I forgot how to write a song..!

[Happy February!]

It's Valentine's Day

Gusts of love-laden words

Should be rushing your way

I must have at least

a million poems to say

I wonder what's wrong?

Has it really been

so long?

Have I forgotten

How to write a song?

I'm not running out of themes

You made me dream

A few thousand dreams

You taught me

how to smile for no reason

How to read newspapers

How to cry and still feel joy

How to whistle, how to drive

How to talk my heart out

How to sneak out of home

How to play tic-tac-toe

How to simply love myself 

How to simply love you

And then it hit me, what's wrong.

I've been busy 

falling in love so long,

And I've forgotten

How to write a song.

A tiny love story

“Will I find my dream guy?” 

“You don’t have to. He’ll call you” said the guy.

She laughed and hung up.

Her phone rang. It was him again.

"Hello?"

“See, I told you he’d call” said the guy.

And that’s... How I met your mother

Fate, and the shiny red helmet..

“The note just said ‘This is not working any more. We have to break up. I’m so sorry. I’ll miss you a lot.’ No reasons, no more talk. Just an abrupt goodbye was peeping beneath the shiny red helmet. it dawned on me that the best thing that happened to me ever, is getting over. We had drifted apart for a while and this was bound to happen. I didn’t want to see him so sent the helmet back with my note, ‘If it was meant to be, it would be. I’ll miss you too.’ Then I was crying and smiling ironically at the same time, thinking of how funny fate is. It all started with the shiny red helmet, and is now ending with the same…” I spoke dreamily as I stared at the broken pieces of the red helmet.

“Oh yes you never told me, how did it start?” Preeti asked me, cleverly changing the subject before I could start crying again.

“Hmm.. How do I begin? I was in the bus, going to college, and it was crowded. Only a privileged few were sitting, and as one of the ladies gathered her bags to get down, the other passengers waiting by her gathered around like vultures to get to the empty seat first. I am no saint, I glanced at the picture of the lady over the seat and slipped in...”

“was he one of them standing?” Preeti interrupted.

“if you want the full story then let me talk” I said and shot her one of my stern looks. She piped down, but I knew this kid will open her mouth again in a minute.

“anyway..” I continued “I took a book out and started reading. Serial killer story, I couldn’t keep my mind off it. Except when there was traffic and real life caught my attention. More than that, the red signal and the guy on a black bike right next to the bus, in a shiny red helmet. I looked down, he looked up and our eyes met for a second. I did not notice it till then, but his eyes were dark and chocolatey..”

“Is there any chocolate in the fridge?”

I got up to leave and Preeti pulled me back saying “OK sorry sorry… go on"

“Hmm.. where was I? yes, chocolatey eyes. Then I went back to my book, and I looked up at the next signal he was there again, the shiny red helmet. And we had our second eye contact. And also a smile this time. But at the next red signal when I looked up, he had taken a free left turn and disappeared into the traffic.

The serial killer was now prowling along the fence ready tp strike, and romanticizing was the last thing on my mind. The shiny red helmet would have been totally forgotten, but for the fact that I saw it again the next day, right next to the bus. We hear often of bus friends, bus stop friends, parking lot friends. This guy became my signal friend. Every day I looked into those chocolatey eyes and the day somehow got better. as he took his free left turn I would doze off until the conductor shook me awake at the last stop. Until one day, he did not show up”

“and you missed him….? Awww….. sho shweet………” those annoying faces made the kid look cuter. I ignored her interruption and continued.

Yes I missed him, but not for long. He was at the next bus stop, waiting. And grinning wide, as though saying ‘You were looking for me, weren’t you?’ I frowned and gestured to ask him ‘no bike today?’

And as though I invited him, he hopped into the bus and came to stand next to me! I stared at him blankly, when he thrust his hand and said ‘I thought you might want to see my face clearly. I’m Kamal”

‘I don’t even know you….’

‘Well, now you do! But my mother told me not to talk to strangers so will stop being one and tell me your name?’

‘Nidhi….’ I stammered, and he said ‘Ah ha..! I found treasure’

We were talking for just 15minutes but felt like we know each other. And two weeks later we were getting down halfway to have coffee.”

“wow… so forward!!” Preeti was gaping. Understandable, as she was 25 years younger and practically the next generation.

“Actually yes, it all happened quite quickly. He started dropping me to college, then we started going on real dates, and two months later he proposed.”

“aww..! He got you a rose?”

“Hmm no.. He gave me the helmet” I laughed. But the tears came down anyway. Preeti slapped her forehead and stomped out, grumbling “Mom… you’re completely crazy. I’ll get you some chocolate wait…”

“Can you not tell you dad about this……?” I called out.

“Not tell him that you broke the engagement helmet he gave you?? I can’t.. I love to see you both in all this emotional drama…” she groaned. “So how did you get back together?”

“About two years later I went shopping and I saw a shiny red helmet in the bag counter. The moment we came face to face we just knew…..”

“That he had to get a new helmet??” Preeti quipped and ran out of my reach, giggling.

Anyway, it all worked out somehow… I thought, happy tears still running down my face. Fate really works.

47 'new' reasons why I LOVE MY AMMA

It is my mother's birthday and I'm not with her :(

But I don't feel so bad any more that I am not with her. Here is my birthday card for Amma...


47 'new' reasons why I LOVE MY MOM

1.     My mom is the most beautiful woman I have seen. I can try all kinds of cosmetics and never see myself nearly as beautiful as her.

2.     For a small and petite woman she is capable of taking surprisingly heavy loads. For example, me.

3.     She makes the most delicious akki rotti-chutney in the world.

4.     I love the smile on her face when she gets a ‘white chocolate’ (Milky Bar)

5.     She can solve the very hard su-do-ku puzzle in minutes.

6.     She is the best teacher I have ever had; she taught me how to live and that’s why I love my mom.

7.     My mother writes amazing poetry; I love it that she has written one about me.

8.     When I have completely given up on everything she does everything to make me smile.

9.     She supports me ,more than four pillars can support a roof.

10.  I love the way she hugs me when I go home for the weekend.

11.  I love the way she laughs at all my jokes.

12.  I love the jokes she tells me, even if it is read out from magazines.

13.  I love the way she wonders how I turned out to be so perfect.

14.  I love the way she trusts my decision.

15.  I love it that she asks me for fashion tips.

16.  I love the innocence with which she watches Tom and Jerry

17.  I love the way she grumbles about school.

18.  I love the way she corrects her students’ papers and gives extra marks.

19.  I love the way she asks for help in the kitchen.

20.  I love how she asks if she can help with my project.

21.  I love the way she makes faces when I say ‘Chinese food’

22.  I love the way she can sit inside the house and feel it when dad is at the corner of the road.

23.  love the way she fusses over me before I go out.

24.  When she calls and asks me when I can bunk class and come home..

25.  I love it when people say ‘you look just like your mom’.

26.  When she doesn’t agree that I am taller than her.

27.  When she says, ‘what do I wear tomorrow? I have no sarees…’ like a teenager…

28.  I love it that when I was a kid she told me kiddish jokes and when I was a teenager she told me teenager jokes.

29.  I love the way she cooks

30.  I love the way she cleans up my room

31.  I love the way she pleads me to stop chatting so that she can play chess on my laptop.

32.  I love it that she can beat my computer in chess.

33.  When she watches serials on tv..

34.  When she chooses what she’s eating in a hotel

35.  When she ALWAYS asks for dosa.

36.  The way she always agrees to dad

37.  The way she always agrees with me

38.  The way she tells me; ‘don’t argue, I don’t know how to argue with you!’

39.  I love it that she is ALWAYS strong when I am weak.

40.  I love it that she never lets me down.

41.  I love it that she trusts my decisions, no matter what it is. I listen to her by my own choice.

42.  I love the way she passed her patience to me

43.  I love it that she thinks I am better than her, when I have always thought I want to be like my mom. It is true, I want to become like my mom.

44.  I simply love her ‘motherliness’.

45.  I love it when she says ‘it is so boring without you’!

46.  I love the way she makes fun of all the other grown-ups, as though she is one of the kids.

47.  I love my mother, for the obvious reason that I love my mother.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMMA!!

Bring me back to life…

Don’t leave me out here in the sun,

The perfect twenty-five degrees burns my eyes.

The trees bend at the heavy breeze,

The freshly fallen flowers prick my feet.

Don’t let me bleed alone,

Of the injuries of missing you.

Raindrops so tiny drizzle down on my cheeks,

Etching it with tears-like scars, and

The soft smell of the quenched earth hurts my insides.

Like a burning that can only be doused

With your breath on my face.

Don’t leave me out here,

In the clutches of beautiful nature,

All alone like a flightless bird looking at the rainbow.

The birds that can fly up to it

Fly, chirping along, having their own

Pretty little conversation in the clouds…

The exquisiteness of it all will kill me.

Only you can kiss me back to life.

Come, bring me back to life.