You are monumental but still,Still in midst of sound,Still in midst of light,A torturing stillness!Injecting the serene mind,Into a serene stillness,The massive splendour of your sight,The brave confidence of your might,Speaks of the still beauty in you,You are silent too. Remember, massive as you are,Gorgeous too!Placed in a placid inertia,Which injects in you stability,Although not of mind but...
I studied for my S.S.C. exam with renewed vigour. Even when the house was in a cluttered state, I didn’t bother to pay attention to the house. I either stamped or kicked the things, which came in my way knowingly, as I read for the exam pacing the room and the balcony. Hari went to school but he did not study. He loafed about in his spare time and watching...
Siddharthnagar had dense vegetation on both sides of the lanes. There were wadis or bungalow type houses. Rich green vegetation and fresh air were enriching. Traffic was less. I would watch the red gulmohor trees as I plodded to school. On the right hand...
Tradition was a load which gave lots of temper tantrums to parents. My mother was grossly unhappy since she had daughters. How to get her daughters married was a problem. She had a feeling that she was laboring for a lost cause. She would say, “After all, you girls will have to leave the house one day. You are damned because you are girls.” She would beat my younger sisters. ...
Parents worked hard. Father made two ends meet by working overtime. On national holidays, he did not remain home because he was paid double the amount of pay for those days. I did not know what went wrong between mother and father. They quarreled very often. It was traumatizing. Was it a clash of ideologies or ways of life? Mom wanted to maintain tradition...
English, being a foreign language was a challenge. I memorized answers and notes. My rank would be twelfth or eleventh in Paramount High school. The school posed problems for me. A boy named Viju used to punch me in school. I complained about him to my father. I thought my father would come to school and complain about him to the Principal. Something else happened. My father decided to change the...
Life rotated into a new phase. My youngest brother was too small and others were just three, four, and two year olds. Karnesh, our cousin joined us during daytime. The new house had two iron cots, trunks of olden type filled with clothes, beddings rolled and kept in a corner. In fact every corner of the room was occupied with some household item. There was nothing as kitchen shelf or table. We...
I was consciously aware of the blaring note of a popular song. ‘If I were a bird, I would fly to you my love, but it is raining heavily day and night.’ The song begins on a high note and descends gradually to a low note wherein the helpless beloved blames the rain which has dampened her aspirations. The song thrilled me and filled me with joy. The tune reverberated in the atmosphere. I hopped to...
Alifiya Khan was caught unawares in flood waters. Frightened, we waded through the floodwaters under the Kelami bridge in Pehrauli. The swirling waters under the bridge roared angrily. Whirlpools were formed. Ammi directed the children to cross the railway lines but some of my friends like Gahanna were attracted by swirling waters. He stood on the concrete wall watching. I tried to cross...
It was a sapling. I wanted to make it stand in front of my house. I dug the earth and fixed its roots with mud on all sides. I looked at it with fulfillment. The bizarre wind started toppling things which people placed outside the house. My sapling too fell. I erected it after the wind subsided. This time, I picked up small stones and placed them on all sides of the sapling to ensure that it will...
