the exact moment

that a toddler falls asleep in your arms

can take you there,

if you are aware.

of the change in the smell of her hair,

if the length of her breath suddenly reaches your neck,

her body relaxes its contours into yours...

oh yes it can take you there

without looking at her little face,

something tells you that the air is thicker,

the sky is bigger. you are one

one with the deep sleep of a baby

a sensation so deep, so pure.

No wonder

a mother loves a child most when it is asleep

it is because the trusting sleeping beauty,

within the exact moment,

takes you there.

Till I met a grasshopper

Till I met a grasshopper
I did not know I lived in a cage
An enigma, a surprise
Making me think every page...

To love someone like one's baby
Does not require a womb
Sing, drink and throw your books in the river
Mansoor would say from his tomb...

Even a glimpse can transform you
In a way no conversation can
Consciousness speaks, I understood
The world doesn't work the way I plan...

Maybe what I perceived
was an amateurish conclusion
A catharsis of kind
Vague thoughts circling the mind...

I do not know much, but know enough to say
It would enlighten me
Teach me something new
When I read this book again some other day....

Archana---

Archana is one of the first people to have read my book, A Grasshopper's Pilgrimage, when it was a manuscript. This poem was her response.