தேடல்

பாராமல் காட்சி இல்லை

தேடாமல் தெளிவு இல்லை

தேடு தெளியும் வரை

தேடலில் தொலைந்து போகாமல்.

 

பூமி பெரிதல்ல நீ தொலைந்து போக

சுற்றிவா உன் இஷ்டம் போல

பறந்துசெல் சிட்டுக்குருவி போல

உலகரிவாய் நிட்சயமாக.

 

கண்முன் இருப்பது கானல்நீர் அல்ல

கண்ட கனா அது பொய் அல்ல

தெரிவன யாவும் மாயை அல்ல

அணைத்துக்கொள் சிறுபிள்ளை போல.

 

எவருக்கும் வாழ்க்கை பரிட்சயமல்ல

வாழ்வைக்கண்டு நமக்கு அட்சமல்ல

நிமிர்ந்து பார் அது சூரியனல்ல

பருந்தை எதிர்க்கும் சிறு புழு போல!

 

– ம. நவீன்

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She Kills

It was 1 o’clock on a Thursday night. I was there alone on the terrace of my apartment building, walking off a typical working day’s stress. In a world of Personifications, I was not alone. I was with my best friend. Actually, she was there for me, hiding in one of my trouser pockets. Like a little child playing hide and seek, she hid herself there giggling, even though she knew I knew where she was because I was the one who put her in there. Yet, she hid there; she knew I would kill her. But she would not give up so easily. She had a plan to kill me in return.

Now as my nicotine-quest was rising alarmingly, partly accompanied by the knowledge of her presence, I reached for her. She jumped out of her little golden colored box happily; she was not scared anymore; she would take her revenge; later. I did not care. After all she was my best friend. She would die for me. I knew she would. So, I set fire to her head. It made me happy. I sucked her blood. I loved it. This act brought great relief into my soul; the relief a vampire feels when he tastes blood for the first time after a thousand years of hibernation. I enjoyed it. I sucked hard. No more pain. Pleasure. Relief.

Burn. Burn. Ash. Ash. Smoke. Smoke. Relax. Think. Think. Tap. Think. Smoke. Smoke. Burn. Burn. Ash. Burn. Relax. Think. Think. Abuse. Smile. Free. Tap. Tap. Burn. Smoke. Ash. Smoke…

Without a word spoken, I had shared everything with her; my pain and pleasure, my despair and joy, my anguish and comfort. She was my best friend. At that moment I loved her more than myself.

For some reason, I had a feeling that she was becoming happier every time I sucked her blood in, despite the pain I was causing her. Her head brightly glowing, she was laughing. It was not the laughter of a weakling; it was enormous; terrifying; she was stronger than me; yet I was killing her. She was still laughing. I sucked her blood faster in anguish. Even as most of her body was now dark-grayish ash she was still laughing.

When she was almost into ashes, this little friend of mine grinned and said “You may have me killed now. You don’t have much time left to join me in hell because the blood of mine you were sucking will take care of your throat and lungs. My siblings in those boxes will find my blood inside you. Today I die. Tomorrow they will take revenge for me. You will die soon. But, do not hate me for I made you happy. All that I ask from you is very little in return.”

I put her debris under my foot, did her last rituals, smiled and said “Die, die, die my darling”.

I looked at the golden colored box which read ‘Gold Flake. Kings. Honeydew blend. Smoking kills. Tobacco causes Cancer’

“I will never smoke again”, I whispered, though not for the first time.

Disclaimer 1: All the characters are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to myself, anybody or anything living or dead is totally coincidental.

Disclaimer 2: Do not come to any conclusion. I cannot be held responsible for misinterpretations.

P.S.: Read the disclaimers carefully.

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Gimme 5!

If you have faith in Lord Almighty, you believe He is here, He is there, He is everywhere. Don’t you? I can hear a big YES from you. But wait a second! You just said God is everywhere! Can you prove?  I can!  I can prove His presence. I can prove His presence in some unimaginable places. Yeah !  He’s present right on the tip of some people’s tongues too!!! Here is the proof:

For some reason people keep saying “By God’s grace I went to US” “By God’s grace I completed the project” etc etc. We hear people saying these all the time. You try and  please God in every possible way. Of course, you believe He is going to be pleased when He hears you dedicate your success to Him. You dedicate it once. He’s pleased. You dedicate again. He’s double-pleased. You do it a million times. He’s pleased a million times. Now, hold on a minute! Are you sure He’s not going to forget the number of times you pleased Him; the number of times you made your Father in Heaven happy; the number of times you made The Saviour of Mankind proud for having created you? Why I doubt this is because no matter how many times I please my Supervisor in office, I get the same old sucky rating. He just seems to be suffering from STML(Short Term Memory Loss) during the last few days of the appraisal process. So next time you please God, make sure He replies back with some kind of a sign which signals the number of times He got pleased by you; say something like a token or a ticket with your ‘Your Please Registration ID’ falling all of a sudden from the sky. So, on the Judgement day, He can’t send you to Hell because you have the token with you! Why not? Well, that is how it works in office. You make note of the effort you had put in in the last half year or the last quarter. On the day of the Appraisal meeting, when your supervisor forgets that you worked on the third Saturday of the first month and on the second Sunday of the third month or that the number of kicks you got from the Client is less than the number of appreciations, you still have done a good job, in a relative way, Bang! You show him the stats. “Look! I have slogged my ass out! I have it all in paper! You give me a 5!”

 

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A South Indian mutters

I have come across a lot of people, a few from my college and a few from my office, who think or believe that ‘South India’ is a State just like Bihar or Jharkhand or UP or Gujarat. Sadly, most of these people are well educated.

Somebody : “Where are you from?”
Me : “Pondicherry”
Smbdy : “Wooaaw! That is a nice place, really cooool”
Me : “hmm…yeah”
Smbdy : “By the way, where is this Pondicherry? It is an island, right?”
Me : (with a smile that says ‘here you go…not again…’ ) “No no no…it is not.”
Smbdy : “It isn’t?!”
Me : “It isn’t. It is neither an island nor a hill station. It is 150 kilometers south of Chennai on the coast”
Smbdy : “How do you go to Pondicherry?”
Me : “I go to Chennai and by bus from there”
Smbdy : “They speak Telugu there, right?”

…….and a bunch of questions like that. And I patiently answer all the questions, gradually clarifying all doubts about Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, South India, South Indian languages, etc… No kidding, this has happened to me over a hundred times.

For all those who think South India is a single state and all South Indians speak one single language, for your information, I present you some facts about South India.

1. South India is not a single state.
2. South India is not Andhra; no, definitely not.
3. When somebody is from South, he’s not necessarily from Andhra.
4. There is no language called ‘South Indian’ and Telugu is not the only South Indian language.
5. When somebody says he’s a South Indian, he does not necessarily speak Telugu.
6. There are four States and an Union Territory collectively considered as South India.
7. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka are the four states.
8. Similarly there are four major languages spoken by the people in South India.
9. Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada respectively.
10. And FYI, the four languages are distinct.
11. All South Indian movies are not Telugu movies.
12. Rajnikant is not the only South Indian actor.

For more interesting facts about South India, go through primary school geography and history books.

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GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

So, here I am sitting in my cubicle, pointlessly staring at the monitor screen for more than an hour now, thwarted by the ridicules of Lucknow traffic, unable to get my mind out of it (not just a reason to not work).The way to office was annoying as usual. Cars, autos, bikes, buses, cycles, rickshaws and peddlers all dying to win the race; either it be driving on a straight road or it be crossing roundabouts, everybody wants to be the first one. Nobody wants the other one to go first. The worst part is, there are no signals in most of the roundabouts and vehicles coming from all directions, going towards all directions, race their way through; not a single vehicle would let go the other vehicle even while crossing the road. They all create a lot of confusion in the middle of the road. Above all, I did not understand one thing, why does everybody sound horn all the time? Does it make any sense at all? Why not let the other one go before you? All you have to do is wait patiently for 2 seconds. Ya, I know that every second is precious. But why lose peace of mind fighting your way to office? The vehicle crossing the road sounds horn, the vehicle on the straight road sounds horn, the one behind it, then the one behind the second, then eventually the tenth behind, in fact the ones on the other side of the road, creating a death bell kind of noise. Thanks to you. You have contributed your might towards Noise Pollution. Why don’t you get some sense? Why don’t you stop sounding horn? For heaven’s sake, horn is not the bell you ring in your pooja room to remind the lord in heaven of your presence; it is rather the bell you ring to call the devil in hell. You don’t have to horn all the time while on road. Get some traffic sense my dear higher middle class and higher class public. Driving your car does not classify you as an economical elite; driving with ‘some’ traffic sense classifies you.

Why lose peace of mind? Why not drive peacefully? Why irritate others? Why not have a pleasant ride? You contribute towards annoying yourselves, your boss, your colleagues, your brothers and sisters (as the national pledge says), your city, your nation. You go to your office annoyed; you start annoying already annoyed people there; now the annoyance increasing exponentially around the place; you come home annoyed; you annoy your family; you lose peaceful sleep, you wake up the next day annoyed, now carrying your legacy of annoyance to the road and you take care that the whole process repeats itself, now the annoyance growing in magnitude, covering more space and annoying more people; the entire city is annoyed, and ultimately the entire nation. All that was required was 2 seconds of patience. Why don’t you understand this? Why not wait for 2 seconds? Please spend 2 seconds of your time; give way to the vehicle crossing the road. Live a peaceful life. “All we all say is give peace a chance”.

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