I wander lonely as a cloud

Writers are like thieves, they like to get inspire by their environment.

Sometimes they simply steal ideas.

Like WordsWorth in Daffodils who wanders lonely as a cloud. Today, I too allowed myself to become a cloud.

In the glittering shine of calm January Sun, I was feeling light-hearted and considering myself in a WordsWorth’s world, I took a chance to wander and appreciate my surrounding.

It all started with the arrival of Rofus Treepie in home today.

This Indian Treepie who belongs to crow family likes to come at the time in morning when there’s still darkness in sky.

Birds are early riser but this specific bird wakes way too early.

While going to park, I took this picture.

There’s something special about different shades of green in it.

Leaves are yellow, they’re of dark green colour and they appear light green and when the sun is allowing them to make shadows on ground, I like the leafiness of those trees in background.

Under this bridge is a way for a small stream to flow.

In winter there’s no water in it but when there’ll be summer, the coolness of water and kindness of trees will provide much needed relief to a wanderer standing on this bridge beneath these trees.

After bleak winter days, sun sprinkled it’s glitter on earth today.

Standing in my yard, when I heard chirping of birds up in a tree, I can’t help remembring these words by Hellen Keller

“The best and the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched_they must be felt by a heart.”

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This post is in response to ragtag daily prompt wander.

Indian treepie bird  courtesy:

Google Image.

My student is making progress.

When mother of my six year old student initially came, she was  worried about her kid who was reluctant to write with her.

Her son was enjoying doing reading at home. He could answer comprehension questions well but when it came to writing, he simply refused to express his thoughts.

Mother wanted my help and I was eager to try.

On first day, before starting our class, I took him to window and asked him to explain what he was seeing outside, he replied that the grass was green and the sky was blue with white fluffy clouds in it.

It was our warm-up session. After he did reading from manual, I encouraged him to move toward workbook and worksheets.

At first, he got confused because I was asking him to do something which was a least favourite thing for him.

In order to show my love for him, I gave him a quick hug which brought smile on his face. Later, I asked him to give me a high-five so that I could check his energy level.

He liked that activity.

Before start of the class when I was going through this worksheet, I prepared some questions that could help him in writing better about picture but it didn’t require much effort on my part as being a kid, he loved imagining what was going on in a house and wrote about a person who was sleeping in it.

This, I’m poem he composed is lovely and close to my heart.

I’m happy that my student is enjoying doing writing with me.

I’m small and my age is six.

I wonder why the sun is shiny?

I hear your secret.

I see a walking monster.

I want a new pencil box.

I’m small and my age is six.

I pretend to be a spider man.

I feel hot.

I touch pencil.

I worry that shopkeeper won’t give me a bat.

I cry when my sister hits me.

I’m small and my age is six.

A new start

Author Tim Wynne Jones considers writers to be like crows, much like crows, writers like to steal shiny bits of the world and hoard them away in their nest.

For a writer, his story is his nest.

I’m not sure what went wrong but life was moving so fast that I found it really hard to keep pace with it.

In all these months when I was not writing, I was busy observing.

A lot has been changed in my surrounding and we’re finally here in our newly constructed home.

Away from city, this society was originally a mango orchard. There are still lots of mango trees here and these mango trees are home to birds.

Some of these are rare birds.

In city, I never saw them but here I can see lots of starlings.

Starlings are noisy birds.

Bully birds is a most common name for them.

Last month, I completed my training and started conducting after school Maths and English classes from my home.

Few months back, my niece and nephew moved with us, they’re here for their higher studies.

Apart from noisy starlings, there’s no noise of cars here but in my home in the presence of my niece and nephew, there’s lot going on.

Waking them up for school is a hectic work but a fun job that I’m enjoying doing.

Life is busy but it has never been so kind before and while I’m guilty of not writing, I’m more happy for the start of this new year.

I’m grateful for all this beauty in my life.

View from my window

My brother

Thank you Dorothy for this lovely picture

December 2, 1997

Today, Alen woke me up early. He knew well that I slept late in night but all he care about is discipline in life.

At times, he’s bossy but mother is always on his side and has given him every right to bring discipline in my life.

How could a big brother be so ruthless in waking his younger brother for a bicycle ride and that too seven in the morning?

I read somewhere that a child’s prayer is readily heard. God please help and take my brother away from me, he’s strict and I want freedom in my life…”

August 9, 2017

I just saw an old note in diary. Twenty years ago, I didn’t know the importance of Allen in my life and today when I bid him farewell, I realized his importace in my life.

Alen was my big brother, he was my friend but more than anything else he was the son of soil.

Thank you Alen for making me what I am today

May you Rest in peace bro

(174 words)

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The above story is in response to flash fiction for aspiring writers hosted by PricelessJoy.

Shimmer

As the sea shimmers in the sunlight so do the words in darkness of night.

The word shimmer reminds me of Wuthering Heights, the book whose abridged version, I read in my college days.

Last year, I chanced upon the book and finished reading it in ten days. The novel with its complex psychological characters and soft flow of thoughts is my all time favorite.

The daily post asks us to write something about the word shimmer which takes me back to an interview of a Canadian actor. Sergio Di Zio shared a little secret about his reading habit.

He explained that while reading any book, he’s in a habit of taking notes. So whenever he finish reading book, he not only writes his thoughts about book but also writes about the environment in which he read it. Jotting down thoughts in this way, he keeps record of his own memories.

From that day on, I have also started practicing this routine and whenever I read my thoughts at the end of books, it gives me a strange pleasure.

For me it is a precious feeling which reminds me that words are powerful because they joined to form a thought which can bring “shimmer” in our lives.

Here is a note from a book Whuthering Heights.

“July 18, 2016

It’s 12:40 p.m, I started reading this book on second day of Eid. It’s a journey of ten days which could be less, if I didn’t get under weather.

Reading the book was an unforgettable experience.”

Now reading this note reminds me that how I caught flu which got so worse that I was bound to bed. It was late in the night on July 18 when I finished reading it. It was a hot month of summer. At night, I couldn’t read the book in bedroom for the lights were off and others needed to sleep.

So, while everyone slept, I sat outside in sitting room and enjoyed reading the book in the calmness of night.

You see a single note can remind you of a lot of memories. Memories are precious and what’s more beautiful than saving them at the end of a book and that too in your own handwriting.

I very much like to see the shimmering rays of sunlight in sea. I can’t visit sea because it’s not in my city but rereading these notes in books is my sorce of getting happiness which brings shimmer in my life.

This post is written in response to daily post Shimmer

Writing some random thoughts

Month of August is always warm. Level of humidity in air increases so much that at times it seems impossible to take even a breath. This morning was relatively calm. I woke up early and right now when I’m writing this, I am sitting in my drawing room. I am almost lying on my couch and can see reflection of colorful lights on the screen of my tab. My father admires these decoration lights in home.

In the beginning, I was against this idea of having these lights in home but with passage of time I have developed a sort of liking for them.

They’re here in my drawing room and they’re fixed along the door in the enterance of my home. So, it happens that when someone enters in our home the colorful lights welcome him.

This past week exams and studies left me mentally tired. I wanted some break which I got by meeting with my uncle’s family.

This family get together happened after a gap of two years. Enjoying and laughing with my cousins, I thought of an article which I read in a magzine. It was about the importance of family and the crux of the article was the fact that people who are aware of their family roots are more confident in their practical lives.

It also reminds of a debate that erupted on a dinner table at my home. We received an invitation for dinner from some relatives of ours and other than me and my younger sister none of my sibling was willing to go. At that moment, I made a protest, I wanted everyone to go for I thought of a line from John Donne who is of the view that no man is an island.

Donne is right for we are connected with our environment and people, we can’t live in seclusion.

So, trying to establish my connection with a day, I can consider it a better day in terms of weather. Some parts of country has received rainfall and my city has also received its effects.

It is sunny but the fact that there’s less humidity in air has allowed me to open two windows instead of one. I have also drawn the blinds aside and now my eyes can see the greenish beauty of plants outside.

This dark green color of leaves not only reminds me of chlrophyll which I studied in my science class in school but it also reminds me of green-eyed monster of jealousy in Shakespeare’s world.

My fingers are trying hard to keep pace with my fast thinking mind but ideas are slipping out of my hands.

I can hear the noise of moving vehicles outside my home.

It’s been more than eight months that we are living in this new home but depite remaining positive, I missed my old home and neighbours. It was a small home. The houses on that street were near, so were the people.

Here living in this big home, I missed that connection which I had developed with my neighbours there but life moves on and so do we.

(These are some random thoughts which came to my mind and reminds me of a quote about writing.

“Start writing no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on”

Hello world

Much like a novice in programming world who writes a simple hello world program to get himself acquainted with the syntax of programming language, I’m writing this post to remind myself that I belong to this world of blogging.

For six months, I remained disconnected with the world of writing and two months ago when I tried to post something on my blog, I felt uncomfortable.

I’m still not sure if that was a good idea but for some reason or other, I removed the post.

In these past months, in the absence of any kind of interaction through writing when I was off screen, studies kept me busy.

Further lack of inspiration and faulty laptop were some reasons behind my long absence.

You can assess the gravity of situation from the fact that right at the moment, I’m using borrowed laptop and that too of my elder sister to whom I really feel afraid of 🙂

Like a preface to a book in which author mentions the names of people to which he feels indebted to, I very much like to include the name of my sister who not only allowed me to use her laptop but also reminds me that I need not to show any kind of laziness from writing.

I like to share and love to write more but after six months of hiatus from writing, I think this short warm up post is more than enough.

Hello to the blogging world, I’m glad to be back.

Writer’s Block

On December 7, the incident of plane crash in my country was horrible. It left me dejected and feeling sorry for grieved families, I found it hard to come up with any ideas for writing.

It’s been more than two weeks that I wasn’t able to produce anything new and today while reading some of my posts, the header line of my blog caught my attention. It says that with sweet and sour experiences, life is full of colors.

It’s true that life is beautiful. We always need to remain thankful for every breath which we exhale and inhale. Life is a gift of God and just to share in Islam the act of taking one’s own life is considered a bad act. So, we have not only been asked to obey the teachings of God Almighty but we have also been told to remain happy and consider this life as a blessing of God. This very concept can also be found in other religions of world.

Right now when I’m busy typing these words, I’m feeling so very happy about the sunny day outside. It’s winter season and winter vacations are going to start soon. I can also hear the voices of my youngest sister and niece quarreling with each other in next room. There’s a difference of two years between them. Studying in same school, they both are more like friends and today when due to fault in car they weren’t able to go to school, they’re looking quite relaxed.

Writing about happy moments, I can think of the presence of mosquito racket in my home. The experience of getting rid of mosquitoes and flies have never been so easy before.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never remained good in taking aim with flying stick for flies and for that I’ve always admired my father who while eating or doing some work can easily take aim of “flying fly”.

Well, this post of mine is more like bombasting this page with some random thoughts of mine but I very much like to write whatever comes in my mind because I’m interested in getting out of writer’s block and I’m afraid I’m not like Dan Brown.

Yup, you got it right, I’m not trained enough to hang upside down with gravity boots  🙂

 

October sun

Mellow light of October sun is looking gloomy these days, summer has already packed up and winter season is looking ready to appear on screen.

I have always found winter to be a bit sad in appearance. I like bright sunlight and when it gets fade, I became sad.

But, then like John Keats who in his poem “ode to autumn” tries to find some beauty in that season, I too succeeded in capturing some beauty of October season.

It was three in the afternoon when lying on couch, I took this picture. The effect of lazy rays of late afternoon sun coming through these screened windows looked majestic to me.

A note in diary

My dreams of getting married to a prince charming got shattered the day when my quiet nature husband entered in my life. I was young and in those early days of my marriage being lively, I was expecting him to show same kind of emotions but when he didn’t speak much, it made me angry. In those moments of my severe anger, he would simply smile and preferred to read books in his library.

With the passage of time; I started developing feelings of hatred for his books. To this day, I can’t believe how could I thought in that way but on that morning when I entered in library with the aim to hide his books, I saw his diary was placed on desk. I knew it was wrong but curiosity engulfed my mind and with the strange feelings of discovering an unknown land, I started reading his diary.

Previous night, he was writing

“Anna, my love of life is young and naïve. I don’t know what sort of love is this but I like her more when she fights with me. I don’t know how to express but I love her a lot…”

As my lips curled in a smile, a tear fell from my eye.

It’s been a while and today I know life is not a fairy-tale. Brian is still a man of quite nature but I don’t complain much for I know if he cares about me then he sure loves me.

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This post is in response to Sunday Photo Fiction – October 9th 2016 by Sunday Fiction