The Looking Glass Wars

When I was at IIT Mumbai, I was - in a loose sort of fashion - a part of the lit group there. The group did not possess any especial talents, most of us were merely techies with literary pretensions. Our efforts found themselves in the few magazines the Institute put out merely because most people were too busy with their studies and couldn't give a rat's arse for literature of any sort. Still, there was a camaraderie of sorts, books and ideas exchanged and the like all of which could be quite heady. Of all of us who wrote, the only one (in my opinion) who had the potential to be more was my friend, Rajeev Nair. It was always a pleasure to walk down to his room and read something new that he had written. Even now when I read his poems, I find them subtle and sophisticated in tone.

Here's one that I quite like:

I. That laterally inverted, two dimensional
Image with crow's feet and greying hair
Isn't me......
I am something else entirely.

II. They told her she had a face
That would crack a mirror
Funny thing;
When she finally looked into one,
It wasn't the mirror that cracked.

III. She and I
We'd look into the mirror
And talk to each other's images
We'd do it for hours

Then the mirror broke
And we can't stand each other.

Perhaps more poems were written post IIT but in the interim years we lost touch and I haven't seen any. If the muse has long left the building, it would be a pity.