Champions of writing and bonding

Are you having a hard time staying the course toward fulfilling your writing dreams? What are you doing about it?


Despite being a teacher, that too a mathematics teacher, I am kind of disorganised. However, writing is the only thing I stick to regularly. Yes, there are days I can't write but those times are not very frequent. All of my writings is for my own pleasure. I have thought of publishing but never got around it. To speak truthfully, I am not a champion of my own writing. I don't set up a goal and write. I do it as and when I wish it. But nowadays I take short breaks during work and pen own something. It refreshes me.

Being on the net too helps me get to know many good writers and we form networks, helping each other out by the way of encouragement. Writing exercises and prompts do make the creative juices flow, which in turn help us in forming bonds of blogging brotherhood/sisterhood between people from diverse cultures and countries.

Lately I have observed a shift in my own writings. I am venturing out of my poetry to write more of of prose. I have submitted a story in a story writing competition conducted by our education department. I have put my best there. Let us see how I fare. Writing has brought about subtle changes into my life or should I say my perception? I have become more observant and I try to think out of box. I let my mind wander and take root wherever it wishes to. That helps in my creativity.

As they say, I am thriving in it! That is better than any dream! How/what about you?

powdered charcoal--half a poem

coldness seeps into him almost burning his skin after that intense heat
he turns towards it welcoming it
he puts out his hand, snatching it back again
why can't he feel anything in his fingers
he tries to open his eyes, finds only holes there
why is he smelling burnt wood powderded to charcoal
concentrating hard enough, he faces the inevitable truth

death can only have only colour, which is amalgamation of all others
his cremation could only come after he had died from drowning

fruition of a germinated thought

Today I go to my 25 years school reunion. I penned down these thoughts for my school friends.

#Update@11 Aug, 2008: It was great to meet many of my friends. I will write about it later on.

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a thought which was planted in a jest
germinated few months ago
finally came to fruition after nurturing

did you ever imagine that you would
meet thus with all your girl pals
with whom you shared your girly thoughts

is it not beyond your wildest dreams
that after quarter of a century
you gather at the very same place

which prepared you for life, to face it
the way you are doing now;
indeed, you have come a long way

"Nonetheless, ask yourself, is it the end?
no, my friends, you still have to go a long way
just keep climbing the never ending stairways"

Liberate yourself

Photo Credits: Rick Mobbs


To be free. What does it mean to you? How do you look at it? What is true freedom? I know I am asking the same question in different ways. And I am not here to preach either. Many a times, I simply talk to myself and this is one of those times. You can safely skip this.

For me, to be free means to think about the world. To think and do beyond oneself. To reflect and ponder over things and approach or tackle anything in the best way possible. It is about being unselfish. In today's context, it seems impossible. Majority of us are indeed wrapped up in our own world to look beyond it. True freedom for me means to break that shackle and come out of it. For me, God is not important, religion is not important. However, spirituality is. Humanity is. I do not even believe that you must love your neighbours. I truly believe that first you must love yourself. That too, unselfishly. Only then you are truly be free of everything. Self-love does not mean self-obssessed. It means to respect our own mind, body and soul. Many feel that it is our body, it is our life, we can do what we want. Is it? Should we? If we think this way, are we loving ourselves? I suppose, we all need to answer that question. We, only we, can truly answer that. We can hide away from the world but can we escape ourselves? At the end of the day, we have to face ourselves in the mirror.

Do I have to follow a faith or believe in God to perceive it this way? Answering for myself, I say no. As I see it, religion does more harm than good. Nothing can get worse than blind faith. Follow the goodness in your heart. Let your soul show you the path. You won't be needing anyone other than yourself to guide you. That is true freedom, ultimate liberation.

What if-----

This time I offer a short story, I wrote three years back. I have not edited anything. Feel free to critique it. Maybe this is a sign that I should try to venture into prose writing. Please let me know..

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After a long harried day at office, I was negotiating the traffic with impatience. I had worked so hard on that particular presentation to pitch our sales, which had been sliding downhill. Despite my best efforts, the buyers were not convinced. There had been series of meetings throughout the day to discuss the ways and means to save our company. We tried negotiating with the bank. But for no avail. If this continued we would go bankrupt. Not a nice prospect. Finally we decided to call it a day at 9.30 p.m. It was a long drive home for me. I was not looking forward to it.

Here I was waiting for the lights to change, tapping at the steering wheel, the day’s event passing through my mind like a bad movie. Lost in my thoughts, I did not notice the lights changing. The car behind me honked. I moved, slowly turning towards the left. A yellow Chevrolet, followed behind.

It started to rain yet again. It had been raining intermittently for 3 days and had stopped for a while. The dark clouds made my mood even bleaker. Barely glancing behind, I kept on my lane. Rains make it so difficult to drive. I felt my car lurching. The yellow car was still behind me. I kept driving straight ahead. The car behind me turned right and disappeared from sight. But after some time, I noticed it following me. May be it had taken a wrong turn before.

But it was uncanny; the Chevrolet followed me closely wherever I turned. I too noticed the driver of that car making wild gestures. It was unnerving. I accelerated, so did he. I slowed down to let him pass but he too slowed down, waving at me to stop.

Without warning I swerved to the middle lane, but so did he, waving menacingly at me. I shook my fist at him and accelerated away. But there he was, faithfully following me, shaking his head and pointing towards me.

I again felt my car wobbling but as it was raining I did not give it much thought. Now my mind was on the car following me. I kept changing lanes, without notice. The car followed me wherever I turned. I speeded up and took another detour. But there it was behind me. I was getting scared by this time. It was pouring. Not another vehicle in sight. Occasionally, a car passed by. No one had any time to glance what was going on. I tried calling the police but no network on my phone.

Suddenly I felt my car shaking. I must have drove over a pothole. Before I could react, the Chevrolet speeded up and stopped in front of my car. I had to brake suddenly to avoid hitting him. The driver got down. He looked so forbidding. He came towards my side of the window. I kept it close, stared ahead resolutely, avoiding looking at him. He tapped and said something, pointing towards the rear end. I could not hear him in all that rain. I saw another car stopping behind. A woman got down. Came and tapped. But I did not want to open the window for her either. They looked at each other, shook their heads and then kept looking at the rear of my car. Throwing caution to winds, I opened my window and asked what was wrong. She said my left rear wheel was on the verge of coming out. Then she drove away. Getting alarmed, I got down with a jerk and checked it. It would have come out in a few more minutes if I had been driving. And if I had not stopped when I did…………!!

I kept staring at the wheel like moron, my mind blank… Without asking, he got down to the business of fixing up the wheel. That made me break away from my stupor. We both worked at it, without exchanging a single word. I was grateful for his help. I wanted to thank him but he brushed aside and drove away, taking a U-turn, without glancing at me.

I started the car, changed the gear, and progressed slowly. My grim mood had disappeared. I was lucky to be in one piece. Switched on the radio. Suddenly interrupting the song, there was an important announcement……….. I braked, went numb and sat there for a long time, my head on the steering wheel, thinking, thanking my stars and that man in the yellow Chevrolet. The announcement was still ringing in my ears when I saw security personnel ahead, stopping everyone. The old bridge ahead had partly washed away some time back taking a few vehicles with it……...

What if ?

Twice……….