#Everything has changed for the better.
Earlier, ladies cursed with a brief marriage married a plantain tree, destroyed it and remarried.
Now, they marry, kill and get ready for another.
Earlier, kids went out on Halloween.
Now, it's truly little monsters out there.
#vss365
Wherever you are.
Oct 31, 2022
My dearest
Wish I could tell you a new story,
How my love is truly different;
It does not really matter
If it was love at first sight
Or a calculated wait;
After the initial charm
And the excitement, of course,
Did we not wonder about
pros and cons and the fine points?
I love you.
Yours,
Whoever I am.
(It's no wonder I stopped writing love letters.)
A Sunday not #mine.
Sacrificed love, sleep and you
for the mop and broom.
#vss365
🥲😎🙃
According to the Hissenburg's Uncertainty Principle: to get a #handle on the function of a brain's part, one gives up on understanding the personality.
When the murderous urge of a serial killer was 'corrected' by targeting section 69s13e, the result was a politician.
#vss365
Those Fridays!
Desk cleared, colleagues tease, urging the rickshaw driver to go faster.
In our room, sipping from the same glass, feeding each other porotta and chicken kebab, a mess #brim-ming with kisses...
Not even ghosts #haunt our place now, they say.
#vss365 #fridayKiss
It was late evening, still an hour away from home, where the green backwater lakes are barely separated from the blue frothy sea by a thin #shimmer of brown sand, when I heard voices in my head
Tell me, my love…
Why should I care when I have you?
Shut up, my love…
#vssdaily
from
https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2011/01/tell-me-my-love.html
The #Indomitable Eight talked about holidays abroad and the kids like us. The party ended when I said, "You ladies did not have to end up like us." My ex, The Devil, said, "Fcuk you, god-with-a-small-d."
(Moral of the story: Supervillains should not marry each other.)
#vss365
Weddings here are simple affairs. The couples go to an island. There is a small temple there, no priest. The deity's a rare one, #molten Panchaloha taking a new form each day. Couples truly made for each other do not return. Only 8 have gone missing in the last 100 years.
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/11/path-of-no-return.html
It's really unfair -
Nature-ally challenged guy's
Given the prompt #frond!
A metaphor for -
Love, sex, other censored stuff,
Life's fractality?
Incur wrath saying -
One's love's a coconut leaf,
Whole split wide open.
#vss365
🙃
"Lovely sad stuff - those were his last words."
"Not exactly Rosebud."
"Was he referring to two 'stuff'...the lovely ain't said, the sad definitely not lovely?"
"He is bonkers."
"Or, memories that linger might be lovely but there will be some repressed sadness beneath."
Jhunjhunu, Lottagollahalli - I love places with music in their names.
At one, in a bus, an 18 year old married to a 50 year old was groped by a 22 year old.
At the other, a girl jumped in front of a train - another tortured queen bee from a #hive.
Lovely sad stuff.
#vss365
"...Each abduction will create fear. As the fear grows, they will ask: what have we done to deserve this? That is the #power of gods, to rule using haphazard disasters along with fear and ignorance. We will create that new god..."
from 'The New God's Manifesto'
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2020/11/like-you-and-me.html
I recreate the original with extras in the #cast,
Try a woman’s cry, an outcast’s protest, a low-caste’s silence,
Pawn myself, crawling into my grave, admitting,
With self-pity and despair, there was never us,
Never love, never the self-destructing desire to create.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/10/when-i-try-to-create.html
'Where's my husband?'
The inspector pointed at a holding cell.
'What’s he in for?'
'Mistaken identity.'
'Release him then.'
'Oh, the paperwork...'
'How long will it take?'
'A week, a month...'
'Promise...?'
'What...?' said the policeman and the #hapless husband.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/04/who-troubled-mrs-vijayan.html
The first night, we called it a disaster without a 'D'. We were sure we would escape #unscathed.
Second night, we played games, laughed, cursed a lot and waited for Luck.
Third, we lay still beneath the shroud of Silence. I thought of love to kill time.
#vss365
from
https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-third-night.html
Have you realized...?
I did not wait for the rest.
#Stare not, #grim faces.
It's not new, is it?
The #enormity of my...
Crime, decision, sin?
It's not the first time
I have wished my #pulse would stop,
Killed others instead...
#vss365
#haikufeels
#vssmurder
They say I'm crazy.
Her face, her body, her smile,
I now see in all.
That's not the reason
For branding me an idiot.
She is everywhere.
Cuddling next to me,
The sea, beach, blue-white above,
I did not see her.
You turn on the outside light,
But never that inside.
Your silhouette is enough,
A faulty memory.
Can you see what I can't see,
The setting sun beyond?
I know you must be cursing
Me and my empty #words.
#vss365
Will I be #awake or will I be dreaming?
When I trace each curve, each thought upon you,
With breath-like kisses I will let the ink dry,
Below or atop, crushing your sweet love into me –
But will you excuse if I call the wrong name?
Everything has a bright side, they say.
#vss365
When I am #awake and when I dream,
I stare at the walls and the barred exit,
Every minute ticks long by rote.
But I have learned to be with shackles,
And with my head on Memory’s lap,
She feeds new-born stories, a shared fantasy.
#vss365
from
https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/09/only-one-that-remains.html
Did I feel betrayed
When she said I love you like
she really meant it?
Did she feel betrayed
When I said I love you like
I really meant it?
Do you feel #betrayed
When we said I love you like
we really meant it?
#haikufeels
Never expected
A #seraphim to chop me
with a #woodchipper;
But, cannot complain
When she served me as sushi
Instead of chopsuey;
She did say sorry
When she realized I ain't
Writing love poems.
#vss365
#vssmurder
"Swapna..."
"Huh?"
"I think you are a seraphim."
"Do you know what that means, Arjun?"
"My dictionary says it's an evil one invoked for black magic."
"Sathaaney-boo!"
"What's that?"
"I said: Satan, exit."
"You really think I am Satan? I love you."
"Me neither."
#vss365
Ah hope! Where was the brother – which #eye did he close: that to you or his pleasure?
Images to images, rock to rock across a river, each tread to this fancied measure –
Learn for once, survival’s silent password: ‘Do unto others as they do unto you.’
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/10/releasing-blood.html
"#Nobody puts Baby in a corner."
I won't tell you what she did to me after saying that.
That's when I started avoiding: (1) people who refer to themselves in the third person; (2) those called Baby; and, (3) mothers-in-law called Baby.
#vss365
ps. line from 'Dirty Dancing' 🙃
Sheila struggled on her own with the divorce case, with #endless nights of nightmarish indecision, waking up tired, ready to give in to maintain status quo, ready to give up her last dream of living without abuse, her last dream of hope even if it was without a smile.
#vss365
from
in bad times,
it's the predictable worst -
angry, destructing, hurting, sad
loneliness, bloody lonely,
and an imbecile to all.
in good times,
it's again not a surprise -
generous, affectionate, kind, good
company, sweet company,
and a fool to most.
in rare moments,
it's serendipity perhaps -
realizing half-truths, tired
solitude, hyped solitude,
and a cynical god to none.
‘Did you see it?’
‘Huh?’
‘The huge colourful #spider. Which side do you want?’
‘Huh?’
‘Right? I am knackered.’
‘Huh?’
She felt fingers on her. There he comes!
Or, is that the spider?
She reached down and picked up her bedroom slipper.
What a first night it was...
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2015/04/stories-of-first-night.html
mystery or crime -
that's what i sat down to write,
not haiku-senryu.
warm dusk in Oct'ber -
a creature stretched on my bed,
with come-hither eyes.
erotic and sex -
that's never been my forte,
in thoughts, words or deeds.
but it's different -
with her, my alter ego,
la petite mort, ja!
Aneesh can make things happen.
Questions he thought of appeared in an exam.
When my love ditched me, he thought of her. She turned up in my life.
Every silver cloud has a black lining.
We couldn't remember the answers; and, she was with the #creature called Aneesh.
#vss365
"I do remember
All the girls I really loved."
Those were my last words.
Her sweet smile slipped fast,
Sated became #ravenous,
My jugular ripped.
Truth I could have tried.
Martyr's fate still, rest assured.
Let last lie live long.
#vssmurder
Is it really love
You need to be together?
Admit the truth once!
If the truth be told,
Will you not mock the frailty?
Human, ain't we all!
There's that we can say
And there's that we understand.
We ain't hypocrites!
We were truly great Shakespearean actors.
Manoj: Julius Caeser in tennis skirt faced audience, seated, with legs apart;
Shanthi: Portia carved up Bassanio for some betrayal offstage;
Me: the #Moor as a Hamlet madly in love with the ghosts of Lady Mac and Cleo;
etc.
#vss365
Am I glad I ain't
Where seasons
Inspire poetry and gloom.
Am I glad not to bother
About April or #October
Or oh-which-month-is-that.
Life's simpler here.
I float or I do not.
I sweat or I sweat more.
But, it might be nice
To have those excuses
When love ain't right.
#vss365
You are like a kid, she said -
When I fumbled with her blouse;
gave a birthday card every day;
and, I couldn't have enough of her.
You are like any adult, she did not say -
When quid pro quo was the norm;
pranks gave way to serious nods;
and, companionable silence said enough.
“Look what I found when I was clearing old junk.”
I recognized the letters and poems.
She read. I laughed when she did.
Did I love her then? I did love the idea of falling in love with her.
Moral of the story: When you write love letters, do not use #ink that lasts.
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/09/24-hours-in-urban-reality-show.html
"You might know your mother
But never be too sure
About your father.."
My 'pome' was a clarion call against patriarchy, caste-system and every social ill that allowed creeps to seem like well-endowed creeps.
The unamused Principal misused Larkin, "This be the #verse?"
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2019/11/another-rotten-day.html
Honeymoon Soliloquy
Is this world I see with you,
Same as that I saw alone?
Seaweed, tangled tresses then,
A pregnant tide now.
In a train, staring blindly then;
Heart’s chugging along now.
Blank #verse filled blank life then;
Now, I say this to hear, “Whatever”.
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/10/soliloquy-nearly-on-honeymoon.html
Love wasn't easy in the good ol' days.
When she asked for a #lullaby, I croaked, "Sleep..hello...who's that...ah, it's you...well, my love..." (in front of a queue outside the lone phone booth on campus).
Then, she wanted my photo. I got over-exposed in the dark room.
#vss365
Caste/class system's crazy.
One who works is #inferior
To one kissing ass.
#haikufeels
He sleeps little when she is out late – working or traveling alone, in #taxis, on trains. Media fed fuel to that flaming fear.
Every day, he expects policemen at his door, ‘Sir, your wife has been murdered.’
They might suspect him when he shows little surprise.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-perfect-couple.html
Before every school exam, I had to: watch sunrise; then, listen to 'Joe le #taxi ' by Vanessa Paradis.
For one disastrous exam, the tape got stuck before Vanessa could soothe my nerves.
Of course, I don't believe in superstitions now.
I can't find a cassette player.
#vss365
Oh! My teenage years!
Quit the #drama!
Seven year itch it was!
Quite literally,
After washing own clothes;
Quite torrid,
After Love and Lust
(both Sex,
life in imperfect hormone-y);
Quite miserable,
After friend's death,
the first adult thought,
‘Better you than me.’
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/09/silly-about-grave-matters.html
"I make them place both hands, with fingers splayed, on a table. Using a stiletto, I try to poke between the fingers with increasing rapidity. I am not really good at it."
"Arjun, your turn."
"I love..."
The group did not let me finish. Even #antisocials have ethics.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/01/inconsequential.html
I fell in love because of #spell-ing.
"The past tense of read is r-e-a-d," the teacher said.
"Oh no, it's r-e-d," yours truly protested.
Swapna smirked. Josephine too. Winston followed those two brats.
In Class 2, I fell in love with, "Betrayal, thy name is friend."
#vss365
Just another day
When words and thoughts hide behind
#Liquid barricades.
There's a flood coming.
I build a wall with nothing.
The price paid for love.
Let me not deceive,
It's not the mirage I chase,
It's the memory.
#vss365
"How can you joke about this?"
"I'm not joking."
"This is not a serial killer's work."
"Then, what is it?"
"This is a fight for justice, for democracy, for human rights."
"Yupp, those are the words of every popular serial killer."
#vsspic
The problem with love -
In #spite of the lessons learned,
One's ready to fail/fall.
#haikufeels
Last things first - yes, we fell in love and hope to live happily ever after; no, there are no tricks or #twists in the tale.
I fell in love with Nikki and Isaac captured Nina's heart.
Nikki and Isaac got married.
Nina and I are left with that hope.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2018/10/twice-bitten-once-shy.html
Girlfriend's electric!
Lone hair on my skull stands up
When she touches me.
What else stands erect,
You might want to know, I'm sure,
To trip guiltless fuse.
It's a love story,
Fit for haiku or senryu.
Renew'ble she ain't.
#vss365
According to the special theory of relativity wrt relationships, every action will be viewed relative to the actions of an ex suitably glorified or even fictitious.
That ensures:
1. something will #pop up for one to think/sulk about;
2. one can be unhappy with others.
#vss365
Infuriated,
Equally #pleased, to find her
On my balcony.
#haikufeels
"It is my lady, O, it is my love!"
"Ay me!"
"O speak again."
"O Dumbo, Dumbo! Hush, Dumbo!"
"Shall I speak more, or hear this?"
"What's in a name? Plenty. Dumbo by any other name I shall not recognize."
"Call me that, my love."
#ModernJulietAndRomeo
Memory fails me.
Not the everlasting #cwtch
From birth to ash, sachh.
#haiku ?
#senryu ?
#MultipleLingo
#WritingCommunity
#vss365
“I've to be the one who knows the way –
A serious wit or a man of steel,
I should treat you like my image,
My words should rest with gravity,
You will speak while you hear little;
Why do I have to be the #saviour?”
“Stereotypes & misconceptions, thy name is man!"
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/12/4-deal.html
Unselfish loving,
With my head between your legs.
Or was I hiding?
#haiku ?
#senryu ?
#WritingCommunity
On that, our, beach. She stood next to me, hands by her side. Memory of a touch. Her palm on mine, her fingers returning my squeeze. We stood there for a long while, silent, till dark. We moved away from that #entrance to a future together, back to avoiding each other.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/12/touch.html
I thought long about love
And the mind games I would #play,
When I'm not in love.
#vss365
#haiku ?
#senryu ?
Sun: a lady said, "The love of my life."
Mon: a note, "My #dark knight."
Tue & Thurs: calls, "I love you."
Wed: rest day. Even wife did not scare me with ILU.
Fri: a fax, "Come!"
Sat: "I love you," I said to a stranger. "Me too," the tired reply.
#GlobalLoveWeekRIP
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/11/lovely-games.html
"Her #dark hair straying across that beauteous face,
Black eyes filled dim, tear-stained..."
"Well?"
"This a love poem for me?"
"Yupp."
"Ye ol' patriarchal wimp who thinks we are weak!"
"Gal, you don't have to be so cruel."
"Don't call me girl. Where's my coffee?"
#vss365
I will love you well
If you can surprise me once.
You can't kick me out!
#senryu ?
#haiku ?
#WritingCommunity
Love knocked at my door.
I watched an ill-fated kite.
Chose the lonely joy.
#haikufeels
#senryu
#haiku
#WritingCommunity
while you suck in last breath,
let me whisper the pleasant truth:
a joke it was, between you and me,
when we did time, timed it didn’t we?
shall i comfort you,
that i will think of you,
but, why lie?
we are friends,
not meant to care,
are we, my #pale friend?
#vss365
from
https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/03/not-meant-to-care-my-friend.html
The little girl was wearing a gaudy dress. She was not smiling. There was lipstick on her mouth, cheap makeup on her face.
‘Her mother is in the ward, thrashed black and blue...' Vishnu managed to say through clenched teeth. His hands were trembling.
A man entered the hospital compound. He stood near the entrance, staring at the little girl.
‘So, there you are, you rascal. Didn’t I tell you to stay put at the resort? And I had to learn from the guests that you had run away, you good for nothing.’
Vishnu charged, flinging himself against Suresh, catching the man unawares and the two went down in a heap. They rolled in the dusty courtyard, grappling for a hold, scratching, gouging and trading body blows.
At first, Vishnu managed to use his agility and small build to parry and evade. The bigger man rushed Vishnu and crashed into him in a flying tackle. Vishnu fell over backwards and his head hit the ground with a sickening thud.
Suresh walked towards a small garden patch, dislodged a heavy rock from the garden’s boundary and came back with that. He gave Vishnu’s chest another kick. Then the brute squatted on one knee, raised the stone, ready to crush the skull before him.
‘Enough…!’
Suresh moved away from Vishnu. He dropped the rock.
Natarajan went up to the prone figure of Vishnu. He studied the bloodied face and beaten body with a great deal of amusement and satisfaction. He prodded Vishnu’s body with a foot.
‘You should stick to your pens and books, useless wimp,’
Natarajan walked up to Suresh. For a man so slight, his backhand slap seemed to have surprising power. The brute moved back and it was rather remarkable watching that bigger man fall to his knees, sniveling, crying and begging for mercy.
‘You want mercy…?’ Natarajan asked before giving the kneeling man another resounding slap.
Natarajan turned away and shifted his attention to Vishnu. The hate or dislike was still there on that face but there was something else too; maybe, that’s what respect for one’s enemy looks like. Under the watchful eyes of the doctor, Vishnu was taken inside on a stretcher.
Natarajan’s eyes then shifted to the tiny form of the girl who had watched the whole episode impassively. His shoulders stooped and his eyes looked wearier than usual. He ran his hands over his face and hair, as if he was trying to rub away some ache there. He then turned around and walked away from there, head bowed, shoulders drooping and with heavy steps.
I do not know what happened to that little flower girl in Kadalil.
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/11/flower-girl.html
‘Flowers for temple. Fresh from mountains. Only fifty rupees.’
'Those flowers are from behind the shop,' I said after the tourists left.
‘They don’t have a problem. I don’t. Why do you have a problem?’ the girl said.
God, save the #lambent glow around her, I prayed.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/11/flower-girl.html
(More from Kadalil.)
I waited at my seat outside the tea-stall watching the same old play on the same old stage. Life went on as usual. Like clockwork, the drunkard appeared outside the bar around ten in the only way he could face the world any day, swaying and inebriated. His wife too entered the scene at the right cue. The pleading gave way to loud wailing and the beating of the chest and the head ensued, as if by rote, and his slap too. It was all too much for me. I just couldn’t allow that show to go on.
I got up from my seat and approached the couple. I shouted at the man and gave him the full sermon within me. It took a while for him to shift his dazed drunken gaze towards me. He looked at me as if I was a madman. I focused on the man and I did not notice when his wife stopped wailing. I should have kept an eye on that aggrieved party and I realized that quickly when my back suffered a barrage of hard slaps.
I turned around to face her flailing arms. She multitasked effectively, beating, shouting loudly and berating me. She accused me of abusing her and trying to harm her dear life, namely, her husband.
It was my turn to have a dazed look. A highly amused crowd gathered around us.
The woman refused to give up, and even seemed to gain in volume and indignation. I kept on moving backwards, trying to avoid her. I tried to reason with her. Or to be factually right, as I started on that endeavor that frail woman gave me a firm shove.
I, along with my reasoning, went into free fall. I tripped and fell back into a shallow pit by the side of the road. It wasn’t much of a fall and I should have escaped with just an injured mind. But, caught unawares, I landed heavily and clumsily, feeling every pebble that greeted my backside and worse, twisted my ankle too.
It would have been better if I had hit my head and passed out with a concussion. I would not have had to see that woman’s rather happy face before she walked away with her equally blissful comrade-in-arms. The crowd didn’t give up that easily. I really tickled their funny bone.
On the day of the quarter moon, men of my village Kadalil (In The Sea) chase an outsider. Only 3 were killed in the last 1 year.
Long back, before the beach turned red with #blood, a scoundrel from nowhere killed an aristocrat raping a lady. We have not forgiven him.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/12/buried-gods.html
We were comfortably numb.
"I love you, guys. (Hic)"
"What's love?"
"Great sex on the table, good food in bed."
"Care! Responsibility!"
"Allows dreams."
"Deep. (Hic)"
"O Lila!"
"The #ghost we loved."
"If only..."
"Those eyes, lips.."
"Isn't Lila my wife? (Hic)"
#vss365
The trip started late because of those despicable kids from the #north.
At the first stop, the easterners took their time smooching. Idiots!
We nearly helped a family from the west go down at Suicide Point.
At the end, they scowled at me, "Monkey from the south!"
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html
From dusk till dawn,
haunting Memory beckons me;
with moving images
in black-and-white or colour;
speeding on highways,
shuffling into alleys,
groping for an exit in a cul-de-sac –
while I trip on psychedelic ecstasy
of a #kiss I cannot forget...
#vss365
from
https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/09/only-one-that-remains.html
I gave her my medical report. I will forget her tears, I guess. Her beautiful eyes?
I told her I might forget her. That I have always loved her. I joked that I might forget that too soon.
She did not say anything. Or, maybe, she did.
The #shadow-s are lengthening.
#vss365
from
https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2013/02/before-dark.html
