Silence

The silence is deafening

The humming of the cooling machine

Cacophonous and humdrum

There was another noise

Talking to silence

Just a while ago

There were voices here

Just this afternoon

There was laughter here

Just this morning

There is this long

Narrow road

Of silence

A valley of longing

There is light

No doubt

At the end of this road

But I must tread

One step at a time

Killing each moment

Of silence at a time

Another machine revs up

With pictures and voices

Talking to me

But they have no ears

There is noise around

It’s my silence

That is deafening…

Silences

“Do you know how it feels like to keep quiet for like a day? It’s not that you don’t have anything to say. It’s that there is nobody to listen?” said Veena.
Tripti and Neena listened quietly.  Obviously they didn’t know. Their lives were filled with families who loved them. Friends, colleagues, parents, in-laws.
“I wake up, make breakfast, sit on my laptop, make lunch, again work, take the kids to classes, make dinner, sleep. During the seventeen hours that I am awake, I am mostly quiet. It is very rare that I express what I feel. That’s why I write.” continued Veena.
“But that’s so unbelievable Veena.. quiet and you? It’s hard to believe. You are the one who talks the most amongst us,  right Tripti?”
“Hmm.. she lives in a world that is unknown to us. Yes Neena, she has transformed into somebody else. But I am glad that she is the same old Veena when we are together”, said Tripti.