May woe betide you
May the worst of calamities
Strike your kith and kin
May you lose everything
That is dear to you
Every penny of yours
Shall be consigned to the flames
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Serving as divine retribution
For the bundles of cash
That changed hands everyday
Faster than the speed of light
Throughout your deceitful existence
Filled with lies and blackmail
Before eventually finding a safe haven
In your classy, upper middle class dwelling

May woe betide you
May every happy thought of yours
Be ****** out of your conniving minds
May your life be reduced
To one full of manic depression
One incapable of coherent thinking
Thus dwelling only on your failures
Till you eventually succumb
And self-destruct
With a flash of blinding light
Such that, all that is left
Is an unrecognizable form
A wretched caricature of regret
With your souls torn asunder
Leaving the world a little happier

I don't know who you are
I don't know what you do
I don't know where you are
But I know that
You have wrecked me
Mentally, psychologically and socially
Rendering me incoherent in speech
And incapable of action
Reduced to a blundering mass
Of bloated bones and sinew
Ready to collapse like a pack of cards
At the slightest hint of a crisis

I don't know who you are
I don't know what you do
I don't know where you are
But I know that
You have wrecked me
And you shall pay dearly for it
Whether it be death by a thousand cuts
Or a pill of cyanide in your cup of tea
Or a bullet right in your temple
Or a mighty fall from the tallest tower
Or a bite from a venomous serpent
Or a decapitation by the mighty guillotine
Or even, having your soul ****** out
From your filthy mouth

I don't know who you are
I don't know what you do
I don't know where you are
But I know that
You have wrecked me
And I shall not rest
Until I finish you, once and for all
And the world is rid, of your menace

The wait has been long
Two weeks and counting
As everyday passes
You tell yourself to be patient
And do your work calmly
As though everything is all right
As the minutes turn to hours
Hours turn to days
And days turn to weeks
But still nothing happens
No message from your bank
No credit added to your account
Same old excuses given
Your resolve can no longer hold
Your steely focus falters
You make mistakes
That you would not have made
Even in your wildest dreams
Every hurdle looks insurmountable
The commute to office
Suddenly seems like a marathon
You lash out at strangers
Over matters as mundane
As your typing speed
At home, you drown yourself
In Agatha Christie's finest ****** mysteries
Forgetting that you have to sleep
Just reading and reading
To escape from the mad world around you
Till your eye muscles scream in protest
You clench your fists
Flex your muscles
And sharpen your teeth
As the devil awakens inside you
Ready to pounce on your master
And seek divine retribution
For making you wait so long
And denying you
What is rightfully yours

There is a time
When nothing goes right
Anything that you touch
Turns into stone
At work, candidates ignore you
All the relationships built
Through days of hard work
Evaporate on that day
The world seems to turn against you
Leaving you frustrated and helpless
And left with no alternative
But to take the blame
Squarely on your own shoulders
Wishing you could be anywhere
But in your own body

As time passes by
Slower than a snail
You greatest desire
Is that the day should end
And you are put out of your misery
However, Fate has other plans
While you are determined
To escape from the rush
In the famous Mumbai locals
Vodafone decides to come to the party
The network falls apart
Leaving you watching helplessly
As Uber and Ola fail to load
And Fate wears a gloating smile
As you are forced
To board the dreaded train
And simply adjust
Amongst a sea of commuters
Your greatest desire
Is that the day should end

What is it like, to go hungry?
The wolf in me answers
Starved for hours and hours
There is a storm raging inside
Ready to wreak havoc on all
But especially on those cretins
Who have, in their callousness
Denied me the food
Which I so richly deserved
Leaving my stomach clutching at straws
My tongue lolling around in vain
My teeth sharpening themselves
Ready to tear into the flesh
Of the humans who ignored me
Ready to drink their juicy blood
Ignoring their frantic screams
The wolf yearns to pounce
And devour its tormentors
Until every pang of hunger
Is annihilated once and for all

You have no idea
What it's like, to be a woman
Everyday is a baptism by fire
As she walks on the street
Hundred hands appear
From nowhere, as if conjured
By a deft flick
Of a magician's wand
A magician who sends chills
Down the length of her spine
Chills that surpass even those
On a wintry night in Antarctica
Leaving her frozen
Till every bone stands still
As she is stripped of her dignity
Reduced to a shadow of her self

She strains every sinew in her throat
As she sends out a distress signal
Which fails to be intercepted
As the people look on
Some with fear
Some with sheer indifference
Some with a perverse interest
But none answer the call of duty
The call which is as basic
As the need for oxygen

You have no idea
What it's like, to be a woman
As she heads home
Seeking much needed solace
She is instead upbraided
For wearing a short skirt
For walking alone in the night
For not being a lady

As she fails to get support
From the family she holds dear
As a shipwreck survivor
Barely floating in freezing waters
Clings on to that piece of wood
Her self-esteem nosedives
Like that fateful Air India flight
That crashed at Mangalore
And shifts the blame onto herself
For not understanding the men
Who've brought her to this state
And succumbs to Stockholm Syndrome
Completing a vicious circle
Leaving men and the patriarchy winners
Winners who deserve the title
As much as a student
Who clears his trimesters
Using bits of paper
Tucked neatly inside his shoes

Is Twitter safe for women?
Yes, if they are silent
Yes, if they are subservient
Yes, if they accept abuse

Women aren't supposed to be bold
Women aren't supposed to say no
Women aren't supposed to complain

Men have a right to abuse
Men have a right to harass
Men need not fear anything
Men can do as they please

Is Twitter safe for women?
Yes, if they ignore **** threats
Yes, if they laugh along with men
While men make sexist jokes

Men are the kings
A king is always right
A king can mock his queen
A king can **** his enemies

Why women create such drama?
Poor men just want to have fun
Privacy is such an elitist concept
Consent belongs to the man
Men are the more powerful ***
The *** that enjoys a right to ****

Is Twitter safe for women?
Yes, if they forget they have voices
Yes, if they forget they exist
Yes, if they concede defeat to men

Direction can bamboozle me
An autist mind thinks different
As if in a maze, so divergent
Can his thoughts be
Getting lost so often
Every new place seems alien
Looking to trap you
Till you lose yourself
From asking for directions
To seeing shakes of heads
Losing hope due to inaction
Not getting any leads
Especially when it's south Mumbai
I hop on to a bus
As it goes on and on, I cuss
Wishing I were back in Chennai
Predictably I get down at the wrong stop
Greeted by a run-down lane
I was early, now late
My panic rises to the top
As taxi-wallahs say no
Even as I give various landmarks
I wonder where shall I go
I am clearly in the dark
I see a gentleman in a car
Probably my last hope
I plead for help
Thus apparently lowering my bar
The gentleman offers a drop
Which I gladly accept
A big relief in this heat
As the ride comes to a stop
He says we will meet later
Since he stays in my locality
In him I saw a lot of humanity
As my day suddenly got better
I had got the inspiration
For writing my next poem
In such an interesting fashion

70 years of supposed independence
Yet no real freedom for women
In a society dominated by men
Drowned, is a woman's voice
We need Azadi from Patriarchy
Money and power aren't everything
Without love, life is nothing
Above all, are relationships and life quality
Is there no end to ****?
Why is marital **** legal?
Our system is so feudal
Marriage is such a shame
Marred by domestic violence
Divorce, a traumatic experience
No freedom to choose her career
Family is supposed to be better
No freedom for inter-religious marriage
If she does, it's labelled Love Jihad
Frankly, we are tired
Demand an end to this carnage
She can dress as she pleases
She can roam at night
She can marry anyone she loves
To question her, you have no right

All days may not start well
Things may not go to plan
Punctuality monsoon will tell
Start as early as you can
But not always in our hands
Things at the mercy of rain
Is there any place to stand?
In a Mumbai fast local train?
More so when it is late
Leaving you at the hands of fate
Men push, jostle and bicker
Place to stand is a premium
At your expense, they snicker
For a while, it’s pandemonium
To and fro, back and forth
Swung for all your worth
Then the train stops when it shouldn’t
Getting further late when it shouldn’t
When time comes to alight
You are expected to defy gravity
Jumping a moving train with no clarity
Changing over at Dadar is no delight
Later greeted by grime and muck
Rain at Lower Parel adds to bad luck
Noisy motorists on a narrow street
Make your mind admit defeat
Reaching office is a relief
Your sweat beggars belief
Just the start of a long day ahead
A miracle not to lose your head

People come and go in our life
Most make an impact
True friends help you in strife
With no need for a pact
Some are truly special
They last forever
Bound by rules never
There was one such girl
Whom I met at office
Lively and innocent as a kid
For whom honesty would suffice
Took a mere month it did
For a friendship to bloom
Moulded in an old school of thought
For me she fought
When my office seemed to be my doom
My scooter became our companion
Her family on my side
In a storm, we would turn the tide
Slowly my family became part of the union
My home a second home for her
Our joys and sorrows intertwined
Office politics sadly intervened
For them, it wasn't a friendship mere
I stood my ground in support
My family pulled their weight
Her courage and strength ensured no taint
There were times we fought
But our friendship always won
A better job came to her rescue
For her talent, long overdue
One for all, all for one
Our friendship endured and grew
A strong union of the middle-class and poor
Ensured by hearts pure
No matter where the winds blew
My family a bedrock in her hour of need
Symbiotic our relationship indeed
Soon her wedding bells rang
My mother and I responded
With great hospitality we were rewarded
At her home, to us her family sang
To this day, remains our friendship
As no rules in such a special relationship