I was reading the newspaper in the morning when my three year old son Murli came to my bed, eager to wish me his newly learnt “good morning”. Murli is a sharp young boy and he loves playing games on his computer. He is quite a replica of my own childhood, a quick learner and a practitioner of his knowledge with immediate effect. A dull Sunday morning, with the clock making the mirror image of an ‘L’, and the news had nothing eye-catching in store. I reminded myself of the commitment with Sharma for a game of golf. He is the typical sales guy who rose in ranks by whatever means he knew and could employ. In short, the word ethics doesn’t exist in his dictionary.
Oh! I forgot to mention, my name is Ganesh, K.G. I keep my name abbreviated out of preference, as my three year old is still unable to count the alphabets in my full name. Besides, the name also adds some air of dignity to my thirty three years of experience in life as people of the management are always amazed by abbreviations.
I was about to rise from the bed when the phone gave a small buzz. A missed call; had to be Sharma. I picked up my cell-phone and called him back.
“Good Morning, Sharmaji”, I sounded pleasant even to myself.
“Bhaisaab, I thought you must be sleeping that’s why I gave you a buzz. I hope you haven’t forgotten our appointment for today.” Enthusiastic, thy name is Sharma.
“Of course not, I was just getting ready.” I knew what was about to come next.
“Bhaisaab, If you please don’t mind, would you pick me up on your way. My car is making a lot of noise and I have called the mechanic. If you take the Lajpat Rai road my house will be en route.” Slimy bastard, it is eight extra miles that way.
“No problem Sharmaji, will be there at eleven. Sharp” I keep the phone quickly before he made any more ‘If you please don’t mind’ demands. Its not that I am against the sales people, I am more a person of refined logic and rationality. I am a senior manager, finance, at Dave industries Limited.
I took a leisurely bath in my newly fitted Jacuzzi to beat the heat and exhaustion of the week while Sudha prepared her Sunday morning special breakfast. Sudha, my wife, has been my perfect support in the five years of our married life and she has been extra special to me on Sundays: cooking the perfect meals and granting me full liberty to relax after the draining weekdays. A lady with little demands and completely devoted to our small family of three; in short, a typical Indian housewife. In no time, I wore my golf muftis and shouted:
“Sudhi, my golf cap and sunglasses”, unable to recollect where I kept them last week.
“They are in the drawer of your study table ..... and come fast, your breakfast is ready”, As always she is on the spot. I am sometimes amazed by Sudha’s ability to find things that I keep almost hidden from my own self like confidential office documents and keys, high value cheques; although, she never tries to look through my belongings.
I rushed downstairs towards the dining table. My glass of fresh juice was waiting while Sudha made fresh puris for me. Right next to the juice tumbler was kept an envelope with ink blotted all over.
“When did this come?”,I asked
“It came yesterday afternoon and you came late last night after your office party. I thought I will give it to you later”, She said smiling. “Open it after you’ve had your breakfast or all my efforts will go in vein.”
“All right”, I said, and started sipping from my glass of juice. The ink blot, however, had told me who the correspondent was: My old friend and companion ‘D’ and it had been seven years since I last heard from him.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
half sleeping flamingos
It had been sometime since I had been sleeping or shall I say in trance. The virtual connect between ‘me’ and ‘myself’ was beginning to wear off. It is like living a split life: the life in your dreams and the 'real' life; both equally exhaustive. I tend to wonder at times that why the word ‘misery’ even exists in the English language. What is misery but emotional exhaustion and time is only a proxy emotion: a slow, brutal and incomplete assassin; a true Devil's instrument along with, how could I forget, money!!
I tightened my semi relaxed muscles while I was informed that we are ready for another round of tranquilizers. It was a hot sunny day, ten hours past midnight, and a still sleeping accomplice, 'D'.
“Beer? " I asked D, in the calm tone of a lullaby.
"Of course", D replied promptly, as if he had been feigning the sleep like a baby waiting for his mother's milk. D is not the lazy bum, he is more the hyperactive-hibernating kind, a typical procrastinator. Both of his states tend to have an unsettling social effect. Not that I had known him for ages, but he found a mark in my two dimensional plane of existence.
We rushed to the door of the train bogie and opened it. It was scorching hot outside and the train had taken a halt. I generally tend to find a similarity between the state of my mind and the sound of the fizz. It is funny at times to hear the fermented serum full of anti air almost gasping for breath: Slightly suffocating. We started the proceedings by colliding our cans.
"Cheers" I spoke, wondering inside how absolutely it rhymes with 'fears'.
My first gulp told me that I need to light up my smoke. Fire and water actually have a lot in common. The two vehicles of life yet one coveted and the other despised. I filled my lungs with smoke letting it out from my flaring nostrils: a raging bull meets a silent sage. I look out of the door, saw trees passing by; such a usual and unexciting sight. Just about then, I saw violent clouds. A highly fragmented cirrus, curiously in the shape of a fleet of bomber jets, it seemed the most masterful recreation of the world war in an abstract artistic way. D who was busy taking large gulps from his drink, for a change did not find my wild flights of fantasy amusing. Yet, I moved ahead in time......
It is amazing how we tend to value destruction. The entire civilization is fed with war stories even in the curricular education. Stories of how Alexander the great conquered the world, the story of revolutions, of how brutal could emperors be. And even the smallest kid is fascinated by the sense of destruction. Sounds of cannons, of bullets fired in the air and of blood falling on the ground. The sense of victory is so deeply engraved in our hearts that no one is willing to lose how so ever strong or deserving the opponent may be. Man has given birth to irrationality, generally called hope, so the concept of civilization itself is flawed and this is the harsh reality.
I tried to gather my shredding thoughts, and said:
“The beer has a soothing effect today”, absolutely contrary to how I was feeling.
“Absolutely”, D replied, a blatant lie. We both have an awkward sense of mutual understanding and respect. We both know who is lying when.
I realised then that the journey was about to end soon, some hours left to go. I told D that it had been a long night and we should catch up with some sleep. We both go back to the compartment and lie down in our respective births, like lovers who have made love all night. I am sure we were truly the ‘spent lovers’ who had romanced their thoughts and figments and the pleasure, rather, the joy was inexplicable; yet came close to ‘the orgasm’ but we had to leave in six hours.
It is really tough to tell when time passes slowly and when it passes fast. It truly is the perfect assassin a slow poison that flows through our entire lives: killing us second by second, minute by minute and hour by hour. We had just passed twenty and two hours of our life and ironically speaking, had a lot of fun.
I tightened my semi relaxed muscles while I was informed that we are ready for another round of tranquilizers. It was a hot sunny day, ten hours past midnight, and a still sleeping accomplice, 'D'.
“Beer? " I asked D, in the calm tone of a lullaby.
"Of course", D replied promptly, as if he had been feigning the sleep like a baby waiting for his mother's milk. D is not the lazy bum, he is more the hyperactive-hibernating kind, a typical procrastinator. Both of his states tend to have an unsettling social effect. Not that I had known him for ages, but he found a mark in my two dimensional plane of existence.
We rushed to the door of the train bogie and opened it. It was scorching hot outside and the train had taken a halt. I generally tend to find a similarity between the state of my mind and the sound of the fizz. It is funny at times to hear the fermented serum full of anti air almost gasping for breath: Slightly suffocating. We started the proceedings by colliding our cans.
"Cheers" I spoke, wondering inside how absolutely it rhymes with 'fears'.
My first gulp told me that I need to light up my smoke. Fire and water actually have a lot in common. The two vehicles of life yet one coveted and the other despised. I filled my lungs with smoke letting it out from my flaring nostrils: a raging bull meets a silent sage. I look out of the door, saw trees passing by; such a usual and unexciting sight. Just about then, I saw violent clouds. A highly fragmented cirrus, curiously in the shape of a fleet of bomber jets, it seemed the most masterful recreation of the world war in an abstract artistic way. D who was busy taking large gulps from his drink, for a change did not find my wild flights of fantasy amusing. Yet, I moved ahead in time......
It is amazing how we tend to value destruction. The entire civilization is fed with war stories even in the curricular education. Stories of how Alexander the great conquered the world, the story of revolutions, of how brutal could emperors be. And even the smallest kid is fascinated by the sense of destruction. Sounds of cannons, of bullets fired in the air and of blood falling on the ground. The sense of victory is so deeply engraved in our hearts that no one is willing to lose how so ever strong or deserving the opponent may be. Man has given birth to irrationality, generally called hope, so the concept of civilization itself is flawed and this is the harsh reality.
I tried to gather my shredding thoughts, and said:
“The beer has a soothing effect today”, absolutely contrary to how I was feeling.
“Absolutely”, D replied, a blatant lie. We both have an awkward sense of mutual understanding and respect. We both know who is lying when.
I realised then that the journey was about to end soon, some hours left to go. I told D that it had been a long night and we should catch up with some sleep. We both go back to the compartment and lie down in our respective births, like lovers who have made love all night. I am sure we were truly the ‘spent lovers’ who had romanced their thoughts and figments and the pleasure, rather, the joy was inexplicable; yet came close to ‘the orgasm’ but we had to leave in six hours.
It is really tough to tell when time passes slowly and when it passes fast. It truly is the perfect assassin a slow poison that flows through our entire lives: killing us second by second, minute by minute and hour by hour. We had just passed twenty and two hours of our life and ironically speaking, had a lot of fun.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Yeah! Whateva' nevermind
Death, they say, is a liberating experience. The closer you get to liberation the easier it gets to accept the eternal truth. As I rolled up a heavy duty mary jane cigarette, talking to myself about the effect it was about to have on my neural dendrites: enhancing and slowing my senses at the same time, I started contemplating the probability of death in this perfectly random world.
"Is the stuff good? Roll up another one please....." said D
D has always been the questioning, inquisitive kind: a friend and companion in such frequent moments of revelation. I assured him and went back to work. Cigarettes, they say, increase the probability of death.
"What is death?" I asked myself..... I wondered if it is 'the transition' or 'the transformation' and settle down for 'transition' in a self assuring way. The transparent time passed slowly as I blended the tobacco with the autumn leaves. The flow of thoughts had already started to create an avalanche in my mind. Thankfully the cigarette rolled itself quick and we were ready for the stimulating stimulus. The venue of our party was to be a smelly and suffocating train washroom; not a great idea for someone as claustrophobic as me.
I ensured a properly locked door for our desired privacy. D did the honour in lighting up the joint as I calmly controlled the pace of my thoughts. Fresh aroma filled the washroom overwhelmingly as we puffed slowly on my fresh weed joints. As my senses slowed, I was stretched to think about the physical truth of space time inter-changeability. My claustrophobia overcame itself as my time slowed and the space expanded. The smelly washroom had converted itself into a fog covered grazing grassland and we started making merry about the social inhibitions and if someone saw us coming out of the washroom together. D, I must say, has an uncanny sense of wit with a superb sense of timing. As evacuating as this dose could be, we had started to feel famished and were desperate for food.
We started a silent assault on the food that the train pantry had to offer and stuffed it in ever vacant corner of our stomach. Relieved of hunger, we started our discussion which had to end with one of us passing out, but at times it is best to take what destiny has to offer.
"Would you like another one?" I initiated the conversation.... with a question even our eyes could answer. The unanswered question, although, helped me to catch his attention. I began.....
"Would you care for a discourse on religion?"
"Yes", he finally answered
I closed my eyes.......... "And then there was light." I could feel myself stranded in the moment of creation, "But every action has an equal and opposite reaction and this segregation of matter from antimatter is popularly known as the big bang.” I could feel the creation of that infinite origin and the connection of my roots to this formless black hole, the alpha, the omega...... a connection through the flawless shreds of time. I have always treated time as a multidimensional vector and my vector was deviating from its current dimension of life and a moment of bliss.
My soliloquy went on and on with brief interruptions from D. After a while, I realized that D had reached his state of slumber like a baby listening to fairy tales. I drew immense satisfaction from his peaceful sleep.
“Sweet dreams”, I said lightly as his smile broadened.
"Is the stuff good? Roll up another one please....." said D
D has always been the questioning, inquisitive kind: a friend and companion in such frequent moments of revelation. I assured him and went back to work. Cigarettes, they say, increase the probability of death.
"What is death?" I asked myself..... I wondered if it is 'the transition' or 'the transformation' and settle down for 'transition' in a self assuring way. The transparent time passed slowly as I blended the tobacco with the autumn leaves. The flow of thoughts had already started to create an avalanche in my mind. Thankfully the cigarette rolled itself quick and we were ready for the stimulating stimulus. The venue of our party was to be a smelly and suffocating train washroom; not a great idea for someone as claustrophobic as me.
I ensured a properly locked door for our desired privacy. D did the honour in lighting up the joint as I calmly controlled the pace of my thoughts. Fresh aroma filled the washroom overwhelmingly as we puffed slowly on my fresh weed joints. As my senses slowed, I was stretched to think about the physical truth of space time inter-changeability. My claustrophobia overcame itself as my time slowed and the space expanded. The smelly washroom had converted itself into a fog covered grazing grassland and we started making merry about the social inhibitions and if someone saw us coming out of the washroom together. D, I must say, has an uncanny sense of wit with a superb sense of timing. As evacuating as this dose could be, we had started to feel famished and were desperate for food.
We started a silent assault on the food that the train pantry had to offer and stuffed it in ever vacant corner of our stomach. Relieved of hunger, we started our discussion which had to end with one of us passing out, but at times it is best to take what destiny has to offer.
"Would you like another one?" I initiated the conversation.... with a question even our eyes could answer. The unanswered question, although, helped me to catch his attention. I began.....
"Would you care for a discourse on religion?"
"Yes", he finally answered
I closed my eyes.......... "And then there was light." I could feel myself stranded in the moment of creation, "But every action has an equal and opposite reaction and this segregation of matter from antimatter is popularly known as the big bang.” I could feel the creation of that infinite origin and the connection of my roots to this formless black hole, the alpha, the omega...... a connection through the flawless shreds of time. I have always treated time as a multidimensional vector and my vector was deviating from its current dimension of life and a moment of bliss.
My soliloquy went on and on with brief interruptions from D. After a while, I realized that D had reached his state of slumber like a baby listening to fairy tales. I drew immense satisfaction from his peaceful sleep.
“Sweet dreams”, I said lightly as his smile broadened.
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