Arugudi

The clouds burst into an ear splitting thunderclap as we walked past the old bus stop which evidently looked well past its prime. The leaking asbestos roof and chipped baked brickwalls were a testimony to its age and abandonment. Our movement along its side was quick but not effortless. The sticky mud and the lashing rains made our walk tougher than it actually was. A goods truck zoomed past us with the driver battling heavy condensation on the windshield. The tires hissed with the reduced friction due to the wet roads as the truck took a right turn at the junction. My eyes instantly made contact with the man towards my left for a split second, as he nodded before breaking off the pack, into the thick foliage near the big old banyan tree. His positioning had to be perfect. He was the vital cog of our extraction plan. The distraction he was to cause was the only possibility of a safe return. Now, the team of three was reduced to a couple and we dashed forward trying to make as much ...

"When the sun shines, darkness hides, only to return with its thick black blanket, covering the sky the following night. The sun bids it's time until it can shine radiantly again, to peek through the blanket and make its presence felt. The next morning, it shines brighter than ever, forcing an enemy retreat... That's life" said the second grade teacher in her moral science class, leaning on the teacher's table, with a white chalk firmly gripped in her right hand and a brown bound textbook in her left. The yellow walls of the school building hadn't changed a bit since Abhinav's last visit, a few years ago.  A dark gloomy sky, waiting to break into heavy thunderstorms greeted him as he impatiently waited for his brother, Arnav. The teacher's words and the will of God had signed some kind of an agreement on that day, perfectly synchronising their words and actions.  With Arnav still basking in his new found popularity, courtesy his hundred in the intersch...

Both of us sat staring at the opposite walls of the hallway avoiding eye contact at any cost. The walls, painted a dull grey, mirrored the atmosphere of the dim lit hospital. The darker hue on the bottom half of the wall shone brighter at one spot due to a flikkering light near the door with a red OPD sticker. My eyes scanned the far end of the long hallway for any sign of the Orthopaedician we were waiting for. The nurse in the X-Ray room had casually mentioned that he would walk in precisely at seven every evening and the big round clock near the pharmacy showed two minutes to seven. Pushing aside all the chaotic voices from my mind, I decided to talk to my dad sitting on the black iron chair opposite to me, staring intently at the newspaper stand as if he was using all his unavailable psychic powers to read the magazines from twenty feet away. "Pops... How do we handle this one?" I asked with a straight face. Of all the escape techniques my dad so poorly employs, he chose ...

Walking down this old dusty road had never been so difficult for Jagath. It wasn’t an unfamiliar or unchartered path nor was laden with thick thorny bushes or weeds that prevented the free movement of people. It was a decent eight feet wide mud road with small pebbles spread all around. It was the same road that he used to take for school as a kid. The school bus would wait for him at the junction, a few hundred metres from the big banyan tree, in the morning everyday. The driver, a dark bearded youngster with a RayBan glass always skillfully balanced on his forehead, aimed his red paan spittle like a dart, to hit the milestone showing the distance between their village and the capital city of Mumbai. Though he would notice Jagath rushing towards the bus with his uncombed hair swaying with every movement and shoelace begging to be tied, he would repeated employ the services of his sound horn that was unique to his vehicle. A sound that proved what a big Rajnikant fan he was. Every time...

'Twang' came a sound from the midst of the pile of things, stuffed into the backseat of my Honda Amaze, as the car hit a pothole while shifting my house from 10th cross, Wilson Garden, Bangalore to 10th cross, RT nagar, Bangalore. It's only then that I consciously noticed its presence. This Framus guitar had been my guest for over ten years now.  Having grown up spending most of my time on the sports field, it was no surprise that I did not even know to tune, let alone play the twenty thousand worth musical instrument that had majestically garnered dust in my living room for so many years. But, I was proud of it. It kindled several memories whenever it made its presence felt. On a dry sunny afternoon, sometime in the mid 2000's, after a couple of Patiala Lassis and a hearty lunch of Amritsari style roti and butter chicken with three of my friends, did I decide to try my hand at music.  Growing up in India during the 90s was an unusual feeling of being stuck between the ...

A bright sunny morning greeted Room Number-206 as Abi woke up to a glass of vibrant green liquid placed on his bedside table for his first drink of the day. It was to be his pre-breakfast herbal drink. The color reminded him of the patina settled on the big, well-crafted artistic copper lamp his mother would light every day in the morning at home. He absolutely hated the sight of the slimy layer on the lamps. “Yuck… this… again?” he said, his face showing his displeasure. “C’mon Abi... You should be used to the taste by now” said the nurse, somewhere in her early thirties, as she walked in with a smile. “Do I have to drink this everyday…? Everything should have a cheat day. Even my personal trainer allows me a double cheese paneer sandwich once a week…” protested Abi, sulking. “Uff… tantrums again. You are no better than my six-year-old. You knew the drill when you signed up for this right? After all, this is not your first trip here…” responded the nurse with a tone of mockery escapin...

ऐ ज़िन्दगी, गौर से देख इन आंखों में, इनमें कहीं डर की परछाई दिकती भी है क्या? अंगारों सी ताप्ती तुमसे, भिड़ जाऊ मैं, एक दिन तूफानी रात जैसी विचलित तुमसे लड़ लूं मैं, एक दिन तुम्हारी इन बेकाबू लेहेरों पे अपना छाप छोड़ दूं मैं, एक दिन अपने खामोशी से हज़ार बातें बोल दूं मैं, एक दिन ऐ ज़िन्दगी, गौर से देख इन आंखों में, इनमें कहीं डर की परछाई दिखती भी है क्या? मुश्किलों के उन काले बादलों पे रोशनी की लहर फैलादू मैं, एक दिन तुम्हारे अनगिनत चुनौतियों को चिथ कर दूं मैं, एक दिन मौकों पे ढलते सूरज को फिर से सवेरे में बदल दूं मैं, एक दिन मुर्झाए हुए उन हसी के फूलों को फिर से खिलने पे मजबूर कर्दू मैं, एक दिन ऐ ज़िन्दगी, गौर से देख इन आंखों में, इनमें कहीं डर की परछाई दिखती भी है क्या? बड़े बुज़ुर्ग कह गए कि  डर्नेवाले कभी जीतते नहीं और हमने तो हारना कभी सीखा ही नहीं अरे कब तक हमको टोकर मारोगे, कभी ना कभी तो हमारे हुनर पहचानोगे ऐ ज़िन्दगी, गौर से देख इन आंखों में, इनमें कहीं डर की परछाई दिखती भी है क्या?