A humming word

The snow covered streets Dogs walk with their owners Decorations, unlit and Toys and stuffed mickeys shivering in the balconies Hurried devouts cleaning their snowed up cars Squirrels and Hares still in their hideouts wish each other a Merry Christmas

The needle pierced her body  And his art touched her soul She bore the pain  Like a mother elephant would  The artist etched a baby elephant  The little trunk and the innocent eyes  Before the baby saw the trees fall  and  Deep pits with no food  Was that painful or  the needle that etched the creation ? 

Deers live in our condos now— they don’t pay any rent or maintenance. We froze in the tunnel during our drives; the phone signals gave up on us and then the dogs and the babies chuckled. God hears their voices and used his magic wand to freeze us. He was tired of fulfilling the grownups wishes.

/ode to the Indian revolutionary, Bhagat Singh/ the tree undresses itself, slowly  and prepares to wear a yellow turban  The wind whispers to the tree  that the turban is  of a patriot from Hindostan,  the land of spices. The turban, belonged to an atheist;  he found freedom in a prison and joy in death. the wind sings aloud the praises of a man whose bride was freedom; Just that he never married her 

Hasan Minhaj is the voice of the immigrant child. His anglicized Hindi, funny yet relatable anecdotes, makes you want to watch him, again and again. Watch him in the "Homecoming King" on Netflix where he animatedly narrates about his father, sister, mother and speaks of the uncomfortable truths that made the elders uncomfortable but we all chuckled. When he came to Milwaukee, we could not help but attend his show at the Pabst theater--a space designed for the art lovers. (trivia: Pabst Theater was closed down due to a fire incident and opened again in the late 1800s). The theater had an antiquated look and it was refreshing. With playwrights names engraved and a statue of musicians built at the crown of the stage, it felt regal. The show began with the entry of Azhar Usman, a comedian from Chicago (Indian born). He spoke about various issues including immigrant parents and dealt with the hecklers, well too. And then came: Hasan Minhaj. Hasan Minhaj has a wond...

It is people who make the play, a town. Very rarely do you see plays that are smeared with simplicity and effectiveness. Our Town is one such play. I always wondered how Americans lead their everyday lives - their kitchens, their dining rooms, the conversations they have. While Our Town takes place in a fictional place during 1910 - 1913 and it is hard to believe that the place does not exist. The play takes place in three acts. Each act takes you through a period of time of the residents of the town, Grover's Corners. Act 1 is the introduction of the characters. The milk boy, the neighbours - Webb and Gibbs and the everyday acts like going to school.. etc. Since there are no props, you could see the amount of work the women perform while cooking or while picking the veggies. At one point, the lack of props, make the chores seem like a ballad of routine. Act 2 is  Love and Marriage of Emily and George from the Webb and Gibbs family. They express their love over an...

Failure and its importance came into limelight (for me) when Nabeel A, organisor of FailFest, began conducting shows and its success amplified the significance of failure. Having followed his work and learning about Failure in close quarters, I commend the participants for accepting failure and moving ahead.  After a series of fairly successful years at Nivasini, 2017 bit particularly hard as due to some unforeseen circumstances and certain miscalculations, the publishing venture took a hit. I was perturbed but my family and friends supported me. What I saw as a mere setback took a toll on me and it took me a few months to gather my emotions and admit that: o yea.. I did take some bad decisions.  And trust me, it was not just in the case of Nivasini but the last few months have been a series of mishaps.  So taking a cue from the FailFest, here are a list of my failures in the past few months Failure #1: To control my emotions, I joined Dojo . While self ...