How are you?

The question from you
took too long to come
to retain its relevance.

It once had
the power to heal,
raise my spirits
and lighten up my day.
But you walked away
when I was dying to hear
it from you.

Now its power is lost
in the labyrinth of time
and the maze of muddled memory.
It evokes a chuckle
if it evokes
anything at all.

The fiction of relationship

Most of us accept the sweet poison of relationship because we can't endure chewing the bitter pill of loneliness long enough until it leaves the sweet after taste of solitude - which is the peace and joy of being with yourself.

People don't fall in love so much as they run away from their ghosts of loneliness. They trade each other's loneliness disguised as love but don't say 'I trade you very much' - instead they say 'I love you very much.'

Our society also perpetuates this: the word 'single' is an implicit synonym for 'sadness' and the word 'settled' means 'having a family and job', while 'settled in solitude' is actually a much more natural state.

River of Life

A blade of grass

fell in a river

and was set adrift.

It had an ambition

to stop the flow

of the gurgling river.

It turned across,

breathed in deep

and grunted hard,

‘Today I will stop

you at any cost.’

A blade of grass

fell in a river

and was set adrift.

It had an ambition

to merge the river

with the endless sea.

Inspired it was as

it roared, ‘Follow me

you mighty river,

I will not rest

until I get you home.’

The river just flowed,

blissfully ignorant 

of the blades’ existence.

*The poem is based on the wisdom of Shiv Puran as described in the serial 'Devon ke dev Mahadev'.