Among the 1001 stories Scheherazade tells her husband the king Shahryar and her younger sister Duniyazad is the story of Ass and Bull. Why 1001 stories? King because of the unfaithfulness of his previous wife, thinks that every woman is faithless. He marries a different girl each day and after first night kills her. This way the kingdom is short of girls. Scheherazade is the daughter of his vizier who swears to broke this mindset of the king. So she marries him. Purpose is to tell a different story every night but in a such a way that when the …
Category: Fiction
What is Maya?
I am sure that people in the West might have heard the word Maya. In the Hindu mythology, Universe or the Maya is the dream of Hindu God Brahma which he dreams. Then, there was Narada his son, who was a very erudite sage. With his intelligence, he impressed so many Gods and they often discussed their problems with him and used his services as a messenger for communicating with each other because one of them may be in Himalayas while another in the down South. One day Brahma called upon Narada and offered him a single wish. The Narada …
The life is slipping like sand through palms
The hour glass shows the sand slowly slipping from the upper globe through a narrow passage to the lower globe. Various devices to mimic the passage of time. You can always flip the hour glass and the cycle can restart. But that is not so with the real life. The hour glass of the real life cannot be flipped. Whatever has passed the passage cannot be reloaded in the upper globe. The life now is slipping like the sand through the sands: freely flowing. It never relents for a moment and every bit of the allotted hours are leaking away. …
Frog & Scorpion Retold
Although it is often contested that the fable is attributed to Aesop. Whatever may be real source, the story is about a frog and scorpion. The lesson it tries to convey is that basic nature of a person remains unaltered however one expects to the contrary. The scorpion needs to cross the river to go to other side but we know it does not know how to swim and is in great problem and looking for help. He chances upon a frog and begs him to give him the lift on its back and swim across the river. Surely, the …
Strange Man
The building of Senior Secondary School. There is a playground on the right side of building entrance and a path leading to main gate of the school. Outside the periphery runs a road lined with beautiful trees. The children enter the school through main gate. In the morning when school is about to start, there is great crowd of children, parents and teachers. Most of the children live in the colony where the school is located. Even then the parents drop the children in the cars. Besides many students also come from outside in buses and with parents in cars …
When When?
A Poem on Heralding of Spring Season: Though Spring season is far off, I wrote these lines based on my experience of the past. After the rains, there would be unsettled weather tending towards cooling. Finally, the Winter shall set in. This shall be real winter which I shall experience after a long stay in the moderate weather of Mumbai. When the winter shall thaw, there will be the riot of colors all around. Flowers shall bloom. Butterflies, honeybees and wasps shall dance around the flowers. This will be the Spring. Lo & Behold, the spring is here again.With riot …
Yellama or Renuka: Victim of Unjust Curse
In the Hindu mythology, we hear about many sages endowed with supernatural powers, who had used these powers for the destruction of women over very flimsy reasons. May be the customs and culture was such that men prevailed over women when it came to equality. One such story concerns Renuka or Yellamma who was cursed by her husband, sage Jamadagni. Her only fault was that she thought about having sensual pleasure after coming across a couple having the carnal pleasure in a jungle!! Sage Jamadagni lived in a cottage in woods with his wife Yellamma and five sons, the youngest …
You cannot forget certain memories
There are certain memories which are very dear to us but at the same time very painful. You feel like weeping and helpless remembering them. Sometimes, you try to bury these memories in the ocean of subconscious mind by tying the stones of helplessness around their neck. But no sooner you think you have done this, both the memories as well as the helplessness gets separated and float up. These are no ordinary stones. They are like the ones which Lord Rama floated on the Indian ocean to reach Sri Lanka. Interestingly the person who is the subject of these …
What is Peace?
It has been days I have felt peace and tranquility of mind. In fact it seems that I am living in a state oblivious of my state of mind. Neither do I ever feel that I am calm, neither do I feel very much excited. What is peace after all? Some say it is the state of mind when your body is in agreement with mind. There is no struggle between two. They seem to merge into one another. In the turbulent state of mind, mind it seems is detached from the body and hovers outside. Body and mind are …
Dawn and Dusk
Dawn and dusk are the times when the day and the night lose their individualities and melt into one another. If a person has been in sleep and just rises up at dusk or dawn, it will be difficult for him to tell whether it is dawn or dusk. From the womb of dawn, day is born and from the womb of dusk night is born. This happens with an uncanny rotations. Other things like climate can change and show anomalous behavior but not the day and night. Day and night are events which are chasing one another but never …