Have you listened to the wind lately?

Have you listened to the wind lately?

Whispering in my ears, she goes by.

Gently, gingerly, prancing through the leaves,

While evening descends in the afternoon sky.

Crisp air - frigid, black, nipping in the dark of the night,

Tip-toeing from far away land;

Murmuring in a husky yet somber voice,

Mother earth is very ill, she needs a caring hand.

Who am I? I ask, I am too small

To give that healing touch,

Dancing in the midst of roses, colorful, wind says

Every “you”, if you wish so, can do so much.

I walk barefoot on the sea shore, water caress my feet,

Morning Sun (up) above the horizon , spreads bright colors all around;

Shrill wind, leaping from the crest to the trough,

Got me into a thought profound.

I move around the world,

From the peak of Everest to depth of the Nile;

Wind-childlike, jumping up and down, says,

Willing souls together, good enough to cleanse the vile.

This is my promise-I will do my bit,

My inner soul pledges back to me;

I see a tear drop of happiness,

Edgy, restless wind rushes back to thee.

Beautiful Earth, at the mercy of them,

We can’t let it die.

Muttering wind, tirelessly, inspires us,

To do our bit -before waving bye.

    Photo Credit : http://fieldofweeds.blogspot.in/2009_11_01_archive.html

Lalbagh Mango Mela on Father's Day

We made this father’s day memorable by taking a trip to famous Mango and Jackfruit mela (fair) at the Lalbagh botanical garden, Bangalore. My morning started with big hug from my daughter accompanied with a self-decorated card and a nice little golden flower made out of throw-away plastic bottle.

Happy I was, indeed!

There had been a failed effort to visit the mela made about 2 weeks back, and this time, we set out again to cover the occasion before it came to a close by the last weekend.

We took a conscious decision not to deviate from our single minded focus on the Mango mela. In fact, we even did not go to the flower gardens.  The mela, itself was a unique experience of a lifetime. The sweet aroma from different kind of mangoes piled high across the walkways beckoned us in their midst. Each had its own beautiful shape and size to boast of, and was ornamented with green, red, yellow patches, being at different stages of ripeness. Above all, it was the lure of the heady aroma wafting in the atmosphere – caressed by the mild sunrays, comforted by the lyrical music of the cool breeze, in the midst of dancing light and shadows.

The area near the famous glass house wore a joyful look with shops in two lines putting up colorful banners and a large gate welcoming one and all. People of different ages with colorful dresses thronged the place like any other festive season. Talking about the festive season, lots of people like us long for this time – the summer and monsoon, only to welcome the king of fruits- the mangoes.

Once soaked into all that was happening around, we got into visiting all the shops from one end to the other  - satisfying our palates with the small bites, before getting down to the serious business of negotiation and purchase. After getting a hang of the relative pricing (though there was not much of a variation between the competing neighbors) , one or two kgs of each type were making their way into our large enough cloth bag (environment conscious, huh!) . As it was really getting difficult to resist the temptation of buying more, we ended up with a huge quantity and planned to share the divine fruit amongst friends and families who could not make it there.

It was an enjoyable family outing after quite some time, specifically since we had spent the last few months dealing with medical emergencies; it was a welcome break. On our way back from the mela, to wrap up the outing, we did manage to take a quick climb up and down the hill top and a quick tour in the bonsai garden nearby. Every time we see these wonders, it makes me revere nature as a creator of innumerable varieties.

I recommend everyone in Bangalore to plan few hours during the mela, the next time around… and am sure you will not be disheartened. 

The Spirit of Krishna and I - Times Then Reporting

We are standing in a large enough field - the size of Eden Gardens and Wembly stadium, taken together.

I can’t imagine having a large open area, like the one used during the Yudh of Mahabharata, being available in today’s date. While He was a tad disappointed with the dimensions, I had to make Him aware of today’s stark reality. In this age of real estate boom, by the power of money (black or white!!), every yard of open ground or lake are getting converted into opulent malls or villas and apartment complexes. After hours of meditation and cerebro-cosmic dialogues, I could manage to secure this slot with Lord Krishna and I could not just let it go, just because the field was not as grand as then.

I had prepared my queries for this momentous tete-e-tete. After customary greetings and exchange of initial pleasantries, we took our positions on His Rath - one of the huge double-decked-airborne vehicles leased to him by governing council of heaven for His lifetime. Did I say lifetime? Sorry! It was eternally leased and looks grand even after the depreciation value had long come down to zero . Krishna is eternal.

“My Lord, since you knew everything that was going to happen in that long Yudh, why didn't you take charge and close it on the very first day with your power”? In Arnab Goswami style, I continued with my question for another 2-3 minutes, making sure, he lost the beginning. “It could have saved few millions of life, time, money etc. etc.”

“See, the reason I did not intervene was that I wanted the law of nature to take its own course and logically that was the route to adopt, given the circumstances."

“At the cost of so many lives!!  And did you say logic? That’s person and context specific and there is nothing like absolute or universal logic. Those who are tagged as terrorists in one country are revered as freedom fighters in another and in this case, you knew both of them."

“I know what you mean but I wanted to let people know what would happen when the whole world was overpowered with sin."

“I beg to differ, Me Lord. It is always the common man who suffers the most and gets punished for the so called sin committed by powerful. The more than 18 aukshauni (approx. 4 million) army men had to lay their lives for the internal family feud of their king. Do you agree?”

“Probably, you do not know, but the whole society including my own clan-Yadavas, were decaying and dying a slow death. And…”

Stopping him in between (as that is the usual trait that the current day anchors possess and nurture) and sensing that he had trouble in answering, I issued another salvo.

“You helped Pandavas quite a few times to take resort to not-so-straight-ways-and-means to destroy Kauravas. Take example of Dronacharya, Duryodhana…… How do you explain that?”

“You must know that everything is fair in love and war….”

“But that is true with the human beings. You were the God supreme and that would come straight from the epic book, The Gita. Everyone was just delivering and discharging their duties as you wanted them to. Why didn't you orchestrate these things differently? ”

“Right.  And here I would like to go on record that a little sin done for a greater benefit of humanity is well accepted as no sin. In case a small lie helps a cause and if the load of sin gets increased on me, so be it”.

“I understand and agree to your point. That has been my principle in life as well.”

“My third point – while you saved Draupadi from her embarrassment, why didn't you stop it with a good slap to Duryodhana and gang? It was plain and simple subjugation of women which has become so commonplace in today’s society. Also this happened much before the actual war started. So this couldn't be the inflection point in your design for the Yudh to get ignited.”

“You must be aware of the saying that the perpetrators of crime and those who just would not act being in the know of it are equally offenders- might not be in eyes of law but in the morale ground. On that count, you, the Pandavas and the elders from both the sides are guilty. Why was that?"

“I think that was a huge mistake and on hindsight, I should not have allowed that to happen- if not directly but following the principle we just talked about – by some trick or other means”….He replied.

“I am happy to see that you are open to accept mistakes instead of defending all your actions - a sign of a great leader with courage. I admire you for that." This brought a tad smile to My Lord’s face.

Probably Krishna expected this to be a simple conversation around a casual chit chat on heaven and earth or weather or nature. He was already feeling uncomfortable - very much evident and visible from his general demeanor.

I continued in my suave style of seemingly asking direct questions and not letting him talk much, like what we see in most of the TV channels of today, between the anchor and other participants.

“Sir, if the whole world is inside you or your mouth, why there are so many religions and differences? I can somehow understand the caste part as that was prevalent during those days as well and you and your community were sometimes at the receiving end.  Are you telling me that world has expanded to a great extent from only Aryabarta (Asia) of those days and it is getting a bit going out of hands and difficult to control?"

"Also, why were your descendants and incarnations, visiting earth after you, not that effective in controlling all this hypocrisy? What did they really achieve? While all of them might have had the same truth and love in mind, they spoke different languages, creating utter confusion for common people on which path to take to. They operated in their own cocoon and did not have an international appeal as such to pull everyone under the same umbrella. Some of them also left for the holy abode a little too soon, in their prime. Am utterly disappointed that with them being around, so many world wars, famines, cruelty, heinous crimes happened and you were just witnessing a mega plot of destruction, helplessly”. I took a deep breath after this long speech, bringing out all the frustration of my life.

“In one way you are right. I see similarities in the way degeneration and deterioration of societal standards started then and now. It is all hegemony of one set of people that bring about the whole downfall of humanity”.

“I never wanted people to start or get into a new religion. Religion as a thing did not exist then. They should have all talked about one language - the language of love and that should have been the only religion, across all the barriers. These new developments are in complete contradiction of what I talked about in The Gita. I am just giving it a little more time keeping a close eye on the happenings".

“Are you telling that we are also nearing the end like the war then?”

“Who knows? That might be a fresh beginning.”

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This post is not intended to hurt any specific sentiment or feeling. These are just my own queries that I discuss with me, internally.

How IndiBlogger made me rich?

While I dabbled few times with writing during my growing-up years, never took it that seriously -giving priority to other pressing demands in life.  One day, in the recent past, I was conversing with myself on what I can do on my own, up to some professional level, without taking an iota of help from anyone. Performing arts is a far cry with little bit of dramatics and recitation done here and there, playing at this age is taking a bit of risk and that analysis left me with going back to my old flame- writing. This was fag end of 2013 and I decided to give blogging a shot.

I wrote my first post on how we started one of the growing Durga Puja communities in Bangalore and published it in Dec '13. Initially there were apprehensions about readership, feedback, quality of content etc. etc.  After few days, with no response from anyone other than few close friends and my wife, I was on the lookout for a community of bloggers on the net. Few weeks down the line and I stumbled upon IndiBlogger. Looking back, I consider myself fortunate for that chance encounter.

I got a platform to observe, interact, learn from others and learn-I did. With the wonderful family of IndiBlogger along with fellow writers, I was growing up internally and started building my network. Did not hesitate to reach out to members in the forum and one on one. I wanted to be open and bare, get bruised and come out as a different me as far as writing is considered. Indrani Ghose, Anita M, Alok Vats, Richa Singh, Krishna Chandran, Nabanita Dhar – A big thanks and hug from my side if you would care to accept!! My other fellow community members deserve sincere appreciation for standing by, supporting and shaping me up making me a part of their journey. They allowed me to hone my skill in the course along with them.

I was getting rich day by day with every post while winning competitions was not my goal at this stage. That richness of thoughts and language, only in comparison to my own previous self, has provided me with a sense of confidence to write more and more. I stopped over-analyzing what will other think about my posts after getting a hang of the traits of this trade.  Ably supported by the IndiBlogger platform, open to all aspiring bloggers, writing has turned into a passion for me. It liberates me with My Thoughts and feelings. It allows me to face the things happening around in plain and simple black and white manner.

These days, I crave for my own me time to talk to “My Thoughts”  or  “Thoughts, Organizations and More”  and feel glad about it, truly. The votes came in and some of my posts got displayed on home page. That motivated me to pick deep in my brain.

While I thank IndiBlogger profusely for holding my hands when I needed them most and cherish my association here, the only request I have for them to consider is to encourage commenting rather only voting. Everyone will stand a chance to win from the sincerity that would be brought in through comments.

	There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit  down at a typewriter and bleed  – Ernest Hemingway

 

The Magnificent

Image Credit : http://vidyasury.com

It is lying over there for ages, majestically.

People have come and gone trying to unearth the mystery surrounding it.

Miscreants tried to reap benefits cutting it into pieces.

Everyone has failed to move it even an inch.

Nature has sculpted this masterpiece, beautifully on stone, by its own hands– no one knows when.

With the bluish envelope descending on the place in the afternoon glow, the surroundings adorn a cosmic beauty. One can find peace of mind almost instantaneously.

The celestial quietude, in the serene company of green plants and yellow petals in the cool breeze, has drawn millions towards it from time immemorial. 

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Written for 100 Words on Saturday 2014 #17  on the picture prompt above.

The Arrows from the Archer

“How are you doing, Sir”, I asked him.

“A Matter of Honour, to be in India” pat came the reply, with a grin.

“How are they, Kane and Abel?”

“Wait, you are in for A Twist in Tale J”.

"A Quiver Full of Arrows or First Among Equals ?"

“Both are babies”, he quips, “no parallels”.

“How do you decide on your stories?”,

“Fairies drop them in my head As the crow flies”.

“Do you like them in your Path of Glory?”

“I don’t know; they just happen to me matter of factly”.

“Thank you, sir, for your time”.

“You'r welcome, pleasure is mine"J.

Written for 100 Words on Saturday 2014 #16
Your favourite author and what you’d like to discuss with him or her. 

Note : While I have more than one favourite writers spread over Bengali and English literature, keeping in mind the Tribe, settled on Mr. Jeffrey Archer  :-).