Pens and Pages

This poem was published in the May issue of Expressions Unlimited. Read it  here She ain’t the same anymore With expectations Came her discontents No one knows whom her wrath is for No, She ain’t the same anymore With beauty Came her hauteur No one knows how many hearts she tore No, she ain’t the same anymore With talents Came her indomitability No one knows if any flaws she bore And I asked her if she has changed I wondered if times had her feigned And pondered if destiny had this arranged That those attributes she reigned She answers as I, on her, did pore “With sufferings Came my existence Oh Yes, I am not the same anymore.”

It was during my semester exams when I got the news that Mahaveer publishers are conducting a short-story competition. Love was the genre, a genre on which I had never written any story before. But it so happens that when you read a theme, the story it forms by itself in your tiny grey cells. It did for me when I learned that the participants had to write a love story. But who had the time to pen down the story when every alternate day you have those giant exams that gobble you up in your sleep. Days went by and I forgot the story I had in my mind. My exams, they got over too. Only a few days were left for the submission period of the competition to be over when I realized I had to submit something, not because I simply wanted to, but because I had decided to and I actually had a story in my mind. 10 th January 2013 was the last date of submission and I submitted my entry just before sunset crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. 5 long days of waiting; and that’s when...