A letter undelivered....

Years ago it started with a letter, or was it an innocent note, passed during a class? 

It was back in those years of adolescence and innocent pain.

I cannot remember what we wrote about but then again we wrote about everything that was important to us then!

A little note from you, then a reply from me, it went on like this for some time.

It was within those few pieces of paper that we folded our entire world.

I remember flowing in the beautiful torrent of emotions as you gently guided me. 

I remember my short replies to your long letters.
I remember sharing a piece of my life with you.

I remember the day I brought everything to a stop. 

Your letter was the last and I never replied. 

The last letter from me to you was left undelivered. 

I remember burning those letters without a hint of emotion and later regretting it.

Although it might not make a difference to you now, I wish to write once to you and deliver this package of memories.

I wish to deliver that last letter that was left undelivered.

- signed Tortoise...

What is real?

"What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply   electrical signals interpreted by your brain" 
                                                  -Morpheus in The Matrix(1999)

Setting sun in a rainy month

Scene of the setting sun on a day in a rainy month is a sight to behold. 
If your'e lucky then it doesn't rain and the clouds are just lined up on the horizon.

 As the sun gets ready to dive, the clouds take their turn, one by one,  playing the game of hide and seek. The soft rays of the sun join in, illuminating the soft cottony mass of clouds with warm light. The sun keeps peeking through the gaps of this cottony mass, blinding at times and at times soothing. The edges of these clouds get lit up with golden light and streaks of light filter through, bursting out from the seams. 

The sun is dying out but not without a fight as the clouds try to calm him down and divert his energy. The sky slowly turns dull and the blue is replaced by the gray as large heavy clouds rumble into position as if to wake up the earth from a trance and drench it with much needed drops of life.

Practice makes the Dhobi!

Ironing is an endless conflict almost like being in a relation with a girl(I'm straight so don't ask me about the other orientations)! Its not necessary that every time the same strategy (which starts with a Sorry and ends with an I love you) will work! There are a million other factors that come into play like, how long it took you to realise your mistake(how long the shirt was lying under a pile of other clothes?), or how sorry are you actually feeling( Is the iron hot enough?), or were you actually listening to her? (your eyes were following some skimpily clad creature) ?  Finally you end up either burning yourself or your shirt!

If you have little ironing(dating) experience behind you(lets call you a novice) then you may even plot a graph of time required to iron(time spent with a girl) v/s quality of ironing(relationship). At first it may appear that both are directly related. So the novice will spend a good 10 minutes on a shirt which seems to have been run over by a herd of elephants! End result? Nada!  Zilch! Zero!!!

Then it hits you, as you pass the Dhobi, in front of your society gate, you see him sprinkling water on on the dried clothes. That's the secret ingredient then huh? Next day you try it on  other clothes(dates) and voila! The shirt is stiff in 5 minutes(pun not intended)! The novice looks at his work proudly and shows it off too! But wait, this story doesn't have a happy ending(Ironing/dating never does!).

I was lucky I didn't have to go through all this, my room mate explained a thing or two about ironing(not dating), and I still ended up with road-kills! All you novices don't lose heart cause at the end of the tunnel, there is always light! A light of hope called practice! So however cliched it may sound, practice makes perfectly ironed clothes! 

In short practice makes the dhobi who he is!

Adieu dear friend.....

Speed, Fast and the Furious, 2Fast2Furious(say it fast without a pause)- No I am not making a list of super-paced action flicks, but those of you who are from CEPT know who I'm talking about! For those of you who don't, let me give you an brief and swift introduction to this Casanova! Here goes.....

A sturdy and healthy looking lad from the hills (not too different from Funsook Wangdoo of Three Idiots) who we never call Neepjyoti Das (we will call him Neep here, but lets just say he is called by the name given to a certain body part that all mammals on this planet have!), has been my room mate for the past three years. And three years have gone by fast. 

Why the obsession with speed? Well you could just say that Speed is Neep's middle name. He moves, talks, works, bathes, all as if, in a single breathe! Its as if he is carrying a ticking time bomb that he reprograms just before its about to blow! This Urban Planner is actually a Planner in literal terms! Planning everything in advance, not only for himself but even for others who are with him! 

 

He's been responsible for the variety of meat I have consumed  at some of the best eateries in the Old city(that's on the other side of the Sukhi nadi-Sabarmati!).  He is also our very own Master Chef(My other room mate is the regular chef and I'm the well, the Intern!) dishing out the most amazing Dal, Paneer Matar, Chicken curry and the inventor of our very own Lemon Tea(strong with extra sugar and lemon for my other roomie!). 

In a way he has been an inspiration, introducing me to new books, authors and brilliant movies that have helped me shape my opinions and choices. Always on a different track than everyone else in the room, his unmatched perspective and casual, practical intelligence never cease to impress me(Cool and hot in a single package!).

As I now write this, memories rush past me, memories of the time we spent in our hostel room; memories of our trip to Ladakh and more recently the one year spent after starting work in Ahmedabad.

Neep is now ready to leave many things behind and go back to his home in Assam, though not alone but engaged! I wish the couple good luck for this new journey and hope that all their dreams come true!

Finally a warning note to all the wild and domesticated animals of Assam, its time you migrated to a safer place (In short BHAGONN!!).

Cheers and God Bless!

My precious...

You stand inclined in the corner, tempting me.

Your golden face shining in the dark.

I'm pulled towards you, incessant desire rising in my heart.

All I want to do is hold you close and get lost in your world.

You open up with ease, revealing the treasures within.

I want to drink you like wine, savour you.

You overwhelm my senses with your smell, intoxicating, soothing.

I run my fingers down your spine, tracing your curves, the texture.

And then the magic starts as you open up.

I can feel your grasp tightening on my soul, my mind.

I am lost in you, as if forever.

Now I can only recover when your'e done.

How I wish this feeling would last, but alas...

Though I leave you in the corner again, my mind never does.

That's how much I love you.......Ooh My Precious!

A phoney story of the poor...

I have a ardent desire of owning the most sophisticated piece of machinery(a mobile communication device) at the cheapest price possible. It is obvious then that there is no such thing as a cheap sophisticated phone, cause I haven't bought one yet. Even if there is some phone that is close to the sophistication I require, it has had some feature that has put me off. Now don't worry, I am not going to ramble on about the various phones available in the market and what I like or dislike about each of them(geeks like me usually tend to act this way so let us be).

But seriously, doesn't this happen to everyone? Do we ever get exactly what we want? Our mind is in constant upheaval thinking, figuring out ways and reasons as to why we need to own a certain thing or disown it. Its a never ending battle between rational thinking and irrational desire. These materialistic aspirations are further fueled by good looking models, movie stars, cricketers; staring out at us from billboards, magazine covers, newspapers, television screens, websites. Everybody seems to be wanting to either sell something to us or promote someone. We are made out to be the deprived, miserable basically poor!

I looked up the word poor on the Internet and found this(and this is what came to my mind):

1. Deserving or inciting pity (Such a pity my current phone is not a dual core)

2. Having little money or few possessions (maybe I should sell my bike to buy the phone)

3. Lacking in specific resources, qualities or substances (my phone has only 10 apps compared to my friends I-phone/Android/BB)

5. Not sufficient to meet a need (A big screen phone will help me read the news on the move as I can't always read a newspaper)

6. Unsatisfactory( My phone has become outdated since the last month!)

7. People without possessions or wealth (considered as a group)(My friends have BBM I need a BB to BBM too!)

Happiness in 'phoney' things...

With so many reasons its hard not fall for temptation and imagine ourselves to be poor! It is as if we have put on dark glasses on our eyes that blind us from reality(like in the 1988 cult classic They live! ) or our senses have been hacked and our body placed in a cocoon which only allows us to dream but never lets us actually realise them-an alternative reality(like in 1999 American blockbuster-The Matrix).

I have stopped myself from buying the latest phone until now by equating its cost with either the amount of books that I can buy (around 1000) or the savings that I can make( you never know when I'll run out of those). But one thing is for certain- eventually I will crack, those pretty people on billboards will get to me, the need for the latest phone will surpass all logic and reason and become an ambition (like some want to own a Ferrari, or a bath tub, or an indoor swimming pool, or just a roof over their heads and a place for them to sleep in).

Eventually I too will act poor !