Tag: experiences

The Forbidden Apple

It was in the common gossip, everybody knew,

But no one seemed to get it, tried by quite a few…

Some tagged it cursed while some resorted to magic,

Fear engulfed them all that the thing could be tragic!!!

 

I was unaware, being aged just ten,

Believed whatever was written in papers with pen…

Set out to explore what was hidden from me,

Quenched my curiosity with what I could see!!!

 

Kept walking straight till sight guided the way,

Paid no heed to what the people did say…

“I’ll find it first”, a pride filled me in,

With a steely resolve, I waded through thick-n-thin!!!

 

As I entered the forest, darkness began to converge,

Quickened my pace, as thrill began to surge…

Lost all directions, went towards light,

Began doubting my judgement as it led to this plight!!!

 

Something shone bright, and I hid for cover,

The heart of the jungle wasn’t for the mundane lover…

I peeked out right to get a glimpse of it,

It shimmered in the darkness, like a thousand fireflies lit!!!

 

Before I could realize, my feet took me that way,

I was in dilemma, whether to leave or stay…

But curiosity shadowed fear for a ten year old,

I moved closer and closer, my actions grew bold!!!

 

And then it came to view, a sight never had I seen,

An object so bright, a feeling so serene…

As if under a spell, my hands went for the prize,

Feet on earth or floating in air, neither did I realize!!!

 

I grabbed it with my might, it was very warm and red,

Rather than taking home, tried to grab a bite instead…

Juts as my teeth touched its scarlet skin, I felt the earth sink deep,

To my surprise, I was in my room, wide awake from sleep!!!

 

Gone was the forest, gone was the tree, nothing left for show,

And why it’s called ‘The Forbidden Apple’, now I do know!!!

MicroTale #29 : Reverie

Collection : Reverie

MT#29_1

 

She broke all the rules of being a so-called female. At the age of 24, she won the international Body Building Championship.
.
Looking back to where it started, when he said, ‘This profession doesn’t suit you’.: She smirked at the thought

Hate is a better motivator than love.

Dreams Matter

Akarsh was walking on the road with his mother in the warm afternoon. The sun was spewing the UV rays like sprinklers spraying water everywhere, making sure everything in vicinity gets some radiation.

Its a pretty normal noon, dogs are trying to find a comfortable place to sleep in, some people trying to catch a bus for their offices, playschool students seemingly happy to get back to their parents, the pride of parenthood showing up on parents faces. The street kids running half naked towards the nearby lake. The shopkeepers cleaning up and loitering on the streets. The cars going at 40kmph on the narrow roads creating ruckus at an ear-deafening level. Akarsh makes a mental note of everything as he reaches home.

While going to bed, he asked his mom, “Mom, why do people throw garbage on the streets?”
His mother replied “Beta, they are just lazy people. You please go to sleep.”
“But they can keep a plastic bag with them na, if they are too lazy?”
“Its not that simple beta”
“But…”
“Okay tell me what superhero power you would want to teach them a lesson.”, she cut him off.
“I would become Flash and would go back in time and keep repeating the past till they don’t throw the trash in the bins”, Akarsh said giddily.

The mother smiled; half proud of her son’s passion and half on the ignorance of the idea of paradox of time-travel that her son was fathoming.

She listened to the mumbling of her child as he carried on the idea and eventually slept.

Akarsh woke up to a voice calling his name. The voice came from a long distance that he knew he couldn’t trace. The voice asked him “What is making you anxious?”

“It’s the people” said Akarsh in a muffled voice.
“Hahaha..you have to be a little more specific on that.”, said the voice grinning loudly.

“Why do people throw their garbage on the streets? Why don’t they understand its a moral duty to keep your area clean”

The voice culminated into a shadowy figure and came close to him.

“I am tired of dropping hints to them. Tell me if you have any good idea.”

Akarsh whispered something into the shadow ears.

Next day, Akarsh walked around with grinny face. Everywhere he saw, it was so clean. The half naked children were still running to the dirty pond. The dogs still couldn’t find a warm place to sleep. The ear deafening cars were still a big trouble. He thought to himself, atleast one thing got cured. We will work for other problems some other day.

“Look mom, its so clean today. No garbage, everything either in the dustbins or in the ‘houses’.”, he giggled.

“How did this happen?”, mom thought loud enough in order to make Akarsh answer.

“I asked the ‘voice’ to turn the garbages into 10 rupees note for few minutes”

They continue walking the road as Akarsh is singing happily and his mom scratching her head.

Image Courtesy: Google Images

 

Now Click Here for the next part.

Air Guitar Rocks!


The worst habit that damages us is our inability to understand that patience is the key to a lot of things including early success.

We lose so many abilities in our lives just because of our impatience.
How many times in our lives we have taken a new thing and at the start we are star-eyed about it. The new thing is fun and brings out a lot of things out of us. Say, for example, coding; at the start, at the basic level, its all fun and easy. But, as soon as the challenges start to creep up, we start to lose interest in them. Although, it may also be the result of an unprecedented start, without acquiring necessary textbook knowledge, but my point is, impatience here also plays the same role. Instead of acquiring the necessary theoretical knowledge, we jumped on the coding section, without being equipped with the necessary troubleshooting knowledge.
Had we been patient enough, things would have been different.
Another example that we commonly see, is about joining gym. We start expecting as soon as the first bulge of tightened muscle we see.

What we need to understand that things don’t work that way. One must toil a little to achieve something. Although its known by all of us and we do keep it in mind. But somewhere down the line, right between joy and the first roadblock, this particular thought becomes blurry.
To look on the positive side, these acts of impatience sometimes define and prioritize our passions. There are some things in life, we keep coming back to. They keep crossing our path, until we accept or discard it completely.
It is only when we are too passionate about something that we give it all and achieve it. In my perspective, life is all about achieving milestones, however small it maybe. And the smaller the aim, the better. Small achievements or goal completion give us that something motivation to keep us going in our monotonous lives. Don’t we love it, when we have a small but surprising bonus, or the happiness to beat out our rival in a cricket match, or for the nerds, the completion of a level that had been a pain in the arse for so long. So, basically what I want to say is that patience is a key stakeholder and companion in our ‘Harvey Dent’ or ‘Two Face’ phase.
So, the actual and only roadblock that we face is our will to submit to the circumstances to give up or to dust ourselves up and keep up the fight. Even though it may become boring, but it won’t be fruitless.
In the words of Paolo Coelho
“You can think of yourself as a victim and suffer throughout your life or you can think of yourself as an adventurer who is always ready to move on and experience the best out of life.”
Image Courtesy: Google Images

Mumbai Diaries – Part 1(The One with the Introduction)

Its a friday evening. 4 friends(Atush, Gaurav, Nauman, Karan) were talking in their Andheri office about how they never went on a trip, where there would be only friends, booze and carelessness. One of them, say Gaurav gave the idea ‘Lets go for a trip tomorrow to Alibaug by ferry. Everyone seemed excited, everyone looked onboard until Atush explained the plan, ‘So, I have heard that one has to take ferry at Churchgate at 7.30 AM as its very busy there.
Atush started to calculate loudly, ‘7.30 means, we will have to reach the place by 6.30, which means I will have to start from 4.30 in the morning, for which I will have to wake up at 2.30 to prepare myself, for which I have to leave office by 12.30 today.
Then they all looked at the clock, it was 11.30.
‘If I start now, I will make it to the ferry at 6.30’, Atush said.
Everyone’s face saddened. ‘Dude, leave it please’ Gaurav said dropping his shoulders.
‘Lets plan for a Sports Bar then’, Nauman advised.
‘Yeah’ everyone cheered.

 

That was life in Mumbai, where the most plausible hangout place, ironically was the office itself. But these guys were going to learn it the hard way.

So the next morning, Atush started by his car very early, infact earlier than everybody as he wanted to surprise his friends that he is not a late comer everytime. Gaurav and Nauman lived in the same area, so they were coming together via the very famous and reliable local trains. Karan had to come by bus as he lived in central line and the destination was in western line, so it didn’t make a lot of sense to take local and change it again. Gaurav & Nauman reached local train station at dadar and the intricate and intertwined queue was nearly the length of train itself. Gaurav & Nauman went for different lines, for obvious reasons. After fighting off the counter-guy for ‘change’, Gaurav comes off victorious and now they move to the platforms.

Karan starts from his home to the nearest bus-stop. Just as he is about to reach the stop, he sees his bus leaving. Karan runs a little, but in vain. He comes back to the stop cursing his luck about the bus timings. He looks at his watch, there is still a lot of time. Little does he know that Mumbai traffic makes you pay for every missed bus.

Atush starts his engine along with the music playing. He still is superexcited about the virtual get-together of the 4 Mumbai friends.
Well that is Mumbai, where meeting of a complete group is so rare that once a group accomplishes a full-show, it is quickly dubbed as a reunion.
Atush still is smelling like his deo and revs up his engine to full speed from his home. His excitement takes a full U-turn as he joins the auto and car lines crawling up at 20 kmhr. His mind quickly goes into calculation of 20km at 20kmph mode.

Image Coutesy: Google Images

Gaurav & Nauman are very close by their station. The train nearly stops at their station and just when they are happily stepping down on the platform, they are greeted by a rush of Virar heading commute, which is nothing less than the Kumbh visitors, ready to kill just for the sake of touching their destination. Nauman somehow makes it to the platform feeling violated, when he realizes Gaurav hasn’t yet made it yet. He shouts for Gaurav, hearing his faint voice amongst the shouts of ‘Pude station! Malad(Please don’t forget to add the irritating tone as well)!’.He tries to make out what Gaurav is shouting, he hears ‘BC….. is that my station?’. He thinks hard but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to him, so he decides to wait at the station for Gaurav.
As he turns around disappointed and kicking dust, he sees a girl who is nervously eyeing him. He smiles as the train leaves the station. He had no intentions of reaching to the Sports Bar now.

To Be Continued…

Click Here for the next part.

 

Life at Kota!

Well, Kota is one of the few places that I got an opportunity to visit and it certainly is a place that blew my mind away effortlessly with its energy, aura and the way of living. And believe me I am not alone who felt that way.

The students who studied at Kota share a special bond among themselves that reminds them of the golden days they spent at the temple of study. The city is like a honey to the ants for coaching institutes, a way of unstoppable profits to the residents and a treat for the overcharging shopkeepers. But still life can never be more fun…if you have been in Kota once. The streets filled by the students, the air containing the freshness of youth, the institutes bearing tonnes of expectations from the parents are just some of the highlights why it stays not only in the brains but in the hearts. Seriously, if you are a youth and want some flavour in your life, then Kota is the place to go.

      Not exquisitely a place for tourists, but a resident or a student who has there been for long, knows how to use the place for fun…and I know for sure, my fellow students know it pretty well. Be it spending the evening after the exam for a game, be it watching movies, be it strolling the mall, checking the ‘flavours’ at newly opened outlets or any activity that I haven’t tried (I would love to know some more), there is something for almost everyone; nerds, foodies, jazzy, nonchalant, romeos (and ofcourse female romeos), rowdies; everyone finds his/her‘s. The fun never ceases and you’ll never feel enervated even if it has been a long, hard day.

            It’s like if you have cherished your life at some point, you must have visited Kota at some stage of your well-planned life. It may be an overstatement but there is a lot of feelings and time gone in writing this article and I enjoyed it as if I was reliving my Kota days again. Every day stood out from the previous day in fun, academic learning, girls etc.

            Enter the city at first and you think ‘How am I going to survive in this unknown city’ and after few weeks, it accepts you like a fat kid accepts a candy from a stranger. At this time your mentality is like ‘Dude, I am never leaving this place’. From being cynical at first, then slowly imbibing and catching up, you become one of the many individuals struck by its cordial hospitality and taken gradually into its welcoming arms. You melt away in the arms like you have been craving for this warmth for all your life.

            The favorite pastime of a Kotan resident is the movies at the cyber-cafes which are sprouted at every nook and corner of the city for the ‘good’ of students. Trust me, there are movies and movies in every folder of every computer of the café. You can go for a never ending spree of great movies one by one and still end up with entirely new collection at another café.

Talking about the highlights; there is a breakfast of fresh ‘pohas’ or ‘jalebies’ to give your morning a brisk start. Sometimes, for a change, tea with ‘pakora’ does the same magic. Since, I had my classes in the noon, so I had the luxury of cherishing these delights even more leisurely.

Then there is the new attraction, the mall. The new outlets included some fancy restaurants, MacD, Fun cinemas and a large space for celebrating specific festivities. Remembering the photo-sessions we used to execute with our hostelmates from time to time makes me nostalgic.

Playing cricket at the roof, flying the kites with hundreds of accomplices at Basant Panchami, visit to parks, really cherishing the holidays are some of the things in my experience that really stands out.  

And yes it was Kota, which among lack of topics, inspired me to write and continue my blog.

            I am thankful that I got a shot at being a denizen of the city and I would be really glad to know if I inspired someone to try the same.