Closer Home.

"You can never tell what people have inside them, until you start taking it away"

I never thought I'd understand how relevant this statement is when I read it in Shantaram, until now. I was walking back home in the bitter cold, with layers and layers of warm woollens piled up on me, with these Bollywood songs blasting in my ears, when it hit me.I realised how much I miss my people, my food, my humidly annoying weather,my family, my overpopulated buses, my spicy food, my bollywood dramas, My Country. Its funny how I've had to come so far away from all this to realise its worth. How I've had to be thrown into another country, forced to eat their food and mingle with them, to realise how much my country means to me. No, dont get me wrong, its not an aversion from any particular country that has drawn me towards mine. Its the love and respect thats surfaced, because I can't take my country for granted.

And it has come naturally over these past months. My overenthusiastic interest in the IPL, following Bollywood with an even closer eye, dancing on songs I never imagined myself dancing on. These may seem very superficial, but these are the only strings that keep me attached to what I love, who I love and where I belong. Because you dont know what you've got till its gone.

And no matter where I stay on this globe, No matter where my wanderlust feet take me. It will be a journey to bring me closer home. Full Circle.

i

I am Life
I exist between heaven and hell
flowing through your veins.
breathing sights
and colours.

I am magic
that white rabbit
with the ticking clock
taking you on a magic carpet ride.
The world stops
and time flows
I am that impossible escape
you want for yourself.

I am my muse
I am my thought
I am what you see

I am curiosity
tell me what you see
and I will make you discover

I am birth
where your thoughts emerge
where your mind stops.

I am sand
that memory you hold onto
that memory that wanes away
from the palm of your hands.

I am I.
Use me
destroy me
as I join the unbroken cycle of rebirth.
I am death.

I am mist.
I am sunshine.
that constant discord
in my world.

This one goes miles

Today my friend organised an Anti Frown Protest in her University. They were people walking around in Bright coloured t shirts handing out candies to others and smiling at them. At first it came across to me as a rather odd thing to do. Why in the world would you have a demonstration over something as inconsequential as smiling when there are so many other issues that plague the world!

But when I took out sometime from my stressful schedule to see the pictures she uploaded, it struck me then. That no matter how rotten your day has been or how many deadlines you've got coming up, you just need that one smile telling you that's its all going to be alright, even if its just to calm you down. Its not an awfully exacting gesture to make, but it sure does wonders to how your perception changes. Its just as simple as a smile. When you show your pearly whites to someone, even a stranger on a road, its that one amazingly contagious thing they will reciprocate. It confuses an approaching frown, settles a feud and works wonders in beauty pageants!!

So there you go!
Smile, so that they smile back.
Smile, so that they smile at others.
Smile, so that everyone's smiling!

Prisoner of her eyes.

The warmed traces of winter lined her lips
as she stood facing the window
letting the rays drench her thoughts.

Her thoughts travelled
no where in particular
She adjusted her shawl
to feel that peculiar warmth.

She was the patient one
let time take its course
she lit her cigarette
took in the nicotine.

She knotted her hair
and flung it to her side.
She kept her dark desires
on the tip of her nose.

She finished her black coffee
all the way to the last drop
She smiled and wiped her tears.
And she proceeded to her bedroom.
bare feet.