Life's Too Long With Anguish And Too Short With Contentment.

How is it that each time we fall in life we seek someone else in the same condition to console our inner self?

Shayan Das

"Whose death are you more afraid of, my or yours?" the girl enquired and the boy replied, "Yours" whilst whispering somewhere deep within himself, "For darling, I'm the last person to die on Earth. After me none shall die".

Shayan Das

"Your grandfather and I've been together for 56 years", said my grandma one night while showing some tattered photographs from her shabby album. Her eyes sparkled as she went by each page, narrating their first meeting and reliving her girlhood. I picked up one and asked after some time, with a thrill of stupefaction, "What held it, what helped the love between you and Grandpa last so long? ..." "What shall hold love", she chuckled, her eyes still glued on the photographs, as if trying hard to forget about the ephemerality of young romance. "What shall hold love", she continued after a pause, "when love's supposed to hold us? At first, I thought I loved him. Well, I did, perhaps not once but countless times, in a multitude of ways. In fact, he loved me with the same sincerity. But what's more essential is that each time we loved one another, we felt we were loving ourselves. When I trusted him, I felt I was trusting myself; when he promised he would make my dreams come true, he worked all night to make his dreams come true. His pains were my pains, and my insecurities his. When I thought I'd lose him, I felt I'd lose myself; every time he found I was contented, his joys would know no bounds. Throughout our lives, we were busy saving ourselves and ended up protecting each other". 

Shayan Das

"Like a young sapling, my child", beamed the mother and went on further with a sigh, "As if you are a freshly sprung plantlet of rose, I'd water you, assume every minute necessity of you as my own, and defend you from every ruthless squall until you bloom to your fullest albeit the only flower I receive in my lifetime is at my funeral".

Shayan Das

The poetic urge to draw an analogy between every one thing with every other thing in the universe.

Shayan Das

Are you really writing poetry since you were 11 ? The themes that you write with just have a wholly different and mature kind of vibe. To be frank, I just fell in love with your writing style at the very first glance. Now, if you're wondering, I'm not an adult like you, I'm just a 15 year old boy who is stuck in an environment where most people (most) don't have any appreciation for the beaty of the simple things in life and are too much focused on moving forward rather than taking some time to their selves. They have all forgotten that sometimes it's ok to sit idle and do nothing. Just gaze at the starry sky or the spring blossoms. So, I took to poetry to relieve myself and for the first time in 2 years I have known a marvellous person like you who wants to appreciate the little joys of life observe the personalities of other people from a different point of view. When I first read your posts I was dumbfounded, to be honest, and so I just want to congratulate you on your success in literature and romanticism and also for reminding me that there are other people like me. And lastly, love your work, keep going <3.

Gosh, this is everything! I can't thank you enough for writing this. Yes, I've been writing since I was 11 obsessed with Shelley/Keats and the entire Romantic movement, maybe not as fervently as now but yes those were some of the most promising times of my life, promising in the sense that there were little to no restrictions on my writing process be it academics or something else. I'm sorry that you're unable to find like-minded people around you entirely but then aren't we all on the same bus? But the best thing is that we needn't change people's perceptions. Everyone has their own ideologies and even existing in a time like ours with a realistic attitude (leave the romantic) is a matter of sheer audacity and courage. I remember the day after writing the last exam of my grade 10th finals. I was convincing my father about my ardent interest to take creative writing instead of medicine for further studies and heard him saying, "The seas might look the best things to romanticize so as long you're hydrated but in the fullness of time, you'll find 'tis the clouds invariably not seas which can quench your thirst". And I was convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt how people are born romantic and made realists.

** And lastly I'm not an adult as well making sagacious remarks on life & love. I'm 19 y/o and more or less in a similar situation as yours or maybe more tangled, striving every moment against worldly notions and seeking escapism through art. Thanks for asking and wish you a great day/evening/night ahead. <3

The duplicitous world has set enough examples of how self-love doesn't portray selfishness rather selfishness portrays self-love.

Shayan Das

And how easily we claim our love to be unconditional while knowing at the same instant that the greatest basis for loving someone more than our lives is to make ourselves exist.

Shayan Das

Last night I saw a group of friends laughing at the café and ended up smiling myself. The other day, there was a couple kissing under the flicker of streetlight, and I thought to be gentler with me. For when you've been alone for more than half your life, you don't expect to be included or cast your own light; rather, choose to reflect like the moon that never formed a constellation. When you've been on your own, it seems that even the wind that brushes past your skin has a purpose— like a stray dog that thinks every kind hand that offers it food is home. You make two cups of chai every evening and pretend there's someone to converse with, or keep one earphone dangling, hoping someone would care to listen. You keep your cellphone silent not because you're agitated with the numberless messages, but because it hurts less not knowing there isn't one. You mistake your heartbeats for footsteps not because someone's arriving but because you think they must have.

Shayan Das, The Solivagant