These Bloody Days have Broken my Heart - Sir Thomas Wyatt

Timeline: 15th Century, England during the reign of the Tudor's

Born Thomas Wyatt, a commoner and died a poet, a diplomat and above all, an ardent lover to Anne Boleyn.

Inspite of her betrayal to him for material vices and a run for the stature of a mistress and the queen to his Majesty (the king- Henry the 8th), the rumoured endless love of Sir Thomas Wyatt, for Anne remains a legend.

For although their relationship was anything but perfect, not to mention mired with deceit and lies, he remained devoted to her while she lived and even after she died, until his demise. 

Throughout the Tudor dynasty, love was for sale, and Anne knew that and wanted nothing less but the ultimate price. Hence some called her Lady, others named her a whore yet the whole kingdom, for the 3 years she ruled before being disowned,divorced and executed publicly for adultery, knew her as the Queen Regent of England.

The famous Thomas Wyatt's poem after he sees the beheading of his friends and of Anne Boleyn from his prison cell, on the scaffold on the Bell Tower's bottom, as it is said. 

These bloody days have broken my heart. 

My lust, my youth did them depart, 

And blind desire of estate. 

For your wit alone 

Many men would bemoan 

And since it is so, 

many still cry out aloud 

It is a great loss that you are dead and gone 

The time you had above your poor degree 

the fall whereof your friends may well bemoan 

A rotten twig upon so high a tree 

has slipped your hold and.. you are dead and gone 

These bloody days have broken my heart. 

My lust, my youth did them depart, 

And blind desire of ambitious souls 

who hastes to climb seeks to revert 

and about the throne, the thunder rolls 

'I never found out how she could lie with a smile on her face and the scratches she'd hide'

Exodus

In the moment we're born, we're drawn to form a union with others. An abiding drive to connect, to love, to belong. In a perfect union, we find the strength we cannot find in ourselves. 

But the strength of the union cannot be known until it is tested.

On the 84th birthday of an astounding woman, lover and a poet

I deserve that don't I? 

Some sort of blazing love that I can live with.

-Sylvia Plath

The Crookety Cook

Lentils were thrown in. Things were added. Times were had. 

I am getting good vibes from my kitchen tonight!

#nevertrustaskinnycook

Something I should have started before! : Travel AND penning down its Chronicles.

Very few people know that I have harboured a diverse range of fears through the 1st quarter of my life. Terrified by height, petrified by depth and horrified by speed, even life itself is surprised that I have managed to come so far out by now without throwing a fit. It doesn't stop there, I got screwed (literally and figuratively) during what now seems to be a ridiculous save-the-pet-rabbit situation at home where I passionately shattered the single biggest bone of the human body (The talus bone) and had an actual screw patch my ankle up. But hey, my rabbits lived on :)

So anyhoo a year ago, I decided, screw this, fuck that. Those flowery and seemingly unattainable dreams that my vivid brain conjures up? I am going to live them. And instead of doing it when I am 50 and rich, or 30 and provided for by a husband or 25 and sponsored by la familia (family trips!), I decided to do it NOW.
Screwed ankle et al.
On my own.

And thus started my experimentation with the boundaries of risk, fear and attempts to conquer them. I had my reservations and of course my family was considerably appalled at my desires to travel alone. But I din’t want to wait for the world to change or become more fair before I could do what I wanted to do; I decided to work with how things are then and there. Make peace with it.

And in the process of hitting the road, diving through the oceans and trekking across mountains, I did not JUST learn to kick ass and listen to my own judgment, but I also learned to exercise my own common sense, even when (sometimes) caught in crazy situations that I would never personally recommend. I learned to trust openly but attentively. To explore bits and pieces of world by the power of my own two feet.

Today, I think I read people and situations much better, have developed some badass serious self-preservation skills and now I regularly conquer my other fears of entering public washrooms, lizards and talking to men with beards.

Preferably not all at the same time.

Considering the full circle I have come along now, I have decided to chronicle my travels from now on in the written form, here. I am no writer and this isn't going to be easy, but it will be my testament, however small, to the worlds existentialism, and that it isn't the horrendously unsafe place that the media and the news depicts. If there is one lesson I value above all others from my experiences traveling, it’s that it’s taught me to ignore all of the negativity (within reason) and realize that people are people, no matter what color their skin is, what their religion is, or where they are from. Of course, there are bad people everywhere and shit does happen, but in comparison to all the beautiful souls out there and all the amazing, positive happy things you experience  while traveling, the good definitely outweighs the bad.

Travel on. Travel much. And its not always about the money, dammit.

Callum Scott - My Macbook Loves you!

When I heard it the 1st time last year,

When I hear it today..

1 word.

Haunting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSinMOs5eGw

Henceforth.

   

(Over) Sheltered 

(Over) Protected

(Over) Measured

(Over) Corrected

Attempts 

to intervene

Be acknowledged

Be seen

Unheard

Muffled down

by loud voices

and rules abound

Consequently

resulting

in fastrack 

adulting

what had once been

will never be again

No time to regret

no crime to repent

hence forth

every loud voice

- ignored

by choice

henceforth

each rule announced

by default

denounced

Henceforth 

actuality

paving way

to reality

Take refuge in the fact that some things were beyond your control. Today is a new day.

Take back the control.

and 

never 

let 

it 

go.

The smile that lit up Delhi tonight

Visuals that break my heart.

Experiences that melt my heart. 

The Ignored & the Ignorant

Cemetery- Egypt

She, in her loving way, penned the last lines of their song,

He in his unremembering way went through the day as if nothing was wrong

Too Clever is Dumb

Thailand : The Thunderclaps and Clouds playing Hide and Seek

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive

What is Normal Anyway?

If we rememeber

that rules are just a bunch of sentences

maybe then

we will know what freedom truly is.

If we remember

that there isn't a romance that lasts forever

maybe then

we will commit to love

If we remember 

that we were not meant to survive, 

maybe then 

we will start living.

The Bird Who Walked Home

Saitama Prefecture, Japan - The Bird Who Walked Home

I dreamed a dream the other day.

I dreamed, you’d flown away

with your mended wings, years earlier.

While I looked upon

 with a happy smile

that did not extend to my eyes.

And with a heavy heart and the lightest touch,

 we both went back to where we belong

But

You came back. 

I was old, tired and hobbled. 

You asked me if I’d still have you,

with your old wings and silver hair. 

You asked me if I'd still have you

after the lifetime that had passed.

You asked me if I'd still have you

when you were running out of time

But it wasn’t age that I saw in that moment. 

It was timelessness.

Downpour

Things that stand between us now

Years and time

Facts and Lies

Distance and space

God and science

Is this the part where I lose everything?

The Games.

Why is it that whenever a certain character in our life is behaving like a decent human being, there is at least one other character looking like a pile of dung? must be black magic ?

Not here to stay

The crimson flower offered its shoulder

while you, the butterfly pass by

You knew you're not here to stay

Yet its color catches your eye.

 The thorn warned the flower,'Psst,'Do not attach,

For a butterfly cannot mend its ways

A momentary presence is all you will get

before the butterfly takes flight away.

The flower blushes on, in denial,

With its every petal, and ignorant chaste

The butterfly, enraptured and tantalized

feeds on the flowers sweet taste

It hovers around longer than usual

making the flower convinced indeed

For what the butterfly itself lacked,

the flower knew: It fills complete

And thus the flower bloomed,

but for whom?

You are not here to stay.

'For that #!%$ transient butterfly!!',

the thorn fumed

But why?

You are not here to stay

Then soon of course, comes a time

When true to its nature 

the butterfly ups and leaves

in search of other flowers;

to hover,

to attach,

to feed.

And yet
The flower bloomed,

but for whom?

You were not here to stay,

Regardless of a predicament that is doomed

Even when you are not here to stay.

Untitled

 It was so much easier to say goodbye when I hated you.

The Dot & the Line

and all she was now

(all she'd ever been)

was a line

in a story

on a page

of a book

on a shelf

in a room

that was locked.

The Sound of Stars Exploding

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The 'Surprise' Burn Files : One that Backfired

EXPERIMENT :

RESULT:

One word, 5 synonyms

Inconsiderate

Ungracious

Rude

Insensitive

Unfair

Unmindlful

Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the windows

Throwback - 2007, Kolkata