DABBLER SCRIBBLES

From the overgrown fern in the backyard,

To the hanging picture on my wall,

The uprooted half withered tree,

The broken rope of swing,

Dusted yet mud swallowed,

In the barks of the fell ones,

The bird searched for its nest,

Crying,

Flying,

But it could not see which I can,

A new bud blossoms on the horizon,

Drenched in the rays, whose aura so grand,

To help the little one stand,

Drinking from the cup of dewdrops,

Sway when the gay grass hopper hops,

It urges me to grow,

To leave things and let go,

To move ahead, to push on,

To welcome this long awaited dawn.

“You get the documents and I will wait here”, Arnav urged Faizaan to get the college documents while he waited for him in the dim light of the mosque near his house. The mosque that seemed calm suddenly broke its silence by the “Adhan- prayer calls”. The little steps that walked the muezzin to the Minaret top was beautified by the green flags. The little boy who was reading the Quran Suras just peeped once to glance at the calm and dim aisle. Arnav looked at the Mosque’s entrance which beamed with the lamp at its foot. He played with the pack of sweet and rice that he got from the temple few minutes back.  It was Saturday and Arnav was agnostic enough to offer his prayers at the temple and the pundit often gave him a pack of sweet and rice after offering it to the gods. He was still humming the chants from the temple and the clanks of the bells ringing in rhythm with the prayers in his head.

                           “Excuse me sir, can I have something to eat?” A woman scooted out from the dim aisle of the mosque, covered in her dowdy Burqa, the black cloth that covered the Muslim women from the unworthy eyes of the world. The small patches of green cloth pieces on her Burqa screamed her poverty. The faded mud lines on her face told about her tears that flows more often than she can wipe. She now slithered coping up with her old age and reached closer to Arnav! “Please sir give me something to eat, I am very hungry”, she pointed at the rice pack with Arnav. Arnav looked at the pack of rice and pitched his voice with compassion to speak, “I could give you this pack of rice but this was an offering made to the god at the temple and I was told that Muslims don’t accept the offering from the temples…. Aren’t you a Muslim?

              “I am sir, but before that I am a poor helpless woman who is hungry. What lines of code from religious book can satisfy my hunger except for a pack of food?  Sir my hunger does not see if the food is coming from the temple or the mosque or from the church or a Gurudwara. It is hunger sir, what religion does it have?”

“Filthy! Do you even read your work?? What gives the clue that you could be a writer?? “, the publisher threw the paper on my face as he chewed on a few more beetle nut bits.” Next time if you go to a publisher, make sure you have read your filth first”. Filthy work? He calls my work filthy!! “If people like him were to publish works, Shakespeare would have never dared writing one”, I thought to self while picking up the papers. “Get out!” he screamed again. I slithered out of his cabin, dodged his employee who was haunted by his deadlines, missed his mail boy by inches who rushed in like a marathon winner, glided down his 58 steps to reach the ground, muttering to self, “Is my work really filthy?, why don’t they get the zeal of it?”. A flash of light followed by a honk of a car horn made me realize that I was on the road already. Four lane wide road divided by a pair of street lights, nothing brighter than the road itself with a fleet of over powered lifeless metal bodies carrying even lifeless human beings from their offices, screaming their presence in the lot!! It was dark and I tried to smuggle myself to the other side of the road amidst the ragging flash lights. Hard! Every time I moved an inch a gang of them rushed to throw me off the road. I slithered first and rushed through the rest. Relieved!! Alive!! Cursing the lot.

       Wet green grass, lavender flowers in the company of sleepy trees, cradling branches in the lullabies of the fragrant breeze followed by a rhythm of songs by toads and hoppers….Can a place be so placid amidst the chaotic human lives??, I chose not to  answer that but settled myself on the sloppy meadows near the lavenders, still thinking,” filthy! 72 publishers by now and all they have to say is filthy? Is there anyone who would want to read my work!! “I chuckled sarcastically. I smuggled the papers out of my bag and gander at them, but chose not to read them now. 432 times I have already read my work and I still didn't find it filthy. I breathed deep. Slipping the papers back into the bag I gazed up!!Dark blue cover with diamonds sparkling like they were embroidered by a connoisseur of art. Beautiful! I whispered to self. 1…2…3… that makes the Orion’s belt, I figured out Sagittarius too! I had already started counting the star,” 88 constellations and I managed to spot a few of them!” The article on “universe and stars” that accidentally reached my desk two weeks back declared that we have around 176 billion galaxies, each having a god damn 100 million stars!! Whoa! 100 million stars and 176 billion galaxies, that’s a huge number, I chuckled at the fact thinking that if even 0.1% of the 100 million stars in every galaxy had a solar system like ours, then there would be 10 million solar systems. 10 million! I screamed only to realize that there were none listening. 10 million earths, 10 million trillion people! Gosh, I don’t even know so many numbers, I stood amazed by the counts…..its huge!! And in this 10 million trillion people there would be a bunch of them who would not consider my work filthy!! A bunch at least! Yes…. A bunch at least, I whispered to self, chuckled and smuggled a piece of paper out of my bag. The next publisher's address…the 73^rd one! Out of the millions to come just the 73^rd one. 

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