DivTales

The sun sets on the distant horizon

With its casting glow.

The year dawned upon the mankind

An unknown enemy unfolding it’s deadly blow .

The sadness is so everywhere

Very tormentous for humanmankind to bear

Still each day unfolds with a new ray of hope

Humans worldwide so struggling to cope .

When is this darkness ever going to end

Or is it never going to transcend !!!!!!!

The desolate raven perched on the tree

Keeps cawing so endlessly .

Human faces enveloped in distrust and fear

With ones lost so near and dear.

Let the sunshine bring a new tomorrow ,,

Ending all of the earth’s miseries and sorrow .

Let every face finally bloom with joy

Let not this virus so kill and destroy

Let us forever shun indulgence and greed

Which led to wiping off human creed.

Let there be no more corpse’s on the ground

Let there be peace and heavenly peace all-around

A short poem penned down by my mother

Image credit-the Irish times

The incident occurred more or less at this time of the month last year .It was the month of hot summers . The heat had been oppressive all throughout but with the mellowed sun the afternoon was a lot more refreshingly pleasant .

I had just crossed my own bylanes and was on the crossroads waiting with Toby . . The face . The figure . The lady so fragile and so frail . Often I wondered much later what had she done to face the eventualities of such a gruesome end . She perhaps would have been on the roads to meet someone eagerly awaiting and longing for her. What followed soon after as a series of events makes me thoughtful and heavily sigh at the insensitivity of the foolish humans . At the end who cares but only for themselves …..

As I remember that day was an ordinary one too .. Toby as usual was restless eager to have his afternoon walk . The streets were still scorched and empty and bore a deserted desolate look. It was almost around 4 in the afternoon . The lady who seemingly looked a little over sixty was on the verge of crossing the almost barren road . She had been clad in a simple saree with her hair neatly pinned up behind ,a stick on her weary hands .On the other shoulders she curled up a jute bag with all her accumulated strength . Her eyes dimmed by age held a steel rimmed spectacles.. She looked at Toby and gave an innocent child like smile all full of eagerness in her eyes .. Toby by then had been wagging his tail endlessly, perhaps too excited to venture out something new . And all of a sudden out of nowhere I managed to see a red car speeding up towards us and into the main road honking to its fullest .. it came to a screeching halt within the next fraction of a second . And that one second had cruelly snatched too precious a life ,now lying vulnerable and still on the rocky gravel . . It was so so terrible and all in an instant . The driver with no sense of remorse or grief frantically came out of his ride, his face so suggestive of sheer cruelty . His hair was not combed his beard uneven . He would be roughly about a forty. All he wore was a checked shirt with collars up and some ripped jeans. He stared silently at the still body and then within a blink of an eye he turned backward retracing his path to his own car . Before anyone could react the car had driven off out of our sight with an unreasonable speed . . I stood there .. my hands had almost frozen . I was too dumbfounded as if someone had seized my throat . . A silent baffled spectator . Toby by then was giving me a gentle pushwith the tip of his nose and forced me to move towards her.

Soon after I managed to call the police and the ambulance. Narrating to the authorities what had happened took a few more minutes. .She could not make it. Her soul in thin air. I called home telling I would be late. The authorities by now had taken her lifeless body …..

Needless to say people need to be free from the fear of guilt. If u know it was an accident then better be human enough to face it and not cowardly flee from it . At the end mistakes r always forgivable however grave it might be if one has that enough courage to admit …

Hope smiles from the threshold of years to come , whispering ‘ it will be happier ‘. Maybe everybody beholds the same thoughts at this very critical moment , maybe not . In these dark and gloomy months of leading a sullen monotonous life what one needs is a little hope , a little hope in their solemn hearts .

It all began on the 25th of March , 2020 when the breaking news flashed the prime channels . The Prime Minister of India declared a 21 day lockdown for the novel Corona virus outbreak . Ever since then life has been the same – the usual routine . Man by nature is said to be a social animal and for man to stay at home – utter devastation . leading a life as a student , my routine has equally been affected . Like everyone even I miss a few things of the outside world . These few things would especially include my friends , my usual evening gym routine and going outside on weekends . Our school has now been conducting online classes – the first of its kind that we as a generation are witnessing . However this occupies most of my thought process and I have a reason to live on . This pandemic has freed me from an otherwise seemingly hectic stressful life conditions – now I have time to breathe and more time to sleep . On usual weekdays , I wake up at a late nine . After daily morning rituals of medicines and cleansing practices , I move forward to have tea in the balcony . This is the part of my day I rejoice the most . This has now become a family tradition . Each morning I am privileged to feel the breeze on my face . I hear the sounds of chirping birds and their lullabies . The sky is crystal clear and I know I am alive . I am grateful to God however the day be soporific . I start with my online classes henceforth . There are always some assignments to complete . At evening we watch a family movie or just sit staring at the television screen showing the local updates of the pandemic . I check the nearest case of the virus . By god’s grace there are none . I wash my hands . My mother an educator herself then starts with my studies . I finish yet another chapter . Dinner is ready . It is served on a platter . The day unfolds. It unfolds everyday yet I am happy for it to dawn this particular night . I take my medicines , wash my face and then making my bed , I am in slumber . This countinues for days unknown . I know that one day I will be freed from my cage . I would feel like a flying bird soaring up high in the mountains . I am given all privilidges in life but all I desire for is to wait for that one day . That one day when I will be able to fly .

I pray to God to save the innocent victims of this pandemic . May one day things return to normal . One day be it only one day . Amen .

As a therapist , I have come across several people who have an hidden fear in them . One may ask what is this fear about . This fear refers to not living up to one’s expectation . The fear of loosing in life . One may be afraid of heights , insects , ghosts , etc but if one tries to look back at their experience they may feel it was nothing .

Life is kind of like an adventure . Everyone has some sort of fear in them which is just a feeling. A phase of life . I clearly remember my childhood days . Everytime I saw a pest , I would start yelling and ended up with the whole neighborhood consoling me . When I look back now , I laugh at myself . When my patients ask me that how I am so jovial and carefree , I tell them that it was what I was supposed to be , but frankly speaking that is not the truth . I have one fear in life . The fear of losing myself . Packed up in a daily schedule is quite monotonous . One is so engrossed in work , they hardly find time for themselves and tend to loose the person who they were . That was one reason I choose my career as a therapist . It gave me time to think and at the same time do my work , help people. When at times I feel down , I try to communicate with myself and I am back to the normal me . Being myself does not mean to be the same person I was throughout life . It means to not loose originality of the soul . Every morning I wake up is a new day . A day to improve myself . I remind my patients that fears are a passing phase of life . What one finds scary one day may seem normal to the same person the next day .

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind . What it takes is to get over it .

“Courage is not the absence of fear , but the triumph over it . The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid , but he who conquers that fear .”- Nelson Mandela

29th July , 2019 – Mumbai . The hither and thither of local commuters and the heavy downpour of incessant rains . At such a dull season who can have the energy to have an early start? This was my case.

I was supposed to board a train in the morning at an inconveniencing 7am . I had prepared everything in advance,from my luggage to the first class boarding tickets . Everything was set . I had put approximately five to six alarms in order to have an early rise , but destiny had something else in mind . Due to some technicalities or perhaps a silly issue of charging , my phone had betrayed me for the second time , but I was not a person to give up . Or maybe I was, if it wasn’t for an important meeting I had to attend .

The other day my ever consistent persuasive boss , a plum faced man , with a rather evil smile had scheduled the meeting in the morning . It was indeed a big opportunity for me to show my skills and I couldn’t let go of it .

So , I decided to board the early local bus which crossed our area everyday . With a rush , I frantically left my sweet , sometimes loud , full of love home with much disapproval of course . Anyways , I managed to board the bus travelling from the suburbs of Mulund to BKC with one of my legs dangling in the air . The so called interior of the bus was further chaotic with not a single foot of space to breathe and coexist for a few hours . Abuses were lashed at me , even though I pretended to ignore them . I thought of myself as water . That water which couldn’t be cut by a knife or broken by a hammer . That water which flowed continuously without hesitating to pause for a rock in its meandering ways . The Mumbai rains were a rock for me at that moment but I didn’t bother. An hour or so of a never ending moment finally came to a cease . Anyways on having neared my destination , I decided to walk rather peacefully the rest of my journey . Thankfully , I had an umbrella handy . So , I made a quick go . when I reached the colonial old office building , I had a quick look at my papers which I needed for the days presentation . They were all fine except for one small raindrop which I eventually managed to land safely in one of the glistening white sheets . Thanks to the divine presence , the meeting went all well . It even received a good round of applause .

The day though a tormentous one , taught me one thing in life . Be unstoppable . If life gives you lemons just add some salt and tequila .

‘ Rumour is a great traveller ‘ this quote can often be related to in real life . This is because rumours are more exciting than the truth as said by Venus Williams . Rumours are like fires . No one admits to start them and before you know it they are all over . Let me narrate a story regarding it.

2010 , in the small town of Vietnam lived a rather shy girl named Su Mui . Like most other students of her school she too hated exams and often bitterly failed . She hated admitting her faults which was quite obvious of her age. When her friends asked why she failed or what went wrong she gave them excuses which were not reasonably good enough . Once she told them that the evil spirits of the school did not let her write the exam properly . This was definitely a blatant lie . However , some first graders believed it eventually . This got passed so fast that almost the whole school was aware of it by now . One fine day it so happened that an article got published in the news saying that there are spirits in the famous Vietnamese school who don’t allow students to write their exams . All students were asked who started all of this and Sui Mui was caught . She had to reveal the truth in front of the whole media .

Hence never believe anything so easily . Analyse it first before spreading the news . Remember this can happen with you too . As Mark Twain says ” A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. ” Wishing you peace and laughter.

” It’s not my fault” he shouted . A dead man about eighty years old lay on his bare hands . No one believed him . Mr Harry a renowned detective was called to investigate the case . ” William” Mr Harry began . The man was shocked for a second . ” What you know my name ? ” the man yelled . ” If you want to preserve your incongito I suggest you cease that name upon the lining of your hat. “Mr Harry told in a calm voice .

William had no idea what to reply , so he got directly to the point. He explained that when he was walking to his house , he heard a scream , when he went in he saw a dead man lying on the floor. Mr Harry shook his head gently and then taking a magnifying glass began to investigate the body .

The body was that of a pale man . There were bruises and scratch marks all over his body but no fingerprints were found!

This was shocking indeed , but what happened next was truly astounding. The dead man’s identity card was found on the floor soaked with blood .Mr Harry immediately picked it up and washed it carefully . It said that the mans name was ‘ IT ‘ and he was a hundred years old. Mr Harry immediately went to the department office and went through all the names but the mans name was not seen anywhere.

This case had not been solved for ten years. Some people said that the body was that of a ghost trying to kill itself while some said it was William who killed the man. Anyways this case remained a mystery till the year 1998 and till then the body decayed.

In 1998 a young lady named Mrs Coraline came to know about the mystery . She had twenty years of experience in being a detective. She pleaded the court if she could solve the case and the court agreed. She went to the scene where the murder had taken place . The body had already been buried at that time . She went through the mans house looking for clues and finally came through a bit of evidence, a small diary . Coraline went through its contents slowly. Suddenly something caught her eye. The note said :

It’s a rainy day. Today William and I had a bad fight. I know that it is my fault .I hope the revenge is not much

This could be the piece of evidence that would solve the case . She even found the mans real identity card in one of his cupboards . His name was Edward .

Anyways the case had finally come to an end . William was arrested and the dead man’s body finally found justice . Hence nothing is impossible in life it just needs a bit of evidence.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton