Wednesday 15 July 2020

Relative Happiness!



Sniffling nose,
Eyes spilling tears…
Sometimes I have a good cry.
Opening my sluice gates of accumulated cares.
Suddenly While indulging and enjoying the cry
The “Theory of Relativity “dawns on me.
Fervently I pray to God quickly,
O!  please  don’t push me down Almighty
And make the present sad state seem best
A relatively happier one in the moment next,
...by a discord, ailment or a text
So quickly before he catches me
I smile through them  
Signaling HIM, “be unmindful of them..
for god sake if you  can’t  remedy them” 

You see! I certainly don’t want him to drive home
the SAdness theory of relativity by jove!





Monday 6 July 2020

sound on the roof!


Sound on the roof!
I snuggled into my bed, and no sooner my head touched the pillow ,I was in deep slumber. Suddenly I was wide awake! I looked in the direction of the  watch, it’s neon light flashed 3 a.m.it seemed I had just closed my eyes. So many hours since 10.30 pm!
There it was again!  I could hear the distinct sound of soft measured footsteps on the roof! In that span of few seconds my mind fed me with a million possibilities, one worse than the other, if I get down to write them it could take voluminous proportions! I realize what an amazing thing is the human mind…mind boggling! Well it was this sound indeed that had disturbed my subconscious mind.
 Somebody definitely was up there, I quickly slipped out of bed, wore my jacket, went downstairs .I drew away the blinds, through the spotlessly clean   French windows I could see  my well- lit wooden deck. It was such a pleasing sight to watch all my potted plants peacefully asleep. The grapevine twisted artistically on the far end of the deck making a natural boundary, the unripe grapes looking so picturesque, out of a Greek picture book! Nothing looked amiss.
I checked my CCTV footage, there moments ago –there was a family of Raccoons . They made such a pretty picture…Mom, with two cubs following her playfully, one dodging the other, smilingly clutching each other’s tails …it was like watching the discovery channel of the wild .i watched fascinated forgetting the noise? sound on the roof,? Predators?...what ?
I switched on the powerful light on the roof, it looked ethereal .I felt so proud of it ,the reason I had recently changed the tiles . it was the envy of my  neighbors, and a couple of them had followed suit. It is called the “Demonstration Effect”, I think. The crescent moon just above my roof looked like the celestial swing! I stretched and yawned ,shut  the windows and was glad everything was fine climbed the stairs and...a stray thought hit me .I had heard stories about raccoons  making attics their homes!
Aghast I decided to do a quick check. I opened the attic door, it was pitch dark in  there .I used  my flash light , three pairs of pools of light reflected from the far end !O No they had decided to park in mine !I shut the door and got off the footstool, my head whirling in calculations of unnecessary expenses…that I would’ve to incur this month. Such as repair s of the damaged roof, attic, and calling for the services of the city raccoon catcher to get them out…a whopping sum ! So much for the trip I had planned for my family outing to the beach…Sugar beach, Wasaga, the coming long weekend in the Caravan . The kids were so delighted so was my wife looking forward to the prospect of camping out for the long weekend. every day so many plans were chalked out and changed …had already got the tents…I could picture the disappointment on their faces which is so depressing!
I calmed my jangled nerves, ran a few options in my head, the easiest one was to light up the attic and play some music. These nocturnal creatures didn’t look the kinds to enjoy this. I painstakingly managed to put my music system with heavy duty speakers up in there and worked up some psychedelic lighting in the attic.
Tired I went downstairs , the clock showed a good two hours had gone by .I stepped out in the porch to witness the blessed daybreak in all its heavenly glory. The orange sun peeping through my apple tree! Quickly took a few pictures…I miss out on the dawn everyday..the pure gentle breeze, darting squirrels chirping birds in the orange light in the backdrop of blue skies with wispy white clouds …too good! Captured some great pictures of mine against the backdrop!
Exhausted after the ordeal, I showered-as the warm water cleaned my body ,it cleared my mind! Breakfast was ready, I ate the oatmeal with my hazel nut vanilla coffee, ruminating on tackling the problem at hand-all other work had receded in the recess of my mind.
I stepped out once again with the long stepladder to view the problem from the outside. There it was a little hole in between the main roof and the lower one. it looked like a work of art, so artfully clawed out. To me it looked too small for them to have got in. I decided to plug the hole with a large  sheet. The idea was to create a panic of being trapped in . I went inside and put on a psychedelic pandemonium  ,lights, blaring jazz music on , I think I put Pink Floyd’s Time  in a loop .
The raccoons didn’t much care for it and must’ve realized they were trapped as the hole was blocked.
Excited I went out and climbed the ladder slowly pulled the never ending sheet, and waited with  baited breath. Sure enough my surmise was right. ..they had had enough of the jing bang deafening music and blinding bright  lights .They scampered out as if someone was after their lives. It was so comical. I was so absorbed in the whole thing that I was just saved by the skin of my teeth , I ducked in time the onslaught of  the mother, who angrily snapped in my face. I nearly fell off.
I saw them   leave , not  happy. I was happy and relieved ,money saved is money earned…as I was reversing the car from the garage my son shouted, ”where  to Dad?’” I asked him to hop in and on the way to Hard -ware store to get material for repairs for the hole..i related my tale all he said was ,”why didn’t you wake me up!”
To make good his disappointment, we together shortlisted  the motorboat we’d take along, surfing equipment and the Caravan .Excitement rife for the coming long weekend we drove home.