Choices

I have been at this desk for twenty minutes. I wanted to write a poem and I did not want to write about the lockdown tonight. This is not new though, staring at a blank screen, meeting the feeling that I have run out of words, run out of things to write about. In the …

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Terrible similes for a terrible summer​ ​

This summer sounds like​ a bad sci-fi script​ sneaked out of the trash bin​ and bribed its way to a wealthy production house.​ ​ It feels like​ one long meditation session the universe never signed up for.​ If I could decide for all,​ I would have traded the meditation for hyper sleep pods,​ Have us …

The alternate universes in my mailbox

There was a time when most spam emails promised to increase penis size. They were clearly one-dimensional. And focussed. I see spam today has evolved organically just like the rest of the internet. So occasionally, on a laidback day, which is mostly a weekly phenomenon, I entertain myself by skimming through the unread messages in …

Pauses

Some pauses, the accidental ones, the half ums, the ers, appear out of nowhere, like camouflaged speedbreakers on a highway. They disrupt rhythm, throwing speaker and listener a few inches off the ground, without caring to break their fall. But pauses, when used right, intentionally, add gravitas. Like this line. Split into three. Or this: …

The man who shrank the earth

Prompt: Write from the point of view of a person who changed the course of history. You might know me and my friend Larry. If you don't, you can just google, haha. Who knew a research project would take us this far? We connect bits of information scattered over the earth, Melt it in one …

Five steps to build a human being

First, stand by him. When the words of bullies get within an inch of his nose, let him look them in the eye with poise and calm, knowing someone has his back, knowing he will soon collect those words, blur their knife edges and build poems out of them. Second, leave him alone. As the …

How to be a smartphone

1. Connect to hundreds (or thousands, if you can) of other smartphones through Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram. For the definition of a smartphone, read the rest of this list. 2. See a fraction (say 10%, not more) of population in point 1 in real life. 3. Love yourself. Befriend the selfie, and if possible the …

The caterpillar

His hunger he can never sate and he never ever discriminates. If you question his eating and ask why, he’ll say he wants to be a butterfly. 100 Days of Happy Poems, Poem 2 Inspired in no small measure by Ogden Nash and his animal poems.

Name mangling

No, this post is not about the name mangling that programming language compilers do. This is about a much more profound occurrence. On April 30, 1981, a young man named his new-born son after the West Indian pace bowler Malcolm Marshall. That young man was my father; the new-born turned out to be yours truly. …

Another mahasabha initiative for Valentine’s Day

Couples looking for a quick easy divorce will soon be able to do so on Valentine’s Day. The Chindi Mahasabha (CMS) has announced a new initiative wherein scouts of the CMS would be patrolling towns across India on Feb 14 to identify divorce candidates. To avail the services, a divorce-seeking couple just needs to turn …