Debarth's Den

  After months of falling prey to a dissuading mind, and succumbing to an innate aversion for a daunting task, I knew that there was no escape from the inevitable; I had to clean out the garage someday, and sooner was the job done, the better. So, suitably attired for the occasion in a coverall and a hood, and armed with a broom, I set about my task with as much earnestness as I could garner. As I gingerly cleared out packages, bundles, bottles, wires and other motley oddments from the racks and shelves and got about dusting and cleaning the cobwebs off the same, I chanced upon a dusty but neatly wrapped bundle of books. On opening the wrapping off the weighty pack to check the contents, what I should find but a stack of comics, long forgotten in the mazy confines of the garage. In the bundle was an assortment of books that formed the very lifeblood of my childhood days, a precious collection of the greatest stories that my puerile fancies were built upon - tales of heroism and str...

I wandered upon the edge of the sidewalk searching for a spot to step on to the street. The roadside was littered with all kinds of scrap – waste paper, wrappers, cigarette butts, loose earth, plastic bottles and bags, empty tobacco sachets etc – to such a degree as to make it difficult for any person to alight from the sidewalk without landing on some kind of junk. I did manage to cross that barrier somehow, and hurried to cross the street on seeing the pedestrian light turn green. However, green does not always mean “go” which discovered to my chagrin as a motorcycle whizzed past me at breakneck speed in spite of all the red lights. I got to the other end of the street unscathed, thanks to providence, and decided to do a bit of shopping. There were makeshift shops by the dozen on the pavement itself, selling everything that any regular shop would sell, and with everything spread out on the pavement, blocking off half the width of the pavement in the process. Anyway, I threaded myself...

Another year has come upon this world, and into everyone’s life, with promises of new beginnings, truthfulness, faithfulness, sincerity, diligence, and many such resolutions that the arrival of a new year inspires in every heart. Yet, although it is a satisfying feeling to make a firm resolve, it takes more than enthusiasm to actually implement a resolution in one’s life so as to make the difference that one expects. It is in the course of this journey to scale greater heights of improvement that one realizes how the simplest things can actually be the hardest to achieve. To moot the case in point, I can cite no better example than mine in striving for better things in 2010; a sequel to a resolution that I had taken at the start of that year. I had been persuaded that being good is good for me, and doing oneself good is the hardest thing in the world. It was a challenge I accepted with disdain, and in one heady moment of determination and gusto I resolved that I was going to be a Good ...

Treading untiringly upon the endless street, Neither at a gallop; nor on leaden feet, Bereft of form, devoid of shape; stranger to birth, unknown to death, I have waited for none; yet waited on with bated breath, And visions of joy, fear, ecstasy and sorrow in the tidings I might bring, As summer turns into autumn, and winter into spring I am ever the inert passerby, always on the go, Yet, the patience of some I try; yet others want me to be slow, Some curse my arrival, and wish I never did show, Some thank my presence, and wish I never would go Some dread my growth to see, some try to outgrow me, While some fall behind, and just let me be. I am hailed by Man to be the healer supreme, The panacea for all wounds, however extreme. Behind me I leave a trail of gold, That anoints every bygone in its mold, To reflect and cherish and yearn to return, And to retrace its every step, be it one of acceptance or of spurn I see the Universe go round, a...