Footprints

The wind was calm

but the breeze was cool.

I felt cold

but I was warm inside

For, today had been just my day.

A gush of wind went by

and it made my untidy hair

fall loosely on my face.

It was then I heard 

some footsteps behind me.

Clutching my shawl,

I wrapped it around

to keep my shoulders warm. 

I looked back.

All I could hear was the wind blowing.

This time it pushed my hair

back from my face

making my vision clear.

Nope, I could see no one. 

Forgetting everything,

I moved on. 

But the sound of the footsteps

followed my everywhere.

Scared, I rushed home.

And buried myself under the pillow.

That night I had a dream.

I heard those footsteps again.

I heard a voice too.

Warm, gentle and full of love 

It made me feel like a child.

I felt somebody's hand

resting on my forehead

And the voice said to me, 

"I was the one who was following you.

And I always will

Because I am the God

And you are my child."

Today, was indeed my day.

Is it really the end..??

She opened the lock of her studio apartment. She took one step inside and stood there, thinking. Right in front of her was an apartment which she had turned into her home, away from all the people she ever knew. She had spent hell lot of green bucks on this house that was built in mere 20 days. She didn't earn much to be able to afford an entire appartment to herself. But this one, showed how much effort she had actually put in. And today, standing at the entrance of her small world, she felt miserable.

Buring with rage, she slammed the door shut behind her.

She wanted to tear the upholstery and pull down the curtains. The vases, the Lladro pieces, the Swaroski crystal items, all these that costed her a fortune, she wanted to smash each one of them. The shattering noise that they would produce, perhaps will be able to ease her pain. Her hands itched to grasp the wooden chairs and hit them on the ground so as to break them into pieces as they do in the action movies.

Such was her anger that she could have destroyed her own appartment.

Helpless, she walked into the balcony. She pushed the thought of jumping and ending her life because she knew that nothing would happen to her if she fell from the second floor. If it hadn't  been for the lousy and money mided owner, she would have surely bought that apartment on the 10th floor. She regretted her decision now. A suicide could have been easier.

She sighed.

And it was then she spotted him.

He saw her too. He smiled.

His smile and the glee in his eyes did wonders to her.

She smiled back.

She didnt know his age, but he didnt look too old. It was then she realised how much she loved him. He always made her forget the emptiness she carried with herself. Its been six months since she first saw him. In his balcony. With his mother. And today, he stood right there. This time, without his mother. He looked at her. And then he pointed his index finger towards the sky. She looked up.

She sighed again. But this time it was a sigh of relief. A sigh which made herself gear up and swiftly forget the grey areas of her past.

Silently, she thanked the 3 year old kid who made her smile. Or perhaps he was just 2.

A new day

Sitting by the window,

I stared, with my mouth ajar,

At the sky so dark

and the night so calm.

I looked down at the sleeping souls,

Perhaps dreaming about the love of their life

With their eyes shut tight

But minds on fire.

Tomorrow will be yet another day,

Like it was yesterday,

Special for some,

But devastating for others

Ofcourse, the irony here is

Like every other day

It too shall passé

                                - Chanz

Those wet somethings

You feel the drops of joy

falling from the corners of your eyes

when you look at your old photos,

the memories spent with you friends

and your loved ones.

 

You see the drops of joy

falling from the corners of the eyes

of a mother lying on the hospital bed

when she takes her baby

in her arms for the first time.

 

You feel the drops of joy

falling from the corner of your eyes

when, at the most stupid joke,

you laugh uncontrollably

and roar till your jaws hurt.

 

You see the drops of joy

falling from the corner of the eyes

of that son who

has just won that swimming competition

he had been so eagerly waiting for.

 

You feel the drops of joy

falling from the corners of your eyes

When someone very close to you

has survived a fatal accident

when you were sure that they would die.

 

You feel the drops of joy

falling from the corner of the eyes

of that girl, who was just got to hear

the magical words, "Will you marry me"

from the guy whom she always loved.

 

You feel the drops of joy

falling from the corner of your eyes

when you hear your name being called out

among the list of those fortunate winners

and u look up in the sky and thank god with arms wipe open.

There are times

when you feel the drops of joy

falling from the corners of your eyes

and you find yourself tongue tied

'coz nothing else matters to you at that time

and you wish that moment would carry on forever

Time Travel

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 8; the eighth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Very soon she entered into a state of trance.


"What do you see?"


"I see myself standing in the queue. My feet burning in that heat." She stopped. She looked tired.


"I am fully drenched. My saree is soaked in water and it is weighing me down", she said.


"What kind of a queue is that?"


"I am waiting to fill the two pots with water. I have to hurry. My children must be hungry. He will not give them food. I have to go. But I cant go without the water. And there is a long queue. I feel dizzy. No, I cant feel weak. I have to be strong. For my children. I must wait for my turn."


She spoke hurriedly but her sentences were short. She looked uneasy. Her last 3-4 sentences came almost like a whisper.


"Tell me more. What will you do when you go home? Who all are there at your home?"


"Sulekha and Ram, my two children. And he will also be there. Sitting in the room, drinking. I must hurry. Or else he will beat me up. He will beat the children too."


"Why does he beat you?"


"Because I dont give him the money." She looked worried. And then she started talking again, "If I do, then he will drink more. There will be no food for us then. My children will go hungry."


"Why don't you leave him then?"


"No, I cannot do that. I have no one in this world. I will not have a place to live. Where will my children live."


"How old are you? How old are your children?"


"I am 17. Sulekha is 5 and Ram is 3."


She was again silent. I asked her to go ahead and progress in that lifetime.


"My husband died. We are going to burn his body. My children dont want that. They want to throw his body in that big field outside our village. The birds will eat him. But I cant tell them that the villagers will not let that happen."


"What will happen after that?, I aksed her.


She was silent. I could see tears coming from the corner of her eyes.


I grew worried. I wanted to take her out of this trance but I was still curious what will happen to her. I had to know. She was my patient. And I had hypnotised her at my own risk. I had no clue as to which lifetime had she traversed into. I quitely waited for her to speak. But she did not. She was sobbing. I didnt know what to do. She had agreed to be hypnotised. But none of knew that she would go back in time to one of the lifetimes that she had already lived.


I decided to take her out of this state but then suddenly she spoke, "I don't know what will happen to my children. I am scared."


"Why are you scared? You will go back to them after the funeral."


"No, I will not. I will be burnt with his dead body."


"But why?"


"Sati," she said meekly.

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Shalini, the girl of his dreams

He softly murmured to himself, "She is still beautiful" and quickly bit his tongue for he didnt want her to know that he was there. He stood there watching her run around the room, barefoot. She lifted her saree a little bit as she sat on the corner of the bed, His gaze fell upon her ankle and he was suddenly dissapointed. No, it wasnt there. She had promised him that she would never take that anklet out. He had stolen money from his mother's purse and had bought a thin silver anklet for her. And she had loved it. But it was no longer there. Now he was feeling guilty. He shouldn't have come. Maybe she doesn't love him anymore. Maybe she has even forgotten him. Maybe he would frighten her if he came out. So he decided to remain in hiding. But he knew that the thin curtain wouldn't be able to keep him hidden for long. He had to find some other place to hide without grabbing her attention. He glanced at her from behind the curtain. Though he couldn't clearly see what she was doing but he could see her curvy back resting on the bed. She had grown into a fine woman, he realised. How much he wanted to hold her. How much he wanted to take her in his arms. How much he wanted to kiss her pink lips. The taste of the lipstick she wore 13 years back still lingered in his mouth. He had to control his impulse. Or else his life would be ruined.

*************

"Shalu, will you marry me?", Anand asked. He looked very serious. He did not have money to buy a ring for her, so he thought he would just ask her. He had fallen head over heals in love with her. She was HIS Shalini. Only his. He noticed the silence which had suddenly come in between.

He asked her again, "Tell me..."

She smiled. "Ofcourse I will marry you." And she giggled.

He was happy. He hugged her tight. And he kissed her hard. He knew that he was still 15 years old and she was 14. But he had fallen in love with her the day her family moved into that big house near the river. Her father was rich. And she always wore good clothes. Even her lipstick tasted so sweet. He could never match her standards. He knew that. But he couldn't control his love for her.

"Take out your sandals and put your feet here", he pointed to the small rock in front of her.

She obediently did that. And he took out the silver anklet and slid it over the soft skin on her ankles. He saw the glea in her eyes. He knew that she had loved it.

"I will always wear it. No matter where you are, this gift will always remind me of you", she said with tears in her eyes.

And he hugged her. For five minutes both of them fell silent. And then she asked, "Where did you get the money from?"

"Maa gave it to me"

*************

He had lied then. But only because he had loved her, That was the first gift he had bought for her. And then the gifts continued. And the money never came through him. He looked at her. She was no longer on the bed. He had been lost in his thoughts for too long. The teak wood dressing table next to the bed had a huge oval mirror above it and she stood there watching herself.

He wanted to dash towards her. He really felt the urge. But what would he say. How could he prove his love when he was guilty of the crime he committed 13 years ago. Her father had handed him over to the police. He had been caught stealing that gold necklace which belonged to her grandmother. He wanted to sell it and buy gifts for his Shalini. But he was caught. And today, after spending 13 years in the jail, he was finally a free man. He came straight to her house. He wanted to see her. 13 years he had spent away from her. And today she was standing right in front of his eyes.

"Mansi", a female voice called out. Standing at the door of the room was a women with a big red mark on her forehead and a baby in her arms. "Mansi, I am back". And she rushed towards the dressing table.

He was confused. Mansi turned away from the mirror and opened her arms to greet the woman.

She looked at the baby in that woman's arms and exclaimed, "Look at him. Sound asleep in his mothers arms." She smiled and looked at the woman with the baby, "I am so glad that you came, Shalini"

Can I get them back

At the break of the dawn

Sitting on the bench in the park

Your arms wrapped around me

We watched the sun go up

And the flowers bloom in the lovely spring
The moments that we spent together
Can I get them back

In the scorching heat

I saw you standing in the middle of the road

Licking the melted ice cream like a kid

And I couldnt help but smile

At your innocence that dripped from your face

The moments that we spent together

Can I get them back

Those rains that we saw together

The puddles that we jumped in

That dancing in the rain

That smile that crossed my lips

That laugh that we shared

The moments that we spent together

Can I get them back

In those cold winter nights

When we cuddled together

And sipped hot coffee

All that kept us warm

And we made it through the night

The moments that we spent together

Can I get them back

Then came the sping yet again

We again sat on the bench in the park

This time watching the sun go down

And we spent the night under the dark sky

Only that we did not know

That the absence of stars that night

Would take everything away from our lives.

The years that went by,

The seasons that went by,

All have made me learn to live without you,

But they have still left those sweet somethings

In my mind and my soul

The moments that we spent together

Can I still get them back