NEAR THE SEA
Pratiek Sparsh Samantara
Today I walked the length of the sea,
As the courage to go in I couldn’t muster;
The sea shells on the ground acted as sentry,
So did the stars on the sky, a cluster.
The soft breeze pulled from the front,
Urging me to go on
I resisted and kept going,
Knowing it’ll soon be morn.
Something gently clawed at my toe
And gently did I pick it up
To find a li’ll crab within my fingers
With eyes bigger than a pup’s
With pleading eyes it asked me to go in,
I defied its request;
But found my resistance crumbling
So gently I put down the li’ll pest.
The shining moonlight reflected on the sea,
The sand dragging me into it,
The various denizens looked on behind my back,
Fearing I may soon split.
And knowing I couldn’t go on any longer,
I began a steady skip,
It didn’t do any good for my whim,
I just couldn’t steal by and slip.
I looked up at the heavens above,
And then down to the sand,
And ran across to something silver;
Leaving behind the squishy land.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The Feline Angel
THE FELINE ANGEL
Pratiek Sparsh Samantara
‘Miaow?’ said the cat.
‘What, today? No, not at all. We won’t be having any rain for at least one month from now. I saw it on the T.V. this morning.’replied the fisherman.
Talks like these between a cat and a fisherman may sound a little odd, but that’s the way it was.Bhairav the fisherman and Cat – as Bhairav called him – the cat, had a strange relationship. It had all started when Bhairav had lost his brother, his only known relative in a bus accident and had come to Madhapur to forget about the whole thing...
Mainly because of that incident, he had become a spiteful person, full of hatred and with no belief in God. He had no friends because of this and that made him entirely colder hearted.
His routine was never changing. He woke up at 5:00 in the morning and left almost straightaway to catch fish in the nearby lake. Then he sold the fish in the Madhapur market. His wares were sold out almost everyday since the people of Madhapur loved fish. That meant he was financially O.K. but still, he found it very difficult to find any
Company.
It’s not that people had not tried to befriend him. Everyday, Mrs.Urmi, the wife of the village teacher bought fish from him. But one day she forgot her money purse in her house.’ Come on. My good man,” she had said. “I buy fish from you everyday. I won’t run away with your fish. The other fishermen always give credit.”
“I’m not the other fishermen madam”, he had replied” and why won’t you try to run away? Everyone likes a profit.
And that’s the way it was. In his mind, he did his bit for the progress of the country .Yes he was greatly interested in his country’s improvement. And he did everything he could to speed up the process – including not offering credit and driving away all the fisherwomen...Fisherwomen, he thought, were the sole reason for all the dead fish in the river.
But all of this had recently been altered with the arrival of the cat.Bhairav was sitting at his ‘reserved’ place in the market when suddenly, a figure of dazzling white drifted down to his place. He was getting ready to shoo it away when he noticed that it wasn’t lunging at the fish at all. It was eyeing Bhairav instead. It sat still till he had sold all his wares and then promptly sat down beside him to eat the remains of the fish – scales and all.Bhairav was a tad confused seeing all this. This continued for a few weeks until Bhairav finally decided to befriend the cat. It took him home for a visit (a cat can’t stay as a pet in any one house. The whole world is its domain), fed him better food and even began talking to him. The cat couldn’t talk back of course, so he imagined all its answers. He became very happy at the prospect of company from someone else excluding his pathogens. He became a better man. Not that he offered credit, but became quite cheerful.
The story of the rude fisherman and the cat that didn’t eat fish spread from village to village. Soon tourists and such came to Madhapur just to have a look at the couple.Bhairav didn’t mind. This meant some publicity for himself and his fish. People even bought fish from him once he said that for each photo taken, the charge was one fish.
Now to go back to that conversation between our protagonists.
Weather discussions over, the fisherman decided to reward the cat for all that he had done for him since the past month.
He said”I.........I can cook great fish curry......you know, spicy and stuff.”
The cat was looking straight at the river from where they sat with an artist’s eye.
“You like fish curry?”
The cat looked at him and replied”Miaow”.
“Great. I’ll bring some for you tomorrow morning. You be here, ok?”
The cat simply stared on. Bhairav took that as a yes and jumped off from his seat.
He was very eager to do his best for the cat.
The next morning, he woke up earlier than anyone. He completed his morning ablutions quickly and ran to the river to catch a few fish. Since he was the first one there, he caught the biggest, fattest fish. He didn’t care to catch any more. The big fish was exclusively for the cat.” No selling today”, he thought,” I’ll just give it the curry and then spend the day at the river”.
He ran to his house and turned on the stove. Soon, a delicious aroma spread through the house and his curry was ready. He packed it tightly in Tiffin and ran to the market.
Once he arrived there, he couldn’t see the cat anywhere. So he decided to sit down and wait.
Searching for the cat here and there, his eyes stumbled upon a dazzling white at the far end of the market. There sat the cat, beside a small boy. He had heard from the local gossip about this boy. He was supposed to have lost both his parents in an earthquake and his uncle (a fisherman) had brought him here. The boy was talking to the cat and it was listening, yes listening with rapt attention.
Bhairav didn’t know what to feel. But soon, amidst the confusion, the realization dawned upon him.
“Hah!” he said to himself “What a fool I have been. Did I really expect him to stay with me all the while? He has his own duties as an angel.Yes, an angel, that’s what he is. He changed me and now he has to make the boy happy.”
He thought it over again and became happy once more. Clicking his fingers, he called out to the cat.
“Hey, cat!”
The cat looked at him.
“Keep on the good work”
And then, he winked at the cat who, apparently had winked at him too.
Pratiek Sparsh Samantara
‘Miaow?’ said the cat.
‘What, today? No, not at all. We won’t be having any rain for at least one month from now. I saw it on the T.V. this morning.’replied the fisherman.
Talks like these between a cat and a fisherman may sound a little odd, but that’s the way it was.Bhairav the fisherman and Cat – as Bhairav called him – the cat, had a strange relationship. It had all started when Bhairav had lost his brother, his only known relative in a bus accident and had come to Madhapur to forget about the whole thing...
Mainly because of that incident, he had become a spiteful person, full of hatred and with no belief in God. He had no friends because of this and that made him entirely colder hearted.
His routine was never changing. He woke up at 5:00 in the morning and left almost straightaway to catch fish in the nearby lake. Then he sold the fish in the Madhapur market. His wares were sold out almost everyday since the people of Madhapur loved fish. That meant he was financially O.K. but still, he found it very difficult to find any
Company.
It’s not that people had not tried to befriend him. Everyday, Mrs.Urmi, the wife of the village teacher bought fish from him. But one day she forgot her money purse in her house.’ Come on. My good man,” she had said. “I buy fish from you everyday. I won’t run away with your fish. The other fishermen always give credit.”
“I’m not the other fishermen madam”, he had replied” and why won’t you try to run away? Everyone likes a profit.
And that’s the way it was. In his mind, he did his bit for the progress of the country .Yes he was greatly interested in his country’s improvement. And he did everything he could to speed up the process – including not offering credit and driving away all the fisherwomen...Fisherwomen, he thought, were the sole reason for all the dead fish in the river.
But all of this had recently been altered with the arrival of the cat.Bhairav was sitting at his ‘reserved’ place in the market when suddenly, a figure of dazzling white drifted down to his place. He was getting ready to shoo it away when he noticed that it wasn’t lunging at the fish at all. It was eyeing Bhairav instead. It sat still till he had sold all his wares and then promptly sat down beside him to eat the remains of the fish – scales and all.Bhairav was a tad confused seeing all this. This continued for a few weeks until Bhairav finally decided to befriend the cat. It took him home for a visit (a cat can’t stay as a pet in any one house. The whole world is its domain), fed him better food and even began talking to him. The cat couldn’t talk back of course, so he imagined all its answers. He became very happy at the prospect of company from someone else excluding his pathogens. He became a better man. Not that he offered credit, but became quite cheerful.
The story of the rude fisherman and the cat that didn’t eat fish spread from village to village. Soon tourists and such came to Madhapur just to have a look at the couple.Bhairav didn’t mind. This meant some publicity for himself and his fish. People even bought fish from him once he said that for each photo taken, the charge was one fish.
Now to go back to that conversation between our protagonists.
Weather discussions over, the fisherman decided to reward the cat for all that he had done for him since the past month.
He said”I.........I can cook great fish curry......you know, spicy and stuff.”
The cat was looking straight at the river from where they sat with an artist’s eye.
“You like fish curry?”
The cat looked at him and replied”Miaow”.
“Great. I’ll bring some for you tomorrow morning. You be here, ok?”
The cat simply stared on. Bhairav took that as a yes and jumped off from his seat.
He was very eager to do his best for the cat.
The next morning, he woke up earlier than anyone. He completed his morning ablutions quickly and ran to the river to catch a few fish. Since he was the first one there, he caught the biggest, fattest fish. He didn’t care to catch any more. The big fish was exclusively for the cat.” No selling today”, he thought,” I’ll just give it the curry and then spend the day at the river”.
He ran to his house and turned on the stove. Soon, a delicious aroma spread through the house and his curry was ready. He packed it tightly in Tiffin and ran to the market.
Once he arrived there, he couldn’t see the cat anywhere. So he decided to sit down and wait.
Searching for the cat here and there, his eyes stumbled upon a dazzling white at the far end of the market. There sat the cat, beside a small boy. He had heard from the local gossip about this boy. He was supposed to have lost both his parents in an earthquake and his uncle (a fisherman) had brought him here. The boy was talking to the cat and it was listening, yes listening with rapt attention.
Bhairav didn’t know what to feel. But soon, amidst the confusion, the realization dawned upon him.
“Hah!” he said to himself “What a fool I have been. Did I really expect him to stay with me all the while? He has his own duties as an angel.Yes, an angel, that’s what he is. He changed me and now he has to make the boy happy.”
He thought it over again and became happy once more. Clicking his fingers, he called out to the cat.
“Hey, cat!”
The cat looked at him.
“Keep on the good work”
And then, he winked at the cat who, apparently had winked at him too.
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