You'll fall for someone again
This time,
You'll not know how again
How suddenly you’ll push your ears
Against the window sill
And listen to the rain
You'll smile to yourself
You'll hum the little tune
You'd hated because it told you
To forget -
You'll end up texting a friend
You'd discarded because they'd told you Of this day, the present
And you'll let your hair drop
And twist -
You'd admire how your dimples
Grew deeper with time,
Your finger sinking, deeper at a time You'll pull out the collyrium,
Carefully brush the ends of your eye
You'll smell the sun
Remembering how your father
Took you by your hand to school,
You'll want to go back to those ice cream treats Where friendship was unfettered
You'll want to revisit some pandals
Of 2012 pujas.
You'll pull out your sarees from your cupboard And rearrange them neatly,
After putting them on yourself before the mirror You realise you haven't stopped humming,
You reach out for the radio
You reach out for your bookshelf
Suddenly novels don't interest you
You pull out a paperback,
Snow White and Seven Dwarfs
You smell it -
Scholastic Book Fair at school, 2005 You smile -
Rush to the kitchen
See your mother marinating some chicken The pressure cooker is washed
You rush out to the garage,
Dust off the seat of your cycle
You remember the afternoons
When three of you returned home
To non-Sunday chicken meals.
You plan to go to walking this evening You haven't had phuchkas
Because you wanted to lose weight You don't anymore -
You don't want to change an iota of it You haven't touched your phone
You unblock him,
You no longer feel the need to restrain yourself It has come -
You keep returning to the mirror
And you ask- "Magic mirror on the wall, Who is the fairest one of all?"
And you see yourself in it,
Every time.