CAUGHT - Flash 55, #2

She saw them waiting eagerly at the end of the road. She couldn't reverse her scooter as the road was one-way. Her eyes desperately searched for an escape en-route. Saw a narrow alley and swiftly turned right, adrenaline pumping her heart. Alas, their wing-man waited even there. She was caught for not wearing a helmet!

Okay, this has happened to me several times. Well not exactly. Every time I get caught by the traffic police, I pretty much ride right into their trap. There is no adrenaline rush that would make me take swift decisions to escape from the wrath of paying 100 bucks for preferring to let my head and hair enjoy the "breeze" while riding!! Lemme count. Over the last 2 years, I guess I have been caught about 5 times (equals 500 bucks!!) for riding helmet-less. Thankfully, all my other vehicle documents were intact, else I might have ended up paying way more than a 100 bucks!!

When I first got my license to ride a two-wheeler, pretty soon I got into my first helmet-less incident. When the police uncle tried to stop me, I being a scardy cat, slowed down in terror. When he saw how scared I was, he turned his attention to other law-less riders as he was sure that I would park my vehicle and dish out money. But that day, the other riders who were caught, egged me with hisses "Hey, don't stop, GO, GO, GO!!" , and so I neatly obliged them (though shaking from head to foot) and gave the accelerator of my Dio to its full extent and despite the shrill sounds of blaring whistles that followed me with an authority that I should stop, I managed not to dare and look at the angry police uncle's face through my rear view mirror and ESCAPED. My very first adrenaline rush at breaking a rule and getting away with it!! 

I know, my moral compass is twisted but who cares. These police men, they catch people for not wearing helmets even near their homes and make them pay fine and use that money for their own personal use (which probably involves getting drunk at the end of the day!!). But not every policemen are like this. But most of them are (even policemen are humans and its a human tendency to go against set rules now and then!). 

I wish I was this lucky the other 5 times I was caught at different places in Mysore (I could have bought a nice dress with 500 bucks!! :-/ ). Now-a-days riding without helmet would probably make you pay 500Rs as fine. Yep, they have increased the fine. So, better be careful. Helmet is itchy and heavy and irritating and makes my forehead sweat, but still I can't deny that it did once protect my head when I fell off my vehicle by accident!! I still hate wearing it, but the thought of losing 500 bucks makes me stick it ruefully on my head, every time I head out of my house!!

P.S: This was intended to be just a Flash 55 but I got a lot of stories up my sleeve where ever my vehicle and helmet are involved!! :P

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Mirror, Mirror on the wall;

Who’s the fairest of them all?

Alas, you are no talking mirror,

To hear you speak as I come near.

Yet, I seek for you, for my reflection.

With hopes for reduced affliction.

Who is that woman staring back?

With eyes as dark as the colour black?

Does she really look like me?

Please say something and set me free

Mirror, Mirror on the wall;

For once spare me the bitter truth

And lie to me with your falsifying words.  

Carve the best lie for me to believe.

Tell me that the woman in the mirror,

Looks nothing like me.

Tell me I’m taller than her.

Tell me I’m fairer than her.

And my eyes, a sparkly emerald green.

Make me believe with your lie so clean.

Mirror, Mirror on the fine, fine wall;

Am I really that woman on the wall?

No you are not my dear lady;

I show only the physical reflection.

If only I could show you your inner-self,

As that’s where your real beauty lies within.

You are fairer than the woman on the wall.

Your eye, sparks with a knowledge so sheen,

It would put any man down on his knee.

But yet, you come to me asking for a lie;

I can lie a lie that will set you free.

But the truth is stronger than a lie can ever be.

So would you stop craving for more

 And start believing yourself from here-fore?

Written for The Mag 110

P.S: A mirror is something everyone loves to stand in front of. What we see is what we believe. Or sometimes we just want to believe something more. Something that resembles a lie. Something that gives us temporary satisfaction. Isn't that one of the reason all the cosmetics companies are bleaching our bank accounts with their costly products??Outer beauty is an addiction. Something that will vanish slyly with time. What matters is our inner beauty.  Cherish it with good-deeds. Good-deed... that's the only product you need to use to gain real beauty and you can get it for free!!

Flash-55 Fiction #1

"Life is good"

Blazed his constant chat-box status from past 3 years.

“Is your life always that good?” Irritably pinged him for first time since he was added to my contacts.

“No, the owner died 3-months back, I’m his friend, here to delete his account”, pinged back owner’s name and left me in utter shock.

P.S: After reading many flash 55 fictions (a form of writing that requires a complete story in exactly 55 words) I finally decided to give it a try. And guess where I started writing this? In my class, pretending to take notes :P

Suspicious friends (coz I'm too lazy to take lecturer's notes in class!!) wanted to know what I was upto. Showed them this and received blank reactions! They had never heard about flash-55 and didn't understand the importance when I said "seeee, only 55 words!!" :-( 

P.P.S: So I do need  real feedbacks.. If anyone's reading this please do help me out in ways I can better this form of writing :) :)

There she was: A victim of Bullying and Eve-teasing.

girl getting bullied in school

There she was… the little girl with her new pink lunch box that her dad had just bought her. It was the first day at a new school. 3^rd grade, she was growing so fast. Newly moved to the city with her parents, she had to mingle with not only the new surroundings but also with the new kids at her new school. She hated to enter this new territory. But her dad promised her that she will be treated like a princess here. This school loves new-comers and she will make many friends in no time. He promised. The little girl wiped her tears hearing her daddy’s words and waved him good-bye. No sooner had her dad left her, than she was surrounded by four kids, bigger and older than her. “Hello new-comer, what’s that you holding?” enquired one kid, while the other kid pulled the little girl’s plaits with glee. The little girl back-tracked with fear in her eyes. “Where do you think you are going?” the third kid pulled her roughly. She tried to call for help but the kids surrounding her were so tall that she could barely see over their shoulders. “If you scream or cry loudly, we will tear your new dress in half” threatened one of the bullies. The girl was too petrified to stand up for herself. She let them grab her new pink lunch box. She let them push her to the ground as they gleefully ran with their new stolen treasure. First day of her school, she had barely entered the school premises and what a bullying welcome she got!

source

 Her dad had obviously made a mistake. This was not a good place to make friends. She decided to tell her dad about this and braced herself to face the rest of the day. After the last school bell, she was more than glad to go wait for her dad outside. As she made her way out of her class, someone gave her the leg, making her to trip and fall face down with a thud. Her hands got badly bruised as she tried to avoid the fall. The four bullies were back and were having a good laugh at the girl’s misery. “You know, we hate tattle-tales … you are not planning to go running to your daddy with stories are you?” asked one kid. “If you do, you will receive an even better welcome tomorrow”, warned another kid throwing the empty lunch box back at her as the four bullies walked away.  She was 8 years old and a new found terror circled around her. Never had she experienced something like this. Bullying… She was being bullied right now but she barely knew what bullying meant. When her dad asked how the first day of school had went, the little girl silently replied a positive lie. She was scared and bruised both physically and mentally to even bring up the actual events that she happened to face that day. She hoped that keeping her mouth shut would make those older kids leave her alone. Poor little girl, how naively wrong she was. The next few weeks went by and the new school was a place of suffering for this little girl. Her bruises got worse, she frequently happened to lose her belongings. Her parents thought she was being merely clumsy and scolded her to be more careful. She got more reprimands for losing all her new things. Her own mother failed to notice the actual truth being hidden by her 8 year old daughter. Every time the little girl lied to her parents, her eyes were silently pleading them to notice the hidden truth. Two months later, on a day just like any other, her dad noticed that his daughter was nowhere to be seen when he came to pick her up. On a closer inspection with the school faculty, he found out that she was lying, unconscious on the toilet floor, with bruises so severe that she had to be hospitalized for a month to recover completely. Finally the truth was out, but at what expense? At the expense of the little girl’s inner spirit. She was mentally depressed after this ordeal and it was a challenging task to get her back to her cheerful self again.

eve-teasers in the night

Mean while, in a different city and under a totally different situation and circumstance, there she was… a young lady in her mid-teens. A high school student by day and a volley ball player by evening. She was born and brought up in a severely conservative family and they restricted her to go anywhere else but school.  But she had fought with her parents a lot to let them give her permission to pursue her skills in her favourite sport. She was forbidden to wear shorts like the other girls. But she didn’t mind as long as she got to play the game in the evening. The sports field was 2 kms away from her home.  One late evening, her bicycle happened to have a puncture. She was pushing her cycle through the dark street and suddenly she heard a fast moving motor-bike behind her. Before she could turn and look, the bike was right next to her and in the next two seconds, a rough hand grabbed and slapped her behind and before the girl could assess what was happening, the bike was gone. She didn’t even get the chance to shout at the monster riding the bike. With anger and shock blazing through her, she quickly made her way back to her home. She dared not tell her parents about this. They were already scolding her for reaching home so late. If they came to know about this incident, they would surely ban her from leaving the house in evenings. A few weeks passed and the girl almost put the incident behind her. But little did she knew that she was now being stalked by the same monster who had eve-teased her a few weeks back. One such evening, the monster grabbed the opportunity to confront her while she was riding home alone. The manner less brute came close to her and asked her to go with him. This time the girl wasn’t dumb-founded. She knew it was the same guy and that made her even angrier to think that he had the nerve to behave so heinously. She did what she thought was the right and justifiable thing- she slapped the brute once and without further words, she quickly rode back home. Yet again, she didn’t dare tell her mother and father about this incident. Her mother sensed she was upset about something but when she tried to ask, the girl refused to talk and went to her room. The very next day, tragedy took place in the girl’s life. No sooner did she leave the house to go to school, than the brute; along with his friend chased upon her and the brute threw a bottle of acid on the girl’s face. The girl, although survived the acid attack was disfigured for the rest of her life. She became the victim of her own fate.

You see, the above are two independent incidents, the likes of which commonly takes place in every nook and corner of our nation. Bullying and Eve-teasing…. The two major crimes that takes place under the radar of our nation’s law. Bullying is a form of an aggressive behaviour that is forced upon victims who are usually weak to stand up to themselves and fight the oncoming harassments. The harassments can be of any form- verbal or physical; an act often replenished on the same victims through various methods of emotional blackmails and other forms of intimidation. Bullying is often seen at schools and colleges where the senior students usually choose the juniors as victims for their experiments. No kid is born with a cruel intention. They often pick such behaviours off the television or may be due to the surroundings in which they are born and brought up. In most cases, if the father figure is abusive on the child then the child tends to show the same aggression on fellow kids at the school.  Even I was a victim of bullying in one of my school years. Not only I, but many kids in my class became the victims on one such occasion. A group of boys from the higher class self-assessed themselves as the class monitors and said they were assigned by their teachers to our class during lunch breaks and we blindly believed those boys. Every lunch break, they used to come to our class, pick a few helpless kids as victims and they used to beat them black and blue with wooden scales. I’m shocked to remember that even I have undergone the rule of such bullies in my life. I was too scared to speak two words back then and alas, I got my share of unjustified beatings from those boys. Had I had enough courage to voice my own opinion back then, I’m sure things would have been different. But I endured the pain silently along with most of the kids in my class. Thankfully one of the teachers found out about this sooner and those boys got their share of deserved punishment.

By spreading proper awareness among students and parents, bulling can be controlled to some extent. It’s a duty of every parent to make sure their child is not being harassed in his/her school. It’s a very sensitive age to undergo such physical and mental torture. I wish I could ask every kid to stand up to themselves and never let the shadow of bullying upon them. But all kids are not born with bold and outright nature. It should be every teacher’s and parent’s duty to ensure that the kids are not having any problems at school.

source:google

Coming to eve-teasing. Well, it’s another form of bullying but alas it’s not something a child inflicts on another child. It’s in fact an outrageous crime that comes face to face with every woman across India and the rest of the world. Some low lives think there is no harm in simple jeering and cat-calling and groping random women in public as it would give them the satisfaction of god-know-what. But any form of eve-teasing is a tone-down term for sexual harassment on women. No educated man with a little bit of common sense would ever mistreat a woman in public like that. Unfortunately, in many situations even an educated man becomes ruthlessly indisposed in the face of some so called “sexual thrill”. According to Section 298 (A) and (B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), if a man found guilty of making a girl or woman the target of obscene gestures, remarks, songs or recitation will be sentenced to a maximum jail sentence of three months.  But how much of this rule is our government really following? We hear rape cases, acid victims and eve- teasing on regular basis that has almost made this whole thing to be viewed as casually as a common- crime in a “wattcha-gonna-do-abut-it??” manner. But one cannot blame this entirely on the justice of the Indian system. Every woman undergoes eve-teasing more than once in her life. Some are bold enough to stand up to themselves. They take up the bold initiative and lodge complaint to the nearest authority. But how much can you expect from a helpless teenager? They are just opening their eyes to woman-hood and already they are fast becoming victims to this atrocious crime called eve-teasing. The least they can do is confine such incidents to their parents. Here comes the parent factor! It is very important for the parents to give an open support for their daughters. As I described in my second part of the story, it’s not only the girls who dress boldly undergo eve-teasing. Even a simple conservative girl would be targeted by these monsters. Had her parents given her more support rather than restricting everything she did, she would probably have told them when she experienced the groping attack the first time itself. This would have prevented the latter events that took place. But not only parent’s support but a lot many other factors come into picture when it comes to eve teasing. Poverty plays a main role. In rural areas, this act is probably more common and yet completely hidden from the public eye since the victims themselves seldom wears the courage to speak out loud. I wish I could tell all these ladies to stand up to themselves and fight. Just fight. I’m glad states like Delhi and Bhopal have taken up initiatives and protests against eve-teasing. I would gladly join their ranks and render my support.

source:google

So if I could bring upon a change in this society, then I would support for a positive change that would put an end for both Bullism and Eve-teasing. No child deserves to be picked upon and no women deserve to be sexually harassed. One must stand up to themselves and fight. Just fight. We are not born in this world to live; we are born to live and to fight our way where there is injustice.

And as an old saying goes;

Knowing others is intelligence.

Knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength.

Mastering yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough, 

you are truly rich.

If you stay in the center

and embrace death with your whole heart, 

you will endure forever.

I thank Indiblogger and Stayfree for endorsing this wonderful contest “Time to Change”.

Red Bus mattu (and) Rash Driving

Bangalore is filled with compressed-air powered red buses. I love these buses. Unlike the old blue buses, these red buses look a lot like Volvo and yet they are “common-man“ friendly and hold a lot of space inside the bus for travelers to stand comfortably during rush hour. But not all of these buses get good bus drivers. I've had near fall out experiences once or twice while I was travelling in one of these huge buses.

Compressed air-power buses have a lot of power in terms of speed as well as brakes. Sudden braking makes the bus going at any speed to come to a halt within seconds. But the full impact of it is shown inside the bus. Passengers sitting don’t have to endure much problem. But the one’s standing gets its full impact.

I was lucky the other day. I was standing near the pole. Both my hands were busy holding my wallet and in the process of taking out money to pay the bus conductor. Suddenly the driver hit the brake and the bus moving at 80, came to a sudden halt. My whole body was thrown forward but my sudden instincts directed my hands to hold fast the pole and with a backward twist, I got the required support and saved myself from falling down head first on the floor. I was so angry at the driver, but since I hadn’t fallen I didn’t feel the need to go and start a boring quarrel with him. Minutes later I got the seat and I happily settled down with ear phones and music. My friend, who was sitting behind my seat tapped my shoulder and said loudly with a snigger, “Neha, when did you learn to pole dance? You are pretty good!!” I turned back to retaliate and saw that her words had carried to the men’s section and many guys were nodding in mock approval. “I’ll get you for this girl!!” I growled at her laughing face and turned back to see the driver, who was happily singing and hitting the brakes roughly at unnecessary junctions.

The bus was getting more and more crowded at every stop. All the ladies were standing precariously. Poor women, they had no idea that they had just mounted a bus that was being driven by a moronic driver. And then it happened. Another one of bus driver’s signature “sudden brakes”. Two ladies standing beside my seat toppled onto one another, causing the third lady to fall down on the bus floor. This was followed by loud shrieks and a high pitched quarrel could be heard loud and clear even through the loud music from my ear phones. The ladies were blaming each other for falling. They should scold the driver who is the root cause for causing this catastrophe.  I thought angrily. But I caught the driver, happily waving to a fellow bus driver and totally oblivious to what was happening on the bus behind him. Was he really oblivious or was he showcasing “jaana kividu” (a Kannada phrase which means, “smart deafness”) to the din that was taking place behind him?? I had half a mind to get up and hit him in the head and then smugly apologize  by telling the “brakes” had caused me to “accidently” hit him!!

Thankfully my stop arrived and I was the first to literally jump out of the bus with relief. As I saw the red bus making its way through the narrow crowded road showcasing its power speed and power brakes, I almost felt like I had just gotten off the knight bus from the Harry Potter movie. It happens only in India!!

Being 23

I just realized I’ll be 23 this year. I know it’s a little too late to realize this. But the sudden realization hit me like “BOOM... OMG I’m gonna be TWENTY THREE!!!”... Why do I sound so shocked? This was bound to happen. Some might say, “Hey, take a chill-pill hon, you are just turning 23, life is still young and hip for you!”... Hmm, should that make me feel relieved? I’ve lately been asking myself some crazy questions that I can’t answer. Whenever I pop a crazy question to myself, I just open my mouth to answer but alas, there is no answer.

So, the pros and cons of turning 23. Let me give some mathematical insight on the number 23:

•  23 is the ninth prime number.
•  It’s the smallest odd prime which is not a twin prime.
•  It’s also a 5^th factorial prime, the 3^rd Woodall prime (whatever that means!!  Found these stuff on wiki)

I also observed from the movie “The Beautiful Mind” (which is based on a real-life story of John Forbes Nash , the noble prize winning economist) that Mr. Nash was obsessed with the number 23 and that same number was the root cause for his nervous breakdown. How sad... I sure hope I don’t get a nervous breakdown by turning 23. I sometimes feel, just like the number 13, 23 holds some mysterious weight age about it that would cause people to go mad and think up crazy theories (just like how I’m writing about all these even though I know none of this can really matter since this age will pass and I’ll be 24 next year and that will be a different horror show for sure!!)

Some of the good or ignorant things about turning 23:

•             I’ll be old enough to know what the hell is going around me but I’m young enough to ignore it and stay oblivious to my surroundings.
•        I’m nearing 30 yet I've left my brains back at high school!
•       Well 23 is two years above 21, so I have every right to get drunk whenever I please. (But some crazy dreams are best left to stay as dreams!)

It’s so hard to come up with good stuff to support my age, when all I can do is whine that I’m turning 23. And I just had an epiphany that every even year, my age turns odd. This year March 11Th, 2012, I’ll be turning 23! So what did I infer from this so called epiphany?? I have no idea, but something feels oddly wrong about aging. Every year it’s the same with me. Neither am I happy nor comfortable to have my age incremented every 365 days or so. I stand in front of the mirror and observe all the changes I can spot. Well, frustratingly changes are hard to tell when you look at yourself constantly every day. Still I spot a few hateful white hairs here and there that shine amidst my black hair. It’s acceptable that age has to show one way or the other. But why should my hair turn white?? Can’t age leave my hair alone? So, I decide to take refuge at the hair salon to dye my hair to my favourite shade of chocolate brown.

But no amount of “hair dye with no ammonia extracts” can cure me of aging. I so badly wish to get hold of the elixir of life or the sorceries’ stone from the Harry Potter book. Ah well, life happens and I just have to go with the waves.  But on a bright note, being 23 is not that bad. But don’t ask me in what ways it’s not bad (I’m still figuring it out!). If you are still reading this, then please pray stop, my ramblings have begun again!

My college friends have planned to give me birthday bums and I’m rigging out master plans to escape them on my birthday.  But I’ll be meeting the same friends on Monday on the inevitable train journey to Bengaluru for project classes and so I don’t think I can completely escape them this time!!

Ah well, even though I feel like the least happy person to celebrate my birthday, I’m still feeling good that I have friends who are on the same boat as me. I don’t have to sail the boat of ‘aging’ all alone. Yet being born early in a year does nothing but age you faster than most of your friends, who even though are born on the same year as you, yet they remain a year younger while you turn 23. I have quite a few friends whose birthday falls in November and December. Damn! They turned 22 just 3 months ago and here I am turning to a whole other year!!

But the bottom line is that I feel like my youngster quota is getting over too soon. Soon I’ll be in the “aunty” category (maybe I already am! I’ve already endured getting called as aunty by those kids that sell flowers or toys on the streets :-/). But still, not even god can stop me from getting a year older every year. On the plus side, at least this year I’ll try to meet up with some of my resolutions, like graduating and landing a job for starters.

But these have to wait. Right now, I’ll be a brand new girl to the house of 23. I welcome myself to this odd numbered age and I just hope this year will end on an even and positive note. Fingers crossed!

Being 23
A reason to celebrate?
Oh no! please no, no!!

You are 23

Give us a birthday treat

Commands' from my dear friends

Its bound to happen

I am 23 and there's

Nothing, I can do to be!!

Holi, a festival of colors

A color brings forth a smile

A smile so pleasurable

Can see it from a mile

Holi, a festive pleasure of colors

Simmers you with multi-color

It's a game of colors more or less

Makes you look flashier than a sunflower

A year has passed and holi's back!

Red, blue, green and yellow

Here to lift every Indian's inner spirit

This is holi and that's what it's all about!!

P.S: I wish everyone a Happy Holi :) :) ... girls at my college celebrated holi with tremendous zest. It was fun to watch all the lecturers and students together, playing on this festive occasion. I tried to escape but in the end got a little color smeared across my face too. Whether the colors are filled with chemicals or not, this is one festival where every adult starts to feel young again and every youngster starts to mingle and spread the color and it's an eye treat for all the kids who are seeing this colorful celebration for the first time.


Shared with : Hyde Park Poetry

Boys and their Precious Bikes

Courtesy:Google images

I can never come to understand completely what it is that makes literally all the guys (the cool ones, the strong ones, the smart ones, the geeky and nerdy ones!!) go mad when they see a fancy blazing bike. I mean the amount of undeviating devotion that pours from the soul of every guy just surprises me to a mundane extent.

“You are so ignorant, how would you know the real thrill of riding a Ducati at a 110, go back to riding your silly Dio and never ask me such infuriating questions such as ‘why do you like bikes’”, is one of the irritating answers I get from my brother (who has personally never ridden a Ducati himself yet acts all knowingly as though he came up with that bike!) when I ask him, “why do guys act all heartbroken when they see a fancy bike?”. Did I just get word-slapped like that Mentos ad?? (“Mentos kao, dimaag ki batti jalao!”)

google images

I mean, come on it’s just a machine guys. All it does is rotate its wheel at different accelerating levels and transport at most two or three people from a source to destination by drinking in petrol like a thirsty camel!! Is it the hair-rising speed that makes all the guys go “god-dammit I gotta ride one of those beauties!”... I guess I got my answer. And probably the shape of the bike plays its role too. Modern bikes have a high raised passenger seat which gives it a “cool” look but it’s not at all a comfortable back seat to be able to sit on. They design the seats in such a way that if a girl sits there, she should have no other choice but to hug the bike rider (I see they have removed all the safety side handles and stuff ...just for the “thrills” as they call it!). Either that or the pillion rider should have their arms flailing around like a helpless monkey while the rider takes his “beauty” to a dangerous speed.

google images

Bikes are no longer just some transport vehicles. They are the new fancy expensive accessories that every guy wishes to flaunt. Just like how all the fashion-obsessed divas like to flaunt about their new pair of D&G bags and high heels. Bike designing is no longer seen from a point of mere consumerism. It’s the new art. The art of designing bikes is equivalent to any Picasso or Da Vinci art. Guys are so obsessed with the new designs and all that self-art stuff that they worship the whole process of bringing a newly designed bike to life. I love art and so any form of art is appreciated by me, be it a crazy looking green bike like this or that monstrous looking bike from the movie ghost rider.

I came across this picture at Facebook and it clearly states the amount of obsession that a guy holds for his bike (need I say more!!). Girls are secondary when it comes to their bikes. They’d rather worship the bike. But have you ever wondered why guys want to flaunt an expensive, fast bike. “It’s for the thrill of the speed” are the usual lines I hear from them. Yeah, yeah... but deep down, they want to attract the female crowd. “To impress a girl”, is about as bluntly as I can put it. It’s the mediocre purpose of every youngster’s life. I know at this point all you guys might be gearing up to come back at me with your defensive speech but let’s face it, if a guy gets a new, shiny 500 cc (or whatever it is!!) bike and doesn’t hear a compliment from any of the eye-lid battling girls, then that’s such a heart break isn’t it?! :P

Anyway jokes aside, bikes are cool. I have never personally ridden a bike but I have gone on some cool journeys by sitting safely behind my friend. I hate too much of speed, I guess I have a little phobia or something. But other than that, I enjoy being a pillion rider on a bike (though I don’t like climbing and sitting on the back seat, it feels like I’m climbing a high compound!!).

 So guys, do buy your favourite accessory coz you have every right to flaunt your style and taste just like how we girls flaunt our accessories (I’m referring to bags and shoes of course ;) )... But my only advice is: “wear helmet and drive safely”.

***

Mag 107 - A Short Fiction

“Don’t you worry honey, there's no one stalking you. It’s all in your head. Now, you get some nice sleep and I shall meet you in your dreams”.

His voice made her smile with relief. “Ever since I met you, my stalking troubles have finally come to an end. Whoever it was has finally given up on me to find a new prey. I used to get these horrible phone calls and letters. You are the only one I have had the courage to confide this horrible secret. It’s like you understand me better than anyone else...”

“There there, I’m the lucky guy here. I would have never imagined I would end up in the life of a famous model such as you. We must thank the stalker for bringing us together honey. Without his intervention, you would never have gotten into my car, asking for my help. Remember the day we met?”

“Yes, how could I forget? I dare not imagine what would have happened to me if you hadn’t safely dropped me off at my house", she laughed feebly."Goodnight Jack. See you in my dreams”.

“You betcha, my angel”.

As Jack (the ripper) placed the phone down, he stared right into the eyes of his next prey. The giant painting magnified her beauty to a remarkable level. An evil grin lit his face to many shades.

“Tonight you will be mine and forever be a dream in many men’s lives, my beautiful angel...”

He took out the knife from his bowler hat and slashed it across her painting. A maniacal laugh reverberated around the empty room.

***

Shared with: The Magpietales

P.S: I know its pretty predictable, I strongly believe in the phrase "practice makes perfect". I hope to better myself with every post.

Realization

Courtesy: Google images

“Would you care to explain your reaction back at the restaurant when you saw that girl?”

“Mom, would you please give it a rest. It had nothing to do with her. I don’t recall making any reactions that you so badly want me to explain”.

“Don’t lie to me Nicolaus, we were in a middle of a very serious conversation and all of a sudden you spilled yourself with wine when that waitress arrived with our food.  And I observed a very cold reaction on the girl’s face when she looked at you. Don’t tell me you are befriending all the downtowners in this city...”

“Mom please, she just looked like someone I knew back in my college days. That’s all...”

“Okay honey. I’m just concerned about your future. You know how much the Andersons family has helped your father in his business. You barely listened to what I said after you saw that girl. Anderson’s daughter Jenna has taken quite a liking for you. I have called her to our residence tomorrow. Would you please stay back and engage her. She’s a doll Nicolaus and I’m sure you will tell me the same after you see her tomorrow.”

“I really don’t have time to play house guest Mom. Why don’t you two ladies talk? Don’t involve me in this. I’m not ready to see anyone right now.”

“What do you mean you are not ready? You are 28 and the most eligible bachelor in our social circle. Of course you are ready to settle down Nicolaus. What’s gotten into you lately? I hope you are not on some dingy drugs...”

“Think what you like mom but don’t expect me to stay back tomorrow.”

 Saying so, Nicolaus stormed out of the house, got into his car and drove all the way to the restaurant they had just come from.

Parking his car right beside the brightly lit “Four seasons Restaurant”, he watched her as she carried out food trays in and out of the kitchen.

Where were you all these days Caroline?

His mind wandered back to a memory that took place 6 years ago.

One late night, Caroline had called him saying there was something she needed to talk to him about. They were both studying at the same university and they were dating from four months.

“Hi baby, what’s so important that you called me to meet you at this hour?”

With her head bent down she said slowly, “Nick, I’m pregnant...”

The news had shocked him but he didn’t show it. He needed to handle this very carefully. There was no way he was ready to father a child at this point in his life. His father was the CEO of a top Marketing Company and a lot of responsibilities were waiting for him back at home.

He hugged her and whispered, “Its ok Caroline, everything will be fine. I promise you...”

She looked at him in surprise and said, “Really? This is fine with you?”

“Yes of course, there is no need to panic. Tomorrow let’s go to Doctor Martha and she will take care of everything. She is a close acquaintance with my family and we can let her do her thing and in two weeks everything will be back to normal. You can attend your classes and we can go back to dating...”

As he saw her hopeful eyes change from shock to anger, he knew he had just said all the wrong things.

“I’m keeping the baby Nick. I don’t need your help. I made up my mind last week itself. Yes, I knew this news from one week. I found courage to let you know today. I hoped you would react to it differently and I almost believed you will help me raise the baby when you said “everything will be fine”. If killing the baby is fine, then I don’t want fine. You get it?”

Anger still burning in her eyes, she backed away from him and said her final words, “Good-bye Nicolaus”.

He had been a coward to call her back and hold her hand and give her his support. Deep in his heart, he wanted to be there for her but the thought of letting his father and mother down made him stop in his track and just turn away.

He had always wondered where she was and whether his child was a boy or a girl. But he had put these issues behind him as he slowly rose above the business ladder.

But when he saw her tonight, that was the first time in six years he was brought back to the ground.

How selfish I've been all these years. Because of me, she left her education to raise a child. We both are responsible and I selfishly backed out. That look she gave me a couple of hours back. I know she will never forgive me. But how selfless of her to not bring the issue up in front of my mother.

Then he saw her coming out of the restaurant with her coat and scarf on. As she waited by the curb for the bus, he gathered his courage and approached her.

“How have you been Caroline?”

“Nick!! You startled me... what are you doing here?”  Her eyes were reacting with his, furiously searching for answers.

“I didn't know you worked here... I thought you moved back to Jersey to your parent’s home after you told me the news...”

“Well, my parents weren’t exactly supportive with my decisions either. Like you, they were ashamed of me. So after a month there, I moved back to NYC... But why do you care Nicolaus, you must be happily married by now as per your parent’s choice”, she scoffed at him.

“Caroline, I’m really sorry. No, I have no right to apologize. I know you will never forgive me...” After a moment’s hesitation he finally said the words he had wanted to say all night, “I never should have left you Caroline. I should have supported you and our child. I’ve been a terrible boyfriend and now a terrible father too... please can I see our child? I don’t even know whether it’s a boy or a girl. I have no right to ask you this... but...”

Caroline held up her hand and cut him off, “Save the apologies Nick. I don’t need it. I’ve moved on and even though I work part time at a restaurant, I’ve saved enough money to finish my education. Emma and I are doing absolutely fine. I’ve told her daddy is not here with us as he is away on a trip. She is too young to understand. When she grows up she’ll know...”

“She doesn’t have to know Caroline. I want to see her and be with her. I want you both in my life. I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. I’m not going to make another one again. I love you Caroline and I always have...”

“You can see her Nick, I will not deprive you of that. But please don’t enter my life again. Life is tough but I’ve learnt a lot along the way. I’m content with how I am. We don’t need you Nick. I didn’t need you back then and I don’t need you now”.

“I know Caroline, that you are rightfully angry at me, but I’m rightfully sorry too and I want to make things right again. I don’t care what my parents think anymore. It’s you and Emma that I want in my life...”

“Let’s not talk about that now. Come I’ll take you to my home. You meet her once and you please leave and don’t ever enter our lives again”.

“Why Caroline... Why are you being so aggressive? I really do want to be a part of your life. I want to raise my child with you. I deserted you because of fearing my parents. I was a coward until now. I’ve come to realise, no amount of power and money gives happiness in life. All these days, I lead a robotic life. I was empty inside. My decisions have made my parents happy but I certainly am not. When I saw you tonight, the past memories that I tried so hard to hide came back to me and I feared they will torture me from inside. But no, I found new hope Caroline. Seeing you tonight after all these years, has given me new hope...”

Google images

“Save your words Nicolaus, because after you see Emma, I’m sure you will back out again...”

 She shook her head slowly and said,” Our daughter is crippled Nicolaus, from waist down. She was born that way. That’s the reason, I never really called you. You left me when you heard I was having your baby. Would you have really come back if you knew your daughter was crippled?”

 She wiped away her tears and spoke, “It’s ok Nick. I love her so much that she doesn’t need a father figure. You don’t have to disgrace your family with a crippled heir you know...”

Unconfined tears rolled down Nicolaus's eyes.“Caroline, please... I’m not a monster to turn my back even after hearing all these”.

Nicolaus took Caroline’s hand and lead her to his car. “Please take me to my daughter and not one more word above that.”

As he looked into her now surprised yet happy eyes, he knew she had found her answer at last.

Shared with: Theme Thursday

P.S:  Sometimes when I least expect it, I end up writing a short story in one sitting. Two months ago I had some characters in my mind. I had visualised a restaurant and a couple seated at a table. I had planned to let the female character tell the male character that she was pregnant, but before she can do that the male character would tell that he had fallen in love with someone else and that he was leaving her. That’s all I could come up with 2 months ago and I really didn’t know how to weave a starting and ending to such a plot. I had almost given up on this story. Today, I happen to stop by at the Theme Thursday blog and the theme was “reaction”. I’m still bewildered, how the word reaction caused me to write up this story. I guess I reacted to it at last!!

Midnight Ramblings

I’m gonna treat this post as my scribbling pad (BEWARE, unruly ramblings ahead!!).  I just need to spit out some issues out of my mind. Firstly I’m extremely pissed off at my project guide/lecturer who is purposefully making me give a seminar on the same topic (for 20 mins!!) AGAIN... She has my 50 marks so all I can do is just suck it up and prepare for the damn seminar again. Oh, did I forget to mention, she has even criticized that my seminar report has very less number of pages (last time I checked,  22 pages of seminar report is the minimum number of pages a student is supposed to make and my report is a total 24 pages!!). These lecturers I tell you. When you are in your early semesters, they play with your internal marks and sometimes refuse to give you minimum marks just because they caught you dozing in their class or copying in some trivial unit test they conducted in class. And if such a lecturer becomes your practical lab guide, you are sure to become her personal lab rat for the rest of the semester. If you are unable to get the required output in every lab you can bet your bum, that lecturer will have an evil glee in her eyes as she happily marks a big, round zero on your weekly lab assessment.

 But coming to the final semester, you’d think all these childish acts between a student and a lecturer has finally come to a rest. WRONG!!!  The 200 marks project is their final boon to destroy your remaining amount of self-respect and conviction. During the last 5 months of your engineering lives, these devilish lecturers enter your lives and they make sure every day of those 5 months is a living hell. As long as you suffer under their rule, they are happy. Voice your opinion even a little loudly; consider yourself black-listed in their evil minds for the sole purpose of sabotage and torture for the rest of the semester. That’s where I am right now. In this case I didn’t exactly voice my opinion but my project partner did in one of the recent seminar sessions. And as a result, our clearly pissed off guide has started her reign of sabotage and torture on our lives. Two months of this semester is already behind me. Still three more months to go and I’m literally counting the days. Sigh!!

P.S: I apologize for bringing such a hateful topic on my blog space. But this thing was really bugging me and left me all restless, not giving my creative writing side a chance to come up with anything positive. Maybe now that I’ve spit it out of my mind in the form of words, I can actually get back to being my cheerful self again.

P.P.S: um, still a little distraught. Maybe sleep should help. Oh, crap... Just remembered my assignment is due tomorrow (another hateful lecturer is trying to ruin my life!! ).. Oh well, I’d better stop rambling here and start writing (the said hateful lecturer has posed a ridiculous rule which states “no assignment tomorrow== no internal test next week” =|).

Dear Spring

Eyes caught dawn's bright light

Waking from cold winter's night

It was spring again

Dancing in garden

Chirping birds are back with zest

Lovely spring is back

Optimistic day

Ensuring my confidence 

Dear spring, welcome back

shared with: Haiku Heights-Prompt #108