Tears of the Earth

The day dawned bright

But soon turned gloomy

Big black clouds loomed

And the forecast was rainy

People walked with umbrellas

Over their heads

As torrents of water hit them

Was it rain?

Or was it the Earth shedding tears?

For her long lost loves-the trees

The flowers and the insects

Was she mourning the lack of fresh air

And choking on carbon monoxide

Wondering when it was that the decay started?

She remembered days of sunshine

With birds and small animals in droves

She remembered a time without motor cars

When carbon footprints were unknown

I wonder, will she ever stop crying?

Or will downpours like this happen daily?

Where did we go wrong

In our quest to attain glories?

The Bilge Master

The Dancing Girl-A Guest Post by My Mother

It gives me great pleasure to welcome my mother back to the blog. She is a far better writer than I am and helped me out by writing this short story. Give it up for my mother people!

The Bilge Master

 It had been a scorching day. The relentless sun had punished the city and its surrounds as never before. But now the ochre-ish ball of fire had slowly been immersed into the pool of hellfire underneath the horizon, where  it was going to recharge its power all night for the next day. The moon had been waxing for more than 13 days now and its timid face would soon spread its soothing balm and grant a little respite, or so she hoped. She came out of the room and took in a lungful of air. It was dry and dusty. Was a slight breeze blowing, or was it just her longing that made her skin quiver? She waited for a while before trying out her bare feet on the exposed courtyard and found that it was just about cool enough to hop across and climb up to the terrace above. She spread the torn robe that she had brought with her on the north-east corner and looked around her. A ghostly sight indeed! She could make out the lightless dwellings and streets which had once reflected the light of hundreds of lamps. Nor were there any sounds or smells of people gathered around their hearths. The empty brick kilns were no longer aglow and in the distance the granary and the bath were also on the way to being unearthly becoming mausoleums.

She turned around to the south to look with despairing eyes at the fruitless fields where there used to be lush green plantations of crops that were now just covered with dust. The forests too had disappeared leaving only a few stumps shrivelled and as she knew to her cost, too brittle to be used even to feed the ovens. There were no more smells but that of death and desolation all around. The River was flowing a long way off now, having changed its course and leaving only a deep furrow with crumbling banks in its place. Everyone had packed up and moved with it and she wondered for the umpteenth time why she hadn't accompanied them. There was no logical, coherent reason of her having remained; just a foolish sentiment of a life spent in the city with its perfectly planned houses, roads and streets, runny symmetrically at right angles to each other. She had come to it a mere child and its concise perfection and smoothly running orderly life, with plenty everywhere had given her a thrill of admiration and pride to be part of it all. As she had grown into womanhood, her beauty had been extolled all over the city and she had learned to dance with grace and beauty from her masters appointed for her by none other than the Lordly One. She had danced and entertained and won accolades of all. On feast days, the Lordly One  had graced the occasion only to watch her dance. He was mighty and strong with his large eyes, crispy curling mane of hair and beard, regal and proud. She had lost her heart to him like scores of others.

He had ordained his best artist to capture her in stone to keep with him always and had also so oft looked upon her with expressions of tenderness and love. She had been the envy of the womenfolk of the city and had reveled in it. But the Lordly One was gone now, far away from this world to the valley of flowers where people went after leaving their earthly bonds. Her bubble of happiness had burst and as the funeral rites progressed amidst loud lamentations, she had stayed in this house in her room, her youth and beauty gone forever. So when everybody left she had been cajoled over and over again to go with them but she had not been able to do so, but had remained grieving at His passing even after so much time had elapsed. She was old now and she knew that she would not have to endure this life for much longer. So why go? Why start life afresh with a benumbed mind and time worn body?

They had left her enough baked grain cakes and water to last for a month or so. She had hardly eaten for the last eight days since the last of the denizens had left. She had rationed her water just wetting her lips and only drinking when thirst made her reach the point of desperation. As she stood on the terrace, looking upon the silvery lighted surrounds, she suddenly knew tonight would be the night. Before the cruel sun rose again she too would join Him in the valley of flowers. The people had gone to find life along the changed course of the River and would be far too busy setting up life once more to remember Him or her for long. She took a deep lungful of air and lay down on the robe and wondered about the meaning of life and how time, the passing of which eradicated all that had been and only progressed to all that would be. She was getting colder and colder, her limbs powerless to move and the last thought before her last breath was that of His face looking at her fondly.

She was not to know that several centuries later, this abandoned city would be found, quite by accident and her stone figurine, the Lordly One's statuette, all the artifacts, the streets, the great baths and the granary would be excavated and fill the world by wonder of such an early civilization with such scientific precision. The writing on the everyday seals  would not be deciphered even by the most sophisticated computers and so remain a mystery. The banks of the Indus would be dotted with such civilizations and be discovered too and she would have been very happy to know that she would be very aptly named "The Dancing Girl", and her beauty immortalized forever

Italy Seen Through My Eyes- A Guest Post by Amanda Burkhalter

The amazing Amanda Burkhalter stopped by with a travel blog today!  Enjoy reading about her trip to Italy and welcome her warmly to the blog people!

The Bilge Master

Ciao! I'm Amanda and it's my pleasure to share my Italian adventures with you all! I am a Dreamer to the core, a wife to the most amazing man, a Mamma to the sweetest, smartest little boy. I'm from the Orlando area and I'm also a photographer. I am a lover of all the things coffee, football (the real football, not that American junk), art, and travel.

Part 1- Gaeta

Growing up, I heard countless stories of my parent's ventures abroad. My Mom was a Military brat and my Dad was in the Navy. My Mom has lived all over the United States and in several different counties, my parents met in Panama and after they were married they while moved to Italy while my Dad was stationed there for 8 years. Though my parents returned to the States shortly before I was born, I joke that I grew up Italian in the States. My parents continued with many of the Italian habits and traditions they picked up while living in the beautiful country.

All my life I dreamed of making my own trip to Italy. Finally, for my 30^th birthday the dream became a reality. One of my very best friends, M, was able to accompany me on my adventure.

My main goal for our trip was to get to one of the cities my parents lived in. We decided to stay in Rome for the week and travel down to Gaeta, a beautiful and quaint seaside resort town where my parents lived for four years. We flew into Madrid from the States and then over to Rome. We got settled into our beautiful hotel, had dinner, got to sleep, and early the next morning boarded a train to Formia. From Formia we had a short bus ride to Gaeta.

In Gaeta, we could already tell that this town did not have the same touristy feel that Rome did. Which was simply amazing. This was authentic Italy. Between the both of our language abilities, we were able to find a beautiful restaurant, had the most amazing meal I have ever tasted, and then M found the beach for me! I was able to put my feet into the Mediterranean Sea! It was cold. But, because we were there in May, season had not started yet, so we have it nearly to ourselves.

That day was one that I will never forget. The way the cold water washed over my feet. The taste of the very best food I ever tasted, mozzarella di bufala. Ordering two espressos from a sea side cafe and sipping it overlooking the bay. In that city my heart found peace, it was a place where the mountains met the sea and my soul was at home.

Part 2- Rome

Rome, the Eternal City.

Rome was amazing. It is a fast passed city with an old world feel. I'm not sure there is anywhere else in the world like it. It's a strange and beautiful mix of old world and new.

My favorite things about Rome were the Colosseum and the Forum. Being surrendered by that History was amazing. Walking up from the Subway and seeing the Colosseum come into view was breath-taking. I literally started to tear up. The sheer size of it is astounding. The Colosseum is huge. It is hard to imagine that it was built in 70-80 AD. And the Forum was awesome, it's like being into another time.

I would also recommend checking out the Spanish Steps, The Bocca Della Verita, The Trevi Fountain, and the Open Air Markets, Campo de Fiori was my favorite. It was so fun to wonder around seeing all the fresh fruits and flowers. The colors were something else.

The Vatican was simply amazing. Seeing the the Sistine Chapel in person was a once in a life-time experience. If possible, I recommend getting the earliest ticket to the museum that they have, something in the 8 am or 9 am hour and rush back to the Sistine Chapel to experience it while it's not packed to the brim. Then come back and explore the rest of the museum at your leisure.

Another amazing spot in Rome is Trastevere. It's where the locals live. It's one of most traditional neighborhoods in Rome. It has charming alleyways paved with cobblestone are a perfect place to wander.

One last tip for traveling in Rome, if the gelato looks fluffy and is covered in cookies and treats, it's not the real deal. Find a Gelateria that has their gelato in massive vats. That's the real deal and the best gelato ever. I recommend the coffee flavored.

Part 3- Florence

Florence was simply lovely. So full of art and life. Art is everywhere you turn. Street artists making masterpieces right on the sidewalk and the Cathedral of Florence... the myriad of museums. The Uffizi and the Galleria dell'accademia di Firenze to name a couple. 

Florence is a great place to wander to see what you can find. We spent the day in the Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Pizza della Repubblica.

The Cathedral was beautiful inside and out. It's the third largest church in the world and it has so much history.

The Uffizi was my favorite! We found all the Teenage Mutent Ninja Turtles, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo! But, Botticelli was probably my favorite of the day. I studied Birth of Venus and Primavera extensively while in college. It was amazing to see both of those works in person.

Another great find in Florence was the Piazza della Repubblica and the Antique Carousel of the Picci Family. The Carousel was beautiful. Something out of a dream for sure.

While I was in Italy, I really learned about myself. It was a such an eye-opening and breath-taking experience. I would recommend for anyone to travel, if you can make your dream trip come true, do it! If you dream trip is unreachable right now, take a smaller trip... go somewhere you've never been, meet new people. Explore and wander. Do something good for your soul.

Thanks for reading about my experiences in Italy, I've really enjoyed sharing with you!
And remember... “Not all those who wander are lost.”

​

Art

Let us stand under this lighted space

And stare at the wall together

Let us imagine it to be a work of art

A paintbrush across canvas

Let us etch our ideas onto the wall

Under the light

Let us dance into the Louvre

Hand in hand and stare

At all the canvases there

And then let us be strangers once again

And drift slowly but steadily apart

Until one day, one of us stares at a canvas

And wonders where their better half got to

Let a stranger's art bring us back together

And remind us of the joy we felt in spending our lives together

Amidst all the art this world has to offer

The Bilge Master

Thoughts on the Ending of Tom and Jerry

My childhood was spent playing in the mud after a storm, reading fairy tales and fantasy, listening to Abba and watching Tom and Jerry or The Roadrunner Show. Pokemon came much later, in my pre teen years.

I want to talk about Tom and Jerry today. I want to tell you how a child's heart was captured by a cat chasing a mouse about a house ad infinitum. Tom and Jerry's antics, sometimes with a bird or a duck filled the child with so much happiness that he thought he would burst. I remember the child chortling as Tom slammed headfirst into a door while Jerry hid in the nearby mouse hole. I remember the first time I laid eyes on them and I remember being in my twenties and laughing fondly at the memories Tom and Jerry had given to me.

All of these memories are the reason why I was shocked to learn how the series ended. The wise Internet said that Tom and Jerry both threw themselves in front of a train. I couldn't believe that, I wouldn't believe that. But then my curiosity got the better of me and I logged on to the net and Googled Tom and Jerry Final Episode and (SPOILER ALERT) found out that it was true-that Tom and Jerry do indeed commit suicide by sitting on train tracks while we hear the whistle of an oncoming train as the scene fades to the credits.

I would like to pause here and ask a very simple one word question to the creators of Tom and Jerry; and that question is- Why?

Why would you end a children's cartoon in such a macabre way? There was no need for this. You could have just gone on giving us the same of what we loved. A cat and a mouse chasing each other around a house sufficed to fill millions of small hearts with joy. Why take that joy, sucker punch it and leave a gaping hole where it was?

Why kill Tom and Jerry and that too for such a stupid reason?

The last episode shows Tom falling for a cat and having a rival who stays one step ahead of him. If tom buys a bottle of perfume, his rival buys her a truck full of perfume. We see Tom squander his savings and his life insurance and we see him take on debt in the lower millions just to please some randomly introduced cat. She isn't even fleshed out like the other characters in the series. She's a one hit wonder. Meanwhile, Jerry narrates all this in a sad voice, filled with concern over Tom. But the producers and creators were not satisfied with creating such a dark episode as the finale of an iconic children's story. They took it to the next level by showing Jerry's girlfriend cheating on him with another mouse.

Let me pause here one more time and ask another question- Why make a children's cartoon so adult? Which parents would allow their children to watch such an episode? What were you guys even thinking? Scratch that-what drugs were you on when you made this episode? Is this how we are supposed to see Tom and Jerry end? Couldn't you have had the decency to just show them chasing each other in their middle age and left it at that?

Indecent. That is what sums up my feelings in a nutshell. I find this episode to be indecent and it has hurt me to watch it. I do not know why you took such a wonderful series and perverted it to this.

 I just feel very sad. The child in me is crying.

The Bilge Master

Thoughts on Friendship

When I was a child, I had no friends. I didn't know what they were or why they were important. My parents were my first friends . They taught me how to walk, how to eat, how to use the toilets and a lot more in the values section.

Then I joined school and sat at a bench with other human beings who were of my age. It was a revelation. I found people like me, facing the same math problem together. Back then one plus one (not the cellphone) equals two was fascinating. But I still didn't have friends. I saw some faces everyday in the bus to school and during my classes. That was all.

I must digress here and say that I am an introvert (I had no idea what being an introvert was about until a person elder to me did a psychology test on me) and I don't open up easily. I have excellent communication skills and i can get along with people fine, just not enough to call them my friends. The number of friends I have can be counted on my fingertips.

But they are each special.

Friendship is a funny thing. It challenges existing norms and channels positivity. Friendship taught me that you don't need to be related by blood in order to be brothers. It taught me that sometimes friends are more than just people, they're a support system wrapped around the tree that is your life in a non parasitic and more of a symbiotic way. I cannot imagine a world where I have no friends. I need them to survive, they are like the air I breathe.

My friends have been there for me through thick and thin. I remember calling one up when my grandmother died. He was at the ICU with a friend of his whose mother had to be freak admitted. He left that situation and reached my location within fifteen minutes because I had called him. I confided in a friend when the depression I suffered from was high and he counselled me on the subway back home and told me over the course of four stations (talking non stop) that I had to find ways to be happy even in the face of unhappiness. He said to me, "If someone gives you 100 reasons to be unhappy, find 101 reasons to be happy".  Wisdom I try to use to this day, sometimes succeeding and other times failing.

Another friend of mine is someone I had a small crush on. She used to study with me in school but we met outside of it when we were both adults. She's a wonderful person, fun to talk to, serious when the occasion demands, happy-go-lucky and a chunk of pure platinum. We talk everyday, be it on WhatsApp or on the phone.

But friendship is also about letting people go. It's about evolving, knowing that some friend of yours is toxic to your life and cutting them out. I have met people who have called me their friend and then slandered me. I have met a person who was inseperable, until he joined college and did a total U-turn on me, turning into a nasty and pompous human being. But, were it not for such people, I would never have developed the strength to sever ties and move on with my life, living it with peace as opposed to rage.

The thing is that friendship is a good teacher. It tells you to go for something you want to go for, reassuring you that your support system will be there. It's easy to take friends for granted and I think a little bit of that is healthy because it brings people closer, but too much of it can fracture the relationship. It is very important that you respect the boundaries of your friends and not encroach upon them, even if the boundaries are very few and far between.

Friendship is a two way street guys, but its rewards are many. I can today say that for each harm causing friend in my life, I have one friend who heals me. For each toxic relationship, I have two fruitful ones. That's what friendship is about. Finding people you care about, knowing they care about you too and finding a niche to express yourself in.

The Bilge Master

A Monologue

This is a monologue.

 I woke up this morning feeling like I was buried under ten thousand pounds of earth. I opened my eyes, and sat up in bed. My chest hurt, my eyes were moist and my heart was beating nineteen to the dozen. The bastard was back. He's still there after all this time has passed.

I could not face work, so I stayed at home. I thought I'd bury myself in a book and that would help make it go away. I sought refuge in Thomas Hardy. It worked for a bit but it wasn't enough.  So I tried to sleep and in my dreams there came the phantasms- people coming to kill me, armed to the teeth; a tall, fat man shouting his head off at me, visions of me destroying things I loved and I woke up some time ago, shaking.

I need release. That is why I am writing this, hoping it helps to get the thing out of me. It's worked in the past and it should work again. I am trying to stay positive, telling myself that this too shall pass and in time it will. Thankfully I have a holiday tomorrow so I can rest up and get back on my feet.

Here's hoping!

The Bilge Master