The Dream

I see your eyes The contours of your face Those pupils dilate wide Time to win the race I see your hands tuck that tummy in A mental note on extra mile of running I see you comb your hair to the back I see your stubble it needs more black The black shirt makes you mope In the white shirt there is hope A hope today will be brighter Despite the same time, same route, the same jeans thats getting tighter I see in the depths of your eyes, a longing That today shall be the last day of wishing I also see you keep forgetting That longing is the why you see yourself waking In a long day I only have seconds with you The smile in the end I look forward to For all I can be is just a reflection It is up to you to read it’s perfection In the night when all goes dark I can show you nothing, it’s stark And I am a mirror, I stay that way You don’t need me, I am not in your way

How do we define fulfillment? We find fulfillment when we find meaning in things we do? How do we go about finding meaning in a 9 to 5 corporate job. There are occasional smiles at the end of a certain time period or maybe there isn't any of that. That isn't essentially bad news but it is just like life. It keeps going on. How then do we find meaning especially outside work? I see people chase other goals. Traveling the world. Are you traveling to experience or is it letting you tick your bucket-list of places you want to cover because of popular opinion? People work out and want to stay fit. What happens once that's done? People take part in marathons. It's a new kind of purpose just like the bucket-list of places. Each one of these things strike me as shallow. It isn't surprising that people who indulge in the above are usually married with 1 or no kids. The ones that aren't married are busy trying to get to the point of a relationship and eventual marriage. ...

Where were we before we hid behind sepia and black & white  our sentences were interrupted by chimes And the most important light came from a notification  Where were we before We defined our likeability by likes We had more than 140 characters to say We spoke in words rather than cartoons Where were we before Loneliness got replaced by the virtual Our friends became display pictures  Their stories only last a day Were we happier then When we thought about people And waited a long time to tell them Rather than feeling them in black font on a white screen We weren't happier then We missed and longed and met and rejoiced Today we meet and are disappointed because The person is nothing like what the display picture said

2B West road, West CIT Nagar, T Nagar, Madras – 35. This is a famous address especially in the erstwhile Madras. Some knew it as a house which housed about 3 families permanently and a number of families that lived in depending on the time of the year. The house always smelled of filter coffee. There was a large gate at the entrance of the house. There was a badly mowed lawn with a tiny clearing that led to the front door of the house. There was a huge mango tree at the side of the house. In the shade of that tree, resting on the wall of the house, you would always find a black Hero cycle. The front door of the house was almost always open. It provided great ventilation against the sultry heat of Madras. We didn’t have air conditioning back in the day. The open doors signified something else. It was a welcome to all the people who wanted to come in. What’s more was that we would almost always have guests who were sitting in the front room. When there were guests it meant one thing,...

I look hard and then swipe Seconds to decide that I like The person in the picture in myriad hues That’s all I have by way of clues I can go left or I can go right Second guessing which way she might If she ever got to my colorful picture And decide maybe I am worth her It isn’t words because I only get a paragraph I cant put a song I can choreograph Or tell that I am cool but essentially love deprived Instead say I am intellectually derived We want to come out But in coming out we are caught We want to look incandescently desirable In the attempt end up avoidable The backlight of the mobile phone goes dark Snaps me back to life stark Notice the person sitting across and smile “I haven’t seen you in a while”

He was sitting strangely. Don’t even know if we could call that sitting. He was at his work station. His feet had crept under the desk as far as they could go. His head rested on the top of the chair. His torso made a 45 degree angle and his legs formed an extension to his torso making him almost vertical but slanted. His eyes were shut. If one saw closely there was slight moisture around the eyes. His body was still and he lay there motionless. James sat at a desk which pretty much overlooked the entire floor. The vision was pretty panoramic. His workstation was right opposite James’. The messenger on James’ laptop was buzzing away. Line after line appeared on it and James looked at them intently. He typed “Sure”. “I will catch up on a call with you next week. Thanks”. He seemed pretty satisfied with the reply he got and looked up from his laptop for the first time in 45 minutes. He saw the still and motionless colleague on the opposite desk. It was unusual. He had never seen hi...

Clocks! That’s the first song of Coldplay I had heard. The sheer difference of the song sort of struck me and stayed with me. From that day to this day I’ve been a big fan of Coldplay. Their music is magic. Their older albums is so much better than the newer ones. One of my favorites is still this non-popular song called “Message”. That’s the first song in the “Coldplay” folder in my car. Every time that song plays time sort of stops. Move forward to 7 th April 2017. The day will be etched in memory for a long time now. We had made the trip to Bangkok only to see Coldplay. With immense difficulty where we had to navigate wrong directions given, not knowing which National stadium to get to, taking a cab that couldn’t go past the traffic to the stadium and finally a motorcycle guy that took two of us in his bike zig-zagging between car lanes with our hearts in our mouths. Coming from India the last part is nothing new to us. But seeing it here in Bangkok sent a new kind of chill...