Winter and Water!!

I know what you did last summer. Well, you know what? I still know what you did last summer!

Fair enough! Let me talk about… Winters, then!

Because I cannot; so "she" can...

This is for that day when I'll really board a train only to get down at a random station, and then let life take its own course just as it should have let have been long back itself...

She had had a rather late night last night, having walked out of her hut after dinner, after well into an hour into what would be time she’d be off to sleep on any other day. But the night – by her measure of things - was special. 



No, it wasn’t a full moon; in fact, to think of it, full moon nights weren’t exactly her personal favourites, though for a long time she had thought that she ought to think more of full-moon nights than she does. The mere fact that philosophers and poets would always put their bet on full moons than upon the darker ones... But no! Since the time she’d arrived (arrived – yes, that perhaps is the right choice of word?) she’s been falling more in love with the dark, quiet times that some nights offer when they don’t quite let the moon explode into its full blast.

Of December and other good things in life!

“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before its afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness, how the time has flown! How did it get so late so soon?” – had said Dr. Seuss!

A very good morning, dear Toastmasters! Today I am going to talk about the time of the times, the month of the months. I am going to talk about – The Delights of December!

December brings with it sights, sounds and sumptuous tastes that are unique to its nature.

Re-United at the Sea...

This has also been published in Women's Web.



Days are long, bright and sunny -

Silver of water, blue of shades,

Vastness of the world at large -

The commerce, the many trades…

Babel Fish - Episode 2

Read EPISODE 1 here.


I step a step closer, and then yet closer, and it isn’t exactly my mind but rather my hand - my right hand - that does what all it does next. That is, it pulls out the small fishing spoon-net from the box stuck away behind the aquarium, removes the brown plastic roof of the glass-box, dips it inside the water, and waves it to and fro. Somewhat mindlessly. 

I mean, since when did hands have minds?

Babel Fish - Episode 1

Hi, there! – A rather cheerful voice quirps.

I look around. I have hardly opened my eyes now, and the voice is both unfamiliar and impractical.

As I am sleeping all by myself. So it’s just a flickering semi-dream, the sound. I tell myself and turn and try to go to sleep again.

Hey, it’s morning! – This time, it startles me.

I remove the blanket and half-raise my upper body and look around. I still cannot figure out from where it  came. Or, if it at all did, really.

I look hard, everywhere.

Here, here! Look to your right.

Cave...

There's a cave inside her heart. A cave, deep and dark.

She never had let anyone in there.

Once when she had...

Bombay, thou art sexy!

There is something about Bombay. There is something between Bombay and me. There is something between Bombay and the rest of the world.


First, I love her.


Yes, it’s a She. A "He" can never so erratic and so peaceful at the same time. So passionate, and yet so impersonal. So hard to get. So lonely inside, but still so proud. Yes, It has to be a She.


Do I yearn for her?


Yes. I do. And, badly!

যাবো অচেনায়...

একা একা বেড়াতে যাবো একবার, এই ভাবনাটা একা একা স্রেফ ভাবা ছাড়া কার্যত যে কোনোদিন একা একা করে ওঠা হবে, সেটা সত্যিই ভাবিনি। কিন্তু কি আশ্চর্য, হবে। সত্যিই হবে। মানে, হতে চলেছে। আমি একা, একদম একা, স্রেফ নিজের সাথে নিজে, বেড়াতে যাবো। কোথায় যাবো, কোথায় থাকবো, কদিনের জন্য, কি কি দেখবো - এসব নিয়ে কারোর সাথে সহমত হওয়ার কোন দায় নেই। এমন কি, প্ল্যান করারই কোন দায় নেই। জাস্ট চলে যাবো। আমি। একা। ভাবা যায়!!

কোথায় যাব? বলবো না!

The Mirage

It is not going anywhere, she realizes. She realizes it almost everyday these days. But then, she does not know if that's what it's finally meant to be, or if things would change someday. Someday, as you say they would. She even wonders if she understands final at all, she doubts now. Thanks to you, however, that she now also knows herself enough to know this, that it has been one of her those weaknesses that has ended up shaping her life, and that was not really a good thing. What? Well, her ability to not be able to decide, to not be able to call off. To hope against hope, till the point she extinguishes. Hurt, she has caused to people, but no, not a blow. Never. Even if it were her worst of enemies, which she anyway had just very few.  (Oh okay, yes, she did do that once, and she could not be more sorry for that; but that is another story.) There, she digresses. But then, such is her mind these days! Wandering, in lack of better words. No, wait, searching could possibly explain it better. Searching, for a way, in the dark, and what she thought was light-at-end-of-tunnel as they say now pretty much looks like a mirage.

The Desert

It was just another fine morning, and she had woken up to the sunshine across the glass door and the smell of warm tea, just as she did every day. But soon as she stepped out of her bed, something strange happened. Things around her started disappearing one by one. The glass doors darkened, the walls silently crumbled down, the smell and sounds were all gone, and the floor below her feet suddenly turned coarse. She looked around, and the world around her seemed to slowly dissolve and evaporate right in front of her own eyes. It seemed that what she saw just minutes earlier, and every day before that, were all a mirage. Is this some sort of a temporary insanity? Is this what they call hallucination? Or is this, she thought helplessly, what it is going to be, always?