Through The Woods: Azure'14 Winner Entry 3

- A Rhymed Parable          

The forest lulled in morbid silence,

With the ice broken by wolves’ dismaying howls and vipers’ hiss.

Dark clouds hovered silhouetted by the latent moon;

The night and the woods turned towards him with malice.

A hiss here, a howl there,

And the ceaseless exasperating sound of crickets;

The anathema escalated to be smothering;

Snarled around him the savage malevolent thickets.

Constantly changing seemed the wild labyrinth,

By a devilish dominion as if, were the woods imprecated.

Yet, he trudged on, cautious and determined, though ‘fraid;

Faith and strength, kept him, in the face of impediments, invigorated.

An ingurgitating monster as the forest closed denser on him;

The pandemonium of its tranquility sent him a frenzy.

In collusion did the tribulations strive,

To debilitate his will and turn it dizzy.

The gray wilderness and the darkening heavens,

The ghostly swooshing wind and the mongrels which wail;

Premonitions painted the picture grotesque,

Exacerbated the incessant gruelling trail.

Alas, the torturous afflictions took over him;

His obstinacy to move on, now did moan.

Suffering and fear knew no bounds,

Evil spirits in the wild shook his own.

A barb in the wild pierced his flesh;

Yelped he in excruciating pain.

Moved as he in agony, a speck of light shone;

A hallucination perhaps, he thought, an ephemeral hope in vain.

Recollected as he, his senses, realized,

That the light was rather persistent.

His strength, after the hapless trail, waning,

Was riled up; yet again, was he exuberant.

Up the mound he climbed, through the thick foliage,

Towards the stimulus; robust, though languish.

Dragged he up his bleeding limb to find the Great Perhaps;

The pain itself ceded in making him relinquish.

Ostracized by the hunger, thirst and agony,

Did he traversed up to the top, exhausted; 

The nerve-wrecking escapade though, bore fruit;

Beyond the hillock rose a city beautifully illuminated.

Ecstatic he felt; the scene a toast to his vision;

A shower of respite after the scorching hot season.

From behind the distant hills, peeped the sun rising;

Obliterating the darkness, now in its dormancy, reitiring.

The soft wind sang a song melodious,

And the aviary chirped in chorus. 

Towards the heavens he looked, to bow to The Almighty;

For  having fortified his will, to win over the adversity. 

A tiny drop dropped, touched his lip first;

The elixir, quenched his persecuting thirst.

Snuggled he himself, 

In the grass, a tinge of yellow and green.

The cool downpour washed away 

The trickling blood, his body did preen.

Following the spate of anxiety, fear and unrestrained spree,

Felt he the serene and immense, a conqueror’s glee. 

Following the toiling labor was the contentment and thrill;

Invincible seemed the barbaric wilderness, but so was his will…

MANSI JAIN

Azure'14 Winner Entry 2: A Blissful Death Part-1

Yesterday morning,
As I opened my store,
I heard many voices galore,
A storm gathered at the square,
I closed the shop and went to hear.
They were protesting against the man,
Who called himself the king,
But in reality, he was Satan’s true offspring.
And let me tell you..
The time we were there,
Was not a blissful one,
As the government crushed love and humanity,
Shred by shred, ounce by ounce,
The people struggled as one,
And protested together under the jealous light of sun,
 Hoping of a day for freedom to arrive,
And also prayed for love to survive.
The torments that I vaguely remember,
Were not the physical ones,
They were the ones that were bestowed on us,
By the so-called prodigal son,
Who thought he can rule,
With a throne made of flesh and bones,
And skins of the dead as his cloak,
He’ll be the giant king of the small people,
Whose mere existence was a poison oak.
As I was standing at that square,
With the angels of suffering and pain,
I saw people...breathing with a struggle,
As every breath of theirs was taxing itself,
And then suddenly something happened to me.
I shouted, I screamed, I protested,
With every ounce of energy in me vested,
By the almighty one who lived above,
Maybe a sadist for souls below,
I didn’t knew what I was doing,
But a passion emerged,
And I started pursuing,
Then the army arrived.
They came and started hurting,
But no one ran away,
And all the fears were lost,
Like a needle in the hay,
The bullets departed from the bodies,
With bloody raindrops,
And people with open wounds crawled,
Like they were looking for repair shops,
But some others were taken by them,
‘Cause it was impossible to make them stop.
And with raging fires in our heart,
We stood before them,
Against a tyranny long and wide,
That walked with vanity,
An empire, senile and full of insanity,
Marching down the road,
Like a rising tide,
As they kept all the humanity aside,
That is when they caught us.
We still screamed, shouted,
But with our eyes,
Our every hope became clouded,
As we were bound by the darkest,
Force for us there can ever be,
A hell on earth anyone can ever see.
I was taken to the place they called prison,
Where innocents rotted,
Without any reason,
And I was there with every other person,
Who knew that something miraculous brewed,
Beneath the hearts that were sewed,
Together… with a belief of hopeful future,
A future with freedom as their new ruler.
Yesterday morning,
When I opened my store,
I didn’t knew that,
 Fate was also opening a door,
For a place that I will never forget,
A place without any sorrow or regret,
My own VALHALLA in the midst of hell,
Where forever my heart will dwell.

Ishan Trivedi

IT IS KIND TO BE UNKIND

“What seems good turns bad, what seems bad turns good. It is an endless cycle.”  - Brenda Shoshanna

That evening I was returning from my classes when I had stopped by the shops in my neighborhood to buy some stuff. While I was waiting for my turn at the counter I noticed a thin old man wandering to and fro the colony gate as if in search of something or probably someone. He grew more and more perplexed with each stride. My next instance with him was at the gate where I could barely comprehend the words ‘Masjid’, ‘Namaz’, amid his mumbling. I figured that he had set out for the evening Namaz at the mosque and lost track of the path that made him land there. His eyes sought help. I could not overlook his plight and asked him over to get on the backseat of my Scooty. I lowered the footrest but he had already seated himself slackly and didn’t seem to care about it. I had some idea about the location of the nearest mosque and hence rode off. On my way back home, after safely dropping baba, yes, I called him baba, all those moral science lessons kept coming back to me and pumped up my heart with contentment incurred from helping a needy.

I did not get a pat on my back, rather met two pairs of anxious and fairly terrified eyes. My father went on reassuring mom that I was completely safe. Yes, their young daughter was home completely ‘safe’ after picking up a total stranger, a ‘man’, from road and dropping him safely! What was wrong with me? How could I not look at the obvious? Their fear ridden words struck my senses hard as if newly opened to awareness. This is not a utopian world! You can’t trust anyone and everyone. Haven’t I read and seen immeasurable incidences of utterly heinous deeds already disgracing humanity? What if I had been trapped by my own idiocy? Wait,that was merely an act of helpfulness! That old man did no harm. He did not touch me even mistakenly. I was not only safe but rather glad on helping him. What if he was a con masquerading as an old man beseeching help? What if he was a part of some malicious racket? What if I hadn’t returned home? Maybe I am over thinking. What I did was something that I as a human am hardwired for in the first place-a mere humanitarian act.

I am torn between the kind and the unkind. The good in goodness. The ‘if’ and ‘but’ in my thoughts. My doubts are pretty reasonable. “What seems good turns bad, what seems bad turns good. It is an endless cycle.” These sentences carry a deep meaning. Who knows if it would have been good for myself to be less sensitive than to be sorry some day, some other time! If a seemingly good deed were to cost me my life or even worse the sanctity of my soul, would it not further diminish the belief in good deeds? Would it have been wrong to say – it is kind to be unkind?

‘A man gets robbed by an accident victim.’ The detailed description to this news headline reads that a benevolent man had stopped at an accident scene at a highway to help out the victims when many other passers-by had not even cared to slow down. To the kind man’s horror, the supposed victims were thieves in reality. He paid heavily for his kindness. This incident is a permanent blot on humanity. Reports of crimes by impostors asking for lift at highways are not new to our eyes and ears. Even murders have been accounted.

Why does the kind bear the repercussions of kindness this way? Doesn’t it bring the whole concept of helping others in the circle of suspicion? Why does it seem that the paramount inhumane forces are laughing in the face of compassion?

Battling through varied notions, one picture that emerged clearer of all is that I made the good side weigh a little heavier that day. Maybe, that little human instinct is all that is needed. “One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.” The Herculean task is to restore faith in humanity and gain control. I don’t intend to induce negativity in this already downbeat scenario but will merely quoting those great words get my questions answered? Would words like ‘faith’,’ trust’, ‘compassion’ learn their true meanings?

Somewhere someone wishes the answer be affirmative.

Resy Verma

MOTHER OF GOD

                               
       I hail from India, a land rich in spices and vegetables, full of plantations and most varied flora. Given the rich varied heritage, it is possible to lead a diet that would be strictly vegetarian. Meat would be an addition only. In a country like India, meat is not primary because of our diet requirements. Furthermore, eating meat wasn't as prevalent through the centuries. The three main religions of the land, namely Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism have boycotted meat for the same because hurting a fellow being was not essential. Someone or the other should have put up a story of how meat-eaters shall be put down on the scale of humanity.
     
       While I shifted to Arab, I have noticed that meat is not on their religion's no list. Reason obvious. Arab is a desert and barren land. Lack of dietary vegetation. The rules needed to be based on the lifestyle. Thus, Halal came into existence. Like every other, Islam had been trying to kill the wildness in a human being by defying him the pleasure of killing. Pork was put off the list for similar reasons. Chicken meat was inevitable and hence, godly.

       Move to the Northern Europe, the colder Europe. You'll see that there are civilisations where alcohol is essential in diet. Yes, reason is obvious and you are guessing it right. It is essential in their diet given the temperatures and climate. Entirely dependent on what would be an ideal modest lifestyle, a religion adapts and issues its rules and regulations.

       Another example I would like to quote would be the tradition of marriage. All the religions, at the end of the day, are doing the same thing. The couple take an oath. The scriptures may be different, and so may be the procedures, but the conception
persists. One male and one female trying to recapture the marvel and create a better generation, and a better world to live.

       As a physics teacher, I have a great experience teaching that nothing is absolute. So is religion. What would be right for one would be wrong to the other. In total, every civilisation tries to domesticate, read civilise the man more. I'm not saying that everything is relative. The concept is absolute, a better place to live. The approach is relative.

       Peshawar attacks, where Taliban kills 150 children ruthlessly is an example. Killings weren't new here. We have heard of Taliban for a lot of times now. Every time, I heard of two views. Especially having a great company of Muslims throughout my life, I could get a proper logical Quran based justification for the actions of Taliban. Except this one. It was one voice. A very grief toned one. It is dead obvious that no religion, none in human race, would ever encourage the killing of the generations to come. I could hear it in the words of taxi driver who drove me two days later, he hailed from Peshawar. I heard it in what Hillary Clinton said an
year ago. Everyone had realised the dire need to be against Taliban. Reason
obvious, it is against the concept of God and humanity. It is against the better world.

       In total, all the religions are behind the concept. If you think one religion is better than the other, I would like to call you ignorant and I'm not mistaken at it.

       Look at festivals. We all learnt about Diwali and how it's effective in keeping the insects and mosquitoes away, right between the rains and winter. Read it the other way, we all wanted to improve the hygiene of life and started using lights and fire to welcome winter, called it Diwali, wrote inspiring stories about it and celebrated it.

       The month of Ramadan is another good example. The Islam wanted to teach humility and simplicity to human beings. Fasting through the day had been drafted effectively into Roza. Celebrate the end of Ramadan, perhaps the hottest month of an Islamic year in grandeur. Celebrate being alive.

       Christmas puts all the conception into a nutshell. It's winter. Freezing temperatures and chilling winds. Gloomy days without work. In most of the Europe where winters are the worst, people are lazily crouched under blankets for days. Amidst all the laziness, there is an essential need to heat up the homes. There is a need to be not gloomy. For gloomy is sick. So what shall we do? Light up our houses, gift each other and smile. Yes, Merry Christmas. Snow shall no more be a burden, and we will make a cheerful story of a Santa who rides reindeers, his sleighs on the snow. You see it? We wanted to learn from nature, and be with it. Thus, we made festivals,
to celebrate being alive.

       The word good has been put down terribly these days, but in basic, good is the root of religion. Follow your religion in a good way. If what you're doing is right for you and the generations to come, then you are right. Being right and being good, that should be the essence. Being happy, and being a part of the nature, that should be your concept. If you understand that and put it to practice, whichever religion you follow, you're being a better human being. Or, let me say, you're being a human, for we are the unique species that have civilised over centuries to be a better sustainable part of the nature.


       God is nowhere else, but in you. It is when you wish to help the fellow human into leading a better life, creating a better place to live, that's when he personifies in you.


YRK SRIVATSA.

AZURE'14 : Winner Entry 1    

          

       

              And, hence, I am a self proclaimed Shakespeare!

The sole sound of letter ‘I’ is the legitimate proof of our existence in this land of billions and trillions. All of us represent an individual self. All worldly stuff roaming in our minds is totally and precisely the cultivation of our observance and portrayal. Each individual has a complex, rigid, unique and most importantly potent interlinked web inside which may get altered by external tampering but the very structure remains the same.

Talking about portrayals, let us take an instance. Here, we have an enthusiastic child, a toiling house wife, a vulnerable vendor and a Croesus contractor standing in a boundless grass lawn. Each one of them has different objective and hence they adopt different demeanor accordingly. The child assumes himself to be a renowned player, the housewife imagines herself as a commercial designer, the vendor presents himself as the owner of the store which he will own, the contractor as a billionaire stuffed with vivid dreams. Later in life, house wife surrenders her sole identity accepting others’ portrayal of her as hers losing her identity landing up in the lawn with unfulfilled desire. The vender with his numerous ideas urges to maintain his portrayal but lands in the land of uncertainty due to lack of uplifting powers and presence of surplus suppressors. The contractor maintains his spirit high but eventually surrenders it to stroke attack he suffers. However the child is the survivor, maintains his enlightened spirit, struggles against the adverse rallies, tolerates the taunts of the best people around, still never deviates from his portrayal of himself, he considered him as a born player and hence he leads his way.

That’s all folks.

There are countless examples of such instances where people loose themselves on the verge of what others think they are. Imagine if the army pilots harassed and condemned by flood stricken population unlevel their identity as savior of masses, or a social activist daily taken by criticizing words stops her actions, or a writer whose writings are declared incompetent because he took a social issue like racism or sexism decides to throw apart his ink, or a student rendered unqualified for prestigious institutes entrance leaves his urge to attain knowledge and even the next life deciding breathe. Do you want such population around you? Do you want bunch of people tethered to assume others’ assumption of their identity and render their goal unfulfilled?  I think, certainly not.

Generally, the interpersonal and intrapersonal views are equally important. One has to pay heed to the former one to develop the later one. However, we should never allow former to smash down the later and proclaim its superiority. What do you choose your call or external entity’s call (which actually includes haters, lovers, up lifters, suppressors, appreciators, gossip mongers, and competent, incompetent souls)? Choice is all yours. The dice you have to roll.

Assumptions and redemptions always run for each other. Assuming yourself a personality that you dream for, hearing the voices within and living the parallel way leads you to run at a multiple pace to catch the core position that you strive for.

I can be the self assumed competitor of apple breaking all its records, I can be the President of USA, I can hold the atomic power in my hands, I can be the next singing sensation of the world, I can make the cover of Forbes, I can be the self proclaimed Shakespeare and I can be anything, everything that I believe I am or I urge for.

I enter like a shower,

Dripping in the fields and flowers,

I dance like a swan, with the glossy white in his span,

I walk like the snowy flakes,

As it puts its essence and tickles the waves,

I smile and thrive,

As the world’s eternal happiness takes its drive,

I pronounce the spells and the monuments of wisdom dwells,

I own the power to drift myself along the way I want,

Steering the wheel of my destiny as the soul enchants.

Preeti Vyas

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” 
                                                          ― Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” 
                                                        ― Mother Teresa.

"Watching you walk out of my life does not make me bitter or cynical about love. But rather makes me realize that if I wanted so much to be with the wrong person how beautiful it will be when the right one comes along."

                                        -Anon

BASILICA CHURCH, GOA:

DATE: 01.09.12

Finally, I saw the smile on my Mom’s face. She is the best mother anyone could ever have. Her sleepless nights in transforming me from a half corpse to a human have finally succeeded. Adding to this, I finally agreed to marry the girl she chose and her happiness had no boundaries. 
 

I was reciting “the vows”, in a robotic style. Not that I'm regretting the approval of this marriage, but it’s just that I don’t get any special emotions on seeing this girl, even when she’s in the most beautiful dress any girl can ever be in her entire life- The Bridal dress. I was just ‘observing’ her happiness in her eyes and smile on her lips. Just observing, not feeling them! Then I started reciting, in “Tim Burton” style-

“With this hand I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never be empty, for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way into the darkness. With this ring, I ask you to be mine.”  

MY HOME, GOA:

DATE: 01.08.12

The break up I had 3 months ago, still had a deep impact on me! In fact, those wounds never heal! Gradually, I became addicted to drugs. At least, it was the only thing that deprived me of my pain. As I began thinking more and more about the past, dosage of drugs had to be increased to kill the pain. By the time I realized that it’s just a waste of my future, I already became a drug addict! There were days, when I just lived on drugs for weeks. My face became swollen and my body- a half dead corpse! Of course, I lost the pain due to break up, but in the process, I lost myself! My behaviour with the friends too, changed completely and I had no one to call a “friend” now! My mother started worrying a lot and finally, one day, she threw away all the drugs and locked me away in a room! In the process, I bit her, slapped her and even hit her with my legs. But never did she lose the faith in me and she brought me back into this world! All this time, there was Ananya, my neighbour who proposed me many years back, waiting! 

BACK TO THE CHURCH:

“You may now kiss the bride”

And as we were about to kiss, I saw someone who grabbed my attention. I felt my heart beating so fast and my eyes searching so hard for that person! Or at least, I hoped that she would be there! And, yes. There she was, on a wheel chair! There was the person who has my heart, of course broken. There was she, in a state of paralysis, on a wheel chair; with tears rolling down her cheeks. She was my Maya!

LAKE, BHOPAL:

DATE: 01.01.12

Finally, I have decided to propose her! We both knew it was coming and I wanted to make it special. We went on a paddle boat and were slowly drifting towards centre of the lake. Suddenly, it started raining. Smell of the rain was fighting hard to dominate the fragrance of Maya, in vain! As she was playing with the water below, my mind was playing with the eternal smile of her and thoughts of her immortal beauty! As rain has just started, a drop fell on her face and she was as lively as a beautiful flower with a few dew drops at its end. At the same time, my heart was experiencing the fear that her face might be in pain due to the roughness of those raindrops!

The breeze was sweeping her hair off her face, as her mole, on the lips was sweeping me off my feet. The water below was eagerly jumping to kiss her face as I was looking, envying them. As she was pulling my hand to show the fishes, I felt like I was falling into the well of infinity! I could not hold it any more and said “Maya, we both knew that this was coming. I promise you that I will be holding your hand from this moment, forever and ever. No matter whatever may be the circumstances that try to separate us, I will never let go of you. All that I need is a yes.” Even though, she was expecting this, she was completely surprised and amid that heavy rain, I could feel a tear rolling down her eye and slowly halting at her lips. That is a yes! I know it right away and then I leaned forward to kiss those lips and we were in that state of bliss for hours together!

As many love stories often end up, mine too was a victim of distance relationships. After the college, she went back to her native place, Hyderabad and me- Goa. She kept on complaining that there’s no one to console her personally at the time of need and no one to love her accordingly! She asked me to shift to Hyderabad. But I could not leave my mother alone, at this age! One day, she just messaged me, saying “It’s all over, don’t try to contact me.” And after that everything was common- change of SIM, blocking on fb and all the other things! I came to know from my friends that her fb status the very next day, was “Got rid of the pain and found my new love, at last!”

BACK AGAIN:

All these memories just flashed at once and the line “I will not leave your hand at any circumstances” kept on recurring in my mind! Now she’s back! For me! And she’s in such a pathetic condition. I felt like hugging her then and there, leaving everything! But don’t know why, I chose the second oath! I chose to be the soul mate of Ananya, the girl my mother has selected. After “The Vow” which I took, agreeing to it wholeheartedly, Ananya started looking completely different! I felt that she completed me! And then, I kissed her, the bride, the soul mate and the complement!

TWO YEARS LATER:

After two years of treatment, Maya  completely recovered from her paralysis caused in an accident. Ananya suggested adopting Maya to fill the void created by the death of her parents in the same accident and we did the same! I never broke both the vows. Never did I leave Maya alone in any problem, nor did I share my heart with anyone else except Ananya!
                

                            VIVEK REDDY