I've Just Seen a Face

When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.

― John Green, Paper Towns 

One fine day, an ordinary day it was
expecting nothing more than usual chores
my room bathed with mild sunshine 
sight that I routinely adored
chirping birds and the cool breeze
swinging all around at ease

Daytime is pleasant 
not as much as  mornings are 
I rode out for college
when my watch crossed 12th hour 
I got stuck in a jam , a heavy one
on top of my head a scorching sun 

More misery on the way to tell
honking cars and sweaty smell
it was more like a road to hell
all over the place, people, people
always people making  sorry face
self-inflicting what I call stress

Just ahead of me there was a bike 
in seat of two seated were three
I spotted two eyes peeping right at me 
unsettling it was and I chose  not to pay heed
she looked like some teenage girl  to me
but, by the looks of her she was married 

I turned up my head to look far ahead 
and I saw those eyes scanning me yet again 
ohh she was stuck and I was dazed 
kept staring my bag pack and  bike unfazed
when her eyes met mine, she just shied away
Curious me, am I dressed in some funny way

I checked myself two times 
traffic crawled and frustration so high
struggling men to move ahead in line
I caught her again, yes again
when she was gazing at the tee that I wore
now things were beyond my ignore

I signaled her- is something wrong ?
she again sighed away in response 
I observed her from head to toe
her countenance, man she was with 
donned in a shimmery saree 
her pallid face lacked in glow

I bet she was younger than me 
and I sensed somber in her eyes
she was shouldering something heavy
her discontented face said it all 
somehow, now I knew 
why she was enthralled

For her I was like that fancy painting on a wall
placed at such a height that outgrew her
and she was never so tall.
Guess I was a free bird for her 
though she wasn't hooked or restrained
some handcuffs are never in view, but sensed

I was so close to inquiring about her
she was an enigma to me, that mysterious girl
I came back home and looked up in sky
peeved by her nonplussed look and gaping eyes
for that girl, poor thing,  my heart ached
how she fancied for things she never had 

Sometimes I feel so discontent and distraught 
her suspired face forced in me a second thought.

Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.
― Henry Miller

Face in the Crowd

The moment you step out of your home, you are nothing, but a tiny part of CROWD or more apt word PUBLIC. Unrelated bunch of people moving together in train, in bus, on road.... in shops and so on. Millions of lives crossing each other, without leaving a trace. Thousands of faces we see everyday..... nobody bothers to remember or think about people we don't know. 

But, sometimes there are few faces in crowd you can never forget. 

I saw that face, 

as I was walking 

on the road. Something, 

was gravely wrong. I doubt. 

A man was crying his heart out. 

What was wrong ? 

I had no clue. 

But, no one to console him, 

that was weird too. 

At that moment. 

that Face made me think. 

How he ended up,

at this state of brink.

In such a crowded place, 

He was standing alone. 

Like an used blade.

Lying in a man's salon.

 

His face, projecting. 

Stacks of mistakes. 

Like a painting of, 

Struggles and attacks.

Who knows ??

How many more are yet to happen. 

To shake that man, 

Who is already, so badly shaken.

Then, I moved forward 

got engrossed in what I was

doing before. 

Same old, Same old

Daily dose of chores. 

A routine fight to 

maintain, highly coveted
reputation n decor.

Now, When I roam around. 

I am startled to found. 

So many, similar faces. 

With different stories and

different grounds. 

What's common was

just the pain, pain profound.  
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भीड़ में वो चेहरा 
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