For the black and white days,
when you are out in the morning,
when even though it's not time to open the shop, the shopkeeper sits outside,
when the cigarettes are out of stock,
when counting the number of steps back to your house does not make it better,
when the newspaper waits for you at your doorstep and not at the dining table,
when there is nobody at your house to bring the newspaper inside,
when if you read the newspaper, you lose sanity,
when you associate sanity with a crumpled white page full of black scribbles,
when you fold the page and unfold the blankets,
when blankets are home,
when home is just your room,
when your room is not where you want to wake up,
when you can't wake up,
when everything that you talk about turns into a grey puddle in your memory,
when your memory betrays you,
when people's eyes feel like mirrors so you don't look up,
when you can't look up,
when it's not about just some days,
when everything is not black and white,
when everything is not binary.
Divyanshi Dash
First Year, Bharati College, English Honours