Sar-e-Rah

 

Hop in! 

Sar-e-Rah

On the way, on the other road taken

Sayyar Jo Mein Tha!

Seldom did I know, I was taking stories along

Rasta Lamba Tha !

The Long Forays, Traversing Expanses

Urooj aur Tuloo Pehchane Nahin! 

 

The Medical intern  turned Choreographer

Unborn child in his Adolescence and 

His Unfinished Ukrainian Medical Stint

His Unsatisfied Dance Projects

All in one breath, one flows

Sparkle of the salty tears in floodlight

I could see for only one

 

The young skilled donning Multiple Roles

Caring Family Person, Responsible Husband and Dotting father

Confident tales after tales flowed 

Moment he got stuck at - My love!

Lost love, far in minds and maps

Difficult love, Impossible love 

Lost love, an inner cry from the drowning vacuum

 

The shy petite localite, layers unveil

the activist for the dead nationalist party he has no plans for

the student of history with no idea of history,

the seminarian who knows the scriptures by heart

Divine is Fear or Divine is Love, he is freaked out

unassuming lover, his face is lit when his girl who joins us midway 

All his dreams are planned and all his life is built on this Love

The love fulfils him and makes him leap for stars

 

Incessant stories and gossips, 

Shallow opinions and gimmicks for the world,

But why are you here ?

"Being Loved"

 

The pubescent who writes letters 

to the peer campmate he met for few hours, 

He was smiled at, it seems 

Blue inlands with unstable handwriting 

Sealed with the spittle of first-found love 

A Confidante patted, "Made for Each Other"

The endless wait for the Postman, Unreplied Unrequitted Love   

 

The traumatized early adult who finds love in an accidental handshake

The friendly and then fervent emails later move to spam

Energy is halved in every accidental glance

De-addiction processes 

Till the traumatized overcomes the new trauma with a lure of feasible love

He jumps from the difficult to perpetual agony

 

The young boy who crosses the beds in the general ward

He is dumped there to recover from a lifelong ailment 

Stops at the luminous motherhood emanating

From an old granny draped in Kasavu-cloth 

Listening to her proud stories of her kids and grand kids

His blindfold eyes imagined that bosom of grandmotherly love

Lullabies for her folks made him sleep when mosquitoes craved for his rich blood

Discharged and days after, he ran to meet her outside her treatment room

Her Child, I am , he told the attendant, 

Eagerly she came out with sanguine eyes

'Oh, you', busted and let down, 'Why are you here'

 

Your mother, I am

He asks, But I am not borne out of you,

Still you are my son,

Perplexed, he listens to her outpour

of her love

Unrequited Impossible Love

I see Him in you

I will reach Him through you

 

Thunder shrieking, Lightning flashing

Solace in her motherly lap, Oh my Big Mother!

 Fights and Long Walks for her filling smile

For warm hugs and morsels of tasty food, Big Mother you are

“My kids, they, them only”

“Envy and Hatred”, what else can I have for you

 

Luckless mother

Infertile Womb.

His problem, she whispered

Tasteless gravy dipped rice breads

He swallowed, spotting the broadest smile ever

 

Til Laddoos smeared in Desi Ghee

She looked at him with innocent eyes,

When she stuttered with her cleft-lips

I will bring you more...

 Son/Brother/Friend.. She did not fill in 

Rubbing the forehead which never went crimson red

 

Cusp of Moon, the Flawless Beauty 

Not one she could hold to,

Limiting her boundless overflowing love 

Bees at the doorstep of the flower 

Error,

She told, “Would you take me along”

He heard,” You are an amazing brother”

 

The ponytail braid

behind her lush ebony face

shiny pupil staring at him

yearning, straight to the heart

cleft cut unapologetic

Quench, lifelong wait for you

Empathy… He ran

 

Sar-e-Rah

You exit announced and unannounced

You leave, for now or once for all,

Sayyar

Will wander

With new stories of love