 |
| Snigdha Agrawal |
CORRUPTED SOUNDTRACK
(free verse)
First denial…NO!
NO! NO!
Second…shame
associated with it
Third…social
withdrawal
Last…awareness and
acceptance
Turning a
disadvantage into an advantage
It started in her
mid-forties
Asking the caller
to speak up, every time the phone rang
Then having to
deal with frowns on faces, for no known reasons
“Excuse me, could
you please repeat”
Creeping more and
more into conversations
Holy smokes! The
mutated gene from the maternal side
chose unwisely to
pass on to her
as hearing
progressively declined
perforce having to
wear jewellery prescribed,
not so lovely,
inviting looks of misplaced concern
Fear of being
ridiculed; silence the only route
Turned her more
and more into a recluse
Shunning interacting
with others
Save and except
with close family members
A way of life
accepted and preferred
Then it dawned, on
how lucky she was
Controlling the
panels of noise pollution
with merely a
flick of her finger
thus, finding an
oasis of silence amid chaos
Ah! Truly, a
blessing in disguise
NAMING NAMES
(couplets 8 syllables)
‘Jack of all
trades, master of none!’
That’s what she
was called out of fun
She resolved to
prove them all wrong
Chose a path where
she would belong
Took to writing,
her childhood dream
Words that would
heal; letting off steam
They said it would
not earn her bread
So, what! Into the unknown tread
Many misses, no
hits to claim
Her decision; no
one to blame
Through the dark,
gaping open door
Stepped with
confidence to explore
Certainly, all
voids would be filled
Once the din
around her was stilled
She couldn't take
their phoniness
Stayed happy in
her loneliness
Now aged,
stickered as ‘scatterbrained’
Let them say. She remains self-contained
Enigma always and remains
Refuses to be
bound by chains
FAIR AND LOVELY
(Tanka chain)
Clouds obscure as
she
writes about her
thoughts and dreams
her heart cannot
hide
told to scrub and
scrub her skin
darkened sky of
blackened silk
She longs to be
‘she’
gliding through oceans
and seas
breathing in and
out
like a mermaid
might without
scrutiny from
colour biased
Fair and Lovely
cream
claimed to
brighten up the skin
fails to deliver
peaches and pink
complexion
desirous for
would-be brides
An obsessive world
she finds herself
cast aside
like a rusted nail
washed by rain;
catches the eyes
in a white-washed
world
Snigdha Agrawal (nee
Banerjee) is Bengali born, raised in a cosmopolitan environment and educated in
Loreto Institutions with exposure to the Eastern and Western cultures, imbibing
the best of both worlds. She has an MBA
in marketing (from IGNOU) and with more than two decades of experience working
in the corporate sector, her outlook on life is balanced, which reflects in her
writings. A versatile writer, she writes all genres of poetry, prose, short
stories, travelogues, and hotel/restaurant reviews on TripAdvisor, under the
pen name ‘puchka’. She is a regular
contributor to anthologies/online magazines, published in India and from
overseas. A published author of four
books, the latest titled TRAIL MIX, is a book of short stories for all
mindsets. The book is available on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.in/dp/BOBTHNFFWZ?ref=myi_title_dp
An intrepid traveller, her travel diaries can be accessed in word press blog:
randomramblings52. She lives in
Bangalore (Karnataka), India.
No comments :
Post a Comment
We welcome your comments related to the article and the topic being discussed. We expect the comments to be courteous, and respectful of the author and other commenters. Setu reserves the right to moderate, remove or reject comments that contain foul language, insult, hatred, personal information or indicate bad intention. The views expressed in comments reflect those of the commenter, not the official views of the Setu editorial board. рдк्рд░рдХाрд╢िрдд рд░рдЪрдиा рд╕े рд╕рдо्рдмंрдзिрдд рд╢ाрд▓ीрди рд╕рдо्рд╡ाрдж рдХा рд╕्рд╡ाрдЧрдд рд╣ै।