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.
Tag: broken
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”
Heartburn
Let me tell you all a story about a girl who once meant the world to me.
And right now, she’s someone who can’t even look at me.
Yeah!
You see, I’m not a toy,
Yeah I did fall for your coy,
But I’m not gonna let you take the joy out of this!
So before you enjoy, like nothing happened, with your homeboy,
Just remember what happened to Troy,
And wait till I completely destroy you.
Rewind to the time when we met at a strange place,
Where people bought glory and bet their souls instead.
Like fish out of water, we fret about what lay ahead.
And then you played that card, I take the hat off my head!
Maybe you schemed for days and said “I need you”,
To a lost boy who’s been ignored since his grade two.
He thought you’ll fit, like two puzzle pieces;
But it turned out you’re the hammer that broke everything in the first place.
You’ve hung on to me for too long like a parasite,
Well, this is my medication, I’m putting up a fight! Continue reading “Heartburn”
The coveted pearl
The ‘thirsty’ oyster waited centuries for a rain drop to fall through his open shell,
It felt as if he had been waiting since the beginning of time
The dreamy, restless raindrop waited eagerly for years,
For the cloud to condense,
She couldn’t wait anymore…
And then they met.. On a stormy night..
When she ‘fell’ for him,
On the just closed shell,
Splashing into uncountable little pieces of her…
Rise
You are running on a strenuous road,
Your feet strike a boulder hard.
You fall down, people laugh as if they should,
No one comes to help you out.
The sun will rise again tomorrow,
The stars will shine again tonight.
They will condemn your guts today,
And soon they will hate you for your might.
They never knew how to run, never tried to,
But they know how to mock your grit.
They’ll make you think that you should give up,
Like they did with their empty story, that’s it. Continue reading “Rise”
Vain Odium
I’m perched upon the highest branch,
Plucking the fruits of my dreams.
I feel a pull on my leg from down,
Yeah, I see through your schemes.
It took me everything to climb up here,
Which you’ll never have, sonny!
Its my talent that has brought me here,
Not my dad’s money.
My mom and dad weren’t loaded,
They had a thankless life.
Thankless job, anxious bed,
Pills and food in strife.
Yet they never surrendered,
Their tears told me “Fight back, honey! ”
Class is what I got from them,
Not their money. Continue reading “Vain Odium”
The Flag
She climbed the mountain as swiftly possible,
Stepping on every helping hand, which turned to dust.
She wanted her name atop the peak
To shine, ego being her only thrust.
Rivers of tears flowed through the ridges,
Empty claps echoed the hollowed hills.
People slowly reduced to dots,
But that never gave her the chills.
She reached her target with time to spare,
It was really something to brag.
But as she turned, she soon realized,
There’s no one to pass the flag.
The Moon On My Wall
When her “Good morning” doesn’t wake you up,
When her “Goodnight” isn’t what you need.
When your calls go unanswered a lot,
When her comes, you no more pay heed.
You still hangout sometimes, but it is no more fun,
It’s like she can be the moon, but you aren’t her sun.
She glows without you, and you do too,
Your hour long calls have come down to minutes less than two.
Your cries for help go ignored, her words misunderstood,
Her late replies don’t get you angry, her voice doesn’t lighten your mood.
When the urge is no more there, to share the secrets you keep,
When every time she hurts you, the lesser do you weep. Continue reading “The Moon On My Wall”
She left
Today she left.
She kept rambling about how he is never there for her anymore. How he doesn’t have time to go for long walks holding hands and return through the park from the movies talking about a possible sequel. How he doesn’t stare at her like the old days, when once he ran into a pole while chatting with her on the phone. How he doesn’t dance with her under the rain anymore, without paying any heed towards the passersby. How she sacrificed her get-togethers with her girlfriends when they moved out of the city. Enough is enough.
He kept quiet. He didn’t say how horrible are his colleagues and boss. How he isn’t even entitled to a sick leave. How impossible it felt to make the financial ends meet. How humiliated he felt when his parents told him off at a family function for marrying a girl of a different caste. How it felt when he saw the dust and mud of the lawn among which he grew up, for the last time.
Today she left. And he didn’t say a single word. It would make her feel small.
The Carver
Hands bleeding, blood and sweat streaming, he’s done something laudable,
Twenty hours of carving rock in hell, he did the impossible.
The ending siren tore through the ears and cried with a shrill,
“Behold! It’s a living stone swan, but yet it stands still”.
The carver gives out a sigh, his smile knows no bounds,
The audience goes crazy, but his rivals don’t make sounds.
The teary eyed winner is taken to the factory owner, who says:
“Congratulations carver! You’ve done the best one, by God’s grace!
Look at all those feathers, they seem ruffled and yet so clean!
The texture, strength and balance, it looks so pristine!
Its eyes have life in them, as if God carved them Himself,
Its elegance is breath-taking, totally top of the shelf!”
The carver can’t hear them, his dream has come true,
He did something that everyone had told him he couldn’t do.
He reached a place similar to where his idols had been ;
Like Shakespeare did with King Lear, and Ronaldo with his feet.
The owner is still in awe, “How many nights didn’t you sleep?”
“How many days did you train?”
“Astounding! Just lay on this bed here,
And we’ll take out your brain.” Continue reading “The Carver”
The Living Writes 