Two apples and three orangessit on a plate near my foot.This pentagram is the only sign of lifein this room,apart from me, of course. I have seen enough of this room,I have seen enough of only this roomto have a 3-dimensional map of it in my head –the tubelight above the door,an LED bulb on … Continue reading Cocooned
Here's a fun collaboration I worked on recently. Barkha Kumari has been blogging about her vivid dreams at Diaries of a dreamworm - some of her dreams are beyond dream-level crazy. So she recently featured a poem of mine, about a surreal dream I had during the lockdown, and also a fun interview where she threw … Continue reading Of dreams and dreamers
Extension On the morning of day 21, the man on television arrives at ten, and begins his speech. Listening to it, I feel like I’m uncoiling a ball of wool in slow motion until I get to the core. The man on television makes me wait for long enough that I have to heat my … Continue reading Extension
On Day 20, emotions run high, and technology is at the forefrunt of conflicts it was meant to resolve. We resolve one by creating a video tutorial and sharing it over WhatsApp. We get parents to share their screens through phone calls and mirrors, not by mirroring screens, but through the real glass ones on … Continue reading Tremors and tech
If the lockdown goes on for too long, I might begin to wonder if the universe is just a sphere with a radius of five hundred meters, everything else is a hologram, and all people outside are simulations. Day 19 of the 21-day lockdown in India
This lockdown is like a cocoon swallowing the butterfly. This lockdown is like a video game where the monster has infinite lives. This lockdown is like a door and everyone has the key but no fingers. Day 18 of the 21-day lockdown in India
What if, in this lockdown, we develop different idioms and phrases that mean the same? What if evolution put us on an express track each group in its micro bubble? What if every such unit became a Galápogos Island? And what if, when the gates open and we meet or bump into each other at … Continue reading What If?
The poetry is in the dumps. The poet too is on the slump. Remembering flow and metaphors, he laughs at all the times his words were good enough. The verses now, they don’t make sense. The verses now are full of pretence. Locked indoors, the poet struggles to string words, running out of themes, he … Continue reading Brain Damage (apologies to Pink Floyd)
Day 13 of the lockdown. I only know days by numbers now. Weeks have merged into each other and I don’t remember what happened when. When did I last hear the soft thud of the shuttle as the kids played badminton on the street below? When did I last see the balding portly man on … Continue reading Volatile
Nine more days of this lockdown to go. At least nine more. When this curtain is lifted, would the sights and the sounds that we have added collectively have been enough to beat the virus out of the planet? Would the demon have understood the language of beating drums and plates and claps, and incandescent … Continue reading What’s Next?
Grains of thought 