Magic is a naughty thing that loves to play hide-and-seek. To find it, you have to keep seeking it. To continue to seek magic, you need to continue to believe in it. If you forget the magic, you lose the ability to see it even when you find it. The longer you forget it, the harder it is to recognize it even when you find it. Every child starts out by playing with Magic and then abandons the game midway while magic hides forever waiting to be found again...

Magic is a tricky thing. With the slightest doubt, it disappears and turns into delusion or its twin called illusion. It is a lonely thing longing for company, aching to belong. It often makes friends only to easily lose them. No one believes in Magic because they feel it is too good to be true. Some even find Magic too sweet; too fickle. Many do not buy into its special brand of teasing humour. It often secretly puts a little bit of itself in everything just to last forever. Magic is often the most steadfast companion. Many die and are buried with magic in them. In some, their magic even dies with them never to be seen again.

Magic is a tricky thing. It plays often with your memory and makes you question whether it even existed. If you forget magic, you lose it in the hidden folds of a fading memory and you are left with is a nameless, vague ache.

Magic often teases you by hiding in plain sight and casts a spell of making everything seem ordinary or boring. It peeps out every now and then to see if anyone is spotting it quickly revealing itself in the twinkle in someone’s eyes, a sudden shout of laughter, a suppressed giggle or a kiss; It eagerly waits for someone to blow its cover, sometimes, waiting for what seems forever for you to shout ‘ I spy you’. Sometimes, it wants to shout out to you when you cannot see it hiding in plain sight or when you become blind to it even when it stands winking right in front of you.

It hides in the toothless smile of a baby, in the rush of fresh love, in the silent still night when a bird sings, in twinkling stars, in the soft feel of the grass, in the early light of a rosy-hued sun waking up. It even hides in the arguments of old couples, in the cacophony of young lovers fighting, in the quick kiss of a couple rushing to work, in a smile amidst a busy day, in memories, beside the sleeping dead, in a steaming coffee cup, in the twirl of a skirt, in the bloom of a flower, in the scraping of chairs, in million moments through the day... and waits.

And waits...

And waits...

in plain sight.

To be found...

Did you just look around?

I did.

And, found Magic.

- Srividya Srinivasan [6/2/2017]