Showing posts with label grave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grave. Show all posts
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
The Realm of Innocence
In the depths of this virgin forest germinates the embryo of human existence. Raped and molested is the soil, soiled over and over again through its copulation with man. I recline in tranquility, unaccompanied and unperturbed, under the thick shade of deodar tress. The last rays of daylight flitting through the leaves form psychedelic patterns on my hands. I look at the crimson sun fading behind the lofty Dhauladhar mountain range and close my eyes.
In idle thoughtlessness I carelessly brush my fingers against a pile of mossy stones - as smooth as velvet,as green as emerald...I inhale the musty, dank smell of the surroundings and slowly open my eyes. A few feet away I spot two little kids walking hand in hand. As they toddle towards me, I notice that they are no more than five years old. The little girl leads the boy towards a mound of soil a few feet away from where I am seated. Their pale white skin and skinny bodies seem to be juxtaposed with their rosy pink cheeks. The girl is wearing a floral print red dress, and the boy is attired in a blue shirt tucked in under his breeches. I muse over their ethnicity and decide that they must surely be British.I look at them for a while...they seem to be waiting for someone. I slowly get up and walk towards them greeting them with a ''Hello''. They instantly look at me and smile but say nothing. I sit down beside them and ask, ''Hello, What are your names?'' The little boy, as if overjoyed at being questioned, perches himself upon my lap and without even facing me replies coyly, ''My name is Charles and she's my sister Annie''. I ask Annie, ''Where are your parents?'', to which I get no reply. She seems very reserved and shy. I notice her playing with a beautiful red flower in her hand. I try drawing her attention,but she seems completely lost in her flower. Charles gives me a smile as he hops down from my lap and squats beside his sister. They both settle down together and keep staring at the tall trees.
I decide to look for their parents. As I stand up, they both hold my hand and smile...Their hands are extremely cold...A shiver runs down my spine at the touch.I notice their transparent, blue-grey eyes which I find quite intense and intriguing. I smile back and tell them that I'll be back in a moment. I look around the place but do not find anyone. I go inside the Church to look for them but find nobody there except a caretaker dusting the floor. The Church is about to close I realize... I ask the man if he has seen an English couple anywhere... He nods his head and says he hasn't.
As I move towards the doorway, a chipping and fractured white marble tablet catches my eye. I move towards it and read, ''To the memory of Annie Elizabeth who died at Dhurmsala, on the 24th of September 1863, Aged 5 Years and 9 Months and Charles McLeod who died at the same place on the 27th of September 1863, Aged 4 Years and 7 Months. The beloved children...''
Flabbergasted, I rush outside the Church and run towards the place where I was seated before... The children are gone... The red flower lies there, fresh and fragrant...as if kept there just a moment ago...The mound I realize is not just a dune of earth but indeed a grave...I feel dazed...In the distance, birds keep twittering. 
I run towards the Church and ask the caretaker, ''Does this graveyard, behind this Church have the dead bodies of two little children Charles and Annie?'' He looks at me and replies as if amused, ''Two children? Madamji, don't you know this graveyard is filled with the dead bodies of babies and children?...Hundreds of them were killed in a disastrous plague which occured decades back...''After that I couldn't comprehend anything he said...I simply stood there...benumbed, dumbstruck and stoned to the ground!
I decide to look for their parents. As I stand up, they both hold my hand and smile...Their hands are extremely cold...A shiver runs down my spine at the touch.I notice their transparent, blue-grey eyes which I find quite intense and intriguing. I smile back and tell them that I'll be back in a moment. I look around the place but do not find anyone. I go inside the Church to look for them but find nobody there except a caretaker dusting the floor. The Church is about to close I realize... I ask the man if he has seen an English couple anywhere... He nods his head and says he hasn't.As I move towards the doorway, a chipping and fractured white marble tablet catches my eye. I move towards it and read, ''To the memory of Annie Elizabeth who died at Dhurmsala, on the 24th of September 1863, Aged 5 Years and 9 Months and Charles McLeod who died at the same place on the 27th of September 1863, Aged 4 Years and 7 Months. The beloved children...''
Flabbergasted, I rush outside the Church and run towards the place where I was seated before... The children are gone... The red flower lies there, fresh and fragrant...as if kept there just a moment ago...The mound I realize is not just a dune of earth but indeed a grave...I feel dazed...In the distance, birds keep twittering. I run towards the Church and ask the caretaker, ''Does this graveyard, behind this Church have the dead bodies of two little children Charles and Annie?'' He looks at me and replies as if amused, ''Two children? Madamji, don't you know this graveyard is filled with the dead bodies of babies and children?...Hundreds of them were killed in a disastrous plague which occured decades back...''After that I couldn't comprehend anything he said...I simply stood there...benumbed, dumbstruck and stoned to the ground![Part fiction/part reality... Story based in Mcleodganj, Himachal Pradesh, India]
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Blue,Red and Black-A Dream of Despair, Desire and Death
Blue, Red and Black...Melancholy spreads itself upon my back.
Travelling to hell, I've lost my track.
Hopeless hope isn't the only setback.
Sinister sins are now ready for attack.
I see two slabs of walls inclined perpendicular to each other, suspended in space. No ceiling, no floor; no light no darkness; nothing below, nothing beyond - just this piece of existence in the depths of my vision. The wall is monochromatic - an evenly painted - dark as well as luminous, stark as well as gloomy - shimmering as the ultramarine sea, secluded as the azure sky, pure as sapphire - The brightest, deepest, most prominent shade of Cobalt Blue. At the centre where the two walls meet to form the corner I see your tall form...you are seated hugging your knees. Your face is buried in the shadows of abysmal desolateness. Your eyes are resplendent with tears... the lovely brown decaffeinated into a translucent hazel... You are wearing a pair of blue jeans and a plain, white un-tucked shirt. Your frizzy hair is tousled and your glasses lie off-centre... I emerge from the depths of nothingness... My eyes meet yours and you smile faintly...I feel pained and anguished to see you in loneliness... Feeling the desire to hold and comfort you, I move towards you...
Red, Black and Blue...
Sex and desire of every hue.
Buried lovers emerge anew.
Dark passions blur my view.
Where should I hide?I've no clue!
You and I are together...The walls are slowly stained with blood... like paint, the red blood of my body covers the walls...As we come closer to each other the colour deepens...from its rosy hue to flaming ruby! I slip my fingers into yours and hold you close to me. You run your fingers on my back and embrace me tightly...We feel each other's warmth for what seems like eternity! I caress your hair and you hold my face in your hands... I look deep into your eyes and we come so close that all we can feel is each other's breath. You feel the desire to kiss me,so you slightly brush your lips against mine...Exactly at that moment, even before we are fully aware of what we are doing, a flash of liquid light, white and blinding, interrupts us and we are detatched eternally!
Black, Blue and Red...
I hear desperate wails in my head.
Distorted dreams blot my bed.
Frozen tears I incessantly shed.
Woe! I'm perpetually dead...
I see myself... I am sitting huddled in the corner... exactly at the place where you were seated. The walls are now charred Black...it appears like burnt wood-dilapidated and ruined to the core! I see absurd, frenzied shadows of unidentifiable forms on the walls... these shadows are desperately trying to run away...from what?I am unaware of! They all are lamenting, wailing in agony and pain... they all seem restless, frantic and absorbed in a stupor of frenzy. Their cacphony is tormenting! Agitated, I try looking down and see mutilated hands of different men pointing their fingers at me. I hear sounds of laughter, ridicule and insults; people mocking fun at me! I cover my ears with the palm of my hands but as I do so, the noise grows louder! I look at the hands and try recognizing them...Among these hands I am horrified to find yours! I can even hear your voice along with the others! Harrassed and in utter disbelief, I tear off my clothes. A glass coffin emerges from oblivion and encloses me within itself... In complete brutality and heartlessness, I rip open my breast... I take out my bleeding heart and hold it in my hands. My heart is nothing but a grotesque, malformed amalgation of blood and flesh... shapeless and broken like a mirror into a thousand shards! The noises and shadows fade from the walls and is replaced by my own shadow... The bizarre semblance of hands disappear as well... All that is visible now, is my shadow on the wall, content and happy...I can also see my bloodied dead body, with its heart ripped apart. I hear a calm voice from afar...it sounds like a hymn, a chant, a prayer, a blessing! It says, ''I'll always be there for you, Don't worry Anukriti''...I recognize it...it seems like a lullaby soothing me into an endless sleep... At last I am happy and satisfied...for I am dead!A smile lingers over my face, and my body remains entombed in the glass coffin forever!
