A sweet in sweat

OH! I can smell the sweet of cake,

for me I know it was just baked;

the chocolate chips sat there like flakes,

my mom then shook me and I was awake.

The blue in the sky and why was it so shy,

I think it’s the sun that made it cry;

the birds now sang with rhyme to fly,

I knew it was Monday and school thereby.

I love to play my favorite game,

for you may like I’d like the same;

I am going to be good, for one takes my name,

and would thank everyone for the wonderful fame.

I kicked the ball and there it went,

it was a big house and spooked as I came;

a voice then came in an old accent,

'why thy had come? and what’s thy name?'

I said 'I am Nick and playing football

and generously have come to ask this ball',

to which he replied I like you boy,

but then he said I am your principal boy.

Get down and get close to it,

and bad if you did you should admit;

then you will have a good credit,

for your future now work hard with spirit.

I play now hence at dawn and dusk,

and want to be, in team at must;

and for this country I’ll play some day,

and for this world I’ll do good may.

The way...

Its days, its weeks, its months, its time,
I kept walking with this rhyme.
This road of mine went up and down
To make me deep, laugh and frown.

I went through roads
Woods and shores,
and tested hence at every step
making me, look so pep.

The roads were long
and dint me it belong,
then woods weren’t bright
and blew up my sight.

And then came this shore so strong and calm,
I’d never seen this floor that held and heeled my palm.
And so it is my belief,
In stays one’s beauty in their belief.

And so will when time come,
and call you to his kingdom,
Will I shine like a plum,
bearing truth in wisdom.

That night

They still sat over there, the same road as they were sitting yesterday and were crying, but why weren’t they moving. That night I finally I went and asked my mom about the three people sitting just four blocks away from our house, on the roadside and crying at night, my mom then answered ‘they must be just some labors working at the new apartment that’s been constructed and might be just sitting and talking to each other at night which you must have interpreted as crying’.

I was absolutely not convinced I then had my dinner and slept.

Getting up the next day I went to school, sat through my classes and had a lot of fun playing and came home at three. That evening I went out with my father and while coming back I saw and heard the same thing again...

This frightened me and I caught my father’s hand and after getting out of the car, I ran inside my home.

This went on for another week till one day, when I was out with my father I told him about the strange thing that was happening day after day from three weeks.

My dad listened to me very carefully and didn’t seem to have any kind of fear or nervousness.

He said me that ‘you’d not see them from tomorrow, alright! I’ll go speak to them and see if things were all well, but only on one condition if you accompany me to the place where they sat’.

My heart was in my mouth now, I absolutely dint want to go with my dad and was thinking who could those people really be? 

What if they were some kind of Satan? And it may so happen if we get closer to them they might instigate their occult knowledge onto us and hypnotize us for life or even kill us mercifully!

My father then got down and called my name ‘Rhea’ while white vapors were pouring out from his mouth in that cold night. I got down from the car parked in front of my home, I opened the door an put my feet out, just then a cold wave almost slithered through my body lifelessly giving me goosebumps. My father then took my hand into his and started to walk.

It seemed like only my hands were safe in my dad’s hand so warm and comforting against my body which was cold as rock numbing my feet to the ground.

My father started to walk and I followed him forcefully, with him pulling my hand as we were getting closer. 

My body instantly started to give up and the temperature drop kept increasing, it was feeling as though I was in outer space so inert  standing alone and a huge meteor blazing with fire coming in my direction to destroy every kind of existence on its way so that not even ashes remain.

I was getting nervous and still walking with my father, with now only two blocks and half a minute away, it seemed two hours, two weeks, two months, or two decades away, time was stretching at speeds no physical quantity could imagine.

Now only ten steps away the voice of crying was all over. 

My father started to walk even faster. The tense situation was running out of hands and just then, he took me around the three men and to my surprise I saw two very small kittens sitting at the opposite side of the view, beside the three gunny bags filled with stones and two round earthen pots over them in the view of a chrome street light.

5th Avenue, Victor Street

It was three times two,

And time for me to go;

for I was in the crew,

and snailed through the show.

Taking my hide trench by hand,

I go out with an umbrella in tartan.

It was raining futile in all its sane,

the light was dark, as always in Britain.

The roads were filled, with tears of guilt

and the boy in need, didn’t have a sheet.

I felt my heart, against my mouth,

cause he was drenched, in his drought.

His shirt was torn and patched his blazer,

and water adorned that gabardine and leather.

Girls in Westwood and men in Givenchy,

but still none turned, walking that abbey.

I kept walking the other side of street,

thinking of the boy, whose tomorrow was bleak.

I crossed that way and took his hand,

for then to notice, his eyes so bland.

He then got up and walked with me

through the door of the abbey, came a women wisely.

She asked my name, then took this claim;

and so did pronoun, with an exuberant sound.

The duke he was of Newcastle,

and looted and beaten, till blood was he;

A beautiful face in light of candle,

I saw him sleep at the abbey.

The king was told and so was the queen,

then knights arrived with their morphine;

So time went on and weeks had gone,

the word of mouth had spread in dawn.

A plan was so, that no one did know,

so the king came out and made a shout.

be I would happy and so would thy,

be flood, be life, be fest or plight.

The law was new, with a big issue;

that no one would sleep, without their food;

and so should cloth and then should live,

and so will shine, the kingdom so shrewd.

To make it new

It was a very cold and dark night and I kept walking on the road all alone, the road almost went by the woods, suddenly then two focus lights appeared in the front, not even giving me a second and hit me down to realize it was morning and I had to go to the same office another day, wish the same bosses in case I land with them in the same elevator making my day even worse.

I got ready left my home, walking towards the metro station about forty blocks, walking a few steps I found a lays chips rapper thrown on the road, which I took and threw it into the nearest bin.

I took the next metro at 7:50 and reached well before anyone else, thinking this must be my lucky day. I switched on the computer and saw the date today, which was the first of April and was happy receiving my ninth salary, since this is my tenth month at work and instantly my mind went back to my college time which still fresh thinking how much does one’s life change from all the time fun college to still being able to digest working.

I checked my bank statement, and to my surprise I saw almost a quarter of my salary in my account, remembering it was the date of income tax filing yesterday for which ten percent of my salary was deducted ‘shit’ I thought I had planned so much this month new I-pod and clothes this time. ‘Well’ I thought at least some thing for the growth of the nation. I neither joined the defense nor do I donate at least this could help.

The day at office was successfully accomplished, going back home I was stuck in a bad traffic due to these filthy roads. I met up some friends on the way; reaching home I made dinner for me and friends. I then flipped through the channels and reached the news one to see a scam in the textile ministry and the minister was charged for possessing assets and properties all over the world.

‘There goes my money’ I thought, and the thought of improper use of public money kept circling my mind all evening discussing the same at the dinner ‘I mean the date is set for us to pay our taxes but, there’s no date for the government for deliver its duties’.  We then came up thinking if not stop these people at least we could make people aware of it.

Next morning we created a Facebook page India Inc. which got a very positive response from a lot of people and in like five days the number of fans went up to a lack. The posts kept increasing with everyone giving their opinions and ideas. In another week an NGO grouped up with us and filed an RTI complaint to make the allocation money by central government for various purposes public.

This came as a stir in union government, which was taken as an issue in Lok Sabha with it deciding to make a panel of learned scholars, IAS officers and other government officials, headed by the Prime Minister himself. Who will probe as to with who, why and where does the root of this problem begin.

The complete report was submitted by the panel which gave an idea that most of the ministers don’t even know what their ministry is responsible for and how is it handled with hundreds of men under them, their key responsibilities and duties to be offered to the public.

It was then decided to scrap the present policy of cabinet ministers to be decided by the wining party at the center and only the people fit to hold the position as in the IAS officers would be preferred with their core interests and experiences, which would be decided by the Prime Minister himself.

All this came so fast, appearing as a surprise to the whole nation and became possible as every next step that this revolution followed it went to the right person at right time.

Peoples attitude towards the growth of the nation also saw a positive change with people actively paying taxes instead of just saving them with investments, a lot of amendments also followed and every person had a customized tax plan offered by the government that didn’t just pushed the growth to the next level but increased as entropy in this physically-material world.

A tree in garden

Morning again for this sun to blame,

the cold is gone in its blazing flame.

But, still I love, the way it came;

It was red then and pale it became.

You got up, but, I wasn’t sleeping,

And fun was what I was seeking;

The birds fly and sit on my hand,

Not four not nine, but, a few thousand.

The chrome the sun, the busier the life,

And you wait the day, to meet your wife.

I happen to know, your seek within,

Your likes, dislikes from when you were a kin.

You played with me and kicked me hard,

For now to see, you are a lifeguard.

I know you liked, that girl, that door;

And she slapped you, at my shore.

That was a time long ago,

When you were learning, about Plato.

I saw you laugh and then weep,

And all that memories on that jeep.

It’s raining now and I am wet,

But there with you, whenever you sweat.

Twenty not thirty, it’s a hundred year;

I’ve stood here, at your frontier.

A man you are, now so far,

 But come back soon from the war.

I’ll teach your child, what you had known;

For him to stand, on his bone.

Summer vacation

I began brushing up my physics textbook as I was wearing clothes and eating my ubiquitously favorite breakfast ‘Maggie’. Finishing up every noodle that was left on my plate, I put all my books in my bag and rushed to the school on my cycle, cycling and repeating the Bernoulli’s principle, then while parking my bike thinking of gas laws and then ran into Ankit to discuss about the waves and oscillations’.

Keeping my books in my bag I began discussing yesterday’s Man ‘U’ match against Chelsea to see that it was just fifteen minutes to nine and was ready to face “his royal majesty the mighty physics class eleven final examination” huh that’s some title, but then I revised my thought and made a decision of going to pee in case you never know how the questions might turn up and show its immediate side effects.

I rushed to the nearest loo to the end of the south wing and hurried to the class. The paper was here to scare but still I was a very strong minded person (being sarcastic) and then the first question was:

Explain why a man who falls from a height on a cemented floor receives more injury than when he falls from the same height on a heap of sand?

Oh! I thought I know! I know and wrote the answer.

This kept going on till I reached a question to find the dimensions and it kept coming I kept facing. Some got me hit and some I hit and then the siren to end the war began and I handed the paper to the teacher and ran off.

Today was one of the best days of my lives I was going to meet my friends’ Rohan and Ayan in Bombay, my flight was next morning at 5:30 and had a lot to pack and shop.

I came out to see everyone was happy and celebrating their day of liberation just for a while but still this joy cannot be forgiven. Laughing and biding byes, we clicked pictures and went back home.

Coming home I changed into my Nike t-shirt and Benetton jeans and waited for my mom, for us to go shop. That evening then we went to park lane to buy all the regular boys stuff – shirts, jeans, jackets and footwear and reaching home my mom packed up my bags and served food – puri, poori and more puri (all that oil but I still love it), we ate talking and pondering over the news that was walking on its own little pace caring for none, but still, hooked up my sister to the screen with the very gorgeous Irfan Pathan highlighted in the cricket news.

It was almost one by then and I was asleep while my mom was still packing my bags for my fortnight’s trip, making it 2 ‘O’ clock at night. Then she woke me up and I got ready for the early morning flight.

My parents dropped me to the airport bus station, I bid them bye and the left for home to sleep for the little left hours for the morning.

It was an amazing ride as the bus rammed the roads up and down slope, the side concave turn at a time when the sun was yet to arrive and no sign of its his arrival was visible in the sky, also I was thinking about the temperature so low, that could shun oneself outside and not a bit low inside.

On reaching the airport I took out my luggage and taking the trolley out I hit the feet of a girl - actually a girl, a girl in twenties’ a girl so different, a girl so not like others, a girl in an orange chiffon halter and a skirt, a girl of my taste, a girl meant only for me, it was ‘love’ and I knew it , love at first sight, though for the seventeen hundredth time and then I kept walking behind this fantasy to realize that it was the first gate when I was asked for the ticket and then lost her in the crowd.

I went straight to the jet airways counter. I checked in and went through all the security checking after which I spent some time at the airport book store till the boarding was announced and went in to seat after getting into the Boeing.

I moved through the narrow isle of the aircraft and tripped by the feet of another passenger to my left and was caught by a fellow passenger behind to notice the same girl sitting to the end of the ‘E’ row beside the window seat, and I knew there’s no magic that might happen as in typical Hindi movies and hence my seat was in the ‘G’ row.

I sat at my seat and beside me sat a lady who was towards her late middle ages, she sat, took a book out of her purse and kept reading it as the plane took off, taking me and few more people and this elegant lady with a Khushwant Singh in her hand, in a purplish blue chiffon sari and almost principle looking.

Very gracefully after fifteen minutes in air she closed the book, took off her fine platinum spectacles and put it in her hide purse in tan and asked me in a voice so low – ‘beta! How much more time would the flight take to reach Bombay’

I said ‘about an hour’ she then asked me my name and what did I do?

to which I replied ‘I am Nakul and had just done writing my class eleventh final exams’ replying she said that she was a PGT teacher at St. Xavier’s Bombay with chemistry as her subject.

‘Oh! My Gosh’ I thought

another set of questions! What if this graceful lady may put in her already continuing elegance of speach, as if the words were made just so that she was to phrase it in the sentences and talk to me at this point, with her lightly wrinkled lips dressed liberally with dark burgundy lipstick asking ‘which song are u listening’.

As the ear plugs were out and the sound was pouring or precisely speaking oscillating its way in all the directions. I replied then saying it was a Spanish song which she acknowledged by saying she liked its tune.

Just after a few minutes while the air hostess was serving us food a man spilled up his food making it messier with two more people incurring the result of the slip. They cleaned up with the help of the airhostesses, in a moment then there was a big noise at the left engine and we felt a thud and everyone’s eyes hooked up to their left windows from which we could see the left engine almost blown up and blazing with fire.

There was havoc almost immediately and so the captain announced everyone to keep their cool and be seated at their seats and put on their seat belts and he would immediately think of a way out calling for help.

All the passengers sat and the airhostesses retreated to their seats. The pilot then announced it was a bird scare which got the left engine to blow up and continued saying he would have to take steps for an emergency landing of the flight, as soon as possible and at the safest place.

My heart was in my mouth now as was everyone else’s in this aircraft. People then started to take their own respective gods names; every noun of worship was now present in people’s heart now.  And a few minutes later now the plane started to turn left and almost immediately started to take left concentric circular turns at an interval of every minute.

Everyone inside the plane was scared to their heart biting their nails and every life inside was at the verge of their existence. The pilot then announced that we were above seven thousand meters above the sea level and he had planned to execute an emergency landing in a small district that has a wide national highway and both side of which housed green paddy fields.

He then added that he would try his best making it successfully onto the ground with complete assistance from the air force ground control and fire brigade which would be waiting for us.

This announcement again scared the people inside with me almost most thinking about the things undone in my life, my dreams, aspirations, my parents’ dreams everything might get shattered and to think about such an unfortunate thing took me to ride through hell, but then the graceful lady to my side was also frightened, but still she composed me.

Then said the man announcing over the landing procedure was his son, another sought of current ran through my spine of just imagining the thought of a mother being scared and an individual being scared.

There was another announcement to wear our life jackets now as the place was nearing the ground by the flight captain Arjun Arora and co-pilot Varun Mehra and tried to calm us by saying that the two pilots had been trained by the air force and had faced similar situation and would try their best handle this condition.

But this still could not console a life in the Boeing with everyone praying, holding hands.

Five thousand feet now from the ground I could almost see the ground from my window the roads, canals, trees and my reflection then. The plane still kept taking those unusual concentric circles the foremost reason for a silence, giving Goosebumps. Sun’s rays circling its way around the inside from the oval shaped windows, reflecting its way through the circular eyes and minds of the fellow passengers.

Two thousand feet now I could see the ground perfectly, the poised lady still composed, but then a drop of water fell on this lady’s lightly wrinkled hand from the almost perfectly chiseled face from an earlier time in universe damping her refined dark eye lashes.

Seven hundred feet now and every detail of the road was clearly visible. Vehicles still passing and the left wing was almost taken up by fire as though a wick of a candle.

Soon the pilot took the lead straightened the plane so it was parallel to the ground and pushed the plane down, making everyone breath for their last few times, but just then that moment the captain slammed the aircraft as hard as he could, making in on the road now.

All the passengers got a hit and were thrown up to a feet and again into their seats, everyone was hurt but still we were on the ground now with the plane still moving at speeds that only sound is permissive of using. 

Beside the plane there were two helicopters monitoring the complete landing and fire engine running with us.

The plane was still shuddering while running, but our hopes inside were very bright now. Another minute and then the plane started to slow down and finally when it was near the speed of the fire engines they started to pour jet of water, but no affect did it have on the fire.

The plane now after two more minutes finally came to halt and everyone was rushed out almost immediately. Getting out we saw this fierce flying machine badly ruptured and fire blazing its way onto its body now and the tyres were almost burnt, thanking god for this moment everyone wished each one, and then I bid the graceful lady and that girl (ending my attraction there).

We were given all the required medical attention and the people hurt most were immediately taken to hospital and we were escorted to a bus which would take us to Bombay.