Pens and Pages

Dedicated to Partha Deka, a friend I had known since I was a child, a friend fate had brought to me back this year, only to be taken away again  Remnants of a smile on a stone-cold face And maybe you can fool everyone again That death isn't as painful as we make it to be... Some tears bottled up from months gone by- You'd say judge not how one deals with loss... Dying dreams like drops of dew under a rising sun, You'd laugh they don't chain your ankles anymore... We'd cry for we wouldn't know any better And make stories of your new whereabouts, Playing MJ songs and laughing at your own jokes... Or in a make-believe world of hope, Somewhere in peace in a dreamless sleep...

When I had just started blogging I planned to write fictions only. Eventually, poems happened and then articles. True stories, there were none until “Was She Raped?” happened. People reveal their inner selves in their blogs and I still do not have the guts to. Nor do I intend to (Nope, I don’t :-P). But then sometimes a diary knows too much of you and you just want it (which is basically you) to shut up. These are the times when you need to blog. Acknowledging the fact that not many people read your blog helps you even more (Not now, they don’t. The number of my readers, of late, has only decreased :-/) It so happened last weekend that I just couldn’t face my diary no matter how much I tried. So at my time of despair, I just couldn’t find the solace of it. I couldn’t because I didn’t want to, being aware of the fact that confronting it, would only break me down into smaller pieces. Yes, I was broken and I very much wanted to escape the fact and yet, face it at the same time. ...

College was about to end And Employers were at the door Discussions and Interviews Like there had been none before Being selected as one Was like winning a battle And everywhere I’d see Congratulations did rattle The victory was ephemeral And it soon meant losing When time was to leave home Family and friends, so loving They say, “job-life’s boring” And you gulp in fear Alas! it is no less than fun When you find new friends, dear And it’s another world here Framed in the cold block With warm smiles and hope A system, desk and a lock The indolent youth Spending four hours in college Now spent nine in office Working to gain knowledge Within a month or two We too became professional Work and Responsibilities And a personal life in parallel Family would motivate Bosses would guide Colleagues would help and we sail with the tide “Priorities” is the word We learned as we grew From students to employees Of...

You know what people can do to you? They can make you feel like you’re on top of the world. And then they can gently give a push so that you tumble down and hurt yourself. They can love you and then they can ruin you. They can make you feel that you’re the best and then they will begin to find the flaws on you. They can show you what’s wrong with you and they can make you feel miserable. They can let you know that you’re beautiful inside and everyone should be like you. And then they can tell you what and how you should be like. Agree? But can they? Really? I believe they can’t. Well, unless, of course if you let them. Thick skin, some people call it. But what I believe is that rather than having a thick skin that is immune to all the criticism of the world, one can just learn to be happy while having a thin and all-absorbing skin too. If you’re peaceful inside and content, not complacent, with yourself how can anyone’s opinion bother you? How can a break-up s...

Guatemala. The word was ringing in my ears when I saw the tiny green plants growing proudly in the fields unaware of the fact that they will be soon removed for the cultivation of another plant, for which they were grown in the first place.  The lands near the road from Moranhat, a small town in the eastern part of Assam in the Dibrugarh district, to Kathalguri ( Kathal meaning Jackfruit in Assamese) were mostly devoted to the cultivation of Tea.  Assam is known for the black tea it produces, commonly known as “breakfast” tea or simply Assam Tea. Green and white teas are also grown in the state although in smaller quantities. Almost half of the tea produced in the state comes from Dibrugarh. On the right side of the road lied the green fields filled with tea shrubs, all of the same height, with a few trees growing amidst the neatly columned shrubs to cater shade to them.  Some fields had tea plants that were almost a hundred years old, as told by m...