For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror

Theme Round 2 from aragorn_anupam

Written round from aragorn_anupam

Theme Round 1 from aragorn_anupam

Finals Round One from aragorn_anupam

Prelims from aragorn_anupam

Stretched between wakefulness and oblivion; identity's rebellion and sleep's persuasion; I fiddled with the bitter cold star inside me. Dead star with dead dreams at its core. Dead dreams and immovable dreams; kinds that do not collide to trigger life; warping and folding on themselves. Under the dead weights of their doomed expectations, they dived into the unknown dimensions of me. Wormholes opened into the unknown beings of me, unseen vistas, unexplored terrains and starry skies studded with unfulfilled desires. And in one such dimension even peace was within grasp. But in barged sunlight and the nightly multiverse collapsed into the day

On a pavement adjacent to the corridors of propriety, I shivered warped in dreams of flesh. An uncertainty of softness against that gritty hardness which had grown into me. And the timid warmth swept away by falling rain. What else could I extract from that poster? From that posture of suggestive modesty..... And in the corridors of propriety... Lost in the maze of shadows and light, my hands sought the luminosity of the billboard, soft light of flesh and yet freezing cold shadows were all that existed on that bed.

Out of the pages of a read but long forgotten book, she rhymed into my prosaic life. A metaphor she dropped in every sentence of life. Now every verb could dream and every noun could be an unknown desire. Into the ordinary of the prosaic day she brought the beauty of the starry skies. A poem she was, though not of complete delight. Reading between her lines I could find a grief, tucked around the corner or a cry stifled by the edge of a smile. Around what core of indestructible pain is her being wrapped ? Around what shards of unknown miseries is her dream woven? What untold stories have trickled down those cheeks? What unfathomable starlight have they carried into oblivion ?

Yes you heard it right. Aspirin along with other NSAIDS (Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs) are used as chemo-preventive agents against many forms of cancers. But the prolonged usage of these drugs often leads to other potentially harmful side-effects such as ulceration of the gastrointestinal tract. Cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors (aka coxibs) reduce these side effects but have other heart related side effects. Alternatives like NO-NSAIDS (nitric oxide releasing) and HS-NSAIDS (hydrogen sulphide releasing) were developed to control the proliferation of cancerous cells and also to limit the dangerous side-effects. But each of these drugs comes with its drawbacks. Read more..... http://indiabioscience.org/node/517

Its not a sanctuary that I want, a forest it is that I desire. Not the manicured lawns and the trimmed hedges. But the growth that is wild, a form of limitless forms. Roots that spill over from the sidewalk and break the monotony of direction. Yes, a living, breathing forest in my city that chokes the roads; breaking their will to go anywhere to let live the paths that go nowhere. Those strangler figs, that have a foothold in the sacred spaces of life the roots that hang from high rises threatening to strangle the living room. The leaves, ominously closer to the sunlight, than the windows that feign the delight. This murderous nightsky, this perennial scavenger of stars, this inverted cityscape, deviant reflection of our mind, illuminated but devoid of any light. In here shall a forest take root snubbing the citylights, letting the darkness prevail and the stars shine bright.

Why do I smell fear in the sighs of the night? Is it the summer entrenched in the heart of the city throbbing with fear of exhaustion ? Its edges blunted by the sudden drizzle Down in a narrow alley, a spec of sky fluttered with hope. Tiny hands scooped up the falling drops with delight. While a pair of desperate eyes looked askance at the sky “How to live through the chill of the night on a drenched pavement ? ” I hurled myself against the silence of the city. Honking horns, whirring engines and the constant claptrap of unease. Noisy monotones of silence. And in that silence were lost the pleas of that slight drizzle “Hope, but do not fear. ”