December 12, 2014

A boy I know

A boy I know used to work for a society called SCRUBS. They are into environmental stuff. As a routine exercise, they go to the beach and pick Olive Ridley turtles up and re-direct them to the sea so that they do not walk to the busy roads and get killed by speeding cars. They are near extinction, he informed me. The following is an excerpt from a recent conversation:

Boy: I want to eat everything. My aim is to eat new things and see new things. So I eat and I travel. I have eaten dogs and rabbits and cranes and frogs and I want to eat all those insects they show on TLC ...pause...mischievous grin... I have also eaten turtle legs. 

Me: You have eaten turtle legs!!! HOW! Didn't you have any moral dilemmas! 

Boy: Yes, I have eaten turtle legs. I didn't eat the Olive Ridley turtles though. But I think you should eat them before they become extinct.

Photo: www.indiasendangered.com

May 27, 2014

Pieces of this puzzle

Pieces of this puzzle
were lost long ago
and we kept looking
for parts
that didn't exist

May 16, 2014

May 16, 2014


Dad - Yeh election Modi ne nahi, udyogpatiyon ne jeeta hai

Ma - I haven't cried all day but I cant hold back my tears anymore

April 18, 2014

Dust dunes

I

Watching the moon ride
with us outside the window
of our train
We had kissed

II

I remember that night
for we had met between
intervals of parting

We had met with
that same feeling
in our stomachs


April 10, 2014

Voters' Pledge


We, the citizens of India, having
abiding faith in democracy,
hereby pledge to uphold the
democratic traditions of our
country and the dignity of free,
fair and peaceful elections, and to
vote in every election fearlessly
and without being influenced by
consideration of religion, race,
caste, community, language or
any inducement.


March 12, 2014

House Politics


Ma (after heated discussion with Dad last night) : Your father is an AAP supporter in the day and a BJP supporter in the night!

February 15, 2014

Next to the enormous sea

Finally the sun shone on us for two full days. After two full days. Foggy eyes rubbed open, cleaned winter discharge from its corners and caught the sun gaping through the freshly painted grill. Yellow rays fell softly through the magical bougainvillaea, gracefully warming the brown veranda.

Akira. The black beauty, with lustful nocturnal eyes, purred purposelessly around the the room and settled comfortably adjacent the sofa chair where the sun, shaped by the small window pane, fell squared on the floor. She yawned, stared at nothing peculiar and warmly gave in to slumber. Only the fan moved. Quietly. Perhaps by the wind passing by.

The silence of the slumberous afternoon lasted the whole day.

Unaware of who entered and exited through paranoid double locked doors, the flat allowed the lightest steps to thump a little louder than the ticking clock of the night. The dead smiled from old photographs. Silver cutlery spoke at dinner table. The slightest, shortest, softest word traveled effortlessly through closed wooden doors. Failed signals of deafening hearing aids.
 
In the building plotted in the tiny lane next to the enormous sea, gigantic drilling sounds started to wake dead bodies alive and ferociously disrupted quite conversations. The creatures of the house hid within half opened suitcases - peeping toms with closed ears - perhaps hoping to be taken away by the weekly travelers.

Outside. Bricks were banged and broken. The flat below was being made bigger with the hope of swallowing the flat above and one on the right and left. The fat armed sleeveless neighbor, it was cautioned, had once inquired about the last rites and the property rights of the newly dead.

Further Outside. The building reeked of the anger of the frustrated mad dog. He had been tied for years. No children played in the parking lot. Parks were undreamt. Only guards stood saluting all passerby. The need for a lift man continued to be a mystery.

A window, out of the many lifeless ones, smelt like love in the lemon grass planted in the tiny kitched garden of the old christian lady. She who cooked with all her heart humming to old film songs.

January 13, 2014

writeahaiku.com

i.

we don't speak 
these day
are as empty 
as the fridge
when you're not home

ii.

when a boy I know
hurt himself I said
dude! could have cried instead


January 05, 2014

New Year Resolution


Ma: I think your new year resolution should be to think scientifically.