Swapan Deep Singh

I could see a unique gleam on my father’s face;
It was shining like a star, shining like hay.
But what for was he happy?
He was happy coz it was fathers’ day.
...

I stopped my car on a crossroad;
Waiting for the red light to turn green;
When suddenly my eyes froze over a sight;
A frail old man fighting with his plight.
...

More tears rolled down her dimpled cheek,
The tears rolled fast and slipped down her face;
Oh! She had cried for days together;
Her son had died.
...

Rain drops fell on his back;
And red drops fell from his chest;
And there lay a soldier, fighting death;
To win the battle of his country’s honour;
...

She was 8, she knew few things.
She was young, she could hardly know.
But she could feel what she was going through,
And she could do nothing.
...

When the heart stops throbbing,
When the body becomes frail,
When the kin start sobbing,
And blows the saddening gale;
...

It was a bright sunny morning and I stood on a side;
Gazing at my crying mother;
Staring at my sobbing father.
It seemed something terrible had happened;
...

My life is a thread.
But not the one that is smooth and tidy.
It is dirty, rough and has enormous knots.
All have knots in their threads, they say.
...

He had been walking on the pavement for an hour now;
It had been raining for an hour now.
But his face had already been wet;
Of tears of helplessness;
...

My bed felt rough, it felt like hay;
When I got up in the morning today.
I opened my eyes to see,
An appalling reality struck me.
...

It rained, the slab of cement cracked;
The weak slab of cement, the grave of a king shrieked;
And he did die that very day,
No song, no flowers, no homage did anyone pay.
...

Passing through an aisle in the flying machine;
I portrayed an astonishingly bravura scene.

I could brightly see the Wright brothers in glee;
...

Sitting in the bus, travelling to Mahabalipuram with my class;

Nostalgia of the past, thoughts came to pass.
...

THE DEVIL WITHIN


I am a person of ideals and principles, he says;
...

As the bus moved forward,
I started looking backward;
Backward at the time that had passed,
At the life that had given, taken, rewarded and harassed.
...

Standing beside the parallel lines,
I wait for the red to turn green;
And hold the lever in my hands,
That will direct the train yet not seen.
...

Our land of such great diversity;
Stands in an obnoxious dilemma;
For there is diversity, no unity in it.
“United we stand, divided we fall”;
...

The man moves in the dark;
He can’t see a thing.
He doesn’t know where he is going;
Yet he moves in the dark;
...

The big metal hammer goes up,
And soon comes down;
Only to make those big rocks smaller,
And there is a tiny, sweating hand;
...

That night, that terrible night;
I was dreaming of God, thanking him
For his blessings showered upon me and my family;
When suddenly I heard my sister shouting,
...