Voices

For a long a long time a particular feeling had been rearing its my head in my life again and again. It wasn't sad or depressing, just a bit unsettling, an unspoken feeling that something isn't quite right, that there is a pawn somewhere on the board, out of place, waiting to be taken. Over and over it would disappear and I would think it went away because I figured out why: but always it came back. I don't know if this is one of those moments of temporary madness when I feel I have it all down, but I feel its real and if it is I'm in for a tough but exciting journey that I am about to embark on even though my current abilities are at best, questionable. This will be, hopefully ( what I would do without this word ! :) ) first of many posts that are to come, sort of a travelogue ! I know this calls for a bigger prologue, but now the prospects of completing the journey are quite slim and I don't want to spoil it with expectations. I apologize for all the shortcomings...

 I don't remember when I read my first fantasy novel. As far as my recollection goes, those distant days have gone into the dark mists of time and never wandered back. Hearing my father narrate the adventures of Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera and of course Kaa is one of my earliest memories. After that the worlds which I have been a part of are too many to list yet I will try to list a few :), Eragon Cycle all the way to 'Inheritance', Ameer Hamsa and Mahabharatha and its cohorts (of very questionable beliefs when I look back upon them), bits of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, Magicians Series by Lev Grossman, Firefly, Avatar, Jumanji and recently HPMOR (Harry Potter and Methods of Rationality). It would be a great injustice to discount the works like 'Around the World in 80 days', 'Nautilus' , SHE and Ayesha , House MD ( :D) and numerous others of this league. Even though they're not called fantasy per se, they do transport you to a different world full of ...

Seems like a weird title doesn't it ? For those of you who are familiar with the painfully struggling manga Bleach, this name is an inadequate effort to emulate the awesome sounding "Shattered Shaft 2" :)  And sadly, my situation is not much different from Ichigo's. He was trapped in a well with his soul severed from his body and if he did not get out of the well within a specified time (sounds very very impossible ) he would turn into a monster feeding on other people. (Some people read manga, get over it !) A very scary thought looming in my mind is the fact that I can compare everything in the sentence above to the mess/opportunity (I know I'm being way too optimistic here, still :) ), from the top of my head. For those of you who are wondering what this might be about, I'll phrase it simply in my sister's words "More than my fair share of shit coming my way in life". I had written something a few months back in December when I was in ...