AtoZ #5 - Education

Education

Hail the pied-piper. Fall in line.

- GS

Image courtesy: Shahid H

Curious? Check out my introduction to the AtoZ blogging mission of six-word stories. 

Cheers,

GS

AtoZ #4 - Dudes

Dudes

Doood! He's fake. Pronounces it right. 

- GS

Image courtesy : Cheryl VanStane

Curious? Check out my introduction to the AtoZ blogging mission of six-word stories. 

Cheers,

GS

AtoZ #3 - Clock

Clock

I own a time-machine. Vintage edition!

-GS

Image courtesy : rosmary

Curious? Check out my introduction to the AtoZ blogging mission of six-word stories. 

Cheers,

GS

AtoZ #2 - Bomb

Bomb

"Which wire to cut?". "Green's usual!"

-GS

Image courtesy : KOMUnews

Curious? Check out my introduction to the AtoZ blogging mission of six-word stories. 

Cheers,

GS

AtoZ #1 - Apple

Apple

Steve Serpent Jobs. Mission: Temptation. Accomplished. 

- GS

Image courtesy : Mick Amato

Curious? Check out my introduction to the AtoZ blogging mission of six-word stories. 

Cheers,

GS

AtoZ #0 - Theme Reveal - Just six words

So, this April I am participating in the AtoZ Blogging Event. Each day this month except on Sundays, I will release one post on an title starting with the alphabet of the day. I am going to follow an exciting theme for this challenge. Here I reveal the theme to you!

The event suggests me to write short posts to make it more reader-friendly. I intend to use this opportunity to test out a long-held dream of a writing experimentation. I won't bother you with more than 6 words each day. Just six! The idea of 6-word stories owes its roots to Ernest Hemingway and you might be curious to read the very first six word story that the great man wrote himself:

For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

- Ernest Hemingway

Several gems have come out in this format and I am going to experiment in this flash fiction format this April. These enticing six words do not reveal much direct. The beauty of these stories lie in the unsaid words. Forget reading between lines. Experience reading between the words here.

This format also fits perfectly to the ultra-short attention span that exists today. With so much of information around us, it is a much bigger challenge now than even Hemingway faced. To say it in it's own way.

Six word stories? Come again please. 

Image Courtesy : robotson

Hence the idea. With Hemingway's blessings and your support, I hope we have an exciting ride ahead. 

Cheers,
GS

Kumara Parvatha - how Jack and Jill went up the hill

Signs of triumph

((To read a Tamil version of this post, please click here))

Pushpagiri aka Kumara Parvatha. A breath-taking challenge of 5617-ft. height in the Western ghats of Karnataka. One of the toughest treks of South India. A total distance of 22 km by foot up and down the peak. Two days and a night at the top. Thirteen men. What a start it was to 2014!

The most-debated topic in our terrace conversations over the last few months was where to celebrate the coming new year. Several options from Besant Nagar to Andaman were contemplated and pushed aside in cycles for want of better ideas. We looked for something fresh and challenging. That is when a friend first floated the idea of Kumara Parvatha. He had tried in vain earlier in December 2012 with another social circle to ascend this peak. Unfortunately, their cool adventure turned soggy in incessant rains and irritating leech-bites, forcing them to return midway. The idea tickled our taste and then we actively marketed the trek among the extended circle of friends. You convince A by saying that B comes to the trek and convince B by saying the vice-versa and in a matter of days, the trip was scheduled and all arrangements were finalized. Not all of us are trek enthusiasts or hunks-by-physique. It was to be a story of amateur Jack and Jill trekkers going up the hill, risking a few falls, rolls and trolls. Nevertheless, we were ready!

The internet blessed us with more than adequate information for prompt planning. People approach the hill from two directions. Somwarpete and Kukke are two towns at either end of the peak. The distance by road going around the hill to connect the towns is about 60 km. If you take a casual stroll on the peak and get down at the other side, it is just 22 km! Kukke is a reasonably livelier town that Somwarpete. It has a famous Subramanya temple to add to its portfolio too. Trekkers can choose to start from Somwarpete and get down at the Kukke side or to do a to-and-fro from Kukke. We chose the former. For later, it should never bother us that we did not experience the other side of the mountain.

The missing dot

Image courtesy : fauxto_digit

There lived an optimistic little blue bird.
Some call it ambitious.
A few brand it pompous, even.
It was just optimistic
and incorrigible at that!
All it ever dreamed of was
to fly.
High.

"Me too"

Have you ever played with a rain drop at the window seat of a train? Moisture will embrace the window bars as a thin coat. A pristine tiny drop takes the initiative and starts to move a horizontal path along the bar. On its way it accumulates more wetness and grows in weight till it reaches a tipping point. And you observe all this drama unfolding with an outstretched palm waiting for the drop to gently bless you with a touch. The trick is in judging where the drop decides to fall and being there just at the right time and the right spot to receive it. Just like love! The iron bar of the window is time. Love, like the rain drop, gathers momentum as it travels along time and at some tipping point it decides to burst and reach out. If there is an outstretched palm waiting for the fall just at the right time, magic happens!

It's been a while and it is about time this happens. They simply did not know who should play the role of the drop and who should wait at the window seat. Somehow they both preferred the window seat. Enough signs were exchanged often that the palm is outstretched and waiting. May be they were just waiting for the rain. 

Under the stars with the homeless and the pseudo-homeless

Photo courtesy: Fountain_Head

I stayed at the Chennai Light house MRTS railway station last night with a bunch of about 50 volunteers who chose to participate in the India - Under the stars event and about the same number of truly homeless people, for whom it is the regular bunking place. I chose to join this event, majorly driven by a curiosity to understand what it feels like to be homeless and to witness in person a few interesting stories. The experience gave me several interesting insights. Hence, I share.