Excerpt from "Packaging Dreams"

Packaging Dreams- the book that I essentially call Work-in-Progress.
Maybe I will finish it. Someday.

Bloise, France

Saturday

We have shunned express highways for state highways, windy one lane roads that promise stretches of pristine verdure and placid canals, sheep and herds of the like grazing naively oblivious to the speeding cars, and little cottages with smoke billowing out of the chimney, making my stomach growl with hunger as my mind conjures up images of crepes and broths. Our destination is Amboise. An hour or so from Bloise. The map is our aid, Samarth our messiah, and me -just the usual driver. Smriti offers a cookie which I graciously accept; Ankur offers driving advice, which I petulantly ignore.
After some polemical crossings and turns we finally arrive in Amboise. It is the city that houses Clos Luce Manor, where Leonardo Da Vinci lived in his final days.
The city is small even by my standards ( people call me a midget sometimes) yet its abuzz with activity. The ‘Amboise on ice’ skating rink is a blur of colour and music. The cafes spill out on the road, people sit outside enjoying the overcast skies. As we make out way down the winding cobbled path in search for the Manor, the town strikes me as surreal, something straight out of a song in which a princess finds her prince, and they live happily in the their Chateau and take leisurely strolls in the town, stop in a Chocolaterie and indulge in some Rum flavored delicacies.
We manage to find out way to the Clos Luc Manor with some difficulty, the landscape comprises of wet grass, tall trees, swings, and replicas of Lenoardo Da Vincis inventions. There are radical water pumps, tanks, boats among other things, we let loose like children and prance around from one attraction to the other, climbing onto makeshift bridges, exploring contraptions with a curiosity that would have humbled George. The Manor is up ahead, we buy tickets and move on inside to get a glimpse of Da Vincis home. There are more models of his inventions constructed by IBM. There is the tank, the paddle boat and the swing bridge. So ingenuously designed. It is really awe-inspiring to be a part of this experience, to actually be at the very place where the man who painted the ever famous ‘La Gioconda’ breathed his last breath. History is made every minute, as I step down the stairs, observing the Manor, what it offers, the models, the rooms, I realize, with every new person who steps in, the history of the manor changes, the history of that individual changes.

Tempest Talk

This force inside of me
Doesn’t let me be
It’s a tempest this one,
Still it sets me free...

It’s a furious storm today,
Igniting thoughts away,
It’s a constant drizzle perhaps,
Engendering words so grey...

It’s a vortex this storm,
It’s a force so wild,
It inspires, it propels
This force inside...

Attempt at Haiku

Riding in the metro
We are like strangers
As winter fades

.........................

Contributions by KOTa


riding the wind
we are dreaming
the spring is here?

walking through the night
strangers become friends
shimmer of the summer awaits

the night is running out
we are worlds apart
autumn of our lives

Letting Go..

I will start this brief account on philosophy in the usual fashion which is much appreciated by the masses-a list. I love lists really-they are concise and spaced out and if I’m lucky-entertaining. Ergo, the fervor for lists. I love making them, reading them, and putting them up on walls.

10 things I’ve lost in Madrid or should I say..In Madrid..I’ve lost:

1. One earring belonging to a pair; bought after much speculation as to price and quality at GKI-M block Market in New Delhi.
2. The will to iron clothes. I like the dwindling supply of clothes in my closet
3. The inertia that prevented me from cooking meals.
4. The ability to finish books in a day. When you have Organizational Theory readings to devour, who’d like to read fiction anyway? (For the uninitiated: We do not like OT readings and yes this is my feeble attempt at sarcasm; if it is a bit much, please hold thy breath as my pristine philosophy follows soon after)
5. 20 Euros in a club. I believe it was for a good cause. Some poor soul must have been bestowed with 2 more hours of inebriation courtesy my absentminded generosity.
6. My way to the airport. The circular line is just that: CIRCULAR.
7. One earring belonging to pair#2.; bought without any speculation as to price and quality at the famous Janpath (literally: Road of the Masses) Market in New Delhi
8. A couple of kilograms. But this was after I’d gained some. So it’s okay right?
9. All semblance of sanity on weekends. ☺
10. My way to Noviciado.Getting on to the train going in the wrong direction and not realising it till it ends up in the outskirts of the city-Not very promising. Even less promising when you realise there were actually 3 of you and none of you noticed the drastically changing landscape. Ah, but more of that later…

Engrossing as it was to come up with this list, the intent for writing this was in reality to broach issues of change and adaptation or to put it more colloquially-letting go. I have always faced inertia as the bouncer outside the club that greets you when you are dressed all wrong. It sneers, and declares that it won’t let you pass, such is Inertia and its power. It just doesn’t want to let you pass through the gates into something new and exciting, even when you are all ready to go.
So what do you do? Well, I for one,plan to visit that club oh so often, that the bouncer has to let up and let me through.
Lets it hear for change, lets hear it for something new..!