Sunday, February 28, 2010

Balance betrayed

And they fell....

Eyes shut tight
In prayer
That their faith be proved right

They let go....

Each
promising their terrified heartbeat
the relief of those familiar hands
on their back..soon...

Each
silently challenging
those hands to be there....

Together
they let go
and they fell
alone...

and they fell
apart....

A dying fire

They surround it
Sit around it
Wring their hands
Stamp their feet
"No warmth" they complain

"A dying fire"
Murmurs pass around

Disinterested
The blazing red
Smoulders the coal
Caresses the sleeping ashes
Meanders through cinders

Drunken
In its raw cannibal grace
It dances the taandav within

A prod of passion
An offering of soul
Wouldn't have evoked
A soaring flame,
Crackling sparks,
The sought warmth, even?

But no!
The blazing red
Croons its yearning
Stirred by its own scalding heat

"No warmth" they complain
"A dying fire"
Murmurs pass around...

For my cousin and my soul twin....both aquarians ;-D

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Ye tera ghar ye mera ghar...

Sigh! I turned on that sigh to see his hand make it's dramatic way to his heart. I had to turn away to suppress a grin...
Had this been a movie or a novel, that scraggly young man, in a dust-covered fake branded shirt and tight-fitting sequinned denims, would have come in my dreams that night. The circle of sawdust on his greasy brown curls would have been my halo, my sign that we were meant to be. Days of flirtatious glances and shy small talk would have culminated in a brutally passionate confrontation; and I would have helplessly confessed my undying love to him, before breaking down in the tight grip of his arms around me.
But no! What I would shudder to even call 'our' story, ended at my turning away to suppress a grin. I was left wondering about how even my grin wasn't in the least close to a blush! I was very brazenly grinning at how impossible it was for him to cross all social, economic and other barriers between us and have a friendly chat with me. I was grinning at his wasted gesture, at the fantasies he must have cooked up in his mind about us and their impossible distance from the truth. I was grinning at the smart talk and the laughs he would share with his co-workers during meals, about me, and the hopelessness of it. My shallow self was gloating at the differences in us on the basis of looks, status, language...
I wouldn't discriminate on these shallow grounds generally; because people who do so, are so narrow-minded and orthodox! Here, in this matter though, I shan't compromise. After all, this is love we are talking about.
Then, I very nearly have considered giving him a chance, when he stops chiselling at the ceiling of my room and turns to lock my eyes in a steady gaze for a few seconds. But then both of us turn away from each other, carrying a smile into our respective worlds. His smile as confident of the possibilities as mine is of the contrary! He shrugs and so do I... In an ideal world, I might have left behind an ashamed father, a devastated mother and a brother seething with a lifetime of hatred, to flee with him to some jungle in the mountains and cook for him in our tent, while he chops logs of wood.
But in reality, I am quite content munching away at biscuits I haven't baked, and approving his tools dancing away at the corners of my room; for who will leave the opportunity to live in the house that he is working on building??