this essence has been boiled down to the nearest nothing
and deep down, it feels familiar—

a bird too grown to only now learn to fly,
its wingtips creased the wrong way,
nearly featherless, and weak.
nowhere to go but down
and even then,
impact doesn't promise
resolution.

a poem with too few metaphors,
too much “telling”— we get the point
but SHOW us—
as if listless anger and sadness
it's just a clear-cut visual,
crystalline in memory against all odds.

this essence had been boiled down to the nearest nothing
and deep down, it feels misunderstood.

Me, my wife and our married life

I got married in 2003
Life was young and free
I was 26
and I took the risk

I belong to a joint family
she grew in a nuclear family
Our thoughts were a mismatch
conversations were out of catch

She liked to have an open talk
I was a reserved lot
Her expectations were different
my ideologies were repellent

she was a career woman
I an ambitious man
I persuaded on my own business
her career was left in a mess  

slowly I started understanding
life started turning
she became my good friend
our conversations are in blend

Now our marriage is in teen
Life looks all young and green
With my kids, my dear
Thank you God, my eyes in tear.

Hemang Dani

You’ve stopped talking to me and I don’t know why...

I hate this - this feeling - this anguish, with it’s retinue of mysteries.

Was it something I said? I’m sorry - I curse my rebel lips.

Was it something I didn’t say? I’m sorry - I was the unaware child.

I’m just a girl – not some faultless machine

There needs to be a manual – a manual for... everything - so Id know.

Is there a more contemporary narrative than disappointment at the hands of this Internet plaything - this toy-like trap we hope will inform us and we think we command?

I know questioning destroys some things.. but I don’t understand.

I don’t understand.

Why is your opinion the only one that matters?
So stubborn and unreasonable it causes emotional scatter

My wholesome intentions are now twisted and skewed
Is it so hard to sympathize with another point of view?

I can be two things at once rational and empathetic
Couldn't you then be sensible and sympathetic?

You don't understand, but that doesn't make me wrong
My intentions, rationale and viewpoint also belong  

Guilty for doing what I feel is right and ****** if I don't
You could just be kind and support me, but I know you won't


You say I have a choice, but I know what that means
An order of silent treatment with a side of love liens

If I'm picking battles this is not one I'm fighting to win
The victory with a punishment that doesn't match the sin

Ultimately, it isn't the end of the world if I don't get my way
Respecting my reasons are not black and white, just simply grey

Even if you can't understand the picture to see my play

I'm tired and just trying my best not to take it to the mat

This time couldn't you just respect and trust me anyway

After all these years...

Haven't I earned that?

I will take the truth from your lips
And kiss the pain out of it,
Till all that remains
Is our happy little lie.

I will take the love in your gift
And throw away the wrapping bit,
Revealing the gains:
Our happy little life.

The world has turned into a global village
No one can deny on that...

But..remember the phone we had placed on that beautiful table mat?
Yes...it was a matter of pride to have one..

The only fastest medium of communication we had at that time
It too had models...the rotary phone, the keypad and many fancy ones

We talked, laughed and sobbed sitting at one place as we were tied with the corded set with everyone.

It was safe.....no fear of radiation or loss of eye sight .

Though it was much too costlier than what it is today....people still communicated and talked their heart out

Now...every hand has a cell phone which comes with many features overcoming the limitation of the old one
People can connect anywhere in no time
Then why...?
We are so disconnected.....!

May be we mastered the art of telepathy?...or we are blessed with a magical wand...?

We talk no more
We only make groups
We love forwarding messages

We have become mute.....

So can we again move to landline?
Come out of the virtual world by talking to our dear ones at this time?
Can we try and understand what they are hiding behind their smiling whatsapp profiles?

Let's do things one at a time...rather than multitasking with phone on one hand and laptop on the other...
Let's give them the love and respect when one needs from your side.
So ..... sit back and dial a number of your loved one...and help the world again to become one if not through landline but may be your heartline!!

Bina Mukherjee

Listening to each other and
understanding each other is a
priceless gift to give each other.

I lay and looked up today
and on the cerulean blue
a letter was written in different hands

Starlings told of the everyday
shuttling from A to B til teatime
while flits of blue *** and dunnock
hinted at local worry
maybe at the lackadaisical cat
whose frou-frou collar
ruins the hunt

In fancy script the swifts
wrote high and mighty
chasing the imperceptible,
so not so distant really

The paragraph break of the red kite
weighed in
and wings and fingers stopped
to marvel
at near perfect epistolary