Little Matchsticks

Vinay Capila

Genre: Poetry, Pages: 96, binding: paperback, ISBN No.-978-93-82070-82-5

The muse hit me very early in life; how and why I cannot remember. But I can remember writing little ditties in my later years at school – little forced rhymes expressing a sense of loneliness. And if the muse came, could cupid remain far behind? He followed soon enough, bringing with him the concomitant heart breaks. And so I lived my earlier life, traveling in a haze of euphoric misery, expressed frequently in verse. But, as happens in life, one has to grow up. And the process of growing up entails camouflaging the nakedness of expression that comes in juvenile outpourings. Maturity creeps in, and with it the gravity of philosophy. But the basic psyche remains unchanged beneath it all – peeping out once in a while to view with curiosity and consternation the changing world. And, therefore, the strains of loneliness – of melancholy – seep through right to the end. I never did live my life as either a poet, or as a writer. Mine was a reasonably successful executive career. But, whenever, time permitted, I wrote. And all those scraps of paper kept accumulating in a plastic bag. On retirement, a couple of years back, I decided to preserve my writings on my computer. During the process of conservation it dawned on me that some of it was actually good! After an year of struggle, I managed to get my first book published. It was a collection of short stories, entitled “The Revolution and Other Stories”. But a vacuum still remained: my unpublished poems. On going through them, I started weeding out the more ‘juvenile’ ones. I am afraid that I have not been entirely successful. One gets attached to one’s memories. Nostalgia is a serious malady. In compiling the collection I have split it into three sections. I will not explain the rationale behind it – some mysteries should remain unrevealed. I hope, nevertheless, that you will relish some of the thoughts expressed – and sympathize with my plight on some of the mushy ones from earlier years. They were a part of the process I have tried to describe above.