Tikri

Tikri Intersection of art, stories and spirituality. Distinctly desi but with a universal message ��? Inner Child Stories for the Reluctant Adult

Oh lovely random building in the middle of a busy roadWhat magical, uniquely human stories in your low ceilinged homes d...
23/03/2021

Oh lovely random building in the middle of a busy road
What magical, uniquely human stories in your low ceilinged homes do you hoard?
Little Meena from the 2nd floor with a voice of gold!
Bheem Singh, the 91 year old forgotten freedom fighter, still so very bold?
Or the hard-working office clerk with a secret dog-eared notebook with intricate sketches of trees?
Little building, how many hearts in your comfortable abode have been set free?
The 2nd floor lady who diligently meditates on traffic sounds
Khan chacha on the terrace where his little flower pots abound
I only got a second to see you, oh building
But thinking of all the beautiful stories you hold, my heart is still melting...

Oh you read my words and build castles in the air to place me in But if I told you each dirty little thing Each secret, ...
10/03/2021

Oh you read my words and build castles in the air to place me in
But if I told you each dirty little thing
Each secret, each episode tinged with a distinctly uncouth ring
Then you will recoil and call me names
Your fascination for the imaginary image of me, you will hurriedly tame
I used to do that to myself too
Judge myself on the past that I lived
Be on a high horse and be at my old self somewhat disappointed and somewhat miffed
Until I realised you’re free to put me in your own cages
But why have I been locking myself up on my own since ages?
All I have is this present version of me
Of all the past ones, I can choose to be free
Even if you don’t choose that for me and indulge in old stories
Why should I shoot my own foot and disturb my peace?
Hell no, I’m going to be present for who I am now
Every time to old narratives I regretfully bow
I take away my power from the only real reality called right NOW
Can you guess with all this awareness who do I set free?
Me! Me! An absolutely new Me!

For 6 days a week, Sarfarosh was an ordinary office clerk whose day would begin at 6 AM and wind up at around 11 PM. The...
04/03/2021

For 6 days a week, Sarfarosh was an ordinary office clerk whose day would begin at 6 AM and wind up at around 11 PM. The 2 hour long commute to his office from his humble abode in another part of town, ensured an early start and a late end. He made a modest sum, enough to take care of his old parents, pay the rent and save some for a rainy day.

This 6 day drudgery seemed absolutely worth it because of the 7th day. The day which set apart Sarfarosh from the ordinary man on the street with a similar fate. On this day, our hero used to be up at dawn, raring to go so that he could set out into the city to look for a particular kind of a person.

In the last 10 years, Sarfarosh had finally identified the craziest tailor in old Delhi after seeing 223 of them spread across the city over a period of 19 Sundays– an old man who used to keep mumbling the most unthinkable obscenities under his breath as he cut the most exquisite ladies’ blouses. He also found the strangest beggar woman out of the 1576 he surveyed over a period of 21 Sundays. She would station herself outside the big ministerial quarters in Central Delhi, one moment acting like an old, lost lady and the other moment breaking into the most impeccable English accent anybody had ever heard south of South Delhi. The security personnel let her loiter these hallowed corridors only because she provided such unparalleled entertainment.

Like this, after spending many Sundays roaming intently on the streets of Delhi, Sarfarosh had also found the fruit seller with the kindest eyes, the most deeply-engrossed-in-his-work barber sitting under a tree, the happiest looking construction site worker, the saddest man in a Mercedes, the washerwoman with the brightest smile, the college student with the strangest hairdo, the office-goer from the big buildings with the foulest expression and the oldest man with the heartiest laugh.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, all these scenes he kept safely stored in the locker room of his heart. The locker room which filled him with immense gratitude for this wonderful, crazy world that he was fortunate enough to be a part of.

Mr. Murari Lal retired from his state bus driving duty some 15 years ago. He put his 2 kids through college, saw them of...
22/02/2021

Mr. Murari Lal retired from his state bus driving duty some 15 years ago. He put his 2 kids through college, saw them off to good jobs in bigger cities and just as he had settled into his retired life, his wife passed away.
For the past 10 years he had a very specific routine. He would get ready and leave his place at sharp 8 Am and go and spend 20 minutes each in the 8 tea shops which were scattered in the 5 kilometre radius of his home.
He would greet Mohan at Lalla’s Tea shop with his usual ‘Ram Ram’ , he would lovingly slap little Buntu on the back, the Buntu from the Nukkad Tea shop and he would strike random conversation with at least 5 absolute strangers every day.
This wasn’t just to kill time though. You see, our Mr. Murari Lal had a secret. When he was 10 years he randomly met an old man on the street who absolutely randomly started yelling at him the following words - “One absolutely ordinary day in your life, you will hear something that will make you see the reality behind this entire world - that day you will hear the music beneath the surrounding noise, you will see the colours behind the ordinary colours” and then the old man proceeded to do a crazy dance after which he ran away from the 10 year old as if he himself was 10 and not the 80 that he really looked like.
This seemingly strange incident would be instantly rejected by a logical adult but for the 10 year old Murari, it was the most interesting thing that had ever happened to him in his life so far.
For many years he forgot this old tale yet as he grew older, every morning the first thing on his mind used to be - “Could this be that ordinary day?” He would go out with at least a tiny, hidden lamp in his heart, hoping to today bump into that stranger who would say the magic words which he’d been secretly yearning to hear since he was 10.
On 25th April 1978, as Mr. Murari Lal was walking back towards his home in the evening after finishing all his tea shop rounds - he heard the familiar rustling of the old Peepal tree across the corner. And just like there are never two sunsets alike, never two waves identical - Mr. Murari Lal was never again the same as he was just a second ago....

Some places you reach after dreaming about them for a long time. Like when I finally stepped on European soil at the age...
20/02/2021

Some places you reach after dreaming about them for a long time. Like when I finally stepped on European soil at the age of 15 after feverishly consuming the love for everything western since a very young age. The British sky felt so different, clear, clean and right out of my dreams. A month long family vacation convinced me that I was born in the wrong side of the world.
Then some places you reach after a lot of strategic planning. Like the second time I reached European soil for my 3 month long foreign exchange semester, based out of France. Got into a good MBA college to make myself privileged enough to afford this opportunity. My entire craze to move abroad permanently ended close to the starting of the 3rd month. I’d seen so much perfectly manicured beauty in country after country and yet something was missing. I missed the crazy, chaotic air of India. Everything I thought I detested about India was exactly what I missed dearly.
Then there are some places where you’re compelled to go by a deep unexplained urge.
You never plan for such places. You don’t even know their name for most of your life.
But one day you find yourself standing on top of this glorious mountain called Arunachala in an obscure Tamil town called Tiruvannamalai. You got here because you really had no other place to go to and it was a bus ride away from your temporary abode at another magical, albeit tough place (.foundation ).
And just like that, you reach home. You reach the place where you’d been walking towards for lifetimes, probably. Your search finally ends.
It’s not about the place at all, it’s about a feeling. A feeling of being deeply settled. Restless feet syndrome disappears and in its place comes an acceptance for the entire world, with all its dusty and marvellous places.
There is me in the Center. The photographer is a crazy mountain monkey who was the reason that I and the wonderful guy next to me just kept climbing higher and higher, looking for a place where the photographer could sit and play his flute for us.
Halfway through the unexpected climb he tells us - we’re already 3/4th of the way to the top, why stop now?
And just like that, we arrived.

Don’t talk to me when you see me doing Nothing 🙃
19/02/2021

Don’t talk to me when you see me doing Nothing 🙃

When I honestly look I don’t find a serious bone in my body It’s only when some silly thoughts lower their hook And they...
17/02/2021

When I honestly look
I don’t find a serious bone in my body
It’s only when some silly thoughts lower their hook
And they make the world seem somewhat shoddy
“Who are you, oh serious one”
Sometimes there’s a whisper, sometimes a loud boom
“Have you forgotten this is all for fun?”
This insane voice suddenly shatters all the gloom
Do you know what is surrender?
Or are you too scared of leaving the reigns?
You can choose to be involved in useless mind-benders
Or just be available right now for both sunshine and rain
Just don’t choose
When you make peace with all choices
The mind loses the current in it’s annoying fuse
You’re left alone to laugh at all your funny faces
Once upon a time I thought there were blessings to get in an imaginary future
But of grace and light right now when I leave it all, there is never any dearth
Now I say bring it on, dear world
I choose to love it all, whether blessed or cursed
You didn’t choose the beginning or the ending of the movie
Choiceless like the dust in the wind, NOW be free

11/02/2021

Suddenly I come back to myself and I realise I’ve never met ME before!
All memories and plans are just inside you in a small store
But who you really ARE, who even knows!
I’m alive to see a million shades of the light
I’m alive to know when the sun is hazy and when it’s bright
I’m alive to marvel at the tiniest peace of creation
Who I Am, is definitely not confined to one address or even an entire nation
Sometimes there is someone inside me breathing through me
Sometimes I see myself like I observe a distant tree
I marvel at the length and breadth of the story being told about me
But in the mirror I’m a fresh face ready to forget everything and just be free
Free to be seeing and seen
Since you met yourself afresh, how long has it been?

If you’ve never sat down for an entire day without any agenda, then you’ve still not discovered the power of a single da...
08/02/2021

If you’ve never sat down for an entire day without any agenda, then you’ve still not discovered the power of a single day.
No, not the days when you spend the entire day in bed, not doing anything ‘productive’, cursing yourself for binge watching, eating or sleeping.
No not that kind of agenda less day.
What I mean when I say ‘doing nothing’ is - you get ready, get dressed and show up.
Show up to do absolutely nothing.
Like it’s serious business.
Like all you have to do today, all you were born to do today, is sit on these steps all day and be the best damned version of yourself.
So sorted, so free. So at peace.
No need to fill your time with tasks.
What happens, happens. No planning, no plotting.
Just being. ‘Being’ could involve both movement and stillness. Doesn’t matter, because you’re not doing either of the two.
You meet yourself today. The real you.
It sets you free from a million false definitions that you define yourself with.
You’re not the tasks, not the to-do lists, you’re not the doing.
You’re the one in the background.
The one for whom you go to such heights to find love and happiness. The one for whom you run around like a hamster in a wheel.
Alas, when you sit and do ‘nothing’, you realise that love and happiness IS that background. Always there, never lost.
The background is you.
See behind the noise. Do nothing today.
It’s an absolute breath of fresh air because this fresh air is your eternal soul, today on this glorious day - excavated from the noise, standing free. Oh how I wish I could make you see, this secret in which all of us equally share.
It’s so very glorious.

Clickbait.
05/02/2021

Clickbait.

She has been following you since the day you were born.You saw her around quite a few times but you always thought it wa...
05/02/2021

She has been following you since the day you were born.
You saw her around quite a few times but you always thought it was a different cat.
Nope, it was the same cat from day one.
Watching you take your first step, watching you make your first fall.
She never interfered.
After all, she was just here to observe.
Sometimes she watched you cry at being so alone and she sarcastically rolled her eyes.
You know, like a cat does.
You always had a feeling of being watched.
Not the creepy kind. But the kind where you’re suddenly caught by the realisation that this play of life you’re part of is kind of televised.
Your act is being carefully scrutinised.
For an audience of one.
Is my life a joke?
Is my life entertainment.
Yes, to both. She would say if she could.
She can say it but she won’t.
Because joke and entertainment are distorted in your dictionary.
You like to take everything too seriously.
You like to think you’re walking on egg shells.
Oh how could she ever tell you just how protected you are.
You couldn’t hurt you even if you tried.
She owns the world. She owns the ground you walk on.
If you fall, she can will the earth to become as soft as a feather.
She can break all falls.
But she’s trying to show you, your invincibility.
No words can show you. So she stays on.
Silently giving you company every moment.
All moments are her gift to you.
One day you’ll see and your core will break free from the shock.
One day you’ll look into her eyes.
And you and her, will be two no more.

How do I know I live? I can make sound, I can be silent - only these 2 reasons I can truly give Two states which include...
02/02/2021

How do I know I live?
I can make sound, I can be silent - only these 2 reasons I can truly give
Two states which include the whole world
One is the world, the other’s definition is invisibly coloured
If sound right now is too much to take
In the oven of silence, yourself do bake
When there is nobody crying, there is no crying
When there is nobody moving, there is no trying
It’s so simple, I can’t even believe it
The immensity of this little thing dawns on me bit by bit
I say I love the sounds of creation
But only in silence, can I know the taste of elation
No, not the kind that makes you jump and shout
But more like the kind which feels like an empty cloud
It floats all on its own
It takes me across from now to now, even when there’s nobody left to row..

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