Stories

The last foreword

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“Amazing how Arjun scored such high marks in the exam, Meera, specially after this loss.“, commented Kamlabai.

Meera too was proud that the death of Arjun’ father two weeks before the exam, didn’t affect his performance. Late that night, Meera left her husband’s diary on Arjun’s desk as a gift.

On finding the book, Arjun flipped the book cover to see the last foreword from his father,
“Failure is a stepping stone to success“.
Tears pooled in his eyes.

He crumpled the stolen paper chits used for the exam into the dustbin, just as the tears shed from his eyes.

Thoughts

Hot water

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It was a weekday morning, and my house was working in full swing at 7am.
“Switch on the geyser dear.” Amma’s voice in the background.

By the time I have my early morning tea, she was in the bathroom complaining,
“Did you switch off the geyser early? Why, the water is cold!!“.

“Don’t know why the water is always cold for you. Only for you! “, mumbled Appa.

“Yes yes! This water is not hot enough for me!“, Amma accepted his sarcasm and kept mumbling about her plight.

I tried to pitch in to calm her down,
“Maybe I turned in the cold water accidentally while filling the bucket…Or else there maybe problem in geyser. Now should I keep water to boil on stove?”
“Its okay, I am almost done for today!”

Early morning scenes were always the same.

Years later, as I stand on the cold tiles of my bathroom in my house, the bucketful of lukewarm water stares at me. A voice in my head, that resembles the past shouts the same words again,
“The water is not hot enough!”

Verses

Winds in the mind

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Up and down,
Here and there,
They ask the same again
Thinking that I would share.
How’s the weather
And how am I
The endless dam of questions
Tempting me to fly.
How do I reply,
But I still try.
Haven’t seen winds in a while,
Drowning in the waves all this time,
Hiding in the dark cocoon,
Deep in the ocean of thoughts,
Under the white moon,
Waiting to be rescued,
Thinking that I’m screwed.
Ignoring the voice
Screaming within
The only person that can set my life free
Is just me…
Bangalore life

7 days of Black and white challenge

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Have you seen the rounds of black and white photos storming up the social media.? I was quite late to the party, but still could complete this challenge, even as the #akbsmiles stopped in between.

The rules are: Seven days , seven photos in black and white of your daily life. No explanation, no people. Challenge a friend to join everyday. The challenge is open to all now, Why restrict to just 7?

So here are the 7 photos of my everyday life. Can you see the story in it?

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mommy/Stories

Innocent thoughts

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At times, my daughter and I play this game of making stories with few key words. It’s interesting to see the thought process of young ones.
For example, yesterday evening, I thought of giving these few words. Boy, girl, love, movie, Try to imagine a storyline before reading further. How is your grown up mind thinking?

And this is what she said.

There lived a boy, girl, father and mother. The mother was very strict with them and had asked them not to watch television for long time. One day, when the mother went out to buy groceries, the siblings watched TV for long time as it had Shaun the sheep, their favourite cartoon show.. When mother found out she scolded and told them again not to watch TV for long time. The next day was a holiday. So she took them to mall where they watched their favourite movies for a very long time! And they lived happily ever after!

Gotcha!

At the next turn, my crooked mind gave her totally unrelated words as boy, nail polish, food, Christmas. And without wasting a second, she started this.

Once upon a time there lived a boy, girl, mother and father. The boy was big and got money (I offered to put in job, and hence the money?). One day, he got home with so many Christmas presents which he bought with his money. He got nail polish for his sister, and food like Christmas cake for his parents. And they lived happily ever after.

Do I need to say, I am on cloud nine!? My baby can make stories faster than me!
#NazarNaLage

Mélange – Random Tidbits

Small wins

Posted on by Archana K B / 2 Comments

Yesterday, one of the things that made me smile was execution of a small promise to myself. A visit to the bakery supplies shop was pending from long time, and I finally did it. It may seem what is the big deal to go out to a nearby shop. But for me it is.

I cannot attribute the reasoning to laziness, but more because of apprehension of situations going wrong, even if I know the truth. It takes ample amount of willpower from my side to get ready and get out of the house, walking upto the shop, or taking the scooter through the traffic, or making a fool of myself at the shop by asking weirdly-phrased questions. The difficult part is indeed the getting out. Yet, I have returned innumerous times, driving back fast home to my cocoon, skipping the shop visit.

Is it that important to buy the items offline which would be available online too? May be not, but the emphasis is on completing something I wished. The same goes for dance fitness classes too. There are many days I feel like not going and cuddle up on sofa whole day long. But at times what brings me out of the rabbit hole would be the upcoming programme practice, or my liking for the peppy song being choreographed at the moment, or the high of expectation to see familiar faces and chit chat with them.

Till the recent past, I kept complaining about not having any close friends with whom I can be myself with. It was also one of my new year goals to improve my social life. I was yearning to live an extrovert’s life, but was unable to do so. I slowly realised that I am not an extrovert, and the smile I pasted on my face is because of the social conditioning to “keep smiling” for the friendly image. It was an eye opening thought to accept that its okay to share if you are feeling low, and reply accordingly to the question, “How are you?” or “All well?”

I have heard people labeling persons as “weirdo” because of their conversations and behaviour. But over the years, I realized it is not fair to judge someone instantly. Every person has their positives and negatives which makes them complete and unique for which they need to be respected. Its just that we don’t know the complete picture. Let them take their own time to accept and change themselves if needed for their betterment. Everyone is enduring a battle of their own.