Featuring: The End - The Doors

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be

So limitless and free

Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand

In a...desperate land

Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain

And all the children are insane

All the children are insane

......

This is the end

Beautiful friend
This is the end

My only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free

But you'll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies

The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

Gifted.

Aesthetics only.

Eons ago, there was quote I read in a newspaper article that remained etched in my memory.
It went something like this..

"Sometimes there would be a rush of noisy visitors and the silence of the monastery would be shattered. This would upset the disciples; not the Master, who seemed just as content with the noise as with the silence. To his protesting disciples he said one day, "Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self".

Something similar ran through my mind last Friday while I was waiting for my train back to Bangalore, from Chennai. Surprisingly, I reached the station rather early and quickly to my dismay it started raining. Running for cover I quickly scanned the train listings and walked towards the designated platform. It was the usual huge crowd, noise and the smell of fish. I looked at my watch and realised that I was one and a half hour early! "Lord have mercy on my legs" was my first thought.

I walked along the platform, to get some coffee and while I was at it, I noticed this group of ten or twelve folks, probably in their mid 40s. There were folks from all walks of life and from different parts of India. They all seemed well to-do and everyone had a glowing smile on their face. They seemed of the chirpy,  happy-go-lucky sort, having a great and the most animated conversation ever. They were all a group of mute folk and one of them  was gifted with something better than sight. (I hate the term 'mute', but for the lack of a better word, kindly bear with me.). I walked a little for a closer look to see Sign language in practise, and immediately I was blown away and stood dumbfounded in awe.
Watching hands effortlessly working in an artistic precision, and faces expressing the emotions like never before, was like looking at magic woven by the Human spirit, in action.

I couldn't understand a bit of their conversation, all I could read was their emotions. I saw joy, shock, gossip, horsing around, and playful joking. The whole aura around that group was captivating, with ZERO sound, yet with a flowing conversation. I directed my focus towards the tall, mute and visually challenged (again...sorry!) person. He was a significant part of the conversation too! Whenever someone had to speak to him, they'd grab his hands and make signs, which he could effortlessly interpret and reply to, using the same means. Whats more, he could hold a conversation with two people, simultaneously! How many of us "Gifted" people can do that? I sure as hell can't.
One might think that's where the amazement ended, and couldn't be more wrong. Another thing that really got my mind blown with awe was when the folks could seamlessly join a private conversation going on between a few people. They seemed to instantly know what the others were talking about with their signs, and joined their conversation, as if they were there all along! Again, how many of us "Gifted" lot can do that ? We'd make a fool of ourselves, asking stupid questions about what people were talking about.

I spent a good hour just looking at them, till I noticed a lady, from the group looking at me with inquisitive eyes, probably asking.."What are you looking at, Mister?!". By then a small discreet crowd had gathered around them, all held in awe. I walked a little back, so as to not seem rude to the group, and casually strolled  around coming back, time to time just to feel what a conversation without the presence of sound, felt like.
To be honest, I felt a tad privileged and humbled, to be a witness to this sight. To see how flexible and generous Life can be, to give one the option to walk around a mountain, if one can't climb it, and with..

ABSOLUTELY NO SOUND!!!!!!!

Breathe Easy. \/
-Askios

High Tides: Ethereal

The real ethereal..

Presence of a ghost.

A silent host..

A chill wind blown down a soul.

A spectral presence,

down the funeral home.

Surreal wish, but of nothing, mere ethereal.

A sweet dagger thrusted inside,

the gentle hands of a seductress, heavenly reside

A wish of lust and yet nothing, 

but of mere ethereal....

Figures of absence,
and the strength of steel.
First, wisps of real,
then sullen ethereal.
Heathen presence of the pasts conceal,
a morsel of truth,  the rest ethereal.

Into the light, I humbly stand,
with a bow of the head, a wish in my hand.
A wish, to once and forever reveal..
Truth is throughout unreal,
all is but One....Ethereal.

-Askios

P.S.: Very fond of that word 'ethereal'. Again, dunno when I wrote this. Got high, that word came to mind and everything else was .....ETHEREAL.

High Tides: Trip through a mirchi

('Mirchi' is the hindi word for 'Chillies/Pepper'.)

A trip through a mirchi,

a bite she does,

an invisible buzz.

Secretly,

a trip through a mirchi.

A pain in bliss,

a vengeful hiss.

A sweet and sour cut,

she burns my effigy.

A high moon tide,

an infernal ride,
her spectral synergy,

a trip through a mirchi.

A devilrous curse,

a poisoned hearse,

ancient poetic verse,

a psalmic energy,

my trip through a mirchi.

Soul searing lava,

my life through java.

Requisite Fire,

that abridged much higher,

you stroll my syllable 'E'

my trip through a mirchi.

As you now fade,

to an immense serenade,

I bind my devilry,

it's a trip through a mirchi,

a fine trip through a mirchi.

A poisonous form,

in the physical form of a mercurial banshee,

of a diligent scythe,

an ominous  vibe,

eternal riff yet a subliminal rife,

a trip through a mirchi.

-Askios

P.S.:Dunno when I wrote this. I was high and decided to chow down on a chilly/pepper and that somehow amplified the trip..thus the name.

Yaaaay!

EpicRotis is more than a year old! Woohoo! Never thought it'd last this long! Thanks to each and every one of the 3130 viewers! THE EBB AND FLOW CONTINUES!!!!!

P.S: As some of you may have noticed, I'm not very good at maintaining 'series' of topics, like how the "How to: xx" series ended up. BUT BUT BUTT....I'm anyway gonna start a new series called "High tides", which is a collection of random words I managed to string together when I was outttt. Hope, at the least, you folks don't find it to be a waste of your time, because although some part of it is below par and embarrassing, those are words that my brain could string together when it was not exactly in control of itself, and I'd like to put that across nonetheless.

CHEERS!

Lights!!!!!

Happy DIWALI folks!!!!!!!

Beyond the bounds of adjectives.

One of the two languages from which almost every other language was born, and with its origins dating before 1500 BCE the only ancient language that is alive and spoken in today's time.

If you haven't had your experience with Sanskrit, you haven't truly found your roots and haven't been exposed to the pinnacle of ecstasy that any sound could possibly deliver to your ears. To be honest, I find this post extremely hard to write because, I feel like I've been tied to a leash of words that can't possibly begin to explain the magnitude of greatness this Language has. It's incomparable, infinite and beyond perception.

 Now, just to clarify, I'm no Sanskrit scholar. I just barely manage to understand a few words of  the language itself. Having said that I must also state the fact that, being a relatively traditional Hindu, I have always been surrounded by Sanskrit, be it my morning-just before rushing to office- half  baked prayers, music or the remnants of my memory of a - less than basic Sanskrit education in my early years of schooling.

But that's the point! Even to an ignorant person, the beauty of Sanskrit is clearly visible.

Sanskrit to me, is the thread that weaves the fabric of the whole universe. It's immensely powerful. For example, the correct pronunciation of a single sound "ॐ" or AUM, can invoke Universal peace inside your mind. Not only that, ॐ is described in ancient scriptures as the First Sound, from which all Reality emerged. No other language could ever have such power, and it doesn't stop there. To start describing the depth and essence of Aum accurately, is way past my intellect so I will not harbor any pretensions. But what I can do is give you a similar example. Take the picture above for instance..(pronounced 'tat-tvam-asi') it means
 "the Self- in its original, pure, primordial state - is wholly or partially identifiable or identical with the Ultimate reality that is the basis and origin of all phenomena."
The faintest resemblance to the meaning conveyed by that one word in Sanskrit is that quote by William Blake that goes like:

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern."

 Now, let me ask you this..could the above sentence be reduced to ONE word, that would still retain the essence? I'd sure love to see that.

To make myself absolutely clear, I'm not waging a crusade against other lingua franca. Each has a value of its own, and is unique in its own particular way. But when it comes down to the bare bones of truth, there is only one absolute, Sanskrit.

I've run out of  whatever mockery of creative juice I had, to continue this post. As I said before I feel like I've been tied to a very short leash of  words to describe this exalted Language. Hence, I'm just going to embrace..

शांति. \/

-Askios