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He drew silk, waved it about and lowered it on earth in black cascades of clouds.

She stood transfixed. She closed her eyes to the mad love his fingers made with the black and white keys. She surrendered to the serenade. She allowed herself to be drowned in the black silk. She smiled as she went deep, then she swam up and opened her eyes to the world and smiled again. She plunged again, and wept quietly.

He finished, and opened his eyes. He saw her. Something deep inside him curdled, and flew to surface, "Get outta here!"                  
She was startled out of her abyss. "But your music was so beautiful...", she gasped.

He continued to stare angrily.     
Suddenly she laughed softly and said, "You need to be hugged." She started to move.

A few steps ahead, she paused and looked back at him. She found him bent at the piano, sobbing.

Now he felt her stare and looked up.
Their gazes met again. Where she had seen anger, now lay a pool of pain and suffering. His lashes glistened with tears, somehow sending her a silent prayer, "Take me! Save me!"

Now she spasmed with another type of shock. She felt frightened by his want of her, something like her...

A part of her wanted to take him in her arms, and run her fingers in his hair. But... his need was greater than her, that would consume her totally.

She turned, and hurried along her way. This time she didn't pause to look back at him.

- Chandni Girija

तुझ्या बासुरित मी जीव ओतणारच होते
पण फांदीवर बसून तू हसताना दिसलास
मी मीरा होणारच होते
रुक्मिणीच्या कुशीत राधेला छळतांना दिसलास
तुझं गोंधन कपाळाला लावणारच होते
कुरुक्षेत्रात अर्जुनला चातुर्य शिकवताना दिसलास
काय रे कान्हा!
काल तुझ्यापुढे मी हरले होते
आज तुझं तूच हरलास!

- चांदनी गिरिजा

I Met The Dog

My feet moved on
Groping aimlessly
In a world dripping blue
Darker than the ocean
But vast as it

Fangled thought bubbles
Rose and burst
Rose and burst
Firing the senseless
Cacophony in my ears

I bled grey
Darker than the fog
But dense as it

The air was glass
Solid, impenetrable
I gasped and gasped
And then sighed smilingly
Yes, soon…
Soon I told myself!

Then I met
I met this dog
With a half-gnawed face
A missing ear
And a gashed chest

We met on the road
Me, lost
It, resolute
Our gazes converged
And left me aghast

I wondered, beseechingly
Oh, why go on?
On with such misery?
The dog just smiled
From its mangled mouth
And on it went
Where its purpose beckoned

On I went too
But the dog’s tail
Wagged in my head
If it had to see
What colour the world be?
Red?
Of anger, of hurt, of misappropriation?
Or black?
Of defeat, of finality, of nothingness?
I think it was yellow
Bright or faint, I don’t know
A yellow
Of hope

If it was so
So stupidly resilient, that dog
If it could grit its teeth
And walk on,
Why, oh why
Should I be so wise?

If the dog could survive
I could do better
I could create!
Bit by bit,
But build something
Different and away
From this non-entity, my life!
No, no, no…
Destruction was easy
Way too easy
I could do better!

I picked the crystal
Buried in my bag
The nectar of death
Twinkled in the sunshine
I threw it away
And...
Yellow, yellow, yellow
I chanted,
Yellow, yellow, yellow...

- Chandni Girija
(Exhorted by TISS Counselling Centre, Dedicated for 'World Suicide Prevention Day - Sep 10')