Musings

catch the gurgling thoughts of a flowing mind... cook rice just right... roll perfectly round rotis... get off facebook and on with life... own up to the rattling emptiness when I laugh the loudest... love the flab clinging to my sides... overcome the sin which I did not commit... Get rid of people who rob my mirth... insert commas in right places... do away with ellipses... catch a whiff of rain soaked earth... whirr in the sky... sit in a corner and be content... for the moment... wish I could....

I spent the weekend in Zurich. The place is gorgeous, built around a lake, hemmed in by mountains and lascivious vegetation. The city boasts of marvellous churches, chic shopping malls, cobbled stone streets -- reminiscent of an era which would have probably forbade one such as me to ever walk them, and of course the eternally good and divinely sensuous, chocolate confectioneries. The Zurich See (as lake is referred to in German) teems with yachts and boats -- with motors and oars. Divers and swimmers jump off their decks and slice through the water with mind-numbing agility, and as the wet, rippling muscles stretch out to grab the boat, one is mesmerized by Nature's sense of congruency water, mountain, tree and the rippling sinews of a well-formed forearm. Of course I was ogling! A little further from Zurich is the world-famous Jungfrau jocht (very loosely translated as Young Girl mountain). One can reach it via train, bus, cycle or foot. From Zurich we hitched a two hour bus ride...

In what would appear as a curious frown over his hazel-colored eyes Chintu would gaze as I would tie the thread with a bulbous rag dangling from its centre, on his collar. Having secured the knot, it was a vermillion streak up his snout to what I calculated was the larger part of the forehead and then sum it up with the best part of the deal...a delectable pedha (an Indian sweet) which he had been eyeing all along. As a gesture of appreciation Chintu would wag his golden brown tail and lick my hand... 'Yikes Chintu,' I would recoil in horror,'you stink to hell...must brush your teeth this weekend'. To which he would wag his tail yet again and look expectantly for another pedha . That was almost a decade and five years ago...Chintu was put to sleep following a nasty gangrene in his front leg. Mites and ants had dug deep into the wound and were eating him alive...almost...that is when we decided to spare him his misery. Chintu's hazel eyes were soon replaced by Tony...