#TBD27

"O beloved,

I write about you so that you may live in my words for ever."

The flyers

                                   May I tell you something? May I tell you the story of the real men? The ones who have lived in the world and yet remained untouched by its vulgarity and iniquity. They have always stood like a flower that stands firm amidst the ferocious assault of a cyclone, or like a boat that refuses to drown in a raging ocean. From where did they derive their immense strength? What encourages a man to light a lantern when darkness appears to be invincible? They refused to compete. With whom could they possibly compete? Those who knew only walking? People were busy competing with one another. Those people who could walk faster stayed ahead in the competition, whereas those who walked slower or simply failed to match the pace, eventually fell into the abysmal vale of oblivion. But, how can we forget those who never participated in the competition; those who chose to fly. Why walk when you can fly? The real men, as I prefer to call them, lived moment to moment. Even today I can see many of them around me. I know it when I see one of them. They are the peaks that every civilization attempts to attain to, and yet they have been hounded and persecuted by all civilizations. They have within them an inquisitive child, a rebellious youth and a wise old man; a formidable combination. They know life as it is. And when one knows life as it is, one naturally drops mediocrity. Mediocrity is vicious. Any reasonably good thing in the hands of a mediocre people turns into a danger. You give them money, which is essentially just a medium of exchange, they (mediocre people) give you Capitalism (Obsession with money and success) and corruption. You give them sex, which is a fact of life, they give you rapes (Obsession with sex). You give them science, they give you atom bombs (blind obsession with science which prevents them from seeing the consequences).

                                 At least, the mediocre people (the walkers) can take solace in the fact that it's because of them that the flyers (or those who choose to fly) stand out.

TBD#26

TBD#25

TBD#24

TBD#23

An Emotional Enigma by Unnati Talwani

She loved a lot.
Genuinely did.

She didn't hug. She didn't
say 'I love you.'
Expressing was not her cup of tea.

It was her first holiday,
after three complete months from
a job 2000 kms away.

She'd missed her mom's cooking.

Called in for the flight.
Excited, she held her bag tight.

For flying the very first time,
she'd had a sleepless night.
The sleep demon, she couldn't fight
and drifted into a nap.

An hour later, she woke up
to the sound of announcements.
they signalled,

Turbulent weather,
emergency lending,
oxygen masks and life jackets.

Her whole life flashed in front of
her eyes.
And the heartbeat had a rise.

Her mom's unconditional love.
Fights with her brother were still incomplete.
The unmatched lessons her Dad
gave her over the years.

The end of it all was near.
The loud sound of her heartbeat
she could hear.

The flying beast almost swayed.
So passionately, anyone in there had
never prayed.

It took a while
for the nature and its creator to
show, they had something else in
store.

The beast turned into an
obedient machine.
Their fates had flipped and they
were back on land.

She saw her mother and her eyes
watered.
With her hands, her face, she covered.

She had an emotional rush.
While now, her heartbeat needed to shush.
And she did something she ever so rarely did before,
She hugged her mom like never before.