Reflection .

Well, it was a usual day. I could hear the kitchen cluttered with plates. That was my pseudo alarm .  

6:30 am.

I began to get ready to leave for my class ,which is 20 minutes walk from my hostel.

Corridors was filled with  giggling , chatting ,humming and shouting. Slippers screeching on the floor. The non-living things also contributed to the whole scenario: the windows rattled and the doors clanged .In the bathrooms, the water splashed onto the floor and  the colorful buckets  lined up near the taps.

Few girls shooed the kittens away .

The tiny birds tweeting in the trees added to the pandemonium.

I just had to sharpen the pencil (as I use that instrument extensively  till today)and leave for my  class. Whilst doing so, my neighbor  told me that she hadn't heard that sound (of the sharpener) since her school.

As much as she was astonished, I was too.

Her comment, made me think.

In old days, pencils were  sharpened by whittling  with knives, then came the pencil sharpeners. 

Gradually , the electric pen sharpeners were introduced. And now the mechanical pencils have replaced these.

But what are we actually doing ?

The whole system runs on this particular aspect.

We are all following the method of relegating .

The question is ,if it is inevitable?

.

Serendipity?!

 She held a hankie up to her nose and sneezed. That was the tenth time! Phew! Well, perhaps she wasn't counting but I was. Sitting next to her in a crowded  bus  , I braced myself for another one(sneeze).My stop was just 5 minutes away. So there I  was , waiting to reach my destination. After a week's wait, despite the uncomfortable circumstances, I traveled for almost 3-4 hours for this moment.

The moment I realized that it was my stop, I stepped down and began looking for a address .It was a sunny day,  I thought my sunscreen cream  wasn't  quite doing it's job .I was sweating a lot. Neither did I carry my mint coloured umbrella  nor did I have a cap. My backpack was my sole chum . A small blue piece of paper that I held in my hand was soaking in  sweat,  and I had to protect it . An obligation.A fundamental duty.
A few days  back, on a sunday morning when I got a call from her , I wrote down the address on this piece of paper. It had become very  precious since then.

The scorching heat had parched my throat but there were no mineral water bottles available in the stores on the chaotic street .Vegetable hawkers, autos, buses, cows , pan shops were spread across the road. It was almost like a fair. Was I lost? Digressed ?

I asked couple of locals for directions. The house was almost 5 km far from the bus stop according to them. I walked as fast as possible to reach the apartment. It was a peculiar building. A yellow coloured one. Like the yellow house painting by Van Gogh. I went up to the first floor, 12 numbered flat. I was eager to meet him. The door had certain embellishments with wooden carvings .I rang the bell. Surprisingly, the door bell was very familiar. I smirked. The door opened, and there he was standing  right in front of me with his bright eyes and his tongue drooling. I was thrilled to see him. His red-blue collar was so striking that I was sure it was him. He came running towards me and we hugged. He jumped, licked me everywhere. My cute little cherub was in my arms after a week. I was extremely delighted. I thanked the woman who rescued my puppy from the street and called me up to give this information. For  the first few hours when he was lost , I was disappointed, angry on him but a ray of hope that I would find him was  a thought deep down in my heart. I was glad I put the  collar around his neck with my details on the card , which helped me get him back. I held my cherub and left for home with a packet of his favourite  biscuits.

Definitely no.It wasn't a boy, was a baby girl.Yes, a baby girl in her mother's arms.Probably aunt's or someone  with whom the girl is close to, in her life. The baby  embrassed her very tightly.One could spot the stains on her pink frock - red,dark red,blood red.Yes ,those were blood stains! A sense of agony,disturbance, fear,pain was perceived on the woman's visage.Amidst the wrinkles ,her smudged eye make up,the cracked rouge lips,wounds on her hands ,unwinded hair, scars on her forehead ,poised between love and hatred, hope was seen in her radiant eyes.Poised between love and hatred-love for the child who was trusting this women for the protection and hatred for the people ,roots for all the bloodshed.

Raging with fury and great intensity of ferocity, the avengers  were brutally killing  innocent people with sharp knives,swords,blades,axes,tools and other sharp objects.Dead bodies on the ground were staring at this woman as if they were crying out for help.Dreadful.Even the sky was red,red as if someone stabbed it and the blood was flowing out, spread like seepage.No flaura.Vast bare land.Few of them were just like her, trying to look out for a escape, a hideout.They were also trying  hard to protect their loved ones from these barbarians.She stood at that spot with a thought-foremost task was not to relinquish,not to abandon this little soul,she had to escape somehow from this land of cannibals,huns,savage people or whatever one may call.

Far away,I was observing the entire scene.It disturbed me a lot.I could feel the pain.Vexed .Despise.In spite of all these emotions,I was incapable.Helpless.Powerless.I could not help anyone.

At once, somebody hit my shoulder.I was startled .Shocked to see her.My friend.She looked at me and asked me why i had such expressions on my face.

I said"This painting......it's a masterpiece"

She said"Yeah,Ok... anyways lets go .. We are getting late".She grabbed my hand and nudged.

And then we walked out of the museum after a few minutes.

Sacrifice

Sitting on the scaffolding was a little green-golden bird ,its brown beak and its greenish tail twitching.It's little eyes moving rapidly from one corner to another like a detective looking for clues in an old mansion .With the thud of the coconut on the ground,this little creature flew sweeping the entire sky ,it's tiny green feathers and wings spread out in the air.Joins it's companions-Flock of birds could be seen swarming like the bees in the bright blue sky .

Ajji came out running hearing the thud sound.Dressed in her old zari sari,vermillon on her forehead and barefoot,she came out hauling the maid's name."Shanta! Shanta!" "What happened ? What was that big noise? "

Shanta-Ajji,I think the coconut from the tree in the backyard fell down.

Ajji- Oh my God! Shanta you must immediately go and get it .It is a very bad omen for a coconut to fall down at this duration of the day. I will go and cook food at once , only then you shall come into the house and keep the coconut inside.

Shanta- Okay Ajji . Till then, I will clean the courtyard, water the plants and put kolam .

After a while ,Ajji in her "madi "clothes called out for Shanta again.Shanta hurriedly came and handed over the coconut to Ajji.Forbidding the maid to enter the house, Ajji took it inside the house ,and put it in the kitchen.

Shanta entered  the house from the backyard door, washed the utensils ,cleaned the barn and left..Ajji took a broom, held it along with a old cloth and swept the prints on the floor left by Shanta in the house.

After few hours-

"Ajji Ajji!! Where are you??

Murthy ,is that you??

Yes ajji, it's me.

Wait for a moment.I am feeding the cows.

A small little girl dressed in her traditional skirt and blouse , a gold necklace with a pendant reaching her stomach hangs in her neck , wears a pair of bangels in each hand,and  anklets ringing each time she moves a step forward.As Ajji approached the drawing room, where stood Murthy and his daughter, Ganga,  runs towards Ajji and touches her feet.Ajji chanted a few slokas and blessed her by resting her hand on her head.Murthy tells ajji that it is Ganga' birthday.Returning from Lord Vishnu's temple, they paid a visit to Ajji to take blessings from her.They sat for a while in the drawing room  talking about the temple's priest , the fair, the new garment store that opened  last week, about the sarpanch's daughter's love marriage which appalled everyone in the village, the cows of Ramu which got stolen overnight, the newly-wed couple -Bharat and Geeta, etc etc.Murthy and Ganga left Ajji's house after presenting her a green blouse piece,a small  box of vermillon and a few bananas on the occasion of Ganga's birthday.

It was nearing lunch time so Ajji went inside the kitchen ,took out the banana leaves from the shaft and washed them with water.She set up the tiny stools with banana leaves on the floor in the kitchen, and waited for her husband to come from the field. Two hours passed, unfortunately there was no sign of her husband. She was thinking of going to the shop at the corner of the street to telephone the post man-Ranga  so that he could call her husband from the field.Within some time, she heard  footsteps nearing and came out. Her husband, dressed in white dhoti-kurta was walking tardily into the house with a packet . She immediately got a pot of water for him to wash his feet. After washing his feet,he came in, gave Ajji the packet. She kept aside the packet in the bedroom and served him food . His favourite dish-Payasam was made today.But , he didn't seem happy. Ajji was very amazed by his unhappiness. Generally, he would appreciate her dish but today something seemed different. He hadn't uttered a single word after coming back from work.Ajji didn't dare to ask or question him.She reckoned it was about the scaffolding-their house.

He lied down on the bed, looking at the cieling.The cieling had no fan. It was white.The white paint was chipping off.He looked around the room.There was an old photograph hanging on the wall.It was a family photo of their family.Himself,his wife and his son-Chandra.An old black umbrella on the wooden table reminded him how he dropped his soon to the nearby school during rainy season.His hands held on to the side of the table when he  remembered the instance where his son had to move out of the village to another town for his job.He recalled how Chandra argued about shifting house

.After a while he called out "Seeta! Seeta!. Ajji entered the room hastingly fearing mishap."It is sold"he said heavyheartedly. Ajji  looked outside the window.She could see the scaffolding clearly now.Her tears rolled down,touching her cracked lips.

Mist cleared....

As I was walking barefoot all day, I could feel the wet mud stuck to my feet. Dressed in my traditional gladrags, I was sitting alone on the parapet wall of my granma's house, with a handfull of groundnuts,looking at the tall palm trees in front of me .The tranquil blue sky covered me like a blanket ,and the petit tiny yellow and orange birds lullabying me with their chirping monotonously.Slowly the sky was turning it's colour to red,it was like someone pinched the sky and it changed into red.Within a fraction of seconds, a gust of wind blew the clouds away,and the dark one's were pushing it's way into the sky like the rugby players trying to push their opponents on the field.I could feel the cool breeze blowing hard,very refreshing!The hens and the chicks feeding on the grains were scared away by the young naughty boy with the stick.And his mother trying to get hold of him to feed him.Even his grandmother who seemed very old and weak was trying to plead her grandson to eat .A little far away, the farmers returning from the fields to their homes with their lunch boxes, a few women with their veil on the head carrying their children came out of the nearby temple ,and the elderly habitants who were taking their leisure walks halted at a nearby stall. The guy in the stall was hastened to prepare tea for them,while I happened to watch a middle-aged man on the cycle coming from the other side of the lane with coconuts and milk cans tied to his cycle.I just happened to look up in the sky anticipating it would rain heavily.The guy on the cycle lost his balance and fell on the ground along with the milk cans and the green tender coconuts.The milk from the cans gushed out like a stream flowing , it was all on the ground, a white surface like layer .I immediately jumped down to go to help him,and  before I could cross the street , there were about 8-10 men surrounding him and helping him.I stood there looking at this mishap.My feet were touching the ground and I could smell the wet mud.Now, the lightning struck .Thunder.I was just admiring the whole scenario,it was like I was lost in my own whole until my mother came and patted me from behind. She was quite astonished and she asked me why I was sitting alone for so long. She said everyone was looking for me and asking me to come inside for the feast .I paused for a moment and looked around the neighbourhood, and said "Amma!Let's get the old photographs framed".

Season two for my blogs :P

Two years , since I have blogged. Well, I quite missed it, I would  blame my memory power for not blogging for almost 2 years as  I forgot my password(aargh!!!). Therefore, I had to pressurize my grey cells to pull out the correct  password. Sadly, I couldn't succeed ,so I decided to create another account and start blogging. The only regret I would be having is that I can't retain the older posts in this new blog so that people could read them along with the new one's that I will be posting in the nearing future.I might be not sounding ardent while jotting this down,on the contrary I am looking forward to start writing down my ideas again .
       As my title clearly points out , this is like " Season 2" . It might rather be a little absurd , but why not give   second season or second innings ! On the other hand, I was very particular on leaving the name of my blog as "VAANI" which  means voice . In addition to this meaning, the foremost reason for retaining this name is that , this name is very close to my heart. It's my mother's name and I feel this is a very apt for my blog!
    Anyways, with a myriad of thoughts in my head , this is Kruthi signing off for the moment ! catch u later!