it wasnt as though he had been forced to go. he had made the choice himself, knowing fully well, the dangers, the obvious ones as well as the hidden ones…this mission was particularly dangerous, because the terrain was unfamiliar. well, not exactly, but times were dangerous now, and the roads on which he once used to whistle aloud, were fraught with danger, danger lurking in every bend..and it was dark..
but the prize was worth it, and he had committed anyway..he started out, moving carefully. though these paths were ones he had done a reconnaisance the same morning, he was careful, because a harmless looking shack could suddenly become a hive of activity.
suddenly the explosions started, but these were the ones he had expected, he gritted his teeth and moved on… there was a period of calm, but as he edged closer towards his target, the explosions began again. he had to be more careful now, because these were not paths he had visited in the morning, and it didnt help that the enemy had dug trenches all over the place…
speaking of the enemy, there were so many of them… and so many weapons, of different kinds.. the world had progressed so rapidly that the weapons he had been trained in were almost obsolete now.. but that was quite some time ago, and he was no longer as young and agile as he once was…
finally he reached his destination, the prize was there, and worth it..he took his time, savouring every moment, but secretly fearful of the return journey…
soon,it was time to go, he knew he had to be more careful now, for the prizehad made him a little less alert. but the consolation was that he knew the paths better now… but that consolation did not last long, because he realised that the explosions had increased.. once, he saw a guy in front of him swerve and struggle to retain control, as a shell exploded right in front of him.
the last stretch proved to be the most difficult, as consecutive explosions behaved as though they were specifically targeting him!!finally, he was back..as he took off his helmet, he moaned at what he had to go through for a dine out on diwali night.. hell, it was no longer a celebration, it was war… and he had indeed been a fortunate soldier to get back in one piece…
until next time, dont burst with excitement!!
Category: Life Ordinary
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Lights… Action!!
four days of holidays ahead, so the grateful self thought he should write a few words about the phenomenon thats making it possible..diwali…
the earliest memories are getting dressed up in the white kurta,pyjama set(the one for special occasions), going into the storeroom, taking out the earthern diyas, cleaning them and arranging them on the window ledges… career highs included being allowed to handle oil and light the diyas myself…
simultaneously happening was the cracker department, which had its own career path- from a rookie user, who was not allowed to handle stuff without permission, to the gradual scaling up of the stuff that could be used..the pinnacle being the rocket, i guess, which had to be launched carefully lest it created a “neighbour’s envy, owner’s pride’ effect in the neighbours’house… and finally , the top seat being the buying of crackers and their division among users…..well, once we reach the peak, the only way is down..
i stopped celebrating the year we shifted residence…did celebrate in patches later, but more as a desperate effort to recreate the magic of the days that were gone… a lost cause that redeemed itself only in the joyful faces i saw around me…….
P.S. though south indians usually use ‘deepavali’, these days, in our house, it is ‘diwali’, since ‘wali’ pronounced slightly differently, means ‘fart’ in malayalam, and….
until next time, have a blast 🙂 -
A piece of history……..
this post whirled into my mind, due to a comment made on my shoutbox sometime back… 🙂
the written word has for long been a great tool for storage – storage of thoughts, of happenings and whatever one feels should be recorded somewhere… of course there are some who feel that a picture would do the trick, but to each his own, is all i’ll say about that.. and it doesn’t actually matter because this post would also relate to photographs – after all they are also storage devices…
whether it is the written word or the photograph, the creator, at least in his subconscious, feels it is for posterity… a tool which would give himself or others an account of the moment/era in which it was taken, whenever it is seen again…. but as time passes, and i mean, a long time, they either get lost or if they do appear, do so in museums or private collections..i dont know about the photos, but the written words do get called manuscripts.
pieces of history which gives us glimpses of what had been..only glimpses, because though the creator would have wanted it to be a complete explanation, we can only make calculated guesses, and whether we are right in our guesses, is also, only a guess……..
millions of bloggers worldwide writing daily accounts/ thoughts on the world they live in, the world of their dreams, technology, music, sex, philosophy, careers… what kind of glimpses will they provide to the people in 4004, words staring back from a visual interface, perhaps loaded from an ancient server…
so, is it history we are typing? our present, someone’s history… called manuscrypts, bloughts, whirlwings, jabberwhackies… all with their own explanations…..
until next time, keep making history 🙂 -
S3x and the kutty
another long weekend, this time its monday off for the kannada rajyotsava.. holidays are like runs in cricket, dont matter how they come, so long as they come..:)
oh, for the few who are not familiar with MTV’s ‘lola kutty’ or south indian lingo, ‘kutty’ means,among other things ‘child’.. the title is based on a good fwd i read, ordinarily i would have put it under trivia, but it gives a good lesson on how the template works, so it is the post itself..
so, heres the fwd
A little girl runs out to the backyard where her father is working,and asks him: – “Daddy, what’s S3x?”.
“OK!” He thinks…this day was bound to come, and I am not going to let my little princess learn about S3x from the streets.He sits her down, and tells her all about the birds and the bees. He tells her about conception, sexual intercourse,sperms and eggs. He tells her about puberty, menstruation, erections, wet dreams…..
Then she asks:- “Daddy, what is “A Couple?”
He carries on: a couple are the two people involved in s3x, but this can be two males also who we call gays, or two females who we call lesbians, and goes on to describe oral s3x, group s3x, pornography, bondage and rape, paedophilia, s3x toys, etc…:
The father finally asks:- “So why did you want to know about “a couple” and “S3x”?
“Oh, mummy said lunch will be ready in a couple of secs…”until next time, this is food for thought 🙂
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Losing my religion
Part 1 – Templates
a few days back, someone excitedly brought his laptop over to me, and showed me a mail.it was a series of basic mathematic addition questions,which had to be answered as quickly as possible, but the last question was to name a color and a tool – i said ‘red hammer’… he scrolled down and the mail said “red hammer”. he had said red hammer too, we tried it on some more people, and around 90% said ‘red hammer’, which figured, coz the mail said around 90% inthe world would say ‘red hammer’.
consider this- you go for a movie -second show. during the break, you go to the loo, in the next cubicle u see a friend and 90% of us would say “what are you doing here?”
countless situations where we thought ‘i was about to say that’….the same music we like, the same tv shows, the same content in blogs, the feeling of deja vu in numerous situations… all what we call coincidences…
and so, the hypothesis – templates, many in number, but yes, all of us templates nevertheless, programmed to respond in a certain way in a certain sitiuation… which is why there are only so many responses to any sitiuations, which is why inventions and discoveries arent exactly common…you think matrix, predictable :), so far maybe, but here’s where the hypothesis deviates because we are not having any ‘machine conspiracy’ around..
lets deviate a little anyway, when you get back home today, try thinking about what you did for the last hour, not the easy response of a generic answer “i was travelling back from work”, but a minute by minute recall…you would find that most of the actions were on auto pilot, like changing gears in a car…and therefore you wouldnt remember…
another lil experiment for you, on a regular working day,can you go without saying ‘hi’?.. you would perhaps remember not to say it for an hour, then ‘auto pilot’ would take over…back to the hypothesis, all of us have an auto pilot, all of us also have a higher being inside us, a being constantly ignored in favour of the easier ‘auto pilot’, but extremely important, nevertheless..why? that is for later parts.
until next time, be unpredictable 🙂