The King

He descended down the staircase, the crown steady on his head. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked at the vast expanse of land in front of him. “It’s all mine.” Determined, he moved forward, slowly, inspecting everything carefully. His eyes sparkled as his firm feet moved over his territory, his cloak touching the ground as he walked. Timothy, his lifelong companion and friend, followed him closely, alert, looking out for any kind of danger. He wagged his tail as his master stopped to pat his head and gave him one of those little treats he would keep giving him from time to time.

“We need to keep moving Timothy. We have to accomplish the task today in order to save our kingdom. Our family is in danger. Now, are you with me?” He smiled as he saw his faithful dog letting out a yelp. They still had to walk miles before they’d reach their destination and the terrain was becoming difficult to tread. The sun was beating down hard but he knew he couldn’t afford to stop. His people counted on him. His empire was in trouble and his soldiers were incapacitated and everything lay on his shoulders.

He thought of the time when everything was good. When he was the king, when there was joy and prosperity and abundance. When the sun used to shine and flowers used to bloom and the birds sang. When he had the freedom to do what he wanted. He was the leader, and he ruled the people’s hearts and souls. But things had changed. He saw this as a test, a challenge rather than a time of despair; he had to prove his mettle and was not ready to give up.

Finally, weary and thirsty, he reached the spot. And there he saw them. Gleaming in the sunlight. Huge, yellow machines, taller than most buildings. He ran towards them, as he saw some other rivals approaching them fast. He sprinted faster than his legs could carry him, and lunged into the piles. He scrambled, with Timothy by his side; he looked all over, dug deeper and deeper. Nothing. He had to find something.

Something, anything. Absolutely anything. He looked around desperately; in a frantic struggle to find the things he was looking for before the others did. Finally, he saw something. He lurched towards it. Yes! It was a piece of bread, hard and crusty at the sides, but eatable. He hurriedly kept it in an old plastic box he found somewhere nearby and moved ahead. One by one, he filled his bag with valuable commodities his family was in dire need of. An old apple, plastic bottles, a half-eaten samosa, a handful of potato wafers in plastic bags, a rotten banana, corn, a pair of different old slippers...

 He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his little hands and removed the tin foil he was wearing over his head. He removed the old rag around his neck as it began to itch. He looked at the other kids as they fought over a packet of sealed biscuits somebody had found in the huge dump yard. Timothy looked at him with sadly hopeful eyes, and then began to scratch the fleas off his skeletal body. “Later, boy. I promise you won’t sleep hungry tonight.” He reached the first aid camp, and went to his ailing mother in one of the tents. Flies hovered over her red, infected stump. She had lost her leg due to the earthquake and though it had been days since it happened, she was still screaming. More with terror and grief than with pain.

They had their baby brother and their house since the natural calamity struck. He could not find his best friends and there was destruction all around. Broken houses, broken roads, broken limbs and broken hearts. Not to mention the diseases and the fierce scarcity of food and medical aid. For the first time in his life he knew what starvation meant. His entire body would convulse with pain as the hunger pangs and exhaustion would take over.  But even that took a backseat when he saw his mother. And the other people all around him who were dying at an alarming rate. He was becoming numb to it now.

He went up to her side and said “Mom, I have food for us tonight.” He took his baby brother in his arms and watched him as he devoured the bread in one second. He just looked as his bag was snatched away from him and the contents were wolfed down instantly. “One day it will be over. All of this, all of this will be over. And things will be normal again.” False hope or unbelievable optimism? He looked out into the space with a distant expression on his face. He was going to be the king again. Some day. And as sick people cried around him, a smile spread across his face. He was far away. 

Yes Yes Yes!

I've never been a big fan of Astrology and zodiac signs. I fail to understand how people are categorized into groups with similar characteristics. I mean, how is it possible that all the people born during a certain time of the year have similar qualities? Sounds a little absurd, if you ask me. But some of my friends are firm believers and they even tried to explain it to me by telling me it’s got something to do with the positioning of planets yada yada yada. (They even judge other people based on their sun sign.)

So when I read the basic features of a Scorpion (which is me), I did relate to many of the things. So somehow, a teensy weensy part of my brain thought maybe, just maybe all this is true to some extent. I completely agree with basic three things the website said about Scorpions. They’re: passionate, obsessive and emotional.

Currently I’m obsessed with this song called ‘And You and I’ by this band called Yes. And like so many other times, with so many other songs in the past, I've been listening to it over and over again, endlessly. The more I listen to it, the more I want to listen to it. It’s a continuous loop I tell you! It’s a beautiful, harmonic, soulful, deep track and it makes me sprout two wings on my back, fly up to a tall cliff and stands amidst the clouds, fall free from there, and then fly up just before reaching the ground [swooooosh!] higher and higher into the sky. Uh, pretty graphic, I know. It is unbelievable! The guitar, the bass, the high pitched yet poignant voice of Jon Anderson, the harmonies, the melody! OMG, I LOVE IT!

It makes me feel why the era of such amazing, rock music with their soul stirring lyrics and breath taking stage performances; turned to a generation of nasal black people hopping about and preteens (who sound like girls) romancing older girls on the screen. And it makes me wonder how people can prefer to ignore bands like Pink Floyd, Simon and Garkunkel and Radiohead who come up with songs that talk about, love, life, peace, nature, war and the deep convoluted emotions of people like you and me; and listen to songs that talk about human bodies and the act of fornication in the most vulgar way. I want to go live in the 1970s and attend a Yes concert and jump and scream like crazy, and tear my hair and clothes apart and probably burn the entire place down with the excitement and exhilaration of merely being there and witnessing such awesomeness! The song is par excellence! Par brilliance! Par beauty! Par par, dil ke aar paar! (Okay, I know I need to be kicked hard for saying that last bit, but what the hell!)

Check out the lyrics:

Part One: The Cord of Life

A man conceived a moment’s answers to the dream,
Staying the flowers daily, sensing all the themes.
As a foundation left to create the spiral aim,
A movement regained and regarded both the same,
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you.

Changed only for a sight of sound, the space agreed.
Between the picture of time behind the face of need,
Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid,
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid,
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you.

Turn round tailor, coins and
Assaulting all the mornings of the crosses
Interest shown, never know
Presenting one another to the cord, their fruitless worth;
All left dying, rediscovered cords are broken,
Of the door that turned round, locked inside
To close the cover, the mother earth.
All the interest shown, they won’t
To turn one another, to the sign hide, hold, they won’t
At the time tell you, watching the world,
To float your climb. watching all of the world,
Watching us go by.

And you and I climb over the sea to the valley,
And you and I reached out for reasons to call.

Part Two: Eclipse

Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid,
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid,
As a movement regained and regarded both the same,
All complete in the side of seeds of life with you.

Part Three: The Preacher and the Teacher

Sad preacher nailed upon the coloured door of time;
Insane teacher be there reminded of the rhyme.
There’ll be no mutant enemy we shall certify;
Political ends, as sad remains, will die.
Reach out as forward tastes begin to enter you.

I listened hard but could not see
Life tempo change out and inside me.
The preacher trained in all to lose his name;
The teacher travels, asking to be shown the same.
In the end, we’ll agree, we’ll accept, we’ll immortalise
That the truth of the man maturing in his eyes,
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you.

Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid,
As a moment regained and regarded both the same,
Emotion revealed as the ocean maid,
A clearer future, morning, evening, nights with you.

Part Four: The Apocalypse

And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning.
And you and I reach over the sun for the river.
And you and I climb, clearer, towards the movement

And you and I called over valleys of endless seas.

As you can see, the song is divided into four parts. I tried hard to interpret the meaning of the song, but essentially, what I could come up with is that this is a song about love. Undying, endless, immortal love. Sniff ;) Also, almost all the other Yes songs have this... feel about them. You'll know what I'm talking about once you listen to them.

Anyhoo, this song holds a special place in my heart for various reasons, and it’s one of the most enchanting songs I’ve heard. Youtube it right now and experience the magic!

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

I seriously hate it when people ask, “It’s just a movie! Get over it!” Or when they say, “Do something productive instead of watching movies!” Have you even tried to even wonder what pains these writers and directors go through before they present award winning movies in front of you people? It’s easy to say “Oh, that movie was shit, and it didn’t deserve the Oscar”! What do you even know?!

Think about all the research, painstakingly deciding on the cast, the screenplay, the script writing, the music selection, the costumes, the tiniest little details that these guys pay attention to. I seriously respect all of it, down to a movie’s smallest aspect and feature. It is heart wrenching and emotionally satisfying when you get engrossed in the characters of different people, their stories, their lives, their emotions. All in one and a half hours. They teach you, educate you, touch the strings of your heart and move you in the deepest ways possible. Such a movie is this one.

Every time after I finish watching a good movie, I ponder over it, form these opinions; decide to write about it but always end up not doing that at all. But I just had to write about this one. This movie, (given to me by one of my favourite people in the world) shook me to my core and opened my eyes, wide. ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, directed by Mark Herman, is more than just a movie. It’s the face of innocence, timidly peeping out behind a wall of hatred and inhumanity.

It’s the story of two little kids; but then it’s not. It’s the story of companionship and childhood; but then it’s not. It’s a tale (based on the book by John Boyne) of an eight year old boy Bruno; the son of a Nazi officer who is shattered when they move from his hometown to an alien place. Lonely and bored, he wanders off in search of adventure and comes across a little boy sitting in blue and white striped pyjamas behind an electric fence. And then what ensues is the strangest friendship that ever existed between two kids. They talk, they share, they laugh, they play; all the time with the fence acting as a permanent barrier between them, oblivious to all the horrors and monstrosity that surround them. Bruno doesn’t know that his new best friend Schmuel, is the inmate of a German concentration camp.

When Bruno goes inside the camp himself to help find Schmuel’s father because he was ‘lost’, does he see what it is actually like inside. Starvation, diseases, dehumanization, death, hopelessness, torture, pain, and of course, the gas chambers. When I studied World War II in school and read about the Germans and Hitler and the concentration camps, I merely mugged up the number of deaths like it was just that. A number. It’s when you see something like this that you realize how disgustingly brutal and sickening it really used to be. People, naked, unaware and helpless; burnt and killed and roasted in a chamber like animals. Worse than animals. Makes you shudder, and makes you feel ashamed to be a part of the human race for it is capable of such carnage.

And yet the movie is essentially about the warmth and purity of the time when you are kids. So naïve. So guiltless. Despite of all the blatant display of the hideousness, it is beautiful. Bruno was like a flower that tries its best to stay on the surface of the water, before being drowned by all the filth and muck around it. The ending ripped me apart and left me red-nosed and sniffing. It is the most depressing, eye-watering and lip-quivering ending I’ve ever seen. In fact, I was so touched I read the book as well. And they have done full justice to it. Do yourself a favour and watch this movie. Please. It is going to be some experience. Watch it and tell me it didn’t make your heart stop for a second in the end, I dare you.

P.S. And if it doesn’t, what’s wrong with you?! Made of stone, are we?!!

Happy Tree

I love the typical homely smell that welcomes me when I come home after a stay out of town. I love using my old mint facewash that leaves a cool sensation on my face after I use it. I love it when mom lays out clothes on my bed and they smell of fresh fragranced detergent. I love to see the potted plants happy and green blossoming with pink and purple flowers in my verandah upstairs. I love giving warm cuddly hugs to mom and dad. I love to see my grandparents smiling and firing a thousand questions at me (at the same time). I love how huge my PC screen looks suddenly. I love my Activa, which I can use whenever I want to and ride it wherever I want to. I even love that ridiculous ‘hip hop’ poster in my bro’s room. I love that one, pestering, relentless mouse that seems to have a strange relationship with my house and has vowed to keep returning again and again no matter how many times he’s thrown out. I love the smell of soft, homemade rotis, inflated, and right off the pan. I love being jumped on and licked endlessly by Shirley (and also, almost getting my saliva-laden clothes torn off and arms scratched and bruised in the process)

I love my room, my terrace, my colony, the gulmohar trees and even the after-rain-broken-at-places-roads. I’m happy. Even though it’s painful to think of the coming few months. College. Assignments. Tests. Exams. THIRD year of Graduation. It wasn’t easy to bid goodbye to Baroda. That place has been so wonderful to me. I think it will continue to be one of my most favourite places for a long, long time. No, scratch that. It will be one of my most favourite places forever. Such fun, such freedom, such amazing moments, such pure, unadulterated, sheer joy bubbling and bursting at the seams. I want to capture them all, freeze them in time, and replay them over and over and over again. I still can’t stop recollecting all those crazy wonderful things I did there. I call it climbing my happy tree!

Life has held my hand in the most tender way possible, and its leading me on. And I’m too glad to follow. I know I’m back home and I won’t be allowed to do whatever I want to do, but I’m happy. I’m back to the place where the electricity will keep spacing in and out, but I’m happy. I know the dreamy, amazing fairytale phase is over, and I’m back to my hot, dusty, little town; but sitting here with Shirley’s warm fur resting on my knees, looking at the light drizzle outside and feeling the familiar white cold floor below me, I truly am, in just one simple, plain, but tremendously significant word: Happy! :D

P.S. On a completely different note, do you like anime? I think it's beautiful! :)

The little things

It’s about cherishing the little things in life. It’s about early mornings. It’s about having a meaningful, heart to heart conversation with a friend and witnessing the silent night break into a glorious day. Have you witnessed the early mornings? Of course you have, but have you really soaked it in? Like, felt it? Realized how gorgeous it really is? Experiencing early mornings are a rare phenomenon for night people like me, but sometimes when I stay awake at night, I deliberately wait for the morning. It’s 6 AM and I didn’t sleep at all. I stayed awake and talked all night to a friend sitting on the terrace. And thank god for that, I’m experiencing this heavenly morning.

I just love how just before the first rays touch the tallest building, the birds begin to chirp. And how the breeze is chilly and how the temperature is just perfect. And how the morning air contains the clean, pure morning-y smell. And how you can see the moon in the sky even though it’s turning bright. Look over your railing. No noise, no human figures, no commotion, no sound of the vehicles or the traffic, or the TV playing or machines in motion. Everything is so peaceful and calm and content.

Going for a cup of tea with my friend on the scooty made me realize how beautiful the roads look. Bereft of all the traffic and the people and the sun and heat and dust, they just look alive. It’s funny how when everybody is sleeping, the world seems to come to life. You notice things that you don’t notice in the daytime. You notice the trees, the sky, and the roads. You enjoy the cool breeze blowing your hair into the wind. You can spread your arms and grin looking up at the sky because there is no one looking at you. You can thank life for giving you that moment. You can feel fortunate to be alive.

It’s quite bright now, and I can hear peacocks squawking in the distance. It feels like the world had slept over its problems and now it’s awakening with new hope. At moments like these, I feel I can deal with the problems in my life. Like the world is too beautiful to fret over them. Like you’re happy you are where you are and what you are.

Sigh, it’s one of the most beautiful moments of my life  :’)

Handmade Hope: A Waking Dream

How many times have you seen kids at traffic signals wiping your windshields, at railway stations selling insignificant things, at little chai shops wiping the tables, outside restaurants and shops looking beyond those glass doors with a lustful yet hopeless expression in their eyes? How many times have you wished you didn’t have to witness that? That even they had the means to earn and have lives worth living? And how many times have we actually taken time off our busy lives and made any effort whatsoever to help them?

Exactly. That is why, when you come across a bunch of people who actually, selflessly, continually work for the upliftment of the economically underprivileged by employment generation, you cannot help but get awed and inspired. Handmade Hope is a platform provided to destitute children, youth, women from slums and HIV positives, who create self-initiated products and sell them to the public in order to earn themselves a respectable living. How this works is very simple: an artist creates a product; trains the others and teaches them how to make it. The others all work together as a team in order to make more of the products and thus, “every artisan associated with the product puts in a part of himself in creating it.” The volunteers think of designs and ideas and they are brought to life and form with the efforts of the people working on them.

(Handmade Hope products)

When I visited Handmade Hope, Vadodara, I was greeted with a warm smile and twinkling eyes by Mukesh, a twenty year old chap who earns his living by making products and selling them. He is the sole income generator and supports a family of six. He displayed all his products in front of me eagerly with the dimpled smile intact on his face. This whole idea was conceived in the mind of an enthusiastic, warm, zealous individual who also happens to be the Vice President of an NGO called YUVA Unstoppable: Rushabh Gandhi. He supplies all the raw materials to Mukesh, who in turn converts them into amazing, artistic products. They make all sorts of things including paper bags, notebooks, wall frames, bookmarks, greeting cards, envelopes, cloth bags and more. Not only are they unique and attractive, but they are made of recycled or waste material. You can read the story of how it all started here. Rushabh does not only manage Handmade Hope in Vadodara, but also plays a pivotal role in handling the YUVA operations.

(Mukesh)

YUVA is run by 60,000 young people over thirty cities in India. They are against child labour and environmental pollution. Their motto is “Young people are not useless, but used less.”  What a great way to provide opportunities to children so that they can use their talents in doing things worth doing. What a great way to foster a spirit of unity, kindness and compassion in the hearts and minds of the youth of our country. It seriously makes you stop in your hectic lifestyles and think. What are you doing for your country, or your city, or your society? But what is more important is not what you’re doing, but what you can do for them. Gives us all something to think about, doesn’t it?  It’s time to rekindle the flame of hope in the lives of the ones who are less fortunate than us. It’s time to make a wish, take a chance and make a change. It’s time to reach out. It’s time. 

Dissolution of the last link

And I sit back in silence, as the last thread breaks.

The world that was once my own, I no longer exist in it.

Teleported onto another planet, the memoirs will never cease to leave me.

A gaping hole in my chest, waiting in desperation to heal itself,

I have lost a part of me, once and forever.

And yet I smile because I know it’s finally, finally over.

Hush, it's okay now.

Drifting

That's right, laugh it over,

I sit here, and you’re miles away.

And I’m drifting.

Drifting away to a world unseen,

A place meant only for me.

A place unborn, a place untouched, even by me.

That’s right, talk it over,

You might wanna know, you might wanna see.

You’re right here talking to me,

And I’m drifting.

Drifting to a place that lies,

Beyond what you can ever reach.

A place that can only be felt, by me.

The Voyage

The sailor stood on the deck, frowning; looking over the sea,

He had faced quite a few storms; yet further more he wanted to see.

The air had begun to feel different; the water darker than before,

The wind in his hair, deep in thought; wondering when he’d reach the shore.



He wanted to stop and rest awhile; the motion made him sick,

But all he saw was dark blue water; and his clock maintained its tick.

He looked through his binoculars, thirsting for some land,

It'd been eons since he saw the earth; the roads or the sand.



At last he finally saw an island, flecked in the middle of the sea,

Small and quaint it somewhat seemed; yet it filled his heart with glee.

Surprised and glad he approached the shore; curious to know what lay ahead,

Reluctant at first, then nervous but excited; then all his fears he shed.



He laid his first step on the land; and felt the firm ground below,

Smiling he looked all around, the panorama was pleasant and mellow.

The trees swayed and the birds sang; and the air was fresh and pure,

His heart swelled up with joy as he saw beautiful flowers galore.



He thought of returning, but he did not have the heart,

He already had a bond with the island; he did not wish to go apart.

Further ahead he moved, and he saw angels moving about,

Rubbing his eyes; stupefied and awed, his mind filled with doubt.



The rainbows were shimmering, stars dotted the sky,

The water was sparkling, the moon bigger than ever up high.

He lay on the glittering sand, soaking up the beauty around.

He was amazed at the magic; he couldn’t make a sound.



The island seemed his own; it welcomed him with open arms,

He felt at home and at ease; he had fallen for its charms.

He felt so blissful; he thought he would weep,

And the angels surrounded him and lulled him to sleep.



The morning was fresh and calm; and he knew it deep inside,

It might have been destiny or sheer luck but no more could he hide.

He did not pay heed to his fears or qualms; he knew what he had to do,

“This is where I’m meant to be”, he spoke his heart out true.



Forever is a long time, but to him it seemed too short,

His journey wasn’t over, but he had no plans of reaching the port.

Strong and determined, the sailor faced the island, smiling; full of joy.

Then he breathed in deeply; looked up, lifted his arms and began to fly.

High on life!

(And the sultry day transformed into a beautiful, breezy one. Ahh, Paradise!)

Today is a good, good day. I’m perched on a couch in my sister’s flat in Baroda, which is my current abode for the whole month of June. Why? I came here for my Summer Internship; reached on the 22^nd of May and I’m here till the 30^th of June. The time spent here so far has been better than what I could have imagined. I get to stay comfortably, eat enviable stuff everyday and spend time with my MOST favourite people in the entire world! I have been up to such madness that I just don’t know where to start from! Some bizarre activities include:

1. Running around and dancing like a demented baboon on the terrace in the rain

2. Singing old, prehistoric hindi songs (including “saat samundar paar” and “jaati hoon main”) with my sis on top of our lungs

3. Making whacky, idiotic faces at public places and clicking pictures

4. Screaming “Penis!” in the middle of a busy road (Seen ‘500 Days of Summer’?)

5. Going for scooty rides at 1 AM at night at an insane speed and screaming at a guy wearing a gaudy shiny shirt “bhaiya, shirt toh badi achchi hai!”

6. Lying around like a wounded seal all day hogging on cheesy pizzas and juice

7. Having Bavarian chocolate ice cream in malls and making orgasmic faces and sounds

8. Travelling in a train, ticketless (while being kind of hung over)

9. Gracefully (or so I thought) dancing in front of the Palace of King Sayaji Rao

10. Cracking 'that's-what-she-said's at the oddest of situations

11. Sitting on the Columbus and feeling our tooshies go up in the air and screaming our throats sore

And trust me; these are just some of the things I’ve mentioned, from the top of my head. Some things, nay, MOST of the things I can’t even mention here! :P The people I’m hanging around with; it’s just impossible to be normal with them all the time.

Okay, on the serious side of life, I’m training under a delightfully enthusiastic, fun-loving and an intelligent female, Sowmya. She and her friends started up their own business here. It’s called Discount District. Personally, I feel it’s a brilliant idea and hats off at their efforts and achievements so far! I've started working and I love it! I really hope I’m able to give my best contribution and live up to her expectations. I will elaborate on this later.

Also, I’ve decided on another thing, I will blog not when I have a 'topic' in my mind, or when I think it’s an appropriate time. I will blog when I feel like writing. I will simply start writing, just like that. I will not abstain myself from writing something I really want to write about, just because I feel my post wouldn't be entertaining enough. It can be filled with my gibberish, my nonsense and my inane thoughts. Because it's MY blog. Which is exactly what I did for this post =) I did not think about what I’ll write, I just started tap-tapping on my beloved little netbook which I oh-so-totally adore!

And know what, I’m feeling gooooood! A contributing factor could be that I’m listening to The Beatles. And you know how different types of music have different moods?

“Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play,

 Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day.

 The sun is up, the sky is blue, it’s beautiful and so are you,

 Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?
 Dear Prudence open up your eyes
 Dear Prudence see the sunny skies
 The wind is low the birds will sing
 That you are part of everything
 Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?”

Beautiful song!

But no, music is not the sole reason; I'm in love. Not just knee-deep in it, but completely immersed, like from head to toe. *Blush* This month is going to be legendary, especially the last weekend! ;) I’m feeling very optimistic and positive about life. There is a cool breeze blowing in through the window and I can feel that even nature agrees with me. I'm smiling for no particular reason; life is back on track and everything is just falling in place. Touchwood! These are some of the best days of my life and I’m going to make the most of them.
 Life, bring it on!! :D

P.S. I love my sister.