I have Moved

Dear Fellow Bloggers,

I have integrated the entire contents of this blog to my new website here. I will not be updating this Blog any longer. This is my first step to integrating my works strewn across multiple web assets and blogs.

I solicit your continued support.

Rajesh
Now@ http://www.worksofrk.com/

A Strand of You

I was on the table

When a strand of your hair came calling.

I could see you in the kitchen,

Your face at once a storm and a breeze.

I curled the single strand of loving you into imagined shapes

And spoke to it of fascinating tales.

And as it played on my fingers,

Twirling, and curling

I could hear the music from its silent songs.

I had half the heart to carry it with me home

And hide it in a book marked you.

It smelt like July Flowers.

It smelt so much of you.

First published in Indian Sahitya, Feb 2017 Issue on Contemporary Indian Poetry

To the Years that are yet to Come

In the long innings of this life, we are like the stage where the drama unravels. The Plays change, the players too come and go. The audience is like the river of time that runs through us. There are bright lights and wonderful stories and some stories that run to empty seats.

Whatever be your story this coming year, pray don't be enamoured by it, nor be bogged down. These are just stories. Stories change. But life as it is, is lived forever between the shows and the silences that follow when the curtains come down.

You are the stage. While you may have a little say in the stories that play out in your life, I hope you learn to enjoy the successful ones, and forgive, or forget, or do both, to the ones that never really took off. This is not a new year wish. It is what I wish for you, every year of your life and for the lifetimes that are yet to come.

Happy All Years.

Suddenly

It was not planned. It was a government office. A private sector bank representative was called in for some support. The person was supposed to come by 10. It was already 12. I was busy on my laptop. Three others in the room were busy in their own works. And then the door opened and she walked in. Just like that.

24 years of thinking about her, and she just walks in. It were as if there was a tear in the fabric of my universe, and she just appeared out of nowhere. We talked like two perfect strangers. If she recognized me, she gave me no indication of that. I wanted to hug her across the table. But that was not why we met.

Later, as we said goodbye and she crossed the busy road, my heart leaped at the familiarity of it all. All these years, and she still jump walked!

Separation

I have worked on many scenarios in my mind. None of the scenarios actually ended up with I having you in my life.

The glaciers will have to melt someday, and so you will say. The ocean floors have to heave now and then, sending unforgiving waves crashing on to unsuspecting lives. Gravity, you would say, is the glue that joins parallel universes. And universes keep falling into each other all the time. Time is fluid. It is not a linear variable. Time is a different thing to a fruitfly and to a child on her winter holiday.

I have explored all your definitions. Not one defines closely, how it will be, when you are no longer with me.