© 0 Raw Whispers © Edition-4, 20.09.2020 Accepting the harsh brushstrokes of life and keeping alive good memories? -Rinchen Angmo 1 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 Pieces 1. Seasaw -Prerna 3 2. Summer of 2020 -Shumzin 4 3. Composed under a Cloudy August Sky -Samson 5-6 Haokip 4. Questions without Answers And other Random 7-9 Thoughts -Harsahej Mann 5. Paradox of Existence -Tavishi Agarwal 10 6. The Smeraldo Garden -Anushka Saha 11 7. That Latent Goodness in Us -Sonam Angmo 12 8. gluttonous clutches -Bidisha Dam 13 9. It kills your happiness -Aastha Sarraf 14 10. Trace the trail of raindrops -Mehak Talwar 15 11. Faces -Prerna Kejriwal 16 12. Is it a rendition of my heart -Sonam Chhomo 17-18 13. Must we give in? -Poorvi 19 14. Continental GT -Samson Haokip 20-21 15. I carry my heart -Saanvi Hissaria 22 16. The light you see -Aastha Sarraf 23 17. A story of three people -Rinchen Angmo 24-27 18. Thank you 28 2 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 Seasaw Within me, a deep sea I swim up but go down Light at the end Seems almost within reach. Not for long Will I be alone. The sea is me And I the sea. No divisions, No limits. I am infinite. The sea one day Will be as free as me. Store is closed today But I still go to shops Wanting to capture water, End up catching drops. Today is the last day It shall be closed. I'll be a loyal customer Till my last breath. In the beginning, there was me And the sea. We were lonely Before we found each other. The truth unspoken The self undiscovered. Now together at last, My soul is united With the deep. -Prerna I'll never leave me again. 3 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 Summer of 2020 Reminiscing the days of summer 2020, We would walk for miles and climb mountains together Have long conversations under the night sky, Count shooting stars Giggle Trouble Fancy each other... I wish these days return And we can stay together forever.. -Shumzin 4 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 Composed under a cloudy August sky In the cloudless sky of an ending August night Four stars populate the sky, The cool wind of winter permeates The moist warm atmosphere of Delhi. This fresh touch of an impending winter Tingles my nerves and spine Not for its cool, passive touch But for another reason altogether—and the reason is Change. Change in all forms and sizes is always unnerving. One can’t predict what the spring or winter brings But one surely knows, feels the exhilaration of standing at the cusp of a change. These may or may not be desired But once its foot reaches the plains of our reality We begin to change. Nothing ever stays the same: That which does – also changes, Morphs into a relic left behind. I do not fear Change, Not anymore But the cusp is not a pleasant place to stay: The longer I tarry and anticipate The lesser I become in my own eyes. Sometimes, I want to stay Not because the cusp is a pleasant place to stay But because my failed nerves and dying sinews Refuse to budge, to move. Sometimes, I prefer delaying the heavy hand of disruption, Though I know the later it reaches me The heavier becomes the blow. I admit my desires are not the best, But I sometimes give in to them I admit that sometimes The cusp freezes me And instead of burdening my feet firm I let them float; 5 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 Let myself flow in the many airs and winds. I admit that sometimes I give up On trying my best to fix and build Whatever it is I envision and dream— But I also get back up And in-between these two moments of falling and getting back up I drift into an invisible stream Felt only by me Where I let my sinews unwind, Die and grow again. I take my time. The exhilaration of being in the cusp Overwhelms me— And I let it. There I die a couple of times Until death no longer worries me— at least for some time. In this cusp I feel The creative urge to pen a verse. My verse is ethereal, It seems to not have a substance but why should I Attempt to justify The inner workings of my mind? It is the love child Of the cloudless August night And my sense perception. Just as the cool winds can inspire a verse So can a mosquito’s bite end it. -Samson Haokip 6 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 Questions without Answers And other Random Thoughts There are no facts , only interpretations - Frederick Nietzsche Epiphany Blank . Empty . Ephemeral . Ethereal . A realisation that does not last : Misty clouds swirling like mounds of rarified vanilla ice cream disappearing into the baroque depths of a smiling sky . Epiphany , like a euphoric moment , disappearing almost as quickly as it appears . Epiphany , like the tune of a song whose name you cannot remember . Epiphany like the taste of love that used to be , but now is naught . Epiphany , so transient that it never lets you forget . A new dawn - A Charlatan The golden splendour of sunlight seeping into the veins of red leaves , obliterating the mauve dusk to blossom into a peach coloured dawn . A new dawn , promising to engender numerous dawns like itself . A new dawn dressed in the sartorial splendour of cherry coloured love . A new dawn , reminiscent of dawns long dead , now traipsing around as the harbinger of light . A new dawn holding the promise of novelty and love but giving neither love nor hope . A new dawn , scattering shards of iridescent glass across the terrain of cracking hearts that had heretofore sealed their cracks with the golden threads of hope and light . Reality Phantasmagoric Spaces and places coloured by blue and pink skies , cut by the searing sharpness of a sleek sky line distinguishing glorious skies from mortal land . Reality - a sleek skyline reeking of a banal reality slowly obliterating the allure of sweet illusions . 7 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 Life A couple of couplets or a code ? An algorithm or a philosophy? An illusion or a fictional reality ? A monotonous sequence of events or a courtroom drama ? Utopia or dystopia ? A paradox or a lie ? An amalgamation of narratives or rhetoric ? A personal essay or a polemical debate ? A fractured account of a larger episode or the first episode of the first season of a television series ? An opera or a street play ? A book review or the script of a play ? Us mortals , mere letters on a page or actors in a rigmarole ? Life : a play , biography or an autobiography ? Life : an interpretation , not a fact . What Colour Is No Colour Liminal spaces . Grey . Nor here nor there . I do not know where . Neither black nor white , nor grey . Spaces - Blurred boundaries , Broken barricades , Fragmented territories interspersed in an ocean of nothingness . Like a lost traveller , I navigate liminal spaces. Liminal spaces neither here nor there . Liminal spaces neither black nor white , nor grey . Liminal spaces , I don’t know where . How Red Roses out of coarse mud . Red out of brown . Sweet out of bitter . Beauty out of crassness . How ? This Article A cohort of random thoughts ?A set of questions ? An assortment of thoughts , or a page from my personal diary ? An extract from the book of my life or a letter to a dear friend ? A levitation into numbness or an attempt to add to my writing portfolio ? An ode to conversations on rose specked hillsides or a recollection of a lovely dream ? A note on the margins of my English literature textbook or a draft on Wordpress ? A question seeking an answer or an answer seeking itself ? 8 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 A Question Without Answers A question with no answer. A statement or a question ? A blue sky with no clouds . A sky or an ocean ? A sky with no skyline . An Ocean or the sky ? An open window with no view . A window or a canvas ? A room with no door . Locked or open ? A flag with no mast . A Flag or a cloth ? A girl with no dreams . Complacent or content ? A man in tears . A man or a woman ? A sentence ending with both a question mark and a full stop . A question or an answer ?. Full Stop An end to an end or a beginning of a beginning ? The termination of a preface or the new beginning of an aftermath ? An aftermath to a preface or a preface to an aftermath ? A semi colon - a continuation as well as an end ; a comma -a slight interim , a full stop the end of all commas and interims . A full stop , the end ? The End An end to an end or the beginning of a new end ——————————- .? -Harsahej Mann 9 RAW WHISPERS I Edition 4 Paradox of existence The bittersweet truth of existence , also the enigma of subsistence. The bigger is the world yet a smaller place to dwell; The less you relish the moment, everyday will feel like a farewell. The only certainty is the uncertainty for change is constant; The more minimally you speak, the more eloquent you are. The nearer you think is the destination , the farther it is disillusioned; The more choices you have, the harder it gets to find the solution. The more you are attracted to something ,the more it shows resistance, For these are the paradoxes of existence.