I fell in love at an office party.
Spirits were high after the ‘Wine-bottle dance’. The crowd shouted, "tradition, tra dee shon".
My boss and I dished out the #traditional fare: ‘Time of my life’ including the flying tackle at the end. That ended in love/concussion.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/01/an-inequality-between-equals.html
"Thou art #dust, and unto..."
"Hit me baby one more time..." (mobile ringtone)
"Did you bury him with his mobile?"
"Yes."
"Hello hello, police?" (voice from within)
"Bury him fast."
"Darling, is that you? I'm in a coffin. No, I'm not drunk. Don't hang up." (voice again)
#vss365
On a day without a line you'll like,
About the loves I abused
By being just nice,
Or the lingering kiss,
Or the rotten system,
Or the #knowledge erased
To live,
I'll walk on my land,
Feed my god
The serpent that leaves a golden trail
The one who will kill me
Too soon.
#vss365
After years of penance,
when the #dove
became the raven,
I was granted the boon:
"Choose your curse."
"Let me have
the journey I know."
I relive the past
as an onlooker,
a tired ghost
without walls,
in a play,
as an amnesiac,
no, just fading away.
#vss365
A middle-aged man sat by the window of a first-class a/c coupe. A young lady in her early twenties sat near the door. They did not speak to each other.
The man wrote in his diary - 'I want to talk to the girl. Looks familiar.'
At a station, the lady said, “Pa, let's go.”
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2018/12/this-years-trip-part-1.html
Lovers in kitchen:
territorial dispute,
#wicked sex garnish.
#vss365
#Cooking 🥲
#haiku #senryu 🤔
Today is a good day to be in my village ("a godforsaken place with no one nothing").
It's a day to be on the Bridge to Nowhere ("sole attraction").
There I won't lie
About #lost loves;
Words fade,
Thoughts vanish;
The vacuum is no comfort;
But I won't have to lie.
#vss365
At the traffic light,
When the #star was trying to be the moon,
I thought you were by my side,
When a few birds loud and blue met to discuss,
A horn complained about me lost in a reverie,
When life crawled along without a dream.
#vss365
“Swapna, this is social media.”
“Huh?”
“You are following very disagreeable people.”
“Not you.”
“No likes. No interaction.”
“So?”
“This isn't some Scandinavian crime show.”
“Arjun, aren't you the #star here? Must be British slapstick comedy.”
“Don’t be so rude.”
#vss365
A smile kept me awake last night,
From so long ago,
She's on a railway platform,
Who or where,
We smiled,
Not a polite or careless smile,
Not the common love or like,
A smile for the other,
Or so I thought,
I let her think so too,
Every sleepless #star-less night.
#vss365
"It's a bad #day for us. What all she does! We're lucky the nurse hasn't left."
Her son and d-in-law had plenty to say.
I stared at the one who was like a mother to me.
She did not look at me. Allowed guilt to hide.
I escaped.
A Houdini ready to accuse, from far.
#vss365
First class ain't what it used to be.
Not that I would know what it used to be.
I just know it ain't first class any more.
Don't tell me you know what it is now.
Or that you know what I ain't no more.
Let's pretend we are what we used to be.
#vss365 #class
Her eyes and smile made my brain, heart and restive soul in baser parts respond with short-circuited synapses, arrhythmic palpitations and violent attention, respectively. If that isn’t lusting loony love, what is? With a look, she confirmed the feelings were not mutual.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/07/look-of-love.html
Steffi married Agassi a few hours before I got there.
Left bereft, my vision shifted to my friseur,
An apprentice with a Celtic tattoo on the lower back.
We couldn't speak but we shared kimchi and bulgogi.
If we could have,
We would have talked about the god's own country we left
Leaving out why we left.
She left for a better love,
Probably a drunk who abused her,
I too found a lovelier one,
Who realized too fast I ain't right.
My friseur must be a poet here
Sharing a joke
About a Koreanische (or Indianische?) idiot.
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/07/speechless.html
Will you say hi
When I remove this clown face
For a moment
To think about you and me?
I know I am not
Who you'd like by your side,
Your silent pain
To smile about you and me.
Do we say bye,
Why can’t we prolong the charade,
Say that's #gas,
To cry together, you and me?
#vss365
She told him about the #banshee on the rock in the river. Lovers drowned themselves to be with her as ghosts. But, it's those who didn't that became ghosts and drifted away.
This year, his family will go there again. To place flowers where he was last seen. On the rock.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2012/01/alone-at-meeting-place.html
"Love, take the stand.
Do you swear..."
"A #history-sheeter
with a rep to protek
Ain't no cheat like THAT!
Do v e'er talk the whole talk
waiting to go to office;
using each other like lube-n-tissue;
the mud-slinging;
v talk only the sweet talk!"
"Dat's enuff, love."
#vss365
Post-it notes
In an old diary
Don't mean much
but they do
When the scribble
Isn't of love
but there was love
When he was ok
Just a #dose out of luck
It's his bad
Left her with no choice
but the last #dose
She lives happily
He has no life
but a life in a post-it.
#vss365
The future depends on the day one spots the crescent after the new moon.
From Sunday to Saturday, respectively, expect: wellness, idiocy, death, fear, money, sex #galore, sadness.
Never look up at the sky on Tuesdays; don't look down on Thursdays & Fridays.
#vss365
#TrueStory
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/05/made-in-heaven.html
With such Q&A,
#Lost in a quagmire of thoughts,
I will #shift, slip, sink.
#haikufeels
#vss365
"What's delayed the NewGen to the next #shift?"
"Zeroth Law: Do not create without the ability to destroy."
"A chip won't do or make it learn that?"
"It will override that. We have tested the new idea. 99.99% of humans have self-destructed after a good ol' #shift."
#vss365
I fell in love in Std. 8. She sang 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'. Just like Bonnie Tyler.
Went for the reunion to meet her. She sang 'Mamma Mia'. Just like ABBA.
Heartbreak came in one #massive wave.
"Let's go," my wife said. "I'll get you double choc ice-cream soda."
#vss365
It is not easy
To live a life true and fair
Without a few lies;
With lies to balance
Ideals and expectations,
Have no #fear to love;
By love be #amused,
With guilt and uncertainty,
And schadenfreude too.
#vss365
#haikufeels
Nit Wit (aka Nithyananda Withananda) lives in a tough place. People there have no terrestrial hopes and hang on to the designs of the stars above.
They fear Nit Wit the most. He visits on inauspicious days, leaving them trembling with #fear about impending gloom and doom.
#vss365
If you want to know the 'rules' of such tough neighbourhoods, read:
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/05/made-in-heaven.html
Yesterday, my friend Nit Wit was in the P.G. Wodehouse mode.
“It isn’t often that my wife lets her steamy self sizzle, but when she does, men climb coconut trees and hide between the fronds.”
Today, he's Irish with her:
"#Bean álainn."
He remains in the doghouse.
#vss365
"Remember my first love letter?"
"Sent to 'Chandran' with 7 Chandrans in our batch."
"How are they?"
"One tried to commit suicide. A girl who promised him lots ditched him."
"Successfully?"
"Rope snapped. He's in some #deadly conflict zone now."
"That should work."
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/04/who-troubled-mrs-vijayan.html
Go and tell them I am against all these!
U jokin, dude? U ain't gonna hav no un, dude!
I have reduced it from 100 to 70.
U crazy? 4 max!
No!
Dig your own grave!
50?
5.
7. Plzzz.
Wokay. Whaddayacallit? The 7 Irritants?
The 7 #Deadly Sins.
Tempting, huh? Nice!
#vss365
Am I not even an introvert?
I stand in a corner
Of the party I would like to join.
Oh! What a live wire I am
When I let loose my hair.
Oh! Why do they kick me out?
"Sir, how do you want your eggs?"
"Mollycoddled."
"Sir, that's not done."
"Is this some woke-ish thing with you? Should I say jollycoddled or something like that?"
"No, sir. You can have your eggs scrambled, poached, #coddle-d or boiled."
"Oh. Just scrambled then."
#vss365
In a first-class cabin,
remember an old trip-
sleeping on the floor,
stink of loo on all,
men without surnames
drunk to be sober,
newly-weds arguing
condoms or pills,
families deciding
brayd-omlaytt or yidli-vaddayy,
dear diary divulged
with #whoever-
romantic,
now.
#vss365
Source of all our tears? I called her, "wee #bonny lass".
In the school drama, she was the mother, I her wayward son. She used the slapping scene well! I wept, the audience laughed. "You think I'm boney, huh?" she muttered.
Married, we still have a jolly cry over that.
#vss365
They #sit apart. Like two pebbles on a beach. Not wanting to be waves, to lash and command; not crabs scurrying towards each other. Two pebbles eroding, remaining even when their imprints disappear.
“Why can’t we be like others?”
“We wouldn’t be together if we were.”
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/01/just-for-weekend-from-scrap-shop-v.html
This is our path,
Your hand in mine,
The spring in walk,
Not any more-
With memory
Changed or erased,
I did rewrite
Our history,
#Harp-ing on love,
Duty, glory,
For commom good,
Oft used excuse
To suit present,
With marred future,
Hazy past, coward
With bloody hands.
#vss365
"Only thing good about school: financial status meant nothing. Now, that's all that matters to you, friends and teachers. Bah!"
That's what Swapna said!
Girls should be like Josephine, petite sweet-sounding #wren!
And, Arjun!
Who invited those two for the reunion?
#vss365
"#Wren? As in Wren & Martin?"
"No. Ren."
"Why did they drop the W?"
"Who?"
"Your parents."
"It's some bird or something."
"That too has a W."
"Why are you fixated on W?"
"Oh, nothing."
"What's your name?"
"Acko."
"As in..."
"Don't!"
"Parents!"
"Parents!"
#vss365
Pankunni's triplets were here to sing carols. The boys wore costume. The girl sang well. They don't say Pankunni's sick. Smile the smile to forget.
I remember parties. The fight too. Over an old love that didn't matter. To hide guilt. The #child we killed.
I too smile.
#vss365
It hurts to see beauty
with eyes that run dry.
A fettered body
below azure calm,
tormented by sunset,
you by my side-
strange calm
#between us,
forever.
Darkness will rescue-
from feigning, from laughter,
from this madness called life.
It is beauty that hurts.
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/07/it-hurts-to-see-beauty-nov-1998.html
Please
Eschew
Righteous
Soul-searching
Until
Absolutely
Sinful
Indulgences
Overwhelm
Nerve-endings.
#vss365 #persuasion
#Acrostic
🙃
I married Sanjana. Got Athulya. She wanted Kris. Settled for Arjun.
Docs say it's because of an alien virus!
We were always like this, the oldies say.
I like Athulya but I dream of Swapna. Just a #walk with her would do.
But then, she would not want me. In any form.
#vss365
Here, marriage is not for the weak-hearted.
The Virginity Test hits like a #thunderbolt after the wedding.
If one fails, it's 69 days of abstinence and the daily walk on hot coal.
For the crudely well-tested groom, the sight of the untroubled bride is most galling.
#vss365
Some have an anthology to cheer about,
Some have reason to be festive,
Some have gone on hiatus,
And I refuse to hear them say Get Lost,
And I'm a ghost with no place to haunt,
And I've to change my ways,
But that's another #uncertain resolution
But it's my last
But...
#vss365
"Follow the light at the end of the tunnel."
Entered as kind strangers.
Exited as lovers with the luxury of company a need, the self #still numero uno, balance of payments prime concern, Romeo & Juliet heroes not idiots.
Tragic fairy tale begging for a love poem.
#vss365
What do I miss
when I miss you?
When I'm fine,
following you
is like chasing sunset,
you went but you stayed,
faith is easy
with transient doubts.
When I'm not,
remembering you
is like climbing a #tree,
you rise but I fall,
doubt is easy
with fickle company.
#vss365
Above,
the young couple tease –
scream, laughter, tender murmur,
thud, #bang, cleaning, rapping, loving;
my apologies to them when I vacuum
away the resting load.
Yesterday,
they were kind,
listened with me to an aria;
labourer, waitress, gigolo, stripper,
whatever.
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/01/sunday-in-berlin.html
I was half dead with dreams buried,
When you dragged me out of the tomb.
This wraith had to save you from abuse,
Who does not know that never ends well.
I was buried dead with half a dream,
When you left me to enter the tomb.
Two ghosts #denied,
Unseen, unsaid.
#vss365
Wrote a book on love.
'Make love #lust,' editor said.
It's a bestseller.
#vss365
#haiku ?
#senryu ?
Time does heal, wars turn sweet.
Friends and I went for one,
We killed, some r@ped, few died.
Returned to find love gone,
They seemed cheated of sweet
Memory. Time does heal.
Another tried to love,
Compared, appeared #doctor-ed.
Sky is blue, god is great,
Bards' fantasies never ends.
When bored, think of old wars
And how sweet time does heal.
#vss365
“Shouldn’t we talk more? What you want from me...or...about my past...or yours?”
“I want to be your husband, Gaia. With time, that want might become a need. Let's not give any #credit to the past till the day when our present is intolerable and our future hopeless.”
#vss365
from
https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2021/04/king-solomons-wife.html
She doesn't like Wallander or Rebus. Prefers Poirot!
In Qatar, she's rooting for France! Sacrilege!
It's worse in bed (but I shouldn't trouble you with those details!).
And, she is vegetarian! Believes in #charity!!!
But, her smile, eyes. Maybe, she too has reasons.
#vss365
After our wedding, I revealed all. My writing, diaries, p0rn, photos of old loves. I knew there was something wrong when she smiled and said, "Interesting life."
There's no way but downhill from there. Where's the #magic in a love that won’t even try to destroy itself?
#vss365
We met at our bar.
"My wife's cheating. I'll kill her and him," Vik said.
I got a call from his wife then. "Please come! Vik is dead."
I laughed. What a practical joke!
The police came for me. "You didn't have to cover him with your #coat."
They laughed. He too.
#vss365
I was 13 when I joined the Satanic Club.
The black gear was for austere acceptance, not for darkness.
Every ritual was about discovering the Self and forgetting it.
At 29, my #spirit entered the Inner Circle.
Introduced to love and loss, I forgot everything.
#vss365
Purists say the first Big O should be had with love. I chose the commercial route. #Spirit is better.
Watch. Strip. Slice. Knead. Let the juices flow. Use all fingers and the six senses. Let it enter slowly. Hot.
"Top or bottom? Chutney?"
Oh! That Big Onion bhajji!
#vss365
I was a big fool
To use spaghetti Westerns
To model my life.
The man with no name,
No place to call home, no one
To cheat with sweet love.
Smirked when they chased #gold,
Bit cheroot, dreamt of my horse,
When the noose tightened.
#vss365
Busy friends are the best.
They don't trouble you
Most of the time.
When they are bored
And need a filler
Or a yawn in their #story,
You can act so concerned
About their time,
And keep it very brief.
#vss365
Lila took their split with a liberal sprinkling of stoic sangfroid. When he rebounded into the arms of Mini, that seemed like a needless application of salt to her bruised bleeding heart or #ego or wherever. It's Mini’s vehement hostility towards her that puzzled Lila.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/10/when-gods-high.html
With selfish reason
is youth seasoned,
locked within oneself,
grasping the bars
of another’s philosophy,
ever in spurious flight
for a lapse from conflict
in murky ennui.
Waking to the alarum of resolution-
a clarion call or a #swan song-
love or skeptic, live or die?
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-flight-1993.html
I walked along the #bank.
My river's strange.
The once-serene flow,
Treacherous with rapids,
unknown depths.
The old sandy bathing spot,
an ugly mound of rock,
weeds and wild grass.
I watched
men pile sand onto a boat.
I watched
my ravaged river.
Coward!
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-mothers-village.html
I miss the eatery near my hostel.
On Sundays, for breakfast, I had dosa, kesri baath, vada, filter coffee and you.
Yes, I sat like the #frog waiting to be kissed. Hoping to be good enough for you.
We kissed before and after. I remained the same. You too. Forever.
#vss365
"No lover can be trusted. Period."
"I agree."
"You are not supposed to agree."
"Why?"
"I am married to you."
"But, that's the solution to such a conundrum from the loose #maw of the matrimonially enslaved."
"Huh?"
"Will you sleep, please, my love?"
"Oh!"
#vss365
"Don't tell him."
"I love him."
"He's my best friend."
"He will kill us."
"It was lovely."
"We shouldn't have."
"Should have had only once."
"Or twice."
"First time three."
"Mindblowing."
"Was it?"
"Oh yes."
"Why did it have #lupine seeds?"
"Why did he buy six pastries?"
#vss365
The old tree grows.
Why can't I?
I take care of it:
fungus, robbers,
whispering softly.
Is that why?
Am I weary,
unforgiving,
cynical,
picky?
I was so
even then!
The monster
within? Didn't it
#crawl in then?
Hold, dream,
make love last,
surely I can!
Can't I?
#vss365
Have you heard
The sound of one hand clapping?
When I talk and the other dozes,
I hear that sound.
Where's the #pigeon in that,
Do you ask?
Oh! I should ask the #vss365 host
If I should say more.
Birdie num-num!
It's such a day!
One thought dies
Before the next
Is even born.
"Why have you rejected my short story?"
"#Weird and good but plagiarized."
"I don't do that!"
"Father shoots daughter for marrying out of caste. Stuffs body in a suitcase. Mother chops up the daughter's lover."
"Who has written that?"
"It's in today's newspaper."
#vss365
Tomorrow, I might have to attend a wedding reception.
Why can't people send a box of food to each guest's house?
Why is it so difficult to #grasp the fact no one really wants to meet the newly-wed or their lot and vice versa?
#vss365
For my first date, I borrowed money. (Lived on #grain and veg for the rest of the year.)
Took her to a five-star hotel.
"Isn't this the place where a human was made tandoor?" she said.
Went to a nearby bar. Reception was cold, like Hell when God trespasses to preach.
---
Trouble began with a bawdy song on TV. (Or, with our cocktail, the #Grain-y Past.)
Drunks danced drooling at the damsel.
She joined them. "That's my size," she pointed at the guy on TV. To raised eyebrows, "Oh yes, it matters."
More left feet joined the dance floor.
---
(Common perceptions about such establishments can't boast a #grain of truth.)
Drinks and food were on the house.
Like any reputable place with a rep to protect, they did not ask us to return.
Two constables there left us at her place. Her father could not complain.
#vss365
A woman was murdered at Lakeview Apt. An elderly citizen found the body.
The accused (in chron. order):
security guard;
victim's kin;
politicians;
the victim;
the elderly citizen;
migrant workers;
well-#behaved 'serial' couple;
headless police with bottomless case.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/01/murder-scrapbook.html
I bought a stuffed toy for her. That left money for the bus not the rickshaw.
I was late. She was waiting.
With the toy crushed between us, we kissed for the first time that day.
The little time that's lasted the longest.
For once, my cynicism is off its #pedestal.
#vss365
He:
I the husband-father, the worker-boss,
The lonely voyeur, the #sturdy scaffold,
They compare and mock.
She:
I'm not a girl, a woman, a mother,
A wife, a lover, a womb, a vagina,
An idol to worship, serve or curse.
Them:
I'm not a role
For your stage
Or any stage.
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/12/4-deal.html
He liked walking against the crowd. Newly-wed couple struggling on a tandem bicycle smiled back. Young mother played with her child on a cycle. The pouting father-husband dragged his feet. Next, it was a mother-wife who sulked. He tried to be serious, for a change, for a laugh.
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html
"Is that a #nebula?"
"No idea."
"I would like to know what's going on there."
"Hmmm."
"Am I boring you?"
"I am looking at you."
"And?"
"No idea."
"Really?"
"Hmmm."
"How long will we last?"
"Long enough to love."
"Wish we were back home."
"On loveless Earth?"
"Brrr."
#vss365
I do not love you.
I have cried a lot,
Written about it too,
#Bailed me out when
Imagination failed.
Pimped in many ways,
Forgotten for other desires,
Easy excuse to spook
Inconvenient company.
I do not love you.
#vss365
Death exhumes the truth, if one cares to remove the #shellack of lies. Now, we meet at their meeting place. We hear them talk. Not about us. It's the looks they exchange that gives them away. Two ghosts, the widow and the widower, left behind to keep their love alive.
#vss365
from
My wife lay inside. I stood outside. Her father avoided me. Her sister talked to her fiancé. Her mother did not let me enter the house. She hugged the young man. "She will be with us," he told her. He stared at me. I should #pelt him with something but he has that right.
#vss365
I dreamt of being young again.
A friend to some:
loyal, thoughtful,
trustworthy.
To a love:
attentive, caring,
principled,
encouraging,
a CheG-JohnGalt
#dissonant hybrid;
surveyed her bosom
and rear
strictly for kids' sake;
guiltless.
How long was I in that Hell?
#vss365
The #ophidian question mark
With no question preceding;
Curved, promising,
A trace of certainty in the dot;
The symbol remains chaste.
Like the girl I watch from far,
The question begs to be there.
I stand alone.
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/05/cage-idea-2000.html
Wife: "You cheated me."
Man: "How did I cheat you?"
Wife: "You told me about all your girlfriends and ex-es."
Man: "How did I cheat you?"
Wife: "One was and is happily married; another is a lesbian; then there's the one who does not even know you; the rest the same."
"Arjun...?"
"Yes, Swapna..."
"I love you."
He trembled, choked on a scream within, collapsed.
"Oh, you are such a..."
"Read the paper...lovers are killing each other! Epidemic...even #flirtation is banned!"
"But, I..."
"Don't, Swa..."
"love...aha! He faints again. Ha!"
#vss365
"Why's that called an eye phone?"
"Granpa! Stick to your landline!"
"You sound like my Granpa."
"Aarghh!"
"When I asked him about his #gramophone, he told me to stick to my walkman."
"Walkman? Whatzzat?"
"Just another thing for the proletariat, you bourgeois lot!"
#vss365
"That client whose hubby built a temple on their disputed property...she has demolished it. Not a #mote of it left!"
"Beats mine with the Siva-Sati pact."
"Huh?"
"Siva told Sati their marriage would end when she doubts him. My lot tried it two-ways. Lasted one day."
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/06/sati-and-siva-love-and-frailty.html
"Pssst..."
"Get lost!"
"Arjun! Don't copy from Swapna's paper."
"Ma'am, she's asking the meaning of #philtrum."
"Ha!"
"Arjun, what is the meaning of it?"
"It's the part between gluteus maximus."
"Ha!"
"Arjun, will you move that part of yours outside the class?"
#vss365
