The Last Leaf ...

Sunday, March 12, 2006


Brittle light I hold ...

Once I used to think they were sadness, orangish yellow under the dark night sky, on the black road, and silently humming, standing still with incredible sadness. A sadness so heavy and deep, that you could almost feel it in the night air hung over the deserted road. Until a few weeks back, on one fine night, when I was back from a week's stay away, I stepped out to see that all of the orange yellow sodium vapor lamps lining the road in front of my home have gone, and instead there were bright white fluorescent bulbs, laughing, a certain kind of mocking laughter.

I looked around, and all of them were gone.

But I found a single one, left behind, a last leaf, at the very end of the road. I wonder why they didn't change it.

And now at nights, when I go near that sole orange yellow light, I feel, its rather strange, I no longer feel they were sadness, but instead bright cheer, heart filling smile of happiness, spread in the orange yellow night air, over the parked cars standing still, over the fallen dead leaves, and the black asphalted road.

A lonely, joyful, bright, yellow smile ... and silent night all around.

Amma maram ...

Monday, March 06, 2006



It feels good to be back and near you.

You know what? I've grown.

Okey, I know, I'll never look grownup to you. Take that hand off my hair! ... no! now! ... ey! .. mmm .. , just a little up ... not with all the fingers ... m ..

Listen, you know what? I am not that lonely now. Yeah, you were so understanding, I don't remember ever having to explain to you why I'm sad. And I don't think I could have also, if somebody asked me. But you never did and, and ... !!! It irritates me when you smile like that!! ... don't rub that hard! ... m

Did you miss me? Did the winters trouble you?

I'm sorry to have been away. But I had to, you know, right? I know you do. And you know what? I was happier, smiling and ... mm ... making friends ... succeeding ... and you know, sometimes you just feel that you have achieved something ... yeah .... okey, okey, for a short time!!! ... see! you have all that skin of yours cracked and crumpled!!! .. do you ever look after yourself ??

Oh! you got new friends! exotic species they are! Do they bite you?? They'll sing? yes? aha! can I hear? what? not now?!!

Eeesh! my legs! can't this crazy guy run somewhere else!

When are you getting your hair cut next? ... is it September yet? nearing is it ? I'll come then to make you warm, m? ... you do it because you feel hot is it ? Then what about the winter?

!!!! Don't say that!!!! I have grown up and I can understand things !!!

I hate your laughter!!! its so idiotic!!! can't you just make one noise instead of a thousand!!!

mmm ... shall I crawl to that cozy hole on your lap? I'm ... its a hot day, isn't it?

Let me look up, to your face ... geee ... mmm ... what? can't I smile?

Hey! don't drop your hair over my face!!! that too half dead ones!!!

gee ... can I keep this one ? ... I've lost the last one you gave me.

Okey, okey, I'll keep this safe.

Yeah, promise!

What time is it?

Can I sleep? Wake me up when the sun sets, m?

I'm going away tomorrow morning.

I'll keep it safe.

Probabilities and Reins ...

Thursday, March 02, 2006


As soon as I arrive, everything is possible.

Are we just the product of our history, minted by our past, from the day we are born? History is exactly what it means, it can not be changed. Thinking backwards, as a conscious individual we have no control over how our history is initialized, where we are born into. But does that mean its all Brownian motion, that a life is just life and nothing more?

Life is not just something that you let yourself to be taken through, swirls and rapids, and settle to the inevitable looking, all too real, pseudo peacefulness of whatever state it leaves you at. At the soul of it, that is nothing but plain defeat.

Life, at the very least, is not a predetermined course which leaves you no choices. If looked at in a mathematical way, its rather an outcome of a bunch of probabilities. Probabilities laid out in front of you with slider controls, as in front of a music director trying to compose a song. And you can set the probabilities, high, low, medium, a little too much on the edge and so forth and expect the outcome to be in a certain way with high degree of confidence.

As a minor extremist example, say you want to die of lung cancer - take those slide controls, start smoking, you might find it difficult at start, but you can easily get addicted to it, and start yourself on pan, ghutka and what not, might not be so easy, but that stage will pass, and you can be sure with a high degree of confidence that you will be contracted with lung cancer eventually. But you can't be hundred percent sure, but thats the deal with probability. And say you want lung cancer out of your life like plague, again take control, stay clear of all of the above, might not be easy, but you can get yourself to being used to it, and can be sure with a high degree of confidence that you will not get lung cancer, but yeah, not dead sure. An extremist example is an understatement for this one, but the concept should be universally applicable to many aspects of your life.

One important thing to note is, although setting the sliders might seem very artificial and mechanical tweaking with your life, the music produced is real. Either you let the sliders be on their own and don't care or you set the sliders. Both ways the music is real, it becomes your reality, and there is really no way to tell if it could have been only this way. History can't be changed. You will eventually forget that you tweaked the sliders with great effort.

There are many things you can do, be with, or experience, that can possibly leave you pleasantly contented. It might look artificial and hollow. But if you keep doing more of that, with a very high probability that becomes your reality.

And there are many things that you can do, be with, or experience, that can only do nothing but suck out your faith in everything. It might look inevitable. But if you keep doing only that, with a very high probability that becomes your reality. And do you find yourself asking "This is my reality, how can you say my reality is worse and your reality is better?". The question itself is stupid.

Here, it is assumed that a joyously peaceful state is better for human beings than a resignedly peaceful one. But tweaking with probabilities is not fool proof, coz its just a percentage certain. To end this,

There was this math professor and his friend standing at the rails of their office building. Near their campus were a few army establishments. The professor started pondering over some tables and after some quick punches on his PDA, announced,

"You know Hermann, the probability of the next man coming walking through that road below being an army man is very low. And if you think of the event where the next two of them would be army men; even low, three, lesser, four, five, lesser and lesser. And say, the next fifty of them being army men is as meager as one in a few thousands. I can bet a hundred dollars that such a thing would not happen!"

Hermann was silently looking at the road, the professor also turned and looked.

In a few seconds, a platoon of uniformed men marched past the building.

eeesh .. ;-)

Wednesday, February 22, 2006



.... :">

Thunderstorm ...

Sunday, February 19, 2006



I am lying face up, down under these tall green grasses, a few lilac blue flowers on some of them. My hands outstretched, and the grasses forming a tall green wall around my body lending me a patch of dazzling sky. Dark brown earth feeling soft underneath and crushed grass blades and weeds. It is raining, big sparkling drops falling from the bright sky. Drops falling and splashing, on my forehead, on my eyelids, on my chin, on my lips, on my open palms, feeling like little pin pricks. All around and above the rain is crashing down onto the grass blades making them rustle. I try to keep my eyes open to the blindingly lit up sky, and watch the bright rain fall from nowhere. Rain flows over my body, jumps down and soaks the wet mud till it turns juicy, supple and kind. Rain cuddles around me, making a tender puddle around the perimeter of my body, for tiny drops to popple. Rain, rolling down my face, kiddish yet lovingly insisting that I close my eyes. I lift my right hand up, turn my body slowly, slowly to lie on my left side. I clasp my palms and push them between my knees and fold my legs. I close my eyes. Some stray bird flying over might muse over me lying here like a mirrored question mark.

Feelng ...

Saturday, February 18, 2006


Morning, in the lovely park in front of my house.

Andrei Tarkovsky retrospective by Collective Chaos.

Love that smothers you from inside ...

Friday, February 17, 2006
Suffocation might well be one of the most uneasy, weakening feeling a human being can experience.

Have you ever thought that love can smother you from inside, spread itself as a gelatinous fluid through your innards, its exhausts clogged, and make you gasp? And no, I don't think the answer is to shower that billowing love inside you over all around you, love all, no, this love is just not that kind of love. This love is rather something you nurtured within you for a long long time, something that evolved with you, something that is too much inherent in you and something that finds expression through someone dear, very very dear. Where can that love go, if the someone dear is taken away from you, when you are helpless, and couldn't have done a single thing to prevent it?

On February 11 Saturday, Bhavaniamma, a retired school teacher who gave birth to her much awaited kid at the age of 62 had her loving dear taken away from her. The apple of her eye that she kept under her wings drowned in two feet water when she was away for a few minutes. In her long long wait for him, she married at the age of eighteen, after twenty two years of marriage her husband died of cancer not giving her a kid. She married again, but was not able to have a kid then too. She made her husband remarry to see a kid born, sure one was born, but she was driven out then, not even being allowed to see that child. Then at the age of sixty two she went through the test tube procedure, and carried her longing in her womb for ten enduring months and gave birth to her wildest joy in life one and a half years before. Can you imagine how much she would have loved him? Can you imagine what she must be feeling when he is gone, taken away from her at the flip of a second?

I hope, just hope ... that among tons of people who would tell her that its fate and past and we can't change it and to come into terms with it, there is one .. just one .. who would not say any of these things .. but who would hold her chin up, smile at her and kiss her forehead.

Night Rider ...

Thursday, February 16, 2006
I recently re-liked one thing, something that I haven't done for a long time .. which is riding my bike along the deserted midnight roads.

Absolutely deserted, at one o' clock in the night, save the lazy yellow sodium vapor lamps and the black black road ... my bike, she doesn't have a dazzling headlight, nor can she do anything more than sixty kilometers per hour .. but she can still make me go slanting into the curves ... sway .. and make me feel like inside the red Ferrari coming out of a chicane ... and suddenly mortal fear is instilled by an approaching blinding headlight .. and you see you are riding into pitch black ... but it goes away, the yellow lights spread their lazy smile again ... and you raise the shield of the helmet and feel the cool breeze flowing in ...

And music, how do I hear music when I am riding? ... :-) .. do I put on an earphone and and mp3 player? .. nay ... :-) .. I have a way to produce better acoustic effects ... now I don't know how to describe it .. it is done by pulling some muscles near your ear.. or inside .. upon which you feel your ears are blocked to the outside ... some kind of a membrane swells inside ... and you feel less sensitive to the sounds outside .. and also you start sensing the tiniest sound you create inside ... amplified ... and I sing ... :-) .. and it trembles inside me ... bassy shrill ... and the acoustics are incredible ... :-)

and I sing ... "Ride in to the danger zone!!" ... and continue to fly .. :-)

Snippid ...

Wednesday, February 15, 2006





...... :-D

My little bag of butterflies ...

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

In that little park, on that paved walkway,
A blissful morning, chirping birds here and there.
Nice little breeze, and just a little sunshine,
Just perfect time, to get a short walk.

I was slow and sluggy, she leading my way,
She leant on my right hand, my left had that bag.
She was pulling me hard, the air was so fresh,
Her laughter filling, cheeks a lil blush.

She ran in circles, me standing still,
She calls from behind, I turn, and she runs.
She smelt the flowers, sneezed, shook her head,
Her wavy hair, floating blithely in breeze.

She had a glimpse, guess that bag caught her glance,
She came jumping down, with an eager, thin face.
Her little finger pressed on my right wrist,
Such a ringing voice, asked me, whts in tht bag ?

I knelt down and smiled, her face still held up,
I said its just, a butterfly bag.
Butterfly bag! she said in a gasp,
how could it be, they just fly always high.

I said its real, she crooked her face,
I said its real, she started to cry.
I said ok, you'll see it open,
But don't blame me then, they'r so prone to fly.

So I stood up, unknotted the bag,
Just for a second, the world stood so still.
Millions is meager, there were so many there,
Bright yellow flies, in blossoming flight.

All in one second, every one of them flew,
All I was left with, just my empty lil bag.
She was still standing, her face still held up,
Said in a sad tone, you let it fly!

I knelt down again, prodded the one,
That was sitting, just on her hair.
It too flew high, her eyes sparkled lit,
I held her close, and kissed her cheeks.

:-)