My Lady's Home

In my lady’s home, the curtains dance.
They whisper as they reveal
The sun they hide.
While summer sleeps in
The playground of her youth,
And remembers the lines racing
Through her smile.

She needs no armour for
Battles in her dream.
She needs no shelter for pictures,
Of childhood in the rain.
She never knew any spells for little miracles,
Like toy soldiers and pencils that defy shape.

In my lady’s home, the trees sway
And in the moonlight, she says
They come alive.
While she gazes outside the window
The breeze plays with her dark, dark hair
Her eyes mirror a city
Shining in the night.

She needs no words for the songs she sings.
She needs no reigns
For a heart untamed.
And why pray today
For a better tomorrow?
A silent hymn never broke our chains.

And sometimes in my lady’s home
I hear the sounds of freedom
The breaking of the waves
Rising of the sun.
And I become a slave to all I’ve seen
To the beauty in her eyes
When the day’s begun.

Morning Lullaby

(Verse 1)
In the morning, when
The sun will rise
Half in my sleep
I’ll kiss your eyes.

And then you’ll ask
Is this the end?
I’ll smile and say,
We’ll meet again…friend.

(Chorus)
And with these words
I’ll take you far.
‘Cuz in, in our dreams
We’re just who we are.

(Verse 2)
Summer’s in her shoes
Lines through her smile
Forget my autumn bruise
Fruits of denial.

(Chorus 2)
Some say, I’ll never learn
Anything, so take me far.
Meet me in our dreams
Where we’re just who we are.

(little guitar thingy)

Now tears are flowing,
Climbing down your smile
Like trains and mirrors,
This will pass you by.

Here Comes the Rain (song)

(Verse 1)
When bodies glide
In a silent room
Strangers wait for the afternoon
I sit alone and sing.

Let’s forget, wrong or right
Who’s the first and who’s the last
There’s always time to think.

(Chorus)
Here comes the rain – 2
Washing down again
Here comes the rain.

(Verse 2)
And when we met
Words were bled
Thoughts meandered in our head
It all just ends too soon.

I remember, everything
Places I’ve been to
Things I’ve seen
I’ll never leave this room.

(Repeat Chorus)

(Bride)
Now I haunt
This empty space
I’m an autumn leaf
Flying in the wind
And all I’ll say is…

(Repeat Chorus)

Untitled and Incomplete (song)

(Verse 1)
Stuck in the attic
You move through letters
You curse all the static
Caught in your head

It seems that you doubt it
The course of the weather
Sometimes it’s good to find
What you’re lookin’ for

(Chorus)
Cuz…don’t we breathe the same, love?
Don’t we need the same…?

If I (song)

(Verse 1)
Have you seen my woman?
She was born in the rain
Have you seen that child?
With songs in her head?

Like a picture in a frame
She’s tried to be free
Oh, it’s all the same
Can’t you see?

I’d ask you to stay
Just for a while
If it helps you to stand
If it makes you smile

(Pre chorus)
The time for starters
Has gone out of hand
What doesn’t make you a woman
Will it make you a man?
And rest assured, I’ll do all I can

(Chorus)
If I could, then I would.

(Verse 2)
Did you see my woman
When she danced in the rain?
Did you see her cry?
When her thoughts, they bled

And I promise I won’t take
Most of your time
Unless it helps you to stand
And if it makes you smile.

(Pre chorus 2)
‘Cuz these thoughts in my head
You wouldn’t understand
Does it make you a woman
To not be a man?
And rest assured,
I’ll do all I can

(Chorus)
If I could, then I would.

(End)

Hold On (song)

(Verse 1)
And to those who preach
Could you look around and see
What have you done?

And to those who know
Tell me the truth
Is this what we've become?

And I forgive, I forget
Just an inch
An inch is left
Of this resolve
Don’t let it go.

(Chorus)
When time itself slips away
Could we hold on...?
Could we hold on...?

Innocence is lost today
Could we hold on...?
Yeah, hold on...?

(Verse 2)
Neighbours fighting - left or right
Promised land, take me back
I don’t want nowhere to belong
...to belong

And I forgive, I forget
Just a breath
A breath is left
In this heart
Don’t let it part

(Repeat chorus)

(Bridge)
Why can’t difference ring the same?
Pointed fingers, (with) everyone to blame
Why can’t we stop this war?

(Repeat chorus)

Fingerprints (song)

(Verse 1)
Roads will take you where you wanna go
But who will show you where you wanna be?
If you think you've gotten too far from home
I’ll smile and hush your eyes to sleep

I’m not in this, i listen to you
Never say a word above to me

(Chorus)
cuz I still wait for
And I still wait for...you
And I bleed

(Verse 2)
I sing this one for every broken heart
Don’t know who you were, who you are
She’s not in this, always next to me
Sing and laugh again, set me free.

(Repeat chorus)

(Breakdown...or something like it!!)
Fingerprints are climbing up the wall
We crash and burn (but) we never take the fall
You’re not in this, I speak the truth
The only thing I could not be was you.

(Repeat chorus)

(End)

An Unfinished Song

*something i started two years back but still havent managed to finish*

So sweet when she rolls on the floor,
Heaven in her heart
But in her eyes,
All I see is hell.
There are colours she spoke of today,
But when she dried up and twisted
All that’s left was grey.

Oh she’s walking down the hall
Thinking of her future
Those little eyes of her,
They cannot pretend.
And I’m all out of my excuses,
I’ve fallen hard and dirty
Goodbye woman, this is the end.

Yesterdays

What do you want with yesterdays? She said.

‘To not know what I need to forget’

I replied.

Dreaming Backwards

In the blue of the night,
When words rise from the ground
Aching, bending, swaying
Like a woman awakens at dawn.
Like smoke in a chain of rings together.
I will return to the shade of our time
To the unspoken word,
And just a smile
To the rhythm of our steps in the sun
To the shadows in which we fused,
And were lost.

Banjar

There are ghosts in the wind
Above a land left dry.
And behind the veil, a million eyes
Waiting.

The rivers run through history
Now misshapen
Devouring, bellowing
Without lament, like
A beast
Sleeping.

Empty are the houses
With just a stain,
‘mian ki ma chudaye’
And we the people,
Are like forgotten trees
Of our land.
He, who does not bend,
Always cracks.

Look now, don’t turn away
Delol, Patiya, Gulbarg, Naroda, Vatwa
Sayaspur, Gayatrinagar, Juhapura, Chamanpura,
Asarwa, Behrampura, Sehrkotda, Malpur
Modasa…are just names?

There are children and their mothers
Coming from the smoke.
And coming from the words
Are men no one knew.
Locked away like official affidavits
In unofficial places
Are secrets that only silence reveals.

And there is a silence in cracking, blackened walls
A silence of blood dried amber.

A silence that echoes a thousand screams.

*for the victims of Gujarat riots of 2002*

Culture?

Today the police ignored calls for help from an old lady whose house got robbed last night and didnt register a case of sexual harassment when a girl wanted to press charges against her live-in partner.

Instead, they went to a park.

And beat up two lovers sitting together.

Luxuria

It’s a fever of the veins
The last drop of rain
In this desert of strangers
Who pick and choose
What they can’t alarm or defuse
And pass it off as danger.

I Remember

When talk is easy
Our mouths - a pistola
And separated, we fly with our words
Into the divide
It is times like these, I think of
The road I am walking.
Of the strangers that have passed me by.

And sometimes,
I think of my world
A prism in a bubble,
The colours dissolved.
Faint, as my reflection in your eyes.
A photograph, maybe a decade old
And a shelter from the rain,
Cradled in my arms,
Like a mother to a child.

When the fever of yesterdays subside like,
Moonlight from my door and,
Waves at the shore, we shall
Sing and play games with our masks.
And become two dreams, entwined
To haunt our nights.

In such times, I will remember,
A washed out room
And an evening canvas
Where the yellow sun of my autumn
Sank behind your eyes
When I learnt to speak in tongues
And wishes were let loose upon the wind,
Like clothes hung out to dry.

Today

I wrote a song today called Here Comes The Rain after playing constantly for something like two and a half hours.

When i finally stopped, i looked up, the sky looked beautiful.

No One Knows

Running through ruins, we are
Chasing the sun, almost half now.
Avoiding threats from wanderers with stories
For a price
In similar ways we avoid
Our eyes from straying down a familiar road.

And when everything is devoid of shape,
We are devoured by circles, for,
It is in circles we dance
Before the waves come,
Take us away.

Forever young and foolish
But it’s not enough, and soon,
We must make our way back.
Before the witching hour
Before this secret turns to glass
And breaks.

Through days like these
Or when we meet in our minds and embrace
Forever wary of the eyes upon us
Eyes that know we are not the same
When we walk these streets now.

And as midnight burns to dawn,
We travel
From wind to whispers
From fist to fingers.

Everyone is watching
But no one knows.

the part you avoid.

Ive never been good at talking about things once they are over(...or maybe i am...but only in my head...damn), and maybe it annoys me how good you're at it...yes...YOU. Maybe thats the only thing I am really pissed off about, more than anything. The sad thing is how we get used to...this...to everything, like nothing ever happened...we never bleed, we're not allowed to...we restrict ourselves...to walk by the same road, to smile in the same corners where we huddled in winters and shared secrets, to watch the day turn to black, to wear ourselves out, like sweaters we must pass to our siblings after they stop fitting...sigh, gravity always wins...but I smile now, down is the new up...thank you for everything.

Polaroid

Through half black slanted eyes moving rapidly,
Gliding from door to door
Watching strangers, foes and friends
Across the room, you know
Sometimes they’re all the same.

And in the same room, we
Watch the day pass in black and white
Devoid of colours, a Polaroid
We become whispers, trapped
Like moths to a flame.
Like a reflection, re-arranged.

Like they keep secrets in China.

At times we talk in pictures.
We take the breeze that flutters prayer flags
And fly away to other lands.
Places where our grandmothers’ stories
Held their sway
To a time when our fathers were lovers
And our mothers didn’t believe
Everything they heard.

And sometimes,
Sometimes we speak in symbols,
In signs we made our own.
But we never say a word.
They will never know
Our language is one.

The Way of the Rain

The rain finds a way
Through shattered, broken windowpanes,
And cracks in the ceiling.
Through keyholes in the walls, and
Peeling white plaster.
Through the doors that only open for some.

It makes its way
Through borders and barbed wires
That can’t be bought or cut.
Through places with names we can’t pronounce,
And gaps in praying hands
Maybe open or closed,
Lifted to the sky.
Sliding down your neck and chin,
Into your bosom.
Through the song of the bird that,
Has learned to sing.

And it will come,
From the news in the television and
Songs on your radio.
From mouths and eyes that refuse to shut,
From the crevices on your skin
Bones that are dried but not hollow.
And through the wind that blows
Across these shores,
The rain will find a way,
Drown the sentries of your heart.

Avalanche

And when the evening arrived,
The mountains rolled down.
That was how the avalanche was started
With just a kick,
To a pebble.