Showing posts with label Contest Entry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Contest Entry. Show all posts

Friday, September 4, 2009

The Last Flood


The flood was bloody. And so was the aftermath. It has been a couple of days, since the silent river rose, roared and ruined the village. The time was frightening and was long lived – enough to engulf the whole village. The life-giving river that used to provide the villagers food and water became a monster that night, and ate up its own children. The tides rose above the banks and swallowed crops, cattle, trees, huts and everything else that beautified and glorified the village.


It left behind Mili alone, the daughter of the village milkman. She was away, at other end of the village, collecting blueberries for the market, next day. She was late and it was raining incessantly; she thought of spending the night with her ailing grandmother. She lived there and she lives to witness the repercussions of the flood that devastated her family, her village and all her dreams overnight!


She remembers the day when she first went to school. Her mother accompanied her till the river. She took a handful of water and sprinkled it all over Mili and asked her to take its blessings, since it was her first steps into a new life. She never knew then that the river would one day, do such grotesque a thing to wipe out the very village that worshipped and considered it their mother.


Mili walked by the bank of the river over the stones and pebbles towards the place where her house used to be, just the other day. She looked up – the moon was like a big aluminum plate, they used to eat on. The river was silent again, but the water in it was rushing downhill like never before. She never saw such haste in the river water. She wanted to ask them where they were going – after sullying her life. They seemed to speed through just to avoid her questions. She cried for the entire day – her tear buds were frozen and out of tears. She cried no more.


She reached the place and looked around – there is no sign of any inhabitance anywhere. Only the vestiges of the mud walls stayed to prove that there were people staying here. She walked among those broken walls and could find nothing but sand and trails of silt and shrubs that the water carried. There was nothing left to cry on or to call home!


It started to rain again. A sudden thought made her cold: is the water hastening to create similar mayhem in the other end of the village, where her grandmother was staying? She got scared! She looked back and ran over the stony riverbank. Her feet bleed but she never stopped but sped as if she was competing with the stream. As soon as she reached grandmother’s hut she ran in and hugged the shivering old woman. She asked, “What happened, Mili? Why did you come back?” Mili whispered in her ears, “Nothing Granny. Everything is all right – everything is silent!”



Continue reading...

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Liberation (Contest Entry)




Liberty
Inspires
Boundlessness
Eternal
Recess
Alcove of soul
Tranquility
Independence
Oblivious mind
Never bound




Submitted to : Acrostic Only Contest Prompt 1 –Liberation
© May 19, 2009 Tanmoy Das, Bangalore, India


Continue reading...

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

A bug – a guru.




Here I sit, in this stranded cave
Having lost all –
My family, love, kingdom and people.
I have nowhere to go,
I await no one’s call –
In that bloody battlefield, I lost them all!

The battle so filthy,
It ruined me to dust –
My people betrayed, whom I trust
Still. Maybe it’s time
For me to bid goodbye –
After all that happened, I wonder why!

Where are you?
My loveliest –
The one to whom I sworn.
Traitor, yet my friend
Where have you gone?
Deceiving the land, where you were born!

Sitting here tonight,
I feel so low,
For, apart from the heavens, I’ve nowhere to go,
I flew from the arena
My people know
This shameful face of mine, I cannot show.

My sword, my friend
I plea to thee –
Cut off my head and set me free,
For, I have no choice
But to flee –
Tomorrow’s sunrise, I want not to see.

But stop. What is that bug on the wall?
Striving to climb up, yet so small,
Hurling a web and trying to mount
But each time it would surely fall.



No, wait! It is climbing now
Showing me the way exactly how
What a thought, that has crept in my mind!
“O Spider, my teacher, let me take a bow.”

Now I know! No need to fake it.
The world to you is the way you take it.
One thing that I have learnt for my life –
If you try, you will surely make it.
Continue reading...

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Now, I Move Up


I came back to consciousness when I felt the soft brushes of the escalator touching me over my jeans. I was standing on the stairs and they were ascending. The earth always moves; but I never sensed it before. How dumb I was! I kept on howling and repenting on my times of yore, when I was stagnant and everything else kept moving – in its own pace. Nothing stopped for me; none stopped for me. I wailed, when I found myself abandoned in life. I saw my people moving ahead and felt left out. I cried. I saw my life stuck in debris of faults, mistakes and losses. I stopped dreaming and I stopped craving for realizing them too. I had no aim in life. I lost all hopes.


This is when I met him – the man of my thoughts. He changed my life completely. He took me by my hands and led me into the world that constantly rotates and revolves. I no more expect people to stop for me and say a few words of praise. Now, I do whatever it takes to materialize my dreams and acquire everyone’s eulogy. How I wish to have met him earlier! He lifted me from the ashes as this escalator is lifting me to the next level. Today is the day I have been waiting for. Today is the day of triumph. I just need to reach the apex and step into a life where the escalators move up – only upwards!

Continue reading...

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A Visit!

[Backdrop: I was going through this blog – The Writers Lounge, may be a 20 minutes ago. The very first post was a challenge – asking the blog members to write a story in not more than 400 words about Rain. I found it challenging too. It took me to my old days, when I used to write a page length story in Bengali, for which I got family wide recognition. I thought of giving it a go right away. And here, is the story – of a rainy evening, somewhere in Europe.]

It was raining cats and dogs when I left home. I was hurrying through the drenched streets and making my way to where she lives now. She would be waiting, I knew. She would be getting wet too. I took the raincoat, but forgot the hat – was in such a hurry. Took a bunch of yellow tulips from the florist at the corner; she loves these. I moved nearer to her place. Making my way through the fleeing crowd was toil. I hid the flowers inside the raincoat, hoping they would not get soaked. And I rushed through. Many of the folks had umbrellas. Hush! Why did I not bring mine? – I thought. This small kid, walking with her dog in her lap was trying to get underneath her mother’s umbrella. She was playing hide and seek with the rain and getting drenched – the mother was too hasty to look back at her, as she passed me. Hope they live nearby. The other couple was too busy in each other that they could not see the rushing limousine. And as I thought, the car splashed all the water unto them. They looked at themselves, then the passing car, then at each other and laughed. Weirdoes! They found another excuse to hold each other more tightly. All the people were either walking swiftly towards their destination or running towards a nearby hideout. None had time to look at anyone; neither did I. She was waiting! I hurried faster. I did not have time to enjoy the rainfall. I thought of enjoying the shower together with her. It took me another couple of minutes to be there. I reached her place just in time. I went past her mates in there – they had no visitors. I was the only one there – wet, but happy. I could see the bluish cross – no mistake, it’s her! I went near; sat by her grave. It was all sodden in this evening London rain. I took out the flowers and laid them by her chest. She felt it close to her heart – still thumping as mine. I felt she cried in bliss, that I could make it on her 87th forgotten birthday – even in this downpour. Tears were in my eyes too, but thanks to the raindrops – I went unnoticed.

Continue reading...