Showing posts with label Lev and Ammo. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Of Patriotism and Other Diseases…

Posted by A Great Liar

I sat quietly in front of the TV set, listening to the harmonized rhetoric from a happy idiot lip sucking the seemingly endless series of lyrics that smacked of patriotism and the much needed melodrama accompanying it, as always.  

From the corner of my eye, I had an obscure vision of Ammo entering the lounge, with the usual evening ammunition of pot and weed candy in her hands, all ready to suck in the marijuana once again, her nightly occupation for as long as I have known her.

She fixed herself a cigarette, and eventually noticed the popular song being played on TV, and exclaimed. “Holy friggin’ crow, Lev. Since when were you a nationalist soul?” A smile of amusement beginning to smear her face.

I gave her a look of horror, meeting her eyes, the bleary look within an evidence of the fact that the magic weed has finally started to weave its spell on her, and said. “You greatly disappoint me Ammo, not for the life of me will I ever stoop as low as that.”

She frowned. “What are you implying exactly?”

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Finity of Sex and Death

Posted by A Great Liar

 
I quickly entered my apartment, hoping for a reprieve against the cursed Karachi showers, and predictably found Ammo sulking in her private studio, in a middle of her artistic endeavors, her loose Victorian sleeve dress looking rather loose and shabby on her painfully thin figurine, and tears on her deep narrow eyes, giving a slight bluish tinge to it, however slight.

I dutifully inquired the cause of her current predicament, while taking off my heavily dripping raincoat, which is now partially ruining the rug.  

“What’s the matter dear?” I asked, partly believing that one of her recent residue of boyfriends have dumped her, yet again. Of all the women in the world of Karachi, Ammo had dated just about anything that walked or crawled or could merely breath like a Stonehenge on this land, ranging from a bad ass hip hop richer-than-thou sun of a gun to a male version of femme fatale.

Monday, August 8, 2011

A Case For Suicide

Posted by A Great Liar

“It’s nothing but a tale of the living and the dead, and the ones in between.” I watched the main street from the window of the apartment, thinking out aloud. “It’s funny that each man now walking across this street, is merely following the long lost trails of his ancestors who must have walked the same line, trudged on the same cobblestones and occasionally admired a fleeting beauty passing by, some whistling and rest in awe.”

Ammo replied. “Have you never no hope, Lev? You know you ought to say something nice tonight, it’s your birthday, for creeper’s sake”. A half burned cigarette dangling from her left hand, a thinly clad wrist with white hairless skin and bones strikingly jutting out. The many misnomers of drug abuse blended with hours spent in artistic torture.

I continued on, for a moment mindless of her incitements of hope. “And the ones before them, and before that, and so on. Hence the ironic cycle of life, and God’s great cast of actors and actress upon this planet.”

Ammo replied. “Don’t you think that it’s a blessing that most of them, including you hopefully, will live to see another year.”

“Yes, though I hardly consider it a cause of celebration.” I replied. “Living is but one of the strangest acts of suicide, Ammo.” My voice low enough to qualify as a whisper. “It’s an acknowledged descent into the abyss, self willed, but done with hope, with flair, and in high spirits. An act of self annihilation done in extremely good taste.”

She said. “Perhaps you need to live a little more, Lev. And need to see beyond the veil of your opinions.” Paused. “Perhaps you also need to take into account the very possibility that you and your cockamamie opinions about life and the rest of the haberdashers surrounding it could be wrong.”

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Darwin Land Dropouts

Posted by A Great Liar

“Have you ever wondered what it is like to fall in love with someone?” I asked her. “I mean really and truly fall in love. Not like one of those hormonal seizures called crush or something”.

“Yes.” She replied. “Though I have a serious objection to that term you used.”

“But why?” I asked. “It’s only fair to regard it in this vein. Crushes aren’t real, I mean they are so fake that they are not even fake. It’s as if they are simply not there. Just a manifestation of one’s desire to sleep with someone one physically admires. Leaves no room for any strings attached, and the only nuisance you can think of is the blood you see on your hands accusing you in the morning light to come. But of course, one can wash it all off. I mean, with a bit of effort, one can pretty much wash off just about anything from one’s life these days.”

“Well, Lev.” She said, a touch irritated. “That has always been one of your problems, you never thought of people as people, you merely think of a primitive human model and turn it into an abstraction by stripping him or her of all human emotions.”

Thursday, March 10, 2011

My Kingdom for a Catch!

Posted by A Great Liar

I watched her rolling the cigarette on the table in front, sneezing and puffy eyed, hoping that she would have it her way and go in the slumber she so badly needed, and leave me with the disappointments of the evening all by myself. 

Her face like a once lovely bouquet now gone dry by the prolonged intimations with the stuffed cigarette. But after having witnessed what she just did, how could I blame her for resorting to such toxic measures.

Because tonight the tranquility of any cricket lover lay in that magic cigarette. Somebody needed to put the proverbial humpty dumpty back together again, and it possibly couldn’t be one of those eleven green men in the field, each of whom now looked older beyond their years.

But I decided to interrupt her anyway. “Ammo. That stuff will do no good.”

She looked up as if from a dream. “No?”

“No.” I replied. “Definitely not. And besides it is just a cricket match.”

“Perhaps so.” She said. Paused. “But I am having it anyway.”

Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Best of All Possible Worlds

Posted by A Great Liar

 “All that mendacity!” I exclaimed. “I am so sick and tired of it. Just about everywhere you go in this god forsaken town, two things you will always encounter; people and women.”

“People and women!” She asked. “What’s the difference?”

“Well, as people they represent a form of nuisance minus the sex appeal, so they can always be avoided without any significant degree of self application. But as women, hmmmm, you might forgive most of them for their human frivolities simply because they are beautiful.” Paused. “Well, to come to think of it, you might forgive just about anyone willing to share a night or two with you.”

“A night or two you say! Since when were you a one night stander, Lev?” She looked at me, amused. “I always took you for a dreamy type, a little shy boy with a streak for poetry and heartbreaks. If I count down the number of women you almost netted, and I do mean almost, you made quiet a career out of heartbreaks.”

“That’s so nice of you to say.” I winced. “Sometimes I just wish I could shoot myself.”

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

In Belphegor, We Trust

Posted by A Great Liar

Belphegor
There she was, barging in the room without a warning just as her moral senses permitted her to, her morbid visage, in one fell swoop, is revealed before my eyes, containing not an element of surprise. The smoke queen I am often privileged to witness post midnight hours, who couldn’t tell the difference between a Turkish hunk and a Mexican grizzly, not that there is much to speak of.

She was in just as I was lighting the candles, the last of the rituals before the ceremony could be started. It was my first dabble with the initiations of the dark sides, and I feared she was there just in the nick of time to ruin it.

She saw me dressed in a black robe, the dark candles on the altar in front, and an elaborate looking Pentagram drawn on the floor right in the middle of the room.

She asked. "Lev, what the hell you think you are doing?”

Sunday, February 13, 2011

For the Love of a Swan

Posted by A Great Liar

Standing against the window, I stared far into the distance unknown, dark clouds and beyond, watching the demons of the night smiling at me.

I lost the track of time till, with my back against the door, I heard her barging in the room.

“Don’t you ever knock!” I said, visibly irritated, turning around to face her.

She was all perked up and shining as a well done corpse. Wearing a white blouse with long sleeves and black pants so tapered they made her legs look like sheathed swords, with narrow face and hollow cheeks, her black hairs with dashes of white hung around her face in a lank cowl, and lips painted so brightly red she seemed to be bleeding from the mouth. I also couldn’t help but notice the half finished cigarette sticking between the fingers of her left hand. Or call it weed-candy.

She was apparently off to a date; some slime ball fella with thin shaky legs, sunken cheeks and hippie haircut dipped in olive oil, and cocaine written all over him was the best possible thing I could imagine for her.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Bee

Posted by A Great Liar

“Well, you just made my day.” I studied the sketch she has drawn and sighed. For all she was worth as an artist, the guy inside the canvas simply didn’t look like me.

“Something wrong?” She frowned.

“No.” I replied. “Nothing. It’s just that I could never relate much to sketches and drawings. Don’t have an eye for an art I suppose.”

Silence followed.

I continued. “By the way, something really stinks at my office these days.”

She looked towards me. “What? Is it some girl?”

“Oh no.” I replied. “I steer clear of all things feminine in the office; I mean we have enough of Piccolos playing Dudley-do-right back there, as it were. No, it ain’t that. It’s the new timing.”

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Sex, Hormones and the God of Proximity

Posted by A Great Liar


With the perfectionism of a junkie she fixed herself a cigarette. Her thin bony fingers worked her way around on the table in front, rolling out the cigarette, and all. And soon the air in the room grew dense, with dark whirls of smoke rising slowly.

She coughed after the first couple of puffs, and asked. “You want a bite, Lev”.

“Oh, no thanks.” I replied. “You know I am done with all that.”

She nodded. As the stuff inside the cigarette hit her, she grew more talkative. And next thing I know, she was talking about marriage.

“You believe in getting married.” She asked.

“Well. Yea, kind off.”

“Well.” She chuckled. “You don’t sound too believable.”

Do you? I wanted to ask but didn’t. She was in one of her post-weed sessions and her responses couldn’t be transparent enough.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Just Fuggedaboutit

Posted by A Great Liar


Here is the thing; liberals, democrats, moderates, conservatives, aren’t they all the same? Doing the same old act, promoting an agenda, be it that of rightist or the leftist. One unable to bear the stench of another or vice versa.

Because here I am walking inside a slushy bookstore on phase V, and Voila! all heads roll as the Devil trots in.

I saw a middle aged mother wrapping her (queen-sized) arms around her little tyke, who seemed wide eyed and hopelessly scared, against her breast, and whispering. Here cometh the dark man, sonny, you better behave to your mama now.

And the rest of them turning around, looking in unison, their eyes probing anxiously. And I especially noted that narrow hipped, bandana wearing, clad in tight tops chic now able to look right through his boyfriend as her eyes never strayed off me. As if I would explode any second.

And for a moment, I wish I had. If you catch the drift.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Of Nukes and Girlfriends

Posted by A Great Liar


It’s been six years since I last met her. And the question was a long time coming.

‘Where have you been, Lev?’ She asked, her eyes never leaving me.

Where else? I wondered. But drunk in mindless abstinence and faithless despair.

I stammered back. ‘Well, I got kinda religious, and grew a beard. My priorities changed. You know, one of those things.’

‘Overnight?’ She asked. ‘I find it hard to believe. You were such a party animal, hon.’

‘Well, yea’. I replied. ‘Kind of. I wanted to blast all the liberals to hell, or tie a nuke up my ass and jump from the Empire State Building.’ Paused. ‘Like I said, my priorities changed.’