15 January, 2009

I am a Snake


My pleasant salutations to all the human beings out there. My name is Raven, and I am a King Cobra. Yes, I am a snake.

For all those intelligent humans out there who think we snakes cannot communicate, I am here to prove all of you wrong. We may lack a ear to hear stuff, smell through our tongues, and may lack the ability to talk in various languages like you humans do. But we can still communicate, and it is by far the best mode of communication that any one of you can even imagine. But I will come to that later.

I was born as one among many children to my lovely mother. I say lovely because she took good care of me and my siblings, until we were old enough to hunt on our own. She taught us how to fool our predators by feigning closed-mouth strikes. We learnt how to respect our predators like the mongooses, which are very experienced in dealing with cobras. I was the quickest to learn to use my venom to attack prey and predator alike, but my mother cautioned me to use it carefully, since she reasoned along with great power came great responsibility.

I used to be scared of shedding my skin, especially in my young age, when I used to do it frequently. I had to choose a lonely spot for the same, which was difficult, even in the thick forest I used to live. But as with the others, I gradually came to get used to it, and it became less painful when I learnt from my mother that it was good for my health.

All was fine, till one day, when a group of strange two-legged creatures entered the forest. The moment my mother saw them coming, she began panicking. I learnt from her that the creatures were called humans, and were by far, the deadliest predator of all. She also warned me that I should never bite or poison them, for reasons other than self-defence. But alas, tragedy struck, when one of the humans stepped right on top of my tail, and though I knew that he had no evil intention in his mind, in a fit of rage, I bit him, and injected my venom into his leg. I realized my mistake at once, but it was too late. I had to scamper for cover, as all the other humans came to the victim's rescue. and started searching for me. But I was too quick for them. I thought I had escaped safely, when I saw that my mother was just returning back from her hunting, and she was too slow to spot the mood among the humans, her age depriving her of the most important weapon for survival. She was beaten to death, and skinned right in front of my eyes. That was the most horrible moment of my life, but I still prayed for the recovery of the human I had poisoned.

Now I will come to the point which I made earlier. Yes we snakes can communicate. Through our minds. It may sound unbelievable, but we can read minds. We can also send signals to other minds. It is the most effective means of communication. For example, I knew that the human I bit had no evil intention because I could read his mind. My mother got killed because her communication was weak. She couldn't read the minds of the humans properly, and also couldn't cause fear in the minds of the humans. Yes, fear is imparted by us. That is why, while some people actually love us, some really loathe us. That is a feeling that is caused by us. We transmit fear when we feel that the mind is corrupted, and and tranmit love when we feel that mind has genuine care for us. This is how we communicate.

I am in fact, transmitting all these thoughts to one hapless human, who was sleeping in his bedroom, peacefully. I have manipulated his mind such that he will write this down as soon as he wakes up and publicize this. Yes, I need this to be read by as many humans as possible, since I want to ask forgiveness from the human I had unreasonably poisoned. I am indeed very sorry for what happened. I hope you are now hale and healthy. But I also request you not to kill another innocent snake like my mother. It is no use taking revenge. After all, we all want peace. This is one request I want to make to all my human friends. Fear us or love us, but please don't kill us.

My photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

07 January, 2009

When money flies...

"So, where shall we go?" my eldest sister, Radhika, asked no one in particular. "I suggest we go to the beach. And have nice hot onion bajjis." my younger brother Mukund, a die-hard foodie, replied. "Shut up, Mukund." It was Vindhya, my second sister. "Why don't you try thinking about something other than food?" "Oh Vindhya, stop teasing him." Radhika managed to prevent yet another fight between the two warring siblings. Being born as one among four children in the house, has its own share of advantages. For one, you can always enjoy watching the fights that always occur among the others. Being the third of the four children, I was the most peaceful and silent of the four. Not that I wasn't naughty, but I was smart enough to make sure no one noticed it. The particular discussion going on was to decide where we could all visit for the new year. "How about a movie?" I finally decided to open my mouth to speak. "Movie? Which one?" Mukund asked. "Vaaranam Aayiram. No other movie is worth watching for now." I reasoned. "Oh come on! I just saw that last week with my office colleagues!! It was Radhika. I had completely forgotten that she had gone out with her office friends to the same movie the previous week. "So what? We haven't seen it yet! So it will be Vaaranam aayiram." Vindhya delivered the judgement. But the discussion didn't there. Radhika was completely opposed to it, and wanted to go Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi instead. But after a lengthy debate, which included a majority vote in which Vaaranam won by 3 votes to 1, she finally conceded. I was chosen to buy the tickets, since every other person had some other work to do, and I was the only one who was jobless. "Here, have this five hundred bucks. Buy it and come soon." Radhika handed over to me a crisp new five hundred rupee note. I took off in my bike straight to Satyam Cinemas. I hoped there would be no crowd for the tickets, since the movie was quite some days old. I parked my bike and went to the advance ticket booking counter, but to my dismay, the whole place was flooded with people. I couldn't even see if there was any other movie to which tickets were available. I decided that it was no use waiting at the counter, and turned back to the parking area. Just then, I heard a voice. "Hey boy, want tickets?" I turned to see who it was. It was a middle aged man, around 40 years old, wearing a dull grey shirt and black trousers. "No, thank you." I didn't want to encourage black-ticketeers, lest to be caught my police in mufti. "I'm not selling tickets in black, my boy. I had bought some tickets for my family for new year day, but we have decided to go somewhere else. That is why I am selling these." I didn't know whether to believe him or not. He looked like a pretty decent man, so I decided to try him. "Ok, how much?" I asked him. "Let us not talk here. It is not safe. We will go outside." he told me, and started walking towards the exit. I followed him. He entered a by-lane adjacent to the cinema hall and finally stopped walking. "How much?" I asked again. "The actual cost is hundred rupees. I will give it to you for hundred and twenty five. I have four tickets with me." he told me. "That is unreasonable. I am actually doing you a favour by buying these tickets. Either sell them to me at the cost price, or else I am leaving." I made myself clear to him. "What is this, my boy. You are being very miserly. I thought I could atleast recover the fuel cost for my motorcycle. Ok, I will give it to you." he told me. I was relieved, and was happy that I could get the tickets without standing in the crowded queue. I imagined myself bragging about this to my sisters and brother. "Ok give me the four hundred bucks. I will give you the tickets." he said. "No, show me the tickets first." I wanted to confirm. "Ok here have the tickets. Let me have the money." I handed over the five hundred rupee note to him. "Hey, I don't have change. Don't you have four 100 rupee notes?" he asked me. "No, I don't." "Ok, wait. I will go to the nearby shop and get some change." So saying, he entered a shopping complex, as I waited outside. I made sure he was within my eyesight. I saw him enter a shop. I waited patiently, but there was no sign of him. I started to panic, when he didn't return for five minutes. I decided to enter the shop, and started walking towards it. But as soon as I entered through the door, I knew I had been cheated. Cause it was no shop. It was just a passageway to the other end of the road. I double-checked if at least the tickets were genuine. But the moment I saw the date, I knew I was the dumbest person in the world. It read 01-01-08. It hadn't struck me that the year should be 09, instead of 08. I entered the house with a sad look on my face. Radhika noticed it first. "Hey what happened? Didn't get the tickets?" she asked me. "No, I lost the money. I had kept it in my shirt pocket, but it isn't there now. Think it must have flew out of my pocket when I was riding the bike." Image courtesy: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/426982475_278f4100d0.jpg

02 January, 2009

The Rainbow (Part 3)


If he was the head of The Rainbow, Stephen was its face. He was, by far, the most popular among the six. He was the best among them, and crowds thronged just to watch him. Most of the money therefore was collected due to Stephen's charisma. But the celebrity status slowly and steadily got to his head. And therefore one day he announced to his friends.

"I am moving to Hollywood. One of my friends is a director there, and he said I had great potential to be one of the best actors in the country. I'm leaving The Rainbow for good. I hardly get any recognition here."

So that was it. Even after much persuasion by the others, he refused to change his decision. He left, and since there was no more Stephen, there were no more crowds. However innovative they made the script, there were hardly any people to watch it. They even tried a couple of new actors in his place, but none worked. And there, the end started. The people moved on to better things, and quickly forgot The Rainbow.

As for Stephen, he got to act in a couple of scenes in a B-grade movie, and that was it. There was no news of him for a long time. They later learnt that he was found dead in one of the streets, and he had died of starvation. They shed tears for their dear friend, and a very good stage performer.

He forced his mind to come back to the present. He continued speaking to his friends.

"I have decided that we will have one last show. That will be tomorrow evening. It will be the end of The Rainbow. We divide whatever we get tomorrow among us equally, and part forever, my friends. Is this fine with all of you?"

No one spoke a word. The talk ended there, and the rehearsals for the last play began. The play was aptly titled 'Rainbow's Ending', written by Noel Greig. The rehearsals continued till late at night, and then they all dispersed to their respective abodes.

The day quickly passed, and the time to start the play arrived. They hoped that at least one spectator to turn up, but there were none. They waited for audience, but for half an hour, there was none. He decided that they would start the play, with an audience or without. Just as they were about to begin the play, a man entered the old hall. He wore dirty clothes, and had himself covered with a tattered rug. They couldn't see his face, since it was dark.

"I am a beggar. I have no money," he spoke in a coarse voice, "but I thought I can watch the play."

They didn't object, and were actually happy that there was at least one person who was going to witness their last play. They started the performance.

It was an astounding performance. The play was a very emotional one and it was portrayed well by all the five men. If only there were people in the audience, they would have all been in tears. The lone man clapped at the end of it all. The lights were turned on at the end of the play. They then saw his face.

"It was really an excellent performance, my brothers!" Stephen spoke. "It reminded me of our old times, when I was alive and was one among you. I tell you, there was not one day after I left The Rainbow, that I didn't regret my decision. But I couldn't just come back and join again. I thought you wouldn't accept me again. How wrong I had been!!"

The others couldn't believe what they saw and heard. They stood dumbstruck to talk anything. But Stephen wasn't waiting for a reply. He continued.

"I was up there, listening to all of you speaking about today being the last play. I couldn't afford to miss that, can I? I have already missed you people more than anything else. So, I decided to witness it. Now as I have seen it, I am at peace. I ask for your forgiveness, my dear brothers, but I have been the result of your downfall. Please forgive me. Lord be with you."

Before any of the five could react, Stephen disappeared into thin air, right in front of their eyes. And there was darkness again.

Image courtesy: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1357/790656725_a3c6ae5eb0.jpg?v=0

Related posts:

1. The Rainbow (Part 1)

2. The Rainbow (Part 2)


01 January, 2009

Arte-y-pico!!


Surely a wonderful beginning to 2009. Ranjani, who writes on 'The Voices Within' has presented me with the Arte-y-pico award, which roughly translates to being conferred as 'The Best Art'. I would like to thank the gracious lady rampantheart for giving me this wonderful award, which is my first one. :) I am truly honored!

Now, I have to present this award to 5 other bloggers, who I think, deserve this award. I think I will limit this to three, and two of them have already been presented this award. They are:

Meghna

Matangi

Macadamia

Now it is the turn of these three wonderful bloggers to pick 5 other people who they think deserve the award. And remember to link to the Arte-y-pico blog, display the name of the person who awarded it and their blog, and also links to the blogs they are conferring the award upon. And hey, don't forget to display the award!!

Wishing everyone peace, happiness and prosperity for 2009 and beyond.