the human heart and the human mind
two paradoxical entities, that seem
forever at odds
and yet, for a pair that has
such incontestably opposing objectives
the two are rather similar in their endeavours
to achieve the means
to their respective ends.
they're both searching.
constantly.
and they don't seem to know
what they're looking for.
but the day they stop seeking
is the day the heart will stop beating
and the mind will abandon its working.


raaste alag, manzil ek.

You were a shepherd
Someone I followed incontestably
Someone I trusted to guide me to safety

You were a new pasture
Someone far off that I thought would be different
You had a wolf hiding in the bushes

-

"Anywhere but here" is what was on your mind
The thing is, I'm still here
Your dreams had no intention of including me in them

You were boarding planes and driving far away
I was boring and driving to coffee shops
I just couldn't hold your interest

You had bigger things on your mind
You didn't bother to ask what was on my mind
I think you would have found
Some common ground

-

I fell to the riverbed having fallen for you
You had already pulled your feet out of the water

You stayed on the dock of disenchantment
While I touched the bottom of disillusionment

-

I've never said a word to you I didn't mean
You never meant a single word you said to me
I can't blame you for it though,
Transparency, of words and of heart, has gotten me nowhere

You meant everything you said, except I lost it all in transmission
And I found myself making up the messages I missed

-

You were summer
Sepia stained, longer than it felt like, innocent and sweet

You were fall
Starved of warmth, not long enough,  the moments leading to a freeze

-

Before you, I didn't know how to feel
After you, I never wanted to feel again

…But I fail to grasp…
I really do.

And I fail to write too
about the colossal confusion
in my mind's realm.

To be free must always create glee.

And freedom, consequently,
must incontestably be
the loftiest of all bounty.

✽

…But then they say:

Do not run away from your instincts
…of survival, love, anger, ***…
for if these instincts were not of value,
nature would not have given them to you.

And I muse: Is it true?
Is it?

this incomprehensible link between being free
and the ineluctable visceral slavery?

Won't it rather be that no sooner than you begin to try
to attach (or detach) value to this view or the flip-side

freedom…would indubitably fly

…away?

And then they say that one must surrender.
And thus I agonizingly wonder:

when the mind doesn't wish to unwind
…to let go…
and you bully it to do so

you still cannot be set free

for it is only they who say:
Whatever you resist
shall persist.

✽

And I fail to grasp, I really do,
the cryptic intent of this concentrated glue
of chaotic desire and cardinal instinct
inherently inbuilt
by nature's very own inscrutable mechanism
in (wo)man's puppet-like plight

and then making salvation

the sole noble right
of a free spirit.

✽

An afterthought mulishly survives:

Why?

I wonder how much time each person spends looking at the sky.

It’s pretty miraculous that
Every single gaze
Is repeatedly pulled to the vast expanse above
From all corners of the earth

It is incontestably necessary.

I wonder if the sky can see us too
If it knows of its great beauty
Of its pull, its allure

Or perhaps not

But what cannot be disputed
Is the fact that it is beautiful
And it unites us all
The great ceiling of our home
Fills each and every soul with wonder
Each and every one