Sunday, January 30, 2005
The Paths We Tread
“What are you going to do with the place?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“You could give it to him.”
“He’s too proud to accept my charity.”
We stared at the sea, the waters a deep purple, as the last rays of the sun moved on to light up parts of the world they would soon be going to.
“You’re never going to come back?”
“No!”
I looked at him as he continued to stare at the sea, the distant sound of the waves defining the silence.
I thought of her, I could go see her again, but it had been so long. Would she even want me back?
She walked out into the balcony, looking into the almost black distance.
“What about you?” I asked her, “Aren’t you going to meet your brother?”
“No,” she replied, “he’s a fool, an idealistic fool, but a fool nonetheless!”
“You won’t come with me?” he asked.
“No, but maybe you can come meet me sometime, or I can come meet you…”
Silence.
His phone rang.
“So this is goodbye, I suppose.” The voice said.
“Yes” he replied.
“You never will return?”
“No…what about her?”
“It never will be satisfying, if that’s what you mean.”
“Yes, I understand… I suppose.”
“It won’t matter to him now, anyway”
“Yes”
“Well then…”
“Well then…”
She looked at me, “are you going to go back to her?”
I didn’t reply. She would curse me when she knew I had booked her brother on the same flight as hers, they had their seats next to each other.
*****
They looked at the note and the keys. He had given them the responsibility of taking care of the house. It was the only way they would accept his charity.
“Well I better be going then,” I said.
“What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know!” I replied; I really didn’t!
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“You could give it to him.”
“He’s too proud to accept my charity.”
We stared at the sea, the waters a deep purple, as the last rays of the sun moved on to light up parts of the world they would soon be going to.
“You’re never going to come back?”
“No!”
I looked at him as he continued to stare at the sea, the distant sound of the waves defining the silence.
I thought of her, I could go see her again, but it had been so long. Would she even want me back?
She walked out into the balcony, looking into the almost black distance.
“What about you?” I asked her, “Aren’t you going to meet your brother?”
“No,” she replied, “he’s a fool, an idealistic fool, but a fool nonetheless!”
“You won’t come with me?” he asked.
“No, but maybe you can come meet me sometime, or I can come meet you…”
Silence.
His phone rang.
“So this is goodbye, I suppose.” The voice said.
“Yes” he replied.
“You never will return?”
“No…what about her?”
“It never will be satisfying, if that’s what you mean.”
“Yes, I understand… I suppose.”
“It won’t matter to him now, anyway”
“Yes”
“Well then…”
“Well then…”
She looked at me, “are you going to go back to her?”
I didn’t reply. She would curse me when she knew I had booked her brother on the same flight as hers, they had their seats next to each other.
They looked at the note and the keys. He had given them the responsibility of taking care of the house. It was the only way they would accept his charity.
“Well I better be going then,” I said.
“What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know!” I replied; I really didn’t!
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Zosix and Camelon - 4
A Trippy Meeting
Camelon bit into a bumble fruit dolefully. It was the last of his stash of bumble fruit. He was all alone now; Baba had disappeared and now so had Zosix. He sat outside Baba’s hut, around the ashes of the previous night’s fire, waiting. It seemed like an eternity had passed since Zosix had gone in search of Baba.
“What am I going to do?” he wondered aloud, “it’s been so long since Zosix had gone.”
However the truth was that it had been less than an hour since Zosix had left Camelon and descended to the forest below. Camelon just had a propensity to exaggerate these things. In actuality he had watched as Zosix climbed down the cliff, until he was out of sight, then after a few minutes of sitting around he had found himself rather bored and had ambled of to the patch of bumble fruit he was so fond of. After gorging himself there, he had brought a few back to keep him company, while he waited for Zosix to return. Now that all the bumble fruit had disappeared, Camelon was left to rue the fate that had befallen Zosix and Baba.
He had also been getting a little tense with each minute. This was due to the fact that he thought he had seen people or creatures sneaking around him. It had started about half an hour after Zosix had gone. Camelon hadn’t noticed it then, but now he kept seeing their stealthy movements out of the corner of his eye, and when he turned to look they were gone. No doubt they were cunning creatures. He wondered what they could possibly want. And in the last few minutes they had started getting bolder, he turned just as soon as he saw them dart out of sight. And now a large boulder, a few feet away from him, started to move. Camelon jumped back (if he could rub his eyes in disbelief he would have, but unfortunately his feet were not built for that purpose) he edged away from the rock, towards Baba’s hut. At least he would be safe inside.
All of a sudden the rock leapt forward, Camelon leapt backward, and Zosix leapt out from under the rock.
“Zosix!”
Camelon ran towards his friend, unbelievably happy to see him, and highly relieved that he was back. Just as Camelon neared Zosix, about to jump on him, he came to a screeching halt, for Leia’s head had popped out of the hole in the ground from where Zosix had made his entrance.
“There’s someone behind you!” yelled Camelon.
“Oh! This is Leia” said Zosix as he held out his hand for Leia and helped her out from the pit.
Leia stood a little behind Zosix, dusting herself. She then adjusted the flower in her hair and looked at Camelon and smiled. Camelon regarded Leia suspiciously. He didn’t like her sartorial promiscuity.
“Hi!” Leia waved at Camelon, “And you must be Camelon, Zosix told me a lot about you on the way up here. It’s so nice to meet you! I’ve never met a singing dinosaur before!”
Camelon flashed the obligatory smile that was necessary in response to such a remark.
“Leia’s from the forest below” announced Zosix, rather unnecessarily, “and she’s a forest sprite!”
Camelon was annoyed that Zosix had not yet inquired about his health. Then he decided he did not like Leia, since she was the reason Zosix had not yet expressed his concern for Camelon. However his curiosity was piqued by the fact that she was a forest sprite: Camelon was not sure what a forest sprite was.
“What’s a forest sprite?”
Zosix turned to Leia. He felt she would be in a better position to explain to Camelon what a forest sprite was, especially since she was one.
“Well” began Leia, in explanation “I live in the forest below. It’s my forest”
Camelon did not think this was a satisfactory explanation. “Even we live in a forest!” he said, “It’s our forest!”
“Well what I meant was, I’m part of the forest, and the forest is part of me. We are essentially the same being. If my forest is destroyed, I’ll die too.”
Camelon felt this was indeed scary, and it was unfortunate that poor Leia’s existence depended on the forest. However since he had already decided not to like her, he pretended that he was not concerned about what happened to her or her forest.
Zosix however, was concerned “Oh! You didn’t tell me that” he said.
“Well I doubt that would happen, it’s just the easiest way to explain how I’m linked to the forest” said Leia.
“Oh, alright.”
“The fact is” continued Leia, “that the energy of the forest is constantly regenerated. When an animal dies its body gives of heat, which is used by the smaller plants around it, then it decomposes and becomes one with the earth again. It gives sustenance to the smaller insects that help in the decomposition process. Then once again it grows into a plant, which can be eaten by another animal. And so the entire energy balance is maintained.
“The only way the energy could be lost would be in a fire, or if trees are cut down or animals killed and taken out of the forest, such that there is a shift in energy. Of course this doesn’t matter at a larger level, since the energy will still remain within the biosphere, and I will once more be part of the larger consciousness.”
“So do all forests have sprites?” Zosix asked.
“Well, yes. In a manner of speaking, they do. We all are part of a larger plane of things – we are all sisters.”
“What about this forest,” Zosix pointed at the old forest that started at the end of the plateau where Baba lived, “we’ve never met a forest sprite here.”
Leia looked up at the gigantic, cretaceous trees. “Oh, this forest belongs to my sister Anticia, she’s the eldest of the existing sisters. She’s very reserved; I’ve never spoken to her myself. I don’t think she takes on the human form ever, I guess that’s why you’ve never seen her, which is a good thing, she’s rather temperamental.”
Zosix nodded. Camelon looked nervously at the bushes, while something moved about behind them.
“Zosix, there’s some creature in those bushes” Camelon said, rather nervously, “It’s been moving around here for a while now!”
“Where?” asked Zosix.
Camelon pointed in the direction of the purportedly moving bushes.
“They aren’t moving.” Zosix moved in closer towards the bushes.
“There’s nothing there” said Leia.
Camelon ignored her. “I’m sure there’s something there Zosix, what if it’s a giant dragon?”
“What rubbish, dragons don’t exist anymore” noted Leia.
Camelon ignored her once more.
Zosix moved into the shrubbery, quite certain there was nothing in them, least of all a giant dragon, which couldn’t possibly hide in the small bushes, unless of course it was a midget giant dragon.
“There’s nothing here”, he declared, standing waist high in the bushes.
“But I’m so sure there was something there” said Camelon disappointed, and at the same time relieved, that there were no giant dragons around. “There it is!” he cried, turning suddenly, just as the creature darted out of the periphery of his sight.
Leia looked in the direction Camelon had turned. A pair of butterflies flitted around, but she saw no creature that merited the description of giant dragons. “Where?” she asked.
“It must be a shadow creature” said Camelon.
Zosix walked out of the bushes. “There’s no such thing, Camelon. What’s wrong with you today?”
“I guess this is what’s wrong with him” Leia observed, as she picked up the remnants of a bumble fruit.
Camelon made a grab at the fruit. The arrogance of this girl, he thought, she arrives out of nowhere, she hardly knew them and now she wanted his bumble fruit.
Leia smiled at Camelon, then she turned to Zosix and said “Bumble fruit when eaten in excess can be a very potent hallucinogen!”
Zosix burst out laughing, “And he’s been eating them by the dozen over the last week”
Camelon didn’t find any of this funny (particularly because he had no idea what a hallucinogen was), he thought Zosix and Leia were being mean. What was worse was that his stomach was starting to feel funny and worst of all both Leia and Zosix had just turned into big green flies, with large, ugly, red eyes.
Camelon bit into a bumble fruit dolefully. It was the last of his stash of bumble fruit. He was all alone now; Baba had disappeared and now so had Zosix. He sat outside Baba’s hut, around the ashes of the previous night’s fire, waiting. It seemed like an eternity had passed since Zosix had gone in search of Baba.
“What am I going to do?” he wondered aloud, “it’s been so long since Zosix had gone.”
However the truth was that it had been less than an hour since Zosix had left Camelon and descended to the forest below. Camelon just had a propensity to exaggerate these things. In actuality he had watched as Zosix climbed down the cliff, until he was out of sight, then after a few minutes of sitting around he had found himself rather bored and had ambled of to the patch of bumble fruit he was so fond of. After gorging himself there, he had brought a few back to keep him company, while he waited for Zosix to return. Now that all the bumble fruit had disappeared, Camelon was left to rue the fate that had befallen Zosix and Baba.
He had also been getting a little tense with each minute. This was due to the fact that he thought he had seen people or creatures sneaking around him. It had started about half an hour after Zosix had gone. Camelon hadn’t noticed it then, but now he kept seeing their stealthy movements out of the corner of his eye, and when he turned to look they were gone. No doubt they were cunning creatures. He wondered what they could possibly want. And in the last few minutes they had started getting bolder, he turned just as soon as he saw them dart out of sight. And now a large boulder, a few feet away from him, started to move. Camelon jumped back (if he could rub his eyes in disbelief he would have, but unfortunately his feet were not built for that purpose) he edged away from the rock, towards Baba’s hut. At least he would be safe inside.
All of a sudden the rock leapt forward, Camelon leapt backward, and Zosix leapt out from under the rock.
“Zosix!”
Camelon ran towards his friend, unbelievably happy to see him, and highly relieved that he was back. Just as Camelon neared Zosix, about to jump on him, he came to a screeching halt, for Leia’s head had popped out of the hole in the ground from where Zosix had made his entrance.
“There’s someone behind you!” yelled Camelon.
“Oh! This is Leia” said Zosix as he held out his hand for Leia and helped her out from the pit.
Leia stood a little behind Zosix, dusting herself. She then adjusted the flower in her hair and looked at Camelon and smiled. Camelon regarded Leia suspiciously. He didn’t like her sartorial promiscuity.
“Hi!” Leia waved at Camelon, “And you must be Camelon, Zosix told me a lot about you on the way up here. It’s so nice to meet you! I’ve never met a singing dinosaur before!”
Camelon flashed the obligatory smile that was necessary in response to such a remark.
“Leia’s from the forest below” announced Zosix, rather unnecessarily, “and she’s a forest sprite!”
Camelon was annoyed that Zosix had not yet inquired about his health. Then he decided he did not like Leia, since she was the reason Zosix had not yet expressed his concern for Camelon. However his curiosity was piqued by the fact that she was a forest sprite: Camelon was not sure what a forest sprite was.
“What’s a forest sprite?”
Zosix turned to Leia. He felt she would be in a better position to explain to Camelon what a forest sprite was, especially since she was one.
“Well” began Leia, in explanation “I live in the forest below. It’s my forest”
Camelon did not think this was a satisfactory explanation. “Even we live in a forest!” he said, “It’s our forest!”
“Well what I meant was, I’m part of the forest, and the forest is part of me. We are essentially the same being. If my forest is destroyed, I’ll die too.”
Camelon felt this was indeed scary, and it was unfortunate that poor Leia’s existence depended on the forest. However since he had already decided not to like her, he pretended that he was not concerned about what happened to her or her forest.
Zosix however, was concerned “Oh! You didn’t tell me that” he said.
“Well I doubt that would happen, it’s just the easiest way to explain how I’m linked to the forest” said Leia.
“Oh, alright.”
“The fact is” continued Leia, “that the energy of the forest is constantly regenerated. When an animal dies its body gives of heat, which is used by the smaller plants around it, then it decomposes and becomes one with the earth again. It gives sustenance to the smaller insects that help in the decomposition process. Then once again it grows into a plant, which can be eaten by another animal. And so the entire energy balance is maintained.
“The only way the energy could be lost would be in a fire, or if trees are cut down or animals killed and taken out of the forest, such that there is a shift in energy. Of course this doesn’t matter at a larger level, since the energy will still remain within the biosphere, and I will once more be part of the larger consciousness.”
“So do all forests have sprites?” Zosix asked.
“Well, yes. In a manner of speaking, they do. We all are part of a larger plane of things – we are all sisters.”
“What about this forest,” Zosix pointed at the old forest that started at the end of the plateau where Baba lived, “we’ve never met a forest sprite here.”
Leia looked up at the gigantic, cretaceous trees. “Oh, this forest belongs to my sister Anticia, she’s the eldest of the existing sisters. She’s very reserved; I’ve never spoken to her myself. I don’t think she takes on the human form ever, I guess that’s why you’ve never seen her, which is a good thing, she’s rather temperamental.”
Zosix nodded. Camelon looked nervously at the bushes, while something moved about behind them.
“Zosix, there’s some creature in those bushes” Camelon said, rather nervously, “It’s been moving around here for a while now!”
“Where?” asked Zosix.
Camelon pointed in the direction of the purportedly moving bushes.
“They aren’t moving.” Zosix moved in closer towards the bushes.
“There’s nothing there” said Leia.
Camelon ignored her. “I’m sure there’s something there Zosix, what if it’s a giant dragon?”
“What rubbish, dragons don’t exist anymore” noted Leia.
Camelon ignored her once more.
Zosix moved into the shrubbery, quite certain there was nothing in them, least of all a giant dragon, which couldn’t possibly hide in the small bushes, unless of course it was a midget giant dragon.
“There’s nothing here”, he declared, standing waist high in the bushes.
“But I’m so sure there was something there” said Camelon disappointed, and at the same time relieved, that there were no giant dragons around. “There it is!” he cried, turning suddenly, just as the creature darted out of the periphery of his sight.
Leia looked in the direction Camelon had turned. A pair of butterflies flitted around, but she saw no creature that merited the description of giant dragons. “Where?” she asked.
“It must be a shadow creature” said Camelon.
Zosix walked out of the bushes. “There’s no such thing, Camelon. What’s wrong with you today?”
“I guess this is what’s wrong with him” Leia observed, as she picked up the remnants of a bumble fruit.
Camelon made a grab at the fruit. The arrogance of this girl, he thought, she arrives out of nowhere, she hardly knew them and now she wanted his bumble fruit.
Leia smiled at Camelon, then she turned to Zosix and said “Bumble fruit when eaten in excess can be a very potent hallucinogen!”
Zosix burst out laughing, “And he’s been eating them by the dozen over the last week”
Camelon didn’t find any of this funny (particularly because he had no idea what a hallucinogen was), he thought Zosix and Leia were being mean. What was worse was that his stomach was starting to feel funny and worst of all both Leia and Zosix had just turned into big green flies, with large, ugly, red eyes.
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Beelzebub's Nightmare
The tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans, is a fly (order Diptera) that drinks the blood of animals, including humans. The tsetse fly can carry the protozoa human pathogen Trypanosoma brucei, which causes African sleeping sickness.
When I drew this, I was under the impression that the word tsetse is pronounced set-see, however someone informed me that it was pronounced see-see, well in that case the joke doesn't work. I did look it up, however, and I believe both pronounciations are acceptable. So for the sake of me and my cartoon please say Setsee!
Friday, January 21, 2005
Zosix and Camelon - 3
The Forest Below
Camelon did a little jig, singing “I win, I win, I win” rather out of tune. After a few seconds of jigging he realized he had better sit down and let his body recuperate from the strain he had just put it through.
Camelon looked at Zosix. A fly buzzed past. Zosix realized that by now Baba should have come rushing out of his hut, completely annoyed by the entire hullabaloo.
Zosix called out “Baba?” And then once more, “Baba?”
Zosix entered the hut.
“He’s not here”, said Zosix, coming out of the hut.
“Maybe he’s gone on one of his trips with Bahadur”, offered Camelon, “you know how he’s always telling us about the adventures that they had”
“Still…that’s strange, I didn’t think he would go of on one of his trips so suddenly, and without telling us”
“Should we search for him?” asked Camelon.
“I don’t know. Where would we search? He could have gone anywhere!”
“Maybe he’s gone to the forest below, he was telling us about it sometime ago, right?”
“Not enough data” flashed through Zosix’s multicore processor, as he stood at the edge of the cliff behind Baba’s hut, trying to figure out which way would be the best way to get down to the forest below. There would have to be some path leading down to the forest if Baba had been there before, but there were no signs of any possible gradual descent from where they stood.
Zosix scanned the cliff face. There were enough grips and footholds for him to climb down the wall, but there was no possible way that Camelon’s clumsy feet would be able to manage the descent.
“Okay. But I can’t find any way down except the cliff, and you’re not going to be able to scale the cliff face. Will it be okay if I go down now and search for some easier path, then you can come too?”
Camelon looked over the edge dubiously. “I guess so”, he said “but don’t take too long, please.”
Zosix descended steadily. He had already calculated the best possible route using an Optimal Path Algorithm to decide which grips would get him down the fastest and with the least effort. He had to stay away from the waterfall (though it was more of a waterdribble, at this time of year), as the rock there was very damp and covered with slippery moss. Camelon peered over the edge very carefully, watching his friend’s rapid progress.
Zosix reached the bottom. Even his rapid robot reflexes were not prepared for what he was about to see.
A girl!
Now Zosix had seen a few girls before, during their infrequent visits to the village, so typically this should have been no surprise. But here was a girl and not just a girl – a girl minus her garments, washing herself in the pond at the bottom of the waterdribble. Her hair was a brown so dark it was black. Her jaw was sharp. Her breasts were small and perfectly molded. Her garments lay strewn on the rocks around the little pond.
She turned and saw Zosix, who stood at attention; his recognition systems working overtime.
“Hi!” she said, wading out of the water undoubtedly unashamed by her lack of cover. She shook her head, causing a rather large number of water droplets to spatter on Zosix’s face. Then without a sense of urgency she put on her clothes, which consisted of a long white gown with intricate flower embroidery all along the ends. If the gown was meant to cover her nakedness it did not serve its purpose too well, since it was not very opaque, and with the added wetness provided by her recent bath it was as good as a sheer film.
She sat on a rock, smiling at Zosix, and started to comb her hair. Somehow Zosix’s advanced communication systems were failing him. Various programs running in his electronic brain were running into infinite loops. He finally managed to say hi, by quickly killing all the extra processes that were jamming his processor.
“Hi” she said once more, as she delicately placed a white flower in her hair, “what brings you here?”
“I’m searching for Hashmi Baba, would you know him?”
“The old fellow from up there?” she asked, tapping her index finger against her temple and then pointing up to where Zosix had recently descended from.
“Uh…yes” Zosix answered, unsure of what she intended to convey by her actions.
“Well I haven’t seen him in a very long time”
“He hasn’t come here today?”
“No he most certainly has not!”
“But he has come here before”
“Yes, a long time ago”
“With Bahadur?”
“Who?”
“Bahadur, his friend.”
“No”
“Alright”
The tennis-ball conversational exchange stopped at this point, while the silence made itself heard for a moment in infinity before the forest sounds continued their normal course. She continued smiling at him, paying careful attention to his features. Zosix, meanwhile, stood rigidly still, and if it were not for Styfroflom’s unrelenting pursuit for quality organic skin-look-alike material, one would certainly know he was not a real boy.
She got up from the rock she had been sitting on and walked toward Zosix. Optimized Action Interpretation Algorithms were failing to produce any results in Zosix’s head. They stood face to face, an arm’s length separating them. She ran her left hand down his face, from the start of his hairline along his smooth jaw to his chin. Her fingers, he noticed, were the softest he had ever felt, and her eyes seemed endless, and she smelled of the earth before it rains.
“It almost feels like you’re not real!” she remarked.
At this point, if it were possible for alarm bells and flashing red lights to pop out of Zosix’s head, they would have. If he was programmed to lie, he probably would have said he was a real boy, however that was not the case and he said nothing at all.
“How do you know Hashmi Baba?” he asked suddenly.
“I don’t know him personally, but my mother has told me about him. How do you know him?” she mirrored.
The question, though relatively simple, seemed to catch Zosix off guard. “We live across the forest from his hut.”
“What’s your name?”
“Zosix”
“I’m Leia”
There was another long pause in the conversation, when Zosix suddenly remembered Camelon would be waiting at the top, possibly getting more anxious with each passing minute.
“Is there any other way to get from here back to the top?” he asked.
“Why don’t you stay in my forest?”
“My friend, Camelon, is up there waiting for me.”
“Well let’s get him down then”
“He can’t climb to well”
“Well I know another way up.”
She took him by the hand and led him into the pool.
“Where are we going?” he asked. She didn’t reply. Holding his hand in a firm, yet delicate grip she continued leading him till they were facing the rock wall, the water splashing on them.
“Hold your breath” she said, and pulled him under the water.
Fortunately for Zosix he had no need to breathe or he would have choked. They dived through an opening at the bottom of the pool, and after a few seconds they emerged from another pool, this time in a cave.
Camelon did a little jig, singing “I win, I win, I win” rather out of tune. After a few seconds of jigging he realized he had better sit down and let his body recuperate from the strain he had just put it through.
Camelon looked at Zosix. A fly buzzed past. Zosix realized that by now Baba should have come rushing out of his hut, completely annoyed by the entire hullabaloo.
Zosix called out “Baba?” And then once more, “Baba?”
Zosix entered the hut.
“He’s not here”, said Zosix, coming out of the hut.
“Maybe he’s gone on one of his trips with Bahadur”, offered Camelon, “you know how he’s always telling us about the adventures that they had”
“Still…that’s strange, I didn’t think he would go of on one of his trips so suddenly, and without telling us”
“Should we search for him?” asked Camelon.
“I don’t know. Where would we search? He could have gone anywhere!”
“Maybe he’s gone to the forest below, he was telling us about it sometime ago, right?”
“Not enough data” flashed through Zosix’s multicore processor, as he stood at the edge of the cliff behind Baba’s hut, trying to figure out which way would be the best way to get down to the forest below. There would have to be some path leading down to the forest if Baba had been there before, but there were no signs of any possible gradual descent from where they stood.
Zosix scanned the cliff face. There were enough grips and footholds for him to climb down the wall, but there was no possible way that Camelon’s clumsy feet would be able to manage the descent.
“Okay. But I can’t find any way down except the cliff, and you’re not going to be able to scale the cliff face. Will it be okay if I go down now and search for some easier path, then you can come too?”
Camelon looked over the edge dubiously. “I guess so”, he said “but don’t take too long, please.”
Zosix descended steadily. He had already calculated the best possible route using an Optimal Path Algorithm to decide which grips would get him down the fastest and with the least effort. He had to stay away from the waterfall (though it was more of a waterdribble, at this time of year), as the rock there was very damp and covered with slippery moss. Camelon peered over the edge very carefully, watching his friend’s rapid progress.
Zosix reached the bottom. Even his rapid robot reflexes were not prepared for what he was about to see.
A girl!
Now Zosix had seen a few girls before, during their infrequent visits to the village, so typically this should have been no surprise. But here was a girl and not just a girl – a girl minus her garments, washing herself in the pond at the bottom of the waterdribble. Her hair was a brown so dark it was black. Her jaw was sharp. Her breasts were small and perfectly molded. Her garments lay strewn on the rocks around the little pond.
She turned and saw Zosix, who stood at attention; his recognition systems working overtime.
“Hi!” she said, wading out of the water undoubtedly unashamed by her lack of cover. She shook her head, causing a rather large number of water droplets to spatter on Zosix’s face. Then without a sense of urgency she put on her clothes, which consisted of a long white gown with intricate flower embroidery all along the ends. If the gown was meant to cover her nakedness it did not serve its purpose too well, since it was not very opaque, and with the added wetness provided by her recent bath it was as good as a sheer film.
She sat on a rock, smiling at Zosix, and started to comb her hair. Somehow Zosix’s advanced communication systems were failing him. Various programs running in his electronic brain were running into infinite loops. He finally managed to say hi, by quickly killing all the extra processes that were jamming his processor.
“Hi” she said once more, as she delicately placed a white flower in her hair, “what brings you here?”
“I’m searching for Hashmi Baba, would you know him?”
“The old fellow from up there?” she asked, tapping her index finger against her temple and then pointing up to where Zosix had recently descended from.
“Uh…yes” Zosix answered, unsure of what she intended to convey by her actions.
“Well I haven’t seen him in a very long time”
“He hasn’t come here today?”
“No he most certainly has not!”
“But he has come here before”
“Yes, a long time ago”
“With Bahadur?”
“Who?”
“Bahadur, his friend.”
“No”
“Alright”
The tennis-ball conversational exchange stopped at this point, while the silence made itself heard for a moment in infinity before the forest sounds continued their normal course. She continued smiling at him, paying careful attention to his features. Zosix, meanwhile, stood rigidly still, and if it were not for Styfroflom’s unrelenting pursuit for quality organic skin-look-alike material, one would certainly know he was not a real boy.
She got up from the rock she had been sitting on and walked toward Zosix. Optimized Action Interpretation Algorithms were failing to produce any results in Zosix’s head. They stood face to face, an arm’s length separating them. She ran her left hand down his face, from the start of his hairline along his smooth jaw to his chin. Her fingers, he noticed, were the softest he had ever felt, and her eyes seemed endless, and she smelled of the earth before it rains.
“It almost feels like you’re not real!” she remarked.
At this point, if it were possible for alarm bells and flashing red lights to pop out of Zosix’s head, they would have. If he was programmed to lie, he probably would have said he was a real boy, however that was not the case and he said nothing at all.
“How do you know Hashmi Baba?” he asked suddenly.
“I don’t know him personally, but my mother has told me about him. How do you know him?” she mirrored.
The question, though relatively simple, seemed to catch Zosix off guard. “We live across the forest from his hut.”
“What’s your name?”
“Zosix”
“I’m Leia”
There was another long pause in the conversation, when Zosix suddenly remembered Camelon would be waiting at the top, possibly getting more anxious with each passing minute.
“Is there any other way to get from here back to the top?” he asked.
“Why don’t you stay in my forest?”
“My friend, Camelon, is up there waiting for me.”
“Well let’s get him down then”
“He can’t climb to well”
“Well I know another way up.”
She took him by the hand and led him into the pool.
“Where are we going?” he asked. She didn’t reply. Holding his hand in a firm, yet delicate grip she continued leading him till they were facing the rock wall, the water splashing on them.
“Hold your breath” she said, and pulled him under the water.
Fortunately for Zosix he had no need to breathe or he would have choked. They dived through an opening at the bottom of the pool, and after a few seconds they emerged from another pool, this time in a cave.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Say Cheese
I have a nice bottle of French white wine which we opened for my parents' anniversary. It's a rather ornate bottle, shaped like an old pitcher or an alabaster. The problem with these classy wine bottles though, is that once you open them you can't re-cork the damn things!
So now we've got the bottle lying there half filled and open, with a long queue of ants waiting to get in, like it's some posh uptown club. I've been watching them for half an hour now. I bet they have bouncers at the opening to prevent bottlenecks (Hey! I feel like making bad puns tonight!) The ants march in and promptly drown, what is it with ants and suicide, or should I say insecticide (Yeah! I know!)
Damn Alcoholic Ants! Atleast they float around happily in the wine before they die, it's almost pitcher perfect!
So now we've got the bottle lying there half filled and open, with a long queue of ants waiting to get in, like it's some posh uptown club. I've been watching them for half an hour now. I bet they have bouncers at the opening to prevent bottlenecks (Hey! I feel like making bad puns tonight!) The ants march in and promptly drown, what is it with ants and suicide, or should I say insecticide (Yeah! I know!)
Damn Alcoholic Ants! Atleast they float around happily in the wine before they die, it's almost pitcher perfect!
Zosix and the Singing Dinosaur - 2
A Race well ceded
It was the perfect morning, but so was every morning for Zosix, since they all fell perfectly into his built-in definition of the morning:
morn•ing môr 'ning The first or early part of the day, lasting from midnight to noon or from sunrise to noon.
He looked around. It was the same GPUs (Graphical Perception Units) that his OSDs (Optical Sensory Devices) registered each day, when he opened his Styfroflom® eyelids after his nightly energy conversion. The room was bare, the walls were cold, the floor was clean, and Camelon lay asleep in the corner.
Camelon was on his back, his stubby legs moving back and forth in a frantic running motion, faster and faster, until he suddenly jerked awake with a start.
“They’re going to kill me!” he yelled.
“Who’s going to kill you?” asked Zosix.
“The knights!”
“The knights?”
“Yes! The Knights of Our Lady of Perpetual Brontasaurus Fellatio. They were chasing me with pitchforks and hand-axes. They were crazed, they were going to kill me, wanted to kill me…”
“Calm down, Camelon. It was just another one of your rather weird dreams. I think we should talk to Baba about this and see what he has to say. This is the third time this week you are having one of these nightmares. Who was it last time that wanted to kill you?”
“The Sisters of the Holy Second Reich”, said Camelon breaking down in tears.
“There, there.” Zosix patted his dinosaur friend on the back.
“Thanks Zosix, you’re a friend”, Camelon said, as he wiped the tears from his eyes. Several fruit flies hovered around his face, and he swiped at them hatefully.
They walked through the forest, headed towards Hashmi Baba’s place. Camelon was already feeling much better with the fresh forest air and the mild morning sun. He waddled along blithely following Zosix who skipped along ahead of him.
“Let’s get some breakfast, Zosix”, Camelon suggested.
Zosix shrugged. “Alright”
Camelon ran along eagerly towards the new patch of bumble fruit that he had discovered a few days ago. Zosix followed after him. “Are you going to eat those fruits again? Aren’t you tired of them already?”
“No, they are absolutely delicious” yelled Camelon as he disappeared into the bushes.
Zosix waited, watching a few tiny bees as they hovered around in sudden jerky movements, and the phrase “as busy as a bumblebee” flashed through his multicore processor. A pair of butterflies danced from flower to flower around the bumble fruit bushes. Camelon greedily feasted upon the bumble fruit, making rather ungracious chomping noises. He could not understand what it was about the fruit, but he thought they were positively scrumptious. After a rather heady breakfast, Camelon ambled out of the bushes to where Zosix waited patiently on a rock.
“Watcha doin?” asked Camelon, as a few chewed fruit bits fell from his still stuffed mouth.
“Equations!”
Zosix stood up, and dragged his foot across what he had written in the ground with a twig. “Let’s go” he said, and the two of them ran along, leaving behind a large amount of symbols and numbers in the mud, which proved that the forces of attraction that existed between different particles could be reconciled to a singular fundamental force. Equations that unified field theorists would never see.
They strolled along the forest path. Birds chirped among the branches, insects zipped around buzzing excitedly, squirrels playfully bounded across the path, chasing each other in a high-paced game. The forest was bright and cheerful. Camelon looked down, seemingly dejected.
“What’s wrong, Camelon?” Zosix asked, sensing his friend’s mood.
“Oh, nothing,” Camelon replied, “Just wondering about my nightmares, what do you think?”
“I don’t know, I have never experienced a dream or a nightmare. I know the words only by definition. It sounds rather interesting though.”
“I can’t remember having nightmares ever before, I don’t know why now. It worries me…”
Zosix hummed, acknowledging Camelon. “How about we race till Baba’s place?”
“Well, I…” but before Camelon could finish Zosix was already running ahead, yelling “Last one there is a dung beetle!”
The two of them ran through the forest. Zosix up ahead, his Electro-Mechanical conversion cells rapidly pumping energy into the Styfroflom® muscles in his legs, and Camelon lagging behind, clumsily trying to avoid the trees and undergrowth, in an attempt to take a short cut to Baba’s.
They reached Baba’s hut, with Camelon yelling “I win! I win!” as he bounced along to an awkward halt just before the precipice beyond the hut. Camelon collapsed where he stood, he had put everything into the race and he was delighted beyond words to have outraced Zosix, who had voluntarily let his dinosaur friend beat him. Zosix came up behind him, forcing a look of exhaustion, happy to help get his friend’s mind off the nightmares.
It was the perfect morning, but so was every morning for Zosix, since they all fell perfectly into his built-in definition of the morning:
morn•ing môr 'ning The first or early part of the day, lasting from midnight to noon or from sunrise to noon.
He looked around. It was the same GPUs (Graphical Perception Units) that his OSDs (Optical Sensory Devices) registered each day, when he opened his Styfroflom® eyelids after his nightly energy conversion. The room was bare, the walls were cold, the floor was clean, and Camelon lay asleep in the corner.
Camelon was on his back, his stubby legs moving back and forth in a frantic running motion, faster and faster, until he suddenly jerked awake with a start.
“They’re going to kill me!” he yelled.
“Who’s going to kill you?” asked Zosix.
“The knights!”
“The knights?”
“Yes! The Knights of Our Lady of Perpetual Brontasaurus Fellatio. They were chasing me with pitchforks and hand-axes. They were crazed, they were going to kill me, wanted to kill me…”
“Calm down, Camelon. It was just another one of your rather weird dreams. I think we should talk to Baba about this and see what he has to say. This is the third time this week you are having one of these nightmares. Who was it last time that wanted to kill you?”
“The Sisters of the Holy Second Reich”, said Camelon breaking down in tears.
“There, there.” Zosix patted his dinosaur friend on the back.
“Thanks Zosix, you’re a friend”, Camelon said, as he wiped the tears from his eyes. Several fruit flies hovered around his face, and he swiped at them hatefully.
They walked through the forest, headed towards Hashmi Baba’s place. Camelon was already feeling much better with the fresh forest air and the mild morning sun. He waddled along blithely following Zosix who skipped along ahead of him.
“Let’s get some breakfast, Zosix”, Camelon suggested.
Zosix shrugged. “Alright”
Camelon ran along eagerly towards the new patch of bumble fruit that he had discovered a few days ago. Zosix followed after him. “Are you going to eat those fruits again? Aren’t you tired of them already?”
“No, they are absolutely delicious” yelled Camelon as he disappeared into the bushes.
Zosix waited, watching a few tiny bees as they hovered around in sudden jerky movements, and the phrase “as busy as a bumblebee” flashed through his multicore processor. A pair of butterflies danced from flower to flower around the bumble fruit bushes. Camelon greedily feasted upon the bumble fruit, making rather ungracious chomping noises. He could not understand what it was about the fruit, but he thought they were positively scrumptious. After a rather heady breakfast, Camelon ambled out of the bushes to where Zosix waited patiently on a rock.
“Watcha doin?” asked Camelon, as a few chewed fruit bits fell from his still stuffed mouth.
“Equations!”
Zosix stood up, and dragged his foot across what he had written in the ground with a twig. “Let’s go” he said, and the two of them ran along, leaving behind a large amount of symbols and numbers in the mud, which proved that the forces of attraction that existed between different particles could be reconciled to a singular fundamental force. Equations that unified field theorists would never see.
They strolled along the forest path. Birds chirped among the branches, insects zipped around buzzing excitedly, squirrels playfully bounded across the path, chasing each other in a high-paced game. The forest was bright and cheerful. Camelon looked down, seemingly dejected.
“What’s wrong, Camelon?” Zosix asked, sensing his friend’s mood.
“Oh, nothing,” Camelon replied, “Just wondering about my nightmares, what do you think?”
“I don’t know, I have never experienced a dream or a nightmare. I know the words only by definition. It sounds rather interesting though.”
“I can’t remember having nightmares ever before, I don’t know why now. It worries me…”
Zosix hummed, acknowledging Camelon. “How about we race till Baba’s place?”
“Well, I…” but before Camelon could finish Zosix was already running ahead, yelling “Last one there is a dung beetle!”
The two of them ran through the forest. Zosix up ahead, his Electro-Mechanical conversion cells rapidly pumping energy into the Styfroflom® muscles in his legs, and Camelon lagging behind, clumsily trying to avoid the trees and undergrowth, in an attempt to take a short cut to Baba’s.
They reached Baba’s hut, with Camelon yelling “I win! I win!” as he bounced along to an awkward halt just before the precipice beyond the hut. Camelon collapsed where he stood, he had put everything into the race and he was delighted beyond words to have outraced Zosix, who had voluntarily let his dinosaur friend beat him. Zosix came up behind him, forcing a look of exhaustion, happy to help get his friend’s mind off the nightmares.
Monday, January 10, 2005
The motives of selflessness
Aid is widespread. There are NGOs everywhere, and volunteers eager to help out. People from everywhere have contributed generously.
During the two days I was at Nagapattinam, I worked with the YMCA and Seva Bharati.
The YMCA was handling the situation at a general hospital, situated around a kilometre from the sea. Waves had flooded congested rooms that had once been a nursing school. The water had been drained away, but one can still see the mark (around 4 feet high) on the walls. We cleaned up and put back benches and tables that had been left out to dry. Later we helped shift medicines, sent in by Unicef, to a godown. I still wonder why the government hospital workers weren’t transporting the medicines to camps. Perhaps I’m unduly sceptical.
Seva Bharati is the NGO that belongs to the RSS. These chaps were unbelievably helpful in the villages we visited. It’s hard to imagine that it’s these same people who go around defacing everything on Valentine’s Day (and that’s not the worst of what they do!)
Along with the Seva Bharati members, all clad in their Khaki shorts and armed with spades, shovels and containers to carry mud, we visited a couple of villages and helped restore houses that would serve as temporary shelters for the affected.
Yet underlying the goodwill live the hidden agendas of religious, political and other sorts.
An old woman complains to us, how she has been wearing the same clothes since the wave hit, while in other villages children use brand new saris as swings.
Cooking utensils, bed sheets, kerosene stoves are brought to the doors of people who were barely affected by the sea, because a certain some one knows a certain some one else who knows an MLA to whom a certain some one else owes a favour… you know how it works in India.
Of course one can’t have goodness without a profit. It’s just bad business logic!
Note: I wouldn’t give my money to the PM’s relief fund, sure he’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t personally hand out the relief to the deserving. The money gets filtered before it reaches the affected.
Some of the organisations that I'd recommend are
South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies: http://www.siffs.org/
Sneha: Nagapattinam Tel: 04365 - 222 907, 240 622
AID India: http://www.aidindia.org/
During the two days I was at Nagapattinam, I worked with the YMCA and Seva Bharati.
The YMCA was handling the situation at a general hospital, situated around a kilometre from the sea. Waves had flooded congested rooms that had once been a nursing school. The water had been drained away, but one can still see the mark (around 4 feet high) on the walls. We cleaned up and put back benches and tables that had been left out to dry. Later we helped shift medicines, sent in by Unicef, to a godown. I still wonder why the government hospital workers weren’t transporting the medicines to camps. Perhaps I’m unduly sceptical.
Seva Bharati is the NGO that belongs to the RSS. These chaps were unbelievably helpful in the villages we visited. It’s hard to imagine that it’s these same people who go around defacing everything on Valentine’s Day (and that’s not the worst of what they do!)
Along with the Seva Bharati members, all clad in their Khaki shorts and armed with spades, shovels and containers to carry mud, we visited a couple of villages and helped restore houses that would serve as temporary shelters for the affected.
Yet underlying the goodwill live the hidden agendas of religious, political and other sorts.
An old woman complains to us, how she has been wearing the same clothes since the wave hit, while in other villages children use brand new saris as swings.
Cooking utensils, bed sheets, kerosene stoves are brought to the doors of people who were barely affected by the sea, because a certain some one knows a certain some one else who knows an MLA to whom a certain some one else owes a favour… you know how it works in India.
Of course one can’t have goodness without a profit. It’s just bad business logic!
Note: I wouldn’t give my money to the PM’s relief fund, sure he’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t personally hand out the relief to the deserving. The money gets filtered before it reaches the affected.
Some of the organisations that I'd recommend are
South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies: http://www.siffs.org/
Sneha: Nagapattinam Tel: 04365 - 222 907, 240 622
AID India: http://www.aidindia.org/
A Slow Restoration
It wasn’t the summer sun, thankfully. We worked hard. Standing in a chain, passing vessels filled with sand. Switching places when those who were digging were exhausted. Information Technology professionals who have never seen so much manual labour all their lives. A few of the villagers joined in to help us help them.
Nine houses we managed to restore to vaguely livable conditions. Only the tiniest iota of the work that needs to be done. Other teams that were with us helped out at shelters, children’s camps and the general hospital.
I cannot even begin to imagine what the survivors feel. I don’t even try. In the villages we visited, most seem to have come to terms with the facts. Children play a game of ‘vegetable shop’, a little girl sells neem leaves for two rupees fifty paisa, from behind the remains of a wall, to her friends; the men discus their problems with us; the women offer us bananas as a thanks for our little effort. Yet a sense of emptiness and shock hovers.
It will be years before a suggestion of normalcy is returned to these villages.
Nine houses we managed to restore to vaguely livable conditions. Only the tiniest iota of the work that needs to be done. Other teams that were with us helped out at shelters, children’s camps and the general hospital.
I cannot even begin to imagine what the survivors feel. I don’t even try. In the villages we visited, most seem to have come to terms with the facts. Children play a game of ‘vegetable shop’, a little girl sells neem leaves for two rupees fifty paisa, from behind the remains of a wall, to her friends; the men discus their problems with us; the women offer us bananas as a thanks for our little effort. Yet a sense of emptiness and shock hovers.
It will be years before a suggestion of normalcy is returned to these villages.
Raped!
Fishing boats, possibly weighing around fifty tonnes each, flung like children’s toys, their splintered remains sticking out of each other.
The supports of a bridge under construction, strewn around in disarray and the concrete remains of the bridge, half falling over.
A house, or what was once a house, covered in sand. A girl’s bangles lie broken in the sand. A goat chews on the remains of a child’s Biology test paper (he didn’t know the name of a fungi).
An old woman, in a yellow sari and a deep rust coloured blouse, sings a folk song broken by intermittent sobs, or perhaps the other way around.
A clock, its glass encasing broken, sand along its frame, faithfully ticks away.
The supports of a bridge under construction, strewn around in disarray and the concrete remains of the bridge, half falling over.
A house, or what was once a house, covered in sand. A girl’s bangles lie broken in the sand. A goat chews on the remains of a child’s Biology test paper (he didn’t know the name of a fungi).
An old woman, in a yellow sari and a deep rust coloured blouse, sings a folk song broken by intermittent sobs, or perhaps the other way around.
A clock, its glass encasing broken, sand along its frame, faithfully ticks away.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Cowboy Snakes
I hope the text is legible enough, perhaps I should have been less miserly on the DPI while scanning!
Saturday, January 01, 2005
A Year Gone By
Time like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all her sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.
Isaac Watts, I believe.
Today, the first day of the new year, yet it feels no different from any other day. I like the ethereal quality of time, so much like a dream. It only exists as a memory (at least for those of use who cannot perceive it as a distinct dimension), so intangible.
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