Wishes for a little girl

May she be honest
And kind,
And may she be bright
As the sun.

May she laugh
A lot,
And may she cry
A little as well.

May she talk
Like a waterfall,
But may she lose
Her words sometimes.

May she make friends
Wherever she goes,
But may she feel
Alone sometimes.

May she shine
On a morning school-bus,
And may the rain
Make her thoughtful.

May she breathe life
To the fullest,
And may she feel lucky
Just for that.

May she know
The world is not perfect,
And may she understand
That it has never been.

May she know people
Who are good,
And may she believe
The bad weren't always like that.

And may she get
All she needs from this world,
But I wish she knows
How much she truly needs.

The Mighty Words

She was dead and he stood there.


(We don't talk about death so much. It's old-fashioned. We don't talk about love so much either these days. It's a cliche. We talk about food a lot. We talk about money, startups. We talk about our wives and kids and share cute vacation pictures and smiles.)


Nisha and Suman had a row. It started small, like all rows. Then it grew.

It grew like a Hurricane. She pulled some old memories out, he pulled out some shiny metallic nightmares. All were sharp, grey and cold.

Their words flew. Mighty words. The words took the vases down, photo-frames cracked, lights burst out.

He said, "Enough". She said, "huh". He stormed out of the apartment.

He came back after an hour. He found her hanging from the ceiling. Their words have disappeared now.

He closed the door. He took her down. He tried to revive her. He put some water in her mouth. The water ran down her cheek.

He sat down by her. He took her head on his lap. He sat there the whole night.

A neighbor came next morning. Police arrived after a while.

She was taken to a morgue. He was taken into police custody.

He came out on bail. Her parents arrived.

The tears flowed. A lot of tears and wailing.

And the words started again. The shiny, cruel words. They kept on coming towards Suman.

He sat down on the footpath. It was a dirty stretch outside the morgue. He didn't care.

He tried to think of Nisha. He couldn't remember anything. He tried to think of his future, his childhood days flashed back.

"Just leave me alone", he thought. And he smiled at the absurdity of his wish.