Balachandran V starts with a word that sounds dramatic and dangerous, then lets a very ordinary moment deflate it. At first, "borderline" is full of excitement: the borders between countries, with the ceremony at Vagha as an image, and then the more unsettling line between sanity and insanity. The speaker also sees it in human relationships, where friendship can slide into intimacy and restrained feelings can turn into "riotous expressions of love." Standing on such a line means holding your life in your hands and choosing whether to cross.
The tone is thoughtful and a little thrilled, even philosophical, until the final lines. Then a pretty girl tells the speaker, on an empty stomach in the morning, that his blood sugar is "on the borderline." The shift is funny and self-mocking. Big ideas about risk and choice shrink to a medical test, and the speaker seems to laugh at himself. The mood ends light, with a hint of real worry underneath.