Withered Roses

Souls Meet

14th October, 2022

So, it's finally time to write out the poems. The idea of a book about my experiences was on my cards since things ended between us, but one thing led to another, and I just started ideating this project.

It's not that there wasn't enough time to write poems, but the subject was painful enough. I have been trying to keep the subject of my separation a matter of the past, as I could never gauge its importance in the wider world. Was it worth letting the world into this matter? I mean, who would care to read about the break-up story of a 24-year-old engineer? But I guess more than the people reading it, it was important to let out all that weight from within me. The pain, the extreme helplessness, and the regret, it has been virtually killing me, and I feel I ain't capable of holding on.

Well, let's start the journey from the point where every teenager's romance starts – junior college. It was early spring of 2015. Life had been much simpler then, with days starting with a packet of Oreos and a glass of warm milk with Bournvita. Don't judge me, I still am a big-time fan of that combination. I would choose Bournvita milk over chai any day. Anyways, for a kid at that age, life started and ended in Engineering coaching classes and DPPs. I wasn't different, and even before my formal classes at my junior college had started, I was burning rubber at coaching, scoring high scores, and eyeing IITs.

Then in May of that year, classes at our college started, and on the very first day of college, I knew my life would change! It wasn't anything to be written off in the history books, but then I did make history by waking up earlier than everyone in my family. Trust me, waking up before everyone and getting ready for a new phase of life feels amazing as if I had won the coveted Olympic Gold medal.

Anyway, it was still early for a junior college when I walked in. Since our college was an extension of a school, our timing was unnaturally early, and yet when I reached college, new students were queuing up to get their ID cards, new uniforms, and sections. Being an alumnus of the school from which our college had been extended, I had these beforehand, and before I even knew it, I was at my new class, sitting with old folks.

As the new students started completing their registration and walking into their classes, there came a girl into ours. 7 years later, I still find it hard to explain what I saw in a paragraph, so here is the first verse of the book and this section. Allow me to recite the fabled story of how two Souls Meet!

___

Her peacock earrings were the first thing I saw,
I remember her beauty had left us in awe;
A rare specimen of nature's perfection was her beautiful smile,
Her perfume left all guys and girls stupefied in the aisle.

A bottomless lagoon of breathless wonders were her sublime brown eyes,
If better articulated, poets would name them "The Dreamer's Paradise".
Her mere presence had invariably melted so many souls,
For her criminal offense of perfection, she should be imprisoned in the gaols.

It seemed she knew she was the center of attraction, and she enjoyed it too,
She didn't care about the immense disdain she was putting them through;
She walked through the clogged aisle, and took a seat by me,
The stares of those jealous eyes, it was a scene to see.

"Hi", I said in courtesy, "I am Shekhar, and you?"
"Hi, I am Evelyn. Well, do I know you?"
"I guess not", I said, it seemed as if she was trying to unwind,
"Huh, interesting", she exclaimed, "I hope you didn't mind?"

"Why would I?", I chimed, "But it seems like some others despise my seat."
"Don't care", she said with a laugh, which made me skip a heartbeat.
"But it matters to me if my seat, causes you to lose your friends.",
"Well", I said," there are factors on which it all depends."

"As in?" she asks, with a hint of doubt and concern,
"No harm in losing them if in you a friend I will earn."
"Why not?", she said with a smile, "Then save me this seat", (and)
This was how two souls were destined to meet!

___

Gaols: Gaols is an old English word for jail, seldom used today barring some parts of Ireland and Australia