DreamsDimensionsDelusions

A castle stood on a tall cliff.....so high up that we felt like we were standing at heaven's gate... jagged ends of the rocks almost rose up to the castle in their splendid magnificence...it was a three sided castle...there was no wall on one side..like willing suspension of disbelief in a theatre....but only difference is that we were on stage yet we were the spectators to the landscape thrown open to us ......colourful but washed out....like colours on a canvas intentionally smudged by the artist to get the faraway look...in an antique land......the whole scene was doused in a radiant orange black..the setting sun refused to be put out...it was very dark yet bright enough to blind you...a rich, deep, alluring orange black....and then we see it...you and me.....the suns...BigBeautifulBrilliant...Five of them...or was it five...we were counting...we stopped at five maybe...the counting could wait!!! The massive fiery orbs were as orange as orange gets and seemed to be just miles away...we reached out our orange glowy hands......the suns looked like they were so close...so many suns...MammothMonumentalMighty....we ooohed and aaahed....shrieking in excitement like we sometimes do when we think or do something we think is so smart...highlight of our lives as you would say...there were people around us....a mob of faces....mostly obscure....faded like the landscape..... like the same painter had smudged the colour of their faces too...we ran up to them begging them to take a look...but they didn't....they were busy having tea.... the lavish kind...high tea? with silver tea pots, croissants, cakes, tarts and other jammy treats..the one we read about in Enid Blyton books... We screamed to them and asked them to turn..."There is a this breathtaking, awe-inspiring cosmic phenomenon painting the sky and you choose to turn your back to it and have tea!" ....."so what" they said.....brushing us away....and in that moment it came as a flash... we are the last cowboys...

If only....

If each one of us would be a lot less voyeuristic...the world would be a better place to live in......na?

Historical musings......

A half broken down wall, with moss struggling its way through its spidery cracks. A flight of blackening stone stairs leading to a quaint chamber that seems to resonate the eerie empty silences. I’m looking at the remains of a dilapidated fort that once in all its majestic splendour housed royalty. The first thing that struck me on seeing this oddly beautiful sight was that a long time ago, in a bygone era these colossal forts lay witness to the glory of a lineage of kings and monarchs, only to be swallowed by the dark swirls of time becoming one with history.

The fascination of ‘what-may-have-been’ enthrals my imagination somewhat more than the present itself. I cannot look at these testimonies of the past without wondering about the kind of magic its old world charm held. One ‘historic’ day, as I walked through the colossal stonewalls of the Golconda fort, visions of an age gone by flashed before my eyes… I could hear the sound of life permeate through the royal palace…the images of a majestic king seated on his throne with the whole realm at his mercy, the peals of laughter coming from the harem. The tinkling of the anklets of the court dancer, the queen with her maids in her chamber, the visions of the hustle bustle of life as it passed through decades of war and peace. The Golconda fort… where the world’s largest diamond Kohinoor was discovered, where gems and precious stones were sold in heaps in marketplaces, where art and architecture saw new light of progress. It was a world of beauty, of opulence and riches, of grandeur unknown to today’s world. Today I see the magnificent Golconda fort against the backdrop of a setting sun, standing tall in pride as a testimony to Hyderabad’s glorious past.

Even a few years ago, I could be included in that class of people who think it is impractical and a total waste of time to study the past. I would declare in a pompous manner, along with the others, that enlightening oneself on dead corpses and long gone decrepit buildings will be of no use to our lives. But then after pursuing it as a subject (quite unwillingly, at first!) there seemed to be born in me, a newfound love for history. Corpses no more remained corpses, they began to fill with blood and flesh and they became breathing, walking men and women, who lived, but only in another dimension. These derelict buildings were once bustling with activity and their floors were tread upon by these same men and women. I begin to speed through from era to era in a matter of seconds…imagination running berserk, if not wild…and the rest as they say is history!