The Shadow

The doorbell rang continuously. He sat on cold floor, knees raised in front of him his right hand held the left at the wrist. Somehow he didn’t feel the cold floor on his naked bottom. Maybe his butt had frozen by sitting in one position for hours. How many hours, he didn’t know. He had lost his sense of time. His naked body felt numb. He raised his bald head slowly and looked at the ceiling through unblinking dark eyes which looked dead due to the lack of eyebrows or eyelashes.

The mobile phone kept on the bed began to blink and ring again. How many times it had rung before, he didn’t know. He had lost the sense of count. Adding to the noise of the doorbell and the ring of the mobile phone was now the clank of heavy metals crashing against each other. Sometimes the metal hit the wood with a deep thud.

His blank eyes settled on the blue stains on the off white wall, near his writing desk. He had by accident pressed the small plastic pump of the new ink pen that she had given him and three droplets had fallen on the wall making a splash like rain drops on dried Earth. She had laughed heartily. When was this, he didn’t remember. He had lost his sense of memory. He sat on his unfeeling bottoms stark naked staring at the blue spots in front of him.

There was a loud noise of metal crushing metal and wood, the front door was thrown open. People ran into the flat. He saw a woman running in with an old man and a couple of other men. They ran straight into his room, as he continued to sit naked on the cold floor. Familiar faces, he had seen them all but he couldn’t recognize them. Who were they, he didn’t know. He had lost his sense of recognition.

The woman looked up at the ceiling gave a short scream and fell on the floor unconscious, right beside where he sat. The old man looked at where the fan hung from the ceiling, his eyes wide with horror and immediately grabbed the door to keep from falling. The two men stopped short near the door staring ahead of them in dismay and sympathy. He stared at them unblinking, unmoving.

****

“What is the rush in the other building”, the old woman standing at the window of the flat asked the boy who came inside. She looked at the gate of building opposite her where people have gathered and a police van was parked.

“Somebody died”, the boy replied. “They are waiting for the ambulance to take the body away”.

“Who is it”, asked the girl sitting on the floor of the living room surrounded by her friends. She turned to look at the window where the old woman was standing.

“Don’t talk about death today”, the woman said in a strict voice turning away from the window. The girl shrank back. One of the girl’s friends took her hands and started to apply a green semi solid paste of mehndi and oil on her palm.

A Psychedelic Fairytale

The butterfly flapped its wings.
The wind drifted towards the woods.
The dragonfly sitting on the wild orchid swayed.
Fluttering above the flower for a bit it drifted with the wind. 
Towards the river the dragonfly flew.
He knew she had come, the 2012 year long wait was over.
Like the parched Earth waiting for the rain.
He had waited through time recalling her promise.
The promise made in a time when nobody fell in love.
In a time when there was still right and wrong.
And people were judged by the color of their skin and the God they followed.
I will wait for you till the last drop of my blood has dried he had told her.
I will come back for you again and again she had said.
Their bodies were found hanging from a banyan tree.
Nobody cried their death, nobody’s honor was compromised.
Just two dead bodies, of people better forgotten.
In the year 4024, the world was ruled by the Queen, who had the biggest garden.
The clouds lingered on the horizon of the baked Earth, waiting to be soaked.
The garden promised to fulfill promises, made several years ago.
The butterfly waited on the red rose in the royal garden.
The dragonfly floated on the river side in the summer breeze.
The princess came running into the garden and caught the butterfly in a glass jar.
The stable boy was throwing pebbles in the river when he saw the dragonfly and caught it in a matchbox.
He brought his catch to the garden to show it to the princess and opened the matchbox.
The princess showed him the glass jar kept on the grass with the purple butterfly fluttering inside.
They smiled at each other.
The butterfly fluttered around when she saw the dragonfly outside.
The dragonfly flew around the glass wall trying to find an opening.
The butterfly followed him around.
Tired the dragonfly sat on the glass wall.
The butterfly sat opposite him.
The princess watched the psychedelic dance.
The stable boy kissed the princess on her cheek.
The princess blushed, turned around and stared at the stable boy in mock anger.
Their lips locked as the stable boy, with his right leg, overturned the glass jar. 

Dragonfly

The way your hair lies across
your dream struck face,
when you wake up in the morning
makes you look beautiful.


You flutter your eyelashes
like the wings of a butterfly,
in a land where dreams are flowers,
strewn across a field of sleep inducing poppies.

The flowers of your dreams
look familiar to me,
as if a dragonfly has just disturbed,
the air in your dreamland.

Maybe that's because
the dragonfly and the butterfly,
were sitting on the same flower.