from I See The World

 

I see the world in a reflection.

People reading the book

the epilogue the preface

and the #climax a catchy start.

These people seem so close,

close enough to touch.

Shall I? Oh, let them read,

if they wish, which they do, I think.

#vss365

climax

 

The first time, she was near #climax when a brilliant idea struck him. 

He read it to her once he was finished, with the idea not the act. 

‘Brilliant.’ 

Others agreed. 

Next time, she was less cryptic, ‘Regular Archimedes you are, aren’t you? You and your Eureka...’

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-big-e.html

(un)dying love

 

Writers think, therefore #animate I am.

Hemingway, Carver and I would have got along well. 

Munro and Davis know what I have been through.

But, this writer here is different. She writes about what will happen in my life.

Spooky like hell but worth my (un)dying love.

#vss365

from Never Together Ever Again

 

Like every other young couple, we were curious, excited, ambitious, principled but with rational pragmatism. With each passing year, was it disillusionment or #plain realization? Role-play, complacency, lethargy and resignation took over. Lethargy is the best of the lot.

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2019/12/never-together-ever-again.html

fairy tale

 

12 years back, my sister eloped with a guy of another faith. 

I made it clear she should not be a part of my wedding and life. I received support on social media. #Oblique taunts too but I blocked those.

Today, for my wedding, my bride, her folks and mine were absent.

#vss365

The best part of fiction is that a good reader can get a message even from the worst writing. A good reader can turn a fairy tale into what it would be in reality and be rightfully depressed about life and society.

from Will You Marry Me

 

I was a #fledgling bachelor when a girl asked me: "Will you marry me?"

Many years later, another asked the same. We slept on the question. Next morning:

"Yes." 

"Yes, what?"

“Yes to your question about marriage, you fool.” 

“We talked a lot of nonsense, didn’t we?”

#vss365

from 

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/09/will-you-marry-me.html

diffuse memory

 

"He's ok. Only his memory..." the nurse said.

The young lady entered, adjusting to the light as #diffuse as memory there.

"20 years! Why did you leave Ma and me?"

I stared blankly. 

"It's ok, Pa. I won't leave you. I'm taking him."

That's the only way I can be with her.

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2018/12/this-years-trip-part-1.html

from Weird Jungle

 

Old man with palm on boy’s lap,

   

Tired retired with child banging at the gate,

   

Couple waiting for an anniversary to make love,

   

Young adults measuring future on a faulty #balance,

   

Babies forgetting to feign innocence,

   A jungle where prey turns predator.

#vss365

from

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/11/weird-jungle.html

copy

 

“Thanks for letting me copy. The #Akita one was tricky.”

“Modern surveillance: access, knowledge, intercept, target, annihilate.”

“Mnemonic?”

“What did you write?”

“Cats used as spies.”

“Cats?”

“Isn’t it a cat?”

“What about the UN: with the mnemonic Balls?”

“Ohmigawd!”

#vss365

achievers

 

It was a reunion for the 'achievers', their bosom heavy with imaginary emblazoned #crest.   

But, when she chose to dance with the lone non-achiever we witnessed a revolution.

The capitalists promised sanctions, the socialists cried for equality, the religious sulked. 

#vss365

hate me less, my love

 

If I write a 'pome'

With #fungus and you my love

Will you hate me less?

#haiku ??

#vss365

garnish

 

The receptionist looked up, with her lovely smile.

I raised my hand. That hit a vase. A long jagged splinter pierced the receptionist’s jugular. 

A witness added some #garnish and said I stabbed with that splinter. The receptionist died leaving me in a real pickle.

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-sensible-case.html

nomad

 

I have had to #migrate

To many a school;

Here a boy bit me,

For breaking his catapult;

I was king in the Borneo jungle,

Others saw an idiot;

Homeless I occupied, 

Till I was chased away;

In camouflage,

Refusing local lingo;

A Spartacus defeated 

Before first fight.

#vss365

from The Kiss

 

Our heads tilted to the right.

‘65% of people do that.’

'Not 100%?'

Other thoughts: whether we were plagiarizing Rodin; or the act in 'Notorious'; if love would have made it different. 

Some men think it is tastier if the woman has cooked a #succulent roast for him. 

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-kiss.html

discord

 

‘Aren’t you Comrade Lonappan? I am Woman Rajamma.’

Their meetings were brief and quick to the point of #discord.

‘These idiots who carry their religion on their sleeves, they are actually happy with each other.’

‘And you think that is being secular? You are an idiot.’

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2015/08/comrade-lonappan-and-writers-corner.html

tropes

 

The first  speaker listed six #tropes each of detective, erotic and romance fiction. Told us to write a sentence that will sell.

“The dead billionaire with red bottoms made her come instantly without waiting for coffee to remind her that she is a detective.”

I got a F.

#vss365

Utopia

 

Why are we born in chains,

One role to the next?

 

Give me one:

 

Without barter, 

Without vows, 

Without a black book of credits-debits;

  

Not to share trouble, stale jokes,

Not to judge, without pretense;

One to trust, with faith,

One even Death cannot part;

 

Is that Utopia?

from '4% Deal'

unity

 

After an argument about our religions, I muttered, "Wear a burqa. From within that, your views about #unity will sound ok."

Got a message, after 3 days of separation, "Come to my place."

A person wearing black abaya and niqab opened the door, the smiling eyes familiar.

#vss365

Borrowed from my short story, 'Love Jihad':

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2016/06/love-jihad_46.html

dredged

 

She waited for his reply. 

His mind dredged up the remains of a dream. 

In that, near two parallel #rail tracks, he was reciting Emily Bronte’s poem ‘Remembrance’.

He was lying across one. Train after train went past him on the other. 

"Do you love me?" she repeated.

#vss365

from 

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/12/4-deal.html

 

buried

 

At a party, met a guy like me in the smoking room.

-What do you miss the most?

-Old me who would #rail about all. You?

-Last friend. 35 years this May.

-Really?

-Buried.

(Silence till third ciggie.)

-Married?

-Buried.

-She too?

-No, me.

-Yeah, that stopped my cribbing.

#vss365 

summoned

 

Last month, our son got us summoned with: 

"You might know your mother

But never be too sure 

About your father."

This time, we were facing the Principal because of our daughter's essay:

"My traditional parents think matrimony is one one-night #stand after another."

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2019/11/another-rotten-day.html

another world

 

Woke up in a world:

Time's meaningless,

Arrow flips 

Randomly/chaotically;

Space isn't space,

Gravity's twisted  

By mirthless defects;

Duality's old school,

With waves, particles,

Hidden functions;

Love's still love,

Fiction till experience ends,

Schrödinger's cat's gamble.

flood

 

I held her around her waist.

‘Let me lead this dance, ok?’

‘Remember Titanic?’

‘Don’t worry. If I fall, I will #take you down with me.’

‘Of all the shitholes, in all the towns, in all the world, he had to wade into mine.’

‘We will always have this flood?’ 

She nodded.

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/09/reading-diaries.html

time to go

 

‘Why didn’t you meet her?’

‘I love her. I can’t #take another goodbye.’

‘You two could be together.’

He shook his head.

‘My world is shrinking. It’s time to go.’

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/05/time-to-go.html

fighting

 

When did I stop fighting?

In that rat race

For status and money;

For love and affection,

Respect and high priority;

To lead, to convince others,

To shout what I think is right;

To cut another notch,

For another trophy;

Was it the day

I was fine alone?

school game

 

In our school game '#go' (not Chinese one), one was locked up with a 'disagreeable' person.

I played with: A thought I was after her, B thought I threw the duster at her, C called Pygalgia, D thought I was after his love.

Gone: breath, front tooth, appetite, senses. 

#vss365

the note

 

The day I died:

Poets had a field day, 

Sky blue, birds chirping,

Flowers and flies flirting;

A new-born love kissed

In front of the hospital,

The rickshaw driver sang; 

The sun did not set, 

The moon remained,

You became immortal;

Did I leave a note 

Admitting I killed you?

matrimony

 

Anil gets lashes of the whip from his jail #warden. Rohit’s sulks; Shekar’s is still bemused; Philip’s is a sympathetic male. My wife’s gang had the same joke about matrimony. We  lock each other in one cell, shower together and crib about freedom lost and love found.

#vss365

stranger

 

I met a stranger.

His anecdotes

Thro' sepia filter

I can't place.

Alone on a cliff

of Trieste/Cargèse, 

Staring at the sea

Before/after she left;

Punch-drunk,

Unsteady 

Rising for next round

For bloody fight's sake.

"I was there

With you."

 

"Get lost!

Those eyes ain't mine."

fidelity

 

My wife and a man were in Fidalgo coffee shop. In Hotel Shalimar, his wife and I watched them.

He saw us, raced across, angrily grabbed her hand. They walked away.

"That rascal didn't pay the bill," my wife said.

"She too, even finished off my #slice of apple pie."

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2017/07/coffee-with-another.html

together

 

After my wife and her boyfriend died, we got together for 'therapy'.

“If they come back, I will let them be together.”

“Same here.”

“Will we be so charitable?”

“We won't have a choice in that matter either.”

“Damn them!”

We waited for a #sentence that would help.

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2016/05/in-between.html

the two phases

 

When young and now old: 

He believes in others, 

Cares and expects.

But, he's low priority.

There was another phase 

With no care no expectations.

She came into his life then.

With love, trust, yes, trust. 

Is it strange 

he now tries

The fickle phase  

Not that gave him life?

division of labour

 

They learned the tricks of the trade, the matrimonial barter a coy exchange for mutual satisfaction. He got the cooking and cleaning, she the washing and ironing. The #division of labour was roughly equal. He was allowed his teddy. At times, she fought for that company.

#vss365

From

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/01/an-inequality-between-equals.html

silence of memories

 

Stop the #racket!

Ha! My brain replied.

Just past six. Lights not on. 

Light shower and setting sun flirted. 

Shadows stretched towards her. 

Myriad hues in those eyes. 

Lashes, smile, tears mine/hers.

Can't bear the silence of memories? Miss her? Not yet brain dead?

#vss365

From 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2016/06/love-jihad_46.html

from 'The Match'

 

During the lockdown, I went to arrange my nephew's marriage, well-masked, with social distancing.

A lovely young voice and I discussed food and TV shows.

My nephew wooed another, "#Hail to thee, blithe spirit."

We had talked to the girl and her mother, respectively. 

#vss365

Last year, in lockdown-induced delirium, I recorded the short story 'The Match' (8 minutes) from which this has been borrowed.

https://soundcloud.com/user-189288629/the-match/s-jd2giXwxzyw

Something light-hearted for morbid times.

A comedy of errors.

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-match.html

#fiction

#WritingCommunity

cycle of life

 

How tough it is 

To write a love poem

With scientific terms?

Romance has to deal with truth.

With such speed

We made love. 

At the end

We wondered 

If it was all

For nought.

Such are the ways 

Of oscillatory motion,

cycle of life,

yin-yang

and the arrow

Of #velocity.

#vss365