Monday, May 31, 2010

The Gods play scrabble


So how do the Gods chalk out millions of different life times, millions of different stories for each individual? Or is it just an old formula rehashed time and again with a few subplots thrown in for variety? That had been the standard procedure with the result that the Gods had plenty of free time and were consequently bored. Among the more conventional pastimes was Scrabble which an enterprising God had once learnt from a pearly white (their euphemism, coz the Gods where the whitest and there was no better white), while he was waiting for an admit.

Consequently a cruel streak in them, for Gods have to be cruel to be effective, which mortal would remember them otherwise, made them adopt this device for designing new lifetimes ,a collaborative process now (the Wise One was very keen on collaboration. He called it a buzz word since so many gods talking at once reminded one of angry bees) .The possibilities were immense thwarted only by vocabulary but the Gods were quick learners.
The first word had to signify the beginning, usually words like creation, inception or idea (for the metaphysically inclined) were used, but this one started with “Baby”, made by the practical motherly-looking-old-lady-god. The other Gods groaned at this because it severely limited their possibilities but an eager-fresh-faced-goddess made Beauty.

“So the fairy godmother has done her work again”, drawled a sarcastic no-nonsense-looking-God and he added wit and the Wise One added intelligence.
 This was met with protests since these stories tended to be much drabber than the others and the Gods liked their fun as much as anyone as and more than most. But the Wise One just smiled and said that the fates had willed it at which Fortune threw him a dirty look. This new system meant a lot of implementation work for her and she was feeling the strain.
“Ok time to start the story now”, said the Creative-God also the god of mayhem, thunderstorms and the likes.  “I am tired of the same old rigmarole, it curbs my creative instincts”. And he took the lonely Y which was free and made Y-E-T-I.
“But that’s not even a word! They don't exist “, snapped the starry-eyed eager-fresh- faced-goddess. “I was going to use it for a youthful flame”, she sighed.
“Yea like you ever have any ideas. Of course they exist, I personally supervised the look, and all this mystery only adds to their glamour”, snapped back the Creative-God.
The Wise One had to intervene. “We agreed that this would be a normal life”, he said acidly . I am done with the rock band groupie crap”, he added wincing , the memories of the last story were clearly still fresh.
So the Creative-God made yak and settled down with a smirk.

Fortune firmly put holiday and then school. She was glad to get her turn in as early as this. At least they steered clear of the gangs and the cults, which were quite a rage with the Creative-God right now. The Al-Qaeda was it? It seemed to be the theme of the season! No this would be a good life, she was firm, if they could just get by without Lucifer arriving.
Lucifer ambled in crooning, “So you think you can tell heaven from hell”. “Well you can”, snapped the Wise-One.
“Relax it’s a song”, said Lucifer grinning. “Chap called Pink Floyd”.
“It’s not a chap you moron”, said the Creative-God.
“How do they know”, said the old-motherly-one suspiciously. “If you ask me these bands are getting too smug for their own good. Why I heard something like a “stairway to heaven”, gave me a turn I must say. “How would he know how to work the switch?”
“It’s a metaphor nanny”, said Creative one indulgently. “You know a symbolic way of expressing”.
” I don’t hold with metaphors”, sniffed the nanny. “Stick to the plain facts. What if we started calling death, the end of all hope?”
She laughed wheezily at her own wit. Death and Hope were constantly in a state of strife and everyone knew who won in the end!
The story was unfolding before them. A small fresh faced girl, laughing on her way to school, a youthful teenager holidaying in Tibet (heh heh, laughed Lucifer. He was the only one who got the Creative-God’s jokes. They called it a satire).
The wise one made college and work since the Creative-God hand had been hovering close to the D and R . “Well then let’s make it love”, he said angrily “and heartbreak yes heartbreak”.
The sound of her sobs smote the heart of the eager-fresh-faced goddess, who promptly made marriage, and tried to explain to the elderly one that “a nice cup of tea “would not work both in the game and otherwise.
“Depression!” screamed Lucifer, in his element now, and the eager-fresh-faced goddess made a trip to Europe and old-lady-god made babies.
Creative-God however made I-P-A-D. “It’s a chance” he said to his bewildered audience. “But I will take it”.
This was met with deep suspicion.
“Whatever is this? The other day u were talking about some IPod and now this?” The IPod is the biggest revolution since the invention of the wheel”, said the Creative God.
“Bigger than Let there be light,  countered the Wise One his eyebrows raised.
“ Oh come of it”, snapped Lucifer. "The guy is pretty much a demi-god there”, he said, as Jesus blanched. “Just a figure of speech”, he added hastily.
"Well let’s not do grandchildren and all that!”, said the no-nonsense-God as her saw old-lady-god hands hovering dangerously towards "crib". I thought she would be doing something worthwhile?"
“Let’s make her write a book”, suggested Creative.
“Careful”, snapped Fortune. “The last one produced “The Secret”, having people believe they could bend me at will. You know I could never refuse a little attention and a girl is helpless in the face of devotion” (“Girl!” cackled Fresh face). “This one had me working overtime for weeks.”

“No not that one”, said Wise one quickly. More on the lines of HP since her life has been devoid of great love or tragedy to produce anything groundbreaking”.
“Oh that can be remedied”, said Lucifer quickly and death looked hopeful (Hope flinched).
“No”, said the Wise One, “It’s getting late. Let’s call it a day”. “Hee hee”, wheezed the old one who always got a pun late. “Now who fancies a game of chess?” said the Wise One. “I feel like there is a war coming on”……….

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

very interesting, seems like someone we know.. do we?? very well written, i think the god which put in the write should be heard a lot more and maybe then the secret just might work a bit

Anonymous said...

You should give heed to the plight of linguistically challenged people on this earth.

After multiple attempts to read and and understand this post, I have developed suicidal tendency.

Now, the question that comes to my mind is why I read your blog? Well, I have exactly the same reasons as others have. Let me explain it with a simple questions.

You are a beautiful girl.
You write blogs.
All the boys read blogs written by pretty girls.

i hope to understand your next post. Until then, I would try to improve my English.

~ Raka (chacha chaudhari wala)

Puneet's Desk said...

Intriguing Post......Makes you stop and ponder over whether we are God's channel for amusement...at least I have my faith intact......I am sure God is not running an experimental design house........but yes! the way the scrabble game was laid out as a collaborative competition amongst them, one would wonder if destiny has an upper hand...after all it is said that' it is all destined to happen and we are merely playing our parts'....as the wise one said that 'the fates had willed it'....

Then might arise a question that of the fates will it every time as they please then why do we bother putting up efforts. A possible explanation for this could be that God lays the cuisines in front of us. We have to go ahead and pick the food we want to eat. Whether we are allowed to do so or even there fate intervenes is a subject matter requiring intense research....:P

Also, makes me remind of the movie 'Troy' where Achilles says that 'The Gods envy us because we are mortals and any moment could be our last.Everything is beautiful for us because we know that we are doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now and we will never be here again.' Is that the reason that many times when we try to make the ends meet, the ends get moved?

Could this 'envy' be the reason for the scrabble and the chess?....I rest my case.

PS- Apologies for being over analytical.But, a superb post. Worth your time.

Abhinav said...

The audience cries for Part – II, the sequel. My personal recommendation to the Gods, they must play a game of “Bluff”.

There’s a lot of truth in your post we could have a bit of bluff, deceit and lies in the sequel.

Anonymous said...

dont worry about the God's game..worry about your own actions. you are the one who is responsible for your actions.stop passing buck and you should be OK.Dont hide who you are what you like and what you do.no matter what people says I like Rakhi Sawant , becaz she has the courage to tell world who she is. We think God is playing all this, really!! God gave us the option to ride Ferrari or to ride Thunderbolt (sorry I chance upon your FB page and came to this blog :)) you chose Thuderbolt, now you want Ferrari and blame God for playing games as why he didnt give you the option of Ferrari before.We can fool people but not our FATE. What has to happen will happen no matter what.So stop the disguise and be brave enough to face yourself. becaz reallty will come out sooner or later and then the FATE will fall upon you.

BTW i am also one crazy follower of Pretty GIRLS and always fall on them. You can increase the count ..

-- One crazy follower of the Girls/Ladies

Anonymous said...

dont fall prey, define your own fate. no matter how far you have gone, as soon as you come to know about the reality and say its ugly, then accept it as your fate and just destroy/crush the whole game. Atlast I know thats what I will do. There is no point carrying a dirt bag.

Unknown said...

phd is not a word either. I wonder how that got in. Pretty impressive stuff. how do u get these ideas . start publishing .

Naveen said...

Namrata,

My apologies...after spending all my grey cells, I could not comprehend it. May be this blog could be used as RC for folks who score like 800:)..Could you please help interpret it?

Namrata said...

Its pretty interesting..As soon as I read the first paragraph, I confess I was mesmerized with the thought itself...and as I read further, the satire and the wit became clear..
I have often wondered how God creates so many distinct faces of humans..with the same set of eyes, nose, mouth,ears and a facial area..so many faces of all generations..yet each so different that u can instantly tell one frm the other..yet I never thought about Gods creations in this light...

The inclusion of the Pink Foloyd song- stairway to heaven was v witty, as well as the IPOD-IPAD..the deiction of gods goddesses represnting Fortune, Hope, Death, Wise one.etc was OK..

I feel the flow of the satire could have been more refined..it came in spurts and jumped hastily from one to another..also scrabble words like ipad,college,work,love made by the Gods made us wanting for more words..as in, may be the heavy satire deflected the main intent of the post..loved the satire on HP..some clarity missing,,as in why make the public feel like they din understand something..

Namrata said...

i am really eager to understand this post..its growing on me
its like red wine and rehman's songs..an acquired taste...
the best things abt ur post is u understand something new each time u read...i love reading ur posts again n again..i have read the post on the shiny diamond and the beautiful brook and the funny faces u make while u click snaps...many many times...i loves 'the weighty issues' post the best..i laugh every time i read it..

Nikhilesh said...

Rigveda talks of gods very much in the same spirit. Some people unnecessarily take it too seriously. :) That's why I drag them in whenever I choose to write.

I guess you'd love to read this and this, if you've already not.

Puneet Yadav said...

This post reminds me of the old IIT JEE papers where one had to wait for the model solutions to comprehend the questions.

Baby, Beauty, Wit, Intelligence, Holiday, School, College, Work, Love, Heartbreak, Depression, Marriage, Writing a Book---- Great flow of plan/ events amidst the riddles.Almost builds a sketch!

Is the use of word Grandchildren incidental or it points to the relations between the various characters?

Overall- an impressive, provocative and challenging piece of work :) And as someone else has put earlier, I'm sure there must have been opportunites available or would come innumerable 'inspiteof' the Gods' handiwork. One has to catch them as they come....Best :)

Anonymous said...

yes you are..

Anonymous said...

Impressive. You definitely have learnt the art of both popular and serious writing. And this is the combination of both. It was creative. I would have liked more if it ended up with some idea/ the start of the next story line/ thought .Coming to publishing, i think you need some refinement then you are good to go. Writing is the art of balancing between your individuality and the readers expectation. You don't want to be too much individualistic (journals is the good place for it) and you don't want to write keeping only readers in mind because then you are just chetan bhagat and sooner or later you will be lost in your own writing in other words by looking at just the writing people should be able to recognize the writer and should be able to relate. You have it and so you just need to hone this part. The other thing that i want to comment on is the use of words. You have good command on words and you know that. But what you would want people to remember is the subject matter and thats what writer aim for. Big words are like your strengths and you would want to save it for the appropriate time and place. Then they would be effective as you would want. Remember the great statements the most popular statements are and always will be wired through the use of very simple words. Ghalib might have written the most complex arabic verses but when you think of him you would say "Na hota main to kya hota". On the same note use the word power very judiciously. The analogy that i can think of is pendant in the necklace. If placed at the write place looks beautiful and conveying. Next point that i would like to comment on is the flow. Your writing has it but still worth commenting. Your writing should be like the flow of dark chocolate in which reader just gets carried away and lost in the story. But hold on you dont want your reader to get just too cozy. So there comes the power of words. The point you realize that it is getting too smooth place the speed braker with the use of some heavy words. And let the reader realize the power of you as a writer. you dont want your reader to think, ahh i could have written this. Lastly , just be what you are. Read others make opinions but dont get influenced by their style. Establish your own.

Lastly, you are pretty and beautiful. But then when you write you are only a writer. Period :)! Boast your gift only to certain people :p! Remember the words of gulzar "naam gum jaayega , chehra ye badal jaayega, meri awaz hi pehchan hai... gar yaad rahe.."

-Vivek

Anonymous said...

waiting for your next post, its long time due, go ahead, give us a good one ;)

Adi S. said...

a wry eye on the world indeed. yr posts make for interesting readings and your writing does have a power of narrative. enjoyd reading yr blog

Adi S. said...

a wry eye on the world :)
you have a power of the narrative, enjoyed reading your blog!

Anonymous said...

very well planned post..loved the HP part..was it well intended..looked very planned, was some future projection in mind? :)..if this was base script then plan should role out or has it already?..keep wrtitng and keep your followers cheesy :D

SUNIL MISHRA said...

I neither have a habit nor do i get time to read too much but incidentally i came across your blog and went through "The Gods play scrabble" and some others. They are interesting and reflects the depth of your thoughts, honesty and straightforwardness. Keep Writing. Good Luck!

Saroj Mishra said...

its often pain which brings us closer to the thought of God. God doesn't play, or may be does.

But at the end of the day try to be a better person. Thats what godliness is.

Anonymous said...

sayad god ludo khelta hain hamare saath