Wednesday, July 25, 2007

hey...princess...




That was the day
When lady luck smiled at me…
That was the day…
I befriended a princess!

With dreamy eyes
That spoke volumes…
And the contagious laughter
Like a gurgling brook!

As the wheel of time…
Span along…I discovered
A fascination in her…
But I was no knight…I wasn’t…

In that stunning angel…
I found a little girl…
One that needed
To be cradled…valued…

Sitting by the pond…
Like a little boy
On this starry night…
I look at the moon…

The moon…as bright…
As the princess herself
and when I looked at the moon
it was her face that I sought!

The moon reflects brightly…
On the surface of water
And I silently wish…
That the moon drops into my arms!

Sunday, July 15, 2007

A for an apple


I bought apples last night. Not many…just six…but they were insanely expensive. That made me wonder. Why on earth are apples so freaking expensive (well I haven’t really had the chance to check out the prices on Mars….Jupiter and the other planets of the solar system so far)?!

And I guess I have an answer…and a surprising one at that! First…if it wasn’t for a damned apple and if Mr. Adam and Miss. (or was it Mrs.?) Eve weren’t so hungry…we wouldn’t have had to live on the earth in the first place! Coming to think of it…Heaven would have been a pretty nice place to live in…what say??
So that, I guess, is reason number one. Now that makes me wonder a little more…since my mind refuses to sit still on a wonderful Saturday evening…why…why do all the fruits in the west have names ending with either ‘apple’ or ‘berry’? PineAPPLE…Custard APPLE…APPLE(I mean only apple)…Green APPLE…etc.
The rest are berries. StrawBERRY…RaspBERRY..etc.
I guess the elite ones are the ones with ‘apple’ attached to them.

Anyway…coming to the second reason. The alphabet starts with an apple! A for Apple…now…who doesn’t remember that? Christ! We would all have been illiterate if it wasn’t for apples!! This is crazy! An apple to determine the foundation of our education? Honestly…trusting something round, with a little stem and seeds, is a little bizarre when it comes to education. Anyway, the wise ones probably thought it was a brilliant idea and so it’s there.

And the third reason is even stranger! Apples have been known to keep doctors away. Remember? An apple a day keeps the doctor away…and needless to say…saves you a lot of money. So a fruit so useful can deserve to be a little pricey…err…expensive. But, I have never figured how a fruit that has a lot of vitamin C and water be enough to keep the doctor away?! Wouldn’t onions and garlic have been a better option? They would keep everyone away! See the logic? Simpler…surer and cheaper!!!

Oh…and fairy tales…the fruit has actively participated in fairy tales. Like Snow White for example was given a poisoned apple by her step mother! That’s cruel! Very cruel. But then the apple had nothing to do with it. The poor chap was cut up before that. That’s SAD.

Then again…imagine what Sir Issac Newton would have done if that apple didn’t fall on his head! Plonk…and viola…gravity was discovered! So many scientific inventions and discoveries would have never happened! Scary to think, isn’t it?

A very special friend of mine...just reminded me of the expression "Apple of one's eye"...and I can't thank her enough for that. Thank you darling. Anyway...continuing with what I was saying, I wonder why it's APPLE again...and not grape or plum or any other fruit because if the pupil is the size of an apple...I really wonder how monstrous the eye would be! Sheesh....! That's scary! But then...most of the adages in this wonderful language called English would sound absolutely absurd if they were to be taken literally.

So that’s that. A fruit with such historical importance can afford to be a little expensive. Though it makes it a little difficult for people to afford it! But that’s the deal. Take it or leave it!

Those are plenty of reasons for an apple to be expensive, isn’t it? So now I can…maybe…put my mind to rest. I hope…at least! Amen.

Till next time...

Adios.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Glancing at the writer's mind...


Little droplets of rain fall on my face and run down…
I just stand and take in the smell of wet earth! As the drops cleanse the earth off its grime…
Rivulets of rain water flowing down the roads and sidewalks as children set off their paper boats on distant voyages. Bobbing in and out of the water, the boats struggle to keep afloat and the little kids run along to see whose boat sinks the last. The joy on their faces is a sight to behold.

Splashing water as puddles form on the road…filling up the shoes with the wet soil. The cars spraying everything as they speed along the road…the showers from the clouds above sway with the winds!

I stand there…paper in hand…pencil ready to strike…but I fumble for words.
Being a writer involves a lot of writing. But then, THAT is writing for someone else. It is like documenting somebody else’s thoughts…viewpoint…dreams. It is not me. I am paid for it and so my mind works overtime to ensure that output is as close to perfection as it can possibly be. But my heart…my heart suffocates. The flow of thoughts is stemmed to suit people’s requirement.

Sinking in this toxic concoction of stress and ambition, I thrash my limbs to stay afloat. Just like the little paper boats in the rivulets. I want to run like those joyful children into the lap of oblivion. But I feel handicapped. Like I am strapped to a wheelchair.

I want to write for myself. To put words on paper, which arise from my mind…independent of any external influence. I just want to continue writing till I run out of ink, paper and my hand goes numb with fatigue. I want to go on writing till my mind runs out of thoughts and falls silent. But that will not happen because the mind never rests till it reaches the grave. So running out of thoughts and things to write about is something that doesn’t really worry me.

Though I agree it maybe absolute pfaff for the people who read it but honestly, I am least bothered. As long as I like what I write…I will continue. But alas, life isn’t all that simple.

Oh! The kids are now sitting on the parapet of the terrace and munching away on roasted groundnuts. Interesting, isn’t it? The most elementary fact in life that eludes our senses is that happiness lies in simplicity. In the rat race to leave everyone behind and surge ahead…we sometimes lose focus of the simpler but greater joys in life. Strange but true.
That is why, I guess children are so happy till they grow up and face this world that can never look beyond a selfish purpose.

Trrring…trrring…

There…there rings my phone…forcing me out of my thoughts with which I had cocooned myself. And I join in the run again. The run to surge ahead in life and be successful…but a run that also ends up in an intangible…unknown feeling of regression! Kinda ironical…isn’t it?