Quotidian Tales

...their faceless identities empowering the subtle more than the substantial… Their tours were not actual but virtual! I t's been a ‘trying’ time for most of us. I mean in both parts of speech. Exhausting and experimental. I was losing a semblance to my preferred self and succumbing mostly to domestic drudgery and at times to depression and distance. Then one evening, almost a month ago while I was talking to my brother (referred to as Big B going forward), he introduced me to a WhatsApp group. Initially, I was not really keen on joining it as it sounded like something unusual and not-really-heard-of-before. After all, a Taurean to the core, I am stubbornly resistant to change and take a while to accept the unconventional. ‘National Park Challenge,’ the name by which the group goes, is an international group consisting of members with shared interests, to say the least. My first thought...it's just a group of fitness aficionados. Then working around it, I tried to f...

A deep breath... a strong effort to swallow the lump... Eyes squeezed hard to let out the last drops that clump... Misty rays of light... Flickered beyond closed eyes... Caressing gentle kisses... By the soothing night air... ...Another breath... And her tomorrows started there...! By: Shreya Basu © Quotidian Tales

I just stop by... not questioning why... An esthesis in this air I breathe... Teasing my senses deep... Or screaming whispers from the past... A plead to keep... Echoes from a place ... I know not where... I don't recognize them... and yet something we share... They make me smile... They make me quiver... Like tunes of an unknown song... But a melody I knew forever... Embracing me... Only to drift away again... Like a bounty souvenir... too immense for me to contain... I watch these thoughts until they trail into the dusk... And there was something pulling me back... I hear these chirps... Of emotions and words waiting for me to pick them up... I smile to myself... A thought crosses my mind... The divine is kind... Coz being cognizant of words ... Was probably God's way... And as I chain them together... I realize thatz the only way I make some thoughts and people stay...!! By: Shreya Basu © Quotidian Tales

The ROYALE WEDLOCK ---!! Whose food comes from 'Leyshon' And the dress is split A-line. HYPE , that is what gives direction. Guidance quaffs tonight For those who idly lay. Well, it’s a change, the flight, That hauls millions at bay!! Why this sudden drift? The commotion is what desires. Nah… It’s the strongest tattle spreading Like wildest dry bush-fire . “Nowales journey back”. The craze, the bias in theatres. 13 nominations and 5 awards And still leaning for features. Why this phone misses feed? Abyss with she who sent. I need myself enlightened Ahead of every nook… each bent. The country won 3 gold. Olympic is in motion. And then the worst coverage That says our best man’s down. The night was sleepless. Wait for the next recovery. #ashtags tend, our best man And then a sturdy win. That's TRENDY ! Each night a new movement. An ecstatic course, that builds on virtual networks . Roars and bellows around , Until a new trend rocks. ...

She woke up feeling something wrong... 'Maybe I feel too much'... She thought... Or maybe I harp on the wrong ones all along... She tried to overlap her insides with the exuberance outside... But she failed to latch... There was a weird mismatch... Maybe she was a little too sensitive... The feelings were a little paralyzing... A little gnawing... A little igniting... And a lot perplexing... But the emptiness was a little obvious... Is emptiness really empty? Or is it the completeness crying out for fulfilment... roaring acoustically... She tried to outline the human-shaped emptiness inside her... Trying to sense the aura... Was it really inside her... Or an abstract outside her world... Chasing her all-over... Was it really the shape of a human?... She agreed to disagree... She dived deeper and said... 'Maybe these are the unhealed parts of me'......!! By: Shreya Basu © Quotidian Tales

The indefatigable human spirit can conquer any opponent. You just need to believe in it. S he is my Mummy. She is a Mummy to many more. She is not my biological mother. And that makes the relationship beautiful and unique. She is a cancer warrior. She knows that cancer will defeat her soon. Any day, any moment. But until that moment comes, she will fight it with dignity and grace. Looking at her medical condition, I feel even breath has fallen in love with her. And just wants to keep her alive. It's indeed difficult to defeat someone with so much love and positivity. She is alive, throbbing and thrusting. Embracing every minute with the intensity of conquering it. And everything she does is nothing short of a celebration. Be it her love for nature or her desire to dance in the rain. Seriously, she becomes a kid when she sees the skies open up! She gets drenched to the bones whenever she gets a chance to do so. I vividly remember how I had pulled her leg on her s...

The desire to cross paths ceased... She realized the presence was parallel all along... Doting faces encircled her... But it's not where she truly belonged... Struggling in the darkness of the exile... she made every effort to reconcile... But her soul was wrapped in someplace else... In a distant world... less complex... There was restlessness like a bothersome child... Yearning for an escape... A grand beguile... And then it dawned... she had it all wrong... The presence had indeed been parallel all along... She gave up the strife... Conceived the cosmic design... 'Self-realization'... is the other name of 'life' By: Shreya Basu © Quotidian Tales

As I witness the grey dawn break out into streaks of gold... I smell the bitter-sweet air and let my heart unfold... I wonder if it fuses our worlds or does it cruelly divide... As I slip into the day and you into night... The mighty fireball cleaving our skies... And still the misty air...stirs up thoughts very fond... I bask in this tranquillity...my daily dose of dawn... By: Shreya Basu © Quotidian Tales

The mind’s eye can yank you from reality into an alternate world in seconds. T he mind is a magician. It harbours the special but mysterious power of imagination. When it gets to work, it makes us see more than what could possibly meet the eye. A stage show with the world’s finest conjurer will pale in comparison. Take, for example, the stunning photo here and what my mind made of it. To borrow the name Netflix gives the alternate reality in its runaway hit, Stranger Things , I went ‘upside down’ with it. As my mind’s eye zoomed in on the photograph, I was left staring at the vast blue sky. One fine line was scoring it -- a jet plane -- piercing through the light, fluffy clouds that punctuated the brilliant blue. And then...in the blink of an eye, I was on that plane. No more gazing up through the photographer’s lens but looking down. I saw the calm ocean, peeking from under the clouds. A tiny speed boat grazed the water like a flying fish. I was completely ‘upside do...

There is something unexplainably beautiful about walking around with a broken soul... Like the entire existence offering you help to become whole... A little bit of everything comes and tries to fill the crater... From all the whispers in the air... to the music in the ripples of water... So much of the magic has so far been unnoticed... They say it's my lowest... but am grateful... this is the best I have seen... By: Shreya Basu © Quotidian Tales

Never exhaust yourself through waiting... The truth is in crystal view... All you own is the present moment... Nothing else ever belonged to you... Time neither flies nor sleeps... Can't hurry or hasten... Not for yours to keep... It is just shaped by your mind and lens... An illusionary accomplice... Calling for your soulful attention... Never biased nor clear malice... Be awed by the red and the amber... And not just wait for the colour green... The small spaces too make up life... There is a lot happening in-between... Not just the yearning or the end that defines us... But the way we grow through it... Permit the wait to craft you... And patiently garner the benefits...!! By: Shreya Basu © Quotidian Tales

A dream has the power to become real. Nourish it to inhabit in it. I believe in dreams. It is a great way to utilize your mind when you are sleeping. And the best way to push yourself when you are awake. Our dreams have the potential to create our reality. At least that’s what most of us like to believe. In our dreams, we see things happening. In our awakened state, we endeavor to transform those pleasant happenings into our reality. But sadly enough, when it comes to implementing those vignettes of our dreams into our conscious life, it becomes very complex and tiring. Mostly unattainable and almost unreal. The harsh realities of the matrix of our existence come into play. Those which had never been a part of our dreams. You can’t give up on it till you get to live it….Knowingly or unknowingly they give us the purpose to move on. A dire consequence. Our bodies and minds are quickly overwhelmed. First, due to the sheer frustration of not being able to fulfill our dreams...

A blog was born to share the quotidian tales of life. Tales of your lives and ours. R andomness struck us as we bonded, not on the first day of the primary, junior or even senior school for that matter, but in the 11th grade with only a mere one and a half years left to step out of our second homes. Two shabby, squeaking benches, one behind the other, was the space that metamorphosed our experiences from the general to the distinctive. From sharing lunchboxes to sharing lives, all extempores coagulated to form that envious rainbow, which, sadly enough, disappeared once the conducive conditions were lost. Hardly did we realise how time raced us through its course as we shifted from pulling each other’s legs, mimicking teachers, enjoying moments of unadulterated fun to writing absurdities and absolutes in our precious slam books. Sparks produced sparkles, and once in a while, we paused, pondered and decided to proceed….We ventured to discuss and disclose the quotidian tale...