• Poetry,  Reflections

    The Little Ship

    I’m a little ship in mid-sea.  I’m not a banyan tree, Stable and rooted, Like you may have wished me to be.   Upon these waves I tread In the calm and into the storm, Never anchored, never still,Incessant change is my norm. A dawn or dusk, in my ship,No two ever look the same.To new lands and new seasons,A spirit wild cannot be tame. Many tides guide my course,Tied I am to them none.In his hands, I lay my rudder,Given I am, to the one. I anchored when you craved stillness,I moved yet, but in the bounds.But voyage within yet remains,Of novel sights and novel…

  • Poetry,  Reflections

    Those days…

    The first light that followed the cry,That rainy day I first said ‘mum’,I held your finger and took that step,In your reflection, my ‘I’ was born. With each gaze, each taste and touch,I weaved the ‘now’ and ‘yesterday’,Of ‘I’ came ‘me’, then ‘you’, then ‘them’,Then came all that I call ‘today’. It was love that sowed the seed,Of deep despair, of dreams that bled.That wretched night that broke the mirror,Was born the dawn where ‘I’ was dead. Of laughter and tears, light and night,That quiet autumn of fleeting hope,Among ‘them’, and yet alone,You held my hand, in silence you spoke.…

  • close up photo of cigarette
    Journeys,  Reflections

    Ash and an empty cup

    It felt good to step out of the car. We had been driving for about two straight hours. Slightly limping and stretching to set ourselves straight, we made our way to one of the numerous Lyangcha stores sprouted along the highway. These delicacies had made Saktigarh a popular pitstop on the way to Shantiniketan. We snacked, and tried all four variants the store had. Each was made of a different combination of ingredients. Votes were cast, and a boxful of the winning candidate was packed for our gracious hosts. Unwound, and full to the brim, we leisurely walked out of…

  • Reflections

    Are you tethered to the average?

    Growing up, my parents were content with me because I was an above-average student.  Eventually, I became an above-average employee, an above-average friend, and husband. Before I knew it, it had become an addiction – to be above average.  This expectation that I had set for myself had started to become a deep source of fear and anxiety.  It inhibited me to try anything new outside my tiny circle of excellence.  I was enslaved by the very idea that used to be a spectacular source of joy when I was younger. It was a Sunday, and I had gone to…