Maya - Chapter - 1

I was walking back from work, tired but satisfied; I had almost reached the gate when I saw him; his back was so exceedingly hunched that his face was parallel to the ground; he was dressed in an expensive suit, but was all alone and was stumbling at every step. It was a dark evening; I assumed that he probably was waiting for someone to pick him up, and certainly would be better-off waiting at my house for the pick-up to arrive.

Thus assuming, I approached him and asked, “sir, are you waiting for someone or looking for someone”? When he turned his face towards me, I was mesmerized – his face probably was the calmest and the handsomest that I had seen in my entire life. His eyes clearly indicated that he was an enlightened being. He took a note – a neatly folded piece of paper, out of his pocket and handed it over to me.

Assuming that it was an address he wanted help with, I unfolded the note and read it aloud; it simply said – “reach the sign-post that says man-eating-tiger-sanctuary tomorrow at noon”. The words ‘man-eating-tiger-sanctuary, rang a bell – the signpost on the Delhi-Gurgaon highway, which had those words, was an obscure one, hidden amongst the more ‘famous’ ones that advertised various jewellery and inner-ware brands and hence probably went unnoticed by many.

Thoughts they say, are photons of energy, flowing freely in ether and creating recognition in the brain. Many unwelcome thoughts around the possible meanings of the sign-post assailed my brain. Deciding that whatever the meanings are, the note definitely was not the one he wanted me to read, I placed the note at a respectful distance in front of his face and said, “Sir, I think this is not the note you wanted me to help you with”. His response, “This is the note I was supposed to pass on to you Adi”, shocked me out of my wits. I took the note back, and began scanning through it, checking to see if there was some secret message, as if someone in this world wanted to send a special message to me!! Suddenly I realized that the old withered gentleman was no longer there with me. I looked around; I could not see him anywhere!! There was no way he could have walked the entire length of the road, either way.

I shook my head; I was seeing things!! I threw the sheet down on the road and started walking towards the gate, when suddenly someone called me from behind. I turned around in surprise, it was a school boy from one of the nearby schools; he had the note in his hand – he said “Ma’am, I think this was passed on to you and has been dropped by you inadvertently, I mean intentionally”!
Grimacing, I went and took the note from the child’s hands, turned and went back to the gate thinking to myself – “The local school attended by this child seems to be a real good one, look at the choice of words – ’Passed on to you’, ‘inadvertently’ and ‘Intentionally’” ! Deciding not to think much about it, I shrugged, put the note inside my messy bag alongside many of the office papers, bills, chits etc., and went home.

The embodiment of lament

Broken and old, beneath the open skies
To find a shelter, she fruitlessly tries
To conquer darkness, her struggles in vain
she cringes meekly under the onslaught of pain

She shivers and moans, chilled to the bone
In this cruel world, shattered and alone
The emancipated dweller of broken pavements
An embodiment of eternally solitary laments

The invite

Broken it stands, fragments stuck together weakly
Crumbling and weather-worn, the once mighty looks up meekly
Remembering the days of yore, the victories and the lost wars
The triumphs, the laurels and ever growing hidden scars

Cruel blows have marred the once majestic structure
Its sinews, gouged out and stolen by many a vulture
As darkness falls, it kneels, bows down, its life down to dregs
Inviting death as a friend for a release, it prays and begs 

Under-Stand - I Understand

I stand under – as we wade past,
My life forfeit - the die is cast
He is needed more for the land
As I drown, I understand

My body hurts – it’s punished
Under the heel – it is pushed
I did not run at the command..
I am at fault I understand


Her head rests on my shoulder
A cloak of remorse I hide under
Equally jilted though is my brand,
Her pain, my numbness, I understand


I toil hard and not ask why
I shall do, till I break and die
Over to him, everything I hand
I don’t matter, I understand


The heart harkens to those kind hails
At the undertone – strangely it fails
To break again, it refuses to stand
Closed and never to understand…

The Tainted Divine – The Marred Mystic

In those pristine halls, beyond the confines of time and space

I communed in holy abandon in a world filled with love and grace

Adored, celebrated and deified in a world so sinless and pure

Living in infinite ecstasy and enchantingly majestic allure

Proud of my sanctified legacy, as god’s own beloved wife

I dwelt in pious spiritual trance, the realms of a mystic life

Cocooned from the mundane rules of the puritan world so earthy

And the dogmatic laws that are slaves of the strong and wealthy



Tainted and marred I stand today, unclothed in your midst

Tarred, feathered, tarnished and crushed, under law’s iron fist

Labelled a lost and sinful soul, by those who own the earth

Of those who hail me a sinner, in the world there is no dearth

My communion is degraded to a street walker’s abject disrepute

My mysticism’s shards linger, wretched, lonely and destitute

The endeavor

Though the cold and heavy flood, intimidates and daunts

Though Pain rips my being and courage hangs by a tread

It is my hard endeavor and not a sprightly jaunt

Against the tide and the dark, I truly shall trudge ahead



Though the sun may show his fury and burn the very path

Though the thorns may cut and mar me to death till I bled

Destiny in my heart, I shall harken, despite their immense wrath

Along the eternal pathless route, I truly shall trudge ahead

A Mute Sonnet

Dark it was, when they invaded; dark it was when they hurt her

Dark it was when they violated; Dark was their manic laughter

To her humiliation and agony, her mute tears bore testimony

Her soundless scream, stayed witness to, their cruelty and hegemony

Endless, the night of anguish seemed, to her tiny tortured body

Resigned, as it waited for the dawn to bring a lull in the brutality

Immobile as she slumped there, laid low by her tormenters

Wish she did for her life to end and the body broken into splinters



Bright it is and hot too, as she stands there tarnished and beaten

Her child hungry, whom she cannot feed; for days she has not eaten

‘Characterless’, ‘shameless woman’ a ‘mother of a fatherless child’

The high and mighty holy ones label her a beast gone wild

Mute she stands, her head hung low tears flowing down her cheeks

A tiny morsel and sustenance in this harsh world are all that she seeks