Writing Exercise : 2

Write a setting based on the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen.

I've never been there.But it's all in my mind,as clear as day.Maybe I'll go there someday and then there'll be more details to describe but for now,a blurry description of a mirage should work out.I've seen it often in my dreams and I've dreamt about it in waking life too.

 Well,I don't know how you get there but where I'm standing on a tiny hillock with soft grass under my bare feet.Its a bright sunny day with a chance of rain.The clouds are rolling lazily like tiny puffs of cottonballs.The whole landscape is of tiny hillocks covered with that super awesome green soft grass which when you step on has that awesome grass smell.You know what I mean,right?

At a distance,on a hillock stands a lone orange tree in full blossom.The wind blows in my direction and it carries the citrus smell.The splash of orange against sky blue and the plushy green!!

I spring and prance to the orange tree with my long hair trailing behind me.The shade is quiet and cool.The old and gnarly tree trunk has a perfect wedge for me to settle in.Silence envelopes me except for the rustle of the leaves and the infrequent chirp of a happy bird suckling on the sweet fruit of the old tree.

As sleep almost begins to overpower me,I can hear a slight rumble of thunder and the wind whistling even louder.The clouds roll in an angry march while the leaves swoon and dance to the tune of the wind.I can already smell the wet mud and the tree bark smell.It's the weather ten minutes before it rains.But the rains never come.The wind and the leaves just pick up the beat and I lie there smiling with my heart thumping.Anticipating and waiting,while the black angry clouds swirl .....

I've never really gone further than this in my head.I don't want to either.

Writing Exercise : 1

Create a character with personality traits of someone you love, but the physical characteristics of someone you don’t care for.

Based on Anoop's elder brother and Rhitu,my hostel roommate who I love.

They'd always stare at him.The slouch,the swagger ,the ginormously beefy arms and those shifty eyes.Unfortunately he was short and had the likeness of a beard on his oval face(sparse facial hair-maybe he shaved bad the first time or just bad genes,who knows?).The intricate tattoos painfully inked on those huge slug like arms didn't help the image either.The overall picture painted was that of an arrogant ,rude,squatty twerp.You'd hate him,at the very first sight.

I did too.I saw him in the office car park for the first time walking towards me,looking through me like I was air.Looking in every direction except mine,he put his hand forward and muttered ' Gus'.He had just shifted into the apartment next to mine and I had heard him cursinng and yelling at the movers.Ugh,I was sorry for myself already.

But little did I know that the rudeness,brusqueness and the apparent apathy masked a heart so soft and tender,you'd live your entire life in fear of bruising it.We got talking the night the lights went out due to a heavy snowstorm and we had nothing but each other's company.We sat in the dim candle light and talked into the night.It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and the two of us realised it the moment neither of us wanted to go to bed even though it was wee hours into morning.There were so many things to talk about and not enough time!Food,relationships,bad actors,scandals,books,music and,oh, poetry - life !!!

Gus had an extensive range of emotions .He could appear sour to everyone on the road but  had this hidden side which had uncompromised zeal for life,love and tattoos.He taught me how to smile even when things were at their darkest.There'd be evenings where all I did was roll on the carpet choking back tears of laughter as he'd say the funniest in a dry pan expression.And if he had a bad day,he'd just come pull a book out of my bookshelf and ferociously start reading until his temper blew over.Those evenings we hardly exchanged words.

He was obsessed with hygiene and cleanliness and would get moody if something was out of place.The ablutionary baths where he'd scrub himself raw would be the highpoint of his day.And he could carry a tune,quite well actually.

Gus was smart.He made his way to the top in the ad agency he worked in.Unfortunately he wasn't a sycophant,so top generals stopped his growth,but he kept at it.Working smart,creating and nurturing ideas.He had a series of bad relationships - falling in deep sometimes,sometimes not even scratching the surface.There was no grey for him,only black or white and I loved that he had opinions.Not that he'd shove them down your throat but opinions you'd want to debate on.He'd always lend a sympathetic(sometimes empathetic too)ear to my tiny girlie everyday problems.

Gus is like a books with infinite chapters.  Explosive drama,action,comedy and tragedy snowballed in each of them.I'm still flipping the pages.

Slipping Away

His hollow laugh crackled into the night.

The naked street urchins scurried into even darker recesses,his laugh being colder than the biting wind of mid December.The streets were empty and lonesome,the streets lights aching to break through the dense fog.The wind whistled a requiem while it swallowed the heat from the coals of fireplaces and the street fires.

His cheeks were wet with frost,his wild eyes far away and the sharp cackles  pierced the night like gun shots .He was already gone.The hunger,cold and the pneumonia were troubles he was leaving behind.Scurrying images of summers gone by,crowded markets,the beatings,the begging ,the stealing,getting scuffed,the loveless eyes milling around him..he smiled a rabid smile.All would be behind him.

His twig arms were limp against his slumped body,his skin pressing painfully against his ribs.The pain seemed to grow intense until he could not breathe anymore,his cackles turned into a racking cough.His chapped lips were bleeding ,the pustules beginning to ooze.

'How ugly death is,just like Mrs Gomez's breasts',he thought weakly in his last moment of clarity.Then he focussed out,floating into the unconscious..peace in his tiny weakly flapping heart.

The merciless winter ,ravenous for small souls,consumed her eleventh.

An ode to awesomeness

As Bhaddi looked at me,her eyes filling up with stinging tears,I knew that it was forever.And nothing could ever change that.

I had always prided at the fact that I had never needed anyone in my life and those that were a part of my life were there only because I had wanted them to be there.Little did I know that destiny had other plans for me.

Sailing through college being popular with a group of friends from a teen movie,hooting and screaming,driving in fast cars with blaring music and somehow managing decent grades through it all.That's what I came to experience in college.A fast life.

Stupidly stubborn,unknowingly arrogant and strangely apathetic to everyone's emotions,I had decided that that was the real me.Bhaisie and Bhaddi were tossed into my life as my roommates and they changed me forever.They weren't the hep,similar tastes in music,movies and books roomies I had been hoping for.The ones who would do everything together.We led separate college lives unaware of each other's presence until we stepped into our room as the day would draw to a close.

They both were quite the contrast of the conjured up images of roommates in my head but oh so much better.Bhaddi was an impenetrable shield of ideals and Bhaisie had an extensive range of emotions.But we fit together as 'pieces of a jigsaw puzzle'.
From the start,strangely,all of us settled into our tiny haven as comfortably as if we had known the each other for years.We had our moments of friction but sailed  through choppy waters effortlessly.

Over the four years we developed mutual respect,understanding and admiration for each other.A friendship as beautiful as a newborn was blossoming.We cradled it,loved it and nurtured it until it took over our minds and hearts.We poured all our thoughts and emotions(good and evil) into it that it chained us to one another.And all our decisions,actions and thoughts were quietly ruled by our relationship.From our child it became the mother whose apron we wept in when the world was cruel.

I survived through 4 years of college politics,complex relationships and mental turmoils because of the stability Bhaddi emanated.She was my reality check,my anchor during storms.When my world would be turning upside down,topsy turvy,when everything went wrong,I held on to her for dear life.Bhaisie with her uncompromised zeal for life,love and everything sunny,taught me how to smile even when things were at their darkest.Her passion and enthusiasm for life made me see that the world really  was beautiful.From the stubborn,cynical little twit that I was I had slowly started to mould into an empathetic and optimistic person.All the restlessness,impatience and irritability had made themselves scarce.I began to grow more confident and most importantly,started to love myself again.

 I had unknowingly found the two who completed me at the right time at the right place.For all the time that I had absurdly prided at not needing anyone,I had been drowning in my own insecurities and fears.And Bhaddi and Bhaisie were both there to pull me out,never quitting on me.

 As college life started to hum its funeral tune,I felt like a baby whose pacifier was being snatched away.Their value in my life became clearer.I had always needed them and they had always been there for,watching out for me.

So when I saw the tears in their eyes,as we stepped into the next phase of our lives separately,I realized how much I loved them.And it dawned on me,that  I had found something  that was pure,untainted by reality.I had found something I hadn’t come looking for.And all those fights,mindless laughter,night long talks,the grumpy mornings,all of it was so worth it.

I love you Bhaisie and Bhaddi.And this is my ode to awesomeness.An ode to friendship .

Best Friend

I had a best friend.Then he decided to pack his suitcase and move to the stars.All he carried was a bone and my heart.Now all he does is is he sits up there,chewing on his bone and wagging his tail everytime I miss him.Its not fair that he left without even saying goodbye.

Nibbles, you totally suck for ditching me,not being on the other side of the door when I'm opening it,not there below the bed every morning when I stretch out my fingers to caress you.You're not there,when there's a dirty sock I'm throwing into the clothes hampers,you aren't there going sniffity sniff when I unwrap a chocolate.You do not jump on my lap when I go '1-2-3 Go'.You aren't there.

But,heartless,that I am.I left you too.Left you alone wondering where I had gone.So many times I walked out the door without saying goodbye.So many nights I pushed you off my feet because you were heavy.So many times I did not take you out on a walk because I was lazy.All those times I should have given you a bath and brushed your fur.I'm sorry I was so spineless,I walked away.I'm sorry that sometimes somethings became more important than you.You took care of Papa and maybe saved his life.Thankyou for being there for him.I think the only reason you ever were here was to be there for all of us.You were equally there for all of us even when the three of us stood with our backs to each other.Mummy's sorry for what she did.Maybe,you deserved a better family and we didn't deserve you at all.

But you'll always be my best friend.The only person who overwhelms me.I love you.

Fatty

So I've finally made it.You know,the place where that word sounds..cute.Not offensive or insulting,just cute.I don't quite know whether this is a place I should be,but I made it.Scratched,tired,hungry and fatigued after the hours of NOT gymming,of NOT being on a diet,of NOT doing Yoga.At a very sorry end of procrastination basically.
But it's good right now.You know,I always thought that being called fat would one day  make me lose it and I'd projectile on everyone until I was sickeningly anorexic.One day,I'd show the world I could be thin too,conform to the stereotype of beauty.But,no..infact,all the ridiculing,the name calling worked like ether and made me go into a slumber like state where all the name calling just became a known melody I swayed to.It's like the sweet release of death.You get so angry so angry and so depressed that you self implode.And then you focus out and  float.
So here's to icecream and cake and pasta and butter chicken.But most importantly,here's to Fatty until my hormones go crazy again and I crawl into bed in a foetal position every night,hoping to not wake up.
Depressed,confused or in denial?Until my next ventout,Cheerios,all.

The Bohemian

"You've battened on me for a bitter-long day;


But I'm driving you forth, and forever and aye,

Hunger and Thirst and Cold."

~Robert William Service;  1914.