Sword in pen

23 June There is a kitten in the balcony of my neighbor's house. She always meows nearly at 6 in the evening. I love watching her. I feel she sits so close to the balcony sill just for me. Her meows are so cute and so is she. I wanted to feed her something but she is so out of my reach and I don't have appropriate cat food for her. She is so small, I think she will fit right into my hand. The first time I heard of her was 18 June at night. I opened my bedroom door to have a look at the source of noise but in the dark I couldn't spot her. I dogs were barking whenever she meowed. Oh, how scared she must have been. I saw her the next morning and couldn't get my gaze off her. Her tiny mouth was looking at my with its large beautiful eyes. She looks like some ordinary street cat except she is very thin. I like her. Yesterday, she sort of winked at me and I was dancing around the house. She is like a small tiger cub, roaring from the cliffs announcing his presence. Yes, aft...

Every second the world is changing but somethings remain unchanged. A 16-year old student fell victim to suicide as he was constantly bullied by his classmates for having feminine features. What people think to be fun is actually harrassment. This does not end with one suicide. There are thousands of students who are alienated from their peers just because they are thought to be different from them. They are mocked and bullied. We are always raising a triumphant of gender equality but still everybody has sometimes faced gender discrimination. Teenage boys are always in the struggle to prove their masculinity amongst their fellows. They are criticized for their invisible moustache, unskillful driving or inability to lift heavy objects. The girls who don't dress up fashionably and are physically unattractive are not treated properly. The LGBTQ find it difficult to get along with their fellows as they too fear alienation. Because it is etched on some feigned statue of ...

I cried from my nose The eyes are too weak I checked in my phone For more lies sent to me. If it were a letter I would think them to be true. There is a poem pasted On the my wall, I haven't read it Since it was pasted. Today, it lost its meaning. Like the ones I wrote In my diary long ago. I keep my windows open But doors closed. I have read in books From here the love comes. My shoes have forgot The touch of my feet And I don't remember the roads. But still, I won't open the door. I need to switch back to eyes I can't smell when rain comes. - Chanchal Bagla 

The sun beams reach my balcony like the air from a table fan kept at a family function, when its head is turning in all directions as if searching someone. The rays too come to my balcony only to leave the next second. There are clouds passing the sun who are commencing this motion, I think. When the glow of these beams reach my room, the curtains light up like diwali lights. Sometimes they look like glowing lanterns in the night sky. Today, the sun is giving me pleasure just like rain and moon does. Mornings in August are very beautiful. But usually, I spend them sleeping or reading in my bed. If it had been better times, I would have gone for a walk with Anjali in our nearby park. The ongoing pandemic has ceased a lot of my good habits by exchanging them with bad ones. I am growing addicted to my mobile phone and I hate it. I wish, I improve. I don't want to live virtually like most of my generation. I want to name this generation as the hashtag generation. Beacuse they fight ...

I was sleeping in ma's lap Dreaming of stars and moon She was singing a song I didn't understand I was smiling in my nap Why? She didn't understand. I saw that it rained on moon, Though impossible in science Who could question dreams? Ma's voice was shivering Like she caught cold Due to the rain in my dreams. I opened the cocoon of my eyes And a drop fell in it. And I saw my dream come true, There was rain on my moon. I asked her, what's the matter? There was an inner battle Which she won against me She told me, it doesn't matter And started to sing again. The moon was dry but The cocoon was now wet. I dreamt of stars and moon.

Amir ran through the market, His loose spectacles dangling With his face mask in sweat. He stopped at Rahim's shop Not to gaze like other times But to buy something this time. He asked the question, Whose answer he knew 'How much for those blue ones?' '350',Rahim said And Amir whispered. He had been saving for it Since the previous Eid. He gave the neatly folded notes And took the blue slippers, Set off to run again This time with a smile Concealed beneath his mask. He came back home And went to kitchen, And exclaimed, 'Eid mubarak Ammi!' She opened her gift And gave a faint cry 'How did you know?' She wore the slippers And hugged him tight Amir was finally happy 'You can hide your pain But not the ulcers on your feet. Whenever you walked on stone It was me who used to bleed.' 'Eid mubarak Amir!' -Chanchal

There was pain in my ankles But still I walked. There was cough in my breathes But still I talked. My pace was slow The pain refused to low My speech stammered The was wind eating my words. 'What a lazy animal', they laughed 'What a mangy soul,' they laughed 'But..', I coughed. 'Wait..', I coughed. They see, they hear But only to things They want to bear. The next day Their tongues say, 'Poor soul, rest in peace.' 'I wish, we could help When you were in need.' (silent laughs) // Hell to this world.// - Chanchal 

In the era of bullet trains and planes In the city of glamour and fame Smashed beneath the tyres The city road craved for shoes. But gone were the days Of long walks in rain. At the fall of dawn There came an old friend Without shoes but with footsteps Without words but with talks The dog wagged his tail As he sat by the sidewalk. He laid in the wintery cold With eyes lost in lacuna As if waiting for someone. He gazed at the tyres And the rarely seen shoes All in the marathon To reach somewhere and then Start off again He talked to the road Recited it a few couplets On the grief they shared both The road listened and listened But not a word was heard by anyone Inter alia the honks and rows. Chanchal Bagla

आसमान बादलों से घिरा हुआ था,वह बादल हर जगह अपनी गति से इस प्रकार चल रहे थे मानो उन्हें अभी-अभी दफ्तर से छुट्टी मिली हो।पक्षी आसमान को चीरते हुए अपनी मंजिल की तरफ जा रहे थे। रीमा अपनी छत पर खड़ी आकाश के इस रूप को देख रही थी, उसको आकाश के बदलते रंग को जानना बहुत अच्छा लगता था। वह बादलों के अलग-अलग प्रकारों में कहानियां ढूंढती थी। उन कहानियों को वह अपने ख्वाबों में पिरों कर रात को अपनी मां को सुनाती थी। उसकी मां को उसकी कहानियां सुना बहुत अच्छा लगता था और वह हर लफ्ज़ इत्मीनान से सुनती थी। यह परम्परा बन चुका था। इसी दौरान शाम का वक्त था, आसमान का रंग कुछ पीला कुछ गुलाबी था, हर रोज की तरह पक्षी अभी इधर उधर जा रहे थे, मानो किसी अपने की तलाश में या किसी डर से भाग रहे हो। रीमा वही बैठ गई, उस दुनिया में खो गई। तभी अचानक उस एक आवाज सुनाई देती है। वह इधर-उधर देखती है तो उससे प्रतीत होता है कि वह उसके पड़ोस के घर से आ रही है। उसका घर बाकी घरों की दीवारों के साथ मिलकर बना हुआ था मानो कि ट्रेन के डिब्बों को एक रेखा में जोड़ दिया गया हो। वह अपनी छात टॉप कर अपने बगल वाले घर पर पहुंचती है जहां उसकी बचप...

The sun rose in the sky and then jammed at a particular spot like a hole in the wall that let the light in. The sky was painted in the shades of yellow and blue today. A rather weird combination for my canvas but beautiful one for the sky. There were birds going from everywhere to everywhere. Sometimes, I thought that they were chasing each other in their massive playground. All of them flying high and then disappearing like the paper planes flown by me that were never found again. Is there some valley in the sky where they got lost? The streets were deserted like the sunday corridors in school. Only a few passerbies passed like uninvited insects. Someone was sitting at the sidewalk, lost in thought like a warrior with many war stories ready to narrate to anyone who stops. But no one did. He looked up at the sky, the way one does when about to give a huge sneeze that never escapes your mouth. The sun was dim and thus felt like a friend who would call you on that Saturday evening when...

The sun rose in the sky and then jammed at a particular spot like a hole in the wall that let the light in. The sky was painted in the shades of yellow and blue today. A rather weird combination for my canvas but beautiful one for the sky. There were birds going from everywhere to everywhere. Sometimes, I thought that they were chasing each other in their massive playground. All of them flying high and then disappearing like the paper planes flown by me that were never found again. Is there some valley in the sky where they got lost? The streets were deserted like the sunday corridors in school. Only a few passerbies passed like uninvited insects. Someone was sitting at the sidewalk, lost in thought like a warrior with many war stories ready to narrate to anyone who stops. But no one did. He looked up at the sky, the way one does when about to give a huge sneeze that never escapes your mouth. The sun was dim and thus felt like a friend who would call you on that Saturday evening when...

In the morning of 1915, the sun rose with a new hope as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned India.After his arrival to India, he started helping Indian people facing various problems from the British ru His simple clothing and sublimate thinking earned him the title of 'Mahatama'. His struggles and his headstrong nature are the stepping stones of the dandi movement, the incidents of Champaran, Chauri Chaura, etc.With his each step he wrote epitaphs of slavery(that was going to elope) and legendary tales of nationalism and freedom. His endless loop of wrinkles and lesions that he earned from years of struggle overflowed from his skinny hands to weave the destiny lines of our nation that today we take proud to be a part of. His wooden stick knocked at the doors of freedom which had to break open as Gandhiji built that stick out of every Indian's sweat and blood.Many times he got arrested and sent to the jail but he never discourages himself and continued fighting for nationa...