Skip to main content

Maitranna

"A hundred miles, a hundred miles, you can hear the whistle blow..."

Who knows what lies awaiting a hundred miles away? It's hard to judge, even in spite of having  a map to tell you what, geographically, you can expect to see there.
That's because facts are born liars.

In a small town near Chennai, there lived a young boy. The town was at a proximity of less than a hundred miles to the city. The boy called himself Maitranna. He was the newspaper boy of his own town. He cycled to a half-day government school, quite far away, and adventuring further away from home, he would inspect peripheral Chennai. He would usually shy away from city-folk there, but he was always tempted to read the city newspapers at the newspaper-shop.
  Days passed. Maitranna was running through the daily regime of a conversation with Jayant, the 'man at the counter', at the newspaper shop, on a sultry morning. They seemed to have struck a pleasant rapport with each other. It was pleasant enough to wear away the gloom of that morning.
  Maitranna was not as silent as he was shy. Everyday, Jayant would get a misty dose of entertainment from his young companion's stories. Of course, a less perceptive man than Jayant would tire out of these. A less sensitive man would have the heart to reprimand Maitranna. But never did that happen.
  One absolutely fine day, when lemon ices were being sold in town, Maitranna did not wish to speak to Jayant of the newspaper-shop. Not very shocking, considering that, he was more interested in the newspaper. He had found a very photogenic Maitranna on a newspaper page, accessorized by a plain cricket bat and a helmet. So the conversation with Jayant would be put on hold, and I would be grateful for it, because I know that when they spoke, Maitranna would be too overwhelmed to speak. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What the New Year Means to Me

 What does the new year mean to me? I don't know.  I think it just means that I can give myself another chance to try, fail, succeed.   I think it means that I can spend time with family, differently this time. I think it means that I can connect with people and with myself, in new ways.  I also think that it gives me a chance to see things with a different lens. The kaleidoscope becomes a periscope. I don't know what else. Every year, I put on a new pair of goggles. Every year, I grow, whether I try, or not. Some things may work as I had expected them to, some may not. But who knows?  I will allow myself to be Novak Djokovic in my arena, who hears his name when the crowd cheers for Nadal or Federer. I will allow myself to be Rafael Nadal, who always has a plan, no matter how bleak or bright things may seem, and sticks to it. I will allow myself to be Roger Federer, who glides in, serves, plays and walks out, all in grace and style. I will allow myself to b...

Fact and Fantasy

How much is fact, and how much is fantasy? Winter mornings are dewdrops. They settle like the treble in a song, only to fade away like echoes.  I can hold them on my fingertips, but the next instant they are gone. Elusive. Just like peace. Just like people you don't really know. Come to think of it, I realize that everything in this world is transient. The barking of the dogs in the neighborhood. The incessant crying of a baby. The footsteps of the milkman. The steady, tremulous tone of someone making a point over the phone. The chatter of neighbors. Yet, only a few moments have passed before I can remind myself that transience is, after all, a tricky business. Everything appears temporary because it is warped by time and spaced into a fragment of its entirety. What appears to be a puzzle, is actually just one piece.  I am wearing the most concrete example of this irony of interconnectedness. Of permanence. Of durability. It wraps your hands and skin in the warmth of several i...

Nut and Shell

 Coconut Tender as a coconut. Hard as a coconut. Light as a coconut. Heavy as a coconut. I wish I was a coconut Today... A double-shelled, strange coconut. They call those people coconuts Whom they cannot understand, Like tapping on hard rock but not getting hurt- Like knocking against the hollow And shaking a bowl of jingling water That is cushioned by tender walls. Well, maybe people could be coconuts They could have hard shells and tender interiors, A hard crunch but a sweet essence- I would like to believe so. I want to know why I'm fascinated by the coconut. It can't be solely because of its duality. It can't be its beguiling double facedness. What is it, then? I feel like maybe a shaft of light A hollow for each hard tap- Tears through the hard door. An intriguing belt of  adventurous light Wriggles out from apparent darkness. Mystery, mystery. That's what it is. The mysterious coconut.  It has a shell But it has a soul- Shell protects soul, Soul preserves shell I...