One day, on the road

One day on the road is one day well spent, I have always believed in this philosophy and have been fortunate to stick to it for a very long time now. You don't have to be a rider, a traveler, a enthusiast.When you are an observer, you realize that the life itself is a puzzle and you just have to walk your way out of it. 

Try not to ignore, neither you don't have to be responsible all the time. Observe everything, from the beaks of the little sparrow that sucks nectar from the flower in the dawn as the sunlight kisses the leaf, to the courage of the mother, breast feeding her kid amidst all the lascivious crowd staring at her breasts.

Try to understand the difference between necessity and luxury. Observe everything, from the gypsy's on the road side pulling over their tarpaulin over the crafts they made once it is dusk so as to spend time with their family, to the shops in the high riser shopping malls staying open until midnight craving for more business.

Try to be ethical and don't give in to comfort. Observe everything, from a young kid giving up his seat to the elderly in the transport vehicle or a elderly lady giving up their seat to the lady holding her kid close to her warmth, to the arrogant drunkard who shouts in the streets blaming his wife for all the discomfort he has.

Try to be a patriot and not communal. Observe everything, from the innocent school kids assembling at their school grounds to stand in attention for the next fifty two seconds with their head held high until they thump the ground as they salute to the national flag, to the secular party leader who screams on the microphone wearing the attire of the local majority community.

Try not to be ignorant, neither you have to act. Observe everything, from the commuter's peer at the proud transgender who resumes her work in the beauty saloon inspite of all odds, to the parent who convinces their kid to litter the chocolate wraps at the signals so as to keep their car clean and neat

Try to understand the music of life and not the noise. Observe everything, from the talented road side singer singing a lullaby as brilliant as a professional singer being ignored, to the pattern in the sound of the vehicles movement that repeats like a loop.

Try to be reasonable and not feudal. Observe everything, from the discussions in the corner tea shops about how a thousand yes can influence a lie to be true inspite of knowing that the accused is the innocent, to the discussions opposing any support to the uprising being termed as intolerance.

Try to feel the nature and not capture it. Observe everything, from the hushes of the bewildered cloud as the pressure builds up the breeze before the thunder storm, to the greens that shakes of the exhaust deposits to stand high like the trees of Aslan's Narnia.

Try to walk between the good and the bad. Observe everything, observe as the old Tamil saying goes
"Kannal parpathum, Kathal ketpathum poi, Theera visarippadhe mei" which translates into  "not that we see, not that we listen, Only a thorough inquiry will take you to the truth".

While all you can do is Try, What you cannot is Blame, When you have left out your part of Carbon Dioxide as you breathe.

Cross the stream, to live the dream

She said :
Roses are red
Sky is blue
I mind my business
why don't you?

To which i replied:
Into the darkness
As you go
The life will prove you
I should do!!!

She stumbled:
I was born alone and so were you
why do you bother, what i do
into the darkness, i choose to go
i know the way, as you do

he perplexed:
you know the way, as i do
but what will you do, as you go
i walked to you, to take you home
and you wish to go, rather let go

She bewildered:
i'm not sure, if i should go
but you should know, that my love was true
i stripped my ego, i stripped my clothes
it was for you, because i loved you

he quivered:
wake up from the dream, walk your soul
i always thought, you'll never leave
hold my hands, and cross the stream
As we go back, to live our dream



Inspired from a two liner text

Thank you Anaya

The plight of Kai

"A-bh-aya", The teacher pronounced stressing the syllable, as the 27 children in the classroom waited for the teacher to explain the meaning. Kai and Sarah, sitting in the second bench, pretended to look at the teacher as they sketched Poseidon on the last page of their notebook. As the teacher defined the word, that means "no fear", Kai wrote down in the page for Sarah to see, "that's you".

as this story happens somewhere in the state of  New Jersy, USA. Where a large number of Indian Diaspora lives. The story revolves around two close friends influenced by the Greek God's stories who embrace their childhood with super natural imaginations, unnatural to the other kids who were obsessed with the Super hero stories of Marvel and DC comics. Kai, a 12 year old, born to Indo-American parents was always fascinated by the Hollywood movies based on Greek God's. Sarah, a girl considered to be the boldest for her valor in raising questions sensible to the society at this young age of 12 was the soul friend of Kai since they met in the country park 5 years back.


It all happened on a summer evening, when Kai and Sarah along with others were busy doing community service in the retirement home as a part of their summer project. Another set of children had come for their service as well, and with them was a man in his late 30's who looked so excited with the kids. 30 minutes before they call it a day, and Kai had to switch team as a part of building new relationship leaving Sarah with a set of new people for the first time in the day.

Sarah looked quite happy, as she saw the man who in his mid 30's to be their team motivator and made faces to Kai so as to make him Jealous. He introduced himself as, Clarke with a magic trick that made the kids fascinated. Kai innocently kept looking at Sarah every time he heard laughter from her team, until they moved to the next block which had less number of inmates. 

They sounded the long whistle as they called it a day, all the kids ran to the assembly point with their motivator's. Sarah ran to Kai hugged him tight and left a sigh of relief. Clarke bid adieu to all the kids and all of them left to their own houses in their School bus. 

Petrified Sarah never let go the hand of Kai, for a real long time, and every time Kai took out his hands, Sarah held them closer. Poor Kai could not really understand what made her behave so strange. He kept asking her and as she decided to say. The stories that followed were so new for Kai and Sarah that, Sarah did not know what exactly happened with her and Kai did not understand why would a man in the age of their father do this to her. Only thing he understood was that the motivator had hurt her and he wanted to avenge for that. 

Yes, Clarke was a pedophile and that is what made him look excited around the Children.

The kids ran to their parents as soon as they reached their house. Kai and Sarah being next door neighbours, their parents felt concerned about the petrified looks in their faces. Kai took the responsibility of explaining what Sarah went through, while he behaved so matured, unusual for a 12 year old. All of them stood shell shocked listening to what Kai was explaining, they understood that Sarah has been molested.

While Kai's parents along with Sarah's father wanted to proceed with a complaint, Sarah's mother was worried about the plight that Sarah would have to go through, talking about the gruesome experience she would had to go through. All that Kai wanted was to avenge Clarke for hurting his soul friend.
A girl who was nicknamed  "Abhaya" was now afraid to come out of her room. Kai was the only person in the whole world who could comfort her.

Kai slept that night in the same bed with Sarah to keep her company. Sarah kept weeping as Kai dozed of, listening to their parents still confused about how to proceed with the situation. His eye movement were rapid as he looked restless in sleep. Sarah had slept by now and was tired that even a loud noise cannot wake her up. Kai could see someone walking beyond the clouds holding the hands of a girl.

An old man with a long white beard, who resembled Dumbledore from harry potter, walked more close to him as he had a girl holding his hands. Kai smiled as he realized that is Sarah with him. He felt the coldest breeze and the fragrance in the atmosphere as the old man hold his wrist.

"Zeus", Kai exclaimed as Sarah smiled at him. 

Kai must be small for this world, but his thoughts weren't

Poor little Kai asked Zeus to help him avenge Clarke for hurting Sarah. He walked Zeus to Clarke and dared him to pick a fight with Sarah again.

  "the kid had not considered Clarke more than a bully". 

Zeus blessed Kai with all his powers. As Clarke neared Sarah, Kai looked up at the skies. His eyes were red as Cyclopes, as he gathered all his might to bring down the most powerful lightning bolt to hit on Clarke. The Lighting bolt struck as Hades cracked open from the underworld to pull down Clarke.

Kai felt more powerful like never before that he rolled over from the bed, and hit his head on the floor so hard. Poor little Kai woke up to his senses. Nothing around him had changed, Sarah was sleeping still as he helplessly thought about how he conspired to bring justice for his friend. All he could do was to dream.

The day resumed and Sarah's mother convinced herself to fight for her daughter's justice. Kai felt relieved when he came to know that the bully would be held responsible and answerable. 

The Question that Sanchi asked

"5 pm" squealed the clock on a Friday evening. The sticky note on the fridge reminded Shyamal to rush to the gate as his wife had informed about the delay at work that day. It was his turn to receive their charming little girl Sanchi, who will be back from school. Being employed as a Management consultant in Singapore it was unusual for him to be free on a Friday evening. 

The school bus stopped at the bus stop which was one hundred meters away from her house. She jumped in excitement looking at her father standing at the gates instead of her mother who receives her at the drop point. Sanchi ran to her father with open arms, while he was kneeling to maintain her shoulder level. Shyamal grabbed her waist lifted and swirled in the air while she screamed with joy. The onlooker's smiled as the events unfolded but did not fail to notice his moves to fade off the embarrassment of not knowing the drop point of his own kid. Before they went inside, Shyamal hinted her with the plans for a night out and an ice cream from the Streets.  

Streets in the corner of the road were her favorite ice cream joint.
30 minutes passed 5 and there she was in the hall waiting for her dad. When Shyamal came out of the bedroom dressed in his usual white & blue combination, Sanchi stood there as pretty as a angel. With a grumpy face that reminded of his wife, Sanchi stood there with a poker face. Her hands were stiff when he tried to take her to the doors, he ignored the alarming reaction and walked to the door alone. Sanchi did not move a bit. Shyamal looked puzzled and asked her, "What?".

"In her words, as she squealed at periodic pauses like the time clock"

"I have a question, and I need an answer before I come out with you", she said. Shyamal had never felt so much pressure even when he was held responsible for terrible mistakes at work. Like the age-old saying in this new generation says "A management consultant knows it better about who and how to talk", he politely knelt down in front of her and leaned forward to know to understand her question. He never knew a 8 year old studying in a global school can have any kind of complicated questions that a management consultant cannot answer. She pulled out the textbooks from her bag and kept Atlas over top of it saying that her teacher taught her Atlas in the class today. 

It was a coincidence that her teacher taught her Atlas on the same day, when a group of boys, two grades senior to her mocked at her group of friends which included Americans, Asians and Europeans about how they look in spite of being an Asian themselves. With a firm look, Sanchi asked that curious question to her father, the question was supposedly not the hardest to answer, maybe it is the easiest question that Shyamal had ever answered. But for a person like Shyamal who thinks that the persons understanding is what education is all about he took time to think as the moment unraveled in his thought about the question.

 "My teacher taught me there are over 190 countries in this atlas, But when all animal species looks the same why can't humans also look the same. So that Nicole and his friends don't make fun about my friends".

Shyamal gave all kinds of expressions. He knew, his adamant daughter wont move a step unless she gets an answer. But, he felt it was important to give her a convincing reason so that she don't cultivate hate for other races. Shyamal knew that Sanchi had a strong interest towards stories involving God and God power's.

Shyamal hence decides to narrate the story short before it is late for them to leave and Sanchi agrees to it. Knowing that it would at least take a couple of hours to make her understand, Shyamal texted his wife to come home instead of going to the Streets directly from the office.

In his words

" In a time before dated history when there where no boundaries, no names for places. Women and men were living in the wild with all the other living beings in the habitat. The only thing that made them different from others were the ability to think and understand feelings and that was to protect their clan from foreign invasions. 

It was a time when every male and every female human looked the same as any animal male and animal female. Over a period of time they were blessed with an ability to talk and understand emotions which made them special from animals. A time when humans lived without greed and anger. Rather a time when greed and anger were not understood.

As time progressed, humans started to find tones and dialects to communicate. That made them picky about their partners unlike the animals. Feud sparked among them when they could not find their own partners as every one looked the same. People living in the present america and Africa were tall while those in Europe and Asia had tall and short people. Australia never existed then.

Tired about the quarrel, the clerics in different parts of the world prayed to the God to help them.
Destiny of the Human's where to tell the tales and carry forward the legacy, and God had decided to help them.

God came to the earth and looked puzzled about how Humans have changed the wild as a non-living place for other species and how selfish they have become. He looked more like a Sorcerer, with a mid-sized jar hanging in his waist belt, containing a jelly like potion that glows.

He wanted to start from the west where the sun sets so that, by the time when the sun rises in the east the next day, he can get to the east. He grew bigger in size, and as he opened the lid of the potion he looked concerned. The potion had spilled and he feared that would not be sufficient for the entire population.

He found all the people born in present day american continent to be naturally beautiful and thought to himself that he can use lesser potion just to give them different faces. As he emptied 1/4 portion of the bottle over the land, all the men and women went to sleep. The next day when they woke up all of them had different faces, but all of them were beautiful. Argentinians, Native Americans, Mexicans are the humans who needed only 1/4th of the potion.

God further traveled to the center of the land, and he saw a lot of people than what he saw in the west. He had saved a lot of potion and thought to himself that all the population lives in the center of the land while east and west are less crowded. God happily took out the potion and emptied more than 1/2th of the bottle leaving only a little. The potion worked, and the prettiest people on earth woke up the next day. The central part consists of the present day Iran, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, India.

Dawn was brisk, as the God walked to the East. He stood stumbled as he saw a lot many people living in the East than in the west. Left with less than 1/4th of the bottle, he wanted to be impartial about anything he did. The God grew more bigger and as he covered the entire east, he sprinkled all over. The Potion fell all over the place in portions and that is why Russians have a beautiful hair, while Italians/French have pretty nose and Germans have pretty long legs while Japanese/Chinese/Koreans have cute eyes.

God waited until the next day and as every one woke up to their new looks, God expected everyone to be happy. But, the quarrel got out of hands over other's being more beautiful. God, tried to explain them about the days they loved each other when all of them looked the same. No one seemed to understand or wanted to understand. God left the earth for the humans that day."

Sanchi ran to her father, kissed him on his cheeks and agreed to go with him. Her mother had already come home and she was in the door listening to Shyamal not wanting to disturb his narration. That was not the first question that she asked. She never stopped asking questions, and her parents where never tired of giving an answer to her fictional questions.

Children are supposed to ask questions. And when they ask, inspite of being busy if you find your time to answer their question, that is what makes you a parent.