BOMBAY MONSOON

I don't know why, but the city looks a little bigger these days. More secret lanes and taller buildings. I am listening again & again to सावन बरसे तरसे दिल - (Sawan Barse, Tarse Dil from Dahek movie) and my heart keeps pounding abnormally at every word as the lovers warily tour around the streets in the monsoon to see each other. It's raining too in reality, but it isn't as perfect as the video on my YouTube screen that plays this song.

Reality is indeed a paradox. I see the city a little bigger these days, kali-peli jamming in every lane, colorful umbrellas defending the gray and howling rain, Art students trying to reach their college while trying to protect their big white sheets in extendable poster covers. 

The city doesn't care about my YouTube song, it keeps getting bigger and bigger, but I see a temple standing in the same corner where I last saw it. Oh! I sincerely thanked God inside the temple for waiting in one place while everything else chose to move. Lying here is a dead rat in the middle of the street, it lies immobile too, just like a God in the temple. Heavy rains keep hitting the dead rat and I know that in a few days, it will begin to smell pungent while lying in another corner until wild crows feast over its dead rotten body. The Dead Rat didn't care about my YouTube song too and the lovers on my phone screens were still running warily across the streets, their happiness had nothing to do with my reality.  The city kept growing on its horizon a little more than the moment before; an aesthetic café next to another aesthetic café kept brewing cacao in competition with each other, stray dogs went hiding in the corners, food delivery guys kept rushing their vehicles to meet the promised deadlines and others like me engaged at their respective phone screens with an utmost passion.  The Bombay monsoon in its overcast of clouds, gushing waters on streets, affected local trains, frustrated hawkers, cinematic visuals, floating paper boats, rusty metals in the old window, floating wrappers of a finished chocolate bar and the thoughts after thoughts fading slowly in the curated Playlist. 

By

- Neha.M

(Neha.M is a Mumbai based Author who writes about the small, routine and mundane moments of the life of a common people hence glorifying the chaos of living in the form of Fiction,Poetries, Short tales, Articles and Quotes. One who loves encouraging & empowering women tribes through her work.She is an engineer by profession but writer at heart. She invites her readers to her world that believes it is the ink that's loudest or else there are so many invisible lives undiscovered.  To know more about this young Author , you can visit her insta page deepin_ink )

The Light By Your Side

Have you ever sat for a while alone enjoying just watching the colours change in the sky. The subtle transition that just catches you unaware. The varied hues that are spilt across the sky just completely mesmerises me. Shades of colours that tell you what the day is going to be. When you just look out and see how the stars completely disappear and the darkness of the night turns gradually brighter. The colour suddenly changes to a cool blue waiting for a clear blue sky and the sun just rising for a bright day. But what's before that , the shades of orange or pink as if the gates open up with a new day and new opportunity. Just like someone who walks in to lift you up once again giving you the hope and motivating you to start all over again.

At times the darkness changes to a dull shade , when the grey clouds just do not let the sun out and what you hear is the commotion up there. The loud thunder or the lightning that pierces through the sky . Conflicts in the sky just like something up in your head. When a part of you wants to try again while your fears and anxiety tell you , you cannot. When what you think seems totally in a mess and you cannot choose between the right or wrong. What happens then, chaos, confusion and finally an outburst. Be it anger, disgust , frustration or feeling of sadness. It gets heavy there and you suddenly burst into tears like the rain . The clouds gather around making it gloomy and you eagerly waiting for the sun to shine bright.

At times there comes a ray of hope and while you shed your tears , someone suddenly walks in like the lovely rainbow in the sky. A little confused are you to decide what you want to do but you feel light and happier. Mixed emotions like the colours of the rainbow in the sky. You never know from where they begin and where they end. Yet when someone sits with you in your darkest hour you feel at peace. Seems like you are relaxed to sleep and unwind. Just like the sky that changes once again when the day comes to an end taking away with it the orange and pink shades as it makes it exit . While you just relax after a hard day with someone who cares and love . If not someone near you then that white lamp that visits you every night and stays with you , telling you I might be far but I am here incase you miss someone or feel alone. This sets the mood right as the peace and the calmness of this light just makes you realise, it's time to rest and feel fresh again once the night bids you goodbye and a day brings in something new for you.

Remember you are never alone for someone up there provides you hope and light when you feel lonely or you don't feel right. There is always some light by your side.

By

Mansi Chaturvedi

(A published author of the books The Shades of Solitude and The Rainbow in the Palette. She is a blogger where she connects globally through her blog Pennedconnections@wordpress and a podcast Live wire on Spotify. A contributor to various writing platforms and a poet with her works published as co author in various anthologies published by Oxford, Exceller, Shubhaarambh, Ekta, Hatchhegg publications. She is also a contributor to Womensera magazine )