The mystic Sadhu
chants cryptic
mantras,
I hear
the Hammssss of his voice,
He is lost in his world
Like I'm with mine,
Above me, the bridge
clanked gleefully
announcing the arrival of her lover;
Shimmering in white, honking
it moves slowly like a big serpent,
Ending the tryst
with a flickering red light.

Several mounds, smoldering woods,
and one body stuck to
the trunk of the bridge
swirled in me the fear of
leaving this world early,
leaving all that I strived to
achieve, and leaving all of
it in the middle.

Buses pass on the next bridge
A hand came out
and aimed the stream with
something, probably a coin,
to compensate for wrongdoings,
Coin-collectors waiting like a
starving lion in a zoo
pounced on these throwings,
aiming the spot  
with a magnet like
a trained ninja in nocturnal warfares,
After a few unsuccessful attempts
A boy yelled in joy
"Har Har Gange".


The Ganges was like this
from the beginning,
She was moderate in demands
offering so much
at the cost of a penny,
Throw a coin and
you are absolved from all your sins.

This is my home now,
God knows for how many years more!
The stack of books
upright arranged
in the shape of my dreams looks
disorderly and unorganized,
Loneliness in the shape of an injured cat
Invades the room, meowing, every night,
sniffs scattered objects,
And eventually rests in my lap
effusing air of some stale memories,

As the days move on like a tired traveler,
The stains on the wall are clearing
to my eyes,
Sticky notes like land mafias
appropriates space from the wall,
Che Guvera with a clenched fist
returns a red salute,

The 'fist' forwarded memory of past,
and one by one
Dreadful images reemerged in my mind;
Mother in hospital bed, pale and weak,
gasping for breath,
I sat beside her
waiting for magic,
Several breakups
especially the last one
that hurt most
where I choose this not  her,
And last but not least
my COMRADE days
participating in protests,
bearing batons, and living
like revolutionaries
fighting the corruption in
the system,

But now I yearn to be
part of the system,
As this series of pictures end
The motivation I consumed earlier,
watching twenty minutes
long video subsides,
And all of a sudden I rummage the bed sheet
to look for a hidden pack of cigarettes
which I bought yesterday,

Choices change as we proceed on
in life,
I do regret some of my decisions
and regret them badly,
I have cried at night,
Laughed like a hyena,
I'm weak feigning to be strong,
I see many reasons to quit this task
but one that keeps me
going on is the picture of an ailing mother
dying in a government hospital.

How
Easy was the
Beginning...
How difficult
To end it in
The same
Zeal...

A secret I want to tell you,
that is
You
are among those people
who make
this world a lovely place
by reading only,
Like stars to the universe,
You function the same to poets.

So, without knowing me

If I ask you

"Can you be my friend?"

What would you say?

Will you weigh me in the lens
of an adult

Or

Like kids, extend your hand
towards me
And say

"Friends Forever!"

"O my beloved, my friend, my compatriot!
Do not betray me being my friend"

Someone
died,
few
rejoicing
that death,

I sit there
and watch like
God
the sorrow and joy.

Victory is resounding the dull cries,
Thousands became victim of a deranged mind,
The mighty whom people assigned power
To change the quality of life destroyed it completely,
The cries, the lament of innocents;
boys without mother, girls without father, parents losing the only light, and the only lover who loved her like she dreamt-
All are lost somewhere in the blame game.

The separation stretches for more than twenty hours,
I wait and wait and wait...
At the lonely station
For a train that gets cancelled
After getting delayed for so long,

I yearn for the journey
The destination beguiles me,
So, if not by train
I'll cover the distance imagining
the time which tied us together like spokes of a wheel.

Dictating my mood
with a single thumb press,
I'm happy
Or Sad
It's only a matter of your single Text.

Heartache is waiting,
Again I'm falling in love...

Making the night
lethargy
by our
sensualness.

I was walking yesterday
I am now,
And I will be tomorrow,
Nothing has changed,
We're hopeless and starved yesterday,
We're hopeless and starving now,
Day changes, the sun changes its course
But  we move on to the same dusty road
in search of handy chores
to hear the jingle in our pockets.


The stakes were different at different times.
Earlier it was thirst and hunger,
Now is the fight against stillness,
We cannot stop.
The houses that we built
The families that lived in it
barricaded from moving ahead,
But we must move on.

The vehicles, the baton, the air, the iron,
the hands of rich and politicians equally
noosing our neck, rammed us in desperation,
As we vowed not to stop.

Our sweat and blood wicks the lamps
glowing in those homes,
We are the horses that pulled these lifeless cities,
the moon shadowed under its corruption.
But we cannot compromise,
My life depends on the walk,
And I have to walk.

We cannot stop.
We must walk.
For those who stop withers early.

Whose art are thou?
Who is your creator?
'cause I've traced you in every poem and each sculptor,

Were you in Rumi's mind when he wrote, “we are the mirror as well as face in it"

Or In Mir's when he remarked-
"love is the beloved and lover too"
Who art thou?
Where you dwell?

I've seen you in Shakespearean tales
Are you Rosalind or Juliet
Being the centre of the play who dazed audience,
Or one of the long poetry of Milton and Elliott,

Who art thou?
Where thy home?

Are you Beatrice whom Dante
wrote in Divine comedy,
Or Helen, the unparalleled beauty
Or the Monalisa , a dream that Vinci's brush brought on canvass,
Or Kalidasa's mesmerizing Shakuntala

Who art thou ?
Where thy abode ?

Are you a Spenserian sonnet
Or Donne's wit and conceit?
Is it you who shot former "thousand arrows by eyes"
And became latter's "all states and a world ",
Who art thou?

This world is in you
Or you in this world?

You are art
Or art is from you?

Doubts are in hundred

Answer only one-

Any book I read,
The words I write,
All the poems I recite

In all my night’s dream
There's somewhere I find you embedded in them,

It's like all the great poets, artisans had already known you,
And carved you in pages and stones for me.

The hopeless battle
we stretch day by day,
Be quick!
Live
or
Put an end to it.

Whom do I love?
You
or the suffering you bring?

Melancholy lingers in this city
like some deadly virus
lying sluggishly,
waiting to touch the passersby.

I do care about your loose hairband
that allow your tresses and mantle
to flow in the soft breeze,
Small ***** of sweat
trickle-down from forehead,
taking the route of the cheek,
And your both hands occupied in books
Effort vainly to subdue them-

I sit and watch this battle from our college corridor,
Dreaming and fantasizing to be your lover,
And leading the army of affection
Win this contest of tresses and mantle
for you.

Hope is drying up
Like a Well dries after the monsoon,
Sitting in this room, alone and aloof,
I have counted the stains on the wall,
None of it is more prominent than the
One I have with me, I'm a social pariah,
like an untouchable, polluted with death;
Run, Run away from me,
I hold death in my lungs.

It's just a moment ago we met
And you insist on leaving this early,
Life has just only begun
Let's refrain from putting an end to it,

I'm lost, my love
Closing my eyes, I wait for sleep...

Deny the fact
Live in a dream...

The reality was not meant
for some of us.

My life beneath your lies
Your heart in someone's purse,

Sweet days of mine
creating bitter memories...

How close we are now,
your face on my screen,
My arm seeking your back,
A kiss, pout, thousand gestures,
Typing texts bestowing wide smiles
and staring screen in hope
to never end this moment,
Miles apart yet so close that
the warm breath reach me
Soon you exhale, or at least sound
of it,
How gorgeous these inventions are
making lovers life easy,
sighs cut to half, tears reduced to zero.

I thank that human God
who invented the phone,
And glory to all those
shadowed by the mythical ones.

So, my love! come
and give me a hug,
or tug me in your mantle
like you do to the wind,

Take me with you
where you go
Inhaling me little by little,
And once I'm all spent,
breath in me life
with a KISS!

I have not loved you like an earthly creature
but worshipped like God with incessant
offerings and prayers,
How can you turn me down?
I have faith and heart and hope
and love in you,
Yet you keep beguiling me showing
different dreams,
Are you also one of the Greek Olympians?

The charm has ended,
Now back to reality
But I miss the other world-
that delusional one!
From which I'm exiled.

Asphyxiated
High on sleeping pills,
A human form lies in bed,
Who knows what grief snatched
the bag of life from him,
Now he sleeps like a body
conquered by death,

I knew him once, he was a jolly creature,
the life of party, the dream of every girl,
drank wine like Romeo kissing Juliet,
danced a happy dance which his moving-shaking
limbs professed the inner detention,
But one day, he vanished, making parties lifeless,
girls restless, and Wine heartbroken,
He was amid us but so far,

I wonder about my inaction,
why I never invited him in
when he daily came asking for his room key.

So, what? It was the call of time,
The best relations require end on best terms!

Come to me surreptitiously like fog comes in December night
I will hide you by the news of discontent and discomfort-
Engulf and surround you with fear of loom,
The country is going to dust now,
Master has become maniac puffing the ***** of 'Power'
deeming good into bad and bad into good,
The books affirming violence his students seek,
The guardians and protectors stand and watch
the clashes like sadists forbidden to inflict pain;

I lament the plight and plunder of my sacred home,
Hoping a dawn of summer amid chilly winter.

The Well of patience evaporates gradually
like water evaporates under heavy sun,
I'm the bird of the Kindergarten books
Conditioned in optimism, 
Busy in throwing pebbles of hope.

Today, tomorrow, or after morrow,
One day or the other,
It'll run dry,
But I will continue
Hopeless and dissatisfied,
Dreaming and fabricating lies to me.

Mind is roaming like a pariah dog
in some dusty lanes and lonely paths,
Sleeping on debris, regaling in waste and dirt.
I was its master once
But has lost the control now,
Time ahead looks bleak with
the equation reversing slowly
When I see me trembling before his bark.

Like certain corners of the world
without electricity
I too write you over my heart like a
child writes an alphabet on his slate
under kerosene light.

I'm fighting a war in my head,
Plant few armed forces there too
So that they can separate the infiltrators
crossing the mind border...

Studying the 'Base', 'Hypotenuse', and 'Height'
of a triangle,
My mind recalls what I witnessed in
that sensual night,
You were like an unconceived mathematical notion,
I a novice in geometry trying to draw a straight line
Of kisses on your shivering body,
How fragile those attempts were,
How lovely to see them fail,
Lying idle on the bed like a base of a building
I lured you to stood high above me,
And your hands pressing my chest as a ladder,

We're affixed like a right-angled triangle
Dizzy, and drunk exploring our area of love.

Like a passenger sitting on a bus
Surrender your life to me,
I'll guard it like a driver steering
In the darkness, and
After dropping you to the destination
Will move on, happy with the FARE of Memories.

Hope is drying up
Like a Well dries after the monsoon,
Sitting in this room, alone and aloof,
I have counted the stains on the wall,
None of it is more prominent than the
One I have with me, I'm a social pariah,
like an untouchable, polluted with death;
Run, Run away from me,
I hold death in my lungs.

The Muse is generous these days
or the sadness is welling up,
Who knows?
Like a tired traveller, I'm moving my
pen in hope of reaching a destination.

The moon has started missing the
face giving him company in
the lone, sad and frosty nights...

Sadness lingers in my poems
like a lover sauntering in the lanes
of his beloved...

The world would
have been different
if I had you!

Try and linger
Jingle-mingle,
But do not wait for Love
remain single-wingle,
The ping-pong of life
the zing-zong of marriage
Is an hopeless affair;

So made up your mind
If possible, make it rewind
the break-ups
you got over with hiccups,
Remain single-wingle
Zing-zong and jingle,
Remain single-wingle,
Zing-zong and jingle.

I'm a person in whom you see;
a friend, a lover and a compeer,
The letters you type late night
on keypad comes to me,
And when the power cuts and
your mind starts making phantoms
you dial my number,
Late-night cravings, scholarly discussion,
A video call in the morning,
And on a certain day, a certain moment
I bend on my knee and ask you to be mine
forever. And you, nod in YESSSS!!!!!!

Ah! Love, thou unruly dictator!
I sat to read for exams
instead started dreaming a dream
of some other world.

I'm mad, hopeless, pathetic,
and sometimes sounds creepy too,
But how can I comfort
the sad, deluding, and longing heart?
Is there any medicine or herb?
How can I love and hide the flame of it
from you?
I'm doomed like a moth
flinging myself deliberately into fire.