Silly About Grave Matters

1.    Hate Speech

I used to be a non-vegetarian;

Now, I am anti-vegetarian.

I was a non-drinker, a non-smoker;

I have to be anti-prohibition.

I was clueless about history;

I am anti-revisionists.

I was apolitical;

I have no choice but to be anti-establishment.

I was agnostic or whatever;

Definitely anti-fundamentalist now.

Anti-nationalist, anti-regional, anti-caste,

Anti- those fools out to correct

Neighbour's kids before their own.

Anti-idiots, anti-every-bloody-thing.

I know some wise guy will joke,

'Oye Uncle, aren't you too old to be Aunty?'

Yeah, I get the operative word, old.

Yeah, too old to fight, maybe.

But too young not to be free,

Always, too young not to be free.

2.    On Those Teenage Years

‘What did you do when you were a teen?’ they asked.

‘Nothing much,’ I said, ‘I was quite an adult then.’

I searched for that cassette on my CD rack.

I wanted all that I got as a kid; they said, ‘You are not a kid.’

As for the rest of my wants, they said, ‘You are not an adult.’

I led a double life.

The one they saw, they saw nothing.

The other, they are lucky to know not.

Ok, I am adding drama, I admit.

It was just a seven year itch.

Quite literally,

After washing own clothes;

Quite torrid,

After meeting Love and Lust;

(Bloody hell, both were simply Sex,

Life was in perfect ‘hormone-y’.)

Quite miserably,

When a friend met Death

And the first adult thought,

‘Better you than me.’

It was fun, when boys were boys, and stuck together.

Running after girls, their dads scowling, those imps laughing;

At 11 pm, outside her house, shouting, ‘I love you, Tina.’

And the best friend asking, ‘Are you sure it is Tina?’

‘Can never be sure with girls,’ wisdom oozing,

Scooting as the first light came on.

The fun ended, when boys met girls, double-crossed;

It was never the same ever again.

Those days of schizophrenic multiple personality;

The moms and dads, they expected Che

Of the previous night, and got a spooky Goth at dawn;

They did not panic, ‘You are getting there,’

They said, ‘nearly ready to be the lifelong chameleon.’

(to be continued…)