Title: Between The Breath And The Silence Poem by ashok jadhav

(The speaker stands alone, still, as if listening to something beyond the room. Their voice is steady at first, contemplative, then slowly fractures with urgency.)
Monologue:
I have searched everywhere for meaning.
In beginnings. In endings.
In the promise of life… and the threat of death.
And the closer I look, the more it slips away—
as if purpose is something that refuses to be caught.
They tell me death gives life its value.
That because we end, we matter.
But I wonder… is that comfort, or fear dressed as wisdom?
If meaning only exists because everything vanishes,
then what am I while I am still here?
Just a countdown? Just borrowed time?
I have stood beside graves and felt nothing but questions.
I have watched life begin and felt the same.
If love ends, if memory fades, if even names disappear—
what survives?
What justifies all this breathing, this hoping, this pain?
(Pauses, voice soft but trembling.)
And yet… there are moments.
Small, quiet moments—
a hand held, a truth spoken, a kindness unreturned yet still given.
In those moments, the question goes silent.
Not answered… just silenced.
Perhaps meaning is not something we discover,
but something we create in defiance of the void.
Perhaps life is not about escaping death,
but about standing honestly beside it
and choosing to live anyway.
(Almost a whisper.)
If this breath is temporary,
then let it be sincere.
If this life is fragile,
then let it be felt.
And if death waits at the end…
let it find me having lived,
not having searched in vain.
(The speaker exhales slowly, as if accepting both life and its end.)