The Sun’s coming to you,
Though you don’t see it
Through the fog that shrouds you,
Devoid of any hope,
He loves you.
Have Faith–
He loves you.
Month: Dec 2020
Pieces
You picked my pieces
from the ruins,
dreaming to put me
together
on the pedestal
of perfection–
A place where I could
never belong.
Angry, you pushed me
off the pedestal
Shattering me into
Countless pieces
of heart.
Every day.
The Curious Case of M&S (Part 2)
A lot of you already know my best friend M through my post–The Curious Case of M&S. She’s my soulmate, except for the romance part.
We had rediscovered childhood together at an age when most women try to act grown up. We had run amok on streets ducking angry cows, eating unhealthy food, just loitering around on the pretext of finding coaching centres, attending those coaching just to be around each other during summer breaks…well, you get the drift.
What I didn’t tell you is that our common love is painting. We met during our Bachelor’s at our painting class and it was love at first sight. We were the fiercest competitors and best friends. We had entered competitions together, exhibited paintings together, experimented with colours and dabbed with different styles.
I was her biggest fan…the kind who collect waste paper after the other, literally. So, she used to carry out five-minute experiments on scraps of paper, intending to throw them away. I used to collect these little gems. Some may find it a little creepy–stalker-kind of behaviour. But I knew someday, I’ll sell them off as M’s first and become a millionaire. I had that level of confidence in her skills.
She is the best painter I have come across, and I have met some some really successful Indian painters during Bachelors. After she finished her Masters, she had to take a long career break due to the reason the world knows as marriage and children. Now she’s back in full force and raring to go.
She paints both for love and money. She has created some illustrations for my site under the pen name Ammpryt ART.
She also has a website that has her contact details in the About page. So, in case you are thinking of some custom-made paintings that you can print, she is the go-to person. She also has a design shop on redbubble.com by the same name (Ammpryt ART). They print your chosen designs on blankets, mugs, t-shirts etc and deliver at your doorstep. There are a bunch of Red bubble links in her blog, though she hasn’t figured out the blogging part properly yet. Do check her site and let her know your thoughts about her designs.
We are currently working on our first book–a story compilation with some kick-ass illustrations. Wish us luck!
Haiku: Winter Morning
Smoke rises skywards.
East horizon’s on fire.
World’s a cup of tea.
Haiku: Weighed Down
Carrying on shoulders
The weight of the sky, we drag
Our days and nights alone.
Occupational Hazard
Shivering with cold, he peered inside the window. The tree was ablaze with lights. Gifts beneath it awaited the next morning. One of them seemed like a large jwelery box…
Bracelet?
Necklace?
On the table sat a couple of steaming mugs. Was that coffee?
What wouldn’t he give for that coffee right now? Or hot Cocoa? His ride didn’t have heating and his buttocks got glued to the seat. He felt like he would need an icepick to get him out. His fingers were turning blue. Global warming didn’t seem to be helping him right now. The cold was just as cold now as it was fifty years back. In fact, it seemed to be getting colder each year. Or maybe, he’s getting on with years. Maybe he should just retire…
Anyway, how long are these people planning to stay awake? It was already midnight, but the couch potatoes were glued to the television screen playing a cheesy movie about Christmas with Santa in a red coat, saying, “Ho! Ho! Ho!”. He rolled his eyes. Typical! The movie seemed to have just started, which meant these people would stay awake for another couple of hours.
Utter disrespect for other people’s time!
How on earth would he get inside undetected? He wasn’t exactly a wee mousey. This ample girth wouldn’t hide behind a candy stick.
He was tempted to skip this house and try another? But then, it had been the same case for the past couple of hours. State after state, house after house, people were awake glued to their screens. First, they had set radars across the world, shooting missiles at any flying object, turning traveling at night into a safety hazard. Then, they invented central heating, reduced chimney width to the size of a drainstorm pipe and installed intruder alarms to doors and windows. And now, they stay up all night keeping him out, waiting, and shivering in the cold.
To rub salt on the wound, they say, there is no Santa Claus! What do they expect him to do? Send stuff in by Magic?
He sighed. He couldn’t skip the sweet little girl upstairs waiting for her gift. As he had done all night, he placed the package with the teddy bear at the doorstep, hoping to get away without a sound. The intruder alarm went off, waking the entire neighborhood. He ran to his waiting sledge, and his reindeers took off in the sky before the adults could come out.
Panting, he cursed under his breath. He would have to find a replacement next year…maybe those nimble little elfs would be a better match for the exhausting routine. Or may be, just may be, he would join that gym again, and try harder this time…
Author’s note: To find out about Santa’s tryst at the local gym, read Santa’s Sweatshop.
Merry Christmas to everyone stuck at home away from family. Let prayers flow freely today. I truly hope the worse is behind us all and in the new year, we would all wake up to a better, safer world.
Free Photo by Brooks Rice on Unsplash
Make Some Noise!!! 300+ WP followers
I am notorious for celebrating milestones on my blog. I think it is because of my overzealous nature, but also because this blog means so much to me. So, here I am celebrating yet another milestone.
300+ WordPress followers! Thank you all!
Why it means so much? Because it means that there are people out there who would like to read my blog again. I know most of them may get busy and not return, but the thought counts. It almost feels like getting a Christmas card from a stranger…not expected but that makes it ever so much more wonderful.
And there are those other followers who come back nearly every day, a lot of them even comment and let me know if they agree, or not, or if there could be a potential for improving what I wrote–which is even more wonderful, almost like having a family online–Don, Petra, Chris, Alex, John, Lauren, Ngozi, R.E., Colin, Kim, Yvonne, Ellen, Sangeetha, Vaidehi and Pete. And then, there is Elizabeth, who is not my follower but still has been around for quite a few heart-to-heart discussions.
If your name is not here, I apologize. Trust me, I celebrate every single time someone hits the Follow button. It is just that you have been too quiet lately. You have probably been Liking my posts without leaving a Comment. And, unfortunately, my memory is shorter than that of a goldfish! So, please make a noise. Leave comments, Christmas messages, anything you want to share. I will reply.
So, thank you again for following my blog. You force me try writing better. You make me feel as if this isn’t just a whim! 😀
Also, if you wish to share a guest post on my site, please feel free to mail me at shailygrwl@gmail.com. I will reply within a week’s time.
Thanks a ton!
Love you all!
Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful COVID-19-free New Year!
-Shaily
My Neighbours: The Glutton
It is winters again. Thanks to the tree next door that flowers during the time, we have guests from all over the place. Here’s one…Notice his look?
“Cute flowers…pity it’s lockdown. So, what do they do with it these days?”
“Oh heck! Who cares?”
Chomp, chomp, chomp!
“I hope Rose didn’t see that…”
“Damn! Busted!”
Left Hook, Right Hook
His right hook was stronger than his left hook. So, he gathered the coriander leaves together with his left hook and waged a war against the errant leaves with his right. But they kept falling out, reminding him that quality of his remaining life depended on the new set of fingers his new bosses had ordered for him, if he was to keep his current job as a housekeeper and cook.
For 34 years, he had worked at a warehouse, using his pair of sturdy hooks to carry and store the wares to be housed, never missing the set of flexible fingers that his contemporary robots sported. So, when his owner decided that his model was too old to be repaired and sold him to willing owners, he felt jilted. New beginnings weren’t easy at his age. But having a new owner was better than being thrown in the junkyard, so he went quietly.
His new owners, an old man with a broken front teeth and an equal old squat woman with a traditional nose pin, took him to one of those ‘lesser’ engineers who work for the masses. How humiliating it was to be standing in the place along with all sort of riffraff!
Then came the big blow…He wasn’t fit for the new owners who needed a domestic robot. Being new to the whole robot-thing and not knowing better, they were fooled into buying an old industrial robot with hooks unaccustomed to the nuances of household work, especially cooking–a delicate art–that need a set of flexible fingers instead of hooks. His owners had openly regretted the choice, calling him a tin-box!
There could be no greater insult. He was made of Aerosteel used in making spaceships! He suggested them to rent him to another warehouse. He offered to work overtime to pay back their money. But even he knew it was a long shot. There was no guarantee a warehouse would hire a 34-year-old robot with obsolete technology.
That’s when the ‘lesser’ engineer became his saviour. He suggested updating his program to ‘Househelp’, and getting him two set of fingers, both easily available on GooglyFace.com. Since the fingers weren’t coming cheep, the old couple needed some persuasion. But they eventually relented since they had already invested 78 thousand bucks on the tin box, and ‘another 7 thousand wouldn’t kill them’.
Hence, the engineer quickly updated his program to Househelp before they could change their mind, deleting his Warehouse program by accident. He offered to order the sets of fingers from a ‘friend’ who would give them a ‘discount’ (his discount being 30% more than the market rate but the old couple would probably never find out).
So now, he was ‘home’ with his new owners awaiting his new body parts, and praying to God, if there was a God for robots, that the engineer would know how to install the fingers properly, else he would be stuck chopping coriander with a pair of hooks for the rest of his life.
Retort
All week long,
the nagging voice
in my head kept saying,
“Stop fighting.
You aren’t getting anywhere.”
Frustrated,
I replied her,
“Stop fighting.
You aren’t getting anywhere.”
Indian Snowman
Lately, my daughter asked me when we’ll have snowfall. She wanted to build a snowman that she had seen it in the cartoons.
But we live in temperate zone and never see snow unless we travel all the way to the mountains. So, together we built an Indian Snowman…the Orange man! He looks rather sunny, I’d say.
An Exercise to Futility
He hid in the dak storeroom in the middle of the night and typed frantically on his laptop. He couldn’t dare to switch on the lights for the fear of being intercepted.
His ears were on hyper-alert, registering the tiniest of the sound–the tic of the Seconds hand of the clock in the adjoining bedroom, the constant dripping of the faucet in the kitchen sink, the scurrying mice on the storeroom floor. Compared to all these, the sound of typing felt like hitting a gong over and over. What if somebody heard him?
He couldn’t go any slower too. If he took too much time, someone might realise he’s missing. They would surely come looking and realise what he was trying to do. Then, they’ll find a way stop him or at least delay him enough to make the whole exercise futile. But he couldn’t let that happen…
The information he was dealing with was crucial, and the consequences of failing to act on time would be dire. The stakes were too high to lie low, so he typed like a madman praying to the Lord to give him just enough time.
He thought of the old days…happier days when he didn’t have to live in the constant fear of detection in his own home; when human roamed the planet freely…
“Just five more minutes,” he prayed. Then, he heard the baby wail…Time to change the diaper!
Damn working from home!
Additions to the Ranch
Lately, their have been further additions to my daughter’s 1m x 1m ranch. The last time I posted, she already created super-beings like Dragons and Dinosaurs, who crunched on our furniture and hovered around our heads, and I was beginning to worry about world safety. Now she has moved her exploration to the smaller variety of creepy-crawler type.
Let me introduce you to her only invertebrate pet. He walks all day and doesn’t stop to talk much since it is such a waste of breath. So, we never got around to making introductions.
Her first amphibian is rather a shy person and prefers to hide under his shell all day. It is a wise choice considering the other pets my daughter is creating
This is “Hisssss”(that’s the only name he can pronounce). He joined our ranch last week and has been after Mathew and his progeny ever since. Mathew has been complaining about animal rights and about our prior peace treaty. I told him the clause about “not buying poison” does not include “not inviting snakes”.
These mommy and baby crocodiles have been complaining about the lack of a fish tank in our house from day one and we are hard-pressed to buy one to stop them from eating our other pets. They have also requested for a plover bird to clean their teeth. Talk about high maintenance pets!
There are also some animals from the cute variety.
Here’s the rabbit who has been hiding in my iron safe ever since the snake and crocs appeared.
Caribou, the red-nosed reindeer, is on a vacation before Christmas.
We are expecting some winter guests soon including Flamingos and Cranes. I’ll let you know if they turn up.
Negotiating with Intelligent Beings
My daughter is notorious for harbouring animals, cooing at live 🦎lizards🦎 and hello-ing hovering 🦅eagles🦅. We have been debating lately about the pros and cons of owning real animals.
Iniatlly, it started when we realised that Mathew🐁 (our resident mouse who lives in our house without paying the rent) now has a batch of newborns yet again. We know what to expect next–mice overrunning🐁 the house🐁, playing around🐁 in pairs🐁🐁, looking around🐁 the house🐁🐁 for new property🐁 to build homes🐁, chewing🐁 on our fingers🖐🐁️ while we sleep (it happened when I applied coconut cream)…
So she saw the opportunity to ask for a cat 🐈 “to kill the mice 🐁🐈” and play with her 👧🐈 in her free time. But I countered that the cat would eat the birds🐦🦉🕊️🐈that frequent our rooftop and drink away all her milk🥛🐈.
Then she asked for a cow🐄 to ensure we had a never-ending milk supply🥛🥛🥛. Upon my objection that we didn’t have enough space indoors, she offered to keep it on the rooftop. I relented and asked her to carry the cow🐄 upstairs in her arms, since it couldn’t climb the three floors on her own. She asked me for help, but I had to decline the generous offer considering that both I and her father were too old for such antics.
That was when she realised that the cow would eat her Aelovera plant🌱🐄, and kick the (imaginary) pet monkeys🐒🐒🐒🐒🐄 who sleep on our rooftop every night. So we dropped the plan of buying a cow, and the cat got suspended until the milk crisis was resolved.
Then she asked if she could build a nest inside the house to woo the pigeons🕊️🕊️🕊️ that have been frequenting our area (I told her how birds hate cages). She was super excited about the little pigeon babies🐥🐥🐥 that would live in them someday. But I reminded her that the cat might eat them 🐥🐈.
So she asked for a dog🐕 to keep the cat under control🐥🐈🐕. But I reminded her that both the animals together would drink all her milk🥛🐈🐕.
She again suggested the cow🐄 for the milk for the animals🥛🐈🐕 and I requested her to carry it up the three floors to the rooftop.
She, then, decided it was a good idea to drop the cow, and in the process, dropping the cat, dog and pigeons as well, and invest in a good rat🐁 poison.
Such a relief!
Short Stories | Fish-eye Perspective 