Pic Prompt Blog - The Closed Doors - A short story.

The fatigue of a long flight from the other side of the globe took onto Maya as she paced the stone paved roads of Alberobello. She traced the identical looking streets as though searching for something. The mid afternoon sun pierced her through her crisp white sundress, making beads of sweat break on her flawless face. She pulled out a monogrammed handkerchief from her straw hand bag and dabbed on her face. 

"How do I ever find out?" She wondered aloud - freezing in the middle of the steep street, looking at the array of doors stacked like Lego blocks. There had to be a little clue, a wee ray of hope somewhere, in making her find what she is looking for.

She animatedly flipped the paper she is clutching onto - as if hoping that it would work like a magic wand and open one of those doors to unite her with her quest. Instead, the paper escaped her gentle grip and floated parallel to the stone paved street. She quickly hurried into big steps, finally getting a hold of it and tucking it into her bag. 

"What use is the paper anyway?, I have no clue what the exact address is - Or if it really is this very town that is going to open the doors to my unanswered questions" She thought while settling on a raised step nearby. She pulled out her wallet, and looked longingly at her parents , Martha and Steve, holding her as a two year old. It never stuck her this hard, the unsimilarity of them and her - Their knotty hair, soulful black eyes and ebony skin forming a contrast on her naturally occurring  Mediterranean tan and hazel eyes. It took her a few years to understand the fact that they are not her biological parents, and a few more years to come to terms with it - Or so she thought. She never came to terms with it actually. She wanted to travel to where she belonged, where her actual mom and dad stayed - all with meager clues and incomplete facts.

Maya turned back to the sound of an opening door - a little girl stepped out, holding a baby doll - She approached Maya and spoke something in Italian. 

Maya ruffled her hair with a smile. "I don't speak Italian,Honey" She answered knowing for sure that those words would be as foreign to the little girl as the Italian she just heard was to her.

The girl stopped talking and looked at her in puzzled amusement.

"Maya come inside" - a voice gently drifted from the insides of the door.

A middle aged man stepped out of the door. Maya looked at him puzzled, asking him how he knew her name. 

'It is the name of my daughter" - He answered her in heavily accented English.

"What a coincidence?" - Maya exclaimed letting out a peal of laughter - I am Maya too.

The man bent forward and offered to shake Maya's hand - "My name is Alberto" - "Are you a tourist? You look very Italian!"

"I am Italian, she answers - till my parents decided to renounce me one day" 

Alberto looked at her with misty eyes - "Just like my Maya" He whispered. 

Maya held the hand of little Maya and pulled her into her embrace.

"You will perhaps have a journey to make dearie, a quest to discover the burden of your own existence, and I hope you find your answers"

Little Maya looked on confused, a half smile fading into a frown, wiping Maya's tears away tenderly!


Picture Courtesy - Fotolia.

One Hundred (words).

She walks carelessly, on a mission. She has to find something. The drawers get ransacked, things scatter around. She settles in the clutter, looking like a gnome in the center of a flower patch.
 "What are you doing?" a voice asks, "Look at this mess" -
"I'll clean it as soon as I find luck."
"Luck?
"Yes,My lucky penny is missing in this catastrophe "
 "Catastrophe?"
"It is a fancy word for mess, I heard dad use it."
She gets up, grabs her rag doll, and walks away leaving the 'catastrophe' behind for the mom to flex her muscles on.

Reflections

     It's been an amazingly productive blogging month, though, I had many ponders that were put on the back burner, since I chose to blog in the verse form, taking it to a hardcore level of starting each line of the poem with the same alphabet :-)) And suddenly, when the month is over and my obligation to blog came to an end along with it, I realized that the ponders I wanted to blog about had vanished miraculously, or may be they are there, but the will to ponder upon them completely disappeared form the system.

     I thought, I'd reflect upon the challenge at least, and not let the lack of the pressure to participate come in between me and my blogging journey. So, here goes the unedited 'shitty first draft' christened 'Reflections'.
I took the challenge in last April - and when I look back at those postings, I clearly see how most of them were 'forced' to keep up the self-imposed obligation. This time around, I had a wonderful support system, an audience that stopped by for each post and said things that made me want to write more and more. It is just amazing, how a little encouragement takes us a long way in giving out our best. So, thanks to all the blogger friends who lavished their generous praise on my awkwardly chopped verses (if I could have the audacity to call them that ;-)
   
     I also had my world open up to many different shades of blogging - the travelogues, the mom's memories, the blogs that put a smile to your face, the blogs that dripped of sarcasm, making you laugh out loud, the pictorials that made me gasp, the personal stories, the fictitious ones, the book reviews, the humorous blogs, the Haiku poetry, the lessons of life profound enough for every grown up, though aimed to teach kids, the culture blogs, the poems...it was a true grand gala buffet of varied view points, and styles of writing. I did not for once, regret having stopped all the books I was reading before I started the A-Z journey, for the blogs I was reading were filling up for the bestsellers I choose to read. I made many friends, discovered many talents that I'd not have discovered otherwise.I should thank Arpna Singh for introducing to the A-Z challenge last year and being my biggest supporter till date, Corinne Rodrigues for leading me by example, and Shail Mohan for introducing me to all these gems of bloggers that I'd have otherwise missed out on - and more importantly for bringing me out of my 'talking to myself' mode of blogging...as much as I enjoyed the calm and quiet of this blog, I must admit, I shall cherish, very dearly, all the visits, comments and attention A-Z 2013 had brought into my blogging world.

     Lastly, and most importantly, I discovered yet again, that writing on a regular basis does not really need a endless source of ideas or inspirations - All it takes is the commitment to log into the blog and make an effort to write...I was amazed at how productive I was the whole month, jotting down words from my memory bank and weaving ideas out of nowhere, just because I had the obligation of writing every day. It also made me realize that writing need not be  'intellectual' or 'creative' - it should just be sincere - and when sincerity reflects in your writings, even the most flat ideas come across as works of art ;)

Day 26 - Z for Zenith :-)

Zilch was the change in the pocket,
Zeal for life was speeding like a rocket,
Zig zag path to attaining success,
Zips up tight, to give more distress.
Zooming past, opportunities mock!
Zing and pizzazz stay under a lock.
Zest of triumph, please grace the track,
Zillion dreams, in reality, would stack!
Zen filled world, niftily unfold,
Zenith of delight appears, Behold!


:-) :-) :-)
That sums up the challenge.

It's been a joyous ride, thanks to all the company I had - and in comparison to how it went last year, I must say, this experience is a hoot! :-) I cannot believe that I managed to stick to a pattern all throughout, though, truth be told, I was tempted umpteen times to stray and do something else (Given my attention span of a two year old ;-))  For those of you who asked me how I did this - I have no clue! - Every day was an ordeal of sorts, but the saving grace was that thoughts did come easily on some days. I had discovered long forgotten words in my subconscious and stretched my limits to use unfitting words, just to stick to the self imposed tradition. Now, I am relieved that I can just do away with awkwardly chopped poetry and write paragraphs, uncensored, the way they emerge from the mind.

Thanks to all the regular readers, the regular feedback and to the lurkers as well - since this phase has seen the page loader shooting through the lap top screen. Makes me want to believe that there are many silent supporters who grace this blog.

Please keep it coming - silently or otherwise :-)

God Bless!

Day 25 - Y for Yearning.

Yards of expressions, from
Yesterdays to todays,
Yearn to come out,
Yielding fabrics of repose.
Yet, the grey cells, restlessly clamor
Yelping to yank you out -
You, stuck thought -
Yo-yoing in the rifts of the spirit -
Your hide and seek gets to my Nerves!
Yap out to me your intentions,
Yoke your form to my words!

Day 24 - X for XXIV

Xemepting from spelling,
X Gen blogger, makes an
Xcentric entry,
Xcluding rules of grammar!
Xcited about the Xecution
Xstatic for no reason,
Xploring balderdash,
Xclaiming insanity!
Xpressions stray from the path...
Xperiencing the high - On day
XXIV!

This one is a revamped, recycled post, doesn't help that X is a tough letter to give this kind of treatment ;) - Hopefully, I'll get better by 'Y' to write something new tomorrow :-)

Day 23 - W for Writings

Widely, they open,
Within them, many a tale
Waiting to be told!
Wandering around, they rest
Wishing to assert
Wisdom and wit,
Wrapped in confinements of
Words and letters!
Waves of reflection,
Weaving plentiful yarns
Wither and bloom.
With them, fables emerge -
Weeding out the sloth!
World it is, these scribbles,
Wrapped inside them,
Wrecks of ponders
Wrestling with confusion,
Wanting to search for the faith,
Whispering the gospels of musings,
Welcoming with them,
Writings from the soul!

Day 22 - V is for Vexed!

Very bored, the keyboard yawns
Varying moods the mind dons,
Valid ponders run away from brains,
Virtual challenge takes to the drains.
Victory is five letters away,
Vacant is the idea tray!!
Variety kitty has a huge hole,
Vocab fails to take control!
Virgo, I is, striving for perfection,
Verse of mine, needs definite direction.
Verdict lies in your gracious hands,
Vouch for my commitment, cheer me as I falter,
Virtuously support a verbal defaulter ;-)

Day 21 - U for Untitled ;)

Under your shade, molten anguish
Unfolds into cool cheer,
Upholstering the many frames of
Unkempt bruises, thus veiling,
Untold stories of malady.
Ushering the burdened heart into
Utopia of sorts, you play the keys
Unlocking the symphonic sounds,
Unraveling tunes of remedies,

Unite the being, in your seven notes -
Universal melody, soothe me like a balm,
Uplift my mood in your divine music.

Day 20 - T for Tulips

Tiny faces of color
Twinkling with triumph -
Tints of rainbows,
Tailored in sheer delight,
Taking the breath away!
Tranquil blooms, sprung in unison,
Talking to the senses.
Tapestries of flora,
Treading the mundane paths,
To fill them with splendor.

Picture  - Tulip Festival, Seattle, WA - Courtesy - Kaushik Chirtapu.

day 19 - S for Shift.

Straying, moi does not like, but
Scribbles from the past strike -
steering the musing away from the norm -
swaying the mood, changing the form,
Several ways to scrawl the thoughts,
Slam it if you should, but
Shower the grace!
Sanction the bypass,
Suffer the strain,
Sponsor the spasms of this
Silly little brain!

;-))

P.S - and here is the scribble for the past - It was not christened back then, but let me call it

Silence

He looks away,
The taciturn,
Answering the many questions
Rising in her probing gaze,
That way!
Dousing feelings in mute, dumb moments,
Freezing in the frostbite of inexpression
Crunching words into a powder of silence!
Unsaid, untold tales of love
Thus get buried
Under the tombstone of deathly muteness
The epitaph reading
Hushed emotions
Shut up into wordless,lifeless slab
Of concrete quietness!