This city is a riot.

This city is a riot,

a riot of different
tints and tones,

it is full of monsters

and men,

of the chivalrous and the

boorish,

of women with wings clipped

to their backs,

the rich and the poor,

the kind and the cruel,

the young and the old

stand tall at the sunrise and

crumble after sunset,

never are the streets sombre,

look around,

you're flanked by glares and

laughter gaping you,

cups of tea are passed around

the tables

while an outlier sips on his

coffee,

saunter in wonder,

the cadence of different prayers

envelops you as

several religions coexist with

grace,

let me tell you how

biryani is one of them,

there's constant rush and

fragments of calm,

tell me what’s this city if

not a

beautiful riot?

My book ‘Warm Delinquencies’ is available on Amazon for worldwide shipping. You can order it here: http://bit.ly/2gnn6j9.

Love In the Time of Parenthesis.

I loved you with the wonder of exclamation marks,

never with an uncertainty of question marks,

and absolutely never with the conditions of asterisks,

even in between the commas and periods,

I minced my adoration in words and sent it to you

with underlines and double quotes,

on days when we went without dialogues and

maybe colons,

or existed in the form of ellipses

I hoped we could fall back into a state of normalcy even

if it meant through strokes and parenthesis,

but you?

you just never cared to read in

between the lines.

Tune for the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL4uhaQ58Rk

Desire.

Your fingers will have a burning desire,

you'll not know what to do with it,

they'll spark, pain, and shed too much skin,

you'll light them in the dark,

miles away from the ones you love,

nights away from the glory of sunshine,

you'll observe, understand, and probe this

burning desire

your fingers will know your dreams and

your heartbeat each time it rises and falls,

you'll light them in the dark,

a torch of hope, you call,

you'll create something in this darkness,

you'll need no candles, you'll need no people,

you'll need nothing to push you on the path you're

supposed to walk,

your burning desire is the only light you'll need,

you'll transform between all the distances and spaces and

changes,

you'll not just transform,

you'll create,

remember how your fingers have a burning desire?

just learn to light them right and more often when there's

darkness in your sight.

Tune for the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM7MFYoylVs

Tonight.

Tonight

I'm writing letters

you'll never receive,

words you'll

never hear,

stories you'll

never be a part of,

and a distant voice that'll

fade soon,

but here, let me tell you this,

you have the most beautiful hands,

tender yet strong,

unfair yet vulnerable,

they look like they're made to

create something,

they're made to stir something

deep inside all the souls you touch.

Tune for the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY1V0Y7hscw

Things I Should Accept.

My mother often warned me that my imaginations were too overbearing,

and that I was setting myself up for several series of disappointments,

I assured her that my palms were filled with pixie dust and I blew it into the face of my dreams,

my fingers often traced me back to things that weren't good for me,

books that made me cry, movies that kept me awake in the nights and boys that mercilessly broke my heart,

but I was oddly satisfied

as I went through life with an unapologetic fervour,

I guess I was setting myself up for grand breakdowns and signed up for stories where I never belonged,

she asked me to play safe,

to be cautious and guard my heart,

lock it away from bad things and throw the key away,

instead, I cut my heart open,

loved with a love that was more than love,

bled through my words

built home between the could-bes and the should-bes,

and then, I stopped watering the plants in my balcony,

looks like my mother was right,

I dreamed of nurturing someone else's flowers by ignoring mine,

by opening doors at places where even Sun refused to shine.

Tune for the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3AtRBlRQ-I

Trench.

Right now, my mind is a malleable trench of emotions and thoughts,

easily swayed as the gust of wind,

but also as composed as a stubborn ox,

maybe it has a mind of its own,

how ridiculous,

if my mind has a mind of its own,

unconditionally untamed by me,

then what is it that I can do?

should I tap into the inner realms of my mind

to remind it of my integrity?

or must I surrender to it?

it feels stupid, of course,

to dictate terms just because I want to,

but then, how do I stop feeling things that I

shouldn’t if I don’t break the silly trench free?

INTERLUDE.

Someday,

I might stop remembering the sound of your laugh,

I might stop knowing your scent,

I might stop smiling to the tone of your sleepy voice,

I might stop recollecting how sometimes your smile

doesn't reach your eyes,

I might stop telling you about my day in detail,

I might stop looking at your pictures and wonder

what you must be doing,

or what you must be reading,

or if you are writing one of your delightful little stories,

I might stop asking you absolutely anything,

I might stop having the urge to send you little notes,

I might even stop trying to read between the lines,

and then slowly, someday,

I might stop hurting when I learn to unlove you,

maybe I could,

maybe I should,

but till then,

you're all I think about.

Tune for tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQeMxWjpr-Y