What It takes to socialize

For the first time in her life,
Mom asked me for some
Spare money I'm left with.
I wondered, what changed.

She's going to the local market
With the other women,
To fetch vegetables these days.

It took all of her kids to
Learn well, take a job and
Go away from home and then
The husband had to fall ill..
For her to socialise.

I love it when she complains
About the prices of onion
And ridge guard. I'm happy
To see her manage a small

Budget and decide for herself
On the matters she knows well.

I imagine her negotiating with
The vendors over prices of
Brinjal and love it when she blames
The government for the price rise.

And each Saturday, when
The neighboring aunty gives
Her a loud call, I remind myself
The definition of welfare in

Economics as a number of
Choices one makes in a
Day-to-day life.

Gods in love

I know that you look at me
From a hiding and you too
Know how I crave for your
One sighting.

But the invisible wall that's
Laying bricks upon itself
Every time we try to look
Away.

This divide across our streets,
Of thick moustaches and
Flesh laden sarees-
The age-old arch of the village

That hasn't let even
The village goddess marry.

When I crossed your front yard
The other day, my shadow
Touched the contours of
Rangoli you had lain.

The subsequent redemption
Of mine has left cracks in
The arch and the God of
The neighboring village has
Some rigid lines to cross.

An age-old brawl between
The two villages now has been
Initiated by a mortal in love
And you too are invited to

Our festival this time,
We're hitching our Gods.

Beliefs

Some of my friends are
Finding different beliefs.
Some believe in money,
Some in their family-

A wife, kids, and a happy
Ever after.

Some think traveling is
Everything and on their
New hefty bike, they
Commute to office daily.

For some, only Hanuman
Is great, for some screaming
Their devotion in speakers
Is the only way and some

Have gotten hitched to
The-one-who-must-not-
Be-named and the best ones
Have made dogs as their pair.

I don't know about mine,
I just judge and laugh on
My bad days and try not to
Kill myself on the good ones.

Request

When the mellow sun decides
To come up on the faint horizon
Of my village, come as
The earliest light to my house.

And as the early birds go in
Search of their songs and
The butterflies in search of
Colors, come as

The first signs hope when
Mind is still stuck in haze.

Come in as cool breeze if
You wish or swishing wind that
Scatters away all the dust.
Come as a heavy downpour or

The easy shudder that's
Transferred to the leaves.

Come as an omen, come as
Dewdrop or a prayer.
As long as there's no love that
Holds you- come, come.

Hibiscus

The hibiscus that has
Profusely grown like a
Boundary around my house.
Was planted by my aunt,

A couple of couple of
Years ago, besides the one
That has been there from
My childhood.

It's full of unopened buds,
Easily at least 20 Red flowers
Every morning flirting with
Fresh dew.

If my grandpa were alive
Today, he would have been
Filled with excitement to pluck
Each one of those to offer to

All the all the Gods.
Maybe the almighty would
Have blessed him with
A couple more years of life.

Sad that his expectancy
Fell short by a few flowers.

Enemies of the muse

On every full moon night.
The lake wants to host
The moon.

The moths are the enemy
That wants to feed on
The pie of the light.

The stars are the enemy
That want to fall to have
All the attention they want.

The warevolves and
The vampires. The pragmatists
And the sunlight.

The rain is the enemy that
Wants to ripple the brim by
Shaking up the delight.

You ask me to bring you
The moon too. So I've been
Stealing from the Lake-

Forty-six and counting.
You've been the enemy,
And I have been too..

Unfullfilled

To all the shooting stars
That are just falling.
And all the wishes they
Never fullfill.

To all the letters that
Go unwritten and all
The pens that stutter
Like emotional cripples.

The unworn shoes and
The un-left footprints.
Music discarded and
The songs, forgotten.

The moon has decided
To stop reflecting
The sunlight,
He wants to steal girls-

He's much of a Playboy
Himself these days.

But who's taking care of
The aspiring single lads?
The plant with long,
The narrow, serrated leaves?

The government has
Banned it too.

Architecture of Loneliness

At first, there's an invisible
Demarcation around you,
Within which you get cozy.
Then brick by brick it rises.

This windowless room,
Going no higher than your
Head and no wider than
Your narrow shoulders.

It keeps ricocheting all your
Thoughts back at you.
It's rediscovering yourself
At first.

It's looking within yourself,
Feeling redeemed, then
The self re-enforcement
Grows a thousand layers thick.

You choke on yourself and
Intolerable boredom sets in.

But who's there to talk?
Your voice being repeatedly
Sent back at you by the walls,

You implode in yourself.

In the architecture of loneliness, 

With no shoulders to cry, 

You sulk on your own high and 

That's the saddest kind of life.

Nonchalance

The alphabet while they sit
Side by side to form words.
Do they talk?

And the bank pages, while
They lie upon each other,
Feel the urge to invent a
Language to say it all?

Consider the silence between
The thoughts before they
Get connected, to come out
Of your mouth.

The silence between
The names of lovers etched on
The distant rocks,
After they fall apart.

Consider the silence before
The drum-stick hits the drum
Before your fingers poke
The strings of the guitar, and

The silence before a song falls
On someone's ears and sync
With beats of their heart.
The silence of the river before-

It joins the sea in apprehension.
And the silence of the unfilled
Prayers of the kids who didn't
Get their share of toys.

Scorched earth while it sat
Flaunting it's aridity and
The raindrop before it transferred
To it, Its vulnerability-

Did the silence of both extremes
Feel the urge to shout out
Their union for the sweet pleasure
Of olfactory lobes? Or

The Petrichor is just a fusion
Of reinforced silence to display
The nonchalance of day-to-day
Romance in nature?