Masks Of Emotion

I miss the sharpness of my words

I lost the grip of my thoughts.

All I sang was for a lively life

But colors faded unfeelingly!

For everyone it is mere words

No one could read in between!

Face never reflected my mind

Thanks to my heart for guiding!

I’m fine is the easiest phrase

To make others believe me!

Smile is a universal lie at times

To fake happiness over tears!

Masks are countless to wear

Choosing the best is tough

Here I stay frozen and confused

To pick and wear an apt emotion!

Photo courtesy: Aravind KN

Tiny Worlds of SMS

“Tin Tin Titin”…Another message came to my cell. Receiving SMS and replying has become a part of our life. In fact it has created another lingo called SMS language. I have observed the ways of people sending messages. I’d say it is really funny to study the style of messaging. Even though I make fun of SMS, you must understand that I do send messages regularly. 

I am a person who sees the positive sides of SMSng. These short messages help you to keep in touch with your friends every day. It is not possible to call many of your buddies daily. Again, if you want to inform the same news to many people you can just type “Please do read my latest blogpost” and send it to many as SMS.

Have you observed how people message? I am not talking about lovers who start their day by messaging “good morning” and sleep only after wishing “good night”. They belong to special category. What I mean is a classification of other SMS senders. If not, meet a few SMS senders:

1. Serial Senders: These people are hard to bear because when they start messaging, it is hard to end. Even an “ok” or “hmm” doesn’t let them stop or understand that the receiver is exhausted. However you can message them when you are too bored and have no work to do. At that time, they can be good entertainers.
2. Forwarders: The only SMS they send are forwards. Some forward SMS will be good while others will be worse. They will stock a good collection of SMS to forward.
3. Wishers: This section of senders will never miss to wish others. When you open your eyes in the morning, you’ll find their wish and before midnight they’ll conclude with a good night wish. However don’t expect them to reply for your messages. They just love to wish you and not reply for your enquiries. To those people I used to message “Your wishes will let me know that you are alive. So keep messaging”!
4. Late night SMSers: There are some people who start messaging after 10pm. They can send SMS till morning. I wonder when they will sleep!
5. Heavy Senders: When you message some, you’ll get instant reply. They never like to delay for their senders’ queries. I may come in this group.
6. Once-in-awhile SMSers: There is a section who has message offer but don’t use it often. They message rarely either because they are busy or they don’t wish to waste their SMS.
7. Informers:  A very helpful class, these buddies pass any information they receive to their friends and relatives.
8. Sincere Senders: A few people reply and send SMS even if they don’t have any message booster/offers. If you receive messages from anyone like that, understand that they truly care for you.

SMS has created a strong bonding among people. Any news can be passed to hundreds of people within minutes. Yet SMS addiction or textaphrenia is a serious depression that the youth face today. Again, I had seen when a group of friends chat in a room; they’ll be also busy messaging in their cell phones. SMS has created many tiny private worlds for each individual that is locked with security code. Now you think about it, let me reply for my inbox messages!

Expecting your sincere remarks and experience on SMS!

Also please point out if I have missed any kind of message senders in the classification!

Wavering Thoughts

I should admit that raindrops had captured my thoughts and writings. Last three posts were about rain. Hope this is the last one in this series. Oh no! The post is not all about rain. The ambiance provided by monsoon shower is simply superb for any writer to write! I’m not sure whether I can be called a writer. Well, my profession now is content writer. So maybe you can! Even after writing more than 170 posts, I wonder why I lack the confidence to scribble.

Ok! Coming to the topic, my sibling Varun came to me and said he liked my blog. In this whole world, I’ve asked everyone to read excluding my family. It is not because I hate them going through my blog but I never want to pressurize them. Meanwhile, I was enjoying the drizzling outside. My house is covered with huge trees and so we are not tortured by sunrays during summer. Because of these trees, sunrise is late and sunset is early in my home. Now in this autumn, my home is so dark. We have to keep the lights on for the whole day. My friends and relatives used to say the best thing they could do in my home is to sleep, sleep and sleep..!

Taking a break from monsoon sights outside my home, I went back to the virtual world. A blogger should admire others’ work for improving herself. For past few weeks, I’ve been going through blogs of many wonderful writers. Some are introverts who dislike announcing about their blog and postings. In the blogosphere also, all I could see is rain and nostalgic notes of monsoon. As I always say, proximity is my weakness. Thus I went through Appu’s blog post on rain. He says the best memories he’d was at my home.

Again taking a diversion, you might be wondering how many brothers and sisters I have. My sibling is Varun. Appu is my uncle’s son. I and Appu used to discuss this issue. The word cousin creates a distance between two people (call us Indians if you feel this idea sounds awkward). So we’ve stopped using the word “cousins” except in emergency cases. I do have many brothers and sisters and only one sibling.

Hope you did not feel you wasted your time reading the post. Thanks for your patience. I assure you that my next post will not be “rainy”!

Raining All The Way

Oh my raindrops

How do you shower memories?

You make me laugh aloud

You make me weep silently!

 

Oh dear memories

How’d you come down with rain?

If good, you are too good

If bad, you are too worse!

Foggy and misty dawns

Walks and talks in the rain

Naughty looks and notes

Started and paused in the rain!

Raining all the way

To break midnight’s silence.

Droplets trying to hug earth

Roots absorbing without mercy!

Lullaby of rain make me sleep

Cool breeze soothe my mind

On my way to dream world

Without any haunting memoirs!

Breaking A Block

Me A Village Girl

From A Small World!

Like Tiny Raindrops

With Little Dreams…!

I am not a writer

I just worship words!

I joined letters

You called it poem!

I couldn’t bear the strain

For you it’s poet’s block!

Like a cloudy sky

Waiting to shed its tears!

Alas! I scribbled

A few crazy lines!

Today I smiled

And hope you too!

Raining Memories

“How is the rainy season at office?”… When one of my colleagues in my previous office asked me, I sensed the rain at each place differs a lot! In other words, it is not the shower that makes a variation, but the feeling and scenes of how raindrops start the journey from sky to earth creates the magic. Rain has always been a part of my writing. Listening to the simple music of drizzle makes my words poetic. Some nights I wake up hearing the murmur of rain and tiny insects singing aloud.

Earlier a valuable reader and supporter of my blog requested me not to go behind the beauty of nature too much. He says the cool and lovely environment can make any human go mad. He himself is a devotee of nature. Though he told it in a light manner, what he said is absolutely right! If you gaze nature for many hours, you’ll feel that you are being absorbed by Mother Earth.

Well! The introduction itself went too long. Just because it is rain, I couldn’t stop myself. Instead of my usual procedure of listening light melodies, this time nature sings for me. It is raining here in God’s Own Country! Check out Google Images and you’ll see how wonderful Kerala is when it rains. When I surf through social media, all I could read is about the magnificence and nostalgia of autumn. Hmm…! Nostalgia, which is a word I like and use more! So here starts my journey through the Monsoon!!!

• Illam:
  Illam or my ancestral home has an inner courtyard named nalukettu! I would say rain falling from the roof to the square ground is the most marvelous scene of Monsoon that I had ever seen and experienced.
• Nilambur:
  It is the village I had spend my childhood. For people from Nilambur especially residents near the river, this season is something they fear. Chaliyar River in the village turns violent during that time taking away many lives every year. In my school days, we love rain for the same reason as authorities will declare holidays when it downpour heavily.
• Kannur:
  This northern district of Kerala is where my mom was born. Journey to my mother’s home is really special for me. Chandni, my grand parents’ house had an exceptional charm during the rain. I and my little sister Jyothi used to make paper boats to keep in the flowing rain water. My grandma made us yummy food. When I wrote a few lines, I go straight to my grandpa to show it to him. His appreciations encouraged me to write more. Finally after a few months of grand father’s death, my grandmother passed away on a day with heavy rain.
• Thrissur:
  I did my degree in this district. Floods are common here and we got many holidays in rainy seasons. More than the college days, the journeys on weekend to my home in the rain are really special. I always sat on the side seat without closing the windows. It was on one of these journeys I got a topic to write for my college magazine. That article made me a famous creature in my campus! Whenever I go to Thrissur, the place had gifted a good shower along with lots of memories. Since, lettering all the memoirs of autumn that this district and natives gave me will make me speechless and may force me to end this post without taking it further, let me move to next place.
  
• Ettimadai:
  Ettimadai is a small village in Coimbatore where I did my post graduation. Though I did not enjoy the campus life much there, the place is awesome. Elephant hill and campus become so lovely when it rains. From here, I learned to share my emotions with raindrops. Rain at Ettimadai saw my smile, tears and anger. Since it is a hot place, students will dance in rain. I still remember my hostel warden telling me helplessly, “What to do! No one will listen to us. All will go out when it rains and become sick.”! Hauling in the rain with Meenakshi, a few walks, dreaming for no reason… Memories never fade!
• Kozhikode:
  Writing articles sitting inside the air conditioned office made me think that I am going to miss the beauty of seasons. Later I realized that rain can be enjoyed sitting inside as well as outside. Having hot coffee and snacks, fights, pizza treats and conversations with my brother (foreigners can spell it as ‘cousin’) Appu and family… Kozhikode also gave me some reminiscences to cherish!
• Wandoor:
  Finally, back home I enjoy showers that come down ferociously at times with thunder and rain. Inside my room, under my red blanket I hibernate on rainy nights! The pond nearby my home becomes full and fresh once it rain. It tempts me to dive into it like a golden fish. Vacation with cousins/brothers-sisters and rain is a perfect combo!

Usually I like to travel during Monsoon. This time I am going to miss that! Many more to write…! But it is already too long. I don’t want to make anyone feel bored. Let it rain and wash all your worries and problems. Enjoy the cloudburst!

(Pics are taken by me only and if you find it good, you can use it. 

I will be so happy if you give a backlink to village girl's blog)

Don't Publish In Facebook

Dear Facebook Friends,

First of all, thank you so much for your appreciations and criticisms. Now I am a known figure among my relatives, friends and my brother’s buddies because of Facebook. Honestly, this fame is what I’ve dreamed in my real life. In fact I transformed myself into a new person in Facebook! Only my close friends and family can differentiate the real and virtual personalities of me.

A doubt has been haunting me recently… Are people suspicious about me? Do they believe that I publish each and every private affair of them in FB? Don’t count it as a mere imagination. I had sensed a kind of insecurity in some people’s words when they talk to me. Although my friends used to joke that they should fear talking to me as they may find it next day in FB, I feel it is a caveat to me! A warning that people hesitate to trust me…

Initially I used to update tiny things about me (not others). Even then, I never shouted any happenings close to my heart. None of my Facebook friends know the times I had sobbed. You never could read anything from my FB activities whether I’m frustrated, sad or excited. I’ve shared only light moments of my life to the virtual world.

One thing I should admit, I’ve become a chatterbox when I joined Facebook. I tried to be active in discussions and groups. From a lonely and gloomy girl, I have moved to a naughty character. My words and scribbling became lively and colorful. Writing is a relief for me. Again, once I write a few lines I won’t remember it later. Many times I have wondered why I can’t recollect what I’d written before!

I can very well say I have never written or mentioned any names of my friends if they don’t like to do so. Furthermore I am not a sadist who circulates your pain in FB with a happy smiley. Before a few months, I had a life where I could not write a word of my own. I struggled a lot during those days which I never revealed in FB. I have a clear stand on what to write in FB and what not!

The distance from Roopa to roopz is very long. Though I love both, I believe mixing up those is not ideal. Roopa is a very common girl who loves to wonder about raindrops and nature. She is a quiet girl and most of her replies will be a silent smile.  At times, I feel roopz try to overrule Roopa.

FB is a mask or a world where emotions have no role. The visitors there love to see only happiness. So I also act like a machine that is always happy. Do understand that the characteristics of a person in virtual world may vary from the real life.  In spite of all these, I have received a few compliments from some of you. I just want to say that I am honored to receive all those lovely comments from you.

Keep in touch always!

With Love

Roopa

June 1st And A Flashback

Although it has been eight years since I left my school, June 1 will take me back to that red castle. Today is the reopening day for schools. That’s why I wrote in my Facebook Time Line: “Adieu May. Welcome June, the month that school kids hate now and later becomes a part of their good old memories.”! Every school on this day will have a new fragrance. Everything like uniform, bag, books, etc will be fresh. Moreover, kids will have a bundle of stories of vacation to share with their friends (now it may not be true as they are always connected through internet and cell phones).

Friends at school are very special for the reason that you learn and sense the joy of friendship first from them. I had met a few of my school friends last weekend. Coming to the story, I saw my school friends on our batch mates’ marriage reception last Sunday. Bridegroom was my classmate from LKG to 12^th which means we learned to speak, write and color together. May be because in our primary school talking to another gender was not encouraged, I’d say our friendship was not as deep as 14 years. Still I was surprised when his sister told me that my face is familiar to her. Bride was my batch mate in higher secondary class. She has got a wonderful pair of eyes that I always admired.

In short, their love was nurtured by everyone in our class and so all were eagerly waiting for their marriage invitation. I was invited by both of them for the marriage and reception. On Friday, Yadu called me to ask whether I am attending the marriage. A busy engineer from Mumbai, he rarely comes to Kerala for vacations. It has been years since I met him and his twin brother Vidu. In his strange Malayalam slang he spoke for more than 30 minutes in spite of all roaming charges. Next day, he messaged after the marriage that both Madhavan (bridegroom) and Ponni (bride) look perfect together.

By evening, I received calls from other friends who attended the marriage. They gave me the count of friends who came for the function. Next day I went for the party. I and a group of guys (Jas, Shamin, Jose, Subin, Muneer Babu, Sumesh, Muneer, Sarjun) were the attendees from our batch. Many of them were engineers and doctors in reputed institutions. But for us, we are just schoolmates. All were just enjoying a meet after many years. In between, some of them addressed me as ‘village girl’! “She might publish in her blog all the happenings here. Beware!” while taking a break from his try to finish eating a full plate of rice, Subin warned other guys.

When I left the hall I remembered one of my junior’s words: "Are you coming to School Tomorrow"? Golden words that can never be used again… The unforgettable journey of life...