This or That!

Like the mouth, why water does goes in not,

Instead jumps out from the eyes!

Alas, difference do exist between the parts,

From where comes the water that decides!

Difference when thy hand pours the water into

And when thy heart pours it out to!

Who decides what goes and what comes out,

Of course the complexity of the perplex situation.

Like a sword in the hand and your self behind,

You can stab yourself or fence yourself.

Pray for that you lost and quench your heart,

Cry for what you lost or pray for the loss.

The lose of words to write is not

But the fog of words stops a writer.

The love that he left is naught

But the love that stays in heart hurts.

Storm or monsoon brings rain a lot!

The intense of love or loss makes the difference.

Who cares! Who reads! So here I stop,

Listen to your beats, it’s too is my heart.

                                                            SK

The Cage 3/3

Read the prequel The cage 1/3 Read the prequel The cage 2/3

I woke up when my stomach started growling. I came out of my new cage dreaming about a fresh fruit outside the cage to eat. No, there is nothing for me to eat and someone has switched off the big yellow light sooner today. I went back to my new cage with no lock and no food. I would choose a locked cage with food over this open cage. Freedom is very expansive and painful, I realized. I slept in hunger.

When I woke up again the yellow light was bright and I am still hungry. I came out and saw a half eaten fruit on the branch. I hurried to take it and that’s when I heard the scream of that same big hunting bird that wants me dead. I sounded delight that I came out. I didn’t want to be her fruit for the day. I ran back inside the cage. I was trapped.

In few minutes somebody has started pouring the water over the tree and sprinkles of water came inside my cage. It was an awkward feeling never before I had; water sprinkle over my body.

“Hey, whoever pouring water, can you please stop. ‘Stupid bird’” I scolded.

The pouring didn’t stop but the good thing is the scary big bird disappeared. I guess she too felt awkward. I went out collected the half eaten water poured fruit but when I came back the water was all over my body. I ate, waited for the water pouring to stop, I shivered with water all over me but eventually I slept.

The yellow light when switched on again warmed me. I sat on the edge of a branch to feel the heat of the yellow light. Somebody has poured water not just over my tree but over everywhere to wash. Or did the trees take bath like my mother human and master human. Oh, even Roger was bathed once in a while though he didn’t like he did it for master human.

I wondered many a times, why Roger don't have a cage like me and when he has no cage why didn’t he run away like me! But now I know the answer. Not all humans are same like master human and not all mothers are like my mother human.

I miss you both, I miss my food, and… and… I miss my cage. Silly me, I missed the same cage I wanted to be free from. Now I learnt free being costs pain needs lots of courage. Only my master human’s home is safe.

I want to go back.

I gathered all the left out courage in me and started flying in the direction opposite to the yellow light; that is where I came from. After a long hour of flight I was tired and couldn’t find my master human. I sat on a wire which gave me trickles to my feet and looked in all directions for my master human, my mother human or at least Roger to appear. Sad I couldn’t see any.

I was about to give up and fly back to the tree cage and that is when I saw Roger running in the road and mother human was behind him. I shouted in happiness and flew towards my mother human. She saw me and become happy; yards before I reached my mother humans shoulder something solid hit me on the right side of my head and before I closed my eyes I saw Roger’s nose over my beak. I opened my eyes in pain to see my mother human, master human around me and Roger sleeping on the floor. A cup of water, cereals and a fruit was kept for me. I jumped over my mother human and then over my master human to tell them I am happy to be home, to see them again, and to be alive.

I ate, drank and looked for my cage still hanging in the same place. I flew and entered into the cage. My master human usually locks the cage after placing food inside. My master human saw me entering the cage and he left me there and went back to his room.

My cage was left opened and unlocked from that day on but… but… I never left the cage.

To be free you need courage!

The Cage 2/3

picture courtesy : www.wallpaperflare.com

Read the prequel The cage 1/3

O! Why is this place so cold! And what are those sounds! I kept my eyes wide open all throughout the time until the big yellow light is turned on at a far white wall. I generally get excited when that yellow light, hanging in that far white wall without any support, is turned on and shout to announce that I am happy though I was little sad that I was stuck in a locked cage.

I heard so many noises but different from mine. Variety of me in that tree announcing their happiness that the yellow light on.

I looked at the tree and there are many such birds with different types of wings unlike me. Every bird had its pair and they looked happy. I started to fly to find a bird that looks alike me. I found none. I am hungry again. I missed those nuts my master human feeds me with. I returned to the same tree that had red fruits. I want to eat and sleep again; my routine.

Up above the tree, there flew a smaller bird but its voice was unpleasant as if it is angry. I could hear though it was in a great distance high over my head. It started circling in the sky. And in sometime descended nearing the tree in which I was resting. As and when it descended it grew bigger.

O! Amazing I have not seen such thing in television too. I grew bigger than me. I wanted to ask him “who your master is, are you too escaped your master like me?”

No, Wait! I was mistaken. I know you from the television. Before I could remember she came near me with her legs with sharp nails opened to catch me.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing! Didn’t your master cut your nails?” I moved faster and shouted “you could have hurt me”.

She flew away missing me shouting “I am hungry”

Hearing that she is hungry I showed the fruit to eat but she came back at me again and I moved “Do I look like a fruit to you”

I tried to recollect the word that my master human uses when he was angry “Oh yeah! Stupid bird”

She didn’t understand me. She came back again, now with her sharp beak that looked like a chicken cutter that my mother human uses pointing towards my wings. I realized she is trying to make me a dead bird and eat.

“Hey you chicken-cutter-beaky bird, I saw you in the television, I remember you, Stupid meat eating bird” I shouted at her. I need to escape from her or she will definitely make me her meal.

I saw a cage like hole in the tree and went inside to hide, for a long time she didn’t leave and somehow in tiredness I slept inside my new cage in empty stomach.

I missed my old cage filled with nuts and fruits and the love of my mother human.

The Cage - 1/3

picture courtesy : almy.com

I saw sadness in his face when I flew off from his shoulder and turned to see him to tell him that I earned my freedom. I could see disappointment in his reaction; he seemed blaming himself for taking me outside from my cage since the day he picked me from that shop where many like me were caged. Humans called as birds and forgot the meaning the word when they put us in cage.

The shop-human who sold me to my master-human told that I am a rare bird and will be a loyal friend to him. I still do not know the meaning for those human words of course some of their own species itself do not know.

I was happy flying for the first time after months of being caged. My wings were rusted and it was painful at the beginning but became easy as I went on. I am not born to fly and see the world around! Why my master-human caged me in his home and called it love for birds?

After long time of flight I was tired and hungry for the first time in my life. I found a tree branch and sat on it for a while. Where will I find food, the pocketed grains and covered fruits that my master-human keeps ready even before the time I get hungry!

Below the tree I saw another human just like my mother-human that is what my master-human call her. I went and sat on her shoulder so that she might feed me like my mother-human does. The moment I sat on her shoulder she become excited and called other humans of her family. I search all around but there is no cage in their house; happy. She handed me to another bigger human whose eyes looked like the four legged cats which I see in television. The cage I lived, my master-human hanged it near to their television.

The cat eyed-human caught hold of me in one hand and waved me up and down twice and said “enough for three today”. I quite didn’t understand what he meant. I asked for food. He didn’t react instead he handed me over to the mother-human of the house and went inside. I waited for him to come back with the pocketed grain that my mother-human feeds me. Meanwhile the four legged creature that my master human calls Roger looked different now, dirty and ugly I guess this is not Roger. The new-roger lifted his triangle face and looked at me and barked which Roger never did.

I guess this new-roger didn’t like me. The human went inside to get me food came back with a metal piece in his hand. I thought for sometime, O! I remembered it is the one that cuts the body. I have seen my mother human cuts the chicken bird. I looked around for dead chicken birds but none I found. The mother-human of the house handed over me to the cat eyed-human.

The cat eyed-human left me down near the bowl filled with water. “Thank you my new-master-human, I was very thirsty” I said and dipped my beak in to the bowl. When I drank enough and dipped my beak for the second time I saw the chicken body cutter aimed to my neck which I saw in the water reflection. I panicked and moved away and the chicken body cutter smashed the bowl spilling the water all around. I flew away. I guess this new master human thought that I was a chicken I guess. I should have told him that I was not a chicken bird but a rare bird, loyal and friendly so that he should have given me grains to eat.

Poor new-master-human!

I flew away as I do not want to be treated like a dead chicken bird. I landed in a tree branch where I saw something in red. I went near and that looked like a fruit. I quenched it in hurry as I was hungry. My daily routine was to sleep after a good meal. I closed my eyes and the place become dark sooner. My master-human keeps his lights for a long time, until he falls asleep but here somebody had turned the lights off earlier. The place become cooler and as time passed it become cooler that I could not bear.

Sounds...

image courtesy unsplash.com

Last night it rained. The rain drops knocked my glass window like an old typewriter keys hitting the paper with letters producing a good writing. Every hit on the window is a letter dropped from up above the divine hand writing in my brain. Long gone are the screeching sounds of the nib of a pen over the paper, long gone are the sound of the type writer keys hitting the paper, now it is only the sound of the fan over head, television in the living room, beep sounds of the mobile key stokes and beep sound in the videos in mobile phone.

The feel of writing in motivated with the acoustic of the writing, like the Ahum sound for the yogi’s body and that of the universe. The surroundings made writers ears deaf and demotivated the writing process.

I threw my smart phone, that made me a dumb, away and switched my television off. I am still not motivated. My room was silent, my mind was calm but the acoustic of my writing was not heard. It is the jotted pieces of metal that was revolving around scattering the air to all direction disturbed the acoustic to reach my ears. I shut the fan up. There was only an oozing sound of air, frying sound from the kitchen, and spices smell from the pan.

I hit key of my computer key board. It sounded like a keys of a piano and there is the motivation; the water drops from the sky hit the window and it rained.

The Lord of the War 6/6 – The Celebration

Picture courtest astroulagam.com

Lord of the war 1/6 Lord of the war 2/6 - Valli Lord of the war 3/6 - The Vow Lord of the war 4/6 - Veera Lord of the war 5/6 - The War

Kalingan the pet and war elephant of Murug came down to the river waiting for Murug. A huge bonfire was lit on the shore to signal the on coming boats. Murug looked at the distant fire asking for the bow and the arrow Murug bundled a clog of cotton cloth. Winding the cloth at the tip of the arrow and dipping it in the oil Murug asked for fire. He waited for few minutes calculating the distance that which the fire in the air will be visible to the people in the shore. Murug shot the burning arrow high in the sky to signal His arrival.

Looking at the fire in the sky Kalingan the mighty forest elephant got up and triumphed aloud hitting his feet hard on the ground signalling other elephants in the forest. Within seconds the entire forest woke up. Sound of the elephants vibrated from all directions. Murug and His warriors heard the sound of the Kalingan’s welcome.

The entire tribe assembled in the shore around the bonfire and withing minutes the boats arrived. Murug’s boat was the last to come and Veera’s was the first leading the pact.

Long live Murug shouted the crowd.

A big garland of Vaagai flowers was made and Kalingan waited with the garland for his master. Murug jumped out from the boat. Valli ran towards him along with Kalingan. Looking at Valli, Kalingan slowed down for he has learnt who she was. Valli could see that kalingan slowing down so she too slowed down and walked along with Kalingan. Valli hurried and hug Murug at the first sight. The first hug. She was so soft but her grip was strong. She smelled like a flower. The hug was so tight for Murug could feel her heart beats on His body. Murug covered her in his arms and Kalingan decorated both of them with the garland he was carrying.

Men and women lined up and showered flowers as Murug and Valli walked to the hut. The decoration started, traditional Trumpet and Chanda melam was played, and celebration began. It was the wedding of Murug, the lord of the wars.

Murug reminded silent so as Valli, both adoring each other in celebration sound around. Nobody slept, happiness were around everywhere. It was hours before the sunrise when the river was calm, air was smooth, and animals in the forest were resting. Murug and Valli were decorated with garlands and fragrant oil. Both the bride and groom walked to towards the river where the fire was still burning.

From this day on, before the witnessing good people, the holy river and the might fire, I take you as my better half. Like the water in the fire and fire in the water I leave you not for anything and anyone. I promise.

Murug cut His thumb with the edge of His Spear and placed it as vermilion over Valli’s forehead. Valli’s father held her hand and hand it over to Murug with happy tears in his eyes.

You both were destined to be. Long live the lord of the wars; long live the couple Valli’s father shouted when the flowers showered from all direction over the couple. Sun rose blessing the couple. Kalingan bent down for the couple to climb over. Valli sat over the neck of Kalingan and Murug behind her. Kalingan triumphed in happiness and walked to the top of the mountain. Murug the saviour, a fierce warrior, god of protection and the Lord of the wars was worshipped from then on by the tribes of the forest and His fame spread all over the land.

Long live the warrior’s fame.

The Lord of the War 5/6 – The War

Lord of the war 1/6 Lord of the war 2/6 - Valli Lord of the war 3/6 - The Vow Lord of the war 4/6 - Veera

He looked mighty and gigantic. Never have I seen such a mighty human being in my life. He looked godly and same time a demon. When he walks the lands shivers and the building vibrates; a worthy opponent for my lord finally. I offered peace, at the least not to intervene in our lands and not to cross the river anymore and touch our women. He had no ears. He offered me no chair. Then I broke one of their doors cascaded it and piled it one after the other and sat equal to him. All I could do was to increase his rage which will eventually suppress his brain. Victory will be ours. We will face his army tomorrow. Veera spoke to the warriors after returning from the Sooran, the king of plain land, one among the mighty warrior the earth had seen.

The army of hundred assembled to face the army of thousands; Veera at the front leading his men, Murug in the middle. On the other side Tharaga, brother of Sooran, leading the army and Sooran in the middle ready to kill.

Tharaga looked no smaller than Sooran. When the army clashed Tharaga walked straight to Veera with his heavy executioner’s sword. The attack was heavy; never in his life had Veera seen someone striking a sword with such might. Veera withdrew a little, looking at which his entire troop withdrew.

Veeraaa…. Murug shouted. Veera who was about to fall down managed to stand still and looked back. Murug, with His raging eyes saw Veera and hit his spear on the ground passing on the rage to Veera. Meanwhile the executioner sword neared Veera’s neck missing at an inch.

Victory to Lord Murug screamed Veera and jumped high in air aiming his sword to the middle of Tharaga’s head. Blood splashed all around, Tharaga’s head splited into two and his elephant huge mighty body fell on the ground. Veera stood over his body and screamed again looking at Murug Victory to the Lord of the war.

Looking at the death of Tharaga, Sooran got down from his chariot with his spear in one hand and a long sword in another. Soldiers who saw the death of Tharaga ran away. With the rage of Veera his men wielded their sword and spears fiercely with extra power and confidence Veera has passed on with the big kill. Now the army is almost half.

Murug stepped down to the front with his heavy spear rotating it against the enemies’ pact killing tens in one spin injuring tens in another. Looking at the speed of Murug no soldier from the enemy’s dared to near him. Meanwhile a thousand were killed in the Sooran’s army and left outs ran away.

One hit with the spear of Sooran threw Veera away. When he was about to thrust his sword on Veera’s heart Murug swirled and smashed Sooran on his shoulder. With heavy blow the sword flew away from his hand leaving Veera alive. Sooran in no time realized the danger and changed his attack towards Murug. Sooran stroke Murug with his spear with all his might knowing not who he is challenging. The return strike was equally powerful.

Sooran stepped back a little and smiled at Murug exclaiming worthy hands to die he said and aimed his spear towards him. Sooran took all the blows, beard extreme pain but nothing could stop him from fighting back.

Worth the kill Murug thought.

Murug stepped back swirled and hit Sooran’s spear making it fly in air and with all his might which he has never used plunged his heavy spear right at the middle of Sooran’s ribs tearing almost half of his body. Murug’s warriors shouted victory, victory. And with all his might withdrew His spear from Sooran’s body splitting Sooran in to two.

Murug stood with unquenched rage and blood of the demon all over his body. Murug’s warriors looked terrified at the scene; everybody went down on their knee in praise of Murug. The war is over.

Victory to the Lord of the war.