Distance

Everything is good. Everything is convenient. And yet you move about with an unexplained restlessness. The beauty, the convenience, the freshness of it all is just but a big distraction and when you come home in the evening you are face to face with your restlessness, feeling it all the time and yet unaware of it's existence for you think that it is a part of you. And then find yourself idling your time away on the internet thinking of places to go while the whole city waits beyond your glass windows to be explored. And then while browsing the map it suddenly hits you. Its a different shape, different surroundings, a different country. And you are suddenly reminded of the video feeds on the plane on your way here, which showed the route of your plane from India to Singapore. It seemed so interesting then. It seems so horrifying now. The distance was just a number then to be divided by airspeed to get the flight time. Now, its a heavy truth sitting on your laptop screen shouting at you in bold letters:4114 Kms. And suddenly you feel trapped, you feel alone. You feel incredibly stupid. They say the earliest Indians on this strange island were the convicts sent out to serve their sentences here during the British Raj and you cannot help sensing some kind of irony in that sentence. And the luxurious apartment, the high rise buildings, the zeal of a developed nation, the convenience and the ease and everything seems so futile. You suddenly find yourself separated. You find yourself cut out from everything. The facebook feeds, the emails, the phone calls are all but views that a prisoner gets from his window of his world. He cannot live it. And neither can you. And though blessed you may feel with technology, you see it failing everyday in front of your eyes, with all its glamour. You talk, you skype and through that small window of skype you feel at home, at peace. But however hard you may try to fit in the small window open in your laptop, as soon as you shut its lid down and you lie down on your cozy bed, you see the dark reality staring at you from your window, laughing at you, mocking you and whispering in your ears: you fool. 

Selfish Heart

The Cute Little Girl

with her big round eyes

watching the world in world in wonder,

while hopping by my side

“Oh! Look a Puppy”,

she screams in delight.

claps her little hands together,

her eyes shining bright.

she runs towards the puppy

with all the force she could

her feet hitting the bumpy ground

as careless as only she would

crouched and bent on her knees

she moves her hand cautiously

eyes and mouth round up in wonder

as she pats the puppy gently

save for the puppy,

she is deaf, dumb and blind

the little girl in her excitement

has left me all behind

her tiny hands and head move

as I watch her from afar

engrossed is my girl in her moment

of which I am not a part

and I hate to think of the day

when she will perhaps run so far

I wouldn’t be able to see her

nor would she feel apart

but as I gaze into the distance

her tiny head turns to the right

and a frown appears on my girl’s face

when she doesn’t find me beside

she turns her head and smiles again

as her roving eyes find me

and gets up she & runs the same

As she did towards the puppy

my worries gone, my heart warms up

as I see her running towards me

the spring in her steps, the joy in her eyes

are all, but, for me.

holding my hand and tugging it hard she says,

“Daddy, look what a cute pup”

and runs again, with her hand in mine

as I struggle to keep up

down we sit on our knees

she takes my hand towards the pup

and placing it on it ever so gently

she so expectantly looks up

her eyes filled with innocence and love

make this moment so true

the pup, the grass, the sky and now

I am a part of the moment too