The Haunted Old Mall

Like any other city of the world, Calcutta has undergone change and there are many new swanky shopping malls everywhere. These modern shopping malls have become a rage among young shoppers and why not? They offer best of brands and products at best prices and plus there are food courts, restaurants to hang out.

Any change is good but I feel very sad when I enter old shopping zones of the city which are probably more than hundred years old. The New Market is one such place which has shops selling almost everything including awesome bakery products. The old building with ancient architecture is very compelling but the emptiness there is so haunting. Just other day, couple of years ago it was difficult to step in to New Market during peak shopping seasons. 

Yesterday out of pure impulse I walked into another old, once famous a.c market and my immediate urge was to run out of there. It was swanky and clean but very empty. It seemed as though I was the only shopper who had entered the place since morning and the very moment I stepped in all shop keepers starting shouting out loud to get my attention. There was an escalator which was not working, so I decided to take stairs to check out the other floors. But the moment I turned away from escalator it started moving and it took me a while to realize that there was a man sitting there to operate it every time a shopper stepped on it. It came across more as cost cutting measure than energy saving one. It was the same story on the first floor - many small shops and no buyers. Shopkeepers looked desperate to sell but it was scary and I felt like a prey being hounded by many predators.I ran out.

The emptiness, the sudden moment of escalator and voices calling out kept haunting me through the day.

Floating in Space

Why is it hard to believe that I am indeed floating in empty space?
We are on a free trip around the sun remember?

Is it only gravity that keeps us glued?
Is only gravity that defines our weight?

I look at the stars in the dark night
To remind myself that dark space around me is empty and not dense

Then why does it seem so dense?
So suffocating?

I struggle to stand out
I struggle to feel special

Its a momentary struggle
Lasting a lifetime only for me

Nameless faceless
I stand glued to this blue planet
As it takes me on a free ride around the sun

A Lunatic and the Curse

A lunatic
Hurling a stone
Tearing clothes
Eating dirt
Sleeping with dogs
Raging against the world
Mocking it hysterically
Always on the move
Reminds of a curse
Curse of being misunderstood
And abandoned
Yet defying all curses
Lunatic survives
Mocking humanity, sanity
And the sanitized world

Paths in the Woods

The paths I never took
they beckon me sometimes
Lost in the woods
I wonder if that path
Which I never explored still exists

It was a wild path
Dark and full of thorns
It had not fooled me
With promises of destination

Lost in the woods
I no longer seek
a way out
But I must find my
Final resting ground

Chains of Liberation

You ask “Why don’t you dance with joy?”
There have been infinite invisible chains around my feet
I never knew that I was supposed to undo them one by one
I kept them all ‘as gifts’
I waited for some loving hands to undo them
I didn’t know I have to undo them myself
One day you came along
And laughed at me…
You reached down my feet
But ended up adding one more chain
Now I struggle to undo them one by one
Only one of them can’t be undone
It’s the ‘chain of liberation’
Which you gave me as a farewell gift!!!
1999

An Idiot

When She looked at the horizon
They laughed
They called her an 'Idiot'
No one knew
She could see that the sky never kissed the earth

When She looked at the Sky
They laughed
Idiot
No one knew she was looking at the infinite space seeking

When She kissed a youth
They mocked
'What would an idiot know about love?'
No one knew it was her way of paying compliments to Life
For being alive, for being able to laugh and cry and...
For being able to love

1999

On reading and books

To hide myself and my face i decided to bury myself in a book. The words looked strange. I couldn't correlate them. The string of thoughts went on in the back ground, tearing me away from the book. The more disturbed I was, the more I tried to lose myself in the words and search for their meanings. I masked myself in them. Slowly I weaved myself into the words and structure of the book. As meaning and story emerged, I no longer needed a mask and there was no need to hide!!
1999