Triskaidephobia

13 happened soon after 12, and the world would never be the same again....

We all know how to count, and we all know how to count up to 13. It starts with one and goes on, quite favorably and quite enthusiastically. And when we do count up to 13, we all know that a shiver runs down our spine and all of a sudden, the ease and comfort established by the enthusiastic 12 gives way to an ominous feeling that may be we should have stopped at 12.


Following a number as positive and energetic as 12 was never an easy task to begin with- this coupled with a rather unfortunate bout of bad luck, triskaidephobia was born. And man started fearing numbers now, because he had almost run out things to fear. The amount of effort put by man to coin a term describing this new-found fear tells us how significant this fear actually is.


Buildings without 13th floors, never scheduling important endeavours on this day, praying twice as hard if an exam seems to be unavoidable- we all have gone through this, although the extent varies from person to person. Let me take a minute here and associate this number 13 with a few adjectives that devout triskaidephobics will agree upon-


ominous, scary, unfortunate, unlucky, death, pessimism

And, for most part, I do agree. The most cliched example being the Last Supper, where in Jesus Christ invited 12 disciples. Here the number 13 sparked off a revolution in religious terms, and for most part, people realised that the number probably played a big role in spurning out a religion. This example is always cited first, and I decided to not be an exception to that rule. Agreed, that may be things would have been same, irrespective of how many apostles showed up, but it does go a long distance in establishing a negative feeling towards this number.


The Norse people, people who claimed they did not know the meaning of fear, have their own story to tell.


The Norse legend of the slaying of Baldur ( the God of admiration, redemption, nobility) in a banquet in Valhalla (the Norse heaven) is another testament to the earlier point. 12 Gods were invited but Loki (the trickster) came as the uninvited 13th guest. Baldur was slayed by a sword given by Loki. Here once can see clearly how 13 plays trickster and traitor, killing everything admirable and noble. 


13 stands out as a bad omen, of things which would follow and of terrible consequences if this number was ever ignored. And soon from such gatherings people started paying close attention to who they invite. It is still believed that the first person to get up, when 13 people sit to have food, dies. And there have never been any conclusive studies to support this fact, but you never really know.

Go on, try it..... 


Moving on to other beliefs. 


In the Hebrew alphabet, the 13th letter 'm' is considered unlucky itself, since it begins and ends the word 'mem' which means death. Here we consider death in a negative connotation here, to illustrate the negative aspect of the number. 


The tradition of Sizdah-Bedaar in the Persian mythology, is an interesting one. Literally meaning 13, the Persians all leave their house on the 13th day of the first month of the year to avoid bad luck. People leave their houses, go to the country side, have a good day. This is a day of ceremony, but the ceremonial happiness only helps to mask the purpose of leaving your houses, leaving behind the 13....




These examples help us in understanding that several cultures have assigned a negative feeling to the number 13, some are scared of it and some are simply angry. 


However, I want to take some time here and help you reflect on some of the positive aspects of the number 13. After all, I always believed that every number is significant, and this means it has positive and negative aspects attached. 13 is no exception.


In Greek mythology, the number 13 is considered extremely lucky since the Greek God Zeus is considered as the 13th God and symbolizes power, courage and strength. He is considered to be the most powerful of all Greek Gods. Hence, power is also associated with 13 since ancient times.

I mean, just look at him-

If we look at the number itself, we realise that it is a prime number- incorruptible, cannot be divided, pure and a symbol of integrity. Prime numbers are probably the only quantities in this world which I believe lack the gray area. It is either that or it is nothing. It can never be divided, but it can only be finished by itself. 13.

In the Tarot card, the 13th card is the Death card, where it signifies change, recycling and transition- all in a positive way. Death, here, is looked at positively, as a way of surrendering to fate and as a way of not just self-cleansing but changing yourself. Death and metamorphosis can both be related to this number.


In Egypt, there are 13 steps in the ladder to eternity. It is said that upon reaching the 13th step, the soul reaches the source of itself and attains spiritual completion.


The Aztecs, one of the most powerful civilisations in history, believed that each day was ruled by one God. They divided their week into 13 days, and considered 13 to be extremely lucky. The 13th day was ruled by the God Tezcatlipoca who symbolized mystery psyche, illusion and magic.


However, the most relevant significance of 13 comes from the fact that 13 is the period of change and transition for every person, boy and girl, as he or she becomes a teenager. The Bar Mitzvah for Jewish boys is performed in the 13th year of their lives, when they transition from boys to men.




Ever since man began to count, he knew that he was not going to change his world forever. Every event, every person, every animal and every memory would now be related to a number. He also knew that men could lie, numbers could not. Numbers were pure, and numbers were constant, both values which he realised were slipping slowly away from man's grasp. And man slowly began living his life through numbers. He grew fond of some numbers, and with some numbers he began to get uneasy.....


13 happened slowly after 12, and the world changed forever. Be it good, or be it bad, man realised that no matter how much significance he would attach to 13, it would always be a little bit less than what the number demands. Be afraid of things you don't know, they say, or at least be very aware....

be aware of things not seen,
there are more than twelve reasons to doubt a thirteen,
put your trust in a number you can count on
there are things in your world, that only numbers have seen


ed lithium

cadell chi cigarette

cadel chi cigarette

roj hataat

ghari jaychya aadhi ek mentos

ashi sandhyakaal roj asaaychi

mitraan barobar

hasat, khelat,

titanic var gappe maarat

kadhi shivaji park cha vada pav

tar kadhi tibbs chi franki

pudhchya divasachya parikshecha vichar na karta

cadel chi cgarette roj jalaychi

ashi sandhyakaal roj asaychi

ed lithium

Madhu Milan

a walk down memory lane

the smell of oil from the cycle-shop

fresh pav at your door step when you wake

a chubby little child walks down the road

smiles and waves you good morning

while your mom makes spicy hot pohe and chai

if you want to be happy, you wont have to even try :)

friends and family indistinguishable

living with two moms every day

a friend for a brother

a brother for a friend

together to stand by your side

right till the end

playing cricket, breaking windows

laughing in panic as you run

a place that lets you be a child forever

where one and one is still one

celebrate, Pray, smile,

win lose or cry or moan

at madhu milan, hm patil marg,

you never do it alone

ed lithium

The day we outgrew a child....

What has life become of us,
I guess
We outgrew our shoes,
Dim-lit memories,
A half-crooked smile,
We really had no clue...
Perhaps we were never supposed to,
We were meant to stay innocent,
The way we come was to be
The way be become,
But somewhere down the road,
We grew up,
And have never stopped since,
We grew right out of our smiles,
We grew right out of our dreams,
A little child is now lost on the street,
He smiles,
As he walks many a miles,
Away.....

Its when we realised
We bow down to responsibilities,
It was then we realised,
We were responsible
For all of this...

What has life become of us,
We are no more a child,
We smile and cry but everyday,
Happiness seems so mild...


Ed Lithium

A Traveller's Log

We underestimate things which lie below a pre-decided magnitude, and most of the times we, as a species, are completely wrong...this comes hardly as a surprise considering we are human and inspite of being the undisputed ruler of an entire planet, we are not far away from destroying the same planet we like to call our throne... But coming back to the miniscule watch on our hands, I realised how significant, how important and how amazingly brilliant just something as small as a day can be... We have lived our lives for a number of days too large to calculate without a calculator and we certainly do not remember all the days we have lived. Modern science has gone so far as to predict that one more day we live is one more day towards the end, and yet we as a species, we as an individual and we as organisms leaning towards something undeniable and unavoidable have utterly failed to make the best of a day, so to speak. Isnt the whole point of conquering and dominating a planet, making the best of whatever the planet offers us?

Technically it is. We evolved out of shells and bones and skulls and cartilages and made ourselves brains that helped us get rid of most of the competition. We conquered all land and decided that we are the sole rulers of the land of a huge blue planet. We patted our own backs and smiled and cheered.

But conquering a planet isnt something easy and the old blue planet had an ace up her sleeve...

It started rotating and going around a huge ball of fire, and consistently and periodically plunging a whole population into darkness and then consistently coming out into the bright light. It was this periodicity that gave birth to probably what can be called as the most dangerous weapon of all time... a pun if you may... This weapon is nothing but time. Reasons for the human desires for a time-machine go beyond education and exploration because of one simple understanding- He/ She who controls time, controls the world...

A kind of a rather drastic way to begin a traveller's log but we often forget what usually we travel through. It was after travelling through space and travelling through a day, I was forced to see a different world, or rather, a same world through a different perspective with the same eyes but not the same sight, and I realised how one day seperated and distinguised a people from another people and the entire day fit brilliantly on my wrist.

Now here was the beauty of the thing I wore on my wrist, a rather twisted irony, that man wears a watch always on himself for his entire life, to remind him of a simple truth- bitter, yes, but a truth that he is not the master of the world but merely reached a hieght from which he could not step down and now sits and bows down to the huge blue planet that has, till today, decided to forgive him....

Ungli- The Finger!!!!!!!

Ungli

-the finger!!!!!


The chromosomal aberration made me stand up in the crowd,

“Bull shit, are you this insane?”

Then I thought for a while…

Ok, one finger can change this world…

“Not that one, you d*ckhead!”

Ahh yes…but really? Interesting… I always thought it was the one next to that… Well, one lives and learns…

“Out of the way, it’s a busy day!” the poster bearer cried. He came and stood next to me, huffing and puffing as he stuck a small poster onto the wall next to me.

“Dude,” I said, “who is this?”

From the looks of that guy, he appeared to be the paan-waala, whom I owe about a hundred bucks today. For I moment, I reeled. I squinted and I read, “ Vote for the Lion’s Claw. Pappu Bhai, Dadar.”

“Yeh hamare honewaale Prime Minister hain!” the poster-boy spoke, with a shine in his eye and just about the right tone in his voice, as if he had been crucially instrumental in helping the paan-waala become India’s next Prime Minister.

This wasn’t my paan-waala. He had a mole on the other cheek.

I looked closely again.

Ok, what was this guy running for? Well I had no idea about his intentions but going on his face I believed him to be extremely suited for the post of BEST conductor. Nothing more, nothing less…

That cant be, I argued with myself. Is he running for the Chief Minister? That’s the only post that came to my mind. MLA? Many movies show Nana Patekar as the MLA. That’s where I picked up that word. Police Commissioner? Do they have elections for that?

“Dude, you are pathetic!” the guy left me groping in the dark.

This time he used the correct finger.

“You are the future of the nation, my friend, and I still don’t see you waking up!” he said as he left.

I looked at the poster again.
Nope, not my paan-waala, I said to myself and left.



“Kitni baar bolu aapko, who Pappu Bhai hain, mein nahi! Aur mera paisa kab lautane waale ho?”

I lit up my Benson and somehow things became clear.

It was the day for elections.

How could I forget? I was ashamed of myself. Such an important day. I had circled it on my calendar about a month ago. I raced through the stick, I was in no mood of wasting it.

“Hey sweetie! Happy Anniversary! I am so sorry I forgot! Lets celebrate! What? Really? You’re kidding! No booze? … Aaah! Of course, elections! Dry day! Stupid democrats! Really? That’s just in the US? What do we have here? … uh huh…yea…whatever…What say we vote for Pappu Bhai! At least we’ll get some booze!”

I kept down the phone.
What a sad little day!

“Thank God, I at least have you my little magic-stick! No election’s gonna take you away from me!”





“That’s the last time I am telling you! You have to contribute a hundred bucks for the event! Pappu Bhai’s orders! Its his birthday! A joyous occasion. If you don’t pay up we’ll beat up sp badly, you won’t have teeth left to smile at his party!”

“Why the fuck should I pay? I owe that paan-waala a hundred bucks.”

This was when the crushing blow came to my knees.

He made a valid point. I had to pay.

Something shouted at the back of my mind. Don’t pay! Shit did I say that out loud?

Another blow came down on my shoulder.

Yes, you did.

Is this really worth for a hundred bucks. Just pay up!

I really had no idea you were this weak!

These voices in my brain went on and on, coming to no conclusion at all. Meanwhile, these men were making some strong arguments.

Ok I guess I have to pay up.

Suddenly I heard another voice resonating through my head.

“Not that one, you d*ckhead!”

Of course!

The finger!

It took a while to gather enough courage but I stood up. And up came the finger.


I have no idea how, what, why? But suddenly I saw them trembling. One of them already had starting running away.

Yes! Fucking cowards! Run away!

The guy who had made me a mess started sweating and for a moment was stunned. He just stood there, doing absolutely nothing. Even he followed suit.

Run away, you bastards! Messing around with me, eh?



It was an hour later. I was in the line, smiling, bleeding and enjoying the smell of success and power.

For once I was powerful. I felt untouchable. I felt invincible. I felt indestructible.

That is the power of one finger.

That’s when it made me think… Definitely, I have been missing out on this thing for years now. It’s not a right. It’s a fucking hand-grenade! I could walk straight for once. I could look every person in the eye and say, do you have the guts to yell at me?

Sometimes, I realized, ungli karma acchi baat hain!


Eddie Lithium

The need to breed

Whats-his-name is a pretty boy,
But dont pay heed,
Its a need to breed,
He's a happy going college guy,
Its the same again,
Now he's in pain...

He's a joke,
But he dont know why,
Its little bit but it gives him joy,
He's a very confused and a brittle boy,
Thats enough to make him smile...

He's the one who'll be the first,
To save you and get himself hurt,
He's the guy you'll always need,
But dont forget
Its a need to breed,

Tumbling down a broken hill,
He's an embarassment to old Jack and Jill,
He wants to live his life again,
He wants to try,
But all he does is cry...

Eddie Boy Lithium