Home was in the small things

This is a collaborative piece.

Poem : Nipa Charagi

Art : Vasundhara Singh

Home, by Vasundhara Singh for TLJ

That ache in my heart
It comes and goes
Travels at will
But always returns
To settle in some corner
Of parts unknown

Some days
It just hangs around
Refusing to go
Some days it comes like a storm
Shakes everything up
And then crawls back
Into parts unknown

On other days
it flits like a dream
Unfolding memories
Like a slideshow
Of honey-toned summers and
Chestnut-warm winters

It goes everywhere
To all new homes
And settles down quietly
In parts unknown
And then reveals itself
In little things

In scribbled notes
On the margins of forgotten books
In fading pictures of people no more
In a moth-balled old pashmina shawl
wrapped in muslin
In telephone numbers
no longer in use

It's the little things
I miss the most
In the universe
That was once home
Now reduced to an ache
Hurting forever

Nipa Charagi wants to return home —— home where school was across the river and mountains were always in view. She dedicates this to all her K friends.

Vasundhara Singh describes herself as curious creature who likes diving deep into imagination to bring out the extraordinary.