It's amusing, but the only messages I have received in the past few days have been either replies or service messages. Seems very far from everything. But better to be disillusioned and lost than living in one's own imagination.

Storytellers from beyond

It is such a pleasure to visit new places. Some of them you visit in real life, while others you visit through other people. I have loved to hear about such places... where I would then take myself and rediscover it thorugh my own understanding. These are places in the geographical sense of the term. Others are there in history, in culture.
Listening to tales, allowing their magic to wrap itself around you, growing in a different childhood, making friends with people you would never have met nor can ever happen to meet.
Stories that never end. Stories that go on into dark winter nights. Stories that carry over into misty sunrises. Some that take you back in another person's memories. Others that take you into someone else's life, childhood and more.
I wish these stories continue. There should never be an end to what can be shared. There should never be an end to the desire to share.
Share stories, share lifetimes and share lives.

This is a criticism I have been facing for a long time and from many people. About not being strong enough to stand up for what I believe in. And I heard it once again today.
That I did not stand up for someone I should have stood up for. I know I failed, and I don't know what I should have done.
The fear is I don't know if I shall pass the test the next time.

Plumbing delight!

Living alone has its pros and cons, moments of extreme frustration and others that make you feel liberated. And, there can be nothing more liberating than solving your plumbing problems on your own.
The last time I called the plumber, he took 700 bucks and left me with a cistern that worked for two days and then started giving me problems again. He dismantled the whole thing, spent two precious hours on it and still didn't do enough for me to want to summon him the next time there was a problem.
So this time around when my flush stopped working, I set the piston right, bought a lever (for rs 53) and also learnt about the float valve (thanx to an enterprising friend) and now am sorted :D
Raring to solve the next plumbing problem :D

God is in heaven and all's right with the world.
And I'm not gonna let some poor increments, disillusionments at the workplace, with people around me, the weather and so much more change that.
Yes, there are times to give vent to your frustrations and sometimes to take stock. Have given vent to frustrations. Now, is the time to take stock.

From my past

A thought is rushing into my hands. I used to have a friend who had a problem for the first few years of his life. His tongue was attached to the base of his mouth...it used to affect his speech. Later, it was surgically separated a bit...But it still bothered him. Not just in speech but in thought too. He used to tell me God probably didn't want him to talk...he was a very silent person you know. Dunno why I am writing about this. As I said, the thought is rushing to my fingers.
Another story, or was it an incident I heard about, comes to my mind. I think I read about it in the Readers' Digest. Something to do with a man, who got a call...picked up the phone (am talking about landlines, which were the only kinds of phones in those days) and said wrong number. Haha!!

What weird stories are coming to mind.
Just jotting em down. Will analyse them later.

When I was much younger and used to live at home, on the fourth day of the menstrual cycle, one was supposed to take an oil bath after applying turmeric all over the body. I remember my mother used to tell me not to sleep in the afternoon on those particular days. I think she used to say the dreams one had then would come true or something to the effect. What I do remember is the headaches that would follow if I slept without drying my hair properly. But I would still find an excuse to nod off on those hot summer afternoons on the cold polished floors of my house, pretending to read. Just so I could have some dreams that could be fulfilled.
Funny, I don't remember those dreams, nor if they ever got fulfilled.

To silence...

You entered my soul like a gust of wind
Determined to blow a fresh breath of life into me
I opened the window unto you,
To make space for something new to me

You became a part of my being, a friend
Who stuck by me when everyone else was too busy
I leaned on your shoulder
And I felt myself like a climber wrapping around you

Slowly, you became a permanent guest
One I could no longer turn away at will or wont
You became a wall in my house
Only to become the roof over my head and hearth

Then you spread your roots within my spirit
Wrenching it from its foundations, alienating me
From who I thought I used to be
I initially embraced you, then submitted, then succumbed

Until I became a prisoner of your domineering affections
I lost my freedom to think and speak or speak and think
I forgot I used to have a voice at all
And you wrapped me in you arms, like a shroud and buried me.