Friday, April 20, 2007

mmmmmmmm!!!!

It was well into the night and my dinner was done. The window was open and a nice cool breeze was bristling through my hair. The lights were dim and I could only see the silhouette about an arm's length from where i lay. The occassional flicker of the tubelight near by revealed that magical golden skin tone, in a teasing-tantalising kind of way. Exactly as described in the tales of yore. In fact even better. The look on my face would have given me away, but the shadyness of the setting saved the day, rather the night. The pod was playing

"Chandan sa badhan"
Chanchal chithu van
dheere se thera ye muskaana...
and I could hold it no more.

I slowly moved my arms and for the first time felt how perfection felt. Full and plump, and a tad juicy, I couldn't but thank god for his creation. And more importantly, for putting me in the right place at the right time. With all the time in the world on my side, I began ruminating on the happenings of that eventful night leading up to that perfect moment.

I was travelling from Chennai to Kerala on a day train. A tiring journey in the hot indian summer, inside a tin can, that doesn't allow the liberty of sleep. The monotonity of it all got to me an hour or so into the journey and I am sure a little delirium set in too. It was Katpadi I guess, where I got down to stretch my legs and grab a cuppa, only to lay eyes on that beautiful little thing. The delirium was gone, giving way to a yearning hugely unbearable. The hours passed and the yearning only grew. My dinner was done but i was staring out of the window, waiting for people nearby to fall asleep and dim the lights. The occasional lone light streaking across the window as the train sped through the dry landscape, only adding to my agony. But the fear of people catching me in the act restrained me, though the proximity was all the more tempting.

Time flew by and pretty much the whole compartment was asleep. But now the freedom to let myself go brought with it the ultimate conundrum. I could do this only once and once I was through nothing would be left of it. So how do I do justice to the beauty. Do I wait for the journey to complete, all the while admiring the interplay with the lights? Or do I dive right in and give my senses the treat of a lifetime?


As I lay contemplating, the soft texture of the skin against my fingers made me take it in my palms...and I slowly sat up. leaning my back against the sil and watching the glow. How do I do justice to thi wonderful creation. And i smelt that sweet scent one last time, as I bit in to the seasons first - Alphonso. And the next 5 minutes was bliss. And all that was left were the fibres struck between my teeth and a licked clean seed which soon found its way out of the window.


Being from a "corporate environment" and a well disciplined family, I have often been instructed that fruits are to be eaten with forks after they are cut. But I chose to ignore all that. Today there was nothing between us - No knife, no peeling, no slicing. My teeth doing the work as tastebuds that were long comatose, sprang forth with life.

I owed that much to god didn't I?

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Vishu aashamsakal

Samridhdhiyum, Santhoshavum niranja
oru nava varsham nerunnu.
Happy Vishu



P.S - The iceman and the ferrari are on their way to Pondy for this Vishu. Updates next week. Adios

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Rants and Raves..and a few musings too

Over the past couple of months, I have had this tendency to consider myself as perpetually "Busy", thereby convincing myself that i don't have time for the less important things in life ...one of them being this blog. I have also been noting that most of the times more than many tomes of advice, often, it is an innocous off the cuff remark that sets things in perspective. Sometimes painfully so.
And thus, as the truth rung home and broke my little bubble, it dawned on me that my being "Busy" was a big haze that hid my growing tendency to procrastinate and my inability to "manage" work and life. And to restore that balance, I have finally stopped contemplating and started acting. No more work for me. A lot of loose ends to tie up in Singara Chennai before I set out on that great Indian dream..across the seas, to the land of oppurtunities..the U.S of A. My Visa is all but done and the possibility that i might soon find myself on that 00.30 AM Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and then onward is very real and here. And as I drew up my to do list (for the unitiated, planning by writing on paper is a good way to beat procrastination), a growing sense of panic set in as the list just went on and on and on.....
Started off by dusting my camera and setting off on a whim to my grandparents' place, a quaint little malabari village in kerala. Of course with a few basic amneties - a couple of multispeciality hospitals, a few imported corollas, an odd landcruiser, gold souks and the neighbourhood vegetable shop run by "Idrose"...things that a little money from the gulf brings in.
The pooram was on at the temple, nothing that I hadnt seen in these 23 years, but this time i wanted to see how it looked from behind the viewfinder. And boy, was it good. In a period when the peaceful temples in kerala are being taken over by the "Boards", the "members" and their security shenanigans, it was good to see that people still gave respect where it belonged....Me..
(u didnt see that coming did you;-) ??? ). Jokes apart, the humongous dSLR hanging around my neck meant that i was given a free hand to run amok. And to the, odd enquirer who wanted to know in which edition of Manorama his picture was going to come, I would casually reply "freelancer"..with an air that conveyed a little irritation at being disturbed. End result..over 300 pics with the best of them to be put up at Flickr...(i will do it soon and share the path here..I will). And if you are into photography, You will be blown away, by the sheer richness of colours in Indian festivals and the way they lend themsleves to photography.

A visit to kerala a couple of weeks later and the sense of almost everything being right in this world was quickly wiped off... with one that was sinister and reeked of human excesses..more on that later...Going now, as early to bed and early to rise makes Kiran healthy welathy and Wise..adios