Sublime Thoughts of a Creative Soul

150 things to do before you turn Thirty [Updated]

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 11:53:00 +0000

So, I've been doing this almost every two years now, and updating this list so it stays at the back of my mind. Here's this year's update.

Getting there! Getting there!
*Phew!*

Simple Rules:

1. Things I have already done - Blue
2. Things that i would love to do - Red

Here we go!!

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with dolphins.
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive (It was SMOOOTH!!)
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone.
08. Said “I love you” and meant it.
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea. (Definitely from the shore.)
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game.
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa.
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables.
18. Touched an iceberg.
19. Slept under the stars.
20. Changed a baby’s diaper.(It's definitely not pretty! Well, pretty smelly, yes.)
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment (quite a few times actually )
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger.
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse.
34. Ridden a roller coaster.
35. Hit a home run (A Cricket Six?)
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking.
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day.
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment.
39. Had two hard drives for your computer.(Three at the moment :D )
40. Visited all 50 states (Well, 29 for where I am from)
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country.
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs (Once!)
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud (Absolutely!)
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business (LIFE GOAL ACHIEVED!)
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight (Make that CS and we're good!)
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Done drugs
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest.
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”(Aspiring...)
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music(which song....you don't wanna know :P )
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Said Goodbye and never looked back.
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in a play
96. Raised children (Rhea Amin)
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over .
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open.(Nikhil n me...russel peters tickets!! :P )
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds (Not needed anymore :P)
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (Except the shotgun)
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (I wanna!!!)
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi

128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach (LOL!)
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read.
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Visited all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language.
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream(halfway thru...getting there)
142. Said No even though you didn't want to.
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Heart, mind and soul

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 21:53:00 +0000

Sometimes we need to be hurt to grow, Sometimes we need to lose to gain,
Some lessons are best learnt through pain.
But what when the loss is far too much?
What when the pain becomes your crutch?
What then? Do you brace it all?
Do you stand when you want to fall?
Things are easier said than done,
To gain something good, the bad must be undone,
Maybe the bad is not meant to go away,
Maybe those very lessons are then here to stay,
Never let go of something so good,
Not a moment spent misunderstood,
Some say you should fight for what you love,
Some say these things need an extra shove,
A million people speaking of their own views,
A million people waiting for a hint of good news,
Mine is a voice amongst those scores,
A little broken symphony of olden lores,
Holding onto hope, for time to heal,
What may not be broken, but just the seal,
But if it ain't broke, why does it need fixing?
Why do these emotions keep on mixing?
The mind and heart are at constant war,
You want to keep going, but the journey will be far,
In search for a heart lost its way,
To hold her hand, never lead her astray,
Time is all she wants for now,
Time is all my heart can allow,
I strain my eyes for a glimmer of hope,
Darkness abounds as I trudge the rocky slope,
One word, one smile, a familiar kiss,
It just takes a moment to realise what's amiss,
Take the leap, my love, I am still here,
With my hand to hold, you shall have no fear.

Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Sat, 28 May 2016 17:06:00 +0000

Mistakes, one too many, that’s what it takes
For a belief to transform, a cynic it makes
Sitting at your corner, sipping on a cup half empty,
Remembering the days gone by, a lost lifetime of self-pity.

No sleep, no peace, no arm to lean on
Never a moment spent without regret,
The cup reads Coffee, it reeks of rum
They told us time and again, never drink to forget.

Time goes by, the world goes on,
And here you sit, a figure forlorn,
A merry giggle lifts your brow at last,
A hint of a smile, all light is not lost.

Unity

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 07:14:00 +0000

The world imploded. A million stars shone brighter than they ever had. The melody of a thousand violins playing symphonies unknown. The smell of wet earth after the first rains, intermingling with the faint fragrance of jasmine and vanilla. The comfort of a warm piece of chocolate melting in your mouth. The simplicity of childhood puzzles and the complexity of what they seemed to be back then. Every quake, every shiver, every single imperfection, perfectly defined. There was everything and in that very instant there was nothing at all. The universe heaved up, then down. The lights grew dimmer till it was just stardust in the wind. The music paced itself out to a lull. Jasmines, vanillas, chocolates, rains. What rains? No memory remained. No record of the past or the future except the now. Perfections, imperfections alike seemed meaningless. There was none but that one moment.

And their lips parted.

150 things to do before you turn Thirty [Updated]

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Wed, 20 May 2015 10:47:00 +0000

Ok, so I did this one quite a while back, and thought coming back to it would be fun!
Here's where I was a few years back - Achievements of a Younger Me

Simple Rules:

1. Things I have already done - Blue
2. Things that i would love to do - Red

Here we go!!

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with dolphins.
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive (It was SMOOOTH!!)
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone.
08. Said “I love you” and meant it.
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea. (Definitely from the shore.)
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game.
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa.
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables.
18. Touched an iceberg.
19. Slept under the stars.
20. Changed a baby’s diaper.(It's definitely not pretty! Well, pretty smelly, yes.)
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment (quite a few times actually )
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger.
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse.
34. Ridden a roller coaster.
35. Hit a home run (A Cricket Six?)
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking.
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day.
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment.
39. Had two hard drives for your computer.(Three at the moment :D )
40. Visited all 50 states (Well, 29 for where I am from)
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country.
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs (Once!)
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud (Absolutely!)
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight (Make that CS and we're good!)
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Done drugs
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest.
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”(Aspiring...)
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music(which song....you don't wanna know :P )
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Said Goodbye and never looked back.
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in a play
96. Raised children (Rhea Amin)
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over .
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open.(Nikhil n me...russel peters tickets!! :P )
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (Except the shotgun)
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (I wanna!!!)
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi

Valhalla - VI

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 07:01:00 +0000

The earth, as they say, is a living being. A massive body with a mind of it's own, and we're just mere parts of it's living ecosystem, much like cells of our body, or the billions of beings that live on our body without us knowing it.

Back in the days of old, the times when ever person, ever sentient being was connected to the Core, the Earth's life energy, things were different. Every single living breathing sentient being was connected to each other and shared urges, emotions and thoughts in synergy, always in touch with the larger scheme of things. The Golden Era, they called it. It was a time of peace, of harmony and joy.

Then came the usurpers from a planet beyond, or so the scriptures said.

One day, the sky turned grey, a cloud of unfathomable darkness blotting out the last specks of sun as the vessel dropped down from the heavens, setting the air ablaze as fireballs rained down from up above. It wasn't quite a vessel as they found out later, but a rock of massive proportions, that glowed white and grey, forever pulsating, almost alive and breathing. Yet it did nothing; at least for sometime; and for that while, all was well again with the world as they knew it.

And then it started happening.

At first, it was just small things that appeared out of place in the harmonious society of then. An angered butcher raised his knife at his wife. The neighbourhood dog bit a child playing near it. A horse threw its rider off and ran away. Lovers got into arguments over the littlest of things. Jealousy became a thing of reality. No one seemed to suspect it had anything to do with the rock. After all, it had been years that it had been there, a glowing presence against the night sky and a glimmer in the daylight haze.

The elders across families started noticed this change slowly. As they traced it back to the first instance of such anomalies, it dawned upon them and their eyes grew wide with fear and disbelief. It became clear as to what they needed to do.

Destroy the rock.

Harnessing the elemental powers they gained from the Earth, they tried their best, focusing all their energy at the rock, but no amount of concentration would breach the outer crust of the glowing behemoth. So they decided to build an army.

Never before had an entire species come together to achieve something as impossible as this. But then again, never before had such a need arisen. It took years for the elders to discover the ways to focus the elemental energy into four distinct elements - Earth, Fire, Wind and Water.

Earth-Shakers were the farmers of their time. Deep rooted in their connection with the soil and what lies underneath, theirs was the faction with the strongest connection to the Core.

Fire-Breathers were the smiths, the metal workers. Harnessing their knowledge of different earthly elements and how they got along with each other, they focused on the ways fire burned and affected things around them. Together with Wind-Whisperers, they made a formidable force, setting the air ablaze at a whim.

Wind-Whisperers were the messengers. Fleet footed and quick in thought, they could talk to the wind, making it move to their command.

Water-Movers were entertainers. A faction of oddballs from the look of it, theirs was the largest and most united faction, able to stop rivers and move seas in large groups.

The elders led the factions, each taking over one and leading them into a united front to destroy the rock. But it wasn't without resistance. A revolution never is.

As they attacked the rock, it fought back with pulses of negative energies that created greater and greater rifts in society. The Water-Movers went down first. An entire new generation drowned in their own jealousy and anger. Being the most diverse group, the rock's influence struck them harder than most others. Then went the Fire-Breathers, but not without a bold stand. With the Wind-Whisperers' help, they set the crust of the rock ablaze in columns of white hot fire. They would have succeeded too, if the effort hadn't spent them so much. Such concentrated fire for long amounts of time took their toll on the soldiers' bodies as they started burning up slowly from the inside. It wasn't long before they could go on no more, having lost enough men and women to the attack. But their valiant efforts yielded an opportunity that won them the war. Earth-Shakers sank the soil around the rock and pressed on it's sides as it sank down deeper and deeper into the soil. Wind-whisperers sang their eerie war songs as they focused wind into a hurricane of electricity around the rock. So strong was this hurricane, they almost blocked out the rock's radiations. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Earth-Shakers concentrated all their energy into one beam of pure green-gold that emanated from the Core and went straight up through the heart of the rock, shattering it into billions of pieces that flew in a thousand directions. The Wind wasn't slow to respond and caught all pieces in it's gust before flinging them into the dark abyss of space that it had come from.

Well, almost all pieces.

And this remained buried, lodged among the rubble that resulted from the Core's attack. As the factions celebrated their victory and mourned their losses, this piece of rock dimmed into darkness, apparently dead and decaying.

Till it pulsed.

Once.

Waiting.

Staring At The Starry Night

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 19:11:00 +0000

Since I promised, here's one for my dear friend N ;)

Staring at the starry night
I'm thinking of all the times
I've wanted to say what my heart feels
But it all just stays inside of me
However hard I've tried.

Staring at the starry night
I see the twinkle in your eyes
The way your hair falls down your face
The way you slowly rise.
The way you wink at me
With a playful little smile,
The way you hold me in your arms
It's been such a while.

I've seen you move to rhythms divine,
I've been at your side,
and you've been at mine,
We've seen time fly,
From the time we first met
To the day we said goodbye,
Not once my feelings did I confess
I knew not if you'd say no,
Or if I would hear a yes.

I wish I'd said those three little words,
And then you'd have known
How much my soul yearns for you
But now the bird has flown.
And here I sit, under the stars,
Thinking about you,
Of all the times I wanted to,
But never thought it through.

If I had a second chance,
I'd ask you out to one last dance,
Twirl you around into a spin,
The world blurs around to a world within,
A sparkle of fairy dust, a glimmer of joy,
A moment of fantasy, just you and I.
And then you'd know, this much is true,
My heart beats only, and only for you.

But here I sit, under the starry sky,
Thinking of the times gone by,
A silhouette etched against the night,
The setting moon my only light,
Yearning for just one little chance,
To take your hand for one last dance.

Since you've been gone

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 18:04:00 +0000

Well, this is a special one. Hope you like it H!

Since You've Been Gone

Every now and then
I drift back to those days gone by
When the world seemed to revolve
Around the two of us.

It seems so long, a lifetime away
When you and I were together.
When you would be the one I see
As the first ray of sun poured into the room
Calm and fast asleep.
When you would be the one I see
As the moonlight poured into the room
Your face lit by the milky hues.

Every now and then
I wander down those lanes
of my memories that remain
About the two of us.

I miss the long conversations we had
Being honest, open and free
Sharing things we'd never tell others
And all that we told them too
I miss the times spent being silent
Finding comfort in no words at all
Sharing the songs that make us laugh
The movies that brought us to tears
Finding quirk in the silliest of things
And intellect in nothing at all.

Every now and then
I look back and think
of all the things we said we'd do
Just the two of us.

I miss how you laughed,
that little frown on your nose
I miss your tantrums
yes, I miss those too.
I miss your smile, I miss your face,
I miss the way your perfume smells
It's an ache, a gap, a little big void
A hole that hasn't been filled as yet
I think of ways to hide it all,
I think I'm good at it now

But every now and then
My memories take me back
And I'm back again with you
Sometimes I wish time would turn back again
To when it was just us two.

- S -

Digging into my blog drafts - 1. Of MICA and Of Love being only in the Air...

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 05:26:00 +0000

So, I've been cleaning out my blog for sometime now. Spring cleaning you can say. And here's something I found that made me look back, think about how my thoughts, the way I see things and who I am, has changed over time.

Interesting, to dig into your mind's musings from years gone by.

Of MICA and Of Love being only in the Air

Valentine's day is three days away.

It's been so long since I've actually felt more alive, so immersed in the world I'm in, so well...how do I put it...well integrated into the scheme of things. There's so much going on in my life that I've thought of as perfect. Yet I've never felt quite so lonesome.

MICA is an immense sensory and emotional roller coaster ride. One that takes you through a journey that's a life in itself. Two whole years have passed and I've gained what I can only say is priceless. Living in a hostel for nigh two years has forged bonds with my fellow batchmates that I can confidently say will be able to stand the test of time. Open your doors and you can shout out to your neighbour for some food and get two abuses and a pack of chips in return. Three hundred individuals of similar mentality in a twenty and two acre campus makes for some great times together! Parties till the break of dawn and beyond, midnight snacks at Chhota, drowsy classroom projects, weird story nights, poker, badminton till 4 am...yeah! This is the place to be.

Yet in all of this, I do not know why, but I feel lonesome. I barely talk about this to anyone though. It's been what...three years or so since I've been single. And I now miss that companionship...
Culcomm (Cultural Committee at MICA) has decided to set up a Prom night to get all those couples-to-be together. Taking a friend to prom just isn't what I see it to be. Remember Neha's story? (read it here if you haven't) Prom's like that...it's kinda special. More so since my school didn't have a prom in the first place.And I've not really found that special someone with whom I share the same wavelength so to speak. Many have, and it's just amazing to see all of them so happy. Even one of my closest friends here, one who believed her heart's closed to relationships for the time being, found happiness with a batchmate of ours. It's just that....how is it that I cannot find that one person to share my life with? Is it really that difficult? Or is it all just some acts of destiny/fate that's gonna "magically" bring us together? I don't know. And now I do care.

It's great knowing that there's that one special person you want to take care of. That one person who not only knows you best but wants to keep knowing more about you. She's your best friend, the yin to your yang, the addition to your subtraction, she's the cadbury that lifts your spirits when you want something sweet, the sunlight that drenches you in its warmth. Quite simply she gets you.

And I miss that.

.

Valhalla - V

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 17:49:00 +0000

This is an ongoing story between the wonderful Anuradha and myself. You can read the previous parts here:
Valhalla - I
Aurora - II

Valhalla - III

Aurora - IV

_____________________________________________________________________

He left his lookout point and stomped back homeward bound, muffled words of curse breathing out from behind his shaggy beard. As he walked down his oft-taken shortcut through the market, tired but beaming faces greeted him, bowing their heads slightly in acknowledgement. All he did was nod back at them and keep walking. But a few steps through a lane and across the main town square brought a familiar sense of calm about him. He looked up only to smile when he realized where his subconscious walk had taken him to. Up ahead stood a simple tall house, brown and yellow like the soil it stood on. A single lit lamp greeted the doorstep. There was nothing extraordinary about the house from the looks of it; although a row of holly and creepers had found their way around the walls, and wildflowers had grown abundantly from its walls. It quite gave the impression of a simplistically-made clay structure decorated by an eight-year old. But, as with all Earth Shifters, what's above the soil was just the beginning. From within, the soil had been tugged and turned and frozen in place by the fire-fans they used to dry clay, into unique, intricately detailed artworks drawn directly on the walls. The iron and copper in the soil had been manipulated to lend their colours to the art. A smooth earthen staircase lined with a soft carpet of moss and grass, lit by a row of wax candles led down and underground into the elaborate construct that they called home.
His father, although a soldier, had a keen sense of architecture, which he'd put into the home he had so lovingly built for his family. One flight down the staircase led the eye to the immense vastness of the room it opened up to. Ten feet underground and twenty-five feet wide, the living room was a combination of the brute power of shifting tons of earth and the delicate touch of a keen eye. This, like all rooms, were round, ensuring all the heat and wind stayed directed towards the epicenter of each room. Thin columns of shafts ran along the walls and all round the room, starting at just a few inches off the ground and broadening up at the top as they ran towards the central cortex of the ceiling and then straight up to the surface. One large column ran vertically from the surface to the centre of the roof, and through that shaft ran a large oval jewel. Smooth when it was dark outside, it was easy to miss the complex beauty of this curiously placed object partly jutting out from the roof. But when daylight hit the surface and poured down through the column and onto the stone, the complex network of leafy patterns that ran through the jewel refracted the sunlight and spread it across the room, lighting it up with a soft milky golden hue, just perfect to sit with his beloved wife and watch their children play. Rainwater accumulated through what seeped through the soil and into large vats that they used to drink from. The river-water, though, provided a year-long supply of water to whoever needed it, but as his father used to say, "There's something about the rain that quenches even the weariest of traveller's thirst without drinking a single drop."

He was just about to step into his house when something made him turn around, something that tugs at your stomach when you desperately need to do something and you're walking the other way, something he called his real gut feeling.

He strode out his lane and turned right, towards the library. Something had struck him. Something that might change things forever for them. Maybe, just maybe this war could have been averted. And even if not, things could get a lot more worse if his hunch was true. He hurried up the broad white marble stairs and burst into the records room.
"Eleanor! Where are you?" he called out, the urgency in his voice cutting across the silence of the closed bookhouse.
A light, almost casual voice floated in from the northern end of the library, "Why do you always have to make so much noise, warrior? This is a house of knowledge, not battle. Calm your voice and tell me what you need."
He turned around to see tall figure against the large windows of the building, holding a candlestick and slowly stepping down the stairs. The light of the flickering flame highlighted the woman's deep-set cheeks, wrinkles of age not quite hiding the beauty of her features as they once were when she was younger. Thin-cut lips pursed in light irritation of being disturbed after dark breaking into a light smile at the sight of her visitor. He always had something interesting to say, this one. She looked down to avoid stepping on her heavy set pearl-white dress as it billowed around her feet as she walked. A pair of metal-bent spectacles set with tempered glass lenses hid the bright, curious green-gold eyes that were telltale of her clan.
"Eleanor. The stone." he said, hurrying towards her.
Before he could go on, she spoke with her calm demeanor, "I know. And it took you long enough to realize it. Come, we have much to talk about."
She turned without another word and gestured him to follow.
Far out in the darkness, the stone glowed ever so slightly, atop the Central Hall, A heartbeat was all he felt he heard within the silence of the library, but that fleeting moment caused him to turn around and peer in it's direction out the window.
Must have been my tired mind playing games, he thought and shrugged it off as he followed Eleanor into the inner chambers of the Library.

Valhalla - III

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:51:00 +0000

This is an ongoing story between the wonderful Anuradha and myself. You can read the previous parts here:
Valhalla - I
Aurora - II

_____________________________________________________________________

There was something to be said of the warrior blood that ran in his clan. From the time he had been a boy, his father, a veteran-at-war had taught him the art of Earth-Shifting. It all fascinated him at first, trying to focus his energies into the palms of his hands until they started tingling and quivering, and then pushing it from his fingers into the small rock, trying to melt and mold it into a nice, round shape.

"You should be able to command your energy so well that neither your hand nor your mind waivers when you release it.", he remembered his father's voice speaking it a hundred times over, as he touched the rock and stepped back to see it rumble, crumble and reform itself into a giant winged hammer.

"Remember son, strong as a hammer, and twice as hard."

Endless days and some more nights of parrying with his friends, wrestling each other into the mud and using the same soil to their advantage, he enjoyed it all! They said he was gifted with an imagination that set him apart from most of his clan. While others built up immense pillars of stone with a single punch to the ground, he would raise a column of spiked turrets, not unlike a giant mace, and bend the stone over with a touch to pound whatever was unfortunate enough to be in its way.

He had practiced, beaten, got beaten, bruised, even broken and held down by the veterans of the art. Yet he would get up and strike again. And again. He had some big shoes to fill in his father's prowess and there was neither time nor room for error. How could he have known that the very blood he spilled would be what raised him above everyone else. He had soon grown faster and stronger than the others, and more skilled than most.

As he peered into the darkness, the control of the years of practice steadying his mind, the cool wind wove through his hair. The word had come as if carried by the wind, bringing a warning that was directed to him, and him alone.

No, it could not end here. He could not end.

The war had started in his family's name, and in his name it had ended. Hundreds had given up their families, their livelihood and their lives to make right the wrong that was done unto him.
He could not buckle now, when peace had finally set in.

He looked upon the horizon that seemed to sink into the darkness of the sea, broken only by the moonlight reflecting off the waves like chinks of diamond skimming the surface of the water. As the clouds cleared off like floating mists along the valleys in the distance, silhouetted against the moonlight, he saw a lone figure standing by the beach, her lithe figure broken only by the wind billowing through her robe, defiant and powerful.

He drew a whiff of energy from within, his eyes aglow with the green-gold power he drew from the earth and tapped his foot where he stood. A cloud of dust flew several feet into the sky. A show of power, and a reminder of who had won the war.

"Damned Wind Keepers", he muttered under his breath and turned around.

Valhalla - 1

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 16:08:00 +0000

It was a warm, balmy night. The wind had just started picking up from a light draft to that high-pitched howl that only you can hear. He stood at the edge of the cliff, looking down into the abyss, contemplating that first step towards the quick embrace of eternal darkness.
He'd had enough. He'd done too much.
He could neither sleep at night, nor would his body allow him to stay awake.
His nightmares had crawled out of his sleep and into a sleepless hallucination of reality.
He wanted no more.

It needed to end.

The past four years had been one big war, from the barbaric tribes invading his homeland from up north, to the mysterious scarred scavengers from the wastelands beyond. Ever since his mine workers had started digging at the foothills of the Grey Hills, it had been one misfortune after another. At first, he'd thought that it was just the alignment of the stars. Why, he'd thanked their stars and the four Gods when they'd unearthed the immense crystal rock underneath a landfall of rocks and rubble. It now sat atop the Central Hall at the heart of his hometown.
That was when it started.

That evening flashed before his eyes as if it happened just a few moons back. He had been resting atop his favourite lookout point - a small overhanging piece of land on which stood a massive lone cypress tree - a sole sentry to the town. A few grey clouds in the sky silhouetted against a waxing moon spoke of a warm night ahead. He'd laid his head against the tree and sat there, staring at the vast, empty sky, the murmur of the townfolk sitting down to dinner not-so-far beneath him. Somewhere in the distance, a solitary seagull called out for the last time before landing his wings down for the night. He looked left and out to the Central Hall, admiring the crystal that had become the crown jewel of his clan. How brilliant it looked in the moonlight!
Maybe a little too brilliant, he thought. The moon is at a wax, not enough light for anything to shine as brightly as it was.
Maybe he was mistaken.
Maybe it was the lack of a sound night of sleep.

He looked back up at the sky, settling back against his seat, ready to just drift off to sleep when he heard something that send a chill down his spine and jolted him back to reality.
It was no wolf howl, neither was it the hiss of a viper. It wasn't even the scream of a drunk ravaging some woman unlucky enough to be caught unawares in a dark alley. That was all known and familiar.
This. This was different. It was closer, much closer. Too close even.
The whisper came with the wind, spoke a silent word in his ear, a shivering breath of syllables put together,
"Die."

He stood up straight, palms sweaty, clenched against his dagger.

All he saw were clouds.

The One Nation - India

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:17:00 +0000

Written quite some time back on Republic Day, I kind of got an urge to post this tonight.

Republic Day of India.
Sixty glorious years since Dr. Rajendra Prasad signed the Constitution that allowed India to think on it's own two feet. After all, what's Independence without a way to govern. Sixty years since the nation handed over power to it's people, the very citizens who gave their love, life and blood for the elusive bird called freedom. Such devotion towards the country was rewarded with the power to choose who governed them. Sounds just about perfect doesn't it?

Well, we've come a long long way from that "One nation one voice" era. That one resounding, resonating voice of a nation has now been split into a thousand individual voices screaming to gain control, to be heard over the ear-splitting din. What is a Republic really? Is it the best way to govern a country - to let the people decide who gets to call the shots; Or is it just a simple enough way of knowing whose shoulder to rest your gun on?
Corruption abounds, about fifty percent of our elected representatives, according to media reports, apparently have some shady past records. That's every other MLA or other politician that you vote for. And those who don't are slowly being dragged into the mess. Secular state...Fifty different sects fight for their own share of the country. Then where does the country go?
That's just the cynical me talking, but what's to refute in my argument? Twenty one years since I was born and the only two songs that I hear every year, twice a year(dummies read Republic Day and Independence Day) are "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon" by Lata Mangeshkar and "Vande Mataram" by Rahman. Where's the new-age, ultra-aware youth-oriented music industry? This year is the first time I've heard of a song being declared a nationalist patriotic song that everyone should stand up to. You know which one I think is the true song of the nation?
This one.

And the latest song above is a remake of this. Seriously guys, there's a lot more creativity and initiative in the music industry to do more than one remake in twenty years.

Anyway, enough dissing my country...with all the love that I wrote the Independence Day post, I truly think, with all the quirks, our country is the greatest.
Where else would you find a Muslim, a Hindu, A Sikh and a Parsi living their years separated by just a brick wall, and sometimes not even that.
Where else would you see a palace built in memory of the love of your life?
Where else will you find the largest gathering of people in the world, once a year?
Where else do you find the answer to life in four compendiums?
Where else in the world do you find 18 scheduled languages, 114 other languages, 216 mother tongues,96 non specified languages, and totally up to 10000 languages spoken by people, yet roaring with one voice when one man comes to the crease with a bat?
Where else would you find the world's most efficient Six-Sigma (one error in SIX MILLION!) coveted by a bunch of guys delivering home-made food?

Oh the list can go on, and on, and on! It's not for nothing that they say, Saare Jahaan Se Achha, Hindustan Humaara!

Fireflies

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:44:00 +0000

Night falls and the clouds loom low,
And the wind whistles it's forlorn melody.
The pitter-patter of the rain, the sudden flash of lightning,
and for an instant, the whole world's still.

Birds seek shelter under leaves and oak,
While the four-legged ones scamper to hide.
Heavy drops of ice-cold water from the heavens above,
That's all can be heard, for the whole world's still.

As the rains slowly fade away into the night,
The world seems to come alive,
As one sound subsides, another takes it's place,
With the sounds of a thousand voices' relieved sigh,
But wherefrom the voices come, no one knows,
For they come from the darkness of the night.
The rains have gone, but the clouds fill the sky,
With no sun to light the void.

And then you come out of your hiding place,
tiny lantern of the night,
One little drop of golden hue, and then a thousand more,
Setting the bushels aglow.

Nojoto

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:56:00 +0000

Hey guys,

So the reason why I've been away so long is that there's something new I've been working on. It's a work in progress and it's just started to take shape.

The name's Nojoto.

We have a blog going that started about a week back. It's all about creating a social identity that's quite different from the numerous social networking sites on the internet.

Hopefully I'll be able to put up a sneak peek of the project for you guys soon!

Till then, check it out!!

nojoto.blogspot.in

Existence - A Timelapse on life

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:04:00 +0000

Was going through Facebook today when someone shared this video:

Brilliant and very, very awe-inspiring! Suddenly, the world feels like a much larger, yet closely connected to everything.
Turn off the lights, watch on a huge screen :D

TZINGA!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 06:21:00 +0000

Well, the other day I went shopping at Inorbit's Hypercity, here in Hyderabad. Strolling though the aisles, I happened upon this funky name -TZINGA! Check it out:

SO, the first thing that came to my mind?

GIFSoup

Okay, onto the drink itself. First look was literally a steal! No, really. I picked up 2 packs and almost walked out of the supermarket without running it through the cashier. What ensued was an animated conversation in Hyderabadi mixed with Hindi and some Telugu interspersed in between with me trying to explain that I'm not a thief and the guard simply shaking his head in vehement disapproval. Few minutes later, I walked out with a now-paid-for and fully legal bag of TZINGAs to taste.

The pack itself stands out in the crowd, but the only problem is that if it weren't for the placement on the aisle (drinks and beverages) I would seriously have missed (or mistaken) it for a dishwashing liquid, like those refill packs of Vim or Pril. Having said that, the pack's awesome. I love the flexible soft-pack feel to the bottle (if I may even call it a bottle). It's truly a "Packed" drink; and according to their website TZINGA.IN it actually consumes less material than the bottled or canned drinks, automatically becoming lighter on the environment. Cool right? Right?

Right.

The drink comes in three funky flavours - Lemon Mint, Tropical Trip and Mango Strawberry. Needless to say, my loyalties veered towards Lemon Mint. I simply LOVE those two flavours and the combo really hit the spot. The other two were a mix of flavours with Tropical Trip being more grape'y and Mango Strawberry tasting like bubblegum (which was quite a pleasant surprise for me!)

Now comes the good part. A little bit of reading into the fine print and looking up the ingredients online, these drinks contain real ginseng (formerly popular in Twinnings tea) and real guarana.

What's Guarana you ask? It's a killer natural alternative to caffeine, which gives you the same amount of kick at a much lower cost to your body. And ginseng, you must already know, has massive amounts of anti-oxidants. So each swig you take from the porta-flask-esque pack of TZINGA, you get a power-packed dosage of uber-healthy stuff that should give you a few more hours of battery life ;)

The cherry on top? Each pack costs only Rs.20/- Even I didn't believe it at first, and thought probably they're fibbing about the ingredients or the print must be wrong. But lo and behold, the price checked out and the ingredients are guaranteed natural, and the drink even tasted great!
I think it's a great addition to the line of affordable energy drinks available to us.
It also made for us some cool flavoured mixers for a round of vodka, limes, rums and whiskeys!

Have a swig next time you see it on a shelf in a store near you. It's cool, it's funky, it's extremely affordable and of course, it's TZINGA!!

Awesome BTL campaigns and Brand Activations!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Wed, 30 May 2012 07:52:00 +0000

Okay, so with great power comes great responsibility. Uncle Ben clearly never worked in an ad agency.

Even with the chindi powers of an account planner, there comes the responsibility of coming up with the wildest strategy ideas that the brand can accomodate. This brought me to an oft-used old school marketing technique that's been making a comeback in recent times - BTL, urf Below The Line.

See, there were these two sisters A and B. They were strippers at a club. A was the sleazy but slightly less beautiful one while B was extremely hot yet of a nicer nature. Owing to their personalities, their performances were far far different from each other. A always took centrestage, twisted the pole, held the entire crowd's attention. B on the other hand, was the lap dancer, keeping herself to private performances. Since A was right on the stage, she got a lot of tips from the entire crowd, but she could never tell how much she'd get, but it pleased everyone, so it pleased her as well, the voyeur that she was. B, on the other hand, earned great amounts from her regulars, pleasing them with undivided personal attention to each of them. Although she handled lesser numbers, her engagement was much much more than A could ever manage.

And that is what ATL and BTL are all about.

ATL, Above The Line, is all glamour. It's about reaching out to the masses through public media with a message that creates or reinforces brand communications. But there's no direct consumer involvement. You can't touch ATL.

BTL, Below The Line, is a more down-to-earth, hands-on approach that is more direct and establishes a relationship of the brand with individual consumers.

So, here are five of the most amazing BTL campaigns and brand activations that have caught the attention and admiration of their target audiences worldwide:

1. Smart E-BALL

Electric cars are not really all that attractive. Their tech is quite nascent, they have very less power and accelerate oh-so-slowly! To prove all of these conceptions wrong, promoters of the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive set up an activation on the streets to showcase the car's surprisingly powerful acceleration.

They created a live digital version of the classic game of Pong and mapped two Smart cars to drive back and forth to act as the paddles.

The result? Instant crowd engagement that gave the potential buyer an opportunity to test drive the cars and get a real feel of it.

Check out this cool video case study for all the details!

2. Project Glass - Google

Google has always been the forerunner in coming up with innovative technology and dishing it out for the world to experience. Project Glass by Google let the futurist in us get a glimpse into the kind of tech they've been developing and we've been dreaming of. With a POV video that went surprisingly viral, Project Glass received immense attention and captured everyone's imagination of a future where everything we see is just that much more.

The Google Plus page for this project keeps posting updates on the progress of this device. Check out the video and marvel at the possibilities of this piece of tech!

3. 3M Scotch Brite - Wash Your Bill

How many times have you wanted to eat and eat and eat, and not pay the bill? Always right? Well, Scotch brite came up with a cool innovative campaign that I personally would love to see implemented at a restaurant near me.

Don't want to pay your bill? Do the dishes.

Simple. Smart. Punny. And HIGHLY effective.

All it needed was a restaurant's co-operation and a few willing social media addicts to make this a fun cool way for Scotch Brite to reach out to an audience that barely even connected with it.

4. Andes - The Great Escape!

Everyone needs a rescue! Especially those of us who are stuck in a drab theatre performance, a boring anniversary dinner or just plain stuck. Andes beer decided to don the cape of rescue rangers and designed a fascinatingly elaborate campaign to rescue unwilling attenders of functions and take them to a much more conducive location of their choice - A bar with all their friends in it!

Run over a span of two months, this is one heck of a campaign that would make anyone an instant fan of their beer!

The way to do it? Just a few clicks on Facebook!

5. Heineken QR Sticker Festival

One more beer activation, just coz all beer companies are that much cooler! ;)

QR codes haven't been around for too long, but they're catching on, and fast! It's fast, easy and free to generate. Couple that with a HUGE concert and youngsters willing to meet new people, Heineken came up with this great new way to meet someone at a Polish summer festival. They generated custom QR codes carrying whacky and cool personalized messages, printed them out on stickers to be stuck anywhere on the person's body and which others may scan, giving them a completely new way to break the ice.

What resulted during the 4 day festival, they printed a massive number of stickers and helped people "Open up their world!"

Check out their video case study here!~

Done right, activations make great fans out of the consumers, if not loyalists. Current companies, especially technology and FMCGs are slowly realizing that fact and betting more and more on BTL activities to promote themselves.With such awesome innovations already out there and crazy minds constantly working with huge budgets just to beat the competition to it, who knows what might come our way each day that we walk down the street?

S, over and out.

Being Bengali! (And the goodness of food!)

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:26:00 +0000

I was born and brought up in Mumbai, the most cosmopolitan, metropolitan (and many more litans) city in this country. There's no one single language or religion or race or caste that forms too large a majority here. It's a melting pot, an amalgamation of a brilliant array of socio-cultural people living in harmony (and occasional disharmony) with each other.

When I was growing up, I was this typical "Bong boy" - Oily side-parted hair, spectacles on the nose, a slight pot-belly and an inherent love for maach-bhaat (Fish and rice). Somewhere while going from a four-foot something to a six-foot something (stop sniggering will you!) I kind of lost touch with my inner bangali babu. It's only in recent years that I rediscovered the bengali inside me and come to terms with the fact that there's no escaping it.

Like all self-respecting Bongs, I love an intellectual conversation over coffee, endearingly called as adda by the Kolkata kakushona across the street. I have a penchant for numbers. Maths was my favourite subject in school. I'm kind of nerdy too, loving my daily dose of literature (from Crichton's technical details to Tolkien's intricate worlds to Rowling's divinations to Gardner's number games) I just can't do without a few pages a day at the very least! Right after lunch I shall feel the effects of bhaat-ghoom (The urge for an after-rice siesta). I totally reserve the right to say "Eeeesh!" at everything that disgusts, repels, excites, fascinates, shocks or even surprises me; and absolutely no one can do a drunk, "Paro!" like I do!

But the one thing I absolutely and completely identify with as a Bengali stereotype is our love for food! I absolutely LOVE to eat. That's one trait I shall always thank the Bengali community for! I think the HIPPO chips ads were inspired from a Bengali! Hippo fight Hunger it seems! Being a foodie is what being bong is totally about to me. I mean, what can be better than a plateful of macher-jhol or a potful of mishti-doi when you sit to dine?
The single biggest thing that any Bengali event revolves around is FOOD! Be it a wedding or festival celebrations or just a simple family get-together, the first thing that your maashi (aunt) will ask when she enters the house will be, "Oooooooo! (in that pitch, tone and voice that you heard in your head right now), Great smell! What are you cooking??" And with that all the women of the house will make a beeline for the kitchen where my mother dearest will proceed to explain in detail how, what and how much of each dish she's cooking. Oh and also, offers of assisting and vigorous denials can be heard from the kitchen amidst the din that comes out of having a large congregation of Bengali mohila (ladies) at one confined place with food.

I've grown up loving food and watching food shows like Masterchef and Hell's Kitchen and even our own beloved Khaana Khazana, asking mother to cook something out of it. My mum's an amazing cook too! She can cook pretty much everything from plain daal-bhaat to a mean meat steak! Our family trips in my childhood and almost every other trip I've been on after that has always revolved around getting to the best places to eat, wherever I went. Nothing makes me happier than to dig into a delectable piece of cooked meal; I'm happier when someone else shows the same appreciation I do for the same food. The way to my heart goes right through my palate and there's no two ways about it!

So if you meet me on the street, or just for a casual snack, beware that the Bong in me will make sure you end up with a full stomach by the time we depart. Coz even though we might not be the best off-topic conversationalists, we sure do know how to cover that up with a good meal!

Cheers, and from our favourite new-gen Bengali anti-hero, Nomoshkar! ;)

Kindness makes the world go round!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:12:00 +0000

And in all that ranting and sentimental writing, this came up and cheered me the hell up!

Watch and share!

When the giant awakens...

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:54:00 +0000

The poem was inspired by this beautiful photo clicked by my friend and photographer extrodinaire Abhijeet Singh.

In the distance the giant awakens
fire in the belly, rising from slumber deep
red molten fury beneath a crust frozen over
rip the sky apart and make it weep.

He looks down and sees her dance

shiver, curl, swirl and crash

motion fluid yet every pulse of power

mould herself with every splash.

A worthy roar and a quiver of rage

a thrust of fire and boundaries break

Stallions of yellow and red gallop down the rocky breast

black soot of destruction in their wake.

She looks up at him with a loving gaze

her arms entwined to a cold embrace

white spray and rainbow hues aglow

forever nudging his rough surface.

And then the twine meet at long last

loud escape of hissing satisfaction

she holds him close, he pushes into her

now, as one, in neutral inaction.

Rapid fire Writing my thoughts out!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:42:00 +0000

Somewhere at the airport, lost in time and with nothing to do is when I realize the words that have welled and swelled up inside me over the past few months. It's been ages since I wrote. Checked back at my blog today and realized the last post was in August. Yeah, then. Writing was...probably, yes probably still is my passion and my blog, my confidante. I doubt myself because I barely get time to write these days.
Come to think of it, why did I start writing in the first place? I daydreamed all day long. Two hour travelling time alone makes you do such things. Well, that and my mind was always an adventure to me. I close my eyes and I'm off to middle-earth, battling orcs and crazed dragons, firing up energy in the mere palms of my hands and blocking out immense balls of fire shot at me by wizards from lands unknown. Then there were the more real situations...not so real too probably because I like to put myself in movies that I love, be it the romantic Sound of Music, hilarious Home Alone, fist pumping fast paced Bruce Lee tourneys or a plain action packed guns-ablaze flick to entertain. Yeah, I'm my own hero. There's a thousand different worlds in my mind, all connected by a single soul - me. With the flick of an eyelid I can travel between worlds, stop time, lift off into space, save the earth, win the hearts of a hundred damsels in distress. Just the same, I would be the one protecting my loved ones, losing out all in the end. I don't know..It's all in my head and they keep popping up sometime or the other. And that's why I started writing in the first place. These worlds, these friends and foes come to me and disappear quite as quickly as they come. The world between the flickering blurs of my dreams and reality is what I want to record. Remember as and when I please. Sometimes I try to fly and I cannot. I try hard. Really hard, yet I cannot. That used to happen in my world of childhood days. Now, I fly. But this I can remember, the stories where I wanted to fly, I cannot. The blur you find when you start to forget, I want to erase. That's why I started writing.
Thoughts are your own. They're supposed to be private. Sometimes you cannot voice your thoughts for reasons galore. They may come out in the form of actions, when you talk about it with someone you trust completely, sometimes they may not manifest at all. But those stories in your head? Ones where you think you can relate to, the ones you tend to remember after you wake up, or long after you've stopped thinking about them? They're those thoughts surfacing. I prefer to let them surface whenever they want. That's one way of keeping a straight head. Thinking rational. Writing them down, blogging for that matter, let me talk to that unseen face that listened, did not react. And when it reacted, there were a hundred different voices, some agreeing to what I say, some that countered, some that appreciated how I put my words, some, again, criticized. I enjoy sharing my thoughts without making sense of them on my own.

Back to the stories. Sometimes, especially at the end of the day, when I'm walking alone, taking a walk or just plain loitering, I think of people..the people around me...my friends, my family, the ones close to me. Even some not-so-close to me. Having that bit of time to yourself is a luxury these days. And many a times, those stories in my head form around what I feel should have been..what actions he/she should have taken. What I would have done had I been in his/her place. Is that really necessary? Why should I be bothered with what someone else does? Because I think it's good to learn. Analyze. That's my forte. Probably might be my undoing as well.

Is this piece incomplete? I'm not sure. I hope not..it's my thoughts, I tend to trail away as I have often done in the most crucial of situations. But that's just the reel in my head starting to play time and again. And it knows no time, no situations...it just plays whenever it wants to.

To be Continued 4

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:33:00 +0000

Part 1: click here
Part 2: click here
Part 3: click here

A quick word with his friends across the counter and some teasing remarks from them and he was back by her side. "Shall we?" he said, swaying his hand towards the door in one fluid motion. His casual demeanor surprised her. She probably wasn't used to hanging around men like him, he figured. As he held the door open for her, she got up smoothly and walked out, her firm posture affirming her confidence and style, and they walked out of the store to a few muffled hoots and comments from his friends behind the counter.
"This one's gonna be interesting for sure." he thought, walking into the coffee shop across the road. She had already walked ahead to the counter and asked for her drink. As he proceeded to do the same, Westlife's "Uptown Girl" started playing on the jukebox and he quietly smiled to himself at the irony of the situation. To his surprise, he saw her do the same and couldn't help but wink at her. She just smiled slyly at him and took her seat by a chessboard.
On the white side.
"She likes to be in control..." he noted.
Intrigued, he waited for her to make the first move.
"So, what's your name?" he asked. Standard pick-up line on a regular day, but this time, he really wanted to know.
"Why don't we keep it a secret for now?" she said, not looking up.
He remained silent as he watched her make the first move. Time usually slows down when you're playing something like a game of chess where each move has to be thought of slowly and carefully. And it did for the first couple of minutes. His careless attitude, the casual charm that had floored many a girl right from high-school faltered in front of this self-confident, haughty yet chic woman who had not only captured his attention but practically made him ask her out. Not the way things usually went in his life, and that had caught him by surprise. His conversation initially was that of a high-school boy on a first-time date, not knowing what to say.
"What's your name?",
"Where are you from?",
"So, what do you like?"...
He even thought of starting with a "Sup?" and held himself back in the nick of time.
But as all conversation happen, things started getting a bit smoother as he realized from her tiny smiles and raised eyebrows from time to time that she had been playing him all along, avoiding personal talk and making things difficult for him. Also, that he'd been losing miserably at the game that had been unfolding before his eyes. Time to buck up! he thought and started concentrating on the game, but soon he found that she was truly too good for him. Back and forth, back and forth they rallied their players, dancing to the tunes of their whims, battling invisible battles as he parried her moves with his, their each step revealing just a little bit about each other's thoughts. And beyond the chessboard, their conversation flowed with a rhythm that was just as surprising. He found that her personality was a lot like his own, but beyond that, she was an enigma. So secretive, a closed book to some extent. She revealed nothing about herself, wanting to talk about him instead, yet he sensed no bad intent in that. He himself had lost count of how many women he had tried the John Doe on so that they wouldn't be able to call him back the night after. But she didn't quite seem that type. Here was a woman who was so intriguing, in looks and in personality, and yet so secretive that he knew practically nothing about her. Maybe that's what attracted him to her even more. He didn't know, and that bothered him more than the prospect of winning or losing the game.

"And that's check, and mate." she said, leaning back and taking the final sip of her decaf latte, now lukewarm from the long game.

.

To be continued...2

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:49:00 +0000

For part 1, click here.

There was nothing he didn't know how to handle. Street smart, reckless and suave, things came easily to him. With a natural charm and rugged looks, life was easy. He cared less about where life took him and liked to go with the flow. That morning, like any other, he hopped into his Mustang and revved up the engine. Nothing soothed him more and nothing pumped more adrenaline into his blood than the sound of her engine. He headed towards the Macy's outlet where he worked to start his morning shift. Money wasn't a concern for him. As long as it paid rent and got him a square meal, he was fine. That morning, though, he was late. So he pressed on the gas and let the Mustang dominate the road as she often did.

He sped through the signals, not missing a beat as each turned red just as he crossed them. He drove by this road enough each day to know how long each signal held. A few blocks away from the store, he pulled over at a signal. A chic Datsun caught his eye. Looking left, he saw a gorgeous woman behind the wheel, hair tied back and held together with a scarf, sunglasses donned over her eyes and a strand of stray hair wafting back and forth in the light wind blowing through her hair. Intrigued, he waited for her to move first as the signal turned green. The woman seemed to enjoy the casual ride, yet seemed lost in thought. She accelerated gracefully and raced past him in one smooth motion. He trailed his eyes after her and raced to catch up. She was going his way anyway after all. Two blocks down, she turned right and into the parking lot of the very store he worked at.

He couldn't believe it!

Pulling up next to her car and peeking into the Datsun, he knew there was something about her. Something mysterious...an air of detatched solitude that made her all the more attractive. He knew she was probably way beyond his league, yet he did not care. He never did anyway. Changing into his work clothes, he rushed into the store to find her browsing through a few clothes at the far end. This was the first time he got a good glimpse of her. With the sunglasses off, he saw that she had hazel brown almond eyes, almost oriental, wavy shoulder length hair tied back with a white silk scarf with maroon checks. She wore denim trousers and a stunning red top with a navy blue shrug. She was looking out the window, lost in thought and in the music plugged into her ears from her ipod, a red bag clutched in her slender hands and lips pursed in a lost look of concentration.

"Ah, what the heck!" he thought and handing over his shift to a colleague, took off his work apron, smoothed out his hair, straightened his clothes and with a confident stride, approached her.

"Hi." he held out his hand, and waited.

And waited.

She looked up at him with a gaze that was a mix of indifference and interest. An irony to say the least.

Then she finally let her lips part into a slight smile.

"Hi."; and held out her hand.

.

Classroom Shayaris!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaunak Mukherjee) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Been a long time! MICA's a blast and there's a lot to do. But in the midst of it all, classroom capers are commonplace. So, presenting a few of what I like to call Classroom Shayaris, courtesy yours truly being bored to death from four hours of sleep and a droning professor:

Tere pyaar ne kar diya pagal,
Tere pyaar ne kar diya pagal,
Shareholder's equity is called share capital!
Wah wah wah!
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Dum maaro dum, mit jaaye gum,
Dum maaro dum, mit jaaye gum,
A share's issue price can be at a premium!

(I think this deserves an applause :P )

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Dikhne mein toh tu lagti hai badi sweet,
Dikhne mein toh tu lagti hai badi sweet,
Liabilities and assets come in Balance Sheet!

(sadly jis ladki ko yeh shayari maari, she ran away disgusted. I haven't been able to figure out why :| )

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Kabhi khushi kabhi gum,
Tara pum pum pum,
Chai mein cheeni kum,
Piyo whiskey, piyo rum!
Waaah! waaah!

(this one actually received temporary appreciation)

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Tum mile, dil khile,
tum mile, dil khile,
I'm dying for some steak,
And loads of fish fillet!

(No breakfast, what to do :(

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Main shayar toh nahi,
Magar aye hasin,
Tu likh rahi hai secret mein,
maine share kiya toh sahi!

(after she told me she's blogging at her desk too :D )

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And of course....

Aye Shibani!
Pee le thodi paani,
Yeh lecture chalta raha toh
Khatam meri kahaani!

(We both agreed to that!)

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I'll be back with more after a few more lectures! Till then you guys can plan on ways to kill me.
Until next time!
Ciao!