Want you - reprise

In between turning of day into night and night into day I miss you.
In between sunlight filtered through tree leaves in autumn I miss you.
Between words spoken and unspoken,
stares shared and stolen I miss you.
Between frustration, anger, doubts and sublime affection I miss you.
Between faith and non-faith, believing and not believing I miss you.
Between heavy make-up and a simple eyeliner I miss you.
Stranded on a divider crossing the road on a tar melting hot summer day I miss you.
Between cafes and office cubicles I miss you.
Between a house and a home I miss you.

Want you

Want you in the clouds when they gather over this dry parched city.
Want you in the morning mist when it  descends like a seductress in my dreams.
Want you in the distant morning prayers I hear across this concrete multistoried jungle.
Want you in my waking hours and sleep.

I want you in my packed schedule like a recess
Want you in my slide transitions and P&L account documents
Want you on the atm screen and money changing hands.
Want you in micros and macros.
Want you in demand curves and reach buildup algorithm.

Want you when i am young and when i grow old.
Want you when i am with friends and when I am all alone.
Want you in poetry and prose, in books and cell phones, in watsapp and Facebook.
Want you in my heart mind and soul

No
Dont do this dont do that
Cant do this cant do that
Dont see this dont show that
Dont say this dont say that
Dont touch this dont touch that
Shouldn't do this shouldn't do that
Couldn't do this couldn't do that
Dont wear this dont wear that.
No, nope, nai, nahi, never, ever...
Couldn't shouldn't wouldn't

However
'yesterday you told me bout the blue blue sky, but all that i can see
Is just a yellow lemon tree'.

Wake up

Wake up..
take those dreams from ur eyes
and do up your hair with them.
Let me sketch you while you
are at it,
arranging those dreams
like a motif unfamiliar yet beautiful.

An iced tea,
a single shot espresso,
two chairs and a table wait.
So wake up now

Corners

This city does not need more concrete,
Or glass or steel or flyovers
Or metros or cars or odd&even.
This city does not need any season
Any flower any migrant nor any expat.
Neither does it need breweries or neon lit seductive night clubs.
It does not need farmhouses or big fat, soon to be broken, weddings.
No need for school, colleges or multi speciality hospitals.
It does not need BJP or Congress or AAP...

What it needs are corners.
Corners where fireflies serenade the darkness.
Corners where I can bump into you every alternate day and fragrant night.
Corners where I can get to know you a little better... perhaps a little later.
I want to call them Green corners,
Islands, oasis in this sundried compulsion, called a city.

Silence

There is a mystery in silence,
An anticipation,
A wonder of what might be revealed at the end of it.

I do not know if like a promise, silence should be broken
Or left on its own like a poisonous snake.
I do not know if the sound of silence is louder than a thunder clap,
Or softer than an early morning prayer.
Should silence be embraced like a friend or scorned like a foe?
Get drunk on silence or get sober instead?
Should I read about silence or write about it?
Is silence love or hatred?

Lets stand up and observe a minute of silence in memory of silence instead.
 

To a pagan Goddess

For forty days and forty nights,
I smear your marble body with turmeric and vermillion
Wash it all clean with waters of the first monsoon rain...
Lillies,  Hyacinth, Lotus and  exotic orchids
I lay at your feet.
Decorate your hair with wild rhododendrons.
Burn frankincense and sandalwood,
While humming ancient hymns,
Perform rituals as per rules laid down a few millenia ago.
Then with folded arms, bended knees, I beseech you to grant me three wishes....


Image Courtesy : Debjani Roy 

Truth be told

Spending my days going through an almanac,
Trying to figure out days of total eclipse
when the cosmos will very kindly paint our existence black with a thick brush stroke.

For under such cover of darkness I feel comfortable with my myriad weaknesses.
Debauch, base, pevert...and their cousins.

Rest of the bright sunny days are eclipsed by oscar-worthy performance of high socio-cultural value.