She struck me

In a gathering of hundreds, I was lost into the exquisiteness of the delicacies on offer. My earnest desire to experiment with everything was evidently visible to all the breathing souls around me- periodically my plates tried different 'costumes' of snacks, main course, deserts, salads, veg and non-veg, the vibrance of these costumes was simply incomparable. I bet, all were second to my digestive prowess. 

My friend's thirtieth birthday was the sole reason for this grand celebration, though only the closest of his friends- which included me- knew that he had gathered that much financial stature because of his interests in a multitude avenues, blessing his bank accounts with tsunamis of cash. This was a secret to keep and nobody cared as long as he gifted us with such parties: an easy way to invest that illegally siphoned money. 

After my intense indulgence on  sparing nothing on the menu I observed that the crowd had become sparse and lazy. The music too was running in no hurry- a slow Jazz track flooded with guitar and saxophone; I wondered who the splendid singer was.  

In that utter slowness of the surroundings I walked towards the restroom going in for a liquid release of my intestinal by products, when I  encountered a huge mirror on the right side of the hall, I was startled by the height of it. A huge rectangular mirror extending upto some 30ft and reflecting the shimmering  chandelier hanging right above me, "Five-star customs", I said to myself. As I was about to tread on my lethargically musical walk my eyes fell on a woman clad in a red and black saaree. At first I couldn't see her face but to witness it- male nature- I adjusted my position accordingly and felt an adhesive gripping my feet to the floor: I was frozen there and then. She was adjusting her bindi to the center of her forhead; she was checking the plates of her beautiful saaree and when she set her curly flock of shining black hair on one side of her shoulders, my heart melted and my body withered with a sudden urge to know her. 

I had never had a love life before, though I was always in love with women but she was unique in every aspect. I developed an urgent craving to know her. My insides shouted on me to be a man and walk to her and get acquainted. Her red lips were calling me to kiss them and whisper some romantic phrases in my ears, I felt so. Her hair had just signalled me to caress them with the finest of touches; caring fingers seeping through that dense jungle of curliness. 

My god, or rather I should say 'my goddess', I didn't know but there and then a sense of being her man formed into me as a huge fireball. I wanted to unleash this fireball on that serene specimen of biology I was staring at. I had decided 'our' future yet I was unaware of the next few seconds of my life. "Who are you? I want to know you, be with you, love you, marry you, serve you" said I in a subconcsious loop. 

And in that hormonal wildfire she spooned in a spiralling spark when she looked across me and smiled, saying,"Hi!". That "Hi!" felt like "Yes I feel the same for you, my love", such was the strength in her melodious voice. And she walked away leaving me with a strange blackness enveloping my eyes and the next thing I could see was a white ceiling fan hovering over me. I woke up in a suddenness and saw myself surrounded by a dark-skinned lady dressed in white skirt, white shirt and a white scarf. She said," How are you sir? You are lucky, you  just survived a minor heart attack." 

A Collection

Deceit 

Swirling in the air she appeared to be like a glow-ball of energy, her pride was unconquerable, blended with her beauty in an inseparable manner. With her captivating demeanor luring the skies, the mountains and the land, everything fell for her magical awe in a domino effect, one after the other.

Like the princess of kingdom nature her features were unmatchable and her heart was a place of solace within Earth. Calmness, justice, faith, trust all the ideal adjectives danced up to the brim in her godly heart.

Made up of a dazzling skin, her aura spread to eternity in the universe, radiating that blinding magnificence her skin soon became an enviable element all around. Smooth as silk and white as milk, soft as a feather and soothing as the wind, she possessed a layer leaving one and all hypnotized forever.

A universe resided in her shining eyes, as if spreading love and peace with its blink. Like a giant magnet everything fell in the deep crevices of these surreal eyes never wanting to come back to the state of realism.

The natural pink color vanished away from embarrassment because the artificial redness had got the better of it. Sultry they looked, as if inviting all to kiss them for an age, but deception and illusory were exploited to the maximum; eras had gone by and blood had thickened on the tenderness of her lips. 

Infatuation

A sea of innocence resides in her, shining with pride on her lovely face as if glorifying the very nature of her, intermingling with her happiness-inducing smile it creates an uncontrollable urge in me to witness this delightful specimen.

When her lips stretch oppositely they instinctively generate an equally lengthy stretch on mine, as if mine are rejuvenated by some kind of a calming sensation running across them
and in an instant I feel lost into her truly, unable to think of anything other than her.

Every action of her, even near to unnoticeable, provides me a stimulus to dissolve in her purity and transfixed remain my eyes as if for eternity. My hormones collide frantically, recreating a new magical moment to be cherished, leaving me mesmerized in this beauty I stare upon with an eye of attraction.   

Her presence excites me, calms me and ignites a fire to work upon anything, as if she is my only ignition to the fulfillment of all my dreams, as if she is the reason to transport me into a world of happiness; loosing myself in her gives me a feeling which has no way of expressing.

 

 Persistence

 Brought to life with a cry of excitement, we are exposed to a world full of inexplicable irregularities, born and raised to become a hero, we are surrounded with things that mystify those odd peculiarities.

Years travel by and our comprehension progresses far beyond our own imaginations, delving deep into the shadows we get lost to find out that sole purpose of our fascinations.

We search, we think, we panic, and we cry till our tiredness hugs us with its dominant ambience, and then awakens our soul to continue that eternal quest with an attitude befitting the champions.

We start from zero as a giant ball of exuberance, to once again attain the knowledge of those undefined laws, but nothing changes and all we are left is to count our slightest of flaws.

But the very next moment, we stand up with all our strength and acumen, daring the ferocious tests of patience we unleash the power of a superhuman.

Though victory is not a guarantee and this we realize en route the end, but one thing remains with us forever and that is our inner ‘trying friend’.

The Black Guardian

Wow! Isn’t it beautiful? Don’t you see it? Oh C’mon wake up and look at the sky! Has anyone seen this kind before? No? Strange.  I truly understand that the city life is deprived of such breathtaking scenery and yes this is happening for the very first time in this city’s history. Extravagant it is. Surely. Has such a sky ever left you spellbound before? Has it? No, right? But today is the chance to witness the sparkles, sparkles unseen and untouched; maybe the only chance to embrace visual delight.

What I see above in this glittering expansive sky, reminds me of something really romantic. It has never looked so clear, like in ages! All those twinkling stars are studded in that pitch-black blanket at their distant and unexplored homes, shining with valor as if it is a once in a millennium opportunity for them to showcase their maximum luminescence. And tonight, they are not alone, they are FAR too many, literally uncountable to see but too obvious to fall in love with. For minutes and hours I can gaze at this magnificent sight which I don't know who has painted for us, or maybe exclusively for me?

I wish tomorrow's sun never rises off its horizon and I wish I could just wrap up my little body within this blanket and sleep forever in its mystical hold. Then I would wake up in my dreams where I’d be unraveling the hidden secrets of this mysteriously gorgeous blanket; I would unearth its most intricate cities; I would go after THE source of such divine illumination; I would delve further into its dark crevices to get cognizant of this universes’ unmatchable magical prowess. But I would only if I really could.

Well, though I don't have a complete view of it - as I am sitting in a first floor balcony and not on the terrace - but whatever's on offer is sumptuously infectious to my soul; I experience a connection being established with my soul, I felt some of its elements communicating with my inners and telling me that all of it is my guardian, mine and mine alone. Too philosophical, right? But I kind of feel really happy to be indulging into such an inexplicable act. 

Oh wow, it is so pleasing to the eye and to each and every cell of my body. I wish that every night after returning from home I can gasp into the beauty of such a magnificent spectacle but I guess such things become special only when they are visible on exclusive days. Special things loose their charm when served daily.

But now when I concentrate on only one of those divine celestial bodies, my eye's wider field-view gives me an image showing an infinitely stretching sky sprinkled with glitters at random spots. For once I doubt my conscience whether I am literally watching this or am I studying an animated computer-rendered imagery!

And somewhere in this heavenly view I find some light touches of purple, very slight touches, and you know what, this involuntarily pulls my lips oppositely producing a smile I haven't wore since weeks. I can feel the stretch on my cheek bones and the reflecting glow in my eyes and THIS makes me realize the powerful aura of the picturesque universal magic I am witnessing right now. Its holds reach up to a point which is far from imagining and in those twinkling elements, I try to find you, or maybe your first letter or something, anything related to you, but then suddenly my brain hallucinates your face somewhere between a family of quadruple stars, as if you are under some spotlight and the world is watching you with its keen eyes waiting for this moment to arrive. You look so beautiful, I was right then, wasn’t I, about you being a heavenly angel! Hah! And again, the smile stays, as if forever.

For like the first time ever, right now, I feel completely thoughtless. Yes, there is no arrival of any kind of thoughts at my brain junction and this empty, thoughtless feeling gives me a feel of not being a human. I mean, we humans react completely opposite to this, don’t we? Our brains act like a radio station catching frequencies from all over the universe and hence we are always subconsciously or consciously engrossed in some or the other thought processes and most of the times it is harmful, needless and wasteful. Yet we do, because that’s how we train our minds, to be busy for eternity! But trust me, a stagnant brain is the most relaxed one, and right now all my brain cells would be thanking me for giving them some rest after some years!

But it is all just an illusion, isn’t it? 

As one feels the rain talking to its soul I too can sense my body striking not one but multiple chords with this godly marvel over my head. And you know what it says to me, "Never shall you fear young man, i am always with you."

Inner peace

The first monsoon rains had just lashed the city and had left back a pleasant environment to cherish. It had been a long while that the rain gods had to answer the scorching heat and I am grateful that they finally did so and that too in such a beautiful manner. Perched on the branch of the Ashoka tree- which has been my home since the beginning- I soaked those peaceful surroundings, and I could soon realize that they had produced a soft smile on my face along with a composing effect that seemed to empty my  mind with literally everything.

And I truly love this state of my body when it is partially wet and almost all the water is about to dry up from my feathers, it feels refreshing and clean. There is a sense of lightness which I experience throughout this state, as if all of my ‘excess’ load is shedding off me. To increase the thrill of it I flutter my wings at the rate of knots and in the wildest possible manner, and while doing so I get cognizant about the relevance of being with self, about being teleported into the world of philosophy and inner-peace, as if it’s a whole new universe left to be explored. My insides are calmed and I am kissed all over by an inexplicable rush relaxing me down to an ideal state.

But that day, while I was lost in this enchanted leisure activity something caught my eye immediately. I can bet that my eyes wouldn’t have been that wide open as they were then; for a few moments I couldn’t comprehend what was being flashed upon my retina, and soon I flew from the branch and up I was floating in mid-air trying to sink in what lay in front of me. It took some time to synchronize my wings together as I was left in a baffled state for I was witnessing something like never before. Someone looking up would surely have been distracted by my haphazard movements of which I was gradually gaining control. But that moment all these thoughts were all bygones and it seemed that I had just found the purpose of my life, which was calling me in sheer desperation!

I took my flight too higher altitudes, as I wanted to reach for that solitary white cloud which was stuck beautifully in between that grey cloud army. The left side of the army was splashed with reddish hue and the other side had a glittering silver lining on its periphery. But wait, how can I ever forget the golden lining over that white ball of cotton; I wanted to get there, I wanted to zip past that golden line and I wanted to sleep in the arms of that gigantic army of clouds (though I found that army a bit ominous).

I was racing above with sparkles of ecstasy as I had believed I had found the path to heaven and there was nothing left to go back to that Ashoka for this sight was much more captivating to me. With each inch I was getting closer to it that reddish hue started to blend with orange I could see that it was about to engulf MY white cloud, (oh I wanted to be a part of this unusual natural phenomenon) but ironically, my eyes were bursting with joy, my smile was stretching above its limit, my body was filled with severe adrenaline rush for I had never been so desperate for anything and this seemed to be worth it. But my speed-of-light like journey was disturbed by the sight of a gigantic bird, but no I realized that it was a man-made bird programmed to its destination. I wonder how boring it would be for it to monotonously fly on that same path back and forth, though it traveled at a much faster speed than mine but I was not envious of it because it couldn’t do one thing which I could and that was being free to fly anywhere!

My crazy-fickle nature came to play as I tried to be a part of a self-adventure when I literally went after to catch that aircraft in spite of knowing that it was out of bounds for me. The thrill of such a chase where we know that the results are unfavorable makes you test your limits and will-power, I thought so. After intense fluttering of my wings and expulsion of kilo joules of energy, I could sense some pain in my wing muscles as I had given my heart out to get anywhere near to that metal-bird but just at the moment I thought I had given too much it paced far away into the rain carrying clouds which were hundreds of kilometers away from me. Tired and kind of wasted, I relaxed myself and suspended my body in mid-air; closing my eyes I started to regain my system for the return journey. It took a few minutes for re-fueling myself and I guess during this I must have easily traversed at least one or two kilometers, unknowingly.

As I found some strength coming back in me I once again looked at that mammoth army floating high above in the sky but this time that singular cloud was nowhere to be seen and it disheartened me for I was quite keen to get there had my over-excited mind not wandered me away elsewhere. I searched for it but I guess it might have been crumbled by the dark (grey) forces of the army and this was proved by the fact that now the entire mass of those dark grey clouds had bathed in red. I felt sorry for the solitary one and sadly gazed at the magnificent red army, which shined with golden at its borders.

As I turned back to go home I got acquainted to a beauty which complemented the one I had just seen! All shades of light blue submerged with turquoise and aqua were spread infinitely all over the sky which I was always taught to be blue in color but, all my knowledge failed in front of this mind-numbing gorgeousness. I had gone mad, my mind had started to malfunction and I was unable to interpret the reasons for such an unbelievable spectacle. Science seemed to have been defeated finally and my belief in a universal power grew by leaps and bounds as I was left gasping for my senses in this awesomeness.

I was in the exact center of the line which divided the immeasurable sky into these two groups of magical colors, colors which were beautiful than ever. My notorious and excited nature seemed to have been overpowered by what I was witnessing; I felt I had matured; I repeatedly looked around the heavenly exhibition and consequently, I could feel my vocabulary being wiped off. I didn’t want to go back, I had decided, as I knew I had been enlightened in the best possible manner. I knew I had finally achieved my inner peace.

The next thing I could remember is awakening to a pleasant sunshine which I could quite clearly see from my nest on the Ashoka.

Finding Peace in the City

The moment I entered the park, I sensed that I was getting disconnected from the city. The ruckus of the traffic was slowly diminishing in the background and it was compensated with the warm breeze that was blowing around. I could see people exiting the park as it already was late evening and I bet that they must have got some other important things to do after their park routine, maybe like sticking to their idiot boxes till midnight, or going for a late dinner with their family.

But I was not alone, the mammoth park still had a sparse amount of joggers, walkers and romantic couples- though they were not into each other literally. I could barely see the people's faces as darkness had already swept the city, but there were a few high-headed lamp posts which emitted a soothing dim white light. This shallow light was the only source to follow those semi-cemented walking/jogging tracks. But I guess the people who had come with their pets must not have required any, as their pets could assist them in that!

As I strolled myself into the denser paths of this park I could feel the breeze kiss my face consistently, its touch was softer than a feather and moreover, the whistling sound that it was making at my ear drums was generating immense peace in my soul. That mild wind had a drastic calming effect on me and soon I realized that I had stopped walking! It wasn't the breeze one would always desire but it was special because it was giving a sedative like effect in that quiet environment. Enjoying the breeze, I started to stride again.

After two rounds of the outermost track, I changed my course and started to move into the darker areas of the park. The only light there was that of one of those distant lamps and of course the bright moonlight creeping through the branches of the trees. Yes it was scary for me, because at one point of time I could see no living being and was just accompanied by the noises of the evening insects. I kept on walking ahead, looking around the desolated park which actually witnesses hundreds of people daily- but I had arrived at the wrong time maybe-and continued my introspective thought-process.

As I was walking on the inner tracks of the park I saw groups of old men, few couples walking bare footed on the evenly trimmed grass, two men exercising and two-three couples enjoying themselves(!). But this part of the park was the one I fell in love with, not only because of the entertainment those love enchanted couples were providing but also because, right above me was the half moon surrounded by those beautiful twinkling stars. Frankly, I had never seen such a sight in this city! The moon looked exquisite as it was sumptuously chaperoned with those stars. I was bamboozled by the sky, it was crystal clear as if it was flaunting all its breath-taking celestial bodies in one go!  

I saw around and found myself at the center of the park, right underneath the shimmering moon. There were people were around me but I don't know what so significant they were talking because they were missing out on what the sky was giving, how could they miss it, how could they not see right above their foolish heads! I sat on a bench and I was once again, caressed by that breeze, it had started to flow again, very mildly, as if it was waiting for me to be seated.

I just closed my eyes and let this magical moment sink into my every segment. I didn't want to leave this place, at all. It was as if I was right under the moon and it was enlightening me with its gorgeous bright light. The juncture was divine and kind of impossible in a city which is the most polluted in the world! It wasn't the moment when one could get all the answers of life nor was it like being bestowed upon by the Almighty but it whatever it was, it was surreal in today's city life. The peace it had showered upon me was unique and inexplicable. The internal happiness that I could feel was like never  before.