An old piece- Written for EFL Uncut Magazine - Nov 2008

The ‘leg’acy

After a lot of persuasions and ‘blackmails’ (for the single reason that I’m a journalism

student) here I am, to write something. It’s the legend of a leg.  As you all know the latest

version of the CFA (Campus Football Association) tournament ended with only one casualty.

I’m going to tell you all about the incident that happened 2-3 weeks ago.


Mr. X (who wish to be unnamed, as though it is easy to be unknown), a 1st year student of

the university, is usually called as ‘karuthamuthu’ (black pearl) by his friends. He is a boy

who likes to talk and crack jokes. He is very strong. I don’t know why he had a full haircut

but he looks glamorous now. His smile is very much showing and it is a difficult smile to

Our protagonist joined the CFA league. Sorry guys, I don’t know the name of his team (I

found it very difficult to remember all those weird names). Anyway, his team won the 2nd

prize. I’m not going to all those details. Remember, our story is about the leg; his leg.

It was the second day of the tournament. As our hero scored goals and was rocking the

whole stadium (if we can call it that), a sudden tragedy happened. He was heading with the

ball to the opposite goalpost and a great forward of the other team blocked him. Both of

them fell down. Both of them got up and played again.


At night when I saw him as usual he smiled and talked to me. We happily talked about the

football match.  The next day I heard the news that he was taken to the hospital. That

night he came back to the campus with a new attachment to him, a plaster.

By seeing the pure white plaster, the artistic minds of some of us came to life. We took

borrowed sketch-pens in our hand and started being ‘Michelangelo’s ‘on it. After about half

an hour it really became a billboard with advertisements varying from Shankar cements to

Pepsi on it. After some days another artist painted ‘stick no bills’ on it. Many people

autographed the plaster. Have a look, it is truly a masterpiece. This is the legend of the

leg. I hope the hospital authorities will give it to us after removing it from his leg.

Deadline

"Hey dude,
 Are you free now?"
"I'm in the middle of something, but yes,
 Tell me, What?"
"There is a new work,
 It's simple,
 Nothing special.
 An ad, we need, 
 Something different, 
 Something special."
"You said nothing special."
"Well, yes, but it's simple.
 It's for client Mister Ex,
 I don't have a proper brief,
 But we need the ad. 
 Make something up, 
 Write it well, 
 It's nothing special.
 Find a concept,
 Do something creative,
 Make it special."
"You said nothing special."
"It's not that, buddy,"
"(Buddy! Don't call me that you dumbass, I hate you)"
"Don't make it special,
 But make it special.
 You need to make it the best,
 Do your creative best, 
 It should be out of the world,
 Something no one thought about,
 So unique that you blow the world,
 So special that you make me famous (coz, I'm the boss),
 So, get along, do it, tout suite!"
"Okay then, 
 Creative, Special, Awesome, Unique, Wonderous,
 Lemme try, I will give it my best,
 How much time do I have?"
"How much time do you need?"
"A day or two at least?"
"You have one hour. Thank You!"

A Clockwork Borange

Out of sheer boredom,

I scribble down this poem.

People might not find it good,

But write definitely, I would.

Suffocation is gripping me,

I really don't want to just let it be.

When I really started thinking,

About scribbling down something,

The first two lines came in rhyme,

Had to keep the rest so, lest it be a crime.

Thinking of a title, I came across 'borange',

The only word that rhymes with orange.

My initial choice was just use 'Clockwork',

Which then I thought, alone, couldn't work.

Now I stop writing this poem,

And go back,to the same old boredom.