Saturday, October 2, 2010

Mid summer dreams (PART 1) : Evolution

Some stories are meant to be told, some stories are meant to be read but some stories come up from memories, they are ones that are unsaid and untold and remain a secret and are the best ones that anyone could have... Each day goes by without even thinking of things that once remained at the top of the list until one fine day the dust clears up giving you nostalgia and the only thing that would be left with you would be the memories and a single tear drop..... The thought in your mind would be what could you have done differently for things to have been better than what it is now and your brain would signal back blank messages and you would be awe struck by the reality and it hurts... It hurts the maximum when you hit the ground with all the might gravity could ever offer..............

One busy rainy summer afternoon in Bangalore, All Raghu could do was to just sit there in his cubicle, read his old chats and stare out of his window at the rain.... Thinking why does google even save his chats, why did he have to open his old chats to search for some link his friend sent him the previous day all these questions all these questions of why, who, when and how kept ringing as his Manager kept calling out for him....

Manager: Raghu man we need you here there is a damn production defect....
Raghu: still reeling out from the euphoria turned swiftly wiping the only drop of tear and got into his work...

Things were not the same for Raghu as they were now..... After fixing the defect he got up from his seat and went to his Managers cubicle but on his way his eyes as they were trained to do so all the time glanced upon an empty cubicle.... Emptiness is all that he had left in him.... He had friends he had money he had a good life but then the glance at the empty cubicle made his gut feel sick of emptiness and churn out the bile into his stomach...

As soon as he was done with work with great difficulty he managed to get back into his chats which lasted a mile long.... Dont know why but he had a smile a mile long as he shut down his workstation and headed back home with a thought that he had some huge amount of reading to do.... Fiddling through the traffic he could reach home just in time to catch his son Arjun go to sleep.... He had hardly spent time with his family with the amount of work he was doing his beautiful wife Rekha was astonished to see Raghu actually coming early from office that evening.... As they went to bed Raghu promised her he would take care of Arjun the next day and would spend all the time with family at home as Rekha had some shopping to do....

After turning from one side to another the insomnia kept him awake.... So he decided to do something rather than lie down and think... He quickly powered up his laptop and logged into google and started looking at his chats right to the beginning.... The beginning of time it could be called the 9th of June 2010... The date of EVOLUTION.... He just saw the date as Rekha woke up with light from the laptop she got up complaining you cant stay away from that thing and snatched his laptop away and stashed it away.... Raghu then reluctantly went back to bed and lying down thinking of the day that changed his life and went into his emptiness then into a deep sleep........

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Illuminated...

A temple near office... Had my camera while riding back home and had to click this... :)

Monday, May 10, 2010

Vantage Point (PART 3) : THE LADY

War had changed her life, at every phase of life when she was just about to stand up and walk straight war would change it all. First it was her Father who was sacrificed in the name of war, then her brother and then her husband. Now it was just her and her 2 little kids. It couldn't have been more worse for Zainab as she was walking to the market to buy some provision. She had left her two kids playing on their own in her old beat down house.

It was starting to get dark as she walked to the market. The whole village was sorta disturbed after the banished ones arrived. All of them knew that war was coming and would get back to their houses before it got dark and would stay out of sight to save their own lives. That dreadful day Zainab dint have any provisions left in her house to feed her kids and herself and wanted to buy something to make some dinner for themselves. She wanted to just rush to the market and buy the stuff and get back as soon as possible.

But as she was just nearing the market disaster struck, she heard similar noises of some bees whizzing past after banging noises and then a huge blast.. It was war again, she could hear bullets flying past her as an instinct she just ran into the nearest shop for cover without being aware of her surroundings. All Zainab could see were the cover of the shop as she ran blindly towards it she dint see the militant who was running towards her and almost bumped into him. He was one of the banished ones who came into their village and took everything. No one ever questioned them as they knew what would happen if they did.

As far as Zainab was concerned she wanted nothing more than the safety of herself and her kids. She was the only one the kids had and all she wanted was to`get back home in one piece to her kids. These were her thoughts as she regained her composure from the bump in she rose to see the Jawans eyes as he was running to get the militant. And then did she realize he was taking aim past her towards the militant who was about to throw a grenade towards them.

All this happened in a fraction of a second, as she ran into the market for cover she heard a gun shot whiz behind her and a second later as she ran through the rear door of the shop BIG LOUD blast hurled her forward as she hit the ground with a big thud and all kinds of shreds fell over her carcass. She thought she was dead as all she could see was bright light and could hear nothing but a buzzing sound that deafened her ears.

Then came the pain which was worse than being dead, she had bruises all over the place from the fall and some burns from the blast. The pain was so much so that she could not move her body an inch and felt like each and every bone in the body was broken to a million pieces. As she managed to turn over and looked into the sky she saw black smoke rising and it felt like she was entering one hell from another.

All she could think of were her kids who would be waiting for her mother to come back to them and would be scared and orphaned if she dint. She was struggling to keep herself awake but the eye lids got heavy on her. The only words that came out of her mouth were,

"Forgive me. God please forgive me."

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Vantage Point (PART 2) : THE MILITANT

Jihad that was the name we were taught and bred with. We would die for it and martyr our lives for jihad. That was what we were taught and forced to do otherwise they would kill our children and our family. He had to do this otherwise they would kill his family. These were the thoughts running wildly in Ajmal's mind as he was pointing his rickety old AK 47.

He was a farmer living a silent peaceful with his family. He could still remember the dreadful day when they came and took him away and threatened to murder his family if he dint agree to go with them. It was 5 yrs since that happened. Now he was a killing machine with no remorse or mercy. He was bound by no laws of any country the only law he knew was to kill the person he was pointing his gun towards.

Ajmal and 4 others had set out towards this village a month ago on foot with minimal food and shelter. They were supposed to set up shelter in a village that was at a strategic point. Once they set up a base he had to call command centre and more of his martyr brothers would join them there for the war of Independence. It was a dreadful and gruelling journey to the village off the 5 only 3 could make it to the village. Two of his martyr brothers were sacrificed to the treacherous mountains of the Himalayas.

But they had somehow managed to reach the village and contact their command centre when they saw the indian army men walking towards the village. Ajmal was the first to spot them and he alerted the rest of them. Ajmal was thinking it was not supposed to work this way. How did they manage to know that they were here. But nevertheless he knew what had to be done. Their survival depended on the death of 5 army jawans then so be it. So they took point at 3 places and opened fire. With the old guns they had half of the bullets went awry but one bullet from ajmal's gun killed a jawan. But the training of the Jawans and their fire power was much superior to theirs and he helplessly watched the other 2 martyrs getting killed.

Ajmal had to run it was all over nothing could be done now, he was the only survivor at least till now. If he dint leave then he would also have to take his last breathe. So he made a run for it, initially after a 100 metre sprint he thought he was alone but then when he turned to confirm he could see the silhouette of an army officer chanrging towards him with vengeance and speed. He was so captivated with the officer that he almost bumped into this on coming lady who was frightened by the bullets that were flying all around the place. He had to stop that officer, he reached down his fur coat and took out a hand grenade removed the pin and was about to throw it.....

Bannggggg....

He dint know what hit him, it was a flash of light for a fraction of a second, the grenade went astray into the nearby market. That was followed by intense pain and a feeling of failure. Not because he failed his mission, but the failure of letting down his family. His family would be ravaged and murdered now, because he dint succeed. He had let them down, he had failed his promise, he could do nothing. All he saw was the officer who had shot him down looking down upon on his dying body. Taking his last breathe all he could only blurt out was,

"Forgive me. God please forgive me."

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Vantage Point (PART 1) : THE CAPTAIN

War is something that just causes destruction and violence. War changes lives forever, things never come back to normal after war. Well the war against terrorism is no different. Precious human life is lost in the name of jihad, liberalisation and basically to prove a point. These were the last words that ran in captain krishnan's mind as he shot down a militant.

The militant was hurling a grenade at him when he shot him square on the shoulder, the grenade slipped from his hand and went into a nearby market stall and blew up with a huge bang. Captain krishnan was rattled a bit but he immediately regained his composure and ran over to see his opponent and could see the fear in his eyes and could relate to the fear in his own eyes when he was posted to the drass sector.

Captain Vijay krishnan hailed from a small village near madurai coming from a family of farmers all he wanted to be was join the army from childhood. All his dreams and hard work paid when he got into the National Defence Academy. It was his first day on the job, earlier on that D day he got orders saying they had intelligence of Militants infiltrating in a village in Drass sector. He had to take a small outfit and scout the place to get to know the positions of the Militants. Little did he know that a simple combing operation would end up being a disaster earlier that morning.

It was a cold afternoon when Captain Krishnan and 5 other jawans took out off on the jeep towards the village. It was a easily a 3 hour trip thanks to the snow infested roads and slippery roads. They parked the jeep a distance from the village and hiked to the village where disaster was awaiting them. It was a short hike to the village, all the men were exhausted by the time they reached the village. At the beginning the village seemed to be totally empty and there was an air of silence throughout the place which was eerie and sent a chill down Captain krishnan's spine. He had a gut feeling something was wrong and that came true to his horror when a shot rang out of nowhere as blood sprayed all over his face from the jawan walking in front of him. The shot came from one of the windows in the village and they had no sign of warning.

The other jawans and krishnan took cover near by as more shots rang out and bullets hurled out everywhere. Captain Krishnan was facing his first real life threatening situation and he had to get is act right to get the people who just killed on of his men who was under his command. There were 3 positions from where bullets were being fired in the village and decided they would split up in groups of 2's and get the 3 targets separately. Within no time the 2 of the targets were eliminated with utmost expertise. The 3rd target he saw trying to make an escape into the village, so the Captain took off after him shouting orders on his way to maintain a perimeter and watchout for more militants.

As he sprinted after the other militant he caught the gaze of a young woman, she was young but yet had a mature air around her. She could have been a mother of one or may be two kids. He passed her as she came out of a market stall. The sight of the Militant and the Captain after him scared her to death and she raced back inside into the stall she came out from. All this happened in a fraction of a second and while this was happening the militant turned and he had a grenade in his hand without the pin and he was just about to hurl it at Captain Krishnan and he acted accordingly and fired at him. The Bullet pierced the Militant on his shoulders and the grenade went right into the market as Captain Krishnan ducked for cover and the grenade exploded with a huge bang. As the dust cleared Captain Krishnan got up and walked to the militant as he was taking his last breath. The shot was lethal and had hit the shoulder right near the heart and he died almost instantly.

But the death of the Militant dint ease away the pain in his heart as he turned and saw the market stall into which the lady had run into. It was the same stall into which the grenade had landed. It was reduced to rubble and all he could see was rubble and dust all over the place. He cursed himself for what he had done, he could not save an innocent life. He despised himself and shouted in despair.

"Forgive me. God please forgive me."

Monday, April 26, 2010

Manipal Revisited... Day 2: Madikeri to Mangalore

Day 2(April 2nd 2010)

The day started with us waking up at 6 so that we could leave
early, but then it turned out to be that we were gonna get late... We visited Sunil's uncles place near the Home stay and with some more off roading that was the perfect way to start off the day... :)

After the visit we got ready and we started towards Manipal, the ride down from coorg was beautiful, some awesome mountains and the roads were all winding so did some foot scrapings... Me and Abhi shot off initially then i took off leaving the guys behind... After some hiccups of Sunils dome breaking off we managed to reach Sullya by 11... We had to refuel here and pick up some cash... After the refuelling our Ice cream man Abhi found an ice cream stall near the petrol bunk so we had ice cream and other stuff... ;) After the snack break we found that Abhi's bike had gotten punctured so we got delayed by an hour...








After getting the puncture fixed we again left and this time me and sunil took off... Again some amazing winding roads... We stopped just before Mangalore for some tender coconut and then managed to cross Mangalore by about 1... The bus gang had already reached Manipal and were getting restless for our arrival... We decided to stop for lunch at Bittu da dhaba at about 20 kms from Manipal where we hogged like hungry dogs... :) Finally we managed to reach Manipal at around 5 and reached Tiger circle where the reunion of the boys happened... :) Then we went to Chira's place to freshen up and go to the fest which apparently we came for... While a few guys were freshening up i was narrating on the happenings of the ride to the other guys bringing them upto speed...

We went to the fest after everyone got ready and it was a complete disaster... The fashion was boring and the dances were horrible... But we guys had a ball dancing and shouting for everything... No one was sitting next to us with the amount of noise we were making... Pity the guy who came and asked me which college we are from and my prompt reply saying "BTMT dude" and we all burst out laughing our backs off... Finally we got bored with the stupid fashion show so we decided to start our own party back at Chira's place... :) And so the party began with all the arguments and discussion after the booze we laughed like crazy... The star of that night's show was the newbie Karthik... Sunil was tripping on him royally with his GG rantings...



Half of the guys crashed after dinner, while Me, BK, Chira, Suppu and Karthik were talking about all kinds of random things... Till we crashed outselves by about 4 30 in the morning... ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Manipal Revisited... Day 1: Bangalore to Madikeri

It was a much awaited ride for all of us and a much awaited trip for the others... Yes the group was split open this time around, 5 of us decided to ride down and the other 5 decided to come by bus... So the stage was all set for us to leave the riding group was Me(Thuderbird), Sunil(Unicorn), Abhi(Apache), Bharavi(CBZ extreme) and Babu(Blue Splendor 125 cc) the other unfortunate 5 were BK, Supreeth, Pradeep, Rajanna and the new guy Karthik... The bus guys had booked their tickets to leave on 1st night and we were supposed to leave on 1st afternoon which eventually turned out to become evening...

Day 1(April 1st 2010):
I had packed my luggage the previous night itself and woke up early and went to the new Mantri mall for some shopping for my shoes and a T shirt for Joseph (Suman's gift for her wedding anniversary)... After hogging at the new Taco bell at the mall searched for some shoes and finally found a pair of Nike...
I also had to pick up my new pair of boots from shivaji nagar but alas the guy had not got the boots yet so couldnt get the new ones for the ride... After shivaji nagar i headed back home and geared up and got my saddles done and left to sunils place by 2... We were already late and Abhi would meet up with us by 4 so we decided to waste sometime and as well leave with Abhi... Bharavi was already at sunils place so we were playing with Sumans kid and had some chai... Finally we left at 4 and met up with Abhi at the Bangalore university gate only to find that our man Babu had shot ahead to some god forbidden location just to find a petrol bunk which was right in front of the university gate... Finally we got going after finding Babu waving at us wildly some where 20 kms from BU...
Incidentally there was very little traffic on mysore road for a long weekend, neverthless it was good for us... We were doing good speeds I was leading the way while Bharavi and Babu were right behind me and Abhi and Sunil were at the back... Looking into my rear view mirror was scary with babu riding like a snake at the mid line almost got run down by oncoming vehicles... First stop we took was just before the shrirangapatnam cross towards Madikeri... After some gyan sessions to Babu and Bharavi to ride properly we hit the road again and by this time it started to get dark... We were again doing good speeds and i decided to ride at the end of the pack so that i can baby sit Babu and Bharavi...






Next stop was just before hunsur at the Nagarhole junction... We had some coffee and some freshening up and another gyan session to Babu to ride carefully we left to madikeri... This was a super nice night ride... It was like a trail of light moving in a trained manner under the dark star lit sky... Every now and then i switched off my head lights to enjoy just the sky it was psychedelic and amazing to ride without head lights in the dark... Hit some bad patch of roads at Madikeri and finally managed to reach the homestay at 11 after a couple of scares from Bharavi who went off the road on a couple of curves and Babu with his usual stupid stunts and the final 5 kms off roading in the night to reach the homestay... :)




Partied in the night with campfire and some bantering and teasing of babu... Abhi was in all form who literally started hitting babu... Some of pearls of wisdom when the boys are high... :)

Abhi to Babu, Yeno nindu bari height nandu weight bega kudiyo loper (You just have height i have weight Drink fast u idiot)
Babu who drank the first time says we all forced him into drinking... Babu drank 3 pegs of vodka and says we forced him... :)
After Babu told us the sad story of how he lost his mobile, Bharavi's retort "Dude babu I dont understand why u cried after loosing your fone"
Sunil "Maga naale Manipal hogbeka,BK ge call madi ille barakke helbidona"(Do we have to go to manipal tomorrow, lets call BK and ask him to come here)

So after the campfire died out and the boys ran out of the booze we had our dinner and crashed for the night as we had a long day of riding the next day.. Yes we decided to leave to Manipal the next day... :)

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Into the Darkness... :)

On the shores on Vagator beach (Goa)... It was one of the most beautiful sunsets i have ever seen... :)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Office chronicles....

Today was a different day, Today was a good day since I got my act together finally after a long time and got myself into office early... The world looks so different when you actually leave your house early, Its like a totally new world which just started afresh... Ok ok I get the point of the post is what happens when one comes into office real early...

  1. You miss the rush hour traffic and get to ride in peace without any stops, unless you run out of fuel.
  2. Get away from riding in the burning sun...
  3. You get to see a lot of people jogging and walking, looking at them makes you feel younger and healthier and makes you feel you are also working out...
  4. Good parking space, right near the elevator so that you dont have to walk a lot...
  5. Clean toilets... :D
  6. No security guards at the gate asking you for id cards and vehicle stickers...
  7. You need not wait for the lift and avoid annoying stops on every floor, its all yours...
  8. The coffee machine is all clean and yours, need not wait for your turn...
  9. You can listen to songs and sing out loud and not get embarrassed...
  10. You can pretend you are working hard when everyone starts to come in...
  11. People start thinking you are a moron because you get to leave early in the evening...
  12. You tend to fall asleep every half an hour...

Anymore points to add please leave ur comments.. ;)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Emotional Atyachar...

So the producers of one of Indian television channels sat down one day and decided they need to do something out of the box and after much contemplation and discussion they decided to start this show called Emotional Atyachar... For those who don't watch this show (includes me too) the concept of this show is to test the loyalty of your partner on national TV... :)

This is how it works, the case is introduced by one of the partners to the Television guys... The person who is being tested is the suspect... Its usually the guy who is the suspect here most of the times because they are the least self righteous of the all and they wanted to prove that the woman's quota bill needs a push...

So one of them thinks the guy is having an affair its either the insecure stupid girl(ISG) or her friend or the guys friend or guys brother or guys sister or the guys neighbor or the guys milk man or the guys whatever... They go to the TV channel who are much obliged for their TRP ratings that they will get, they play the sleuths and put in a hot young model or two who is the Emotional atyachar agent into this guys life...

So with cameras and mics in place the games of emotional atyachar begin...

Day 1
Our suspect goes to have coffee, where he gets wooed down by the hot young model...
Hot young model: Hey how are u??
Suspect: I am fine, what about u??
Hot young model: I am fine... So why don't u take down my number and gimme a call sometime...
Suspect: (thank u god) Sure if u insist..

Day 2
Hot young model calls suspect on his phone.. Tring
Tring Tring.. Suspect is all excited about her call (thank u again god)..
Suspect: Hey hi, I was just thinking of u and u called.. What a coincidence...
Hot young model: I was thinking of u too which is why i called u.. Shall we party tonight...
Suspect: (of course) ya ya sure we can...
Hot young model: ok meet me tonight at 7pm...
Suspect: (This is awesome) I shall meet u there at 7pm(in fact i will be waiting there from 6 itself)..

6 PM Suspect is already waiting there for the
Hot young model.... All this is being recorded by the super intelligent sleuths of Emotional atyachar...
7 PM
Hot young model arrives..
Suspect: hey i was waiting for u.... u looking nice by the way...
Hot young model: thank u so much.. chalo then lets go inside and have a drink and dance a little...
Suspect:(why do u think i am waiting from an hour f0r) sure sure come lets go inside...

After a few drinks.... Rather after the Hot young model got the suspect drunk totally...

Hot young model: Shall we go to my place... I can drive u are too drunk...
Suspect: Sure.. hic hic..

After reaching home the
Hot young model spins her web of intimacy over an inebriated idiot who cant make out a thing... After some intimate moments that have been recorded by this secret camera in the room its time for the big showdown... Its time for the ISG to confront the Suspect...

So our suspect is lying down on the
Hot young model's lap when the camera crew storm into the room explaining him everything... All the alcohol in the suspects head wears off and he is dumbstruck and doesn't know what exactly to tell...

So is our ISG she is also dumbstruck and stands in awe after seeing the suspect get up from the
Hot young model's laps... She is totally furious and walks down and slaps the anchor of the show...

Anchor: Why did u slap me.. I helped u find out how loyal ur boy friend was.
ISG: U helped my beep.. beep beep beeeppp.. beep beep... beep beep beep.. beep beep beeppp..

After some audio enhancements they actually found something else between the beeps... This is exclusively for your viewing... But catch you after the break...

So after the break the show comes back on air, with the whole Indian junta sitting on the edge of their seats to find out what happened... So here is the exclusive footage of what ISG actually said... VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED...

ISG: u helped my aaa beep... u baa beep this is not my boy friend at all... i broke up with this ass beep last week... i wanted u to do a loyalty test on my latest boy friend... i dumped his aaa beep for the new one...

Anchor: Damn why did i have to be the anchor to this show...
Suspect: Ah what a evening it was... This is the best break up i have ever had...
ISG: All guys are the same...
Hot young model: who's next...
Producer: Wow TRP rating increases if the anchor gets slapped... :)


To all those idiots who empower today's crappy media .!.. ..!.


Others have a good weekend guys... :)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Insomniac

I was sweating profusely, breathing heavily and was having a double vision... I was in the world in between sleep and the real world where nothing seems real... It seemed like the world was stand still in front of my eyes, even the faintest of sounds echoed in my ears, the minutest of the smells got to my nose and yet my body dint feel in control of itself... Even the smallest of the movements required a huge effort...

It was the same feeling everyday or rather every night... I was suffering from something that they call insomnia... It was 5 days since i had slept last and was feeling lost in my own world with sleepless nights... The first couple of nights were easy to pass as i would watch a movie and pass my time till day break, with the growing lack sleep it started to become difficult... The sweating increased my heart beat felt like it would go away any minute...

Every night i would lie down and make an effort to sleep but then the effort to sleep made it difficult to sleep... I would sit soaked in my own sweat thinking why I couldnt sleep... Was it some sin i had commited, was I possesed, is it some neurological problem???

So after 5 days of sleeplessness I decided to do something about it, so as per the advice given by my mom i thought let me try Yoga and meditation... She asked me to lie down flat on my back with my hands and legs fully spread out and not folded and i would feel sleepy soon... I started laughing at my mom and said "Mom that wont work, I will try something else"...

So there i went for another couple of days trying things in vain and spent sleepless nights trying to sleep... Whoever said try try till you succeed dint include sleeping in it... The count was now 8 days without sleep, also i read somewhere that 10 days without sleep could kill a person and desperation crept through after that...

So after much contemplation i decided to try my moms advice and lie down how she asked me to lie down... Thats when i realised what was wrong and why i couldnt sleep... While i was lying to flat on my back a sinister and evil smirk came onto me... One part of me was thinking how stupid of me the other part was thinking finally found the reason...

So i got up switched on the FAN and slept like a baby after almost 8 days of sleeplessness...

Moral of the story: Moms always have the right answer to everything... :)

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Lone Rider

On the shores Marvanthe Beach... On the ride back from RMX mumbai...



Please leave your comments.. :)

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Déjà vu (Finale) : Acceptance

This is the final and concluding part of this post, you can read the previous posts here
Part 1
Part 2

Acceptance the final stage... No matter what the situation is, after all the stages of denial, anger, bargaining and depression everything boils down to acceptance... Ravi was trying to accept what had happened to him, what wrong he had done and finally facing the facts...

He decided to go and meet Arjun in person and apologize for what happened... He would plead till they accept him back... He wanted redemption from all that he had done... He reached Arjun's house and knocked on the door and Arjun's mom opened the door... She was overwhelmed to see Ravi after such a long time and hugged him so hard that she pushed him down... She dragged him inside without a word spoken and started firing questions left right and center...

After answering all of the questions Ravi finally mustered up some courage to ask her "Aunty where is Arjun".. She said beta he is upstairs go to his room... Ravi went upstairs dragging his slump weight one step at a time and knocked on Arjun's door......

The next split second Ravi came rolling down the stairs with a huge thud... What he saw next was something he would remember all his life or at least remember the last few seconds of his life... It was Arjun holding the wicket that Ravi had used it to hit him... Arjun was holding it with the blood stains still evident and rage filled in his eyes... Ravi got up and started running out of the house and realized he had broken his leg and a couple of ribs too... He turned back to see Arjun's was right behind him and was taking a wild swing... It was Déjà vu time only this time he was on the receiving end... And then there was blackness...

Ravi woke up with a startle to find Arjun shaking him up... He almost fell down from the bed after seeing Arjun... Arjun was telling him something but he could not hear what he was saying...

"Dude Ravi get up lets go play cricket man.. Wake up and get ready, we have a match to play"

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Slumdog (Part 1) : Making

Dec 3rd it’s not an important date to keep track of by anyone. But as my parents told me that was the day i was born. An insignificant day for any normal person, but i was born an insignificant little stray dog.

Well usually people come into this world to live and spread joy but all that I have experienced so far has been pain and suffering. Wait here is the part where I take you back to show you the pain and suffering. No points for guessing though. As my mom told me it was a rainy day, apparently there was a storm coming and dad couldn’t find a dry place for mom to stay. But nevertheless it was a successful delivery and I came into this world with a bark or rather barks. I was born with 3 brothers and 2 sisters. That’s makes it 6 of us. Well I do know the math four plus two gives you six. Learnt it from the school where a kid used to feed me his lunch. Well back to the day I was born as I mentioned earlier about the part of misery, well it started as i came into this world.

As I was coming into this world, my family suffered both joy and grief. My dad who was guarding my mom while she was having the delivery, got hit by this huge yellow truck. It was just a split second as I came out he was gone. Well later is when I learnt that my dad was the local hero and was the leader of a few packs of the place. He was keeping the humans safe from those rabid dogs of the trenches of garbage. It was hell on earth any dog that ventured there never came back alive. The leader of that pack was cunning and a vile dog his name was Vito. He was always conniving to take over our area so that they can infect the humans with their treachery.

With the death of my dad, war came looming over our heads and we were over powered easily. We had to move away from that place as those dogs chased us away. We had to take resort to the low lands of the city. It was difficult growing up in the low lands the food was scarce and the weather was always bad.

I was a Dog a SLUMDOG in the making… :)

Monday, January 18, 2010

Déjà vu (Part 2) : The Angry Denial


Read Part 1 of this post here



I regained consciousness surrounded by troubled faces... One was giving me water, one was calling for help, one trying to give me some air… I started to get what had actually perspired out there, and then I remembered I had not eaten anything since the previous morning and the lack of food and the trauma caused me to collapse… I got up and convinced everyone that I was fine and drank some water… Finally I found a guy who was selling Pani Puri at the other end of the ground and had a couple of plates of Pani Puri… As I had pani puri emotions started rushing into me as I started to remember about the day that changed everything.

It started as a normal day... Arjun came and woke me up at 6... Everyone was already waiting to go play cricket... I was as usual late and made the others late... But nevertheless i woke up and we made our way to the ground to play... We started our match and everything was going well though we were loosing the match... But it was all the part and parcel of the game but things got worse and we were getting taunted by the other team...

I was getting angry but Arjun and the others were trying to pacify me... But it was getting wayward with the all the taunts and it was getting uncontrollable... All hell broke loose as they won the match, they got in my face and I that was what triggered the events that I never wish ever happened at all... I punched the other teams captain in the face who crashed on the ground and then there was a huge melee... I fell down and grabbed the wicket that was on the ground and took a wild swing at someone who was coming at me... I caught him right in the face and opened up his left eye, from which blood started gushing out...


After I got back to my senses I realized that the guy I hit was actually Arjun... I dropped the wicket and panicked and fled the scene... I dint know what I was doing but I just fled without looking back... Everything else was history after that... Things changed and I moved away from that house as I asked my dad to put me into a hostel away from everything... Within a week I was away from the guys and in all this I totally forgot what I had done to Arjun...I refused to deny the fact that what I did was wrong...


Days passed, months passed and years passed everyone had changed... The guys after trying to contact me stopped trying and eventually moved on... I moved on and after ten years we moved to the same house... I did not make any effort of finding out about the guys... But fate plays its own game as always and brought me to this day that has given me my punishment by banishing me from my friends... Ostracizing me from the friends that I once had... Tears started rolling down my cheeks without me even noticing it... The pani puri guy started inquiring if he had put a lot of chilly in his pani puri...


But my fate had a design of its own and I was going to learn it the hard way....

Monday, January 11, 2010

Déjà vu (Part 1) : The Realisation

Ravi woke up on a Sunday morning. He realized he had to be in office at 8 and he was already running late. As you got ready in frenzy, took a quick shower and got dressed. It was an important day for him the course of this meeting would decide how his future went. With this thought in his mind he got on his bike and got going. The only thought in his mind was how the meeting was going to go. He had everything figured out on how he would go about explaining stuff to his clients. This gave a wry smile to Ravi, he knew if everything went fine then this would practically be the happiest day of his life.
Then suddenly on the road he realized where he was. It was this ground filled with hoards of people, playing one of the most popular sport cricket. There were groups of all age’s right from ten to forty. He saw a group of youngsters walking out of the ground pushing each other and teasing as they walked out of the ground with a satisfaction that would last a life time.

Ravi was having a déjà vu. For a second he dint know what was happening to him, he could feel the euphoria that those guys were feeling. This took him back ten yrs into memory lane, to those days when nothing was more important than friends and to that day when everything changed once and for all. Those were the days when cricket stood first. They were a band of friends, they dint need a reason to play they just needed a plank that would work as a bat and a ball. Cricket was a way of life. Friends were life. The group included Ravi the best batsman, Anil another batsman who complimented Ravi. Then there was Anup who was nothing but a blind swinger of the bat. Then Harish and John were the bowlers of them all. To top it all was the clown of the team Ayushman Who could tickle the funny nerve in anyone, he was also the pet of them all. With this recollection Ravi reached his office just in time to the meeting. The proceedings started and things went as Ravi wanted it to.

Though he was happy that he had won the contract something was missing and something was troubling him. He precisely knew what was missing. He went back to the ground on the way back home parked his bike and sat under the tree where so many memorable moments were spent. There were still a few people playing there, but he could see familiar faces there in one particular game. He saw Anil at the non strikers end and Anup, Harish, John and Ayushman were sitting near the tree and cheering, then finally the batsman turned towards him and he couldn’t believe his eyes it was Ravi himself. He stared at himself feeling light headed and dizzy. Ravi collapsed near the tree with a thud…

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Story of a Banana (Part 1): Hero

Like all the heroes our hero the Banana was born in a backward downtrodden village, in some remote corner which no one has ever heard about... He was born with about a hundred or may be more brothers and sisters but unlike his siblings he was determined, to achieve something in life... Despite their efforts of convincing him to lead a normal life he decided to move to the city to make something big of his life...

Finally the day came and he was stashed away in a container with some other bananas of the village and was taken away in one of those dreadful wheeled machines which made deafening sounds... As his siblings looked over him being carried away he had mixed emotions of happiness and sorrow at once... But deep down inside he was confident he will make it big some day...

It was a long and a tiring journey... Many of his friends from the farm couldn't take the harsh conditions... A few of them committed suicide by jumping out of the crates or by slitting their precious skins... But our hero was still persistent and took all the pain in hopes of glory some day... After a long journey to no where the machine stopped and the containers were moved into what looked like jaws of death... Containers went in full of his friends and friends from a different clan and they came out empty... It was white and big on all four sides with a blue jaw that moved up and down and made a shuddering sound when moved... He saw men carry containers of them going inside, on one of the walls was written something which he couldn't read... Once inside he was dropped on the ground without any mercy... He was young so could take the impact a few of his older friends were again killed because of the fall... But he was confident and determined to become something...

There he was lying down without moving and staring at the sky which had many small suns, wait it was not the sky it was the death machine... He was inside this machine... All his dreams of making it big came crumbling until he saw an orange flash in front of him... One of the men dropped a few citrus friends next to his heap of bananas... Of all of them one of them particularly caught his attention, she was so orangy and looked so juicy, he was mesmerized by her beauty... She came rolling down to him because of the fall and touched his head... It bought him back to reality... Was it reality or a dream she was lying besides him in total horror of the fall... He pinched himself to see if it was reality and shouted out loud, started laughing at him for his stupidity... All he could blurt out was a hi and a sick smile when suddenly all the suns went out and that blue jaw closed down with a shudder and there was complete silence and darkness...

But he knew he would make it big... He would be a successful Banana some day... :)