Hey You !

I was listening to this youngster and his tale of heartbreak and moving to another city and of loneliness and feeling sad. He talked of music and musings and of memories. Suddenly he stopped and stared at me. - "Ma'm I must be boring you. But tell me did you ever have a heartache? Did you ever love and lost?" - I must have,  I mused. " Of course , dear! But it is so long back in time. And after 40 decades I guess it was easy to cope with heartache than have a body where each part aches!!" How flippant ! He stared as if he will reprimand with " How would you know? " But he smiled and asked, "Will I ever find my rainbow?" -" Rainbow? But then , you create your own, just like the sun rays. You take out  the happy pics from your memory, put them together and color them VIBGYOR!!" He wasn't convinced , but he looked better , less woebegone and looked out into the sky. The summer sky has it's own beauty, and after the ent...

Darjeeling happened for me in 1984. Baba took us there after I had casually remarked I have never been to the hills. And he wanted it to be  a family holiday before I get married in 2 months time. The Darjeeling of 84 was very different when I went back there in '99. Crowded, dingy, demolished and de-glamorized I promised I shall never be back again. Recently while browsing my old diary and my bucket lists, I found Toy train to be one of them. The romance of Aradhana.... And Air Force Officers who rode a bike and played mouth organ (sigh!!!!). I had to tick that one off even if I was in my mid 50s and the Air Force Officer had long retired from the forces and the harmonica rusted. So our tryst with Darjeeling began .... anew, dusted and de-biased! However, the Toy train experience was worth a tale !! 5 hours wait to ride a train that was on my bucket list ever since I saw Aradhana in the 70s , was quite an experience. No announcement, no message and the enquiry had no clue....

Fat Valentine, over a glass of wine ! Years add  and love subtract.  Debts multiply and hearts divide  Yet the balloons  and artificial roses  Makes good selfies and nice poses. Life is good with love  True, make-believe, cyber  Short term, long term, long distance or trans continental . Love, they say is a  China manufacture, Use and throw whenever there is a rupture!  Yet each year  we  begin with a hope  That peace and love prevails over dope !

Unknown :P  ~ শিবরাএি করবি ? ~নাহ, ঐ গানজাখোর, বাঘছাল ,বাপরে |আমি জনমাষঠমী করবো | ~২৫ বছর পর ~ শিবরাএি করবি ?  ~ কেষট ঠাকুরের সনগে ঘর করে বুঝলাম," I would rather be Paro than Radha!" Om namah Shivay! PS Happy Valentine's Day in advance !  — in  Pakuria, West Bengal, India .

In the end you need a comfort corner, seat, zone or whatever you call it. To settle down, call it a day or just meditate. The corner may not be perfect but needs to make you feel at ease. Like relationships maybe. You need a book, a cup of coffee, a bit of light. They may be in the true sense or a metaphor! To a year that's closing in and to a year about to begin... To light and love and laughter.... cheers ! And to a year which was kind and unkind ...to best of times and worst !  To life and death...Amen !

What do you do when people step out of your life , without a goodbye ? And you keep wondering what if this had happened , what if that had happened...... May be you call it the swansong ? The last hurrah......or just a sigh before goodbye. On swans...met these two today.  They followed me like two pet quacks....on my heel , as of  they have known me all my life. Everyone said swans are ill tempered and they bite and peck....but these two just followed me like the souls from bygone......comfortably and in perfect order!!!

Rain and roses always reminds me of the song Raindrops on roses and Maria. And of love on a rainy day. Thanks to the android phone, I manage to take a rainy day picture just as the droplets hang from the petals. Just like before the teardrops fall ! This rose bush like most of the plants in our unkempt garden , came from Bhagalpur, my ancestral Shoshurbari. And it was my father in law who would supervise the house and the garden. Giving instructions to the gardener, to his favorite Man Friday "Lokhkhidhor"( It's much later that  I discovered that his actual name was Lakhindor as in the Behula tale) The house these days is going to seed. My OCD works overtime, but my energy is showing signs of a car that is having starting trouble.  And my writers' block is working overtime - and I could not complete the write up for our poojo souvenir. Writers' block did I say? I laughed at that - cos I am no writer , really!!! Just jotting down randomly and getting 50 likes...