Kiwi caipiroska

prompt -'recipe' @ poets and storytellers united 

Golden hands

Can pour no wrong.

With a pinch of salt

We forget all their faults

I sip my kiwi caipiroska

Willing to take me back in time

To places which only existed in my mind

Where the golden sun

Didn’t hate the silver moon

Every day was a noon

Akin to a silver spoon.

Next round please

This time add pepper and honey

Maybe a few notes of mahogany

I’m gonna scream a symphony

A woman’s baritone

A man’s lullaby

World shouldn’t make sense

Should words?

Just get me the whole pitcher.

The Sickbird

I found this short story in my draftboard and was appalled that a) i wrote this in 2010 b)forgot that i wrote it c) my english was so bad xP I did find it a bit intriguing and so i am posting it. Don't ask me where i got the story line from - I am as clueless. 

Everyone got sick of the sickbird after one point or the other. She always complained about some pain or the other.At first they thought they were real and sympathized with her.That was true even for our hero Hari. She was a distant aunt to him and had come to stay in his house for a week for some unknown reasons.
The event thus follows their first meet : 
Hari came home after playing bone breaking , eyeball scratching basketball and came home with legs full of bruises and tee shirt full of dirt. He headed directly to the bedroom and locked it before his mother could stop him.He started removing his tee shirt and headed to the bathroom which was attached to his room.He was about to open the door when the door opened by itself and a small lady was there in her towel. "AAAHH" he cried out. "Abishtu! Abistusheshu!" yelled the puny lady.
"WHO? who are you?..." 
"I should ask you that, young man! How dare do you come inside an occupied bathroom"
"I.......er.....didn't know. SORRY"
"what sorry? blah blah blah etc etc.....*fie minutes later* OK who are you?
"well, I live in this house........"
"Oh !! HARI!! Ayyo evalavu valandutha!(u have grown so tall!) YOU are leela's son right?!"
"no! she's my mom" he grinned.She didn't get it. Anyways that is the weird introduction


Getting to know the sick bird:
After she finally left his room , hari had a hot shower and came down to have dinner.There only the small lady's voice could be  heard. She was telling them, " Hari is soo naughty! He was waiting outside the bathroom to scare his poor aunty! He doesn't know that I have heart problem.Shiva shiva! My BP seems to be high and heart is slightly starting to ache! Do you have jfienjadj tablet? NO! Oh my god it is such a important tablet nowadays what with all these boys screaming and yelling.........can u buy it......its only rs.200....I will soon pay it back....."
and that was only the beginning of a long list of ailments Hari had never before heard in the 13 years of his life put together , let alone in one place affecting a single woman! Immediate sympathy and impulsive concern were slowly replaced by obvious disbelief and the inevitable deafness that teenagers develop after being over exposed to adults. 
He had no idea who she was and how long she was going to stay. But he was sure as hell that he didn't care about her whereabouts and her illness. He wanted that tiny bundle of sickness to leave his abode ASAP. This apparently exaggerated hatred finds more context after we learn that the sickbird has nested in hari's room and that he is forced to sleep on the hall sofa - ouch. 

Shooing the bird : 
He decided to make her life a living hell - atithi devo bhava not withstanding the test of times - . He couldn't openly ask her to get out, for he would be thrown out if his parents heard of it. So passive aggression won the day.
At first it happened by turning a deaf ear,
"dei hari kanna! I feel very weak , can you go buy me a dozen bananas from the shop?"
Christ! What do bananas even have to do with feeling weak?! He simply continued tying his shoe lace and walked out with his basketball . When he came back two hours later , sweating from head to toe after  playing two practice matches at a trot , the sickbird was still sitting on the same sofa in the exact position from 2 hours ago!
She opened her eyes and very casually asked " Where are my bananas?" .
The next step was learning to say no. So he grinded his teeth and said " No aunty , I am very tired , I am going to sleep".
"WHAT?! tired at this young age? It is no excuse! When I was your age I used to walk 6 kilometers to the railway station and another 5 before I reached my school. We never got fancy footwear and clothes like you kids and ate very spartan food . Now go buy me my bananas or else I'm complaining  you to your parents * all in chaste tamil - translated for you *
Bewildered by her sudden outburst he did end up running the errand for her .

a hopeless hypochondriac or is something graver?

Telling  mom -
6 weeks flew by and there was still  no reprieve for Hari . It took him all his 13 years to convince his parents to give him his own room and yet all it took was an annoying aunty to intrude it! Oh how he would love to play a prank on her. However , firsthand experience had taught him that he would be the one that was crying by the end of it.
Amma was busy in the kitchen cutting vegetables. He pitched in and started cutting the onions. His mom's curiosity got aroused and so she asked , " Fine . What do you want? ".
"Nothing , i just decided to help my mom"
" On a sunday , by cutting onions! Comedy pannadha hari" ( stop trying to be funny hari )
" I know right. I'll tell you a better way - stop inviting guests all the time. That too ones who never help and never leave."
She gave him a long stare - one that usually shushed him and secretly scared him out of his wits - and then after a long silence began speaking.
"Geetha aunty is not an unwanted guest. In fact , we're the ones who forced her to stay here. You do not know anything about her and I am going to tell you some things so that you will truly understand and respect her. However , this should remain a secret and never leave these 4 walls , understand"
Hari nodded his head vigorously.
"Geetha is a very distant relative of ours . I don't want to bore you with details. Two years ago , while traveling to your poonal ceremony , she lost her whole family in a car accident and is suffering from PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder. She believes that she shouldn't have lived and that is why she keeps complaining of ailments which she doesn't seem to have. I need you to be a little patient and sensitive with her hari . I know it has been rough for you , giving up your room which you love so much. Growing up is not only about having your own room but also being sensitive to ones around you"
Hari was stunned by this over load of information and needed time to process it all and hence he simply muttered , "okay".
"Also I never ever want you to judge a person by their appearances and behavior"
"I never did!" he shot back
" I am your mother darling. If someone is unpleasant to you or asks you to do something you hate , promise me that you will try to see their side of the coin also"
"i promise"

Later that evening , Hari's dad Mr.Swaminathan was pleasantly surprised by his son's extremely courteous behaviour to their overstaying house guest. Seeing his wife's mischievous smile he asked her what was happening , to which she replied , " Hari still hasn't matured enough to respect his guests - so I told him a small lie" she winked.
" By the way when is the sickbird leaving? I'm sick of her trying to make me believe that she has pulmonary edema and that her blood vessels are leaking blood or some other impossible medical condition...! "
" I never asked you before swami... but why is she like this?"
"Oh this! She has just been craving for attention since birth - a hopeless hypochondriac . Hope her husband picks her up soon enough."

Indian mothers! xD

Hari never learnt that it was a lie and went on to become a very hospitable host in life( so much so that many relatives had a 'hari day' in their calendar and visited him atleast once a year).Geetha aunty aka sickbird continued to complain of weak blood vessels and hernia and even dyslexia wherever she went. Leela died a contented mother filled with secrets that made her son into a fine young man.
 

Love Story : Part 5

As lonely and pretty as it gets =) - photo courtesy - Abhinaya venkat  xD 

Act 1  - Dinky's Black innova . On the way to Mahabs .

This must be what running away feels like mused Kaushik Seetharaman. Not that he had never run away before . Every worthy childhood must contain a failed attempt to runaway. Also , the dreadful five years without Dinky , all alone in Switzerland was what he would recall as running away. Going incognito to cool off your loved one maybe mistaken as cowardice , but cow (everybody called him that now) knew that it was true love that ignites the fire called sacrifice , which helped him withstand the separation. Thinking more than was required , ie , Overthinking was his forte. While it helped in intellectual pursuits , it certainly hurt when done for emotional issues.





Why all of a sudden the word 'cow' seemed to resemble 'coward' he couldn't fathom . A painful memory from the past shot past his head. "Cow for coward" hooted his so called loved one. Such instances still warranted a rush of red to his fair cheeks.

Guess what mimosa is normally called?! 

The dreamlike quality of the happening events still wouldn't go. The past few hours seemed to be slowly compensating for the five years they missed being together. Sure , things weren't as smooth as before. Both Dinky and him weren't exactly the best talkers. While he could bore you to death , and even talk to your corpse for hours about the wonders of a mimosa pudica , he sadly couldn't hold a decent civil conversation with his ex girlfriend for more than a few minutes. And Dinky wasn't any better.
People who knew her thought that she was one of the most coherent and fluent speakers they've ever met. While this holds true inside the conference halls , business meetings and even the arun ice-cream endeavors with her friends it turns the opposite when she meets cow. To some extent we could attribute it to cow's total lack of speech but we also should take in mind that dinky was usually dumbstruck around cow ( *Rolls eyes* )
"Ahem..." *Clears throat n number of times to capture his attention*
Promptly enough he hands the water bottle to her.
She decided enough was enough and bursted out laughing much to Cow's dismay.
'So this was all an elaborate lie/ dare carried out by the Queeen bees? I must have known better. I am a science professor for Christ's sake!' he manage to rapidly think all these thoughts before she could finish her prolonged laughter.
" Im sorry ... hahahaha .......Its all just too incredulous!! A few days back , I didn't even remember who you were  ( okay that was a lie ) Now Im going on a secret vacation with YOU lol ( yes she actually said lol ) "
Deciding that it would be socially appropriate he joined in the laughter too.
" I know right? You wouldn't believe how much I missed you all these years da! Talking about being socially appropriate , don't you think people will be ... umm ... well uncomfortable and not happy with us going on a vacation together , you being my boss and all."

She continued laughing.
" Cowww.. You still haven't stopped continuing to talk from where you stopped thinking lol and don't worry da. Im not  exactly going around the world bragging that Im going out with you again. And did you forget already? I fired you!"
"Whaa..? Was that for real? ( Classic :O face ) "  And he was still struggling for words when he realized the full extent of the words  she had uttered. .
"Dinky.. did you say that we are going out?" he quietly asked. Praying that he didn't hear her wrong and that she wouldn't break his head again in anger.
A slow smile started breaking out in her really pretty face. Like a ray of sunshine he thought fondly.
" Yes , you heard me right" she replied
"You mean , with the same connotation I am assuming"
"Yes baby. And for the umpteenth time , i really can't read what's going on in your head all the time"
"me neither"


Act 2  - The Ravenous bungalow  - hungry for visitors it was.

Cow was still wondering about the contradiction dinky had posed to him . She said yes , I mean the same thing u said yet she also added  that she always didn't know what he thought. What did she mean exactly? He just sighed lazily as the car was pulled into the driveway very expertly.
Dinky was always the better driver , even in their school days it was she who drove him around in her stylish vespa scooter. And he really didn't care about the sniggers made by his mates that he couldn't even drive his own bike - he had the hottest chick in school not them .
Dinky's Bungalow was located pretty far away from actual Mahabalipuram. Somewhere in some Manamai village. It looked too tranquil and peaceful to be true. Picture perfect they call it he thought. As everything is dreamlike this would be my dream house he giggled to himself.
Then he noticed something else. Not the nude sculptures and fancy paintings which adorned the room , but something more strange . The huge mansion seemed to be devoid of any other humans except him and her. Surely there must be a few servants employed by one of the richest families of Tamil Nadu? When he asked Dinky this , she just gave him a mysterious smile.
He jumped into the oriental looking sofa , as Dinky walked over to the excellent refrigerator which also seemed to be multi tasking as the mini bar and picked a bottle of champagne.
"...But I don't drink Dinkyy.."
"You don't need to act tiger. I wouldn't pounce on you like before. You can drink anything to you wish to" she solemnly put.
"No da. I really don't drink!"
" Lol I thought people who returned from foreign always caught that habit? You sure?"
" Yes i clearly am. And What is it with you and 'lol' anyways? " :P
She just cocked her one eyebrow up . When she was too lazy to explain things he thought.
After a brief pause she said , " Please have this one drink cow. For me at least. For the sake of our old relationship." "And the new one"  she added belatedly.

"What's there in a glass of champagne?" " Champagne of course." "Thanks for your mokkai cow." 

So much for 'drink whatever you want' he thought. "Okay dinky . Just this one time. For you"  he said smiling sheepishly.
He took a small sip from the bottle. Dinky had gone to bring in some glasses and snacks from the kitchen. He secretly prayed to god that she had learnt how to cook. There seemed to be no restaurant in the near vicinity.So faraway from humanity he thought.....This stuff was good! He took a larger swig this time. And the last sound he heard before blacking out was the dull thud of his own body hitting  the ground.. and the last rapid thought of the day was - Never trust mysteriously smiling women. Even more so if they were your ex - girl friend.

Act 3  - In the smallest , darkest and coldest room of the lonely bungalow.

Cow woke up to see himself bound , gagged ........... and kidnapped. 

An accident on the highway

self constructed accidents? :P

Open the newspaper and you find tiny paragraphs reporting tonnes of accidents. So many of them that , they would give these matrimonial ads a run for their money.While the latter's content clearly shows how dumb people can still be :- "Wanted. Fair , tall -5'6 ft , good looking high caste bhramin girl. Sub caste no bar with good family values. For mechanical engineer boy earning high salary. Divorced once. Kids with ex wife." Surely gross stereotyping wouldn't get you a bride -_- and seriously yeah when would men get some REAL qualities. Ahem coming right back to the topic at hand - the latter reports show the dumber in fact, the dumbest side of human nature.
I am gonna tell you 3 stories , tell me if you can find the correlation.

15 Aug 2010
In the dawn of  an another independence day for India and the opposite for me ( my brother was born on the same day =P ) Mr.Vembu and his wife were travelling in their ancient yet still regal white ambassador. They were returning from a truly wonderful trip to back home. The word wonderful found a place in that sentence because Mr.Vembu aged close to fifty had finally finished building his dream 'mansion' or 'palace'.- for that was the magnanimity of his dream and its successful implementation. Everything about that man was big scale i remember - right from his frame , voice to dreams and his sheer generosity. His life was settled in pretty much every way , both his 'kids' were already married and he could anytime expect grandchildren to toddle with. He was stupid enough to travel on a highway.

2nd January 2011

Mr.Malayappan and his wife were making their first and last trip to their son's place in Bangalore over car. First time because his son had compelled them to make the trip with his children and wife. And last time because yay! the son was planning to shift back to chennai and re build their ancestral house , settle here and well be with them!! They were much happier than they would care to admit and their grand kids ankitha and drithi were angels from heaven gifted to them =)  Both uncle and aunty always kept their house 'spick and span' clean and were so disciplined and kind that they would suit the 'nice headmaster' role in a movie if they acted :P
They were foolish enough to travel through the highway.

4th June 2012
Mr.Raman was pleased with himself more than ever. After years of  temporary employment , he had finally started an enterprise of his own , He had gone to coimbatore to recruit some staff and gained 3 lakhs there. Life couldn't be better than this he thought. He called his wife Indra , to inform her that he would be there by lunch and asked her to make some for him. Always a staunch believer of kabalishwarar , he gave out a small prayer for go to keep him as content as this always.
He was dumb enough to drive on a highway.

If you geniuses haven' read the title or the last line of the paras already ,here it is - all the people happened to be riding on a car through the highway and either lost their life or miraculously escaped death by a few inches. Vembu uncle's driver was sleepy enough to launch his ambassador into a stationary bus. While uncle immediately lost his life in a painful way , aunt had to survive multiple fractures , neck surgeries and a bout of coma and come out alive. To this day , her memories of the accident are nil as she was sleeping when the car hit and lost conscious shortly after that. We had to inform her about her husband's death only months later as we were scared that she wouldn't survive the shock.
In the second case , when my uncle was driving in the 'middle' of the highway a drunken driven car coming at a pace of 130 kph lost control and flew in the air like superman and landed on his car. Both his parents lost their lives and he lost their parents.

Something like that

More recently , just about a week back my cousin Anish studying in 7th standard lost his father because the driver of the opposing car decided he was too thirsty for whiskey and some risk and  decided to overtake a lorry in his drunken stupor , only to crash into a poor man's car. Both the driver's family of four , Anish's dad and his friend 27 year old died in this horrific incident.
All this may mean nothing to you , just another news report or worse. But how long or how much will it cost before we realize that reckless and drunken driving will lead to nothing more than tragedy and destruction? Every time you are having a shot and driving on the road you are putting yourself and more importantly a lot of other INNOCENT people at risk.
Not to sound like a life insurance agent , but just for a second imagine your mom/dad or your loved ones being killed out there? Is it worth it?

You worry about your health ; we worry about others!

If dying out of tuberculosis or child birth is sad in this century , dying of accidents is like the saddest of this millennium. From now on when you read the news let 'an accident on the highway' be regarded as 'the accident on the highway' as life cannot be sucked out for the sheer amount of statistics.
Engaeyum Eppothum was a very moving tale trying to cover the story of lives behind an accident.  Does anyone know any other movie like that ( of the same genre? ) If so please share in the comments column.
Sorry for those readers who were looking for humor as usual from me - mocking the dead is not cool.

P.S - My uncle's friend just lost his life after being in coma for 12 days. Cause of death : He slipped and fell from a bus.

P.S.S - it may look as if it is me alone who is losing people due to accidents. But if you inquire in your family/friend's circle , you will be sure to find at least 1 death in the past  2 years. I am not even joking ,the death count is increasing by the minute.  So spread the A.W.A.R.E.N.E.S.S and most of all follow it yourself.