Love in the Era of Dating Apps

I wonder how does love fare

In the era of dating apps

Earlier love came gate crashing into our lives

Annoyingly when we least expected it

It sat as an unwanted guest

Messing up all the time lines

It waited patiently for its turn

To unleash it’s charm

And make its way into our lives

I wonder how love copes now

In the era of dating and speed dating

Has it become impatient?

Does it move along with our swipes

Swipe right you may find it

Swipe left you may lose it or vice versa

With Apps and profiles

As the ultimate gate keepers

How will it ever get to gate-crash?

Is love at first sight even a possibility?

There are always damn screen and filters

And best edited profile pictures

And then when you personally meet

With ample room for expectations

And disdain

Does love leave the table politely?

Earlier love would linger on

And maybe even stalk

And now it ghosts

Earlier there were no promises or forever

But yet love would haunt for life

I no longer know how it works

When we lay all our cards on the table

Hoping for a fair game

But then it turns out

There are no rules of the game

Love remains a situationship

Waiting for an upgrade

It is always a clean slate

No misgivings, no messiness

Light as a butterfly

Love flutters in and out of life

No surprises anymore

No confessions either

Love in the age of AI and Apps

Has turned out to be a smart love

With racing heartbeats in rings and watches

No broken hearts, no unrequited love

Nor platonic or overtly lustful

Love itself has become a need

A box to be ticked

The more you chase it, the more it eludes

That hope – the next swipe might

Bring it to your table right?

Keep at it!!!

Knowing love, it will still turn up

To upset all your plans

Staring right at you

Sweeping you in a twister storm

And then dumping you

Totally broken but warm

It will teach you to smile and sob

Only love can teach love

It is a shape shifting algorithm

Making an absolute fool of

Even the wisest one!!

Magic of Books

We devour books

By different authors

About different places

With different perspectives

Diverse stories in

Written in various

Language, words and vocabulary

Idioms, metaphors and phrases

We become inhabitants of the story

A keen observer or listener or

A lizard on the wall

Watching the characters build up

The taut tension between them

and then the resolution

(Or lack of it)

The beginning and the end

The two fixed ends of any story

The story stretched out in between

Just like the tension

Of a guitar string

That creates harmonics

(And the disharmony)

It is punctuated with

Vibes, noise and silences

Books are our escape

Just like music or movies

They create an imaginary world

For us to inhabit

Even if momentarily

Till the last page of the book

The places which are real

For the writer

Become our wild imagination

Our ultimate refuge

Most blissful death

Would be perhaps

Being completely lost in a book

Imagine walking on those

Cobbled street of another time

Or in a futuristic world

And getting left behind forever

For there is no coming back!!

No rude awakenings

Morning alarms and drudgery

No looking out for your

Favourite characters or places

We will become as unreal

Or Surreal as them!!

PS: Ramblings after the monthly book club meeting

Love

A Noun?

A Verb?

An Adjective?

Human value?

Emotion?

Attachment?

Attraction?

Respect ?

Friendship?

Kinship?

Dopamine?

Oxytocin?

Validation?

Affection?

Admiration?

Desire?

Conditional?

Unconditional?

Affection?

Romance?

Platonic?

Narcissism ?

Passion?

Adoration?

Devotion?

Compassion?

Sympathy?

Obsession?

Lust?

Greed?

Love encompasses all, takes various forms… yet no one understands it…

PS: Have I missed something? Do add..

Poetry Ai’nt Luxury

If poetry were a luxury

Afforded by only few

The world wouldn’t have known

Realities of poverty, hunger and war

That lament of loss and grief

Poetry ain’t luxury

Thankfully

A little girl hiding in an attic

With just a paper and pen

Multitudes of thoughts and emotions

Finds an alternative realm

Realm of words and emotions

Those damn slaves, those blues singers

Poetry freed them from slavery

Songs and poetry of protests

Gave language, words and idioms

To the oppression and violence they endured

Poetry gave the moon and stars 

Silver linings another meaning

Metaphors for hopes, love and loss

There wouldn’t be lullabys

There won’t be haikus

Long and short

Lyrical and free verse

Had poetry been a luxury

It belongs to those who own it

A craft they are willing to hone it

It says much even in its pauses

Brevity is its expanse

Poetry is a friend

Who walks along

Encouraging one to face life

It is like those fallen and trampled flowers

A true evidence of life lived and unlived.