Different Strokes

Anvek pushed a few sketches away as he placed his coffee mug on the littered rickety table. Something flew past him and landed right behind him. Visibly shaken, he turned round to see a small boy with a sheepish grin pick up a Frisbee and utter something that sounded like a sorry before he disappeared into the crowd. It was carnival time in the small town of Simarita Kalance and colourful tents marked the skyline of this town. This annual attraction saw life seep into this town which lay sleepy for the rest of the year. Most of the men folk worked in the nearby industries and barely came home while the womenfolk had given up on the soil to reap any fruit. They had moved on to selling their homemade wares in the nearby towns. But a carnival was a time of joy and merriment as children ran around with cotton candies, huggable bears and numerous other soft toys while their parents bought smiles for cheap in the games and food section. The carnival was a welcome break for Anvek. It added some cheers to his otherwise sombre life as an undertaker of Simarita Kalance. The place was too dead to have dead people around and he spent his days in utter boredom. The carnival provided him with an opportunity to polish his sketching skills and earn him customers who walked away with a smile, a rarity in his usual profession.

Anvek soon spotted his first customer as a mother pulled her stubborn and plump daughter towards the isolated shack. He pulled out the pencil from his ear, pushed the point between his nails as he cleaned the dirt stuck in them and waited till his customers reached. He pulled out a toffee for the girl and his charm did wonders for the girl stopped huffing and puffing and quietly sat down on the seat. He eyed down on her double chin as the most prominent characteristic and started off pushing down quick strokes that would soon turn into something similar to the girl in front of him. She smiled on seeing the likeness to her, snatched the sketch and ran off. That’s when Anvek realized he had not seen the cute little ponytail that had sat on her. He crumpled the tenner he got and pushed it down his boot. He sipped his coffee as he waited for his next customer. In the next couple of hours he found himself busy only once as he sketched a Chinese immigrant You Lozh who worked at the quarries. You Lozh seemed tensed as he kept on glancing behind him towards the entrance as if he was waiting for someone. Anvek was in no mood to ask him to stay still, so he decided he would do a side profile. Lozh pushed in a tenner and hurried off to the limousine that had just entered the carnival grounds. The carnival lights glowed brighter as the sun descended for its siesta. A couple of boys dragged the retired colonel Krevitoz who seemed intoxicated by the fine wines flowing down Ms. Bordeauzes fountain and wanted to catch grab a sketch of his derriere so they could play “pin the donkey” on the sketch. Anvek grinned at their sadistic humour but a tenner was a tenner and the snobby colonel did deserve a good flogging. The colonel was too intoxicated to be sitting so they placed him on his stomach so Anvek could sketch the right things in right proportions. The dimming sunlight didn’t do Anvek any good for he had a terrible vision as night fell. He decided to stop at the neck and finish the rest the next day. The boys didn’t mind the missing head for they had what they wanted.

As they dragged the colonel away, a scream pierced through the entire fair and everything grinded to a halt. Little Bo had her ponytail stuck in the greased chained gears of the Ferris wheel and was crying at the top of her voice. Samuel the butcher came by and chopped off her ponytail to set her free from the agony and the pain. With a freaky accident like that, everyone decided to call it the day. Next day morning, the carnival was being packed up and Sheriff Baynes oversaw the entire operation. A carnival did lead to a lot of rubbish and Baynes had to make sure it all was cleaned up. He spotted someone far off lying in the mud near the well and figured it was one of the drunkards who were still under a hangover from last night. As he walked towards the well, his walkie talkie crackled alive. “Captain Germaine reporting… Blast at quarry. I repeat. Blast at quarry. One casualty... Immigrant... Lost his right ear… Wanted ambulance... I repeat. Urgently required ambulance… Out…” Baynes tripped over a dusty coffee mug as he turned around to rush down to the quarry.

Perspective - Seeing things differently

Come May and the blog sees day!

Rather routine-like isn't it? Past four years of college life and since the inception of this blog, that’s how the dice been rolling. Did I just say - Past" four years of college life?! The rollercoaster ride has moved from to the next stage as I bid au revoir to another phase of my life - with ups and downs but I am still tethered to the ride screaming "Bring it on". Fun filled, Friends I made, the decisions I took, the challenges I faced, the triumphs and the defeats all now pages of some book at the back of my head. No doubt, years down the line, every time I glance down memory lane, am sure it will fill with youthful exuberance yackety yak yak. No time to be philosophical now. This might be my last care free vacation in life except when I finally retire. It all falls into perspective and how differently you see everything. An optimist's perspective, a pessimist's perspective, a kid's perspective, an adult's perspective, all different viewpoints to the same thing. [Note to myself: Check out Vantage Point- its all about perspectives]

Perspective is so dependent on time, space and numerous other factors for the same thing. As my train pulled away from Tiruchirappalli junction, it felt different. I have done this ride umpteenth number of times but this time was different. Somewhere in there, I knew, this might be the last time I would be doing it. Obviously, every time one does it, it can be the last time yet this time perspective changed. It’s all in the head. The special LAST TIMES at Octagon, Raju Anna, Meridien, Sangeethas, Room, Hostel, Sports centre, Bus No. 128 ride, and numerous other things. College life in itself. Banana Leaf Restaurant was also a last time in second year itself. But that’s a different last time, thanks to perspective.

Our view/perspective of people too can change thanks to the situation. Ever noticed how glad you feel when you see a sub continental (whether Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian or Sri Lankan) when you walk down the streets of Turkey or Belgium, but you don't care to give them a second glance if you were in the subcontinent itself. We are so proud when Kalpana Chawla goes to space, Mahendra Singh Dhoni carries aloft the Twenty 20 World Cup or Vijay Mallya brings back to India the sword of Tipu Sultan. Yet, when hundreds die in a riot, or a bridge collapses or those numerous other mishaps that litter the front pages of our daily newspaper, they are the UNKNOWNS. Hundreds of people die everyday and we skip the page, thousands die on a single day and we launch relief efforts. Why does humanity need a jolt or a shock to proceed into action? Why this inertia towards doing good? We all are busy with our lives and there is too much red tape. I guess that is an answer that most of us will pop up, even me. Every time there is a massive tragedy, billions are collected, even you and me give our bit to help the unfortunate by writing a cheque, money transfer or something similar yet we brush aside the poor kid that nags us all the way till our car to give a bit to keep himself alive. Giving away your hard earned cash is not easy, and it is brave of each one of us to even give away a cheque to these relief efforts. But is it money well spent? Does this money reach those who deserve it? Does our act of charity end with that signed cheque or should we do more? I bring out this question for only one reason. Till today, there is not one place where the scars of a tragedy have not been wiped out. Just because media doesn’t show it doesn’t mean alls well. Bhuj has seen cosmetic shake ups but when you hear that tents for people were being used by government babus as covers for their cars, I have serious doubts about the cash that you and I gave. Is there no way we can ascertain that our money has reached the rightful beneficiaries of our goodwill? Perspective?

Every once in a blue moon, one hears of geniuses, men who thought differently, had a different perspective to offer, saw things differently and made this world a better place. In these fast times, showers are what most of us get while we dream of tub baths where we can switch off and relax. Archimedes had other ideas in his bath tub and Eureka! A hungry Newton could have just picked up, polished and eaten the apple but he had other ideas. James Watt could have just drunk the steaming hot tea being prepared in the kettle to Robert Bruce just ignoring the spider that built and re built its web. They all could have seen it otherwise but fortunately they didn’t. Perspective again! Socrates and his lot were troubled, many others burnt at the stake because they thought otherwise. The Earth is not the centre of the Universe said some, the Indo-Arabic numerals with its zero were a better alternative to Roman numerals said others. Those who think differently have been branded weird, mad and crazy to heretics in human society. Even today, we may be more open to change yet somewhere in there; we still keep those who think differently away from us. Corporates spend millions on workshops titled “Creativity” and “Think Out of the Box” yet in our educational systems, students who are forced to be uniform in terms of their thinking and their answers. You cannot have 5 subjects where answers different from the textbook or notes are punished and then push in one subject where you extol students on the values of being imaginative and coming up with creative answers.

Its all perspective and how you see it – optical illusions in the real life?

I end with a bird's eye (make that a paraglider's) perspective of my home J - thanks to wikimapia which sure is a great tool to use – whether its Aditya coaxing all of us to use it and mark our places on the world map to showing my friends where I studied to where I stayed in my childhood days. For the uninitiated- Adil Centre is The building

Ps: Sprite- Dikhave par mat jao apni akal lagao J