Monthly Archives: January 2005

Death of a house

This entry was posted in creative writing delhi on by

Another one bites the dust. Literally. I witnessed the death of yet another house. This was the third one in a week. It’s a depressing sight. Seeing the carcass of what was once someone’s home. In some time, the skeleton also becomes visible. One can see each and every intimate detail of the house, without ever having visited the place. The bedrooms, where the residents would have slept or shared a private moment. The almirahs which would have cased clothes, jewellery, nick nacks and what not. Only this time, they have a deserted, ‘final’ look about them. Some posters on the walls are still there. The walls have dust patterns depicting rectangles which shows where the family would have hung paintings or maybe portraits of an ancestor. The kitchen looks naked, devoid of its usual utensils, jars, gas burner and the like. The lady of the family would have cooked here. The bathrooms lie bare. It becomes almost embarassing to watch as the ‘private parts’ or rather the sancta sanctorum of the house get exposed to the world. The terrace and the staircase where the children would have gamboled about is almost about to collapse. The occasional tree and the plants if any, are almost gone and forgotten. They bear the look of orphans left behind by their parents. In a few days all this is reduced to dust.

But this isn’t all. Unlike human lives, houses live forever. They rise like a phoenix from the ashes. No soon has the house ‘bitten the dust’ than another one resurrects. This time with a better look about it. A modern architecture. More capacity. Stylish facades, porches and arches. Portruding terraces and balconies. Modern mousetraps, all. Soon it will be inhabited like nothing happened.


Love All

This entry was posted in sports on by (updated 1975 days ago)

I didn’t realise it. Not even when I saw it as a headline in the papers instead of the normal news slot assigned to this piece of news. It was only when I saw the desktops of my colleagues, did I realise it. Instead of wallpapers with sultry forms, I saw a face full of innocence. Sania Mirza had found a place in many a heart! Not only were the fed-on-cricket-generation interested in the outcome of the match, they had even replaced the likes of Anna Kournikova and J Lo from their desktops! Even Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi matches didn’t evoke this much interest in tennis. So what if she lost the match, she’s won a lot of hearts :). Atta girl!


The Tsunami within

This entry was posted in humanity on by (updated 6250 days ago)

With a disaster of the scale of tsunami, new aspects of tragedy are being exposed. While some people are going out of their way to help victims, some have stooped to the inhumane level of selling the dead bodies to relatives, in return for dollars!! One would think that at a time like this, tragedy unites people. But I dont have words for this kind of a thing.

New problems are cropping up each day. Things like child trafficking are expected to reach an all time high. Due to this the government has stopped adoption of tsunami orphans. There are also reports of dogs turning into maneaters and attacking people. It really is the survival of the fittest.

Besides this, I dont understand just how someone can name new born babies after a disaster! Till date I used to think that the worst name possible in this world would be ‘Osama Bin Laden”. This name has been replaced by ‘Tsunami’. Just how in the world can parents or ‘lucky-to-be-alive-relatives’ think of naming a child as something which continuously reminds them of their sorrow! AFA the child is concerned, the baby has already been doomed since birth with a name like that.

But what can one say about the “brand name” that Tsunami is now becoming. Right from Tsunami matches to Tsunami sales, Tsunami concerts and what not. Everything seems to have the Tsunami tag with it. With the kind of corruption witnessed in the relief process, I surely hope that the organisers of such things are honest and the participants in such events who think they are doing a good turn to the mankind are not let down.

There’s a big setback to the nations hit by the Tsunami and it would take a long time rehabilitating. On the other hand, the Tsunami disaster has had some benefits, ironically. There were some reports of how the states struck by the Tsunami are now richer by crores because of the huge titanium deposits which have landed from the ocean floor onto the beaches. Titanium is one of the rarest and costliest element used in hi-tech things like aircrafts, rockets, cellphones etc.
Another trend, kind of similar to ‘the survival of the fittest’, was seen recently. It can be expected that the huge monetary funds in Tsunami relief would not reach the right recipients. Corruption is one taker. The other one is the common man. There would be many ppl who have not been affected by the Tsunami at all, and would have lost nothing. But they would be there to take help from the relief rich states. In fact they might be getting more than they ever had. A shelter, food, clothes, some belongings! Reports in papers mention that beggars from Karnataka have gone over to TamilNadu to the Tsunami struck areas, to cash in on the benefit. Nature has its way of taking food from one mouth and putting it in another.