Rabbit Little is the first soft toy I ever owned. Got him a couple of weeks back. That’s right, as surprising as it may sound, I’ve never owned a soft toy before in all these years. The fact that my lunch mates at work thought I’d like a soft toy for my birthday almost made me laugh, but then, it made me happy too – I didn’t want to go down in history as The Girl Who Never Owned a Soft Toy. Now, it’s not really because my parents couldn’t afford me a soft toy that I never owned one – that sort of  Oliver Twist, David Copperfield stuff never actually happened. It’s just that I’ve never really been interested in them. Not that I grew up playing with cars, bikes or rambo toys either. I did have my share of barbies, kitchen sets, doll houses and other girlie toys but furry stuffed animals were never part of my play room. Even my parents and friends had never thought of getting me a soft toy in all the several birthdays that passed by. I don’t know why but I never complained. If you’re wondering what happened to the barbies, I never knew.  They probably went to live in the farm after their little arms got broken in little car accidents – the cars belonged to bro. 

It’s not that I don’t like animals in general. We did have two cats … named Puss. Yeah, both cats were named Puss. First one came and we named her Puss and later another one came, and since we couldn’t find a better name, we named him Puss as well. They were around the same time and they looked a lot alike too – white with black spots. Wouldn’t that be confusing, you might ask but no, somehow whenever anyone at home called out “Puss”, the right one always came. I never knew how but it was always the right one. If you’re wondering what happened to the cats, well, Puss ran away (she was female) and Puss died (he was male). Well, both were kittens then. So, don’t you get any crazy ideas!

I liked dogs too but then mom apparently went through some sort of heartbreak during her childhood when their family dog died and to spare herself and her kids another heartbreak, she decided we should never get a dog. There was also the fact that, with my parents working and we kids in school, no one would be at home during the day to feed the canine..but then, that fact never bothered me much anytime I cried to my parents for a dog. I probably never even knew then that dogs have to eat too. I probably figured they’d grow up just like that. On the matter of pets, I wouldn’t mind a pet bear either (as long as he is clean, keeps his nails (or claws, are they?) trimmed and doesn’t growl too much). But, stuffed animals were never in my line of liking.

Anyways, coming back to  Rabbit Little, he’s a cute little green and white bunny..with cute long ears. After my colleagues at work threatened that the rabbit may not be there the next day if I left him on my office desk, I brought him home and took him out of the box…after a week. He did make the house appear cheerful and all that, but after a couple days, I started feeling he was taking up too much space in the room. He was getting in the way all the time. When I want to make my bed, he’s there lying somewhere under the sheets. When I want to clean the room, he’s there on the floor busy picking up dust. When I want to sit, he’s there on the chair. And, when I want to untangle my laptop’s cable from the other cables, he’s lying there tangled in the mess. I was getting a little tired of throwing him around each time. And it made me feel bad too – he was a gift, after all. So, I came up with this ingenious idea of placing him at some place, where he wouldn’t get in my way and yet, be accessible to pinch-nose when I’m happy and punch-nose when I’m frustrated. I chose a nail on the wall, removed the basket of flowers that were hanging on it, and placed the bunny there. Because, I couldn’t find the right place to tie the string to keep him upright, I just tied it around his neck. Now my parents are worried. They’re wondering why I have a rabbit committing suicide in my room.  Bro suggested, rather helpfully, that I have always been a little weird and that I’ll  be fine :-/ I keep giving people such unintended impressions, for no fault of mine.

If you’re wondering how Rabbit Little is doing now, he’s perfectly fine. Thank you for asking. Still hanging but not quite dead yet.

..And the dream we were
conceived in
will reveal a joyful face.
And the world we
once believed in
will shine again in grace.

It’s so hard to believe the guy who created this beautiful song is no more. I’m not quite the kind of person to mourn for dead pop stars but this song comes very close to moving me to tears.

For many years in school, I’d thought this was another prayer song. That was when any song sung in the school assembly, whether or not it had a ‘I love you Jesus’ in it, was a prayer song to me. I loved the song then, and loved it all the more when I knew it came from the Micheal Jackson (or was it the other way round, I loved MJ for this song?). The song that featured in the first mixed tape that I made (which for some reason I hold close to my heart), the first song that I remember searching in google for, the song that plays in every playlist of mine and one that gets copied to every back up CD that I create. A song that’s seen my every mood; to me, it has always meant more than just another anti-war song.

While the world remembers Micheal Jackson as the Thriller, Bad and Dangerous guy, I’ve always known and loved him for ‘heal the world’; and now, miss him for it. May he rest in peace. For you and for me.

You can see the music video here. (youtube refuses to let me embed that one)

(P.S: If you’re wondering why this post comes about a week late when the rest of the world is done mourning, well, readers of this blog will know, be it raising a toast or paying tribute, it has always my blog policy  to rise to the occasion a tad late. That or I’m just very very lazy!)

(P.P.S: If you’re wondering why the above text is so tiny to read, well, fine print is generally not meant to be read and if you did read it, you’re probably  a geek and you’re probably wearing big glasses anyway)

Now, the unbelieving, skeptical cynic that you are, I know you’ll go to her blog to check if she really did tag me and  on seeing her blog protected, you will find it hard to believe that I was indeed tagged. Well, what can I say, you’ll just have to try and believe me. (Abirami, see, this is one of the million reasons why you should have your blog public).

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Throw a tantrum big enough to make him wish he was never born; failing which, just try to pretend he was never born and move on!

2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
I can’t decide which one I want to come true. Can I inky pinky ponky?

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
This guy in office who keeps tapping on my desk for no reason, every time he passes my cubicle.  I’d like to kick his butt and break his fingers too :-/ It’s all the more irritating when I’m concentrating on work, you know. Like now.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
First things first. Convert it to Rupees and then, hire someone to count it for me.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
If I happen to fall in love with him, he being my best friend would be an icing on the cake.  (Before you start wondering, no, it was just a theoretical answer)

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Depends on who of the two someones is more good-looking.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?
Forever. But while I wait, just make sure I don’t get bored, ok?!

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Secretly wish he’d get himself cloned soon.

9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? your gf/bf or an actress/actor?
Actor. Any single actor. Who would later become my bf and then husband, and would then leave me a large alimony amount when we get divorced.  (Well, since Qn  4 was hypothetical,  I’m just making my own plans for the billion dollars)

10. What takes you down the fastest?
Being snubbed by someone I care about. But then, I get myself up pretty soon too. After a lot of cribbing and whining, of course.

11. How do you see yourself at this time ten years down the line?
Well, definitely not sitting in office at 7PM, answering questions about my love-life.

12. What’s your fear?
Ok, here comes the big list (may be, I should categorize them, put them in alphabetical order and number them)
- Accidents. Particularly that, someone I know (and needless to say, care about) would be involved in one. The very thought freaks me out.
- Flying cockroaches (Seriously, why do these creepy creatures have to have wings?)
- Spiders (three or more legged)
- Being home alone at night (Strangely, being out alone in the dark doesn’t scare me so much)
- Lift doors. Well, lifts in general.
- *Kinda embarrassed* Electricity. (I have this strange premonition that I’m gonna die of an electric shock. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that my premonitions never come true)

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Awesome writer ( if only you could read her blog). And, I wish I’d gotten to know her better in person  when I had my chance.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?
Single with a rich boyfriend. (It’s nice to be pampered…without the hassles that marriage would bring, no?)

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Try to pick my thoughts from where I left them the previous night…

16. Would you give all in a relationship?
Mm..can I answer this later? Later as in a few decades later?

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
I’ll have to pick? Can’t I have them both? Why? Ok, the one who can make me laugh, even when I’m in a not-so-laughing mood.

18. Would you forgive and forget, no matter how horrible a thing someone has done?
Forgive, yes. Quite easily. Forget, No. Though, I sometimes wish it was the other way round.

19.Do you prefer being single or having a relationship?
Single.  And in a place where it’s OK to be single.

20. List 6 people to tag
One more time I tag my friends, I’m sure atleast one of them will find 20 creative ways to kill me. So, if you have a blog and if you think the tag is cool, and if you’re NOT my friend, consider yourself tagged.  And if you will do it, well, so sweet of you!

To the one person it may (actually, does) concern:

It’s OK not to comment when you don’t have anything to say.

If you think I’m obliged to answer your so called “queries”, get over it. I’m not.

The flashing ‘disclaimer’ in the side bar is there for a reason. Seriously, read it sometime.

Your comments have been deleted for the same reasons that you were “blocked” some months back.

Comment moderation is enabled. (Now, that’s a line I never thought I would say in my blog)

To all others:

Well..uh..Hi. Sorry to have made you read through that.

One day, as the little crow was flying around, she saw a glass jar. It was a normal looking jar, except that it did not appear to hold any water. She thought it was strange for all jars she’d seen so far held water, atleast a little bit. She flew down to look more closely at it. She noticed that it was a fine jar – not very ornate but well made. She treaded forward, a tad cautiously and sat on the brim of the jar, from where she could look at the world around her. Strangely, the world appeared more beautiful from the brim of the jar than it did when she was flying above.

She sat there for a long while, not really doing anything, when she suddenly noticed there indeed was some water sparkling in the jar. She was a little surprised that she hadn’t seen it all this while she was sitting there. The glistening water mesmerized her. Did I tell you, it was quite a bright and sunny day? Without thinking much, she picked a pebble from the ground – strangely the pebble wasn’t as heavy as she had expected it to be – and dropped it into the water. The ripples it created startled her for a moment. But then, it was beautiful too. She wondered if she should drop another pebble in. The water was glistening again in the sun, brighter than before. She told herself it wouldn’t matter whether the water ever reached the brim or not, she could fly away any moment she wanted to. She wasn’t so scared now. She picked a few more pebbles, one by one and dropped them into the jar, choosing first the lighter stones and then, the heavier. The water kept rising with each pebble, sparkling even more each time. Every now and then, she stopped, wondering if something could go wrong, for she always knew something could…but she liked picking the pebbles, she liked the sparkle in the water and she liked everything about the jar.

Soon, the jar was nearly filled with pebbles and the water rose very close to the brim. It scared the crow now for she didn’t know what would happen when the water reached the brim. She had no clue. Nevertheless, she kept dropping the pebbles in till she could see the water very nearly touching the brim. She picked the last pebble, and holding her breath, gingerly dropped it into the jar…

Suddenly, something happened. Something she had feared all along. The water started flowing down between the stones, towards the bottom of the jar and was quickly draining out. She could not entirely understand what went wrong but she realized somewhere along the way, while she was busy dropping the pebbles in, the jar had cracked. She was ready to pick more pebbles and drop them in if it could help, but it was too late and all too suddenly, over.

She sat there at the brim, feeling sad and wishing the jar had somehow not cracked, wishing she had never dropped that last pebble, wishing she had never picked any pebbles…wishing she had never stopped to look at the jar, wishing she had never seen the jar. The other crows urged her to fly away. ‘The river isn’t far away’, they said, ‘fly’!

But the little crow just sat there watching the jar -  now filled with stones, and the traces of water fast evaporating – hoping she would soon find the strength to fly…

Related Posts:

The road I took…
Don’t Look Back
The Little Things
The little red balloon

“Once upon a time, a thirsty crow noticed a huge jar and saw that, at the very bottom, there was a little water. For a long time the crow tried to spill the water out so she can drink some and quench her thirst. After exerting herself for some time in vain, she thought of an idea. She picked some pebbles lying around and tossed them into the jar. As the pebbles settled down at the bottom of the jar, the water rose and eventually, she was able to take a drink”

Now, you should know that it’s not everyday that a crow would do something this clever. The foxes never liked the crows and the swans were wary of them, but the cuckoos, they always made crows feel very stupid. So, naturally, our crow’s ingenuity in fetching water from the jar spread far and wide. Books were written about her, the principles on how the water rose were discussed, several debates were fought and our crow, eventually, went down in history as the crow that fetched water from the jar. The jar became significant too. People wondered what kind of jar it was, how much water it had when the pebbles were dropped, whether it being a pitcher made any difference and so on. Every physics textbook discussed the Water Jar principle in much detail.

Several generations later, though the water jar principle was still much discussed and taught in schools, life wasn’t so difficult for crows as it was earlier. There was water everywhere – in the streams, rivers, fountains, broken municipality pipes, everywhere – and crows never went thirsty. Yet, many crows still liked to drink water from the jars, dropping pebbles into them. Some did it for the fun of it, some said the water from the jar tasted better and some were just curious…

Now, there was this little crow, who flew around all by herself, drinking water from where ever she could get and stealing food from houses, whenever she was hungry. Life was as smooth as it could get and she was happy. She was bored some times, yet she wasn’t troubled. Every now and then, she would hear stories about how the other crows drop pebbles in jars to drink water. She never understood why anyone would want to do that – sit all day long at the brim of a jar, drop pebbles in and wait for the water to rise. The water might taste very good but she knew, for quite sensible she was, that anything could go wrong when dropping the pebbles in and you might never get the water. The jar might be too deep, one of the pebbles might break the jar or the water inside might just evaporate before you got to it. Nevertheless, she was amused by the stories she heard. She was always curious to know what happened to these crows. She was happy for the ones who succeeded in reaching the water, sad for the ones who failed and angry at the ones who broke the jars.

(Continued here)

1. Were you named after anyone?
Nope, but had they given me a choice, Roopa would have been the last name I’d have picked.

2. When was the last time you cried?
I don’t remember but those tear glands of mine are super active. They come to life every now and then for no reason.

3. Do you like your handwriting?
Sometimes yes. Mostly no.

4. What is your favorite lunch?
Anything that is not our cafeteria food.

5. Do you have kids?
No.

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you?
Yes. In fact, I’d prefer being my friend than being me.

7. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Not a lot. Just sometimes when I’m miffed and sometimes when I’m bored and sometimes when I’m happy…alright, a lot.

8. Do you still have your tonsils?
Yes.

9. Would you bungee jump?
Sure. Let me finish this suicide letter first.

10.What is your favorite cereal?
Cornflakes.

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
No.

13. What is your favorite ice cream?
Umm..I don’t quite have a preference. (Some people don’t. Now, stop giving me that look!)

14. What is the first thing you notice about people?
The way they are dressed..as in neatly, badly or carelessly.

15. Red or pink?
Red.

16. What is the least favorite thing about yourself?
My cribbing.

17. Who do you miss the most ?
As of now, reality.

18. Do you want everyone to send this back to you?
Yes but who is everyone here?

19. What color shoes are you wearing?
Not wearing shoes now.

20. What was the last thing you ate?
Dried dates.

21. What are you listening to right now?
Someone yelling in Kannada on the road. Oh u mean music? Nothing.

22. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Red. We ran out of red? Ok, black.

23. Favorite smells?
Petrol, fresh paint, anything lemony..and oh, the smell from the pages of a new book.

24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Bro.

25. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
That’s like asking a thief, ‘do you like the person whom you stole from?’.

26. Favorite sports to watch?
Er..

27. Hair colour?
Brownish black…or blackish brown. Whatever.

28. Eye color?
Brown.

29. Do you wear contacts?
No.

30. Favorite food?
One more question on food and I’ll scream! Alright, anything to do with baby corn.

31. Scary movies or happy endings?
Scary. But it had better end well.

32. Last movie you watched?
Don’t remember..

33. What color shirt are you wearing?
White.

34. Summer or winter?
Winter.

35. Hugs or kisses?
Both. The Hershey’s ones please. Thank you.

36. Favorite dessert?
Litchi with ice cream.

37. Most likely to respond?
To what?

38. Least likely to respond?
Er..

39. What book are you reading now?
Critical – Robin Cook.

40. What is on your mouse pad?
I don’t have a mouse pad.

41. What did you watch on tv last night?
News…that said my company was laying off people. The very few times I watch the news, I hear stuff like this :(

43. Rolling stones or beatles?
Will have to pick? Ok, Beatles.

44. What is the farthest you have been from home?
A state away.

45. Do you have a special talent?
Stuff like eating scorpions, lifting airplanes, etc? No.

46. Where were you born?
Coimbatore.

47. Whose answers are you looking forward to getting back?
Change this to “who are you going to tag?”.  Abirami, Prathiba, Shoba and Shriram. Hopefully, atleast one of them will do it.