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...

People in love often ask each other, "Why do you love me?". When has there ever been rhyme or reason to love? For example, Arya and Meenal weren't even supposed to meet. They came from different worlds. The only link between them was Nikita, Meenal's cousin and Arya's classmate. Those days, Arya had been seeing this girl, Noorie whom he'd met right after breaking up with a girl he'd been really in love with. So, it was just a rebound and Arya kinda knew that there weren't any great things in store for Noorie and him. But he hated being alone and Noorie was decent company, kinda goofy but decent. Then one day, while Noorie and Arya were visiting Nikita's place, they met Meenal. She wore an orange salwaar kameez, had a husky voice and spoke in a strange tone that made her sound like a fat boy bully. She was so different from the women Arya came across every day. He was smitten, and he was smitten hard. Later on the same day, Arya called Niki...

The streets are merciless and they teach you the most brutal lessons. Chotu had no family, no relatives and he grew up in the arms of the streets of Mumbai. Chotu was a pickpocket, a thief, a grifter and anything else required to survive on the streets, all alone. He'd been in schools as a child and had picked up languages and enough education to pass off as a gentleman, something he knew he wasn't. But life was a big pretence for Chotu and he didn't mind being a little different from the street urchins he grew up with. He had friends who'd come up with ideas for scams and cons and he'd plan them out and run them, taking advantage of his innate charm, often conning people of thousands of rupees. After every scam, he'd leave the town for a new one. It was healthy that way, because he hated the troubles his cons created for people and he had to run away from them. His last job hadn't gone that well and Chotu now found himself hiding out in a quaint litt...

My uncle died last August. His brain tumor had relapsed after eighteen years and even after a successful operation, his body couldn't bear the stress of the radiation therapy and his condition deteriorated in the months after and he breathed his last on 29th August, 2018. The months leading up to his demise were really stressful for the whole family. Seeing a man lose himself, being paralyzed and unable to speak, is hard. It didn't help that he was the last of my two closest family members. My grandmother was understandably shattered after his death. She soon started keeping unwell and has been bedridden ever since. A few days back, I woke up in the morning, dazed by a dream I'd had. In that dream, I shot my uncle several times in the chest and was trying to dispose of his body, while throwing a party to friends. I just couldn't hide his body well and I was terrified of people seeing what I'd done. I woke up, drenched in sweat. I couldn't understand why I...