Into the dawn..

Unwavering. 
Like leaves, on a lifeless night. 
Leaves should rustle to the wind. 
They should sway to the breeze.
But tonight, they are ominously still
Strangely steadfast. 

Unforgiving.
Like the dark, on a lifeless night.
The gloomy fireflies rise
Only to find an inky black cape
Engulfing them, expunging them. 
Light can't go as far as darkness does. 

Unfathomable.
Like the silence, on a lifeless night.
Swallowing the wails of pain, 
The moans of pleasure,
The sighs, hushes and sobs.
Sounds need a witness, quiet is the norm. 

Intangible.
Like the dreams, on a lifeless night. 
Surreal signatures of the soul,
Unwinding the hidden wilderness.
Nothing white tonight, nothing pink or blue. 
All the unchained red meets with the grey.
Fantasies fly free, it's the things that need a form.

Undeniable.
Like the morning after. 
The first breeze gently pushing the leaves,
Light winning another day of its eternal fight. 
Chirps of the dawn clearing the eerie, 
And open eyes,looking at bright golden yellow. 
There flies the bird, 
There walks the girl with the shining smile,
Elated with all the air of life, 
Smiling at the pure serene sky! 

Translucent solitude

The quiet. It soothed her and comforted her. It made her ruminate. It made her feel alive. It made her forget all the trivial noises of the humdrum- the kids, the sounds of the metropolitan traffic, the radio, the hiss of the cooker, the blaring calls of the street vendors and innumerable ringtones.

The gloomy night sky hazily diffused the milky white translucence.  She could feel the night sinking, the dark intensifying, one minute after another, making the stars shine brighter. Gazing into the atmospheric infinity, sipping the cool of the night breeze and cuddling into her own blanket, she closed her eyes for a while and sighed in tranquility.

He faced the sky with her, holding her in a light embrace. They were lying down on the terrace on the same bed, under the same blanket, but didn’t face each other. It was what she wanted- for them both to gaze at the sky. Together. Quietly. 

                                               

He enjoyed the subtle warmth of the places where her skin touched his. He felt it bizarre how the sensation of her breath on his arm made him so calmly erotic. His mind started to cherry-pick the moments of their courtship that eventually deepened into their moments of marriage. Dizzy smiles came and went.

He had sensed that she felt inexplicably lost lately. The routine had dulled her. She’d started to feel fatigued even after sleeping a good ten hours. She’d lose her way into an abyss, in the middle of a conversation. She’d burn the rice. She’d forget to put things in the refrigerator. She’d sometimes sit up in the middle of the night, just to check on the lights and locks. And the week before, she made him coffee, twice in ten minutes. He didn’t say a word but sipped it down. She cleared the cups and took them to the sink and she knew. She closed her eyes in disbelief. He notified at work about his absence.

“I need a break”, she said.

“I know.”

They were almost at sunrise now, without a word uttered. The bluish hue of the dawn and the hovering songs of early birds. He remembered the time when he’d asked her out of curiosity, why she’d chosen him.

“You’re good company. And you’re a quiet guy”, she’d said.

Back then, he thought it was just an explanation, but it wasn’t long before he’d realized she was a quiet one too. There were times when they were up talking all night. And there were times that they drove together in the car with hardly any words throughout. Except a brief period in courtship, he had never felt the urgency to talk to her. She inherently beamed an easy sense of reassurance. He smiled at the queer difference in who she was from every other woman he ever knew, and dozed into sleep.

She’d slept briefly. It felt good to wake up to the mild rays of the sun. She stretched heartily and turned to look at him, finding him in a deep sleep. She freshened up, grabbed a piece of paper, wrote a note and tiptoed out.

He woke up to the emptiness beside him, only to find a note tucked beside the bed.

Hey,

I made coffee.

It feels amazing to realize that I don’t have to get away from you to be alone.

Thank you.

PS: The sun was good, and I sneaked out for a quick run. Can’t wait to see you!

He blushed and sat up to the shining sun, liberally gulping the aromatic coffee happiness.   

Purple

It was a great evening. And what started as a small argument showed signs of building up into a heated row. 

“It’s violet!”

“It’s purple!”

“How can you say?”

“Violet is a Rainbow color. It has a great part in the spectrum. Purple is a mixture. It is brighter and flamboyant!”

Jack wondered what he did to get that color on the canvas in the first place, when he did the painting. Was it from the palette? Or was it just the Violet with off-white? He couldn’t remember. He could just say it was the most beautiful piece he ever made. Enough already! That’s it about the color. This wasn’t going anywhere. He gave a distant look at Sarah and she knew that he wanted to pull the screens to this silly argument. 

“Does it matter?"

Sarah blushed at him, remembering their first meet. He’d gotten orchids for her. And then rushed a few other memories. Grapes! She loved how they smelled and tasted. The vibrant purple of the juice, with the cool blue of her skirt on their first date. The first garden she visited, the first clot she got, the time when Jack took a blow to his eyes when they got drunk, and the tiara of her prom dress and the ever-so-delicious Black current ice cream. 

She looked back at the painting. 

“No, it doesn’t matter!” she said. 

She saw the bold, yet subtle, strong, yet serene, strokes of that color on the canvas. It was just like a mirror to her memories worth remembering. It amazed her how colors can sometimes become silver mirrors, breaking out of the canvas, stepping into their lives in silence.

"MOVIES AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY" --REALLY!?

"This is all a political conspiracy. It is against our culture. What message does it give to the society? I really did not expect this from a director of his stature!”

To this day, I do not understand this line of thought. The idea of any form of public media giving a ‘message’ to the society, itself seems questionable to me! 

With all the talks in the town about PK, the rest of this post may invoke a few questions in you. Some useful questions that might convince you that this whole idea might need some reconsideration. 

A movie is capable of a strong form of ‘expression’. Expression of an idea, a story, an opinion, or simply wild creativity. Saying it out is the independence of the movie maker. But when it comes to receiving it, that’s the discretion of a viewer. If a movie “is giving a bad message to the society”, that’s because the people of the society are probably ‘taking’ it!

Let me ask you a question. What’s your favorite flavor of ice-cream? Vanilla, Butterscotch, Chocolate? Of course, you’ll have a favorite. Why? Because you’ve tasted all kinds of ice-cream there is, and your favorite is the best! Now, imagine that you’ve only had Vanilla all your life. Do you think Vanilla would be your ‘true’ favorite? No points for guessing that one!

Why did I just talk about ice-cream? Because culturally, majority of us are in the same position! If you do not open your mind to understand and respect all kinds of cultures, then how would you ever know why yours is the best for you? 

It’s that simple when I say it.

Be open-minded.

If a movie has an opinion about a social issue, welcome it. It may be true that the opinion in the movie is weak, not logical enough or absurd. Nevertheless, it is an opinion. It exposes us to different questions. It encourages us to reconsider and reinforce our beliefs and expands our horizons of thinking. But by simply boycotting the movies, all we are doing is making our society more and more delusional and handicap. 

It is understandable that conformity is essential for smooth functioning of the society. But being one geographical home for a country full of people where there is a diversity of culture across every 100km is not easy! There will be hitches. But if we always protect ourselves from them, we are never going to get past them!

All our society has been doing, is ‘protecting’ us from modernization when it really had to be ‘exposing’ us to it! 

Why are we so worried about the impact that movies are creating? Because we are not successful in empowering our people to think in different directions and make their own decisions about their beliefs. Yes, it would create disagreements. But when are we ever going to learn to accept the disagreements when we are suppressing them all the time?  

Summing things up,

What we are doing: Raising our voices against the display of movies with strong non-conforming opinions and trying to boycott them.

What we should be doing: Watching them, discussing about them with an open mind, having healthy arguments and encouraging others to do so.

This might all look very ideal. It is also quite natural that no social problem is an isolated one. But, all I want to do with this little write-up, is reach the educated class and tell them that instead of labeling and boycotting things with our personal bias, we need to sit down, receive new things with an open-mind and talk about them. 

Let's do more towards growing, shall we?

All those little things..!

Do yourself a favor,

with a few little things.

Collect a little flavor,

That'll never cost you shillings.

Giggle away with your best mates,

Run out of those closed gates,

Give yourself that fresh air,

That swing, that shower, and that relaxing chair.

Do yourself a favor,

And sit down for a while.

Let your lips play the trick

and curve that joyful smile.

Look at those clouds and daydream.

Blush away with a bright beam.

Sing to yourself that happy song,

You always wanted to sing.

Stare at the moon on those lonely nights,

Humming those tunes of the retro.

Look down from those stunning heights,

Into lights of the gloomy metro.

Spread your hands to the rain,

Do that silly dance.

Open up with those groovy moves,

Like there's never a second chance.

Do yourself that favor,

with all those little things,

Grab every one of those little joys,

That life so luckily brings.