ECHOES

Waffles with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of maple syrup is the signature dish of this cafe even today. The outdoor seating has canary yellow chairs now, it was of a different colour back then. Pastel blue.

You take a seat and order two servings. One for you and one for him. You have a wistful look in your eyes as you look around. It's September. An anniversary…

Teenage sweethearts you both were once upon a time and this was the place you always frequented for Saturday date nights or birthday celebrations.

He had a twinkle in his eyes every time he saw you. You had first met those across a room full of people in Math class…or was it Science? It hardly matters. Your heart pounded like a million hammers.

Did you know his did too? It did and he had told you. And then, a million butterflies fluttered in your heart…

A crisp breeze ruffles your hair across your face, cutting into your reverie.

They were chestnut brown once. You had dyed them red after a fit of tantrums with your mother. Wasn't she dumbfounded to see you with coloured hair!

You had smirked inwardly. It was a juvenile victory.

She had raved and ranted and didn't talk to you for days.

But not him. He said you looked like Christina Aguilera. His genie in a bottle. Because you danced like her too.

You run into his arms every time there's a tiff at home. He understands you like no other. The day he popped the question, you readily agreed. You worked as an accountant and he worked his way up to become a banker.

****

Twenty years back on this day, you were waiting for him at this same cafe which was in the vicinity of his workplace. You were getting married after a week. After a quick bite, you both were going for the gown fitting.

With a lost look on your face you smiled at nothing in particular, daydreaming away. The honeymoon was going to be in Paris, the City Of Love. Both of you excitedly saved money for this trip and begin your 'Happily Ever After'.

You could actually hear the planes revving up, a mighty roar.

Wait a minute! I'm not hallucinating! …The planes. One…two…

A sudden roaring in the skies made everyone look up to see two planes flying too low and crash into both the towers of a skyscraper one after another!

Hysterical screams ripped everywhere, but you were shell-shocked. He was in one of the towers!

Even as you watched helplessly screaming in a pitch you didn't know you had, both the towers crumbled in a heap of rubble, raging fires and dust! You are numb. Not a whisper escapes your lips…

***

Partings without goodbyes leave gaping chasms.

The skyline of Manhattan was never the same!

Anniversaries! To be celebrated?

Sometimes to be mourned in private and to give grief its own space to heal.

Pic Courtesy: Pixabay

Comments

HOME AND HIBERNATION

And out of nowhere came this madness to wreck mayhem in my already topsy turvy world! Tickets back to Singapore were initially booked on the Chennai transit (why of all the cities?) Because of the shortest layover I could muster, given my still delicate health conditions and which was never even an intentional choice in all my 23 years of travel to and from Singapore. This had to be it even though I was on unfamiliar grounds. But Luck seemed to have a mind of it's own and turned its back on me when Fenjal decided to crash bang in the middle of orderly events, a day before my intended day of travel. When destiny's favorite child was shielded by Baba and his blessings, even Luck had to bow down and retreat in haste. **** Roused from my siesta with a sense of a peculiar dimness and chill , a far cry from the usually sunny and blinding brightness of humid Mangalore, I couldn't help but have that niggling feeling at the back of my mind. Checking on the flight updates for IXE-M...

IRONCLAD

I trudged through withered bracken and the frosted winter parade As ice-storms swept across a barren, icicle'd glade A hushed midnight and the gloomy woods were bathed in a dull pallor of the gibbous moon Melodies lamented and moaned an endless, melancholic tune ‘Twas a lone walk through pastures of wilted blooms Solitude was a friend in the summers of honey breath in the deep green woods Swept away by the currents or blown away by the torrents As twilight lazily rested on hillocks and in the amaranthine dells Like a laden cloud I cascaded down when the load was a dead weight I had gathered pieces of myself and strung them together with a parched wreath Pensive was the boon of listening to rumbling whispers Like a dimpling stream I flowed and carved my own trails Like the ocean arose and crashed to write my own fate, Letting the sun guide my way and the moon shine on my rugged path Now I ask all the pulsing stars to sing of my struggles, The forests to hum...

SECOND LIFE SECOND BIRTHDAY

I finally muster the energy, the grit and the emotional embrace to write about it. When life socked the daylights out of me in ways that I never imagined, I looked on the upside of it as a divine intervention and a another miracle to add to my list in this year 2024 which went down the memory highway full throttle ahead. July 7, Dear Diary is a day which left a distinct mark. A day when my father had a coronary follow up and I not only went along, but also had a check up done for myself. This was a couple of days after my visit to Sai Mandir where Sai Baba guided me to go for a cardiogram. A strong inner voice, authoritative yet kind, a heightened intuition, call it what I may, rang in a manner that couldn't be ignored. That said and done, I had a consultation with my father's doc who did my ECG and ECHO. Minutes flew by in deafening silence when he finally finished the tests and to my horror bluntly revealed that I have an ASD. A 38mm hole in my heart. I was advised to go f...

SAPPHIRE POOLS (DAY 3, POST 1)

Glinting sunlight off jeweled pools of sapphire Shimmering in the vast aridness of coppery fire Fringed with a viridescent canopy of trees fig and fronds of palm A sanctuary for birds and animals to splash about, it's a soothing balm Scorched and parched, my soles trudge on the sun baked grains Seeking respite from the bleeding crimson fireball, stranded I remain Mounting sand dunes, slipping, tumbling, sinking Scraped and raw, peeling sunburnt skin Veils of illusion lifts from fleeting dreams and hollow shine Fading hues of paradise around reduced to shriveled creepers and withering vines Imperial silver puddles on blazing bronze sand Deceived again by the phantom of the parched land Visions and charms swirl like a mist under a chrome moon Conjuring sprites of the desert weave mirages of oasis and lagoons Sailing across a barren horizon are walls of crystal waves No water lilies and wild roses unfurl under these mystic skies. ©️ Sangeetha Kamath Pic Courtesy: Pixabay

TULIP-O'-PURPLE

TULIP-O'-PURPLE The flower you sent me stands tall in a vase of porcelain The bud clammed close concealing drops of rain It holds a promise of a lavender refrain The silken petals of webbed lilac veins The stalk a mossy green reminds me of meadows The long walks in the Alps and valleys below I conjure up woodlands and dappled sunset glow Purple is my favourite colour you always know The delicate bloom of sweet fragrance Reminds me of an amethyst of lustrous brilliance Swaying in the summer breeze it yearns for a dance A single Tulip in a vase takes a ballerina stance Blooming in full two days later Invites butterflies all aflutter As precious as a fairytale dream It is tinged at the tips in hues of clotted cream Purple is soon brown---a colour of wither... A hardbound diary is used to press and preserve Along with the card and cheri...

Sangeetha Kamath

Search This Blog