A Bowl of Elusive

Jab bhi tujhe dekhoon, ankhon mein fariyaad si rehti hai, Hazaron khwahishen hoti hai, aur ek muraad si rehti hai, Tujhe maangoon ya tujhme kho jaaoon yahi sochta rehta hoon, Kyun na jane dhadakte dil ko teri firaaq si rehti hai. Teri berukhi ke charche bhi kar chuka aur misaal bhi de di, Shabdon mein likha dil ki majboori ko, aur labon se guhaar bhi de di, Bas tu kahin kisi ke dhyaan mein baitha hai aise, ki meri dua tujh tak pahunchti hi nahi, Dekh na kaise dil aaj zakhmi hai mera, aur uski pukaar tujh tak pahunchti hi nahi. Ab ummeedon ke jharokhon se jhaankte hai mere armaan kaee, Tere khwaabon ke idgaah mein goonjte hain mere azaan kaee, Aks-e-aarzoo ko tu parakh le ik baar, shayad samajh aayega tujhe, Kitne sooni, kitni banjar reh jaye tere bina ye dil, ki inme koi shaqs na reh paye kabhi. Main har roz teri aane ke intezaar mein raahein taakta hoon, Hawa se teri khabar poochta hoon, fiza se teri khairiyat maangta hoon, Musaafir tu bhi malaal k

I usually just refer to it as the "accident", but it wasn't an accident at all, was it? It was a case of mob violence. On 26th February, 2017, at 5:30 am, I was almost killed by a group of angry people, armed with sticks and stones. That day changed me forever. And it's the first time in more than two years that I am willing to tell everyone the details of what happened on that fateful morning. I am Rajinder. I hail from the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh. I worked in retail before getting promoted to the marketing department of the brand I work for, back in 2016. I moved to Gurgaon for the job and took up residence at a hostel in Manesar, at a walking distance from my office. Things were going well.  In January of 2017, a new guy called Shammi became my roommate. Shammi had a big personality and everybody took a shine on him instantly. By big, I mean the kind of macho aggressive that young men usually gravitate towards. But I never had any problems with h

Ted and I spent the summer of ’09 in a small cottage by the beach. The rent was reasonable, the cottage was cramped and we spent 14 to 16 hours a day slogging at the Marriott Resort nearby. Summer Internship a.k.a Industrial Training, since we were 2nd Year Hotel Management students. Ted and I had been friends since the eighth grade and we stuck together till college. We got along very well in spite of being quite different from each other. He was universally liked and I was universally despised. He drank & I was a teetotaler. And that kind of sums it up, ha ha. We started out with our internships, all excited to be there. Posh hotel, flashy uniforms, big presence in the industry, we thought it would be LEGEN- wait for it -Dary!!! But soon, we realized that none of these things matter to the people getting into the premises from the staff entrance. A reasonable shift for an employee at an Indian Hotel is 9 to 10 hours, which includes breaks. But India being India, labor

This article is about a real living person, lets call her Alisha. I am aware that a single article can never do justice to a person’s story, so I am going to try to cover only certain aspects of the story. What is Love? When people claim that they have fallen in love, what exactly do they love in the person? And I am specifically wondering about people who say they have fallen for someone who doesn’t feel for them. I mean, are they in awe with how that person looks, speaks or carries themselves? Is that what love means to them? See, I am not trying to make a point by asking these seemingly existential questions. I am genuinely perplexed by these thoughts, have always been. You see, love, for me, has always been a reaction. A reaction to someone’s affection for me. The only reason I ever needed to love a person was for them to love me first. And that’s why I could never understand Alisha. We had first met under the worst possible circumstances. I was in the last stag

Now this is a story not a lot of people know. I will be changing a few details for the sake of everyone. The super-cyclone of October 1999 was dark, fierce and devastating. But a strange calm fell upon the land once it was over. Thinking back on those days, I might say it reflected on the life I had back then. Having been appointed into a new job after leaving the air force, my father had to move to Choudwar in 1996. Divorced and single, he had to toggle between a job and his 6 year old son. So he appointed a governess/care-taker of sorts for me. Funny how things turn sour before you have time to blink your eye. She was a horror. My father kept busy with his job and was absolutely indulgent whenever he was home. But that wasn’t most of the time. This woman, lets call her Meena, used to beat up till I bled. She used to verbally abuse me, saying terrible things about my parents and family. She used to starve me. All this started gradually, mind you, and maybe that’s w