The Outsider

"You are close to Sun", they cried.

This was an allegation Mercury could not refute. He was closer to Sun than anybody else; consequently, he saw Sun everywhere, in all beings, in all forms.

He hung is head and murmured, "But what is my crime?"

"You are an outsider", they raged.

"How am I an outsider", asked Mercury puzzled. He had always blended with the populace; he wore togas in Rome, spoke Bengali in Calcutta, and drank bird-nest-soup in Peking. He carried news of one place to the other, he saw so many worlds that they all were one to him, he owned houses in so many places that the entire trade-route was home...

"Your name is different", they cried.

"What's in a name", asked Mercury. "That which you call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet..."

But his voice was drowned by the cacophony that arose from the crowd.

"Stop him from speaking! He fools us!"
"Gag him! He has a wily tongue!"
"Kill him! He leads children astray!"
"Kill him! He's strange!"
"Kill him! He's different!"

"How am I different", cried out Mercury in anguish. "If you prick me, will I not bleed?"

হেথায় তোরে মানাইছে না রে

এলাহাবাদে আমার জন্ম, সেখানেই আমার লেখাপড়া-বড়হওয়া | দূর্গাপুজোয় বাড়ীর শিউলিগাছের ফুল কুড়িয়ে পাড়ার পুজোবাড়ী যাওয়া, উপোস করে পুষ্পাঞ্জলী সেরে বোঁদে প্রসাদ খাওয়া, ষষ্ঠীর সন্ধ্য়াতে আগমনী শোনা, সপ্তমি থেকে নবমী পর্য্য়ন্ত নাটক-নৃত্য়নাটিকা দেখা, এই করেই বড় হয়েছি |

আজ বেশ ক'বছর হল চাকুরীসূত্রে আমি প্রবাসী, সুদূর বাঙ্গালোরে থাকি, প্রত্য়েক বার পূজোতে বাড়ী যাওয়া হয়ে উঠেনা | এ বছর মা-বাবার এখানে আসবার প্ল্য়ান ছিল, শেষ মুহুর্তে ক্য়ানসেল হয়ে যায় | মন খারাপ, ভেবেছিলাম এখানকার পুজোবাড়িতে আর কী-ই বা যাব, অপিস-ও এমন অদ্ভুত যে কেবল দশমীর ছুটি দিয়েছে, বাঙ্গালোরবাসিদের জন্য় নবমী তো বেশ বড় দিন, তার-ও ছুটি দেয়নি, মোট কথা বড়‍ই বাজে ব্য়াপার |
আজ রবিবার, ষষ্ঠী, মা কুরিয়ার করে নতুন জামা পাঠিয়েছেন ষষ্ঠী থেকে নবমী পর্য্য়ন্ত পরবার জন্য়, তাই আজ বিকেলে নতুন জামা পরে গুটি-গুটি পায়ে কোরামঙ্গলা পূজোবাড়ীতে গেলাম |

আমি যখন ঢুকছি সে সময় বাচ্চাদের নাচ চলছে স্টেজে, ছোট-ছোট সব ছেলেমেয়েরা সেজেগুজে নাচছে এই গানের তালে তালে:

হেথায় তোরে মানাইছে না রে, ইক্কিবারে মানাইছে না রে

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Approaching senility

I do not hear the cars and bikes that honk needlessly behind me, urging me to squeeze into that 2 inch space between the car ahead of me and the kerb, and I do not turn to glare at their drivers.
I do not see the humour in Govinda's films, or the pathos in K3G.
I do not chew upon words tossed by a bunch of relatives gaggling at a wedding (or a funeral).
I do not digest overfried potato-cakes, dunked in tasteless cheese and garnished with chilly flakes, trying to pass of as Italian cuisine.
I do not walk to school and run home: I run to office and walk thoughtfully home.

I am growing old.

Everything Changed During that One Fated Moment in Time

“Was it very tasty, Father?” asked Cain wide eyed. “Better than even apples and oranges?”

“It was, Son, but at that point of time, I wasn’t really paying attention to the taste.”

“Why not, Father?”

“Because I looked at your mother and, in that single instant, time stood still.”

“Your father,” said Eve ruffling Cain’s hair, “and I looked at each other, reached out, lost ourselves ...”

“....and found you,” finished Adam softly, gathering Abel close.

*************

For, the wise serpent had led us to the greatest gift of all - the gift of that one fated moment in time when everything changed. That single instant when we Know. In that moment we reach out to live, and to die together. And from that death do we create Immortals.

We play God.

Thanking God for small mercies

• that autos don't have a reverse gear


• that they haven't put a traffic light atop the Hebbal flyover


• that buses are not allowed on that stretch of Brigade Road


• that not all who think they know MS Word also think that they are Technical Writers


• that khadi kurtas are still available for less than a hundred rupees

There was a time when meadow, grove, and...

When I was a child, I saw a bayonet for the first time at the museum. The security guard at the gate held one gravely, and did not even smile when I said, "Police jee, jai hind". That is when I discovered that the gleaming knife atop his rifle was called a bayonet, and was poked into the stomach of an enemy if the enemy came too close.

Hand-to-hand combat is a thing of the past today. We are so much remotely controlled that we touch the feet of elders on Vijayadashami through a "pronaam" SMS.

It was in the 1800s that Wordsworth said,

"There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell'd in celestial light,
...It is not now as it hath been of yore;-
...Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
that there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth."

It's been almost 150 years since, and if I feel the same as he did, I can only presume that, though things have "pass'd away", it cannot be all that bad.

Which is why, when someone tells me, "Keep in touch", I need not think of the bayonet and the SMS and say aloud, "Define touch."

I need not be cynical.

We look before and after...

We often greet our loved ones this season with sentiments like “May all the days before you be filled with love, laughter and happiness.” Just the other day, while I was signing off another New Year card, something queer struck me about the word “before.” It signifies all that has happened earlier, the things in the past, the Before. It equally stands for that which is in front of us, that which is yet to happen, that other Before. In fact, it may as well have been another word for Janus, the Roman god famous in myths for being two-headed, and for whom the month of January is named.
January is the month when we are at the crossroads of time, looking fore and aft. Looking back to the bleak days of winter and looking forth for the first robin of spring. This, then, is the time when we greet each other with wisdom — for wisdom springs from such bi-directional gaze, from knowing that what has gone before still lies before us, that everything is here for the taking and all that we need to do is to see. Wishing you all a very happy gazing time. A very happy new year.
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First post

Thought that this could be a notebook. Can jot down random thoughts, and structure them for publication (grin).
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