An evening of no words

''Even on the most inkiest of days, you will only see what I choose to show.''

One fine evening if you decide not to talk and just sit back and observe, you realise how funny the world is. You realise how simple it looks but how deeply there are secrets stored behind every word they utter. There is a little bit of lie behind every word, a little bit of curiosity behind every silence. How everyone's attention is so diverted in different directions that they themselves seem to lose track of what's going on. Some words pull you down to the abyss, the others showcase criticism. You notice how everyone has a certain domain of speech that they follow but it goes unnoticed by the ears. There is always that uncomfortable pull that takes you to the other side, the side that is less greener, the side that displays how those who are quiet and shy are pretty loud and those that appear so vocal have the most silent voices. How everyone at some point commits the same crime, but either in a sneakier way or just with a smart play of words.

But especially when you sit back and take out the time for others you conceive how difficult it can be to detach yourself from them.

A Rendezvous

It was a silent night.

Everything seemed so lethargic yet an uncertain amount of anticipation existed. Lights flickered gorgeously provoking the nocturnal creatures to croak joyfully. The servants had disappeared into their rooms, some getting ready for the occasion and the others setting up various things to perfect the upcoming evening. Cars were arriving, all eager faces.

 ***

Engrossed in herself, looking at her reflection, that seemed more or less like a petite sylph under the pale moonlight, seeping through the window; adrenalin rushed through her body, her heart beat at a super sonic speed, increasing her pulse rate and causing her cheeks to flush with a red colour, so beautiful for the evening.

Since twilight, every time she glanced at herself in the mirror she could not bear thinking that these would be her last moments of a kind... But it still excited her, didn't it?

Yet the feeling of being lost and confusion did not sink.

It was time, though.

She walked out of her room, all decked up in shimmery, elegant white, conscious of her every step, towards the most life changing decision she had ever made: towards her life, her sole reason for existence, her light of the day, that one charming thing she was making her way towards. Taking each step down on the staircase, house of memories flooded her mind.

There he was.

Looking up at her from beneath the staircase, with that spark in his eyes: that spark which held her back when required, the spark that assured her that this was one decision she would never regret.

This was going to be one enchanted evening. An evening of tying knots, making oaths, gifting sweet flowers and opening a bottle of champagne!

Love is Undefined

It's the love we know, the love we knew, the love that left, the love that stayed, the love that changed, the love that made you change, the love that shared, the love that cared, the love that screamed in and out, the loved that cried dusk to dawn, the love that smiled to make a day, the love that cried to make someone stay, the love that barked, the love that sparked, the love that covered guilt, the love that filled, the tiny holes, deep within, the love that provoked the devil, the love that freaks the angel, the love that's nice, the love that's wise, the love which exists, the love that broke fists.

It's the love of God, of mother, of dog. The love that doesn't know right and wrong.

Gone with the Wind -Margaret Mitchell

One book that drives me crazy. Something about it, that even I can't identify, pulls me towards it. I have a terrible memory and there is no way I remember the details of the book but with every page I turn, my heart softens. It's that one classic novel that touches my heart every single time I read it. The characters seem so real, so imperfect, so full of mistakes, with no happy endings. It isn't about being happy and joyous in your life. It's about living on and on, about being as imperfect as you are but not caring what the world says, about loving the wrong person the right way, about having sore hands and still manage to turn heads, about having an attitude that makes people look up to you, about losing everything but still being able to imagine a prosperous ray of sunshine, all over again.

''TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY''

My favorite line from that book which adorns half my books and write-ups. Spoken by the charming Scarlett O'hara, it is her philosophy. The entire book she will not lose hope. The mountain shall fall and she shall still treat it like a mole hill destruction. She might just lose ounces of money she owns but she knows what she's doing.

But, it's the end that breaks all hearts, brings out the tears, signifies it as epic. She gains the whole world, she marries the most charming ephebe of a time, but the moment that her love for him shoots through her veins, it has already been too late. Rhett Butler is gone.Why? Because even the most deathless love wears out.

Another Sublime Night

The night was hazy. The mist filtered the air. The moon shone itself like the shadow of a gorgeous sylph. One only a few are fortunate and destined enough to witness. A sensational guilt seeped through the air, into the light hearts. Trees swayed along, sloshed in their own way. Down the road a creature, true enough but unable to be perceived from a distance, treading over scathed leaves, crushing them down with every step of hers. Wind gushed past the nymph creating the most angelic melody one would hear.

Eudemonia flushed into each soul, casting a sense of nostalgia, hammering back a few vintage memories making me recall...

But before I could escape into the profoundness someone behind me held me back and breathed, ''Wait..''

For You and I are past our Dancing Days

"Quit yelling at me!"
"Seriously? Now I'm yelling at you?"
"Oh, cut the crap! Get out of here!"
"You wish. This is my house as well, by the way!", and those were his last words that Sam heard as she flee from here house, in search of some isolation.

Her mind was exhausted and tired of quarrelling with him. She was a strong woman. But on the inside she was still a marshmallow, she was well aware.

It had been a good 3 years to their marriage. But now things had started to fall apart and take their own separate ways. 3 years ago, she imagined a blissful life, with two kids, a house in the suburbs with white picket fence around it.
3 years from then, right now, she had none of them, except a falling apart marriage.

Everyday she cursed herself for being so naive and ending up in this madhouse. But she loved him; so much, that only she knew how it was shredding her into tiny pieces.

As her flick landed on her right eye, it blurred her vision..

She picked up her hand to push it aside but it did not move. Her entrails were tearing apart from the inside. Nearly 36 hours since she last fed herself a grain.

She new she loved him and she knew he did too.

Her mother would say when she was young, ''Don't worry, honey. It doesn't matter how terribly things are going. If you think you're right then you probably are. Don't give up when you know it's going to work fine.''
That is the only argument that prevented her from walking out every time. If only she could stop herself from listening to her mother.

She heard the rustling of leaves behind her. Her mouth twinged into a knowing smile. It was him. He was here, like always, to bring her back home.
"Come home. You need to eat, baby'', he whispered. And she found a tear prickle down her cheek, already.

She turned around.

His elfin beauty is what attracted her at the first place, and today was no exception to it.

Old Habits Die Hard

I am a total Bollywood freak. I will admit it. Since childhood, I have been watching Bollywood masala movies and I still do! I just love them. So much drama, dialogues, tears, lame comebacks! I could even watch the melodramatic ones like 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham' over and over again. Sad, right?
But overtime, as I have matured and grown, my perspective towards them has changed. I still love those movies to death and would any day choose Bollywood over Hollywood, but with this growing pea-sized brain, it was just recently that I realised how unrealistic bollywood movies are. Earlier people would tell me the same, but I always snubbed them away. No one says anything to bollywood movies in front of me.
But now, I see beyond the facade. For example, the movie 'London Paris New York' which just released in March. Hello! PEOPLE DO NOT MEET FOR 3 DAYS AND FALL IN LOVE TO GET HAPPILY MARRIED. Not even impossibly possible! And people know it.
But then why do they still watch them? The reason i still watch them, even after the curtain has been drawn, is because watching them takes me to a whole new world. A world where everything is somehow happy in the end, where the good guy ALWAYS wins, evil loses, and where nothing is impossible. And I'm guessing it's the same for everyone.
Not because people hate reality. Certainly not!
But because sometimes, it's nice to escape into someone else's world that is not so practical. And much more easy.

Courtesy: Parth Shukla

Well, here's a story narrated and composed by my brother, who is 10 years old. And I had absolutely no role to play in it.

A SCHOOL TRIP TO A ZOO

One day, a school went to a picnic. While they were having their lunch, they were sitting a little away from the cage of the bear but then suddenly the door of the Bear's cage swung open and the bear came out! Almost all the people in the zoo saw the bear coming as the bear was in the middle of the zoo. But the teachers did not know that the children were eating near the cage. The bear came towards a boy named Suresh. He was very scared and just fled for his life. Then when he used his presence of mind, he remembered a story in which a child acted like he was dead in front of the bear so that he could save his life. So the boy suddenly stopped and then just acted like he slipped. The bear saw him and then the boy fell down and acted like he was dead but it did not work for him. He again started to run and then when he was very tired, he was luckily just in front of the bear's cage. The bear stopped and thought the prey was in front of him so he ran towards him and just at the right moment, when the boy saw the bear running towards him, he jumped to the other side. The bear did not see this and slipped into the cage and then when he fell down the boy used his presence of mind and closed the door! All the people of the zoo admired the boy's work of bravery, the boy was given a gift from the zoo community and a national award for his brave work to save the life of many people.

An Old Man in the City

I walk the old, narrow, ditch-laned streets, on my own, surprised to see that they are still the same compared to the hip highways, which my driver takes me through. I pass by a street-walker, engrossed in my own thoughts, I bang into him. I am surprised to see how cynical people are these days. He shouts back rudely at me. I stare back blankly maybe looking a little grim, not because I am really embarrassed, but it’s just that these things are as old to me as my black hair. I see women running around on the road, most of them rushing up for their offices. I recall how my wife used to always stay in the house, or rather the kitchen. I entered late night, she would be cooking dinner. I left early morning, she would be cooking breakfast. Sometimes I wondered whether she even lived in the kitchen or not. How naïve I was, thinking of such lame jokes on my wife, never appreciating her presence. But now that she is gone, long lost forever, that I realize how much I ill-treated her and if she would be alive, she would have slaughtered me by now, but that is just a humor provoking thought.

I have to cross the road, but there is so much traffic. Roads and cars must have exceeded the human population by inches. I ask, why cannot we reduce it? But who am I to ask. In my youth, I myself was a man of honor and pride, who desired fame, car and bungalow. All influential thoughts. But there is no shortage of soft hearts today. A man in his young days just walked over to help me and escorted me across the road. I am greatly thankful to him. I wonder why all cannot be like this. Although this is seldom appreciated, but it gives you a rest sometimes. But on the contrary if all become good, there will be no space for tolerance, ignorance, and above all---- appreciation for the good. And all of these are important values of one’s life.

My view is getting dim. Is it this old man’s eye-sight or has the sun set? It is all getting blur and things are fading out. I tripped over a hedge, or maybe a piece of wood. And soon before I know, I pass out, not just to sleep but to continue sleeping forever, in the arms of the almighty. On which maybe someday all will have faith in. 

New Age Tantra: FOODAHOLIC??

Are you a foodie?! Well, if not then you better start to be, before someone calls you ‘outdated’. Latest gossips between women are always about the newest restaurants and foreign trips, which makes it so very obvious that food is a ‘hot’ topic to discuss over.

Restaurants today, have the buffet system and people always over load their tummies while hogging on the delicious starters and tasty deserts without even caring about the main course. Main course is like so common! Now that is what always rings a bell in our minds. Hogging over starters is usually nothing until it arrives to the main course and we start thinking about calories. Then the planning starts of the next morning gym hour, but that accomplishment and satisfaction is hardly ever received because we never want to sacrifice our Sunday morning beauty sleep. Such is a common instinctive today. ‘It’s our age now, how does it even matter?’ is what the adults use to defend themselves but that also affects their kids who learn the same habits as their parents. Believe it or not, but this is the bitter truth.

You can never afford to be too rich and too thin at the same time, and accepting it is a challenge.

Being fat does not mean that you lead yourself to risky dieting schedules. Being a little plum and healthy is always required for kids. Statistics state that the children are indirectly forced to curse themselves for being fat by their surrounding behavior. While this is known to a thousand, ignorant world yet does not change.

Where we consume so much food, a million starve and crave for it. Why is it always so that we tend to realize things late? But it’s never too late. If we want we can still help the world and help ourselves too. Every change requires a beginning and that beginning requires a change in thought. Apart from not wasting food we should also try to have good eating habits. For example, having a healthy diet is essential than your glass of cad-B.

Media today surely knows its audience. How better can they make our decisions than ourselves and that makes everything else very obvious. Well, I don’t say that media has a negative role in our lives, but we sometimes tend to let it play such a hideous character without being aware of it. Beverages like ‘diet cola’ and substitutes such as ‘sugar free’ use media to make- believe us that it is the most non-hazardous product, even though at the back of our minds somewhere we know that it is not.

Physical activities play a vital role in a student’s life. It not only keeps them physically fit but also mentally. A student’s life can be very hectic but a little time outside the house always helps. Health and physical knowledge is way too important than regular gossips. It makes a child more aware of himself than he would get by reading a bunch of pages loaded with information. Physical activity refreshes a child’s brain and also helps him in classroom studies.

Lack of concentration is a major diversion in students today. They are usually physically present but mentally their mind is somewhere else. This can be due to many reasons, but all indirectly lead to the same ‘food’ issue. So we must all keep in mind that even little things matter a lot, especially in the case of health.

Everything in life is important, may it be the food we eat, and it certainly should not be ignored. As we always say ‘NOBODY’S PERFECT’, but who knows taking care of small things might make us someday!