Lexicon

  Floating came to me naturally  I'd even swim occasionally  'cross the ocean ahead of me No matter how endless  it seemed to be The sunny air, the tides were bliss  Now it's all a part  Of what I miss Though the air's nearly the same But not quite It's all darkness I see Even though there's light Now, there are people to watch  And more to judge many to pass harsh comments  Like they hold some grudge  "We just want  to see you afloat!"  Oh, how easily  the words escape their throat  When if anything,  it's a mere lie As they provoke me to drown And watch me die

    Wish I could cart you to the past showing what you've missed,  Things that did not last I bet there'd be a list of wildlife that you've never seen How the forest was  Before in the world you've been  Oh such a pitiful thing to know and tell A cub like you has known no den  Your habitat's snatched, your rights are too I'm sorry darling, I couldn't give those to you  But though I'm old and my power's all gone I can give this in my last few breaths  it isn't much dear, just some advice to pass on don't let yourself obsess over grass  start admiring the glass 'cause those cages you know, will be your new home and in a month or two you'll be in the vulnerable few Know this though, you'll be just fine  you'll adapt well with it over time I know you'll live well by yourself But this lioness, will never forgive herself  For she's the mother who never could show you the trees,  The rivers, the forest, the moon and the breez...

Your time starts, NOW ! When I was about seven, I had heard about a trick, which totally changed the way I started looking at the world. Here I am sharing it with you, my dear readers! (it stays between us though ;) ) Ten years from now, Imagine yourself amidst loneliness and misery, sitting on a lone rock by an abandoned farmhouse. You are sitting there, filled with regret, for all the mistakes you’ve made intentionally, for all those opportunities you saw coming but ignored. You scream in remorse, once, twice and the third time, you yell out God’s name. You start begging for a second chance, desperately, deliberately, as if you have a lot of changes to make in your past and you just know exactly which and where, how and when. All you need is to go back.  God hears you, he not only hears you but blesses your wish to come true.  However, he keeps forth a condition. The condition states that although you will get back the past ten years of your life, you will remember nothing a...

Broken gem(s) She was walking by the street cold and pale she needed a woolen sheet to keep away the hail.   She’d been then six a poor, helpless orphan. Her shiver in the cold wasn’t rare, it was now seen quite often.   All that she had, was a little red gem inherited from her Dad, it said "with love, for my lad"   Like his presence in his absence, she always found him in the gem. The emptiness it would cover, That's how the loneliness was over.   That day felt, to be exceptionally cold her body felt numb, she lost her grip. The gem would break apart  and a beat was skipped by her heart.   The man who stood across the lane, also startled by the sound and that’s when a look at the pieces could tell him that they could earn him, a considerably good sum. To ashes the human inside him would burn. Since, he decided to do that for the money to steal a gem, gifted by a father to his honey.   Her sensitive hands joined to plead to get hers back...stolen by t...

  In the Raatwadi area of Konkan where you wouldn’t spot a soul in the range of miles, in such a deserted region there stood a crooked hut-like structure also known as Rajan uncle’s house.  As soon as Arun knocked at the door, Rajan uncle hastily let us in and guided us to the only room in his house. A girl of about 17 slept with tattered, dirty clothes and her face was stained with tears. She looked miserable and I immediately knew that no matter how tough this case was to solve, I’ll give my best to cure her. I asked Arun for my bag with the necessary equipment, pulled a stethoscope out and moved towards the girl just when a strange rotten pungent smell took me aback. I let Arun take over and made my way out of the room before I would throw up. Rajan uncle followed me with a glass of water. I gulped it in one go and sat on a half broken bench outside the house suddenly feeling weak.    "Doctor, you are our last hope. Please cure my daughter somehow..." Rajan uncle'...

Late night, heavy rains, thunderstorms, and a ridiculously long drive to reach home with a drunken man on the driver's seat, who could doze off anytime.  Meet 17-year-old Aubrey, tackling the above like a frontline warrior with stories as her shield and words as her weapons. Sounds too poetic, doesn't it? Well, she had to keep Nicolas from sleeping before he crashed the car and gave her a free pass to heaven which he seems to be ready to use at any given point of time. To make him stay alert somehow, Aubrey has been constantly bringing up topics that are engaging for him.  She talked about how she was born on Jupiter while her mother was in Africa and how she had once become invisible when she was eight and how she accidentally brought life to a toy as a preteen and lastly, how she always wished she could successfully make slime.  After the random ranting, all Nicolas bothered asking about was, which country Jupiter was located in.  Aubrey didn't care where the conve...

If I had to choose the most wanted, most favourite, most loved, most unwanted, and most hated people in my life, all the above would come down to the same person- my identical twin.  She and I haven't done a single task without each other. Sometimes I try to imagine how life would be had she not been my sister but I just can not get myself to see a reality where we are not together.  When we were younger, she would spend hours after hours talking with me. When we were in middle school, she only ever acknowledged me before she went somewhere outside the house. That was also, just for the sake of it.  Lately, she doesn't even stop to check in on me. Not that I  make any efforts on my part. You see, I've got this big ego. If she won't initiate a conversation I'd rather let the silent treatment take over than breaking the silence.  One day her ignorance had reached its zenith though. While talking with a stranger on phone she said she was the only daughter. Which ob...

What if I took you, To a room stuffed with letters,  Some red some blue  Kept together in pairs of two  What if I told you,  The letters left you with no place  To breath, to relax  Or simply have your own space  What if I convinced you,  That shards of glass Were concealed in the blue  And in the red ones,  Soft petals with a gorgeous hue  What if I broke it to you,  That the contents of these letters  Were but your thoughts  Piled together, and kept in lots  What if I asked you,  Which type would you expect to find  In your room of thoughts Hidden in your mind?  Would the blue overrule the red?  Would you hope for it to be the other way instead?  Would you wish your room wasn’t suffocating  Would you criticize it and be hating  Yourself, and more blues would be formed  And there you go!  In a vicious cycle your thoughts are transformed  But, What if I said, It's...

They missed my presence, and cried out my name, twice and thrice, but I never came... They joined their hands which would plead out of a need and wished I'd stay but that would only lead To more of me gone And their hearts that would bleed! They missed how I'd been there always, when we'd been on good terms,  in a good phase... They hated themselves for the disrespect they gave For whom they would, now only crave! I watched them helplessly from another parallel universe, Would've been with them,  If they hadn't made conditions as worse I would if I could,  Stand by their side again and be there for them If only I didn't have to suffer pain! I cannot return I'm something they had to earn I don't just pass by, I don't know how to fly I don't just disappear, they kill me and grieve  And shamelessly ask why I would leave And then start all over again to plead:  "Damn, time is all I need!"

  There’s a crack in my heart, Little had I known, From the way I taunt people For reasons unknown There’s a gap in my heart, A little too wide From the way I laugh at those Struggling behind There’s a hole in my heart Widespread in a region From the way I’m biased On the grounds of religion There’s a piece missing in my heart It’s nowhere to be seen From the way I hurt others For I’m selfish and mean By depriving people of the treatment they deserve I realize now, how much I’d been sinning And now that I pay for my deeds I know what exactly was missing That crack in my heart? That gap, that hole? The defects that had always been in my soul Being so cold wasn’t because I was heartless It wasn’t why I made people feel worthless Reasons I hid, I have to admit, I was a devil in a human body, My heart was an empty, endless pit ‘Karma’ was a joke to me, It’s effects I had never known But standing behind the gates of hell I clearly see the seeds I’ve sown

    My entire house shimmered with the mild glow of golden candles. Some rested along the dining area while some were left loose from the ceiling, just the way Vaidehi liked. The holy aroma of essence sticks added life to the ambience and the aartis completed the festive vibes. Everything, starting from the menu for dinner to the detailed decorations in the backyard was the fruit of Vaidehi's enthusiastic efforts.  While I was on the verge of finishing the rangoli near the entrance gate, in came a gorgeous girl of eighteen whom no one could stop looking at. Vaidehi had this naturally graceful charm in her which I admittedly envied. But hey! It's not like I was the only one-  It was hard to not notice how perfect she was. Besides her academic record being a dream-come-true, she was also an excellent artist with marvelous paintings and a skillful dancer with authentic moves. Her life was the definition of perfection in a lot more ways than just one.  For instance,...

  In my sixty years of existence, I’ve never been as happy as I am today. My grandson is meeting me, after all! It’s a little sad at the same time. The fact that I can’t meet my grandson like other grans. Above all of that, the fact that I came to know about his where-abouts via my agents. Such a pity. Brings me back to the day when my Daughter was two...when her dad and I had a really bad fight. That dude wanted me to stop dealing drugs. How could I possibly have done that? And what was his income again? Zero. We’d have gone broke if not for the drugs. He said he’d expose me- big mistake. He did something that really pissed me off, you know? I kicked him real bad. Served him well. But who’d have known he was too weak to take that?   I spent the rest of the years in jail and my daughter was taken away from me even before I could give her a part of my brain. And today, she’s in town again. After about twenty-two years. I’m out of prison too. Waiting for my grands...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Every time I shut my eyes close, I see Blake screaming with excruciating pain and lying almost lifelessly on grey tiles covered with blood. Some of which, was my own too. My younger sister Chloe who sat next to Blake's body was yelling at the top of her voice,    "Penny! Do something!"  "Penny?" "PENNY?"  I opened my eyes to face Mr Elliot, accompanied by his daughter Hailey.  "Hello, Elliot" "I have a session right now for 10th grade students, you probably know about it...it's about this---" "yes, I know"  "So, there's this problem. They won't let my six-year-old Hailey enter...and since I don't know any other teacher here...would you mind looking after her if I left her with you? for about 30 mins? until I'm done with the session?" "Oh yes, sure...I'll gladly do it"  "Thanks a lot! You just prevented a disaster" he winked.  "No problem" I smiled ...