What happens when an open space, once a canvas to your thoughts,
turn into a dingy cabin, where you are chained to a chair with no lumbar support
and a program is chipped into your brain to decode client briefs, one after the other,
however idiotic they might be,
only to churn out results that will please a super boss,
who has done the same, for n number of years more than you,
so that the numbers that are not on your side, look irrelevant, coz
the money that you are making for the company is very relevant, to them, their family
and the rest of mankind, but you?
You quit.
No, wait
You’ve got EMI’s to pay.

eid beckoned, and so did visarjan
being a keralite the stomach craved for Sadhya
so I found myself on Onam day
inching closer and closer to a meal gone cold
as the engine revved an unforgiving sigh
I swore aloud with all my might,
the city didn't even stop to breathe,
as mount mary fair blew my brains to sleep
only in bombay will one see,
religions cohere so beautifully

Swipe in
Swipe out
Pay bills
And *******

“Repeat” they say
And you might be,
Programmed to deceive
Time, freedom, and drive,
To only move forward,
Or rather be just fooled into
Believing that you
Are moving forward,
By coming back to

Swipe in
Swipe out
Pay bills
And *******
Again

Why?,
We must question
Where?,
Did we **** up
When?
Did we exhaust our drive,
The passion, to be a somebody,
To make a difference
To touch people’s lives
To follow our dreams,
Lets introspect for a while,
While we,

Swipe in
Swipe out
Pay bills
And *******
Yet again

What is this trap,
This false sense of accomplishment,
The short lived excitement,
And a remorseful hangover,
Friday nights be like another step
Towards an inevitable end
Only that we come back on Monday to

Swipe in
Swipe out
Pay bills
And *******
All over again

My skin, few shades darker than yours
Stand between you and me,
Beneath we are all blood and bones,
But do you even care
when you pick me up from the bunch
Ask me, to remove my jacket, my trousers and boots
When I ask why, you say there is a reasonable doubt
But you know it, and I too
It really just, is,
the colour of my skin
As the metal detector traverse the length of my body,
Our eyes meet, and I stare right back at you
as the rest in the queue, just walk past me,
With nothing to say, with nothing to do,
they just watch me go through this drama I am used to
Sigh !
This is what the world has come to