There were chairs hanging from the ceiling and my coffee mug was magically placed on the desk, inverted. Magically because the coffee was still inside it. And steaming. Funny how things seem to look more ‘in control’ when viewed from an inverted perspective. In reality, there was actually a storm brewing inside my coffee mug!
Phew! I jerked my head up and felt all the blood rush downwards. Felt slightly light-headed even. I was challenging myself to lie on the bed with my head hanging from the side for five minutes. It was just 130 seconds when I couldn’t take it anymore.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
A Modern Fairy Tale Part 1
I have a hyperactive imagination and I consider it to be a blessing. You don’t always want to look at ‘A’ as ‘A’. ‘A’ could be ‘B’ or ‘C’ or ‘Z’. It’s up to you to create. And destroy. I can relate hundreds of instances of creation and destruction that I have done single-handedly. One day when I woke up from my sleep, I thought the bed was floating on the clouds. It was an amazing experience. I could see my 72 year old grandmother watering her plants on the terrace garden. For the first time, I noticed that she talks to her plants as though they were her grandchildren. Next I saw my mother return from her morning walk. I was surprised to see that she stops on her way to feed the pigeons some grain that she…oh my God…carried in a little pouch! Slowly as I glided down, my window came into view. I never knew how my window looked from outside. Today I caught a glimpse of it from the other side. There was a girl lying on the bed. She would be roughly of my age and height. She was lying on one side and there was a lingering smile on her face. Her short brown hair fell over her eyes as she slept. I didn’t know her name but she looked vaguely familiar. I recalled having seen her often.
As I floated just outside her window, I peeped in to have a closer look I noticed that the walls of her room had been newly painted in a dewy green hue. The sun was peeking in through the huge leaves of the coconut tree just outside her window. It was casting a psychedelic pattern of light and shadows over the empty part of her bed. All of a sudden, I felt a jolt. The bed on which I was sitting started rocking and I felt a tremendous force sucking me into a point in the sky. The point grew into a sort of a tunnel which, I understood was the place I was being sucked into. The walls of the tunnel were now closer and I heard a rhythmic beeping sound emanating from it. It engulfed me and the bed and the beeping sound got louder and louder. Then darkness. Silence.
My eyes wouldn’t open. I felt airsickness. The alarm was screeching now. It was seven- thirty. Finally light. Whoa! I was blinded by the sun streaming through the open window! There was a weird pattern on my bed, as though somebody had been sleeping there beside me and had got up in a hurry, leaving the sheets all messed up. I brushed the hair away from my eyes, sat up and turned the alarm off. Mother was back from her morning walk. I heard her in the kitchen rustling up a breakfast. Another day. Any other day. Why do nice dreams have to come to an end? I already knew the answer. To bring us back to the real world. The real world is harsh, cruel. There are no flying carpets, talking plants and wormholes to take you to a different universe. But there are the ogres, the trolls. The fairies, nymphs, dryads. The ogres wear power suits and have power lunch. The dryads wear couture gowns and chiffon sarees. They all carry wands made of thorns. They wear crowns made of Blackberrys! They cover their eyes with Ferragamo or Ray Ban for their eyes will burn if they look at light. This is the real world. And I am a part of it.
I bathed and put on my power linen shirt, denims and Police shades. I was now equipped to venture out into the real world.
As I floated just outside her window, I peeped in to have a closer look I noticed that the walls of her room had been newly painted in a dewy green hue. The sun was peeking in through the huge leaves of the coconut tree just outside her window. It was casting a psychedelic pattern of light and shadows over the empty part of her bed. All of a sudden, I felt a jolt. The bed on which I was sitting started rocking and I felt a tremendous force sucking me into a point in the sky. The point grew into a sort of a tunnel which, I understood was the place I was being sucked into. The walls of the tunnel were now closer and I heard a rhythmic beeping sound emanating from it. It engulfed me and the bed and the beeping sound got louder and louder. Then darkness. Silence.
My eyes wouldn’t open. I felt airsickness. The alarm was screeching now. It was seven- thirty. Finally light. Whoa! I was blinded by the sun streaming through the open window! There was a weird pattern on my bed, as though somebody had been sleeping there beside me and had got up in a hurry, leaving the sheets all messed up. I brushed the hair away from my eyes, sat up and turned the alarm off. Mother was back from her morning walk. I heard her in the kitchen rustling up a breakfast. Another day. Any other day. Why do nice dreams have to come to an end? I already knew the answer. To bring us back to the real world. The real world is harsh, cruel. There are no flying carpets, talking plants and wormholes to take you to a different universe. But there are the ogres, the trolls. The fairies, nymphs, dryads. The ogres wear power suits and have power lunch. The dryads wear couture gowns and chiffon sarees. They all carry wands made of thorns. They wear crowns made of Blackberrys! They cover their eyes with Ferragamo or Ray Ban for their eyes will burn if they look at light. This is the real world. And I am a part of it.
I bathed and put on my power linen shirt, denims and Police shades. I was now equipped to venture out into the real world.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Independent women
I don't know why, repeatedly I return to the subject of women. I am not a die-hard, bra-burning type of a feminist. But I wish women, today, were more assertive about themselves. Now heres a list of what I expect from the woman of today...
1. Grow up and beyond jewellery, clothes, hair and make-up and husbands and boyfriends!
2. Be bold about choices and be responsible.
3. Come out of the shadow of haggling parents who want to get you married.
4. Live an independent life. A life on your own terms. A life thats free from inhibitions.
5. 'Getting married' should not be an ultimate goal of life, for god's sake!
6. Marriage is okay as long as your own individuality is not sacrificed and hidden under yards of sarees and pounds of gold!
7. It is okay to retain your maiden name after marriage and it is okay to be Miss so and so instead of Mrs so and so.
8. Be assertive about your sexuality. Assertive but not overtly promiscuous!
9. Be and look dignified in everything you do.
10. Drinking, smoking and wearing tiny clothes does not define modernity. Modernity lies in the way you think, in the kind of lifestyle you aspire to.
11. If it is possible, wearing sindoor and shankha-pola or chooda should be abolished. I feel they are signs of 'bondage'.
12. Have an outgoing personality. The only man you speak to/have lunch/dinner with/go for a drink with should not be your husband or your boyfriend!
13. It is better to remain unmarried and lead an independent life than to have a chauvinistic pig as a husband.
14. Do something on your own in life. Even if you don't have a high-flying job that pays you lakhs, do something that ensures your financial independence. The worst thing that the woman of today can do is ask for money from the men!
15. Wear good lingerie! I don't know why I am including this in the list but it is imperative for women to wear the right kind of lingerie, the kind that best complements what they are, bodily!
16. Travel a lot ladies! I don't mean travelling on your honeymoon with your beloved hubby! Travel alone/with friends/an unknown group of backpackers, the likes...! That will give you a whole new perspective in life.
17. Learn how to drive a car! Nothing feels greater than sitting on the driver's seat 'with your eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel...'!
18. Ladies, read Isadora Duncan's autobiography. Its marvellous. I think being an independent woman in the turn-of-the-century-Puritan America can be quite challenging. And Miss Duncan has lived her life on her own terms in the early 1900s, something that women in the year 2009 cannot dream of doing! Pull up your socks ladies! Or shall I say panty-hoses!!
I think thats enough gyaan for the day! I should now turn to my sci-fi imagination and churn out some more pulp!
1. Grow up and beyond jewellery, clothes, hair and make-up and husbands and boyfriends!
2. Be bold about choices and be responsible.
3. Come out of the shadow of haggling parents who want to get you married.
4. Live an independent life. A life on your own terms. A life thats free from inhibitions.
5. 'Getting married' should not be an ultimate goal of life, for god's sake!
6. Marriage is okay as long as your own individuality is not sacrificed and hidden under yards of sarees and pounds of gold!
7. It is okay to retain your maiden name after marriage and it is okay to be Miss so and so instead of Mrs so and so.
8. Be assertive about your sexuality. Assertive but not overtly promiscuous!
9. Be and look dignified in everything you do.
10. Drinking, smoking and wearing tiny clothes does not define modernity. Modernity lies in the way you think, in the kind of lifestyle you aspire to.
11. If it is possible, wearing sindoor and shankha-pola or chooda should be abolished. I feel they are signs of 'bondage'.
12. Have an outgoing personality. The only man you speak to/have lunch/dinner with/go for a drink with should not be your husband or your boyfriend!
13. It is better to remain unmarried and lead an independent life than to have a chauvinistic pig as a husband.
14. Do something on your own in life. Even if you don't have a high-flying job that pays you lakhs, do something that ensures your financial independence. The worst thing that the woman of today can do is ask for money from the men!
15. Wear good lingerie! I don't know why I am including this in the list but it is imperative for women to wear the right kind of lingerie, the kind that best complements what they are, bodily!
16. Travel a lot ladies! I don't mean travelling on your honeymoon with your beloved hubby! Travel alone/with friends/an unknown group of backpackers, the likes...! That will give you a whole new perspective in life.
17. Learn how to drive a car! Nothing feels greater than sitting on the driver's seat 'with your eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel...'!
18. Ladies, read Isadora Duncan's autobiography. Its marvellous. I think being an independent woman in the turn-of-the-century-Puritan America can be quite challenging. And Miss Duncan has lived her life on her own terms in the early 1900s, something that women in the year 2009 cannot dream of doing! Pull up your socks ladies! Or shall I say panty-hoses!!
I think thats enough gyaan for the day! I should now turn to my sci-fi imagination and churn out some more pulp!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Hows that for Sci-fi!
Imagine if the sun is suddenly blown out by a gust of very strong celestial wind! Here's a list of what could happen:
1. It will become dark...very dark! (Huh!)
2. It will become freezing cold! (Yeah like you needed to tell me that!) The temperature will plummet to several degrees below zero.
3. The trees will die. No sun, no photosynthesis, no food for the plants...hence they all start wilting...
4. No trees, no vegetation for the herbivores. No food for herbivores, two things can happen: One, they die. Two, they become carnivores! (Now that's an idea!)
5. If small herbivores die, carnivores go without food and ultimately die. Here too, a gamut of possibilities can happen. Carnivores go without food and die, that's one. On second thoughts, what if they start feeding on fellow carnivores and turn to cannibalism as well...Third, they become aquatic! (This I'll explain later!)
6. Where do humans go? (Good question!) Since the temperature has dropped way beyond freezing point, there's one thing that we can do....any guesses?? We start burrowing! Yeah! If the theory that there is a real hot centre deep down the middle of the earth (read A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, you'll know what I'm talking about...) is true after all, we can all start burrowing and build homes inside the earth to be close to that heat source. Magma.
7. What do we eat? (Ah! If only they had Mac D's and Pizza Huts down there!) We are forced to become vegetarian! (Finally!) We eat roots of trees that are hundreds of thousands of years old! Of course there will be other animals who will think of migrating deep down under (!) to be safe from the cold! We can eat those too. Take your pick. Fresh rodents! Fresh rodents! Imagine a meat shop under several layers of the earth selling mole fillet and rat flanks!
8. Then if Lamarck's theory holds true (It proposed that individual efforts during the lifetime of the organisms were the main mechanism driving species to adaptation, as they supposedly would acquire adaptive changes and pass them on to offspring.) then human beings would slowly become stooped. Grow large talons (to dig out earth) and maybe even snouts! Hell! We would all end up looking like rodents! Welcome to Gnawville!
Disclaimer: The above views are products of my own imagination and no scientist, scientific research or theory should be held responsible for these views! Infact, these views would make for good quality (but cheap!) science fiction!
p.s. What about aquatic life? Well...need to research a bit on this one! Wait for my next post...
1. It will become dark...very dark! (Huh!)
2. It will become freezing cold! (Yeah like you needed to tell me that!) The temperature will plummet to several degrees below zero.
3. The trees will die. No sun, no photosynthesis, no food for the plants...hence they all start wilting...
4. No trees, no vegetation for the herbivores. No food for herbivores, two things can happen: One, they die. Two, they become carnivores! (Now that's an idea!)
5. If small herbivores die, carnivores go without food and ultimately die. Here too, a gamut of possibilities can happen. Carnivores go without food and die, that's one. On second thoughts, what if they start feeding on fellow carnivores and turn to cannibalism as well...Third, they become aquatic! (This I'll explain later!)
6. Where do humans go? (Good question!) Since the temperature has dropped way beyond freezing point, there's one thing that we can do....any guesses?? We start burrowing! Yeah! If the theory that there is a real hot centre deep down the middle of the earth (read A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, you'll know what I'm talking about...) is true after all, we can all start burrowing and build homes inside the earth to be close to that heat source. Magma.
7. What do we eat? (Ah! If only they had Mac D's and Pizza Huts down there!) We are forced to become vegetarian! (Finally!) We eat roots of trees that are hundreds of thousands of years old! Of course there will be other animals who will think of migrating deep down under (!) to be safe from the cold! We can eat those too. Take your pick. Fresh rodents! Fresh rodents! Imagine a meat shop under several layers of the earth selling mole fillet and rat flanks!
8. Then if Lamarck's theory holds true (It proposed that individual efforts during the lifetime of the organisms were the main mechanism driving species to adaptation, as they supposedly would acquire adaptive changes and pass them on to offspring.) then human beings would slowly become stooped. Grow large talons (to dig out earth) and maybe even snouts! Hell! We would all end up looking like rodents! Welcome to Gnawville!
Disclaimer: The above views are products of my own imagination and no scientist, scientific research or theory should be held responsible for these views! Infact, these views would make for good quality (but cheap!) science fiction!
p.s. What about aquatic life? Well...need to research a bit on this one! Wait for my next post...
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