Saturday, October 24, 2009

Coming Back To Life

I’ve been rediscovering myself for the last few days after the stay with RCB in Windsor Manor got over. Following facts have made themselves clear:

1. No magical powers are working for me in the background. When I return from the office, I find that the bed is still not made, the towel is still where I left it and the mirror in bathroom still has traces of splattered water.
2. When I am hungry, I need to do a little more than picking up a phone beside the bed. The terrible truth, that something as basic as food isn’t free these days, is yet to sink in fully.
3. While creating the rules that govern the universe, God was sloppy enough to allow temperatures to vary outside the range of 22-24 degree Celsius.
4. On stepping out of my house I am more likely to meet a cow than bump into Rahul Dravid.

Co-incidentally, my Mom too discovered that her “Sarvaguna-sampanna, Ram-avatar” son isn’t quite a teetotaler:



Grappling with so many changes hasn’t gone down well with my brain. I was going to write a story which begins with an introduction of a seventy year old Afghan whose wife disappeared forty years ago. But the structure and flow isn’t coming naturally in the writing. I wanted the story to raise your hair with horror. The title would have been “Raven”.

As the story would have moved further backwards in time, you would have learnt that Noor Mohammed (henceforth referred to as NM) lived near railway tracks when he was a kid. Being a lonely child, his favorite time pass used to watch vultures and eagles eat away the bodies of cattle that came in the way of trains. Through a series of events, the story would have shown the possessive character of NM. In the end, the reader would have been left to connect the dots, which when done correctly would have pointed that NM grew into a cannibal and ate his wife for infidelity.

In an attempt to add to the shock value, I would have revealed that the story is loosely based on my childhood experiences of watching scavengers doing the same thing to the unfortunate buffaloes and goats. Our house isn’t far away from the railway tracks. I was seven when we were the first family to move in that area, which now doesn’t have any open spaces left.

Although I haven’t demonstrated any inclination towards cannibalism, the smell of rotten flesh, whenever encountered, brings back fond memories of a silent childhood. Those vultures looked so huge that I used to hold my little brother’s hands fearing that one of them might snatch him and fly away.

Relying on a meticulously planned inactive weekend to restore normalcy.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sigh.. no more free food... !!

bumping into cows... !!! ??

sigh... !!!

Welcome back to this meticulously planned weekend dude !!! welcome back !!!

The Unsure Ascetic said...

nice pic with the Jumbo.
Have a nice weekend!

Shanu said...

Firstly, Welcome back :)

Secondly, whoa dude..that seems like a promising story! I hope you are still plannin to write it..if not..pls pls pls write it..I love horror stories :)

bondgal_rulz said...

OMG!!! ANIL KUMBLE!!! I find him one of the fittest players in the Indain 11. :)

And whoa!! some story. :P

Awwww @ "Those vultures looked so huge that I used to hold my little brother’s hands fearing that one of them might snatch him and fly away."

Cheers

bondgal_rulz said...

OMG!!! ANIL KUMBLE!!! I find him one of the fittest players in the Indain 11. :)

And whoa!! some story. :P

Awwww @ "Those vultures looked so huge that I used to hold my little brother’s hands fearing that one of them might snatch him and fly away."

Cheers

Ashley said...

A Story not really told and yet we know some of it now and we even know the inspiration behind it...I hope you still write it though.

Blog hopped here some time back and went through some old lovely tales...Liked your write ups a lot!

Preeti Shenoy said...

:D
You're back with an explosion ( a bang won't suffice) and nice to see humility intact :)

Raven was a brilliant macabre touch. I dare not ask if you're vegetarian and just be sure I'll hold my two children's hands very tight if I come to Bangalore :) You never know, do you? :)

Ah the things mothers have to discover and be wary of! ;-) Esp those who seem to be personification of 'sarvaguna sampanna' :-)

Cheers
preeti

Tall Girl in Japan said...

Hope you are having a good weekend!
the story line sounds great !Looking fwd to it!

Vipul Grover said...

Hey, welcome back to our world dude ;)
bt why did u give away the whole story.. it is sch a gr8 plot.. I wud hav luvd if u hd actually written it. Nonetheless, even tht short narration is wrthy of an applause :)

ekta khetan said...

Hey Prashant,

Welcome back...Finally got to see ur face beyond ur black specs:)

By the way you are scaring with that NM story and what did you say? Smell of flesh? Ummmm hmmmm sigh :)

ekta khetan said...

BTw what happened to the blogroll list on ur page? Disappear, disappear, disappear act? :)

Saurabh said...

Nice one..!! Welcome to the world of "Lethargic Weekends!"

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Good job Mr. Chief Blogger!

I once ran into AK in the HAL airport in BLR in 2006, and not being a follower of cricket, the only thing I could manage to ask him was where he was travelling to :)

So when is Raven happening?

santasizing...Fantasizing said...

Awwwww and ahhhhh simultaneously!!ofcourse ur smart enough to guess the reactions and their impacts:)

no free food...sigh yes!!thats the sad truth of life

loved the ram-avatar part..:)

santasizing...Fantasizing said...

and hey will u continue to write this story?

Shruthi said...

the Afghan story sounds extremely interesting. and the inspiration behind it is equally intriguing ;) ignoring the gory stuff maybe you can write the introduction part =)

what a pity you have to bump into cows hehehe.. imagine, you walk out of your place "ah Dravid? oh nooooo" *moo*

Destination Infinity said...

So, why don't you include some cricket also in your stories - maybe a story based on cricket, cricket hero's minds, match fixing and maybe even some ghosts thrown in... :)

Destination Infinity

Megha said...

Next to Anil Kumble :) great.

Looking forward to reading the story...but don't spill any more beans...would love to read it ;)

None said...

WELCOME BACK!!! :D

The magical powers thing is SOO difficult to cope with after spending considerable time in a hotel!

I had a similar experience after my 3 month long induction in my job - during which we were provided a 5 star hotel, all expenses paid! God! those were the days!!

It is surprising to see that your mom expected you to Mr.Saint! :|

M. said...

Wow. Cool stuff.

I will return to the Comment-ary section soon :D.

M.

ekta khetan said...

Phantom, RCB seems to be corrupting you...Itna sannata kyo hai bhoy? :)

PS: Looks like you've forgotten. Just to remind- http://ektakhetan.blogspot.com

See ya soon with ur TIC comments:)

kaex88 said...

hahaha, "22-24 degrees"

gosh, RCB spoiled you so much :)

Meghana Naidu said...

brown-dude is back!
nice to have favorite people back
ill come back and say some more, but for now

but hasnt ANYONE noticed that all the chiefs have matching glasses
SNORT!

come on guys! its hilarious! and NO ONE notices!

anyway brown-dude *wipes away tears of mirth* welcome back :)
and im holding you true to the mug of beer that needs to be coming my way soon.