Walking back from the train station,
Holding nothing but a bag and my back,
A gripping pain to encompass and a loss of hearing,
From all the rat-tat of the engine,
An incessantly crying baby,
And a mother-in-law who felt no need
To hide her animosity with the new girl in the family.
Sweat and dust, never, ever is it the most pleasant combination.

Walking amongst the noise and talk of the town,  
Lost in a herd of rickshaws,
I left my mind to wander to the extent
Of remembering the scenes speeding past on the journey back,
The flush greenery and the intermittent glimpses of cattle,
With the uncanny uninterested look on their faces.
As the rhythmic chug-chug and the whistle utterly failed to lull my senses,
No peace attained there, but mere longing to be out and about.
And yet, out here, amongst the chai-wallas
And the shopkeepers trying to buy their way with the foreigners,
As the sun stubbornly keeping its promise to shine, on none but me,
All that kept my feet moving, was the urge to see him.

And as I think of the last time I saw his face,
Pressed against my mother's,
Tears well up, waiting to burst out.
Leaving him to grow amongst strangers,
Unfamiliarity was his bedrock,
Merely seven, only beginning to understand his way around the world.
Footsteps became faster, involuntarily,
And the heat bore no sympathy for my afflictions.

Ten years, long gone and forgotten,
Growing with the world and aging with the universe,
Amassing knowledge and nurturing a personality,
Every milestone I missed, every step I didn't take along with him,
The guilt was bearing me down,
A burden I will forever carry.

Running back home,
This prodigal daughter,
Running back to my son.
Give me peace, my mind,
For this life I chose,
Was bitter and hard.
What I left behind,
Is what every night, remainder,
Haunts me, in the dark.

When you have arrived at the farthest reaches of the horizon,
Where the sun light is entwined with the waves of your hair,
The sound of the ocean, as clear as
These pictures on the wall,
When the sand of time has worn you of your dreams
All that is left is but the whispers in the air,
That time, forgotten, you and I,
As we sat underneath a star lit sky.

And in this empty house,
All I see is shadows,
Of when everything we had or wanted,
Was each other.
How easily have we let our fingers slip past,
Our voices, we let them fade with the light.
Time never healed my scars,
Smiling through these tears,
Here I am,
Cold and alone.

Seasons have changed,
Storms have passed,
I hold onto a washed out picture,
Holding hands, dreaming of a tomorrow,
Bright eyes and smiles,
A sepia toned photograph,
Of a time bygone.
Yet, here I am,
In this empty house.

And all I want to remember,
Is that night,
Sitting with you,
Underneath the starlit sky.

Bodies of black water
Marching towards the shore
In tides and waves of hordes
Overlapping as they roar.

On the pier, I caught her
Waist in molten charcoal
Whirled in tidal black hole
Engulfing her as it folds.

Daylight, upon the mer
Awakened from my sleep
Dreams of haunting Banshee
Sinking On The Iron Sea.

She stood in the middle of the courtyard
Her arms outstretched, embracing life,
What little she knew of it.
In the rain, she let her bonds fall to the ground,
This sense of freedom, if only for a moment,
She wanted it to be her own.
That brief time, between fearing and dreaming,
She let herself loose.
As the rain washed the blood and the mud,
Her soul needed the cleansing, she thought.
For the first time in years, she chose not to look for scars,
She forgot the pain.
In this big house, she was a prisoner.
Prisoner of rites and beliefs,
Of men and patriarchy.
And only when the rains came to visit,
Did she forget the cruelty and the evil.
Only then, did she believe of balance and equilibrium,
Only then, did she wish for rights and freedom.
In her dreams she saw a much better world,
Outside these four walls.
And in those dreams,
She wasn't a prisoner of fate or creed,
She was a woman of no fears.

Aren't we all hiding behind lies,
Stuck staring at the window pane.
Meaningless disparity lashing out within
A feud between the soul and the mind.
Washed out skin, colourless eyes
Most of the time, exhibiting tyranny.

Isn't it obvious, why we spent so much time
With our heads bowed down, on our knees,
Begging for mercy.
Even as the sirens go off inside our heads,
Distracted by all the fallacy.

What if we just stopped for a second,
Lift our eyes upto the skies?
Maybe wonder why there are so many stars,
Hung up so high.
Why do we try to find ways to look down and feel lost
When all we need is a little love, to give and behold.