Your heart constricts uncontrollably when in one moment’s distraction you realize you are going to miss someone. In that unsettled feeling you reinvent love. In that suddenness you understand attachment. Then, in that awkward stillness you brace yourself once again, to let go.

I have never been good with goodbyes.

Black Hole Sun

6.52PM.Sunday.29th April 07.Bangalore.From my 7th floor window.

I hate sunsets.
They leave me melancholy.
I dread the twilight halo
and let it pass
hiding in my windowless cubbyhole
on weekdays.
But Sundays are particularly tough.
All of my seventh floor apartment windows face west.
Ironic?
I try to ignore, but the orange glow
seeps in under the heavy drawn curtains
taunting me.

***********

You are getting obsessive
my mother says.
So I decided to work on it.
Last Sunday evening
I pushed the curtains aside
braved the disparage carroty blaze
And stared out for a while.
The sun
placid and unfriendly
all consuming and shameless.
The familiar inexplicable hollow feeling.
When will I learn to deal with it?

The girl from yesterday

He left her. Just like that.
She kept staring at his picture and the eyes of her unborn daughter he promised they would have.
She continued living on the memories they had made.
It has been weeks. But she waits for him everyday.
Her foolish heart didn’t know she had become the girl from yesterday.

Embarrassed

“The beer is getting to you”
“Naaah!” I slur, a little.
“Come, let’s go home”
As we step out, the maître de calls him aside.
He comes back grinning and whispers.
“Pull up your zip, Pee”
“W h a t?”
“Here, lemme help you” he winks and pulls me close.
The elevator thankfully was empty.

You and I

“You didn’t!”
Yep, I did” he smiled.
“You booked five rows for her?”
“I would book the entire theater for you” he smiled again.
“Liar! The show was houseful because of you!”
“I didn’t know you then”
“I would have killed you!”
“I would have kissed you”
“It’s never too late you know” she smiles.

She was unknown to me
but I know her now.
I have never heard her speak
but now her words float in my memory.
I have never seen her
but now her image is everywhere I see.
I have never met her
but I know somehow.
Unknown, unheard, unseen
She is now everything to me.

Courtesy Poorabednes

Truth

I

“I have to tell you something” He says slowly.
He leaves the door open and lets her step inside.
“Oh good! Me too!” She beams.
“Tell me…”
“We are going to have a baby!” She hugs him tight.
He sits down on the sofa with a thud.
She hasn’t seen his packed suitcase upstairs yet.

II

“I have to tell you something” He says as she opens the door.
She smiles.
“Shall I get you tea?”
“No..”
“ I don’t know how to begin…” he trails off.
“Don’t. I have packed your suitcase”
What?”
“You can leave before Vicky comes back from school”
“Dia…”
Yes, I saw her message last night”

One morning at work

He picks up and flips through her desk calendar. Reed thin, long legged models stare back seductively at him.
“So you like models?”
Her sarcasm is evident.
He smiles. The calendar still in his hands.
“But they stay here”
He quickly returns the calendar. Walks away embarrassed.
“Idiot” she thinks.
“I like her” he thinks.

another love turns cold

"She is amazing!"
"Oh.."
"What?"
"I am happy for you, you know…"
"Hey you have to help me with the ring…"
"Ring?"
"Yeah….I wanna surprise her on her birthday!"
"Oh.."
"What?"
"Sure…"
"Thanks pal!"
He gives her a tight hug and walks to his car.
She sits at the café hoping it wouldn't hurt forever.

before the afterglow

They rented Before Sunrise.
He watches it in bed with her - his girlfriend of three years.

Jesse to Celine, “I know happy couples... but I think they lie to each other”

Movie ends. He waits for his girlfriend to fall asleep.

Gets his mobile phone and texts someone- ‘Wish you were here. Goodnight.’

Love in an Elevator

“You are really l a t e ?”
“Your office is really far”
“You should have started earlier!”
“I did! But you know the traffic here….”
“Tell that to my BOSS!”
“ Did you get your BP checked today?”
“Huuuh? I hate you!”
“Really?”
She begins to speak. He bends over and kisses her lips.

Living in your afterglow

Star Movies. Dominick and Eugene.
Mid movie, he turns and says. " We are like that na?"
"Yeah.." she says distractedly.
“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl…...” he sings softly.
“Oh…not again” she rolls her eyes.
Years later she watches the movie again. Alone. “…wish you were here…” she sings off key.