Hey Kala Bandar

It is a typical Saturday morning. I am sitting in my bed-room savoring hot coffee and Times of India. The neighborhood computer plays the album “Dilli 6″ in the background. The smell of fresh uttapam wafts in the air around. And as I cuddle in my beloved blue blanket wondering while whistling – What more could one ask for ?

And suddenly, I hear the ruckus.

Cook – Bhaiyya, Bhaiyya !!
I – What happened? (Leisurely getting out of the blanket)

And as I lift my half-opened unspectacled eyes, there it is – just at the door of my bedroom. My heartbeat is rising. I can feel the thump against my chest. The seconds start passing ever so slowly. I can see a look of confidence in its eyes. And I imagine the panic in mine. The growl turns into a smile at my helplessness. I am cornered, befuddled and terribly afraid. The time flows like water through a block of wood. Ever so slowly – as if the hero and heroine are running from infinity till eternity in a movie. It senses the creep setting in .. and inches closer towards the door. And all of a sudden, my class VIII teacher’s lines echo in my by-now-completely numb mind. As she pointed to the picture of a monkey – supposed to be an ancestor to our species – she said.

“The brain is what differentiates us .. that is how we evolved, our brains grew.”
“But, Rohit has been left behind.”

And the whole class laughed as I awoke to my name.

Anyhow, after I established superiority in my mind, in a flash, I picked a slipper and threw at it. But, it was hellbent on proving me wrong. It ducked and growled. I picked another slipper and this time, aimed at the door. The door inched slightly on its hinges and hid me from his view. I self surprisingly summer-saulted across the bed and closed the door. Now, I shrieked from the balcony to the security guy. Apparently he knew and I didn’t know that he knew. He just turned corner as I shrieked without even a look of reassurement. I shouted again

I – Bhaiyya, bhaiyya ! Main Gate khol do ..

And our cook bhaiyya opened the gate. By the time, it had traversed two of the four rooms and left its mark in one of them. The computer is playing “Hey kala bandar” as I wipe our weekend’s first visitor’s “marks”. The lines of the song echo against the walls of the room, the meaning echoes against the walls of my heart.

*True story of my life as it was half an hour ago.

A Log, not a Blog.

Here it goes.

7:56 PM
I am getting too used to the creature comforts .. beware !

8:15 PM
Subtle when sober, awesome when not ! I need to get ..

8:17 PM
I tried to merge truth with beauty, and probably that is why I failed.

Whoever shall try to find patterns of beauty in life shall miss the beauty of life, To find calm in chaos is what life should be .. and yet its the chaos that I have managed to get embroiled with, further adding to it.

Forgot that even a perfect imperfection is an imperfection.

The rat race has consumed the rat. – Smiled the cat.

I was late to realize that truth can never be beautiful .. Yet the pursuit goes on, it will either be a dead end or a dead man.

8:59 PM
Self imposed fake mediocrity tends to well-deserved arrogance ? Is it a virtue to stay low or is it just not possible ? I don’t realize what I mean by all this. Maybe it’s just an excuse for underachievement. Yet in any case, it’s a good excuse.

This Day That Year

A drop of sweat trickled down his cheek. His heart was beating against his chest just short of bursting out.
“What were you doing?”
“Nothing Ma’am. I was listen..”
She cut him short with a snap of her hand.
“Show me your copy.”
“It’s nothing ma’am. Nothing.”
“Then, why don’t you show it to me.”
She snatched it out of his hand. The drop on his cheek felt heavy, slowly itching its way down. He swallowed deep. What would have been a dream, his masterpiece .. would be a nightmare now. He could almost feel the thudd of her hand against his cheek. Under the heavy glass, his eyes were moist, an inch from crying. A slap, a note to home, another slap and bouts of lecture on how “these” things would take your life nowhere. In a flash, it all happened in front of his eyes. She held the page in her hand .. pondering over it, like a leopard about to tear its prey down. His heart was in his mouth now ..

“And the topic of today’s Science class is Heart.”

He felt relieved. It was like a free-fall, thoughtless and exhilarating. The sketch lay on his desk, unscathed. He looked across the class at her.

Life was beautiful again.
* The sketch used is courtesy Srishti ‘07.

Art and me

Reliving old times, in hope of more to come.
Before I post some of the recent pics,
Here are some old ones just for record.