Novels or Short stories??

What do you prefer? A novel or a short story?  As a reader each one has a different preference with varied reasons.  As writers too people are partial to one for their own reasons again. What do I fancy? With no hesitation- NOVELS.

    Loads of people put novels into the category -“too long and too boring” . My take on them is that they aren’t wired to enjoy a journey of imagination. Novels are that. A journey of creation. Well, you could counter me and say “so are short stories”. I grant that. Short stories are creations too. They consume less time to write/read, they are “short and sweet”. Short stories are like power naps. They rejuvenate a bored mind.  Then again, to write a novel! It’s a whole new feeling. A road trip a writer takes, packing beforehand all the necessary items including the characters’ names, the characters’ character, the plot, the drafts on each scene, plus plus. And then the ride begins. Slipping into so many shoes at once and knitting a miracle word by word. When you write a book it becomes you as you become a part of it, stitching each page together to make sense in the end. You get to become so many people, you learn so many things through your own words. Its long, its tiring, its very mental but that’s the whole point! Its exhilarating from the start to the end. And when the last word is penned no one can trade the feeling a writer gets when they complete a work for anything under this universe. It is priceless and you get so high no alcohol will be capable of. That’s a novel! It’s a drug, an escape from hearts/minds turmoil. For me, no short story can give that.  Take reading a good novel. You become a part of its world; you become one of them and live through so many different settings. When you finally come out of it, you have stepped out from a different universe. If you haven’t felt that its time you do.

      Short stories are needed too. It’s not easy to write a short story. It’s a test of mind of what you are capable of. If a novel is a bucket of imagination short story is a bucket of imagination compressed to fit in a mug.  Short story now and then is healthy and an excellent break from hard core novel writing/reading. But then again my vote always goes to novels.

What do you think? Counter me. Novels or short stories?

The Lady Who sang her Lullaby

The earth has gone  around
the night has swayed by
somewhere the sun shines
blind to our eyes. The hills
seem to rise higher in
the dark, casting upon us
its unseen shadows. The river
continues to flow by, unable
to stop its black waters rustling
in the soundless night.

Even before our heads touched
The ground her melody flowed
through the night. The lady who
sang her lullaby. Her sereneness
seem to blanket the night, her
music honey to ears. The world
seem to rock us in its cradle
caressing us with its love. It
was a angel’s voice the sang
as she sung her lullaby.

Her song read the whole world
the meaning of life.
her name was Night.
She made the wind to a singing
breeze, the rustling leaves her harp.
the owl our guardian
the bat her warrior,
she sings all night until she takes
a deep breath and the darkness
disappears in a streak of light.

But she will return every night
singing her lullaby.

With no Magic

Don't walk through the portal to look

 At the past image of your life,

Don’t walk through the portal to

Look at the future self of your life,

Walk now and see the world shining bright.

Take the run and do it strong,

Letting the gains in mind pass by,

Letting desires go by.

Like Hope in Pandora’s box,  let

Your dreams stay in thy heart.

Hold it safe and tight even after

Any stumble or fall.

On your way paint create and make,

Your dream’s other parts. And

When you get there with

No portal or magic,

splash the color of ya dream on

The wings of freedom you finally got.

Hampi …

Having arrived at Hampi (to know about what is Hampi redirect yourself here) I felt myself being pulled back in years. As I stood there with my eyes hungrily taking in everything, I knew it deserved a blog post, the place had to be put into words. The first place I visited was the Virupaksha temple and seeing the towering structure I didn’t immediately connect to its history however later on on entering the place I felt a loss for words.

I ran my fingers over the aged stone and I actually trembled at the thought of all the effort and dedication that must have gone into chiseling each rock to perfection and maintaining the same exact design on every rock. 
The thing I saw next blew my head off. this was the inverted image of the front tower seen deep inside the temple, far away from the actual structure, through a pin hole. I do not know if the artists stumbled on this by chance or the builders did it on purpose. If they did it makes you wonder the intelligence that was there more than 2000 years ago.
  I didn’t want to stop looking at the sculpted rocks, wanting to just sit there and absorb the magnificence of the whole place. But Hampi isn't small and to explore the place you need to keep moving. 

When I saw these carvings the very first thing I did was smile at the perfection with which a simple classical dance form had been presented using plain chisel and knife.
this particular carving seem to reflect through out the place varying in sizes yet remaining same in desige, probably being the royal symbol.
this is the Ramayana (an epic story sacred to the Hindus) represented on rocks through carvings.
I seem to have taken a liking to dance forms .
the most famous structure in Hampi, the rock representation of a chariot.
But what really made my jaw drop was the 100 pillars each of which could create the sounds of different musical instruments when tapped.
it was inside this place the temple dancers entertained the kings while the musicians used the pillars as their instruments.

Hampi has left in me a feeling I cannot put into words. The very magnificence of the place makes me wish I was alive during the period, to be a part of such a beautiful city. I feel a part of me is still there, roaming the places once walked by people ages ago. The culture and imagination that filters through their work leaves you awestruck. It makes me proud to say I belong in a country where great kings and craftsmen have lived and have immortalized their finesse through structures which will forever leave us singing praises in their honor.