Sunday 27 October 2013

A Closet full of Memories

It’s that time of the year again!! Festivities round the corner. Diwali it is. The markets are abuzz with activities, shopping is on our minds, adverts on television say the same too and people like me? (yes! we working class) we are awaiting for our share of some unadulterated holidays ;)

But it’s that time of the year too when you are nagged by your mom to clean your room (okay, that’s only in my case. May be you are saintly enough to clean your rooms without any nagging). So, yes I had to do the cleaning thing. Sigh.

Howsoever, hard I lie that I found the act boring, let me tell you, I did not. Strange. But after the initial laziness, I loved it. It was as if I had opened the doors to ‘Memory Land’.

Memories. Beautiful, Harsh, Melancholic, Euphoric, Angry, Poignant, Exciting. All of them, one by one. The closet I cleaned became my time machine taking me back to all the emotions that I had once lived. Accompany me down the memory lane.  

Golden Carefree Days:

The pictures on the left are the case studies and notes I studied under various subjects for gaining my Post graduation degree in Management. I have them all. Still. Properly arranged - subject wise. And when I opened them again, I was back into that classroom surrounded by friends, reading those case studies at the last minute just before the Prof. was to arrive, my best friend trying to dissuade me from studying by trying his monkey tactics, happy carefree faces around, teasing friends by pairing them with weirdest people, making fun of the profs. calling them funny names, scolding to the late comers, suppressed giggles, scowls of the professors, undone homeworks and group punishments, so-called group study, free riders in team presentations and googling (that means conducting a google search) for every other topic we had to speak or work for.

I was right there in my classroom. Those two years swimming through my eyes. I lived those golden carefree days once again just by seeing my notes and case studies.

Passions: some alive, some long gone

And this picture speaks about my initial passion which has now developed into a full-fledged hot love affair. My writing. My earliest essays they are. Mind you, they are from school. Sigh!! And then there was this short-term affair with Photography which I had for some time and with whom I have mostly parted ways. (that is if you don’t count these snaps clicked during safaai session as photography). These photographs were clicked and submitted for various photography competitions of which some I won and yet others I lost. But these writings reminded me of the passion cultivated during childhood days and dreams of being a writer harboured since so long.

Collections & Habits:

Okay, so I have a confession. I have a ‘thing’ for diaries. I love them. I love hoarding them. I love preserving them. I might not use all of them, but I won’t give away a single one to anybody. The picture on the right is a part of my collection of diaries over the years. I have diaries for writing each and every type of event. I have one for writing my daily things, one as a to-do list, one for lashing out, one with learning from life etc. etc. etc.

The blue one with my name etched on it is ‘Positives Diary’. Yep, I write good things happening during the day in this one. It can be the smallest of the small things like eating my favourite icecream to the biggest events of my life. The reason I created this habit was to see positives even in the smallest happenings of my life, so that it would help me become a more optimistic person everyday. And that handcrafted green diary? That’s a special one ;) I write my most beautiful thoughts in it.

Going through my old entries in all these diaries, I unfolded some long forgotten events, resurfaced some old animosities and recreated some old friendships. So you see! I have my life written in black and white. Well, mostly ;)

Gifts and Greetings:

Ah!! The greetings, the Roses and the smiles. Yes! I have every single rose and every single greeting card ever received in my life beautifully preserved in a yet another diary ;) I told you, I have one for every event. These roses might no longer be fresh and the cards might be old but they still carry fragrant memories of some great friendships and good wishes.

And then there are these gifts received over the years. Every single precious gift, carefully preserved, some even along with their wrapping papers and ribbons. And on the right (the pen) is one of the most valuable gifts I have received, which was for complementing my passion for writing. Every single gift I touched took me back to those beautiful moments when I received them. Smiles. Tears. Of happiness. Of bliss.  



*****

Just cleaning my one closet took me almost a whole day because more than cleaning and getting rid of old things, all I was doing was reliving them, reveling in their magic and dipping my soul in the rivulets of past occasions. I hardly let go off any things from that closet or for that matter even from my heart. 

And at the end of my so-called cleaning spree, I had just removed the dust gathered on my past memories making them smell fresh and crispy in my heart once again. I realized I am a hoarder in truest of sense. I not only hoard things but memories too.


That’s just about me. But, what do you do? Do you hold on to memories too? Or you have let them go with time? 

Saturday 26 October 2013

The Ultimate Companions !!



‘Nobody understands me except my friends. And I am going to meet them’ – she screamed with tears streaming down her eyes and ran outside.  There she was. Holding them in her arms, she felt complete. They understood her solitude. They provided her everything without expectations. Smelling them, she felt calm. Books! Ah, her ultimate companions.



 P.S. - This 55fiction is based on the below photo prompt provided by Write Tribe





Sunday 20 October 2013

Ignorance of expectations – Indeed a bliss !!




BlogAdda - WOW

Faizal was in awe of Neha, his best friend and colleague Animesh’s girlfriend. Animesh was giving a treat to Faizal for his engagement to Neha at KFC near their office. They seemed so much in love. And Neha, she was such a beauty. She carried herself so well, knew how to dress for the occasions, took part in conversations related to cricket and politics, truly a beauty with brains thought Faizal. Neha and Animesh were to get married next month just like him.

The mere thought of getting married saddened Faizal. After all, his was not a love marriage. He was getting married to Shabana who chosen by his parents back home in Lucknow. He had met her once and that too for a brief period during which he had just known that she had studied till 12th standard and cooked mutton biryani very well. How he wished that Shabana was a little more modern and behaved more like Mumbai girls. But, do all wishes come true?

*****

Eight months in the marriage and yet Faizal was never fully satisfied with Shabana and kept on bickering about something or the other. Shabana, on the other hand was as dutiful as possible. Faizal kept on insisting her to dress like Mumbai girls, behave a little like them but Shabana found this very odd. She couldn’t understand as to why her husband did not want her the way she was. After all, she was performing all the duties a wife should be doing. She kept his house clean, fed him warm food and run the household as efficiently as possible. But Faizal? He had a completely different image of a life partner. Nevertheless, he had accepted Shabana as his fate. But in heart of hearts, he wished Neha could make his wife become a little like her. He longed to make Neha and Shabana meet each other but always decided against it thinking about the inabilities of his wife to present herself before others and hence hardly took her to meet any of his colleagues or friends.

*****

It was yet another mundane Monday morning at office. Faizal was immersed in his work when Animesh came and sat by him. He was not his usual chirpy self. Faizal got worried.

Faizal – ‘What’s the matter Animesh? You seem to be worried since a long time. Is everything ok ??'

Animesh – ‘Faizal, you know it’s been just eight months since I have been married. But I really don’t know man, what does Neha want? I have been trying to be such a good husband all the time. I go home and help her out. Even on weekends, we do the household work together. I try and put in as much effort to keep the marriage going but she is never satisfied. I am really confused man, her expectations are beyond my comprehension. What do these modern women want out of their men? I just can’t figure out her expectations.’

*****

Faizal reached home that day in a confused state of mind. He didn’t know what to make out of Animesh’s problem. Neha, the beautiful and vivacious Neha was giving his friend a hard time. As soon as he rang the bell, Shabana smilingly opened the door. Took his laptop bag and offered him a glass of water. She went inside to fetch something to eat for him. He knew she would have cooked something fresh just before he arrived.

He thought that howsoever orthodox his wife was in her ways, at least he never had to crib about his married life to others. Shabana never gave him a hard time. He always had peace at home. For the first time after his marriage, he felt he had a good married life. Thank god, he didn’t take Shabana to meet Neha or else he too would be encountering similar problems of expectations of modern women from their men. Ignorance indeed is a bliss, he thought to himself.   




This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda. We give out a creative writing theme each weekend for Indian bloggers. This week's prompt : To weave a post including, ‘Ignorance indeed is bliss, he/she thought to himself/herself.’

 



Saturday 12 October 2013

Every once in a while

Every once in a while
I get bogged down
I cry, I frown
Losing hope
Landing into situations I can’t cope
 
But deep down a flicker of light lives within
That keeps me sane and breathing
A passionate fire that burns all the time
And that’s you - My blog, My writings and My rhymes
A smile spreads across my face
As soon as I open my blog’s webpage

Close to my heart you reside
There is nothing here that I hide
I play with words and savour them too
My Blog – you are my sunshine whenever I am blue!!




This post is written for -100 Words on Saturday – Week 6 hosted by Write Tribe. The prompt is ‘Every once in a while’



Friday 11 October 2013

'Today' was the day !!!

Image Source: Google
‘Today’ was the day,
We embarked on a new way
Holding my hand, you wanted ‘us’ to sway
‘Bridging’ the gap between us away  

Doubts gathered my mind
Faults I would find
But still I said
‘Wouldn’t stop my heart from feeling for you any day’

It happened that way
I fell for you in my own little ways
But every feeling, I didn’t show
And you couldn’t know

I made mistakes
You made them too
I forgave and forgot
Just as you had asked me to
Alas! for you, it didn’t happen that way

Things bogged you down
Other interesting avenues you found
You walked away
Quoting my mistakes
Never realizing that this heart’s every memory was at stake

‘Today’ was the day
You wanted ‘us’ to embark on a new way
I still await
I always will
Hope you will ‘Someday’
May be ‘Today’
Will forget the past gloomy days
And embark on a new ‘Way’






Monday 7 October 2013

Why do you love me ??

‘Why do you love me even though we are so different’ - she typed. Her apple pie lay untouched.

Prince looked up from his microscope, stood up from his chair with a twirl, reached the Macbook and replied: ‘Coz love didn’t read my ‘Gita’ or your ‘Quran’ before coming into our lives. It just arrived. 


P.S. - My first attempt at 55 fiction using keywords - Pie, Prince, Microscope, Twirl           and Macbook.
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