LIFE AND LIES #39 | The Grey Sky

Lurking in the distance

On the other side

Of the office windows

The grey sky

And the advancing clouds

Brought forth a fervour

Never seen before

In a colleague of mine

Ctrl + S

Windows + L

Then he rushed me

Down the elevator

And we were at the tea stall

Next to the Exit Gate

No words were required

His mere presence was enough

The shopkeeper held out

Without any prompt

A cigarette in his hand

Raindrops fell

Few and harmless

The wind grew stronger though

But my colleague didn't worry

To light the cigarette

He brought forth his Zippo

Whose burning flame

No wind could tame

But before he could savour

The first intake

The cigarette fell to the ground

A flash of lightning

A moment not lost

He picked it up

And took a drag

Noticing the dirty look I gave

He smiled and said,

Unhealthy, huh?

Fair enough,

I smiled back.

And he let out another puff of smoke

Matching the grey of the sky.

***

Comments

LIFE AND LIES #98 | Talk To Me

*** The woods are gloomy, dark and scary. You were supposed to keep me company. Even when the roads diverged, You promised me we wouldn't split. Talk to me, man! The mountains spit fire. The rivers run acrid. I walk the barren valley All by myself. Talk to me, man! You and I had concluded long back That life is a joke and Death is the punchline. Then why am I not laughing? Talk to me, man! While I grow old and frail, You'll remain forever young. I say that out of envy Or maybe to content myself. Talk to me, man! I hope you have the answers now To all the questions that befuddle mankind: God, soul, afterlife, rebirth, heaven and hell. You can go on a rant about them if you want, But just once come and talk to me, man! ***

LIFE AND LIES #100 | The Blurred Lines

Nitin was utterly shocked when he woke up on Saturday morning with a hangover and without any recollection of what had transpired the previous night. He had been drunk before. He had lost all of his senses before. But everything always came back to him the next morning. However, that day, it didn't; complete blackout. There must have been something bizarre in that drink. Over the course of the week, though, he started remembering flashes of it and began looking for an opportunity to talk to Sandhya, sober and alone. The weather had taken a sharp turn today. A sweltering sunny day gave way to a cloudy evening with thrashing winds. As everyone raced to the office window to watch the scene unfolding outside, Nitin saw Sandhya signalling to him by pressing two fingers to her lips. He couldn’t help but smile. She knew he loved to smoke in this weather. After all, she was his smoking partner in the office. Together, they went downstairs, but as soon as they stepped out of the building, t...

LIFE AND LIES #88 | Bundle Of Joy

"Who's the baby?" "She's my niece. I have loads of cousins and by extension, a lot of nephews and nieces." "It's a nice picture." "Thanks. You cannot imagine what was going through my mind while I was holding her." "Can I guess?" "Sure, why not." "She’s so cute you could eat her." "Haha... obvious guess, but, no. I was thinking about the theory of Twin Paradox." "Interesting. Care to explain." "In Twin Paradox, one of the twins goes on a space voyage and the other stays put on Earth. When he returns, he discovers that his Earth-bound counterpart has aged considerably compared to him. I do not have a twin. Nor do I have a vehicle capable of space voyages. But I do live away from my hometown and normally return after long intervals. This time, on my return, I found out that one of my nieces I once used to rock to sleep and carry around in my arms has now become a teenager, taking se...

Whispers and Words of M R Maiti

Search This Blog