Survivor

Awakened by Rain’s desperate summon…
Saved by Wind’s final protection
Clutching onto your unconditional love
Pulled back from abyss of doom

O’ the unforgivable mistakes
The unexplainable deeds…
The stumble and slips
Yet…I stand my ground

I survive…alone…defeated…
I survive…beaten…broken…
I survive with lost hope…
I survive to come back…

Today, I proclaim…to you my soaring eagle
Purified by pain…protected by your love
Chastised by tears…caressed by your smile
I will wait for you to settle down on my shoulders

I know you will be here only for a while
You will fly away…’coz the sky is where you belong
And I set you free…with my love…
’Coz you made me survive the black dream…

Try…Once Again

Don’t discard the wine glass with broken edges
It still holds wine
Don’t give up till you die
You still can live
It’s all about trying…once again

Shake of the yoke of gloom
Look ahead into the light piercing imminent doom
Standing alone in the multitude
Walking a different line
It’s all about trying…once again

Instead of seeing ahead, see now…
Instead of calculating what you get, count what you give
Instead of asking for caress, ask for courage
Instead of going around the hill, go over it
It’s all about trying…once again

Advices are empty words
They are as flimsy as the wind
As whimsical as the rain
They mean nothing…unless I try
As its all about trying…once again

Cartwheel

The wind’s tireless hide and seek in my hair
My incessant struggle to overcome my fear
The hidden truth
And remorseless mirth
They are all rolled into one

Entering the chamber of unbound silence
Feeling…or is it remembering a subtle presence…
The tingle, the palpitating heart
Looking to fit into the jigsaw puzzle the last missing part
They all come together

Growing up into a flightless bird
No one warned me life’s so hard
It’s the untold story of the want
It’s the unclaimed victory of the age-old chant
They all combined

Take all together
And throw in a life…
It’s me that we meet
Shamefully selfish yet human
Living with a dignity demanded…seldom given

Drifter

Stars shimmering in the night
Emphasizing the darkness around me
The mind levitating to a mindless numbness
Staring back at a stranger in the mirror

What is it that draws me back…
An unexplained desire to belong…
Face drawn with years of not caring
Yet a smile remembered in the buried past

What am I… an innocuous stranger
A flotsam drifting along with life
Alone in the jostling crowd
Darkness reflected in dead eyes

The haunting fragrance of the graveyard rose
The shade under a tombstone
The cold marble seat of someone’s bones
They are all part of me…or I a part of them…

Sometimes, I do not feel like a man
’Coz it’s been long since I shriveled up
Yet I exist…with a purpose?
In these dark nights, I think, while darkness encompasses me

The Presence

Darkness descends all around
Even the fireflies have gone numb
In the silence of darkness
I hear your faint footfall.

After having an animated chat with you
I realize you are not there…
Like the wind…you have faded
And I’ve been left talking to myself

You make me feel like a fool
An unwanted stray dog
Granted left over crumbs of love
By a gratifying mistress

The wind through my hair
Threatens to reveal my dark thoughts to you
No matter how much I try to block you and hide
I remain an open page, which you read whenever you choose

You are the ultimate embodiment
Of the dream that was fulfilled
I am complete in your veins
And I breathe in your essence…

The Kaiser

I tried to push my grief deep inside my heart
Found it too shallow
I delved deep to bring back her smile from my heart
Found it too deep

The heart…the pulsating darkness
The feeling of irreplaceable loss
Replaced by solace in grief
The heart’s tricks we fools trying to understand

Running about like lab mice suddenly set free
Lost in the running…purpose long since forgotten
We follow our needs…
Fooled by the hope of following our heart

It’s a game of emotions…
Heart the master con-artist
Generations have been destroyed by it
Yet its noble to follow it…

Silence of Speech

What if, my words no longer carry a meaning
My words, they become empty
What if, they stop trying to send a message…
Will you listen to me in that silence…

Do you think it will be as devastating as blindness
If my words are nothing but nonsense
If I just talked and laughed, but stopped feeling
Would you care to still try and understand…

We can understand each other’s silence
But will you be able to take this silence…
The silence that threatens to leave the rationale
The silence which is maddening…the silence of my speech

Isn’t it just another mask
A mask of gibberish
A charade of happiness to hide pain…
Wearing peacock’s feathers to hide the blackness

Speech…the beauty…the power
It will be a sad day when it goes silent
But the faster life, in the fastest lane
Is leading me to lose myself in the silence of my speech

Awakened By Rain

Walking down Park Street,
On a rainy Monday morning
Waterlogged…slippery… yet an unique appeal
A taste of forgotten life suddenly on my mind


The rushing city of booming economy
The air full of smoke of cigarettes and cars
Suddenly smelt sweet…
Kolkata, has been brought to a halt…


Rain’s adamant refusal to listen to the demands of globalization
The curses of technocrats notwithstanding
A subtle touch of nostalgia
A whiff of fragrant air…reminiscent of a buried past


Walking on that morning
I looked at the city of my love
Remembered her…admired her
Forced by Nature…glad that I did so…


Everyone thought I was crazy
Or maybe a KMC fan, trying to prove a point
Who cares…I was strolling…gliding by…
Wiping the mirror of my heart clean


I do not know why I took that walk
But, I enjoyed the water’s gentle caress
I reveled in the feeling of time stopping…
I realized with a rush of joy…I had not forgotten her


My rain, you brought everything to a stop
But I awoke in your presence…
Awoke to a beauty, I had forgotten existed
On the rainy day, when I walked down Park Street