Submit to the Unknown

The image of him slumped over the hospital bed has dropped anchor in me never to leave.
Unable to sleep, he called me one late-night, his voice a husky whisper.

A Beaming Willow

I stand near the road-verge. The artist who brought me here from another realm caresses me whenever I feel homesick. Passers-by who see my flower-clusters can’t take their eyes off.

A Nocturnal Encounter

Travelling to any place, I often go out exploring it in the dark.

That night, in a secluded spot under a last quarter moon in a town called Bansuri, I found a besuited man in conversation with himself.

Just as I appeared directly in the line of his vision, he fell silent.

Counselling

Read the book by the Jewish Memoirist I prescribed for you? She regards journaling thoughts as her Saviour. Tell me straight up what does writing do for you? When I get eyeballs on my work, I live, otherwise I wilt. So publication comes uppermost, right? Yes! You must revisit Emily. Bronte? Dickinson. She’s very famous. …

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Winds of Change

The wind was ripping at him as he entered the tree-shaded Ashram. The garden path led him to the riverside where he sat on a chair and looked out at the coursing river.

Radio Talk

Recording at the Radio Station done—a talk on Ernest Hemingway—he felt thirsty.

A Letter

Hello Ka, do you still write poems these days at the drop of a hat? Stopping by at mysterious nooks at odd hours waiting all-eyes-and-ears for its birth with a notepad and a pencil, sharp as a quill, resting between your finger and thumb?

Away from the Surging Crowd

Train and my mouthpiece: how could you separate the two?
Homeless, he spent years inside a rail-carriage, almost like Penelope Fitzgerald did on an old barge.

Bridge Conversation

Quite early one morning I was crossing on foot the bridge on river Ganges. There was noone save a lady coming from the opposite direction. As we got closer, I could sense she was shooting repetitive glances my way. When we were about to pass each other by, she waved her hand as if to say hello and said: “Your face rings a bell. Although these days I have memory lapses, didn’t I meet you at this very place many years ago?”

Fate

The motorised boat left the ghat. When we reached mid-river, I could asee a floating black dot near the shore just left behind moving in our direction.