For her, for all (part 2/2)

Why do we divide the earth with names?
With borders no child is born knowing?
What madness believes the blood spilled in the name of religion or rage is ever holy?
She was never someone who saw difference.
She was someone who always inspired the motivated and unmotivated

And now she stands —
broken, maybe.
But never bowed.

I know her. I know that smile —
the one she will wear like a shield

Because she is not just a doctor.
Not just a mother.
She is what this country is made of:
Pain that smiles and grief that stands tall

She is every Indian woman
who holds her silence like fire
and walks through a world that tries, again and again, to shatter her —
but fails.

So to her,
to all of them,
I bow.
I write.
And I rage.

-

For her, For All (1,/2)


When I was an intern, I met a light. She was my medicine PG.
She wore no crown, but she walked like grace.
She did not command, but the wards listened.
Not because of power, but because of purity.
Because every vein in her body ran on kindness. She was punctual and perfect.
She showed me medicine, not just in books,
but in being.

I do not know if I ever became like her.
I tried.
But life moved on. Degrees. Duties. Distances.
The kind of silence we call time.
Until one day,
a cold message lit up our group:
Her husband.
Pahalgam.
Shot.
In front of her.
In front of their child.

What kind of world teaches a bullet to find
a man walking beside a woman who once taught me what it means to heal?

And the child — his subconscious has learned what death smells like. (contd..)

-

Remember the sunny days?
Your smile, the sunshine and the sky
And oh the clouds
The T.rex, the lion and the rabbit in the sky
Before they changed colors
Before it rained

But it rained
On you, on me
The bike wheel bisecting the puddles
Tiny droplets piercing your skin
And the ache

The wind still blew
And the clouds were gone
But the sky had no stars
And I stood in the mud

The puddles had pieces of moonlight
Puzzles that no one ever solved
A love
An ache

-

Be.
And you Are

-

A giant circle
Made by the horizons
and you stand at the centre
A universe around you

Me and my shaky universe
Shrinking and expanding.
My heart pounds
and limbs pulsate as I limp -

towards the centre of my universe
From the peripheries,
Leaving the horizon
and a whole ocean behind - to reach you

But you slip away farther
like a mirage on a sunny day
taking my universe with you

-

The flight

Free falls
Crash landings
Smooth touch downs
Planned and unplanned falls
We all gotta touch the ground to fly again

Miscalculation is the rule, they say, as they glide gleefully in the air
What does the rockbottom feel like?
they ask from above
Well, it's a trampoline I say, as I bounce back

-

Realisation

You were the cryptic message
That I was seeking all these years
I am not a mystic or sage
But tonight I do hear the stars.

In the silence of the moonlight, I rejoice
As I see your voice
being encrypted in a vine
that hangs from the sky so divine.

It splashes into this puddle
Reflecting me - a wavy riddle
And I’m shown the message
That I always were you.

-

The stillness
I feel when I close my eyes
And
The smile
on your face when I open them

-

Tiny moments
Of you and me

Scattered in memories
Faded but glowing eerily
Moments of me
And you in me

The darkness and your strange humming
Memories of me
And the voices inside me
The longing for you
And all of you

You were all me, they say
My mind - a mirror, they said
Is shattered now
but as I look, it reflects
Thousands of you

-

Glimpse of some moment in a flash
A flash of light exposing the darkness ahead
Ahead is relative when away is close
Closed are roads and I stand still
Still not knowing how a flashback would help

-