the rule of three

 

At 19, that was seduction.

She served. Slowly. Teasing. Rice, dal, stir-fried veg, salad, curd. A long pause. An idiotic #smile on my face. Ooops, she giggled, and brought a large covered dish.

She opened the cover. There were three pieces of fried chicken wing flat. She gave me one and took one herself. She did not cover the dish. The remaining one kept #smiling at me.

I thought about the rule of three, why it had to be three.

Something puzzled me. Was it for a third person? The other? Was it for me? Was it to be left alone? The epistemology of chicken wing flats was too much for me.

We heard the sound of a car.

Oh, they are back, she cried. 

I put the third chicken wing flat in my mouth. The idiotic #smile was back.

Her parents entered the scene.

What are you doing, young man, her mother snarled in her cold polite way. Her father did not say a word.

I pulled out the bones and placed it on my plate.

I left. Without a #smile from her.

not #vss365 ?

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2018/02/with-or-without.html

the blessed

 

Went to a store. Fell in love with the #smile of a fellow-traveller.

Came home and waxed eloquent, limited only by my vocabulary, about the smile of women and how only a few are truly blessed.

Banished to the doghouse by the lesser blessed.

#vss365

the basics

 

"Kids, let's talk about the birds and the bees."

"Don't #waste our time!"

"You will fall in love soon. 

Don't forget 

your wants 

and 

the other's needs. 

Get the economics right. 

To get to the point,

Without beating around the bush, 

Get the basics right."

"Eww!"

#vss365

a bore

 

I am a bore. I know. I remove your glasses. Need the climax at the start. The eyes say all, the time we can't #save. Then, the shawl/dupatta has to go. Only thin cotton in between. Hug, kiss and some goofy act. I have to hear you laugh. The same always, even without you.

#vss365

morbid

 

He stopped her near his gate and, gave her ‘Jude the Obscure’. She accepted it and proceeded to the market. She returned the book 4 days later. 

"It's morbid. Read only half."

"Once morbidity is #accepted, you will laugh at everything."

That's how their affair began.

#vss365

from my short story 'A very dull, dreary affair...nearly...'

(Sorry, friends, I am still having the weekend blues (aka cleaning-mopping blues)...Brrrr...I had to recycle old stuff.)

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/08/very-dull-dreary-affairnearly.html

our Leader

 

Why did I invite Hosappan (Uncle Jose)?

"Hosappa! What is wrong with our Leader?"

"Your Leader is like those Middle-east rulers with no idea about democracy. And you all are losers clamouring for #rejected patriarchy."

They won't notice that all the dishes are salty.

#vss365

logic

 

"Will you give yes or no answers to the next 2 questions, my love?"

"Ok."

"Will you give the opposite answer to the next question as to this one?"

"No/yes."

"Will you marry me?"

"Ah!"

"Shall we order?"

"The #smell of freedom has unleashed every appetite."

"Grrr"

"Hmmm"

#vss365 

bare

 

Do you remember those summer nights, at the coffee-shop near our hostel, around closing time, for the cold coffee and a/c, to #taste life, in our thin nightwear, bare beneath, with lovers at every table, in their own game of truth or dare, and now, bare, within without? 

#vss365

IT

 

"What should I do with it?"

"IT is your grandchild."

"Never liked kids."

"Don't I know. Bye, love."

"Bye, Ma."

"Well, kid?"

"Well?"

"Do you #write?"

"Only novels."

"Got my genes."

"Fibbing."

"Same here."

"No Internet?"

"After 11 pm."

"I need ChatGPT to deal with you."

#vss365

World Water Day

Apologies, first of all, to my #vss365 friends. No pretty 'pome' or gory fiction today, just plain reality. Nothing to #think about.

Another 5 days without water supply. Insomnia (and other pains) came along with water woes. 4 yrs back, lost my father in such circumstances.

Nights are wasted thinking about mob rule in the largest democracy and how every politician here (fascist, communist, liberal, centrist, whatever) believes that even basic human rights should favour the majority religious/caste communities in their area.

Enough of that.

Disaster is embarrassing. 

Speak too much about it and imagine the eyes of dear friends glaze over. 

Dead love, illness, divorce, abuse, water...talk about it twice and there comes that yawn.

"Sorry," I have to say and, try not to make a friend a stranger.

small talk

 

"I told Rajan his son shouldn't marry that girl!"

"5 years, no kids!"

"His wife and that girl...snake and mongoose!"

"I told Rajan not to marry that woman!"

"His daughter married that...!"

"They have shifted to the city!"

"Shashi #discuss-ed with us. Killed all."

"City!"

#vss365

date

 

I went on a date. #Relax, my mantra. It worked. 

Till the first slurp of soup. 

Trouble trickled in to tease out an avalanche. I could have stopped my boasts and jokes.

Her pouting lips grew thinner by the minute. The waiters flexed their muscles.

Denouement? 

Ah!

#vss365

chasing a mirage

 

I might forget you,

If I could #eat what I want.

Till then, feel #secure.

It is the weekend,

I've old bread and expired jam.

The mop and you too.

Chasing a mirage

Of 17-course banquet,

With you by my side.

#vss365

#haikufeels

#haiku #senryu ?

#tragedy 🙃

thorns

 

I used to #sleep well thinking about the lovely time we had.

No more. 

Why am I thinking of all that she had to do for me?

Will I come clean or will I take it to my grave?

Love and roses are real only when the thorns are bloodied.

#vss365

yesterday

 

"This day 25 years back 

Will always be yesterday,

Kissed your hand, our French kiss...

Delete that!"

"Huh?"

"Now this:

Forget today and tomorrow,

That will end on some rocks 

Or in the deep deep sea...

Dead narrator? Good! #Work on that. Make it a murder."

"Huh?"

#vss365

Big Brother

 

Big Brother, here, isn't a supercomputer. It's #Closure Inc. with the motto: Hate Kills, Love Destroys.

In a report on the riots that changed the country, they say it's because of a lady who told a politician, “Show me you are a man.” 

Six words behind many disasters. 

#vss365

sign lingo

 

At the Coffee House, there's always a #celebration of the 'now'. In '88, when ‘Children of a Lesser God’ came to town, we used sign lingo for a month. I got dosa instead of cutlet. After the '15 Assembly ruckus, the fashion in the House was hiked up dhoti revealing lots.

#vss365

roller-coaster ride

 

Love’s an #adventure,

A free roller-coaster ride

With cost in large print.

#vss365

#haiku #senryu ?

Waiter

 

There's always a 'Waiter' among those #peace had ditched. Alone, nursing drinks, facing the exit. Here, that's ok. Didn't wait that one time, cursed her, as if I was busy. She's gone. Now, I wait for those with no reason to be with me. Will I think it's her if they come?

#vss365

drowning

 

Two types of people:

#Empowered and castaway.

One floats other drowns.

#vss365

#haiku #senryu ?

the idiot

 

The rookie politician

Tries to be a philosopher,

Never saying

What the masses want to hear,

Sticking to what they should hear.

I had a similar #excuse to be an idiot.

A rookie lover

Tried to be a poet,

Never doing

What she wants,

Sticking to lines even I wouldn’t read.

#vss365

the hero and the loser

 

"Aren't you the hero?"

A stranger from the past said,

Sans expected #laugh; 

Who or what I was back then:

rigid, 

rigorous, 

repressed, 

real rascal, 

righteous,

yeah,

romantic too;

A loser now but 

My eyes don't lie anymore, 

Even if it's to 

roar in an empty room.

#vss365

Attukal Pongala

 

Today, we have the Attukal Pongala the largest women-only festival.

The ladies at home used to go near the temple to make the offering, to caress the symbol of  peace, justice, security (aka Mother).

Now, they do it at home.

Men are used as porters or just forgotten.

#vss365

the veil

 

When you used a veil

To reveal and tease slyly.

Cloud's silent #whisper.

#vss365

#haiku #senryu ?

 

1000 ways out of hell

 

Found this great book, '1000 Ways Out of Hell', with chapters on miserable friends, s*xual faux pas & 998 other problems (with solutions).

Took the first bus, in a rush to #savour long lost wisdom.

At home, realized I had been 'pickpocketed'. Left only with the cover. 

#vss365

untouchable

 

Do not talk about our #resilience,

How we withstood centuries 

Of untouchability,

Without basic human rights 

(like water from a well).

Do not make me say “Bah!”

When in a democracy,

Basic human rights 

(like water in public pipe)

Are reserved for the privileged.

#vss365

circumcatalyst

 

‘I met her, like most such cases, not through love at first sight or some unforgettable encounter but via a circumcatalyst.’  

That was his word for a mixture of circumstances (around which one’s life circles) and a #catalyst (in this case, a common friend). 

#vss365

from my short story 'She Went'

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2017/12/she-went.html

(Apologies for reproducing old stuff for #vss365. In a bad state because of ZERO water supply the last 4 days. More on that community-based discrimination in future posts as I shrivel without water.)

howl at the mid-day moon

 

There has been a murder here.

#Safe wasn't his middle name;

"Blasphemy!" the left-n-right hurled at him;

"Hypocrites" he called all;

"Remember your last war!?" he said to warmongers;

Offended his echo chamber, love too, with truth.

Why did he howl at the mid-day moon?

#vss365 

vulnerable

 

When we hugged and kissed,

Did we feel safe and secure

Or #vulnerable?

#vss365

#haiku #senryu ?