Fiction

The journey from April-2008 to 2009 took wings.Mansi looked back and was stilled into deep and profound intospection.Her post retirement period was getting smitten into brief episodes of fleeting moments.Each moment stagnating yet being eaten away by an equally mouldy ushering moment.Lethargy had taken complete hold of her mind. However the stillness of monotony got dispelled momentarily by the arrival of her maid.She use to come after her husband and child left for their work.She was a leisurly person-a fat round faced young girl whom she mistook as a neighbour when she came to her house expecting to be employed since they had recently shifted to that area. .Youth is a deterrent to poverty.Mansi remembered how she had welc omed her. She had looked at her own dishevelled condition,her scraggly hair which were partially dyed and which had turned frayed and wiry-the loose and old fashioned dress which she was wearing gave her a bedraggled look and she felt self conscious before t...

Puru looked back into the pagoda of a house. It was built, a little of wood , a little of concrete and clay. The floor comprised of huge wide planks of wood , the irregular grain a stark contrast to their gleam.It exuded a strange warmth which turned nostalgic for her in due course of time.The floor ached and cracked eternally under the constant tread of feet of the young and old .The muddy brownish texture of the floor told the tale of being there since ages. The layers of dirt and grime had plastered the planks finely and the regular tread on them smoothened out the rough contours if any were ever present.The entire family used this part of the house as a conduit to other sections of the building.It also led to the kitchen in the basement where the cooking range was sheltered by a low canopy which sucked in the smoke and stopped it from spreading. Puru's grand-ma lit the fire early in the morning . She used dry crisp wood, big logs and some assortment of combustibl...

Roopa got up from her bed to look out whether there were any signs of a sunny day ahead. It was very cold. She had worn the warmest wollens yet her limbs felt numb with cold.Her bed she noticed was empty.Her husband had already left for his work.Sunday was the only holiday when he stayed back.It usud to be a much awaited day for Roopa but now no more.Her husband had become so accostomed of outdoors that he could hardly spend a holiday happily at home.All his aches and troubles surfaced and they could only be alleviated by getting glued to the t.v. set and viewing sops and movies of any genre.On other days she could cope with her lonliness and the emptiness of the house in her own way since she knew that there was nobody to give her company.But now she had either to sit quietly alongside her husband and savour the hackneyed fare quietly or go about her work and leave him alone.She would sink into deep ennui and hopelessness.sometimes She would remain away for hours loiteri...

The winter days were for ever the most weird of all other days for Subi.The entire valley looked one big expanse of shrouded contours. The white snow created its own snow scapes.Subi would always have the complete view of the outside scene from her window.The open courtyard could not be recognised.The heaps of snow had hardened into mounds of ice.One had to climb it in order to reach the other end of the courtyard where the toilets were situated.By walking over constantly a smooth path got etched into the hard ice. She could see the trees around turned into snow skeletons of various shapes.Nearby in the garden her uncles had dug a deep hole to preserve some tuberous vegetables for the deep winter when fresh vegetables were not available.The large cylindrical raddishes,the round and green khol-knols and the big white turnips.They would be dug out by her uncles when needed.It was a sort of adventure for her as she accompanied her uncles.She did not care about the snow and...

Subi was never tired of loafing. She knew almost all her neighbours. Not only that, she also knew the people who lived near the market place in small shanties. She remembered how one day while going through the corridors she found one shabby man lying flat on his stomach.He was frothing at the mouth and writhing in pain.She reached near him and wanted to know what the matter was with him .Soon she saw a crowd gathering there and one person pulled out his shoe and put it against his nose. Subi was amazed to see the person getting all right .The crowd dispersed but Subi got disturbed and curious about him .She followed him .He stopped and looked at her and grinned.It was a strange grin -a mixed expression of pain and aimlessness.He was frail and dirty and reeked of staleness.She turned and moved away from him. It was still the early afternoon and she had no inclinations to reach her home as yet.. Outside Subi experienced joy and gaiety and diversions from the moroseness of her home ...

Paradox of Modern Living There is one incident which comes to my mind time and again, whenever my little child comes to me and asks quite imploringly to be picked up and told a story. I try to dissuade her but to no avail.Her nagging persistence turns my soft persuation into repressed anger and, finally, I scold her and turn her away, telling her to be busy with any damn thing and leave me free to concentrate on my work in hand.The child whimpers and sadly enough turns disruptive. Oh what a heart rending scene. I realize later. I could have been a little more pursuasive, a little diplomatic and saved her the anguish.But alas the moment was lost and the harm done. It is after such episodes that I reminisce my past days when life seemed miserable and the days sordid, when craving for motherhood pushed away any other wish that the heart could desire.To achieve the status of a mother was the be all and the end -all of any type of romantic alliance.Nothing else mattered....

After This What After this what .What will be my next destiny.The small girl with wild eyes and indifferent deportment who lived the most part of her days in the wilderness of her grandparent's backyard had subconscious visions of a world which was a disconnect with now and then.Or perhaps this is the interpretation of my adult reasoning. May be my brain at that time was as blank as that of the street urchin who unmindfully follows his mendicant parents in whatever they do to subsist and which later becomes the main stay of his ensuing life.The difference between the two being that one could interpret and the other had turned comatose.The little girl tripped along the twisted terrains of her growing journey through life. She was untamed yet full of weird dreams which made her float into the realms of fantasy created by the visions of those great writers who wrote great romances and who wove the tales of woe and joy and filled her subconscious mind with a premoniti...

So much water has flown down the river since I last wrote on this paper.It has yellowed out and is turning ancient and haggard.My hand is trembling .Age and disuse is taking toll on my nerves.They, my fingers are running ahead of my thoughts.Today is the deadline for me to come forth with the creative quota.I will have to fix each day's quota otherwise Iwill stagnate.To day it is very closed though the sun is not sharp.It is shedding a gloominess around.The palm plant before me is patiently spreading its leaves askanse for any benevolence from the skies above. The rains were scanty this Monsoon. The little showers which poured could hardly take away the accumulated heat of the hard summer. The steely roads are smeared with the grime and concrete of the constructions going around perpetually.They are further ploughed through by the swish shiny brand new vehicles of all makes.They run and screech with impunity over the broken and shattered pathways which raise rubble and hit helples...

It is a silent afternoon .Life seems to be sitting mute .Far somewhere some bicycle bell rings. It sounds muffled. Manu peers through the window. The sharpness of the sun blazes around and creates a glare to the eye . She feels like lazing around but there is a heaviness of the heart which stops her from experiencing the mood of the moment. Her brain is stuck fixedly on one person who incidently is her mother . As a small child she had a different picture of this person. She was the epitome of good reason and motherly instinct. Manu's father was a despot supposedly who was intent only upon torturing her mother who like an innocent lamb gave in to his brutal ways. Manu and her sisters were given to understand that she was under constant persecution and suffered quietly. Their only wish was to save their mother from the clutches of this brute.Their psyche got affected. This was reflected by their general demeanour. They always received curious looks which made them se...

Mona sat still. It was mid-afternoon and very hot.She was not able to concentrate on the book open before her.The room looked painfully bright. She wished to lie down a little but she was not habitual of sleeping in the day time ever since she was a small child. She remembered, as a small girl, she would feel sad and lonely seeing her mother taking her afternoon sleep. It was not a short nap and she was strictly instructed to remain quiet.Mona hated this part of the day since then. But as a grown up how she wished she had inculcated this habit in order to disconnect with the continuity of the linear time zone of 12 hours . She absent-mindedly closed her book and let her thoughts flow. The memories dug so deep suddenly surfaced.Mona no doubt was a keen student, quite envious of her friend's performances but she never strove enough to excel them. She was wayward but clever enough to sail through fairly. She was never well-groomed but had a charisma ar...

My life has been a saga of a driftless person who got buffeted around by the vagaries of destiny.The winds of change at every turning of my growing up pushed me in any direction the wind blew.There was no compulsion of any sort for me to conform to any sort of discipline.I was a free bird to take wings in any direction.I flitted around or skipped out anywhere or everywhere where my whim took me. I was my own lord and no member in the family took much notice of me.They considered me as a kid who should be left on her own. They knew that my requirements at that time were my food and some toys,Those were the safe days when children feared no dangers when the times were safe.People had only the basic needs which had to be fulfilled.Mainly it included feeding a large family.Each member was assigned some specific duty to carry out which was directly linked to the procurement of food .For instance if a person was assinged the duty of fetching the vegetable from the garde...

she was a philanthropist. Every day she would dole out lunch and dinner to all and sundry who knew about her 'lunger'.she did not differentiate between the high and the low.She remained quite busy and charged the whole day.The expenses incurred by her might have been quite exorbitant. She lived alone in her palatial apartment.It was my intense curiosity to know more about her.I also wanted to have some interaction with her which could help in finding a foothold in social service. Lately i was going through a phase of complete stagnation.My senses had atrophied and i  wanted some stimulus to be up and going. I went to meet her one day.I reached her house and there i was accosted by a battery of her servants and guards. They led me to her. She was about to leave with some high profile ladies. Seeing me she stopped and after knowing that i had come to meet her she retraced her steps and invited me in and told the ladies that she would call them later. I was flattered and followed ...

Ronit's only trick was to praise her land-lady's weird ways and show rapt attention to her morbid tales of how she influenced the fates of all those who surrounded her in a positive way by sending them her positive vibrations.She was mesmerised by her own hallucinations and Ronit showed his rapt wonderment and reverence till he took full hold on her and enjoyed uninterrupted stay in the house. She hardly paid any notice to his dalliances with his numerous girl friends in the house. She was a simpleton for him who could be hoodwinked into believing anything howsoever bizarre or inane.This way years passed and he forgot that he was a mere tenant.                  But then one day as he returned as usual, she called him with those bewitched looks and informed him that he had to vacate. Why? He almost shrieked.Because she had the foreboding that he was under some evil spell which was distracting her positive vi...

Roopa looked at her mother intently. She was quite old, an octogenarian but her demeanour was that of middle aged women. She could feel that her mother always lived superficially.Her eyes had a piquant expression which hankered after establishing her supremacy. This she had been doing during her entire life span.Her convoluted thought processes centred around this one obsession that she was responsible for shaping the destinies of her entire family and her sole aim was to get this fact established in the minds of her husband and children.But it was the obstinacy of the members of her family to negate it imperceptibly yet doggedly.This went on and on.The family disintegrated.The head of the family left this world but this octogenarian turned more and more vociferous.She continued with the same piquant look trying to establish her supremacy in the hollowed precincts of her house to anybody who was with her, and in the present case her daughter Rupa, who looked at the portrait of her fath...

As a small child ,I was made to stay with my grand-parents for a major part of my childhood. I think it was the best part of my growing up. I was like a free bird with no restrictions on me. The whole world was there for the child in me to explore.I would built up the micro world of my own which was the prototype of the adult world.I was the householder and the master thereof.              The tall pine trees grew stately around me under the blue sky.The needle leaves shone like spears in the bright white light of the brilliant sun.I craved to touch the branches and pluck the dark big seeds hanging in bunches.The huge kikar trees grew thick and dense.The bunches of white blossoms  hung heavy on the branches. I had to jump up a leap or two in order to pluck the luscious and soft bunches of white flowers,Even as a small child they created a deep joy of possession in me.I would finally pluck them bit by bit and turn them into some or the other piece...

In the eerie silence of a summer afternoon ,I wanted to find some escape in my personal computer which was sitting askance to be indulged. The keys moved fast to hit some blog and get connected.But it turned out an inane exercise for me. The on and on saga of unknown entities filled me with a strange vacuity.Heaps of debris not even capable of turning fecund.Who cares what Amitab Baccahan did in Germany or how he preserved the childhood memories of his friends children in his  personal computer? Or the new mom displaying her astute skills to bring up her ideal child who some-how will be the dude of tomorrow. A sheer vanity which turned the dense afternoon all the more unbearable. Amen

Fiction: Walnut Brain : "The present day generation is suffering from extreme egoism which has rendered them intolerant to their elders view-point or any sane advice..."

For the past many years i was under tremendous peer pressure regarding my lack of computer literacy. It followed my subconscious mind like a ghost.It created a complex and affected my normal interaction with my colleagues .I would try to veer clear of any mention of computers.But my friends would insist on my having to do something with computers. The very idea of learning it gave me jitters.I tried to get tutored but failed to make head or tail of the vast network of icons and figures in the box.I would try to fiddle with the keys in privacy to get familiar and be rid of the terrible fear of being ridiculed for my inability to learn .Being advanced in years it started taking toll of my mental health. I wished to reason out with my friends as to why lack of computer knowledge will make me a lesser human-being than them.But their flashy eyes and charged advice revealed my low I.Q. and i was a pariah in my own group. I felt i was missing out a world without which my entire assorted knowl...

The present day generation is suffering from extreme egoism which has rendered them intolerant to their elders view-point or any sane advice.They are under terrible peer pressure.There is aversion towards anything which demands reasoning or deep deliberation.They feel shamed by the open and natural behaviour of their parents and dismiss them off as inconsequential calling them as walnut   brains.