Originally Posted on: Thursday, Oct 30, 2007.
Riders on the storm...
Riders on the storm...
Now what on the globally warm earth could that mean? I liked Jim but man was he talking crap. How can one ride a storm? A storm is nature's way of destructing the poor and letting the rich live(Atleast in India, nature has a different set of rules, tenets and taboos). So, as a teetotaller I wondered. I loved classic rock but some songs really made no sense. Heard Kurt Cobain shout in his song?
"Waa denial....a denial....a denial...a denial..."
I don't know what he meant by that but his song was no denial to anybody. It was in fact, an anthem of a generation to the drug abused, boiling libido teenage. Err, did I get it wrong? Yeah, it still is an anthem of a song. Talk about paradoxes.
Ok by this time you might be thinking that I'm going nowhere with this post. But as Jim keeps singing in my head with his soothing voice.. "Riders on the storm"... I realise now, morning after, what it means. Believe me, I might not know anything else in this world but I know this. I so know this.
Ever heard of Gandipet? This huge lake on the south side of the city? You should be there every winter evening. The sky has this subtle mix of scralet and purple. As the sun keeps setting, the scarlet keeps fading into a deep and sometimes deeper purple. Now I never gave a damn about purple as a color. I never thought about it. Although a female friend of mine said I looked gay when I wore purple, after which I stopped talking to her, I never gave a serious thought to it. Last evening, I had no clue of what I was about to do in the next 5 hours. In the end, I'm not guilty.
Now why would I talk about all this? Why? Dood! Dont doze off...please... I'm trying to narrate, the story of an underdog, when he realises he is one and feels bad not for the fact that he is one but for the fact that he didn't realise it earlier.
When men in India feel bad, especially alcohol abstainers, they either get depressed or eventually kill themselves. Others, just feed on the wonderful drinks and forget that they've lost whatever they've lost.
I love the rains. For me they're like ice creams. Anytime of the day, I would have it. Rain for me symbolises the nature's support. For others, its a stranded way of life, but for me, its like the Phoneix's tears. Life reviving and revamping. October end, suggested the advent of winter. But yesterday, the sky was simply amazing. Just the sight of thick clouds covering the entire sky was a sign that something nice was going to happen to me. It did.
Last evening I realised that whoever said "Friends, fag and booze is the best combination ever" wasn't kiddin around but he was a man after my own intellect and someone who would give Einstein a complex on the IQ test-o-meter. On the rocks! I tell you, try it out. Whatever oath you're breaking, break it on the rocks. Whatever confessions you're having, shout them out at the top of your voice, on the rocks. Call, text or pray for your loved ones, on the rocks. Rocks give you strength because they've been enduring a bit too much in the past say 10,00,000 years now? Yeah. Thats right.
I personally love the rocks. So much that I'd prefer to get married on them. Naked feet.
Last evening, my teetotallism or whatever came to an end and although I'm not proud of it, I'm surely not guilty about it. I got high. It was not much different though. It was like one of those hectic days when I was enervated but a bit more like I had a time delay and time leakage. Like, I would get everything after one or two seconds and sometims, 4-5 seconds would slip and I wouldn't know what happened meanwhile. It was good though.
I leaned on the rocks and looked at the sky. The scarlet was more dark this time. Because of unseasonal rains I guess. But whatever baap. I liked it. I realised so many things yesterday. So many things. It was like there was a surge of intellect in me. A family of positive thoughts fought my inhibitions in my head. I was unwonted to this but the surge left me feeling great about myself.
Where does Jim Morrison come here? You may ask me.
I had to go back home. I wanted to ride. It was after a long time I wanted to ride someone else's bike. Captain Lee was hurt. So he wasn't with me. And I needed to ride it. I let my short hair loose and stepped on the pedal (the gear pedal) and revved through the lake side. Cold, cold wind blew hard into my face along with drops of water. The digital speedometer was touching the three digit number. Adrenaline was rushing into my veins and it felt like my intelligence reached the acme, with the time delay and time leakages still profound. I thought about the turn of events in my life. How the friends I thought to be my best friends were just ephemeral bondings, how life is transient and how allegations were thrown about me and how I couldn't do anything about it. A bad bump on the road brought me back to reality and I realised that almost 10 minutes of my time had leaked without my knowledge.
I saw the sky. As purple as purple could possibly get. 30 seconds from then, it would fade into the night. I suddenly hated the purple. And felt compassionate towards it the next moment. the worst was yet to come. The tachometer was at its max. There was too much speed and it started raining heavily. Soon, within a small time delay of 10 seconds, a storm gathered. It was very huge storm. Water and water everywhere. Clogged roads. I couldn't see anything.
Suddenly, everything went numb. Numb as it could get. Something at the back of my head. I was enduring a pain I couldn't feel. I was riding in a storm and I had no clue how it was remotely possoble. But I was driving. That was for sure. It wasn't a dream because I knew how to diffrentiate between dreams and reality. The noise at the back of my head was increasing. Out of the blue or should I say purple, a lightning struck the road half a kilometre from my bike. Then, the noise at the back of my head materialised into a voice I knew very well.
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house were born
Into this world were thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm
There is a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road, yeah
"God forbid!", I shouted. I finally knew what Jim meant when he sang that song.
A night I won't forget for the rest of my life.
I thought about her.
Girl ya gotta love your man
Girl ya gotta love your man
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our life will never end
Gotta love your man, yeah.
12 comments:
darthvader said...
hahahahaha....u should get drunk more often my friend....but might i advice u against riding ur bike when tht be the case, would be a sad funeral song u see...
Anonymous said...
you are truly an amazing writer....you have the gift of being able to transform your visions into something so beautiful that it moves me... i was so engrossed in your post that at the end of it i realised i had sprouted goosebumps......just don't ever drink and drive...cos it would be a real waste of great talent
Velcro said...
@DV
Dead riders on the storm!! ROFL!! Cheers man thanks a lot!
@Anonymous
great talent wouldn't go wasted. Jim Morrison is the perfect example. His posthumous fame speaks a lot about him.
This is the story of an underdog. he drinks and drives. He is supposed to do that. Its hard to abstain him from that. He wouldn't be an underdog otherwise. Would he?
Anonymous said...
it's not just your own life you risk when you drink and drive..... an underdog isn't a stupid perosn...he is someone who uses his wit to overcome all the prejudices against him.....so i don't really agree that an underdog should drink and drive... just my opinion
Velcro said...
an underdog isn't a stupid person... the society makes him one... probably you wouldn't know that because you might not have been remotely close to it...your definition of an underdog is wrong...
smoking is also a hazard and in this globally warm world even driving is hazardous, not to u but to others... so drinking and driving comes under it... its hard for a smoker to stop smoking or a rider to stop riding becasue others lives are in danger...
anirudh said...
cool man... i always liked ur blogs and this one tho i could connect it to myself.. "Riders on the storm.." is the song always goes in my mind when i blaze on the roads.
And "You'll Be Under My Wheels..." is the song when i drive someone elses car.. hehe.. my dad owns a fiat, so can't think of such things in my ride.
Dark Angel said...
well written.. but whatever ! drinkin n drivin dont mix...
Creative Shocker said...
eons ago i used to know a guy called 'shiv kartik'... he was cheerful n full of life... he cribbed life was a bitch but always 'lived it on da edge'. He nevr bothered about problems n told me jokingly that 'problems made him laugh'...he was anonymous no more.
cut back to present...shiv kartik is now shiva aditya..da guy who had to booze/fag cos he wanted a high... escape from the problems of bein an underdog... he thot those two things from which he had abstained himself from was just a self made oath...so he says wat da heck lets do it.... Problems don't make him laugh anymore... he's sick of problems cos he's da only guy havin them..he doesn't care wat happens to his life... after all it's 'one life.....wreck it!' ...
Varun said...
macha! the post is neat...got some really its-so-random kinda things but later you made it this-is-what-i-had-to-say kinda thing...i love this mate!
bunny said...
the post was as simple as it is but equally profound.life of an underdog
indeed
Aditi aka Jiggs said...
LOLZZ
NICE READ
cheers
raul said...
such songs are fruits of reality..he who wrote it..dint just write it..
hail the lizard king!!