Ishu's Tales-B

Mahesh had been away for a week now.

Meeta made Ishu sit up in bed & moved to open the curtains. "Chalo get up now, its 9 AM!" Ishu opened half an eye, grumbled & toppled back in another direction.

"Have your Bournvita", Ishu was motionless. Meeta smiled. A little while later, Ishu could hear her voice at a distance, "Daddy will be here any moment..."

Ishu jumped up...hair all disheveled, carefully placed her two tiny feet on the cold metal window grill & peered out towards the gate. The road had the usual fruit-walah selling bright green guavas. She jumped down & ran to her mother who was sitting on the verandah cutting vegetables & humming an old song.

The garden was brimming with flowers...

Ishu's tales-A

"Here..", said Meeta as she thrust the phone on little Ishu's ear, "talk to daddy!"

Ishu looked puzzled as she questioningly held the cold receiver against her warm cheek. "Say Hello!" squealed her mom. A voice from the other end said, "Hello Beta!"

Ishu pulled the receiver away from her ear & looked at it...Nothing...she looked under the phone set...Nothing...she gave a knowing chuckle & dived under the table...Nothing! She put the receiver right back on her ear & complainingly remarked, "Daddy! Where are you hiding??!"

*image picked from the internet

The Cow...

[Essay Start]

A cow is a big white animal. It eats a lot of grass and also eats the newspapers I give it. It is always chewing when it is not eating, like the way I eat chewing gum with my friends after school every day. It sometimes sleeps standing. Cow is a very quiet animal and does not talk as much as Fluffy does.

Fluffy barks at cows all the time. He is afraid of their long tail. The tail of the cow has hair on one end, like the end of grandma’s braid. It swishes it all the time to shoo away flies. It has paws that make sounds like my teachers shoes when she walks. The cow has two big horns. The cow sits anywhere not bothered by our car coming towards it. No one asks it to get up.

A cow also gives us milk. People in my village pray to the cow.

[End]

The Centuplicate...

When lightening shines, into the night, I miss the time of broad daylight...

Sometimes for those old times' sake, I miss the sounds that silence made,

When I'd lay up, in the night, shaken by some thought up fright,

And when it rains, I miss the thrill, of wiping rains from the iron grill,

Balancing the drops, lest they may fall, tiny drops in hands so small,

I look to the sky and miss the stars, hidden by the blazing lights,

that surround me...

Sometimes when its dark, I miss the night,

Sometimes when I'm brave, I miss the fright...

The life that lives...

I was sitting and watching the rains outside, making lines against the smoked glass of the windows in my office. Straight ahead there is a blank wall, greying from rains year on year, to the right are buildings & to the left there are small waterfalls skipping steps on the green mountains. Some sort of palm trees complete the scenery, its windy outside...& the blast of the AC within makes me miss the mud smelling, humid breeze that inverted my umbrella yesterday :)

I am relatively free today, its been sometime since I looked around randomly. My work is stuck & I am not tugging too hard behind it. I already need a break :D I look at my feet, wet with the mucky water on the street to office...& I think how many times....

Did I see the impression my wet feet made & try n better the design?
Did I hide behind the door to 'boo' someone?
Did I cry in a movie?
Did I share my morning glass of milk with my dog when mom wasnt looking?
Did I open n spoil my mom's lipsticks by shutting the cap without roling it back in?
Did I put on nailpaint n spent an hour scratching it off coz I dint know thr exists a remover?
Did I paint my nails with a sketchpen and made my mom clean it before i went to school?
Did I wear my raincoat at home & randomly walked out to feel the pitter patter?
Did I pester everyone for a toffee?
Did I open n lick the cream b4 having my biscuit?
Did I open my mouth & blow in the winter morning, immitating a smoker?
Did I immitate a smoker with a phantom sweet cigarrette?
Did I have a hard toffee to remove a loose tooth without tellin my mom?
Did I dig my tooth in the garden in hope of a gold one?
Did I hang a stocking on the door on Christmas?
Did I dig a pencil in the soil, as wood 'grows' in mud?
Did I give a samosa & coke treat?
Did I sprout seedlings for a science class experiment?
Did I ruin the carpet while delicately balancing the inverted glass full of water, its surface closed with a card sheet?
Did I burn paper with a hand microscope?
Did I go to see ravana burning on Dushshera?
Did I come back with the biggest baloon available?

I never counted, but I can feel the thrill of poking a baloon still, I can still feel the lump in my throat for that wet carpet, & I am again a scared child precariously balancing myself on the scooter to have a better look at the burning ravana effigy...


Some experiences in life are timeless. Maybe life is timeless if we live it...wonder who doesn't let me live mine ...

:)

Barnie!

Of Rainy days & Raincoats for cover...

I distinctly remember.
All through my school life, I hated taking an off from classes. Attendance was sacrosanct, as was homework (only once I picked the register of my classmate to copy the mathematics home work…that too, coz I never really understood what was happening to the equations or questions or whatever they were) I hated Rainy Days…coz that meant that one had to get ready n wait for the rain to ‘slow’ or stop before one ventured out to school in a raincoat…there was a lingering anticipation of school being closed (Today, the *th of September, 19**, is declared a Rainy Day) but one could never really be too sure! So, parents made calls to the forever busy school landline. Blue diaries were swished out from the bag to check the phone numbers, n religiously kept back lest I forget it if I happen to leave for school (Carrying diaries to the morning assembly was mandatory) Friends called to check if others had any clue of the status quo…parents prompting from the background, “ask her to call u if she comes to know anything..”
And finally, it was too late to go to school anyways…& only the next working day we came to know whether or not the school was open the previous day n missed class work was noted down.
Cut to today- A normal non-rainy, humid day. Alarm clock screeching from somewhere under the quilt even as I rub my eyes in disbelief that its morning already. I run through my memory chip (read brain) to ascertain if today is a holiday, come out of the analysis disappointed and think of what is to be done in office through the day except waiting for the timed customary chai-coffee breaks in paper cups. I think n realize that all the work is to be done either through the cell phone (yes, I don’t have a desk phone) or through mails & no human interface is essential or required. I think if its cool to work from home & of course I can rest assured that I will work hard(ly). So even as the morning cuppa is drowned, I know my plans for the day & here I am…This is my third deliberate off from school & limited work life that I have had (True!) & I have realized now, that if I don’t report to work, my organization won’t shut down…

My piece of Sky...

Moon Child

I kind of hate writer's blocks. There were so many things that came to my mind...about the RP vendor on the street...about the Dinosaurs, about the second coming...But lazy as I am, I did not write : :

So thought I will try break it with this thingie...A pic of a 'fraxing" kid on a moon :D Going on & on...sliding off, climbing on (the moon) so very like the monotonously unique hum-drum of our lives! I am sure...I was more imaginative when I was a kid...when i thought winds are caused due to to moving of branches...one moving branch moves the other, that one another & so on...till everything starts to move n wind is caused!!! Dint get it? Its something like the stirring of Bournvita in a glass...the spoon moves, the milk moves...:P

Chuck!

Fear...

The curtains move in the playful breeze
That comes flying from the leaves of trees
The quite child from under the quilt
Looks up to see if all is still
It looks all fine, so off he goes
To sleep again, but his woes
Do not end, though he pretends
That he is brave!

After a while
One little eye
Ope’s to see if all is well
Looks ‘round-confirms,
The quiet room & sleeps again.

The curtains still, the breeze subdued
The child huddled, to his teddy glued
His tiny mind, now up in arms
Why its so quite, why its so calm?
The child is all alone
And theres no one else at home…
His tiny eyes well up with tears,
Not of remorse, but untold fears
He shuts them tight…

The sunlight peeks from o’er the hill
To find the child sleeping still!
The naughty sun then full of glee
Plays on his eyes n off he flees
The little child now up from sleep
Jumps off the bed n down he peeps…
.
.
.
.
.
.

Finds no one there
Was just a fear?
Maybe it was, but just in case
Before he’s off to sleep today
He’ll peep to see that all is safe!

:)