Summer

The summers had always been wonderful. The beautiful clear evenings. Skies, pink, blue and all shades of sunlight red. They spent all their days reading by the window or cycling along the winding river – racing each other. Eating juicy mangoes in the shade of the old trees. Oblivious to the sands of time. Meera and Anamika.

They were a fiery pair. Always getting into mischief. They had spent their childhood in the same orphanage. Begged on the same streets. Made their way in the world together. They would have done anything for each other.

One such summer day dawned with Meera, coughing blood. Her health spiraled out of control. And life - just came to a standstill. As if trapped between the frozen hands of a clock which has run out of time. It became apparent that only a rare transplant could save her.

Anamika stayed with her all the time. Trying to ease the pain. But it was futile. She would lapse into nightmares seeing of her best friend, her sister, just withering away. She asked around for donor. It was as if, finally fate had succumbed to jealousy and had decided to tear them apart.

The next summer. Meera sat on the same window. Looked at the river outside. And the old beautiful trees. Filled up her lungs with the preciously fragrant familiar air. Tracing the path with her eyes, where she would never cycle with her friend again.
They would have done anything for each other.

Florentine

Crimson nails and a crimson mouth
Dense shadows of lashes
A walk so serpentine
O Florentine

My death you will be
As I lust for your touch
Devilishly divine
O Florentine

Under your gaze I tremble
In feverish passion
A shiver crawls down my spine
O Florentine

To have you is my destiny
The bittersweet welcome death
The end when you are mine
O Florentine.

Change

Do you recognise me?
I am a different me from yesterday.
I changed a little over last night,
And a little while you were away.

Oh, I still sleep with a book in my hand.
But changed are the books I hold.
I pour my thoughts in the same diary,
But have new secrets in it's folds.

My love for you has changed too.
Grown in some ways, and lessened in some.
I still have two left feet,
But a different tune now I hum.

Do not be scared, I pray
Of the changes you see in me.
Every moment I change a little.
And the same in you I see.

Lollipop

It was unbelievable. Amazing. Fantastic.

The colours! All of them. Red, blue, green, yellow, pink.. In beautiful swirls.

And it tasted heavenly. Sweet. Never ending. However much you lick! Even if you took a sumptuous bite, immediately the missing part would reappear and the lollipop would be a whole again. Lovely!

Amy could not believe her luck. Here she was walking around, starving, looking in bins and cans for something to eat. When she came upon this innocent looking lollipop, lying there, peacefully. In its wrapper too! Now she would never be hungry. Yeah! Might get a bad stomach ache or rotten teeth. But never hungry again.

Blissfully happy. Skipping away she started back to her little home in a big pipe. She should have not closed her eyes in ecstasy! She tripped.

She gazed at the dark clouds above from the hole in the pipe. She sighed! Will have to go hungry again tonight. She could almost still taste the lollipop.

Crumble

And she saw her world crumble
down in the dust
Her sanity taking a tumble
her resolve almost burst.

No she does not gather
the shards of her broken I
She knows now she would rather
set them free and let them fly.

To spread where ever they would
The bits and pieces of ONE
For people to make whatever they could
of the strangest one under the Sun.

Little Heart

I heard somewhere, that your heart is the size of your closed fist. And i always wondered how tiny the heart of a little new born baby would be. So small. So tender. And oh how hard the little thing must beat when the child cries out for the first time while clutching your finger tightly in its teeny ones.

A collegue gave birth to twins. Not a bosom friend. But I was excited about twins. They sound so awesome. Especially twin girls. All the fun twin-sister stories that I read as a kid came to my mind.

One of the little premature babies' heart gave up today. Its strange how you have not even seen the babies. You are not even close to the mother. But still in your heart there is this heavy weight. A deep sorrow. A choked throat. At the tiniest fingers that are not clutching your finger and the little teeny heart thats not beating any more.

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I'll forgive Thy great big joke on me. - Robert Frost

BAD HAIR DAYS

Have you ever wondered why we have bad hair days? Well, I will tell you a story about the fight between the wind and hair which might explain things a bit. There was this small town once, where everyone had beautiful hair. Nice, shiny, long and straight, which rippled and shimmered in the wind and sunlight. The only problem was that these people were a so proud about their beautiful hair that they kept teasing the wind about it. They said that the wind was totally insignificant. It was created just so that it moved and made their hair ripple and look even prettier. The wind did not have any beauty of its own. It was plain and invisible and when it moved it got noticed just because the beautiful hair moved. The people teased and teased the wind, until the wind developed a huge inferiority complex and went away from the town to sulk in the woods. She spent quite some time flying about in the woods, feeling sorry for herself. But soon the trees became her friends as the leaves of the trees really enjoyed dancing with her. One day the wind told her woe to the trees and the trees decided to help her. The leaves rippled and passed the message from one tree to another until it reached the oldest and the wisest tree in the woods – The Old Banyan Tree. When the old banyan tree heard the wind’s sad story he summoned her and gave her a very nice idea to teach the hair a lesson.

Next morning the wind went back to the town to see how the hairs were doing. As soon as she arrived the hair of the people out for their work started jeering at her, making fun of her that they knew she’d be back as there was no other way that she would make her presence felt except by making the hair look beautiful. At this the wind said yes, I have come for the hair only. And then she started blowing gently at first, that the hair enjoyed it. But then it blew so hard that the hair got entangled badly and stood on their ends beaten by the wind screaming for her to stop. After that the people of the town with beautiful hairs always had bad hair days every time the hair went back to their pompous ways and started teasing the wind.

So whenever the wind is blowing too hard and messing up your hair, you’ll know that it’s happening because the hair was getting pompous about its beauty. Tame them.

THE RUNAWAY HOUSE

You will never believe what I saw one night. A house that had run-away from the family that lived in it. You think I am joking, right? But no! There it was, on the trolley attached to a tractor, sighing sadly to itself, right in front of our car, on the highway to Chandigarh.

Still don’t believe me? Well, I’ll tell you everything I saw that night. Divi, Rash and I were on our way to Chandigarh from Noida. It was past mid-night on the long lonely highway with barely any cars in sight. And, not a single soul around on the roads. We were happily driving on, singing songs to ourselves, when suddenly half-way through the distance; we saw a trolley moving slowly in front of us. The trolley seemed to be full of something brown and seemed to have a lot of dry straw. As we moved closer, I saw what it was. It was a little house with a thick thatched roof and small little windows which were like an unhappy pair of eyes. And the door which was shut closed in a sad grimace. I looked at the others to ask what they thought of the whole thing. But they seemed to not see the house at all. They just saw a lot of mud and dried straw. I was astonished at this, but then I figured it was probably because they did not really believe in fairies and any little people living on trees and dreams that float in clouds. Well, I do.

And so I decided to investigate the whole matter. Since I was the only one who could see the poor sad little house, I felt it as my duty to help. Luckily we were stopping for a break and some refreshments and the same place where the trolley stopped. So when everyone was busy eating, I went to the back of the trolley where the poor house sat quite forlorn. Gently I tapped the door to see if anyone was inside. However, no one answered but the house gave a start. It shut its eyes and mouth tightly pretending to be just a house. Then I said “Why do you look so sad, house?” The house opened its window just a wee bit to look at me, then when satisfied that I looked kind enough opened its sad window eyes fully and the door creaked open for it to speak. “I am running away from the family that lived in me,” said the house. I started laughing. I mean, honestly, wasn’t this the first? I mean, we do hear people leaving there houses all the time, but a house, leaving its people?? I had never heard that before. Had you?

But jokes aside (the house did look mighty sad, you see). I repeated my question, as politely as I could. The house said in a sad creaky voice that it was tired of the new people who had come to live in it. The people were mean and did not love the house at all. They were fighting all the time and seemed almost like they hated each other as well as the house. The father was cross all the time and the mother was forever complaining that the house was too small and ugly. And the children were forever cribbing and fighting over tiny things. The kids kept throwing things at each other and the walls of the house. The family was rich but they were spoilt and did not seem to value any thing and each other. When the children were bored with a new expensive toy their father had bought for them they’d simply smash it against the walls.

The house missed its previous owners. They were a nice little happy family who seemed content with the little they owned and glad to have each other to spend their wonderful days with each other. Forever trying to help each other and the others living in the area. Who kept the house warm and cosy with their love and laughter. The happy family had to move away from the locality as they did not have enough money to keep the house and had to move to a smaller cheaper house. And now the house had run-away from the mean new family to look for its previous owners and bring them back to live in it.

Now I was in a fix. I wanted to help the house but I did not know how. The house said, that the last he had heard was that the happy family had moved to some foreign land, where the happy father had got a new job, and that he (the house), intended to go there and stay there with them. But there was a snag in this plan. Can you guess? The house did not have a Passport, let alone Visa for the foreign land. We all know that they don’t allow people to travel to foreign places without these two things, lesser still the house. I pointed this little hitch to the house. The house was heart broken. “What can I do now? Oh! What can I do now?” cried the poor thing. Huge tear drops fell from the window eyes. It was the saddest sight I had ever seen. You would also have cried watching the sad weepy house.

Then I had a brilliant idea. “Why don’t you look for a nice happy family here itself? A brand new family, who needs a nice house to keep it safe and warm. I am sure we can find such a family in a jiffy. ” The house cheered up at this idea at once. To put the idea into action the house and I crept out of the parking area as quietly as possible (which was very difficult as you might have guessed, as one, the house was heavy and made noise, second, the house no, was excited and happy, so it just wouldn’t try to tip toe). We crept out of the place into the fields on the other side of the road. We walked and walked till we came to a small family who were sleeping together in one rag looking sheet, peacefully with soft smiles on their lips, in the tiniest shack imaginable. The house looked at me and gave me a tiny sparkly window eye wink. Then it actually tip toed towards the sleeping family, stood on its toes and went and settled over the family, such that now the family was inside the house. How surprised and happy the family will be, when it wakes up, I thought to myself excitedly. As I was going to say this out loudly, the house gave me another window eye wink and asked me to hush. It did not want them to wake up. So I said adieu to the little happy window eyed house and started to make my way back to my friends. The house door creaked ever so lightly and said “thank you!! I am happy now” in its soft creaking voice. I waved my hands and joined my friends who obviously thought I had spent way too much time in the loo. :O)

I know for a fact that the house is happy now, because on our way back from Chandigarh to Noida, I looked out for the single tiny house in the fields, which again winked at me with its merry twinkling window eyes.

Look out for the merry house next time you are on the highway. If you spot a lone house with merry window eyes twinkling in the dark night, know that it is the happy house, with the happy family in it.

TRIP TO GRANDMA'S

I have never been a great story teller, but i feel i must share this adventurous story which happened to a very naughty boy who is a good friend of mine. Now, this boy's name was Robin and he has a little sister Suzy. Robin is the naughtiest little kid that I have ever known. Well, it so happened that one day Father, Mother, Robin and Suzy were going to visit the children's grand mother who lived in a beautiful city. Grandma made the most delicious cakes and cookies and adored her grand children. So Robin and Suzy were looking forward to their visit. Grandma lived a few hours drive away from the city in which Robin lived. So they started early in the morning in their family car.

The day was bright and sunny but very very windy. Father was driving at a very high speed and since the windows were rolled down, everybody's hair was flying all over the place and Mother's scarf flew out of the window. As there was so much wind, Father told everyone to roll-up their windows. Now, everybody did so, except naughty Robin, who did not completely roll-up the window but left just a little gap open.
The car went on speeding on the road and slowly the air filled in the car through the little crack left open by Robin. Gradually the car was so full of wind that it made the car rise above the road. At first no one noticed. But all of a sudden Suzy pointed out that the birds were flying parallel to the car. Everybody looked out of their windows and saw that they were actually very high up in the air, higher than the trees and flying amongst the birds. For a moment every one panicked and could not decide what they should do.

Father applied brakes but the car remained suspended in the air. Suddenly one sparrow entered through Robin's window and reproachfully told them that they should not be flying in the air as they were scaring all the birds. At which Father said that he had no clue how to bring the car down back on the road. (this happens quite rarely, isn't it, when Father admits to not knowing a thing :O) ) .

Anyways, the sparrow flew out and and called on to her friends and family members to see if anyone could suggest how to get the car back on ground.They decided that all the birds would sit on the roof of the car and maybe by their weight they would be able to push it down. So all the birds sat on the roof of the car and pushed down, but alas they were not able to budge the car. Every one got very worried and thought hard for better ideas. Suddenly one of the parrots Mr. Green, had a thought. He flew to the huge tree where the wise old owl Mr. Brown lived. He was the wisest of all the birds and many a times his help was sought in times of crisis like these. Mr. Greeny looked through the window of Mr. Brown's house. As expected Mr. Brown was sleeping. Mr. Greeny tapped on the window and Mr. Brown woke up grumbling to himself. It must be known that in spite of being very intelligent and wise, he was a little arrogant and grumbled if anyone disturbed his slumber. But without wasting any time Mr. Greeny quickly narrated the story and begged Mr. Brown for help. Mr. Brown flew to the car with Mr. Greeny and sat down at the bonnet trying to think of a solution. It came to him suddenly!! He told the family to gently and very slowly roll down the windows. As the windows opened slowly, the naughty wind escaped bit by bit and the car started descending. As they slowly glided down, Robin as expected lost his patience and towards the end quickly rolled down the remaining window and the car landed on the road with a bump.



Suddenly Robin opened his eyes and saw that they had reached Grandma's house. Was it a dream ??? He got up confused and excited and rushed to meet Grandma to narrate the entire incident.Everyone had a good laugh over a lovely tea of freshly baked cakes and cookies.

THE BABY BIRD

Robin and Suzy were having a really wonderful time at Grandma's house. It was a beautiful house with large gardens and a backyard which opened to a huge field. There were big green trees all around and the green fields danced in the wind like ballerinas in green dresses.

Now Robin was the naughtiest boy you would ever one across. He would torment Grandma's tomcat Billi, by tying his tail to the chair. He would make little Suzy cry by making horrible faces at her... And he just couldn't help breaking everything around him. One morning, Grandma got really tired of his antics and told him to go outside to play. So Robin and Suzy took their ball and went off to the fields to play catch.

Robin being Robin, just to trouble Suzy he threw the ball really high so that she couldn't catch it. Now, the ball got lost in the filed. Both Robin and Suzy started frantically looking for it. Suddenly they spotted it amongst the plants. Gladly Robin reached for the ball, when his eyes fell on something small moving next to the ball. They looked carefully and saw that it was a tiny baby bird. It appeared that the poor thing was knocked out of its nest by the ball and now was in pain as it could not fly up to the nest.

So, Robin and Suzy decided to help the little bird. Robin rushed home to get something to help the bird with, whilst Suzy watched over the little bird with care. Robin came back with a balloon with a little ice cream cup attached to its string. Suzy gently placed the baby bird in the ice cream cup and they bit by bit released the string of the balloon. The balloon went higher and higher taking the baby bird with it. When the cup was at level with the bird's nest, the baby bird jumped out of the cup into its nest.

The mother bird was so happy to see the little baby back that she sang a thank you song for the children.

Good man di lalten..

Yesterday, over lunch conversation, I got reminded of this wonderfully weird statement that my Ma used to make when we were kids. Everytime I or anyone from my siblings did well in anything - sports, academics or just in general, my Ma would cheerfully say " Good man di lalten, Bad man da diva" (literal translation: a lantren for the good man and a earthen lamp for the bad man). I have no clue what it means or what exactly it signifies, but I am glad that I got reminded of it, as it holds a considerable part in my memories, a picture or rather a short video of my Ma going all happy and cheerful and in a sing song voice going "Good man di lalten ....." Which also makes me think, the number of times she said this, we must have made her happy a lot (I'd like to think that!!!)At least as kids. But then Ma is a happy soul.

I hope even today, even though I have not achieved anything really spectacular, I am somehow able to draw this loved phrase from my Ma some day...