Monday, December 13, 2010

Kid,Peter,Sheela,Mom and I

I came home from school and looked around for Kid."Kid?.........Kid..? Where are you?" I looked under the dining table, my bed, my grandmother's bed. My Grandmother's bed is made of boxes filled with antediluvian thinga-ma-jigs."Those boxes have my old saris,photographs,my drawings, your grandfather's clothes and books and everything else that make up your grandfather's life and mine." she said when I asked her what was there in the boxes. There were three rows of boxes with two boxes in each row.That's only six boxes that contain the whole life of two people.Between the first and second row of boxes is a gap which forms a cozy niche just large enough for a baby goat. Kid goes and hides there sometimes when he's scared, which is all the time. Kid is scared of loud trucks, buses,cars,bikes, cockroaches,lizards,rats,my grandmother's sneeze, when the anchor on the television yells,"Congratulations Mr. Warner! You have won a million dollars!" and vampires. There's probably more that he's afraid of. "One can never know everything about someone" is what my mom always used to say.She doesn't say much these days.

Kid was hiding in his niche again.He doesn't come out of there till you put a plate of warm and delicious bread in front of him He comes out slowly to the odour that seeps out from the warmth and hides in my lap first and then starts eating. I think he feels protected when he hides in my lap cause I'm bigger and older than him.Then, out of nowhere, Sheela came out and Kid went back to hide."They let you come out today....", I cried with joy. She said,"Sssh... I sneaked out from the window. Peter stole the key from the nurse when she was serving me breakfast." "But how did you know how to get here?" I asked in a whisper that came out rather hoarse as I tried to keep my voice down in all the excitement."You told me it was the house next to the rich man's library, remember? So, I asked around for the rich man's library and found it."

Next to my house is a medium-sized library owned by a wealthy man.My grandmother says he's not really rich.He only looks rich because he always dresses up in a clean, neatly pressed suit and a hat that matches his coat.But, I like Mr. Kohli.He has a very interesting collection of books which he lends to me for free. He also likes vampires which is good because I could take Sheela to the library along with Peter. Peter is a vampire. But, only Sheela can see him. Nobody else can. Sheela used to say that Peter is not one of those horrible and frightening vampires like in the hoary myths we read. He is a vampire of Indian origin who happens to like anthropomorphic beings. He tells the most fascinating and incredible stories. He says that some of his stories are true and from a very long time ago. Peter is much older than he looks because vampires don't age.One of his stories was about a witch Carolina who found the home of God. She and God had a bet that they would both fight each other and if the witch won, then she would win a chance to create three new beings on the Earth with God's creational powers.The witch out-smarted God in that battle by using a mirror against God's spell in the very last-minute. Peter said that what the witch did was very smart because everyone always uses a mirror to defeat a witch and hence, God did not expect the witch to use a mirror on him. Peter said that the witch created vampires, werewolves and fireflies in the world. Vampires and werewolves you don't meet very often, but fireflies are all around like a flotilla of moving stars between leaves, or hovering over rocks. Sometimes, they even come into the house through the window.When the power goes out, I like to lie down on my bed and watch those myriad neon lights flying in circles, higher and higher casting a hypnotic spell that mesmerises me into a dream far away.Reality becomes too distant to come back to and a kind of happiness surrounds me like a warm blanket in the coldness of the dark...

I took Sheela and Peter to the library and I must say that Mr.Kohli rather enjoyed their company.Peter told us all about the Valley of Light, a place at the end of the ocean where all light is created. It has blue elephants and pink monkeys and everybody can see vampires,werewolves and ghosts because of all the light.We wanted to see the Valley of Light,so we went to the cliffs in the evening and sat at the very edge of it so that we could see as far as our eyes could.The wind howled and roared about us and threatened to push us over the edge, but I enjoyed sitting at the edge even more because of that, almost hoping that the strong zephyrs would carry me away,over the frighteningly deep ocean, into the Valley of Light... I met Sheela on the first day I went to visit my mother in the hospital.It had been a month since I had seen my mother.The hospital did not let anybody visit her for a month because she was very sick. I remember how I found her sitting in a corner with her arms wrapped around her legs, hugging herself tightly, talking to someone I couldn't see, with bleeding hands and bruises all over her back. She didn't let anyone come near her except for Kid who sat on her lap and cried with her. My grandmother called the hospital and she's been there ever since. It's strange how Kid was not afraid of that person she was talking to on that day. Normally, he starts shivering when that man is around. But,that day he didn't... Everyday in the hospital I would sit with Sheela and Peter and listen to stories that Peter had to tell.I would bring her books from the library and she would read all of them and return them to me the next day.We spent one evening sticking glow stars that Mr.Kohli gave to me, all over the walls in her room. And at the end of the day, I went to my mother's room and told her everything Sheela,Peter and I did. She seemed to like listening to me, but she never said anything.

The sky roared with a stentorian voice that shook the inside of my heart that started to race as I came back from an intense period of wool-gathering to a terrifying storm."Oh no! We must go back home quickly! Come!" I told Sheela as she held my hand and said,"You go back home.I must go back also." "But, how will you go back in this rain?" I asked."Don't worry. I know my way and Peter is there with me." she said smiling back at me. I quickly nodded and started running back home.That was the last I ever saw of Sheela..

The next morning, I went to the hospital to meet her, and found an empty room.Only the glow of the stars remained.The nurse said that Sheela isn't here anymore. I wondered where she had gone to as my throat started to burn strongly and my head started to feel heavy as a brimful of thoughts started to settle in. I couldn't think and I started to walk quickly to my mother's room. Tears started to run down my cheeks and as I entered the room, I screamed"Sheela's gone! I don't know where she is... We were at the beach yesterday and...." ,I started to tell her everything as she sat and listened to me. I yelled,"What?Say something!" and I started to cry even more.I wanted her to say something, anything! I wanted my mother... She spoke softly,"She went to the Valley of Light.I forgot to tell you earlier." And I looked up at her and ran to her arms and held on to her as tightly as I could.There was silence in the room and I wanted to stay there forever in the silence within her arms.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Untitled 3

The environment changed to that of a lake. The old man and Blue were sitting in the middle of it under a tree filled with pink blossoms.
They looked at their reflection in the lake.

"What do you see?" asked blue.

"Regret" replied the old man. "What do you see?" he asked.

"I see the pain of regret" she said.
"How do you feel?" she asked slowly.

He looked up into her genuinely concerned eyes and sighed."I feel like a fool. I feel like I've betrayed and humiliated myself. I loathe myself more than anyone in this universe. I despise myself." His voice had become bitter and his reflection became older. More wrinkles appeared on his face and the rings around his eyes seemed to become more hollow.

"I made the wrong choice. I'm sure of it now for I am unable to live with myself. Do I want to be alone? No. Do I want to be with someone? No. Do I want to be with friends? what friends? I let them all down. Do I want to laugh? Bitterly. Do I want to cry? I wish i didn't want to. Do I want to move on with my life? No. Do I want to stand still? Desperately..."

Suddenly, the lake disappeared and they were back in the dark room.
Blue found herself trapped in a cage. She shook the bars of the cage in a desperate attempt to break out.

The old man found himself surrounded by all the people he ever cared about. A stentorian voice spoke in the darkness from above. The room started to spin around them and the candle fell and set the table on fire.

"YOU LET EVERYONE DOWN! NOW YOU AND YOU ALONE HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE. YOU WILL GROW OLDER AND MORE DECREPIT, BUT YOU WILL NEVER DIE! YOU WILL NEVER DIE!"

"Stop it! PLease!" screamed Blue back at the unknown voice.

But the voice did not stop. The flames roared around them. The old man fell on his knees as tears broke out of his eyes. In a soft voice he spoke. "I'm so sorry......I'm so so sorry."

A gallant knight broke open the door and said,"I'm going in."
He jumped straight into the fire fearing nothing. He broke open the cage and carried Blue out of the fire and then went back in for the old man.

Blue found herself back at the lake. She looked at her reflection in the water. Tears streamed down her face in silence.

Untitled 2

The old man and Blue had entered a dark room that contained a single table with a single candle that was lit. They sat on opposite sides of the flame and looked into each others eyes.

"So, that is your definition of love" said the old man.

"The most honest one that I can provide" replied Blue with a look of self confidence.

"There are those who believe that you care for a time about those around you only because you need them to care about you at that time."

"They will discover the truth when they find that they are unable to not care."

"Tell me, have you ever been in a situation where you had to risk your life in order to save the people you care about? A choice between saving yourself or....."

"sacrificing yourself... No" answered Blue looking quite startled at the question.

"They say that the true personality of a human being is revealed in that moment of decision."

"All human beings are true. What matters is whether they are being true to themselves.
However, the implied meaning behind that statement is based on an assumption that life is better than death.
"

"There you are wrong. It is based on the fact that we do not know what death is like, but we do know what life is like and what it can be like."

"Have you ever been in that situation?"

"Yes....once... quite a long time ago."

"What did you choose?" asked Blue with a look of interest and anxiety of a magnitude that surpassed any other moment in her life.

This time, the old man did not answer.

The flame rose into the air for an instant and waned as if it were threatening to burn the place down.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Untitled

" Can you create love? Human beings will probably never be able to understand each other. Perhaps if someone took the effort to follow and understand a person every step of the way, sacrificing his own individual identity, it might be possible for one person to truly understand another. But, will there be any use of that? But, love - love does not need understanding. So, can you create love?" he asked the young girl walking beside him.

Blue looked at him with an amused smile and said, "Just because this world is more peaceful than yours, does not mean that there is no pain here. Even I know that love cannot be created. it just exists."

The old man understood. The pain of loss is found in all worlds.

"Do you see that man there? He lost his daughter to an incurable disease and now he has shut himself from the rest of the world. I cannot feel his emotions. I cannot feel his pain anymore."

He looked at the man sitting motionless on a chair with an impassive face that did not betray even the slightest sign of emotion.

"But, why?", he thought to himself.

She answered as if he had said it out aloud.
"I don't know exactly. Maybe because his pain was so great that he did not want consolation.
Maybe because the first sign of emotion that the world showed him was not that of understanding, but that of pity at his fate.
Maybe because he did not want to show his vulnerability - the "immaturity" in his view, of not being able to accept the ways of life and the ways of this world.
We are proud beings and nothing can change that. Pride gives us the will to achieve and can also be our greatest downfall. It will never allow us to give up our individuality
."

"So,how do you know so much?" he asked inquisitively with an intrigued look on his face.

"Because among a flood of others who showed pity, I found another who showed understanding when I needed it."

"So the question returns. Is understanding the only way for human beings to truly co-exist?"

Blue looked far away into the distance and sighed.
"Maybe, if I had found someone who cared about what I did with my life and tried to understand what I felt, I may have found myself here, having more or less the same conversation with you, only I could've told you for sure" she said smiling at him.

Friday, July 30, 2010

A letter to the man at the north edge of the universe

Dear man at the North Edge of the universe

I do not know your name. So please excuse me for calling you man at the north edge of the universe. They say that you have the answers to all the questions in the universe. I hope you do, cause I have a ton of questions to ask you.

Firstly, Why has this universe been created? for what purpose? Why do I exist? Why do you exist or anyone else exist? Why is there life? Is there a God who created us? If so, does God pay attention to what we do and what we don't? Does God listen to prayer? Is there a difference between good and bad?
Why do we feel happy? why do we feel sad? Why do we feel anger? why do we love? why do we hate? why do we find things funny and laugh? Is the universe really infinite? Does time really exist? Is the lifespan of the universe going to end someday? How did the universe begin? why is there gravity and electromagnetic and nuclear force? Why is the universe the way it is? Can a universe exist with different patterns from this one? Is the answer to all theses questions within the patterns that make up our universe or outside it? Are you really the only living soul inhabiting the North Edge?

I kindly request you to answer these questions. It is crucial that you do, as these are very important questions that I ponder over everyday and are taking up a lot of my time. Please give me lucid explanations to avoid any misinterpretations on my part.
Thank You

Yours curiously
Ishnaa


The Man at the North edge replied :

Dear Ishnaa

If I tell you the answers to those questions, I'd have to kill you.
However,thank you for writing to me. I was beginning to think that people have forgotten about me.

Yours sincerely
George

Friday, July 16, 2010

Around the universe for eternity

Jib Joy was a being who was happy all the time, until that fateful day. Nobody knows what exactly happened. Some say that the love of his life left him for another man. Some say that his brother killed the love of his life. Some say that the brother was the other man. Some say that the love of his life killed his brother. The stories keep coming. But, what that day left him with was an inextinguishable anger. In his boiling rage,he sat in his space craft and went on a journey around the entire universe. And yet, even after such a long and tedious journey(infinite), his anger hadn't waned. So he took another trip around the universe only to find that his anger had subsided only by a tiny bit. So Jib Joy spent many many eternities traveling around an infinite universe many many times until the end of his life. He never found peace.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I take my time for this kinda stuff!

This was an intense adventure for me. How did it begin?
It all started with Slick coming over to my house one night. He said "I have nothing to do and I'm getting extremely bored...." and I said "ok.Come on in." But,Slick didn't want to. He wanted to do something exciting and dangerous. So he took me on his spaceship to an ocean on a planet called Gol.This particular ocean had the most dangerous and gigantic waves and only the best surfers in the universe came and surfed there.
Slick wanted to surf on these waves at night!
I said "No way are you going into those waves!"
But, he ignored me and vanished into the waves.
I quickly took the ship out and started monitoring him from the ship.(just incase!)
But, in one split second he was engulfed by an giant wave and eaten by a whale.
I was shocked. Shocked at having lost my friend.
But, before my shock lessend,the ship happened to pass through a crab hole.
What is a crab hole? Well, I call it that cause not only does it take you to a different place, it also takes you to a different time.
Luckily for me, it took me to the place I was a split second ago and a time split second ago! What a coincidence!
Here was my chance to save Slick!
But the split second was over.
I went through the crab hole again.
Okay what do I do to save him?
Another split second gone by.
The teleportation beam of course!
Another split second gone by.
Okay where exactly is he?
Split second over.
There he is. Co-ordinates are....
split second.
Got it. "Computer.."
split second.
"Activate teleportation beam"
Many Many split seconds went by while I said this.
One more split second.
The teleportation beam picked up Slick just on time.
Split second over.
Slick said "woah...."
split second over.
He saw himself drown.
After many many many split seconds he figured out what happened.
We needed to get out of this loop in less than a split second.
So, Slick braked through the split seconds till the ship stopped and we were in the correct place at the time just after.
"Phew! that was close!" I said.
And that ends this particular adventure.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Over Chopin and a tender coconut

The title might seem a little absurd to you. So, let me explain why I've called this post as above.
I was listening to Etude NO.3 OP.10, composed by Chopin, and drinking water out of a tender coconut when I thought of yesterday's conversation with Rookie, La and Paddu.
It all started with Rookie asking me, "What's at the other end of a black hole?" and I replied, "I don't know."(and some other tiny thoughts that I'm going to skip).La thought that there could be a white hole at the other end of a black hole that spits everything out into its own universe.
And that's when we all realized that there are so many ways of looking at the universe. We are a bunch of completely clueless beings stuck with our own perception of the universe,not really knowing what to make of everything and nothing. Are there many universes or just one universe? Is there a God or not? The problem with this God idea is that it depends entirely on faith. But, having faith that God does exist can also mean that God maybe open to us asking(cause we don't have proof or anything) whether he really does exist. In which case we're back to where we started, does he really exist?
Now, this is where i have to point out, that I'm not a person who makes her thoughts very lucid to others. So, if you haven't exactly understood what I've said, then it's not your fault really.(What I mean to say is that you're not dumb......)
This entire blog is based on the perception that there are many universes, one for every decision that any of us beings make. That's a LOT of universes just for the Earthlings.(Of course, the Earth's population is much too high.) It is also based on a perception that everything is quite random.(So, all we need to do is make the best use of the randomness around us.)
But, going a little deeper, we come to the part where our emotions come into play. Why is it natural for us to feel bad when another being is hurt?(We can ignore it, not do anything etc... but at the end of the day, we cannot admit that we do not feel slightly concerned for the other being.)Or why is Art the way it is? (I hope you understand what I mean when I ask these questions. If you don't, you just need to think about it a little.)The problem is that the fact that God exists or doesn't, one universe or many, cannot imply the fact that any of this also happens.
It's like imagining nothing. It's easy for us to imagine everything, but what about imagining a nothing? That's a bit hard to do. So, do the answers to the BIG questions about the universe lie in Nothing or Everything?(Now, here, I'ver used Nothing and Everything as analogies in a funny way. I'm sorry I'm explaining my thoughts so horribly. I really do hope you understand what I'm really trying to say.)

Yes, a lot of big thoughts over Chopin and a tender coconut.

This post is dedicated to La, Paddu and especially Rookie. Your first dedication Rookie! :-)

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The strange Loopy wormhole

Well, Slick and I were going on one of his spaceships again when we came across a weird wormhole. we thought we'd take a look and we found that the wormhole lead back to the exact same location(if that's even possible!).
so, we thought we'd check again and we went through the wormhole again. We came back to the exact same co ordinates. Amazing!
This wormhole would make the best roller coaster ride in the history of this universe. So that's what we did, we built a roller coaster and a roller coaster track in the wormhole and millions and billions of creatures from all over came to ride through the wormhole. And guess who else paid for a ticket and rode through the wormhole? Dr. Anonymous of course!

The wormhole with the ride still exists. It's one of the wonders of the universe. you should go see it sometime (when you're ready to space travel of course).

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Nutcase

No. This post is not about Rash(pronounced 'RUSH').

It's about a man who everyone thought was a lunatic. Every night he'd wake up and start screaming and yelling at all the people who made him suffer, who let go of him when he didn't want to be and the rest of the world where he lived couldn't stand him for that. (For most worlds are filled with beings who judge.)
The people didn't know what to do with him. Nobody dared to be his neighbour for they were extremely scared of him.
But what they did not know was that during the day he went to the ocean and had the best time of his(or anyone's) life with the dragons in the ocean. People had never thought of dragons as friendly beings. Infact, dragons were supposed to be the most dangerous creatures on the planet. But for some reason this man got along with them. He seemed to understand them and they him.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Black holing with Slick!!!

One day when I was feeling a little lonely and blue, Slick came to cheer me up. "So, who wants to go for a Ked Lepellin concert?" he said and he winked. You can imagine my delight. He not only had tickets for the concert, but an invite to their after party(one guest allowed). "Let's go! what're we waiting for!" I said as I ran to his ultra cool spaceship. And off we went to see the concert. Now, Slick had recently taught me how to calculate the path through which we need to travel to get to a particular location in space and i must say i had gotten very good at it. But, today was not my day. My blueness caused me to be a little absent-minded and i did not re check my calculations.
So, we're travelling at the speed of light and we got gobbled up by a black hole before Slick could say "You idiot."
However, his spaceship is very well designed and didn't get torn apart. Hence, neither did we. (I cannot go into the details of how the spaceship was built due to 2 reasons - 1) It's beyond your comprehension level and 2) It would make this blog too big for my taste. )
We ended up on the other side of the black hole. Now, what's on the other side of a black hole you ask me? Honestly, I don't know. But, Slick and I ended up at the Ked Lepellin concert! How strange? But, things got stranger. Up on stage the lead singer was singing, only it wasn't him. A man with a horrible horrible voice was singing. It was Dr.Anonymous who was singing. And what's more, the crowd threw every piece of rubbish they could find on the guy. (not surprising actually. the guy's just not meant to be a singer. But, somehow, in this universe he is.) Yes, yes that's right. We ended up in another universe.
Before we could think of what to do next, Dr. Anonymous's usual spacecraft came, and out came the lead singer holding what seemed to be a big mike in his hand. The crowd gasped in fear. All of them closed their ears. Slick and I wondered why. Then he sang into the mike.We heard a powerful, dark song and we shuddered as we listened to it. Both of us closed our ears too. But, it wasn't good enough. My favourite band's singer is scaring me. I do not like this. I said, "Slick, we need to get out of here." He said, "We need to find that black hole again". So, we ran back into our spaceship and I got ear muffs to help Slick concentrate while he re calculated co-ordinates. (It's quite surprising, that no set of advanced ear muffs were developed in our universe. Nobody thought of creating dark and powerful songs in our universe either when you look at it that way.)
So, after he calculated, we quickly took off and sped towards the black hole again that gobbled us back to our home universe and boy was I glad to be back.(All the blueness evaporated.)
the concert turned out to be one of their best performances yet!