A Bowl of Elusive

The Ramayana, an epic tale of good vs evil, is an amazingly written holy scripture. I am especially impressed by the complexity of it's characters and their motivations. Think about it and the characters seem more grey than black & white. Any story is as good as it's antagonist and you'd all agree with me when I say that Ravana is the most impressively layered character in the Ramayana. Half Brahaman, half Raakshas, a stoic devotee of Shiv Ji, Ravana's life evolves from that of a yogi to that of a man seeking revenge. And add to that his ten heads, which is a metaphor for intelligence or power, I presume, and you have a winner in all aspects. The first time I read the Ramayana, I perceived it as anyone would. Black and white. Good vs Evil. But as I grew up, I started seeing the characters in a whole different light. Once you start weighing the actions of each character against today's sensibilities, your perception evolves. For example, once you really th...

Describing the night Shireen & Sashank had as awkward would be the understatement of the century. Their rhythm was definitely off. And it was but natural, since they hadn’t met for a while, after the last time. And the last time was tumultuous, to say the least. They had spent a couple of days in bed and then they’d freaked out in the aftermath. So obviously, when they decided to meet again, it was a little awkward where neither knew how to behave normally.  They downed a few drinks at the club and took a little walk, talking about this and that. Sashank slyly kept on inserting praises disguised as silly observations. The subtlety wasn’t lost on Shireen. Her situation had changed since the last time she met him and she felt liberated. It wasn’t like she didn’t have any apprehensions about this, but the volume on the apprehensions was turned way down. Plus Sashank had an air of confidence that drove Shireen crazy. Midnight was approaching quick and Shireen had to do t...

Indira Niwas, as I have iterated earlier also, was a mystical place. The fact that none of the people who lived there knew who the place actually belonged to, should tell you how legendary the house was. And crazy stuff happened there as well. I have earlier described the story of how Mirza found several fire extinguishers when he got back from his shift. This is about another interesting incident that happened there. Maybe a few weeks before the fire extinguisher incident, on a day when Mirza didn’t have to work, he’d invited Kritika to Indira Niwas during the day, when most of the others were either at the college or at work. Kritika was his girlfriend of two years and ever since they’d gotten separate training schedules, they had been meeting less and were struggling to keep the spark alive. So when Mirza called Kritika and told her that he’d have the place to himself on Wednesday, she quickly agreed to bunk classes and meet him. It had been a while since they fooled arou...

Have you ever wondered how no creatures in nature, save humans, are capable of cruelty? The most violent animals in nature hunt and kill for food, they don’t do it out of cruelty. Humans are the only species that hunts for “game”, “fun”, “recreation”. And the cruelty isn’t restricted to hunting and poaching only. People in general are cruel and mean, something you don’t see in the animal kingdom. Take the example of those guys who threw a stray dog off the roof. Or the woman who buried a dog’s litter alive. And I’m yet to mention the cruelty that man imparts on other fellow humans, be it in the name of war, religion or politics. Take the lynching incidents that are so rampant in the recent years or the riots and bombings of the past years. Human beings and their affinity for cruelty never stops astounding me. And then there’s the cruelty and torture at personal level which often goes unnoticed due to its intimate nature. Between the ages of six to nine, I was undergoing syst...