Love With The Sea

There once was a man who fell in love with the sea. When he woke in bed at night, he did not look at his wife. He did not touch the thighs that he had been given by her, or gaze with desire at the nipples that had hardened in the cold that the wind brought in. He rose instead, slipped out of the white sheets, and went to the window. He listened to the waves; he watched them as they hit the shore. The moon appeared in patches on the surface, and he wished that he could be the moon, spreading skin against skin. After many nights of gazing, he could not wait any more.
 For the first time in a long time, he looked at his wife after waking. In the darkness, he made out what he could of her: the gleam of her teeth, wet with the spit that had come from behind them, her dark long legs tangled in the whiteness of the sheets. He did not kiss her. He did not want to wake her. He did not light a candle, and walked slowly, to be sure that when he walked upon the floorboards, they would not make their noise. When he reached the beach, the sand was wet and sank below his steps. When he reached the dock, it was slick and moaned beneath him. As he touched the water, he took a breath and closed his eyes.

 In the meantime, his wife was dreaming. She dreamt of him, of how loving he had been in the forest where they had met, in the time before they had gone to make their living by the sea. She remembered how he called her “flower”; she remembered how she called him “bee.” When the winter wind broke into the room, it suddenly awakened her. For a moment she had forgotten of his loss of love, and touched her hand to the mattress where he should have been. The imprint of his body was still there, but he was not. In the darkness, she looked for him, but she could not find the familiar shape. She made an effort to return to sleep, but the cold would not allow it. She rose from bed, the sheets wrapped like a coat around her. Something in the sea, perhaps the something that had always drawn him, drew her toward it. She rubbed her fingers together as she walked, and felt the grains of sand that had collected beneath her nails. She smelled the sea, tasted the rot that drifted in from the canneries, no matter how often they were cleaned. She lifted her face out the window and looked. She saw what she always saw: the town, the docks, the moon, the sea. She closed her eyes. Thinking of him, she licked her lips and tasted the salt and the water. As she touched herself, she took a breath and closed her eyes.....

-Ayush Srivastava

It's just like being Alive!

"What was it like being in a relationship with her?" my best friend Gaurav asked me as we walked from our lab to our classroom.

I tried to frame an appropriate answer. It took a bit too long. By the time we reached the classroom, Gaurav had already forgotten about his question. He just sat down on an empty desk and started fiddling with his books.

I sat down beside him, but that unanswered question still occupied my mind.

What exactly was it like being in a relationship with her?

I looked outside through the window. A post-autumnal tree stood embarrassed, its leaves having been withered away by the weather. The squirrels that usually ran up and down that tree all day were now missing, probably running up and down another tree that had not shed its leaves yet, or may be they were just hibernating.

And I started thinking about the time when she had not entered my life, and how much like that tree I really was.

Sad. Hopeless. Forsaken.

And suddenly Gaurav remembered about his question again.

"So, what was it like being in a relationship with her?" he asked me.

"It's like being alive," I replied.

      

-Ayush Srivastava

Life Goes ON

."Life goes on" he had heard,

"Why Life wasn't going on" he wondered.

"Kuch khata nai hai" His mom was so fed up of his eating habits.
He missed those "Khana khaya ?" Texts, No one Knew.

He used to chat till 4 a.m, Once
He cries till 4 a.m , Now

"College mein kuch padhai ka hota nhi" his reason for not to go to college.
"Mujhe nhi jaana kahin" was a weird sentence at his age.

'Aaj shave karani hai, Use beard nahi pasand' - Once
'Jungli sa kyu bana rehta hai' - His Dad, Now

He was the star of his class in school, Once
No one even knew if he existed , Now

He was the leader of the most popular boys group, Once
Forgot how it was to have friends, Now

Had the best collection of Songs, Once
Please add music to play, His Phone's music Player said, Now

This pain is supposed to be psychological,He used to think

Whenever he felt a hole in his chest every now and then.

"Life goes on" he had heard,
"Why Life wasn't going on" he Wondered.

"Pagal" She used to say him,

"Pagal" He was Now