The Girl with the Pink Umbrella

There she was, showing off her new pink umbrella. It wasn’t the prettiest or most fashionable umbrella around, but then, to her, it seemed as though it meant more than the world at that moment. Standing in one spot in the rain, as if just to hear the rain drops spatter on the umbrella. It was almost as though she was listening to some Beethoven or Mozart symphony. Her eyes were gleaming with joy, and her lips curved in a wide smile, mouth open, teeth showing, in absolute ecstasy. She had stood there for a few minutes now, without budging, or looking around. It was like there was absolutely nothing around her, and she was in some sort of world of her own, with only her umbrella and the rain. She wore a matching pink skirt as well, and white shoes which were probably drenched in the rain by now. But that didn’t seem to bother her either. Any one else would hate to have soggy feet, and would’ve run to a warm dry place. But not the girl with the pink umbrella.

And here I was staring at her and wondering what she found so wonderful. Even if it were a new umbrella, it didn’t look like it was worth so much joy and happiness. Had she never seen rain before? No, she looked about 12 years old, she must’ve seen rain before. Even if it were the rain that fascinated her so much, she wouldn’t be holding the umbrella to protect her from it now would she. She would much rather experience the rain without it. So that was probably not it…

Maybe she got some really good news and she suddenly thought about it and got lost in her thoughts. That’s a possibility. Something so amazing that you think about it, or look forward to it, that you don’t quite realize what’s happening around you for those moments. But it seemed to be happy for a bit too long for something like that, and its raining for gods sake, and her shoes are all soggy, you can’t continue the thought process with such distractions, seems almost impossible. So that is probably ruled out as well…

I had to ask her what this was all about, I couldn’t take it anymore. This had gone far enough, was she crazy??? So I approached her, in the pouring rain, I didn’t have an umbrella, and from my comfortable wooden seat in the local road side tea stall, I had to get drenched to find out what this girl was upto. By the time I took a few steps, I was drenched completely. For some strange reason, I chose to walk really slowly, maybe it was intrigue that kept me from walking any faster.

But when I was halfway there, she just turned and walked away. It didn’t seem like she had noticed me, or that she was walking away because of me, she just did. All this time, standing gleefully, she could’ve stood there longer, it was just my darn luck. I proceeded however to the very spot she was standing, just to see if I could figure out what was happening. But then…nothing, I was just getting really wet, and there really wasn’t anything special in that spot as well. So it probably was the umbrella then. Well anyway, I didn’t find the proper answer, I was quite disappointed, so I started heading back towards the tea stall.

I decided that since I was drenched anyway, I might as well walk home in the rain. So I proceeded to do the same. As I walked along I could see the girl with the pink umbrella in the distance. This time I walked a little faster, as I approached her, an elderly woman with an umbrella came, held the girls hand, and started walking towards a parked van. And while she did, I could see that the girl still had that beautiful smile, and absolute delight in her eyes which were still affixed on the umbrella.
I looked at the van, and on the side, it read “Mary’s school for mentally challenged kids”

And to think I thought to myself “was she crazy?”. How loosely we use that term…


The End

Decisions Decisions...

The dinosaur wanted a flower. But it couldn’t choose between a rose and a sunflower, it was a tough decision. What to do? It decided to ask the wise monkey who lived atop the sacred tree of Erpa. So the dinosaur plucked one rose and one sunflower and rushed to Erpa. On the way it met Dinku the porcupine. Dinku asked the dinosaur why it was in such a hurry. The dinosaur said “I cannot choose between the two flowers, so I am off to ask the wise mokey atop Erpa”.

Dinku said, “Why do you need someone wise for this, its upto you, pick the one you like”.

“But I am not able to decide, that’s why I am going to ask for help” said the dinosaur.

“Why don’t you just take one at random” said Dinku

“But what if I regret that decision later, I would then feel I made the wrong choice, and that I should’ve taken more effort to think about what to do and made the decision instead of just randomly picking one.”

“Wouldn’t you feel the same way if you regret it later after the wise monkey tells you what to do?” asked Dinku.

“Well atleast I would know it wasn’t my fault, and if the wise monkey preferred one over the other and I regret that decision, that would make me foolish. So I don’t think I would regret a decision made by the wise monkey”

“Well…suit yourself” muttered Dinku as he walked away.

So the dinosaur continued on towards Erpa. On the way it ran into Koku the Elephant. Koku wanted to know what was going on and the dinosaur explained the scenario.

“It’s simple” said Koku, “Take both, why is it that you should take only one, when you can have both, you have anyway plucked both of them, so if you throw one away and choose the other, the one you threw away is just a waste. Atleast if you had left it on the plant, it would’ve lasted longer, but once you have plucked it, you are better off keeping it while it lasts.”

“That does make sense, maybe I did make a mistake plucking both of them, I should’ve gone to the wise monkey first before plucking the flowers. But since I have already made that mistake, I do feel sorry for it, but I still need to know which one to pick” said the dinosaur.

“Well…in that case, give me the other one, I will be here when you get back” said Koku.

So the dinosaur continued towards Erpa, after a long walk, it finally got there and there atop the tree sat the wise monkey. The dinosaur spoke “ Oh wise one, I have a dilemma, I need your help. I have two flowers with me and I am not able to choose which one is better than the other”

“Which flowers do you have with you?”

“A rose and a sunflower”

“Hence you have made a decision to pick two flowers out of hundreds. What made you pick the rose and the sunflower, instead of any other flower?”

“I find these to be the most beautiful amongst all the flowers around”

“But do you feel they are equal in beauty”

“Yes, which is why I am not able to pick one”

“Then take neither” said the wise monkey calmly.

“What???” the dinosaur said shocked.

The wise monkey proceeded to explain “Since you find both to be equal in beauty, the moment you pick one over the other, you are going to feel that it is inferior to the other. This will happen irrespective of which one you pick. You will feel “Oh why didn’t I choose the other, maybe I made a mistake” Unless you are able to make up your mind about one of them, leave them both aside, take another flower, then you will find out which one you want.”

The dinosaur was confused, here it was with two flowers in its hand, and the wise monkey was telling it to take a flower of lesser beauty.

“And that is supposed to give me the answer???”

“Here you go, take this violet, and begone, you will find the answer to your question”

“Well” thought the dinosaur, “he is the wise monkey, and they don’t call him that for no reason, lets see what happens”

And so it took the violet, left the rose and sunflower at Erpa, and started heading back. As it went through the woods, staring at the violet, it started wondering, “ah, how wonderful it would’ve been to have a sunflower instead, the beautiful yellow color, the wonderful shape like a sun, all the bright yellow tiny little petals….wait a minute…I know what I want now”

And so it rushed back to Erpa and yelled out “Thanks oh wise one, I choose the sunflower” And on the way back it gave Koku the rose, and Dinku the violet, and went back home happy with a sunflower in its hands.

The End.



 

Misunderstanding

Up above in the sky there was a crow. It was flying. The crow had a mission, to reach the mount J in time to watch the pacifiso’s dance. The crow was running late. There was only one way to reach mount J on time. Use the short cut in Mount K. But mount K was too far away. So it didn’t make any sense. The crow then looked down and found out that its friend, the mongoose was running late as well. But since the mongoose could use the underground tunnel short cut, it would reach in time. Yes the crow thought, if only it could use the underground tunnel shortcut as well.

An idea. “I shall fly into the tunnel, reduce the speed and use my nightvision. But crows don’t have nightvision.Hmm…” So all it needed were some night vision goggles from old Al Vanji. Al Vanji was a war veteran, who had all sorts of war equipment lying around for emergency situations such as these. The crow went “KaaKha Kaakha” which was the code. Many a times confusion occurred with the movie title, but Al Vanji knew it was his good friend the crow. Vanji looked up into the sun to find crow. But the sun blinded him, and the crow saw him and thought that Vanji looked at it and turned away, almost like in disgust, and couldn’t stand the sight of it. Crow was hurt, its only friend who could help, couldn’t stand to even see it. So he started flying away.

Vanji however kept waiting, and crow never showed up! “What nonsense” said Vanji, “Uttering the code and not occurring is unacceptable. No more war equipment for Crow!”
Crow meanwhile was so upset, it decided to take revenge on Vanji. It turned direction again and head towards Al Vanji’s house. On reaching the house, it went to the side, and through the window it could see a home theater system with a mic attached to it. So it went to the mic and yelled KAAKAA into the mic, the sound was so loud and annoying that all the windows shattered and the house walls cracked. Al Vanji just froze and cudnt even move. And then crow said “Kaakakekaakaaakaaa…kkkkkkaa” Which meant “ Take that!!!” Vanji came back to his senses immediately and realized it was all a big misunderstanding and then immediately yelled back “No No, why?”. Crow heard this and before it could give logical explanation, wind blew too hard and it was pushed far away from Al’s house. Vanji saw that and felt that crow didn’t even respond to his senti yelling. So he had to take revenge. He went and conveyed his porta flying scooter and took off after crow.

Crow had just regained its balance, and then decided it was too far to Vanji’s place and wud apologize later. There was still time to make it to mount J if it flew in extra speed, using well…more energy. But meanwhile, Vanji caught up to crow and used a stick to whack crow on the head, Crow fell unconscious, in mid air, and started falling towards the ground. Vanji suddenly felt and urge to help. They had spent so many good times together, must it end this way. No! Vanji put the turbo on, and dove to rescue Crow. Crow was already half way down, getting close to the ground, Vanji knew there wasn’t much time, so he accelerated to super speed.



But it was too late, both of them fell to the ground, THUD!!!

The End