Kumar Kaushik Ranjan
Dr. Kumar Kaushik Ranjan is an educator of mechanical engineering (B.Tech, Dr. B.C. Roy Engineering College; M.Tech, PhD, IIT-BHU) and a poet whose work lives at the intersection of logic and lyricism. He works as Senior Assistant Professor at Tolani Maritime Institute, Pune. His poetry grapples with time, love, technology, and existential absurdity, blending philosophical depth with sharp social satire. When not teaching or writing, he dissects the mechanics of longing and the algorithms of grief.
Facebook: Kumar Kaushik Ranjan
Instagram: @kumarkaushikranjan
Masks
In the yellow neon light,
fog engulfed the train station,
wearing a phantom’s mask—
its shadow stretching, creeping.
I entered through the gate—
two figures stood like fangs
in the python’s gaping jaw,
and I, the prey, passed between them.
I sat on the stone bench.
Cold seeped into my bones.
The fog swallowed—
yet the neon’s stubborn glow
peeked out like a child’s red cheek
beneath a winter-muffled scarf.
On the station, a madman wandered,
naked—challenging the cold,
the cold of conventions.
He muttered to himself,
laughed at shivering crowds,
scoured the tracks for treasure
only he could name.
A rag in his hands,
picking, discarding
with gay abandon—
then slipped into fog,
a man unmasked.
And there we stood
in our stitched-up skins,
staring through the tattered veil
of what we owed each other.