We shall always keep it mad on rainy nights.

What are you thinking?

Okay. Wait.

What AM I thinking?

Stranded under a half-pulled shutter, rain speaks through growling puddles.
Somebody is selling chicken kebabs under neon ribbons,
Corn cobs are being salted over coal. An old man is
Trying desperately hard to light his beedi.

We have been here before.

Yes, you and me. I am not keeping you out of this.

If you remember, our voices were born in nights like these.
They glowered in dark, curtained rooms
Where coastal breeze perfumed it. Wisped tales of lost travelers.

( I ) Have looked into your eyes and
Saw flaming petals and sirens of police yards. Screams of drunken bikes
And a whirring circle of some defeat.

I concealed them. I know it too well.

So, I gave you a walk in the rain
Wrapped my shawl over your shoulder and
Nothing was more beautiful than that.

I decided that if it’s a rainy night, and with you,
It must be mad.

We raised our pants. I kissed your neck.
We ran ahead of well-bathed trucks, leaking kerosene
And old Hindi songs.

Stood, just like today, under half pulled shutters.

We had such a sense of possibility.
Oh, we are renegades, you said
We can bite our destiny and twist it around.
I echoed your bandana, but I had bits more to say.
I just wanted you, that’s all I knew.

The smell of coffee under my window won’t return.
Your laughter rolling through the crowded bars, won’t return

And like I said, it never returned.

But what were these lessons about rebellion?
I wanted to hear, what exactly are we ‘biting’ at?

Look now.

You faded, not exactly what suited you.
I will stay, that’s been my style.
But I know you think of it too.

Maybe not now.

Maybe not a write a poem about it or paste it on walls.
Maybe not slither in it drinks.
But somehow that smell soars over you, when smoke drifts into rain.

You know, just say it along, we shall always keep it mad.

(Pictures are taken from endless Google searches. Couldn't really find the photographer's name but it's simply brilliant and it rhymed with my theme too. Plus, the other one of Shabana Azmi from Ankur is one of my absolute favorites. It's taken from VLC Media player screen capture and somehow, it says a lot about what I want to. Just look deeper.)