Some days weigh heavy on your heart; they shove their judgements and cripple angst amidst the calm you've been breeding. This poem is about one of those days.

Transcript:

My vision seems blurred today

I think it’s filled with rage

My eyes are an ocean

I think it’s the tears

My cheeks feel warm

I think it’s the embarrassment

I sit in a corner and cry

Beg you to stop

Tell you I am trying

But are you listening?

You told me I stink of betrayal

You told me that I was a zero

And you kept repeating

Repeating till each spectrum of my confidence exploded

You forgot all the moments I have spent crying

All the moments I kept trying

You told me results won’t matter

Not if I worked hard enough

Not if I showed passion

And I did, I tried, I persevered

But you have been sly

You have been smart

And you have been a liar.

Each morning I look at you

And I see you look back at me

I see the disappointment in your eyes

Your screams at my failures haunt me each night

Your impatience towards me increases with time

And your hatred towards me gets unbearable with each passing moment.

And I try very hard to set you free

Free from miseries, free from the pain, free from me

But is it ever possible to set one free from oneself?

This poem is for all those who've been waiting for something or someone with glistening stars in their eyes and boundless hope in their hearts.

Transcript:

When the gloomy winter evening takes over

When your arrival is just an insane idea

When hopes have left each heart they lodged in

I’ll wait for you

I’ll try to look beyond the mist

I’ll keep the curtains apart all day

I’ll not let myself fall prey to the pessimism around me

For I know your shine is inevitable

Sometimes, you delay but you never deny

And that is why I’ll wait for you

Even when I am stuck in a desert of disapprovals

When your presence is compared to a mirage

I won’t let go of my hopes

I’ll run to each mirage

For I know even if I don’t find you a 100 times

You’ll be there somewhere

Finding me in other places

And if this is destiny’s test, I know we’ll succeed

For even if you take a lifetime,

I’ll wait for you.

I’ll wait for you like a child lost in the midst of the city

I’ll cry my heart out

But I won’t bury my belief

I won’t let the city lights blind me

Or the incessant noises mislead me

I’ll look around in each direction

For I know you’ll be arriving from one

And I will, always, wait for yo

"Hollow" attempts to address the indescribable void that seeps in at odd moments in life. It will accompany the perplexity and will empathise with the obscurity of the situation that the hollow of life puts one in.

Transcript:

There’s a hollow in my life

And I am not sure what it is

There’s a hollow in my life

And I’ve heard you whisper about it

There are moments in my life

When I feel I can tell exactly what it is

Maybe that missing dream,

that missing moment,

that missing person,

Or maybe my thoughts are not my own

It’s a string entangled on my finger

The same string your whispers unleashed

Or is it a dream I saw last night

Which gifted glimpses of utopia

And made me feel incompetent to ever attain it

Or is it my time on the social media

Which weaves fairy tales and masters perfection

And makes me question every flaw I have ever had

Or is it you?

The reflection I see each morning,

Smiling back at me with hushed tones

Hiding layers beneath to save me from the storm,

And whispering tales to perplex life’s austerity.

Transcript:

Have you ever felt misunderstood?

I’ll tell you how it feels

The core of your heart burns with anguish

Little volcanoes erupt in your soul

You fail to fathom your own emotions

Something crumbles inside you while you sit

Your only escape are your tears or your rage

Both of which you need to suppress

Both of which are condemned

The more you speak, the less you become of a girl

The less you become of an agreeable child or a congenial human

Simply because reasoning is neither accepted nor appreciated

Have you ever been the least preferred one?

I’ll tell you how it feels

You begin by thinking it’s funny

They obviously love you but don’t show

Why do the rules change for others though?

Why is their inexpressible love expressed when it’s not you?

Slowly, your smile starts to fade away,

And before you know, the fun in funny vanishes

You still try and understand

Count your own flaws every night

Cry because they were the only people who were supposed to love you despite your flaws

Slowly, you start accepting

It’s like taking continuous little sips of hot water

Letting it burn your throat as it moves down slowly

You can feel your system accepting it.

It’s like keeping your feet in cold water

Resisting it for the first few moments

And then not feeling a thing

It is like every other new thing

That your body eventually has to accept.

"To the guy down my street" is one of my first few poems and also, a raw personal anecdote. This ordinary tale helped me extract a simple yet meaningful perspective in life!

Dreams are always so scarily close to the reality as if to tempt us with the possibility that they might come true but also just as further away from it as if to tease us.

This poem reflects on moments we see through the images they create and yet gather the courage to face them.

Zakir Khan had famously called us "a generation of broken hearts and broken people". 

"Welcome to the 21st Century" is a portrayal of our generation based on an aspect of the formerly mentioned phrase. With no intention to generalise, it gives a glimpse of how our generation proceeds through life!

Transcript:

Welcome to the 21st century,

The age of millennials

The fast-paced life

The period where everyone’s aware yet unaware

Meet mankind’s most ambitious self

See them race through their days

See them not blinking in fear of losing the moment

See them trying to be the best

But wait, don’t stop for long in your quest

Or you’ll fall behind, way behind

Welcome to the new way of life

The rollercoaster you climbed for the thrill

The rollercoaster which lasts more than 5 minutes

The rollercoaster that stops getting fun

Welcome to the blues

And observe those empty, sad faces in the metro that don’t look around

The eyes of the poor kid right in front of that metro station

The upset soul through the exuberance of the most buoyant people

Notice contentment losing its grip on each individual you’ve known

The shadow of depression covering the rays of happiness

Welcome to the hollow

The hollow that shut its door and caged every being it ever consumed

The hollow that innocently closes its fists tightly around your fingers

The hollow that is slowly victimising the world

And is the mirage you went running for in a desert of oblivion