Playing Through The Time…

If only I had the tape recorder that played the tunes of time,

all the merry, the mundane and the sad ones, out loud and alike.

I would have heard to those summers spent playing in the park,

the rain-dance on the roof and the twinkling stars in the dark,

those lullabies she sang me under the sky and the rebukes he shot,

the rows over little things and the smiles they later brought,

the crying over not catching a butterfly and the subsequent fall,

his receding image behind my bicycle but the louder growing call,

the excuses made to funk the school and the lures to get going,

the screaming out from the veranda with a strong wind blowing.

If only I had that tape recorder that played, stopped and re-winded time,

I would have met them and said that things are not like the way they seem,

 there is still a child somewhere deep down that craves for their loving,

his heart still flutters at the sight outside the window of their images diminishing,

he still looks at himself and splashes his feet in the rain puddles on the street,

dances and sings in front of the mirror and makes a boat out of a sheet,

dreams of getting to them, of the seas to swim and the mountains to climb,

only to make his way to the tape, the tape that played through time.

Random Reflection…

He walked down the lane in a crooked but constant manner. His eyes not matching with anyone else’s but just silently following the road ahead. I wondered what he wondered. It wasn’t anything out of the box for him. He must have been going through this since he realised that he was crippled and people, whenever around him, are wearing a mask. Beneath that, they either pity him or don’t even spare him a glance.

I  tried to think of the reasons he had been given for being the way he was. Each day while gazing outside the window of his room, he would have questioned his mother that why couldn’t he play outside with the other children. His prayers would have always had that one wish until the realisation that it would remain unfulfilled. Happiness would have had a different meaning altogether for him. What if he had been thinking that it was his fault somehow because of what he had done in his past life?

These strings of thought reminded me of people who whine about their petty problems. What if they wake up to a day when – the only colour they see is black, they are tongue-tied, they are hearing nothing but their own thoughts echoing in their mind, they are realising that not even their own body responds to their whims ? May be then they would value whatever they have and not regret about whatever they don’t. May be then he wouldn’t be invisible for them. May be then he will finally find all the answers he had been seeking since he became conscious and feel that he is no different.

The Little Girl…!

“Hey! Watch your feet.You would crush the child there!”,shouted the woman to whom the little girl held on. The woman, a traditional one with her face almost veiled, wasn’t looking pissed off due to the crowd as it might have been a daily affair for her but she did turn red when that little girl was uncomfortable in that ocean of faces and feet.
It wasn’t the same with me though. The crowd had really blown my head off. I cursed myself for going to the loo and then contradicted it thinking what else could I have done! That moment still floated in  my mind. I had gone to the lavatory of that second-class compartment of the train, had done my job with a feeling of earthquake hovering over my mind and then stepped out to see that there wasn’t any space left on the floor of that compartment to put my feet on. I had anyhow dodged, pushed and fought my way through to where I had left my luggage and friends. And it was when I was about to reach them that I had heard this woman’s voice. It was then I had seen her.
That cute girl didn’t dress like a princess but she did look like one. Just like the other women around, who had stepped into the train at that station and seemed to belong to Rajasthan, she tried to seat herself on the floor. She did sit but it was my foot that she sat on.
She stood up in a trice but I told her to make herself comfortable, making some space for her. That was the first time I saw her smile.
***
A fair amount of time had passed. She was sitting near the window now. Her hair fluttered and danced over her face with the wind but she didn’t mind that. She was busy admiring what she saw outside the window. The sparkle in her eyes did not fade off with time but grew brighter.
***
I had no count of time for which I had stood there but I did get a seat on the upper berth after a long period. She sat beside me busy in her own thoughts, looking at her own palm which wore mehendi .
“Who made those patterns on your palms?”, I asked her.
She hid her hands bashfully and replied with a smile. Period.
I, then, remembered how bad I am at striking a conversation.
I gave it another shot. “Do you go to school?”
She nodded.

“And in which class do you read?”
“Fourth”, she mumbled softly. She did take me by surprise. She looked younger. My friend asked if I was taking her class. He knew I loved being with children. I had asked him to make a guess for the same question and he, too, had guessed second grade.
“So what are your subjects?”
I felt like a fool to have asked this but nothing came to my mind spontaneously save this.
She kept quiet and looked dubious.
“I mean what are you taught there like English, Hindi etc.”
The response was the same. I then tried going subject by subject and finally got a positive response. We kept talking or rather I kept shooting questions and she gave mild responses. However, it were her smiles that made me  keep searching for the questions. She smiled every time I asked her a question and as the time passed, she began to smile every time I looked at her. We talked of the games she played and those I did, of travelling in the train and getting bored, of television and soaps, of songs and movies and we went on. I told her that I , too, had a sister who was almost of her age. It had slipped out of my mind how horrible the journey had been this far. I did not even care for the distance that still had to be covered.
After there were no new questions striking my head, I plugged in my earphones. She looked at them as if they had come from the other world. I took one out of my right ear and asked her to plug it in her left. She didn’t take it.
“Oh come on! Stop being a mimosa plant.”
She giggled and did as I said, though hesitatingly. She was in a trance as the music played. She started humming the song which I guess she had heard beforehand. Through the old-man who spoke in her accent and asked her questions as well, I came to know that they were going to Allahabad for the holy bath on the eve of Maha-Shivratri. It was why the train was jam-packed.
***
I rubbed my eyes and yawned as the train halted at a station. She, too, was sleeping. Her head fell in turns to the left where the old-man sat and then to the right where I sat. I rested her oscillating head.
After a while she woke up, rather was forced to as she hadn’t taken a bite since she sat on the train. Also, Allahabad was just a few minutes away.
“What’s your name?” , I asked her.
Neither the distance had shrunk nor the time had moved faster but it was she who had made the journey easy. Knowing her name was the least I could have done to remember her.
She did not answer until she was about to leave. She had said something softly that I couldn’t hear.
“Jyoti! Come down. Our station’s here.” her father declared.
She smiled at me as she went away.
I didn’t say a word, neither did I wave. I smiled back at her until she was lost in the crowd on the platform.

It’s raining awards…!!!

Life (especially the one I’m living on this blog) has been going topsy-turvy in the last few weeks and my fingers are finally itching to vent out the course of events that have occurred  Call it luck or not, but I personally find myself pretty lucky to be nominated for a number of awards which surprisingly outnumber the posts that I’ve written in the past one and a half month!! And to add to that, I can’t control laughing like a smug about this uncanny achievement of mine! But there are always better things to do. One is acknowledging the token of appreciation given by Allwin and Trisha who have been rightly awarded and have been generous enough to pass it on to me. Next is bending my back a bit more to really be worthy of their gesture. Allwin, being a candid and prolific writer himself, bestowed me with ‘The Versatile Blogger Award’ and ‘The Very Inspiring Blogger Award’. It’s through him I was introduced to Trisha, a writer writing her heart out, who nominated me for the ‘The Liebster Blog Award’. It’s only after giving them a visit that you’ll understand that they are worth it! I am grateful to them for encouraging the fleeting fancy of writing I have.
I would like to beg pardon from both of them for cutting down on the posts that should be dedicated to this and writing just a single one to fulfil the obligations. Hope they don’t mind.
The Liebster Blog Award comes with the following :

• Liebster means you love some fellow blogger’s work and want to appreciate it by this gesture.
• You have to post 11 things about yourself, after you get the nominations.
• You have to answer 11 questions, asked by the blogger who nominated you.
• You have to nominate 11 other bloggers having less than 200 followers, like you were nominated.
• Notify your nominations candidates by commenting on their blogs.

Post Liebster’s picture on your post as a gesture of acceptance.

The rest two awards come with the following set of rules :

• Display the Award Certificate on your website
• Announce your win with a post and link to whoever presented your award
• Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers
• Drop them a comment to tip them off after you’ve linked them in the post
• Post 7 interesting things about yourself. 

  So here are the award certificates :
  

As both set of rules say, I’ll have to go through the part that’s probably the weakest link. Go through them at your own risk.

My blabber

 

1. I am an engineering student and you’re free to judge that I’m not one of the brightest ones.
2. Lately, I’ve developed this craving of trying out new things and as expected the experience has been a mixed one.
3. I love children and gradually this is becoming  unconditional(No more expectations of me getting loved back).
4. Family and friends, and then come the rest for me.
5. Music takes me to yet another world.
6. I am a movie buff and now it’s taken me on to soaps{by far (English) comedy ones only} as well.
7. Though it’s not something to be proud of but I’m not at all interested in politics of any sort what-so-ever.
8. I prefer keeping quiet to babbling.
9. The last point loses its credibility if I’m comfortable with those around.
10. I am bad at making decisions.
11. I am worse when it comes to abiding by them.Here are the answers to the questions asked by Trisha:

    1)What is your motto for life?

Ummm… I don’t exactly have a predefined motto save living and letting others live. Hope I get one as I move on in life.

 2)One person you’d love to die for?

It’s hard to single out just one. I would love to die for my parents, my younger sister and a select group of friends.

 3) What is your pick- Beaches, mountains or forests?

Beaches without any doubts. I’ve never really been to one whilst I’ve had a glimpse of the rest two.

4)Your definition of your perfect life partner?

One who stands by me, who is genuinely kind and respectful(obviously towards those who deserve it), takes me the way I am and does not refrain from correcting me when I’m astray would be good enough.

 5) Where do you want to spend the last days of your life?

If it goes my way, then I wouldn’t stay at one place but travel around with as many peers and kinsmen and to as many places as possible.

6)If you could write a book, on what would it be?

It would be about relations that we keep making from the moment  we see the daylight for the first time and about life as seen by me. But only if it would have been possible, I would have loved to add to it what happens after we aren’t alive.

7)One person you’d love to go on a long drive with?

Life-partner would be the first preference but my best buddies would be fun in their own way.

8)What is the first thing you would buy if I give you 50 bucks?

Don’t mind but seriously I would keep it in my wallet and won’t spend it until I’m actually in need. But if it’s just for the sake of answering the question, then I would get a chocolate or some snacks out of it.

    9)Who is that one person who actually inspires you?

I don’t have a role model but I’m inspired by the different traits a good person can have, which are rather difficult to be found in just one. In other words, I love different persons for different traits but it’s the traits that inspire me and not the persons.
 10)Imagine- you have chances of dying tomorrow, who is that one person you’d give your facebook/e-mail password to deactivate it??

It would be given to my select friends(I would give it to one and they would pass it on to others, so it would be better on my part to give it to them all) .

11)Which is that one phrase you always use?
Lately I’ve been using this a lot if you take it as a phrase : ‘Different people, different choices.’

List of my questions:

1. If  you get a day to be invisible, what would you do?
2. What soothes you the most?
3. If you’re a movie buff, suggest a few movies that have left an impression on you else give an instance of anything that did so.
4. What annoys you the most?
5. What do you think happens with us after we are dead on the Earth?
6. Do you believe in extra-terrestrial existence of life?
7. What makes you forget all your worries?
8. Where would you like to go at least once before you die?
9. What on the Earth do you find the most intriguing?
10. What would you like to change in this world if you got a chance to?
11. What are the top three wishes on your bucket-list?

Here are my nominations :

1. Zeeshan
2. Diana
3. Emily
4. Carla
5. Varun Sir
6. Oneanna
7. Scott
8. Akash
9 . Anonymous(Valencelectron)
10. Shruthi
11. Surindernath

Nightmare…

I see I’m on a mountain trek,

I see the mountain breach the sky.

Looking for stepping stones,

I keep rising to fall again.

The zenith is worth the treachery,

that being the only driving force.

I strive to realize the dream,

close enough to look at

far enough to feel.

Ignorant of what might prevail,

I’ve the intuition of turning into stone.

The Speech !

There are periods in life when you feel like you have become stagnant. Yeah! Just you!
And the whole world seems to move at an alarming pace, unaware of your presence, people just too busy in their chores to even glance at you, too numb to feel that you are calling for them. Somewhere deep down your heart you keep judging them. Those people swarm around for their own good and sporadically for that of others, and after a few days or at most a week, they head back towards their own life, no matter how grave the incident had been, no matter even if they realise they might be the next victim, no matter how many promises they had made…

These string of thoughts keep coming to you until you have an epiphany that you are being cynical.

Now here comes one more shock. You realise you ,too, are no different. You,too, are on the same path, trodden by so many, thinking if they don’t care, who am I to make the difference. Life moves on and you, too, are supposed to keep up your pace.

TRUE!

But then you put yourself in the shoes of those who have had the bitter experience. You think of their pain, that’s still less in compared to what they actually felt, and shudder even at the thought of being in their place. 
Of-course you shouldn’t stop living and laughing but a slow and steady evolution is indispensable. You can’t just protest those with the power of the world, you have to protest the one who has power over you. Getting the task done is the requirement of the day now and not mumbling words from mouth. You will always be indulged in what you need but that shouldn’t stop you from being an altruist. And that time won’t be far away when you feel that the world you live in has become a different place altogether than what you lived in. Stop playing the blame-game. Be a rebel!

“Rahul!!!”
He rubbed his eyes and hesitatingly opened one to see his mother yelling at him to get ready soon. 
“What were you mumbling in your sleep? Had a nightmare? You can rest if you want to.”

“No Maa!”,exclaimed Rahul,”I can’t miss my class today and I must have been mumbling that speech that I had been preparing for today. It says ‘There’s a better world’.”

His mother nodded unsatisfactorily while she went on with the preparations. He wanted to tell her that nodding won’t do, that there’s more that can be done, that he’ll be not making promises any more. Instead he would just work.
He knew how to tell her all this.
“Mom! Would you hear to me speaking one last time before I do that in the assembly? Please!”

 

   

Running out of words…

Well… people generally run out of words on a number of occasions and to mention a few are when they are overjoyed, aghast or in the abyss of depression. And seriously I’m running out of words by the courtesy of Allwin because ,surprisingly,  he found me eligible for ‘The Gargie Award’ and of course it’s my maiden one. It’s a humble request that if anyone in any part of the world ever comes across this post then do drop by his blog http://allwinbrightwrites.wordpress.com/
and trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
He is a candid blogger and I’m grateful to him for nominating me for the following award :

Abiding by the rules which are mentioned as follows I’ll have to make a few formalities…

Rules:

1.  Display the award badge on your site.

2.  Publish a post to inform the world of your great achievement.

3.  Nominate some fellow bloggers (who have been outstanding in their field
or perhaps who you admire)

4.  Indicate to your nominees that they have received the award… provided
you have completed step three.

There are bloggers who are much more eligible for this award and I’d like to mention a few of them whom I’ve followed since I began my small journey here :
1.Zeeshan
2.Diana
3.Allwin { I don’t know if there is a rule of not nominating some one back but even if there’s one I don’t mind breaking it. }

Thanks once again Allwin for giving me a reason to keep increasing the number of posts on this petty blog.

“I Fought For My Life...And Won” - Sohaila Abdulali #mustread #Vaw #Rape

Reblogged from kracktivist:

I was gang raped three years ago, when I was 17 years old.  My name and my photograph appear with this article.  in  1983, in Manushi.

I grew up in Bombay, and am at present studying in the USA. I am writing a thesis on rape and came home to do research a couple of weeks ago. Ever since that day three years ago, I have been intensely aware of the misconceptions people have about rape, about those who rape and those who survive rape. 

Read more… 1,607 more words

No words to say... a must read post... re-blogged from www.kractivist.wordpress.com

Winter’s here…!!

Nature has its own ways of driving away monotony from our lives. Apparently, the existence of seasons and weathers can’t be better explained. Of course an argument can occur when those living on the poles(… where days,nights and seasons have a different definition altogether…) are confronted but in which paradigm exceptions don’t exist?
Talking of seasons does ring a bell, bringing to mind the lines ‘…If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?…’ from P.B. Shelley’s ‘Ode to The West Wind’ and this again, apart from the goosebumps that the chilling wind coming from the broken window sill is giving to me, brings to my reckoning  that Winter has already come and Spring is damn far away.  No more beating around the bush and talking specifically of Winter, it has its own charms that woos me. No matter how people metaphorically relate it to sadness and solitude, nothing beats that serene sluggishness of staying beneath the blanket even if alone, and nothing comes close to that feeling of sleeping till eternity as if I were a reptile. Sporadically, when the slumber breaks early on occasions of catching up the morning train, it gives a strange tingle to go on the roof and  watch the whole city veiled under the mist and touch the shrubs bathed with dew. The drive-by to the station is marked by tic-tac-toe and drawings on the window sill of the car that needs no brushes or colours but just the fingers. Though I haven’t been to a hill station or never felt a snowfall with my bare hands, but a dream is all you need to vicariously do anything and everything, isn’t it?

Just a few days ago, while hanging out with friends, one of the blokes struck this conversation of how we spent the winters in school with our sweaters hanging on our waists instead of the shoulders until the cold was unbearable, how on the Christmas eve we too did our bit in decorating the classroom with trees bearing bells and caricatures of Santa Claus , and how we used to feign smoking as if we were spoilt  brats.

It wasn’t feeling like the Santa’s season had arrived until it rained cats and dogs the day before yesterday! Just a thunderous shower and the sunny days have turned into the foggy ones. Cold creams and lip-guards are back on the rack and it feels like this time just a single stock won’t do. Hoping to enjoy the numbing chill this winter and wishing a merry Christmas to you all  :)

Questions for Blogathon!

Silly me … wrote everything save the questions. Here they are:

1. What’s better – love marriage or arranged one and why?
2. Do you practice what you preach?
3. Does lack of humour make a human despicable?
4. Have you ever had a dream that came true? If yes, do mention it if it isn’t that personal.
5. Name the movie that seriously moved you.
6. Which novel for you never gets old no matter how many times you go through it?
7. Which moral do you find the best out of those which life has taught you by far?
8. Can you stay away from the wired life(including mobiles,laptops,etc.) you live everyday for, say, a week? 
9. Which is the one place you would like to visit, at least once, before you die?
10. What are the things you would do if you came to know that today was your last day?
11. Would you welcome a world free of religion, caste and creed or you like the way it is and why?

In anticipation of the replies…