Sorry, I was busy living…

Sorry, I was busy living
While you were vis-a-vis death
But I have been thinking of you (?).

The problem is:
You are no longer doing anything;
You don’t utter a word these days;
You are tethered to the railed bed,
And rooted to the myriad devices.
Thus you lie there in the ventilator
Day after day, living your death.

Though your body is there
Your presence is slowly fading.
What you have already done
Is of no significance
As there are no updates or posts.

If you were dead, they could declare it
And get through this uncertainty.
But you have put us in a dilemma –
You are alive, but not lively!
You are not dead, but inactive!
You are in a coma –
A comma, not a full stop,
That points to infinity!

What am I to do?
I cannot take time out
And sit beside you,
Staring at your eyes
That don’t bloom.
What are the feelings beneath?
I can’t read them.

Time to go back -
Life is beckoning!
Forgive me, I can’t take you along.
This purgatory is hell-bent
On holding you, it seems.

Moreover, you have no role left to play
In the world of the Living!

Bye…

(Even celebrities are forgotten when they are no more active. Out of sight, out of mind. Life is like that – so cruel!)

The Last Few Seconds of a Young Man

And in the next moment everything went blank. He sensed the severe pangs of solitude – for the first time in his life, and that was more than his flesh and blood could stand. Adding to his misery, his acumen didn’t seem to work.

Bewildered, he mistook the ordeal for his Doomsday. As if in a trance he shut the doors to faith, while the shutters automatically lifted up to the heights of unnerving fears. Even the last ray of hope had abandoned him.

He couldn’t call to mind the green pastures he came from  - the hilarious occasions at home with his brother, the kind words and the appetizing dishes of his mother, the reassuring looks of his father, the moments he spent in cloud nine with his friends, the compliments from the colleagues, the track of his glittering achievements… Alas, nothing came in handy to alleviate his distress…

The tall wall in front obscured his vision and soon his brain. He neither looked up to see the blue sky that canopied him, nor looked down to see the warm earth that bolstered him. He didn’t bother to see the twittering birds on one side, the fluttering butterflies, the capering crickets and the swaying flowers on the other. He couldn’t get a glimpse of the thriving future that was in store for him – thoroughly overwhelmed by the enormity of the deceptive wall. He did not, or was not in a position to, deem the scores of possibilities.

Had he uttered a word to someone! Had he tilted his head! Had he merely taken some rest!

No miracles happened. Instead..

He just gave up….

His father whimpered, “I could have helped him take a detour!”

His brother grieved, “I could have assisted him to climb over the wall!”

His mother wailed, “I would have carried him in my arms all the way round!”

His friends mourned, “We would have pulled it down for him!!”

After all, just a WALL it was…

An Elegy

 (On the untimely demise of a young colleague)

It’s a journey together
There is happiness, also fights,
Shocks, complaints, tears,
Appreciations, criticisms -
All part of the game.

On the way some diverged
A few took a short break
Some faces are seen again
Some not; some forgotten,
But present somewhere.

Yesterday one promised
To return soon.
We hoped so, she too.
Today they say she won’t,
She could not,
Her role is over, for good.

What were her dreams,
Her thoughts about tomorrow?
Was she aware there was no tomorrow?

So who is rank now?
It might be he or she or you
Anyone other than me
That’s what I think,
He thinks,
She thinks,
You and they think.

I feel I am eternal
Because I have never died.
Always someone else died
Though at times it had come close.

With the suspense maintained
HE makes us play
Our puppet-roles sincerely
In the true sportsman spirit.

N  i n  c  o  m  p  o  o  p  s  !