Unsaid

Adil and Ayesha 

had had an arranged marriage last week.

Now on their honeymoon in a hill station, 

they tried to fall in love. 

They spoke They confessed and They laughed about it all. 

However on their last night, 

Ayesha looked furious. 

"I gave you every chance Adil, to come clean.

I was ready to forgive, if only once you'd have stopped deceiving me. 

But you didn't."

Seeing his shocked face she explained,

'" Last winter, that night in Delhi, 

you were there with your friends 

trying to grab that poor beggar girl 

off the street. "

Adil's eyes had widened in bewilderment.

She continued,

"True, you had tried to stop them. 

But when they ignored, you didn't leave.

Instead, you chose to remain there and look. "

A pregnant pause.

No words came out of his mouth. 

A question, bulging in his throat, unable to come out.

How?!??!!

She spoke again,

"It was me driving the jeep that night Adil.

The jeep,

which kept coming back to you guys, 

until it chased all of you away. "

She had packed her bags already. 

Before leaving, Ayesha turned back one last time,

"The only question which keeps haunting me now is...

had I not been there that night, 

you too, 

would have devoured the girl, 

isn't it ? ".

Rangoon-Review

Wish characters could write their own ends. Wish the actors playing them could rescue them from this helplessness.
A fiery little ‘banjaaran’ is bought off a street performance by a visionary businessman. He then tames this ‘wildness’ into a feisty and fashionable Miss Julia. But for obvious reasons, he is unable to tame her heart, which is still lost in the wilderness it had come from.
Rangoon the movie, promises from the very beginning, to be made to appreciate Kangana, the ‘queen’. It is she, in a welcome change, who gets a royal ‘introduction’ into the story and she accepts it with aplomb.
Because here is a performance which overshadows everything, the other performances, the confusing storyline, the gigantic sets, the excellent cinematography and of course, the soulful music. Because, when Miss Julia enters, you look at only her and when she exits, you wait, only for her.
Cheers to both the male leads, a painfully restrained Shahid Kapoor and an equally, if not more controlled Saif Ali Khan, who gracefully accept the reign of the ‘queen’ over the entire film.  The brilliant actors that they are, they have shown bravery in accepting itself, the roles of characters who are nothing but providers of plot points to a scattered story to which the heroine acts and reacts. So it is a welcome change indeed to see the heroine ride into the den of enemies and save her prince charming, the heroine to make the first move in her own love story and the heroine again to playfully defeat an exceptional soldier in swording. If only the climax too could keep the queen’s flag flying high.
Good songs, poetic visuals and excellent dialogues. We only wish the script had focused on one story in completion instead of getting scattered into so many snippets of different ideologies.
Rangoon should be watched, for all these positives and of course, for the queen onscreen, Kangana Ranaut.

U & I

I had'nt seen you yet

But I spoke up

About you

To them

For you

They had'nt seen you too

But even they chose to speak

About you

To the doctor

Against 'us'

But then, as you see

We both lived

One day I'll tell you how...

Till then, it's this tiny you and this new me,

Two powerful women,

in their making...

Thirsty

Whenever I see you,

Directly,hurriedly 

sipping from those plastic bottles kept on the table?

I miss

those long relieved sighs, you used to let out

in those hot summer afternoons,

when you took time,

to sip from me instead,

your much-used, now-forgotten,

glass.

Nocturnal

When the bright and shining day boiled down to a deep darkened night,

Its remains were burnt, charred and way beyond recognition.

But it was clinging on, I saw, to my amazed chagrin, 

Stiffly, strongly, it held on, to the sticky sides of the non-stick pot I was boiling it in.

The pot of time... on the fire of life. 

I...her unending 'worries'...I...her 'nightmares'....I...'the summation of all her negative thoughts in the day'

was cooking up her heart, her mind, her very well being...

A war you want?

A war you'll get woman!

Undeterred, I lower the lively flame, pour some icy calm water and stir with all my might , to ‘linger on’ the matter cooking inside.

But it hisses back at me, this time with a bigger flame, and puts the pot itself on fire!

Hah!

Red and yellow, 

Orange and white, 

The fiery flickers leapt angrily at me
and my burning blistering body.

Scalding heat pierced through my veins 

and entered my wide open eyes
open with shock
open with rage
anger at being fought back!

A fire had broken, all around, me and the pot

A fire so bright that I shut my eyes


She had given a good fight

I had to give in

Weakened, crushed and defeated,
I awaited my death.

A hushed silence

Darkness....blackness all about

Long relaxed breathes....the sounds of victory

The woman has won...

The woman, has fallen asleep....

But die I have not

I...her the unending 'worries'...I...her 'nightmares'....I...'the summation of all her negative thoughts in the day'

Gnawing at the remains of her miseries, 

I have life left still

Slowly, silently, before I know, 

I again feel the change...

The skimpy, clingy, blackened night, 

had been changing 'colors'

and now

it has metamorphosed

as if by magic

 into a blindingly golden day.

Magic indeed, it is.

The magic of a willful wishful mind.

I crouch behind,
Behind the dazed mind

Beside a little lazy thought.

I am small and feeble
downsized by the fight of last night

But I wait ...
for fresh worries, unknown doubts, new negativities

to enter her system

once again

throughout this ever-potent day

Till I strike back afresh

To lighten the fire anew 

Later tonight and the next night and again the next

to put the pot right back on

And cook, and stir, and fry!

...All her insides...