Do you remember-
How or when or why,
Our eyes first met or we spoke?
Was it amidst the first acceptance of death
in the Anatomy class or was it while we
watched the vibrant cells of life
under the microscope?

Do you remember
the first time we sat across
the table at a restaurant?
It was not a candlelit dinner;
But the most affordable food in a small shop in Calcutta.
I don’t remember what I ate that day, or what I wore;
But I will not forget how your hand trembled a little-
as it touched mine.

Do you remember the first movie
We saw together? I don’t.
I was too preoccupied looking at your profile.
I wondered then as I sometimes do now,
How or when or why?

Tomorrow is our eleventh Valentine’s day-
Together.
If I ask you, what we gave each other
On every Valentine’s day for the last ten years,
Will you be able to remember?
But I will not ask-
For it does not matter- how or when or why;
But that you are an answer to my prayers
And our love will grow stronger
with every passing year.