take me back
to my mother's stories
of Sirfira topiwala's feast
not cds of beauty and the beast

take me back
to my quaint tiffin box
with two cream biscuits of joy
not tupperwares and foils

take me back
to the excitement of new books
brown paper covers and labels so clean
not words in copies or blurred onscreen

take me back
to games of my own imagination
some cloth, some grain and solitude
not eric berne and colours crude

PS: Sirfira Topiwala is a character from a story my Mom made up from real places and events in a town I used to visit every other month till four years of age. It talked of how this lazy topi-seller uses his brains and makes a lot of money at a village fair and goes home happy - with food, clothes and goodies in the climax and so, the feast. I believed it to be true then and I still wish it was.

when it dies
it takes away
the zeal
the drive
the will for the way

when it dies
it leaves behind
a gap
a grief
taking up all your mind

when it dies
it gives to graves
your words
your moves
dust fills up the caves

when it died
three quarters into memory
the might
the measure
were unknown to all, to every

in my mind
are your old lines
about the crabs that are
tweaking away my delicate designs

amidst other sounds
your old words now crown
memories in my mind merge
but your prediction stands out loud

You were once a stranger. Amidst all the green, you had eyes just for what you liked in me - the sights, the sounds and the small feet wrapped in socks. Years have gone by and your eyes and your life have grown to accommodate my madness, my moods and my mistakes. Sometimes I think (but mostly I overdo it or sometimes I just go by random impulses) and I wonder how confusing it must be for you. Sometimes I decide to set something right and it turns itself over thrice. Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes. After yet another such sometime, I want you to know that as mad, nervous and incomprehensible as I may be and I am, I deeply appreciate how your eyes, despite knowing all of me, still choose to focus on what you first liked.

Love you.