The Caged Bird

I had flown under the lintel to avoid the storm’s carnage,
Little did I know, I’d find you there locked in a cage.
“You’re a Robin like me!”, I exclaimed , “We aren’t meant to be confined!”
She gave an discontented smile and replied, “Believe me, I am fine.”
“I am my master’s favourite prize, he boasts of me to guests,
He brings me food whenever I ring this bell, I must be truly blessed.
He saves me by eating the toxic fruits and feeds me the delicious seeds,
He loves me so much that he gets enraged if someone else touches me.”

Continue reading “The Caged Bird” →

Remember me?

Hey there! Remember me?
I am the one with whom you used to talk everyday!
Our topics were so wild that if any regular person heard us, they would have recommended us a psychiatrist or would have called the police.
I still remember once your dad called you five times during one of our calls and found you busy.
The call back was more like a Vietnam flashback, and you rung me up again to cry your heart out.
And then you posted on the social media: “No one understands me..”

Hey there! Remember me?
I am the one with whom you used to talk everyday, but one day you stopped. Continue reading “Remember me?” →

Shoes

“I’m going to take her to buy her new shoes for her first day at school!”, exclaimed the excited grandma, untying her saree’s end in search of coiled notes.
“Who goes to shop nowadays, Ma? I have already ordered her shoes online, along with other accessories.”
The dismayed woman slowly crawled back to her knitting. Somehow and somewhere, time has found some big shoes and taken some huge steps to go beyond.

Joke’s on you

He always spoke the truth, no matter the consequences,
He hit you hard with facts, you took too many offenses.
You buried him down with haste, to eradicate his mirth,
But the joke’s on you, he was born down to earth.

She had been going places, society’d failed to shackle her down.
“A girl her age out of home? She must be stopped somehow!”
You pushed her off the cliff, your ears longing for her cries,
But the joke’s on you, she was born with wings to fly.

You detest happy young faces, their beams hurt your features gaunt,
You chain down one hand with responsibilities, other one with daunts.
The joke’s on you, my friend, you’ve again failed to foresee,
My soul might be your prisoner, but my mind’s always been free.

Aeons

Teary eyes,
Sad goodbyes,
We break away,
Apart too far.

Aeons pass,
We meet at last,
Ring fingers say,

“Too late you are…”

Why

“Why do we like to kick the legs of the chairs we’re sitting on?
Why do we have idle minds from where grisly ideas spawn?
Why, when someone’s down the hole, do we throw a fire and grin?
Why our judgements are deemed noble, but free thinking’s a sin?
Why do we try to grasp the tail of chaos and not let go of it somehow?”
” Because kid, you like doing it, don’t you now?”

” Why do we like to bark about someone behind their backs?
Why do we squeal about other’s flaws, but not ’bout stuff we lack?
Why do we blurt disparage without a filter of conscience? Continue reading “Why” →

The Ride

I still remember that dusty afternoon,
When you hitched a ride with me in my mediocre car on that desolate drive,
I thought, just like everyone else, you’re going to split up and leave me to continue your own journey,
Never did you ever tell me, our separate roads have ended, and the road ahead is one,
And no we didn’t stop so soon
We hopped some breakers, we bought some flowers, we crashed into some cactus thorny,
We believed we’d never run out of fuel, but you know why our car’s called “life”
Sad moments did cloud us often,
But regret is a thing we missed,
Thank you for this journey
Thank you for this ride so fun…

I am fine

Stuck in Sunday eve traffic, you’re getting bored as heck,
You’ve reached the end of your newsfeed, there’s nothing more to check.
A boy walks by, his dirty clothes make you frown,
And then you think “Why should I care? I’m going to the best pizza place in town!”

His shoulders drooping with dejection and not school bag,
The boy’s pants are his dead father’s, his shirt’s a former rag.
No, he doesn’t have a soul in this world to look after him,
His little brother waits in his slum, unbelievably joyous to the brim.
Earlier in the morning he came first in his class,
He was promised by his elder brother that he’ll gift anything he asks.
The innocent little soul doesn’t know how much his brother gets kicked around,
His hungry stomach blurts out “I want the best pizza in town! ”
The boy masked his helplessness with a smile, he showed nothing in front.
One pizza costs more than his salary for an entire month. Continue reading “I am fine” →

The Adaptation

She finally bought the best seller novel from the book store beside the kindergarten school after picking up her son.
“Who is this, Ma?” chirped the little voice as he ran his finger on the man on the cover.
“Someone I knew a long time ago”, she smiled.
The actress playing her in the movie adaptation continued smirking from the nearby poster.

The Elephant Who Learned How to Climb

No one ever asked him what he wanted to be. Ever since his first steps, his father showed him off to his friends and boasted, “Look at his strong legs, he’ll surely be a Climber!”. The Climber. The one that his parents couldn’t be, despite their burning desires.

So when he was supposed to play with his other friends from the jungle, the little elephant was snatched away from the playground and enrolled to a “jumping school”. Specialized teachers like kangaroos and grasshoppers had been enlisted to clear the basics of these little admitted kids. It was their sole responsibility to train them so that they could be ready for the next step, climbing.

The elephant tried hard. Really hard. Animals laughed as he tried to jump with his round belly, balancing himself with his long snout. Tears got mixed with the dirt as he fell on his face everyday. His sobs were masked by the laughter of his classmates. Still he didn’t give up. He did not want to see his parents upset. In a few years he learnt to leap over small shrubs and bushes, which was enough to get him enrolled into the climbing classes. But maybe it was not worth his bleeding tusks.

Climbing classes included more specialized teachers like the bear and the cheetah. They were considered the best, since they had once taught even a goat to reach the top branch of the famous Old Oak at the end of the jungle. Their other accomplished students, the orangutan and the raccoon, had their pictures carved on every tree bark in the jungle. The elephant parents were pleased to see that they had brought their son to the right place. But no one asked him if he wanted to learn it.

Soon the judgement day arrived. Continue reading “The Elephant Who Learned How to Climb” →