The hostel on the road;
Above the furnishing centre.
The shop below selling
colourful curtains;
Draperies; heavy and flowing.
But the room above standing in its monotony.
The beige coloured walls;
colour of soured cream.
The cracks holding the eggs of a giant lizard.
It peeps into view at times
Sometimes crawling over my books;
But I'm happy to have him as company
For the world
With two faced people;
The giant lizard is more than a friend.
Monsoon rains.
The creaking of the doors wakes me up
In middle of the siesta.
The wind blows into my face;
the rain drenching me
as if it intends to fill up the void in my heart.
I close the door;
Afraid of catching a cold
but soon end up sneezing.
The rain did fill up my void.
Gusty november winds;
my friend has dissappeared somewhere
And suddenly I feel lonliness creeping into my heart
Clenching my soul
The void bigger than ever
I grab my book and try hard to concentrate
But somewhere deep down;
The beige walls leave me sour mooded;
Just like the colour,
The smell of cooked chicken fill my senses
My landlady, a woman of forty is alone at home today.
Her ill tempered husband is out
Her in laws off to delhi.
As I get downstairs to fill my bottle of water
she offers me food.
home cooked food.
I refuse halfheartedly; secretly hoping
She will offer again.
she does.
This time I dig in;
She watches over with the look of a contended mother at me.
A picture on the wall
My son; she says, noticing me staring at the handsome looking 18 year old's click.
Where is he ? I ask;
He is dead beta; she says with a detachment I can't fathom.
I finish the food;
Apologising for bringing up a sad memory.
She shrugs off and I leave
To my beige coloured room.
Now that the colour isn't much sour.
The void still remains;
the void of being away from home.
but now, the melancholy is bearable;
And my lizard friend is back.
I sleep away carefree;
Blissfully unaware of my insecurities
In the room I hated
In
The hostel on the road;
Above the furnishing centre.
