The vice called "Love"...

Kiran held the worn, yellow piece of paper in his hand. He could not believe what he saw. He read it again…

Dear Priya,

It pains me to be the bearer of this knowledge. Being your best friend, I feel morally bound to bring this to your notice. I could not get myself to speak these words to you, hence this letter.

Yesterday I saw Kiran in a compromising pose in the cinema hall with a girl I have never seen before. They were gone before I could confront them.

Stay strong. This will also pass…

Yours,
Anu

All the memories came rushing back. This explained the unanswered phone calls and the sudden disappearance of Priya from his life. She had blindly believed her friend.

He was trying to digest the implications of this letter, when his wife, Anu, entered the room with his morning coffee. When she saw the letter in his hand, she froze, all she thought was, “What a fool I am to have retained that letter as a symbol of my triumph?!”

Riot of Colors

Am I a mere palette-
offering these shades,
waiting to be mixed?

Am I an empty canvas-
waiting for the artist,
longing for a splash of color?

Am I the painter-
master of color and canvas,
painting dreams, painting life?

inspired by the painting by B.S. Desai I saw in 'The Hindu'

My Collections

Hurray!!!!!

I finally possess

entire Tintin collection
entire Asterix collection
entire Calvin&Hobbes collection
every Garfield comic strip printed till date (and I will receive each day's Garfield comic by e-mail to update my collection)

...waiting to write them on to CDs

Disaster struck- Heart in the mouth

5 minutes ago I tried to open http://thoughtsafari.blogspot.com
and this is the message I got...

Not FoundThe requested URL was not found on this server. Please visit the Blogger homepage or the Blogger Knowledge Base for further assistance.

Home About Knowledge Help Developers Gear Privacy Copyright © 1999 - 2005 Google

I very nearly cried. All the effort I put into this blog, every post flashed in front of my eyes in slow motion. Then in a frenzy I started reading the Blogger- Help FAQ. To reproduce the error to send it to the support team, I typed the address for one of the archived pages (instead of the main page) and viola my blog opened.

It was like a friend, whose loss I was just beginning to mourn, walked up and screamed "April Fool!!!!", a couple of months late though. Whew! Can you see me grinning ear to ear?

Soliloquy

I look around with big frightened eyes
I cannot cry out for there’s no one to hear me,
I look back, there’s no one behind me.
I put my foot forward and take it back in a hurry,
I take a few steps and turn back in a flurry.
For miles ahead all I see is a maze of paths,
Each with its own bends,
Teasing me with their mystery,
Beckoning to me, as I stand on the threshold.
I don’t know where each one leads.
All I know is- There’s no turning back once I step in.
Reason deserts me, questions crowd my mind…

Will I step away from the familiar road I have trudged all this while?

Will I have to cut a new path through thick, untouched bushes?

Will I fall off this steep cliff I have laboriously climbed?

Or will I climb even higher before I fall?

Will I get hurt on the way? If I do will I have the strength to rise and continue?

Can I take a peek, a preview, before I decide to make the turn?

Will I be confronted by gods or demons?

Will I find a companion, to cry and laugh with, to share my mirth and misery with?

Will there be a guardian angel to guide me through this deceptive journey?

Will I have the courage to tread a new path if I find myself at a dead end?

Will I turn back every now and then, longing for what I left behind?

Will the rain gently refresh me or lash down to punish me?

Will the sun wake me gently everyday or scorch me in its hot wrath?

Will lady luck make me chance on pleasant discoveries that make my journey easier?

Is there a destination? If there is one, will I reach it? If I do, will I like it?

Will I wander astray before I reach?

On reaching when I look into the mirror, will I still see me?

Melting Glory

A small world
stands revealed-
Naked in the yellow glow
of the shrinking candle.

The flame shivers-
kissed by the wind,
Shapeless shadows
dance in glee.

The soft glow
lights up a corner-
of the room,
of the heart.

Streams of wax begin to flow
but freeze into sticks midway-
The candle melting
in its own blazing glory!

The rain dance

She sat on the terrace looking pensively at the velvet blue night sky. She tried to guess how many stars were there. She yearned for his embrace when the cool night breeze touched her. The sound of music floated by from a music class nearby. She thought about the children who were singing, each one singing louder than the other- their innocent attempts to impress the teacher. Life was as simple as that...

The moon was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds. It showed its face for a brief moment and went into hiding again. Even the moon was cheating her, just like life. The train of thought was threatening to take a sadder, cynical note. To shake it off she began to hum in unison with the children’s voices. A calm came over her. She savored the nostalgic tug at her heart when the breeze, the music and the children’s voices melted together. She longed for happy days again.

She lay down on the floor and stretched slowly, conscious of every small movement she made. She closed her eyes and the shapes started looming in her mind. Everything came rushing back.

They were meeting after a week. She was willing time to move faster. She could not wait to see him. Their previous meeting had ended on a bitter note. They had quarreled again and had not spoken since. Today he had called and in his gruff style said, “Let’s meet, usual time, usual place. Bye.” She felt the familiar flutter again. The anger, the bitterness, the loneliness vanished without a trace.

It was at this moment that she realized that her love ran deep; she could never give him up. Her ego left her and fond memories took its place. A single teardrop escaped her eye and landed on her desk. She saw it glistening in the sunlight. It was full of color. Oh! The magic of this voice.

Finally, after seven hours of hearing the clock tick laboriously, she was at the beach waiting for him. He never kept her waiting, but today she had waited half an hour already. She watched the waves rolling towards her and beckoning to her as they receded. A boat tossed about merrily in the distance, carrying fishermen returning from a long day at sea. She felt like running up to the horizon and touching the sky where it met the sea. She was her usual spirited self again. Life could not be better, Yes! He was back.

She was musing about her childish dreams and laughing to herself when someone touched her from behind. She turned to see his grim face. She was puzzled why she had not known it was him. She always sensed when he was close by and intuitively turned around. Today she had not even recognized his touch. Something was amiss.

She searched his eyes for the hidden love, but in vain. He had never once told her he missed her. Today she just wanted to scream out how much she had missed him, how desperately she had waited for him. But she held back when she saw his cold eyes. She let her eyes do the talking; they asked him what was wrong. He could not meet her eyes. He turned away and they stood facing the sea, the rhythmic lashing of the waves filling the silence between them. Still facing the sea, he spoke, “It’s over, I have to move on.” And he walked away swiftly without turning back. She watched numbly till he disappeared into the twilight, he had disappeared from her life. She stood there that night for she knew not how long.

…the music that had filled her senses a short while ago sounded like screeching. The breeze chilled her till she shivered. A whole year had passed, she had not cried once. Her life had been shattered by his parting sentence. He had moved on. She never wondered why. She just let the pain seep through her and drain her off her energy day after day for a year now.

As she lay there lost in melancholy, a heavy raindrop fell on her forehead; she felt a sharp pain. There was a loud crack of thunder and another raindrop fell and another and another... till she was soaked. Then the tears started gushing from her eyes. She got up and began and a slow dance in the rain. Slowly her steps got more and more springy. She felt alive again. The rain had washed him away. She smiled.

The shorter journey

I sat by the window as the trees and plants, cows and goats, endless rows of houses, men and women raced past me.Shadows were everywhere. With every movement I made, the shadows twisted themselves into a new shape - an eagle, a bunny, a flower...

There was a waft of breeze that brought with it many a smell- that of fresh, wet earth, that of firewood burning in the houses nearby, that of eucalyptus as we passed a tree...

I sat across from faceless people, making their respective journeys with their own purposes and goals. We shared a common space for a night. We might have made great friends, had we met elsewhere. But in this night-long journey which forced us into each other's company, we chose to remain perfect strangers. Everyone was making conscious attempts not to meet anyone's eyes, lest it leads to a conversation. Is it some sort of fear, or hesitation to initiate, or sheer laziness, or the unwillingness to add to the plethora of faces we already are forced to remember and associate with? Someone flashed a guarded smile now and then, a smile that never reached the eye.

I sat staring at the two gleaming, smooth lines of iron that ran faithfully with me all the time and let my mind wander idly. Sleep rushed in and I was transported to a world miles away. I woke up to find everyone rushing away to begin another day of their lives, while I still lived in yesterday. This journey, already a thing of the past, just another insignificant leg in the ever so vast journey of life.....

No winning, No losing

It's a race
through a maze,
Every turn is a mystery,
There's no right or wrong,
Simply race along.

One of the racers,
with pace unaltered,
stays unbeaten forever.
Others, giving every ounce of effort,
remain an inch behind-much to their fervor.

Many a time we get lost,
Many a time we fall behind,
For we fix our sight
on the goal, so far,
and run madly, looking neither left nor right.

Soon we learn the secret-
is not to get ahead
but to keep the pace,
is not to reach the end
but to tread the right path.

For there's no overtaking "Time",
In the race called "Life".

Why do they meet?

The leaf begins its silent descent,
Cast away by its beloved parent.
The wind's caress makes it sigh,
As it falls from its abode on high.

The cloud erupts with a clap,
Releasing a raindrop from its womb.
The raindrop in its new found freedom,
Races down to the earthy kingdom.

The leaf swings and sways,
The wind sets its pace,
The leaf sails down, light as a feather,
All elements of nature lilting together.

The raindrop, during its journey,
Kissed by the sun's rays,
Sees all of seven colors,
And many a different shape.

With a soft rustle, a final whisper,
The leaf bids farewell to the wind,
On meeting Earth it comes to a stop,
Just to catch the falling raindrop.