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The pandemic of 2020 brought a brief reprieve from the wearying rigmarole of the needless daily commute, a routine that had reduced me to an automaton. It also brought me closer to my hometown, which I had left fifteen years ago in pursuit of worldly aspirations; to its abundant nature and wildlife (the latter, quite
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Chapter I The wait in Salzburg – A frolicsome terrier – Salzburg to Strobl – Appeal of the Alps – The guest house – Strolling through Strobl Early summer, we hiked across the lakes, rivers, and hills of Austria, fanatically picturing the picturesque environs, like rivals on a photography assignment. Our journey began in Salzburg,
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The asphalt jungle transformed into tremendous windmills when the first light, along with a gush of cold wind, woke me from a searing slumber of six hours. Across the vast wind farms, I glimpsed a young peahen, bewildered by the vehicular movement around her, take to flight. Further ahead, musters of peafowl foraging on the
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Eager to employ leaves of absence a few weeks before they expired, I booked a round-trip ticket between Bangalore and Hospet, and a guestroom in Sanapur. Two days later, I packed my backpack with unsteady hands and took the bus to Hospet, with a broken heart. The bus reached the town before the peep of
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To relish a rare balmy day in October, as well as to fulfil Dian’s yearly desire of soaking up the autumnal splendour, we repaired to Glen Tilt, a secluded valley in the north of Perthshire, where we were to set off on a day-long excursion. One might find trails dedicated to spotting the nearly threatened
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The more I listen to music, the more I realise how deeply I am enraptured by it. When I light upon a song that instantly appeals to me, I feel thrilled knowing I have more music in the world for my dopamine. I discovered Sting when his “Desert Rose” played on TV back in 1999.
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My level of silliness both amazes and amuses me sometimes. It is no wonder that I am—rightly—the laughing stock of my family. Last evening, I was at a neighbour’s to celebrate her birthday. One of the invited guests was a toddler. No sooner had the toddler arrived than he—squatting down—opened a box of toys containing
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When I first stumbled upon a depiction of Sisyphus on the Internet, I failed to comprehend his predicament—might I say, its supposed dark humour was lost on me. Five years later, in the context of my own abode, I have come to perceive the absurdity of his situation—alas, I am the unpunished Sisyphus who never
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What a strange place, I thought, glancing at a vagrant with a jolly countenance, accompanied by a dog, greeting passers-by; a boy spreading a blanket over his girlfriend, who was curled up on the busy pavement; and a hopeful man with a cardboard sign stating that he is in the fourth stage of pancreatic cancer,
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It was nearing the end of autumn when I first flew to the west. Trees bore cherry red and yellow ochre leaves. Skies reflected a mellow blue. Nights seemed cold. The knowledge of my impending departure prompted me, on most late evenings after work, to walk around the neighbourhood and shoot the autumnal scenes. And
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Outside the Edinburgh Waverley station, I saw Marley, the brown dog whose master, a vagrant, had allowed me to stroke her when I was last there. This time, I was determined to observe my surroundings as opposed to the last time, when I had blinders on, and thus, I was able to assimilate the aura
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I am in Kesargadde, the village where I grew up. Presently, I am living in my father’s ancestral house, where the passage of sunlight is narrow, owing to the design and location of the windows. The antique bathroom located outside has a doorless window through which I see the banana plant and wonder if the
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For three days, my best friend Rebecca and I roamed the streets of Pondicherry with a road map in her hand and a camera in mine. The time seemed so long that by the second day, she knew the route by rote. We stayed at La Maison Radha, a clean guesthouse which was a kilometre
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With such excitement we began our journey to a hilly region that the bus we had occupied was transformed into a nightclub, with drinks of one’s choice being served, and with men dancing to the tunes of Khalnayak and other songs from the nineties, regardless of the message that read “NO SMOKING, ALCOHOL, DANCING”, pasted
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A long weekend and the desire to escape the growing heat of the city encouraged me to leave my workplace earlier than usual one Friday evening and travel to the Nilgiris. As my companion and I headed to the bus station, we were aware of the odds of returning home the same night in disappointment
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With our winter gear on, we left the city in the wee hours of December to spend the next two days in Wayanad, Kerala. As a car driver, it was my first interstate road trip. The thought of manoeuvring the hair-pin bends fretted me, although it had been decided that my cousin Bubba would be
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He strode along the body He liked to call paradise With the eyes of a child Who saw a vast stretch of turquoise For the first time. With all her splendour She enticed the gullible one, While others resisted the temptation Her presence caused By seeing none. Fragile creatures of her organisation Ran away from
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How is it to be you? I wonder, For your poems depict loneliness At its peak. Would my company In some way Help you forget the world You live in? But to meet you, I am afraid, Knowing you will loathe me For who I seem to be. This distance, I must accept, For having
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Have you lived between faith and fear, Sleepless and anxious for someone dear? Don’t you wish to escape the moment When losing is such a torment? Could you again comfort yourself When the distressing phase repeats itself? You know every life will have its end; Yet it takes forever for this heart to mend.
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In this poetry, electricity, resistance and inductance are personified. Electricity (electrical current) is the narrator. Circumambient gloom (surrounding dimness) refers to the resistance which is a property by virtue of which the passage of current is opposed, causing electric energy to be transformed into heat. In a substation, electrical current is converted, as from AC to DC, which requires diodes (rectifiers). (By definition, a diode/rectifier is an apparatus in which current flows more readily in one direction than the other for changing an AC into a DC.) But the station first visited by ‘electrical current’ did not house diodes/rectifiers as…
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A dream The boy of the mountain dreams. With his ewe always by his side, Places more than a few He explores. Unacquainted with the adversities that meet one’s life, He sets his long day’s journey into the night. In the middle of the hours of darkness, He awakes to see if the world around
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