Forgotten on the heath like a sheaf by the nightfall,The sea of love has withered on the reef by the nightfall. Happiness will recede with the beat of her footsteps,The dust will settle like a grief by the nightfall. A…
Author: umashankar
I am just a watcher then. Sometimes I watch life, sometimes I watch death; many times I watch in between...
Only the Crows
The wind moans at my window like a ghost, only the woes;There are tears in the blue vase. No, not only the rose. The striptease of desires cheats the night like a Jezebel;For whom silken tresses weave a dream? Only…
Burning Monsters
They are burning effigies, it’s that time of the season, Ones in flesh and bones are hatching crimes of the season. Bandits from the barrens decree beheading of the infidel, And savour blinkered women over the wine of the season.…
My Aunt’s Lollipops
Such divinations she planted in my ears,my aunt, who died on a cloudy day,spelling out the mantras to allay my fears,and reading the omens that came my way. Success will surely pass you byif you tread on a broom as…
The Aroma of Darkness
Many a misty mantillashimmered over lights gone pale,the shapeless shores of myopiacaught me early on the trail. To a youth with glassy countenancecame another shadow in tow,an accomplice dubbed astigmia,deepening what myopia sowed. In the deepening ink of eventide,hyperopia spreads…
The House of a Snail
So I got my relocation orders again. As with me, if you are a minion of a financial behemoth, all relocation orders are the same. But then, as they say, some relocation orders are more same than the others. As…
I Knew I Shall Weep
Where walkways were fragrant with you, I shall weep, It was not till I left your city, I knew I shall weep. Affinity is at discount in the market of subsistence; There are thousands in the meandering queue, I shall…
When False Dreams Come True
Dear readers, the original title of this post was ‘Confusticated and Bebothered’. But I became jittery at the last minute, even though no detractors were skinned alive in the process of pilfering it from Dictionary.com’s daily offering, who in turn…
Just a Thread on the Trunk
The page remainedunblemished across the night,waiting for letters. But why sniffle a haikuWhen one can weep a sea? The peepal wears a new green sheath.It shimmers and quivers in thebarely felt breeze.Everywhere around it is nothingbut baked dust, caked fields,and…
Hangmen of April
Come April and I am awash with phone calls from friends and colleagues about how they fared in the annual performance appraisals. Certain lesions of the past rendered unmentionable on this blog due to reasons of propriety, have bestowed the…
The Rice Maker
Himesh is fussy about the order in which ingredients should go into vegetable pulao. Butter, followed by an equal amount of mustard oil, cumin seeds, chopped chillies and onions, crushed ginger and garlic, minced mint and coriander leaves, a handful…
The Ark of Nostalgia
“I'm your phantom dance partner. I'm your shadow. I'm not anything more.” ~Haruki Murakami As if working for a bank weren’t traumatic enough, I am working for a subsidiary bank undergoing absorption in its parent. It is highly hypocritical of someone…
One Grain Amongst the Storm 