Stranger on the Street

Crokus emerged on to the street. In either direction, as far as he could see, not a single reveler was visible, and a thick silence hung over all. The wind curled round him, first from one direction, then from another, as if seeking escape. A charnel smell filled the air. His head was throbbing, still weary from the scenes of Simtal’s estate. Before he could move, a strong arm gripped him across his face and he felt the touch of a sharp knife on this throat. A voice hissed close to his ears, “A man just seeks help and promises debt well paid back.”

“Help seekers do not sneak up and put knives on the throat.” If he was scared, Crokus did not let his voice give it away. He felt the grip loosening on him, but the knife still rested on his neck. He turned around to see his captor, but he stood against the light, just giving slight features of his face away.

“Identify yourself, ye help seeker, show your face and then I will decide what fate shall befall you.” He said, knowing very well that he was not speaking from a commanding position.

“A man has many faces and names are what, just words. I am sea-farer and a traveller. A man seeks fresh horses and provision to travel back to what he calls home.” There was a strange calmness in the voice of the stranger standing in the dark.

“I take you for no Malaz, where you come from.”

“A man travels from far, across the oceans; when a man sails to the other end of the ocean, he sees the greatest free city of all the time. That is where a man lives.”

Crokus was growing weary of this futile conversation. He shrugged and said,” The estate lie abandoned, walk through whatever is left of it, I am sure you will find enough provision to end a life time, in party hall. Towards the back there is a stable, pick your choice of horses if any of them are still in flesh and standing.” Wit seemed to be returning to him and half mockingly he added,” A man can then take his arse wherever he wants.”

The man moved a step further in light and faced Crokus. He was almost as tall as him. He did seem like a possessor of many faces. He looked utterly calm, unaffected of his little dig at him. Crokus felt him thrusting something in his hand, a coin.

“A man is indebted and assures that debt will be paid back with help when a man is in need. If the day come when you would find me again – give that coin to any sailor sailing across the great ocean and say these words – Valar Morghulis. A man will be brought to what he seeks in the greatest free city in the east – Bravos.” He walked away with a nod, speaking his words, "Valar Morghulis."

Crokus found himself repeating after him,”Valar Morghulis.”

The man had melted in the darkness of the Simtal’s estate. He turned in the direction of Baruk's estate. At least, with the streets empty, this wouldn't take long. He began to run.

[A cross fan-fiction bringing together two of the greatest and my favourite series, The Malazan Book of the Fallen and A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones)]

The Mad Man

Bruised and battered he gathered his being and slid to a side of the footpath to make room for the passerby and slipped into his dreams. Those who frowned upon a drunken sloth lying by roadside failed to see the utter calmness on his face. They could not hear the silence which screamed in joy, through the chaos of civilized and orderly world. Every voluntary and non voluntary gesture of their was meant to demean him, loath him. They cursed him, kicked him but not a single hand to reach him. While the sane people of orderly world insanely ran through their chaotic life, in early hours of day, he comfortably lived his lucid dream. He lied there while everyone ran in a mad rush; cars and buses honked, bike slid past toe nails, sweat ran down the temple, shoulder brushed, abuses hurled and people ran, they ran because that is what they were supposed to do. And all this while in his world the sun shone, the wind blew past his mane, birds perched on pavement, a squirrel ran down the tree to pick a nut which slid past the finger of a little girl sitting in a bus buried under a ton weight of her school bag. She did notice neither the bird nor squirrel. From side of his half open eyes he looked further, an ant passed his vision carrying a cube of sugar, and he could bet he had seen her smiling. He heard the bell of a temple tolling in a distance; he picked the scent of perfume of a passerby; everything around seem to made to please him. A kick and a volley of abuses by a Socrates who ran past him distract him a little before he slipped back into his lucid dreams, unaffected of the chaos that was building around him. Somehow he had averted it from growing on him. He slept there on the footpath while quite morning grew into chaotic day, he slept in peace; he was the Mad Man. 

Going Social!

In the beginning all people lived in two big rooms with a blackboard each. They lived happily in their own room unaware of the existence of the other room. They spent all their time talking, laughing and playing with each other.  Life was blissful. There were no rituals, rules and restrictions but one – no one to touch the black board!

One night when in room Alpha all were fast asleep, a girl woke up with a jolt. She had a scary dream. She could not get sleep again, so she walked around in the room and stopped by the board. She thought she saw a mild light inside the board. She got curious and drew a line on the board. Nothing happened but she liked doing it. She wanted to tell someone about her dream, she thought,” Since all are asleep why not tell the board”. She wrote on the board ‘Hi’ and then was taken aback, the board replied ‘Hi!’

The girl got scared and ran back to her mum, tucked herself under the blanket and went to sleep.

Writing on the board was forbidden, so when elders saw the word written on the board they got very angry, but at the same time they got curious about it. Immediately, a council of elders was called and they decided to explore further in it. With unanimous agreement it was decided that they should respond to the message.

The ‘Hi’ was responded with ‘Who are you?’ and the conversation began. Seeing that it was not a threat as always told more people took up writing on the board. They found out there was another room where more people lived and they started chatting with each other.

Soon, boards in both rooms were always full of people writing on it. They fought with each other to gain access to the board. Now, they did not talk with each other but with the board, they laughed at what was written on the board. Board was always thronged with people writing on it, but it was all public, everyone could see who was typing what and the reply. They had always shared everything with each other. But, since they had got social with the people on the other side of board they felt uncomfortable with others seeing what message they were sending and receiving.

One day a person got blinkers and put it on his part of the board; he had got his own piece - a personal board. Soon the whole board was divided in to blinkered parts, with everyone claiming a small piece of it. Yet a problem remained, to remain social they had to stand near the board. And even though there were blinkers put on the board, others could still peek in.

Somebody got an idea; he broke his piece of board out and walked away with it. He had his mobile board in his hand now. He could walk away from the board on the wall and can still remain social. How others would not follow him? They also took their pieces out and soon everyone had mobile board in their hands. They could chat all the time, anywhere; while they walked, played, ate or even slept.

Their world has changed, now nobody would talk to each other, nobody would laugh with each other, and nobody would play with each other. They would do all of that on the board with the people on the other side.

The girl scared of her night experience could never generate the courage to go close to the board again. She never used the board again. Now with everyone having their boards, she was left alone. She went to play with her best friend. She patted him, nudged him and pushed him, he snapped back “Idiot! Don’t you see, I am being social, don’t disturb me!”

The girl went away, sat alone in the corner, cried a bit and then she noticed there was something glittering at one corner where board used to be before. She walked to it, to find a small piece of board still there. She plucked it out, and wrote ‘Hi’ and response came promptly ‘Hi! ASL please?” She smiled broadly, even she had gone social now!

O' Lucifer

Through night in darken alleys,

Hoods up, hiding your face.

That is how now you walk angel,

Since you have fallen from the grace.

In your long wakening,

You must have done something right.

Yet, now you shall be known for all evil

And that is your plight.

Casted in the shadows of underworld,

Far from humane touch you dwell.

Blissful will be your ignorance now,

If you accept as heaven, the hell.

Giving voice to what was unspoken,

That was your only mistake.

Now no voice will help you,

As your side, they will never take.

For all the love you have shown,

You must be punished and suffer.

And, if you want to escape that fate,

Go kill yourself; Die, O’ Lucifer.

Guilty As Charged

All colors I made; Fallow, fawn, bronze,
Tinge of tawny and pink of desert sand.
But when they came, it had all mixed up,
They could just see red of blood on my hand.

Bled, salted and be burnt I must;
for they yelled on top of their voices,
I do not remain anymore a creature of trust.

Folly I have committed,
as they put it, by following my desire
Must in public I be loathed
by people, with pure hatred and ire.

Decadence as I looked in those eyes,
to which I do not owe my fealty.
Perish I rather be, so press you charges
and in full consciousness I plead guilty.

Gagged in Your Homeland

Recent Facebook misadventure of Shaheen Dhadha raises a lot of question on current state of law in the Democratic Republic of India. We are said to have gained independence back in 1947 (I was not present then so I chose to believe as I am told though I could be grossly misinformed of the events before my birth). So, as I know this independence was gained mostly through nonviolent means which majorly involved showing your protest through writings – poems, pamphlets and sometimes direct slogans. Those were the methods which were endorsed by many leaders whom we keep in high respect even today. Our constitution has always given us rights to protest against any kind of activity, ruling or suggestion if we do not like it if we are not any manner causing harm to tangible and intangible property of nation and others. Protest in form of writing and petitions are considered to be the best form and are totally in ambit of our constitution. Then how doing that landed someone in Jail.

If we examine the arrest closely they were done under   Section 295 (a) of the IPC (for hurting religious sentiments) and Section 64 (a) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. About sentiments, who decide that what is offensive and capable of hurting sentiments? What could be extremely unacceptable to a fundamentalist might go down well with a regular practitioner and be totally acceptable to a liberal. Also how is to ascertain if majority is against the made comment. India has an approximate population of 1.2 billion, even a community which is 0.1 % of this population numbers to 12000000 people. If a comment is said to offend majority of this community then there must be at least 6000001 people from that community who come out and say they are hurt. Coming back to Shaheen’s case what it looks like she was said to have hurt religious sentiment and the religion here in question seems to be (I could be totally wrong about it) Hinduism. Now, Hindus constitute roughly 80% population of India i.e. approx. 960000000 people and to hurt sentiment of majority of this religion something should offend at least 480000000 people. Now questions are, did so many people read her status? Do so many people have access to internet? What reasons police had to believe before arresting her that her message has reached so many people and they are definitely affected by it?

Now the IT Act, Section 64(a) doesn't deal with content displayed on social networking site it rather has something to do with digital signatures and frauds (not being from law background am not sure about exact wordings). So, 64(a) doesn't apply, I would say it must have been reporting error, and they might have booked her under 66(a) which deals with offensive message through electronic medium and communicative device. This again brings us back to the basis of analysis on which a comment could be considered offensive to a group of people, and another question why anything under this act would need a judicial custody for 14 days?

All of this can be summed up as a gross misuse of law and unawareness of law enforcing bodies about their own laws and its applicability.

Another girl was arrested for showing her agreement with the view of former. Now the question is, if those people who got hurt have a right to come together show their dissatisfaction through police complaint and also criminal means, why those who support the view have no such rights. This way you just quashed the support which the person in question could have garnered, and those people who agreed with her could have been more than offended and then your majority would have been in support of the opinion and you were not required to arrest the first one only.

Next, let’s say in due course of time it comes to light that case is not applicable and girl was innocent. It was a mistake on part of police to arrest her and on part of court to give a 14 day judicial custody. Then what is the course of action? As far I understand police officers should be booked under charges of unlawful arrest and detention. But is that enough? What about the mental trauma and defamation those two girls were subjected to? What about misuse of police rights and responsibility? What about bringing nation to shame by such an irresponsible act? Is not every citizen of India then will be right to file against police officers involved a case bringing disrepute to them, their constitution and country?

Next question is on what basis, two girls in question were singled out of many other such status updates. What mechanism did police used to decide to let others with similar status message go off the hook and arrest this one? Did her background or profile give any evidence of her being intentionally trying to instigate people and offend their sentiments?

At what level police decides that how swift the action taken should be and how immediately a charge sheet to be filed to take a judicial custody? What was the reason behind police putting together their act with such speed here? Had police shown same swiftness in tracking down the person if the same post has been put up anonymously?

I am not expecting these questions to answered by authorities, at best am hoping to not to be charged under sedition or some other similar law. In a couple of days news will die out, the traumatized family of girls will probably not utter a word and girls will quietly visit police station every Wednesday till charges are dropped. I don’t expect anyone compensating her uncle for losses he incurred at his clinic, he will probably try to set things back up in couple of days and go ahead with his daily routine. Life will back same for all of us. But, the question is how long will it be same? What we are seeing today happening here is systematic destruction of freedom. Our constitutional rights are being taken away from us day by day and we are being made to believe that they never existed. Writers, Businessman, Cartoonist and now a simple 20 something girl, one by one people from every faction of society are being targeted and made to believe that keeping quite is the best you can do. It’s a monarchy in making. To establish rules in new land old invading kings were used to suppress population so much that once they are established no one will be in a position to protest against them. Aren't we seeing something similar here? Suppression, revolution and liberation go in cycles. We can bring one or wait for one to happen, but till then stay gagged in your homeland!  

Till death do us apart

I allow myself to die a bit every day

Just to keep my words –

“Till death do us apart”.

They told me it’s a story

Written in blood, bound in leather

To outlive ages, to stand all weather.

Through the roaring seas

Through falling sky

Through the dreads of wild

Through the mountains high

I walked them all

I broke all walls

I lead the foray

I had all faith in our story

We looked in the eyes

I knew they don’t lie

To the love

We had arrived

We lived that story

And nothing to be sorry

But to the end,

Now I depart

And I want you to know

I allow myself to die a bit every day

Just to keep my words –

“Till death do us apart”.