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."

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… :)

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…