Tiny. Terribly Tiny.

By: Thejas on 12:16 AM

How many word does it really take to move a person? 100, 1000, a whole infinity of words?
I still remember reading Ernest Hemingway's shortest story,  'For sale: Baby shoes, never worn'.
I had goosebumps for hours reading those 6 words. The power of literary transience can be truly breathtaking!

And then I found Terribly Tiny Tales. Its was like Christmas in July! Terribly Tiny Tales brings together a diverse pool of fantastic writers to create one tweet-sized story everyday. And some of then are 140 characters of sheer brilliance. And before I knew it was 3 am and I was scrolling down page 65. #addicted

Let me give you some examples.

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To an extant , the success of TTT lies in the imagination of reader, not unlike the old-beauty-beholder-scenario. There is no premise. There is no epilogue. Its the readers responsibility to come up with an allegory to which these lines gel in to and that's the cardinal reason why I find this experience simultaneously exhilarating and rejuvenating.

So, being quite a literary fanatic myself, I couldn't stop from trying a hand in this latest literary venture. Now it might not be up-to the proper TTT standards but who really cares. :)


#Dog

"I was so relieved when you called, officer. My dog has been missing for 2 days now!!"

"We found it on the streets with this old woman."

"Oh! Hi Grandma!"


#Broke
"Take this extra 50. You might need it on the way."
He smiled.
The train left.
She couldnt afford to pause for a while.
It was a long walk back . Her knees were as broke as her wallet.


#Fight
"I hate you!" He cried.
"Get out of my sight!" She shouted.
He slipped on the wet floor, Without a thought she ran to hold him.
"Didi!!!" He wept and hugged her tight.

#Heart
Sitting in the airport he felt light chested. He had packed everything but his heart.
Back home, as he opened his suitcases one by one,he found that each of his friends had 
neatly packed a part of their's for him.

#Hostel
"DUDE, chuck this! We should open a bar!!"
"Yeah mahn!!!! With the best food ever!!!"
"In GOA!!"" "Yeah GOA!!"
Everyone nodded in approval.
Then he went back to his Lagrange equation.
They went back to their microcontrollers.

#JustMarried
The broken windshield still had the 'Just Married' sign.
Next to it a piece of blood drenched paper with his vows for her.
'Till death do us apart.'

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The Mystical Rumi!

By: Thejas on 11:39 PM

"Do you know what you are?
You are a manuscript oƒ a divine letter.You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.This universe is not outside of you.
Look inside yourself;everything that you want, you are already that.....”


I was never a big fan of poetry and so poets never ineterested me. Yes, I enjoy the play of words and the verbal folderol but it never seemed to completely gratify my literary needs. And then I was introduced to the works of Rumi.

Now for all those who are not aware of this name, let me give you a quick synopsis. Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī was a 13th century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and most importantly a significant Sufi mystic. Regarded as one of the world's premiere persian poet till date, Rumi has written poems in Greek, Arabic and Turkish which have been translated into as many as 30 languages. Recently Rumi was even selected as the United states' Best Selling as well as the most popular poet.


Even though his personal history is as interesting as any fable, what drove me closer to Rumi is the simplicity of his poems. I have always believed that philosophy transcends time and there could be no better example of this than Rumi. Read any of his poems or couplets, the philosphy of this 13th centuary poet still makes as much sense today as it did 800 years ago! So, logically, it should mean that even through all these years of materialistic and ideological metomorphosis, the soul of humankind has not been transmogrified. He is still searching for what what he was 800 years ago. 


“You think of yourselfas a citizen of the universe.
You think you belong to this world of dust and matter.
Out of this dustyou have created a personal image,
and have forgottenabout the essence of your true origin...” 



Rumi is magic. Rumi is mystic. Rumi exemplifies sufism. To see life from such an enlightened peak often makes you happy about the little thing in life. Often a assauging remainder that things are not as bad as they look. 


“Be melting snow,Wash yourself of yourself.
These pains you feel are messengers,Listen to them..."
“Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon;
How much it can fill your room depends on its windows.”


But then all I have read are the transalated verses of Rumi, so practically what Coleman Barks thought of Rumi's poems and with poetry its the perspective that matters most. So the true intentions of Rumi's verses will remain shrouded from those who are not truly worthy.


“Don't flounder in the preambles of the past
Wounded with regrets; don't let autumnal
Nostalgia blind you to the sounds and scents
Of the present's Spring; you're a native of
The pellucid moment, make it infinite beyond
The curving snake of passing time and space.
Learn to die in the infinitely elusive moment....”

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