It's past midnight, the time when my brain goes into overdrive. People ask if it's a blessing or a curse. I say, it's both. It's past midnight, the time when my brain goes into overdrive. People ask if it's a blessing or a curse. I say, it's both. It's past midnight, the time when my brain goes into overdrive. People ask if it's a blessing or a curse. I say, it's both.

How weird it is that dead bodies are heavy, but they still float; how awful it is that we can see life leaving a body and the light leaving their eyes.

I wonder why it happens.

I say,

We are artworks in process.

Life is the artist, a kid, who's been given a blank canvas by nature.

So when they say that life has been given to us, they're wrong; we're given to life.

She draws a valley on the waist and fills the mind with pain-filled relief.

Calls it art.

A lurking regret of not deepening the valleys is there, always there. But that would be ending the work too soon, too hastily. And so, the valleys are shallow, but numerous.

She draws them scattered like a Zebra's stripes.

Calls it art.

The wrists are painted a beautiful Brown. But life? She's never satisfied.

So she scratches them out, paints them red.

Calls it art.

Crescent moons on the palms are her favourite. They change colours, you see.

She draws them in black ink, they turn to blue, red, pink and then they fade.

She draws them again.

Calls it art.

Rusty red and salty tears embellish the painting. Sometimes, life likes to paint everything yellow. A glowing yellow.

But she hates that color, I think, for everything is found drenched in blue ink the very next day.

And finally when she's done drawing,

And coloring,

And scratching,

And spilling.

She sets it out into the air.

And leaves in search of a new canvas.

And so, in the windy arms of nature, the soul dries out.

The dying light,

visible from the eyeslits.

You wondered why the body becomes heavy after a person's death but it still floats;

I say,

it floats because it's life's way of flaunting her art.

And, everything we experience in our lifetime, returns as butterflies. And when they settle and admire, it weighs us down.

So we remain, the macabre art of life, made with the tools of time.

It's past midnight, the time when my brain goes into overdrive. People ask if it's a blessing or a curse. I say, it's both.

How weird it is that dead bodies are heavy, but they still float; how awful it is that we can see life leaving a body and the light leaving their eyes.

I wonder why it happens.

I say,

We are artworks in process.

Life is the artist, a kid, who's been given a blank canvas by nature.

So when they say that life has been given to us, they're wrong; we're given to life.

She draws a valley on the waist and fills the mind with pain-filled relief.

Calls it art.

A lurking regret of not deepening the valleys is there, always there. But that would be ending the work too soon, too hastily. And so, the valleys are shallow, but numerous.

She draws them scattered like a Zebra's stripes.

Calls it art.

The wrists are painted a beautiful Brown. But life? She's never satisfied.

So she scratches them out, paints them red.

Calls it art.

Crescent moons on the palms are her favourite. They change colours, you see.

She draws them in black ink, they turn to blue, red, pink and then they fade.

She draws them again.

Calls it art.

Rusty red and salty tears embellish the painting. Sometimes, life likes to paint everything yellow. A glowing yellow.

But she hates that color, I think, for everything is found drenched in blue ink the very next day.

And finally when she's done drawing,

And coloring,

And scratching,

And spilling.

She sets it out into the air.

And leaves in search of a new canvas.

And so, in the windy arms of nature, the soul dries out.

The dying light,

visible from the eyeslits.

You wondered why the body becomes heavy after a person's death but it still floats;

I say,

it floats because it's life's way of flaunting her art.

And, everything we experience in our lifetime, returns as butterflies. And when they settle and admire, it weighs us down.

So we remain, the macabre art of life, made with the tools of time.

It's past midnight, the time when my brain goes into overdrive. People ask if it's a blessing or a curse. I say, it's both.

How weird it is that dead bodies are heavy, but they still float; how awful it is that we can see life leaving a body and the light leaving their eyes.

I wonder why it happens.

I say,

We are artworks in process.

Life is the artist, a kid, who's been given a blank canvas by nature.

So when they say that life has been given to us, they're wrong; we're given to life.

She draws a valley on the waist and fills the mind with pain-filled relief.

Calls it art.

A lurking regret of not deepening the valleys is there, always there. But that would be ending the work too soon, too hastily. And so, the valleys are shallow, but numerous.

She draws them scattered like a Zebra's stripes.

Calls it art.

The wrists are painted a beautiful Brown. But life? She's never satisfied.

So she scratches them out, paints them red.

Calls it art.

Crescent moons on the palms are her favourite. They change colours, you see.

She draws them in black ink, they turn to blue, red, pink and then they fade.

She draws them again.

Calls it art.

Rusty red and salty tears embellish the painting. Sometimes, life likes to paint everything yellow. A glowing yellow.

But she hates that color, I think, for everything is found drenched in blue ink the very next day.

And finally when she's done drawing,

And coloring,

And scratching,

And spilling.

She sets it out into the air.

And leaves in search of a new canvas.

And so, in the windy arms of nature, the soul dries out.

The dying light,

visible from the eyeslits.

You wondered why the body becomes heavy after a person's death but it still floats;

I say,

it floats because it's life's way of flaunting her art.

And, everything we experience in our lifetime, returns as butterflies. And when they settle and admire, it weighs us down.

So we remain, the macabre art of life, made with the tools of time.

#art #death #macabre #time #life #musing #hurt

Bonjour! Namaste! Hello! It fascinates me sometimes how you, the humans have so many ways of greeting, addressing, dressing etc. You might be wondering why I am referring to the human race in second person, I’m a cat, by the way. Don’t be so surprised, I come from a place named Catspurr where we, the cats are the beings of the highest order and the humans serve us. Your world and our world are set very far apart. Normally, the humans are unable to reach this hidden world of ours and if some very adventurous person happens to arrive here by accident, he’s caught, obliviated and then is kept is a source of entertainment for our kind (like how our kind is treated in your world, right?)

Here, we are called “khoshpa”, “cat” is a name that the “klums” (the humans) have given us, though they do not call us by that name when they serve us, as their memories had been erased. Honestly, we hate it whenever you people give us all sorts of weird names, would you like being called "fat Louie" all your life? We have very dignified names here, at Catspurr. Our king being Lord Catatouille and the queen, Madame Mushper.  Ah! such beautiful names!

I'm Coushnum, the prime minister of Catspurr.

It is quite impossible to reach Catspurr, unless you forget your way in some unknown place, like a forest, desert, anything and give up all hopes of your survival. You must have noticed your pet cat or any other cat sleeping the most part of the day, well they aren’t actually sleeping, that’s just how they reach here. They’re our agents who give us some updates on the outside world and sometimes, they lure some klums into reaching Catspurr, remember that friend of yours who followed her cat (whom she used to beat for fun) into the woods and was never heard of again? She’s here now and is one of our best light chasers.

I’ve heard from my agents that you, the humans are treating the animal in the worst manner possible. You’d be surprised to know that the way you treat your fellow creatures there, is same way we treat the klums here. A long time ago when animals were treated with compassion, we used to make sure that every human who happened to reach Catspurr returned their home safely, but we don’t do that now. By seeing the way you treat your fellow beings, we think the klums are better treated here. So, care to treat an animal with compassion next time? ’Cause, who knows? Our next source of entertainment might be you.

It was three forty five when the train reached Howrah station. As their compartment was close to the exit door, the Mehtas conveniently moved with their luggage out of the train. Once getting everyone out, Tia’s father, Alok Mehta got back to their compartment to check if they had left something behind and found out that the careless little Kiara Mehta, Tia’s younger sister had left her teddy bear, owing to her being in a state of sleepiness. She never went anywhere without one of her ‘favourite’ teddies. As it was platform number 19, the Yatri Niwas or the railway guest house was nearby. They had to walk a lot before reaching the place where all the platforms met. Then they moved inside the passage which led to the guesthouse. They reached the door but only to find it closed. A passer-by, who looked like a local resident, said that the guesthouse would open only by 6 AM.



“But it’s only four now”, said Mr. Mehta looking at his watch.



“You’ll find a lot of hotels nearby”, said the dhoti-clad man, somewhat comfortingly. Then they quickly moved out of the station after thanking the man.



After walking for about twenty minutes, they came across a hotel which was closed as well. Outside it there was a board which read: HOTUL 6 O’CLOCK OPAN. Tia started to giggle at the broken English of the sentence, knowing that its meaning was understood. Then she stopped at the thought of all the people in India who can neither read nor write English, of all the people whom she had spoken for at different debate competitions. She had started feeling bad, like she was somewhat neglecting all the values she had been taught, “oh, I shouldn’t have laughed at this, at least they’ve tried”, she said to her mother, Mrs. Rashi Mehta.



“No problem dear”, she replied with a smile, that smile suited her round face.



It was really cold at that hour of the day and they had already checked every hotel nearby, they were either closed or didn’t have any vacant rooms. “Listen Alok, everybody is tired of roaming around this place. You have already exhausted Tia, didn’t you think how she is going to give the exam now!” Mrs. Mehta said with a big frown on her face.



“I’m okay momma, I’m not tired. But I think we must go back to the station and check if that guest house is open now or not “



“But Tia ,it’s only four thirty now”, said Mr. Mehta.



“ I had told you to book the hotel beforehand, how can you expect a hotel to be vacant in such a big city and that too, in this age of online booking”, Mrs. Mehta fired at Mr. Mehta.



He was feeling guilty and promised himself and everybody that he would do all the preparations beforehand for any trip from then on. As everybody was tired, there was no option but to walk back to the station. Just half an hour ago there were many a taxi stopping and asking for hire, but now there were naught. So they waited there for about five minutes.



“I think we’re only wasting our time by waiting for a taxi here”, said Mr. Mehta, wearily.



“Yeah, we should try to get to the station on foot; we might get a taxi on our way, too.”, said Tia enthusiastically.



“Okay”, Mrs. Mehta said warily as she nudged Kiara who was staring wide-eyed at a poster advertising the latest Barbie dolls available at some mall.

" I think there's a hotel over there", Mr. Mehta said while pointing towards an empty street.

"And how do you know that?", Mrs. Mehta inquired as she crossed her arms.

"My instincts"

"I think we should go and check if dad's right"

"Okay, let's get going then"

The family started moving towards the empty street.

Mr. Mehta was right. There was a hotel at the end of the street.The only problem was- it was close.

Anna walked briskly through the forest, the only audible sound, apart from the occasional

croaking of frogs was that of the ground squishing beneath her feet. It clearly had rained the

previous day, for the ground was really wet. Every now and then she would trip over the fallen

branches of trees, the aftermath of a storm. A geographical storm had hit the city, but along

with it, a storm, a metaphorical one, had hit Anna’s life that rainy month of July...

It was a sunny day, July, The 1st. quite short for her age and with shoulder length dark

brown hair, Anna helped her parents get the luggage out of the car. They proceeded

Towards the platform no.1 of the railway station with the entire luggage. 3 bags were

All her mother needed for her 1-week stay at Surat. “Be sure to get something for me, mumma”,

chirped in her younger sister Darla. “Of course! How can I forget to bring something for my li’l angel!” said her mother, Alice. “Bring something for me too, a book or something.” added Anna; her mother pulled her and her sister in a tight hug,

“So, sweeties, I need you two to take care of yourselves and don’t try to do any big mischief “, she said with a smile. “But I’d miss you momma”, Darla said with tears in her eyes. “I’d only be gone for a week, now don’t you cry and show me that bright smile of yours. Here, take care of this when I’m gone” saying this, she handed her a small basket which she had just taken out from her bag. Darla cheered up after looking inside the basket“It’s a tiny li’l bunny! Where did you get this?” she

asked, her voice filled with joy. “I bought it from the pet shop we had gone a few

days back.”, her mother answered with a twinkle in her eye. Just then they heard the whistle of the train and in a few minutes the train arrived at the platform. “Goodbye kids, goodbye

Frank”, she said and started walking towards her coach. “Goodbye momma”, Anna

shouted along with her sister. Their mother waved back from the window when she reached

her berth. The train blew another whistle, billowed a lot of smoke and then started to move, slowly at first, but picked up speed after some time until

it was nothing but a blue dot visible at a distance. “Okay, so I think we should go home now

or I’ll definitely miss my tuition class”, Anna said after her mother’s train had moved out of

sight. “Yes, you’re right, we must go now. So, who wants a li’l ice-cream treat?” her father said with

a bright smile. “Me! Me! I want ice-cream!!” Darla said, jumping up and down with

excitement, ice-creams were her favourite thing. Her father smiled and started walking after

them.

After reaching home Anna left for her tuition and Darla settled down to play with the bunny

when her father left for work. “I can’t keep you calling li’l thing forever, so I’d call you bugs

bunny from now ”, she said and giggled, ”but you’re so tiny and bugs bunny is so tall. I’d

rather call you fluffy”, she said, taking pride in her selection of the name. After an hour or so

of chasing the bunny around the house, she finally crashed on the sofa, “enough play for a

day. I’m gonna watch TV now, so you could scamper around the house if you want to”, she

said to the bunny and switched on the TV. The bunny decided to enjoy its freedom by

running around the house, knocking small things like lipsticks, empty water bottles down with

its tiny feet and trying to climb the curtains. After some time, when Anna came back home,

she found the house in a complete mess, small things atop tables and racks were all

knocked down , Darla was sitting on the sofa ,lost in the world of Disney and the bunny was

nowhere to be seen , but the weirdest thing was the presence of bloody paw prints. Tiny,

bloody paw prints. “Darla! Come here at once!” Anna shouted, her voice shaky. ”Why should I

come? You come here, I want to watch my favourite show”, Darla shouted back and glued her

eyes to the TV with even more intensity. “Darla, this serious! You can watch that show’s

Re-run tomorrow!”, Anna was getting frustrated. “Ah! Alright, I’m coming. This better be a

legit reason for me missing my favourite sho- aah!! What’s with all the bloody prints on the

floor?”, Darla asked in a squeaky voice while trying to tip-toe to a clean place where there

weren’t any blood prints. “Well, that is something I should be asking you.” Anna

crossed her arms. “What? Do you think that I did this?” Darla questioned while pointing to

the prints. “You were the one at home. you must know how this happened if it wasn’t your

fault”. “I do not have any idea, I was playing with the bunny and then I sat down to watch TV

while the li’l one ran around the house”, Darla answered with an innocent expression. Just

then the bunny came running, took one look at them at turned back towards Anna’s room,

running and leaving behind a trail of bloody paw prints. The sisters took one look at each

other and ran after the bunny.

They chased the bunny all the way to Anna’s room where it was trying to climb a curtain. Darla let out a small squeal and Anna stood there spell bound. “Well, that’s weird”, she said pointing towards the bunny trying to climb the curtain. “How?” asked Darla, “’cause, bunnies don’t try to climb anything, let alone curtains”, Anna said as she moved forward, towards the bunny and saw blood stains on the bottom of the curtain where the bunny was trying to climb. She picked up the bunny, removed the curtain from its paws. It had injured its paw, indeed. “Oh, you silly little bunny! Injured your paw now, haven’t you?”, Anna said as she cradled the bunny in her arms. “Looks like we have a bit of nursing to do. Right, doctor?” she teasingly asked Darla who beamed at the thought, she loved playing a doctor. They took it to the bathroom where Anna took its injured paw in her hand, observed it and asked Darla to bring some antiseptic liquid and band-aid. Meanwhile, she tried to clean the wound with water and some of the blood got on her hands.She washed her hands with soap and water, the blood got away but left behind a pale yellow stain in its place. When Darla came back with the first aid kit, they dressed its wound and put it to sleep in its basket and cleaned the mess it had caused. “Phew, what a day, eh Darla?” Anna said in the end, when the doorbell rang and they rushed to the door to their father who had brought pizza for dinner.

The next day, after coming back from school, Darla suggested that they should watch a movie named “frozen”. It was about two sisters, the elder one, Elsa had magical powers and she froze everything she touched. Darla got extremely terrified when she accidentally froze her younger sister’s heart. She got up from her seat and sat beside Anna and made her promise that if she ever gets any sort of magical powers, she won’t hurt her using them. Anna laughed and gave her word that she won’t and suggested that they could go out and play with the bunny when the movie gets over. While they were playing, a beautiful butterfly sat on one of the flowers, Anna tried to catch it, but just as her fingertips touched its wings, it disappeared. She didn’t give much thought to it and joined her sister in making tiaras out of flowers. After some time, clouds took the place of the warm sunshine and the sky turned ink black. Loud thunders replaced the chirping of the birds and suddenly it started raining torrentially.

The next morning, she woke up, got ready, ate her breakfast and then rushed to her bus-stop. Darla had already left for school. “Anna! You left your water bottle!” her father came running towards her. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’d take care from tomorrow” Anna hastily took the water bottle from her father’s hands as she climbed the bus, her fingers slightly brushed her father’s palm and next, she didn’t see her father’s face as the bus started moving. She tried to find him near the place where they were standing but he was not there. Horrified, she started to move towards an empty seat. A prankster tried to trip her by outstretching his leg, seeing that she was dazed, but just as she tripped, she tried to grip the shoulder of a girl who was sitting in front of him and she vanished after a short shriek. Anna fell down with a loud thud and it was like time froze. She got up to the terrified faces of the people around her, the girl who was sitting beside the one who vanished, stared at her with bloodshot eyes. The silence was finally broken by the staring girl when she muttered “she’s a witch” at first and then yelled it out loud. Everybody got up from their seats and started closing in on her. This made her feel jittery and she stood there, petrified. The bus reached the school by that time but the crowd won’t budge. Anna pushed her way out of the bus, making everyone disappear by her cursed touch, she didn’t think about it then; all she wanted was to get out and away from the crowd. After getting reasonably away from the bus, she looked back and saw people running out of the bus, but there were only 5-6 people who came out , whereas about 20-25 people were on the bus when she last had her senses. She couldn’t believe what she had just done “I’ve made people, including my father, disappear” she mumbled to herself as she brought her wretched hands in front of her face. That pale yellow stain was still there. Her worst fear had come true; the bunny had something strange, really strange about it. Its blood was cursed.

The bell indicating the commencing of classes rang and Anna ran to her classroom. She found her best friend, Khloe waiting for her at the door, who came forward to hug her and cried in delight “we won the quiz competition Anna!!!” Finally, something good had happened. Khloe released her from her hug and took her hand to congratulate her. But before Anna could alarm her, she had disappeared too. She let out a faint yell and burst into tears as her knees gave in. She felt guilty and full of remorse. She never wanted this to happen; she never wanted her father, all those people in the bus and her best friend to disappear. A few minutes had passed which felt like long agonizing hours to her when she heard a girl’s voice saying “there she is!” hearing this, she stood up and within moments, she was surrounded by people congratulating her. She clutched her hands tightly behind her back; she didn’t want any more people to disappear until one of them pulled out her right hand and he disappeared. Nobody noticed him disappearing as the crowd was very thick but soon every person who shook hands with her started to disappear and the people realized that something was wrong. All the voices congratulating her stopped and the hands desperate to shake with hers were no longer protruding. They looked at her with smiling faces. She looked back with a slight smile. A boy came running and shouting “congratulations!", his fingers touched her hand and he disappeared. This time, there was no turning back, everybody had seen what happened and now they were staring at her with disbelief.

“Did you make him disappear?” one of them asked in shaky voice. “Tell us it’s a bad joke Anna; tell us he’s hiding somewhere!” bawled another. “Stop drawing conclusions now! Let’s ask her what the problem is!” shouted a girl standing behind the wall of crowd, pushing her way through. She was one of Anna’s good friends, Mia. “You don’t have any superpowers, do you? Anyways, where is Khloe? Why isn’t she here with you?” she said and gave a comforting smile. Anna hung her head down “I do have some weird powers; I made my father, people on my bus and Khloe disappear.” Everybody gasped at her confession and Mia moved back to merge with the crowd. “She’s got evil powers!” “Take her to the principal!” everybody started yelling and Anna felt more terrified than ever. They tried to drag her to the principal’s office and she tried to push them away, two or three people disappeared at each of her pushes and soon the crowd which comprised of thirty people, give or take a few, now ha 6 people. “Anna please, we don’t hate you or anything and we’re trying to help you. Please go meet the principal, please” one of the girls said and put her arm across Anna’s shoulder, “I’ll go and tell ma’am what has happened and then you can meet her” saying this she went inside the principal’s cabin and came out after a minute and signalled Anna to go inside. She managed to gather some courage and took several gulps of air. She greeted the principal as she entered the cabin and stood by the door, seeing that she was engrossed in a newspaper. The principal, Mrs. Snow looked up and signalled her to sit on one of the chairs at her table. Anna sat down nervously, there was a tiny pest on the armrest and she tried to flick it away but made it disappear instead. She narrated the whole incident to Mrs. Gupta and she listened to it with apt attention, she didn’t quite believe the tale about the bunny’s blood and thought Anna was doing some sort of sorcery; she actually believed in superstitions, ghosts and stuff. After some time of awkward silence, Anna got up to leave. “where are you going, young lady?” she stopped dead in her tracks and looked back at Mrs. Snow, who was giving an eerie smile. “you aren’t leaving just as yet, are you?” she said as she got up and walked towards Anna, “I’ve got a better place for you to go” her voice filled with malice as she grabbed Anna’s arm. o! Let me go!” Anna tried to break free, but none of her efforts worked so she pushed her away and the evil woman disappeared after a sharp cry.

Anna rushed out of the school building and ran straight to her home. The door was unlocked so she rushed in and went to her room and buried her face in a pillow and started crying. She didn’t realize how much time had passed as she had fallen asleep and was woken up after she felt something soft brush against her feet; it was the bunny. She instinctively picked up the bunny and then dropped it after it hit her that her touch was cursed. “but the bunny should’ve disappeared, everything disappears just as I touch it” saying this, she picked it up and it did not disappear. She felt relieved that her touch was no longer cursed. Meanwhile, Darla arrived home and ran straight to Anna, she didn’t feel anything weird as Anna’s school got over an hour before hers, she hugged her and tried to waltz with her, but to Anna’s terror, just as their hands touched, Darla disappeared. “Darla!” she hollered and then collapsed on the floor, shocked. “not Darla. no! what have I done?” she remembered the promise she had made the other day and it hit her hard that she broke it. She hurt her li’l sister with evil powers. She ran out of the house towards her favourite place in the world, the forest. It had rained the previous day so the ground was still wet and it squished beneath her feet, the only audible sound. She sat down in a clearing, absorbing the events of the day when she felt a light tap on her shoulder. Looking back, she saw it was her mother. “Mom! You weren’t to come until after two days!” Anna gazed at her. “I know, but I decided to come early. I arrived an hour ago by plane. I reached home and I followed you here. Anyways, what happened? Why are you crying?” her mother said as she sat down beside her. Anna narrated the events and when she finished, her mother suggested that they should go check with the pet shop. After they reached the shop, they learnt that the batch of those bunnies had been brought up in a research centre. They took the address of the research centre and hurried away, reaching the research centre after about ten minutes. They met the head researcher who confirmed that an experiment had been done on that bunny. “What was it?” inquired Anna. “I had formulated a chemical which could make living beings invisible. it needed some additional enhancers which were found in a rabbit’s blood, so I injected it in one of the bunnies and it accidentally shipped to the pet store and looks like you bought it” he answered. “It makes people invisible! So they don’t exactly disappear, do they?” Asked Anna, excitedly; maybe she didn’t kill people, after all. “Of course, not! This concoction only makes them invisible and after a few weeks, the body finds a way to shed the effects off, by sweat, that is. I also happen to have an antidote with me, if you want it.” “ Yes please, sir.” Anna took a few drops of the antidote on her palms and rubbed them together, the pale yellow stain vanished. “But how could we make the invisible people visible again?” she asked. “It’s quite easy, we only have to put the bottle inside this launcher and launch it into the clouds. When it rains, it’ll wash off the chemical from the affected people’s bodies, making them visible again” the man answered as he inserted the bottle and gestured Anna and her mother to come outside. They followed him out and saw him press a button on the launcher. The launcher shuddered and shot into the sky. “Hopefully, it’s gonna rain now, too” he said smilingly. He then offered tea, but they declined; after all, they had people to see.

Indeed, it started raining the moment they reached home. After some time, when they were waiting in the verandah of their home, they saw two figures running towards them in the heavy rain; it was Darla and her father, coming back home after a strange day.

Talked out of hell, he was.

By the greatest man he knew.

Meet with an old acquaintance, he did.

Who knew his father and mother all too well, too.

Eavesdropped a rival at school, he did do.

When the fumes of something evil brewing reached his nose, his companions knew it too.

Half a prince earned him the luck, but he didn't knew who should he express his gratitude to.

The cursed jewel, the poisoned drink all got finished in the hands of the people they weren't meant to, all too soon.

A look in the past gave him the answers to some of his questions, but some remained unanswered too.

The fateful night came when in the search for a piece of soul, the greatest sacrificed himself for a young blood, yes he saw the greatest fall too.

It was the most trusted one who stabbed when the back was turned, but saved an innocent from the guilt of a lifetime.

Old friends joined hands together again, old heroes fought again too.

With luck at their side they attained success too.

But the great old wizard gave up his life n kindled the fire of valour in the hearts of the young ones.

Gave them the courage to stand up and fight for what's right and virtuous.

The world saw the uprising of the dark and the evil;

But there were our heroes, too.

This is a poetic tribute to Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince written by JK Rowling. Feel free to drop your suggestions here :) .

Think you just outmanoeuvred your destiny? Think again. You'll never know when and where you'll meet it. Sometimes, it seems easier to follow your destiny rather than making choices of yours; after all, you'd have someone to blame if you fail. Letting destiny show you the way is good until karma pops in. Karma almost always has a way of shutting off your destiny, but in some countable instances, it's the other way around.

I've faced a myriad of types of people in the last 14 years of my existence. I've faced them all- Fake-friends, publicity seeking people, those cringe worthy show-offs, tricksters, people with fake personalities et al. But, the ones who've caused the most damage to my life are the ones who show themselves as my friends in front of me but stab with a- no shoot me with a rifle when my back is turned. These people pop up whenever I'm trying to follow my destiny; I don't know if it's my fate or one of karma's evil doings that these people mess up the night sky when I need the stars to be in my favour the most.

I was concentrating on my question paper, trying to recall the synonym of 'muzzle' when I heard a 'psst' sound, I didn't pay any heed to it then. After sometime, I heard that sound again, it was a friend of mine (well, a publicity seeking, backbiter kind of fake friend) who was sitting behind me, trying to seek my attention. when she realised that she had succeeded in her puny attempt, she asked me to shift my answer sheet a little bit to the side so that she'd be able to copy them, I did not. Two months later, the results came out; I was the top of the class, she ranked in second. I was horrified and devastated, this was the girl who gets B's and C's in English in class tests. I had prepared day and night not for some cheater to get an advantage. I came to know that she was able to copy all but 20 questions which she was not able to see, which was why she asked me to shift the paper a bit to the right. Karma shut my destiny off.

Another exam was coming up and this time I was not going to let her take advantage of my skills again (not to boast or anything, but I take a lot of pride in my English language skills). I left no stone unturned in my preparation and finally, the day arrived. I reached the examination centre early, occupied the first bench and asked a trustworthy friend of mine to sit behind me. The exam went extremely well and the results got out after a month or so. I scored 93% and got a medal of excellence while she did miserably, managing a meagre 39%. I was really happy, karma had played her game on her. What I didn't realise then was that the unthinkable had happened, destiny had shut karma off. That girl's best friend, who was just like her, got the same marks as me and also a medal of excellence, all of my happiness was sucked out when I recalled that she was sitting in the place adjacent to mine and she had copied my answers with just a little effort, which she later confessed herself.

So, in the end I learnt a major lesson- You cannot escape your Destiny nor you can free yourself from the dirty plays of Karma.