Good deed

Something stimulated my humble mind to do a good deed today. The usual college crowd encompassed the tiny juice stall to imbibe refreshments. Adjacent to the stall, the bakers’ corner peered at us while I along with few other friends chatted over cold coffee and fresh lime. The street seemed to be partly occupied by two huge vans surrounded by few dozen, probably preparing for an endorsement shoot (from what we could see, there were young boys in ‘undies’ walking across the street). There was nothing much that we could truly admire about the shoot set up and therefore we switched topics. On their usual time, the begging toddlers came around to grab a couple of coins for some food. One of them jumped and fell at our feet, danced till we got irritated and handed over a penny to him. But he wouldn’t stop! He evidently wanted more. He danced and jumped till he tripped only to injure himself. There was slight irritation in his tone when he groaned. He sat next to the bakers’ to gulp air through his mouth. His body had finally succumbed to fatigue and exhaustion. One of my friends offered him a glass of lime juice. He drank, took tiny sips; but something about his face told me that wasn’t what he wanted at that moment. He was hungry, to be precise, famished with hunger.
The wound on his leg caught my eye. There was an awful mixture of semi-solid pus and blood oozing down his leg. His face grew frail with pain and he could no longer bear it.
“Is it paining bad?” I asked
“Yes”
“When did this happen?” I asked.
“Five days back” he moaned.
I poured water over his wound and asked him to wipe it with the cloth he was holding. But that wasn’t enough. He was badly bruised at several other areas on his leg, previously acquired on bumping into a bike. I rushed to the medical stores to purchase an antiseptic cream and handed it over to the boy.
“Keep it, don’t throw it away” I said. He nodded.
“You seem to be hungry”
“Since morning”
Without giving it much of a thought I brought a packet of biscuits for him. Some of the other girls seemed to have sympathized with him too, because when I returned, he had a small pack of cake in his hand.
“You turned lucky today” I said, giving him the packet.
“Thank you” he said, in the best possible way that he could.
“Anytime” I said with a smile.

Too 'weak' to give it a title....

I kept changing sides, eyes spitting fire each time I opened them. The pepper patch on my right hand was receiving continual shooting throbs, amplifying with every passing hour. The sensation glorified irritation in extreme levels and sleep became my biggest enemy. There was no chance that it could even intend to conquer my consciousness. The vicinity was dozing in ease and here I was, struggling to persuade sleep to walk into my arms…
As much as I have virtually experienced the painful journey of a rock climber in accomplishing his dreams, I have in reality an equally painful experience with health. My quest for attaining a healthy lifestyle seems to be an impossible dream (optimism at its best LOL). Imagine warming up for elementary preparations to invade the highest possible peak of the nation! Exactly the feeling I get when I am asked to drink loads of water to flush out the toxins touring my body. It is envious to see my brother effortlessly gulping down thrice the same quantity. It is almost like yearning to play yanni's 'nostalgia' symphony without notes!

There can never be a proper inference to something as gibberish as this. Consider it a haphazard termination or the limited capability of an ailing personality to write better..

The unsaid goodbye

It feels so good to be back on the writing desk with a major writers block, knowing not what to write on the first place. Let me commence with a tiny yet a remarkable event that happened a little less than two weeks time. It was a proper summer evening and I was returning home from a five day camp, one of the best things ever to happen in seventeen years of my life. The eight wheeler made its first ‘see-off’ halt at CBD where a dear friend got down with a parting speech. Being her usual self, she passed some cheerful comments but also attached a note of apology if she had ever been mean to anyone. Like most of us, even she believed that this camp framed major ‘Kodak’ moments of her life. We roared the best possible farewell, thoroughly in favour of her thanksgiving. The best possible memories of the camp were right there in that bus with twenty nine other people parting in unison.
It was my turn to say goodbye, but before I could prepare myself for a parting speech, the bus halted at my destination. Home was yet miles away for others and they were busy laughing over queer confessions. It dawned upon me that there was hardly any time to thank, not just everyone, but even those with whom I had bonded oh so well! The bus gave a big jerk with which I was left with just once choice, convey all that I had to in just one single word ‘GOODBYE’, and I did just that. Despite the greatest possible strain on my voice-box, it was a silent farewell, an unsaid goodbye. However, I was granted the same warmth and joy that my friend had previously taken home. Nothing could stop me from smiling that entire night. With numerous smiles and songs that aided us through struggle and sorrow, I now have with me an integrated cry of farewell that stands above all those happy moments I shared with everyone. Above all stands the power of words, no matter how meagre or few, they have a generous impact if spoken straight from the heart.

Frustration at its peak

One of the things I am sure people would love to abolish forever from their lives; an irrevocable phase of prolonged frustration doing the rounds till it naturally wears off. But the tale doesn’t end there. The core of frustration could be anything, lack of jobs, excessive workload, study pressure, family problems, and social conflicts to name a few. One of the most severely doped cases of frustration is the torrential threat of unemployment, basically referring to no proper commitment to external work. A recessional phase as such where people are being royally kicked out of jobs is a sad sight in this era. Possible reasons could be boredom, an ingenious seductress tempting multitudes of unemployed candidates with inundated time and leisure. The most unfortunate consequence of boredom is that it sticks to us, initially as an unwanted guest and later, becomes an addiction. People smitten by lack of work find it extremely tedious to come out of it, partly finding safety in its shell. The secondary symptom of frustration is desperation which is purely psychological, reason being a frustrated soul is bereft of taking proper actions to eradicate his problems, let alone finding alternatives to keep the mind occupied. Free hours often stimulates the ‘devil’s workshop’ to rotate the wheels of pessimism at full force. This is what makes us think that nothing can be done in life; at least till we find something that captivates our interests.

The power of sacrifice

Some of the greatest classics ever to be portrayed on the silver screen moved me to tears yesterday. I do believe that words have a penetrating impact on people who are vulnerable to sentiments but, to get carried away by something you have known for years is a rare sight. Passion of the Christ had a language of its own, the language of sacrifice. Although major portions of the movie highlighted blazing torture and blind faith, there were soft, reverberating words filled with love and selflessness toward mankind. Jesus of Nazareth was tarnished with guile accusations of breaking temple laws for which he was expected to pay the price of mortality. Therefore Jesus, ‘The lamb of God’ wholeheartedly accepted His commands and embraced death as a gift of Paradise. He was no philosopher or priest of a higher order, but the benevolent son of God who resisted every element of sabotage to spread His loving message. Every bit of bread served at the last supper was a part of his preaching to his followers, the humble yet scintillating power of sacrifice. Every ounce of blood squeezed out of his battered flesh integrated to form a river of forfeit and tolerance. He was crucified in incarcerating darkness, only to be resurrected in enlightenment.
The milking tenderness of self sacrifice indeed breaks worldly barriers and limitations, opening several windows to a season of pure heartedness and peace. It is one of those qualities that tangibly defines humaneness in itself or, the epitome of humanity that rules all other qualities that escort us to Him. It is believed that a person, who procures the quality of being selfless throughout his life, finally finds his place in serenity intervened by fleeting activities of mankind.

The Jewel of faith and hope

Wish I could call this a fictitious miracle, until it chose to show up in real life, that too in front of my eyes!

Having retrieved my knowledge of Christ’s resurrection at Mt Mary’s church, I walked past the pathway leading to the main entrance of the Holy abode to get to the other side. I climbed the spiral stairs of an open church that escorted me to a bigger version of the Crucified saint. A wave of remorse swept through my mind when I realized that I had offered all my candles to the main cathedral where one is bereaved of lighting any within the church premises. I quietly put forth silent prayers and rushed downstairs to join my friends at the end of the lane. A partly molten candle grabbed my attention for few peaceful moments, the meager time period that allowed me to take up a very sincere yet precious decision. I finally had a chance to light a candle as per my wishes.
I lit the candle at one end of the open church. I was tad unsure of its consistency for the wind blowing northwards had a violent rush that could easily defeat the tiny source of light. I cupped the flame with my palms to ensure that it keeps burning. The candle constantly kept me on my toes with its flickering and fluctuating flame. The wind grew strong all of a sudden, blinding my vision completely with cluster of dust particles encircling, rising above the ground. I was amazed at my own determination of protecting the candle from the powerful gush of air; this was one of the moments when I could feel the presence of continual faith and hope. I found myself profoundly concentrating on two things that mattered to me the most at the moment; the flame and the crucifix that I felt deserved such humble offering. To my own surprise, the candle continued to burn with brief periods of weakness and alternate spurting of tall thick aglow. I stayed there for what seemed to be really long in accordance to my watch; all focus diverted from the flame to reality. At the spur of moment, I was barely aware of the fact that all this time I was guarding the candle from the destructive winds. Eventually, one hasty move from the candle diminished all the faith and hope embedded within the flame. Ultimately, the gleaming epicenter of light lost power to natures roar.

Freshmen foes

At one corner of a family restaurant, my dear friend was shredding the eatery bill; not wholly, just the edges.
‘This damn thing should be in pieces by this time!’ her frustration was clearly evident on her face when she said that. I told her to proceed with her current activity without spoiling her surroundings but she wouldn’t listen. In a way, it was tough for her to imbibe anything because she was tormented by the kind of work she is now forced to do, for the next two months. I can hardly forget her excitement when she told me about the workplace.
‘It’s a huge posh glass building with a sophisticatedly dressed watchman at its guard. Plush furniture, classy sofas and peaceful work atmosphere; everything adds to that place! I am in love with my work already!’ she said.
‘But you haven’t even started with your job. Looks like that place has boosted your confidence to accept your work as they give you’ I added. It was good to see her in such cheerful spirits after several days of undue pressure due to a mandatory job quest. Little did I know that I would receive a call from her on the very first day saying ‘My job stinks’!
A freshman’s life takes you to the peak of rippling anguish at the time when gathering work experience is extremely crucial. For somebody who hits the bulls-eye on the first few attempts is considered the luckiest in contrary to those yet struggling in the quest. An employed fresher has a typical outcome toward his job. To begin with, if anything touches the delicate chords of self-esteem and ego, it stimulates the lava of frustration to spurt in disdain. We youngsters are so accustomed to being pampered back home that any kind of authoritative imposition bereaves us of a positive outlook or optimism of any sort. Boredom royally seeps in, uninvited and finds company in an already demotivated soul, one of the predictable symptoms of a fresher surrounded with nothing but work and little or no friends at the workplace. Ultimately, with all the loneliness and annoyance creeping in, the fresher is left with no choice but to accept that life is not all kudos as it seems from the surface.
I don’t know what is in store for me in the near future but I can already see myself slogging like a pig in the next few months. It is then you will find me at the corner of a family restaurant shredding paper...