Frozen moments my star-filled sky

Underneath the moonlight we breathe in the cold night air, on a cloudless night where stars, like shamelessly flirts wink at us. A barn owl gives us a hoot and flies by, puzzled at the new night intruders sitting on top of the world, with the crisp sea breeze whispering secrets of sailors at sea.

Amidst the incessant chitter chatter of nocturnal birds and animals, we knew at this very moment in time we were making a beautiful memory- as we lay splayed out on a terrace top, making wishes on the deceptive twinkling lights of aeroplanes in the sky for the lack of shooting stars. In these delightfully refreshing moments it felt like the hands of time slowed down to standstill, moments frozen for eternity, for us to rummage through over the years.

Like the moonbeams bouncing of a shimmering, slaty sea our conversation bounced effortlessly from the utterly nonsensical to more heartfelt deeper sorts. Over the years I've realised how these moments come along less often than they used to and there's an urgency of sorts to create the space and time to allow for the unravelling of these moments in time that leave a lifetimes imprint.

A moonlight tryst

We sat there baring our souls,
Licking our wounds as we spoke,
We came undone, the warp and weft giving way,
Each thread, each fiber once taut with tension,
Loosening with effortless ease,
Threadbare souls, naked, exposed,
We built castles in the sky,
We saw each other under a moonlit night,
Hoping the sun wouldn't rise.

When truant clouds wreak havoc

The sun is beating down hard on a city that is sweltering and seeming more listless with each passing day.  Beads of sweat organise themselves into a millions of rivulets that run down my spine unabashed, they leave a city feeling stifled as each droplet on a million faces catch the last rays of sunshine as night falls. All I can do is helplessly gaze at a sunset sea, as the last rays fall unceremoniously into a seemingly calm sea, only to send it into a shudder of glittering shivers. I begin to curse myself for ever complaining about the monsoons, the floods, the clattering of windowpanes as the rain pelts down and shamelessly robs me of a good nights sleep.

I've always had a love-hate relationship with the monsoons, I dread the dampness, the longer hours I need to work on my artwork to make sure they dry in time. The filth that finds it way up from open drains when the city goes under, which I must add, is a promise Mumbai always manages to keep. But I also find myself each year, towards the fag end of summer, earning for the rains in an attempt to bring some respite from the harsh summer sun and relentless humidity.

A couple of weeks ago the sultry silence of summer was broken by blots of lightning and thundering clouds, as  I lay in bed listening to natures delightful lullaby I felt a dash of excitement and anticipation, the monsoons were near at last. I suddenly loved the monsoons and couldn't wait for the city to smell, feel and evolve into something less dusty and sweaty!

Every monsoon I love how the leaves on the trees turn from wilted shades of brown to brilliant greens. I love the ever changing sky filled with sometimes heavy, dark clouds about to burst and shower us with abundance and sometimes scattered with little grey clouds playing hide and seek, almost waiting in the wings to pounce on unsuspecting people below. I love making a hundred cups of tea and sipping on them as I read a book and slowly allow myself to transcend into another worlds.

I think most of all, I love the changing of seasons, it's something I look forward to, as I sit by my window trying to catch the small signs nature throws our way.

Barbed wired fences

Like the tide sweeping to and fro on a sandy shore, there are lines that we draw and re-draw in all the relationships we have in our life, be it our family, friends, lovers, colleagues, acquaintances... Lines like barbed wire fences they dig into the flesh when crossed, leaving the sting of a salted wound, peppered with depletion and exhaustion.

 It feels like a weird concoction of amusing and confusing, how we let something go one day and will hold it against someone on another. I've caught myself doing that on more than one occasion and it continues to baffle me!