Method to the Madness

Have you ever had a ride in a carousel?
One beautiful carousel with all those multi-coloured bulbs like glowing grapes ( I am bad at metaphors, by the way) and every kid wanting to sit on its favourite beast, whoops and cries as everyone has a whale of a time and when things start to get a little whoopy, somebody crying out so that the damned thing would come to a stop.
Some kid retching out his or her last dinner. Kids in the queue making faces at that, which in a pictionary would stand for ‘YUCK”.
One or two having second thoughts on whether they really wanna have that ride and if not, do they have enough time to cook up a brave excuse.
But the pull of the lighted carousel is pretty strong. Its not just about the ride, its whether you have it in you or not (whatever ‘it’ means). Smell of popcorn wafting up through the air, the voice of the beast named ‘CROWD’ with a strange rhythm to its cacophonic note. The operator daring you, asking you ‘not-to-be-chicken-hearted’, enticing you with “first-ride-on-the-house”
And finally you don’t care anymore. There’s a pretty girl with pigtails sitting on the pink horse and the blue horse next to her is vacant.
You sit there, smile at her. She smiles back (Yuck, yellow teeth, gross!)
You stare straight ahead and the whistle blows. You wave at your ma and pa as you make the first slow round. Stick out your tongue at your little brother

Friggin, Freakin, Frighty Joe
Boogey man will eat your toe

And then the world is a maze of colours and you shout with joy, and then the colours lose their charm, and you groan of boredom and then when it doesn’t seem to stop, you scream out of fear. And you don’t want that ice candy anymore coz the lunch you had is back in your mouth (STOPGODSTOPGODSTOP) and then it starts slowing down (isitreallyitcantbeitis) and you look at the girl next to you and see her sobbing and you smile at her as if it was all a piece of cake for you.
And when you get down and have the ground back beneath your feet, you feel “Hey, it really was fun”. And your monster of a kid brother says in his irritating sing-song voice “I saw you screaming” and keeps repeating that as if it was a voodoo chant
And you whack that stupid cap off his head and if he starts screaming at that, you play the big bro and buy him a candy and maybe have one yourself as that lunch is back to where it belongs.
And then you talk about the ride and starts liking it all the more. And the smell of popcorn hits you again..

And that’s why I am writing this blog. No not for that popcorn.
For that smile that comes on your lips when you think back on that wonderful ride. And your eyes get glossy and your mind takes a vacation to neverland.
Didn’t get it? Oh crap! The worst thing you can do is to ask a comedian to repeat the joke and ask a poet to point out his metaphor. Well, I will spell it out – ‘el-ai-ef-ee’
Well, that was sordid, wasn’t it? Thanks for putting me through that.

Well don’t you think so; that life is one f#&*#in carousel ride? That everything moves in circles, that you go through a multitude of emotions and in the end you reach where you started out from?
Chuck out Kant & Kafka coz the New Age Guru is in the making. No, not me.
You’ve got to just look in your mirror to see him (but only if i stand beside you)
Ok, I know what a p.j is..
Well, seriously, I find life enchanting. At times, I choose to stay back and watch the fun.
Playing the spectator is also an enriching experience. Coz no single man can have all the experiences that the world has to offer. But if you know the right questions to ask and have a really good ear at listening (and when I say listen, I mean really listen) you will be as better off as your friend is with his experience behind him.
But those moments are far and in between. The rest of the time you throw away all thoughts in the air and have the ride of your life.
Yes, its one crazy world. But the madness lies somewhere in the thin line between mockery and absolute beauty. And this blog is about all those crazy people ive met or conjured out of thin air and crazy situations ive been through or heard about or crazy thoughts ive had the luck to have. It’s my personal ode to the sheer beauty of that craziness. It’s the method I bring to the madness.

Somewhere down the line, I see myself running out of steam and moving on to some new fad of mine, as I usually do. But its not only about the blog. Its about the innocence and spontaenity we all leave behind. But before you move on, have the grace to look back once. And you will feel the scent of popcorn hitting you again. That enticing voice calling you back saying “first-ride-on-the-house”.

And the wise one would be he who dares to take one last ride.