I am still there....

Always on the run 
Chasing our dreams
We met each time -
Stood a while together
Among gaping crowds
Spoke, unspoken words
Yearning to share
Yet afraid, afraid Of ourselves
All around us

People cheering, leering
And we, like spectacles
Amidst all the madness
Trying to live a moment Of truth
A glance, a touch
A feeling to hold on to And move on…
The last time we sat together
Waiting for a flight
I remember I’d said,
‘There must be another way
Of living this life!’
For a long time You remained silent

Then,
Without blinking
Without turning
Said,‘There isn’t’
Today You are gone, and
I’m still running…
Still tryingTo prove you wrong . . .

No showers for VARSHA

VARSHA craves to fly
Married at 16; need wings to fly at 30

Its India - not the one where tall towers are touching the sky but the one where there is no electricity, water or food, not the one where woman are equal to  man earning big bucks and riding BMWs but the one where the birth of a girl child is still a boon, not the India where girls like me have a freedom to study subjects of my interest, earn and spend as much as I wish to but the one where females are doing the dirtiest of jobs just to get food, not the one where you fall in love, live the feeling for years and then marry when you wish to but the one where you are forced to leave your childhood games and play with your own individual self - a game where you are the puppet in the hands of so called destiny!

Mumbai- the commercial capital of India where mostly people come with dreams and then struggle everyday to achieve it. This city is full of migrants that usually relocate themselves from small villages and towns to earn their livelihood and support their families. All these migrants have their own stories - very unique and touching.

Varsha was born and brought up in a lower middle class family in a village of Maharashtra. Her parents struggled with all sort of jobs to feed their kids and give them education - if available. Yes, its not just about education for all, its about availability for all, as well. Most of the rural areas are still deprived of the so-called must have 'Literacy for all.' Campaigns and yojanas that we keep hearing all the time in all possible political agendas and plans are just heard not yet implemented. As soon as Varsha turned 16, her parents got her married to a man she never met or even saw. For her there were no choices, she was the eldest and had to leave so that her other sisters get married at the so-called right age. 

Marriage for Varsha was just a term and little did she know what this term had in store for her. She had to leave her small village and move to Mumbai as her husband had his job there. Unaware and unprepared she flew where the wind was blowing her. From village to city, from a big family to just one companion and from the freedom of living her childhood her way, she was now a married girl with a responsibility to cook, clean, feed and all that accompanied. The so-called destiny had molded her little self and she was learning, learning to be a woman from just a 16-year old girl.

Seven years of marriage, Varsha is now a mother of  five kids. Her husband works hard to earn a living but its getting tougher day-by-day. Forgetting the childhood and herself, Varsha now lives for her kids. She now manages full-house and five kids and that too with excellence but money is a problem. The tensions and scarcity of money has turned her husband into an alcohol-lover which brings on extra pressure on her. Her kids are never properly fed or given necessary medication which results to diseases like polio, typhoid, jaundice hovering on her house every now and then. She is trapped and wants to break-free from this net of sorrow. Day-by-day this feeling is getting stronger and she is becoming more and more immune to her own pain, all that she desires is happiness for her kids which is in proper meals, medication and education for them. Those little eyes are letting her see her own reflection - and she doesn't want them to go through all that life had in store for her. 

Varsha starts her struggle with getting out of the house and doing things that would get some food for her kids. She is a fighter and that's what life had made her. No job was considered bad by her and she did it all. This stage of life was her learning school and she excelled!

Varsha is now an oil-massager for new-born kids and mommies earning more than what her husband gets. Her husband too is placed as a driver in one of her clients house all because of her. She struggles the entire day, leaving her kids at home doing errands to get as much money as she can for the future of her kids. Her household conditions have stabilised and she is doing her best to give education to all her kids. Varsha is living the struggle that life had gifted her but she needs wings- wings to fly high just to gain that inner peace, just to live for herself!

P.S. Based on a true story seen, heard & felt from the main character herself!

Him...

She smiled, remembering his laugh, his stories, and their time together. Then she remembered him. She frowned.