Mystery Writer 1.0
DAY ONE:
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. Arthur Conan Doyle
DAY TWO:
DAY THREE:
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. Arthur Conan Doyle
Mystery. It is all about creating ambiguity, isn’t it?
But let me tell you something incredible, we will always
fail to comprehend mystery. Mystery is not evil. Mystery should not be rationalized.
Mysteries are not miracles either. Mystery
is surprise. It is creativity.
When these folks at Scintilla Weekly were telling me about a
new concept called Mystery Writer, I was thrilled. I began to think. These guys
expect me to become the next Christie or Sidney in a matter of four days. And
then they told me that my individuality will be unknown and I have to tell my
story. I searched for a short time but the hunt was disappointing. Why need a pseudonym?
Be Yourself.
My words will be not perfect, nor will they be beautifully
melded, but they are me. Imperfectly me. It may never be enough, but it's all I
can give.
Now comes the mystery.
Tall and rather thin but upright. He has an extended chin and huge rather outstanding
teeth, just covered, when he is not talking, by his full, curved lips. Roger
She is a bold-looking girl, with thick dark hair, a freckled
face, and quick, sporty movements. She wears clothes just tightly enough to
bring out the curve of her hips. Maria
Not everything here is going to be fun. As I write this, I realize that the people who stand up for others and bare their souls at their most vulnerable are most real and beautiful. That is I always reach out for Roger and Maria.
No. I couldn’t think of Indian names. The Aishwaryas,
Poojas, Priyankas, etc. are way too widespread. And since Wimbledon is beginning
tomorrow, it is only fitting that I opt for Roger and Maria, two people who
have always stood the test of my time.
Continue Reading
A dear friend told me to read Oscar Wilde yesterday. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Sometimes, it is tricky being mysterious than being identified. But that is the whole challenge. And in words of Barney Stinson, I would say challenge accepted.
I look at old photos and as time moves on, I see the good memories. The sadness of what was lost and what will never be, slowly fading.
Maria, ‘You need to move on. You need to find love again’. I was baffled with this school of thought. True love happens only once is what I learnt growing up. And here I am at a crossroads, being advised to find love again. How is this possible?
The sweetest smiles hold the darkest secrets. Sara Shepard
Her face like the moon, somehow wavering. I could get the gist of her features, but none of it stuck in my mind beyond a feeling of amazing attractiveness. Her long, long hair wafted around and shifted as if in an unfelt wind. Beauty can't be definite or agreed upon. That is because we all see it in a different way, through our own eyes. And that is beauty, to me. And that fleeting glance would be it. That would be changing and shaping my life for the course of the next few months.
What is it that attracts us to one person, and not another? Physical attraction is unexplainable, incurable, and inescapable.
My heart was wrapped tightly in barbs, and I wondered if she would be determined enough to untangle the twists. None so far had walked away unscathed.
Just like a great deal of secrecy is left in the disclosure of even one’s own nature to himself in life, I would sign out to leave you baffled in the shadows of talks I am coming back to tell tomorrow.
Continue Reading
A dear friend told me to read Oscar Wilde yesterday. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Sometimes, it is tricky being mysterious than being identified. But that is the whole challenge. And in words of Barney Stinson, I would say challenge accepted.
I look at old photos and as time moves on, I see the good memories. The sadness of what was lost and what will never be, slowly fading.
Maria, ‘You need to move on. You need to find love again’. I was baffled with this school of thought. True love happens only once is what I learnt growing up. And here I am at a crossroads, being advised to find love again. How is this possible?
The sweetest smiles hold the darkest secrets. Sara Shepard
Her face like the moon, somehow wavering. I could get the gist of her features, but none of it stuck in my mind beyond a feeling of amazing attractiveness. Her long, long hair wafted around and shifted as if in an unfelt wind. Beauty can't be definite or agreed upon. That is because we all see it in a different way, through our own eyes. And that is beauty, to me. And that fleeting glance would be it. That would be changing and shaping my life for the course of the next few months.
What is it that attracts us to one person, and not another? Physical attraction is unexplainable, incurable, and inescapable.
My heart was wrapped tightly in barbs, and I wondered if she would be determined enough to untangle the twists. None so far had walked away unscathed.
Just like a great deal of secrecy is left in the disclosure of even one’s own nature to himself in life, I would sign out to leave you baffled in the shadows of talks I am coming back to tell tomorrow.
DAY TWO:
Maria is most likely to me what Virginia Pepper Potts is to
Tony Stark, the difference being that I am not Tony Stark and she is not my amorous
love interest. While Roger is my Alfred Pennyworth, ingenious, intelligent and
more importantly, my confidant.
Well, life, I have to come to understand is like a
sinusoidal curve. It has its own share of ups and downs, the crests and the
troughs. The richest have it; the poorest have it, so why would mine be an
exception? There is calm before a storm but then the night is darkest just before the dawn, as well. Harvey Dent
There are always blissful recollections to look back to.
Good academic results, a sports tournament win, making of dependable friends; pleasure
that comes wrapped in a box with a neat bow.
When things go out of kilter, I turn to my doctors, my
advisors. Roger would say, “You are always unhappy. Get a life”. My depression is seasonal, Roger. “Is it?
Which season exactly?" All four. And we would have a genial laugh and my
troubles would magically fade away.
But times were going to be rough. We are in the age of
social networking. Social media is on the rise. Information passes quickly. Viral marketing or marketing buzz. So
does rumours.
Expectedly, the word hit my ear that my then love was conning
me. How can you deceive when in love? Is the phrase love makes the world go blind a lie? I was befuddled. I couldn’t
find the solution on Yahoo! Answers. Came in Roger and Maria again. Not the ones
to misguide me, they asked me to trust her. Keep
Calm and Trust the One you Love. I did like they told me to and the fleeting
chaos in my mind caved in.
Continue Reading
Then I read a little story somewhere. And I learnt that in a relationship, the quintessence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. Seems like an uncomplicated, nontoxic sentence. But is it really? Being a strong believer of William Shakespeare’s words, I decided to widen my trust only to Roger and Maria. Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. So what if few only meant trusting Roger and Maria?
I decided to hunt for the truth. While doing so, I learnt something incredible. If a man seeks truth, he must first become the best of liars.
And my world came crashing down.
I still reminisce what Maria told me. "You fell for the story, you fell for the lies. Dust yourself off and once again rise." Sounds like lines from a motion picture of the Nolan brothers but no, those words truly came from her.
And then came a golden piece of advice from her. Marry the woman who doesn't make you feel married. Marry, not literally. My meaning of friendship took a transformation. I believe that it is built on two things; trust and respect. If you respect someone but do not trust them, the friendship will collapse.
I had come to acknowledge the feeling of not knowing where I was going. Sometimes you really have to stop trying and let destiny decide for you. Now and again, we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight and that is when our flight truly begins. We may not know where we are going but we do know that as long as we spread our wings, the winds will carry us. And that is what mystery is all about.
Although the most stunning thing I had ever touched, seen, or felt was long since gone, the memory of her beauty remains engraved into my mind.
But hope lives in the invisible scars of our breaking hearts. Her face like the moon, somehow wavering. Her long, long hair wafted around and shifted as if in an unfelt wind.
Continue Reading
Then I read a little story somewhere. And I learnt that in a relationship, the quintessence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. Seems like an uncomplicated, nontoxic sentence. But is it really? Being a strong believer of William Shakespeare’s words, I decided to widen my trust only to Roger and Maria. Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. So what if few only meant trusting Roger and Maria?
I decided to hunt for the truth. While doing so, I learnt something incredible. If a man seeks truth, he must first become the best of liars.
And my world came crashing down.
I still reminisce what Maria told me. "You fell for the story, you fell for the lies. Dust yourself off and once again rise." Sounds like lines from a motion picture of the Nolan brothers but no, those words truly came from her.
And then came a golden piece of advice from her. Marry the woman who doesn't make you feel married. Marry, not literally. My meaning of friendship took a transformation. I believe that it is built on two things; trust and respect. If you respect someone but do not trust them, the friendship will collapse.
I had come to acknowledge the feeling of not knowing where I was going. Sometimes you really have to stop trying and let destiny decide for you. Now and again, we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight and that is when our flight truly begins. We may not know where we are going but we do know that as long as we spread our wings, the winds will carry us. And that is what mystery is all about.
Although the most stunning thing I had ever touched, seen, or felt was long since gone, the memory of her beauty remains engraved into my mind.
But hope lives in the invisible scars of our breaking hearts. Her face like the moon, somehow wavering. Her long, long hair wafted around and shifted as if in an unfelt wind.
DAY THREE:
I am going to disappoint you today. Mood swings.
I will be outraging today. Outraging against the existing state of affairs in India where official crime rates are apparently decreasing but autonomous reports show otherwise. Yes, for you readers, it’s a radical leap from reading something connected to my life to be reading something like this. I’ll thank the folks at Scintilla Weekly who gave me this chance to become a Mystery Writer which helped me discover the fashion of writing I employed over the last two days. Well, I am not the one to outrage either. So this is new-fangled for me too. Mystery writing is making me write what I am not comfy writing.
I will be outraging today. Outraging against the existing state of affairs in India where official crime rates are apparently decreasing but autonomous reports show otherwise. Yes, for you readers, it’s a radical leap from reading something connected to my life to be reading something like this. I’ll thank the folks at Scintilla Weekly who gave me this chance to become a Mystery Writer which helped me discover the fashion of writing I employed over the last two days. Well, I am not the one to outrage either. So this is new-fangled for me too. Mystery writing is making me write what I am not comfy writing.
When someone usually writes on such a hot topic, it receives
a lot of flak. It is regarded as scandalous twaddle. But is someone’s uprising
against the country’s state of affairs really so disgraceful? Why can we not
come to terms with the hard, bitter facts?
The Times They Are
a-Changing- Bob Dylan but every one of us longs for the good old days, the safe
age. Crimes are being given the ‘spur of the moment’ tag making the innocent susceptible
to impromptu attacks by the opportunistic criminal. The aged and the young are
at peril, even in their own homes. Assailants these days are juvenile and their
naivety panics them and they become awfully violent. They don’t seem to have explicit
plan of attack and lash out brutally and viciously at their victims giving rise
to extensive and perilous opportunistic crimes.
It is a cruel fact to acknowledge that no one is secure,
even at home and that the modern legal
system of India lets the unlawful get away with his crimes. What happens then
is that the injured party tends to take the law in his hand. He tries to do
justice himself. The question here is, can we take the law into our hands and punish
so ruthlessly those that are not penalized by justice? I don’t think that jail
time is a vacation but it is heartbreaking to see the justice go limp every now
and then and that some attackers are acquainted with how much extra they can
go. The Indian legal system needs a good tidying up in order to gratify the
victim’s claim to compensation for their suffering.
Some crimes are punished, some are not and it is the latter
that is unbearable and pushes the law-abiding civilian to illegal actions. Conversely,
incorrect or pointlessly insensitive convictions can worsen things and the
otherwise civilized adolescents who
serve time for trivial crimes can turn into toughened criminals when they come
out. At times, the antidote can be worse
than the poison itself.
Oppression is one thing, edification is another. These so-called
trivial crimes will not occur if people are cultured. The general public nowadays
seems to be helped by vague lofty examples that provide them with simple
information like easy food, easy government riches and likewise, some take
indeed the trouble-free way and pilfer property they would like to possess but
are lazy to work for or simply obliterate it if it can’t be stolen. If I cannot have it, no one else will.
This pitiable mentality continued by lack of apt assistance, leads to the nation
of murder, burglary, rape that we now live in. The state of the society will
not change unless persons learn to respect each other and identify that work,
as tough as it may occasionally be, is often compensated by the ability to ultimately
own what you wished for. There is more contentment
in earning something than stealing something.
I am not trying to be biased, this is my personal outlook
but I think it is what a lot of people are thinking. If we take the law into
our hands, they come down on us like a colossal hammer for being a vigilante by
choice, so I guess I am letting my irritation and frustrations out as an Indian
who doesn't feel out of harm's way any longer.
PS You are welcome to pen down your thoughts about this
social issue in the comments.
DAY FOUR:
I always believe that life ignites when it
can flow its own course. Don't fall victim of looking for perfection in an
imperfect world full of imperfect people. More often than not, we are lost in
the wilderness of our mind. We search for a way out unaware of the fact that we
are already home.
Life is riddled with mistakes. And many of
you will have read this: we are very good lawyers for our own mistakes and very
good judges for others' mistakes. But I am more. I am more than my past mistakes.
More than people’s opinions and assumptions. More than my physical appearance.
So much more.
Sometimes I write what I experience and the
other times; I end up experiencing what I write. She often tells me that her
mind wears the mood that is stitched by the words of my soul. Wait a minute and
grasp the intensity of what I've just said. I might not or might not be the
mystery writer in the future but there is one thing for sure. You have been
enriched. Enriched by my words. Enriched by my experience. Some of you may deny
it. And the ones you are denying it haven’t grasped what I've written in its
entirety.
There is no greater agony than bearing an
untold story inside you. Maya Angelou.
There are moments when we are caught up in the trivial unhappiness of that
untold story. We forget that life is delicate. We turn to drugs. We turn to
alcohol. But remember that drugs do not relax you. They make you socially
insensitive. They make you obsessed with your hyper idiosyncratic happiness.
That drug dealer is not your friend. He is there only to strengthen your
sickness. To subdue your social instincts. So does alcohol. It will wipe out your
desire. Desire to do anything relevant with your life. Alcohol kills your mind.
It kills your critical thinking. It absolutely pollutes the way you see life.
But the addiction to one person overshadows that of any physical drug.
What is love? Love is not a business deal.
You cannot buy gifts for love. Love is not something you can take from another
individual. Love is not about acting like a complete emotional fool. Love is
not about frail monogamous relationships. It is the desire to build a better
world for every human being.
My life is like a work of art; many people have their own interpretation of it, but only I can understand it
better. People mistake my silence for my arrogance. Sometimes, I just don’t feel
like talking. My best friend once told me that sometimes true love comes
through the back door, disguised as friendship. The out of control laughter.
The ability to connect, narrate, and all the other small subtleties. A bond
never to be broken. That is friendship.
Thank you, Scintilla Weekly. It was an absolute pleasure being the mystery
writer. But just before I end my last day at being one, I would like to say
something to each one of you. F@#$ what people want you to be. Aim to be something better than
what the world deems acceptable and be proud of it. F@#$ being happy. Never
stop wanting extra for you deserve it. Stay hungry and the planet will be
yours.