Posts

Kashmir travel blog

-
  On 1 January 2021, I landed back to Delhi from my trip to Kashmir. I reached home, talked to my family. My mother was a bit unwell and my brother was hopping around the house like a squirrel. The moment I lay on my bed, I instantly missed Kashmir. Delhi is a modern, jazzed up song that makes you move and laugh but Kashmir was an old song that you heard someone, whispering in metro and searched all over the internet to listen to it. And when you finally listen to it, you forget who you are and where are you going. It makes you fall in love. Yes, Kashmir was known to me only by whispers and news but when I myself got there it was completely different. There was one agathokakological statement that kept coming in my mind, “If there is heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.” Jannat-e-Kashmir was indeed heaven by all the looks of it. There are snow capped mountains and cool breeze, dry leaves and tall trees. The first time I walked on snow, my boots went straight insid...
Post a Comment
Read more

dry leaves

-
In October, the streets welcome me with fallen autumn leaves Like my letters to him, which lie at his doorstep forgotten as he leaves. I pick one of them and trace their veins, I look at my hands and wish its ridges to shred away like these fallen leaves. He used to leave dry flowers instead of bookmarks in pages so, I could find his favorite lines from library's stolen leaves Alone on that street, I witness beauty in separation,  I find a dead flower and bury it beneath the rotten leaves. I smile for the first time in months, mom was right like love, like everyone, one day even pain leaves. - Chanchal Bagla
Post a Comment
Read more

Youth

-
The youth is like a paper boat which has just sprung into the real world. There is a huge sea in front of them, swirling hungrily. Life puts youth into that vast sea and the fragile boat sees an end. The boat is made of paper which soaks all the negativity from the sea. The more it soaks the more heavy it becomes. A point comes when the tiny boat is no longer able to hold on to all the negativities. It becomes a part of the thing it was fighting. It breaks and drowns. But when the youth is cloaked with a layer of cello tape (plastic), things take a different turn. Unlike paper, plastic is fire, water resistant. It knows how to fight storms. The plastic coated boat doesn’t drown; it sails and shines as it does not let the negativity to enter it. The youth needs that protective coating to defend itself against negativity in the world. This will lead to a happy nation. - Chanchal Bagla 
Post a Comment
Read more

The kitty

-
Image
23 June There is a kitten in the balcony of my neighbor's house. She always meows nearly at 6 in the evening. I love watching her. I feel she sits so close to the balcony sill just for me. Her meows are so cute and so is she. I wanted to feed her something but she is so out of my reach and I don't have appropriate cat food for her. She is so small, I think she will fit right into my hand. The first time I heard of her was 18 June at night. I opened my bedroom door to have a look at the source of noise but in the dark I couldn't spot her. I dogs were barking whenever she meowed. Oh, how scared she must have been. I saw her the next morning and couldn't get my gaze off her. Her tiny mouth was looking at my with its large beautiful eyes. She looks like some ordinary street cat except she is very thin. I like her. Yesterday, she sort of winked at me and I was dancing around the house. She is like a small tiger cub, roaring from the cliffs announcing his presence. Yes, aft...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stop taming

-
Every second the world is changing but somethings remain unchanged. A 16-year old student fell victim to suicide as he was constantly bullied by his classmates for having feminine features. What people think to be fun is actually harrassment. This does not end with one suicide. There are thousands of students who are alienated from their peers just because they are thought to be different from them. They are mocked and bullied. We are always raising a triumphant of gender equality but still everybody has sometimes faced gender discrimination. Teenage boys are always in the struggle to prove their masculinity amongst their fellows. They are criticized for their invisible moustache, unskillful driving or inability to lift heavy objects. The girls who don't dress up fashionably and are physically unattractive are not treated properly. The LGBTQ find it difficult to get along with their fellows as they too fear alienation. Because it is etched on some feigned statue of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

it's raining, didn't you notice?

-
I cried from my nose The eyes are too weak I checked in my phone For more lies sent to me. If it were a letter I would think them to be true. There is a poem pasted On the my wall, I haven't read it Since it was pasted. Today, it lost its meaning. Like the ones I wrote In my diary long ago. I keep my windows open But doors closed. I have read in books From here the love comes. My shoes have forgot The touch of my feet And I don't remember the roads. But still, I won't open the door. I need to switch back to eyes I can't smell when rain comes. - Chanchal Bagla 
Post a Comment
Read more

Hashtag and August

-
The sun beams reach my balcony like the air from a table fan kept at a family function, when its head is turning in all directions as if searching someone. The rays too come to my balcony only to leave the next second. There are clouds passing the sun who are commencing this motion, I think. When the glow of these beams reach my room, the curtains light up like diwali lights. Sometimes they look like glowing lanterns in the night sky. Today, the sun is giving me pleasure just like rain and moon does. Mornings in August are very beautiful. But usually, I spend them sleeping or reading in my bed. If it had been better times, I would have gone for a walk with Anjali in our nearby park. The ongoing pandemic has ceased a lot of my good habits by exchanging them with bad ones. I am growing addicted to my mobile phone and I hate it. I wish, I improve. I don't want to live virtually like most of my generation. I want to name this generation as the hashtag generation. Beacuse they fight ...
Post a Comment
Read more