Monday, December 28, 2015

Insatiable Soul !

The paper felt warm, fresh and crisp
quick ran the fingers..stealthily but agile
as the thickness of the subject
seemed irrelevant, inconsequential

The busy touch of one's restless palms,
rests..then searches against every flipping page
the irresolute heart.. adds only to my spirited mind
as it hops about, through letters and words

Reached the end? Is that all? Or shud I turn back again?
Textual cacophony!! A disappointed feeling.
spontaneous closing of eyes.. a frown follows
soon it is flung far, away from sight but not from mind.

Ahh! It failed to satiate my yearning soul
with the words and essence, my cravings describe.
Disappointing another morning..how mundane, how banal,
even the newspaper eagerly awaited!!

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Jnu Diary

As i had my third semester exams and didn't know what exactly was our syllabus(banking a lil too much on upsc skills and residual memory..i sat at the last bench with a fellow odia girl Garima Rath.. A sociology topper for timely and kindly help.
We noticed a young fellow ddistribute ththe papers out instead of the faculty...probably the PH.D final yearite.  The conversation in odia followed..
Garima: Didi this guy is marrying in December.
Me: Oh... How do u know?
She: He was inviting the chairperson.. I over heard.
(By this time the guy had already reached our desks)
Me: Handsome indeed..lucky girl someone winking my eyes to Garima..
She: What sort of a surname is 'Khuntia'?
Me: :-O he is Odia.. ?
She: Sorry Didi :-P
In the meantime the guy oblivious that we were aware of our stupidity.. Had come nearer discussing some aspects of the question paper.. Smiling sideways..

I let the matter go..
Garima mean time to deal with Jnu cold had taken out a zandu balm n put it on the desk.. For momentary respite i took a lil n absent mindedly rubbed a few on my eyes.. Next tears wouldnt just stop.. I couldn't open my eyes.. Neither f them..stood up to rush n wash my eyes... Bumped on top of the same fellow..who had tocatch me by the hand and leave me till d door of the washroom..
Meanwhile in the class..people just couldn't get what happened.. Garima stood and declared "it's ok.. She accidentally put balm in her eyes"
N when i came back the whole class was laughing at me...

Totally a stock of laughter among the juvenile delinquents..whole day people of my class are laughing at me !!!

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Road always taken!!

The winter breeze chilling the cheeks,
Shoes...the new budding skin to thee..
As the walk past the lonely stretch,
Seems longer than it always had been.

I look sideways.. Buildings and flats,
The view ahead looks tedious..arduous..
The bushes by the side dull and dumb,
And trees beyond a clueless wood.

I strive to hasten my reluctant steps,
Feel the pulse beneath my watch..
Time doesn't seem to matter much,
Yet my mind wishes a quick return.

Hands in pocket, lungs gasping for air,
Books feel heavier on my shoulders.
Louder songs not calms my mind..
Hurried steps lands me back on my bed

Path-o- long..i would be back in days..
To enjoy you than scurrying away
On this long stretch my soul would bask
Warmly even on a cold winter evening!

Friday, October 16, 2015

Subjective yet productive!

The gaze through the gap of the clutched palms,
As the fingers recklessly find a place to rest.
The chaor swivels on its pedestral,
An obedient servant,  lame...helpless slave!
The eyes feel lidless at times lost in the blank horizon,
while heavier at others pining for moments of unconsciousness..
The strands of untamed hair brushing through the forhead,
far from being the favorite toys of play
Rubbing the eyes, the felt warmth of the hands,
Oh! What a company thou to oneself!
Tightening the ends of the loose shoe laces,
alive the lust for the touch of the warm cup on the lips..
as the heart prepares for a new day to live and another to pass...

Thursday, September 17, 2015

This day.. that year!

On this same day back in 2012, I gazed across the window of Rajdhani as it sped southwards with my heavy heart. I realized what I held back there despite my three months stay in the small, expensive room on the terrace in Karolbagh.

I came back again in 2014..to enter the expansive grounds of a university spread across the Aravallis. Like every other smaller city girl, even I had carried along my dreams on my shoulders with the rest of my baggage. As I called back my brother to tell him I had landed, he instructed me to text him back the Taxi number and other details. I missed Cuttack terribly, how safe..how home-ly! The next call to my bf and the voice assuringly at the other end.. "Don’t worry, you will soon be at home in Delhi".

Few more days of shuttling via Metros and buses, each time calling back my friends in Patparganj to let them know of my GPS location (Admire the Odia spirit of responsibility!) had taught me to manage my time and space pretty well. The initial days with them had helped me cope with both my oblivion as well as anxiety

As I soon shifted over to JNU with multiple tasks at hand, I subconsciously had become a part of the university. Classes, term papers, shifts to Karolbagh, mock tests, library, my new roommate all started fitting into my 'self'.
With exams few days in hand, I barely well prepared for writing an exam as big as I had set out for and not to forget a new engagement to an age old one right in November.. days were spent in rapid syllabus coverage, answer writing sessions while managing the university work.

As one keeps busy in making the ends meet, one barely seems to notice if things are going wrong anywhere. Frustration often vented out in obvious stress and strain sometimes become the biggest alibi for you being left out in the rat race for survival and quest for a better life on this planet. In retrospect you can only shrug your shoulders and laugh it off, learn the lesson and blame it on time and space.. for everything you receive in life is not necessarily your own making. It’s like a lay pedestrian losing his life in an accident because the speeding DTC bus driver did not apply the brakes when needed.

As another few months had passed, I realized how acquainted I had grown with the strange city. I could confidently navigate the auto rickshaw to my destination, guess the distance it would make, bargain and haggle with the street side vendors in Connaught Place, arrive at the right eatery at the right time for a sumptous meal and even decide on the taste of the crowd I wished to encounter, Old Delhi...Karolbagh..Chandni Chowk..Saket and the list goes on.

My love with my acquired skills were further revealed when I took my aunt who came down from US for three days of unleashed shopping in Delhi haat, Connaught Place etc. Few months on, as I accompanied two other friends for some small trips around to places like Lal Killa, Parathe walli galli, the upmarket Hauz Khas village (as they loved looking around at the crowd ;-)) and subsequently to the taste of the sacrosanct typical Odia meal at the Jagannath temple nearby.. I was priding off my knowledge nevertheless, with both of them on the marbled floor of the temple, in the evening breeze where discussion on aviation, engineering, medical science, bureaucracy and mythology acquired equal space.

Today, as I sat back realizing the importance of the date..I mentioned it to my friends, it was a year complete in Delhi, I realized how drastically life changes.. How my confidence level had upgraded itself altogether. How much I had become a part of this city-system, exploiting its offers while guarding against possible dangers. How light I felt hello-ing people I knew barely by face.. rushing to my work with no company but myself.. compiling my materials with utmost care and self-inspection (previously a huge drawback with me).. helping novices out with bits of information. In between my usual manner of being lost in thoughts I was interrupted by one of my co-bakkar-ers.. "Tu last tym Sitambar main ayee thee aur itne marks phod diya mains main...sahi hai".. I modestly reflected to myself.."Only if that was the end to my ordeal!" and then to him "Itna hi great hai to results swap karlein"..followed by grins and smugs!

While the discussion was dimmed amongst jeers of laughter and dispersal back to the reading rooms.. I began reflecting on my possible days ahead. How easy or tough the path is, no one knows. Seriously no one.. and this time I am not hallucinating myself with voices of usual optimism that stops brightening you up in the face of a real crisis. Just looked around and laughed at the old dialogue from the movie Run.. "Kahe ka Dilli bey.. Dil-Hi to nahin hai yahan pe!!!"
Smiling back in self-motivational attempts, I knew,  Delhi still holds many unfold stories for me..while I have many unfinished tasks. I have known never to give up so

easily. Everything that begins has to conclude as well. I wait to see what life can really be like.. Strange coming from me.. because till yesterday I thought I had always seen life from very close proximity..
Life... a mixed bag of my own efforts and pre-destiny. Suddenly I was reminded of Greenday's famous number "As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost.. Wake me up when September ends.."

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Of the sea and the swimmer

My toes seemed to feel the slippery floor below... The door lay ahead...I tiptoed upto it fully aware of the fall that might result in an abrupt crash..
Heart pounding..??. Sheer understatement! My fingers felt numb..I looked around,I could see people.. Ones who would probably save me from dying if the event was ghastly...but it was me at stake..my curiosity.. My innermost fears....desires.. May be life..
Why me...who had to turn the knob? Because its my battle..I looked back..easy exit..but the door...the only door that held all the answers.
. If I made it through, it wouldn't be easy either..a maze of twists and turns...patience and perseverence..it would demand it all..yet when the going gets tough...its really gets worthier I guess!!
I turned it..the door opened..A gush of sand blindens my eye...caught in a whirlpool.. But swimming in the sea..it topples and rattles..its smooth at times and tosses around at others...its bright sunshine now... N dimming dusk next..
The night..? I wouldn't recognize the darkness either.
I plunge harder at times, even wade..and dabble while choose to simply float in between.. Mount a whale for speed at once...while hang on to a raft the next..
Yet...I swim on and on...tired limbs have only grown stronger... Sleepless moments have made rest appear sweeter..
 I know not if there would be the dawn at all..but all I do..is enjoy the pain..I swim on..and on..and on..

Monday, March 9, 2015

To the men of the world!



A day before both the newspapers as well as the markets seemed flooded with quotes and offers dedicated to women. As the history of women's day continues, I asked myself a simple question. Is this all necessary? Nevertheless I was happy to hear of many toll booths offering toll charge exemption for women that day and the like, Yet at least all such celebrations seemed farcical when I realise with every passing day that in the human clan, women are considered a different breed altogether!

To many a men(and women alike), who think that women are uselessly obsessed with little things, I would fondly point out that.. Dude u can't deny that these are the little uncanny habits which save you many a times in need. That's not always rhetoric!!! Gandhiji probably would never have won the freedom for the country had he not realized how valued some feminine habits are --''khana nahin khana hai...baat nahin karna hai...haath nahin uthana hai'' n so on.

Still others suggest, women just rejoice in discussing the unnecessary..making themselves a mockery for the world... Big deal men! It's the other faction which seems to have a fetish for everything which apparently may not be as relevant to anyone of us! Sachin is a god or not!! Shall we go ahead and ask Steffen Hawkins to answer that?! Who ever wants to poke their nose into the intra-cricketing rivalry either! In fact let me point out a small fact, gossips and chit-chats often teach us implicitly what is expected of us explicitly in a given social setting. Sounds rational enough? So, I would unhesitatingly admit..I do enjoy a little gossip now and then and am sure, many or may be all men enjoy them better. Just that its so unmanly to admit it.
Okhey!! More to come..female is the class who are often 'pessimistic' about many things harping on useless unseen dangers and complexifying simple lives. Funny assumption, but that's called not having a foresight by the way. It should be rather taken as a complementing character. While optimistism paves the way forward, a little blues helps one always be at guard. Remember the tiger who kept the boy alive in Life of pie because he couldn't just trust the former and was thus always on his toes. You should just be thankful that women fill the voids in any given relationship.

Why do women shout and nag all the time? Do you also feel the women have this obnoxious habit of cribbing on small things day and day out? It simply means they are not empowered enough. For 'only the helpless shout while the powerful rather prefer recalcitrance.' How do you react when you have to repeat a request n number of times? With the cable operator or service centres when they dont help you in time? You too resort to a scream or shout or running to the consumer forum. Sad there is no such forum for a domestic set up and if there was ..no woman would blow out a case out of proportion I guesss, a dash of make up, an excited attire, as streak of delicacy and the unmistakable attitude.. does describe the woman.. though not fully!

It could be a lot easier to understand that they exist just like men do, with just as independent features, characters and thought processes.. Capable of looking at the world with their own set of eyes, not necessarily what you desire them to be like or feel like.

They are not practical? OK isn't it like many umpteen number of times their so called philosophies have proved invaluable and practically handy.

So, men of the world why dont you for a minute un-man yourself..be a woman and feel how nice it is to be thus. And never the least dear women I pity you for you always have to deal with the world where every human individualis still referred to as a 'man'!!

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Past, Present or Future.

My nephew in the 4th form put me a few questions today.. Some sentences to be rewritten in past tense, simple past, present, and so on. To every answer he was like ''why did you answer this particular way?"  I was grappling with them, unable to recall the thumb rules taught at school for my answer. So I just shut him off with a "now stop tens-ing with the past now"! And then to his constant bugging I disconnected the  call with the famous line "Yesterday is past, tomorrow is  future.. Since today is a gift we call it the present".
As I pondered later over the words today..present..gift etc..I was bemused to be thinking over so intently over a trivia!
Do we all live in the present? Certainly not!
Many of us live in the past.. Still many awakened souls find nirvana in the bright tomorrow. Where is the present? First thing first, how do I measure the present? Is the answer 'today'? The span of time between sunrise to nightfall! So I would rather be going about living in my daily chores.. My share of daily stress or occasional breaks of destressing.
In fact whatever I do is either a correction of the past error, or a manipulation of my future. So in fact I have no present. I m either brooding over the past or
steadily working over tomorrow. So isn't it like I am not living at all my 'gift'!!
As I kept confusing myself further and my mind ran back and fourth between the self created maze of the past-future jargon, the engineer within me resurfaced and replied " Stop being philosophical, there in fact is no definite least count of the present, how do we measure or live it.?...Easier said than done-living in the present"😏 
Yet at bed, my restive mind remains discontent with my bipolar self and its answer!