THE MEAL-TICKET

Not a dime in my pocket, I sat on a park bench under the leafy canopies - my shelter.

Looking around, my glance fell on an easel that was nearly falling over; childish things, I scoffed.

Here I was on an empty stomach, while there were those spoilt rich who wasted their money in such hobbies.

I picked a discarded local newspaper and my eyes fell on the advertisement - some rich kid had left his painting kit near the park, anybody who brought it would be rewarded.

I again looked at that easel ...not loathing anymore, it was now my meal ticket.




❤❀❤This 100 word post is for friday fictioneers, SixSentence ( Image Copyright – © Dale Rogerson )

THE EXCURSION!

Clear blue skies, the air was crisp when we had left home; the weather just perfect, we were an excited lot - a bunch of bubbly and 'very curious' teens, really looking forward to what was coming - and, it was going to be thrilling for sure as we were assured of a trip with lifetime worth of unexpected and marvellous memories...that we had long awaited for and one that'd be unforgetable for ever.

We had raced past the city a long while ago; and had sprinted past endless expanses of vast open fields lined with green-yellow paddy ( promising what looked like a great harvest soon )...afterwhich we started entering the 'famed' desert patch where rich fertile soil gave away to a sandy terrain with sparse vegetation and which we were told was going to be quite long untill the sand would finally disappear and bring us closer to our final destination....it was remote and the desert hinted us that we were going somewhere far far away from the civilization or any living soul for that matter.

After we crossed the desert, we entered a place full of tall shrubs - a shrub forest of sorts...maybe, we were nearing our destination now, we thought, as we watched the long wide gravel road slowly convert into a narrow offbeat trail - it became narrower by the second and the shrubs slowly replaced by tall trees...that only grew taller and taller....until we were driving through what seemed like a thick dense forest where the sun barely penetrated and it waa dark and gloomy, we could barely see anything with the atmosphere suddenly having changed too - lot cooler; it seemed we were in middke of a movie set.

Was it a trick of the eye, because, where we had reached looked surreal - the dense forest had cleared and a huge stone castle revealed itself that was huge, tall and very big, the stones several feet wide blocks in themselves; and as we entered, the fortified castle only grew massive and surrounded us from all the sides engulfing - it looked quite deserted too for a tourist spot, until, we entered the third of the huge gates when we saw the watchman walking briskly towards us, carrying a lamp that flickered and lit his eyes up as he smiled ( he didn't seemed to have seen humans often around in that place ) welcoming and greeting each one of us and telling we'd have a memorable time in the castle.

It was already dark and we followed the watchman as he led us to our quarters for the night and before leaving when we asked him if all the rumours and stories we heard about the place were true or not in the internet, the glint in his eyes went quite mischievous before turning mysterious, replying with a brief 'you'll all soon find out,' leaving us more excited than we already were - this was going to be one hell of an excursion it seemed and we changed quickly and re-grouped again for dinner not wanting to waste a single minute ~ we wanted to explore it all that night itself; although, we were told to relax and that the mysteries would unfold themselves - as each room in the castle had a story to tell.

As we went about in the night, we approached another set of rooms and heard someone crying... we tried to spot the exact room and pushed open the door where the noise was loudest when we saw that a couple was already occupying it ( they were tourists too )... they hadn't noticed us but were looking straight instead at a mosquito net in far end corner of the room, where, the net moved along with the cries as though someone was inside ( there was no one and we had heard tales about it that it cried more if someone tried to lift the net and even sang on request if it was in a good mood - it was unbelievable that we were already starting to experience the stories we heard so much and requested it to sing; and, the 'being' sang much to our surprise and delight; it was such fun ( scary too as the 'being' could get violent too till it got calmed by some scorpion fart mix ) - we had to hunt for those scorpions now lest we angered the entities!



❤❀❤This post is for SixSentence ( Image Copyright – Google )

KARMA COLLECTOR - WORDS AND ACTIONS

There are some things in life which we cannot change no matter how hard we try, or how many times eg words. Once spoken, these words are released into the universe. As sound waves, they keep travelling and carry their impact along with it. And when we say things with conviction and earnesty - the entire universe too listens. Also, what we say matters - it can make someone happy or sad. It can inflict thrill or pain. Our words carry our karma with it too along with our actions. Hurtful words which has caused intense emotional/mental pain to someone, will affect your karma at some point definitely; and vice versa. So, be careful with the words you say. And think before you blurt out anything to anyone. Because, once it is said you cannot call them back, ever; and your karma is decided.


Written words on the other hand can be edited, re-edited many times over ( but to some extent only ). It is the 'thinking' but done on paper ( or our computer monitor ) first. However, if published ( like spoken ), every edition has gone out there and must be in some corner of either the internet world or even in paper. And in written, unless there is legal stamp on it and unless it has not gone public one does have the flexibility to change or modify. My blogs for instance, until I have published any post, I can write, delete and rewrite and so on. But once its public, someone or the other must've surely read it, so, even if we edit it at some point in future, there's someone out there who has already accessed the original version. The 'internet wayback machine' surely has. Can we unwrite the exam paper?


So what does this imply? The above is the same with our actions too. What we do at the moment, is done. We cannot undo things. We have breathed, can we unbreathe? We have lived, can we unlive? We have eaten, can we uneat? No! So, like words - our actions matter too; they collect our karma. Other's actions and words - their karma. Your reactions and actions - your karma. And, Karma bites ;-)