Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Summertime

The sun at its radiant best. Angry blue skies. Arid earth. Hot collars.

No cloud cover. No respite.

A few harried salesmen and other sundry parched throats trudge along towards their destinations. Beads of sweat wet the foreheads. Their thirsty eyes look up in hope at those delightful soft drink hoardings. High up in the air, the hoardings look down at the tired souls and give hope. Magical blues and revitalizing greens. Cool cubes of ice floating in those tall glasses with multicolored nectar. A sight to quench your thirst while a greedy corner store awaits you.

A sun burnt cart puller. Dark sweat laden skin and thin sinewy muscles bounce off the sunlight while they exert the very last bit of energy left in them. The malnourished man pushes them to the extreme to carry his cross and inch towards his destination and to the few rupees that will feed his family this evening. Each step costs a fortune in blood and sweat, but ironically, is worth only a few pennies. A drop of life trickles down his forehead, works its way down to the bridge of his nose, finds his parched lips, ignores his kiss, finds the chin, drips down to wet his bare chest and dissipates into the wetness of his chest.

The cart puller curses the sun. But then he repents. He is poor. He has no education. But he is wise. He knows deep within, that the sun may be merciless, but the sun is still a friend. Not like the rain.

The sun is always angry. But it is honest.

The rain, it is enticing and beautiful and pleasurable. But it is sly.

In the rain, no one will hire his cart. An empty cart is directly proportional to an empty stomach. Sorry. Six empty stomachs.

Not far away a man in his air-conditioned car looks out at the world. Cradled in his seat of luxury, awaiting a traffic signal to go green, he looks out at the beggar knocking at his window in disgust. The beggar, deformed and probably deranged, brings his sun burnt thirsty lips close to the expensive window pane. He knocks on the window and makes a sad face. A man pleading for life sustaining bread and a nourishing drink of water. A man begging to live.

In his mind, the beggar too curses the sun, for the sun cares not for those who have little. He sides with the rich and roasts the poor. The beggar tries to open his mouth. But his dehydrated lips give up. He mumbles some words that say nothing but mean despair. The man in the car, however, can hear nothing. His ears are tuned to the throbbing music that reverberates through the expensive beige interiors. He breathes in cool air and gestures to the strange life form outside his window. Be gone you creep. “Why the fuck cant they work. If I give him money I know I will end up feeding the beggar mafia”

The beggar trudges away towards other carriers of hope that await the signal to go green. One of them holds the key to nourishment.

And then there are the children. Hopping and skipping to nowhere. Their unruly hair and their oily pigtails braving the mighty sun, making friends with the scorching sunlight.

How can they be unaffected by the mighty summer? Does innocence nourish, shield, and protect. Or is it the benevolence of the sun for those that will, hopefully, one day, bring about compassion that the worlds needs.

The sun lives in hope and burns with anticipation. He lights up those little lives and is optimistic. One day, before he collapses into himself to become a supernova, these little ones will work up the magic of innocence and sing songs that extend compassion. One day they will eradicate sin. On that day, everyone will see the light.

God looks down at the sun. He looks down with a wry smile. A glint in his eye.

“They will not understand because they are not programmed to”

“Not many will understand that my greatest creation is not man or the sun or the water or fire or the planets. Not even the universe. Not love. Not the heart. Not even the brain.

My greatest creation….

Equilibrium….

Which I created in abundance….

Right and wrong
Rich and poor
Hot and cold
Life and Death
Love and hate
Creation and Destruction
Cyclical
Interdependent

For that which sustains also destroys
One feeds the other
One negates the other
One leads to the other
One balances out the other

Fuzzy logic… yeah… equilibrium…. My greatest creation

25 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Blunt Edges said...

aha aha...great 2 see another post here...do i assume this place is open again? :)

when God started speaking, i was a tad worried if u will make him say the f-word also! ;)

PS: even i like the sun more than the rain

As the Mind Meanders said...

@ Choco

I am up on a chane ka jhaad now... so what if I did not understand your comment completely... I think you said nice things :D

As the Mind Meanders said...

@ Blunt Bhai

Yes sir. This place is open again...

And shit man... How could I have not taken this opportunity... Ah! to get God to abuse... now why not... will try and do that soon :D

And boss.. you like the sun.. in Bangalore I am sure... please spend a summer in Mumbai...

moonlite:D said...

hmmm,,
equillibrium!! eh??

i know only about the nothingness in the entire creation.. :D

cool post :)
n I second Choco, shouldn't we be reading this thesis in any of the best seller :D

Shanu said...

Ahh lovely post...This is what I love abt blogging...getting to read a whole new perspective..

"Equilibrium" God's greatest creation..now thatz a whole new idea, a whole new thought..

You gave me sumthin to think about..me likes...no, me loves this post :)

Welcome back Mindey..hope u are here to stay :)

agent green glass said...

dude, this is why i'm so glad you're back. i read the post some eight times. your writing just gets better.

As the Mind Meanders said...

@ The moon

There is more to life than nothingness honey... look around you... its anything but nothing...

I am glad you found the post coo..

And I am not good enough.. yet.. to deserve a book...

As the Mind Meanders said...

@ Shanu

A serious comment from you... somehow... that worries me...and yet it pleases me...

I will do everything I an to stay... and keep writing.. if you promise to stick with me... and keep writing too...

As the Mind Meanders said...

Oh AGG....

You have no idea what your comments do to me... I respect you immensely... and it makes me wanna do cartwheels when you say nice things about my writing...

You rock mate...

Shanu said...

@ Mindey

Aww..Of course I will keep writing .. tatz too small a price to pay... to keep u arnd :)

Anonymous said...
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As the Mind Meanders said...

Thanks Shanu :-)

As the Mind Meanders said...

It must have been a while... MJ would have turned in his grave...

People on earth and gods in heaven... forgive her... For she knows not...

That the song is...

"We ARE the world. We ARE the children"

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Ire said...

Why don't you publish ha? I don't suggest this to many people! But you definitely deserve your own book!

Sangitha said...

U r quite an observant aren’t u? And u have this innate ability to do full justice to ur thoughts.. Wow.. I bow down before u man!! Kudos to u and ur imagination.. :) Now whenever i will look at the blazing sun im gonna remember ur post!! :)
and if thats not enuf u write abt God's greatest creation….

Equilibrium..!!

Never really thot in this way.. and i cursed Him for being unfair.. :(
U made me ponder..and thats a feat in itself! :D

So glad to see u back.. Hope u are doing fine.. take care.. :)

As the Mind Meanders said...

@ Choco

Ya ya... Cover up... Go on... :-)

As the Mind Meanders said...

Thanks Nikita... Iam flattered

As the Mind Meanders said...

@ Sangita

Thank you. I am glad you liked the post.

Its just something that we all see and notice. I just happened to write it down

Meghana Naidu said...

So it IS true then. you're back.

i feel happy and gushy and all fuzzy inside :)
my little bunch of bloggers, oh so dear bloggers, was incomplete without you.

i know im incorrigibly late but Welcome back! :)

and before you ask
im back, im here, im not writing and i never left.
;)

mentalie said...

woo hoo! never guessed where that one was going. btw, have you been lunching with my grandmother? she says exactly the same thing!

Pesto Sauce said...

Sometimes it is the lack of equilibrium which messes it all up

But this is commendable stuff

Sumi Mathai said...

reading u after ages..its good u know to get to know different perspectives. different ideologies. write more.