Where's the Magic?

Rain drops fall from the sky,

The little tadpole doesn’t wonder why.

Leaves turn yellow every autumn,

It doesn’t bother the fish at the ocean’s bottom.

But birds can sense a storm coming their way,

Bats use high pitched sound to find its prey.

In their natural instincts, the animals put their trust,

They don’t second doubt it, or they would bite the dust.

Man can ponder and worry a lot more,

A lot of times it stops him from opening a door.

Natural instinct is buried under so called logic,

But without it there simply cannot be any magic.

Take It Easy

Ashish opened his eyes. Then he shut them. Then again he opened them.

Another morning in his life had begun. 

He looked at his watch and realized that it was already 11.30am. He had again missed the first two lectures. He sluggishly got up, changed his shirt.

The college campus was a ten minute walk from the hostel. It took Ashish twenty minutes to get there. And in another five minutes he reached the first floor. As he turned down the corridor to reach his class, someone tapped him on the back.

And that’s when Ashish lost all of his sluggishness. Because standing behind him, was his father Ganesh Patil. 

Ashish’s father was one of the most successful sugarcane farmers in India, while also being an amazingly energetic, positive and happy person.

“Kay re? Surprised?” Ganesh said gleefully, as he smiled at his son.

“Baba tumhi? What are you doing here?” replied Ashish.

Ganesh wrapped his arm around his sons shoulder and said “Sangto! But first let’s go get something to eat. Looking at you I don’t think you have eaten either.”

“But Baba I have a lecture…”

“What you can bunk the first two lectures? But you can’t go late to spend some time with your father?”

Ashish blushed. “No its…uhh…okay I guess.”

“Good! Please lead me to your canteen.”

They reached the canteen and placed their order. As they sat by the table near the back of the canteen, Ashish wondered what this could be about. His father did come to Mumbai once a while but he never came like this unannounced. Ganesh Patil was a very cheerful and jolly person, but he was also always very well organized.

Ganesh looked kindly at his son’s face and he realized that Ashish looked like a younger image of himself. But he felt that Ashish had more of his mother’s kind nature in his heart. This made Ganesh all the more happy.

Quietly Ganesh said “Ashish beta I have been getting a lot of calls from the college management. They say that you have been missing a lot of the lectures and that your marks have only been getting worse in the last few months. Is there some problem?”

Ashish couldn’t get himself to look at his father.  

“No Baba there is no problem..It’s just that…I don’t know…but I just feel that I would like to take it easy for a while…”

Ganesh smiled. Maybe Ashish was more like him after all.

“Well Ashish, so far no one has been able to beat my record at ‘taking it easy’ in the Patil family. I failed in the fifth, sixth and seventh standard. Then I failed in tenth. Your grandfather paid a lot to help me clear my board exams and get admitted in a junior college. And after that, there were worse things to come.”

“Oh.” Said Ashish.

Ganesh continued “Then I got into a bad relationship. I learnt my lesson. And then, again I got into another bad relationship. This happened a lot over the next few months. A lot of alcohol, smoking and ahem other things also happened. I don’t know how, but somehow I cleared my junior college. I was too messed up to study further. So I came back to the village and decided to help with the farming.”

Curiously Ashish asked “So how did you become this different person Baba?”

Ganesh chuckled. “For a long time I didn’t. I married your mother and I was the same care free idiotic person as ever. But then your sister was born. The day I held her in my arms, and looked into her eyes, I realized that I had to get my act together. I wanted to do everything I could to make sure that she always got what she needed.”

“And it was only at this point, that for the first time in my life I felt a sense of purpose. Then when I started working seriously on developing the farm, I realized that I actually enjoyed hard work. Since then I guess I never looked back.”

Ashish asked uncertainly “So what would you advice me?”

Ganesh looked at him kindly and said “Today I haven’t come here to advice you. There are just a few more things that I want you to know. Firstly I’m relieved that you are not as messed up as I was, and are a better son than I ever was to your grandfather. Secondly I want you to always remember, that no matter what happens, I’ll be there for you. I don’t care how many times you fail. Together we’ll find a way. Always.”

Ashish felt touched. “Ha Baba…” he said.

Then Ganesh said mischievously “And also very importantly, I’m leaving now to meet a few of my friends. It could involve some drinking. Your mother should not know of this.”

Ashish smiled. “She won’t.”

Ganesh tousled his son’s hair affectionately and left the canteen. Ashish walked back to the class.

The next morning Ashish woke up at 8am. He didn’t miss any lecture that day. He couldn’t explain why, but he no longer felt like taking it easy all the time any longer.

New Dawn

So many things unsaid, at the back of my mind,

Some people that went away, and some that were left behind,

Come back once a while, bringing some pain,

Because it sometimes hurts, when you walk down memory lane,

But you grow, you learn, you change, and find a reason to go on,

With a smile on your face and a hope, that there will be a new dawn. 

Angel of Death

Sarvesh could walk no further in the desert. His feet gave in and he slumped on the ground.

Before him appeared an old man with red eyes, covered in dark robes. An angel of death. In a very business like tone he spoke ‘ Name: Sarvesh Jadhav. Age: Twenty four years, five months, two weeks, three days and twenty nine seconds. Cause of death: Dehydration. Time of..’

‘Wait! Please wait!’ Sarvesh uttered. ‘I don’t want to die yet. I CANNOT die so soon.’

Very calmly the death angel said ‘Yes. You can.’

Desperately Sarvesh said ‘But look I have done so many good things in my life! Why can’t you consider that and give me a second chance?’

As the angel looked into Sarvesh’s  dark brown eyes, he could see that this boy had not done anyone any good deed in his life. Everything was done with a selfish motive. This boy needs to be taught a lesson.

 ‘Very well Sarvesh. I give you three days to live. If you survive at the end of the third day, you shall live for another fifty years.’

As the angel said that, Sarvesh felt his surroundings blur and his eyes get heavy.

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Sarvesh snapped awake and looked around to realize that he was in his bed. Was it all a dream?

As he looked out of the window he saw the clouds move to form four words, Three days to go.

Shit, shit, shit. Not a dream.

Sarvesh had thought that the photo shoot in the Sahara desert would really help his career. It would have, if he hadn’t been stupid enough, to go around scouting on his own for a location. Now he wondered, how will he explain to his boss that he had suddenly returned to Mumbai. Freshening up quickly, he left for office. 

The boss was not very pleased. With a lot of pleading Sarvesh managed to secure his next assignment.

 If there was one thing that Sarvesh was good at, it was how to manipulate people , to get things to work his way.

Great, he would be covering a photo shoot of Madhuri Dixit. She’s getting old, but people seem to like her. He thought.

Sarvesh sat down at his desk to have some break fast. As he began eating the large paper masala dosa, his mind turned back to his near death escape. Why did that guy be so kind to me?

He happened to glance at his dosa, and to his horror saw that out of the masala, there was a hoard of small tarantula’s creeping out. He quickly threw the dosa out of the window.

What the f*ck?

Sarvesh wanted to go home and lock himself in his bedroom. But how would he explain this to his boss? Damn, I have to go to the photo shoot.

Nervously looking around, scared out of his wits he walked down the pavement leading to the studio.

He reached the studio and with a shivering hand he started to set up his equipment. Suddenly he felt an instinct tell him that he should not stand where he is standing.  And as he quickly leaped away, a replica of a yellow IAF Mig-29 crashed on the exact spot where he had stood.

A crane operator came running towards him. ‘Arre Sirji, aap thik ho? Sorry woh crane shayad thoda kharab ho gaya.’

Sarvesh ran away. He ran like is life depended on it. Then realizing that running perhaps won’t help, he stopped. Looked around and locked himself in a toilet cubicle.

There must be a way to beat that b*stard. There must be..There must be..

He started crying and suddenly started laughing hysterically.

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The angel of death sat somewhere in the Himalayas away from humanity and its stink, when he heard someone call to him. 

Listen, I give up. I give up. Just come and kill me..I..I can’t take this..kill me..KILL ME.

He smiled. The boy has learned.

As Sarvesh was washing his face in the basin of the public toilet, the angel appeared. 

The angel solemnly said ‘So I understand that we are ready to go.’

A worn out looking Sarvesh turned around. He gazed at the angel and said ‘I guess, when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.’

‘Indeed.’ agreed the angel.

‘Except,’ said Sarvesh now smiling coolly, ‘Its not me who is going.’

For the first time the angel felt confused. And as he looked on, he saw Sarvesh’s eyes change from dark brown to red. The color of the eyes of a death angel. 

Sarvesh now adorned in dark robes, looked on at the angel. He said ‘Satan requires a young, energetic motivated employee. And apparently according to him, I fit the bill better than you.’

‘It is time for you, my old friend  to die.’

The old man now stood with no shred of cloth on his body and stripped of his eyesight. 

‘But wait! NO! YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME!! I’m a loyal servant!!! I HAVE served well!! YOU CANNOT DO THIS!’

The old man ranted and raved. Then suddenly, he stopped ranting and raving. Forever.

As Sarvesh carried the old man’s soul to hell, he thought to himself, Now this is what I call job satisfaction.