Bizarre!!

I had posted this a long time ago on a dormant blog of mine.. so thought I'd bring it here as well..

There are plenty of wierd 'happenings' that occur and about which we have no clue whatsoever...One such occurence is a sexual behaviour seen among a certain egg mite species...The pregnant female mite feeds on the eggs of other insects in order to provide nourishment for her developing offsprings... Her little ones grow inside her.. one male to several females... while still inside the mother, the male impregnates all his sisters and dies... the females come out by eating their way out of their mother's womb, thus killing her in the process... and this continues...
Incest often leads to severe genetic problems due to the expression of recessive genes.. but in this case, things get even more bizarre!.. this mite seems to have only dominant genes.. and no recessive...

Snakes!!!

Today it won't be any story...I was watching animal planet(as usual)... and came across the top 10 deadliest snakes in africa.... I've seen probably quite a few of these top 10 deadliest snakes... n they claim different sankes at different times.... for some its the black mamba.. for others, the russel's viper... or maybe the king cobra(?india?)..lol.... but nonetheless snakes are extremely fascinating... ok, so how do you state which snake's the deadliest??.. the amount of venom it injects into the victim???... or the amount of venom it stores??.. or by the number of people who die??.. But this show i saw on animal planet had the host giving his own rating based on how aggressive the snake was, how fast it moved, how fast it attacked n the size of its fangs n the amount of venom it injected.... so i think it was pretty fairly done.... but then, you just cannot give the number one , two , three n so on n so forth tags to these mighty reptiles....
how many people die?? how does one find that out? through hospital records??? (funny).... how much venom's needed to kill the victim?? you have the ld 50 test for that.... but is that the only basis???... or how much venom the snake stores???... you'll have different snakes topping the list everytime with each of these parameters....
But one thing's for sure.... I can watch these snake shows any number of times.....:D

Untitled

All I had had were the small multicoloured lozenges, intended to make me feel less nauseous.... We kept on moving higher towards the hotel, but it never seemed to come... My mother, as usual her chirpy self was busy talking to a bengali lady who sat beside her... this lady was quite what my mother wasn't... she was slim, wore trousers and a coat.... not a saree and two sweaters, one inside and one on top..... Despite my sensation to throw up, I couldn't help but notice how poised and polished the lady, Mrs. Sen seemed.... I kept glancing towards her, admiring her long hair, left to slide all over her back, unlike my mother who had her curly hair tied into a neat bun.....

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My mother had been coaxing my father to organize a foreign trip for quite some time... and finally he'd given in.... maybe because he too was tired of having to go to the same old hotel in puri, we went to each holiday..... I was only six.... too young to really take in every view I'd see, and old enough to at least understand what the whole frenzy about going abroad was about.... The next few days, my parents were visible only at two places, home- discussing clothes and food that needed to be packed,( yes food too, for my mother was of the belief that european food would undoubtedly leave us with upset stomachs or a bad bout of food poisoning), and the travel agency- where they'd spend the rest of the day.

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Mr. Patel, with his seven membered family , all equally spherical in shape, were the first ones in our tour group to approach us.... and my mother hit it off immediately with his wife.... just because she too shared the same sentiments regarding food as my mother did.. they'd packed about 50 packets of theplas to last them for the entire fourteen day trip.... The rest arrived, some in deiiferent flights and we waited ofr them.... one thing was sure, they'd done their homework well, even the fattest of the aunties wore the tightest of pants and shirt... my mother was the only odd one out.... I tried to stand with my father whenever possible.....

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Mrs. Sen offered me a chocolate she'd bought from a chocolate factory in Germany... My mother had disapproved of buying too many chocolates , and we stuck to toblerone... but Mrs. Sen, bought a whole bag full of chocolates of various kinds.... Mr. Sen, on the other hand seemed aloof, preferred to walk on his own, go out for shopping on his own, even so much so that at dinner time he's sit at a table isolated from the rest........

Mrs. Sen was the jovial kind.... spoke to everyone, ate the theplas offered by the gujjus, and even offered not to eat non vegetarian food the one time she sat with them for dinner.... My mother saw Mr. sen, sitting alone and dragged me and my father to the table.... It felt weird to be in the company of someone who clearly didn't want anybody else's.... but I kept holding the chicken leg in my hand and ate ..... My dad began the convesation, asking him what he did and whethere he liked his job..... He answered everything politely but refused to participate in a moment's more of any verbal exchange.....

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It was the yacht ride I was looking forward to.... it was spectacular with the water sparkling in the moonlight and everyone high on happiness.... all except Mr. Sen and my mother.... She had had an argument with my father over a suitcase which was overfull and needed to be unpacked and repacked.... My father had his share of drinks and went ahead with his camera and danced and took photos..... I danced to some punjabi tune they'd been playing, for about the 10th time.... My mother sat with Mr. Sen.... Mr. sen was talking..... quite a lot

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My mother bought herself a pair of trousers, and a white shirt and wore it for the first time in her life , on the day of the grand show in Paris.... She looked embarrased, but while getting into the bus, I heard Mr. Sen telling her that she looked absolutely stunning.... I was glad too.... at least now she wouldn't look so weird amongst the rest....My mother blushed and got in...

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My father always was the kind to go out on treks on his own and enjoyed anyone who showed even a little bit of interest in observing the nature... He gathered quite a fan following, with the gujjus and Mrs. Sen all joining him on a trek a little away from the hotel in switzerland.....

I was down with fever so couldn't go... My mother stayed back and so did Mr. sen.... She went to the coffee shop with him, walked over to the souvenier shop next to hotel and bought identical bells for their respective homes..... My mother seemed different... differently happy altogether...

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I wanted to sleep desperately and since th flight was going almost totally empty, I decided to go to the middle row and sleep with my legs stretched..... all the other kids seemed to think my idea was the greatest one anyone could come up with and the entire midddle row was booked....

My mother sat watching a bollywood movie on the tv screen, got bored after a while and took up a magazine and read it.....

We finally reached the departure area in Mumbai and now we had to part.... Mr. Sen came up to me and handed over a small gift... " It's our parting gift", he said looking at my mother... Mrs. Sen as usual spoke of how lovely the entire trip had been, how nice we had been and how horrible the gujjus had been, creating a ruckus over veg and non veg at every meal.....

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On reaching home, I opened the gift uncle had given me.....

It had two bells, one blue and one red, both which he'd bought with my mother for "his" home....

WHEN DESERTS TALK...

I'd run out of my house, 5 p.m. sharp, every day, reach the corner tea shop and meet my favourite person in the world... Shyam chacha... He owned the tea shop and sold some really creamy biscuits along with it, which I simply adored.... but that wasn't the reason why I'd go to meet him every day... I lived in Rajasthan... amidst the desert, and adding to the beauty of the brown dunes and the dry hot air against your face, was Shyam uncle... and his stories....

Twenty years later I went back to Rajasthan ( I live in Delhi now ) and the first person I went over to meet was him...I took a plate full of the cream biscuits and sat down ... " Raghu, take care of the shop... I'm going over to the bench to sit with my little princess", said Shyam chacha.. and with his broad grin and wrinkled kind face joined me ( though I was all of twenty six, and not little any more).... This was the story he told me that day...

After years of hard work and saving, a farmer couple in a remote village of Rajasthan gave birth to a son.... a son they named Shyam... the day he was born, his father distributed the most expensive sweets his pocket could afford, just to get the blessings of the rich and the poor alike... He did not want his son to be poor like him....

Five years later, Shyam's mother died due to lack of food, something which she gave up to save her son and husband in the time of drought and severe heat... Shyam did not quite understand it then, but he started carving out little pieces of wood his father brought him to satisfy his want for toys and to keep him distracted from his loss.... he carved and people marvelled at how a little child like him could do what he did when he did.... Slowly, tourists poured into the village, and his fame grew as the yound prodigee who could turn wood into gold....

Meanwhile, Shyam's uncle saw the great talent in him and knew he had to put it to better use than for the sake of a few tourists... His father wasn't too keen on wood carving nonsense, and wanted Shyam to concentrate on learning the tricks of the fields, Shyam's uncle planned something very different....

Shyam was still five when he was sold to a man by his uncle... he was now part of a circus... wherever the circus went, his posters were put up... a five year old creating masterpieces with wood?... people came from far and wide just to see whether all this hype was true.. "why a circus, you ask beta?", asked Shyam uncle when i looked surprised at his storyline now... thats because they put up a stall with his carvings near their circus, and there would always be a special show at the end of the show where the six year old would come to the centre of the circus enclosure and pick out another child from the audience, ask what he wanted the wood to be carved into, and within the next eight minutes, the wood would transform into what noone had seen before.... and so it went on... sparrow, peacock, a boat, a battleship, a fairy, a monster, mythological characters; he made it all....

The day had come to shift the circus camp to the next site... caravans were set, and Shyam walked with Ruchi, the acrobat of the circus, held her hands tight and walked.... " Why do we have to move so many times ruchi?", he asked. " Because that's the way circus life is ... you shouldn't be here though.... you have a true gift , you should be out somewhere making a name for yourself and enjoying the life little kids do... not slave out like this...."....

Months had passed, it was same every month.. a new place, but the same tricks, same shows, same carvings....

Neerav, the manager of the circus had managed to get the biggest ever contract... He was to perform in Bombay... amidst the high profile starts that lived there.... this was the time to make real money.... Shyam was still young.... if he grew any older, his talent would be considered "not unusual"....

The night of the show in Bombay, Neerav came upto Shyam and said," You have to be the best today, because if you're not, I'll be disgraced for the rest of my life and you won't get to see another morning"...

"Ladies and Gentlemen... the moment you've been waiting for.... yes, it's the miracle boy.. only five (although he was six now)... an age when your children barely know how to join blocks of the same colour, we have a child who can create magic out of wood....Please welcome... Shyam!!".....Shyam came into the centre of the enclosure... a star came in and asked him to carve him a wizard.... Shyam kept staring at the block of wood ....the star said "ok, if not a wizard, just make me a car"... Shyam continued looking at the wood piece.... ten minutes passed...thirty minutes passed and he did not move a single finger.........................................................

"Sell me the child.. he looks good, has a sweet face... will fetch top money from my foreign clients..", said Arvind to neerav.... Neerav had lost a lot of money, not counting the loss in his pride and fame, and he said" fine, as long as you give me a good price for him... he's yours"...

and so Shyam was sold for the second time now.......

"It's ok Shyam.... just do as the I ask you to do.... we won't harm you...we love you"..... Shyam was told to remove his clothes and pose for a photo... he removed his shirt and posed in his shorts.... " Ok, that's very nice.. enough for today...tomorrow we'll proceed further..."........

The police raided the place that night and Shyam discovered there were fifteen other kids, some as young as three, all who'd been bought by the couple ... He didn't understand why though.....

he spent the night in a tiny room rented by an NGO.... and slept for the first time in that year then....

For the next ten years, the NGO tried to find a couple to adopt Shyam... but nobody did.... he'd grown ... and his face had lost its sweetness and charm.... people wanted beautiful kids to adopt.... He worked at the NGO, and slowly everyone knew Shyam as a hard working and talented boy... He'd organize little programs for the rich people who'd come to visit the NGO, the NGO needed their money and Shyam did everything to entertain them into giving their gold to them....

Shyam was 17 when he got tired of living in one place.... the next day, he boarded the train to Rajasthan.... He'd always wanted to go there.... he didn't remember his father or uncle any more... the only thing he remembered were the brown dunes of the desert....

He went back.... but not to his village... he worked as a labourer, as a salesman, and finally married Sonam... Sonam lived with her father who owned a tea stall..... Her father died a few years later and Shyam came to own the tea stall......

He liked his settled life ..... and I still do, my child....I'm old and weak but I never fail to miss my little girl who'd come to listen to my stories every day.....

" I miss you too, Shyam chacha... and most, I miss these biscuits of yours..."I said, finishing off the plate and three cups of tea to wash it down...

OF EARTHWORMS AND EARTHWORMS

My first day in college....
Teacher1- you've scored really high marks in math.. why did you join Zoology??
Me- Well, i like biology, so that's the reason I think.
Teacher1- hmmm... you have to be really good to survive in this department.. not that I'm trying to scare you.
Me- I'll try my best
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Next day....

Teacher2- Today we'll start with an earthworn.. the easiest to cut open... I'll show you just once.. and even after that if you can't, I'll throw each one of you out of the class.
Me- scared

She took the tiny earthworm in her hands... hands which shook like she was secreting an overdose of dopamine... "Be careful not to cut the intestine. we'll take out the ovary today"..she took a scissor, borrowed it from me actually.... she tried to make the first incision... failed miserably... "Whose scissor is this??"
Me- mine...(in a low voice)
Teacher- I really don't know what the world's coming to... I thought you stupid kids would know to differentiate between a good scissor and a bad one...
She continued cutting.... the intestine burst.. the gooey contents of which spilled out on her hands....( we controlled the laughter that had been building up inside us)
Teacher- Well, actually I wanted to show you that you shouldn't cut it like this....
(more laughter)
She finally cut open the earthworm, pinned it down ...( poor earthworm, looked like it had been assasinated in the cruelest way... even jesus did not have so many pins in his body)
Teacher- Now we take out your ovary..
what???.. some girls couldn't help crying out....
Teacher - Don't act silly... of course I mean the earthworm's ovaries...
she continued... took a forcep from me..( ya, you guessed right... she criticised the forcep to her heart's content even before putting it to test)...
She plunged it into what she said was the 14th segment... took out something which looked like a whilte lump and placed it on a slide....
Teacher- Now you'll see how beautiful the ovaries look like...
she adjusted the slide under the microscope....and called out to each one of us to marvel at the beauty of the white lump...
Me- Ma'am, but this doesn't look like what's been shown in the book, looks rather like fibres...
Teacher- Do you think you know too much??... I know your kind of girls.. always trying to act extra smart on the first day of college.. well, let me tell you, such antics will not work here...
I retired to my seat... took an earthworm and set out to massacre its brains out...

Teacher 3 came in just then...
Teacher 3- What are you showing these kids today?
Teacher 2- Nothing, just how to take out ovaries from the earthworm.. it's a very important excercise.. comes for 10 marks in the exam...
Teacher 3- let me have a look at it..
She peers through the microscope...
Teacher3- umm.... this isn't the ovary... it's fibres.....
Teacher 2- oh well, I know.. I was just trying to test them.....
Teacher 3 looked doubtfully at the class, now trying its best to cut the earthworm without spilling out its contents... took an earthworm of her own, cut it open, and put it on a slide...she then called out to all of us...
Now this looked like the ovaries like the ones dranw in the book... round beautiful structures...
Teacher2- ya... now look at it carefully.... this is what you're supposed to get in the next ten minutes... if you don't you'll lose out on your attendance...
I struggled with the tiny dead brown earthworm... finally, I burst the intestine, broke its head, and then, there was nothing left of it.... time was running out.... she had already thrown 8 of us out of the class for not showing her the right thing.... I had already had a not so good start in the department...
Out of desperation, I sneaked out the slide teacher 3 had prepared from under the microscope... I knew it had the 'right' stuff... at least that's what the teachers had said...
I took the slide to her... sure that I couldn't get blasted for that...

Teacher2- What have you brought here??.. does this even remotely resemble the ovaries???... You girl, which school have you come from??... oh baroda... I should've known... small city girls like you trying to prove to the world what gems you are.. But let me tell you, you'll not be allowed in this class unless you improve your behaviour....

I laughed secretly... now I was convinced she was nothing but a hollow drum making a whole of of noise.. probably beacuse she was insecure... insecure about someone who'd out do her... actually each one of us was better than her any day...

So since that day, we never even paid a second long attention to what she said... we laughed when she scolded... we basically did all the things that made her furious.... but she couldn't do anything.... the other teachers loved us... we were the best batch that had come in a 100 years (ok, maybe that's an exaggeration).....

SEVENTH HEAVEN

"You're really hot", this was probably the tenth flirtatious message I'd sent 'him'. I turned my back to see his reaction... he just smiled, looking into his mobile, and then looked at me, gave his typical 'i'm a charmer' smile and as usual i felt like i was in the seventh heaven...

I always had a thing for 'intelligent' men, but had seldom come across such a smart and handsome 16 year old... and sixteen was an age when i found every guitarist unbelievably unbelievable, every guy who knew shakespeare, truly delicious, and anyone who knew and could teach me physics, sigh.... well, anyway, 'he' had two of the above mentioned features and it was enough for me to go weak in the knees....

I was an academically brilliant (or so they say), and musically good enough student, which made me quite a known face and figure in my otherwise small school.... it had its merits, such as teachers supporting you , no matter what, but the demerits were many...

I was never very into girls.. always thought they were a bunch of 'namby pamby' creatures god had created just to bring bickering and spite into the world.. i was happy with my friend circle, which consisted of ummm.. around 7-8 guys.... they too liked me, i was always the one to arrange dates for them, and provide them with a playground to play cricket (and ya, they made special rules for me, such as if i hit a ball outside the area, it would be six, if the guys did it, it'd be out)...I was their shoulder to cry upon when their relationships failed and of course they had no option but to give me their bikes to ride, ... i've done pretty unbelievable things... but one thing was sure, i'd never like a guy in a boyfriend sort of way...

I changed my school in 11th.. went to this high profile, short skirt wearing school, where girls were supposed to be liposuctioned to perfection... and i met 'him'.... he'd come new from a far off land, and he seemed different....

well, eight years after the day i wrote him the messages, I still look at him and remember the days and years i spent tolerating his half mad-fully insane-complete clown self... well, to elaborate I died in a freak accident two years ago.... and ya, I still look at him.... I've seen him grow as an individual, get stronger everyday, learn how to make paranthas of his own, i've seen him buy a house for himself full with a fridge that's always stuffed with chicken... and i've seen him ransack my dad's music collection.... I've always wondered how he never broke down... how he kept his cool....

he'll be married in a few weeks time... I feel sad... I wish i had been the bride, but then I dont think I'd have tolerated his horrible singing....so i'm happy to have passed on the baton to someone else....

I know I"ll always keep looking at him.. and say that he still looks really hot.... and I think he gets my messages, for I still see that 'I'm a charmer ' smile when he looks at my photo... and as usual I feel like I'm in the 'seventh heaven'....

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS, THE CRADLE WILL ROCK

When you try to look out of your window, and see nobody there, what do you do?... nothing... go back to doing what you were doing...

I often wonder, what it was that led to my existence... finally...Sometimes my solitude gets the better of me and I stroll out onto the terrace and lean at the edge of the parapet... The slap of cold wind on my face and the challenge that I give to death, stimulates me to go back and write my story...

When a child is born, it isn't necessary that a mother be born along with it; but when a mother Is born, a child becomes an object of love for the entire world...The above lines are not a product of my philosophical outburst, but a picture of what my life is all about....I had a sister. When i say a 'sister' it just implies a female entity... and it isn't hidden, what the world thinks of anything that is in the least 'Yin' in form... I would have had two more siblings, probably 'sisters' again, but they were killed.. or rather 'aborted'...My parents were god... they felt it was upon them to give to this world sons who'd in turn make the world... there was no place in this 'world' for sisters or daughters, though their 'sons' would marry someone's 'daughter' or 'sister'...
My sister came down with Jaundice a week after mother had her first abortion... and a week after the second abortion( a year later), she died... fell out from the window of a car, hit the divider on the road and died...Next was my turn. I was to be born next... and I lived to see the light of the day... why? maybe because now my parents believed that a 'daughter' could at least get them a 'son' in law if a 'son' was never to come...or maybe it was their god-fearing side that took over them after three deaths...I won't say that I wasn't taken care of, or I was treated like nothing... because I was not... I was loved and cared for like my sister probably never had... But I was never close to my mother or my father..

When I was in college, a cousin of mine told me all this... probably just to make me feel like I was an unwanted child... but I confronted my parents that very day and they gave me the truth in the most candid manner, one could have... I was determined that I'd never let this gender-bias get the better of me...I'm thirty three now... married to a loving businessman, and a loving son to complete my family.... A month back I told my husband that I was pregnant with his second child...The doctor revealed it would be a daughter.. 'I' was extremely happy...

Today as I write this, I am not happy... I no longer feel for anything... I feel nothing... like the way you feel when you look out of a window and see nothing....I aborted the 'daughter'...
I will now have a 'son'.....