VIDEO CALL WITH YOU

Instead of calls and text,
now we video call once in a while.
I stand in my moonlit balcony
and you lie on your well-lit bed,
and we giggle at each other
for ten minutes like kids.
I screenshot your myriad smiles,
my passport-size face shrouded in darkness
at its top-left corner,
collecting evidences of us happy together.
My teeth shine in the dark, happiness eh,
or the light from your face?

Loving you after losing you
is like this video call with a long lost friend
when ‘meet me soon’ stands for
‘come back and never leave me again.’

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तुम्हारी याद आजकल तब आती है
जब किसी और से मिलता हूँ
और वो बिलकुल भी
तुम जैसे नहीं लगते।

नहीं, मैं तुम्हें सब में नहीं ढूँढता
लेकिन सब तुम्हें मुझमें ढूँढ ही लेते हैं।

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Nothing inspires action better than action itself.

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Balcony Letter #100

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धुँधला सा चाँद टंगा है आसमान पर
कोई ज़मीन का काँच साफ़ कर आओ

सारे तारे चमक कर सो गये
कोई बादल की घनी रज़ाई हटाओ

क्या वजूद है हमारा ख़ुदा के सामने
कभी ख़ुद को ख़ुद से दूर तो ले जाओ

कब तक शब्दों से दुनिया देखोगे हर्ष?
कभी तो दुनिया से शब्द ले आओ

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The Metro Reader : A Poem

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It rains without an alarm in Bengaluru
It’s never too warm in Bengaluru

Politics is common but never religious
No leader exploits Lord Ram in Bengaluru

Our neighbours are from all over India
They mind their own kaam in Bengaluru

Hallis, mangalas & nagars might be the tech hubs,
There are also lakes & farms in Bengaluru

Kannadigas have adopted outsiders as their own,
Nobody means any harm in Bengaluru.

They ask me, Harsh, why would you betray Dilli?
Well, my raging heart found calm in Bengaluru.

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How new age novels are commissioned? I met an assistant editor friend of mine recently and she told how her task during the first month was to collate a list of Instagram celebrities with 20k+ followers and convincing them to write a novel. Thanks to the ilks of good-looking bestselling writers such as you know who, the next Indian bestselling author isn't working silently on polishing their drafts or honing their crafts, but is busy pouting for Instagram and Snapchat.

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Our equation
has two roots,
one real, one imaginary.
The real root says
we will not end up together.
The imaginary one says we will.

I believe the imaginary one,
whereas you believe the real.
Together, we are
one hell of a complex.

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You can't hurt a writer by criticising his work, you can hurt him by criticising his readers.

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