Janhavi’s musings

It does not take years of mature reflection to ponder on the vicissitudes of life and write about them. The following excerpt has been taken from Aloft on Wings of Grit, a collection by poems of Janhavi Malhotra. As Ruskin Bond says in the Foreword, Janhavi is "able to express herself in so fluent, and at times powerful language." This when she is 14.

I sit on the beach thinking of you,

Staring up at the evening sky,

I let out a breathy sigh and wonder why,

I can’t help but feel so blue.

As I watch the sun dipping into the ocean,

The birds chirping, the waves in motion,

I see a familiar silhouette approaching me,

Tall, long strides and handsome as can be.

I rub my eyes in disbelief,

And wonder how it could be you,

For you’re miles and miles away,

So it couldn’t possibly be true.

But when the silhouette got near,

I saw he’s just some random guy.

I start to feel my vision blur,

And a tear glisten in my eye.

I think of you more often than you know,

I miss you, though it’s something I don’t show,

I’m here, you’re there and as far as I can see,

These distances were just not meant to be.

Cursing my luck as I wonder why me,

Helpless and feeble, on my hospital bed.

Every limb throbbing; tears threaten to spill forth,

Staring up at the ceiling, wishing I was dead.

Trapped in the dungeon-like sterile room,

Cut off from the world outside.

The sun sets and rises each day,

But it’s all the same inside.

The world as I knew it, had ebbed away,

To laugh with childlike abandon, I’ll never know.

Poked and prodded by masked faces.

Into the bottomless abyss, I’m pummeled below.

They saw I’ll get better

They say things will be alright.

But as I lie here, so frail and powerless,

To me it all seems hackneyed and trite.

Excerpted with permission from Aloft on Wings of Grit by Janhavi Malhotra. Little Magic Words. Pages 58. Rs 95. Illustrated by Jaspreet Chahal.

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