L39: Call

Please read the part 1: Twilight and part 2: Twilight Continues before you proceed.

Ashish was walking briskly towards the terminus building as the memories flooded in front of his eyes. It was only 2 months since he knew Ashita and they had come so close to each other. Every day he observed her board the bus in the evening looking dejected, tired and lost. Being a bus conductor, it was a part of his job to talk to strangers and observe them briefly. And yet it wasn’t a part of his job to befriend his co-passengers and stare at one of them. It was not a part of his job to love a passenger and do favors to her… and it was also not a part of his profile to walk to the morgue.

Ashish’s and Ashita’s relationship had been one strange affair. “I swear I never looked at you… ever. But then I dont know what happened that day. I just couldn’t divert my mind off it.” she had told him on the day they went to the Worli sea face.

“And why did you not observe me? I see lot of passengers every day. But I remembered you. You only see one conductor and you still ignore him. Not done Ashi.”

“Oh did I ignore you? Well… may be I did. (chuckled) after all, who would want to look at a conductor?”

“Is it? And who am I now? Not a conductor?”

“Let me check… ummm… no you are not a conductor. You are one dumb guy sitting here with me on the sea face and not allowing me to go home on a working day.” and she would laugh loudly… so loud that every one around could hear her voice even with the sea roaring in the background.

Anniversary Special: “The Junior”

Anniversary day special story

Any wait is always troublesome. And if it is for the arrival of the new born… it becomes excruciating!

They all had become extremely impatient since the start of the April month. It was after all the ninth month of her pregnancy. Her sister would jump with a ‘Chaley Kya?’ conclusion at every ‘aah’ and ‘ooh’ cry she let out. But the time was not there yet. They had been monitoring her pregnancy week by week. They had read in several websites and books about the likely hood of the delivery after 36 weeks of pregnancy. They all hoped she was one of the few cases. But junior had different ideas… and so did god!

POW: Sunset from my Balcony

Location: The back side of my apartment in Thane. Time: Evening

POW: Valley

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Location: Lonavala; Time: around noon on a rainy day PS: Even this picture has been taken by a mobile camera

R A N D O M: V

When nothing else works, random does.

I’m sure Random will inspire me to write good articles and new stories in the future. I had been blanking the ‘Stories’ section for too long now. Speaking about stories, yesterday a friend compared me to Chetan Bhagat first, and then to Jug Surraiyya (when I told him I’m interested in writing columns. Comparison with Jug was a BIG one though). In fact, in the last few months I have received quite a few compliments (so it seems) that I can be a Chetan Bhagat (I mean a writer like CB). I dont know if it is a compliment. I’m personally not a big fan of his (or his writings). I think his style of writing is very easy one. And I dont want to match it at all. Without being critical of him (since I dont like to criticise people in the creative field), I’m in fact trying to evolve a more complex and intriguing style, myself. Some thing that will keep the reader glued and guessing (Some one said Robert Ludlum, eh?). And apply the same style to my love stories. Ha! That makes some sense. (it is supposed to make a sense).

(Too many bracketed disclaimers)  :-)

Have you bought a house? I have. By no means I want to look down upon you, in case if you haven’t. In fact I would look up to you. At least you are saved of the ‘EMI ka Phera’. When 60% of your hard earned salary goes into paying House, Car, Education load EMIs and another 30% on household expenses and bills, that is when you realise how dreadful is the Phera. It is an absolute, humongous, capacitive, redundant force that stops you from doing almost every thing you want to. You cant just plunge into a business unless you have a contract in hand. Even if you have, you compare the earning with the value of the EMIs. You cant think of an alternate profession. You cant fight with your boss. (what if he fires you? Who’ll then pay the EMIs?). You get nightmares that recovery agents are banging your door. You cant think of any thing but that… You cant this… You cant that… You cant blah… You cant bloop… !!!

Waiiiiiiiit a minute!

Now I know why I’m not able to write good stories for last few weeks. Good that I have found out. The sinking feeling is going to sink now. I’m going to be right on it. Tell me, do you also face such randomness? Just splash some water on it and you’ll feel fresh.

POW: KIDA

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Location: Do you really care? Time: Dont remember. This is a product of stupid imagination

The Facial

There is a good humour in getting your facial done. And I’m sure most of the guys will disagree to the ‘humour’ part of it. But believe me, it is only the humour that can take you through the ordeal

The last time I did one was when I got married. A guy at an upmarket salon in Nagpur had tricked me into buying a ‘Groom package’ and as any other ordinary customer, I fell for the supposed ‘wow’ I was going to get. It all started with a 15 min steam on my face. They wanted to open the pores of my skin so that all the dirt can be extracted out. I wondered, was I THAT dirty? Even before I was nearly choked to death on that ‘steamer’, this wise guy came back with a tiny metal scalpel like thing. I thought he was going to clean my ears. I was wrong. The next 10 min I felt how a sheep must be feeling when she is fleeced. Except, her nose and good part of cheeks are not mutilated. I wonder why Police dont use technique for getting the information out from miscreants.

There is no better torture than to apply the cleansing solutions, or worst the bleach on a already half dead man. The smell of ammonia almost makes you say, ‘buddy, take my ATM pin. But let me go please…’. Sigh! Dont forget, you have just bought a ‘groom’ package. So there was more to follow. A series of different coloured smelly packs was applied on all visible open skin. Every new ‘pack’ applied, as they say, meant another 20 min of waiting period. All in all it took them more than 4 hours to make an attempt to make me look good. The only saving grace was the manicure and pedicure done by a girl between one of those packs.

So at the end of the exercise, I was told that my face will ‘glow’ after 3-4 days. Without being modest, I thought I looked better before getting a facial done. So that became a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience for me. When my wife asked me if I could go to the same salon and go through the same thing… I flatly refused. Let there be peace

POW: You Talkin to ME???

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Location: My Office Desk when I was at Hurix, Time: Who cared :-p PS: This is one of my favourites.

POW: Dance with Me

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Location: Chokhi Dhani, Kalyan. Time: About 5:30pm

Picture of the Week

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To give more exposure to the shutter bug in me, I’m starting a new category here. I’ll try to put a new or old picture I took for the audience here. You can copy and reuse the pic if you like it. … Continue reading →