Tuesday, August 30, 2016

                                                                A Small Victory



My short story was picked as one of the five winners for this month's Muse of the Month contest by Women's Web. You can read it here.





Sunday, August 7, 2016

                                      The Promises in our Lives


I was told by my mother, when I was small, that anger was a bad thing and I needed to control it. I solemnly agreed and promptly lost it the very next day.

I had a hard time keeping the secret my friend had confided in me from the rest of our gang. It didn't take long for my sincerity to take a beating when the 'secret' was revealed to be well, not exactly one.

My neighbour and I vowed to go for a jog early in the morning every day. Two days later, my mother had to tell her that I was too lazy to wake up so early.

When we were best friends, inseparable and complete confidantes, we thought there would never be a time when we would lose touch. I have no idea where she is now.

In my journal, when I was a teenager, I described myself as an optimistic girl who would always look at the world with 'rose-tinted' glasses. By my twenties, I was a partial cynic who had learnt taking things with a grain of salt.

Sometimes, the promises we make to ourselves or others, or the ones we expect to be made, are the hardest to keep.

On my wedding day, the priest chanted the hymns that presumably delineate the vows that a husband and wife make to each other. I did not understand. I think I just heard and repeated. But it has been nine years now and we have never had to verbalize our commitment to each other.

After I left my home, I never told my mother not to worry and that I will be in touch with her. I simply have called her every single day since then.

When I looked at my two sons when they were born, I never took an oath that I will love, protect and take care of them my whole life. I just spend my days and nights with them,helping them to the best of my ability.

I do not maintain a journal now and I have stopped making promises. I allow myself to take each day as it comes, happy as I am, content with what I have and having the freedom to vent out my frustrations when things get too much to handle.

Sometimes, promises that are unsaid, unasked for and understood as the truth, are the easiest to keep.

This post has been written for the last day of #BarAThon. Prompt - Promise (to yourself/someone else)

(A sincere thanks to my friend for introducing me to this blogathon; and to the wonderful team of Blogarhythm for giving me an opportunity to awaken my stagnant creative thinking and writing skills with their unique prompts.)


Saturday, August 6, 2016

                                     Wishful Thinking


The laughter could be heard breaking the serene silence of the park. The younger ones were being regaled with tales of funny adventures and epiphanic moments by the older generation. 
A ten-year-old boy tugged the kurta tails of his grandfather. He whispered,  "Grandpa, give me a coin." "What?" "Give me a coin," he said, a little louder but not loud enough for his parents to hear. "But why?" "Just give me,no?" "Okay here you go. But tell me why you want it." "Come with me."
The boy took him through a bushy trail until they came to a clearing. There was a  big well, apparently unused for a long time. The boy looked at the old man and said, "My friend told me this well is a wish fulfilling well." "That is wishful thinking!" "No, it is wish fulfilling," repeated the boy. The old man said, "No, I am saying it is wishful thinking." The boy, now a bit annoyed, asserted,"WISH FULFILLING, not wishful thinking." 
His grandfather smiled at him and said, "I heard you, dear. But when you reach my age, you will realize that not much of a difference is there between the two." 
"What do you mean?" 
"Placing your luck in objects that are supposedly wish fulfilling is silly. Believing that these things will change what is destined is mere wishful thinking.  It is okay to dream...in fact, you should. But that ambition has to be coupled with hard work, determination and courage. Will a hymn, a talisman or a superstition fulfill your wish?"
"I understand what you are saying, Grandpa. But didn't Grandma tell me that prayers have the power to perform miracles? Wishing for something deeply, even if it might seem foolish to others, can give us the much-needed fuel in times of hopelessness, she said.
Even in that book that my mother was reading. Doesn't he say that if you want something, the universe helps you to achieve it? Or something similar to that. Of course I understood it better when Shah Rukh Khan said it."
"But those are fic..," the grandfather was about to say. Then he saw the earnest face of his grandson looking up at him. The hope in the boy's visage echoed mildly in the depths of his heart, clouded by years of disillusionment and cynicism. 
"Very well said, dear. Sometimes it is better to wish for things to change than to accept them as they are. Now why don't you drop that coin so that we can go back and join the rest? "

This post has been written for #BarAThon Day 6. Prompt - Wishful thinking


Thursday, August 4, 2016

                                               Desires


On a sweltering day, people made a beeline to the air-conditioned confines of the shopping mall. The mall was bustling with activity with end-of-season sales and numerous promotional activities. 
Tucked away in a corner of the massive mall was a shoe-store, that was seeing a huge rush owing to its tempting discounts. Customers milled in and out of the store with bags laden with shoe boxes of all sizes. Near the entrance was a shoe rack that was strategically placed to entice the female customers. It was arrayed with a range of baby shoes, from the medium to the small to the really tiny. 
Two friends walked in and one said to the other, "Look at those cute shoes! I am going to buy those one day." A woman walking past them heard her and gave a cursory glance at the colourful rack. She thought, "God, I hope that day doesn't come for me for the next 5...no, 10 years."
Meanwhile, a few metres away, a woman began to drop subtle hints, "If I had a grandson or granddaughter, how much I would have enjoyed shopping for them," oblivious to her daughter-in-law's rolling her eyes in a mixture of amusement and annoyance.  
A young woman in her early thirties looked longingly at the aww-inducing shoes and sent a silent prayer hoping for a miracle, while a hassled mother of a rambunctious boy dragged him away from the rack as fast as she could.
An elderly woman smiled at the playful boy and looked at the small blue crocs. It reminded her of the time she had one young boy who had now become so tall that she was no longer needed for picking the right shoes. A mother walked by and noticed a beautiful pink slipper. She picked it up wistfully and then put them back with a wide smile as her two boys came running towards her.
After a few minutes, a man walked into the store and headed straight to the baby shoes section. He stood hesitantly in front of it, apparently unable to make a choice. A salesman approached him and said, "May I help you, Sir?". The man replied, "Yes. I need some baby shoes." "For a boy or a girl, Sir?" The man suddenly grinned and said, "Actually, I need both." And he took home two pairs of the cutest and most adorable tiny shoes from the store.

This post has been written for #BarAThon Day 5. Prompt - Tiny shoes



                                        If Thoughts could be Heard



If our thoughts could be heard -

Husband: "It tastes horrible."
         
Employee: "Oh, yes...I don't have a life and my deepest dream has always been to work on weekends too."

Kid: "Dad is right, but who am I kidding? Have to agree with Mom."

Friend: "How can I tell her she looks awful in this dress?"

Student: "What did Mom pack for my lunch? When is the bell going to ring? Okay the teacher is looking at me."

Daughter-in-law: "As if she knows my husband better than I do!"

Young man: "I'm BORED! Please stop talking."

Man: "..." (Yes, men have the ability to not think at all sometimes.)

Hostess: "Of course your annoying kid shouldn't have broken that really
expensive vase I brought from China."

Bank customer: "I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about."

Wife: "I really really want that necklace!"

Just imagine the consequences!

Whether it is to save our skins, to be polite, to avoid hurting our loved ones or simply for no reason at all, we become accustomed to masking our thoughts. If we were not granted this blessing of having our thoughts all to ourselves, won't most of us be caught red-handed all the time?

Ah! I heard that!

This post has been written for #BarAThon Day 4. Prompt - caught red-handed



Tuesday, August 2, 2016

                                      Love is Strength



In the land of Utmost Care, a fierce argument was raging among its citizens -  who would live the longest? Their longevity was not to be judged by their physical or mental health. No, theirs were fragile lives whose strength came from the love and benevolence of their ruler, Princess Teena.

The love letter spoke first, "I may be a mere scrap of paper, which can be cut, torn or burned in seconds. But for our beloved Princess, I am the most treasured possession which she can never let go. Hence, I think I will live the longest."

"Pooh..you are just an amalgam of words and meanings," said the glass mug, embossed with the adorable picture of the Princess in the arms of her young lover. "Whenever our dear Princess misses her love, she looks at me and smiles again. Do you think she will forsake me?  Never!"

A tinkling voice chimed in, "I might be a delicate China doll that does not carry the words or images of our Princess's beloved. But as the first gift given by her young and true love, the Princess loves me the most. I am going to live the longest."

"Eat your hearts out," exclaimed the crimson stuffed heart, "but the Princess cannot even think of letting me go from her sight. Wasn't I given as a declaration of true and everlasting love? Whom does the Princess hold tight every night before she goes to bed?"

As they tried to prove who was stronger in the affections of the Princess, a loud bang hushed their voices. A young girl barged into her bedroom with a tear-stained face, whose expression was slowly morphing into one of anger and frustration. 

She sat on the bed in a huff. "That's it. Who does he think he is? I'm done with him." She grabbed a box from under her bed and said, "What's the use of these worthless things to me now?"

With a vengeance, she tore the letter into a hundred tiny bits. The China doll and the mug were smashed into smithereens. And the crimson heart lay shredded without a drop of blood.

This post has been partly inspired by the amazing Toy Story movie and written for #BarAThon Day 3 - Prompt - Fragile lives

Monday, August 1, 2016

                                     What Lies Beneath



The simmering tensions behind a smiling facade

In pitch dark the pitter-patter of a kid's heart 

The supercilious smirks mocking the ignorant 

Exasperation over the smugness of the arrogant 

Judgemental verdicts given on hearsay

The trepidation of what may come the next day

The pain hidden in the kohl lined eyes

The ridicule of the victim in the bully's cries

Being the last one to get the memo

Or being the Dory in the world of Nemo 



What you don't know can encompass so many things

The world is too huge for you to know everything

But take time to get to know what's beneath the surface

Sometimes knowing what another is going through can make this a better place



This post has been written for Day 2 of the #BarAThon Challenge. Today's prompt - What you don't know


                                 BAR-A-THON DAY 1 - STRANGER THAN FICTION

                  It was the year 2008. I had come down from the US for a visit to India. I was staying at my sister's place in Hyderabad. My parents and my brother's family too had joined us there. One evening, we went to a newly-opened shopping mall which was about a half of a kilometre away from my sister's house. My nephew and nieces had a great time as we roamed around the mall, had some sweet corn and played some games before we went back home. We had our dinner and the kids were planning to entertain us with their dance. I went to the bedroom to take the digital camera from my handbag. As I took it out, I suddenly realized that my purse was not in there. I frantically searched the whole bag and the bedroom before it struck me that I had taken it out to pay for the sweet corn. A horrifying realization hit me that I had probably left it there. My heart sunk! That purse contained my debit card, my US driving license, some cash and most importantly, my husband's credit card which he had given me to use for my expenses. 
                As soon as I informed my family, my brother took out the car and we all rushed to the mall. It was nearly 9:30 in the night and we had left the mall three hours before. No thought came to my mind at that time except that my husband had entrusted an important thing to me and I had lost it. We rushed inside the mall and hurried to the place where we had eaten the sweet corn. The image is still etched in my mind. There it was -my purse- lying in all its glory on the platform where we had sat a few hours ago. There it lay - a purse with many important things, apart from money, in a MALL where hundreds of people come and go every day.  Gratitude tinged with a slight sense of shame overwhelmed me.
                I do not know if it was a miracle, a piece of sheer good fortune or a blessing from a higher power. Probably it was a mix of all. But definitely, it was an experience that I can truly say was stranger than fiction. (And, yes, I did call up my husband and owned up to what had happened.) As they say, all's well that ends well!