Will This Dismay Vaporize?

It was a long, hot, simmering summer ahead. Vacation was announced in college after semester examinations. All students had departed with jolly mood to their homes and why wouldn't they, it was summer vacation which was two and half month long time of doing whatever they liked.  It was euphoric moment for everyone except Sophia, Prity, Rukhsana and Harpreet. They all had their own reasons for not liking summer vacations.

Sophia, the only child of working parents. She had prior experiences of her gloomy vacations. Sitting whole day alone in front of TV switching channels, no one around to talk to and not permitted to go out in absence of her parents. Prity, hated attending marriages putting lot of makeups and always following lot of family rules and getting second preference over her brother. Rukhsana was frustrated with her marriage talks even after her repetitive denial and wearing Burqa whenever going out with her Ammi and Harpreet disliked meeting her never ending family tree.

They all looked into each other's eyes and a same thought flashed, We have adult franchise, we can choose the government for a country, why can't we choose what interests us? Is it always necessary for a girl to bandage her thoughts within the wrappers of society conviction? The answer was definitely NO in their eyes. Sometime insurgency eludes cognizance.

They planned to go on camping and hiking, arranged all accoutrement and went on to pursue their adventures dream. They were very excited because they were about to see the world through their own eye and not through the eye of the male members of their family.

On first day the tour guide instructed everyone to always remain in groups and return to camp one hour before dusk because the forest was not safe and recently it was in news for tourists assaults. This instruction was against the sole motive of the trip of all those four girls, so on one fine morning they decided to desert their hiking group members and tour guide, and went inside the jungle. The jungle was enriched with flora and fauna, taking pictures of wildlife, fountains, birds, they went too far. Now they had to return and it was already late afternoon, they looked into each other's eyes and thought what if we couldn't return to camp before dusk?

According to Murphy's Law "Any thing that can go wrong will go wrong"

But Murphy can't be wrong. A storm hit the forest uprooting many trees, they protected themselves inside a stone cave kind of structure. when the storm subsided all routes in the forest were completely changed and it was dark too. They again tried to look into the eyes of each other but it was too dark to see the solution but dismay was obvious. Now the atmosphere was so calm as if nothing happened there, the storm was sucked up into heart and mind of girls. They were sitting closely holding each others hand without making any sound, though there was lot of roaring going on in every one's mind. They dozed off because of whole day tiresome hiking.

The crumbling sound of leaves interrupted their temporary calmness, they pressed each others hands tightly as if no blow can throw them apart. Rukhsana said "I guess something is coming toward us". Prity was almost crying. Harpreet explored the area near her with her another hand and got a branch. She said "okay, you girls sit closely I am going to see what is it". she modified that branch into stick and stood up to go. Every one's heart was throbbing very hard. Sophia pulled Harpreet by her hand and said "You don't go alone let it come whatever it is, if we will be together we can face it effectively". Prity affirmed and took out her mobile torch. The crumbling sound became more intense, Prity flashed her light in the direction of sound, they were all sweating with fear and praying their gods. Suddenly Rukhsana shouted, "look there is something", mobile torchlight was getting reflected from the eye of an animal, they all threw whatever was in their hands and chased that animal away. They again looked into each other's eyes, their eyes were looking vividly in torchlight , they inhaled deeply, exhaled, smiled and said unanimously "Thank god it was wolf, we thought it's men ".     

[It's a work of fiction and any resemblance with anyone is mere a coincidence.]                

     

            

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Who Killed?

Swarm of people joining their hands with flowers sandwiched within palms, lips fluttering with spiritual songs and with restless heart were moving towards the door of the temple. It was not an early morning, the sun was quite high in the sky but the day was not so sunny. Soft breeze stirring the leaves was also mixed with Bhajan songs that was creating the ripples of hope in every one's heart. Among them there was a man in police uniform so restless, uneasy and bathed in his own sweat. Everyone was coming offering flower to the god's statue, joining their hands, closing their eyes and wishing from god what they came for. That uneasy man too came before statue but he had no flowers, his hands were stained in blood, he looked furiously at the statue, tears were dripping down from his eyes in form of lava, he closed his eyes and flashback started.

How he was offered with bribe to set free a criminal which he had refused remembering the oath of his service and today morning when he was in office a phone came that his house was attacked and his wife and both children were killed.

Remembering the face of his wife and children stained in their own blood he started shivering with anger. He opened his eyes and shouted "why you did this to me I worship you daily, I do my duty honestly, I speak truth. If you are real, why you didn't stop them from committing such a heinous act and if you are not real, why should I let you stand there and deceive the faith of millions. He took out his service revolver and fired at the statue. The statue crumbled with a roar.

People started crying and fleeing in random directions, they were bewildered after seeing what just happened inside. The pujaries of the temple were nowhere to be seen. The serene atmosphere of the temple became chaotic.  The policeman was also shocked what he just did. He came out of the temple putting his gun back in his waist. Seeing him coming out of the temple people started shouting "this is the demon, this is the devil man who shot at god, how can he shot at god ?, god will surely punish him, god won't let him go, he broke his statue, he fired at him" some were thinking "now volcano will come and will engulf him as he has started direct fight with god". Few started stone pelting at him, seeing his death right in front of his eyes he took out his revolver, the circle of crowd moved backward, everyone was trying to get behind someone. Some started praying please god do something show us some of your miracle your enemy is right in front of us.

The policeman's body was trembling with anger and fear. A "daring" man from crowd aimed a stone at his revolver and revolver fell down from his hand. He was too stoned to bend down and pick it up. The throng pushed forward to do the god's job. They battered him with stones, sticks, his body converted in to the lump of muscles plunged in blood but people kept beating even after knowing he was dead. The crowd was celebrating around his dead body this was the day they had witnessed the god's super natural power. They were shouting happily, god took his revenge, a wave of rejoice propagated among them, the god did not create volcano lest more people would have got killed he only punished this demon.

Meanwhile a kid came out of the crowd staring at them puzzled, he was murmuring "God did not kill him, you all people did".

   


     

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उम्मीदों की किश्ती

समंदर को पार  करने की  ख्वाहिश में

उम्मीदों की एक किश्ती बनायीं थी 

आत्मविश्वास के झोको ने धक्का भी लगाया था 

दुआओं  की लहरें भी सफ़र का सहारा बनी थी 

डगमगाते हीं सही पर किस्ती बढ़ चली थी ।

किनारों का शोर और कोलाहल छूट चूका था 

मन में उमंगो की तरंगे कई इन्द्रधनुष बना रहे थे 

आशा की हल्की हल्की धुप में मौसम खुशनुमा था 

क्षितिज को देख के लगता नहीं था मंजिल दूर होगी ।

सफ़र का वेग तेज़ था 

छोटे छोटे टापुओ को देख हौसला अफजाई भी हुई थी 

मगर समंदर का अपना ही अज़ीब  शोर था, गरज़ना थी 

हवाओ के झोको में नमी थी, गर्मी थी  और अज़ीब सा गंध था 

खुद से क्षितिज की दूरी कम होते न देख मन व्याकुल हो उठा ।

आत्मविश्वास के झोके धीमे पड़ने लगे हैं 

दुआओं की लहरें थमी हुई  सी लगने लगी है 

ये कैसी अज़ीब सी उदासी है, पानी पर तैरते हुए बर्फ़ और 

अति-आत्मविश्वास के तुफानो की चेतावनी तो दी थी लोगो ने 

मगर इस उदासी के बारे में किसी ने नहीं बताया था ।

शायद विषुव-प्रशांत है ये, ये वक़्त भी गुज़र जायेगा  

फिर से ख़ुशी के बयार बहेंगे , फिर से अच्छी धुप खिलेगी 

फिर से इंद्रधनुषी सपने आयेंगे, फिर से लहरों में चंचलता आएगी 

डगमगाते हीं सही पर किस्ती बढ़ चलेगी ।

- चंचल प्रकाशम्

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यादें

पलक झपकाते हीं तेरा चेहरा नज़र आता है
नींद उड़ जाती है बस ख्वाब रह जाता है,
ख्वाबों की फंखुडिया समेटते समेटते, सवेरा हो जाता है,
और सुबह की हकीकत हृदय को अंधकार में धकेल देता है |

ये अँधेरा भी अजीब है सब कुछ दिखता है इसमें
जो न देखना चाहो उसकी चमक और भी प्रबल होती है,
अँधेरे की चमक से व्याकुल आँखे, आँसू की नदियाँ बहाती है,
और उन आँसू की नदियों से बने समंदर में दिल डूब सा जाता है |


सुनामी सी ऊची होते हुए भी लहरे न जाने क्यूँ
समय की रेत पर बने चिन्हों को मिटा नहीं पातीं,
उन अमिट सी चिन्हों में ही घिसती हुई ज़िन्दगी सोचती है
ए चंचल मन तू चंचल ही क्यू न रहा |


- चंचल प्रकाशम्

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When Noodles Turned Crispy

Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic, Justices, Equality, Fraternity, INDIA 2020, Development.




Isn't this all enough to make a person feel ravenous. Abundant craving and that too for enormously long period impaired the public sagacity, crippled with sense they vaguely started demanding something that can easy their agony of burning stomach due to over flowing gastric acids.

Government after signing Kyoto protocol was over-concerned with the emission of greenhouse gases so she decided to tap the heat of public demand to cook something that get ready in 2 minute. What else can one think other that Maggi noodles if it comes to cook and serve in 2 minute. There were lot of other reasons too to converse the verdict on noodles

1. Fast to cook (of course)
2. Easy to eat.
3. You can segment it without making sound.
4. Easy Recipe.
5. Tastes good.
6. and most importantly it's a "Brother's " cuisine.

After finalising what to cook, Now it was time to set the kitchen accessories, so she contacted her foreign friends giving them lucrative offers. Every thing was going smoothly as planned, stage was all calibrated, media took the responsibility to add enough spice to make Maggi full flavoured, foreign giants retailers took the burden of interminable supply of raw Maggi noodles. What came in her part was just adding water, seemed very easy but was very decisive task as supplying heat was not in her control so at first she added enough water but she was not sure about the quantity of Maggi to be cooked to pacify the public voracity so she took advice from some "Elite" section of public.

Kitchen

Maggi was ready in 2 minute as promised on the pack, but the time that she took in aligning all the accessories and tasting the Maggi(Media was also satisfying themselves ) along with cooking, lead to a situation of starvation. At first, some "Elite" people were invited for "Maggi Tasting" as government had apprehension of huge public turmoil because of bad taste. and also they wanted to take few more people in their confidence. Getting such a privileged offer to taste new cuisine that too before all the public, "Elite" group became elated, keeping their emotions on hold when they went inside, the aroma of noodles fragmented their wall of patience and within the blink of an eye they licked the vessel clean with relish(already it was less than half). It's then they realised they were invited just for tasting and that too on behave of millions of starved people waiting outside. Now they had to convince people so they came up with an idea, after all they were "Elite" people.

They came outside arranged a podium and announced "that noodle was tasteless and insufficient as we did not have clear idea of total demand, it was a bit over-cooked too, so please clam yourself down, we have introduced new recipe it will take time, but the taste will fulfill all your taste buds and will change your life forever, try to supply heat judiciously". People had trust in them, holding their stomach tight they cooled their temper.

This time Media showed their charisma holding spice department they wanted to explore something unexercised, so they over spiced it, due to low heat supply noodle remained partly cooked within specified time, keeping their trust in "Elite" group's recipe, Government served it among people without getting it tasted. People ate desperately, few died on spot, some committed suicide eating such nauseating, repulsive noodle.

ZZzz

Now the common people's anger shattered all the bonds of forbearing, their temper reached boiling state, the temperature of the noodle vessel started increasing enormously, it was too high that water poured by government evaporated even before reaching in the noodle pot. Noodle was roasted in the heat. it became crisped. Again Maggi tasters were called but they did not dare to eat more because crisped noodle was making sound when crumbling in their mouth and also there was risk of hurting soft lining of mouth, it was no longer soft smooth noodle.

The above Italic font paragraph is the dying dream of people who ate Musty Noodle. Some among them don't even wanted to enjoy the tasty noodle, they just wanted to put off their pancreatic fire.The Buck Stops Here, Generate the heat, crisp the noodle. It's the need of hour.

This post was originally published on www.chanchalprakasham.wordpress.com

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