The Sonance Behind My Silence

     Over the last 24 hours there has been an endless din all over the city. Hooligans clad in t-shirts branded with faces of well-fed politicians are zooming all around town on their Yamahas and Pulsars, hooting at women and blowing small trumpets as they go. They call themselves 'Govindas'. Today is possibly the only day besides Ganpati visarjan that offices all over the city specially allow their employees to leave early. The otherwise ordinary town-squares of Mumbai are decorated with huge banners, laden with loud speakers and bustling with people today, "celebrating" the birth of one of the most revered deities by Hindus the world over - Lord Krishna. I am not going to assert his existence with this piece, nor am I going to doubt it, but if you come to think about it, there is a great deal associated with this dark-skinned God than meets the eye.            Over 5000 years ago,  on the  ashtami , eighth day of the waning moon in the lunar month of Hrishikes

    Nikhil stared across the bar at the vacant brick wall, twirling the ring in his hand. The music reached his ears in a muffled tone, as his brain was as clouded as his eyes. Around the pub he could see people frolicking around with friends and family, couples going all out on each other, suddenly realizing their love for their partner more and more as the alcohol went further inside them. He looked away. Every girl in that pub reminded him of Nisha. “I think we should start seeing different people,” she had said. “But we are already engaged!” he had protested, hoping that she was joking. She always made such jokes about breaking up. “Don’t make it harder than it is,” she had said in a clichéd manner, as if she was the victim there. She sounded serious.      She had then stormed out of the diner, leaving him perplexed and alone with her engagement ring, the half-eaten dessert and the long dinner bill. He had wondered what would have been the reason for her to brea

     With all his able sons and brethren dead, but for one ‘traitor’ who had sided with his enemy, the King of the golden city-island of Lanka entered the battlefield. He was going to finish off the lanky man who was responsible for ushering this calamity on his peaceful kingdom. Ravana led a demotivated army of rakshasas who had seen what had become of the more able warriors who had dared to challenge the divinity of Ram – the prince of Ayodhya. The sound of demure war drums reminded them of the clockwork-like deaths of Akshaya who was killed by Hanuman, Indrajit who was sliced by Lakshman and Kumbhakarna who was slaughtered by Ram himself on the very day he awoke from his long slumber.      Despite being begged by many including his own wife Mandodari to let go of Ram’s wife – Sita, Ravana was adamant to kill Ram. What had hurt him was not the mutilated body of his sister Shurpanakha, not the impending defeat but the blow that Ram had delivered to his ego through Sita. As he char

     It was the 15 th day of the Great War of India – the Mahabharata. The teacher of the Kuru princes - Dronacharya had laid waste to the Pandava army. The only way to eliminate him was to use his love for his son – Ashwatthama against him. The Pandavas brought forth an elephant named Ashwatthama and the mighty Bhima – the second eldest of the five Pandavas - killed him. News spread throughout the battlefield that Ashwatthama was dead. Bhima proclaimed this loudly, but Drona did not believe this, because even if it was Bhima, it was impossible to kill Ashwatthama – the chiranjeevi (the one who would live forever).                     In this tumultuous time, there was only one whose words could be trusted - the most honest of all men, the eldest of the Pandavas, the offspring of Dharma (righteousness) himself – Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira was so truthful and pious that it is said that his chariot would always be about two feet above the ground when he rode

     How many of us wish we could go back in time to change that one decision we took, so that our life would have been different (read: better) from what it is now? Most of us have contemplated doing that, and there is no shame in admitting to it. Often we are faced with certain choices that may feel like they will make or break our life, but in the long run, most of these choices turn out to not be so significant. But at that point of time, we feel that whatever has happened to us has happened because of that one (usually) wrong turn we took. Now be it a career choice that we made in a hurry, the hurtful words we said to the people who loved us or even a literal wrong turn we took the other day that got us into an accident, we often end up with regrets that make us feel that a particular decision was wrong .      However, one fact cannot be ignored that it is not the decision but its outcome that makes us feel the decision itself was wrong. May be that college you selected was no