A poem

For all those seemingly 

Inconsequential people. 

This is to that stranger, 

Who saved me,

From falling three floors down, 

Just by holding on to me. 

This is to that stranger, 

I saw on the way, 

With Parle-G in their hand. 

Surrounded by four-pawed angles. 

This is to that stranger. 

Who smiled at me,

I guess I didn't smile back. 

I did regret immediately, 

I am sorry for not smiling back. 

But you, unknowingly, made my day, 

Do you know? 

I thought about your smile. 

And thought about 

Why you smiled at me... 

This is to that stranger, 

I see on the bus, 

With a book in your hand. 

You seem to be 

From the forgotten generation... 

No phones, 

No earphones, 

No tabs, 

I smiled after I saw you. 

I saw a little bit of myself in you. 

You brought a smile to my face, 

On that dreary morning.

This is so, you stranger, 

The one I saw sitting alone, 

While the whole world around you, 

Was planning 

About where to go next, 

What movie to watch next,

Whose party to attend next, 

And there you were, 

Sitting on that table, 

Oblivious 

To all around you.

I know you could hear, 

And I also know that you didn't listen. 

Just seeing you, 

Sitting there, 

Enjoying your solitude 

And your own company, 

And a wide grin made its way 

Across my tired little face. 

This is to you stranger, 

Whose feedback on my posts 

Make my day, 

Every time. 

I cherish those words for a lifetime, 

And I felt you should know that. 

This is to you, stranger, 

You who told me tales, 

Tales of my ajji, 

And how she was loved by all, 

And how she loved everyone back. 

Her generosity, 

Her kindness, 

You name it and that. 

And those stories, stranger, 

Make my day even today. 

Although, ajji is no more,

Her legacy lives away...

And lastly, 

This is to all of you, 

All of you

Who feel insignificant 

In this wide, wide, world;

But let me tell you, 

Be what you are, 

And you might just end up 

Making someone's day 

Just like they made mine...!

The more storms you live through,
The lesser they scare you,
The better they make you,
To finally be the phoenix 
To rise from the ashes.

As time passes by,
The dark clouds will disappear,
The sun will shine brighter,
And a new dawn will appear,
Because storms don’t last forever.
-Ashwini

You tried to extinguish the little hope left in me,
But I didn’t give up
Fought every storm that came my way.
We can’t move forward from here,
Not anymore,
Freed by truth,
Even though I wanted to stay,
I walked away.
I walked away from the fears,
I walked away from the tears,
I just walked away…
-Ashwini

Withheld within the eyes

Without any meaning

Flows out right.

Clouded and vague

The swan that swims in it's river of fears

Drowns with the eyes glaring upon it.

The time that splits apart

Opens wounds, countless.

Unleashes it's color.

Releases its darkness.

And without a faint hesitation

The swan has drowned and died

In it's pit of darkness.

Leaving the marks of it's silent breath.

That I can write for you.

But I can sing for you.

Endlessly.

Forever.

I have a lost lullaby

The lullaby that takes me to places

I've never been before.

And I am ready to sing it for you.

I hear my own heart beat.

In Front of me is the sea

Across the sea are you

In a different space

Seeing a different horizon.

The breaths that I was loosing

I made a wish to the moon.

Even if the scenery change

My heart will belong to you.

The Soaked leaves shriveled
 from the greens echoed
 a soft mysterious chirp 
 And a cold wave of mind hit me 
 carring a sea of long forgotten memories

 But a snail 
 bearing a shell on its back
 Slowed the time.
 A ribbon of light
 made its way to a white 
 decaying flower.
 While my body climbed 
 the steps of solitude
 A calmness descended
 to my once a choatic soul.
 The sun was out 
 and the rains looked far
 Finally 
 on the edge of a step.
 I settled down.
 With a  better view 
 of the same old world.

And that is our vice.

We put others before us, because we’re told
It’s a true show of strength and love.
We act offbeat around some people,
Because we’re made to believe we’re 
Either too much of something, or too little.

In turn, we hush our hearts and put on a brave face,
Whether it benefits or limits us,

And that is our vice.

Two emotions,

Coexisting in a way,

No one would ever dream.

She, the empathetic dame,

He, the ruthless vagabond.

Like the sky and the land,

They were not meant to be one.

Star crossed they were,

The fates had different plans,

For love and hate

Had to unite in a passionate dance.

Like the moon

That meets the sun in an eclipse,

Their destinies,

Were meant to meet in a kiss.

His hatred bound his love,

Her love freed his hatred.

That is how,

Love and hate co-existed.

And what I saw there has me shook!

They’ve taken our freedom, those thugs!

Our right to an opinion, they took!

What’s happening around me?

What’s happening to this country?

I’m still reeling from the shock!

They’re putting our heads on a butcher’s block

And the police? They just sit and gawk!

Young students are we,

Fighting for our own rights and those of so many,

But instead of getting justice the way we expected to…

We’re staring down the fucken barrel of a gun and doing the campus edition of jailhouse rock!

They sit on their thrones and in their mansions

And from there, the Constitution and basic human rights, they’ll mock!

Hush! Don’t say a word… No protests…

Or they’ll make you do the jailhouse rock!

Off the backs of the innocents, watch em steal a quick buck,

Students , journalists, man, woman and child being beaten up here… Like what the actual fuck?!

Some old man running the government, he blames the youth for ‘being too woke’

Says we’re just kids with no homework, probably hopped up on coke

Well, at least, we, ‘sir’, know the difference between a promise to better the nation…

And a nation that’s become a joke!

That beholds what surrounds. 

Bustling through the crowd,

Everyday, I fail to notice

The Little Things.

Sensitivity, come back to the greatest creation,

Resurrect it again.

‘Tis the soul that loves God

That is grateful for the “trivial”.

Alas! Numbered are they

As callousness devours. 

O Lord in Heaven, work in us.

Lest we die before death.