Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The other world…







“People were created to be loved.
Things were created to be used.
The reason this world is in chaos is because things are being loved.”
(Anonymous)


Engrossed with the technology, people forget what happens around them. They delve deep into the world of ‘virtual reality’ that they go cataleptic about the dangers before them. This growing insensitivity is an upshot of technological advancement. The scenario is represented through the five photographs of the girl, who is transfixed on the gadget in her hand. 

Note: This photo essay was done as a part of my post graduation assignment. I owe only the credit of the concept and the text written, not the idea. The photo credit goes to my ever dearest friend Poonam Janice Rodrigues.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

A Sunday walk…

It is another Sunday. Usually, this day is meant to sleep as per the alleged student rules of India. But I am up early, to enjoy the wetness of my land, to see the sun flirting with the flowers in the garden, to touch the bubbles on the leaves and to crawl with the ugly snail in the grass. I pulled up the socks and tightened the shoe lace. I know it is freezing cold outside.

The pathways are filled with water and there are some tiny creatures jumping within. But I do not care because I decided to walk.

It is drizzling and the rain drops wet my jacket. These are the flowers from the unseen heaven, showered upon me from the Almighty. I splashed the water as I moved. Each twinkling drops are smiling at me. I could sense the air of happiness around. The sun brightens more, spreading warmth in that coldness.

People are out for their morning walks, panting and sweating as they move. Their bobbing bellies made me giggle. “Good morning,” said an uncle, with a pleasant grin on his face. I haven’t seen him before.  But he looked familiar. I returned the wish and continued walking. There is happiness in every face I meet. Live they walk, as if they do not own any problems.

The drizzling got stopped and the sun has brightened. I reached the park next to the church. It is a poorly maintained park, with weeds grown high and trash spread around. A few elders are resting on the benches, chatting and reading newspapers. I walked through the lanes between. There is a man sitting under a tree. He seems to have no leg. There is a banana leaf in front of him, with idlis in it.

The sunlight glowed his dark skin. I observed the man for few minutes. He would have been handsome during his youth. Now the age has spread wrinkles on his face and rendered him weary. There are signs of hard work on his hands, with veins protruding out of the skin. He is enjoying his food, dipping every piece deep within the curry and munching them slowly. He is almost done with his breakfast and is wrapping the leaf.

There is a wooden board with wheels beneath him. He scrawled with it through the ground. He is moving somewhere with the leaf. I noticed there is a dustbin far ahead. He tried to raise his hands to reach the dustbin, but it was too high for him. “Can you help me to put this inside?” he asked a little boy who came to take the ball nearby. The boy stared at him and ran with the ball. He looked around and saw nobody is watching him. He turned back, lifted the crushed leaf and threw it high. The aim was sharp and it fell right into the dustbin.

The man is scrawling back to the tree, through the innumerable papers and plastics lying on the grass. He seems to be careless about the world around. He is nearing the tree. Without retracting the vision from him, I slowly bent down to take the paper I just threw down.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

One man’s trash is another man’s inspiration

A coffee-tasted toffee in the evening is not my thing. Perhaps, it is because I am a coffee lover and I would definitely prefer a hot cup of coffee over a small toffee. But after a long day of fasting, my friend Ahmed wanted a toffee to break his sacred Ramzhan fasting. He bought a couple of ones from our dear Gopalan, who always greeted us with pleasant talks whenever we crossed his shop.

As per the general courtesy to share eatables with near ones, Ahamed offered me one sweet. I reluctantly took one, but gulped it fast because I had no pockets in my newly stitched pant to store it for later consumption. The busy gossip session prevented me from enjoying the taste of it. Only the sweetness of the toffee and the wrapper stayed back with me after a while.

Why should I carry a useless toffee wrapper? The thought popped up in my mind. And, yes, immediately the action followed. Being an iconic Indian, I repeated my urge to throw the wrapper on the road. It was floating in water in one of the million potholes of the highway road. We continued our walk to the nearby bus stop to catch the next bus to town.

“Oh! I think I lost my ten rupees,” screamed Shanu, who was walking with us, sharing her insights on office gossips. She seemed to have slipped a ten rupee note on the road while walking. A ten rupee is worth searching and we walked back through the same road gazing on the road.

Everybody was busy searching, when my attention caught on a little girl dancing around with a cute plastic flower in her hand. She was overjoyed by the sight of the little thing in her hand and was jumping around with it proudly.

I walked towards the little girl (obviously lost the thought of the fallen ten rupee note) and gazed at it for a moment. In its brown and golden exterior, the flower was truly adorable. Seeing me staring at it, the little girl brought it closer to my face. “I made this”, she flaunted.

I could recognize it somewhere. It looked familiar. My mind made a fast recap of the things in brown colour I saw recently. “Yes. This was the same wrapper I threw into the pothole on the road”, my mind made a louder confession. It was just a wrapper a moment ago and now it is a flower worth admiring.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Pepper and his Naimi

Source: Internet
“Wow! Isn’t that Naimi, the cute little princess with blue eyes?”, Pepper’s eyes got brightened seeing the lovely little girl in yellow frock on the street. Pepper always loved her and waited for her to come to the street. He was never allowed to go inside her house because he is a dirty, ugly street dog. People in the colony blame his presence to be a disturbance. Naimi was the only girl in the colony who showed care and affection to him. But she gets beaten by her father for playing with a street dog.

“No, poor Naimi would get hit from her parents. Let her go”, Pepper was reluctant to run to her, but after a while he could not stop himself. “She is alone. After all, what is wrong in seeing her? Let me go and see”. Pepper ran towards the girl who was walking slowly, pushing her cycle with the hand. He was careful not to touch her from behind as that could scare her. He couldn’t bear Naimi crying even for a silly reason. Pepper ran through the other side of the road and went ahead of her, so that she could see him.

“Pepper…!!” Naimi saw him and crossed the road to the dog. Pepper wailed lovingly, indicating that he missed her badly. “Where were you?”, Naimi asked him as she parked her cycle nearby. Naimi sat on ground and caressed through the soft hairs of Pepper. Pepper was feeling so happy that he started jumping around and licking all over her hands. Naimi took out few candies from her pocket and fed Pepper. Pepper wanted to be with Naimi all the time.

“Naimi…”, a male voice echoed in the street. “Oh, Dad is here. Run Pepper, Run!”, Naimi stood up and ran to her gate. Pepper felt sad, but he knew he has to go. Pepper gulped the candies and ran into the nearby bushes.
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Pepper began his days by peeping into Naimi’s gate. He wanted to get a glimpse of her. But, he hardly saw her. It has been few days that Naimi was not seen around. Pepper doesn’t know what happened. He kept peeping and waited outside her gate. Every time, someone came and pushed Pepper away from the gate.

Days passed. Pepper became gloomy. He lost interest in the games he plays or in the food he eats. His fellow dogs started scolding him and sometimes even mocked him for being stupid. “We are street dogs - not meant to be loved”, they reminded him. But Pepper trusted Naimi. He believed she would come back for him.

It was a sunny evening. Pepper was simply walking through the streets. Today he took a new road. Unlike his regular road, it was busy. People were out for their evening walks and many walked with royal, glossy dogs tied in chains. Pepper was least bothered about them. He kept walking uninterestingly, without even passing a glance at them. But they seemed to be too bothered about the presence of a street dog in their area. The dogs kept barking at Pepper.

Their owners had a tough time making them quite. “Where does this stupid dog come from?” A lady asked pointing at Pepper. She was not blaming her own dog for the lack of manners, instead was blaming Pepper for invading into their territory. “You whore! Teach your dog to behave properly!”, thought Pepper. He wanted to say that loudly to her, but unfortunately he doesn’t know her language.

Pepper angrily walked faster. His eyes were looking straight and his head was held high. Suddenly, he saw a little girl at distance. He slowed down. “Yes, she looks familiar.” Pepper ran to the girl. She too carried a white Pomeranian dog in her hand. She has maintained it well that the dog looked like a white cotton ball altogether. 

Pepper recognized her. “Yes, that is Naimi!” He doesn’t want anything else in this world. His Naimi is back. She is there, just few steps ahead. Pepper ran to her in no time. He wailed a little louder that he couldn’t control himself. He ran to her legs, started licking her, moving his tail to and fro at the fastest pace.

“Hey, Go away!”, She kicked Pepper with her little boots. Pepper cried louder, more with the shock of getting kicked by his favorite Naimi than due to the pain of kick. “Has she forgotten me?”, Pepper thought for a moment while he stood up and shook his body.

Pepper looked around. Naimi already walked fast. She is too far now. Pepper could see her caressing the small Pomeranian dog she carried. Pepper couldn’t control himself. “How could she not care me?”. Pepper ran to her and gave a bite on her ankles. He could taste blood in his mouth. “Ooouuucchhh!!!..” Naimi started crying loud. People rushed to her and someone carried her away. A few of them threw stones at Pepper. He could hear them cursing him.
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Pepper was locked inside some weird iron bars. Few people wearing hats came and caught him with a net while he was lying between bushes. Pepper was not sad at being caught. He was not bothered where he was being taken. He felt guilty that he bit Naimi. He felt sad that she did not care him.

“Why should Naimi avoid me? I bit her in anger. Shouldn’t I have the right to fight with the people I love? After all, she was the only one I cared for. She knew it as well…..” Hundreds of thoughts passed through Pepper’s mind. He couldn’t get an answer. May be my friends were right, that “I wasn’t meant to be loved.”

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