The Thought Train..

Monday, April 18, 2005

Fate is inevitable

For those who have not read this, this is a short short-story from Jeffrey Archer's "To cut a long story short".
As it says, An appointment awaits us!!!

"There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

Death says: Gotcha!!

A Tryst with History

It's become a trend with me to make short getaways to destinations around Bangalore with my friends. This has started to happen in regular intervals and as McDonald's would sport it, "I'm lovin' it!!".
So it happened that yesterday we set out on a journey that took us to History dating back to a thousand years. I was in company of my college buddies.We were also fortunate enough to have with us one of my friend's mom(We had delicious home made food after quite a long time,thanks to her). Starting at 6 in the morning on a Sunday with an Indo-Pak finale on the cards was a tough job, but we made it and were out on the road on schedule.
Quickly then, we were out of the clamourous city-life into the serene countryside of Hassan district which was complimented by fantastic roads and fast-paced music,which made the travel a real pleasure.
Our first place of visit was Shravanabelagola, which houses the famed Gomateeswara temple. It is one of the most important Jain centers in the world and has a gigantic monolith of Lord Mahaveera. The temple is stationed on a hill with excellent panoramic views from atop.
Next in line was a two-hour drive to Belur.This phase of the travel had a lot of chattering and bantering amongst us which reminded us of our good-old college days.We reached the temple at a time when the sun was beating down mercilessly on the earthlings.To make things worse, the stone floors and pathways in the temple redirected their wrath onto our bare feet inside the temple.
But there we were, fighting these odds to view some of the best pieces of craftmanship of the Hoysala architecture. History books say that the temple was built almost a thousand years ago. The speciality of the temple lies in the intricate carvings all around and inside the temple which depicted the various mythological characters and stories.
We went on to see a similar yet distinct temple at Halibeedu, around 20 kms from Belur.Tourist guides were "making hay while the sun shines!!",explaining the legends behind the mysterious carvings..About the war betweens the Gods and Demons, about the churning of the Milky ocean and stuff..(Reminded me of my mythology books).
When we left the place early in the evening, we could see the gatekeeper at the temple grumbling about yet another Indian batting collapse! Cricket is indeed the religion in India..

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

I jus wanna start

Ever wondered how people manage to write wonderful things?? I always do.. Be it a small article about Schumacher not upto the mark this season or a masterpiece on Greek mythology, its about giving life to words.
I've known so many words all my life without ever knowing the polymorphisms it can take in the contextual world of writing.
Writers have this knack of converting their trains of thoughts in to flowing rivers of words that make real sense.
And bloggers are no less.
I went through many blogs here and feel that blogging is a positive step towards improved writing coherence.
I always believed that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with but one step"
and i have already taken that step. Hope you do too!!