When our tails fall off...

Shine

2007-11-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

I can see it in your eyes
What I know in my heart is true
That our love it has faded
Like the summer run through
So well walk down the shoreline
One last time together
Feel the wind blow our wanderin hearts
Like a feather
But who knows whats waiting
In the wings of time
Dry your eyes
We gotta go where we can shine

Dont be hiding in sorrow
Or clinging to the past
With your beauty so precious
And the season so fast
No matter how cold the horizon appear
Or how far the first night
When I held you near
You gotta rise from these ashes
Like a bird of flame
Step out of the shadow
Weve gotta go where we can shine

For all that we struggle
For all we pretend
It dont come down to nothing
Except love in the end
And ours is a road
That is strewn with goodbyes
But as it unfolds
As it all unwinds
Remember your soul is the one thing
You cant compromise
Take my hand
Were gonna go where we can shine

-David Gray

My Visual DNA!

2007-02-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Poetry

2006-11-23T01:48:00.000-08:00

Before I start I should say that this is to my very dear friend-
the one whose been there through so much joy and so much sorrow
and has stayed on like a rock. The one who shares with me this passion
for verse and love.

It is you who gives color to
an otherwise mundane walk home
or that tragic goodbye note to
A lover.

It is you who
Clears that lump in my throat
when people and things rise from the heart
and choke me.

You who appears in one expression-
One thought and a moment of revelation.
Without you I would have long merged
into the blue of solitude -
So ready with its fangs and
kisses that
bruise me each night.

You burn when I burn
Through you I become the o's and the i's
On the lips of those now
Far Away.

Two poems

2006-11-21T22:47:00.000-08:00

Loose ended Conversations

A pause much like a full stop

Swings to touch the comma,

A few dots and a frantic search

For the eraser

Too late though.

The beginning of the verse

Has crawled out of the page.

It’s best to just sign anonymous

Than cause this heart breaking

Traffic jam.

You

You who seems to know a sigh from a smile

You who means nothing to me

Yet greets most graciously

You with a tall walk -

Humor me!

Party tonight!

2006-09-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

In a little clearing within the bamboo growth of the forest, decorations ran high! Gold, blue and copper coloured streamers hung around on the tiny bamboo branches, smell of a carrot and apple cake, fresh and warm, emanated from around the table that stood in the center of the clearing, tiny pink and white candles were glowing with a tiny magic light around the edges of the table. By the far side, there stood another table with tiny glasses and a huge jar of cola and another jar of an orange drink, am guessing orange juice. Oh! and by the side of this table, on the earth lay a white crate of... yes ice creams! Am guessing chocolate icecreams, because the afternoon papers mentioned of a sudden acute shortage of chocolate flavoured icecream at the icecream factory of the jungle! All of a sudden, I heard a ball being bounced, I turned around and whom should I see, but Griz in a tiny red and white checked skirt and a bright red t shirt! She was grinning from ear to ear, if you have seen Griz grinning then wou'll know why one can't help but use that cliche 'ear to ear', for she does grin from ear to ear! Then there were the others too behind her, the rest of her jing-bang lot of friends. Hmm, and did I tell you, shiny, silvery letters tied with a string to form 'Happy Birthday', hung across the clearing. Princess Duck would be here any minute now and we were all set to wish her a very 'Happy Birthday'! Yippiiee, major celebrations will follow and we will make much merry and then Princess Duck will take us to the new place 'Yana's' for dinner, oh! what fun awaits!
Happy Birthday, dear Duck!

It's about puppy-face

2006-08-07T05:45:00.000-07:00

Haven't I ever told you about puppy-face, i think they call him Ulky down at the factory. But I always call him puppy-face and when its really urgent its more like pups, but if you are addressing him you might as well call him Ulky, he's really shy when people get over-familiar with him. It happens to him often, especially when there are these girls, really sweet and cute ones who come fawning all over him, more often than not hoping to get a favour past him! He does them sometimes and sometimes he gets rather bored and escapes to the Labs. He has his computer down at the Labs and he takes on a different persona from there. Guess what, he is no longer the shy puppy-face that all know him as, he becomes Rhodes, the king of hearts! Its his cyber profile at one of the chat rooms as that of the dude who can get started with any girl in there! So he goes cyber-dating, haven't heard of it? Oh you aren't missing much at all if you have dates in the real world, but if you dont and badly want that extra zing in your life then you can be content with the cyber ones. They are quite harmless, much harmless than the real ones and requires a lot less effort, especially on the physical front. [Hmm, if you are one of those who've never cyber dated heres more _ To start with its a general chat room, where in you logon with a name, I guess I dont need to tell you that it can be your own or one taken on. Once you're in, you'll find general conversations in progress and for starting off, you could just join and contribute... just like how it happens at the factory canteen. Then going by the views exchanged or simply by the name itself, if you feel intrigued by any of the other participants, you could invite them to a private conversation. And once both of you are on good terms and willing to proceed further into this cyber relationship(!) you can go on dates by deciding the next time to logon together etc... I guess I dont need to tell you what all you might be wanting to share or not share at all with your cyber date, but its kinda fun! So if you haven't done it ever, you could just try it once, for experience sake, as they say!]

In between all this did I forget my hero puppy-face? Hmm, ok so puppy-face usually logged on as Rhodes and dated either Rose or Rumi or Pink or Tara or just hung around and chatted with the rest in the general chatroom. But what was most fun about puppy-face as Rhodes was that he had this huge backpack of confidence strapped on when he went in there and the things he said and the things he said he did were in stark contrast with the real puppy-face. To begin with he'd greet all with this huge amount of cheer and merry tone, totally unlike how he greeted us every morning, with a shy, can't-I-be-invisible-oh-u-spotted-me tone, that made him go all pink and sweaty. There's more... Oh but I think am telling you not the best things about puppy-face and drawing a not-so-neat picture of him. Somehow when you talk of someone's double self, they cease to be simple and hence they cease to be safe and hence they cease to be decent to know anymore. I wish I could tell you how nice it is to know puppy-face actually, he's this all helpful, all ears for your cribs kind of friend. I kind of depend on him because there aren't too many such folks down at the factory, and try my best to overlook his double self, hehehe. And you know what, he doesn't quite know that I know about Rhodes. So how did I find that out... psst its quite a secret. I might give it out someday, or maybe not, but first you promise me that you'll like puppy-face, otherwise am not gonna tell you more about him. :)

New Freckles

2006-07-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

Sweetest Mary Anne
With a face like a pan
Loved and loved dearly too
One whom we know as Tan

But sad Mary Anne
Fought like a man
To forget her love
When loved another, our Tan

And today Mary Anne
Girlfriend and much loved by a Ivan
Hears of her old love
A heart-broken and shatterred Tan

Anxious Mary Anne
Cannot help her mind or her hand
As she sends to Tan an email
Consoling, exciting all at one

Self-stabbed Mary Anne
Sat on the lap of another man
Hoping for a reply someday
From her old flame Tan

Yayy! A mail from Tan!

2006-07-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

Tan says : I'm sitting here in a boring room, it's just another rainy Sunday afternoon. I'm wasting my time, I got nothing to do. I'm hanging around, I'm waiting for you, but nothing ever happens - and I wonder.
I'm driving around in my car, I'm driving too fast, I'm driving too far. I'd like to change my point of view. I feel so lonely, I'm waiting for you, but nothing ever happens - and I wonder.
I wonder how, I wonder why yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky and all that I can see is just a yellow lemon tree. I'm turning my head up and down I'm turning, turning, turning, turning, turning around.And all that I can see is just another lemon tree.
Sing: dah...
I'm sitting here, I miss the power, I'd like to go out, taking a shower, but there's a heavy cloud inside my head. I feel so tired, put myself into bed, where nothing ever happens - and I wonder.
Isolation - is not the good for me. Isolation - I don't want to sit on a lemon tree. I'm steppin' around in a desert of joy. Baby anyhow I'll get another toy and everything will happen - and you'll wonder.
I wonder how, I wonder why yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky and all that I can see is just another lemon tree. I'm turning my head up and down I'm turning, turning, turning, turning, turning around and all that I can see is just a yellow lemon tree.
And I wonder, wonderI wonder how, I wonder why yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky and all that I can see and all that I can see and all that I can see is just a yellow lemon tree.

Yippee! I must reply... but what shall I say?

To my faithful friend

2006-07-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

What the hell, I say, if u think I am kicking up too big a fuss for being this heart-broken then just leave me alone... am not particularly forcing you to come visit me everyday and pity me and indulge me, just so that I dont go mad enough to commit suicide. If u think thats the worst thing that can happen to me, well, you are so damn wrong. I wont, I assure you I wont, 'cause I simply dont have the guts. If you think indulging me and providing me with nagging company every evening is going to rid me of this 'addiction' as you yourself put it, then you are so damn wrong again. No, nothing's gonna heal me now, not for the time being, if you must know, I am loving sinking in my past and chewing on my memories. If you think a silly trek or a dance class or a trip to the beach is going to provide me that logical relief and distraction, then you are wrong again, 'cause I have no plans of being logical about myself right now. Am going about my necessary activities like a normal person and be thankful to God for that. And lastly, if you think am being extremely harsh on you with this, especially since you are trying to be so nice to me, then am just sorry, am just not in the frame of mind where I can appreciate niceties.

I love Tan still and it kills me that I cannot be there taking care of him today and everyday. What do I want from you, you ask? No sweetie, nothing, just dont worry so much for me or come up with plans to pull me out of this. Am ok. I am a little self obsessed but we all are!

You will come again to visit me this evening, wont you?

Some therapy!

2006-07-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

Ok! So am becoming totally whacko and have lost all self-control, so dont expect me to ever be normal again. Do you think I'll ever regret? Am switching on this flag in my brain so that if I ever do regain my senses, (am hopeful, huh!) or come back to normal or regain a certain self-control, am excused for this phase in life. I deserve this, positively!
So last night, Sri and Niki and me went out to that new place, TReePub, heard of it? Its by the mainstream almost central to the jungle, and went on this major binge, I drank till I was water! I had no feelings left and was numb throughout. I felt no head and no heart and I loved that bit! The head came back with a full force this morning but I kinda loved the pain. Heck, am crazy I suppose.
TReePub is good and cheap, maybe merely promotional but it was good therapy for me. Am not gonna tell you all abt this place but will just end with a distant image I had in my mind before I fell asleep, can't make head or tail out of it right now, so I'll just write it down for ya...
There was a boat, a sailboat, yatch types, sailing in the middle of lots of water, sailing calm and placid, you get the picture? Then out of nowhere there was this motorboat kind of thing, actually I've never seen a thing like that in real life, so can't really give an eg.. It disturbed the smoothness of that yatch and shook its sails and made it all bouncy and then just as it was about to leave the frame I was seeing, a thin sword like thing jut out and slashed holes into the sails. It was weird, I know, what you're thinking, but I really did see it and am not making it up one bit, you know. Thats it, after that I passed out I think.

Dream on

2006-07-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

Last night I had a dream, it was definitely not one of my crazy ones, infact I doubt even the most dreamless person would call it crazy, but then I have to write down my dream.
Tan and me had had one of our fights I suppose, because the mood had a weird tension, the atmosphere felt tight types, sometimes you can really make out these kinda things even in dreams, hasn't it happened to you in your dreams? I mean, you start dreaming and then isntantly sense the mood of the characters involved, if u still insist things like that dont happen, then you must concentrate hard the next time you dream. One can really make out these things. So as I was saying, Tan and me were grumpy and snorty, and full of smart-ass replies to each other. That last bit wasn't an exception with Tan, I mean, his regular self was full of those slappy replies all the time, you could say the quick-witted kinds! But my wit largely swung with respect to my moods. As in happy me was the same as dumb me and he or anyone else could pull my legs non-stop and I wouldn't mind a wee bit. If I was sad or frustrated or disappointed, I was still dumb, but here I might mind you pulling my legs. And lastly if I was angry, or to be specific, if I'd just fought with Tan, my wit would be like razor sharp and my replies might just slice you into pieces in a second! Okay, am exaggerating a bit!
Anyways, so in that dream our conversation was the usual post-fight one.
'Don't you think you are behaving like crap over something as trivial as a book?'
'I never claimed I am the most well-behaved one around and besides, dont make the mistake of referring to it as a trivial book.'
'Look, reading abt how some very insignifcant guy and girl spent half their lives is hardly what I call interesting.'
'How'd you know what's interesting? You think non-fiction history of india part II is exciting'
'Well, what can I say it is,...'
Then I, like a third person in my dream, remembered that the fight was about some non-complimentary thing he said about a book written by a cousin of mine. God knows why, but am crazily protective about folks I like and noone can say anything negatively judgemental about them. Like for eg. I developed this huge mind block for Tanu ever since she said something like Tan had bad skin and that he ought to do something about his pimples. It was pretty harmless of her to say that and she meant tons of good maybe, but I kind of freaked out on that. Not that I said anything to her ever, but I never kind of relaxed with her ever after that. Even now we meet, and I dont as such remember it all the time, but sometimes it does crop up in my mind!
So the dream was clearly everything that happened that evening and the making up and the philosophical conversation that we generally flowed into after that. Off course, it was Tan who pulled out of it the first time it struck him he wasn't doing anything factual! So thats my dream and my day today seems to be made simply because I dreamt of one silly evening from my past. A dream that really took place...

Whats he doing?

2006-07-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

What do you think he is doing?
Waking up each morning,
bright and well-slept,
brushing his teeth and a certain gnawing feeling,
gobbling quickly his 2 slices of bread, a banana
and coffee with a blank in a corner of his brain,
rushing to work and maybe.. out of that pain,
working out all those reports and data
and charts and a crazy heart beat,
making all those various phone calls and sometimes
wondering why he can't make that old one,
treading slowly back to home,
to his lonely higtmare of a home,
picking up a book on the way,
thankful, they were not ending too,
reading a cheerful line from a neighbours book
in the subway and smiling faintly hoping,
things will fall back to smooth pattern again
in his derailed life,
thinking books were meant to be read and consumed
and relationships were meant to be lived and enjoyed,
and that neither of them lasted forever,
day dreaming to music for the first time in his life and
pulling out of the trance quickly,
back to preparations for quizes and
lists of places to be travelled to,
Yes, he thought, life was to be lived,
sometimes in memory and sometimes in present.

My first kiss

2006-07-04T02:00:00.000-07:00

Suzy says if you've never talked abt it till today, why talk abt it when its dead? That 'dead' came like a hard punch on my face, she might have as well hit me, slapped me, punched me hard, why that!? I got so stuck on that dead that I stopped listening, speaking, responding, reacting to anything at all after that for a long long time, not even when Suzy left, crying, not even when I ate my dinner, not for a long time until I sat down to write again...
So the whole world thinks that its dead, why can't I just be a part of this world with respect to this dead thing, arrgh, or why can't I just go back to being live again. Yes, I wanted Tan, missed him badly today, right now, Why the hell can't he come back, just maybe one more time? And then... I cried loudly for a while, then I got all mad, dialled his number, got a 'number unreachable' response, cried softly, until I felt all empty. Heck, am getting desperate, mad and awful and the worst part is that I've totally lost my control, totally. Help!!! Should I call Suzy? No, Y not? she might be sleeping, oh! she wouldn't mind. Maybe I should simply cry and die alone...
But before I do that, I must just tell you about that one time Tan and me kissed. It was so sweet you know... He was like a frightened pup, oh that look that used to make a jelly out of my heart! So I held him tight for a long time after that, it almost seemed to stretch out to eternity, an eternity in which I dreamt a million dreams, of setting up our home, putting all his tons of books and CDs on a big brown book shelf, yeah i even imagined it to that great a detail, then how I'd have two more pups, frightened and coming to me to be held tight, and how I'd cook omelette and khichdi for us all, and how I'd... until Tan shook the silence with some stupid measurement of my heart rate! Trust him to bring us back to earth softly with silly measurements and facts and crap trivia, he always did it on our escapes to deeply intimate moments!!! Shit, if only I can tell you how badly I hurt right now, even as i write this, remembering that one tiny moment of immense joy and bliss...
I smile as I recall for a fleeting moment that Tan used to say love is over-rated and yet he would have to tell every sentence he spoke to just abt anyone and he would have to seek me out every day and he would have to be wished and prayed for by me and he would have to write about me! Heck, he might be the only one who ever wrote about me! And then I dont know what came over me, I breathed hard and fast for a few moments and quite unthinkingly went and punched my hand hard, real hard on the wall. It hurt so bad and I was so mad, heck am out of help's reach I guess!

Beginning

2006-07-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

[Scream] There is too much in my head, if I dont write it and let it go, am gonna burst with all of it one of these days! So here goes, the very beginning of it all.
The second series of tests for the semester was over and assignments were submitted and nothing much remained to be done for that evening, or for that weekend or for that next whole week of holidays. I decided to go to the library and borrow a bunch of books to read up than feel hollow and pathetic and dwell in self pity all over again.
All my friends, yeah most of them except the trekking ones, had boyfriends, which in turn meant a social life in college! The trekking ones just trekked up vague routes in groups, got to nowhere, smoked, saw the angels and demons dancing by, and returned in good time. Rima, Tanu and me went along with them that one time, saw the ghosts and returned to never go again. I didn't even think it was worth it if I was going to be the most lonely girl around. Trekking and smoking never made me go all 'whee whee...'. Rima had been dying to be done with her tests, the assignments never bothered her, and get into her relationship all over again. She was this studious kinds, who took hiatus(right spelling?) from her relationships when the tests were round the corner and promised to be back as soon as they were over. She was wonderful at it. Sometimes her dedication to whatever she did in life was so awesome that I almost envied her, in comparison, I seemed to suck at my academics and have 0 contribution to any relationship! So that evening Rima was getting all dressed to go on a back-after-break date. Tanu was amazingly accomodating, she accomodated academics, relationships, trekking, politics, part-time jobs and friends with smooth time distribution! She was doing decently well in all the sectors and the best part about her was she always understood me! That evening she had a campaign meeting for the college elections for next year. So books were all I was left with. As I walked to the library, I passed a lonely looking guy, sitting along the parapet and working out something on some paper. For a moment I wished I was like, like Tanu, who could speak to just about anybody, with an confidence that she will be heard and responded to. I could have then spoken to this lonely guy, or maybe I still wouldn't, didn't I see him busying himself? Did I want a boyfriend this evening? No, I told myself, I wanted no company, I need no company and its absolutely fine to sit alone in your room and wait for a call from home.
So thats how it was until, Tan, I didn't know his name then off course, came up from behind and said 'Hi!'. I swung around in surprise, thinking it might be that lonely guy, but it turned out to be that pimply guy who was always answering in statistics-II class. Long back, when I was dreaming in class, I thought this pimply guy would be one of those foolhardy types, capable of jumping into the pool at the deep end without knowing anything of swimming!
'You doing statistic-II this sem aren't you?'
'Yeah, .. yeah I've seen u too!'
'So, how was the paper today?'
[Arrgh! I hate discussing the paper after the test, I'd much rather die not knowing what killed me!] I thought, why can't this pimply guy go hang himself somewhere, than by my neck... I almost laughed imagining the last bit, this must have made me smile, 'cause he said...
'Did damn well, eh?'
'No, I mean, don't feel like discussing paper now,... I hate knowing where I went wrong'
'Oh, but I was hoping at least one person would tell me the answer to this question is 1, I've asked many others, but mostly people haven't answered that one..........................'
[I had stuck my index fingers into my ears at some point during this, he continued despite that! Weirdo...]
'Anyways, you going to canteen?'
How did I manage to hear that bit alone? and before I thought or realised what was happening, I was speaking, 'Yeah, I mean no, I was going to the library, but I'll come along with you to canteen if you dont discuss paper anymore!'
My silly ears went red before I even completed that foolish stunt, how on earth did I calculate that he wanted me to come along?, how on earth can I show off my desperation like this?, how on earth can I embarass him and myself this well?, and most importantly, damn my ears!
'Ok cool, but if I meet anyone from stats class am going to ask about this question, ok?'
'[ok u moron, u and your silly stats questions] ok whatever...' I had recovered from my deep red ears, finally! As we dragged along to canteen, we introduced ourselves and I came to know him a little more than merely the foolhardy, pimply, answering guy from stats class to Tan. Apparently he thought my name was Rima, I pointed out the right name and well, that's almost the beginning to Gina and Tan!

When tagged by Griz...

2006-06-29T23:04:00.000-07:00

Nosey aunt Rita was coming home to tea today. She always had her weird ways of getting herself invited whenever she wanted to my place. Gosh she likes me and I ought not to be so mean to her I suppose, but can I help it, I broke up with Tan just last weekend and we had our final final meet at the same old coffee shop and well... I mustn't start thinking of that again now. But I was kind of preoccupied and the last thing I wanted was to entertain nosey aunt Rita! Something told me it was good thing to happen in the way of a distraction, the kinds Suzy keeps advising me about, but... 'Ting tong' Doorbell, must be nosey aunt Rita and sure enuf it was her.
After hugs and kisses and this and that and how I dont do anythign to keep in touch with her and how she does miss me, why couldn't I shift over to her place, I look so frail, I must have not been eating well, ... she went on and on. Its easy smiling through it all, because you know whats coming you dont have to really bother listening, paying attention and then fixing an appropriate expression, like what Tan said I used to do when he cribbed about his impractical manager at work, why am I thinking of Tan again...
Coming back to nosey aunt Rita, I realised she had said something to which she expected a reply, I mean really expected a reply and I hadn't heard her, off course! I said, "Hmm... now lets see, wait let me get us some tea and then I can hear that again!" and jumped up to the kitched to get black tea, biscuits and badam-corn flakes mixture! I felt her gaze on me and, is it telepathy or what, I knew she was thinking that no good was coming to me staying by myself like this and that I ought to be settling down with a nice man soon.
After one long noisy sip of tea, she starts again "I did take up that counselling course, u remember right?..." Aunt likes me so much and tells me so much, why can't I just pay more attention to her! "yeah, that course right.."
"Yeah, so they've given us this exercise... mmm let me not tell you about it, let me instead ask you a few questions, just sanswer immediately without thinking at all... its gonna be fun" she giggled!Fun!, really!
"Right now, what you thinking about?"
"Me?, Tan, I mean no, am thinking of life, well not that big, I mean just what to answer..."
Did I see her wink just now? Arrgh, I must control my stupid tongue! But before all else, I must stop control my blushing... I was hot all over!"k, sweetie, moving on, right now, what do you want to do?"
"No nothing to do with Tan aunty, I want to move on!" I managed a smile, but why I couldn't I stop blushing!?
" what do you wish for?"
"I wish I'd never ever blush when embarassed... its awful to let everyoen know you are embarassed.." Huh, now I think I got my blush in check! I seemed to be cooling, but I was feeling weird and all-frank!
"true true, blushing when embarassed is all the more embarassing!, next one, what do you hear?"
"I hear they all want me married but I want to live forever, "
"Gina!, I have a lot to say to that, but we'll come back to that ok?, quickly onto the next, What do you wonder?"
"I wonder why we're doing this! aunty, quickly the next one..."
"What do you regret?"
"I must be regretting things not working out with Tan, but I regret I refused to try. No actually aunty, I regret not doing my Phd!"
"But you can go back to that sweetie, can't you? ..."
"Should I answer that as well?"
"No, you've told me answers to that several times before, instead tell me what are you?"
"I am... your niece, Gina!? I am alert, beautiful, caring, desirable, ... arrgh, am just reading out from that chart I read last week! "
"Do you dance?"
"I have, with Tan and for Tan, but now I will, if you want, for you... "
"Do you sing?"
"I sing like a mad woman, all the time, tuneless, careless, in my mind.."
"Do you cry?" This was where it stopped being fun, somehow I just snapped...
"How long aunty..."
"a little bit more sweetie..."
"Yes I cry, for my lost pup Pista ... to my lost dog , no I dont cry for Tan...Huh!" Aunts do get painful, very painful! All I wanted to do now was sit in the rain, on the terrace and cry, for God knows what!
"What dont you do always?"
"Love, its dificult to do that, non-stop! Or am I just being hysterical!?"
"Perhaps, What do you make with your hands?"
"Nice fluffy rotis, nice brown cakes, nice rugs and nice pictures" Wow, that kind of uplifted my spirits!
"What do you write?"
"only my diary!"
"What confuses you?"
"Oh aunty, this is easiest, its people, am never able to predict them!"
"What do you need?"
"Tan, no shit! I mean, a nice new boyfriend No, double shit! just peace and distraction!"
"Finally, what you waiting for?"
"Tan's call, fffff, to regain my mental peace and equilibrium or lose it again some other way!"
Well, with that she finished her execise and started out on her extra long discourse on what was best for me now. At times she tried to extract excruciatingly personal relevant details about times with Tan. But she left me more confused and with a feeling of being robbed, somehow. I am shitty and am feeling shitty, alright!

With this the tag now goes to Suzy...

As told to the author...

2006-06-20T04:18:00.000-07:00

Hi, am a black cat, am also single and willing to mingle, in fact, wanting to mingle would be more appropriate. So the other evening strolling down the bylane by the pink bunglow with white windows, when I caught sight of another black cat and a female one at that, my excitement soared up and I crossed over to her path and said "Hey, we are both black cats, do you think we should mingle?..." I have been warned a million times before by friends, well wishers, family and similar experiences that to be so direct in one's approach can only prove to be disastrous and unfulfilling to the core. However, one's natural characteristics can be controlled only as long as the effect of the disaster lasts. So now that I had chanced upon a black cat whom I wanted to badly mingle with I threw all safe measures and ground checks to the winds and drew on my sword of directness. She stopped surprised in her path and looked at me. Oh she had those nice cat eyes, have you seen a black cat with them and had your heart melt over? Then you'll know precisely how I felt at that moment.
"No" she replied. Well, so she wasn't so direct, in fact rude is how some might put it, but I'll say she was merely playing it hard to get! So I played along, who wouldn't want to play with a female black cat with eyes like those ones. So I said, "But its only right that we did. If you differ you must give me your reasons." Now before I had completed this she had twined her sleek tail along her right hind leg and trotted ahead. So I had to kind of pursue her to get an answer to my query.
"No" she replied again. Twice is how many insults any self respecting black cat will take, even if it comes from a definitely mingleable female black cat. So I should have known the rules and left it at that. But when she found me still trotting along, she turned around with that nasty look in her nice eyes and said, "Am a black cat wanting to mingle only with single white cats so that I can have white kittens. Now get out of my way!" She sure had me out of her way with that 'cause nothing for a long time since my first love ever caused me to get this tongue-tied and motionless!
Now, as I sit puzzled by the warm fire dejectedly, all I can think of is 'Do cats have it too?'

So I met Liu

2006-06-01T05:34:00.000-07:00

Liu was a cockroach who didn't really know she was one. Now you might say, what crap she writes! But I say, hold on... just wait. Think of this, is it not possible you are something that you are not aware of? Like for instance you could be the person with one of the worst walks but how are you to know, you've never seen yourself walk! Have you!? Or may be you are this person who comes across as someone with an irritating cocksure attitude at work place, how are you to know, noone's ever told you this, so what? You still can be so cocksure that noone really wants to tell you that you are cocksure! Hmmpf.. enough of you and me, lets get back to Liu. So Liu didn't know she was a cockroach.
She had 6 pairs of legs and 2 feelers just like so many other insects and then she hated cockroaches, just like so many other insects. She hated cockroaches in her cupboards or in her sink, just like so many of us and kept naphthalene balls by them to keep the cockroaches away and better still never went near cupboards and sinks, with naphthalene balls in them to keep away cockroaches. She had her ups and downs, just like the rest of us and she loved life nocturnal. Well, so do most of us!
She crawled out of her crack at the crack of dusk and rushed for the bathroom for a drink and a wash. There by the poolside lay gathered her usual gang of friends. After that and a quick game of baseball, oh yeah she loved baseball(!), they ran for the midnight feast by the kitchen shelves. Usually one of thsoe adventurous ones would have found a decent spot to grab a bite and dance safely for the rest of them. Well, thats how it went on till the crack of dawn at which time she scurried back to her crack again. That is exactly how the other day was all set out to be. So when Liu came out of her crack to go for that drink, plonk came a lizard and grabbed her head for his dessert! Ouch, I squealed when I saw Liu freeze for a moment and then dazedly scurry around without her head. Oh yes, I saw this live! Hehehe...
She didn't feel any pain, cockroaches don't, but she felt weirdly empty and she didn't really know what happened because she no longer could see, you see! So she just scurried around, dashing against objects in her way, until she went too close to the glowing lamp and slipped into the hot oil in it and then, well, she died of those burns...
Now coming back to you and me, hmm, so can we live off our entire lives and not know so many things about ourselves!?!

Exchanging looks with a cute stranger!

2006-05-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

Exchanging looks with a cute stranger!
Have you ever exchanged looks with a stranger whom you found, say, cute!?
On a bus ride, across the streets, in the lift, in a passing car, at the mall?
You know that thing dont you?
Its not those fatal attraction kind of thingies,
not even those 'wow, that stranger looks so good' kind of thingies.
More like a 'hey there... I think you are cute!'
Well, here's what happened yesterday _

She looked at me yesterday
And me... I was already looking
yes, at her.
No speech and no gestures
but we knew we'd look again!
if our paths ever crossed again...
Or maybe even become friends?
But for now the look did it all :)

Now, when I see my old home

2006-05-24T01:27:00.000-07:00

I used to laugh here
but I dont anymore

I used to dance here
but I dont anymore

I used to cook here
but I dont anymore

I used to sew here
but I dont anymore

I used to play here
but I dont anymore

I used to live here
but I dont anymore...

Hope

2006-05-11T12:08:00.000-07:00

Recently I saw a picture of a little girl
There was something in her eyes
That meant hope.
When I thought about it ,
it seemed like hope is what
we are sort of born with ...
(won't bore u much more but do let me continue...)
You could look at the face of any child and its right there...
And it naturally makes u smile...
Unfortunatley something happens when we grow up.
Maybe something happens more for some than for others...

My speech

2006-05-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Eeekostenth nekhtontesh
Veekalishtashtrasht enkestro yenkaksholpa
veeeko!!!
nemekhnistashtra nemeskt neeeshaaaa!
eeekalepepsho bentro
meneskt nistastra!!! Yenko! Yenko!
neeempah lestestro leepa
nimakhsh yekhtentro!!!

Still waters run deep

2006-05-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

Still waters run deep
Still, waters run deep
Still waters run ....
Run we still stay ye still
Still frozen words sting still
Burn me waters .
Love is a big farce
Still.....
Waters run deep

A song from 8 women

2006-05-02T00:44:00.000-07:00

So as not to live alone
we live with a dog
Surround ourselves with roses
Or worship a cross
So as not to live alone
We choose make-believe
Loving a memory,
A shadow, gone with Spring

So as not to live alone
We live for Spring
And when Spring is gone
We live for next Spring
So as not to live alone
Some girls love girls
So as not to live alone
Some have children
Children who are alone
Like all children

So as not to live alone
We build cathedrals
Where all the lonely souls
Hang on to a star
So as not to live alone
I love you and I'll wait
It gives me the illusion
That I'm not all alone.

-From a French movie I just saw
and liked very much ...

Charged with murder.

2006-04-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

I am a monster, a big one at that, bigger than any can ever be imagined. How big do you think a monster should be, one that would first wash away your home and when you continued to persist in life, tried to scrap away your home and when all else failed, broke down your home with that ugly fist and dug your little ones out, crushed them to death and swept their remains and that of the home that once was into the garbage bin? Quite big and ugly huh!?

Well, thats how big and ugly I am, for I tried to desuade a silly wasp from building its five-roomed mansion on my bathroom window sill by flushing it repeatedly with water. But he was here to live. So he built his mansion, Rome wasn't built in a day and so wasn't his mansion. It took him 5 days, those 5 days that I went to live with my mom in her home! When I come back I find the mansion up and the wasp hovering every once in 10 minutes with bits of food in its mouth for the members inside. Ouch, so he had kids in there as well. I tried to sweep them away from my window sill, but the mansion had firm foundations.

Then in the bath the other day when the wasp came hovering by me, dangerously up-close, I decided it was time for some action. I shut the wasp out and then armed with sticks and twigs I broke down the mansion and crushed it down, crushing the little ones inside as well. It was a ugly, gory, pukey mess! But it was soon over. The mess was cleaned out and the silly was clean again, without a mud home sticking out. The wasp did come back and still often does come back. Wasps are sentimental things and thankfully not vengeful... But then again if he was vengeful, what can he do? And me the monster... I feel yucky and guilty of murder, charge me oh Wasp...!

Eclipsed

2006-04-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

I played God,
Named you Sun.
Days and nights
Around you spun.

Heard you not?

The scent of dead
Butterflies bring
Bleeding winds.

Smell you not?

Eclipsed, amiss
And farther yet
Should you orbit
A different star.

A Losing Battle

2006-04-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Fought I but many battles,
Not all with sword and metal.
I fought for possession,
By resistance
Through denial
Maybe forgiveness.
All is forgotten.
Not for the King's cause,
More for survival
Yet, in some -
I stand defeated,
Forever and ever.

Over a mine

2006-04-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

No man sought this quiet,
Yet here were are -
You and me,
One to kill,
One still, waiting.

Let me sleep walk through
My memories, and lay beside the choicest one.
Then, when breath recedes
Leaves blur this being,
Set you off to set me free.

-Inspired by the film No Man's Land.

Fashion show...

2006-04-03T02:39:00.000-07:00

We had a fashion show alongside the jungle creep and here are a few photos taken from the party!

Yuhoo... many, many more!!

2006-04-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

Suzy got off the treadmill to come up with this _ Wild O' jungle treat!
And Griz comes up with a killer one-piece!
While Dollar is trying to come up with one too! Hey Dollar, y dont you walk our ramps with one of these, you could take your pick!

Some more...

2006-03-28T00:10:00.000-08:00

Princess Dee has run away, Griz has gone into her writers workshop and Suzy's on the treadmill! While I came up with these _

IV. Pink Tushy - A stuffed toy resembling a dholak! Made of pink velvet and very comfortable under the neck while on a drive/flight, under my arm while reading agatha christies, under my head while taking that quick nap, etc etc.

V. Jacket - Very Male and Female. While men can wear this to add that much needed jazz to kurta or white stiff shirts for a fun evening, women can don this over an off shoulder top, flowing blue skirt and a straw hat go great together too! But it has to be in Satin.

VI. Bag-Shorts - Do you see a bag? I see a pair of Shorts, a very comfy one for the summers! However, if you want it to be a bag, just stitch close the openings where the legs go in...

VII. SkirtTop - A pink sleek item number! Use it as an off-shoulder top! Use it as a blouse with that white or light pink lucknowi saree! Use it as a skirt! Or just use it a hair band! Hehehe...

3 entries so far!

2006-03-27T00:06:00.000-08:00

I. Unisex T-shirt for the lean and mean titled - The Black Heart.
II. The Pink Whipper, can be used as a Belt by both men and women, HairBand, Wrist Band or sandal straps!
III. Pink hair dye, perfect for that flamboyant, womaniser kind of guy!

Jungle Fashion Week

2006-03-23T04:36:00.000-08:00

Hohoho [blow, blow on the trumpets], [big big drum beats to follow] and [much, much whistles] !!!
Sudden activity in the jungle...
Its the Jungle Fashion Week! For those who are slow to catch up, we are having the summer festival at the big mud hut by the Silver river and this week was decided as the Jungle Fashion Week. Please do send in your fashion entries for the fashion week. (Here's something different to do for those with the writer's bloc, those with reader's bloc, those with nasal bloc, those with shit bloc, those with air bloc and those with no bloc!) Rules? Just anything new in pink, yes dahling, pink is the color! I hope you dont mind...

Hey, look at the sky!

2006-03-16T01:41:00.000-08:00

The big Elephant God sat high up there in his couch, munching on mirchi bajjis, which if you haven't ever tasted, you must, and which goes by the description of being slit big chillies, dipped in gram flour batter and deep fried! As he munched on his sixth one for the evening, his little secretary, Rags, the rat messaged upto his big ears about his time to paint. It was time to change the sky paint again. Hmm, acknowledged the big one to Rags and motioned him to get him his gold slip-ons. Slowly he finished his sixth bajji, took a sip of the warm tea, slipped on his gold slip-ons and went to his easel by the window. Hmm, he grunted as he chose the colour, he played a little selection game and finally picked up orange, in one of its very pale forms. With that flat woodwn brush he took generous amounts of paint from the can and spread them across the sheet. When done, he took a step or two back to get an idea about the result. He nodded and went back to his paint collection and picked that very light sky blue, thinned it adding water and using this colour, he blotched the sheet, orange a moment back. He looked at the effect and smiled to himself, a smile of satisfaction. I looked up at the effect too and I smiled to myself too, a smile of awe at the beauty in nature!

Happy

2006-03-14T22:07:00.000-08:00

Should be happy to be loved
Happy to be
Unburdened by the thought
I could still be lonely
I think you're the one
Everyone agrees
But some can see the face of love
And turn away in disbelief

Every time we get close
I just run
And the wind on my face
Last rays of the sun
Shine on my skin
My heart slow me down
Is all I can feel

Should be happy to be loved
Happy to be
With someone who knows
And understands me
I think you're the one
Everyone agrees
But some can touch the hand of love
And pull away in disbelief

Should be happy to be loved
Happy to be
Possessed by nothing but
A heart that's chosen freely
I think you're the one
Everyone agrees
But some can feel the grace of love
And walk away in disbelief

Should be happy to be loved
Happy to be....

-From my all time favourite ,Tracy Chapman

Untitled--

2006-03-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

International Woman's Day today
Should I celebrate!?
After getting reminded of all that comes as part of being a woman by Griz, you tell me if I still can....
Shirsha

Transported

2006-03-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

Today I am transported to that trip I made with
my dear girl, Kumari to Pondicherry.
She had said 'Its like the peace after a storm' and it
was .... I am transported to the time we sat looking at
the ocean and we let the rhythm of the waves wash over us.

Him, there, yes, by that window

2006-03-06T03:51:00.000-08:00

I saw him again on saturday. This time he was wearing a white shirt which had 2 centimeter thick vertical stripes and a black suave, party-wear-ish trousers. His hair, the same colour as his skin, had that same wave on it as it had the last time I saw him, or even the many hundred times I saw him. He stood there wearing that same expression of a demure smile, hands in pocket, just a bit. I always thought to myself, each time the same thought, this must be one hell of a guy to flirt with and that if I dressed rightly( I often humour myself with the honour of being above average in looks with the right clothing on!), I might get all his attention and maybe more ;)
Off course, he wouldn't be alone, I mean, not a guy like him! So he always had one of those oh-so-sexy, mischevious-eyed, teasing, graceful, lovely ladies by him. On saturday, I think(am having to think, never pay them more attention than I should be!) he had this one that wore a short black dress, with rows of sequins along the collar and again along the hem-line. Oh ok, she was cute, but lets get back to my subject for today.
So then, after I'd eyed him for a while that seemed really really long, Gef dragged me to the coffee shop opposite and cool! we got a sofa along the glass pane and just facing him! Hmm, so I get to feast my eyes while I feast my senses to lovely caffeine!
I asked Gef, 'What dyu think he must be thinking standing there?'
Gef looked up briefly from his book and asked 'Who?'
'I don't know who he is...'
'So whom were you talking about?'
'I wish I knew'
'Hey! you are your usual dumb self again! I love this Gif!'
'True you do, but tell me, what do you think he must be thinking of all the time there?' This time I point out...
'Who?... that!?... thats just a mannequin honey'

How do I explain there is surely more to that figure standing there everyday, with that heart-beat-quickening smile and awesome structure!?

My Baby

2006-03-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

A little blue but mostly bright
My baby is a special child.
He likes to burst bubble dreams,
Leaves behind his toys in streams.
Keen eyes speak his reckless heart,
Warm smiles fill this empty house.
He can numb your deepest pain
In some simple easy way.
My baby has a special stride
Everytime he walks away.

Would someone please make some noise?

2006-03-01T23:47:00.000-08:00

Would someone please-
Shut the door,
move the chair,
run the dog,
trash the car,
turn the knob,
speak up loud
Crack a joke,
blink an eye
Step on pudding
with a squishy sound,
play with the salt 'n pepper stand,
burp or yawn.
Would someone please
make some noise?

Confession

2006-02-28T23:31:00.000-08:00

I confess that these words
I throw around is like drinking
soup in a slurpy way.
Heard them once
you've heard them all.

I confess that my jaw was broken
That slurpy is no better than I can get.
Wave your hand and give a shrug
Not much would be obvious to those
Outside the crystal ball.

And I confess that between
two noisy groans pass
a million silent ticks.

Some more freckles

2006-02-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

MaryAnne,
Thinks she can write,
But all she can do is
Run to the cafe and grab a bite...

booo... sounds like me!Lemme try again

MaryAnne,
Once loved a Ben
Then she grew smarter and
Wondered why him of all men!

Nah.. not quite cute. Once again...

MaryAnne,
Wearing a pretty frock
Soon became ugly
When she sat on a cock!

Ughhh, am becoming like the pondy poetess Suzy! One last try...

MaryAnne,
And she were friends
Although everyone sniggerred
How it was against trends

This one dedicated to a friendship between two girls who loved the same man. And here I am sniggerring... Is it at all possible!?

Freckled

2006-02-27T22:43:00.000-08:00

MaryAnne,
Wife of a postman,
Dreams she be a singer
In a far away Jazz band.

Mary Anne,
Fair, freckled child of five
Used to run the mustard fields.
Now she dreams of fire-flies
and the creatures of the night.

Many memories to fill one empty hole

2006-02-27T04:25:00.000-08:00

Its 3.28pm on a hot saturday afternoon and am driving past 80ft Rd and hey.... there's that shop! That shop where me and her had... yes we had yummy sugarcane juice there that afternoon! 'Hahahahahehe' am chuckling to myself, what fun it was, it surely was one of those vague afternoons when we had nothing at all to do and had taken off on that usual window shopping spree, one which didnot restrict itself to shopping just by the windows!
We had huge bags of tops, trousers, skirts, shoes, stoles, junk jewellery, a hat, a scarf, cosmetics and hmmm, deodorants too! By the perfume section, I remember, lifting her hand to sniff at the deodorant she was trying out. A guy giggled past as we stood there in that vague pose, of me sniffing her hand. He thought how closely it looked like I were kissing it :)) I was scared that she was trusting too much to my judgement, especially with my nose, and she did that simply because I made her stand by the trial room and look at me trying out all those funny lined skirts while she actually wanted to 'check out' that tall lean chimp-looking man with a beak shaped nose! Ughhh, how can I remember all this!?
Then I remembered, it was most fun by the cash counter where we had to seggregate who bought what! There were these funny items and some extremely costly items which were selected, by either of us, but by the cash counter neither of us felt like owning it and paying for it actually! It was fun simply trying it out. Oh then there were these others, rather cute ones which both of us wanted :) The sales girl seemed quite exasperated at the end of dealing with us. I remember she immediately asked for a shift change and we gave each other this high five! What on earth were we trying to accomplish. Hmm, tired as we were, we very badly wanted to have a drink somewhere and then it struck... was it me or was it her!? Oh well, one of us it struck that we must try out that cheap roadside sugarcane juice man after all this expensive shopping! That was when we hit that place and sat on his blue wooden benches and drank sugarcane juice cracking nonsesnsical stupid jokes as usual...Hmm that was all... oops!!! 3 whole years back!
Hmm, I must stop dreaming and get back home as fast as I can, what's the time... 3.29pm! This is when it hits me hard that... in just 1 tiny minute I can dream of so many memories!

Doubt, then destruction

2006-02-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

Self doubt, the worm of unhappy endings,
even the accidental ones.

In the imperfect mold of clay,
I stay,
You may say to you its dear,
Dont break,
Stay.
Can you make much
Of an imperfect mold of clay?

A picture from my birthday party!

2006-02-23T02:38:00.000-08:00

Searching New Dimensions

2006-02-20T21:47:00.000-08:00

'There are 2 dimensions which everyone is aware of and talk of very intellectually', lectured Yema, the chimp. In the jungle it wasn't uncommon for chimps to be professors. In fact most were, that is, most professors were chimps and then again the reverse too, that is, most chimps were professors! Oh, dont let me confuse you. Well, lets just state that most professors are chimps and most chimps are professors! Before this sounds anymore like a question from a commonly answered test paper for analytical skills, let me quickly get to the next point. These points were not timeless, they were centred around the time Ms. Yema gave her lectures.

'But can any of you give me an idea for another dimension? A dimension which is irrespective of space and time, the commonly talked of ones, and yet a coordinate measured along time, space and this new dimension gives a distinct value.' she asked her class of flummoxed youths. There was Gil sitting on the first row, thoughtful one moment and eager to reply to Ms. Yema's question the next. Upon her request with the raised hand, Ms. Yema motioned her to voice her idea and then Gil blurted out, 'Life Ma'am!'

'Can you explain that briefly, Gil?'
'Well, Ma'am, I was jus' thinking that Life is a line that exists irrespective of Space and Time. If you think of a value of zero for this dimension, we are talking of a dead thing or maybe a non-living one. Any non-zero value would refer to how much life is possessed by a thing at a given co-ordinate value for space and time. So if I say coordinates of the kind (Space, Time, Life) and if I am talking about me today in this class I could represent it as
(Ms. Yema's class-first row-thirdseat, 21-FEB-2006@1056, 50)
There, you now have a distinct value, don't you!?'

'Hmm, that was brilliant Gil, but I have some doubts, for instance, how do you measure life?'

'That is a decision that must be taken given some parameters...'

'(With a laugh!) Are you suggesting the dimension life be again represented as a set of dimensions?'

'That is your idea Ma'am. But I would rather measure life as a sum of (Brain activity + Heart activity + physical activity). It is just like how Space is represented as (x, y, z).'

'And each of these activities will be measured by...? Another set of parameters?'

'Not really, measure of brain activity is a measure of the neural activity, measured by say, standard equipments in the form of EEG(?). Heart activity, a measure of pulse rate maybe(?) and Physical activity measured by the energy burnt, calories spent...'

By now there were several hands raised, eager to support Gil in her theory or beat her with theories of their own. But Ms. Yema was eager to hear from Griz who was sitting, looking out of the window, waiting for it to be poetry class and from Dee who was sitting in the last seat and day-dreaming perhaps. She was about to proceed when the bell rang and she had to end her interesting class.

'Why don't all of you write your essays on this? We can read a few of them in the next class, argue on them and maybe add to them. Ok, then...'

Conversations with God

2006-02-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

-" What is the source of this endless grief?"
-" Your stray thoughts and lack of belief."
-" Why does the night weigh on me?"
-" You said, 'let me alone be.' "
-" Who do I go back to? You?"
-" Yes, if your heart wishes to."
(She turns up the volume and dedicates
George Michael's Fast Love to the voice
that is speaking to her, the voice from
behind the 2 am sky that stretches across
the front window and outlines the clouds
with a certain light when u expected absolute
darkness. She can't get her eyes off it.
It is grand. It is beautiful. Certainly powerful.
For a moment she is not alone or is it
another illusion. They groove to the music
and the speedometer rises to 75.
She thinks maybe if she stepped on the gas
a lil more, the sky and she can merge.
The mind conjures union. Will this
moment ever come again? Sometimes
even the faithless want to feel the warm
embrace of the Divine. An old feeling
comes back and she is smiling)
-" I feel lighter, thank you. Now you may go away.
Let's not pretend that you have grand plans for me. "
-" What if I did ? Finish your term of pain but leave
those scorched lips half parted, so that you can drink
when your dew is ready."
Conversations with God or
the illusions of a twisted mind ?
How will she ever know?

Timeless points in Pointless times

2006-02-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a point in '82,
Here is another one in July,
Here is a song I wrote for you,
Join them all you'll have a line.
Who cares what went in between-
A thought of you five years since
A million ones first day of spring.
Dont forget the ride on waves-
End of March, two thousand five.
Points and lines all strewn around,
The tale-writer jots some down,
Then makes a note she by the side,
"Passing clouds in a passing show,
Her lover and she speak no more."

An history of Valentine's Day!

2006-02-14T04:33:00.000-08:00

Here's to the one in my big jungle who has had the most colourful and happening Valentine's Day history, Beats, the checked rabbit! He had been vested with this honorable title based on his performance and action on the past four Valentine's Days. Am sure if one peeped further back, they would, for sure, come across more colours and more action!
So let me see, in 2002, he wasn't a checked rabbit then. In one of her numerous moods of fancy, his sweet Valentine demanded that he be adorned in the reddest shirt available in the world. Beats, to hold every honour to his lady's fanciful moods, set out on his cart to find the reddest shirt. What adventure happened on that cart ride, is a story for another day, but the shirt was indeed on his back when he turned up at her doorstep that evening with 25 long stemmed Red Roses, all for the lady and much to the lady's pride at possessing the most obedient partner in the big jungle!
Then came 2003, he wasn't a red rabbit anymore, in fact he was most blue in his moods. But then came around him five little angels, each from a different corner of the jungle and each with 5 long stemmed Red Roses for Beats. Beats switched from blue to merry instantly on receiving 5 long stemmed Red Roses from each of the angels, making it a 25 for him again! In gratitude or maybe mirth, he rushed them to the bowling Rice Bar in the jungle, where whoever spotted Beats sporting his 5 angels on his self, looked up at him in respect and in awe and some in envy and few in pity!
2004 seemed determined to see Beats in a more action-packed Valentine's Day than 2002 and 2003. It made me wonder if the years were competing against each other to see who'd get Beats to have the most happening Valentine's Day of all! His lady love, she said 'come to the bridge by the river Terry at half past five, sweet Beats' and off ran Beats with his shining tail between his legs to the bridge by the river Terry. He had almost reached the bridge when his lady love, she said 'no not the bridge but lets meet Beats, by the Casino at six'. Off ran Beats to meet his lady love by the Casino, he thanked his lucky star Gemini for the additional time for it had slipped his mind, to buy that 25 long stemmed Red Rose pack. As he approached the Casino with his 25 long stemmed Red Roses, his lady love she said 'not the Casino too my Beats, it has to be the Chancery'. Beats puffed and panted but still carried on to the Chancery, it was his lovely lady love after all and he'd do anything for her so what was hopping from Casino to Chancery with 25 long stemmed Red Roses in arm. To cut a longer story a bit, he dined with his lady love under the gaze of the lucky star Gemini and many others. 'Twas an amazing dinner under the Ebony tree!
And then it was 2005. Beats was spotted in a fashionable lounge bar with a partner. No wait, there were many more. Beats was spotted with partners beating. So, Beats was beating the dance floor with his partners and all their partners to the tunes of Disco-Tisco. There was more to the celebrations of St. Valentine's Day that year but not all can be revealed given the confidentiality tags I was made to sign up at the lounge bar. They give you all this information of who is with whom and all that only if you donot mention which lounge bar and shroud the real names and most of the activities under clouds of imagination. So, my friend, you are free to imagine what else happened that night to Beats with his partners and their partners at the lounge bar, go ahead!
Well, well, 2006 it is. I will not ruin my Valentine's Day, prowling around to find out what is happening to Beats today, but I shall update you at the earliest once I myself chance upon the information! And here's to a happening St. Valentine's Day to you!

Save Earth?

2006-02-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Griz, the little bear, sitting atop her soft brown toy pony, ran her pink comb through her cascading curls and looked up at me for an answer to her question. As I looked down at her to answer her as best as I could, I couldn't off course help smirking at God's ways, for here I was not doing much to save my earth, and not much at all to look up to me for and yet here Griz sat looking up at me :) Whereas Griz the little bear making that conscious effort to save the earth in her tiny ways, had to be looked down at :) Forgive me for going astray, I always do that when I dont have much to say. For in reply to her question of what I did to save the earth, I hadn't much to say, except that* Every evening when Smiley SugarBee, the vegetable dealer hands me the vegetables in a plastic bag, I transfer my vegetables to my green cloth bag with yellow dots and leave his plastic bag to reuse.
I wonder though, dear Griz, is there more for me to do?
And what say you Suzy?

To, PrincessDuck, Tea break, 5th May 2004, Amphitheatre!

2006-02-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

Dear Duck,

If you try very hard and remember clearly, maybe you will recall a dying desire of mine to paint the sky red and the town blue. If you donot recall, well, hell, then I may or may not have ever told you about this particular dying desire of mine. So it is that I want, very badly, to paint the sky red and the town blue.

And yesterday afternoon at about the time I usually have my lunch, Beats gave me this shot of a quality which ensures I will never be the same again. Well, hell, he gave me this shot. Go through it after you have read my letter, cause there will be so much to ponder after this shot that you might not want to return to my letter after that. Off course I must add my statutory warning of a deep depression happening ever since the shot. Well, hell, so am giving you the shot too!

Why did I never do big things? Why have I been never a part of the big picture? Why have I not captured the moment with my beauty(bah!) or my brains(boo!) or my talents(bah, bah bah!) or maybe even a passion(booooo!)? Why oh why? I have gone into this deep depression and am doubly sure I will never be the same again. Am just a mediocre giraffe with usual big black scars on all the yellow patch that covers me. Am incapable of ever making a dream come true, because I donot even have a dream and worse still, am not dreaming ever after this cause I wont even sleep after this! Well, hell, I think I might need some treatment to come outta this shot.... help!!!

Hmm, so there are the colours for you. My horizon is a gory red, symbolizing an end and the town, am painting it blue with all my sob stories and depression tales. Well, hell, I might catch you too after the shot in a bloody blue!

With love,
Gif

Tests

2006-01-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

Gif took a test, Naaoooo, not those with high demands for IQ, not even those with high demands for GK and memory, rather one with no demands except for some free time... ahem this test

This is what it said for Gif...
" You Are 20% Boyish and 80% Girlish
If you are or aren't a girl, you're very feminine.You're in touch with your feelings, and your heart rules you.A bit of a emotional roller coaster, one moment you're up and the next you're down.But no matter what, you try to be as cute and perky as possible. "

Oh, and then she took another test... about how abnormal she was ;). Again it came back with surprising results, such as...
"You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at low risk for having a borderline personality. It is unlikely that you are a chaotic mess.You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection.You are at medium risk for having a social phobia. It is somewhat likely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement.You are at medium risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is somewhat likely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer. "

Yikes! and she thought she was a bigger psychopath than this, how else could she justify pouring hot wax on black ants at age 7 for a hobby!

From Griz

2006-01-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

Last night your faded memory came to me
As in the wilderness spring comes quietly,
As, slowly, in the desert, moves the breeze,
As, to a sick man, without cause, comes peace.

-by Faiz Ahmad Faiz and through my lovely Griz

The folks downstairs

2006-01-23T01:04:00.000-08:00

A big fat bull with innocent and thoughtful looking eyes and his big slightly fat cow with innocent and cheerful looking eyes and her little calves waded in through our gates on saturday. They were the family that moved downstairs. While the fat bull was into all those organizations that heaped themselves and their help on the downtrodden or less fortunate of the forest, the cheery cow took to loving and providing the little calves at home. And among the calves, Ri, the younger one was the most friendly little calf I'd ever met, though when she clung to me for attention and more, she had wet her panties over and over again! And Ru, the older one was deeply endeared to me by her sheer love for art. Within the close of the first day, the lowest plank of the main door and the wall around it bore a testimony to her love for the mountains and trees and sun and moon and stars and the others in the forest. I was sure of having a great time with her and one of these days I intend to draw her away from under her mom's strong surveillance and into my home to get a little more colour onto my walls :)

The Floods of Lude

2006-01-18T01:05:00.000-08:00

One year had past since the last time
Lude was hit with the worst flood.
The ones who remained
had often envied the dead who could
bury their memories with them.
The terror that fell after had made them construct
walls of concrete all around Lude.
Elda who had tried very hard to hold Lude together
sensed the same excrutiating pain come back,
she wrapped herself along the great wall and squeezed her eyes shut-
it was happening again , this time much worse
than the last time. As if the ocean had receded just so that
it could hit back with more force. Elda let the electric currents
that the ocean was generating go through her. She knew
that there was no escape from the seconds that followed
the first collision to the time she would
hold a destructed Lude.

The Bewitched One

2006-01-18T00:21:00.000-08:00

The Bewitched One
She said her sofa was bewitched.
'Bewitched!?' I exclaimed.
'Yeah!!!' She managed to reply with that 'You won't believe this expression!'
'How, how... how do you say that?' Am trying to practise a stammer, adding new dimensions to my personality!
'Well! Its kinda magical you know....' She was grinning large by now...
'Yeah? Like... Like like what happens?' Stammerring as I realised then gives you sufficient time to start talking and then think of what to say! No... you don't even have to think fast, people are always polite with a stammerrer and usually think its their fault that you are stammerring... hehehe!
'Like, see, I sit on it now with this phantom comics...' She now moves to her sofa, the 'bewitched' one and seats herself with feet curled under her and leans to the left hand rest with the 3 cushions, red, yellow and red, under her and flips open a comics lying on the side table.
'And...?' Not much scope for stammerring, but by now I had forgotten all about stammerring and was awaiting miracles...
'Shhh...' she told me gently, requesting my patience I suppose.
I waited, for something to happen, for maybe Griz to disappear into thin air, for maybe Griz to turn into a pizza, (I was beginning to feel hungry) for maybe Griz to turn into phantom of the phantom comics (hehehe, sometimes my imagination gets the better of me), for maybe a *boooom*, or a flight to begin with Griz on it, like the magic Carpet kinds, or maybe nothing at all! Hmm, I sniggerred in my mind for having been foolish to believe that something would happen, that's what was bewitching about the sofa, nothing happened, nothing at all... hahaha, I almost laughed aloud!
Then I began to wonder how long do I have to wait before I saw the bewitched one in its act. I was bored, hungry, sleepy, hmmm... I moved closer to Griz and shook my hands before her face, she didn't look at me. Aha! I thought, so you are not gonna respond hmm? I decided to play along. I gathered cushions from the other sofa and rested on the right arm of the sofa with my feet up on the sofa and slid down. Mmmmmmm.... It was amazingly comfortable, especially for one so bored, hungry and sleepy. Before I knew it, I was fast asleep!

The same tune

2006-01-16T03:11:00.000-08:00

It was the hour when the yellow clouds shifted to allow a purple, full-round, rippled moon flooding across the little pond's heart. Gif hummed the same tune, paused for breath and then the Duck took over. Duck had that usual far, very, very faraway look in her eyes as she hummed the song and they, the eyes seemed dried, bone dry of tears, happy and sad ones. She said it was her numb mood. And as she paused at that high note for a deep breath, Gif took over from that very note, like she awaited Duck to stop. But when Gif hummed the same song, the same tune, it seemed to ooze a mood of silly giggles, crazy dance steps, whacky costumes and mirth. Even while they hummed that same tune they seemed to be in that moody kind of conversation they often fell into in their second meetings.

What seemed crazy to me was that while they alternately hummed that tune that moonlit night, Gif sat on a banana boat along the Coramandel coast while Duck sat in hers at the LA coast.

Moonlit

2006-01-13T23:26:00.000-08:00

Moonlit
Dark pit
Hold still, clouds shift
A rippled moon
In the pond's heart
Its the same tune
And the same song.

From the Weird Images Collection

2006-01-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

Weird images

2006-01-09T02:57:00.000-08:00

Amoeba reading by the fireplace,
Frogs leaping over giraffes,hitting their butts and then falling to the ground
My brains falling out on my notebook
and then i scribble over them with my pencil
Leather skirt and pink shoes.

A pink tongue?

2006-01-09T00:14:00.000-08:00

Suzy was a pink-tongue-ed, muddy brown frog with cream colour spots all over her, who made me wonder all the time how she got her tongue pink. She was a plump little frog who ate more than leaped. Frogs as you know at any point of time do any of the following four activities _
*Eat, they stick their looooooong tongue out at this cute little thing flying past and zap it in, all in a half moment, much too fast for the cute little thing to realise it was in and not out the next moment.
*Mate, they make those horrid croaking sounds, sometimes only the male ones, sometimes the female ones too, but horrid croaking noises it is and then they sit atop each other and mate for hours together.
*Sleep, now this one's a toughie, you might hardly ever have spotted a frog asleep. They don't possess a single eyelid, so its real tough to guess they are sleeping and if you got too close observing... poooh they'd wake up. Most guys who study frogs say frogs never sleep but I disagree knowing fully well how much Suzy sleeps :)
*Leap, this is not just sleep without the s, they are leaping to mate or they are leaping to eat, leaping is a way of life and I loved the way Suzy did it, almost like she were dancing over the pebbles.
Now getting back to Suzy, so as I was saying, Suzy ate more than she leaped and she leaped more than she mated but most of all she slept, slept a slow sweet slumber, or thats what she called it.
But the other day when I saw her at the mela, I felt stumped with the answer. She was neither eating nor was she mating nor sleeping nor leaping. She was licking this hugggge pink-est cottony candy. She seemed too engrossed in her candy at hand to bother with the usual croaky 'hi', moreover, I was scared she might stick out her sticky, pinky hands for a handshake. All this while I sat on that bench by the giant wheel with a giant pink cotton candy in my hand ;)

Aloo-Peas Pulao

2006-01-05T00:49:00.000-08:00

Potatoes were peeled and chopped, this and a handful of peas were boiled for a while, tossed with little spices and friend onions. Then cooking oil was heated in a pan, jeera left to splutter for a while after which the cooked rice was added and tossed and fried around before the spicey potatoes and peas went in there. Everything was tossed around for some more time, its like people left to make introductions to each other and mix well with each other and then came salt and those green leaves that give nice smell, what do u call them? Another 2 minutes later, Aloo-Peas Pulao was ready, then filled into the pink lunch box, which now lies forgotten over the breakfast table and all that yummy Aloo-Peas Pulao rotting inside it when it should be getting all eaten at Gif's lunch table right now. Sob, sob...

Noone sees them coming!

2006-01-04T01:34:00.000-08:00

If you hear them coming
you probably will not smell them
If you smell them around
you surely will not hear them

Sometimes they sound like
buffaloes bellowing
And sometimes very like
cats mewing

Sometimes they smell like
spoilt and/or burnt eggs
And sometimes very like
Hydrogen Sulphide

They don't care for
who's there and who's not
They don't care for
how big is your ego

They will come
when they want to
They will linger
as long as they want to

Covering up is
usually useless
It's best to give in
to the mess

Have you ever heard of
this poem called 'Death, the leveller'?
In many ways they are
what we call 'Fart, the leveller'!

The Peacock

2006-01-03T01:33:00.000-08:00

Last night, in the glade by the side of the hollow trees over the west side of the jungle, there sat a group of birds discussing their day, when suddenly to their congregation flew the peacock. The peacock called himself thus. I mean the peacock referred to himself as the peacock and so I call him the peacock today! The peacock also called himself a walking-talking and flying encyclopedia of all and sundry. Whats more, the peacock also called himself the best looking in the whole of the jungle!
If you must ask me for a fact, I'd hate to have to tell you that for a fact, the peacock indeed was a walking-talking and flying encyclopedia of all that happened under the sun and the moon and also looked as good as a bird ever can. I know there exists no bounds of his knowledge and his great looks and I bet he does so too, all-knowing that he is!
So it hardly came as mis-wording when he referred to the new good-looking doe in town to be 'as proud as the peacock'.

To Black Lily

2006-01-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

She had a black metallic body, shimerring in the glow of the setting sun, patchy in the shadows of the clouds that floated by, sporting resplendent an appeal and having the sparkly beauty of an owner by her side!
Though this was to talk all about how the new baby appealed to me but a few lines about the owner by her side would do no injustice to the Black Lily as I now choose to call the new baby. The princess had on a very usual looking blue and black attire but she managed to have her usual charm on me. Blue and pink flowers clung to her and a gold pendant dropped a little from a chain around her neck, daintily. She was deciding to smile when the photo was taken of the princess by her newly acquired car whom we now call the Black Lily and who is now the Princess's favourite baby, resulting in only a thin line of a smile before an excited, ecstatic face! Her hair flew all about her face. Sometimes my maid servant looked like that too. I mean with her hair all about her face and a thin smile hanging by her lips. It was almost like she demanded that I call her cute. Well, I did, that is call her cute, but not before her but to another friend. Coming back to the princess, she held the key firmly in her hands and leaned against the Black Lily, almost suggesting that I dare not make the mistake of missing out on a ride with her and Black Lily.
Now coming back to Black Lily herself, her technical specifications can be gathered more accurately from the princess. But what I can tell you is how directly the head lamps stared at me, singing 'Loooook at me...' Don't tell me you haven't heard of this song by this very hot singer. Oh I forget her name, a spicy creature... lemme see now... aha Geri Haliwell! 'Look At Me' is soon going to be a movie name too I hear. Don't know what that concerns but Black Lily strongly hinted a 'Loooook at me...'.
Then her silver crown, it spoke of a majestic flavour I usually associate with the prince of this world. The crown was what one might consider for the idea of a sceptre and sat on Black Lily to add to her glow. It commanded in Silver a mantra of supreme in power and significance.
A little peek into her insides and I knew Black Lily will be my favourite, an objet d'art! Aah, what comfort it echoed. And I eagerly looked forward to my ride on the Black Lily with the Princess to the Grand Canyon.

He, the one whose birthday it is

2005-12-30T02:22:00.000-08:00

'Today is his birthday', said Joe, the doe to Sue, the sow.
'So, you planning to bake a cake?', asked Sue.
'Hahaha, and eat it all by myself?', Joe asked back sarcastically.
'Wouldn't he like a cake baked on his birthday?', Sue didn't care but still asked.
'He would.', Joe dreamt of that last birthday together.
'Then why dont you?', Sue persisted.
'Bake a Cake?', Joe was not listening I suppose.
'Aha?', Sue liked Joe's cakes at times.
'What's the use?', Joe looked faaaaaaraway.
'You, him.... and me, we could have a little feast!?', Sue ensured her share.
'Him?', asked Joe, of whom I wonder.
'Him yeah...', Sue thinking for the first time there's something wrong with Joe.
'.... He's not here.', Joe replied.
'But I... ', started Sue, and then realised all of a sudden that he was not him.

Snow Song

2005-12-29T00:41:00.000-08:00

How much longer will
You open these boxes
Of empty surprises?

Instead lay down on
This snowfield -
Cool, pure, untouched
Let the sun
Beat against your skin
And wash these shadows away.

Somber is not how
I meant to write the snow song
But out of this tune that's played
I'd be if somber not.

The wedding shoes not bought

2005-12-27T20:38:00.000-08:00

It was late. Mommmy Giraffe was rushing them into the car. But Gif had to run back and take one last look before the shutters rolled down on the windows at the shoe store. Hmm... that white sparkling pump shoe would do good for her wedding and with that white gown she would wear at her wedding it would do marvelously! Little Gif dreamt of a wedding with white gown just like they did in the fairy tales, just like the barbie her friend had from Dubai and just like the cartoons on television and she vowed to buy her wedding shoes from the shoe store. Whenever she passed the shoe store, she would check out the models, the glitterring ones and finalise one for her wedding. It was funny, but she did that finalising each time she passed the store, like she were getting married within the following one month. But for now she eyed that tiny white boot with pink dots on it.

Ten years later. Tif and Gif were rushing to be on time at home for mommy Giraffe's birthday party. They have the gift in hand and must be at home as soon as possible when Gif notices the shoe store alongside. She stops at once and glances slowly through the models displayed. Tif is surprised, jokes about the power of window shopping on Gif and tries to get her back to rushing back. But Gif has to complete the task. Finally she decides on a silverish sandal. She is older now and no longer dreams of fairy tale weddings. She now dreams of a knight in shining armour. Well not really, but thats just cliched-ly putting to you the dreams of a dreamy sixteen year old! She dreams of marrying this tallish, thinnish, sauvish, smartish, humourous, moustached Man! No matter what, the wedding shoes must be bought from the shoe store. And maybe if Tif didn't hurry her just as much as he was, she would actually step in and buy that branded floater all her friends wore.

Ten more years later. Gef and Gif were walking down munching popcorn after sitting through a very stupid movie about robots. She didn't really care, she just wanted time with Gef, with Gef next to her. And suddenly she realised the shoe store is alongside. The temptation of years has not worn off. She must decide on her wedding shoes from here. Hmm yes, that sleek red stoned slipper would do just perfect especially with that Red saree she planned on buying for her wedding. She now dreamt of marrying Gef and noone else. So the lack of heels on that slipper would make more sense given the lack of height difference between them. Hmm... she just hoped that the slipper would be available 4 months later as well, when she planned to begin her wedding shopping.

Ten months later. Gif and Gef are laughing about a terribly inconsequential thing and walking down the street, behaving not very different from how they did before they got married. And suddenly Gif spots the shoe store along side. She stops laughing and something just hits her with a huge thudddddd. She had not bought her wedding shoes from the shoe store!!! After all these years!!!

Silk, roses and streams

2005-12-21T02:49:00.000-08:00

Every scenery painted
With roses decorated.
Straws handpicked then
Braided into a nest of silk.

The last picture was hung yesterday
With it lay complete a
Home of silk, roses and streams
Eyes shut, birds sung.

And yet we walk these empty streets....??

Is the way to a man's heart through his stomach?

2005-12-20T22:17:00.000-08:00

Nobody ever told her this, nobody had ever written it, noone even discussed it today. She wondered how she got to it in the first place. Nope, no movie ever revolved about this idea and no novel could be conceived about it. No religion preached it and no book after 'Life's-little-instructions' carried anything at all on it. As a kid, playing 'kitchen-kitchen' with little ducks and pigs, she was sure she would grow upto it. All through her past she had been confident that she would be the best at it. Though today she wondered why she wanted it so badly and whatever had caused the idea to grow so ingrained in her mind. Gif believed she must cook better than Gef and sadly she didn't.

Hejrat

2005-12-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

Ba soghoote dastaye ma
Dar tanam cheezy foroo reekht

Fasli ke man ba tho ma shod
Fasle sabze khaheshe barg

Fasli ke be tho man shod
fasle khakestariye man

Be tho bayad, be tho bayad
tha nafas daram bebaram

Cheshme tho ba hegh heghe man
Ba shekastan aashena neest

Een shekastan beeseda bood
har sedayi ke seda neest

ey rafeeghe nakhosheeha
Een khoshi bayad bemeerad

Joz tho hamrahi nadamaram
tha shab az man pas begeere

Ba tho bedrood ey mosapher
Hejrate tho be khatar baad

Por thapesh bashe deli ke
khoon be raghaye thanam daad

Fasli ki man ba tho ma shod
Fasle sabze khaheshe barg

Fasli ke be tho man shod
fasle khakestariye man.....

Prayer

2005-12-18T22:19:00.000-08:00

She turns my dreams into songs
Then, in a quiet moment
When all those words lie
Unspoken, less betrayed
She softens my heart
A path is cleared in my misty mind
And these songs become a prayer.

Rinii's pet ant bites

2005-12-16T02:51:00.000-08:00

She didn't know when it started or how it started. She saw it first as she rolled up her ballet socks on her front left leg. She didn't feel good about it so before beginning her lessons that day Rinii gave it a scratch. It turned red and hot. She decided to forget about it.

But it wasn't easy. She was distracted all through her ballet lessons and her ballet teacher thought that pretty Rinii the deer was losing interest in ballet. She missed steps, fell in wrongly with the beats and she skipped parahs standing still trying to think how it might have started. It irked her and frustrated her when after lunch she tried to scartch it off again and found that it had grown bigger and redder and hotter. Towards evening she was exhausted in worry and wanted to find a remedy to heal it off at once.She decided to try something cool. Maybe that ointment that is supposed to soothe and heal wounds. Thats the first thing she did on reaching home. Rolled down her ballet socks, took ample amounts of that ointment and spread it on it. It was big and red and hot still but she hoped that ointment would do the soothing trick. Then she lay back on her sofa and thought back, why had her pet ant had come out on her and bitten her on her leg.

Strangely it felt exactly similar to sitting on the sofa and wondering, a few months back, after her first fight with Remo her husband. The initial cluelessness of when and how the issue began, the forceful brushing it aside as nothing and then scratching or irritating each other till the fight was stoked to really hot and big proportions and the final remedy of surprising him with iced lemon tea and wondering alond and working it out why this happened. Rinii smiled, closed her eyes and hoped her ant bite would be all cleaned up just like how their fight was after the lemon tea.

Gef and Gif, go on this trip...

2005-12-15T01:22:00.000-08:00

Early one morning Gif and Gef set out on their moon trip. After a short fly and a train ride and a jeep drive, they reached the town closest to Kanchenjunga, the second tallest peak of the world. Gangtok was full of cheeky people who had slitty eyes and puggy noses but dressed remarkably despite the chill. All the girls had the most shining hair in the country, Gif and Gef together watched them while they walked about with shining hair and high heels. Their culture was funny, not the stupid kind of funny, but more like the fun-type of funny... I doubt you'd get what am trying to say, but thats just it, their culture was funny. Take for instance the way they greeted Gif and Gef. They wound cream silk scarves round their necks and gave them yummy red wine to drink. So you see it was funny and a lot of fun!

Gif and Gef took lots of photos at the monasteries and took in buddhist ideas of spiritualism and mystery. Buddhism as a religion in itself seemed surreal to them. The stories seemed well quite a story, tough to believe. And yet here were scores praying with utmost trust and belief in those very stories. Gif and Gef pondered on that deeply while they took the ropeway ride across the town. The ropeways seemed to be message bodies being exchanged between the mighty mountains. The ropes were thankfully strong enough to not lose the message deep down into the valley.

Gif and Gef went to the border. Now this was no silly border though the concept seemed infinitely so to the mighty mountains surrounding the border. It was the border respected and nurtured by the yellowed skinned men and women on one side and the brown skinned men and women on the other. While Gif and Gef shook hands and exchanged chocolates with both the brown skinned men gaurding the border and the yellow skinned ones, Gef developed a silly kind of neckish-fever. Neckish because it all started with a vague stiffening of the neck and then temperature increasing all over his body. Gif poked jokes hoping that by their descent he'd be swell again. But the neckish fever took to Gef for the rest of the day :( So when they went on that Yak ride by the frozen Tsangu lake atop the Himalayas, Gif half-giggled in mirth and half-worried to death for Gef and Gef barely sat clutching his wife!

Gif and Gef went on long walks by the view points and tried to click the sunrise in motion against the Kanchenjunga. They had silly fights by the coffee shop at Tashi. They snuggled tightly by the fireplace in Nor-Khill. They confessed to extreme stupidities and prided in their achievements. They ate like they possessed rubber stomachs and drank like there was no tomorrow. They sang and they danced while the snow fell about them. They revelled in each other's company and celebrated love, finally :)

Fine seperations

2005-12-11T02:49:00.000-08:00

Ten speak and one listens,
One speaks we all listen.
Reels move as I watch
These fine seperations between us.

One cries, another consoles
One dies, the other grows old.
The mind weaves a colored net
Before it starts a second game.

Scars form though I never bled.
I scream, not a sound is heard.
Time moves, leaves Jill behind.
Let's roll the die again.

Simple Things

2005-12-07T03:07:00.000-08:00

Walking, watching
Laughing, writing,
Talking, smiling,
Meeting strangers,
Friends, drinking,
Sleeping, listening.
Singing into foggy
Midnights screaming
Silent dreaming
Waking sunshine,
Waiting, hiding but
Mostly missing you.

Obituary

2005-12-02T00:34:00.000-08:00

To our dearest Sierra,

We will not forget you,
Nor the hard times you went through
Among angels you'll live
Where silence is replaced by peace,
Solitude by bliss,
Shadows with streams,
Nightmares with dreams
Tears only of Joy
And pain no more.

Twisted Leonard

2005-12-01T00:48:00.000-08:00

Purposeful frown,
Lost blue eyes,
Cheeks sunk
Into a pale background.

Lean being
Stretched across a distorted dream,
Left to weave the
Missing parts of his reality.

Twisted is the protagonist of this song.

Farewell butterfly

2005-11-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

For some reason when friends get married
it is associated with a certain kind of going away.
Another butterfly that used to make my life real cozy leaves today:)
Wish you all the happiness there is ....
Hope you do come back though, in whatever new form u plan to take.
-Duck

The stars are falling ....

2005-11-24T03:32:00.000-08:00

The stars are falling on my roof,
Some crash in through the window pane
Some like feathers silently
Slide across the milky way.

The stars are falling on my skin
They burn a bit and then dim
The ones I had named some long ago
Perci, Frensh , Love and Kim.

Right before one turns ash
A word it whispers in my ear
'Darling won't you close your eyes,
Darkness will be coming next.'

The stars have fallen
All million one
Sky and me lie face to face
With much grace and quiet charm,
Empty bellied all the way

Safari Jumbo tells me

2005-11-22T00:35:00.000-08:00

It was 4'o clock. Before he could blink again, the alarm rang out and Yamboree, the elephant was supposed to be up on his feet and ready for his morning ablutions and his bath. He stretched a little, in a vague attempt to grow out of last night's dream. It was always the same dream. The dream of his family with Yamini. The tiny shed he had to live in hardly allowed him to stretch as much as he needed to shake that dream away. So it remained, lodged in a quite corner of his heart.
Soon he was ready to meet his mahout and begin his first safari of the day. Yamboree worked as the elephant that took excited jungle campers for a safari ride across the jungle. After the morning rounds, mahout sipped his coffee and gobbled his brunch as Yamboree sapped up the plaintains and bananas mahout offerred him. Then began his heavy duty rounds, more and more groups of excited tourists trooped around. Sometimes when mahout was busy negotiating rates, silly kids poked him with twigs. He swung his trunk at them and batted a tired eyelid and off they scampered in fear or maybe mock-fear. Yamboree never believed they actually feared him. Then there were the tourists who wanted to take photographs with him. He never fooled himself into thinking he was a celebrity. But he was a mighty celebrity, his photos often came in tourism brochures and travelogues. Wildlife photographers paid mahout lumpsums to click Yamboree in his varied poses. He had even seen some tourists bear a stunted miniature of him. Sometimes in metal, sometimes in stone, sometimes a vague picture. They seemed to hold that miniature as a God. Maybe they mocked him. How else could he explain why they did snatch him away from everything his life consisted of and throw him into this sub-existence. God, there was none, he seemed convinced. He had been helpless for years now...
Come evening and his loneliness grew to larger amounts. He at times wondered how long he would live like this, live with Yamini only in his mind, live with just pictures of his little sons in his mind, live for ever wondering how they were getting along without him. Was it 10 years now? or maybe 12 years since he last saw them on that evening. They were all out on a stroll to the nearby pool for that family swim when a step of his took him deep deep down into the pit, the pit set to trap an elephant, there was a vacancy for one at that jungle resort close by. He yelped in pain and horror of the suddenness. In a moment it was all over. Yamini was fast, she fled, as fast as an elephant mom with two baby elephants could, deep into the jungle, for in no time the catchers swooped into the pit and chained Yamboree to the life he now led.
Misery, misery, misery, he gave that huge unhappy call, the kinds elephants often give with their trunks all raised. Night it was and he descended into a dreamy sleep, he dreamt of playing cricket with his sons as yamini cooked them steamed banana soup.

PS : As told to me by an elephant I safari-ed upon and took a fancy of whispering into the ear of at the Barur Jungle Resort.

The Bride To Be

2005-11-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

She gave those hills a distant look,
Turned and smiled at the trails behind,
For soon she'd lay on the cool green grass,
And let life's soft tune charm her soul.

She watched as people danced around,
Their restless souls, their dreamless lives.
Will they ever know
That soothing calm she held inside?

Friends and loved ones
Circled her, adored her
Held her tight, sang her tunes,
Then whispered softly last goodbyes.

She has been
A precious one,
A star that shines,
The firmest mind, the softest heart.

Darling Shirsha,
Its your turn to sing your song,
To hold your brush and paint this life- bright red, light blue
Or any colour that you please,
The future unfolds in your palm.

Sail ahead,
Sweetest one,
Shine your light,
To you we sing on this starry night,
Our very special Bride to Be.

A welcome party for...?

2005-11-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

After my piano lessons, I told gran'ma that I was off to the princess place for the play practise, but the truth was that we, that is the princess and myself, were off to our secret hideout by the bamboo bridge across the narrow river that flowed by the eastern portion of the jungle. As soon as I reached there, I took out the bottle of tequila that the princess had managed to hide in her jacket and bring out from the cellar at the palace, and a measuring cup. Then I went up on the stool and brought down the big blender which we use at the parties. I checked in the refriegerator's freezer. Sure we had ice and lots of it! And the strawberries seemed fine too. I let them be as they were and took out the jar of strawberry puree which I'd made last evening. That went in first into the blender. Then went in the little content of liquor that's flavoured with sour oranges, I think they call it triple sec. I had to be very careful with the amounts I added. It wouldn't do to tipsy-turvy back home tonight, gran'ma would know all about the play practise!
Last week, gran'ma was teaching them how to make jam at the Ladies Club and I collected the thick pomegranate flavouring syrup noone used and noone noticed. Three tablespoonfuls of it now went into the blender too. Finally the sour mix splash went in. I was anxious that we must not have any less amounts of this favourite drink tonight, so lots of extra was added when I was measuring out the tequila! With all this, finally I ran the blender once before I opened the lid again and added the crushed ice. I ran the blender coupla times more and then just put the blender jar into the refriegerator to remain chill until the party began! My Strawberry Margharita was ready!
The princess was late again. I wasn't surprised a bit, she must be busy dressing herself up for tonight. I just hoped she wouldn't forget to get the pizzas on her way here. Pizzas and Strawberry Margharita... purrrfect! So you still haven't guessed what the party is all about? Well, welcome back to the jungle dear Griz!

She wins :)

2005-11-14T04:16:00.000-08:00

He said you are just Crazy
She said you are just lazy
He said but I dont want to
She said I really want you to

He said Don' be a kid
She said so am being the kid
He said no u being the boss
She said ok lets toss

He said tails u lose
She said heads i chose
He said what if i win
She said then we toss again

He said and if i win again
She said then we toss again
He said How long do we toss
She said As long as am the boss

He said you are just Crazy
She said you are just lazy
He said Do I have to change
She said yes your pants must be beige

This Years Love

2005-11-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

sing with me ....
David G

This years love had better last
Heaven knows it's high time
And I've been waiting on my own too long
But when you hold me like you do
It feels so right
I start to forget
How my heart gets torn
When that hurt gets thrown
Feeling like you can't go on

Turning circles when time again
It cuts like a knife oh yeah
If you love me got to know for sure
Cos it takes something more this time
Than sweet sweet lies
Before I open up my arms and fall
Losing all control
Every dream inside my soul
And when you kiss me
On that midnight street
Sweep me off my feet
Singing ain't this life so sweet

This years love had better last
This years love had better last

So whose to worry
If our hearts get torn
When that hurt gets thrown
Don't you know this life goes on
And won't you kiss me
On that midnight street
Sweep me off my feet
Singing ain't this life so sweet

This years love had better last
This years love had better last
This years love had better last
This years love had better last

My seven wonders...

2005-11-10T22:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, Where do I begin? From the center? The one in the center was the biggest. He stood upright and alert and ready to tackle and blazing in glory! He was the champion, the mighty emperor of the rest. He would answer for all of them and yet let them have their share of the glory. Yes, that best describes him. On his left was a big one. He fell short of the mighty emperor in his glamour but he still possessed a charm. He held on to his left for support and thrust forward his best foot! The one on the mighty emperor's right might seem a weakling to an unobservant eye. But he had his strength too and he held his shine too. He fell a little overshadowed by the mighty emperor and held to his right for support but it seemed more like he wanted to lend all his shine to the mighty emperor.
On the top left of the emperor, rested a child, a very brillaint child. A child who was too brilliant for his age, a child whom the teachers would say a child only in size. 'Cause his brilliance was quite similar to the rest. The top right was dominated by a superb plump one. His sparkle spoke of a challenge to the rest. When I watched him closely for a long time, I got this feeling that at times he wanted to equal the mighty emperor and set about to challenge him as well.
On the bottom left was the petite beauty. She was perfect in size and structure. Her charm enamoured all and left them wanting more of her. But she seemed wanting to do her very best in her support of the mighty emperor. And finally the bottom right one, oh he, he was a brother of the top right. Plump and cherubic. But there was less of a challenge marked on his self. Here one could sense more of confidence and shine that none dared to challenge. Yeah, I guess that completes all of them. Now what do you say about the diamonds on my engagement ring?

Gif and Diff sing

2005-11-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

We hopped and we skipped
We played rounds of chess and scrabble
We got wet in the rains and dripped
We discussed my new orange dress

We ate alu-tikkis and sipped tea
We bought her jute skirt
We went on slides and slipped
We baked less of cake and more of mess

We made castles by the sea
We walked along the bunglows
We ate corn and pressed-chick-peas
We window-shopped for jewellery

We sang melodies in chorus
We danced to many tunes
We took photos together
We prayed for peace and happiness

We went on tonga rides
We sat up for late night movies
We put night-outs just talking
We bought christmas gifts for each other

We hugged and we cried
We joked and we laughed
We parted ways two years back
We never ever met after that

Dreams

2005-11-08T01:30:00.000-08:00

Bush moves out

2005-11-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

'Careful, now u be very careful with that, that has my wall hangings, all in expensive antique frames...'
'Aha, I knew it, I had totally forgotten to label that box. Now put this label of 'Sandals' over it will you?'
'Ok, this one, this one has six, six beautiful sets of wine glasses, each collected on a special occassion. You know how important that is right?'
'That huge thing is not nothing you know, its my darling sweetie pie, its my night-night baby, its my pink teddy bear, please put in the TLC while you handle him.'
'Look at that arrow please, have the right side up, its my little television. Very expensive to get its parts replaced you know?'
'Now now those suitcases, they have my clothes, you could roll them by the wheels.'
'I think you could take that blue-white bag next, it wont be too heavy, but just dont drop it too hard. Its got paints and stuff.'
'Hey hey, you'll need more hands dragging that big box. Its got my book colection.'
'Hmm yes, stop staring at it, I do intend taking that chair with me, no matter how old and torn out it looks.'
'Yeah, the pots too need to be cleared. Be careful now, the rose plants could be very mean to you if you are rough with them.'
'No leave the fish bowl as it is, I'll take it with me. Just that box from the kitchen left.'
Having completed all her instructions for the packers, she finally latched her room and gave the whole scene one last devouring glance, trying to take in as much as she could, remember as much as she could. Bush was moving out of her home, out of her parents' home to her boyfriend Mash's place and was glad that it took this much effort and thinking, so as to totally avoid those moments of reminiscence and nostalgia. She turned her head to leave as a single tear drop fell into the fish bowl in her hand.

Is that your shoe there?

2005-11-06T22:32:00.000-08:00

She had a weird habit, she weaved a story about anything she painted. For instance, there was this shoe, a high heeled black, patent leather shoe, left behind on a dirty staircase. She grew really excited as she neared the painting's completion, for it was time to stare at it from her rocking chair and weave a beautiful story about it, one which noone would ever think of on looking at it. She gave it the final touches, left it to dry and took her seat on the rocking char facing the easel. Hmm... so it looks like Cinderella's shoe left behind, naaawh, Cinderella couldn't have worn black leather to her fancy ball. So it had to be a.... a countess? A countess with very severe looks, very austere. But what now was she doing by the staircase, this dirty staircase. Oh no, the Countess would never have stepped here. It could be her maid, one of her attendants who had a habit of robbing the countess of little things which the countess disregarded and the maid felt they deserved better! Funny eh? So that was it, the Countess's maid robbed her pair of black leather shoes because the Countess kicked them out of her feet after the horrid shoe bite she sufferred when she wore them and the maid felt sure that the shoes deserved only to be taken out gently. So she tucked them into her skirt that evening on her way out and took them home. But her little playful son, thought of them as funny shaped toys and thus playing with one, threw it out of the window and there it now lay on the dirty staircase below the window.
Aaah... she gave out a satisfied gasp and fell asleep.

Tsumi's story

2005-11-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

Tsumi, the frog led a solitary existence by the edge of the forest that bordered that little village on its one side. Her typical day began at 11 in the late morning, she hopped out of her bed and trudged slowly, yawning and rubbing her eyes, to the wash basin. After that much delayed shower, followed by a prayer before the tiny idol of the forest Goddess, the lighting of the incense sticks, the ringing of the bells and playing the flute to delight the Goddess, Tsumi set about to clean her home. She kept it really clean, not a thing out of place, not a speck anywhere to be seen, always the odour of strong coffee brewing. Oh yes, thats something Tsumi made really well, strong coffee, her skills especially honed in this regard by her old iranian duck pal. All the garbage dumped by the backyard, so as to attract the flys that could be licked off for lunch and dinner. She had few friends, not too close, not too distant either, just right to share that cuppa coffee and ghost stories with on chill winter evenings and iced tea and recipes with on hot summer afternoons. By the evening she would read her newly purchased book or draw that picture she'd been dreaming of the past few nights or stitch herself a neat, fashionable gown or simply set about shopping. Night time and they would telecast some good play or movie to be watched on television or maybe she would read herself to sleep. Such was Tsumi's life, such was her daily routine. She loved life in this routine, every single day so very similar to the one before, nothing changed. No havoc, no brooding, no change and no feeling. Perfect. She didn't miss anything too. Never had she yearned for that family with whom she would croak together with or for that family to whom she could read bedtime-tales to or for that family who celebrated every birthday with joyful celebrations and games.
All the other frogs had warm families to lick flys together with, families that played hop scotch and families that mated and multiplied. They all had problems and irritations and celebrations and feelings. Tsumi was satisfied with the sheer security of this routine and predictability, she was devoid of all that and yet complete. Strange you would say? Maybe impossible you would say? And yet that was how it was, smooth and rhythmic and absolute routine-like and predictable and appropriate and perfect until... one fine day when a long green snake called Ka swallowed her as she stepped out to lick her lunch-time fly!

Handicapped

2005-10-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

A knot in my throat ,
so I'll let him speak ....

The Last Word

<>

Creep into thy narrow bed,
Creep, and let no more be said!
Vain thy onset! all stands fast.
Thou thyself must break at last!

Let the long contention cease!
Geese are swans, and swans are geese.
Let them have it how they will!
Thou art tired; best be still!

They out-talked thee, hissed thee, tore thee?
Better men fared thus before thee;
Fired their ringing shot and passed,
Hotly charged -and sank at last.

Charge once more, then, and be dumb!
Let the victors, when they come,
When thy forts of folly fail,
Find thy body by the wall!

-Mathew Arnold

From the lovers of 'buried life'

Mimi, the darker one

2005-10-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

She knew it for a fact, her younger sister, Lily the monkey, was definitely far better looking than her. Lily had almond-shaped eyes and her eye brows formed those happy arches over them like they were a gateway to heaven itself! Lily had a lithe body and was high-spirited and had the longest tail, which among the monkeys meant a great deal of appeal and strength. I mean, you've got to be a monkey to know what am talking about here. In comparison, Mimi reflected, she was bushy-eyebrowed and she hated it even more as it covered her own almond-shaped eyes. Mimi's tail was long too, but definitely not as long as Lily's. But this wasn't entirely about the eyebrows and the tail, it was her skin, she was dark, darker than the night, very very unlike Lily who was in total contrast, as white as the snow that capped the mountains at the far end of the forest during winter. On most nights Mimi would cry herself to sleep and promise herself that she would paint herself white the first thing next morning. And the whole night long she would dream of herself running wildly among the white lily pots by the garden, choosing the flowers that went with her skin. It wasn't the same dream each time, there was this other time when she would dream of wearing Lily's lilac gown, in which Lily often shone and outdo Lily in the running race. Or she would dream of Baba, her dad bringing her lots of silver feathers from the north, like he did the last time he visited them. Baba had got her feathers too, golden ones, but its like an idea that once gets planted in your mind, tends to gather all thoughts and desires about it. What I mean is, Baba loved Mimi just as much as he loved Lily. He got Mimi golden feathers and Lily silver ones. But Mimi, with her irked mind, chose to believe that Baba got Lily the silver feathers because it went so well with her skin. Oh yes, thats how fixated she was about her skin :( It happens to all of us you know, we get so fixated with things that we reason things in a weird way after that!
Coming back to Mimi, well she loved her Baba, just like how all little girls love their daddys. But she believed she loved him because he was as dark as her. Yes, Baba was darker than the night too, but that was in a weird way his biggest appeal. In fact her Moma was drawn to him the very first night at the bar because she was deeply drawn by the strength of his dark appeal! Anyways, thats quite another story. Moma was fair, fairer than the snow-capped mountains by the far end of the forest. And Moma was the best Moma in the whole world, but Mimi never told her how badly she wanted to be like her, fair and creamy and ice-cream like. With the passing years, Mimi's fixation with her dark skin grew bigger and bigger. Moma grew worried as Mimi started showing bigger and bigger signs of withdrawal from the whole world. Mimi went on walks alone and cried into the woods, sometimes she would be strong and just pray for things to change.
Finally Mimi touched the age of reasoning, but with her fixated self it was a disaster. She tried to work out patterns as to why Lily was not dark, why she could not be fair and creamy too, why she could not be like Baba or why Moma couldn't paint her white as well. Soon these gentle wonderings grew scary, sometimes Mimi would be able to curb her evil ideas and run back to Moma for a reassuring hug but those times grew fewer and fewer.... until one day when she worked out how Moma had ruined her by marrying a dark Baba. It was sad indeed that she reasoned so stupidly, but remember what I told you about a fixated mind... Within a short time this was a strong idea in her, stronger than anything else she believed in, it seemed to explain and justify everything and in a funny way, calmed her irked self. She hated Moma, she hated Moma to have married dark Baba, she hated that Moma should be so fair and creamy and she hated that Moma didn't kill her when she was born dark... Mimi still lives hating Moma and I believe she is going to hate her forever...

So to speak

2005-10-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

He was long, very long, and he was thin, very thin. He almost flowed around, actually slithered would be more appropriate given his nature. He was a snake after all. Nanda, the snake had very typical snakey habits. He un-intermittently flicked his tongue in and out, a habit which humans would describe to be poking his nose into all else's business. He did exactly that, flicking his bi-forked tongue in and out, he spoke about almost everything, giving his expert opinions, views and ratings of absolutely everything one could think of and one could talk of. There was this one phrase which he so often used that it soon became synonymous with flicking of a snake's tongue, it was 'So to speak'. It isn't easy putting up with folks who have such a never minding one's own business nature, am sure we have all met folks like this? Nanda was precisely that, extremely tough to put up with. As if his mindless talks weren't enough, he saw to it that everyone followed that he had the last laugh in every conversation. How he managed this was to whip out the person being spoken to with his rear. Getting lashed with a snakes slithery rear isn't a pleasant experience at all, ask anyone in the jungle out here and you'll know how it irks them all!
Irked as everyone was, it should not come as a twist in the tale to you if I tell you how everyone championed imitating his ways. It wasn't tough one bit. All you had to do was give your expert opinion, here you've gotto be creative, squeeze several 'So to speak's and end sniggerring and thumping your pal on his back! There you are, you revenge your agony of hearing out Nanda! I thoroughly relished this and the more I did this, I realised putting up with Nanda got easier. Huh! You must have had something similar happening to you. I mean, here you have an absolutely unbearable creature to put up with and there you go imitating him, stressing on his worst faults, getting a good laugh out of everyone, and finally find yourself able to put up with that unbearable creature. I know, its a strange remedy for a problem like this :) Off course there are a few of us who dont do things so politely. They abuse the unbearable creature to no end and finally find themselves satisfied. Needless to say, Nanda got heavily abused by several he taunted.
As time flew by, the Nanda imitations grew on everyone. From afar it appeared like a virus... yikes! But today we just can't start, continue or end sentences without using 'So to speak'. I just returned from another crazy conversation with Nanda himself...
'Hi Nanda, So to speak, we seem to be doing a thorough job of covering your arse, which, So to speak, is not doing much...' Oh did I forget to tell you, I report to him occassionally!
'So to speak, Its a good job done there but So to speak, I hate to tell you this, that you must improve your Inter-personal Skills, which, so to speak, is not at its best what with habits of using 'So to speak' all the time.' Zapped, thats me!

Gif's album

2005-10-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

Gosh, did she actually put her hands around silvian, the monkey. She instantly recalled the strong puke-inspiring, odour that always emanated from him! She remembered joking and putting across to him the need the world felt for his use of a deodorant :) She let out a small laughter before she flipped over to the next photograph... Huh, was this a rare masterpiece in the world of symmetry or what? 4 giraffes with their heads together and their butts standing out, she couldn't help laugh aloud at this one. And this one, hahahahaha, the princess trying to look severe and yet smile, in her most ridiculous boy-est looking hair cut. The princess never looked funnier :) She looked up from the photograph and smiled about how for years later she had joked with the princess about this particular hair cut of hers. How over coffee they had for several hours discussed the necessity for a hair cut such as that in the Camel land and how much the princess had transformed ever since she let her locks show their true beauty. Then she recalled how the Princess once decided to revenge her bad hair cut days with overdone hair and had gone for that burgundy shade of hair colour. Pathetic you say? She'll agree with you, but the princess, well, she tried her best to hold her laughter tight and say, oh she looked alright in it! Those were the days really... And yeah.. she had that photo where the princess had tied a scarf round her head and really looked like a princess. Where was it? she flipped through the album quickly and then once again, had she lost that one!? No!!! She tried those family photo albums, nope no luck there either. The princess... did she secretly remove that photo from her collection. Her brows knit in eager recollection... Nope, the princess had never got to touch this album. Did it fall off in the shelf? She franctically pulled out the entire contents of the shelf, alas, no use! Where, where could it go... she almost could cry at her loss. That was the most magnificent form she ever found the princess in! Now she had lost it, or... had she? For it safely lodged in her memories, only in her memories, out of reach from the princess even, never to be ever lost from her... Somehow she felt, that she remembered that picture even more now that she had lost the photo, she remembered every detail, every expression, almost everything about the photograph! Maybe we'd rememeber moments more if we didnot have photographs, she thought. She smiled a tired smile, arranged the shelf back, put the albums back and got on with work :)

Inspired by this piece of Griz!

Princess can't care for a three-legged race

2005-10-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

Gif(With a big hopeful smile) : Would you, princess, participate in the three-legged race, with me?
Princess(With a faraway look and embracing herself) : It is indeed windy today, I must be wearing my fur coat, but I wont, for the rabbit has taken my warmth away.
Gif(Not to be outdone tone) : But if I got you a fur coat, would you, princess, be my partner in the three-legged race?
Princess(An uncaring, tired look) : A fur coat, what fur coat? A fire is what I want and a fire is what I have burning though, inside my heart.
Gif('Oh! is that it' tone) : Is it a fire that you want dear princess? I shall arrange for one, would you then do the three-legged race with me?
Princess(a mock smile on her lips) : You will arrange for a fire? A fire in the woods, dear Gif, would, but, burn the woods away.
Gif(Lips pouting in dismay) : Burn the woods away I cannot. If not for which, would you not run the three-legged race with me?
Princess(The faraway look returns) : You cannot, I cannot, nobody can, nobody can hush these fires away...
Gif(Hoping again) : Hush a fire, Oh I can do that smart. Tell me princess, shall I hush a fire and you'll join me for the race, the three-legged one?
Princess(the faraway look turns wild) : Gif, you'll hurt yourself hushing this fire, for it burns deep into my soul and takes me over there......
Gif(hoping and hoping) : Over where princess? Shall I come too? And then we can go to the three-legged race maybe?
Princess(lips set together like the all-knowing) : Over there dear Gif, one must journey alone, seek one's truth and return afree.
Gif(Sad at how its not working) : You are going alone to seek the truth? Why wont you take me with you? We can stop by at the three-legged race maybe...
Princess(passionately shaking) : No Gif no, this sorrow is for me alone, not for you to share.
Gif(sad and tearful) : You were never like this dear Princess, so many a fruit you've shared with me. Now, the three-legged race...
Princess(with finality) : Those many fruits bore not a pungent bad taste as this and this is for me alone to finish.
Gif(amidst her tears) : Finish it princess, finish it, am waiting for you to go for that three-legged race...

Belongings

2005-10-13T01:00:00.001-07:00

Golden fields, blue skies still,
Rivers run when forests weep.
All that breathes, all that sleeps,
Is not of mine, nor for keeps.

The fur coat and the fancy hat,
I leave aside for thieves and such.
The finer things I held in hand
I throw up in the air tonight.

The traveller

2005-10-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

Reckless dreams and marching bands,
Leave behind a dusty trail
Of yesterday.

Silenced by the drums that beat ,
This Godless soul,
Hums a prayer just for you.

What we learnt at school today

2005-10-04T05:03:00.000-07:00

Hi GrandMa,
Guess what we learnt at school today? It was in Ms. Gladys's class. We thought it would be the usual hour of rhymes and the likes. But today she taught us a new song. Its called the Duck song, hehehehe... The lyrics went something like this _
"The Duck Song (original lyrics by Maggie LLI)

I'm a duck and I like the pond
Swim and play, all day long
All my ducklings swim along
'Quack, quack' they sing my song

quack, quack, quack, life is fun
Search for food under the sun
See some snails, they can't run
They taste so good, yumm..

Dad, the drake, he found slugs
Then there were the water bugs
Called to us to share his luck
And we gave him a big hug

Together we swim along
In and out of the reeds we play
We live a life that's happy and gay
Tomorrow's another day "

I can teach you this, its really really fun with all the actions. Off course you've got to be a duck in this song. So all of us had to bend our knees and hips and squat with our chins between our knees and flap our elbows out, looking like the ducks. The ones who did it the best, got webbed feet kind slip-ons from Ms. Too bad I had a problem getting to be a duck with my structure. Lets see you try it... But I want a webbed feet kind slip-on too :( Can you get me one? Ms Gladys asked the princess to do her dance facing the whole class, because she did it just right, she is a real duck after all! GrandMa, today am going to draw a picture of a duck. Not the wood ducks which we have near your cabin, but a duck which looks like the princess :) hehehe...
With lots of love,
Gif

At the 65th Annual Ball Dance celebrations...

2005-10-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

Gef and me were the first ones to arrive at the 65th Annual Ball Dance celebrations of the jungle. Gef, dressed in his regular formal Grey striped tuxedo, managed to have that same regular effect of throwing me off my feet! Everytime I saw him in it, I had to draw a deep, a very deep breath infact, to stabilise myself :) Actually no matter what he wore, if I wasn't particularly upset with him, he always had that effect on me :D
Soon the prince and princess from our jungle and lots of others trouped in. Some of the princes' did look really handsome and sauve, yeah thats the right word for them! Some almost majectic, infact there was this tiger who held everyone's attention while he alighted from his helicopter. He gave this huge merry making growl which kinda shook through me. You must see tigers when they are all set to drink and dance the night away, terrific! Gef and me were on our way to get a drink when we spotted princess Duck walking in. Everytime I saw her magnificently dressed, she seems to have an effect on me too! Though entirely different from the way Gef does... I ran over to give her that cheek against cheek kiss. I always get scared that we might rub off our make-ups on each other's cheek doing that formal cheeky thing. Has it ever happened to you? 'Gif, you looking so pretty!' she squeaked ammidst all the noise, the dance was about to begin you see! I retorted with a formal, 'Thank you Princess, and you are so magnificent as ever!' It was a formal occassion you know and we love to play our parts formally at times, hehehe... But she couldn't help blushing to a deep pink at my compliment! If I kept her blushed, I suppose it'd be alright to rub off her makeup onto my cheeks!
The dance was about to begin and everyone was talking of this and that. Gef and me were betting on which prince the Princess would dance her first with today. Gef was sure she would go for that tiger, I earlier mentioned. Bah! not upto her class I felt! That new actor from the movie 'Alice in wonderland', the one who starred as the rabbit, was more like her choice. Suddenly there was a 'snort snort' from behind us, we turned about to face Griz in her cute, skimpy gown. I've often told her that with her figure, she ought not to wear anything that doesn't show it off! She had her arms in GrizzleTed's and together they reminded me of Archie and Veronica dressed cutely for a formal occassion!
......
Hmmmph... boy was I tired after 3 dances in a row!? The DJ announced a prize for the best dancing couple to the song the 'Call of the Wild'. Its this fast jazzy number and was one of my favourite. In fact, its a damn good song to dance to. You must try it sometime. The princess and that actor chappie seemed to have hit it off damn well, am sure much against the King's wishes. The King usually liked her to dance with only the Princes... before I could think any further, Gef had dragged me to the dance floor and we were swirling about to 'Call of the Wild'.
There could be no dispute about who danced best to it, Griz and GrizzleTed almost created magic with their most unbelievable steps! Man, you missed it! They swirled and hopped and twirled and jumped, all in perfect co-ordination. There are advantages to being short and swift and maneuverable! Whoa!!!
Heres to Griz and GrizzleTed... Cheers everyone!