The Day After

“It will be a day to remember!” they all said with their eyes alight

All things red, gold..the colors shone through the night

Music, dance and celebrations galore

All pains left in the age of yore

The day dawned as mixed feelings within me grew

The moment glistened a la a fresh drop of dew

It all culminated in a sparkle of stars

In the wake of which we were all left bereft and dark

Then was spotted a single point of light – soft and warmly bright

It didnt hold a candle to the luminous day gone by

But it was all I needed to hold on and keep trying to fly 

Deep Down Under (a short story)

The twinkling lights glittered with a gleam in the dead black of the night sky. The view from above was one that would have charmed the heart of the most cynical of creatures. Miniature cars whizzed past each other on a road that was a mere ribbon of dark grey amid scores of street lights and so many others that could barely be differentiated for what they actually were from afar.

She peered out the tempered glass window with hopeful eyes.

A couple of minutes of staring onto the city, which was slowly zooming itself into clarity as the plane descended from the skies above, was all it took to give her a headache. She withdrew from the windowpane and rested her head back with a sigh.

***

This was Gautam’s first flight where he was calling the shots. So far he had been enjoying his sojourns into the deep end of the blue sitting in the co-pilot’s chair.

The ride had been a heady one indeed. Flying the giant bird, with over 200 passengers on board was an arduous task to say the least.

He patted himself on the back as the journey so far had been a silky smooth one. He took off with ease, and had managed to hold fort pretty well through the past couple of hours.

Gautam relaxed his tense shoulders and prepared to make an epic landing, one that he could pride himself upon, one that would not afford a single jolt to those who sat behind him beyond the boundary of the cockpit.

***

The sound of a slight crackle and a booming male voice jolted Rimjhim out of her blissful reverie. She sat up with a yawn, and shifted to try and dissipate the discomfort that was the very essence of the economy class seat she was belted onto.

There was something amiss.

Rimjhim suddenly focused her wavering attention and blocked ears towards the announcement being made. She had already lost the plot by not keyeing into the beginning of it all, but from whatever little she could fathom of it now…..the tidings were definitely not good.

***
The controls were emitting noises he had never heard before.

The ATC was relaying instructions which he could barely comprehend.

Could he have been so wrong in his judgment and that too at the very fag end of the flight?

Gautam sat at the edge of his seat trying hard to decipher the complex puzzle this landing had transformed into, while his co-pilot Avinash looked like he had seen a ghost. The runway seemed to be approaching faster than usual. The ride was getting jerkier by the moment. Avinash feared the worst, while Gautam fast realized that they were staring indeed into the face of death.

***

Rimi, as she was fondly referred to, felt like her whole life was caught in this one moment. The shouting was no longer audible to her. The people around were now just a blur.

The dreams, the hopes, vignettes from her past, the memories, and promises of a new beginning…….all lay in a heap of soft grey ash, still warm from the event that had just transpired.

Thus Far

On her eyes was cast a blindfold, when life came around humming “Lo..and behold”

It had been topsy turvy so far, even though she refused to wail and spar

Like most surviving it blow by blow, she too tried at all times to go with the flow

But life had other plans up its sleeves it seemed, it meant no ill she hopefully deemed

A shaky tear on the lid, a smile clinging on her lips

A choice was what she had tried to grasp by nervous fingertips

Mulling over it all, she sat some time down the line looking at the expanse above

“There is a difference between a Great, a Right, and a Timely Love…”

And not all three can be yours…

The Blue Umbrella

She held a blue umbrella, swinging it by her side

Tiptoeing on the ledge, a spring in the step of the to-be-bride

The waves hit the curb, splashing all around

The ground way beneath her feet, the sky up above in abound

A wistful smile and a sway in the hip, a curl and a tilt of the upper lip

Was she happy? It was hard to say

She looked like she was having fun, but was she all that gay?

She stooped over the ledge to take in the feel of the sea

Sometimes she wished this world and its banalities she could flee

A trip in the days of yore, when art ruled the roost

A time to call her own, a much-needed boost

A splash of blue, a stubborn unruly mane

She grabbed her locks to breathe in and take a solo walk down memory lane…

“Are you happy?” He asked (A short story)

ANXIOUS

She sat typing with sweaty hands, as her eyes occasionally filled up of their own volition.

Lavender tried hard to control her trembling fingers, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen. She finally gave up and leaned back against the headboard of her cozy, little bed.

She tried to logically decipher what was happening to her. Only one word seemed to pop in her head time and again. It was Anxiety! A good old case of nerves..that’s all!

She was anxious! Yes! That’s what it was. And it was completely natural for someone in her position to be feeling so.

Lavender took a shaky breath and tried to bunch all her fears and contained frustrations under that one head of an adjective.

There was too much at stake here, too much changing around her, too many complications, too much that had gone wrong in the past, too many feelings that were threatening to overwhelm her, too many expectations, and amid all this…too many differences.

No wonder she felt like she was about to drown….in the deep end of the blue.

WISTFUL

It refused to go away. It was like a knot within himself, like a twisted piece of wire in his gut.

Aaron stood on the porch with a prayer on his lips, a sigh in his heart and a wistful glint in his eye.

Things had to take a turn for the better…not just seemingly, like they appeared to as of now, but literally so. Both for him and her.

“If only…..”, he breathed.

If Aaron (the enlightened one) had a penny for every time he had thought of that phrase, he would be at this moment rolling in a heap of dough as high as the eye could see.

He knew it was not just him facing this turmoil, and that probably made it even harder.

Dead ends are easier to get over than now redundant possibilities, that could not be explored while time stood on their side, but which held the promise of a better future, which held the promise of beholding a vision which stars a content and smiling you.

NONCHALANT

Aloof and laid back. A guy who gave in to his moods much too easily. A man of little patience, owner of a kind heart, boasting of an enormous capacity for fun, but also seemingly deficient in emotional quotient.

It took Ezekiel much time to absorb and react to life around him. It was only the most obvious of incidents and happenings that left a mark on the man.

Or so it seemed to those on the outside.

An introvert by habit and impulse, an extrovert at heart – Ezekiel was a tough nut to crack.

Days would pass before any of those near or dear to him could register any sort of impact they had had on him, in whatsoever way possible. He claimed to love with his full heart, but responded only when he allowed himself to.

Covert gestures, such as are commonplace with women when they want a man to understand without stating things obviously in the open, were impossible for him to understand.

Was it simplicity of habit and clarity of heart, or a lack of sensitivity and feeling?

This was something best left for the nonchalant Ezekiel himself to justify.

***

Life was what was happening to this trio. And it alone held the answer to the mysteries it had left brewing in the heart and minds of them.

Nothing but a simple Wait & Watch.