Posts

Ground Control To Spaceman Spiff

Dear Spaceman Spiff, It’s been a while. I hope this finds you happy and well. It seems an age and a reality afar, when we used to go on our intergalactic adventures together. I miss that. The passage of time since has been trying, the monsters of reality have truly taken flesh. I wish I could’ve borrowed your Death Ray Blaster to zap ‘em away, but these battles have made me weary. Try as I might, I can no longer make that spaceship fly anymore. One hard landing too many, eh buddy? I’ve always been straight with you, ‘cause you get me. I’m stuck, my friend. On an alien planet, where I don’t belong, without recourse, without help. I’ve tried to mingle with them, gather intelligence on their species, but it’s difficult. They’re at war within, while their robotic shells tread the same invisible paths, each believing their path to be unique, yet competing against the others, all the while bending to some ancient pre-set norms. Their internal strife, and the strive to reach their abstract, u

Of courage and convictions...

I'm drawn to rebels. I spent the evening on a thoroughly enjoyable research on the Naxalite movement, and the characters surrounding it. Without going into the good and bad, right and wrong of it, it is a mystery, what drives these men and women into such extreme paths. What drives them, enables them, with the courage and conviction to trust their beliefs and ideals enough to take on the might of an entire nation. Then there's us, hesitant on disagreements with our bosses at work for fear of retribution. Hesitant to live our lives on our own terms, for fear of upsetting the apple cart, which drives our life in its slow, plodding, monotonous lanes. Why are some of us so extremely staunch in their beliefs, enough to stake their lives on it, and most others so unwilling to take chances, when the stakes are much lower. It's all you see, to do with convictions, and the courage to act upon them. This post, out of the blue, is not a call to break the status quo, as nothing will, a

Uncomfortable Silences

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As darkness settled on the times gone by, The withering flame flickered, “To the glorious memories”, D thundered, “And to those to come”, K murmered. The night descended as the flame went out, In a thoughtful wisp of smoke, Trailing away, into uncomfortable silences, Spirits sinking as the bubble broke.
The days are blank, cold and numb, Mind growing in restless pain, Blow my mind, bring me a gun, I feel so shallow, embarrassed and in shame. It’s not you, it’s me, We could do this charade, till insanity. My wakeful nights, while away, Thinking of all the pain coming your way. I’m not a bad person, or am I now, I’m not really sure somehow. But this is not how I used to be, This hand of fate has taken over me, Controlling away, I’m just left with my thoughts, Helpless, abandoned, I’m stuck in a spot. A deep dark abyss, wallowing in shame, With a monster inside who shares my name. Get up, fight, get out of my head, But my body is limp, and my voice is dead. So blow my mind, bring me a gun, The days are blank, cold and just no fun.

A dead concept...

Walls. Walls. Walls. Walls.
I wish the world was a smaller place, The poles, not so distant, Boundaries, undefined. I wish the world was a smaller place, The peaks, not so unassailable, Depths, less frightful. I wish the world was a smaller place, The places, not so asunder, Distances, surmountable. I wish the world was a smaller place, The people, not so lost, Desires, realizable. I wish the world was a smaller place, for its magnitude frightens me now. Its fickle nature, haunts me. Far removed from comfort, into the concrete wilderness that we roam, stuck in a cycle of everyday grind, instilled with flickering hope and ever dwindling courage to carry on, further and further, till there is nothing left to fight for, into the darkness, where not a morsel of courage remains, but only the dying embers of the long forgotten hope, that one day, it will all be worth it. Was it worth it, is it ever worth it? Our lives, etched with sacrifice, for a glorious higher purpose, that we never realize. Mayb

Two of a kind...

I had a corner seat to the left, three rows from the back. It was the second day of classroom training in Mysore and we were in the midst of the irritating L&D(Learning and Development) sessions. Basically, those were three days of English and communication classes that I thoroughly hated because they involved communication and people skills, both of which I lack and have no interest in acquiring. We were given a task, speak to five random people in the classroom, introducing yourself and start a conversation with them. So here I was, making no effort whatsoever to introduce myself to random strangers, when the guy who sat in the last row, directly behind me, came over. " Hi, Dhruva! Tui bangali?" That is how I first met Dhruva. We didn't have the longest conversation at that point, but I distinctly remember, the very next time we spoke, later in the evening, his first question was, "Baba fukish to?" I was like, "What the hell is 'Baba'!&q