A window of hope
Bubastis
The God Ra was started taking out his rays of blessings for the day. And it’s another golden evening in the southeastern Nile delta.
The mud bricks, papyrus homes are struggled to keep the heat outside, it’s hot and makes everything so dry inside.
Femi came running to the open walled courtyard of his home. Somebody else joined him, sensed his presence, with a slow elegant walk. A beautiful cat of bronze colour with solid black spots all over. She drew an eight, walking through the gap in between his legs, pressing her fur against them. At the moment one more beauty came running there. She was ruddy in color. She did the same as the first one. It was jealousy reflecting in her sky blue eyes. But Femi didn’t care to look at them.
‘Mut, I’m going to the temple.’ he said
The lady who was working in the kitchen area turned around and said.
‘I kept some figs and sweet bread for you over there, have it and go. ‘
‘No mut. I have to go now, my friends are waiting there.’
‘Do you want to stay as a three year old forever or do you want grow bigger and become a Pharaoh ?!’
‘I want to become a Pharaoh’
‘Then you should have it’
‘No mut. I’m already late. And it’s going to get dark soon. I’ll come back early and have it.’
‘Alright then. Go have fun ‘
She made a glance at the cats sitting on the courtyard floor looking at Femi.
‘So what about them ? If you are going then, who’ll be there to play with Mona and Heba’
‘I don’t want to play with them, they are doing nasty things all the time’
She laughed at that and said ‘But they like you very much. Anyway you better get going now’
He ran towards the main door.
Heba and Mona was watching them talking and now giving a confused look, like they didn’t understand a single word they said. And started purring.
He stopped at the door, like he suddenly remembered something and came back.
‘Or I’ll take some and have it on my way there’
‘Good boy. And don’t forget to take some for your friends too’ his mother said.
He grabbed some figs and a sweet bread and left.
Outside it was still hot and the wind was shuffling the sand once a while. The temple of Bastet seemed calm as usual despite the children playing and the usual visitors came for the evening prayers. The Cat Goddess Bastet considered as the eye of Ra, the Sun god. She keeping her watch for the evil from this very place, so no wonder the place is so calm and happy.
Femi came running all the way to the peristyle courtyard of the temple. He seemed desperate and looking around for someone. He continued walking through the courtyard eyeing in all direction. He reached the monumental gate of the temple. Kept his hands over the gate where the scenes from the Heb Sed festival of Pharaoh Osorkon-2 is depicted. And looked back to the courtyard and scanned once again to make sure he didn’t miss who he was looking for. Disappointed. With a gloomy face he entered through the gate. He saw something just behind the gate. Suddenly his face turned bright and pure joy is visible.
He said ‘Lah, I was looking for you. Where were you ?!’
He didn’t get any reply. He kneeled down to touch the cat in front of him. Before his hands reaches her fur, she moved.
‘Hey you leaving ?!’
The cat didn’t respond to that too and continued walking
‘Ok then, I’ll follow you. We can walk and talk’
She kept walking towards the west side of the temple. He just followed her watching her narcissistic walk. They reached the collonade. The low angle rays of the evening sun making the place mesmerizing. The bright orange paint is spilled all over the floor and the columns making uniform gray strokes over that. He noticed that when Lah is in between the columns, her silver fur is gleaming orange and when she comes behind the coloumns, it’s glowing white. He thought she is a walking sun as well as moon simultaneously, and said.
‘I know you don’t belongs to anyone and have any friends’
She didn’t seems to listen him. She kept walking and he too.
‘I think we can be friends, and you can come to my home. We can play together’
She stopped and made a glance at him and continued walking.
‘You can come with me once, if you didn’t like the place you can leave, I don’t mind’
Lah abruptly stopped. Her ears are slightly forward, pupils are dilated and the tail curved like a question mark. He got her attention, she is curious and in a playful mood.
He kneeled down facing her and asked
‘So, what do you say ?!’
Suddenly her mood swinged. She changed her mind, turned around and started walking in the west direction. By the time they reached a Hypostyle hall. Where the beautiful papyrus and hathor columns are watching, how pathetically Femi is trying to get Lah’s attention.
‘I almost forgot this’ he said and walked past her, kneeled down before her. And put some figs on the floor for her. She looked at it carefully and sniffed it. And turned her gaze on him.
‘Go on have it, that’s for you’
She stayed like that, gazing at him
‘Oh you don’t like it. Then have this, this is great’
He broke the bread and put it in front of her. She sniffed it once and licked it. And she kept her right paw on it and started eating it. Once she finished eating that piece, he put the other half too. She ate that too.
Now they are at the far west end of the temple where the holy of the holies is located.
After finishing that she licked her lips and paw clean.
‘ I think you liked it. Everybody likes it, my mother always makes it that better. You want more of that, come with me to my home.’
And he made a hand gesture asking her to come with him. And raised to his feet.
Suddenly her ears are straight upright, and tucked the tail between the legs. The very next moment she started running and jumped out through the west end exit of the temple and ran away.
It’s a starry night but still warm atmosphere. Femi was lying on his back watching the stars on the rooftop of his house. His mother came climbing the stairs calling his name aloud. But he didn’t respond. She is on the top now, with a sigh she said.
‘God, there he is’
‘Oh my little Faraoh, why are you not responding to my calls. I was searching for you everywhere and started worrying.’
He kept his silence.
‘What happened sweetheart ? Why are you crying ?’
‘Nothing mut’ he said and started sobbing.
‘What is bothering you my kid. Tell to your mut. You know your mut have solution for all your worries’
And she wiped his tears with one end of the cloth she’s wearing.
‘ It’s Lah mut. She don’t want to play with me. She abandoned me completely today’
‘ Wait. Wait, first tell me who is this Lah ?’
‘ Lah is a cat I used to meet at the temple.’
‘So what happened today?’
‘ When I met her for the first time she didn’t even look at me. Even when I’m trying to get close to her she’d run away from me. Slowly slowly things were improving between us. Today we walked together inside the temple and we had a conversation, not really, I talked to her she listened. Anyway it was nice talking to her. And I gave her the figs and bread. She didn’t like the figs, but she ate the full bread and she was happy. She was almost ready to come to our home and play with me. But, I don’t know what happened, she suddenly ran away from me. Like I said I left abandoned’
His mother couldn’t control her laugh. A small giggle got out of her mouth. But she did close her mouth with both the hands and swallowed it. And said.
‘My dear son Femi. You know what does your name means ?’
‘No’ he said
‘It means love. And you are full of unadulterated love, that’s why your feelings easily get hurts. But you should know something, that, you can be true to your feelings and needs, and you can love someone as much as you can. But you should give them the space and respect their choice. For you to understand this, I’ll tell you one thing but don’t feel sad about it. Mona and Heba really likes you and wanted to play with you. But what are you doing to them most of the times, you were abandoning them’
‘ But they are..’ Even before he complete his words she started
‘ Listen I’m not blaming you or anything. We are all doing the same thing you do and there’s nothing wrong about it. Because we’re all bounded by the the choices we make. So do your part honestly and whole heartedly, the rest is in their hands. Hope for the good, but don’t expect anything. I don’t know how much you understand, I just said. But I know you’ll, eventually. That’s life.’
Femi looking at his mother, seems puzzled. But looks like all his worries are gone and he is light hearted now.
‘So you know where did she go ?’
‘ Mut, that’s the interesting part in this’
‘ Tell me, then. I’m curious’
‘ She ran away and jumped out through the west end door of the temple. So I also ran to that door to see where she is going. What I see there was hundreds of cats, may be thousands, I don’t know, I’m not sure. I didn’t know that this much cats were here in our Bubastis. And guess what, even Mona and Heba was also there. I was terrified, but I still wanted to go there and see what all these cats are doing there. But then I saw one girl standing there. She was surrounded by all these cats.’
‘Girl !, Goddess Bastet ?!’ His mother asked.
‘No mut. She was not looking like Bastet. She was not looks like she is from Bubastis, I can tell you she is definitely not from our land. She was tall and short haired, in a strange wardrobe, I haven’t seen before.’
‘ What she was doing with all those cats ?!’
‘It looked like they were having a meeting there. Her lips were closed but somehow she is communicating with them. And the cats were not meowing, they were one by one responding to her by purring.’
By then his mother lost interest in his story. It’s visible in her body language. She might be thinking that he is talking about one of his dreams or his imaginations.
‘ Interesting. Let’s go have dinner now. And we’ll count the stars as we did yesterday’
In those hot days people in Bubastis sleep on their rooftops for much better sleep. After the dinner they slept peacefully, under the starry roof. Believing that Goddess Bastet is keeping her eye on them.
Thanks for reading ❤️. You made my day and coming days. This story will continue.
Aviation
The clear blue mouthed my ‘ready to taxi’
Sun lit on the Ray-Ban as I’m airborne
Slowly drifted from the cockpit to the vast ether
Had my moments of aviation for a stint
Forecast is deceitful for an outcast one
The dense cloud started flowing over my wings
Jerking the board, heart is buckled up and damp
Windshield blurred and a chill inside out
Still drifting, but in an uncertain sky
Offspring
You’re so naive, that I’m not a friend or foe
So vulnerable to trust and seek help
I know, I’m not well enough to strengthen your wings
I can give you a hand, that you may or may not be need
So inadequate, your turf is so high and impossible
My grounds are so limited and meagre
Though I’ll watch out for you from here
You’ll keep tear apart the horizons and broaden your sky
My being will no longer in your consciousness
Rowing back
So far I went, don’t know how long
That far, I’m being pulled to a fall
A thunderstorm woke me from a romance
But don’t remember rowing all this way
All I could recover is this mangroves on both the sides
The green was so tempting and mystery that I value
Then I’m blinded by the mist and lost for a while
From this midst of uncertain current
All I could hear is my tribe’s calling
Strength I have remain is to row to my roots
Next dusk I’ll be hand in hand with them, with the fishing net.
Door
The light spill of light
Catches the breath and sight
Broadening the narrow paths
And opens to let it through
The cynosure that lacked,
For the swivel of happiness
There’ll be no light
Note: Before you start reading this, read ‘Light years apart’, because it’s a continuation of that short. Thank you ❤️
Prakashan is still moving, though not a bit moved on from his past. The 93 billion spherical surface was unimaginably bigger for him of size, just of subatomic. After the loss of Shiny, he thought this will be his salvation, this greatest solitude one can ever ask for. After a few light years in that path, he got dense by his thoughts and emotions. No matter how hard he tried, he was not able to contain that whole, because all of it meant to be shared with someone, inorder to feel the pain and pleasure that holds.
He started to slightly drift from his path and his intensity of light was coming down. Solitude sucked him hard.
After completing a whole lot of light years of this solo travel, he is still moving towards the destiny. It’s not that he was alone the whole time, he was in company of many, now and then. And he enjoyed a lot. But that’s not enough, there is something inside him that’s not yet shared, meant to be shared with the right person. Though he doesn’t know what exactly is that. One thing he’ll figure out when there’ll be that synchronised zigzag motion and the intensity that matches for an eye that looks up for an awe.
A few more light years after some twists and turns, Prakshan got excited. His heart starts to pound harder and faster, like he is going to witness another big bang. Even though he is in a uniform motion, he felt like his momentum increasing by every nano seconds. He is approaching RA 14h 29m 43s | Dec -62° 40′ 46″, a few kilometres more to go. A few light years back, he last seen Shiny at this very place. He knows, it’s almost impossible that he is going to meet Shiny again there. But his consciousness is not allowing him to acknowledge that. Somewhere in his belief part of brain is strongly recommend that, he is going to meet her again at that same spot. That’s why miraculously he got this opportunity to cross the same point again in this life span. Nobody ever heard of any of the photons ever crossed a certain point more than once. May be this statistics made him superstitious about him meeting her again at RA 14h 29m 43s | Dec -62° 40′ 46″.
Prakshan reached RA 14h 29m 43s | Dec -62° 40′ 46″, the place which has a different gravity for him. Even if the entire universe is moving out, he thinks still he can move in. He moves in a vigorous light speed, but took a detailed 360° gaze like a stoner after taking a perfect hit. He is searching for the same zigzag pattern and the same intensity of light, once he experienced and could not get over ever. Everything is going blur and then darkness invaded his vision. No more photons around him. He is not moving, no more zigzag motion, no more light, everything is so still and it is a complete vacuum now. That was the final moments of Prakashan. Prakash is now actually became a nothing. RA 14h 29m 43s | Dec -62° 40′ 46″ is the surface of a dying star which burned and made a marvelous sky for the people of earth who looks up from the dark hemisphere.
“Syam what are you doing ? Why are you staring at that server. Tashy ma’am is asking for you, go meet her.”
I took my eyes off from the LED lights on the layer 3 network switch and turned around. Havildar Rinku Sharma was standing behind me.
“The LED here is not glowing now. That star is dead”
“What ?!”
“Oh, nothing sir, got a call from Delhi. They’re not getting the throughput.”
“No issues, you can check that later. First go meet her. How was the sand storm yesterday, scared or what ?!”
“Not anymore sir. Now I’m used to it”
“Yeah that’s my boy. It’s Jaisalmer you have no other choice. Everytime when the storm comes, we were concerned about you because you’re all alone in that guest room.”
“Well, don’t have to sir. It’s the 3rd month, and I’m not the same person who came here 3 months back, both the storm and this isolation had some effect on me, I guess.”
“I can see that. Like that saying, ‘the man who comes out of the storm is not the same man’.”
“Hey had your breakfast ?!” Rinku sir continued
“Nop”
“It’s your favourite, today, gheer-puri. Go meet ma’am first and then have the breakfast.”
I walked out of the server room and continued through the hallway, reminds me the dark paths every now and then comes in everyone’s life. It was early in the morning and nobody cared to turn on the light. I continued walking through that darkness, till the light at the door with a plate ‘Officer in Command’.
Once again thank you for reading this. You are the reason I’m writing. Inspire me to write more and better ❤️. Let there be more stars in the darkness we can stare and dream 🌠.
Stray
I was looking around for a space
Stepped into the yearning white space
Hoping the combing fingers on my fur
Patting and caressing down our walking alley
Apparent was my being in that white bright
Yet nobody cared more than a glance
Street wasn’t this harsh, that it’s only just shed some fur and scarred me
But this abandonment burns my bare skin
All those miserable strays refuge this filthy street of blackness
Barking and startling the passers-by
But, I won’t survive this chilling darkness
My discontent never been my rage
I’ll choose to stay in this gray
The space I really meant to be
Obscure, thus in solitude
In harmony with my being as a stray
The silence
The string is weary weak
One more strum, it’s done
No more music, the painful silence
It’s all started from the quietness
I can pull back my finger
But the silence is inevitable
Black King 