The Sonance Behind My Silence

    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 ha...

     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 d...

     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 ...

     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. ...

When you are a fresher working in a big multinational, it is very obvious to be under constant pressure, so much that you can’t think of anything except your to-do list for the next day even after you reach home, or seeing the products that you sell, or even your clients, in your dreams. But what gets the most to you is when you are entrusted with a responsibility. My time came in early August 2015. I was about 2 months old in the company, having already established my over-enthusiastic, efficient persona, sometimes even evoking mixed reactions like “he does not have enough work on his plate”, just because I did not waste any time at work and aligned my actions for the day efficiently. One Friday, when the entire office was in the mood for rejoicing, given that it was a second weekend of the month, meaning getting an off on Saturday, I had finished most of my work for the day and was already mentally planning for the things I was going to do over the next two days. Life was rosy,...

As life unfolds itself day after day, As new people and experiences pour in, Accompanied by struggle and pain, tension and stress, Difficulties show up, and it becomes harder to settle in. Just when we think it can't get any worse, Guess what, it does, oh I'm not kidding, It's as if bad times would never cease, Like the line of guests at every wedding. Seeing others your age happier gets to you, It's perceived happiness, but still quite painful, And as we feel, did they do anything differently? It's what they're wondering about us, how disdainful ! Do not lose hope, for Greater Is Coming, A dream job, so satiating and fun, A woman unseen, but whose scent travels from afar, And a life that we always wanted, with that special one. So if you don't know what you want to do, Worry not, for you're not alone in this lore, Ultimately all of us have to rally in life, Until we find what we're looking for.

For those who came in late: http://greenersideofgrass.blogspot.in/2015/05/khambatta-is-dangerous-man.html      Rajiv woke up with a start. It had been 20 years since their house had been attacked, since he lost his sister Poorva. But it all seemed so fresh, as if it were only yesterday that their house in Andheri was covered with shards of glass, bullet casings, violent fire, followed by the grief of losing his elder sister Poorva and her fiance - Agent Shiv, to the now most dangerous man in Mumbai - Victor Khambatta. The eerie silence had lasted in their house for 20 years, and now revenge had become a distant dream. Khambatta had grown exceedingly mighty, and getting one's hands on him had become more difficult than ever before, even for the ACS' top agents - Agent Rajiv and Agent Sujay. ________________________________________________________________________      The 2 brothers had followed their father's footsteps into the ACS, and General Joshi ...