Obituary (From a Thankful Child)

As a child, I had a number of different hobbies. I would play with water. I would gaze fascinated at fire and I would try (and fail) to slice tomatoes. Apart from this, I would spend time with my mother and father and it is because of that that I found new friends very early in my life- English music and movies.

I was sung to sleep with songs like The Beatles’ Hey Jude or Abba’s Take a Chance on Me. Then, I grew up slightly, and I was introduced to bands like The Eagles and Guns and Roses by a friend who was older than me called Soumya Basu. Then, a few years short of teenage, in walked Harry Potter and his world of magic. However, I must state for the record that I had read and completed Tolkien’s Rings saga before having read Potter.

My childhood consisted of these elements. It consisted of getting up in the morning and switching on some music. It consisted of a healthy hate of Professor Snape, which suddenly turned to love and it consisted of going around doing my work in the real world, while at the same time being in a different, private sanctum which existed in my head and my head alone. In this world, I would slay Balrogs with Gandalf, I would learn History of Magic with Harry and I would throw my limbs about in random gyration to music by The Eagles, Cream, Eric Clapton and The Beatles.

This morning, I learnt that Glenn Frey of The Eagles has passed away. 

In the past few days, the world has lost Alan Rickman, David Bowie and now Glenn Frey. Most of us must probably be reading Harry Potter again, or watching Rickman as Snape or as a boss who falls for his secretary (Love Actually) and listening to The Eagles or The Man Who Sold the World. It’s upsetting and very saddening that a new year has started off on a note such as this.

Then again, these people aren’t really gone are they? They continue to live in our memories, in your childhood and in mine. Their music will swim in our heads and their portrayals discussed in company over a cup of hot cocoa. They will return every time you turn up the volume on your mp3 player or television.

That’s the thing about legends. They live on.

Goodbye David, Alan and Glenn. Thank you for making my childhood amazing. I will never forget you.

The Bilge Master

On the Scale of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

I’m going to talk about a book series that’s very close to my heart and it’s called The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I first read these books when I was 10, in a black one-volume edition and I fell in love with the tale and the setting and all the myriad characters.

I’ve often heard it said that the sheer scale of Middle Earth and Lord of the Rings is staggering and that makes people lose interest in the novels and throw them down unfinished. A few of my friends have told me this, as have a few people I met on the street. Now, why is Middle Earth so huge? Why is the scale of three books so immense? I’m going to try and put forward my logic behind the scale of this novel.

For those of you not familiar with LOTR, here is a brief summary of the plot. Sauron is a dark lord who crafts three rings- One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them and one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. A Hobbit, called Bilbo Baggins manages to find the One Ring to Rule Them All and his nephew Frodo is tasked with destroying the Ring by a wizard named Gandalf the Grey. The Ruling Ring is basically the source of all of Sauron’s power and by destroying it, Sauron can never come back. In addition to this, the entire poem reads thus

“Three Rings for the Elven Kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf Lords in their halls of stone

Nine for mortal men doomed to die

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie”

However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Lord of the Rings is a universe brimming with content.  The history of the various locations in Middle Earth, which is the fictional continent where all this is happening is in itself something majestic. We meet creatures such as Orcs in mines, we meet giant Eagles led by Gwaiihir the Wind Lord. We also come across a man who can turn into a bear at will called Beorn and a man called Tom Bombadil who is a sort of sage with magical powers. Tom likes to sing, as does his wife Goldberry.

We are taken on a journey across mountains to the Elvish city of Rivendell, where a council meets to decide how best to dispose of the Ring. We meet a man called Strider whose destiny lies elsewhere. We meet the creature Gollum, corrupted by the Ring’s power whose role in the books is pivotal. Telling you why is a major plot spoiler so if you want to know, please try reading this amazing saga.  

Middle Earth has trolls. It has giants. It has Dwarves and Men and Hobbits and giant spiders like Sheoleb.  It has Barrow Wights and Ringwraiths. It has the Nazgul, the nine mortal men doomed to die as stated in the poem, who are also called The Black Riders and their king, The Witch King of Angmar. LOTR also has a fortress called Isengard, where Saruman the White reigned and it has the forest of Fangorn home to Ents. Ents are Tree People.

Now answer me one question. Isn’t this a lot to take in? If your answer is yes, also consider the question of scale that I posed earlier. LOTR had to have a very large scale because it’s narrative demanded a huge scale.

To further cement this point, let us consider Harry Potter. Harry Potter is set in a fictional world, just as LOTR is. Harry Potter is however confined to Hogwarts for a long period of its narrative. Yes, we do see the Ministry of Magic and Gringotts. But they’re just a bank and a Parliament. Further, the idea of the Horcruxes reminds me of the Ring of Power. Storing a piece of oneself in an object. That’s exactly what Sauron did.

If you explore the nuances of some fantasy works, you’ll find a lot of them have drawn from concepts shown in LOTR. This fact, once again proves that the scale of LOTR had to be immense. I have not mentioned the extended universe and the two books Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion. Those two books, should you read them give you a look into the history of Middle Earth.

Then again, perhaps it is possible that in an era of increasing miniaturization and books that reflect the progress mankind has made, something set in medieval times like LOTR may be unpopular amongst the youth. However, the youth will have heard of something called the Shire, a species called Hobbits and Sauron. 

Thus, I think I’ll vouchsafe this statement- the beauty of a book like Lord of the Rings has managed to expand beyond the confines of text and has made its way into the hearts of young and old people, across generations. I believe we can attribute this to the scale of the book.

Yes, we have had great fantasy writing. We have read Harry Potter, we have read Cornelia Funke and Paolini. We have enjoyed cinematic adaptations of their work. However, before platform nine-and-three-quarters, before Saphira and Eragon and Durza and before Inkheart, there was the One Ring to Rule Them All.

To sum up, yes The Lord of the Rings is a massive text and yes it does seem to go on. I accept it can be a little tedious to read at times, but consider the galaxy of content that is stored in just three books. Lord of the Rings invites you on a journey. It breaks your heart, it makes you gasp with awe and in my case, it made me fall in love with books at the tender age of 10. Lord of the Rings is massive, because it’s meant to be massive. LOTR is basically a behemoth in the fantasy genre. A friend of mine even went so far as to say that if 20 is an epic, LOTR is a 16.

I rest my case.

The Bilge Master

An Opinion On Life After Death or The Afterlife

I wonder if you’ve wondered

About the afterlife

Does it exist?

Is it a paradise filled with wonders?

Or a personal hell, crafted as per your wish?

Is it different for those who’ve been buried?

And those we’ve cremated?

Or is the afterlife an incomplete death?

Like stillborn babies who didn’t take their first breath

I know demons are real                                                

For they haunt me and my friends

What if the afterlife is filled with demons?

And wicked things that know not rest?

What if the afterlife kills your demons?

And leaves you with blank pages

On which you write to your loved ones

Both living and dead

Is the afterlife an aftermath?

Of a life that your body has abandoned, but your soul wishes to have

Or maybe it’s a figment of my imagination

Brought on by too much wine?

Still, who am I hurting with my private thinking

Of what it may be like

However I doubt I’d see eye to eye

With an afterlife when I die

The Bilge Master

Lipstick Blues

I

That shade she wore

Was called Relentlessly Red

She wore it to work

She wore it to a party

She wore it when she dumped me

And went off somewhere else

And sometimes I turn the light off

To sit and smoke in silence

And in that silence I remember

What it was like

To date Relentlessly Red

II

I have a shade of lipstick

In my handbag

Which I do not use

But, it is not for show

This shade of lipstick called Relentlessly Red

I wore it relentlessly once

Like its name suggests,

I wore it to parties

And to our first date

I was wearing it

When he kissed me for the last time

And I walked away

I suppose you could say

I was dating Relentlessly Red

The Bilge Master

Relentlessly Red is a shade of lipstick by MAC. The poem got inspired by it's name. Yes, it's a poem about lipstick.

Hello 2016! Let's Dance

A famous singer, nicknamed Ol’ Blue Eyes one sang a song, in which he observed thus

“Life is like the seasons,

After winter comes the spring,

So I’ll keep this smile awhile,

And see what tomorrow brings”

The song is a sad one, yet it gives you hope. There’s always tomorrow. The sun will rise. The moon will rise. Unfortunately, we don’t see both of them at the same time. It’s funny because, we can’t see happiness when we are in the grip of despair and we can’t see sadness if we are in a delirium of happiness. That’s what happened to me in 2015. I got lost in an ocean of sadness and clawed my way back to sanity after almost four months of medication, therapy and endless support from my father, mother and my friends.

Yesterday, I went to see my psychiatrist. He’s a real cracker of a man called Ram. He oozes happiness. It leaks out of him like water does out of a sieve. He told me he saw a significant improvement in my condition from the last time I was here. He also said that he felt I would be able to beat this thing soon. He told me I wasn’t able to see it, because I was still under its influence but something in my eyes or in my face gave him this impression.

What better way to start the first day of a new year than with this news?

2015 was a very bad year. The keyword being was. I do not know what will happen this year. I do not know what the next semester has in store for me. I have no clue whatsoever about how Durga Puja will be celebrated. I do not know if I’ll get superpowers this year.

What I do know however, is that I’m gonna beat this disease this year.

I’d like to take this opportunity to let as many people as I can know that depression related disorders of the mind are a very real thing and they drain the happiness out of you, just like a Dementor. However, the part of you that wants to hang on is always stronger than the part that gives in. So, to everyone who has this sort of disease, hang on and fight back. It can be done. I’ve done it. My friend is doing it. You can do it too.

Here’s wishing all my readers, old and new a very joyous, sadness free new year. Hello 2016, let’s dance!

The Bilge Master 

Food That's Out There

So, I’ve been away for a while because of semesters and the whole burning the  midnight oil and the old saga of covering six months worth of syllabus in six days. However I am back and I missed you guys.

Yesterday evening I had an experience that the inner foodie in me will remember for a long time. My mom is undergoing physiotherapy for arthritis and her physiotherapist is a smiling, happy-go-lucky guy who eats with a passion. This person took me for a ride on his bike to an obscure roadside joint in Asansol.

There was nothing remarkable about the place we were at. A steel counter, a small kitchen cum storeroom and two people inside cooking food.  What caught my eye was a metal pronged collection of kebabs which was slow roasting on an open coal spit. The smoky, charcoal laced aroma on a winter’s night was something that tantalized my nostrils seductively. The next step was lacing this roasted preparation of kebabs with a coriander chutney, in which there was a hint of chilli.

I know the inner foodie in you wants to slaughter me right now, and I do not blame you. However the story isn’t over yet.  The aforementioned kebabs, dipped in chutney were then rolled up in a paratha and handed over to us. It was the most unusual roll I’ve ever eaten and it was better than rolls I’ve eaten in good restaurants.

The funny thing is, there are eateries like this hiding in obscure alleys in big cities too. Sometimes, you need to get on a bus, get off on a location and take a left turn into a dim alley, where you can smell cooking oil being heated and hear the sizzling of onions.  

I found a unique roll yesterday. Who knows what else is out there waiting to be found? Go look!

The Bilge Master

Songs of Experience- A Guest Post by Kiki Ayang

This post is written by a friend of mine called Kiki Ayang. She and I met on the site Campus Diaries. Other poems written by Kiki can be found on Campus Diaries. Please welcome Kiki Ayang to the blog people!

The Bilge Master

Songs of Experience

I

Little Girl

Beautifully larded and scraped by him,

Lyca was skinned alive

But much as she wanted, nothing happened

II

Little Girl Lost

She cried and she cried and she cried,

With the rain, in the storm

Inside her haven,

She longed to sleep and sleep and sleep

In the calming darkness

Away from reality,

Little girl was lost and lost and lost,

She sang a sad tune of a love lost,

She tried to think and think and think

But was lost,

Waiting to be found