GvSparx

It is your responsibility to give your mind and body "the new" not everyday but every now and then. It keeps you and all your senses awake. It could be white water rafting, rock climbing, selling your artwork in the street, talking to a random person in a park, cooking the cuisine you never did, playing a sport you never did, wearing something you never did. Being crazy, being silent, being solo, being in a group, being opposite of what you are, what you always do. 

Kodaikanal is a small hill station in Tamil Nadu but mighty popular down south. I didn't know so many people love it until I saw it myself. It has markets, people, chocolates, weed, so that explains a lot. Kodaikanal is a natural beauty overpowered by huge influx of people. I hated it until I played cricket with kids who didn't share a common language. I loved it when I cycled around the lake over the cliff. Cool breeze, sparse traffic, only strangers, and then you cycle down the slope of a cliff with no paddling, no braking. It was mesmerizing. I am a patron of fine mosaic work and sculptures. My eyes have been trained over years to find sculptures. So, I found this gentleman(picture) amid lush greens, chilling with eyes closed.

Kodaikanal has been struggling with widespread mercury pollution. The closure of Unilever's mercury factory has not been able to restore the same tourism. Just like Dow Jones, Unilever too isn't too worried about cleaning up the mess already created. Sofia Ashraf reacted with a rap song "Kodaikanal Won't" to the tune of Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" which had garnered 4 million+ hits, at the time of writing.

I find this gentleman(picture), wondering at the proceedings around him. Does world appear a good place in his eyes, behind those closed eyelids? That's the question I ask on this World Heritage Day. Comment/share your views.

Do you see this?
Not that!
This!

This very dark night,
Lit only by stern candle light
Behind that low boundary
That table of pink ivory

Not that very dark night,
with mobiles flashing bright
7000 feet above the sea
That jagged rock bed, you and me

Do you see this?
Not that!
This!

This clean spoon
About to croon
Besides spotless white bone China
Admiring the fork and knife of chrome steel
Dicing and picking one-third of salad green

Not that clean spoon
About to feign a swoon
at the samosa barely touching the paper plate
Getting assaulted by four, 3 seconds gore
Each burning tongue wanting more

Do you see this?
Not that!
This!

This celebration of anniversary
Twirling white wine very attentively
Talking microphysics, politics, economics
And pharmacists, orthopedics, analgesics

Not that celebration of anniversary
Peering into eyes admiringly
Mixing proportionately Fanta and cokes 
Cracking racist, sexist, sadist jokes

Do you see
These people, here..
Us, someday?
Somewhere?

I, along with a friend, was walking around Udaipur City Palace, encircling lake Pichola. It is an absolute sight to see the reflection of fine lights in the lake when it is a pitch dark night. You have a few exotic hotels situated on the banks and inside the lake as well. So I came across this picturesque moment, where four people were discussing something inaudible. The seriousness, the inattention to food, the fine cutlery, the wine glasses and the calm, were just so alien to me. So I paused. These are no aliens from a far off land on a voyage. These are just people like me, ahead of me in the cycle of life. That could be me, you, someday? What do you think?