28 Dec 2020

The Night After The War

 The Night After The War


Night’s the time when eyes meet slumber,

mind meets dreams and soul meets peace.

When warriors keep aside their armours,

and almost everyone is at ease.


We see that everyone is mesmerized by the beauty

of the twinkling stars and the beams of moonlight,

but for those, who are involved in duty,

and those who repose after the feats of the night.


Truly bewitching it is, the magical, maddening moonlight,

and the charm of the night‐spellbinding.

But the people are weary now of feuds, fracas and fights

and the fire within people, dying.


People only one thing seek,

their silence says it all.

‘Tis the much coveted peace.

Only their silence makes them stand tall.


The silence today is unbearable by some,

those who love their fast life.

Yet others find it beautiful and wait for it to come,

Because for them silence in darkness, is light.


Dedicated to our warriors, not only at our borders but also within the city and villages performing roles of doctors, policemen, sanitization workers etc.

17 Dec 2020

Bittersweet Ballad

PROLOGUE

Surprisingly, her daughter was in the audience today. As a baby, her daughter showed no interest in the melodies her mother sang and growing up, her disinterest never changed. Today, to see her daughter actually live stream the performance made her heart skip a beat. She closed her eyes trying not to lose focus of her performance and maintained her composure. It was time for the last song in her set. Two pairs of brown eyes looked at each other and held the gaze. Only they knew what this song meant to them.

Click here to view the entire Short Story titled : Bittersweet Ballad 




15 Sept 2020

Happenstance

One late Friday evening, a young woman waited outside her office building for a pre-booked share cab. Amidst the heavy rain, she was barely visible under the umbrella and the weight of her heavy bags. After great difficulty, the cab driver located her near the traffic signal. She hopped in, sighed and closed her eyes, letting a sense of calmness take over.

A hundred meters away, a lanky man saw a cab turn at the signal and wondered if it was the one he was waiting for since the last 30 minutes. To his relief, it was and he allowed his drenched self into the cab almost immediately. He had barely noticed the young woman submerged under her bags.

As this was the woman’s daily mode of commute, she should have ideally been used to other people sharing the cab with her. However, she always felt like it was an invasion of her personal space. Already queasy due to the wet weather, the entry of a man into the cab only made her more uncomfortable. Adding dampness to the situation, the man was unapologetic about entering the cab completely drenched. He then doused himself with a familiar deodorant that she had learnt to hate.

The man was grateful to be sitting down after hours of running around for an event at work. He had just noticed the tiny girl sharing the cab with him and she looked like she was judging him. He was not sure whether striking a conversation about the horrible weather and explaining about his broken umbrella would help. He hoped that spraying a deodorant would reduce the dankness in the air. Through a half glance, he noticed she possibly was older than she looked. Gauging from the corporate look and the many bags, he tagged her as one of those high-driven consultants who had no time for family. The man mentally ticked the names of all the acquaintances he knew who were in similar professions and did not value family. He wished he still had one to go back home to.

The woman looked at the raindrops race each other off the window. She used to love rains when she was younger, but ever since her mother passed away five monsoons ago, her feelings towards it became neutral. Apart from many memories, her mother had left her a small apartment where she lived alone and her father’s last name “Martin”. She bore the last name of a person she had never met. Her father too might be dead for all she knew, as her parents separated quite early on. The only memory of him was the ridiculous fragrance of the deodorant she just got a whiff of and engulfed her in loneliness once again.

The man seemed intrigued by the petite woman sitting silently next to him. Something seemed familiar about her. Was it her short curly hair or the glassy stare or was it the rhythmic finger tapping? He could not quite place her and settled for the possibility that they might have shared a cab together at some point in time. He unlocked his mobile phone and habitually looked at photos of the family he once had. How he regretted leaving the only thing worth living for! After 25 years, to think of getting in touch with his ex-wife and a glimpse of his only daughter both scared and pained him.

The woman looked at her watch and estimated it would take another half hour to reach home. She had left office relieved to be finally away from the job she hated. Ironically, she had nothing to look forward to at home either. Many years ago, she questioned her parents’ divorce on the sole fact that her father’s sexual orientation was different. Now she was not sure which way her thoughts were swinging. As a child, she bore the resentment that she had to be a part of that decision but growing up she realized it was for the best. She lightly touched her chain and felt her mother’s wedding ring, worn as a pendant. She always wondered why her mother still held on to it.

The cab driver looked into the rear view mirror and observed the two passengers. He was used to passengers sitting silently in his cab and this made driving peaceful for him. The elderly gentleman and the young woman did not seem to know each other. However, the way they kept glancing at each other contemplatively made it seem that they were once acquainted. Amused, he looked at their names and wondered if asking a clichéd question would seem foolish.

It would be an unlikely possibility as a cab driver to meet the same passengers together again. He broke the silence and asked, “Do you both know each other? You’ll share the same last name – Martin”

The passengers looked at each other for the first time in the cab ride and ridiculed the cab driver. Just as they tore away their glances, the woman noticed a familiar photo on the man’s phone and the man spotted a familiar ring on the woman’s neck.

The Night After The War

 The Night After The War Night’s the time when eyes meet slumber, mind meets dreams and soul meets peace. When warriors keep aside their arm...