Advent of January When the Empress winter is in her full form, When with her invisible magic wand She wraps the hills and the northern plains with a bone chilling wave, With a cold ringed circle of deadly fog. When even a cock won't sing its customary alarm song Or a bird would chirp before it's long past dawn. Two blank eyes were glued one evening on a small cardboard. His glare was fixed on a small pole outside a grocery stall. Lost to the world Both his poor, bare hands were busy with a Mehendi keep filling the colours devotionally in the visage of the Goddess Durga, an epitome of power and strength. Majestic were his strokes while giving shape to the Deity's eyes. But then why that Mehendi artist was all drained out? Why and what was tormenting his dampened soul? The weekly vegetable market around him had hauled the reluctant inhabitants out of their snugged abodes. While all were busy stuffing green, leafy, fresh veggies in their vivid,lively bags and sacks. Why he had...