fledgling

I still remember that night. I was about to finish my first draft, my very first post. That second of exhilaration when I pressed 'publish' – a beautiful moment I enjoyed alone in the liquid silence of midnight. Three years have flown by since that night. That first day still feels like yesterday. I am so thankful for the numerous opportunities that have been thrown my way, which helped me grow as a writer and hone my skill. Thank you Fledgling for nurturing my naive self. Fledgling was my origin, the birthplace of my thoughts. Over time, Fledgling became a witness of my growing, refining writing and gave me space to grow and correct myself. Every post has been a milestone for me, and it's been overwhelming, to see how far we have come.  The passion writing ignited in me has kept me going for three years, through patches of self-doubt and frustration. Sometimes, dry spells made me question why I was on this journey and if it truly was worth the effort. Yet, every time, that...

  2020 has been testing the capabilities of mankind.  For some, it meant losing their jobs. For others, it broke relationships and snatched the lives of millions. For people like me, it was an interesting time that forced me to introspect and reap answers within. Since the beginning of the year, the troubling instances that followed - the pandemic, protests, and the global loss of faith in the future has left little hope and faith; rather, fear has taken its place. Is this a mental pandemic ? More and more people are losing their peace of mind, getting sucked into the toxic, hungry quicksand of the media. Many of us couldn't manage to get a good night's sleep without tossing and turning in our beds. Although the mental impact isn't obvious, it has been a tiny worm slowly chewing at our peace and well being. What an irony the past few months have been.  Mental health has definitely seen a dip this year, considering the distressing media consumption least spoken about, the ...

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls" These are lines penned by renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore, during a time of bloodshed and captivity. More than a century later, these lines still resonate with the average millennial, for we find ourselves in a crisis never met before. As Tagore says, we may be bound in our homes, but we are still free men and women in our hearts and minds. The virus may have locked us up in our homes for months, but it definitely hasn't strangled our minds with metal chains. In fact, it has provided plenty of food for thought about the future of our nations. We have still found a way to regain our lost freedom by letting our minds explore endlessly. As a citizen, freedom to me means being able to express my thoughts freely. This pandemic has managed to accomplish the impossible - breaking the vicious cycle of our hectic schedules. ...

I feel torn in different directions  My heart feels ripped into strands Just as the wounds began to heal, My soul and life amending the faults And pretend like one happy union The acid in my life Melts those those scars Are the cries of help and distress I hear Not from the battle I fight with Life, But from the quiet, muffled struggle within myself? Sometimes, those scars melt , And escape my eyelids in frustration. How long can I put up this grand act? That I am whole, complete, and unscathed While I struggle to keep my broken shards together? How long can I soothe these cracks in my soul, With balm, that when Life rains on, Melts and runs like my tears I feel my body and soul fighting each other, Something that hasn't ever seen peace And now the clashes are something I cannot explain. Where do I belong? In my safe, little cocoon Where only I exist? No, that suffocates me. In the world of family and people? No, it confuses me. Is this battle ever going to quieten? Where do I belo...

KD Karuppu Durai (2019) Cast : Mu. Ramasamy, Naga Vishal Director: Madhumitha Genre : Dramedy Synopsis : Karuppu Durai, an bedridden man nearing his eighties, wakes up from his coma and runs away from home, when he learns his family has been planning to perform ancient euthanasia on him. Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Puts a smile across your face" ‌This is a humorous, uplifting take on 'thalaikoothal', an ancient form of euthanasia that placed the shameless monopoly of precious life in the hands of the very children that one nurtures. How ironic, I feel, when one's children can decide when you breathe your last, when it was you who breathed life into their very bodies? The story starts with Karuppu Durai, an ill man in his eighties, lying in a coma. The film begins with an beautiful, rustic monologue of senile innocence in the raspy, mellow voice of Karuppu Durai. But, to wake this comatose man, all it takes is a whiff of his daughter's biryani to get his engines ...

The fire that lived in my pupil That fed on the salt of my tears, The taste of solitude in my tongue  Where my flesh and limbs mattered Even when the heavens melted upon, I didn’t feel a trickle. You are the flame that scars my heart  Yet your fingers gently caress and heal You flavour my soul with thunder And bless me with fierce heat Yet, I find you resting  In the folds of a quiet ripple  You watch me slip and falter Like a music note in the air  Yet catch me before I fall. You crush and shatter me Only to stick my fragments together again, With silver dusts of courage. You whisper in silence, That my every atom was carefully picked From the cosmic dust of the Universe Inside every cell lies a stellar secret  And you leave the keys in my palms You run in the streaks that race on my palm In the sickly sweet ichor of my veins You are the gentle rhythm of my life, Just you, and me.

Like a droplet of the ocean, That embraces its joys And continues its worldly wander, This too shall pass, Time goes on, And so does life. No matter how many times your heart bled in agony, Or shattered into a million shards like glass, The ache is not to remain forever. The tears that escape your eyelids, Will not cling to your eyes forever, Learn to relish the beauty in the lack of time Be it your victory, Or your failure, And both would be forgotten in moments. Imagine a world, Where one is tired of too much bliss, And another’s tears would never run dry. Rage through it, for you can Because one day, The storm will die,  And your heart will let the sunshine  Revive your blood and veins Let your heart embrace time, As it hopes to heal your scars. You will walk through it, With valour and style, Like a phoenix that just rose from its ashes, Like a lone lioness, stroked by the breeze Hungry to lap up the fierce rays of noon. This too shall pass.