Funeral

Riotous red of rose petals,

sweet scent of night jasmine;

strewn on the dull grey road; haphazardly….

The steady rhythm of the drums….

I strain my eyes and crane my neck,

to see in the distant; decorated by

An assortment of flowers…. A casket

Peacefully sleeping forever;

Soul long departed….

The drums get louder; I notice 

Young men moving their body 

To the rhythmic pattern….

Its a celebration; of life and death 

Or so it seems

Celebration? I wonder…

More of a break from their mundane 

life. Dancing with ecstasy. 

Cheers to the opportunity…

Some are sober; while some 

high on spirits.

Celebration – of life and death? 

I search for a solemn expression; 

for a sombre soul…

Oh why do I think death should be grim?

What else should it be?

I then wonder; what would the dead have thought?

Cry for me a little; perhaps?

Think of me now and again; in joy and pain?

Let go of me in silence; I suppose?

Death….is a celebration. 

The dead is being paraded; like a deity. 

The life - celebrated; or the moment?

I would never know….

PS : Ive always been curious about why people give noisy farewell to the dead. The beat of the drums, the noise, the chaos, blocking traffic and causing inconvenience to others.....Would the dead person have liked it? I doubt..Also, whats in it for the mourners? I am using the word "mourner" here liberally. More often; I have noticed people dont mourn or pay respect; for some its a formality and a break from their daily run-of-the-mill life.

Virtual Bliss

Few days back; visited Apple Care to fix my laptop's charging cable. Being an multi product Apple user; I often visit the center for one thing or the other. This time; I chose to observe people around and this is what I came up with.....

On the hard milky white resin bench; 

I sit with my swanky gadgets 

Of laptop and phone 
Apple they are! Oh boy!

Awaiting my turn; to service one

tiny pin of the charging cable

That seems to have burnt out!

Curse the voltage fluctuation

But its just one tiny pin of the five...

Yet; the charging cable is rendered

Useless….

And now I am awaiting my turn….

Nothing to do but observe 

people. Every soul hooked into their gadgets;

Aimlessly browsing, connecting with their friends. 

The virtual world seems to be more interesting.

The real world is now so dull

With zombie souls engrossed in the web 

How to smile; long forgotten. The emoticons do the job well. 

How to converse; oh! Whats that? 

Bored; after watching the lifeless heads.

I turn to my own gadget

To capture my flowing thoughts….

And here we are!

An Oblivion

Were you

all there? Beneath the streetlights, 

as I stroked and smudged,

my beautiful visions,

like a violinist playing his violin; caressing, 

as if;

it were the supple hip of his lady love.

I was intensely, yet leisurely, 

giving a form to my imagination - 

golden locks, curly and bouncing;

in that dark of the night.

The luscious red robe, atoned by

pale of her skin....

The river lull; inviting the

dark clouds billowing up the skies,

She gently paddled her oar,

not a hint of despair.

Were you,

all there? Seeing me create an angel...then

I heard a sob, in the black of night.

A feeble cry of a woman in pain...

I drop my palette; in shock!

Symphony of colors dancing with the twilight. 

I turn around, saw you all there;

The darkest of the souls; 

snatching away my creation.

She was not an angel in red robe..

It was a

dark shadow drenched with my blood.

And as I closed my eyes; I saw her - 

Sneering at me. 

PS : Sometimes; what you see or perceive is not what is real. 

Swanky Rick Driver

Whats with me getting into conversation with auto rickshaw drivers? Most times it starts with me being empathetic with their everyday "struggle" in life to earn few hundreds while its as easy as "signing few papers" for office goers. I pass a word or two about how tough life has become and I totally understand and agree its doubly unfair on them. Well, its a win win. I get to travel in peace for the rest of the journey and their ego gets satisfied. 

But there are times when I get to bear the brunt of being a listener. 2 days ago; I hired an auto and the driver looked hip; with an ear stud, a partial mohawk, designer beard and jeans. It was raining and bad traffic jam. He started complaining about the traffic and I emphasized with him. 

It didn't stop there. He wanted to know if I am Kannada or Tamil (the conversation so far had been in Kannada and his accent gave away that he was a Tamilian). He later claimed to have guessed my mother tongue by my face. Well, such talks makes me very uncomfortable. Ive been hiding my second names forever now because it reveals my linguistic and community identity. Now this guy claims to have rightly guessed my language by my face! I have been mistaken for a Marwari and a Malaysian and even Sri Lankan elsewhere. 

As I rolled my eyes and waiting for the traffic to clear; he started sharing about his life. He was not good in studies, just 7th grade. How he blew up money unto 7000 Rs everyday along with his friends visiting pubs. Only much later did he realize the importance of money. He was driving cars but for some reason; he was terminated after a month or so by every other employers and he doesn't know why? I chided myself for being mean but I thought "What else would anyone do if you dont have an inch of humility?" 

The conversation then moved to my hometown. I said I am from Bangalore and so were my parents. He said he is also from Bangalore; his parents migrated decades ago and his father serves in a public sector for 30 years now. And then I was thrown a challenge. "Can you take a wild guess how much my dad earns now?" I took a guess and said "Around 50000 Rs?" To which he responded 50000 and some Rs. I was glad that he didn't ask me what I was earning or how much my parents would be earning. 

So far; so good. But what offended me was his way of pulling others down. During our course of conversation; I said I lived my life and did my schooling in an area surrounded by Air Force campus. He could recognize that area and his question was "Oh! Did you live in that slum behind air force?" Well...well...that was not warranted. 

So when I got an opportunity I wouldn't miss it; would I? When he said his dad was in public sector and in those days; it was easy to get a job, I retorted "Oh yeah! my parents used to tell the same. Even cattle herders and illiterates were forcefully called and given jobs in public sectors" 

How is that? 

Hiking the Laugavegurinn Trail

On my Travel Blog - Hiking the Laugavegurinn Trail

Choice

You are given choices all the time; every turn in your life. To

Ignore or Attend to - When you see a wounded stray dog on the road. I saw one the day before with his tail badly damaged while commuting by auto. The dog seemed calm; but my heart skipped a beat when I saw the raw flesh. I thought about all the dust, infection and the struggle. I wanted to stop the auto; run after him and take to a vet and at least dress his wounds. My thought stopped there; I took no action. Why? Everyday; I see at least one stray wounded, bruised and battered. I so want to take them all in. I choose to ignore. 

Love or be Indifferent - You are given a choice to either love or hate? I wont call the opposite of love is hate. Hate is still fine; its the indifference that hurts more. The person whom you love, care and wish good chooses to be indifferent. What do you do? Either choose to continue to love or ignore. Continue to do what you'd do. How can you stop just because the other didn't reciprocate your feelings? Is it give or take? Its not a transaction right? 

Thank or Crib - Well, to each his own. We think our struggles are the greatest and worse injustice has been done. While you are fighting to hold on to the person you love; give a moment and think about the thousands of refugees who are forced to abandon everything for no fault of theirs. Now do you thank for whatever you are provided with - meals, a decent job, clothes, shelter, a smart phone to express your criticism or crib about traffic, your job, your partner?

Be Calm or be angry - When you are being tested, being questioned, taken for granted...You can either talk rubbish and use foul language, express anger or just stay calm. Is being calm and being at receiving end a sign of weakness? No! its just that you are mature and stronger than the other person who is expressing the anger. 

Let Go or Hold on to - Sometimes its better to let go than hold on to something that would not empower you and nourish you. Letting go; in other words giving up. You can only try for a while and then let go for the best of everyone. 

So see, there is a choice in life all the time. Good person or bad person. No one knows what happens to us after our death. What happens to our soul? While we are alive; we have a choice all the time; until death. Its us who can take control of how we want to be. Sometimes the decision taken can be termed stupid, foolish and even hopeless. But if you feel you did the right thing and feel satisfied about it; make that choice. 

Heard and Observed....

When you are on the road; which most times you are commuting to office or home or someplace else; if you happen to be in any major city in India, there are chances of encountering either an interesting conversation, or an amusing scene that will keep you entertained. Sharing some of my recent ones...

I have the privilege of listening and observing lot of things going around at the railway signal I need to pass through. Sometimes; 2 to 3 trains pass at a time; so you have to for a while. Thats when you get to hear and see interesting things. Recently heard this conversation between two guys on each side of the auto I was on. So you see; I dont have a chance but to hear their talk. Men; generally talk about their capability; whatever context it may be. So one guy starts with asking the other one if he heard about "Victor" being slapped by someone at the bar. This one responds with "Yeah, heard it. He has decided to keep his mouth shut here on". The one who started this has to now feed his own ego; now said "Yeah, he is going to get from me one of these days. I am going to beat him up. Do you know; his car was taken away by the bank. He failed to make loan payment. This is his third car." So it went on that way for five more minutes. Phew! guys talk is it?

Posted this on FB couple of weeks ago....I was walking Gypsy this evening. He has lot of fans and admirers who Ooh and Aah his handsomeness and gait. Overheard this conversation between a lady and her 10ish year old girl in Kannada. "I need a pet too. Look at him(referring to gypsy), he is so adorable". The lady - "You first try to get out of out in all your subjects. We''ll then get one for you." The girl - "But I can still get out of out". The lady - "you'll have to spend time taking care of the pet. So you first show you can get out of out". Sigh! I didn't understand the logic. But what was obvious was parents using anything and everything as a carrot and stick to get their wishes of kids' academic success.

This one is a gem. Happened yesterday at a temple. We were in the queue; I was getting irritated with people pushing and jostling and the heat was getting on. There was this girl of about 4 years old maybe; running around to their parents' pride. The mom called and gave her few coins; saying it was 10 Rs and that was for "Maami.." I understood "Maami" meant "God" in the kids lingo. The kid promptly said "Why 10 Rs. I will give 4 Rs and keep the remaining"....!!! Now I dont think the kid knew the math or the value of money but she did know to divide the money :-o

The final one - No conversations. Just my observation. One of the traffic signal waiting for the lights to go green. Smoke from cigarette from my left was coming on; it was irritating. I recalled smoking in public is a no-no and so turned around to politely ask the person to stub it out or move it away from my face. I turned around and it was a lady around my age riding pillion; holding on to a lit cigarette. She had left her hair loose, smoking occasionally and chatting with the guy riding the motorcycle. Now I stopped; dont know why I didnt tell her. Was it because I didn't expect a woman to blow a cigarette smoke at me? Instead; I just started noticing her. Candy pink painted toe nails and finger nails; sheer leggings and platform heels. All I could think was - Is she going to office this way. Hope not". I know I was wrong in judging; but this thought even came about because the smoke came on to my face :-/