Positing the Positive

Posted on March 15, 2025 by akanksha gupta

Hong Kong Disneyland, 2023

Fear feeds all paranoia
Till comfort of safety aches
Greed spells a reckless hunger
That ferociously salivates

Is that hope
That drives them both?
Is it a sense of purpose?
What is life without either –
Identity in crisis?

Complacency cannot win growth
When survival is a race
When that blackhole of belonging
Is scrounging for a place

And even then, to save
What little is left to lose,
Pessimism is a tool
That optimists are wont to use

Positivity does not preclude
The realities of daily warfare
It simply carries with grace
Any face I choose wear

– Akanksha Gupta

Millstones and Milestones

Posted on March 14, 2025 by akanksha gupta

Grandpa’s Winter Garden, 2022

Time has been harsh yet so very kind
Its memories well vintaged in my mind

There is a grace to every age
Lessons turning page after page

The stage set to throw wide the net
That seldom catches errant regret

Then a sweep of mindless mindfulness
Puts all off-beat crises to rest

Till wrinkles crease only the mind
At thirty, I barely pull off twenty five

There is nothing soft about me inside
It’s all sharp angles and hard lines

– Akanksha Gupta

Perils of Clubbing

Posted on November 4, 2024 by akanksha gupta

My heart beats
Excitement thrums
It’s a different world
Here I come!

I tell myself
It will be different this time
But immediately,
Strobe lights
Frazzle my eyes
While DJ Dread Drum bleats
And music drowns beneath;
Encore breeds even more cacophony.

Malarkey’s depths barely let
My words break furore,
Regardless,
Every answering breath
Liquors mine unbearably more.

Still I smile
Still I groove
Be only as verbose
As it behooves

But no-one really
Sees through it all,
With bloodshot windows
Shuttering against soul

Lonely bodies
Seek pick-me-ups,
Busy bodies
Sell forget-me-knots,
Oblivion is a headiness;
It calls, enthralls

Throngs fall in deep
I too want to
Desperately see the appeal
But, I’m thoroughly appalled.
Did I age too quickly?
Was I born too late?
Why do I feel so old?
I try not to wonder at all

And though my ears bleed
And head spins
My heart still beats,
Evermore,
Staccato fatigued,
Eyes bruised,
Feet sore.

The comforts of hedonism
Discombobulate
And the consequences
Render rather insensate,
Then,
Nursing solitude
And an arrogant disdain,
I sit aside,
And contemplate.

– Akanksha Gupta

Eyes, Ears, Nose, Throat; Murder, She Wrote

Posted on June 3, 2024 by akanksha gupta

Every time I sneeze
Within and beyond
My morning allergies,
I feel like I am losing
A little piece of me.

Every time I cough
And irritate my palate
Irascibly rough,
I wonder when it’s going
To be enough.

Every time my sinuses
Swell up and clog
My passages,
Only time can soothe
The intractable ravages.

For pain is pain
And itch is itch –
Sharp or dull or faint – as such,
When all weapons fail,
The touch
Of familiarity
Becomes the de facto
Crutch.

– Akanksha Gupta

Mirror of Contempt

Posted on April 15, 2024 by akanksha gupta

Fires burn bright
Behind eyes shut tight,
Smoke spills regret
Sooted with fright.
The face of nightmares
Soddens with despair,
And dream curdling screams
Scald the seams of aftercare.

Reflections of Today

– Akanksha Gupta

Wicked

Something watches my soul
Something lingers in the cold
Something curls up in the corners
And peeks from between the folds

Everything heckles my haunts
Everything jostles my jaunts
Everything casts a shadow
That cackles, and croons, and taunts

Nothing remains untouched
Nothing changes all that much
Nothing even prickles the silence
That sutures a bygone grudge

⁃ Akanksha Gupta

Fanatic’s Pendulations

Posted on February 28, 2024 by akanksha gupta

Love is kind, love is good

Love is where you do not look

Hate is a self-scorned lover’s gruel

Bitter burnt and served al-cruel

Faith is fine, faith is coarse

Even when doubts scream hoarse

Fear is faith’s aggravated assault

That grows unchecked in imagined faults

Love stews, hate incites

Faith explains, fear ignites

Time still rows the oars of fate

Domino of choices disconsolate

– Akanksha Gupta

Continuance

Posted on January 31, 2024 by akanksha gupta

Could I wait forever
Watching them drown
Holding in tight
Our smiles, our frowns

Pain sets in deep
Rises with the sun
Beams on the lips
Slides off the tongue

Days slip by nights
Edges blur with cries
Shadows dim and dig
The corners of my eyes

Mirror stands still
To the ravages of fear
That I untiringly wipe
With hope and with succor

Should I wait forever
Time will play my hand
Slipping past my fingers
Clouds, rivers, sands

– Akanksha Gupta

Onset of Illness

Posted on January 15, 2024 by akanksha gupta

I can breathe,
But with each breath
Unease
Sweeps through

Guts twist and churn,
Conscious thrums the chest
Off beat
At every turn

When empty,
Hunger gnaws
With claws
That painfully feed

When bloated,
Even the rot of despair
Clots
To never weep

And when breathless,
Though gusts of air
Flail piteously

I can still breathe

I can always breathe

But the still in the air
Waylays the mind
Distills the spirits
Consumes the soul

Dreary dispassion
Threatens
To possess
The body whole

Eventually, it weaves
A frighteningly hypnotic trance
That grips the unwitting senses
In its maddeningly deathless dance

– Akanksha Gupta

Restraint

Posted on December 11, 2023 by akanksha gupta

Over the years, this ex runt of a stray litter has transcended feline instincts, and now waits upon her meal like a queen. 🙇🙇‍♀️🙇‍♂️

Honey drips down my throat
My stomach revolts
Gaggles of words threaten to escape
I choke on their outbursts
And swallow their ghosts
And yet, with bated breath they wait

So I still my thoughts
And hold my tongue
Between my teeth
Now my tongue is stung –
I file my teeth night and day
Stained red as they often get

I know if I let go
I’ll glut like an addict
And gut sanity
So I hold it in and rage
Against my outrageous vanity

Because when I slip
I slide
I really cannot hide –
I’m sugar and spite
And everything with a bite

– Akanksha Gupta

The Ghats of Varanasi

Posted on December 7, 2023 by akanksha gupta

Dip into History

Etched onto every crenulation
On either side of Ganga’s might,
A relic of truth - a piece of history
Mired in faith and legend and mystery
Resides; quietly, contently, reverently
Burning day and night fervently

Cremation

Waters brim with the black of night
Still with the cold of death
Weep endless ashes and dust, and yet
Echo the warmth of undying embers 
All reflective, quiet, solemn faced 
Sailing past Harishchandra, Manikarnika Ghats
Reverent and disquieted in equal parts

Sandhya Aarti

Melted drops of a long-gone sun
Burn the wick of every prayer
On the ghats
On the boats swarming the ghats
Mesmerising chants of song and dance
Fill the air

Breath mingles with oil and incense
Headiness of lights and sounds and scents
Harmony of Dasashwamedh and Ganga
Symphony of souls swept into an orchestra
Of carefree precision, of piety
Intoxicated with sobriety

As time crescendoes;
Halts to a moment,
Ensnares,
Dusk darkening, night lightening,
Heart tightening,
I wonder how aarti at dawn compares

– Akanksha Gupta

The Sarnath Effect

Posted on December 7, 2023 by akanksha gupta

*Our tour guide wove a brilliant narrative, adding to the reverential mysticism of our Sarnath experience*

Faith pours artistry into simple words
Conviction cauterises the beginnings of doubt
Wisdom lends belief to the beholder
Goosebumps brush tingles inside out

Richness of history delights the senses
Depth of knowledge astounds
Stories impress the spirit with wonders
Unearthed from ancient grounds

Wellsprings of sounds bloom in the chest
Rushing of conscious shuffles closer to mind
Peace combs through a restless strength
And waters the soul with wealth beyond time

– Akanksha Gupta

Between Apathy and Empathy

Posted on July 25, 2023 by akanksha gupta

Restlessness clings to the air
It blows far and wide,
Soul searching through the depth of stars
That glint past their eventide

The wind picks, strays, soars
Gently ebbs, gently flows
And the heart thumps a minute a mile,
Yet it is time that stops
Slows and steadies, to stand and stare awhile

The promises of a fickle mind
Five-minute fame that would not rewind
A corruption that unwittingly creeps
Excuses that ooze and gape and weep

They clothe whispers borne of prejudice
With sunsets that judgment did not miss
And with a kiss of nightmare on sleep’s brow
From the hangman stood bloodied but unbowed

A garden, unfettered, sows and grows
The guilt that gnarls a crow’s crow,
There the callouses of weary souls
Have long since culled care’s hold

But when the illusion shatters solitude
And pieces of sanity unhinge and elude
Then care takes roots anew, again
Upon each ponderous now and then

– Akanksha Gupta

Deception

Posted on July 23, 2023 by akanksha gupta

The Glitz of the Cotai Strip,
A land of Casinos and Duplicates


It’s never gleamed tears of sweet delight 
Mess of scars beneath my dreams
Twilight draws curtains close
Darkness sweeps in at the seams

Mere memory of your canny smile
Chokes and charms the cheeks of time
Pink blush splutters graciously 
Gold flecks more and more my eyes 

My sanity spirals in and out
Churning oceans deep and wide
Yet tethered to my many blues
I feel no dread pull at the tide



- Akanksha Gupta

Shattering Illusions

Posted on July 23, 2023 by akanksha gupta

This solitary cow escaped slaughter, was lauded for taking initiative, and rewarded with life imprisonment. Its compatriots remain statistics. The war ended before it started.

We have words troubled with thoughts
That tremble with indecision
That tiptoe through unfunny bones
Before being steeped in precision

Yet ego scours substance
For paper town forget-me-nots
And intent, unless misdiagnosed,
Languishes as an afterthought

It’s a chicken-egg irony
Wrapped in a beefed up paradox
That in an era of diplomacy
Tolerance should be hitting the rocks

There are acts of courage
Powerful, undisguised, profound
Excepted from acceptance
Deemed exceptionally unsound

Oh it is hard to blame
Wherever would it fall?
Indeed it is hard to blame
If we should blame at all

It’s a chicken – egg irony
Wrapped in a beefed up paradox
That in an era of transparency
Honesty should be hitting the rocks

Arguments define the momentum that
The intelligentsia seeks to win
Yet their support is insidiously fed
Auctioned information

The unyielding grip of sanctions
Chokes the fair and free flow
So that the bias sowed in opinions
Gets steadily watered and ploughed

It’s a chicken – egg irony
Wrapped in a beefed up paradox
That in an era of self-discovery
The mind remains lost in thought

– Akanksha Gupta