At the onset of the last spring
I was just a sun-kissed word
lost somewhere in the
mighty woods of
clove mace and pepper

you came like
a dark cloud
with promises
of an early monsoon shower

Alas! I never knew clouds also deceive


Now I just scratch
my wounds’ surface
with words

and make paper boats thereafter
with crumpled sheets

Does that make you cry ?

reading book with the same title by Stephenie Meyer ...*

There you stood in
the pouring downpour
each raindrop dressed
in the scent of
your damp feral being


I gaze long and hard
at those hands
how beautiful they looked!
maybe they were those
of a sculptors
having sculpted
a thousand deaths before
with sheer perfection


Every time
lightening struck
the night would morph from
gray to black to ocher
just like…
those eyes
of yours (?)


those strides promised ecstasy
as they advanced towards me


only when the fangs
dug deep into my fevered flesh
could I Smell blood for the first time
crunchy…salty and peppery


I never wanted the rain to end

Your last note

lay pressed between

the yellow pages in my heart

to mingle with the

scent of red roses

and crusted tears…


Greedily I wait

for another one

my eternal Valentine

I love you


(For Hemu who got admitted in the hospital on 12thFebruary 2008 ,and after battling with a deadly tumor left us on 18th March 2008)

Some countless summers ago…
I was your blushing bride
you were my verdant flame
Our laughter would echo the walls
melting like
hot molten paraffin
drip by drip every
noon night and day

One evening…
after a sudden cloud burst
just like our impromptu love making
I delightedly
followed a trail of ants
on the floor.


There along the window frame
I saw a long tail
(probably a resident of neighboring monkeyhood)

Only on coming closer
Did I see
It was not our friendly neighbor
But a king Cobra
suspended upside- down


I shrieked and shrieked
Till you pulled me back
Into your embrace once again


Yes it was the summer
When I was unfamiliar
With death’s strange dialect

Somehow I don’t fear snakes anymore…
But I still carry the smell of you everywhere

…citrus mingling with wet earth…

She taught him to love …and when he learnt how to…she found true love in the arms of another.
This is a verse from his perspective…*


The raindrops taste salty
Ah !so salty like
the many seas lashing
her gaze…her kiss…her touch

I SING FOR MY SHORES LOST
WERE THOSE WAVES EVER MINE?

This Sawan –in perennial chaos
bearing the fragrance of her un-tamed locks
tumbled on an unquiet heart once
during seamless flaming dusks…

I SING FOR THOSE SCENTS LOST
WHERE HAS MY ETERNITY GONE ?

This damp evening however…
the ragas echoing her laugh
blow like tiny whirlwinds
filling every crevice of HIS INFINITYs

I SING FOR MY NOTES LOST
I THOUGHT THE SKIES WERE FOREVER MINE

IN VAIN DO I WAIT AGAIN
FOR THOSE WAVES…THOSE SKIES…

KNOWING YES…
KNOWING…

Strangely this evening
I am reminded of another dusk
when some winters ago
from the freezing skies
plopped a single raindrop
Bearing the scent of
Your springs
autumns
and deceased summers.


I thought I was immune to seasons
Yet I celebrate
Draw colorful patterns on wet earth
And fly kites on embracing skies.

Sometimes..
My alive-ness surprises even me…