My Expression!! My Life!!

Thus, another year ends … The curtains on 2014 are drawing to a close on a year filled with a motley bag of happenings.  I do not really want to get very philosophical on this post, but my year-end posts always are, tinged with a bit of reflection. :-) If I had to sum up 2014 in one word, I would have to say it was QUICK. It seems just like yesterday that we were out at ECP bringing in 2014. What seemed like a quirky start to the New Year involving hailing down unresponsive cabs and trip by the metro early in the morning, soon spiraled into one of the fastest years in recent times. So many things have happened, so many events have unfolded, and things are much clearer in so many aspects. This year, filled with a multitude of happenings, will be a year that I can never forget and will be one of those years that I can look back and say that, 2014 in many ways will always be a very special year for me. There have been some awesome highs, some tragic lows, much deserved p...

I see a bright shaft of light. It penetrates into me. It engulfs my entire being with its vibrancy. It dulls the ache that I have been carrying in my gut ever since I can remember. It is always the same dream. Each time towards the break of dawn. Every time the same feeling of peace. I have pondered much about it. I have asked everyone I could think of about what it means, starting with my mother and all the learned men who passed through my land. The closest I came to getting an answer for what seemed like more as mollification to my incessant questioning was from father’s cousin – Achyutha. “The answer shall be revealed to you when it’s the right time.” When the right time was, or how soon it was, he never bothered to expound on it. I put the dream out of my mind, suppressed the dull ache inside of me, and went about my life. And there was nothing that I could about this, now that he had told me to wait. Apparently, self-restraint was something I had to learn ye...

A woman on the battlefield was unheard of. However, he did not care. He was about to fulfill one of his vows today. It had been a long wait. He slowly took her arm and led her onto the battleground. Reverentially, he seated her on a broken chariot, pointed at the almost dead inert body lying close to it. She looked at the broken man lying drenched in blood, the man who had tried to disrobe her that shameful day. She averted her gaze for fear that her wrath would burn him to ashes and looked up at the one who had brought her onto the battlefield. He folded his hands deferentially towards her, and looked back at the man who was aware of the fate that awaited him.   With a huge savage cry, he rushed towards him, and tore out his entrails in a beastly manner and proceeded to wash her hair with the blood on his hands. He did it with a veneration bordering on worship, almost trance-like, a devotee appeasing his Goddess. She sat there, rigid as an idol, basking in the ad...

What do you do when you have a big-sized Writer's block??  [Pic Courtesy:  http://www.3hatscommunications.com/blog/2011/writers-block/ ] You change your template and hope it inspires you enough to pen something down...!!! :P  Hope you guys like it! :P  And also here's hoping it DOES inspire me to post something soon.... 

I see him. Sprawled on the battlefield. Struck in the chest. The greatest archer in the world. Killed by the son I brought up. His son. I see the Empress - my son’s mother. Beating her chest. Lamenting. Crying for her husband who was dead. Sobbing for her son who was the cause of it. I see the king - my son. In a stupor. Unable to understand how this had come about. Unable to fathom that he had just killed his father. His father whom he was seeing for the very first time. I see them both look at me. With questions in their eyes. With blame etched on their faces. No words uttered. I should be there with them. On the battlefield. Lamenting my husband’s death. Consoling my son. Holding my dead husband’s head on my lap. Hugging his inert body close to my chest. Sobbing for being a widow once over again. Yet, I smiled. I remembered the day I had seen him for the first time. By the riverside. Offering his ablutions. Praying earnestly. His sinewed arms. The calmne...

I was named Pritha. Pritha. Meaning the well-endowed one. Pritha. Birth Daughter of Surasena. Foster daughter to KuntiBhoja. Sister of Vasudeva. Paternal aunt to Lord Krishna. Mother of the Pandavas. Individualistic. Willful. Righteous. Intractable. Born into a clan of kingmakers. Wedded into a clan of kings and rulers. This was how people spoke of me. This was how they described me. I was given up in early childhood, to my father’s cousin, Kunti Bhoja who was childless. He took care of me as his own daughter, lavishing upon me all affection and care. Brought up in all ways befitting the princess of an illustrious kingdom and trained in all matters of administration of a kingdom as well as in warfare, I was allowed the indulgence of being independent right from a young age. However, the fact that I was only an adopted daughter of the family still irked me from time to time. In my heart and soul, I was still a Vrishni. When I was young, my foster-father ent...

“I infuse thee, this blade of grass,  with the power of the Brahmastra,  for the annihilation of the Pandavas and Krishna.” I hear these words that I uttered, ringing inside my ears, as if it happened yesterday. I see the blade of grass, infused with the weapon of destruction, hurtling towards the group of warriors gathered at the ashram of Sage Vyasa - the warriors who had come in search of me, to extract their revenge. I feel the rage that coursed through me then, for all the slaughter, the deceit, and the genocide that took place over the last eighteen days. And I feel the helplessness that surged through me, when I redirected the weapon to the womb of Uttara, the unborn heir of Abhimanyu, and the future of the Pandava lineage. 3000 years thence, I roam these lands paying the price for my heinous act, living a cursed life, trapped in a body filled with pus, sores, and diseases, waiting for the so-called judgement day, the end of Kali Yuga – the age...