Story Time

When I heard about Kissan’s new contest in indiblogger a couple of days back, it got me thinking. I was desperately searching for some precious incidents in my childhood that I could write about. I must say I was searching in lines of ‘filmy’ and hence the search returned very few hints. The ones that came in my mind where the ones that were not worth talking about, not even in a rather dull ‘over a cup tea’ talk with my mother. Time went by and other thoughts took over my mind and the day began to unfold in its rather bizarre way as usual. And then in one of its many daydreams I saw my childhood, not the whole lot of it but a certain incident that was as much part of my 5year old self’s life as crying and sleeping.

It was getting very late and impatient. As I was watching out through the grilled window, my eyes resting eagerly at the dimly lit small steel gate of my grandparent's house. The new stainless steel mailbox my grandfather had installed the previous day shinned brilliantly under the flickering yellow street light. My eyes had begun to slip and I might have dozed off a couple of times before I heard the creaking of its rusty joints. A sudden energy had build up inside me and I dashed downstairs to greet the oil stained brown paper packet my grandfather always bought. I ran to him and hugged his leg. He was not incredibly tall, just an average 5ft 10in, may be 6ft at the maximum, but for me a couple feet and a little bit tall toddler, that was the best I could do. I looked up at him in his eyes with the most beautiful smile I had asked him 'Appuppa, ennik entha konduvanne?' (Grandfather what have you brought me?). He would as always hold out the same oil stained brown paper cover out to me, but before letting me have it he would make me jump at it for sometime by holding it just out of reach for my tiny hands. All I had to do was give a fake cry and a sad face :) and he would invariably give it to me with a smile and a light kiss. I could climb up him and settle myself in the cosy corner of his elbow and start unwrapping the package that he had brought me while he engages himself in his daily pre-dinner prayer.

The most memorable of things that has happened during my life with my grandparents were always in the night. From what I have scribbled up so far it’s needless to say that I love my grandfather, but what made me love him so much is definitely worth mentioning. Though it has much to do with the fact that he supports all the mischief that I did and later did the same for my two brothers, but the one thing that was most amiable about my grandfather is the way he tells a story. Every night is a story time, with the characters of Ramayana and Mahabharata and his favourite Vishnu Purana unfolds in all their might and glory in his passionate narration. His stories were not so much a teaching or preaching as a way to get me sleep, yet they were the best of times, cuddled to my grandfather and with periodic humming (to ensure him I was not yet asleep).

The night was only our beginning back then, after our dinner it would take as definitely take us some time to get to the bed. I always made sure I slept with my grandparents, I would always sleep in their midst, I think it has much to do with the coziness of having them with me that had to do with it. As soon the lights are gone starts the story, always in the same way, with the kings, the queens and their heroic tales from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Vishnu Purana. He had a unique of telling a story and always refused to tell further if I stopped humming, I think it was his way of knowing when I had drifted to sleep. He would always tell the stories from these three areas only but, they are just big enough for a five year old to forget the beginning by the time we reach the end. may be its the wisdom of the stories he told or the way he put it, or just the uncanny combination of it that left me craving for a new story every night.

Those were the times of my life, in my grandparents house running among the trees and playing in the mud, luxuries that no longer exists for us anymore. Its that life I so poignantly miss in my life among the steel carcasses on wheels and the rising skylines. The life in the country among the fresh nature is a gift that I am not sure that I could ever give my children, the thoughts haunting, May be I will tell them stories like my grandfather told me. Give them much love and that should reduce my guilt at least in a very minuscule sense.

Image copyright:  reserved by Leesamaree

Happy Valentines Day, Everyone!

Valentines day is just around the corner and I was still why its not a public holiday yet, unlike other holiday in a valentines day we have lots to do right? Its not a easy job being a valentine. anyhow  just because it falls on a random working day doesn't mar any of it glamour. the day is just as afresh with love as any. Does it ?

So since its a valentines day and I already have a beautiful gift wrapped up for my special one, I have nothing much to write about that until after Tuesday. we don't want to ruin the surprise do we, not that she will read it or anything, but cant take chances. Not with her. So I decide to do some searching, a bit of goggling, some digging a bit of tweeting , a pinch of scrounging and to top it all up a bit by myself. So  here are all the funny, lovely and strange things that popped up along the way.

A little bit of History courtesy of Mr Wiki

from Valentine's Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Early Medieval acts of either Saint Valentine were expounded briefly in Legenda Aurea. According to that version, St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.

Since Legenda Aurea still provided no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.

There is an additional modern embellishment to The Golden Legend, provided by American Greetings to History.com, and widely repeated despite having no historical basis whatsoever. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed. It was a note that read "From your Valentine.

So thanks to Mr Saint Valentine, We our very own Valentine and a common valentines day, You did great St valentine irrespective whether you you wrote the valentines day greeting or not, we your humble followers do so every year with out fail and shall continue to do so  till of course we get to join your excellence in the highest heaven.

A few lovely quotes to get you in the Groove

courtesy of peachpurple

Top 10 Valentine's Day Quotes which I find them romantic, lovely and unique.

1.Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved- by Victor Hugo

2.Love is the condition in which happiness of another person is essential to your own - by Robert Heinlein

3.Love is the only gold - by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

4.To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven- by Karen Sunde

5.A life without love is like a year without summer - by Swedish proverb

6.Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given, never forgotten, never let it disappear - by John Lennon

7.For it was not into my ear your whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul. - by Judy Garland

8.Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning - by Unknown

9.Love is all you need - by Paul McCartney

10.When I say, "I love you," it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I have seen your kindness and your strength. I have seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You ARE a HELL of a WOMAN ! - by Joss Whedon

11. "Love is always in the air, all you have to do is sniff it" - Rupertt Aryeen Wind 

( Wondering who Rupertt Wind is? That's me just added this myself. LoL :)

A few extra pics I found lying around

courtesy of amolife

So that's it in this thread, the next one will contain more of romance, love and action all packed into a beautiful pink valentine gift for you, until then stay tuned.

Just kidding get away from the screen before your special one trashes it for paying it more attention that him/her.

Have a very special valentine's week, Love is always in the air , all you have to do is sniff it.  he he

photos :courtesy of amolife

-Rupertt Wind

A Dream Proposal

The night sky was dark, yet it was beautiful, star studded and comets shooting. The silver moon-lings have been slowly dancing their way from the horizon towards the sandy shore that shone with a certain silvery elegance. There was a cold breeze now and then and so there to was the slow erotic hum of the deep abyss. It was as if at this secluded and lonely beach the universe had started working its century old magic tricks. Of all these beautiful things there was one thing that stood out among the rest, It was a  moonlit silhouette, with beautiful hair flowing flawlessly down her cape that flew about in the wind, with the most stunning pair of eyes that reflected the beautiful moon in all its grandeur better than the vast see before her and with a pair of lips where bloomed my whole world. She was beautiful and she was mine.

I had chose the place not knowing all its beauty and certainly not what the universe had in store for me. It was just perfect, I knew it when I saw her, her moonlit face and her gaze fixed at the horizon. She was perfect, the air was perfect and I was ready to take the next steps. there was no longer a pounding heart and no longer worries of it all going wrong, time had just stopped from then. I slowly descended the stairs that took me to the beach. She immediately sensed me , she turned around facing me,ah! her beautiful face. For an instance we both stopped there like two perfectly crafted sculptures, then she smiled and turned around returning to gazing at the horizon.

I slowly went to her, there was nothing more we could say we had finished with our dialog long ago, now it were just silent exchanges. I knew where I had to stand, slowly moving close to her, I gently placed my hands above her waist, moved close to her without even slightly disturbing her from her trance. She acknowledged my presence with a smile and slowly placing her head over my shoulder and we slowly sat down there in the soft silver sand listening to the oceanic hums. Time just went by as our hands found each other and slowly engaged itself in a slow embrace. The time was perfect, I had to do it now. I slowly pulled away and she looked at me with an anxious on-look. In her eyes she was expecting something , there was innate curiosity in her sparkling eyes. I slowly put my hands in my pocket and  retrieved a small black box covered with velvet cloth, I slowly moved to my knees and opened it in front of her. A small box with a small ring inside, just for her.

Greed : The Deadly Sin

The vices are as much part of a man as are his virtues, yet some among them seem to stand out with alarming resolution. A man with no vice is very hard to come by. As the world we live in is slowly succumbs to temptations of them, the good at heart are crumbling to a trace minority. A vice is like a disease, it catches you without you knowing it, it feeds on to your thoughts and grows stronger every second and finally when it grows powerful enough, it just takes over your life. Finally it takes you on a very lonely journey to your grave.

jamin brenn and his share of the spoils - 1893

An intriguing paradox of the 1990s is that it isn't called a decade of greed.

- Paul Samuelson

Greed among them is the most evil and most widespread. In fact it is so widespread that we have started to think of greed more as a way of life than as the capital sin it is. Our everyday life is so stuffed with signs of greed, from the sky scrapers aching to touch the heaven to the deep oil wells that borrow down to hell. Greed is all around us, greed is there in everyone around us. In fact most of the problems that humanity now faces can be drawn straight back to man’s greed. Let it be the rising problems of global warming or the severe shortage of usable water, it all ties back to the greed of one man or the other. As men so thoughtlessly engaged in the pursuit of wealth and power he has endangered everything that sustained his arrogance and greed and in turn endangered his very existence and the existence of the planet earth.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.

- Mahatma Gandhi

One man’s greed not only does destroy himself but also the whole lot of people near and dear to him, His thoughtless actions will forge the chains that he will eventually be chained in. In his frivolous pursuit as he annexes one kingdom after the other to his empire, what he is doing is scripting his on eventual decline. But still men tend to be greedy and from this greed stems his other sins, as he forgets who he is and what his virtues are in his pursuit for the fools gold he end up doing things that he might otherwise have looked down at  in contempt and disgust.

Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, 

one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.

- Garrison Keillor

Greed has claimed his many victims from time immemorial and hence greed is the capital sin, All it takes is a few minutes in ones very busy pursuit to think, think about what is it that they are really chasing. All it takes is to ask oneself if this mirage you chase really your dream. All it takes is these few seconds of contemplation and greed will vanish for ever. When you realize that what you have been chasing all your life is but fallacies then you realize what that is really important to you and what is that you really wish for yourself.

Third Fisherman: Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. 

First Fisherman: Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.

- William Shakespeare ( Pericles 2.1.69-70 )

I am a Bastard, Ain't I ?

Her words still weigh around my neck; I can hear them echo inside my head. Rewinded and replayed again and again with astonishing clarity. It’s been a couple of days and one long night and still the words persist. There was something in those words of hers that made them so heavy, may be it had to do with the way she had put it or may be it’s the simple truth it encompassed. Either be the case (though how much I ever deny it the later is the real truth, I just grow convinced of the fact) her words has stung me good and it still does stings even more.

What have you ever done? She asked

There was a flare in her eyes; it certainly was not pity. I need not see her to know that, her voice was just enough. 

What happened? 

I coughed up as innocent sounding as possible, but I knew that I was not going to get an answer and it was not going to be ending well.  Truth is that I had no idea what was headed my way!

I could start hearing her well hidden sobs grow louder; there was a sense of insecurity mounting in her heavy breaths.

Do you even love me? 

She asked through her sobs, breaking the melancholic silence that filled the air. 

All i could manage to do was to push out a slight hum through my throat that seemed to have gotten clogged almost instantly. Words were too heavy to push through.

What have you ever done for me? She continued after what seemed like eternity.

You were never there for me whenever I wanted you, 

She was no longer waiting for me to answer, as if she already knew that I would not have an answer for any of the questions she had for me.

Do you remember the time I fell down and sprained my ankle? She asked quizingly. 

How could I ever forget, it was her twentieth birthday and after all the deliberations of the celebration she was chasing her friend around her hostel veranda when she slipped and fell. Nothing serious ever happened to her. That itself was a great relief to me considering how subtle and sublime in construction she was. But worst was yet to happen, the very next day I was a total JERK, there is no point in hiding it when I myself know what I have done to her. She had a sprained ankle and I didn't even bother to look at it, may be in intoxicated illusions she was healthy as a horse, but then again I was a total 'jerk'. When every one knew she was hurt badly the one person whom she wanted by her side was not with her. And when she wanted to go to a doctor and when she asked to accompany her, I so harmlessly denied. I was an idiot then and I had no idea that I was being one. I so foolishly drew a dagger through the one heart that loved me, cared for me and looked out for me. I am a bastard, am I not? 

I knew I could get out of this with some sweet words and a lot of apologizing and some empty promises, but she is not some random fling of mine, she is the one. She deserved better, all I could think of was to let her pour out her heart and I knew that is what she wanted. Hours later we called and she seemed to have had no recollection of her words before. She had forgiven me, she had forgiven me along time ago, but when her heart got burden she just had to let it unload somewhere and I am lucky it’s me. But if that was all to it I wouldn't have been writing this at all. 

The truth is when she said those words, it moved me. It moved me because I knew in my heart she deserved better. Upon hearing her soft sob, all those illustrious letters and poems embroidered with colorful words no longer mattered; they have transcended themselves into items of no real value. What value does the word love project when there is no love involved at all? I had to ask myself was I just all words and no real material, were all those speeches of love just Musings of an empty can, was I just one of those many substitutes that inhabit the earth? Had I become what I had set out not to become. Above all this question taunted me most, could I ever love anybody, and the prospects really do scare me now more than ever. I do stare into an abyss and now with trembling fingers and a racing heart I wonder whether i could turn it around or am I weighed down by the chains that's I myself have crafted. The truth is I am a bastard and I know it, if only I could undo my doings.