BOOKS AND BANGALORE

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Paper And Ink

This picture reminds me of BLOSSOMS bookstore!
Like every morning that greets with drops dew
A book is this life, every day its page bright new

Doors now open to call me with their magic spell
Of a world where tales live more than they all tell

Stories many in this big paradise I thank and take
Lines left to read, my thoughts that wait to wake

Words many in tunes now talk with my happy heart
Springs a joy in the mind that shall now never part

Friends now I can make, no fairy or angel shall send.
The last leaf smells as afresh,well in every 'the end'.

-R.

"You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend."- Paul Sweeney

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Goodness Sake


 This post is on the winner's list of Good Over Bad Contest at Blogadda.



Harry pointed his wand to the Marauder’s Map and said"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" and off he went roaming around every secret passage and hallway in Hogwarts.We all are up to this weird kind of mischief every now and then.I believe that each one of us draw an interesting line between the good and the bad,a matter of perspective.However small be one’s gain,isn’t it a loss to another?What does it qualify as,good or bad?How much sin does it accumulate anyway? How often do we try to be more than humans? 

We value a person’s goodness based on what they have in store for us.Isn’t it an evil thing to do,i mean nothing but to expect.We often come across people who we think of as ruthless doing random acts of kindness,and the vice versa happens too.Some great man once said "Every sweet has its sour and every evil its good".I think it is the fair balance which counts finally. 

 In some moments of weak selfishness we tend to overlook the repercussions that follow our acts.But what we forget is that we can do something by learning about the world we live in with a clear conscience and give goodness a try by helping others or even at the very worse,learn about how not to harm anyone. 

For centuries we have been celebrating the victory of good over evil with a very raw interpretation.Amongst all the unpleasant things of greed,power,cowardice,money,theft,war,assassinations,terror and the endless we shall be highly fortunate if we make some place for and see peace,love,care,laughter,life,liberty,sense and determination.

A popular belief is that evil outshines everything in today’s world,maybe it does because the good stays silently hiding beneath.But there are a few who dare a fight and show.It is because of their kind acts of giving in the past and present that the world is still a beautiful place.I feel like a worm in these matters and I dare not talk about the blessed people and do them any less justice.My regards and respect to the many unsung heroes amidst us.Because to try and belong to that bunch of the brave requires a lot of selflesslessness.

Among the many who appeal to me here are a few that I shall thank,my Amma for literally living my life with me,my Appa for being the beautiful person he is,my friends who end up proving that they are the best in some way or the other at the end of it all.To live enough and to give more than enough is what I learn from them every day.Good enough.They bring all the goodness in my life.For me it all begins at home.

Of all the good I have learnt here is a story that Amma used to tell me during childhood,I remember how her eyes used to fill with tears during each of those narrations.Every now and then when I have to do or decide on something which has an effect on somebody else the melody of the song haunts me for some strange good.I guess every child here in Karnataka has heard this folklore at least once.There is an immense power that this story brings,it is for generations to carry.


"Punyakoti was one among the many cows of the cowherd Kalinga.They were like every day grazing in the green fields,dusk set in and as fate had it a tiger by name Arbhutta who was in great hunger attacks the herd.All the cows run for life and she is left alone,he tries to pounce on her.She convinces the tiger saying that her hungry calf is waiting back in the shed and she would return soon after feeding him.She makes a solemn promise and the tiger seeing her motherly concern lets her go.

She comes back to feed her calf and tells him about the incident and now that her final hour had come,she had to go.She asks her sisters and friends to take care of her son like one among them in her absence henceforth. 

The tiger is stunned with bewilderment seeing her at his den only to keep her promise of not denying him his food.He is touched by her honesty and self sacrifice.In tears he questions himself if God would forgive him if he killed and devoured such a pious and truthful cow,in remorse and realization he jumps off the cliff and ends his life."

Simple yet intense..poignant yet beautiful!

  


"We've all got both light and dark inside us.What matters is the part we choose to act on.That's who we really are"-Sirius Black[ in The Order Of The Phoenix by J.K.Rowling].
 
-R.


Buy Social Causes T-Shirts
online at
Myntra.com
and visit the largest community of Indian
Bloggers
at BlogAdda.com

Monday, October 18, 2010

Ride Back My Way



Waves of silence break and I hear the school bell ring
Up in the air flies my heart on the old yellow swing
Down the slide I run again behind the dandelion wisp
Hands I wish some for a clap with rhymes silly to lisp

Wheels two to take me along and show that every road
The sky that was my roof and the earth my only abode
Friends whom I left to catch in all the hide and seek
Happiness long ago that did stay seven days a week

Every thing that met the eyes turned a bat or a ball
Bruises of pride that always followed a fight or fall
Games always meant more than to please or play
Wish these perfect little gifts ride back my way

-R.


Buy Official Cricket and Football jerseys
online at 
Myntra.com and visit the largest community of Indian
Bloggers at BlogAdda.com

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Where The Wild Things Are


       

C: Hobbes,you know what!This is getting wonderful night by night,wonder how many earthlings are fortunate like me to dream about lizards creeping beneath their sheets and frogs jumping under their bed,and I actually get to hold them!Beauty aren’t they,what say?

H: Hmm...Your realities are as wild as your perceptions.I am a living proof. 

C: Yeah…that was some knowledge.Hope we catch some tonight! 

H: And then you can make them run on me...by the way am I seeing your new boots down there? 

C: Yep...wonder what makes you ask!  

H: Obvious, I am not seeing the usual mud...get me some this time! 

C: Hobbes, this time it is gonna be fun! New boots, new camera and so much new, there are a sixteen of us you know...can you hear the place calling? 

H: Yeah! Sounds exciting! Shall I come along? In case you need me to carry your rucksack, some water and more food.

C: That will be difficult Hobbes, this time I shall be taking care by myself. 

H: That you have to! You know what Calvin, sometimes I wish I was a real tiger, a real one! Out there in the jungles!

C: Then I would have to save you from those wicked hunters!The current scheme of things seems better,it saves me of work you see,you silly tiger! 

H: Argh!Be a good child and listen to the wild,careful near the swamp and now switch off the lamp!!! 

C: OK!When I am back Hobbes you gotta hear my wild tales,jungle lores and adventure stories...like those of Mr.Corbett,Anderson,Irwin and Morris…Aah... 

H: I wish to!Good night buddy…we are leaving…where life can have real meaning…Yukon Ho!
C: Amen...Good night!
                                       

Monday, October 11, 2010

In Giving




We conjure up an image of the world we want to live in.And often we end up seeing what we wish to see.There are people, places and moments that give us that picture perfect feeling and it seems as though it is meant to be, for always.But this can come with a clause.I do not call it a compromise, quite a lame term that is and maybe for the most of us it is very difficult to accept.

Not always does life give us a ‘yes’ or a’ no’ to choose.Where I sit often is on the wall in between,for  what is difficult for me to see is the thin line of fog. Indecisiveness comes easy.Acceptance does not.Sometimes I do feel I either have to make it stay or let it go by.But I just let it be.

I own a sack of bizarre wishes and dreams like everyone else but I chose not to rant about them to anyone.This does reflect a deep shade of mine which by choice I keep to myself.I rather paint a smile, a giggle, a cry or maybe even silence and keep all the rest away.It is an unconscious effort.It does work.I am horribly afraid of losing what I already have.We all are! 

Each one of us gets our worth of sunshine days and it is not right on our part to wish for clouds just because we cannot bear the heat anymore, for someone it might be a glimpse of their first day. It is too presumptuous to compare our dreams and expectations with anybody’s else.We lose our boundaries when it comes to satisfying ourselves.I have at times.Sometimes it brings repentance for all the right and wrong reasons.Fortunately there are times when I have gained enormous strength as a person,for the me in me.

This is nothing close to the“Growing-up-getting–serious-philosophy”.It is an essential realization.I am learning that I should give more than to take, expect good more than bad.It does carry a huge risk along but as long as am here I shall lend my share.


There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life-happiness, freedom and a peace of mind - are always attained by giving them to someone else~ Peyton Conway March

-R.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Forever Free



Stars wafting white call me under their tent while the bees thrum
Go I will,a peace deep I yearn to own more than a little some

Happy is this soul for they heard me cry and let this home chose
A joy now whispers and draws me a moment a breath close

The travel of this life, with no fear or fate I will now embark
Here I come, with hunger for a light in me beyond this dark

Doors of the wild open before my thoughts drift and knock
Treasure and tales I shall find that no living can hide or lock

Stroll I will in these tempting woods till green turns my knee
A place where I am me,a lone in my heart feels forever free


-R. 

Friday, October 1, 2010

Selected But Naturally

A small fetish of watching films and footage showing animals hunting in the jungles and grasslands has heightened in me.I am struck by the wild,naturally.

There were around a hundred of a kind grazing in the vast fields,what looked to me like black polka dots moving hither tither in a golden green background,it was quite breath taking.And crawling stealthily in a corner was a predator waiting for one right moment.She was a big game hunter like her predecessors,paws in position and eyes on her prey she moved closer breathing silently and before long her claws and teeth had ripped the layer of skin from a calf.The herd of wild buffaloes startled by the suddenness of the attack ran reckless and away.But what happened to the chosen one for the day was a ghastly sight to see.Standing under a freeze he seemed to be parting with his life in a strange ease to satisfy someone’s hunger.His ribs lay dripping in blood,and around him was a mother with her three cubs who were pushing each other with little paws and making infantile roars for a fair share of meat. A while ago they were watching her keenly and learning how to hunt it all and live with the laws of nature,splendid.

On an another occasion on air was a great bird soaring in the sky with eyes reflecting a vision far and beyond .She was in search of something.Meanwhile a little hero hopped in,flaunting his fur amidst the scattered bushes of red flowers and rocks on the flat land.She could not help but notice.And the next moment she was seen dipping down,she came close.Frightened by the shadow which fell on his body he ran and hid behind a small crevice.But she was not here to let him go,and before he did expect she pounced on his neck and took the hare away.

A precision of this sort in the ways of the wild is fascinating, more so a feast for the eyes.At the same time it makes me brood over the beautiful uncertainties and the rules on this planet and it turns my mind into a thinking river.It is a wondrous and questionable feeling that amongst the millions of forms of life, we the all and self devouring ones have been favored the best since ages.Why? Are we the fittest? How long will we survive?While we run,nature is at her pace in peace and in patience.Well,I guess she has a plan for each of us beasts.



-R.