ALMOST JULIET

ONE

Dhrubo has seen Varsha in her bra
He has sat on the same bed with her at three thirty at nights
He has been woken up by her wails at four
He has held her head and brushed her teeth the weekend after Vishal left
He has seen her wait by the telephone for hours
He has heard her cry in the bathroom while the water ran in the tub
He has missed her every day during that year in London
He has sung “Heaven”, to her at international rates
He has written eighty nine poems for her (and twenty on her) under seven pseudonyms
He has slept with her in his dreams
He has been in love with her ever since he can remember


TWO

Varsha thinks if he would only look at her properly
She would kiss him square on the mouth
If he would only just graze her hand
She would flash him
If he would only finish the salad before the pudding
She would undress both of them
If he would only twitch his nose, lick his lips, blink his eyes or say anything
She would give him her heart
And if he would only smile
She would let him stay the night


THREE

Dhrubo reaches across the table to help himself to the caramel pudding
He has deliberately left some of the salad uneaten to make room for it
Because she makes it just like his mother
All through the meal, he has been careful not to make eye contact
Because then he will never be able to leave
He has even seated himself opposite to her
So as to avoid even accidentally grazing her exquisite forearms
Careful not to reveal himself now
But during his time there
He has blinked nineteen hundred and twenty three times
Though he has still not managed to
See anything

MELTING CLOCKS

Time moves on, eternally
Without pausing or stumbling
And yet, it leaves behind so much


Memories of broken toys
The meaningful caresses
The unfulfilled promises


All that and so much more
That stop and stare at us all the while
As time moves on, eternally


And slowly and boringly

DELPHINIUM DAYS

So often, at nights
You sit besides me
In uninterrupted silence
Holding my face
Stroking my tousled hair
Touching my chiseled cheeks
With your invisible fingers
And with closed eyes
We look at each other
Listen to the unspoken words
With mingled souls and aching hearts
I hold you in me
In my breath
Because I know you haven't gone away
Yet

JARMUSCH BY THE SHORE

I walk by the sea
Waiting
Dancing waves comes and touch my feet
But I'm not that old
I wonder how long I've been walking
How far I've come


I look back
I see nothing
The footprints on the shore have been washed away
I look at the sea
Touching the orange sun
I walk back slowly, silently and whisper to my heart


I wait for something to happen
But nothing ever does
Like Jarmusch standing besides the shore
Saying life has no plot
Why must prose?

ELOISE'S LAST SOB

In love's brutal aftermath
They sleep in different bedrooms now
Sometimes with different partners
Sometimes at the same time
Sometimes their silence manages to seep in from beneath the connecting door


And therefore suddenly when one night she realizes that it has been so many months
Since she has laughed so hard that her stomach hurt
And he realizes that it has been so many weeks
Since he has woken someone up to read out Eloise's last sob by the little bedside lamp;
Then that's when they actually begin to miss each other....


TO BE CONTINUED..

ZEBRA

1. TNN/ REUTERS:

Mumbai: In yet another tragic incident on the Andheri intersection, an unknown black SUV going at more than 100 kmph according to eyewitnesses, lost control and swerved onto the wrong side, killing one and injuring another three. The deceased has been identified as Aunindo Bannerjee, 22. The driver and the vehicle, both remain unidentified....

2. NANDOR MA (Calcutta):

“That Tuesday dawned; cold and odorless

Bombay was in a cloak of suspense

The famous fog of Delhi had descended on it

It seemed, just for that day”

3. KUNAL (Goa):

“'That girl' with a face like Paripriya and the name of a river

Stood on the corner of the Fifth and MG

At the precise moment of the 'incident'

She was listening on her walkman to that song

With the lines, “Gold Teeth and a curse for this town”

And musing-

(Whether or not to look at the man in the green pullover)

'That man' tore away from that 2BHK

And his girl

And her city

Seconds before the incident

Tears rolled down his face

Wetting the lenses”

4. DHRUBO (London):

“In the middle of the Andheri intersection

When I cradled his head in my lap

There were no famous last words

No soul stirring speeches

Not even delirium

Only screeching silence

Nando and I had planned on writing a play together

We would have gone to Paris that summer

I still think about it sometimes

When I'm very happy or very sad

Until I start feeling guilty

You see, it was me he was coming to meet, that morning”

5. VARSHA (Old Delhi):

“There are no photographs anywhere

Of Aunindo as a grown up

Except the one that was everywhere

After the “incident”;

It seemed he was destined to remain forever the bashful teenager

Who fell in love with too beautiful a woman....

But he was also the only boy who could make me laugh

Remember that Salil Kaku joke that always came up on every family reunion

That time in our old Esplanade flat after Chandni's birthday

How funny he was!

When everyone was taking home the leftovers

And Salil Kaku came up the elevator with a bag of laundry clothes

And Nando had quipped that Kaku was even carrying away the gifts in it?

Well, it wasn't always what he said

But how he said it”

6. AUNINDO (Heaven):

“I'm trying to walk but I can't

I discover that I'm lying on my back

Suddenly, a wind comes and blows my soul away like a feather

I look back at the two of you I am leaving behind

And that's when I realize that

Friendship would not be possible anymore

While my ashes may be scattered all over Andheri

I will remain forever in Jadavpur University

Walk again on the memories I had once stayed away from

Complete all the poems I had once started

And scare you two at nights”

7. JULIO RIBEIRO (Panchgani):

“A hundred and forty people die every year in road accidents in Mumbai alone

But Nando was a good boy

When his mother told him as a nine year old not to go outside without sunscreen

He listened

And he could balance a spoon on his nose and stay like that for hours”

8. CAPOTE (Louisiana)

“At the end of the poem

We watch Dhrubo as he disappears from these pages and into the distance

Tall, devastatingly good looking; his long hair blows in the wind

A handsome young poet as Nando might have been”

9. 'THAT GIRL' (East of Andheri):

“He was wearing a green cashmere sweater over faded blue clearance sale jeans

At exactly six twenty seven-

He turned slightly over his left shoulder to look at me

When the black Toyota crashed into him at 106 kmph

And killed him instantly”

10. 'THAT MAN' (from 2BHK):

“There were no witnesses

No one saw me there

But every mouthful I ate that week

Tasted like it had his blood in it”