Silencing the mind

 

There's a place in your heart where you go
when you need to escape your crowded mind.

Here's mine.

I walk barefoot in the sand,
I listen to the waves whisper soothingly to me,
And I ask the sea to swallow all my demons.

 

Shadows of this night

 

How beautiful is this night...
A gentle breeze,
a few muted lights,
dark shapes playing hide and seek.
Laughter, drifting from a lively home nearby;
another home, cozy I imagine,
lets out a soft melody.
A vast stillness settles within me,
A deep breath of calm.
I should go now, I think.
Move on, and let this safe night swallow me. 

Let's go back.

Shall we go back
to those lonely lands
where the winds howled...
and the sea crashed
into ancient sands?

Shall we get lost
in another time,
another world...
where time stood still
and our hearts raced?

Shall we go back
to when the stars
were in our eyes...
and the ocean
lay beneath our backs?

Shall we then walk
hand in hand in the crisp darkness...
when the night got old
and we, younger?

 

 

September rain

 

It rained so hard,
I forgot to weep.
The drops fell all in a blur
and the world became soft around its edges.
The ache dulled,
blacks faded to greys,
and the screams in my head became whispers.
The rain fell hard
and I forgot to remember. 

Book review: Ashoka by Charles Allen

 

 

Title: Ashoka
Author: Charles Allen

Genre: Historical non-fiction

Publisher: Abacus (3 January 2013)

Price: Paperback Rs. 496, Hardcover Rs. 750, and Kindle edition Rs. 151 on Amazon

Pages: 480

This book was the reason I fell in love with King Ashoka, the "stumpy, pot-bellied, pumpkin-faced, fragile King who had the tendency to faint under stress".

The book itself is written like a detective story, narrating how Ashoka's life was painstakingly pieced together clue by tiny clue by the "Orientalists", beginning in the 18th Century.

Charles Allen has kept it real, without being pretentious, overly academic or puffed up with his own importance as many literary historical non-fiction writers tend to do. The language is simple, current, and narrative.

At the same time, there's a faint hint of the author's tenderness towards this King throughout the book. In the way he regrets the way Ashoka and his efforts in making Buddhism the way it is now, have been unrecognised even now, in the way he recognizes the tender feelings in Ashoka's one of the more emotional edicts near the Ajanta caves when he was young, and the way he talks about his appearance.

I’m not a great non-fiction reader, but this book, I absolutely loved. It also triggered a need in me to want to know more details about King Ashoka Maurya, and everything to do with that period.

Book review: Jasoda by Kiran Nagarkar

 

Title: Jasoda
Author: Kiran Nagarkar

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Fourth Estate (25 November 2017)

Price: Hardcover Rs. 449, and Kindle edition Rs. 253.80 on Amazon

Pages: 235

So here's why I have mixed feelings about Kiran Nagarkar's 'Jasoda'... This was my second Nagarkar book and after 'Cuckold', I started reading this with high expectations. It started off well. A gut-wrenching story of a woman struggling in rural Rajasthan and later in relentless Mumbai, told in a casual, matter-of-fact manner.

There were pages when I just wanted to shut my eyes tight and not read anymore because it was so gut-wrenching. There were also parts when I couldn't stop reading.

But as the book progressed, the story telling kept getting too casual, very disjointed in parts. For example, one moment the family returns to their village and the older son rejoins school, you turn the page, and now he's a professor in a college in the USA and dating a white woman, who becomes his wife almost immediately.

Sure the book touches on several prevalent social evils.. patriarchy, female infanticide, abusive husband, poverty, tyranny of the ruling class... and sure, you do hurt for Jasoda, you weep for her and all the women who have to go through so much pain. But the second half of the book feels totally unnecessary, and seems like it's been written in a hurry, with the intention of "just need to finish this already!" I guess it's not surprising since the author started writing the book more than 20 years ago and completed it only recently. There is bound to be a disconnection with the passing of so much time.

To summarize, not one of his finest works. Now I feel like pulling out 'Cuckold' and reading it all over again just to remind myself why I liked Kiran Nagarkar in the first place.

1. A little boy, wearing his mother’s dupatta as a cape and running around making dishum dishum noises.

2. This little guy who hitched a hike with me for a whole 10 minutes in the auto today on my way to work.

3. This mini idly fry I tried out:

 It was yummm!

Frangipani

This fallen flower I picked up on my way to work this morning is giving me so much joy today!

Things that made me smile today.

1. The sight of these gorgeous fresh flowers filling my vase, first thing this early morning.

2. A tiny wide-eyed button-nosed puppy pug sitting between two men in an auto and peeking out.

3. Overhearing a woman telling someone over the phone about how she intended to make chitranna this morning, but fell short of gojju and how she managed to rescue the situation. (Smiled because I regularly discuss very similar morning-kitchen-disasters with my mother over the phone, and had a total empathy moment with her!)

4. Seeing a colleague do her little routine first thing this, as well as every morning: remove her shoes, place a tiny flower in front of her God’s picture, fold her hands, close her eyes and offer a little prayer before beginning her work.

5. Suddenly remembering it’s Fridayay when I’m deep in the middle of work!

6. My new haircut I got on my way home today!

7. This tiny lemon plant that has sprouted from the lone seed I had planted just to see if it would sprout! And it did!

Living.