I enter a shopping mall,
And gaze at the glittering display of consumerism.
When I fill my basket with things I don't need,
I see myself being sucked into it!

I see it -
When I dream of wearing a royal blue, Gucci dress,
And driving a black Mercedes Benz.
When everything I have comes with a brand name,
I see myself succumbing to it!

I see it -
When I open my over-stuffed closet,
And things scatter out of it.
When I still find nothing to wear,
I see the black-hole taking over me!

A ray of light appears,
When I realize my entrapment.
But,
I slowly accept my survival within it;
Because it's a black-hole
And it has absorbed me.

A Sweet Dream

I had a dream
           in the dark of night,
Where I saw
           a faint ray of light.
I reached a garden
            with the carpet of green,
The kindly light led me.

The spirit of mirth
             touched my heart,
                          the flowers were glittering.
I heard the rhythm of peace.
My feet tapped on!
Beauty of fantasy
            reached its height,
                          the sky could not stop it.

My heart did speak a thousand words;
                           my lips uttered none.
I stood, bound with spell,
            innocence embraced me.
Fragrance of love, was in the air.
           I could breath in.

Garden of Eden,
The twilight sky,
All stared at me.
                  A dew drop fell,
                  My eyes opened,
                  But my mind remained astonished.

Where The Mind is Without Fear

The poem written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), originally published in Bengali in 1910 and translated by him in 1912 comprise a part of the collection Gitanjali. This poem is one of my favorite poems that stands relevant even after a century since it was written. This poem illustrates a state that Tagore dreamed of India to be but our country still kept this dream intact without realization.


Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Tribute to That Lightning

I was an ordinary girl.

I'm still an ordinary girl.
Then I was sane,
Rather I say... then I was normal.
I was one among all;
With normal ambitions, normal desires, and normal wishes.

And then...came a day -
When a lightning struck me!
A beam of white light blurred my vision.

I'm still one among all,
But insanity has engulfed me now.

Insanity that gives me a roller-coaster ride.
Insanity that I live for.

I don't have goals anymore,
But I have paths to walk.
I don't have wishes to be granted,
But I have dreams to live.
I don't have materials to make now,
But I have moments to feel.

I lived in an ordinary world;
And I still live in an ordinary world.
But what stands in between is that spell-casting lightning!!!