ACQUAINTANCE

I wanted to be part of his family 

without any acquaintance.

I dislike those mathematical expressions 

so eager to prove  an intimacy.

I stealthily hung a picture 

in his room.

now  

He looks intermittently at the picture 

like a well trained semiotician 

tracing the unknown member 

to undo an emotion.

Marx’s moustache

Doing nothing nowadays

Is considerable

Excessively inappropriate   action 

Just   provoked

The sensation of itching

On my hips.

For instance

Over the period of time

Marx’s moustache  became more pointed

Nehruvian jacket better stitched

The nationalist’s tongue more eloquent

Bhagat singh’s hat

Exclusive expression of revolution

But those waiting eyes

Still excrete in the open.

Love for them

 still

A sanitation   problem. 

The Boy

While walking through a faceless crowd
 Looking at the golden temple
And its golden reflections in the water,
Measuring its pride in one quick glimpse
The poor child,
Adding curiosity to his hunger,
 Asked his mother
Do people here eat golden chapatis?

Breasts

All stories emanate from  Breasts 

My mother found her story 

While feeding me 

I have found mine 

While kissing my beloved's breast.

inconsistency in love

The consistency of inconsistency in love  

Is a sign 

Love is still alive 

And deceiving itself.

The symmetrical emotion

Deprives human beings of curiosity

As if 

A student of mathematics 

Solving an equation 

Whose answer 

Already given 

Despair

Effervescence of despair
Too pretentious to camouflage its manifestations .
Wrinkled face
Like over marked page
Reluctant smile
Like that of a scared girl in a matrimonial picture
Miscalculated sighs
Like an amateur mathematician
And sinking eye liner in tears
As sand dunes lose their boundaries in calamities .
It is  difficult to despair in despair ...

GOSSIP

A love affair that

Begins as a gossip

Has more chances

To survive

In the jungle of emotions

Than  An unexposed love affair

Running  the risk of being suffocated in

Its  own cocoon of secrecy

Like a mango 

Circumscribed by its own skin.

But gossip survives....

छाया

ये बड़ी बड़ी इमारतों कि छाया 

रोज पड़ती है मेरे घर पे ,

किसी खिड़की

से वो भी तो देखे ,

मैं देखूं उसे 

अपने घर कि किसी दीवार पे 

WRITING A POEM

Writing a poem is like 

Taking a turn to the left 

While sleeping 

Tired of being in one position of life . 

 An impetus 

To make a difference 

Between 

Me 

and

 mine 

रोटी

गरीबों के सिर्फ पेट होता है 

वो सिर्फ रोटी को जानता है 

मक्की की रोटी 

बाज़रे की रोटी 

बेसन की रोटी 

ये सब जीभ के स्वाद है 

अमीरों के  जीभ होती है 

GRAND FATHER

While playing 

​with puppies ​

 in the backyard ,

i 

​eavesdropped ​

my mother's conversation 

with her sister 

about the pregnancy of a distant cousin 

three months after marriage .

I asked my grand father

 

​hesitantly ​

​concealing my curiosity ​

"why do girls get pregnant after marriage ? "

He replied confidently 

"God takes care of everything "

​.​

​few years later ​

i realized ,

His confidence has done immeasurable harm to me 

LIKE A DANCER

​Its  good 

​B​e on your toes 

​L​ike a dancer 

 ​E​njoying the painful twirl 

​I​n a situation, 

​W​ith a person 

​W​hen the moment ​requires it.

A cleansing process.

Like menstrual cycle.

​Y​ou weep

​

You​ smile 

​You​ react 

​You​ respond 

​You​  tell 

​You​ say 

​T​hen u choose to remain silent 

I guess 

​N​obody enjoys 

​T​alking

                                                                          While dancing .

​Y​our toes become 

​Essence of your life 

 ​​

image

Who said 

The mirror mirrors our life and

Speaks the truth .

I saw 

What 

I wanted to see .

And 

I believed so .

But

Yesterday 

A sudden thought hurled  a stone 

I looked back 

My mirror image was already cracked .

Snippets

Snippets of your memory  

Struck in my veins 

Choking 

Free movement of life .

I screamed your name thrice 

To unblock 

Those  congested  veins ...

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

​SOME

TIMES 

JUST

READING BETWEEN THE LINES 

IS NOT SO HELPFUL .

YOU HAVE TO SEARCH MEANING EVERYWHERE 

LEFT 

RIGHT

UP

DOWN

AT THE BEGINNING 

AT THE ENDING ,

JOINTS OF SENTENCES 

WHERE THE SPEAKER POSES DIFFERENT POSES .

PUNCTUATIONS MUST BE THRASHED 

EXCLAMATIONS TO BE ROBBED OF THEIR DRAMATIC POWER.

IN THE DEPTH OF PRONUNCIATION 

WHERE FEELINGS ARE SATURATED ,

THE GHOST OF INTENTION 

MUST BE EXTRACTED 

FROM THE INTERSTICES OF WORDS ,

TO MAKE SURE 

WORDS  REALLY  DO MEAN SOMETHING....

MOTHER

Your mother has suffered silently.

Washing carrots and potatoes 

She   retorted to his numbing indifference 

And retired to soybean oil .

Perhaps she still loves him.

She

 Preserving his complaints and grievances 

In the pickle jar .....

NAME

I WANTED TO HIDE MYSELF

I CHANGED MY NAME   

love between response and reaction

Love happens 

intermittently

sometimes 

sporadically ,

For instance ,

may be between 

response and reaction ,

while being with you 

or without you ,

between words 

and silence ,

by 8pm 

or 

by 11 am ,

On Sunday 

or 

Thursday ,

in December

or 

in June .

But

To say 'i love you'

is diplomacy .

Irrationality of logic, 

logic of irrationality ,

romanticization of anticipated agony ,

a web pattern of fantasies ,

a quilt of self-deceptions ,

well calculated manipulations ,

programmed emotions ,

Those symmetrical romantic moments, 

Like pickled cabbage 

absorption of pungent slavery , 

Love is a pastiche.

borrowed emotions ,

borrowed pulsations of heart ,

borrowed codes of love-behavior,

And then 

consciously spontaneous.

You still say ??

love is this and that ??

i repeat .

love happens intermittently 

or sometimes 

sporadically .......

Ab Mohabbat Kahaan Hoti Hai (A Poem)

YOU AND ME

while committing suicide 

i was thinking of YOU

and dying 

i was thinking of MYSELF...............