Sojourn

<<previous The thunderstorm outside continued to send shudders throughout the structure. The old man could feel the enormity of what raged just outside, as the floor beneath his feet shook. The stick he held, steadied him as he examined the pavement, looking through a small window carved into the wall, trying to figure out who had turned up at his safe haven, because, he had heard footsteps right before the rain pattering on the leaves of the trees had muffled it. Nobody had ever strayed this far into the forest in all the years he had lived there. And from his knowledge of the ancient texts, he was sure this philosophically significant place could never be discovered unless the seeker was pre-determined to find it. But, only a few knew of its existence, and so he wondered if it was someone from his brotherhood. He spotted a silhouette lying on the pavement. Whoever it was, they seemed to have been rendered unconscious, maybe because of the fall or due to mere exhaust

<<Previous   The parting between the trees had revealed to her the existence of a structure that looked alien to her. The building that she saw had a pyramid-like structure placed on a rectangular base. On top of it, a metal ornament glistened as the last rays of the sun bounced off of it. There was no path that led her directly to the building where she could seek shelter for the rest of the stormy night. The anxiety of finding the shelter had evaporated, just as the tiny droplets from heaven fell gently on her cheek. It was only a matter of time before the downpour began, and she really did not count on getting the object, she held so dearly in her arms, wet. As she desperately searched for a path with lesser bush density, she heard a crackling followed by a loud thud. Her heart pumped against her chest even though it was just a tree that had grown old and had collapsed due to a gust of wind which had rushed past it. With no help from the sun, who had now disappeared com

The forest lay bare, facing the receding specs of light from the playful sun that hid so often behind the dark blue clouds drifting slowly together to conglomerate to completely obscure it and bring the wrath of thunderstorm upon the forest underneath which now lies the ruins of a great city. The silence that the forest now soaked in was only broken by the muffled footsteps that dared not echo, for, the forest was in silence for centuries now. The footsteps belonged to a woman clad in a black gown torn at various places. Beads of sweat dripped from her forehead carrying with it the blood from cuts and mixed with it were tears that glossed her hazel black pupils which had witnessed the downfall of what was once an intelligent species. The teardrops dripped onto the cloth-covered object that she held pressed against her bosom, as though the trees that basked in the last rays of the sun would take it from her as the darkness sets in. She slowed down, coughing profusely due to th

The tap dripped slowly, the cold water from it softly landed onto the scalp of our protagonist, who lay spread-eagled and motionless, hugging the floor as an old friend did upon a chanced meeting. Every hair on his body stood up, craving for heat to keep him alive. His bloodshot eyes stayed focused upon a distant point on the wall, as if it contained the secrets pivotal for his existence. The nearest window lay opened, and from it came to a gust of cold icy wind, making him shiver. His jaws clattered, and every muscle in his body reacted to the severity of it. The wet cloth that clung to his body worsened the situation. The wind stopped howling, and that was when it happened. He could hear the small poundings on his eardrums, which increased steadily. It wasn't the sort of sound that he had ever heard before. It was both pleasant and irritating at the same time. His heart began to race, in coherence with the pounding. The intensity increased. He could not stop it. It was s

His hand was going numb. He was slipping away, slowly, he looked up, and the sun was shining but it got hazy as rapidly as he was losing consciousness. He could hear muffled words being uttered, he hoped there were people around him, he hoped they would revive him if he slipped away. As he lost control of it all, darkness invaded, like the proverbial king, followed by his horsemen. He lost the sense of reality, as he let go. He always hated reality, there was too much drama out there, too much of unwanted human emotions which deterred the progress of humanity, as a whole. He wanted an escape, he didn't know it would come this way, but he welcomed it, with an open heart and an open mind. The darkness was everywhere, and then, suddenly, he seemed to be waking up. He was on the cold, moistured ground and a cool wind blew across his face, disturbing his already haphazard-by-birth curly hair. He did not want to set it. He had the least idea where he was, it seemed like he was in

Have you ever wondered, how nothingness has any significance in this universe? How nothingness actually makes absolute sense when viewed with the right perspective? People fail to recognize the beauty of nothingness. It is nothingness that we sprang from, and nothingness that we shall end in, it is nothingness that all of the cosmos is surrounded with, it is nothingness that brings you the elixir of life, sunlight! It is nothingness that wraps us in its arms, protects us in its embrace and never let's go. We associate death with darkness solely because we humans fear death. We fear the oblivion. We fear that all that we have done so far would actually be engulfed by nothingness. That, we will be just as insignificant as the millions of those that just died this second. We fear travelling into this world of darkness, the abyss that is inescapable. We fear it, and it might be as well called a hardwired phobia forced into our system. But, what we do not know is, we are liv

He was sitting there, patiently waiting to be summoned anytime now! He does not know who his summoner is or what is the purpose for him out there, out in the great unknown. He was waiting for the strike, he was waiting for the friction to ignite it all! All he said to himself was," you are a performer". He sat there, thinking, contemplating how long he has to be in here before his summoner conjures him for the waiting audience. Deep inside, he badly wanted to dance with his friend. He wanted his friend's aid, without which he would go unseen. Now, there came a whole new devastating thought! What if his friend was not out there? But, he knew his friend was always amongst the audience, though invisible, he was pivotal, he was- There was a sudden movement! Yes! He was being summoned! He was going to be free once again! He never liked the constraint that he was put in, he wanted to feast on everything that he lay his hands upon. Finally, his summoner had summoned

It was, indeed, an amazing morning, the cool breeze swept across the urban settlement that I was a part of. I could feel the pollutants hit my face, I felt the need for fresh air. Something that is quite hard to find, but I knew just the place. I took my bicycle out, peddled across all those familiar suburban encroachments of what once was a beautiful city.  My destination was a miniature forest, at the outskirts but,  almost becoming a part of this ever-growing city. I cycled into its midst, through which ran a road to connect the two ends of the forest.  There was this small deviation that I was familiar of, which took me deep into the rare greenery that was so deficit at the place called home. As I walked past the beauty of it all, I felt the dew wetting my socks. I thought,   The dew, ah! One of the most amazing things of nature, that teach us one of the pivotal lessons (yes I might be overdoing this, but, this is how my imagination runs)  Dew can be the lust in hu

The car tugged slowly up the hill as I sat in the back seat, looking out of the window, looking at the rooftops turning to dots, the huge roads of the city becoming just a line. The horizon widening after every hairpin bend we cross, and slowly there was fog creeping in between as we rose higher and higher. I sat there dazzled at the beauty of all the tiny spots and lines woven into the fabric of green and brown and yellow. The visibility of the path became fainter and fainter as the clouds clouded it. I slowly slipped my hand out of the window, in a futile attempt to catch the cloud which slipped through my fingers, wetting it slightly. The car had travelled quite a long distance with ever waning visibility. The lack of information of what's around was kind of creepy honestly. But, I was waiting for that moment when we reach the end of this monochromatism that we had plunged into. I was waiting to shoot out of the dense mist and see light again. I was the proverbial

As the train moved across the countryside, he put his head to the window, the drug coursing through his veins finally had his brain cut off from the rest of the body and he felt time slow down. As he looked through the window, he saw a glowing ball of flame descend through the sky. It was hazy. But he could figure out that the glowing ball was just the sun. As he rests his head on the cold window pane, closing his eyes, he remembered how sordidly egoistic mankind was, how we claimed that we were the centre of the universe, that everything known to us revolved around us and how our egos were burnt as bright as that glowing ball when we were disproven. His mind slipped, conjured the image of the glowing ball, upon which centuries of arguments were held, and he thought of how egoistic mankind still is, in believing that they are alone, that the divine entity created them and none other. A sneer crossed his face when he realised how much a 'fish in a bowl' resembled mankin

The world, as we know, is divided. We, humans, put up boundaries everywhere, claiming ownership of what's within but we never realise how crude and absurd is the idea of such boundaries, be it walls or fences! We put up fences everywhere, around our house, around our locality, around our country. Even worse, we put up boundaries in our minds, curtailing our flow of thoughts. We think nothing can bring these boundaries down, nothing can infiltrate the illusion that we live in. How much does this all matter to mother earth, if she is to unleash chaos in the form of natural calamities? How much can we keep her at the threshold, when she is trying to blow us to our kingdom come? And that is exactly why the idea of boundaries is funny to me. Instead, we could all just put away those elongated metal pieces, forget the boundaries of our minds, let the thoughts wander and thus be humans and not machines of the intricate but failure of a society that we govern and live in. Reade

How many of you look up in the sky? When was the last time you glimpsed the only natural satellite that we have? Growing up has us bound to a certain set of realities, we live in these realities that depress us, kick us and even demotivate us. These realities have swallowed us, thus we forget to look up. To look up at the sky, at the vast infinity, and to realize we are just a speck of dust, our actions quite insignificant in front of the fabric of time and space. Whatever may happen upon this planet, it does not affect the universe in any way. Such is the only reality, and the rest are just illusions. Visit us weekly for more photography and more such write-ups. Photography by Peeyusha

A matchstick. A simple commodity that has so many uses. It has the ability to light up the darkness. It also has the ability to light up the death stick! It could just stay in the cardboard that it is packed in.  Or...simply burn a whole forest down.  And that's exactly why, my friend,  I am afraid of all that man considers puny.   Photography by  Peeyusha

        It really amuses me how, we, human beings, developed from the depths of the ocean along with all creatures here on earth. we developed so differently from the rest, we learnt all the way up the evolution ladder while they just survived and adapted. We did the survival and adaptation part too, but the most pivotal evolution that happened in us was our capacity to think. Some say we might not even be the original occupants of earth, but that we came from elsewhere. This can be considered, and it can be taken that even if we were from elsewhere, our basic constituent is this pure ancient element and that we undoubtedly developed from within its womb, maybe not here on earth, but water is the same everywhere. Only the proportion of pollutants and minerals vary. I find it funny, how this resource has become a commodity. How we human beings have forgotten from whence we came, and what we are made of. Its high time we try and protect this amazing resource, keeping its sanctit