Friday, August 29, 2008
damn cards...
the wind blew, came through the window towards my table, where lay a structure made of playing cards which i build in the morning. it was tall, broad and beautiful. now it lay on the table, just cards no structure. whom should i blame, the person who opened the window, the person who took the curtain for washing, the wind which had to blow this way only or myself who built the structure. i dont know. most likely no one. all i know is that i had a beautiful structure in the morning and now it all lay devastated on the table top. and as i see the cards fallen, helpless and ugly, my courage to rebuild it withers and fear of seeing it destroyed creeps in. how will it matter if i rebuild it or not...how will it matter if it stood or fell again....it will still be cards...which i wanted to give a shape...a shape which i wanted....the wind disliked...the person who opened the window disliked...and the person who took the curtain for washing disliked....the cards were helpless like me.
Monday, August 25, 2008
magic flowers
exhausted and drenched in sweat, she returned home. it was a long and tiring day for her but never so satisfying. as she lay down on the bed which she had bought with the bounty of money she had from the last summer's sale, she immediately fell asleep. it was early morning when she woke up. first sunrays of the day had seeped in through the unmended roof of the hut which had no windows, for she had heard that fortune escapes through windows. the earthen pot which she carries every day to sell yogurt lay near the foot of her bed. she always had kept two pots. one she kept hidden in the mud closet covered with jute sack, filled with milk and seeds of yogurt of the previous day. no cats ever knew about this secret of hers. they only knew about her generosity of the other pot. every night she would come back home and keep the leftover in the pot near the foot of her bed. always in the same quantity and same taste, for she had some magic of knowing how much it will sell everyday and she would prepare only a little extra. the cat would come in the night through the unlocked door, as she kept it every night. his arrival never disturbing her sleep, but she always found the leftover at the bottom of the pot gone in the morning and a feather of an unknown bird beside the pot. she started her day with her folded hands and eyes looking at the stone which contained the spirit of all her ancesters. then she would look into the pot and the feather, curse the unworthy cat which always left the feather of some bird which he might have killed, but she would preserve the feather like every lover preserves the roses of his first love.
as the sound of sweeping from the house beside hers is heard, she leaves her hut with the pot filled with fresh yogurt on her head. filling the streets of the village with her own meloncholic sound. children would come out of their homes, run after her, call her names, throwing mud pebbles at the pot on her head, missing all the shots, and she would never mind. as she walked from door to door, her steps growing slower and slower, million thoughts filling her mind, until she reaches the last of the house on that village street where her feet felt heavy, her eyes tired and only a small was left for the cat, she would rest. she would rest under the old gullar tree, laden with flowers of all colours, blue, purple, magenta, white, yellow and colours that they had never seen before. the most beautiful of all the trees in the village and villages around it. they told stories about it, worshipped it, lighted incandesence at its roots, tied threads around it and she always rested in peace after a tiresome day.
one day, she was resting under the shade of that tree and the day was sunny. there was no breeze and no rustling of leaves in the tree. everything lay still and barren and she slept under the tree, her pot lying beside her, containing little yogurt for the cat. It was a sunny day and nobody passed by for a long time, all the dogs on the street had taken shelter in some shade and there was no sound to be heard. A purple flower broke off from the branch of the tree and fell in the pot.
The next morning when she woke up, said her prayer with closed eyes and looked at the pot beside the foot of her bed. there was no feather left by the cat that day and the small amount of yogurt which she always left for the cat lay there at the bottom of the pot. she felt worried and left for the day's work. that day when she returned after selling, earning a little extra from what she earned everyday till now, she found her pot still filled to the same level where she had started. no matter how many extra doors she knocked that day, she was not able to sell whole of it. she was worried and she could not stay longer under that tree. she left for home and slept, waking up next day with the hope that everything would be same. but it wasn't. no cats came by and she had no feathers to add to her treaser. she sat under the gullar and weapt her heart out. but nothing changed. day by day her earning increased but she never returned home selling whole of yogurt which she had made. she mended her house and made two windows in the house with the fortune she earned, but she lived worried and grew tired of those worries day by day. one afternoon, when she was sitting under the tree, she remembered the day when she had dreamt of a flower dropping in her pot from the branches of that tree. she cursed the tree for that day and for that flower, she cursed it for bringing her sorrow and worry. she cried out aloud, " o unworthy and charismatic tree! were you ashamed of my ugly but happy life? or did you want to see the whole world as beautiful and rich as you? but you forgot that your beauty is incomplete if there remains no ugliness as me. your kindness has no meaning without my curse. your beauty has marred your mind and made you insane. you want to see everything good and fair and rich and beautiful. but you have sacrificed my contended self. you have brought me great sorrow. you have killed my beloved cat and stolen his feathers. i wish you will never bear any flowers upon you. i wish you be laden with ugly fruits. like my pot of yogurt which never gets empty now, but earns me no satisfaction, no one will ever see your flowers now, but you will be always full of fruits."
the children on the streets remembered the tree thereafter as a haunted tree with no flowers, which lay there barren and deserted, asked by no one, watered by no one since the day it was cursed. no one in the village had seen a single flower on that tree and they left it deserted because they considered it ugly without flowers, covered only with small berries like fruit, infected by the curse of demons of ill luck. The old lady would still rest under the same tree and no flowers fell in her pot thereafter. And they would share their solitude for a while. she, always tired and the tree always watchful and meloncholic with no flowers on it, only fruits.
as the sound of sweeping from the house beside hers is heard, she leaves her hut with the pot filled with fresh yogurt on her head. filling the streets of the village with her own meloncholic sound. children would come out of their homes, run after her, call her names, throwing mud pebbles at the pot on her head, missing all the shots, and she would never mind. as she walked from door to door, her steps growing slower and slower, million thoughts filling her mind, until she reaches the last of the house on that village street where her feet felt heavy, her eyes tired and only a small was left for the cat, she would rest. she would rest under the old gullar tree, laden with flowers of all colours, blue, purple, magenta, white, yellow and colours that they had never seen before. the most beautiful of all the trees in the village and villages around it. they told stories about it, worshipped it, lighted incandesence at its roots, tied threads around it and she always rested in peace after a tiresome day.
one day, she was resting under the shade of that tree and the day was sunny. there was no breeze and no rustling of leaves in the tree. everything lay still and barren and she slept under the tree, her pot lying beside her, containing little yogurt for the cat. It was a sunny day and nobody passed by for a long time, all the dogs on the street had taken shelter in some shade and there was no sound to be heard. A purple flower broke off from the branch of the tree and fell in the pot.
The next morning when she woke up, said her prayer with closed eyes and looked at the pot beside the foot of her bed. there was no feather left by the cat that day and the small amount of yogurt which she always left for the cat lay there at the bottom of the pot. she felt worried and left for the day's work. that day when she returned after selling, earning a little extra from what she earned everyday till now, she found her pot still filled to the same level where she had started. no matter how many extra doors she knocked that day, she was not able to sell whole of it. she was worried and she could not stay longer under that tree. she left for home and slept, waking up next day with the hope that everything would be same. but it wasn't. no cats came by and she had no feathers to add to her treaser. she sat under the gullar and weapt her heart out. but nothing changed. day by day her earning increased but she never returned home selling whole of yogurt which she had made. she mended her house and made two windows in the house with the fortune she earned, but she lived worried and grew tired of those worries day by day. one afternoon, when she was sitting under the tree, she remembered the day when she had dreamt of a flower dropping in her pot from the branches of that tree. she cursed the tree for that day and for that flower, she cursed it for bringing her sorrow and worry. she cried out aloud, " o unworthy and charismatic tree! were you ashamed of my ugly but happy life? or did you want to see the whole world as beautiful and rich as you? but you forgot that your beauty is incomplete if there remains no ugliness as me. your kindness has no meaning without my curse. your beauty has marred your mind and made you insane. you want to see everything good and fair and rich and beautiful. but you have sacrificed my contended self. you have brought me great sorrow. you have killed my beloved cat and stolen his feathers. i wish you will never bear any flowers upon you. i wish you be laden with ugly fruits. like my pot of yogurt which never gets empty now, but earns me no satisfaction, no one will ever see your flowers now, but you will be always full of fruits."
the children on the streets remembered the tree thereafter as a haunted tree with no flowers, which lay there barren and deserted, asked by no one, watered by no one since the day it was cursed. no one in the village had seen a single flower on that tree and they left it deserted because they considered it ugly without flowers, covered only with small berries like fruit, infected by the curse of demons of ill luck. The old lady would still rest under the same tree and no flowers fell in her pot thereafter. And they would share their solitude for a while. she, always tired and the tree always watchful and meloncholic with no flowers on it, only fruits.
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