The green eyed fish

The Green Eyed Fish

Once, there was a small fish. For him, the pond was big. He swam with wild abandon. getting lost was not a concern for him, but an adventure. he knew he could get by with a little help from his friends.
On one such joy ride about water, he experience massive waves carrying him away without his consent. He was scared and confused. What had suddenly happened to this placid and serene lake? He asked as much to an elder saffron crab, by the edge of water. The crab pointed to a long floating creature. It had two arms moving forward and backward, thrusting water backwards which had caused the ripples that caught our fish by surprise. The rest of the body was amazingly still, except for its derrière, which bobbled a bit from time to time. It was a curious creature; it refused to swim below the water. He wondered how it survived outside of water all this while. Our lil fish was enamoured by it. To his astonishment though, at the bank another figure with four limbs and weird angular joins 'stepped out' of it.
He had seen one fish going inside another forever. He had seen a herd of smaller fishes feasting on a big one, which was rendered sans movement.
But he had never seen a creature coming out of another one, the bigger left dead still.
This mystical creature had jumped out of water and stationed itself by the bank on a stone. It smeared itself with ashes. The crab told him, the ashes were of a similar creature who had come there earlier. The crab told how these creatures come and sit there motionless for a long time only to send out bubbles of some sort high in the sky, from time to time. He told of their queer fascination with that one rock to sit on. He narrated how this particular creature had bludgeoned the head open of his predecessor. There were many rocks there, but they always fought for this one only. All wisdom led to waste, corporeal feast.

The fish was scared. Fear leads to awe; Awe to respect. He gingerly swam towards the alien creature. He tentatively looked at it sideways. He peeped out of water and opened his mouth to ask questions to it. But the creature caught it and threw it out of water. Our little fish was gasping for life and jumping with desperation. His little mouth was gaping huge with thirst for life.

The rock on which this was happening, had been a seat of these weird creatures for ages. It had grown smooth and slippery owing to its continued use. It just so happened that the lapping water on the rock made the creature slip and fall. And fall he did, right into the fish’s mouth. The fish couldn’t take it in for it was too big, and couldn’t get it out as well. They both rolled down with the creature’s weight back into water. At the bottom of the calm lake, the duo were struggling; the fish to get the creature out of his mouth, the creature for his life. Flailing limbs eventually stopped. The fish eventually found a way to eat up and gulp down the creature. The fish grew immensely with this diet. All of a sudden, it became the big fish of the pond.

The word had spread. Fish had eaten up the big alien creature. Rumours created legend; Legend lend him strength. He was feared. He was despised. People don’t like things that they can’t comprehend. How did he grow up this big, and why did they not? This irked him, alienated him, and made him angry.

And hungry.

He couldn’t recognise his earlier friends as they appeared much smaller now. They tried to come near to him. He ate them up. He ate up his family. He ate up the entire pond’s fishes and crabs and occasionally some ducks. He grew and grew and grew so much that he was now too big for the pond. Half of his body would now necessarily lie outside the water. So he would have to rotate himself to wet and breathe regularly. One can do it only so many times before asking the existential ‘for what’? A tear rolled down his round big eye. He was eating up the sand surrounding the lake to satiate his hunger. Eventually, it was the sand who claimed him. His scales turned stone. But his eyes forever remained moist. Little birds feasted on this water. There grew fungus and then eventually the eye turned green with vegetation.

Now he sits by the lake. Motionless. Trees grow on his back. Swallows nest in his eyes.

He makes a good photograph.

robber

i feel like robbing something beautiful. a life maybe. steal all the beauty, put my copyright and bury it in my 36 GBs of namelessness.
lets start with some beautiful flowers in all their blue, green and red splendour. the colors are not all too bright and I won't let you play with its simple beauty on photoshop to tweak its contrast and hues. They are beautiful as they are. They are alive. They don't need your definitions. Let me rob you of the pleasure of seeing the flowers in their magnificient colors in punishment of your expectations transgressions.
hmm.. even after stealing its colors, the flower shines with its grace. sublime curves. maybe in my beauty jihad, i should make them wear hijabs and throw black paint over this plate.
but I can only stand still, and admire its grace. grace can never be kept hidden.

breakfast

Eggs!
fried. and as our canteen wallah guy Subhash puts it.. 'Palti maar ke'.
Divine. :D

Well, i am poorer for the lack of MICA mess now. But that doesnt mean, I am going to give up on a dream of everyday sumptuous breakfast. well, even if I were to make my own breakfast, where would i arrange the greens, the portable fan, spacious airy verandah and fellow revelers of a leisurely breakfast?
The single most important thing that bothers me in my current stint at mumbai is breakfast. its not loneliness, its not commutes, its not crowds, it not absence of winter (but, what the duck! how can a place have no seasons :( i want winter! ), its BREAKFAST. or the lack of it.
Double fried eggs come in my dreams. dreams of past breakfast.
The one on goa beach a year ago. while the rest of my friends were still zonked out, i stole away on our rented Activa to a beach nearby to a Portuguesey named restaurant with open patio facing the beach. the wind would suddenly pick up at time and snatch away the tissue papers from table. a gaggle of birds would descend in cacophony and fly away again.. and again.. and again. :P a bunch of teenage girls were getting high on the adventure of trying the beer (flavoured) for the first time. and their race to tell each other stories of their own, how they were so brave and smoked once... and so on. there was a couple on another table. each was reading his/her own book.. and once in a while they would chip up and stare at the sea. with a sigh, their eyes would straight fall back towards the book.
The sun, the sand, the shade, the sea, and the delicious delicious scrambled eggs!

Or my daily morning pilgrimage to gesmo restaurant in Leh. the colorful tinted windows. sweet sweet music. and wonderful hosts. the place was owned by a Nepali guy. utterly diligent and helpful. the waiter was a young guy who always kept on smiling. he smiled more to firang girls :P. they all loved the amazing cookies there.
It became a habit with me to check the notice board at that restaurant, where travellers would post ads for fellow travellers to join in; lifeline for a lone traveller like me. I made so many friends over that board and around those tables. breakfast together and then off to travel!

well, now i yearn for a simple leisurely breakfast. egg in someway for a few days a week. in big airy space with sunlight streaming in. with no one harried or worried about time. If you know such place in Andheri, please please PLEASE let me know. I know its mumbai and it runs after clock incessantly, but there must be a place surely somewhere, where time is immaterial.
please.. suggest breakfast places.