All you who sleep tonight-1

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love.
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above-

Know that you are not alone.
The whole world share your tears.
Some for a day or two
While some for all their years.
-Vikram Seth

I just happened to pick this book from my Club library mainly because it was a Vikram Seth and it was not thick;) . Also it was the first time I would be reading a book on poetry. I think I lack depth to understand all a composer tries to write between lines but then when you read something so direct and plain yet so profound and poetic, you can not but fall in love with it.
Definitely, the best poem I have read till date...

Near-death experience

Numbness in your limbs, body turning cold, lips dry, mind blank, the heart thumping so loud that you fear it will pop out from your mouth which is screaming ‘aaaaa…’ at the highest pitch it could , that dizzying empty feeling in the stomach : all at the same time. You cling to your only support with all your strength and might but still feeling that you are losing the grip and you are going to die..

I went through all of this and it was completely my choice. On reaching the crossroads, I was in dilemma if I am taking the right decision? But then once the wheel starts rolling, there is no looking back only this sensation that you are going to die.

On our trip to Land of sun & sand, I tried everything from jetskiing to bump-ride to what-ever-was-created-in-the-name-of-water-sports. I even exuberantly ferried to the deep sea to go for para-sailing above the deep blue ocean. Imagine the feeling to fly like a bird and have a real bird’s-eye view of the ground sea below! But as I saw people putting up the gear and getting ready to sail, the heart started beating faster and an unexplainable emptiness/ whatever in my stomach which made cringe with fear.So when my turn came, all the attempts of ZZ convincing me “Main Hoon naa” went vain and I decided that I will be more happy to see him flying from the ferry ..He sailed alone and I really enjoyed watching him enjoying his sail so much. We came back happily and never spoke about it later.

Till one day,I caught up with the self-improvisation ka bhoot and decided that I have to overcome this fear of mine. So I talked about it with ZZ who zeroed on a venue nearby –an adventure park.

The first ride itself made my heart beat escalated to 120/min. ZZ sweet-talked me into it saying it will not go high but it will only revolve around the main pole. I got entrapped and had the ride..Fear did grip me but overall I enjoyed. Do I want to take that rode again? No, thank you..
Next we took a water ride..The boat takes you from narrow ways and then goes through an elevation and then runs down at meteoric speed splashing water everywhere inside and out. I was game for it and liked it, probably because the fun part ended so soon as it begun. There was a ride from which the cries and the exclaimations were the loudest and the oscillating machine could be seen from the farthest distance itself. ZZ was so pushing me to take that ride else “aane ka phayada hi kya when you didn’t overcame your fear.” As if he was not enjoying his rides.. ZZ had already done 2 rides alone without me as I clearly metioned that I am not interested to rotate my body at 360 degree over and over again for 10 minutes and that too at such speed.


So after analyzing that high ride from the queue, I said to myself, this does look high but its not as terrifying as it looks. The speed looks nominal and the duration of ride is also less than 5 minutes. As I sit in the ride, I double-checked my seat-belt, held the handle with all my might, asked ZZ, who was sitting next to me to hold my hand instead of holding his handle. The journey began and needless to say, those less than 5 minutes become the most terrifying moments of my planet. From the zenith, when you come down, it feels like a free fall, with the body lifted slightly up from your seat, you doesn’t sense any seat-belt or any cover handle .oh god, it’s real terrifying and when you rise up, it still feels the same.. I could hear cries of fear, exuberance, fun, delight around me with my voice also a part of it.As the speed subsided, I heaved a sigh of relief that I am alive and vowed never to take such ride again. Soon ZZ and I parted ways..he went for another topsy-turvy ride and I went for my favourite ride of the whole park, which is :





In that moment I got this realization that there are certain things you can’t do. And for the things that you can’t do, blame it on your genes;) Yes, I think my father is also a bit paranoid of adventure rides and heights.;)

Hey, do you ever have any such experience?
Pic courtesy: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2017/2205999855_bfec32dff1_m.jpg
http://audreyandthane.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/dscf0593.jpg

old man & the sea

If only...

Dear ZZ,
I would not have declined your so many “chalo, chalet hain naa” requests with one alibi or other
nor would I have dared to rejoice when your attempt to book the show tickets online get unfruitful
nor would I have not succumbed to your reference “We haven’t seen a single movie together(in movie hall)”
if only I knew that you so much wanted to see the “Clashes of the Titans” that you went for the 10:30pm show alone after the 19+hour journey(that included accompanying me to another city and returning back) and 5+hour work in the past 32 hours.
P.s: (Edited to add: I was in the another town when this incident happen)

Phases

Living with parents is about dreaming of somedaymaking it big and living alone. You never realize how it is to live with your parents when you are living with them. But once you are away, the reality dawns on you that what you left was heaven where you lived a princess life with nothing to bother except your studies.
Living alone is freedom juxtaposed with boredom. You have the freedom to watch any TV channel you want to without any interference from anyone to change the channel but you miss the nearness of someone along with whom you can share your 2-cents on the movie you watched just then.
Living with friends is freedom. And freedom only. Not a single ounce of boredom.
You watch your favourite TV serial in bits and pieces, in between breaks of the other TV serials that are on,sitting in a common-hall along with 20-something people with constant chatter where you have to “Shoo” them everytime your favourite actor is appearing onscreen.
You cook ‘Bread-rolls’ on a low-flame heater in your room at a corner with a bunch of friends and making almost no noise so that none of the other hostel-mates could know ‘whats cookin’’.So what if the bread-rolls took 2.5 hours to cook, they would remain the best bread-rolls you ever ate.
You argue hard with your friends and with yourself if it is fine to go PVR to watch the night 12:00 show of that block-buster movie and end up going there and munching popcorns and loving the feel of walking in the deserted streets at 4 in the morning.
You sing a line of a song, your room-mate the next and this chain continues from one song to another with bouts of giggles and laughter and breaks for correction in between and you realize that what a joy it is to sing with someone singing along with you and forming the chorus. And you chukle when a freind mentions in your testimonial (in Orkut ofcourse;)) about you singing "Tanha Dil" loud in the corridors of your hostel.

Ah those days...

The Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-time

It's a simple story of a not-so-simple boy who understands science, loves mathematics (in the book you will find numerous instances that proves his love for the subject), likes dogs, dreams of being astronaut . But he doesn’t understand people and jokes, don’t like being touched, hates colour "Yellow" and "Brown"loves reading mystery novels and that’s why he wrote one of a true incident .
The narrator is Christopher Boone and he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. Yes ,this is the same syndrome of which Rizwan Khan’s character suffers from in the movie “My Name Is Khan”. And this character Christopher is such nicely created that you can imagine him in flesh and blood. In his locality, there is a murder committed and he goes on to find the murderer and in the path he resolves to write a book about it.

The peculiar points of the writing style in the book are so different from the other books that I read.

Not many characters that you lose focus as the narrator don’t like crowd.
Chapter numbers are only prime numbers because the narrator loves prime number. Hence when you find the first chapter 2, don’t go back and start looking for the Chapter 1.
It has graphics and maps because that’s how his mind works. His mind calculates and make maps of any place he goes.
It has an Appendix that is a solution of a mathematics problem. He didnt include it in the book’s text because his teacher says that one should not include un-interesting facts while writing a book. And the writer Mark Haddon proves true to the words he wrote because not in any instance does the book loses the interest of the reader.
The chapters are written in such a way that they make an alteration between the actual story and his basic nature. Like Chapter 2 tells the story and in chapter 3 the narrator talks about himself or anything that comes under his curiosity (the main plot is not at all here) and then again the chapter 5, the story plot resumes and so on.

Just the way, you fall in love with Holden in “The Catcher in the Rye” because of his thinking, you will fall in love with 15-year old Christopher for his quirkiness, that I can assure you.

A couple of years earlier I recall, I read the interview of Shah Rukh Khan where he was asked about the book he was currently reading and he named this book. That was the same year, I suppose, when this book received “The Whitbread Book Award”. The name of the book remained with me( oh yes, I remember namesJ) and it was only in 2010, when I chanced upon the book and I totally love it.

In short, what I can say is that reading this book made me :)

For Carry-on-tuesday

I knew this would be coming

It's that time of the week.

But on work-front things kept showing

And I had much stuff to seek.

In the evenings I had to do groceries

And read that unfinished book.

The morns I was always in hurry

Even the newspaper I had to overlook.

Each day just goes so fast

I turn around-its past.

I told myself that its fine and

I submitted this at last.

;) ;) ;) ;)