Him&&Her <3

The early morning sun slanted through the window
And a beatific smile lit up her face
A soft breeze ruffled her chestnut hair
And her pale eyelids fluttered open.
Her heart aches to hear the sweet melody of his voice
The smooth velvet of his mahogany voice,
The magical words that he uttered
I love you.

He kicked the blankets off his body,
Her face filled up his vision and he smiled,
He turned around,
And his phone rang, his alarm,
It was sunshine on the line,
The one with a smile in her voice
The one who started his day with love
The one whose voice he craved every minute.

“Rise and shine lazy bum”
She sang, her exuberance overflowed from her voice,
It was the best part of her day,
Hearing his cute little mumbles
As he repeatedly muttered her favourite words,
I love you
And she rattled off about how he should be studying
And he’d only say, “But I love you”.

It might seem silly, immature even,
But the love that they shared
It was immeasurable, intangible
It was something the world couldn’t ever see.
She felt it in the adrenaline that pulsed in her
He felt it in inexplicable happiness that enveloped him
They fought and they made up
And they stuck through tough times, ready for what was to come.

They had only just discovered the lover in each other
But the intensity was so deep
That no one could have known that, even if they tried
And their love would only get stronger.
They dreamt of the future, of a beautiful wedding
And lifelong companionship
And their faith in each other only continued to grow stronger
To form an eternally inseparable bond.

Srushti Iyer.

Fight Mumbai, Fight!

The blood, the gore,
Is it going to end?
Will this city,
The fighter, the tiger,
Escape the siege,
Emerge triumphant?
Tears have been shed,
I’ve now lost count,
Innocent lives taken,
Homes shattered,
Heart’s battered,
Minds numbed,
And still we hold on,
On a string of hope.
We are the change,
Which we want to see,
We can fight
This farce, end it all.
This is our city,
Our Mumbai, our life,
She’s done so much,
For you, for me, for us,
It’s time to repay,
What she’s done for us,
And save her from her death.
The terror’s here,
Hiding around the corner,
Afraid to come out,
In broad daylight,
Cowards, inhuman cowards,
Cowards that we vow to fight.
Can you hear the wails
Of the little child over there?
Can you here it drown?
In the sea
Of gunshots and grenades.
She was someone’s mother,
She was someone’s friend,
She was someone’s daughter,
But now she’s dead,
Pay homage, respect her,
Fight for the blood spilt,
Make them pay for every tear,
For every single minute of fear,
Fight Mumbai, fight!

Our City of Dreams

The shot rings,
Travelling fast,
Through his heart,
And he falls down,
Gasping, heaving,
Wondering why,
He has to leave so soon.
The city’s struck,
The grenades roar,
Deafening,
The death tolls higher,
Life seeps away,
Blinding.
The children watch,
Helplessly,
As their parents succumb,
To death.
Lovers watch,
Screaming out loud,
As they see them fall,
To death.
The martyrs fight,
Till their last breath,
Till they surrender,
To death.
Heartless, ruthless,
They take the lives,
Opening fire,
Taking away the innocent,
Breaking homes,
Shattering hearts.
She watches, terrified,
Her eyes wide open,
Her 7 year old mind
Can’t understand it all,
Who are these people
Who have destroyed our city?
Why are they taking our lives?
Will she be awake the next day
To see the sun rise
And hear the birds chirp?
Or will she too,
Open her eyes,
Only to see the harsh lights,
Of a hospital room?
He looks fearfully,
At the masked terrorisers,
He wants to scream,
But his throat his dry,
He looks upward,
Praying to God,
Begging for forgiveness,
And hoping that,
At the end of the day,
He’ll be able to open his arms,
And welcome his family,
In a warm hug.
The tube inside her wrists hurt,
But not more than the gun,
Which is held to her head,
And the hand that muffles her screams,
Not more than
The piercing glare,
Of the terror that holds her hostage.
The policeman shoots,
He is duty-bound,
His love for his city,
Keeps him rooted to the spot,
As he jumps in front
Of a young child,
Who trembles and cowers
Behind his saviour,
And cries out,
As they image of his saviour,
Crumbling to death,
Is forever embedded in his mind.
This was our city of dreams,
But now,
It’s only a nightmare.

Stones

The sun sank slowly beyond the horizon... beyond her reach. Every passing minute widened the chasm and brought about an irrevocable change. The tears refused to come anymore, the blade refused to cut anymore, but her heart continued to bleed. Who could hear its screams in the midst of a thousand anguished souls? Who would listen to her cries of need, her need for another chance, her inability to turn back?
The water rushed up her ankles and wet her long, olive legs. The water surged faster, the tide rose, pushing her forward... the salted water licked her wounds, but it didn’t sting her anymore. Her body was numb, paralysed, frozen... broken. Her hair flew wildly in the breeze and her eyelids fluttered still. The waves brought in a hard, brown, jagged stone. She picked it up, held it in her palms and squeezed it tight, oblivious to the pain.
The memories played in her head... over and over again... taunting her, teasing her, mocking her. She wanted to reach out to those memories, change everything... anything... something. She lay down, looked up at the stars, and cried again.
She’d lost her boyfriend, but more importantly, she’d lost her best friend, the one person who she could confide into unwaveringly, confidently, immaterial of the subject... because he had loved her for who she was... he never was judgemental with her and she loved him for that.
She had preserved each memory of each day she’d spent with him... each moment of laughter and each fight... their first ‘I love you’s and their first kiss. It was special, their way of storing these memories. Each day she’d spent with him had been overpowered by one emotion... love. But this love took different forms every time.
On the mantelpiece, in a jar lay stones... stones of different colours, sizes and shapes. The pink, smooth ones for their happy days and at the centre lay a big, pink one, the shape of a heart, which they had miraculously found on the beach the day after he first said he loved her and she said she loved him too. There were small green ones which stood for the small arguments they had, they were pointed and sharp, but they filled in the gaps between the big pink ones, they made their relationship more wholesome. There were four purple ones, each one signifying a year completed and new year of togetherness.
She fell asleep under the stars as the tide slowly receded. The brown stone still stayed in her hands, clenched tightly, close to her heart. As she opened her eyes the next morning, she saw his face, haloed by the sun, his blue eyes twinkling, his features sharp, yet soft, smiling down at her extending his arms to help her up. She smiled at him and kissed him.
He held her for a minute and then he walked away... a receding figure, leaving behind no footprints for her to follow.
She walked home barefoot and placed the brown stone in the jar. The last stone.
She’d kept up to her promise. The last, brown, sharp stone embodied his entire life in it, now that he had finally succumbed to death; she’d only got the stones to keep.

Broken

It fell. Silently. It plunged in silence. It wasn’t screaming, not this time round, it bled silently, numb, used. The void didn’t end, it was sucked in, whipped past emotions of pain, anger, hurt... and it continued to fall.
There were no tears, no pleading, no begging. She slowly turned to stone, as her heart fell, hardening, immunising itself to the hurt. The pain in it threatened to explode but she had held it down with a trembling hand, afraid to be exploited... again. Her black hair was plastered to her face. The rain hit her stiff shoulders like bullets, but it didn’t hurt this time... nothing seemed to hurt her anymore. Her black skirt whipped around her legs as she shivered... was it the cold or the pain? She knew no more.
She looked at the water below. A vastness which would accommodate her with ease. The rain created ripples in the water. And what more than a ripple could she be once she’d entered the sheet of water? Her hands were crossed tightly across her chest and her nails dug into her flesh. Small drops of blood mixed with the rain and ran down in little rivulets... down her arms. But who could see her heart as it bled so profusely?
It had frozen over, and it wouldn’t thaw anytime soon.
It was whipped, beaten, scratched and broken. Every single time she picked it up, fixed it with glue. Then he broke it... again. And she let him.
Love. Stupidity. Synonyms.
The sky was overcast and shadowed her heart. Hid the anguish and the suffering. It flickered between love and hate, pain and immunity. She smiled as she thought of him. It was fleeting. He was gone now. And this time it was permanent. He’d made the mistake again. And yet, she begged for his forgiveness... again. He walked away as she knelt, she looked at the ground and her hair hung limply like a curtain around her face, and she stained the red carpet maroon with her tears. And the stains would fade, like she’d faded from his heart.
She’d believed him when he said he’d never hurt her again.
“I’ll find someone else to play with” had been his parting words and they hit her like a blow in the stomach, sucking her breath away, leaving her gasping for breath and yet she clawed ineffectually in the air, trying to reach for his hand. She caught it and held it tight, close to her heart, but he just spat at her with disdain, snatched his hand and walked out of the door... not looking back once.
She sat there for what seemed like hours before her heart-wrenching sobs were reduced to hiccups. He was gone... for now and forever. She stood up, walked out, barefoot. Walked where her feet led her to. The bridge of course. Their place. They stood there for hours, watching the sun go down, wrapped in each other’s arms. Now there were only ghosts of those memories... and they haunted her, they’re long fingers wrapping themselves around her fragile body. Her heart was immune and hurting all at once.
He wasn’t worth the pain. He wasn’t worth her love and tears. She had to let go of him, leave his memories in a dark corner, forget him forever.
The rain started to let up. The sun’s rays slanted through the slits in the veil of clouds. It lit up her overshadowed face.
She was ready to start a new day, let go of her past. The sun started to thaw her heart. She walked away from the bridge. She was ready to pick up the pieces and stick them back with glue, never to be broken again.

Goodbye... to us

When you said you’d be with me forever
I believed it was the gospel truth
Falling like a naive old fool for your talks
Ensnared in your web of deceit
I could never escape, floundering around
Hoping to see the light of the day
With your arm around me tight
Telling me it would be okay.
But I hoped too much
And it still is dark, I can’t see a thing
I’m falling apart, no one can catch me
I’m breaking to pieces, no one to hold me
I think I just died... for the millionth time.
Your lips just move, I can hear no words
My ears are deaf to your rants and raves
I can hear no more, I wish not to
And I turn away, walk away
From a lifetime of lies, deceit and hate
From you, from me, from us.
Everyday hurts too much
Every breath widens the void within me
Every heartbeat keeps me alive
When I only want to die... again.
Was I wrong to believe you,
When you said you loved me unto death
Was I wrong to give my heart to you
Only so that you could ruthlessly stamp on it
And give it back, devoid of love?
You said you loved me, I know you did
But was your love not strong enough
To withstand the storm that the world created
Or did you just not love me enough
To understand that I was different.
How could you think I loved someone else
When I only live for you
How could you say that a stranger understood you
More than your other half did?
I wish for you so hard, so bad
I wish to run back into your arms,
I want you with every part of my being,
If only you asked me once
I promised I would be yours.
People say I’m a fool to love you,
To come running back to you,
People say you’re a bigger fool to let me go away,
But I can say with so much conviction,
That I am the fool to let you go
And you’re the fool to love me so.
It was my picture perfect relationship,
My anchor, my support, my life, my love
The mention of your name brightened up my face,
The sound of your voice lighted up my day.
Its sad how this relationship of love
Can be reduced to petty formalities,
How your absence can choke me so,
And make me want to kill myself
Slit my wrists, take some pills, jump of a building
Or just lie in bed, waiting for death to consume me.
Your words hurt me, sting me,
The curtness gnaws at my very being,
The flow of tears never ebbs, never fades, never ends
The hurt you caused me never went, never will.
Time can never erase the pain,
It only makes it fade away,
Leaving behind a faint glimmer of a romance
That had eternally changed my life
Left me weaker, made me stronger,
Made me see the other side of life
And made me realise,
The grass on the other side is never greener.
Yes it was bliss when you were there by my side
Yes I could smile every minute of my life
Yes it was the best two months of my life
But soon you’ll only be a memory,
A distant, faraway memory
That will bring a smile to my face sometimes,
And will make me resolute,
Will make me stronger to fight the world,
To stand up to all that I fear without running away.
I thank you, it’s heartfelt, for all the love,
The immense support and the times you held my tears
And made me smile, wider than ever before.
I promise you I won’t be bitter over this relationship,
I promise you I won’t hate you for what you did,
Because if you killed the relationship,
I killed it too.
We’ve reached too far, beyond the point of redemption,
And now I realise, that I wouldn’t come back
Even if you begged, not because I don’t love,
That I always will,
But because it would hurt you again,
It would hurt me again
And most of all, we’ll never be the same again,
Never have the innocence that our relationship used to have.
And this time I won’t blame you or me,
I won’t blame time and I won’t blame circumstances,
There’s nothing to blame for the mess we’re in,
Only leave it up to fate and destiny.
You’re the best thing that happened to me baby,
And there will be many more things to come,
Don’t think I’m leaving you and turning away,
Because when you need me, I’ll be by you,
Being your best friend, your anchor, your shoulder to cry,
And I promise to be there at your wedding too,
Smiling the widest, eyes brimmed with tears,
Telling the girl, how lucky she is to have you.
I might have lost the man I love,
But I won’t lose my best friend too,
I mightn’t talk to you for days on end,
But don’t think I’ve forgotten you,
Because you forgot those who are not special to you,
And you take the spotlight in my heart,
Not as a lover, but as a best friend too.
And I’ll keep up to the promises I once made to you,
I’ll hold back the tears till the refuse to come,
I’ll hold back the pain till it hurts no more,
I promise myself I won’t think of you
Whenever I do what we used to do,
And I promise to smile when I think of you,
And not let loose a dam of tears
Because with every tear, I lose a memory of you,
And I will hold you close, even when I stop loving you.

Teardrops

The teardrops fall, ever so fast,
They escape my eyes
Even though I try to hold them prisoner,
And they fall and they fall and they fall.
Stop the pain, the wounds, the tears,
I need to run away from here,
I need to be all by myself,
Is it that difficult to understand what I said?
So leave me alone,
With my hurt and my tears,
Stop trying to be so nice,
Because I can see through that facade.
They look at me and pat my cheek,
Tell me it’ll be fine,
That time will heal the wounds,
But how can it because with you gone, time has stopped.
They took away my life from me
And they expected me to keep breathing,
They took away my heartbeat
And they urged my heart to keep on beating.
You never took a part of my heart with you,
Because with you rests my entire being,
You’re my drug, my ecstasy, my high,
Because only you could make me smile.
I’m sick of listening to their rants,
I’m tired of being their obedient dog,
I’m dying inside, without you by my side,
And only you can revive me now.
The tears continue to fall,
They’ve soaked my clothes now,
Each tear, a replica of the memories of you,
But I won’t let them escape, because it’s all that I have left of you.
I let the pain flow slowly,
The teardrops fall on the grass
And turn into dew,
And I slowly start to let go of you.

Srushti Iyer.