The Bakery

 

1.

I felt like an old poacher, 

without a gun, on unfamiliar territory. 

It used to be a hunting ground, 

when it was a hideaway, 

before it became a copycat coffee-shop, 

before there were too many friends, 

virtual and real, 

when communication needed thought. 

Casual encounters must have been rare even then. 

At best, a look or two, a rare smile. 

Now, that is not even a dream, 

the weight of experience 

is a drag on such quick wit. 

2.

I saw a best friend of old; 

she looked through me; 

that was not unexpected. 

Most people there seem busy, 

that’s not new; 

it’s always been a crime, 

a shame, to have time. 

If we had talked, 

we would have promised to meet again, 

not really a false promise, 

with too little hope. 

If we met again, 

we would have wondered 

when we became strangers. 

Or not wondered at all. 

3.

I smiled, inwardly, at two couples. 

There was always a Che Guevara and a Joan Baez, 

in t-shirts and old jeans, with wild hair and borrowed air. 

In a few years, they would become the other, 

dressed in formals, talking softly 

between clicks on their laptop or smartphone. 

Some will be sad, disillusioned and lost by then; 

most will have dreams, opportunities, 

expensive lingerie 

and a vacation at the Majora in the Maldives. 

The bakery always had a privileged touch, 

even when the puffs were five rupees 

and two could share 

couple of parotta and beef curry for twenty. 

There is too much body-spray now, 

yet the body stinks, 

too little cigarette smoke, 

not enough soda. 

How do they rebel now–

by going organic, 

by exchanging a few characters as protest, 

wanting to be a billionaire by twenty five?

Don’t get me wrong. 

I would not have noted all this 

if I had not met her. 

4.

She was two years my senior in school. 

We acted in a drama once. 

She was my mother, 

I the black sheep of the family. 

She slapped me, hard, 

the audience went quiet, 

it was that real, 

she got the best actor award 

and I nearly cried. 

Was that before or after 

that day I jumped out of a bus, 

ran to her and offered 

to carry two heavy bags of shopping? 

She had let me. That was fine then. 

We walked side by side, hardly talked. 

I deposited the shopped bags, 

she invited me inside, 

her parents and sister stood by her. 

I said, next time. She said, thank you. 

5. 

We noticed each other 

at the same instant. 

She said my name, 

without hesitation. 

I smiled, 

raised my hand to my cheek. 

She laughed. 

She collected her coffee, 

I a chocolate pastry. 

I took her to my old spot. 

We hardly talked. 

She sipped her coffee. 

I took a bite of my pastry. 

I looked at her. 

How did I offer the pastry–

a gesture with my eyes? 

Did we think about the baggage we carried, 

or about the weight of indiscretion? 

Did I make a move to get her another spoon, 

or did I not? 

She took the plastic spoon from my hand 

and had a small portion. 

I watched her lips and tongue 

take in the rich chocolate, 

the spoon in her mouth, 

the delicate suck on that. 

Back to me, 

then to her, 

we made the pastry last 

a dozen or more small turns. 

Someone there must have noted 

our few-moments-stand. 

They might say we thanked each other at the end. 

She did not. I did not. I did.

The message in parenthesis, 

the present isn’t bad at all, 

or the future, 

with hope in such a past.

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-bakery.html

the bogs

 

When I see the most beautiful hideouts,

the most romantic places where I could be with you,

high in the mountains with clouds beneath us

or in a cosy cottage in the middle of a lagoon,

I hear the old college-hostel battle-cry, 

"Where the fcuk are the bogs?"

secure

 As a lover, a partner in strange beds, homes

with half-lies, faked orgasms, true charades,

The barter for old times’ sake, to be safe, #secure, I gave,

they looked at me with pleasure, that as love, I took.

#vss365

from

https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2011/02/best-thing.html

tragicomedy

 

"How did your love end, A?"

"Oh, S! It was a tragicomedy of errors."

"With you, the error part is a given. Tell me about the tragicomic part."

"Used hombre instead of #ombré in a message."

"What did you write?"

"Your new hombre style made me realize why I love you."

#vss365

from war movies

 I hate war movies.

We don't shed a #tear

When foot soldiers die like fire-flies.

We don't get irritated

When the officers last till the end

And the political leaders

(Don't die don't die don't die)

Write a memoir about a war

They led from the front.

I hate war movies.

#vss365 

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2017/08/war-movies.html

The Curse

 

When she removed her mask,

Did she know about the curse? 

The old warrior has to #retreat

From the shadows into the darkness.

He smiles wistfully at the old him,

The rebel fighting lost battles.

The curse won't allow that fight,

As he sinks into the amnesiac void.

#vss365

native

 

They say my father is an Iban (a #native tribe of Borneo, erstwhile head-hunters). I smell like them, family jokes. Is it the smell of longhouse, cockfights, spilled blood, tuak (rice liquor), the earthy scent of their women? They don't say that when I polish my parang.

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2015/06/family-joke.html

punishing

 

There should be a #limit

To one's bad luck.

Why am I between

The devil and the deep sea?

Literally, 

Figuratively! 

In a ménage à trois 

with a Martian and a lover;  

One knows not how to #invade,

The other knows not why.

Such punishing philosophy 

And psychology!

#vss365

angst

 

The narcissistic Net! 

It's the biggest revolution 

after the all-purpose nightdress;

 

cure for mid-life crisis, 

release of angst; 

to forget snail mail to agony aunts, 

to cook up news; 

and, of course, 

to contact old best-forgotten pals, 

compare visiting cards.

#vss365

from 

https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/12/fare-thee-well-or-after-reading-larkin.html

On the beach

 

On the beach, the day before the rains... --- --- --- 'Monsoon will be here tomorrow,' the Met Dept. said. It's late. Maybe the early May showers left it spent. The schoolkids' new books and shoes should be drying Under the fan on the dining table. Those are still dry.

Strange dark clouds are gathering in the east (why east?), Too weak to be the real mob. Above, a half-moon teased. To the west, bright blue sky and the evening sun beckoned. I knew I had to be on the beach, the day before the rains.

There, I should have prayed to the evening sun. But a lovely young one, A twenty something I should not look at, stood between Sad hopeless me and the sun. I could look at her mother But she looked like me, company fit for the lovely one's father.

I scowled for a while, kicked at the wet sand, But it's tough to keep up that mood on the beach. I took long strides and raced to the setting sun, Like a dog after a ball, I chased the waves.

Some time soon, I will swim to the deep, I promised. The blue sky and the stars above me, the dark deep beneath, I will try to float for a few moments, to tell her, 'I am coming, my love, we have been separated too long.'

They might find a bloated corpse, eaten, rotten. The romantic will say, 'He did it for love.' The cynical friend might add, '...after many decades. How convenient!' They might not find me if it rains well.

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/06/on-beach-day-before-rains.html

ghosts

 

Kundra took me everywhere.

We explored the hills, prayed at the crack/abode of the sacred king cobra that leaves a golden #trail.

He took me to the three rivers’ junction. I met her there. 

"Are you here alone?" she asked.

"What are you smiling at?" Kundra asked. 

#vss365

from 

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/08/stochastic-resonance.html

from I think

 

I chose to dwell on lighter stuff.

To the ones who would die in the days to come

I turned my back to protect my life's love.

His girl was religion and #nation, mine too.

So dangerous it has turned out to be,

With no guts to face our femme fatale.

#vss365

from 

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2021/10/i-think.html

from My Funny Valentine

 

Swapna met her love on V-Day at Pappu's on Campus. 

Manoj hugged her. Handsome, well-read, passionate.

Raju sat opposite. He shook like a dysfunctional wet grinder when he ate/laughed.

Shekhar leaned against a #pillar. He gave her a bored one-raised-eyebrow look.

Me?

#vss365

from 

https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-funny-valentine.html

fighting

 

Relocated,

after the second nuke,

to the dark side of the moon,

We still fight:

Those who knew what an #aspen was

Versus teak-lovers, 

Every growth mere memory now;

Them who want one suit for all

Versus those in their god's colour

For us the blind to see; 

etc. etc.

#vss365

numero uno

 

Believe it or not,

I was a #wunderkind of sorts.

Even that came with 

admiration & expectation.

Then, I was a genius 

In being the iconoclast.

Sounds great,

Like a bumbling fool.

She came along,

Love & lust followed.

She was & is numero uno,

The only one to be within.

#vss365

some wives will smile

 

In such situations, most wives will use a #featherlight scalpel to slice the better half from ear to ear. 

Others will smile. That is a result of love, care and trust. That is, she accepts the sad but true cliché: for some men, there is only one woman.

So, she smiled.

#vss365

from my short story 'Love in the Time of Ayurvedic Viagra'.

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2012/02/love-in-time-of-viagra.html

flicker

 

Once, you refused to open your eyes hiding the last #flicker. I shouted a stupid silent I-love-you. I touched your forehead, your lips before I switched off the ventilator, before the cold entered. Damn it, woman! Open your eyes! I didn't cry. I don't cry. I won't cry.

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-see.html

isolate

 

He followed them to the old abandoned boat-house. He watched them enact their version of 'Rebecca' with no second chance. The man held the woman's head beneath the surface of water, counting the bubbles till there were none. There, they #isolate love and discard future.

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html

angry shadows

 

He stared at the roughly hewn steps. 

He remembered the cottage at the top, the #anxiety aborted dreams gave birth to, the quarrelling. 

He saw angry loud shadows race past him. 

He felt a cold silence. Those ghosts had sucked the air and created a vacuum around him.

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html

from Kiss of Life

 

Some VVIP was expected. There was a rally. 

I #surrendered to the emotion of the moment. 

I ran to my wife. Kissed her, like that kiss in Life magazine.

Then, it was all a blur. 

At first, I heard mata ki jai. Then, it was kuththey...patti...adikkada...maaro. 

#vss365

(Translation censored for the sake of global audience.)

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2017/05/kiss-of-life.html

other lives

 

5/24/3022 : 10:52

I fumbled briefly during the office presentation. Two other lives exerted their influence. 

The orgasm with Ann coincided with the moment my nemesis, my twin, left me #paralyzed. That caused that brain fade.

The other lives were less eventful today.

#vss365

from

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/12/12-31-3010.html

lonely till company left

 

I was in a meeting when she called. Remembered her husband, switched off my mobile. Took the team to a wine bar. Went home with a lady, felt lonely till the company left at the #break of dawn.

Returned her call.

"Hi."

“He died last night.”

She disconnected. Or, I did.

#vss365

from

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/07/last-time-i-wrote-about-love.html

waiting

"I'm done with the waiting." Said that to many a love. Leaving every dream, every love, never waiting. Defeating myself? I used to say that to her too. But, she knew I would wait. She was my life after all. How could I desert that? Then, she went. And, I'm done with the waiting.

 

job interview

 

It's tough to #predict the outcome of job interviews. 

“I've a green card. Will you come with me?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Do you like cooking?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want kids?”

“Yes.”

“I want two. Organic. Did you want a love marriage?”

“Me?”

“Love's better arranged,” she said.

#vss365 

from

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/07/catharsis-before-wedding.html

which one

 

I can remember plots and characters but names and faces slip away fast.  

Yesterday, I had dinner with two colleagues and their wives. I am in an affair with one of the wives, nothing regular. 

One smiled sweetly. The other scowled. 

Which one, that broke my #reverie.

#vss365

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2015/05/jigsaw.html

awestruck

 

Are you not #awestruck

By the common sight around?

Common affliction.

#vss365

#haiku ?

#sernyu ?

Two contract workers at a bus-stand. She, late teens; her husband, a few years older. 

He shouts at her. From within her blouse, she takes out a Rs 500 note. He snatches it from her small hand. He marches off in the direction of a liquor shop. Her dark unblinking eyes follow his back. 

The bus starts. The husband returns. Shouts about how hungry he is, how he could not get anything with the Rs 500 note. He gives her the note. She slips it within her blouse, treasures it next to her small firm bosom. As they move towards the bus, she gives him two ten rupee notes for the bus-tickets. They touch briefly, then. He stands behind her in that departing bus, his arms shielding her.

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html

life without...

 

The early morning light crept across the lake. He noticed a lone figure on another balcony. 

They shared the same scene, birdsong, touch and smell of cool air with a faint tinge of eucalyptus.

They looked at each other before going back to a life without #imagination.

#vss365

from 

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html

attack

 

The day we caught our cousin Indira with our football rival Sasi, we attacked him with iron bars, thick sticks and cycle chains. 

I met Indira, Sasi, their kids recently. He walks with a limp. He caught me looking at his skewed face where #parallel lines met. He smiled.

#vss365

from

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-football-days.html

how I met

 

I was in a crowded train with no #sign of hope/life. 

The young lady next to me, when she had to feed her baby, sat cross-legged facing me & the window. With arm on raised knee, I shielded her from the male gaze around.

"That's how I met your mother. And you, my son."

#vss365

from   

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2012/03/her-smile.html

without an end

I killed the women I loved. People say it's because we were opposites. My loves were kind, friendly. I was just a filler, I resented that, the motive-seekers say. I killed them to kill myself, to suffer without an #end. Why am I admitting this in my last note?

#vss365

false tales

 

After the first peg,

We discussed: wife, job, travel,

Chest puffed out et al.

After the second,

Remembered: old loves, bad lives,

#Weavers of false tales. 

Who counts after that,

Silencing truth till we puked.

"Who the hell am I?"

#vss365

 

young couple

 

In a restaurant, you observe young couples and remember.

You remember a place, you and another, a place not so fancy, but you two were a young couple in love. The food, the place, the money, none of that mattered. You two were priority number one to each other. Family did not matter, work, ambition, none of that mattered. You felt safe and loved.

You are woken from that reverie. 

"Stop ogling at those young couples."

You laugh. 

They ask, "What were you thinking?"    

You say, "Old stuff."

They say, "Whatever."

barrier

 

We thought there would be

A #barrier between love 

and indifference.

#vss365

#haiku ?

#sernyu ?

alien concept

 

Spring '23. The aliens amongst us stepped into the shoes of the top 3%. Minimal #tension for the rest. 

When I brought it home:

"Of what god/caste is it?" "How will you do it?"

"It's for love," I replied.  

That stretched the family motto: amor est in aliena conceptu.

#vss365

If Google has given me the wrong translation, don't blame me. 

VR

 

Enter. Five flights of stairs. A dark hall. 

A brunette with dark eyes, pouting lips, cream chiffon blouse, deep décolletage, leads with a lit #candle to a narrow steep spiral staircase. 

Blue jeans, those legs...

Trip. 

"I hate this VR version of snakes & ladders!"

#vss365

from 

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/11/shrinking-hope-near-innsbrucker-platz.html

before I could

 

"Remember our last meeting?"

"A week before your wedding."

"In that seedy restaurant."

"I thought the #diamond ring would shine bright even there."

"Diamond..."

"You gave me your wedding invitation card before I could give you that."

"Oh!"

"I still have it."

"But..."

#vss365

diary

 

"There is no #teaching worth learning," my kid said.

"You shouldn't learn such stuff."

"It's in your diary."

"Anything in that diary about love and wife?" wife asked.

I looked at my son. He returned a blank-eyed stare. 

Finally, I understood the last scene in 'The Omen'.

#vss365

time to leave

 

It's time to leave.

22 months back, I lost my job in the Middle-East. Thought I had enough. My parents were the first to tell me to go. Nothing #mysterious about that. Then, her folks. She kept mum. No more fights on SM about men-women equality, about love conquers all.

#vss365

mage

 

It's congenital:

I, the #mage, make things happen.

Without luck, always.

#vss365

#BanBadHaiku

prison

 

Can’t you be like them

And feel good in my #prison?

Nope, love! Freedom first.

#vss365

#haiku (definitely not, yet again)

quarantine

 

My writing has been

#quarantined or worse banished

without the hashtag

#vss365

#haiku (surely, I am joking)

Hosism

 

There is a politician in my constituency who frequently throws unfamiliar and big English words at his hoi polloi, that too for free. His work has been immortalized with the word 'Tharoorism'.

That must be why my uncle Hosappan has started responding to situations with German words. Will it be 'Hosism' or 'Hosappism', I wonder. Since our German is worse than our English, we have no idea if he is getting it right.

After talking to a friend who is thinking of divorce, he said: "Schadenfreude."

After trying to counsel that friend's troubled wife, "Vorfreude."

After his first date with her, "Waldeinsamkeit."

After meeting his friend after that date, "Sitzpinkler."

After the couple rode off into the sunset in Hosappan's car, "Kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung."

why marry

 

"Beware the Ides of May."

"May is the cruelest month."

"Hanging and wiving goes by bad luck."

"Lovers whose bodies stink of each other...forever!"

"Why marry like the lusty Moor that leap'd into that #idea?"

"Bro, for fools' approval and honour, with strings and pains."

#vss365

(An experiment with not-so-humble apologies to Messrs William S. and T. Stearns E.)

poetic wall

 

"I love you."

"Rumi said: You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens."

"No Roomie-Shoome now. Break down your poetic #wall. Talk to me without your Plate and Dickens."

"Plath and Dickinson."

"Love!"

"I don't love you."

"So, that's what all that poetry says..."

#vss365

girlfriend

 

I met one of my first girlfriends. From kindergarten days.

We talked about love and marriage, that is, her kid's love and marriage.

Moral of the story: Always allow your love to go with someone else for them to live happily ever after. (Added benefit: There will be fewer love poems.)

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