Its.. Peter's Realm

A black Chevy and a white dress - continued

2011-09-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

( .........) He slowly opened his eyes.

His Chevy Camaro stood at a car distance away from the car in front. It was still red at the signal. He did not know how and he did not know why. For some reason beyond reasoning, the car had kept gaining speed and had come to a stop by itself. Or he was hallucinating. But, there was another plausible reason which he was not willing to accept - he was going insane.

Whatever it was, he was not dead - not yet. But there was a big question about what was happening and whether he would make it home safely. And, he knew the answer. There was no way he would be able to drive safely. If there was something wrong with him or if he was for some reason hallucinating, then he could cause harm to others by driving his beloved Camaro.

It was high time he got out of the car, he decided. He pulled the handle to open the door. It wouldn't open. He pulled it again hard but still no luck.

'Oh God, not again’, he thought. Just when he was going to freak out, he realised a simple mistake. He had not tapped open the lock before fighting with the door handle. He could not help but smile.

Just as he was going to open the door, a Vauxhall Insignia came up to the signal and stopped very close to his Chevy. He pulled the door handle but could only open the door to about half a feet and it was already touching the Insignia that had just arrived. There was no way he would be able to get out now. And, the signal turned green.

He thought he would just wait for the cars to move while he can figure something out. The lane in which he was waiting began to clear very fast. He didn't want to move. He was scared to move forward. Then there was a loud horn from behind. A huge car, he could not identify what it was, was fast approaching. And, to make it worse, it was not slowing down. Another LOUD horn made him shiver even more.

He had no choice; he had to drive out of the way and fast. He throttled out of the way into the road ahead. He kept driving for the next eight to ten minutes hoping he would find a way out of there. And then he realised that he was alone again. The road had turned completely dark. It looked like he and his Chevy were the only ones on the entire stretch of the road.

He did not know where all those cars in the traffic signal had gone. He checked his rear mirror. The big car that was driving at him in full speed was out of sight too.

'Damn the cars and Damn this road!', he cursed.

And then, a lighting and thunder struck eight seconds apart as if declaring that the storm was near. It started raining once again. He had driven many times in the rain and snow, once through a hail but there was something different in the way it was raining.

'Damn the rain too!', he sighed.

The wind shield wipers were doing their best but the speed at which the rain was pouring; there was not much they could do to clear the view. The temperature in the car was optimum that the rain did not cause the usual haze on the inside. Things were manageable.

That was what he thought till the lights showed something unrecognisable. He was not able to see beyond it and it was almost in the nick of the moment when he realised that it was a truck parked in the middle of the road without any kind of indicators switched on.

He rammed the brakes but there was not even a slight sign of slowing down. He tried pulling the hand brakes but they would not budge.

'Holy mother, it’s happening again', he cried out. His heart beating faster and his eyes were unable to adjust to the pressure.

'Oh God, NOOOO!!!', he shouted. And, at the last minute, the steering wheel turned quickly by itself and the hand brake came up to the maximum without him even touching it. The wheel kept steering all the way to the left. And the Chevy drifted like a speed boat and avoided the truck by a little more than an inch.

He continued screaming till his lungs were out of air. The intracranial pressure was immense. There was a loud banging inside his head. He could feel the blood dripping down his nose. His heart was beating at a pace beyond count.

'Oh God, please!!', he cried. Tears rained down his face. It was the first time he had cried in a long time.

His beloved Chevrolet Camaro stood by the side of the truck for a while. He was unable to even lift his hands up to the steering wheel. He was in a state of pure shock. He was shivering like a Cymbal struck at the end of an opera. It was as if he had woken up in an unrecognisable vacuum far deep in the galaxy.

The gear moved into first and the car moved ahead all by itself. Everything was blurred beyond imagination. It was pitch black and all he could see was the road which the lights showed. The intensity of the blur was slowly increasing along with the speed of the car. Then the lights went out and it was total darkness. And then, he blacked out.

When he woke up, it was difficult for him to understand where was. His eyes adjusted to the situation. It was still dark and it was still drizzling. He looked at his watch which read 23:43. He could see a sign board up ahead but it was too dark for him to read. He switched on the ignition and turned on the lights. The sign board said the name of a village.

The name of the village sounded familiar but he did not know why. He could not remember how he had gotten there. He closed his eyes to calm down and think. The harder he thought about it the more difficult it was for him to understand. Then it struck him like a bolt - the chain of events that had occurred earlier. A chill went down his spine.

He opened the door and jumped out of the car. He did not know how and why but his Chevy had not responded to his controls. The car had driven all on the own. He did not know for how long and how far. But his car had not been under his control. It was possessed by something beyond his power of reasoning.

He stood out of his car and looked at it. It looked as gorgeous as ever. There was not even a tiny scratch anywhere - even after all that had happened. But he knew something was not right. There was something that he had learnt the hard way. The line between the good and the evil, elixir and poison, beauty and the beast was just a blur and you would never know when one form took over the other.

He did not know if the black Chevy standing in front of him was still the beauty he fell in love with or some unknown beast that had taken control. He did not know and maybe he never will. He slowly took a few steps away from the car. It was pitch black all around. He did not know which way to go. He looked at the sign board again. Then it struck him.

He had taken this road a long time ago, many years ago. He had met her here for the first time – the girl he had fallen in love with. The bus stop was probably half a mile away – where he had met that lovely girl on that lovely rainy day. But what he could not understand was why he had been brought here? The reason behind all that happened over the last few hours was nonexistent.

He looked at his mobile phone. There was no signal. He tried calling the emergency numbers but there was no sound whatsoever. The line remained silent.

The drizzling had stopped and a dense fog had set in. The silence was dense without even a speck of a noise. His eyes searched for a while trying to find something somewhere in the dark. A lightning in a far distance showed him the way. In that few seconds of the bright light, he saw a foot path going steep down from the road and there was a cabin in the far end. And he could see a feeble light through the right hand side window.

Part III: The Cabin

He walked swiftly towards the cabin hoping he could get some help. Another lightning struck lighting up the path in front of him. The path looked vacant and there were no obstacles till the cabin. He reached the door and waited. Did he really have to disturb someone at this time in the night? Did he have any other option?

He hesitated but knew he had to get help. He pressed the calling bell at the door. He was sure he heard a ring of the bell on the inside. He pressed the bell again with his ears close to the door. The bell did ring but there seemed to be no life on the other side of the door.

'Hello..?', he shouted. He banged the door a couple of times.

'Hello..? Anybody home..?', he shouted again banging the door another couple of times.

'Hello..?', he shouted again – trying to be clear and loud amidst the never ending perspiration and palpitation.

He waited for what felt like an era hoping someone would open the door. But no one did. The hope he had about receiving some help from here was fast going down. No one was going to come out.

Just as he turned around, a voice in him said, 'the door is open' and as if commanded by someone he touched the door knob. To his surprise, the door opened without even a hinge of resistance. For a second it was relief and the next second it was fear that struck him.

A cabin in the middle of nowhere and the door was open. Something was far from being alright. Was this some kind of a trap that he was stepping into? Did someone want him here at this exact same time? He gathered some courage and took a step into the cabin.

'Is any one there?', he shouted, taking one step at a time into the cabin.

'Hello... Is anyone th...?', he didn't even finish the sentence when he saw the condition of the room he stepped into. The room was in total disarray. Everything, every single thing, was shattered or upside down - as if the place had been ransacked.

He sensed trouble and decided to get out of the place. Just as he was about to take a step out of the room, he noticed something on the floor at the far end of the room. He wished he had not seen it.

BLOOD! There were streaks and streaks of blood stretching from the far end of this room into the next. Someone or something which was bleeding had been dragged on the floor. He took a few steps forward careful not to disturb anything in the room. As he came closer, he was sure it was blood. It had not dried up fully so whatever had happened in this room had happen only in the last few hours.

He followed the blood strains slowly and carefully. His heart was filled with fear and his mind was wishing that this was just a dream. When his eyes reached the end of the trail of blood, his head went into a violent spin, his knees buckled and his bowels rolled over. What he saw would have had this effect on even the most hard-hearted. He almost threw up.

It took him a few minutes to cope up with the situation but he was unable to get a complete hold of himself. He raised his eyes to look at the scene again. What he saw was a scene out of a slasher flick.

A girl was badly beaten with blood dripping from every inch of her body and was hung by a rope tied to the ceiling. Her jaw was broken and her face was almost out of shape. One of her eyes was swollen so badly and her face was unrecognizable. She had been stabbed multiple times on her arms, abdomen and thighs. Her ankle was broken and so was a few of her toes. There were no visible stab wounds to her chest and neck.

Just as his eyes grazed her neck, he noticed the weird but beautiful dragon tattoo on her neck. He had seen it earlier that night. It was the girl in the bus stop - The girl who showed no visible reaction when he had offered her a drive home. That girl in a white dress - Someone had killed her.

Who was she?!

Why would someone kill her?!

If the motive was to kill the girl with a knife, why not slice her throat or stab her heart? He had no answer to this but looking at all the blood, looked like whoever did this wanted to bleed her to death. It was an execution more than just a murder.

His teeth were cluttering with fear. He could not control his heavy breathing. He tried to clear his mind; he had to get out of there. He had already had an inexplicable night and amidst all that he did not want to be there - Not in a cabin where a girl had been executed. He had to get away from there.

Just as he was about to take a step away, he heard a very mild cough. His heart skipped a beat – someone else was in the house. He turned around with his eyes wildly searching for whoever it was. All he could see was the dead girl. There was no one else. Given the chain of events, it was more probable that he had imagined it.

His search came to an end with his eyes fixed on the face of the girl. He remembered how beautiful she looked when he had seen her earlier. How could someone show this kind of a cruelty to another human being? As he kept looking at her, tears started flowing down his eyes. He did not even realize that he was crying.

And then, the girl took a deep breath. He was taken aback and fell on his back pushed by a sudden rush of fear. And then, there was an intense silence. His thoughts were blurred and he did not know if she had really taken a breath. He did not dare to get up but he kept looking at the girl with his eyes wide open. He waited and waited and waited.

She took another deep breath.

'Bloody hell, she is alive!!!', he freaked.

'Oh my god she is alive!!!', he shrieked again.

He knew he had a very meagre chance of helping the girl – to help her get back from what looked like the brink of death.

His mind was racing. Driving at the moment was not a good idea. He did not know where he was except for the sign board. He did not even remember how he had gotten here years ago. His mobile was out of signal and not even the emergency numbers were working. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. It was immensely impossible but he had to do something. He tried again and he remembered.

Amidst the scattered and battered stuff in the first room of the cabin he had seen a cordless phone. He ran to the other room with his eyes yearning for the sight of the phone. He found it on a broken flower vase. He grabbed it hoping it was still working.

He pressed '9.. 9.. 9..' and pressed call. It was silent for a full ten seconds. And then it rang on the other end. After what sounded like an era, there was an answer.

'Emergency services, how can we be of assistance?', he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

All he could give them was the sign board which said the name of the village and the cabin along the foot path. He did not know if the girl had much time left. He did not know if emergency services would come in time to save her. He did not know – in the same way as he did not know who she was or how he had gotten there in the middle of a dark stormy night.

Help finally came in. Forensics agents took control of the scene and the girl was taken out of the place in a chopper. Her condition was termed as Critical, though he had a strong feeling that she would make it eventually. He was questioned by the detectives on who he was and how he had found her. He explained how his Chevy had a break down – almost the same nervous breakdown as he had had, he told himself. He had seen the cabin out there and tried to get some help.

His story was a bit naïve but the finger prints in the cabin did not match his except for the one on the Cordless phone. Though the police, by theory, had his name on the list of suspects because he was the first to call, there was little doubt in any one's mind. He was asked to take a cab home and respond back if there were any questions directed to him.

His beautiful Chevy was towed away just as the cab came to the scene. It was around 06:00 hrs when he got into the cab. He sat back with his eyes closed listening to the radio. The morning show on the radio had just gone into the second segment 'Beyond the power of human reasoning'.

The Asian lady presenting the show was explaining something which he was not paying even a grain of attention. Something she said caused a stir in his thoughts and the next moment his complete attention was on the words from the lady.

'The Japanese people have a strong belief in souls searching for help, especially in the last few moments before parting ways with the human body. The cry for help is louder when death knocks at the door in horrible ways. During this time, the power of the soul is so immense that they come in contact with the living world - to ask for help.'

‘It’s been impossible to prove this but there are a lot of real life accounts backing this. In late 1987, an old farmer from Marahito had walked a long distance guided by an unknown force to save a young man who had been crushed in a road accident. Around Christmas time in the year 1996, a lady from the outskirts of Tokyo who was brutally hurt by an intruder was saved by an unknown man. The man had seen the same lady crying for help while he was driving in a deserted road almost ten miles away. And more recently in the year 2009, a man had saved a kidnapped child who was left to suffocate in a closed bin. The man had said that his car had gone violently out of control and had driven down the slope where he had found the child.’

‘There are a lot of accounts similar to these not only in Japan but around the world. Though there is no scientific proof, people in Japan believe strongly in this’, and the voice on the radio faded as he drifted slowly into his own world.

He still had his eyes closed. He was still trying to comprehend. No one was going to believe this. Even he himself had trouble believing it. But he had to accept it. On a rainy night, he had had an inexplicable and bizarre encounter with the soul of a dying girl – the girl in a white dress.

_________________________________________________________________________________

A black Chevy and a white dress

2011-09-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Part I: The Black Chevrolet Camaro

His line manager quoted once, 'I won't call you a workaholic because that word does not serve justice to your addiction to work.'

That line pretty much summarised what he had done in the last few years. First in, last out – man, he was very seriously addicted to work. No party, no rest, no alcohol, well, almost no life outside of work. Neither anyone knew how he was before nor did he show any signs of that other life.

Out of the blue on a bright day, he called in late to office. When he walked into the office a couple of hours late than usual, his face was unusually lit with a bright smile – a sign of accomplishment. And, when he was about to leave for the day in the evening - that too before anyone else, everyone's curiosity was kindled.

'Looks like someone's finally got a life', giggled the bespectacled lady in the third cabin from his.

He wished the security guard a good evening and jogged – well, almost ran to the parking lot. He felt like he had just been unnerved by a shot of Sambuca.

If someone had stopped him on the way, to quench their curiosity, then they would have come to know about the secret - the secret behind his sudden burst of enthusiasm. If they had followed him along to the parking lot, they would have met her - the beauty who he had fallen head over heels for, with an unknown measure of awe.

He stood for a second and looked at her face to face. She was stunning in black – a gorgeous sight! No wonder he had fallen in love with her at first sight – who wouldn't?

She stood a few feet away from him - his new found love. If she had been human, Cleopatra would have been the reference for comparison. Since she was a car, there were no words in stock. His very own Chevrolet Camaro in royal black. Her beauty and radiance would have beaten Cleopatra hands down. And, the love he had for his Chevrolet Camaro was a lot more than what Antony had for Cleopatra.

He had booked his Chevy Camaro a long time back and had been eagerly waiting like a child. His was the first to be delivered by the dealer. He had seen a real Chevy Camaro only once before other than the one from the Transformers movie. And, that too it was a Camaro in white. His Chevy Camaro, in black, was beyond any means, a stunner of a car. The moment he touched the car for the first time, he knew that the Chevy was going to be more than just a car.

The interior of a Chevrolet Camaro was – you could use the term 'State of the art'. The authentic leather, the temperature control to the last degree, the comfort on the sexy steering wheel, the stylish gears that slid with ease, the BOSE surround sound system, the latest GPS for a pin point location, the anti theft finger print scanners, the much talked about voice recognition – you could just go on and on and on. He wished his journey would never end every time he got into his Chevy Camaro.

He loved driving his Chevy. He was tempted many a times to just stand on top of his Camaro with his arms wide open and shout 'I am the king of the world' – just like Leo did in Titanic. He didn’t like it when someone referred to his car as 'it'. He would correct them to say 'her'. That was how he treated it, oops, treated her - the love of his life, his black Chevrolet Camaro.

He was sometimes asked if anything or anyone – a real person for that matter, had come so close to his life lately. That was a simple question with a very simple 'No' as the answer. If the question was a little farfetched, changing the 'lately' to 'ever', then that would have turned into a slightly more complicated question.

If the question had been 'had anyone come close to his life ever before?’, then his answer would have been a thoughtful 'yes'.

Yes, there had been someone in the past - the past which stayed almost forgotten, the past which he wanted to stay forgotten.

There was a girl who he had been deeply in love with. She was a lovely girl with bright blue eyes, beautiful curly hair and a fairy tale name. She loved white – the serene colour of peace. Gorgeous as she was adorable. Smart as she was sweet. She was William Shakespeare's Portia, George Eliot's Eppie, Jane Austen’s Eliza and – well, the list would be never ending. Every other great literary work seemed to have a beautiful leading lady just like her. It was love at first sight then too and a poetic one nevertheless.

It was a rainy day. She was dressed in white and was waiting at a bus stop with a bright red umbrella. She was playing like a little child with the water dazzling on the glass. Along he came cursing the rain till that moment. When he saw her, he realised that the rain was a blessing in disguise. The Mini Cooper that he owned back then came to a slow stop near her. He saved her from the storm and dropped her home. He didn't even take her name but she took his heart along.

After a series of deliberately accidental meetings, things took a positive turn. She reciprocated his love after almost a year. After that years vanished like minutes. They took life as it came with unending episodes of happiness. Even their arguments were sweet and romantic. Their story of love would have captured a place among the greats of Allie - Noah, Anna - William and Jessie - Karthik. And, things went towards a 'happily ever after' fairy tale ending. All was well until that fateful day.

He was the one who always drove – no matter where and no matter when. But that day was different. They had had an argument in the morning. There was an awkward silence for over an hour and then she drove away in his car – probably to the church where she usually went to calm down. But, little did he know that she was never going to come back to him – not alive at least. It had snowed the previous night and a truck on the opposite lane had lost control, slid across the signal and rammed into the driver's side of the Mini. She came back in a coffin, dressed in beautiful white.

For over a year, he kept punishing himself for whatever had happened. If he had not argued with her, if he had not let her drive alone, if he had not waited but apologised. Only if... There were a lot of things that he could have done. But, he hadn't and she had left him forever taking with her all the happiness she had given him.

The days that followed her demise were inexplicable. He could not comprehend her death and believed that she was alive. Sometimes she smiled at him when he drove past bus stops. Sometimes she whispered in his ears when he was asleep. He saw her in the church, he saw her in the garden, he saw her in almost every place they had spent their time together.

The thought that he could have done a lot to have avoided the tragedy and the thought that he was not able to save his girl was sculpted into his mind. He was slowly going insane and he had turned to drugs and alcohol as a remedy.

It took him three long years to get over the addiction. And it took even more time to rehabilitate and get to where he had gotten now. He did not want to go back to his past. He just wanted it to stay forgotten, for his own good. He was a new man now and just as he had gotten a grip over his life, he had fallen in love with his Chevy Camaro.

He loved his time driving to office every morning. He loved his time driving home every evening. He loved the time he drove to anywhere at all. He even loved the time he waited in his Chevy for the traffic lights to turn green. This love story was beyond words too.

Part II: The rainy night

He was working late on that rainy august day. It was close to eight PM but the sun had just begun to set and it was pretty bright. A beautiful rainbow had formed fully on the eastern sky – it looked very beautiful indeed.

'It’s time to wrap up for the day', insisted his colleague and he obliged. He jumped into his Camaro who roared to life and they were on their way home.

The glittering road, the splashing water and the extra drift at the sharp corners, he loved it more than ever. He had an absolute control over his driving. His Camaro did as he told her to - Stop where he wanted her to stop, turn where he wanted her to turn, drift to the exact position where he wanted her to drift to. If the drift had to be six and a half feet, his Chevy would do exactly that - nothing more, nothing less. Even in the most drastic conditions his driving was perfect to the ‘T’.

The sun had almost set with its golden rays turning to a beautiful orange. It would have been a few minutes since he had started and he came towards a deserted signal just before the Motorway. As he inched closer to the signal, the lights turned green. It brought a smile to his lips. He drove faster and was about a few hundred metres away from the last of the bus stops on the road. As he came closer, he saw a lonely figure waiting in the bus stop.

He took his foot of the gas pedal and his Chevy slowed down. The image of the person standing in the bus stop slowly became clear in the rain. It was a girl in a white dress standing with a red umbrella. A lot of memories crossed his mind but he had learnt enough to brush them away. He stopped his Chevy Camaro close to the bus stop. He lowered the glass of the passenger window just enough to talk to the girl.

The girl appeared to be totally drenched in the rain. Her skin was pale obviously due to the chillness. Her eyes were half closed as if she was going to fall asleep in the next few minutes. She wore no jewels but looked radiant. The fingers holding the umbrella was slightly trembling. She had a weird but beautiful dragon tattoo on her shoulder which crept up to the middle of her neck.

He waited for a couple of seconds for her to lift her face up to see him. But she stood there as if she didn't even know that he was there.

'Excuse me?', he said in a normal tone. She did not react which made him think that he was not loud enough.

'Excuse me?', he said in a louder voice hoping she would hear. But, the response remained the same.

The next moment a bright lighting struck in the direction behind him. For a second it was so bright like standing in the sun at noon. The thunder that followed a few seconds later was so loud that he could feel the ground below him shake for second. Those few seconds were really frightening. But against all odds, the girl did not even wince.

'What on earth is wrong with this woman?', he whispered to himself.

As he prepared himself to ask the girl if she wanted a ride home, he noticed in the rear view mirror that a bus was approaching from far behind. He hesitated for a second and decided that it would be better for him to leave the girl at peace. After all she was in the bus stop and the bus would be there in the next few seconds.

He shifted into gear and moved away. He kept checking the mirror. As he took the left turn to the motorway, he saw that the bus had reached the bus stop but the girl was not to be seen anywhere.

For the next couple of miles, his thoughts kept going back to the girl he saw in the bus stop. He felt nervous about the similarities of the events in the past - The bus stop on a rainy day, the girl in a white dress and the red umbrella. He could not keep the girl who he loved out of his mind. How much ever he tried, her memories kept returning back again and again. His nightmares were returning, he thought. He went into a quasi stable state as if he was hypnotised.

A sudden loud horn brought his wavering thoughts back to reality. The first thing he noticed was a pair of bright lights approaching him at a fast pace. He got back to his senses just in time to steer his Chevy out of the way of the bright lights which belonged to a 20 tonne truck. Just as the truck went past he realised how far he had gone into the opposite lane.

He took a deep breath to control his nervousness and continued his drive up the motorway. He had to forget everything and focus on his driving. At the current speed and being in the deserted motorway, he would reach home in the next forty minutes. He took slow but steady breaths and gripped the steering wheel harder to get things under control. And then, it happened.

He approached a roundabout – the last one for the day. After this round about it was going to be just a straight road up hill. He would have to take the second exit. He crossed first exit and with the usual ease reached the second. Just as he was going to straighten his steering wheel to guide his Chevy into the second exit, the steering wheel resisted to turn. The car just kept taking the curve. He pulled the steering wheel hard but it did not budge for the next few seconds. Not until they were closer to the third and final exit.

Just as the Chevy reached the third exit, steering wheel came to life and he guided his car into the exit and on to the main road. As he sped away into the road he had not much used in the past, he was trying to comprehend what just happened. How did it happen? How and why did the steering wheel act as if it was locked on the curve?

He slowed down and came to a halt on the hard shoulder on the left. He just sat there for a few minutes wondering if everything was alright. He swirled the steering wheel all the way in both the directions. There was not even a slight hinge in the movement. It was as perfect and smooth as ever.

'What has gotten into you?', he asked his Chevy. Or, was he imagining something?

He stepped on the gas a minute later and was off in the direction which was totally new to him. He had to get around to the other side of the road somehow, go all the way back to the roundabout and take the usual motor way. He hoped he could take the turn at the earliest.

He drove on. Traffic was nonexistent and there were no speed cameras in sight. He gave it all to his Chevy Camaro and she roared to life like a lioness chasing her prey. The speed hit 115 mph. Still, he could not see any speed cameras, traffic or an opportunity to turn around to the opposite lanes.

Finally, a traffic signal appeared in sight at around two hundred metres dead straight ahead.

'Time to slow down', he told himself.

He took his foot off the gas pedal and waited for a second. Something was strange – very strange. The digital speed dial still read 115 mph. After a couple of seconds it was still on 115 mph. The car was closer to the traffic signal now. He could see at least four more cars waiting at the signal.

After four seconds, the speed was no more 115 mph - it read 117 mph. And a second later it was 119 mph. The speed was fast increasing.

Blood drained from his face. His heart was beating at the rate of 120 beat per minute. The veins in his hands were pumped up and protruding through his skin. His grip on the steering wheel was immense that he could feel it crumble under his grip. His eyes had turned red under pressure.

He slammed the brake pedal all the way down to the floor of the car. He slammed it again and again but there was not even a slightest sign of the car slowing down. It was still gaining speed. 125 mph read the dial and still gaining. He tried his last resort, the hand brake - without even giving a thought about what could happen at that speed. But, it appeared to be jammed and he was not able to pull it up.

The signal was just within reach and the cars waiting for the signals were just a few yards away. He was definitely going to crash into the cars in front. He knew that it was going to be the end of it. At the speed he was travelling, survival was not even a question. He lost hope and closed his eyes.

He shouted at the top of his voice 'OH GOD!!!'

When someone knew that their time was fast approaching, and all they had to do was just wait for it, minutes were like years. For him, those few seconds were like millenniums. He waited and waited for his beautiful black Chevy Camaro to crash into the car in front and to take him along with her forever. He waited and waited. But the moment never came. He slowly opened his eyes.

(Click here to continue)

Pedro's Realm - Comments section.

2010-12-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hello there!

Wishes for a happy and fun-filled festive season!

Thanks for visiting the comments section! :-) your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

Peter.
Note: To go back to the ebook download page, please CLICK HERE

The most beautiful girl I had ever seen..!

2010-12-03T07:17:00.000-08:00

The 28th of August 2008 was indeed an unforgettable day in my life. It was the day I was, for the first time, going to travel abroad. It was the day I was going to make my parents’ dream come true.

With my mom and dad’s blessings, my sister’s sweet hug and my best friend’s hearty send off, I was about to venture into a new and relatively unknown world.

‘Are you ok?’ asked the old English woman sitting beside me in the flight.

‘First time in the air, and I feel a bit nervous.’, I smiled.

‘Don’t worry, its safe as home. Just close your eyes and relax.’, She said and that was all I could do for most of my travel.

A long way up in the air, with clouds and oceans below, those were one of the most poetic moments of my life. Even after the bumpy take off and the frightening landing I felt proud that I was in London.

With all my gadgets switched off and unconscious of the time, I felt energetic at the site of the bright sun light that welcomed me outside the airport.

‘What time is it? ‘, I asked my niece who was there to pick me up.

‘Its eight o’clock’, she said and there it began. :-) Eight in the evening and the sun shining bright was indeed an interesting start to my tenure in London.

The jet lags, adding ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ every time, the ‘crime’ of by-passing queues, it did take a week for me to set in. And then, I did catch up with things in London.

I loved weekends in London. With my niece, a permanent resident in London for company, it never seemed difficult to navigate. My friends were scared at the pace I was sight-seeing in London. By the end of four weeks, London seemed to be just another place.

‘Where are we going this weekend?’, I asked my niece who was busy cooking supper.

‘London is almost done, Pete. I don’t think there is any place you have missed.’, She said with a slight sarcasm.

‘How about a movie this weekend then?’, I asked as there weren’t much of options.

‘So, back to your favourite hobby huh?’, She said.

‘We don’t have any other choice, do we?’, I said.

The Westminister abbey, Buckingham palace, London bridge, every place was seen and done for the maximum number of times possible. Even the wax models at Madame Tussad’s had become my friends. We really didn’t have a choice.

‘Just in a month, you say London is boring?’, she asked as we stepped out in to the cold Rayner’s Lane.

‘I hate to say London is boring, that’s why we are going for a movie’, I said with a wink.

After travelling a real long way in the Picadilly line and District line train services, we reached East Ham, the Hindustani-London. Walking for a few minutes from the subway station to the bus stop would really make you feel that it was just Bangalore or Mumbai or any other Indian city for the matter. From saravana bhavan to desi chat, from saambhar idly to aaloo paratha, you name it, you get it.

‘We take a bus here and it’s a fifteen minutes ride to Ilford’, my niece said.
That’s where you get to watch the home-made Indian movies.

We boarded the bus to Ilford and I, cheeky as usual, ran to the first floor of the bus with the free daily paper in hand.

The sun-sign for Gemini said, ‘If you are single, you will meet someone interesting’ which made me smile to myself.

The sophisticated British buses are not quite comfortable for the weak hearted. The bus journeys on the first floors really feel like roller coaster rides. The roads in East ham, with cars parked on both sides, ensured that it was once in a life time travel. And that’s how you reach God in East ham. :-) That’s in a literal sense, because that’s where the Murugan temple is.

That’s the last but beautiful place anyone would expect a Murugan temple to be. In the Church road filled with traditional England houses toned to the perfect Englishman’s taste and the beautiful dome of the temple set right next to it. That’s a beautiful sight indeed, absolutely mesmerising.

Though I had travelled across this place for more than a couple of times, the beauty of the setting really did have me mesmerised. This time was no exception. But, I was mesmerised only till I saw some one.

The glimpse of some one for just a second set my pulse racing.

‘Stop the bus..! please stop the bus..!’, I started shouting.

My niece was half expecting me to stand up and run down the moving bus pressing the ‘stop’ button over a dozen times.

‘Stop the bus..! Stop the god-damn bus..!’, I shouted without giving anyone a second to think.

The driver was confused and alarmed with the sudden panic I created. He stopped the bus with a sudden shrieking turn to the pavement. I jumped out of bus without sparing a second with the niece following me apologising to everyone.

‘What the hell is your problem?!! Have you gone mad?’, she shouted at me.

‘Its.. Its..’, I was grasping for my breath.

‘What the hell is it? Are you alright?’, she shouted.

‘It’s.. It’s.. It’s her..!’, I managed to say. ‘I saw here just now.’

To my niece ‘her’ was bit difficult to understand.

‘It’s.. It’s.. It’s her..!’, I was repeating.

It took a second for her to sink in. ‘You mean..?’, she began with a doubt and shiver.

‘Yes.. it’s her.’ I said bent over my knees.

‘It can’t be her..!’, she said.

‘I just saw her standing outside the temple.’, I replied.

‘It should have been someone else, you are mad. You are totally out of your mind..!’

‘It’s her.. It’s her.. It’s her..!’, I said over and over.

‘How could it, by god’s name, be her? She is not..’ she started shouting.

‘You stay here, I will be right back.’, I said and started running to the temple not even ready to hear what my niece was shouting at me.

I was running hard to see her and so were my thoughts. Too many things had happened in that very short span of time, that unforgettable span of time.

Two long years had passed after what had happened. Two years was a long time indeed. Two years was long enough to fix anything on earth except broken hearts and shattered feelings. Everything around me had slowed down except my thoughts.

My thoughts were racing to the 7th of August 2006, that’s when it started.

It was the Elliot’s beach bus stop, that’s where it started.

The sunshine was sweet that morning. It was extra sweet on that particular day, for two things. One, it was going to be my first day at work after training. The other, was something I totally wasn’t expecting.

It was seven twenty two in the morning. Feeling fresher than ever in my life, I was waiting to board the office shuttle for the first time with the ID card, access card, mobile, purse all set and accounted for. Having found no one around with similar ID cards left me curious if it was the right place to wait for the office shuttle.

I felt a faint breeze. A very faint breeze. :-) Just like the one in fairy tales when the fairy weaves her magic wand over you. The breeze brought a smile onto my face without expecting what I was about to encounter.

‘Excuse me?’, I heard someone and I was quite sure that it wasn’t addressed to me.

‘Excuse me?’, said the sweet voice again and in a reflex impulse I turned to see who it was.

Ever since I knew colors, blue was my favourite and yellow being the color I hated most. The least I would like to see is a person dressed in yellow. But, that moment, that one moment, changed it all. From that moment, trust me, yellow became my favourite color.

She was standing right behind me, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life, in the most beautiful of yellow salwars, waiting just for me to react to her words. I stood there awestruck by the sere presence of her.

I stood there, just mesmerised, with a hundred violins singing the tunes of valentine. For a second, the world turned dark and only she remained bright.

‘Excuse me?’, she said again which brought me back to my senses.

‘Are you talking to me?’, I asked.

‘I certainly am.’, she said with a smile that would have brightened the darkest of nights and deepest of oceans.

‘Oh really, eh.. that’s interesting. How can I help you?’, I asked in the best of the slangs possible.

‘I work for Cognizant. Actually, I know you.’, she asked.

‘I work for Cognizant too. But.. eh..’, I began.

‘I know you from the training arena during the past weeks.’, she continued even before I completed.

‘Oh really, well, eh.. I am sorry to have missed you in the arena. And..’, I said ‘No, that’s ok.’, she completed before I did.

‘And.. I am wondering how I had missed you. Wow, you look beautiful’, I said.

Words, too many words just bumped out without even giving me a second to think. The first minute you talk to a girl and you say she is beautiful? That’s gonna be the last time she is gonna talk to you said the satan from behind.

‘Thanks for the compliment’, she said with such a cool. ‘You were the busiest person I had seen during the training and no wonder you would have missed me..’, she said with a pinch of sarcasm.

‘You got to be kidding me.’ I said with a silly smile of mine. ‘By the way, my name is Peter.’, I said. ‘You can call me Pete..’

‘Come on, I know your name, you were always famous.’, she winked. :-) ‘And my name is Mayantra. :-) You can call me Maya’.

‘Mayantra? Well, that’s one of the most beautiful names I have heard’, came the words out of my mouth without my permission.

‘It sure is.’, she said. ‘That’s our bus, na?’, she asked.

‘Yes it is. :-) eh, well.. Catch up with you later’, I said cursing the driver for bringing the bus on time.

To add to the driver’s blunder, there were no two seats vacant near one another. The small talk with her had to stay small that day.

I had read and heard the words ‘Angel Eyes’ but I had never understood the real meaning. Her eyes taught me the meaning. Those were really the eyes of an Angel. Those eyes, indeed, spoke to me. They spoke to me in all the kinds of emotions I knew. A second’s look at those eyes took my heart by storm.

‘You got to be kidding ’, I told myself looking at her from the last seat.

Love at first sight was only for movies and novels and not for life.

Really? No :-) not really.

Was this love at first sigh? Yup, it surely was.

‘God has created an angel somewhere just for you. All you have to do is wait for her’, my mom used to say. My heart immediately knew that this girl was surely my angel, the angel that God had created for me. My heart knew that the wait was over.
An anxiety swept through me when I started to office the next day. The anxiety rose with every step I took towards the bus stop. She was already there when I reached.

‘Hi, Maya’, I said.

‘Don’t talk to me Pete. I didn’t expect you to do this..!’, she said at the first shot.

‘Excuse me?’, I was confused.

‘How could you leave me just like that?’, she asked.

‘Leave you? Where? When?’, I asked.

‘Yesterday..! I was talking to you and you leave me to get yourself seated in the last seat of the bus? That wasn’t fair..!’, she said as if she had all the rights on me.

‘There were no two seats together, na?’, I said.

‘That’s why I was standing without taking a seat but you sir just went leaving me
blinking..!’, she commanded.

All I could do was to give back a smile and say, ‘Eh.. I am sorry Maya.’ ‘Don’t talk to me..!’, she said again.

‘I should have been a fool to do so..’, I said.

She looked angry for a few seconds and slowly smiled. The smile was the most gorgeous I had seen.

‘Your apology is accepted ’, she said as if she had expected the whole conversation to go exactly in the way it went.

We talked every day on our way to office. She talked with such sweetness that I was wondering if there could really be such a sweet person in this world. Her voice was sweet. Her choice of words was sweeter. Her convent slang made it the sweetest.
Whenever I spoke to my friends, somehow or the other, Maya found her way into the topic. ‘Hey hero.. whats happening?’, my best friend used to tease whenever I talked about Maya.

She slowly occupied an important part in my daily schedule. She was always a part of my thoughts, a part of my words, a part of my writings and a part of almost everything else. She slowly became a part of my life.

Blog spaces, bikes, music systems, movies and novels in my collection shelves, all of them should have been angry on me now. After meeting her, I had left these little friends of mine unattended for a while.

All I had time for was to talk to her, talk about her and think about her. Those beautiful eyes, that gorgeous smile and those sweet words were the only things running over and over in my mind.

‘Pete, you have known me for more than four months now. You like me don’t you?’, she asked.

The smiled like a silly kid and said, ‘yes I sure do’

‘What is that you like me for?’, she asked.

‘Well.. eh.. that’s a difficult question. eh.. may be you make me feel that.. well.. you are sweet, that’s why.’, I said finding it difficult to correlate the words.

‘That’s a cheeky way to escape the difficult question, huh?’, she said with a wink.

A silence grew in for a few seconds and I, to break that curious silence, asked, ‘How about you?’

‘I like you too Pete. ’, she said without hesitating.

‘And how would you like the answer the difficult part?’, I asked.

‘You have a heart of gold Pete. That’s why I like you’, she said without even waiting for a second.

‘Excuse me?’, I was as usual confused.

‘You are one of the most dignified persons I have seen in my life. J You are decent, helpful, caring etc etc. You name the good quality, you got it. Its hard to find a person like you around.’, she said without a stop. She left me wondering :-) literally. Some one has this sort of an opinion on me? I was surprised. She left an uncomfortable pause and slowly began.

‘And, there was one day, one unforgettable day during the training.’, she said.

To me, there were lot of unforgettable days in my training and that left me wondering.

‘You ran all around the training arena to help admit a girl in hospital.’, she said.
I was slow to nod my head. It had happened long back and I hardly knew who it was.

‘Remember? The girl who had badly broken her leg falling from the stairs?’, she asked.

That was not a big incident to remember but I did. I nodded.

‘And you donated blood even though you were allergic to seeing blood.’, she said.
I didn’t understand where this conversation was going but I kept nodding.

‘The rare blood group. :-) you saved that girl’s leg that day, the operation was critical as she had lost a lot of blood. You did it never expecting anything for what you did and never even knew who the girl was.’

I could see that she was getting unusually emotional on this one and I couldn’t see the reason. To me, all I did was a help to whoever it was and hardly even remembered the details.

‘Maya..?’, I began.

‘You helped me walk again Peter..!’, she said in a low voice almost to herself.

‘I.. what?’, I asked.

‘The girl was me Peter..’, she said with a smile her face and a small tear at the corner of her eye. ‘The girl was me.’

The rest of the day left me wondering if I was really qualified for the words she had said about me. Was I really the dignified person she said I was? The guilty conscience always crept in at moments like this but I was careful to keep it away.
There was something confusing in the way things went for a few days. I had spent sleepless nights thinking about her but the days after the conversation were different. I was feeling strange every time. I wasn’t quite sure if the way I understood was right.

The thoughts were running bizarre. The thoughts were really confusing. Where was this leading me to? I really didn’t know.

‘I need to talk to you’, I finally said to her.

‘Permission granted Sir..! :-) Hello? We have always been talking talking talking and suddenly you ask permission?’, she asked with a smile.

‘Maya, if you wont mistake me, can I ask you something?’

‘Hey you are sounding stupid today. :-) talk..! ask..!’, she said with her usual sweetness.

‘Will you marry me?’, I asked in a tone which even I was unsure about.

The next fifty odd seconds was the most horrible time of my life. Every second felt as if it was a year. Those fifty seconds, my word, I felt as if I was standing on thorns. I felt like I was on standing on fire.

‘Pete.. well.. are you serious?’, she asked in a such a doubtful tone, the tone that I felt to be sarcastic enough to test me to the max.

With my heart racing, I didn’t know how to prove my seriousness. Jump off the bus, cut my wrist, chew my tongue all the typical Indian movie options were the only things coming to my mind.

And suddenly I was there with my phone in hand dialling my dad’s number.

‘Dad, I would like to marry Maya’, I was saying without even the slightest of my knowledge. That, I felt, was the only way to prove my seriousness.

She was staring blank at me for a couple of seconds and there came in a slap right across my face and all she said was, ‘I love you Peter.’

I was staring blank at her. It took me at least a couple of minutes to come to my senses after the slap.

‘I love you..! I love you, you idiot..!’, she said again in loudest of her voices. We were the centre of attraction to every one there.

I took sometime to react. And I did react with a bang..!

‘I love you Maya..!!’, I shouted and said it over and over and over till my lungs gasped for breath.

Those moments were the happiest moments of my life.

Those moments were the happiest moments of our life.

Love was in the air..! Happiness was written for us..! Just for the both of us..! :-)

But, then came the real problem.

Parents!

My dad and mom were the best in the world. They would have never said a word against my love. If they would have said so, then that would have been the day when the sahara desert was in floods.

The real problem was her parents. They were the typically strict orthodox ‘girl’s parents’.

‘I am going home tomorrow’, she said unusually sad.

‘What are you sad about?’, I asked.

‘I am going to talk to my dad about you tomorrow. I am going to talk about us.’, she said.

That was indeed a difficult thing for her to manage now. Even I was scared about it.

‘Don’t worry Maya, things will churn out just fine.’, I consoled her. The truth was that I was even more scared.

She went home, out of contact and out of touch for longer than expected. To me, every single minute counted like a decade. Everyday, I expected that she would come back. Everyday, I expected that she would atleast give a call. But days went on and on without a message.

After nearly ten days, she returned looking worn out, tired and pale. Though she was wearing the beautiful yellow salwar that she was wearing on the day I first saw her, she looked dull.

‘Are you alright?’, I asked her when I met her.

‘Sort of. I think it’s the bad flu I caught at home’, she said. I could see that it was not the flu. But it was something else that she was worried about.

‘Well, did you talk to your dad?’, I asked after a few minutes. I was curious than ever.

‘Yes’, she said with her face down.

‘What happened?’, I was turning mad every second.

‘My dad..’

‘Please spill it out Maya, this has been killing me for days’, I said.

‘My dad is against love marriage Peter’, she said.

Well, it was what we had expected. My heart sank and I had no words to speak. That uneasy silence grew in again.

‘Maya..’

‘Peter..! My dad is against Love marriage’, she said again.

‘Maya..?’

‘He wants my marriage to be an arranged marriage..!’, she said with a dull and monotonous voice.

‘I knew it. Well..’, I began.

‘He wants my marriage to be an arranged marriage you idiot..!’, she said with a totally different voice and hyper energy.

‘Maya..?’, I was more confused than ever before.

‘He wants to talk to you and your parents..!’, she shouted in jubilant voice. The
sweet voice I had ever loved in her.

‘You mean?’, I was searching for words.

‘When did you turn this dumb? :-) Yes, I mean.. He said YES!!! He accepted..!!!’, I could not believe that this was so easily happening..!

Her dad had accepted our love..!!!

There was no one against our love..!!!

Those few minutes we were together, we felt like kids again. :-) feeling like kids who had got the Christmas presents that they had asked for. This was not a gift for Christmas.

This was the gift for life..!

This was the gift of Life..!

‘See you tomorrow Pete..! Oops..! sorry..! See you tomorrow my man!’, she said with a wink as she got into the bus.

‘Give me a call once you reach your hostel. Ok?’, I said with the usual concern.

‘Yeah sure. Should be in another hour.’, she said as the bus started moving.

And exactly after an hour as she had said, my mobile sang her favourite song waking me up from my nap.

‘Hey girl..! reached hostel?’, I asked immediately. There was no answer.

‘Hello Maya?’, I said into the phone again but there was just silence at the other end.

I checked the network, my mobile showed full signal.

‘Hello?’, I repeated again.

‘Hello..’, said an unknown voice on the other end.

‘Who is this?’, I asked with a sudden panic.

‘I am sorry sir, this is the Police. I am dialling this number from the last dialled list.’, that was a male voice on the other side.

‘You got to be kidding me. Who is this? Where is Maya?’, I said expecting some one to say this was just a joke.

‘Sir, the lady hit and run by a truck is identified to be Mayantra, five feet seven inches, fair, wearing a yellow salwar. I am dialling the last number she had dialled from her mobile.’

It took me a few seconds to realise what was happening.

It took me a few minutes to realise that the girl of my life was no more.

The most beautiful girl I had seen, the sweetest voice I had heard, the purest love I had felt. The gorgeous smile I had got. Maya. Mayantra.

I wanted to see her face once more, just once more. I wanted to hear her voice once more, just once more. I wanted to see her smile once more, just once more.
But, it was all too late. I started running to wherever my Maya was. Running blank out of thoughts.

Two long years had passed after what had happened. Two years was a long time indeed. Two years was long enough to fix anything on earth except broken hearts and shattered feelings.

I was running hard to see her and so were my thoughts.

The most beautiful girl I had seen, the sweetest voice I had heard, the purest love I had felt. The gorgeous smile I had got. Maya. Mayantra.

She was standing there outside the temple, just where I had seen her from the bus, in the salwar of my favourite colour. Just in the way I had seen her for the first time.

I stopped ten feet away from her gasping for breath with my niece running behind shouting at me.

‘It can’t be her..!’, she said.

‘How is it possible?’, I was asking myself.

‘She is not alive Peter..!’, shouted my niece behind me.

‘But..’, I was talking to myself.

I knew she was dead. I remembered crying over her dead body like never in my life. I remembered watching her face till they buried her in the cemetery. I knew she was not alive. But, she was there standing a few feet away from me.

I was not able to comprehend this at all. The world looked gauzy for a few minutes. I felt dizzy as if I was going to fall dead in the next second.

Shocked and unsure, I took a step to see her.

After two years of her death, I took a step forward to meet the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life… again… and… ALIVE..!

An interview with Michael Dallas (2)

2010-01-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

‘Mr Dallas.’, my voice came down to a whisper. ‘The man you said..’

‘Yeah..?’

‘Is the K in the word knife, a mirror image and in a bright red?’, I asked with a shiver. Michael was stunned to hear what I was asked.

Part VI

‘How..’, he was searching for words with his eyes widely open.

‘How did you know?’, he asked with a stammer.

The colour drained off my face as I was frightened to the core. ‘I can see him outside the cafe’, I blurted out.

‘How would it be possible..?’, asked a pale Michael.

‘I don’t understand’, I said with the shiver clearly frightened.

‘Are you trying to play me?’, asked Michael.

‘What..! No..!’

‘Are you trying to scare me?! Is this some kind of game you are playing with me?!’, he asked.

‘No damn it..! Why should I?!! For the love of God..! I promise you, I can see this guy..!’, I pressed nervously but without raising my voice.

‘Whatever..! I am getting out of here you weirdo’, he strongly said and stood from his seat.

‘No..! No..! Wait a minute..! I am serious..!’, I pleaded but Michael was already moving.

As in unison, I could see the guy in the green dress check the silvery thing he had in his hand. Through the next window pane I could clearly see what it was. It was a gun.

He moved towards the café entrance and I felt weak at my knees. Something really bad was going to happen, my instincts told me.

Intuitively I ran towards Michael. The man moved into the café with his weapon directly aimed at Michael Dallas.

The next few seconds was the slowest of my entire life.

A schizophrenic with illusions..

The illusions becoming a reality..

A gunman dressed in green..

And a loaded gun clearly aimed..

All I had was the time to throw myself at Michael in dire straits to save him.

Then, there was a soft click. It was from the gun, certainly fitted with a silencer. And just a second later, there was a loud thud. This was the sound of us hitting the floor. The next couple of seconds were filled with a deafening silence.

Part VII

Had the bullet hit Michael..?

Was he dead..?

Where was the gun man..?

Was he going to shoot again..?

There were too many questions in that one second.

I was above Michael and he was not moving. I turned around to see the gunman who was moving towards us with the raised gun, surely with a lot of shots left. With an unknown force, to stay alive and to save Michael, I kicked the near by chair towards the gunman.

I kicked it with such a force that it slid so quickly and hit the gunman. He was taken by surprise with the sudden hit and he fell down with the gun flying in the opposite direction. Just then, I saw Michael move.

‘Are you alright?’, I asked.

Michael nodded, not able to find words. He was clearly in shock.

I got to my knees to see the gunman. He was recovering from the impact and was getting up. I helped Michael up on to his legs and could feel his shiver through his thick suit.

My first thought was that we could run out of the café before the gunman could get to his weapon. But, there came a surprise just as we took a step towards the door.

To the horror of both of us, someone came into the café wearing a red shirt and blue jean. Just as he set foot into the door, he swung his right hand from behind with another gun pointed at Michael.

Frightened to death, I stopped running and pulled Michael by his collar. We jumped on the table behind the pillar, where we were sitting a few minutes back.

‘Damn it..! Who the hell was that..?’, I shouted.

‘That’s the second guy..! From my illusions..!’, cried Michael.

I peeked around the pillar to see what was happening. Both the gunmen were taking calculated steps towards the pillar. They looked like professional killers. In the next few seconds, they were going to shoot.

My mind was filled with nothing but fear, the fear of death. My heart was pounding faster and harder that I feared it would come to an abrupt stop any second.

I took a deep breath to clear my mind. I had to save Michael from whoever these guys were. And I had to stay alive.

I looked up at the lights in the café. There was one soft yellow bulb glowing in the middle of the café, one bulb at the entrance. Just then, I decided on what I was going to do next.

Part VIII

There were just going to be three to four seconds before the gunmen reached the pillar from both sides.

I took the cup and saucer from which Michael was drinking his tea, took a deep breath and threw them at the bulb at the centre of the café. Though one of them missed, the next one hit the bull’s eye. The rear half of the café went dark.

I pushed Michael to the floor and I ducked really low.

‘Crawl low to the rear end of the café. We’ll try running out of the rear door’, I whispered to him.

Slowly, we moved without making much noise. We could still hear the footsteps of those gun men. And then, a shot was fired.

It was completely in the opposite direction as to where we were. They were just getting us to move, or were just firing at will.

Then there was another shot, this time it landed on the table just at my right. I gripped tight Michael so that both of us didn’t finch. We slowly continued to crawl.

As we were moving, I could hear one of the gunmen pouring something on a near by table. From the faint smell, I thought it should be alcohol. By then, we had crawled to the rear wall of the café.

From what I had noticed when I entered the café, the rear door was to the right of where we were now. I grazed the wall slowly to reach the door. I sensed the handle and tried to open the door, but the door did not budge.

And then, something totally unexpected happened.

First it looked and sounded like a flicker of a match stick and then the next moment, the spark lit the alcohol poured on the table and the whole café shone ablaze.

I was shocked and turned to Michael who was even more shocked. We could see the two of them and one of them threw a big smile and I could see what his lips said.

‘Gotcha..!’, he smiled.

Part IX

They were going to take a shot any of the next few seconds and out of an animal instinct, Michael threw himself at the door with immense force and as some sort of magic, the lock broke and the door opened and at the same time, they opened fire.

I ducked down to dodge the bullets and I crawled through the door to where Michael was. To our surprise, the door did not lead us out of the café but a dark passage and only God knew where it was going to take us.

But, that was the only possible way out. We could not see through the darkness and I flicked on my mobile on. Though not so efficient, at least we could see where we were placing our steps. And that was going to be one of the scariest of places I had ever been in my life. We moved into the darkness hopeful to find a way to escape from the killers.

We were careful with every step we took. The fear of what waited ahead and the fear of the killers behind us filled me to a level that I might choke any minute.

The darkness was so dense and it was impossible for us to move fast. I started frantically searching the wall to see any switch at the same time moving with Michael close behind me. After close to twenty steps into the darkness, I found what I searched for. In the middle of the dusty and creepy spider webs, I found a sole switch.

I switched it on without even giving it a second thought. A light came to life at the end of what seemed to be an endless corridor. At least now we had an idea of where we were heading. There was a door at the end.

Michael was the first to run down the corridor and I closely followed him watching over my shoulder for someone to burst in anytime. We reached the door at the end and with lots of hopes opened it expecting it to take us out.

But, to our bewilderment, the door led us to a stair case spiralling itself to the upper floors. The maze we had taken looked as if taking a new turn instead of taking us out. I had a very bad feeling about this. I didn’t know if we were supposed to take the stairs.

I looked at Michael who was looking at me with the same questions that I had in mind. He seemed, for some reason, to look at me for help and answers. But, I was equally helpless and was stranded with all that had happened in the last few minutes.

‘What do we do now?’, he asked taking endless number of short breaths.

Part X

‘I don’t know. For Christ’s sake, who are those guys?’, I shouted back.

‘I don’t know.. I.. I.. I don’t understand a thing’, he panted.

I could feel some movement at the far end of the corridor and before I could realise, a shot ripped right between us and hit the stair case with a loud thud. And without even hesitating for a second, we ran up the stairs ready to face anything up there.

The stair case spiralled up to three to four floors and all the time, we could hear someone running two floors below us. Thankfully, no one was shooting at us. We reached the top of the stairs which led us into a small room with a ladder up the wall.

We stood in the room breathing heavily after running all the way up the stairs. I had totally drained out all my energy and Michael was looked as if he would faint any minute.

But the thing that was really getting my nerves was that I didn’t understand any of the events here. There were only questions left in my mind and no answers what so ever. I needed answers and I needed them now. And, I decided what to do next.
‘Stay behind me’, I commanded Michael.

‘What are you gonna do?’, he shouted.

‘Do as I say! Stay behind me and breath slowly..!’

I leaned over the edge of the stairs I could see the gunman with the red shirt coming up. He was at the least one storey below up and had close to twenty stairs to cover. I held my breath.

His footsteps were slowly creeping up. He should be closer by ten stairs now, I calculated. We were hiding in the darkness hoping he would not hear us breathing hard.

The next few seconds were filled with silence and darkness, except for the footsteps coming up towards us. I could see a very faint shadow around the entrance. Certainly, it was the killer. Slowly, he came up to the last stair with his gun in position. He slowly stepped in and moved his gun to the right, exactly as I was hoping for.

I sprang out of the shadow with all the force and energy I could gather. I slammed my foot into his chest with all the might. And that was it.

Part XI

He was caught off guard and fell off balance to his back, over the small railings on the stairs. There was no turning back. He went flying all the way to the ground which was four stories below. It took a while for the soft moaning of pain to end but he was dead or unconscious faster than I expected.

The second set of footsteps had stopped. I was hoping to hear it fade away moving down to his partner. But, there was complete silence.

I turned to Michael. He was dumbstruck with what I had done.

‘You killed him’, he said in a muffled tone but I didn’t respond. I was stunned to hear something else.

The second gun man was moving up, in a much faster pace than previously. And then, I heard a noise behind me which made the hair on my neck raise again. It was loud click. It was the recoil of a gun.

To the shock of my life, it came from right behind me. I turned around very slowly.

Part XII

It was Michael Dallas, standing behind me. He had a gun in his hand and it was pointed right at me.

‘What are you doing..?’, I asked in a muffled tone.

‘Who are you?’, he asked me.

‘What..?! Who the hell are you..?! And how in the world do you have a gun with you?!’, I scrambled for words in fear.

‘What the hell have me brought me into?!’, shouted Michael.

‘I don’t understand a thing that is happening here..!’, I shot back. ‘This seems to be a nightmare and I feel like being right in the middle of it..!’

‘The men in my illusions have suddenly come alive..! But, how in the world is it possible?!’, he asked.

‘You tell me that..! You said you have been having schizophrenic illusions for eight years but now you tell me those men are true.?!’, I demanded from a safe distance from his gun.

‘You come in to my life out of nowhere and now the terrible world of my dreams is right in front of me..! Who are you with..?! What are you trying to do with me?!’, he cried.

This was going nowhere, I understood. Neither of us knew what was happening and how. But one thing was for sure, there were two men with guns. One was obviously a killer and the other a schizophrenic with illusions that turned real. Who was going up dead, it was left to God.

Before I could wait for Dallas to finish or begin to argue, I realised we had forgotten something else. The footsteps of the killer had gone completely silent.

My mind was racing with the possible options. Either he had gone away or he had reached the top of the stairs and was right behind us. I left Michael continue his blabbering questions and turned around. The timing was really bad.

Part XIII

I was looking at the tip of a gun and the edge of the finger that was about to pull the trigger. And then, there was a silent shot.

Whether the bullet moved very slowly or I was not able to comprehend what was happening, I did not know. But everything was moving slow exactly like the slo-mo used in lot of the recent movies.

Whether I was imagining this or it was absolutely real, I did not know but I could see the bullet right through every inch of its movement from the gun till it reached the forehead of Michael Dallas.

I watched it till the end. How softly it pierced the man’s skull and how softly he fell dead. It was like watching a petal falling down from the tip of a flower. The man was dead.

Watching someone die sometimes makes people faint, some scream in fear and some freeze. I fell into the third category. I froze with overwhelming fear. My brain was unable to process the horror. Michael Dallas, whoever he was and whatever was happening here, was dead. He was shot in the head. He was murdered.

I heard something fall with a crash behind me which brought me back to reality. I turned around to see what it was. It was the sound of the empty clip that the killer dropped from the gun and I could see he had reloaded the next a fresh new clip.

This time, the gun was pointed at me.

Part XVI

A shot was fired at my chest and I stood still waiting for the bullet to hit me. I was waiting and waiting and waiting. But nothing happened for the whole of the next minute. Things remained absolutely still.

And just as the bullet reached my chest, the room went absolutely bright. The lights were so bright that it sent a shock through my eyes. I had to throw myself down to cover my eyes.

I slowly moved my arm out of my face and opened my eyes. I had to do it very slowly to adapt to the sudden brightness. The room was bizarrely white with the walls and doors matching the brightness.

The stair case through which I had reached this place was gone and so was the ladder that was leading to the top of the building.

I turned down to see the body of Michael Dallas who had fallen dead just a few seconds back. He was nowhere to be seen in the white room. I turned to the other direction to see the killer.

Part XV

There was a man standing exactly where the killer had stood when he shot me. He looked nothing like a killer. He was tiny man with silvery grey hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He was dressed in white.

I tried to move towards him but I, for some reason, could not move. I bent down to see what was stopping me.

I was sitting on a soft custom moulded white chair with my legs strapped floor. The man was standing a few feet away from watching me intensely with a very blank face.

‘Where am I?’, I asked with my voice really faint. The man did not reply.

‘Who are you? And what kind of a place is this?’, I questioned but the man did not answer me.

‘Just as expected’, he smiled and walked slowly to me. A card pinned to his chest read, ‘Psychiatrist – Schizophrenic Ward’

‘What were you expecting?’, I asked. ‘What the hell is happening here’. And what he replied was something I would never be able to comprehend.

‘You, Mr Dallas, have just come out of an intense Schizophrenic episode and my treatment is working as expected’, he said in a monotonous tone and walked out of the room.

What he said might be take ages for me to comprehend. Certainly, ages for me to comprehend.

If what he said was for real, I.. was.. Michael Dallas.. and this was one of my Schizophrenic episodes.

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

NB: Dedicated to the millions of Schizophrenics around the world. The story’s ending is inspired by ‘Identity’ starring John Cusack and Ray Liotta, a gripping psychological thriller which kept me engaged till the very end.

An interview with Michael Dallas (1)

2010-01-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

Part I

I slowly opened my eyes but it seemed to be a herculean task. My head was pounding and I was unsure of how long I had passed out. I scrambled for my wrist watch at the bedside and flicked the fluorescence on.

‘Friday, 13.11.2009 09:12 am’, said my watch.

The last thing I remembered was having had endless number of drinks at the Carpenter’s late night bar. When or how I had reached home, I had no idea. I had passed out for longer than I thought.

‘Bloody Hell’, I cursed myself. I cursed myself for having drunk that much. That was a personal record for the number of rounds of alcohol.

Slowly, I sat up on my bed and swallowed a couple of aspirins from the bed side table, a desperate attempt to get rid of the banging inside my head. And those tablets took a few minutes to show any signs of success.

After a hot shower I went on a wild rampage in search of my mobile and after a struggle I found it in the kitchen.

’21 Missed Calls’, the phone showed. That, definitely, wasn’t a good sign.

A few calls were from my landlord, obviously for the list of overdue housing bills. A couple of calls were from my fellow script writers in the studio and strangely around fifteen calls were from an unlisted 'Private number'. There was roughly one call every one hour starting from noon the previous day.

‘Who could that be?’, I thought, my curiosity aroused.

Just as I placed my kettle on the stove to make a cup of tea, the mobile rang again. The number showed as ‘Private Number’. This should be the same person I thought and answered the phone.

‘When can you meet me?’, asked someone on the phone.

‘Excuse me?’, I was taken aback.

‘I am calling about the ad banner on the website. When can we meet?’, said the person, clearly nervous.

‘Who is this? Calm down for a second, will you?’

‘I am calling about your ad. ‘Search for a Schizophrenic’ on the website’, the person said without taking time to calm down.

It took me a few seconds to understand what the call was about. And my curiosity and interest grew to a much elevated level.

‘Oh wow..! that’s great..! finally, some one has called..!’, I said.

‘Cut the crap..! I don’t want to know what you feel like. When do you want to meet me?’

‘Eh.. Well.. Any time.. Any time you ask me to..!’, I replied immediately.

‘Quarter to eleven today, Red Sea café in the dodgy end of Wandsworth’

‘Dodgy end, you mean near the queen’s head?’, I asked.

‘Yeah, be there on time. I’ll leave at 10:46 if you are not there’ and the line went dead.

I was both bewildered as well as happy. Finally, after waiting for more than a month, someone has come up to speak. This was my chance, a real chance of getting a Schizophrenic’s real life account.

Part II

For over a decade, movies had been my life. I had started as a part timer in the Studio’s office and slowly had moved up to a member of scripting syndicate. The syndicate was the group of people who analysed scripts for movies and made the necessary changes after a series of discussions, or well, arguments.

For the love of my writing skills, I wanted to write a script for a movie, something absolutely original. A movie whose title credits would have the words, ‘Written by’ and my name below it.

I had a series of prolonged discussions with one of the Studio bosses and after a lot of difficulties had got his nod of approval. I was thriving to make a script which would make a difference. That was when the idea of Schizophrenia absorbed me like quicksand.

Though things were smooth initially, I hit a very serious writer’s block somewhere in the after the start. That’s where my search for a schizophrenic began. I needed someone's real life schizophrenic accounts which will help me progress my story.

I had tried very hard to get the audience of a few but none of them had been successful. And I was pushed to post an advertisement on a few free websites and had been waiting with high hopes that someone will get in touch. It was over a month and the idea was a complete let down.

Time was running out and my frustrations were building up. And when I was facing the real difficulties of accepting my failure, I had drunk really silly a few days back.

Finally, it was going happen today. Someone had got in touch and I was hoping it would help me in moving on with my script. I smiled to myself. At last, a real lucky break and a real chance to score.

When I stepped out of my house near the Charing Cross hospital, it started drizzling. I ran across the street and found shelter under the small bus stop. It was over-crowded than usual and someone was complaining that it was more than thirty minutes since the last 220 bus to Wandsworth.

‘To hell with this’, I cursed to myself about the unpredictable weather and the even more unpredictable bus delays.

Throughout the forty minute travel in the unusually crowded bus to Wandsworth, I felt a unfamiliar rush in my veins. I was just running the things I needed to focus while talking to this stranger I was going to meet.

‘Will his experiences turn my script in the right track?’

‘Will there be really something in this person’s experiences that will be very different?’

There were a series of questions running over and over in my mind. My bleak career as a script writer might end just as bleak or glow brighter that ever before. All of which depended on what I learn from the meeting today.

‘What’s taking this long..?’, I became furious when the bus was not moving for over five minutes. I looked out of the window to see that it was a bloody long line of vehicles on both lanes. I looked at my watch and it was 10:29 already, no way was I going to make it before 10:45.

‘To hell with it…’, I cursed again and pressed the ‘Open button’ on the bus’s door and hopped out before the car on the other lane and jumped onto the pavement. I started jogging in the rain cursing louder this time.

10: 40 it was when I reached the Queen’s head. I quickly grabbed an old lady to ask where the Red Sea Café was. The lady gave me a bizarre look before speaking a word.

‘Go straight ahead, you will find a worn down building at the end of the street. Walk into it and reach the far end. You will find what you are searching for.’, she said.

‘Thank you’, I said and started running.

‘Watch you head’, said the old lady before walking away but I didn’t wait to listen.

The building looked older and weaker than any I had imagined. It looked so weak that it would fall anytime. Even worse was the path through the building to the far end. The ceiling was so low and there were lots of support beams put in place to keep the ceiling from falling.

I realised the words of the lady to watch my head. I wasn’t sure whether my head would hit the low ceiling or the ceiling would fall right on my head.

‘This is one hell of a place..!’, I said to myself as I carefully moved to find the café. All the other shops seemed to have been pulled down even before decades and at the far end he could see a slightly lit board that said ‘RED SEA CAFÉ’.

Part III

I felt better to have reached on time as well as a bit eerie to be in a building like this. I carefully walked to the café’s windows and tried to look in. The windows were so dusty that I was able to see just shadows of things inside. I reached the door and stepped in.

The café hall was a very dull lit and looked very rusty. There were around fifteen tables arranged in the widely spaced café. A few people were sitting in the far right corner, a couple of shabbily dressed people were in the other far corner. Other than that, the place looked creepy and deserted.

For a few seconds I just stood there his eyes searching for the person who had made the call and just then my phone rang.

‘Walk straight in and I am at the table behind the pillar’, I was told and I obliged to see the mystery man I had been talking to. I was really surprised with what I saw.

In a broken down building, in a dirty restaurant and amidst dusty tables and chairs, I saw a smartly dressed, handsome, middle aged man sitting with a steaming cup of black tea in front.

Hesitant at the first instant, I said a soft ‘Hello’ but the man did not finch. I said a slightly louder ‘Hello’ to get the attention of the man sitting in front of me.

‘I know you are here’, he said without taking his eyes off the coffee, ‘Skip the formalities, take your seat’

I was taken aback with the slight hostility but I took a deep breath and sat in the chair opposite. A brief moment of silence followed and I felt a sudden nervousness to where and how to begin.

But before I began, the man asked, ‘So, you want to make a movie about me..?’.

‘Well, not exactly about you. I’m trying to write a script based on Schizophrenia’

‘You can’t make a better movie than ‘A beautiful mind’. I think you are wasting time here’, the man said.

‘Well, I appreciate that it’s one of the best movies, but I am just trying to..’

Before he could finish, the man burst, ‘Whatever..! I am not sure if I can be of much help, but ask what you want to’

‘Eh.. Ok’, I said opening the dossier he usually carried with him. ‘Can I have your name?’, I said as beginning to write.

‘My name is Michael Dallas’, the man said and I could notice a slight pride in the way he said.

‘Ok’, I said and wrote ‘Interview with Michael Dallas’ at the beginning of my notes and continued asking, ‘So, Mike I want to thank you for responding to my..’

And before he could finish ‘You can’t call me ‘Mike’, I don’t even know you. Address me as ‘Mr Dallas’. And if my name comes on any of you future records, I am going to sue you for sure.’ said Michael.

‘Holy crap..! I am going to have a very tough time here’, I told myself.

‘Alright Mr Dallas, let me get to the point. If you can give me a brief of your Schizophrenic experiences, it would be great’

‘Do you have all day long..? Even if you do, I can’t waste that much of a time. Be precise on your questions, will you?’

‘I can’t even get this guy to talk’, I thought and asked ‘When did you start to have..?’

‘I realised that I have schizophrenic illusions eight years before’, he answered before I finished my question.

‘If you say you realised, well, how did you realise?’

‘A psychiatrist, a good friend of mine and my confidante helped me’, replied Michael.

‘What kind of illusions do you think you have, Mr Dallas’, I asked.

‘I am being followed by two people for a very long time now’, replied Michael.

‘Followed by whom..?’

‘How the hell would I know..?! I am being followed by two people who are visible to only me and they don’t even talk to me, alright?! I don’t know them..!’

I bit my teeth with the thought of just standing up and leaving the place instead of talking to the man who was showing no respect whatsoever. But, I decided to be patient for just a few more minutes.

After a moment of awkward silence Michael began, ‘Sorry, this always gets me on my nerves. Every bloody time I start talking about this, I feel I’m sick. It makes me feel really sick’

‘Take your time Mr Dallas, it’s not a compulsion to tell me this if you really don’t feel like’, I remained neutral.

‘That’s alright. That.. That’s alright’, Michael stammered for a couple of seconds and the awkward silence returned.

‘Mr Dallas, do you have any idea why they are following you?’, I broke the silence with a question.

‘I guess, they are planning to murder me’, he said.

Part IV

I thought I had heard it wrong.

Michael took a couple of deep breaths and sighed, ‘I guess, they are planning to murder me’

‘Murder you? Well, how do you say that?’, I was curious.

‘They carry weapons when I see them. Silver coloured guns and I am quite sure I have seen them aiming their guns at me many a number of times’

A schizophrenic who had illusions of people planning to murder him, that was one hell of a plot.

‘And before I understood that these people were my schizophrenic illusions, I was under the assumption that someone was really trying to murder me and I kind of stuck on to it’, said Michael without taking in even a slightest breath.

All I could do was nod to whatever he was saying. The interview was slowly getting interesting, just as I had expected it to.

‘I was for a long time wondering how none of my colleagues, my family or my corporate security noticed them’, continued Dallas, ‘and it took a long time for me to realise that the problem was with me and these people were only visible to me’

‘Did you find that by yourself?’

‘No, when a lot of my efforts to make people understand of my fears failed, I was convinced to meet a psychiatrist’

‘Did you meet one?’

‘Yes, after a long thought. One of my close friends was there to help. She had just then reached the league of outstanding psychiatrists.’

‘How did you react to this?’, I asked.

‘I was so happy to hear the news, I arranged for a huge party and celebrated it..!’, he said and I was a little shocked.

‘Excuse me..?’, I asked with a blank face.

‘What kind of a question was that..?! How would you feel if you found out that you have a weak heart and are going to die of a heart attack soon?’, he asked me with a serious face.

‘Well..’, I didn’t know what to say, ‘I would feel bad, probably break down and..’

Before I could finish, he signalled me to stop. ‘Exactly..! I broke down..!', he said and went silent.

'I had a real tough time..!', he began after the pause. 'It took over a year to become normal and learn to live with this. The most painful days of my whole life'

I, for the first time, felt really bad for Michael. I didn’t know if it was a morality issue of using someone’s weakness as a building block or if it was just feeling of pity. I didn’t really know.

Michael Dallas was visibly upset revisiting those terrible days when he was dealing with this disorder. And then an intense silence fell in place again and I didn’t want to push him too much. I was ready to wait till he could hold himself back.

After a few minutes of silence, I slowly began with a question ‘Do you still have schizophrenic episodes?’

‘I see them, yes.’

‘Interesting’, I said, ‘When do you see them?’

‘Well I have booked a meeting with them everyday between 09:15 to 11:15’, he smiled.

‘Are you serious?’, I asked.

Part V

‘Ah no, I was just kidding’, he smiled for the first time.

‘They cross me a lot of times a day. They remain the same all time. Neither do they grow nor do they wear different dresses. They are the same, as when I noticed them for the first time eight years back’, he said.

After a bit of thought and out of a sudden curiosity I asked, ‘Do you see them at the moment?’

‘You mean, here in this café?’

‘Yes’

‘No, not inside the café, but..’, he said and leaned sideways across the pillar trying to see outside.

I was waiting curiously.

‘Ah, there is one of them just outside the café, wearing a funny green t-shirt with the words ‘Darko’s knife’’

I moved my sight around the pillar to look at where Michael had looked. The windows were a bit clean compared to how dirty they were when I came in. I could see someone outside.

‘That’s a really funny green t-shirt’, I smiled to myself. And then, something struck me. And my smile vanished immediately.

I slowly tilted my head to my side to see across the pillar in the same place again. A guy wearing funny green t-shirt with the words ‘Darko’s knife’ was standing there. And I could certainly see something silvery in his hand.

I understood something was wrong. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck raise up. I could feel a shiver run down my spine. There was definitely something very wrong.

‘Mr Dallas.’, my voice came down to a whisper. ‘The man you said..’

‘Yeah..?’

‘Is the K in the word knife, a mirror image and in a bright red?’, I asked with a shiver. Michael was stunned to hear what I was asking.

(To be continued..)

…around midnight on her birthday…

2010-01-02T02:34:00.000-08:00

…around midnight on her birthday…

She was busy reading her novel. Though she wasn’t too interested in novels, she wanted to complete this one. Not just because he had presented it to her, she found it interesting as well. The silence and calm surrounding with the mild sound of the waves hitting the shores of Elliot’s beach was really soothing. Occasionally she glanced at her mobile and the clock, as if curious and waiting for the mobile to ring.

It was the first of March, a Saturday. The time was 23:55 hrs and she was alone at her PG. All her other room mates had gone home for the weekend. In another five minutes, the world was going to declare that she was older by one year. Yeah, it was her birthday on the second of March. ‘This is gonna be the quietest birthday since my school days, I suppose’, she was thinking with a smile across her lips. The digital clock by her side read 23:59, when the mobile sprang to life with the Back Street Boys singing ‘Quit playing games with my heart.. My heart.. My heart..’ and the smile on her lips got wider. It was a call from him. :-)

‘Hey dudette, what’s up?’ he asked. He had moved to the US on an assignment just a few days back. Though it was just a short term assignment for a few months, her friends teased her everyday about the way she cried during his send off at the airport. :-) Romance had been in the air for a couple of years now.

‘Nothing special, just reading the novel that you gave me before you left’ she said.

‘Oh yeah, the novel I gave. It was some, eh - some true story, right? I forgot the first word, what was it?’

‘It’s called Communion – A True Story. Hope it’s only the name of the book you forgot and not the person you gave it to.’ She said with a pinch of sarcasm.

He caught the slight change in tone and bounced back on the defense, ‘Come on yaar, wont forget you till my heart beats for the last time. ’ He meant it and she knew it. They let the silence fill the space and hearts for a few seconds. She knew that he was her One and so did he.

‘Here Goes..! Five.. Four.. Three.. Two.. One..! Hhhhh Aaaaa Ppppp Ppppp Yyyyy Bbbbb Iiiii Rrrrr Ttttt Hhhhh Ddddd Aaaaa Yyyyy..!!!’ He was at the peak of his energy when he wished. She felt that her digital clock held its breath at 00:00:00 for bit of a moment just for her to cherish. It was the quietest alright, but certainly the most romantic birthday she had had in life. :-)

‘Wow..! You don’t know how I feel now..! :-) THANK YOU..! THANK YOU SO MUCH..!’ she said.

She heard him say something but the line was flickering. She repeated ‘Hello’ but there was no response. She looked into the mobile; it flicked ‘BATTERY EMPTY’ a couple of times and went dead. The smile on her face vanished as well. She got restless and searched for the charger. She wasn’t able to find one. ‘Come on, I see it every now and then and when I need it, it’s missing’ she was getting frustrated. She found one and plugged it in. The mobile said ‘CHARGING’ and blipped to life. She kept it close to her waiting for his call.

She picked up her novel again, deciding to kill time. She was sure he would call her back. She had reached an important twist in the novel. The novel was about an alien invasion to earth where they kidnap human beings for research. It was absolutely a chilling experience and she felt as if some tiny creatures mentioned in the novel were moving in her room. She liked the feel of goose bumps while reading and in movies. As if the appointment was fixed, the power went off. The phone said ‘NOT CHARGING’ and went dead again.

The darkness took a bit of time to settle in. The fan in the room slowly, very slowly, came to a stop. The happiness had completely vanished from her face. ‘Not today’ she thought. She badly wanted to talk with him through the night. :-( She waited, waited and waited but no luck. She yawned repeatedly and was falling asleep.

But, something was not allowing her to sleep. She couldn’t grab clearly what it was. Some slight noise was disturbing her. CLINK… CLINK… CLINK... It was very slight in the beginning, but, was slowly gaining. CLINK… CLINK… CLINK…. The noise was striking her ears and not letting her sleep. She could hear it clearly now. CLINK… CLINK… CLINK…. She slowly opened her eyes. She had lost her sleep now. She sat up on her bed. Her eyes were adapting to the darkness. She sat there for a few seconds concentrating on the noise. It was the only noise she could hear. CLINK… CLINK… CLINK…

She got down from her bed and carefully moved out of her room. She knew that her PG rooms, as usual, were not clean. She had to look through the darkness and avoid placing her feet on the things that were scattered around. She took a second to locate where the noise was coming from. She felt as if she was playing the blindman’s buff. She was placing the trust on her ears to locate the noise. The noise was coming from the farther end of the kitchen. She was not used to being in the kitchen and was trying to guess where the noise was coming from. It should be the tap, she thought. She moved slowly and carefully into the kitchen and to the corner from where the noise was coming. Her guess was right. It was the water dripping from the tap striking the vessels. The maid had left the vessels there to be cleaned in the morning. She felt relieved for sometime after she closed the tap tight.

The silence was back as it was a few minutes before. She could hear the kitchen clock ticking second after second. She slowly moved out of the kitchen to the dining hall as carefully as before. She had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling, as if someone was behind her. As if someone was standing right behind her. She stood there for a couple of seconds and then slowly turned back. There was nothing behind her but the empty stretch of the kitchen. ‘It happens when you are alone’ she told herself and reassured that everything was fine.

When she was about to take a step forward, something fell from the dining table right next to her feet and rolled a couple of times. Her heart was pounding faster than the times she had ever known. Her breathing was heavy. The moon light was the only source of light in the room. She slowly bent down to see what had fallen near her feet. It was one of the knives from the cutlery set on the dining table. When the knife had fallen, it had laid a trail of some glittering liquid while it rolled. She moved her focus on the liquid. The moonlight was exactly in line with the trail. The glare showed it was surely red in color.

‘BLOOD..!’ that was what came to her mind immediately. How could it be..?! How could it be..?! How could there be BLOOD?! Her hands were shivering. She decided to touch it. She had a serious problem with blood. She was scared of blood and she perspired whenever she saw blood. But still, her hands moved on instincts and touched it. What was this? That was not blood. She moved her fingers to smell what it was. ‘Oh My God..! Cool..! Oh My God, its not blood. It’s the tomato sauce in the dining table bowl.’ She felt herself to be stupid about the whole thing. She just sat there for a second and almost laughed aloud about what had just happened.

Though she was alright for a few seconds, she felt there was a logic missing in the sequence. She thought hard to locate what it was. She seemed to have got it in a flash. How had the knife fallen from the dining table? It was a heavy knife and it could not have fallen down by itself, could it? How did the knife fall down then? She slowly gained stability on her feet. She moved towards the table. When she had taken a few steps, something sprang from below the table. Something..! A shadow..! It sprang and swiftly moved into her bed room. She was breathless. She was stunned. She was not able to move..!

‘Who is it..?’ she shouted. She grabbed the knife in her hand. There was no answer.

‘WHO IS IT..!’ she shouted again. There was still no answer. She decided to move in. She held her breath and composed herself. She decided to face it.

‘Who is it? Come out this second..!’ she said again as a warning. She moved into her room. Whatever it was, she was ready to face it with the knife in her hand.

‘Who the HELL is it?’ she shouted when she took the next step. She heard something move on her left. She moved into the room in flash when she heard it.

‘Meeaaoww..’ She froze there for a second. ‘Meeaaoww..’ a bit more frightened this time. The cat moved in from the darkness and jumped to the window. She could see it in the moon light. She could not believe what it was. She was too creative to confuse the sauce for blood and now the helpless cat for something horrible.

She sat down on her bed chewing her lips thinking about what had happened. She smiled to herself. ‘Avoid horror movies and novels for sometime’ she said loud. ‘I could easily be a writer for thrillers’ she smiled at her own thought. She laid her head on the pillow and felt relaxed. Her heartbeat had slowed down and the perspiration was disappearing. She started laughing at her stupidity. She had almost forgotten the whole thing. It was her birthday. :-) She could not believe that, around midnight on her birthday, she was acting as if she was in the middle of a horror movie. :-) She slowly dozed off.

It would not have been more than two minutes since she had dozed off, when there was a TAK… TAK… TAK…

She opened her eyes. It’s just a continuation of the day she thought. It was around midnight and no one was going to knock the door at this time. But she was sure she heard a knock on the door. Like the previous times, she was sure it was just her imagination and there was going to be nothing. She decided, anyway, to check it. She moved fast towards the door. She did not forget to take the knife with her. She was not worried about stamping on the things that were left on the floor. She reached the door and tried to see through the door’s magic eye. There was no power and it was around midnight. She was not even able to see within her room and no wonder she could see anything outside through the magic eye. She decided to open the door.

Slowly, she unhooked the lock and turned the knob once. She gave it a second. Did she really have to open the door? She thought about it. She turned the knob again and opened the door slowly, very slowly. Like a child playing hide and seek, she slowly and hesitantly moved her head out of the door to see if there was anyone. There was nobody out there in the dark. She felt relieved and confused at the same time. ‘I am not going to stay alone again. If everyone else is going home, I am going home too..!’ she decided and closed the door.

She hardly would have taken two steps when there was a stronger

TAK… TAK… TAK…

‘I am going insane’ she thought. ‘I just saw that there was nobody out there and again I hear someone knocking the door. I am going crazy’ she was saying when she heard a much stronger

TAK… TAK… TAK…

She moved fast and opened the door. She came out of her house with a bang. There was nothing. She was feeling irritated and she shouted with the knife in her hands, ‘Come out you cowards..!’ Something was going wrong with this. When her eyes were seriously searching, she heard it. She heard it right behind her. She heard the hard breathing. She felt the hot breath on her shoulders. Her heart was pounding. There was perspiration allover her body. She felt as if her knees had lost their strength. She was pale with fear. She turned around to see what it was.

Around midnight on her birthday, they had come for her.

Be Safe when you are alone. You never know what might be there in the dark. Be Safe..!

________________________________________________________

Note: A sincere tribute to one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury

And then, it drizzled..

2009-10-18T04:38:00.000-07:00

And then, it drizzled.

‘I have a problem with people.’

‘I have a serious problem with people.’

This was mostly the answer he gave when questioned about being a loner, keeping things from others, being depressed and lots and lots of other questions.

‘I have a problem with people. I have a serious problem with people.’ he always said.

Today, the 13^th of February 2008, was going to be one of the most important days in his life. The words that he was going to say this day were indeed going to change his life. He was on his shuttle to office, the usual third seat from the last. He was unusually not reading his novel. He was playing his whole past in his mind, trying to figure out what went wrong. He had his eyes closed trying to figure out what really went wrong. He wasn’t able to figure it out. But this day, could change all that.

A few years ago.

He had an extraordinarily happy childhood. He had wonderfully loving parents. He made people laugh. He could sing any song he was asked to. He could dance to any of the tunes. He was good in studies, to a certain extent, of course. He, though was good in languages, wasn’t too keen on sciences. This ranked him well behind others who opted for engineering. He finally settled for a seemingly unknown course. His parents were ready to spend on a wonderful course and a superb college. But he was too proud to make his father spend.

From day one in college, he decided to achieve and make his parents proud. He did, off course, but the road to his success was unfortunately bumpy. It was made bumpy by the very people studying with him. It was made bumpy by the very people around him.

Sincerity was his forte. He took extra care in whatever he did. He tried to be every bit sincere in his studies, his friendship, in almost everything. His sincerity was the bench mark set for others. He was adored by his teachers. He was the typical front-bencher in the line of achieving something great down the line.

He never hesitated to help anyone. Whichever course he or she was in, whatever help they wanted, he never said no. He did everything he could to every body who asked for help. He was theoretically the best person around.

But practically, his fun loving class and college mates slowly started avoiding him. For the very reason of being sincere, he was being left alone.

‘You are going to be alone if you continue to be like this. You are going to be alone for the next four years’ they warned him. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and thought about his parents and his goal. He replied only with his silence but it made things very clear. He was here with a goal and these cheeky issues were not going to affect his work. At the end, he was left alone. He was left really alone even when among hundreds of other students.

At least he was happy. At least he was happy with this life, until she stormed into his life.

It was sometime during the second year she came into his life. She had come to his class from another unknown college. She wasn’t too beautiful but she was very friendly. He felt her friendship to fill the void that others had created. He liked talking to her. He, indeed, liked her friendship. He helped her in every thing he could, her studies as well as personal life. She used to say, ‘If it weren’t you, who else would help me.’ She made him smile. She made him live life when she was around.

But there was always a line she maintained with him. She had many other friends who were more important to her. He was there for her whenever she needed anything but he, at times, felt something missing. He spoke to her straight and made things clear that he really needed her friendship. She smiled and said ‘I am your friend’ but he always felt he was her least important friend.

Slowly, this started causing a psychological drift in him. He started yearning for her friendship. It came only in parts but never whole-hearted friendship. This started building up a serious feel of sensitivity in him. This made him sensitive and emotional. His concentration was fully shifted towards her. She was in his mind than anything else. He started longing for her and one day the frustration got to its peak and she said ‘Yes. You are least important to me! I have lot of commitments in life and commitments with others. I cannot be how you expect me to be!’

‘Why not?’ he asked.

‘Because you are too sincere. Sincerity and seriousness can help in studies. But definitely not friendship. Definitely not in life.’ She shouted back.

He stood there stabbed by the words. He was controlling his anger. He was controlling his tears. He didn’t know what to speak. All he could ask was, ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, it’s difficult to make you understand but, mark my words. Sincerity helps you in studies. Sincerity might help you at work. But, you are too sincere to be a good and caring friend. This hyper sincerity and hyper sensitivity is going to make you a loser in life.’ She didn’t even wait for a second, but turned around and walked away.

He just stood there for hours in the scorching sun in tears and sweat. He was left stranded. He was left alone. He just stood there for hours. It took days, even could say weeks, for him to recover from what had happened.

His dad’s words helped him recover. ‘One thing, hard work and sincerity never let’s you down.’ his dad had said when he had left him in college. He started working hard again, with the same old sincerity. He worked hard and hard to achieve what he wanted to. To add to his work, tears were there for his company now.

He was left alone again. But now, he was not happy. There was an unspeakable void left within him.

Days became weeks. Weeks became months. And, years rolled on. He made his parents proud by achieving a much deserved medal and award for studies. He got himself a job in a reputed firm, to much of his parents’ dreams and happiness.

Years rolled on. It was almost three years since he had come out of college, and he had not visited back since. Three long, busy, sincere and hard working years had rolled on. He hadn’t made many friends. He was scared to mingle with people and try making friends. He was scarred and scared.

‘I have a problem with people. I have a serious problem with people.’ he always said.

September 2007.

It was decided. He was being sent on-site for a short term negotiation. He was to be in the United Kingdom till the mid of November. Only his parents and his only best friend from college were there at the airport to wish him bon voyage. He felt it to be just another day in his life. Not much of happiness. Not much of hype. It was just another day of his life.

He was finishing his formalities at the airport entry when a girl crossed him in a hurry. She resembled the unforgettable girl of his college life. It made his heart beat faster. He felt as if he re-lived a terrible dream but it was not her. It took a few minutes for him to calm down.

This girl had a radiance that made everyone turn around to grab a look at her. She looked traditional. Exactly the way he liked. He just smiled to himself and moved on.

He was surprised to see her enter the same flight as his. The seat near him was empty and for some unknown reason, he wanted it to be her place. She walked near him, stood near him for a second, and moved to the seat in front of him. To add to this, a brilliant talkative old lady occupied the seat beside him.

She was trying to push the things she carried into the overhead stow. She was trying so hard that her handbag tripped over and fell on him. He was so much carried away with his thoughts that he was startled when something heavy fell on him.

‘Sorry, Sorry, Sorry. Very sorry, I lost the hold of it.’ She said and he just nodded his head in acknowledgement.

This girl’s face lingered in his mind for a few moments and to escape the crap his neighbor was talking, he fell asleep. He woke up after sometime to see every one around him to be sleeping. With a little curiosity, he lifted up his head to see what she was doing. He was confused to see that she was comforting a baby in her arms. He was baffled for a few minutes when he looked at the scene. He wasn’t sure if she had brought a baby with her. The power nap had relaxed his mind so much that what happened in the beginning of the journey was not that clear now.

To him, no doubt, she was cute. Her traditional looks, her cheeky naughtiness to make the kid laugh, her smile, the way she had did her hair, everything was interesting. Without his own knowledge, he was admiring her. Rest of the journey, though was silent, he kept himself watching her play with the kid. A couple of hours later another lady came to her seat to get the baby. Finally, he was happy that it was not her kid. ‘Happy that it was not her kid?’ Why should he be? Well, he himself didn’t know why.

The flight landed and all of the passengers were waiting for their baggage to roll out on the conveyor. His big blue trolley was the third to roll out. He grabbed it without wasting even a second and started walking.

A few seconds later, he heard ‘Excuse me! Hold on for a minute! Excuse me!’

He turned around to see that she was running towards him pulling her baggage behind her. His mind was racing with a lot of thoughts.

Amidst her heavy breathing, ‘I think you got my luggage’ she said.

He was confused. ‘Well, I brought just one blue trolley and its mine’ he said.

‘I think that’s the confusion. I’ve got a similar blue trolley. It’s yours! You have mine.’ she said with a childish sarcasm. He had taken the baggage in a hurry and missed to see the name tag. He had taken her baggage wrongly. He looked like an idiot without knowing what to say.

‘Sorry, Sorry, Sorry. Very sorry, I got confused.’ he said.

‘That’s Ok! It happens. J’ She said. She gave him a big smile and bid him adieu.

He just stood there with his eyes transfixed on her. After a very long time, he seemed to like someone. When she was out of sight, he remembered that he had not even asked her name. He almost cursed himself on missing out on this.

The very next day, he got himself immersed into his work and kept himself busy. Her face was bright in his mind. He occasionally smiled thinking about her. He didn’t know who she was but felt attracted.

January 2008.

It was two weeks since he had come back to India. His negotiations were successful and he was taking a complete time off. He was spending time alone at movie halls and book sections. His craze for movies and novels never subdued.

One fine day, when he stepped out of a book store, he spotted her. She was standing right next to his car door talking to a guy. He felt the energy level rise. He crossed the road and walked fast to his car and she saw him coming. She moved giving him way and showed no signs of recognition. His energy level dropped immediately.

After a couple of seconds, she suddenly turned to him and screamed, ‘Hi!!! How are you, eh, Mr. Trolley?’

He gave out a clumsy look adjusting to the situation and said, ‘Well, seems you remember me after all. I am fine. And….’ Just then, to bring his energy level further down, he noticed her wearing a toe-ring.

‘Eh, how are you, eh, Mrs. Handbag?’ he asked.

Both of them looked surprised a bit and exchanged names. ‘And, it’s Miss and not Mrs’ she added.

‘I thought I just noticed you wearing a toe-ring.’ he said.

‘It’s interesting that you noticed that. :-) Well, yes I do. But, it’s on the third toe not the second. I wear it for good luck. I am not married yet.’ She said. He felt relieved. He felt very much relieved.

‘When did you return from the United Kingdom?’ he asked.

‘A couple of weeks back. I have actually switched company now. Will be taking charge in my new company next week.’ she said.

‘Which company are you moving to?’ he asked.

She said something but he thought he heard her wrong. She said the company name again. He waited for a second to absorb it and he said, ‘Well, I have been working in the same company for the past three years.’ She seemed to be genuinely happy to hear this. He was happy as well but he didn’t know if to call this Luck. ‘Call this luck?’ why should he? Well, he didn’t know the reason for this too.

He seemed to like her from the first sight. But still, deep in the corner of his heart, he was scared. Too many things from the past still haunted him. He was still scarred.

They would have talked for almost thirty minutes. He didn’t know he could talk this much. He was surprised with himself.

‘Can I have your mobile number? Hope you would not mind if I called you on your mobile.’ she asked after the long chat.

‘Sure not, it’s 9940201530. Anytime, any help, just give me a buzz’ he smiled.

‘I didn’t believe till this moment that you could smile.’

He held his smile for a second. As far as he knew, it was the first time he had smiled in years. For the first time in years, he had really smiled.

‘Neither did I.’ he said with an even broader smile. :-)

Then it began. And then, it all began.

February 2008.

It was a few weeks since she had joined her new company. Having him there made everything simple for her. She liked him. She liked to talk to him. So did he.

He seemed to understand Einstein’s relativity theory when he was with her. Days went on like minutes. He stepped out of his shuttle every day eagerly to see her waiting in the lounge for him. He walked in to the cafeteria to see her waiting for him at the counter. He felt once again in his life that someone had come to fill the void in his heart and life. This time he felt it was something more than friendship. He sure it was something more than that.

It was the 09^th of February and he was there at the railway station to send her off. She was taking a couple of days off to meet her parents. She was to be back on the 13^th. He didn’t want to make a typical cinematic scene at the station by opening his heart to her. He had decided to do it when she came back. He would tell everything to her on the 13^th and ask her to convey what she had decided on the 14^th. He wanted to know her decision on the Valentine’s Day. He was sure that she was his one.

Today, the 13^th of February 2008 was going to be one of the most important days in his life. The words that he was going to say this day were indeed going to change the upcoming days in his life. He was on his shuttle to office, the usual third seat from the last. He was unusually not reading his novel. He was playing his whole past in his mind, trying to figure out what went wrong. He had his eyes closed trying to figure out what really went wrong. He wasn’t able to figure it out. But this day, could change all that.

She was not there in the lounge as usual. She was supposed to be back from home today morning he thought. She hadn’t called for the past four days and he was seriously planning on what he had to say and do this day. He tried reaching her on her mobile but it said, ‘the number you are trying to reach is currently switched off.’ He was worried and waited there for a few minutes but to no avail.

He walked to his cabin. He was sure to meet her sometime today, during the break or lunch for sure. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. He decided to go to her place and see if she was in today. Her project was at the other end of the campus. At that time, he was called in for a quick meeting. The quick meeting dragged and dragged for hours together. His sincerity didn’t allow him to concentrate outside the meeting. The time was 6 pm.

The minute the meeting was over, he ran outside to meet her. He didn’t miss picking up the small gift that he had bought for her. The security outside the door said that there was a visitor to meet him a few minutes back. It was her. She had come to meet him, waited for twenty minutes and had left just ten minutes back. He started running like crazy to meet her. He was almost going to enter her project floor when he met her friend. She informed that she had left just a minute before. She was going to take the shuttle.

He ran in the pathway she usually took but she wasn’t to be seen anywhere. It looked too dark for 6 pm. He looked to the sky to see dark clouds gather close.

He ran faster not to miss her. He hadn’t run like this for a long time. He reached the shuttle area. His eyes searched for her wildly. But, she was nowhere to be seen. He reached the shuttle but could not find her inside. His heart was yearning to meet her. He got down from the shuttle, very dejected. He bent down with hands on his knees to calm down his heavy breathing.

He stayed like that for sometime and due to some instinct he lifted his head up. There she was. She was walking right towards him. She seemed to be walking in his dream. But she was walking towards him in reality. A flash of lighting behind her made her look like an angel walking towards him to show a miracle.

‘I am very, very sorry.’ She said. ‘I left my mobile at home. :-( The train was late and I reached office very late. The schedule got hectic and was not able to meet during lunch. I wanted to meet you from the morning. I came to meet you but you were busy.’

‘I wanted to meet you from the morning too.’ he said.

‘Yeah, I just met my team mate. She said you came running to meet me. What is it about?’ she asked curiously.

‘Well, Ladies First!’ he said with his usual etiquette and dignity.

‘No, its ok, you go first!’ she said.

‘I can wait to hear you first.’ he said with a smile.

‘Well, ok! As you wish’ she said.

She dug into her bag for a few seconds to bring it out.

‘I have been trying to see you from the morning to give this to you.’ She said.

She handed him what she had taken from her bag.

His heart started beating faster than it actually was. All he could do was to close his eyes and try to figure out if it was for real or he was dreaming.

She, then, told him what she was trying to tell him the whole day.

A very, very, very bright lightning flashed followed by a banging thunder.

And then, it drizzled.

London, Street lights and.. an angel. (Final Episode)

2009-09-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

And with a progress of time, I noticed something that had changed a bit. I didn’t know what it was until one day.

Part VI:

We were walking back home from a hectic schedule of ‘eating at McDonald’s’ she all of a sudden stopped in the middle of the road and began hurriedly searching her bag.

‘Did I take my purse from the McDonald’s counter?’, she blurted and continuing to search.

‘Yes you did’, I said.

She didn’t stop searching until she got her purse out of her ever crowded college bag, ‘Here it is, thank God’, she finally said.

‘My word, you gave me a fright Eva’, I laughed.

She had turned pale when she was searching for it and she was sweating badly. That was when I realised. The difference I noted in her was this. She was more serious about making sure she didn’t miss anything.

The number of times she was worried about the door being locked, the bus she was on, the change she got at the counter, all those cheeky things was lot, lot more than she was doing initially. The slightly serious part was that she was, nowadays, getting a more agitated while doing this.

And another day something even more scary happened. That was a weekend shopping trip to the Westfield shopping centre, the largest shopping centre in Europe. Walking across all the wonderful shops like NEXT, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and my personal favourite HMV was one heaven of an experience.

I didn’t notice much of problems in her till about a couple of hours shopping. And when we were walking through the sections of Marks and Spencer, she pulled me by my shirt sleeve and showed me something.

‘I think the baby is going to fall from the pram’, she said.

It took me a few seconds to realise where she was pointing to and what she was telling me.

‘I don’t think so, the baby’s dad is just near the pram’, I said.

‘Will the baby fall down?’, she asked again.

‘No, why do you ask? I.. don’t seem to understand’, I said, slightly concerned.

‘I am just scared and I keep repeatedly thinking that the baby is gonna get fall down and get hurt’

‘Hey, hey, hey.. look who is talking like a baby now’, I laughed trying to tease her.

‘Oh no..! The baby is going to fall..! Please will you help the baby?’, she exclaimed. The problem was that she exclaimed at the top of her voice and the whole store was stunned for a second.

That really caught me off guard and the whole shop turned to look at her. Everything seemed bizarre and I didn’t understand what was happening.

‘You didn’t believe me, did you?’, she asked in a hopeless tone.

‘I think we should leave’, I said.

‘You didn’t believe me, Pete’, she said and started to walk away.

It took me quite a while to apologise to her. All part of love, I smiled to myself. But, something was seriously, seriously was not right.

That night I could not sleep that well. I was concerned about Eva. I wanted to make sure that she was alright. There seemed to be something wrong but I did not have a logical explanation about it. I thought it was my stress at work making me imagining things.

I was so carried away with my thoughts at around two o’clock at night when my phone scared the devil out of me.

Part VII:

The phone rang so loud that my cousin almost fell from her bed in the other room. By the time I dug around my things to find my phone, both of us were wide awake.

It was two in the morning and I was half expecting Evangeline to call me. Immediately, I could feel there was a problem.

‘Eva..?’

‘Pete, I think there is someone trying to break into my house’, she whispered in a horrified tone.

‘What?!!’

‘Pete..! some one is there in my garden trying to climb up’, she was in tears on the other end.

‘Hey come on, it could be someone shifting into their new house Eva’, I was kidding.

‘Peter..!! Please..!!! Please...!!! HELP ME..!!!’, I could literally hear her from her house and in a reflex I burst out of my house and ran to her house. I didn’t even wait for her to open the door. I jumped over the fence and ran into her garden. There was no one there.

‘Eva, take a breath. I am in your garden. There is no one. CALM DOWN will you..!!’, I shouted.

‘Peter.. Please..’, she was crying out loud.

‘Open the door Eva, I am coming in’

‘Pete.. Please help me..!’, she shouted in tears.

‘Eva, open the door, NOW!!!’, I commanded into the phone.

My god..! It was totally difficult for us to calm her down. It was almost four o’clock by the time she was asleep. We couldn’t leave her alone. My cousin agreed to stay with her till the morning. The way things were going, I was sure something was wrong.

Having not slept properly the whole night, I called up for a day off. My cousin came back at half past nine and prepared breakfast. Both of us were seriously concerned about what was going on. She handed over a cup of coffee and sat down to talk. Both of us were quiet for a few minutes.

‘Is there a problem Pete?’, she started.

Part VIII:

I took a few seconds. ‘Honestly, I am not sure’, I said.

‘We need to find out. Tell me what is going on?’, she insisted.

‘Just a few trivial changes’, I blurted.

‘Tell me what is going on and let me decide if they are trivial’, she strongly said.

Hesitantly, I started with the changes that I had been noticing over the last few days. I didn’t know if I was correlating some uncorrelated events. But, I felt better that I could get things clarified.

She was silent for more than ten minutes after I had finished. I didn’t know what she was thinking. After the cup of coffee she started with a logical medical explanation of what is happening.

‘Have you heard of OCD?’, she asked.

‘Heard of what?’, I said.

‘It’s called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in the medical terms’, she said.

‘Medicine and I don’t go so well. Explain it to me in a stupid and easy way’, I said.

She opened up her laptop and showed me a few basic links of OCD.

http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/obsessive_compulsive.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive-compulsive_disorder

http://counsellingresource.com/distress/anxiety-disorders/obsessive-compulsive.html

‘OCD starts with little doubts about your daily activities. Then the anxiety grows day by day and it gets to other serious anxiety disorders. And if not treated at the right time, you never know what it would lead to…’, the words hung in the air.

It was difficult for me to comprehend what she way saying but I could see this was a much more serious problem than what I was thinking.

‘What would that lead to?’, I asked.

‘OCD can make people paranoid and psychotic’, she said.

‘What do you mean by psychotic?’, I asked.

‘It is a generic psychiatric term. Something like "loss of contact with reality".’

‘What?’

‘People experiencing psychosis may report hallucinations or delusional beliefs, and may exhibit personality changes and disorganized thinking’, she read out loud.

‘Do you, in the name of God, mean she is crazy?’, I shouted.

‘Cool down Peter..! I am not saying that..! Take her to a doctor before anything serious happens..! I am just trying to say that..!’

I was trying to digest what I was hearing. I was getting more emotional every second and getting even more confused.

‘Help her Peter..!’, she said

I turned and looked at her.

‘She needs your help at this point than any time in her entire life’

I fell silent again trying to agree with all these.

She gave me a gentle punch on my back and said, ‘It still seems to be in an early stage, so there is nothing to worry’

For the next few days, we made sure Evangeline was not left alone. We took turns to keep her company. We did all we could to keep her feel safe and happy while something could be sorted out.

While on the phone with my best friend in India, I learnt about one of the Indian Psychiatrists taking a vacation in London. There were quite a few constraints in the UK for immediate medical attention and I didn’t know if we can wait for long.

With a bit of influence from my friend, I managed to get a personal first hand time with the psychiatrist, though against the rules of the UK health services. I was ready to go to any extremes to help my Eva.

Breaking the rules was the easier part. The difficult part was that of convincing Eva to meet the doctor. Difficult? It was an impossible task. And sadly, it remained impossible.

‘So, you think I am mad?’, she asked. Not a question to start with.

‘Eva..’, I began.

‘I AM NOT CRAZY’, she shouted.

The next second, she sank to the floor screaming with tears. The mere sight of this got me emotional. I couldn’t take it even for a second. That was it. End of discussion. To hell with OCD..! There was nothing wrong with Eva, MY EVA. I told myself. She is just scared, scared like a little kid.

‘Why don’t you go and talk to the doc?’, my cousin asked.

‘Me..?’, I asked.

‘Yeah. You. At least you can know what can be done’, she said.

‘I think we should both go, you grasp the medical terms better’

‘You really think so?’, she asked.

‘Maybe your patients don’t. But, I really think so’, I joked trying to convince my cousin that I was ok.

With Eva having calmed down over the last few days, we assumed it wasn’t necessary for us to be with her. She was so normal that I even thought of turning down the visit to the doc. But I thought, ‘what am I gonna lose? Let me go and meet the doc it might help’

Part IX:

Eva had plans of collecting materials for her project that evening. So, she was going to be late and I didn’t have to make up false situations to meet the doctor. She was going to be alright, I knew. It was just a patience that we required right now. Hopefully, there were going to be better answers today.

My Eva was going to be alright, I knew for sure.

I had borrowed my friend’s car trying to avoid the crowed evening travel in the trains and buses. A turn away from my house was the Horwarth main road. The building to the right of the signal we were standing was the Trinity shopping centre.

‘Probably, we’ll get something for Eva at the Trinity’s on our way back’, I was talking to my cousin.

It would not have been more than five minutes when my phone sprang to life. It was Eva.

‘Eva..?’, I picked up the call.

‘Where are you?’, she asked in a very low voice, almost a whisper.

‘Eva?? I am not able to hear you. Can you speak up??’, I said.

‘No..! I can’t talk loud. He’ll find out I am here’, she said.

‘What..!??? Who..!???’

‘I am hiding from him’

‘Hiding??!! From whom..? Where are you!!!’, I shouted.

‘Can you come and get me Pete???’, she cried.

‘What are you talking about?? What’s happening Eva??’, I asked pulling my car out of traffic onto the road-side parking lane.

‘He is coming to hurt me..! I am scared..!’, she cried again.

‘Where are you Eva..? I am coming right away’, I said.

‘Trinity Shopping.. I am hiding from him behind the Matalan’s collections’

Trinity shopping..! I had just crossed the building.

‘I am just a few minutes away I am turning around..! I will come and get you..!’, I shouted.

‘Please Peter..! Save me..!’, she said over and over and over again.

I turned to look at my cousin. She hadn’t spoken but understood what was happening, she nodded in acknowledgement.

I took a wild turn giving the traffic rules a damn. There were bewildered onlookers with a few sc..r..ee…t..ch..es.. behind from the traffic I cut through.

‘Get on the third lane, it open’, said my cousin, I obeyed.

Neither of us spoke a work. My pulse was racing, heart pounding. I held the wheels tight to control my nervousness.

I didn’t know what happened for the next few seconds and my driving was frantic. All eyes were searching was a way to the Trinity shopping. And all my mind thought was about my Eva.

And all of a sudden, ‘WATCH OUT..!!!!’, shouted my cousin and I got to my senses in a flash of a second and got my brakes. The car came to a scintillating stop with blares of horns all around. I was held up amidst a long lane of vehicles at the signal just a minute away from the building.

‘What the crap..!’, I shouted and the phone rang again. It was Eva.

‘Eva darling, I am almost there, don’t be scared. I am almost there’, the words kept coming out.

‘I am so scared. I am gonna run home’, she said.

‘What?? No..! stay right there..!’, I shouted.

‘I am almost out of the building..! I am gonna run home. That’s the only safe place for me’, she cried aloud.

‘I am a minute away from the building, I am gonna get to you in a minute. Stay right there’, I begged.

‘I’ll take the wheel, you run through the traffic..! Go to her’, said my cousin.

I was out of the car in a fraction of a second and started to run.

‘I am running to you Eva, stay….’, I began.

Before I could complete my sentence, ‘I am out of the building, the entrance near the signal’, she said.

‘Thank God..! I am just a few seconds away. Stay there, I am coming’, I said and I saw Eva among the crowd near the signal, waiting for the pedestrian green.

I slowed down. ‘Oh, my God. Oh.. My.. God..’, I told myself and slowed down my pace. She was just there a few feet away from me.

My Eva was safe right just right in from of me.

And suddenly she shouted loud..! So loud..! So, So, Loud..!

‘HE IS HERE..! HE IS GONNA HURT ME..!!!!!’, and she started running through the crowd towards the pedestrian crossing. She ran frantically without even noticing the traffic coming right at her.

‘NOOOO!!!!!!’, I shouted. All I could do was to shout. I froze right there..! But everything happened in less than a second. It all happened before I could blink my eyes.

‘NO……..!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY MOTHER OF GOD….!!!!!!! NO……..!!!!!!!’

Part X:

Eight Months Later…

‘You are late Pete..! Come on..!’, my cousin rushed.

‘Yeah..! I know.. I know..!’, I hurried.

‘Hey, I have packed double roasted crushed cashews. It’s Evangeline’s favourite’

‘Ha ha..! J Thank you..!’, I said.

‘Convey my regards to her. Tell her I will come to meet her on Friday’, she said.

‘Will sure do..! Catch you later..!’, I ran to my bus to meet Evangeline. Eva. My Angel.

I was a bit late than usual. And all the others had gone in to the room. The visitors ward opened every day at half past seven and I was late by a few minutes.

‘I thought you wouldn’t come today’, the receptionist said.

‘I cannot miss Eva even for a day. I would have taken her home but you people wouldn’t allow me to’, I smiled.

‘Don’t worry. Very soon..!’, she said with a smile..

There she was. My Eva dressed as beautiful as ever in the bright white. She always looked like an angel.

‘Hey Angel..!’, I sat next to her, ‘sorry I am late today’

She kept looking at me.

‘Don’t worry..! I will take you home soon.. J’, I said.

She kept looking at me.

‘See what I have brought you..! J your favourite..!’, I said with enthusiasm.

She didn’t react but kept looking at me.

‘Won’t you smile at me today?’, I kept talking to the same blank look.

The doctor came over behind me and gently tapped my shoulders and nodded in understanding. I nodded back controlling the tears that were beginning to roll from the corner of my eyes.

It’s been eight months since it happened. Just outside the Trinity shopping signal.

She was hit by a car while running across the traffic and she was thrown against the other vehicle. She fell hard on her back. She didn’t even twitch. She didn’t even move.

For a second, everything seemed alright that day. I thought my Eva was safe. And the next second she was there soaked in blood, right in front of my eyes.

Everything had happened so quickly, in a blink of second. The doctors had fought hard to save life. And all they could save was her life. Only her life.

She was in a coma for more than a month. And now, she had her eyes open but still has not come out of the serious brain damage. The doctors have a doubt if she would ever will.

I don’t have a doubt at all. She definitely will be alright some day. I know that for sure. She definitely will.

‘She doesn’t even recognize you..! She doesn’t even know who you are..! Then why waste your time and life?’, I am being asked everyday.

All I do is smile and give them the same answer, ‘May be she doesn’t understand who I am. But I do. I.. still.. Do..’

She is my EVANGELINE.

My ANGEL.

My LIFE.

I wake up everyday praying to God that, some day show would be alright. And that someday, she would recognize me and she would smile at me, as beautiful as ever.

NB:
This fiction is dedicated to those with obsessive compulsive disorder (diagnosed or undiagnosed). One person in every 50 suffers from serious OCD. The symptoms are usually overlooked and lead to disastrous situations. Lets understand this disorder and help people with the symptoms.

London, street lights and.. an angel.. Episode 2

2009-08-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

And then, there came an unexpected reply.

Part III:

‘I am the girl living in the house opposite’, said the voice from the outside. It was a great timing, the door opened and the first song started playing.

‘What the hell..!!’, I cursed myself.

I swiftly opened the door with all my fury to face the neighbour I was furiously shouting about.

“She is a fantasy.. shina.. na.. na.. na.. oh..! oh..!” The first lines of the song.

There she stood like a beauty from my fantasy books..!

“She has a harmony.. shina.. na.. na.. na.. oh..! oh..!” The song continued.

Such a harmonious beauty..!

“No one knows she’s a mystery.. shina.. na.. na.. na.. oh..! oh..! oh..!” The song went on.

Those mysteriously calm eyes..!

“Fills the heart with ecstasy.. oh.. hoo.. oh.. ye.. ah.. yeah ea..!” The song again.

Every beat of my heart, was filled with ecstasy…!

I had never understood the real meaning of the song. And now, there she stood the meaning of those lines. The fantasy..! The harmony..! The mystery..!

‘Hello’, she said hesitantly.

I was, well silent - kind of awe struck for the moment of time. The radiance of her beauty kept me mesmerised. I didn’t even hear the ‘hello’ she said.

‘Eh.. Hello’, she said again.

I am sure, I would have looked stupid. I was standing there, looking at her, without even taking time to blink. I didn’t hear what she said, even for the second time.

‘Hi..!’, said some one behind me. Well, it was loud Hi and it shook me to reality. It was my cousin to break my concentration, to be precise, to get me out of the mesmerism. J

‘Hi, I am Evangeline, I stay in 21 C the house opposite’, she said to my cousin.

‘Hey, come on in..!’, invited my cousin.

‘That’s ok, I am already late to college. I.. eh...’, she hesitated and looked at me standing there with a blank face.

‘I just came over to apologise for what happened last night. I didn’t mean to call the police. It’s that I was so scared and didn’t know what to do’, she completed without taking in a breath.

‘No problem, it’s alright..!’, said my cousin.

‘What..?!! No problem??!!’, I asked my cousin as she gave me a strong nudge to stay calm.

Evangeline gave both of us a bewildered look trying to understand our situation.

‘I would have done the same’, said my cousin, ‘not to worry at all’.

‘Oh.. Thanks a lot’, she said and looked at me trying to gauge my reaction. I was still standing there with a blank face. I was not sure why but I guess it was the time when I was deciding to be furious with her or to be awe struck by the beauty and innocence.

‘I have to run’, she said, ‘I will catch you sometime later.’

‘Take care then’, waved my cousin and she walked away.

‘She looks cute, doesn’t she?’, asked my cousin.

‘What..! How come it was alright..??!!! I was the one who was ‘almost’ arrested..! not you..!’, I shouted at my cousin.

‘Ha huh..!’, my cousin sighed, ‘ don’t start all over again.’

‘Whatever..!’

‘Its getting late brother..! you better run to office..!’, she said.

‘I know.. I know..’, I said in a frustrated tone.

And just before I walked out of the door, I came to a halt, took a second to smile to my cousin and said, ‘Yeah, she looked really cute.’ I gave her a mischievous wink.

‘Ah ha..! There comes the imp out of you..!’, she smiled.J

Yes, it certainly did. J In a few minutes, all the furiousness had vanished without a trace. All of the furious rage was completely replaced by a soft smile.

A few days passed and everyday I looked at her house when I started to office. There was always small thought that I would see her soon. But unfortunately it did not happen.

That day, I was hurrying to catch my bus at half past seven. I met her just around the corner to the bus stop when she was hurrying towards the house. And in one split second everything around me came to such a slow motion. Even the seconds in my watch was taking ages to move. Seemed the world had come to a stop as she came close by. And a bright smile appeared on my face.

I guess she was not expecting me to smile after all the blank reactions I had given her when she came over to my house to apologise. And in a quick second she gave a slight smile with a lot of hesitation as she walked across me,

‘I thought you were angry with me. I didn’t even expect you to smile’, she said.

‘Oh that, eh.. forget about it. It’s alright Evangeline’, I said. I hoped my cousin was not around. If she had heard me saying ‘its alright’ after all the fuss I had made, my tongue was definitely to be chopped as a punishment.

‘Oh that’s a relief finally Mr.. eh..’, she smiled.

‘I’m Peter by the way and no formalities please’, I said.

‘That’s a real relief Peter. I really feel bad about what happened’, she said.

I didn’t know what to say but kept on smiling searching for words to speak out.

‘I guess I need to hurry. I need to be at the university an hour early’, she said.

‘Oh.. Ok. I thought the bus stop was in the opposite direction’, I said pointing to the direction opposite to which she was hurrying up.

‘Yeah’, she smiled again, ‘I need to check out back entrance of my house. I am not sure if I locked it.’

‘That’s interesting. You forgot to lock you door in a hurry? Ha Ha..! Be careful young lady, burglars like me could be in the opposite house’, I winked reminding her of her emergency call.

‘I kind of keep doing this always. Iron boxes, warmers, gas etc etc, I sometimes am quite confused if I have shut them all off.’

‘Oops..! Someone like me’, I said.

She smiled again for a few seconds and then realised, ‘I need to hurry its getting late’

‘You certainly need to hurry’, I said smiled bidding her adieu.

She hurriedly took a few steps and said, ‘Try not standing under the street lights at night. You look scary like in the ‘Candy man’ movie’’, she winked.

‘Taken as a compliment..! And point noted..!’, I winked back. ;-)

It was nice having talked to this girl. Right from the second we landed outside her house, it had all been excitement. And right from the second she stood at my door, it had been.. well, excitement of course, but of a different kind.

I would have hardly taken ten steps and something within me kept saying, ‘Turn around..! Turn around..! Turn around..!’. I came to halt. I turned around.

What I did was unexpected. And what I saw was totally unexpected. (Maybe it’s the expected for the readers. J )

Part IV:

Trust me..! I didn’t even expect what I was about to see..! J

She was standing a few feet away from me having turned around to look at me.

A fairy tale situation when Romeo turns around to see his Juliet. And Juliet blushes and cheekily skips a couple of steps. In a spark of a second hundreds of flowers bloom at midnight, thousands of stars shine bright right during the day.

I don’t know what to call it but certainly did I feel all of these happen in those few seconds.

There were a lot of cheeky surprises as we bumped into each other almost every day. More smiles, more blushes (obviously both of us) and a story was slowly beginning to build up.

Evangeline Fiona - that was her full name. Two of my favourite character names put together. Evangeline – the little girl from ‘Uncle Tom’s cabin’ and Fiona – the beautiful princess from ‘Shrek’. Kind of romantic name, na? J

One fine day I was getting ready at least twenty minutes ahead of my lazy schedule. That was my cousin’s biggest surprise. J

‘Well well well, look whose early to start’, she said.

‘I need to meet Evangeline’, I said just taking a step out of the door.

‘What..! Meet who..?’, she looked confused.

‘Evangeline..? The girl in 21 C..?’

‘Meet Evangeline..? Am I dreaming..? When did…’, I didn’t even wait for her to complete her sentence and I was on my way.

I hopped over to Evangeline’s house and rang the door bell. I waited there for a few seconds but there was no answer. I rang the bell again but to no avail. I thought she would have left a bit early.

‘That’s ok’, I said to my self and turned around to leave when the door opened.

‘HELLO..! What a surprise..!’, she said with such an enthusiasm.

‘Hey Evangeline, how are you?’, I began.

‘I am doing good, just starting to college’, she said.

She was dressed the most pleasing colour of all, White – the holy colour of Peace. And true to her name, she looked like an angel.

‘An angel would look brighter than the brightest of lights’; I had read in someone’s recent blogs. I was not sure if the world around her had suddenly gone dark or if she was really brighter than the brightest light. I really didn’t know. If those words were the true, she sure was an angel.

‘I brought you this’, I handed the wrapped pack over to her.

‘What’s this? Can I open it?’, she asked enthusiastically and I nodded yes.

She opened the package to find a thick book with the name ‘PETE’ embossed on the cover.

‘What is this?’ ,she asked.

‘That’s me..!’, I smiled.

‘Pardon me?’

‘It’s a daily check-your-door-book for you to make a note of things.’ I smiled.

She was waiting for me to tell something more.

‘That’s me..! Helping you remember that you have done your things right’, I said.

I could see a smile appearing any second now.

‘It might seem cheeky but at least you won’t have to run back and forth to check your door and warmer’, I said.

She smiled. ‘Eh, Peter.. I don’t know what to say’, she said with such a heartiness and understanding, ‘I.. Eh.. Thank you..!’

‘I think I only know very little about you and could think nothing better as a first gift.’

‘Yeah, I guess you are right Peter’

‘Yeah, I wish I could be there helping you with things’, I said trying not to conceal too many things.

Before she could answer I said ‘And.. Call me Pete. People close to me call me that way’

Before she even agreed to the question, my next words came blurting out, ‘Can I call you Eva, or Eve, or angeline or angel..?’

‘Eh.. call me.. eh.. what ever way you want’, she said.

I didn’t understand what she meant and gave the same old blank look.

‘I haven’t had anyone close to me for a long time now to be called with pet names’, he smiled. Her wry smile spoke a thousand words of loneliness and the heartiness to have met someone she liked.

That’s when I got to know a shocking and sad truth about her past. She was an Indian by birth. Her parents had moved to London a year after she was born. She had always grown up to be a happy kid well taken care of. She had all that she needed in life. Above all, she had the love of her parents.

A terrible and tragic road accident had made her an orphan four years ago. Her happy life was shattered and she had been living sad and alone since then. She had learnt to live life this way. She had learnt to make sure she was safe and not to be scared. That was when she became extra precautious with everything.

Being the first person in her life in a long time got me more attached to her than anyone else. It was certainly the case with her. Slowly and steadily over the next few months, the relationship took its own course. And then came a time when both of us could not do without each other.

And then, as in all the ‘boy meets girl.. falls in love.. ’ stories like ‘And then it drizzled’, ‘The most beautiful girl I had seen’, etc, it all began. I didn’t know whether I changed her life or she changed mine. But for sure, there were lots of changes in those few days, our lives had changed.

She liked me for the way I cared for her, the way I took interest in each and everything she did. I became more than a friend to her, more than her guardian. I didn’t know if she had ‘technically’ fallen in love with me. Not yet. J

Me, well I had fallen in love with her a long time back. I just loved everything she did. The way she talked, the way she sang, the way she.. well, I will go on and on and on. Except for her over-precautious self and the way she repeatedly checked everything. Ha ha.. J I never took that seriously though.

Then came the day, I can never forget in my life.

Part V:

It was a Friday evening and I had come back earlier than usual to take her out to ‘Costa’ for a cup of coffee.

She had been uncomfortably quiet for some time. I could see that she was trying to hide her nervousness. I wanted to ask her why but bit my tongue. I knew if it was something that I should know, she would definitely tell me.

When we started walking back home, she said, ‘I’m a bit nervous’

‘Like I didn’t notice J’, I said.

A few uneasy seconds passed in silence.

‘Will you hold my hand?’, she asked me out of nowhere.

I took a couple of seconds trying to adjust myself to her question.

‘Will you, Pete?’, she asked again. I could feel the shallowness in her voice.

I still didn’t react. I didn’t know how to react, if I put it in the right way.

And I slowly asked, ‘Now.. or.. for ever?’, looking into her eyes with all the love I had kept in store just for her.

And she said, ‘Now.. and.. for ever..!’, with the same love and with tears of happiness in her eyes.

Those few minutes, those few wonderful minutes. Unforgettable.

Slowly I took my hands to her’s and held her hands for all the time in the world. And we walked hand in hand, in the beautiful evening forgetting the whole world around us.

Just before I left her at home, I said, ‘You have got beautiful pair of hands Eva’

‘Really?’, she blinked.

‘Oh yeah, really’

‘May be, because I keep cleaning them often. I have a feeling that my hands get dirty always’, she smiled. Another addition to her precautions, I thought.

‘So finally, you have fallen in love?!!!’, exclaimed my cousin.

‘I.. Well.. yes..!’, I said, jubilantly.

‘Wow..!!! I knew it..! Right from the minute she knocked at the door..! J My God, the way you looked at her mesmerised. I knew it right that minute. J’, she said without taking a minute.

‘You did?? You didn’t tell me..?’, I was just kidding.

‘Leave that you idiot..! Have you proposed to her?’, she asked.

‘Yes, Actually, she did’, I said with a blank face.

‘Eh.. And..?’, doubtfully asked my cousin.

‘And.. J And what..?’, I smiled.

‘You got to be kidding me man..!’

‘What? I am serious!’, I said.

‘Oh ho ho..! She is a pretty unlucky girl to have got some one like you’, she said with a sarcastic smile. She was kidding really. J She knew that Evangeline was the most luckiest girl.

Evangeline and I made sure that we spent at least a couple of hours a day together. However busy I was at office and how much ever held she was at her studies, we made sure that neither of us was left alone.

She could not even imagine a day without seeing me. And me..? I loved Einstein right from childhood. Oh yeah, the theory of relativity. To me, seconds were years and minutes were millenniums, slightly more that what Einstein had proposed in the theory.J

And with a progress of time, I noticed something that had changed a bit. I didn’t know what it was until one day. (To be continued)

2009-08-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

London, street lights and.. an angel

Part I

‘Pete, where is the coffee cup?’, that was my mom from the kitchen.

‘I think I left it on the computer table mom’, that was me from the hall without even a wince. Most probably, it would have been a Spielberg movie on the television that I was concentrating on.

‘Peter, it’s been ages since you arranged the rack..! Is today a good day?’, that was my dad calling me from my room.

‘I will do it next weekend dad..!’, that was me again. It should have been a Dan Brown novel I was into.

‘Bugger..! Wake up..! Will you give me a hand? The flower vase is heavy..!!!’, definitely my sister. Never mind, I would not even have bothered to answer.

That was me, the guy in the early twenties, with no worries in the world or household responsibilities to shoulder, perfectly enjoying the best days of life.

Eight months had passed since then, like a dream. And, here I am: In the capital of the United Kingdom. That, I should agree, is one hell of a twist in life.

Typically for a bachelor who moves for an onsite assignment would turn out to be difficult with not many options for cooking, stay etc. But, it turned out that luck was still shining on me as at home. I had my cousin out here to help me out. So, technically, home-made-food and a comfortable place to stay was not a problem at all. And even better was that she was a nurse and there was no question about the immediate medical attention as well.

London is a great place to be. Very orderly, polite people, excellent transport, romantic locales and everything with one vital catch. You need to take care of yourself.

Shopping for vegetables, groceries, household cleaning, boiler malfunction, broadband connection, oooopppss! Not my cup of tea. For a guy who never even had moved a coffee cup at home, it definitely was one hell of a twist in my easy going life.

One cannot keep complaining about stuff like these, can they? Absolutely not. I definitely learnt to shoulder, though not completely, at least some of the responsibilities at home with my cousin. And then came the biggest twist of all – shifting to a new house.

With the rental agreement of the apartment coming to a break, my cousin and I were pushed to locate a new house. With my period of stay in London uncertain and the cost factors coming into play, it was a difficult task indeed. It took us a little over five weeks to finalise a house to move in. That was the less difficult task of all the difficult tasks coming soon.

Back in India and just before moving to London, I had moved my parents from my native to a rented house in Chennai. Surely there was a lot of shifting done while I was busy with my weekend errands with my friends. Seems it was someone’s curse, finally I had to shoulder this, that too thousands of miles away from my home.

With very little time to spare from work, other than the time to sleep, both my cousin and I had never been able to sort out our plans to confirm our contracts, arrange for help and to shift our whole lots of things to the new house. We had to run over our schedules again and again to understand we were never going to make a final plan.

At an unexpected time on a Monday afternoon, my cousin called me up to say, ‘We are shifting tonight, whatever time it is going to be.’

‘You got to be kidding me..!’

‘No..! As serious as ever’, she said

‘I can’t come home before seven and you can never reach home before nine’, I reminded her.

‘I guess there is no other option. I have friends to help us out today and this is the only way we are going to move the things. They are free only tonight.’

With only my cousin and me working on this ‘House shifting’ project, it was going to be a nightmare. The only way out was to get the help out of my cousin’s friends.

According to the new plan, we started getting our things together onto the arranged mini truck. That was one hell of a workout. My word, it took us three whole hours to just fit all the things into the truck cabin. And the time, well, the clock had just ticked eleven pm. We all were dog tired. But we didn’t know it was going to be a longer night than what it seemed.

My cousin was the first person to get down from the truck. She hurried to open the door of our new house, while her friends and I began to unload the things. We would not even have brought the third carton box out of the van when we heard a loud, ‘OH MY GOD..!’. It was my cousin.

That gave us a serious fright. And we reached the door in a split second to see what it was.

‘I didn’t do it..!’, she began, with an awful and bewildered look.

‘What? What did you do, eh, didn’t do?’, we asked with none of us understanding what was happening.

‘I don’t know, but this is what happened’, she showed something.

That was the funniest and the most interesting thing that I had ever seen in my life. Seriously, for a few minutes we didn’t know how to react to this. But as usual, we burst into laughter. The thing that my cousin held in her hand was ‘half’ of what should have been the key to our new house. The second she turned it in the key hole, it had broken into two halves.

At midnight, in a place we hardly knew and during the worst of English winters, we all stood under the street lights with half-a-key in hand trying to figure out what to do next. Out of the splendid discussions, we had three options.

First being, breaking the door. That would mean, we might end up in jail. No kidding. We can’t afford that.

The second was waiting in the street till the morning to make a new key. Well, that would mean we were going to freeze in the cruel winter. Nope. Not a good option either.

The third was waking up the landlord who lived a couple of hours away, even if it was midnight. Yup, a sensible option finally.

Thanks to God, there was late night cab service right at the end of the street. My cousin and one of her friends decided to take the drive and her other friend and I agreed to guard the things placed outside the house.

‘Its gonna be a long night’, we thought.

As a normal habit of mine, I kept gazing around at the houses trying to while away time and make sure those ghosts and vampires, from my movie collection, don’t spring out of the darkness. This seemed to be a quiet neighbourhood. I was beginning to like this new place.

I was taking a stroll on the street to keep my self warm. I was walking back and forth trying to count the stars, look at the leaves, and check out the windows of our new house, all in vain, trying to burn time. I was counting every minute and couldn’t wait to get into the house; the cold was really terrible that night.

With every minute counting and the temperature dropping, I started a messy search into the carton boxes for a couple of my coats and my much beloved mufflers. I stuffed my self in more than two sweaters and three mufflers. Hopefully, my cousin was going to reach back before I froze.

It had been about thirty to forty minutes since we ended up on the streets. Just then, I noticed some movement at the farther end of the street with a couple of guys crossing with a concerned look towards us. And then a tall guy crossed the street at the near end with a serious look at me. He walked fast across and said something into his phone. I guess I heard it right.

‘Double Positive’, that was what he said.

I didn’t understand what that meant, at least not for the next ten seconds. And the meaning struck and that too with a bang. What happened next was going to linger in my mind for a long time.

Part II:

Out of nowhere came in a string of four cars and every one of them came to stop just near the house with a deafening ‘Ssssssccccccccrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeettttttttcccccchhhh’ with a bunch of cops jumping out with guns pointing right at us.

‘FfffrrrreEeEeEezzzeee..!’, shouted the cop before we could even blink.

‘HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD..!’, shouted the other cop.

‘What in the world is going on?’, I could not understand a thing.

‘Aaaaahhh, Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh’, that was my cousin’s friend, scared to death.

‘HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD..!’, warned the cops again.

‘Aaaaahhh, Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh’, she was still screaming.

‘What in the world is going on?’, I managed to shout back.

‘Son, you are under arrest for burglary..!’, shouted the cop.

I could not believe what I was hearing. Under arrest? For burglary? I certainly could not believe this was happening. I didn’t know what to do other than to close my eyes and hope that this was just a dream. Everything around me was as if I was watching the ‘Phone Booth’ in slow motion.

‘Its going to be ok, its just a dream. Cool it, you are just dreaming.’, I told myself with my eyes closed.

‘Aaaaahhh, Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh’, the screaming brought me back to my senses and made me realise that this was not a dream I was going to wake up from. This nightmare was for real and I was standing in the middle of it.

‘For God’s sake, stop shouting, WILL YOU?’, finally the cop made her stop screaming.

‘No..! No..! we are not stealing anything. We are just moving into this house..!’, I pleaded immediately.

‘What..? What the hell are you talking about?’, it was the cop.

‘Yeah..! we are new tenants of the house, for God’s sake. We are just now shifting in..!’, I shouted with the hope that they would understand.

‘This is ridiculous.’

‘Certainly not..! Believe me..! Please..! Believe me..!’

Another car came to a smooth stop, just near the cops’ vehicles. It was my cousin and her friend who had reached in record time with the new key. There they were the lifesavers of the night. J That was one of the so many times I thanked God that night.

‘That was a close call..!’, said on of the cops after a few minutes of ‘edge of the seat’ thrilling moments. Only then did they lower their guns and only then did I take in a long breath.

That was a really a pretty close call. Had my cousin’s cab reached a few minutes late, who knows, I would have been in jail: and that too without having tried out the first option of breaking the door.

It took us some time to sink in and get the things into the house. And all the time, the cops were hanging around just to make sure that we were alright and surely not what they thought we were. Anyways, after having moved most of the things in, I walked over to the cops.

‘Care for a cup of coffee officers?’, I asked.

Though the initial reply was a ‘strong stare’, the senior cop slowly smiled.

‘No thanks son. Just keep the noise down when you move the things in. We don’t want another emergency call coming in.’ J

I had never felt this much of an adrenalin rush in my entire life. The heart beat took a long time to settle down and so did the shivering. This was an adventurous night indeed. Being that close to getting arrested is an adventure, isn’t it? Well, almost. J

Just when the cops were about to leave, I over heard something about the whole fiasco.

‘The emergency call came in from the house 21 C. That’s the opposite house, isn’t it?’, the cops were asking each other before getting into the vehicle.

I turned around to see the house. So, they were the culprits. How in the world could they say I was burglar? Whoever it was, I was in a rage to pay it back when I had a chance.

By the time we woke up the next morning it was almost ten am. The adrenaline rush had settled down but there was some other feeling that had taken over. I was by then FURIOUS about what had happened. I was furious about this new neighbour who had called the police.

‘Me..? A burglar..! How could someone call the cops without knowing what was going on?!!!’, I shouted with all the fury.

‘Cool down will you..? talk about something else..!’, said my cousin.

‘What do you mean..? How would you cool down if someone called the police to get you arrested?’

‘Well, I don’t know. May be it was the time, the dull street light, someone six feet tall, bulky as you and the sort of hairstyle, beard. Even I would have called the cops’, she giggled.

‘Ha ha ha..! Very funny..! That was very funny..!’, I said very seriously. At the same time, there was soft knock on the door.

‘Get the door; I will switch on the music. It should relax you a bit.’

There was another knock while I started walking to the door, ‘Coming.. Coming.. Who is it?’, I asked while fumbling with the keys. I was finding it difficult to open the door as I was not used to this new lock.

And then, there came an unexpected reply. ... (To Be Continued)

On the dance floor..

2009-06-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

Christmas time..! Its Nostravia time..! That was what the party banner said.

When the first information about the Christmas party came out, the buzz was not quite high. But when the days started closing in, the party fever had set in. That was the 17th of December, the day of the party.

The celebration time had begun right from the end of November and this day was the day every one at office was absolutely looking forward to.

Christmas had always been special to him. This time, it was certainly going to be extra special because this Christmas was going to be at London.

‘Dude, where is your suit..! This dress is not allowed for the party..!’, he was told.

‘What time is the party mate?’, he asked.

‘We are going to start from here at 6 pm.’

‘You have got six hours more man..! Wait and watch..!’, he said with a wink.

Everything in office seemed normal till around four in the evening and all of a sudden the energy level rose high and the buzz had begun. Every single soul in office started getting ready for the party, so did he.

He spent a serious thirty minutes to dress himself. When he set his foot out of the dressing room, the first thing he heard his manager say to him was, ‘My Word, you look stunningly smart.’ After a long time, that was when his typical bright smile broke out.

London had taught him to enjoy life. Late night parties, hip hop dancing and enjoying life were all part of his London trip. That was in a sense totally different from the way he had lived life for a while, should say around six years. This Christmas party was something, like everyone else, he was looking forward to. The fun and hype from the previous year’s party was just too much to wait for.

Everyone was ready, perfectly suited and booted. It was typical English ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ presence at the office lobby, eager for the transportation.

‘Are you guys ready?’, asked their boss.

‘Yes..!’, they said in unison and energy level which they never showed at work. And off they went to Knight’s bridge. It was Nostravia time..!

The hall seemed small for the crowd but the atmosphere was electrifying. They were welcomed by perfectly built macho men and glamorous silk clad Russian girls showcasing their acrobatics. The flashy blue light was too much to handle at the start and everything looked refreshingly ‘Hollywood’ish.

‘How many people approximately?’, he asked his friend.

‘Close to six hundred, should be a bit more not less. The hall seems small for all the people, doesn’t it?’

Their talk was interrupted by a sudden clink of glasses nearby.

‘Champagne or beer, sir?’, asked the waitress.

He was not used to drinking but he was going to drink for sure. He was definitely not going to miss this opportunity. He was surely going to drink a lot today.

‘Champagne, please.’, he smiled.

After a few minutes there was a slight hassle when four girls of the troupe took the mini stages at the four corners of the floor with communist flags in hand. They started flexing their bodies to the rocking music. The whole crowd was in silence awestruck by the acrobatics.

As in unison with their movement, at the peak of the electric guitar, the huge white cloth covering as the wall of the hall fell like an avalanche exposing a vast spread of colourful dining arrangements with the fantastic glass dance floor in the middle. There was a roaring cheer from everyone.

After skimming through the table arrangements, they managed to sit around a huge table perfectly decorated. The entire place was gloriously lit and every single decoration was shining. But, it was shining of something else that caught everyone’s attention. It was the shining of the bottles of wine and beer.

No questions asked, the corks of the wine bottles were opened immediately and intoxicating smell of alcohol began to set in. The sushi starters and barbeque chickens for supper were absolutely cherished. The party mood was at its peak.

It should have been close to thirty minutes when he was asked, ‘How many rounds mate?’

‘I guess you have asked the wrong question man! It should have been how many bottles..!’, he smiled sarcastically.

The dinner was complete and the show had begun. The dance floor had just been occupied by the performers. The special show by the performers was a delight indeed. The excellent muscle flexes, the swinging acrobatics and the scintillating dancing was just a feast for the eyes.

Almost twenty minutes later, the gorgeous lady who had just finished her performance announced with an exuberating energy level, ‘The Dance Floor is now OPEN..!’. That was something that the party animal in everyone was waiting to hear.

‘Shall we?’, he was asked.

‘In a few minutes’, he said ‘let everything settle down.’

‘The energy in the dance floor was simply too much and he could just not resist more than a couple of minutes. He stood up and took deep breath and walked up the stairs onto the dance floor.

And all of a sudden, his alter ego took over and the dancer in him burst into life.

Was it the influence of alcohol, or was it the fact that he was a real good dancer? Neither he nor the others knew. But one thing was sure, he was absolutely rocking..! Every move he made was electrifying..!

Be it rock.. Be it disco.. Be it any kind of music.. He had his tailor made moves. He could adapt to any kind at any time.

Tiredness was an unknown factor that day. Neither the music stopped nor did the dancing. Neither the energy level subdued nor did the alcohol. Rounds came in dozens and minutes became hours.

Be it the stunning groups or be it the lovely pairs, those few hours were full of rollicking fun and frolic. Music, dance, drinks and enjoyment were the order of the night and none of them worried about having to work next day. It was as if every one of them was on a never ending holiday.

After those hours of hectic dancing, the groups slowly started dissipating. Very slowly a few of them started getting some rest at the boundary bars of the dance floor. The music had slowly moved on to some slow and romantic ball room numbers.

That’s when he noticed her, on the dance floor.

He had been blinded by the rounds of alcohol and the whole time of dancing with his group of friends. May be the party mood was highly toxic that he hardly saw anyone else. Fortunately, he now did.

Dressed in party black, with neatly clipped hair, she was stunning. The lights around the dance floor were blinding. But her pearl blue eyes were even brighter and even more blinding.

She was tall compared to the other girls and that made here look even more beautiful. There was radiance all around her. To be exact, she was glowing and was surely the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

‘An angel would look brighter than the brightest of lights’, he had read somewhere. If those were the words, she sure was an angel. He was not sure if the world around her had suddenly gone dark or if she was really brighter than the brightest light. He really didn’t know.

Whatever it was, she looked heavenly. Whatever it was, he was attracted.

‘Are you tired mate?’, asked his friend.

He didn’t even notice the question and was watching her without even a wince.

‘Am talking to you buddy..!’, snapped his friend with a slight tap on his shoulder bringing him to reality.

‘Eh.. what? What did you ask?’

‘Are you in this world or what..? Where are you looking?’, his friend asked.

‘Nowhere.. just taking some minutes of rest..’

‘You got to be kidding, who are you looking at..’, his friend was in no mood to leave.

‘Well..’, he said and looked back in the direction where the girl was dancing. And, to bring down his energy level for the first time that night, she was missing.

‘Where did that girl go?’, he uttered.

‘Who..? Which girl..?’, continued his annoying friend.

‘Leave me for a few minutes buddy..! I will be back to kill you..!’, he said with his eyes wildly searching for her.

‘Where is she? Where is she? Where is she?’, was the only question that was running over and over in his mind. He hardly took a breath while he was searching. His eyes were rolling all around the dance floor yearning to see her again.

When he was about to run down the floor, his eyes got hold of her at end of the hall walking towards the exit.

‘Oh my God..! Is she leaving?’, he asked himself.

He was usually very lethargic in reacting to circumstances but certainly not in this situation. Without even his permission, his legs were in action. In a flick of a second he flashed towards the exit.

He ran as fast as he could avoiding pushing as many people he could. And to those who came in his way, it was certainly their unlucky day and they were surely to be down. He reached the door and came out of the hall as if he had escaped a stampede.

He spotted her immediately walking outside on the lawn. He smiled slightly and started following her.

She was not running, but her foot steps were not steady. He was not able to understand but kept a careful distance behind her while she was walking. She kept walking another few yards when he understood the direction she was walking in.

‘Caution: Slippery grassy – No railings – River ahead’, said the sign board. This made him shiver slightly. Something was wrong but he didn’t know what.

Her pace of walking had increased and he had to jog a couple of steps to catch up and keep the distance. She was surely going towards the river, the reason for which, he could not guess.

She was getting dangerously close to the river and her was dangerously increasing. He was trying to keep calm. He stopped for a minute with his mind racing. The only reason that came up into his mind was ‘SUICIDE’.

His heart started beating faster and sweat had begun appearing on his forehead. He had to do something, the girl was running to kill herself and he was definitely not going to stand there witnessing that. He definitely had to do something.

He started running faster than he could. He decided not to mind about the caution that he had read. He slightly slipped on a couple of occasions but that was not going to stop him. He had a life to save.

When she was just a couple of yards away from the edge, and he had a few impossible yards to cover, he shouted. ‘STOP..! STOP..! STOP..!’

He could see that she was startled but was still facing the river. She had stopped moving while he kept moving towards her to cover the distance. He came to a stop with a distance of four yards between them, a distance he could easily cover if she started moving.

‘WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?’, he shouted in the middle of his heavy breathing. She did not reply.

‘Answer me DAMN IT..!’, he continued ‘Are you MAD?’

She didn’t utter a word and she did not turn. He was not able to see her face and was not able to read her reaction.

‘Miss.. Turn around now. It’s a dangerously difficult decision you have taken. Take some time and it would sound foolish. Now turn around and talk to Me.’, he shouted.

She was still taking her time and reacted in the exact way he was expecting her to.

Slowly, very slowly, she turned around but her face was still down.

Slowly she lifted her head to look at him.

He was totally taken aback when she looked at him. Her whole body had turned slightly purple as if someone had beaten her red and blue. Her face muscles were convulsing visibly. She was in a pretty difficult state and seemed to definitely need some help.

A few seconds of sickening silence passed and then she did something that totally surprised him.

Out of the blue she smiled in the most enigmatic way he had every known. He was surprised to the core. A chilling shiver went through his spine.

‘What are you smiling at?’, he asked amidst his shiver.

She didn’t utter a reply but her smile grew wider and more enigmatic than before. And, she threw half a dozen of her unseen, unknown and inhuman squiggly arms at him to pull him towards her.

And she uttered the most horrifying words in the most shrilling and chilling tone,

‘I have been waiting for you…!!!’

..in the right pocket..

2008-10-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

A Friday night story

Part I: The Girl

‘Hey Viswa..! It’s already late..! Work tomorrow yaar, I have been waiting for more than twenty minutes..!’, that was Vardhan shouting into his blue tooth headset. He’s our usual S/w engineer who works 14 hours on all days and roams around the city every Friday night.

Vardhan Vasudev.. Smart looking.. Charming smile.. Absolutely adorable.. a typical boy next door.. surely, the sweetest guy around. Aged just 23 with more than two years of experience in the industry, the guy really was moving on with life. As carefree as a person could be, taking life as it came with no hard feelings.

‘Sorry mate, Client meeting. Let’s go.. let’s go.. let’s go’, came Viswa, Vardhan’s colleague, running down the stairs with no time to wait for the lift.

‘The show is at 09:45 and we are still here at 09:00..! I think we are going to miss a chunk of the story’, Vardhan said, with his usual sarcasm. He was ready with his trademark Yamaha jacket zipped to the neck.

His R15 roared to life with Viswa taking the rear seat, holding as cautiously as ever. Off they went for their Friday night errands, the usual Friday night errands. That was a routine. J Of course, what else can S/W engineers do to keep themselves within the limits of sanity after a hefty work all during the week? J

Vardhan was skilled in two things. First, he talked at such a pace that no one understood. Second, he drove at such a pace that no one could ever catch up.

‘I will never ride with you..! You seriously spoil my hairstyle’, his best friend usually said and so did almost everyone else. To Vardhan, it was always a compliment. He loved his R15, his first love.

Viswa kept his eyes closed when riding with Vardhan. ‘That’s a precaution’, he always said. To much of his relief, they hit a traffic signal. The traffic was huge and very unusual for a Friday night. Vardhan tried his best to skim through but at last came to a point where he could move no further.

‘What in the world is happening?’, Vardhan was losing patience and it was quite sure that they were going to miss the first few minutes of the movie.

‘Hey buddy, cool it..!’, Viswa said. ‘We will reach in time.’

‘No way, probably we will have to change plans. I hate watching movies after losing a few minutes.’

‘Don’t you ever relax in traffic?’, Viswa began in interesting note.

‘Ever.. What? Relax?’, to Vardhan, that was the last thing he could think of in traffic.

‘Look at the people around you mate..! Each one will have a story; take a glimpse at a part of their life. Its always interesting, isn’t it?’, Viswa asked with the usual poetic touch of his.

‘I seriously don’t understand what you are talking about.’, Vardhan said.

‘Look at the interesting scenarios man..! That little kid in the car, look how he is enjoying the chocolate in his hand. Look at the pair in the bike next to us, fighting as ever. Those college guys crossing the road, as if there are no worries in this world. ’, Viswa continued.

To Vardhan, it was boring stuff. Some thing more boring than the blogs he wrote. Why should he care to think about others on the road? Imagine their lives and situations just to while away time? Wow, he was not interested.

‘..the girl crying in the cab behind. The cab driver who looks amused.’, Viswa was continuing without a stop.

‘Which girl?’, asked Vardhan out of nowhere, suddenly interested.

‘You got to be kidding me. Dude..! Are you listening to me at all?’, asked Viswa.

‘Yeah yeah, I am. Eh, a crying girl, did you say?’, asked Vardhan, curiously.

‘Oooohh..! Yeah..! look into your rear view mirror, in the cab behind’, said Viswa.

Vardhan swiftly adjusted his rear view mirror to see who it was. She was in the cab behind them talking into her phone, with loads of tears rolling down her cheeks. Someone crying and why should he care, that was what Vardhan felt at the start. But, some thing made him look at her again and again.

‘Probably she is fighting with her boy friend.’, said Viswa.

‘Maybe..’, said Vardhan, half hearted and more interested in looking at her. She looked simple but beautiful. Vardhan was wondering how she would look if she was smiling instead of crying. He smiled to himself thinking of how beautiful she would look if she smiled.

Seconds after that, the traffic got moving.

Vardhan thought for a second whether to follow the cab or to go to the theatre. He felt stupid at the thought of following the cab for no reason. Back to his best of driving and zipping through the traffic they were on time for the movie.

‘Wow..! grab the tickets, I’ll go to park the bike’, said Vardhan and raced to the parking lot which was on the other end of the building.

After perfectly parking the bike, Vardhan was walking quickly back to the theatre entrance. When he was walking he crossed someone standing in the dark.

Slowly, Vardhan stopped walking and turned to see who it was. Well, he was unable to believe his eyes. It was the girl he was crying in the cab while they were held up in the traffic.

She was still crying and talking into her phone. For a few seconds Vardhan was unsure of what to do. He felt absurd and he started moving towards the theatre. He would have taken a few steps, he stopped. Turned towards the girl and started walking to her.

‘..I can’t do this..! please..! please..! why don’t you leave me?’, she was saying into her phone highly emotional.

Vardhan walked swiftly to her. With a bit of hesitation he said, ‘Excuse me?’, but she did not respond.

‘..no..! leave me..! please..! I can’t do it..!’, she was continuing into her phone without even minding Vardhan

He felt a bit stupid but continued, ‘Excuse me? Are you alright?’

This time she turned to Vardhan and stared at him as if she was going to burn him.

‘WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM..! MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS..!’, she shouted.

Vardhan just stood there shocked to the core by the sudden outburst. A few people who were walking back to the theatre stopped for a second to see what was happening. Vardhan felt really insulted and didn’t know how to hide from the stares of the people there. He cursed himself for having talked to her.

‘It was a crap thing to do. Why should you worry about some crap girl..? Man you really are stupid’, he was talking to himself while walking to the theatre.

‘Will you ever worry about someone else again in your life..? What if she is crying..? Who is she..? Why should you worry about her?’, he was continuing to himself not being able to digest what had happened just now.

‘What in the world happened to you?’, asked Viswa, curiously waiting with the tickets.

‘Eh.. nothing, just a bit tired, maybe.’, Vardhan tried to manage.

Viswa knew that it was not the truth but he didn’t try to press to much, ‘Oh ok.. Run in mate, its time for the movie.’

‘Give me a few minutes buddy, will come in.’, Vardhan needed some fresh air.

‘You are crap mate, why did you drive like hell then?’, said Viswa pushing the ticket into his hands. ‘Come whenever you want, I am going in.’

Vardhan really need some fresh air. He really needed to cool down from the insult in public from a literally unknown person.

‘You should be crazy to help strangers’, Vardhan was talking to himself like a retard. Even after fifteen horrible minutes he really didn’t know how to vent the anger and insult. He let the late night’s darkness and breeze take over him for sometime.

‘I am sorry’, said someone all of a sudden.

Vardhan was startled when someone spoke abruptly out of nowhere.

‘My word..! you gave me a fright’, he said turning to see the ‘crying’ girl standing behind him.

Vardhan was staring blank at her for a couple of seconds with his anger disappearing without a trace.

‘Eh.. I said.. I am sorry..’, she reminded him.

‘Eh.. that’s.. that’s ok.. that’s fine..’, Vardhan said like an idiot.

‘It was really bad to have shouted like that’, she said sad and apologetic.

‘Oh that, well.. not a problem, I forgot it that minute itself’, he said looking more stupid than ever.

‘Thanks for that’, she said with a blank face and started walking away.

She would have walked about ten paces when Vardhan called out, ‘Excuse me..!’ which made her turn around in flash.

‘Won’t you ever smile?’, he asked with the usual sweetness of his, a sweetness which noone could refuse.

She stood there for a couple of seconds with the same blank face unsure of what to do. Vardhan stood there looking at her, ‘Just one smile.. eh.. please?.’ He asked with a childish grin.

Slowly, very slowly, very faint to begin with, a smile, a bright smile appeared on her, till then, dull and blank face. She just stood there and smiled as if she had placed a big burden down.

Vardhan felt happy to see her smile. She smiled exactly in the same way he had imagined her while looking at her in the traffic signal. She, indeed, looked like an angel. Her simple look made her smile look even more radiant. But, one thing looked totally out of place. It was the bright red dot on her forehead which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

Vardhan felt that it was totally out of place and too bright. Something didn’t seem right and to the shock of his life, the dot moved down right across her face to her neck. He wasn’t sure what it was until a couple of seconds later.

The dot stayed on her neck for not more than two seconds and there was a snap as if she was stabbed in the neck by an invisible knife. She took a strong deep breath and started suffocating. Her face looked traumatised and her eyes budged out wide. A second later blood spurt out of her neck like a rush of water in a stream. She was shot..!

Part II: The innocent Guy

Vardhan didn’t understand what was happening till she fell down like a cloak off a hook. At first he did not recognize the blood. He thought she had fainted or fallen down, he ran to help her. He was scared to death when he saw the blood running out.

‘Oh my God..! Oh..! My..! God..!’, he shouted without knowing what to do. She was struggling to breathe.

‘Help..! Some body help..!’, he shouted

‘Is anyone there..! Somebody help..!’, he kept shouting but in vain. He took her onto his lap unsure of what to do. He tried to press down the bullet wound to stop the bleeding but it didn’t help.

With Vardhan shouting, the girl was lying there in horrible pool of blood trying to grasp the last of her breath. But she still was smiling, as if this world was a horrible place to be.

Vardhan wildly search around to see if he was able to see anyone. But the world around him was silent. He was not able to see any one, anyone who would have shot.

She was trying to say something to Vardhan but he was not able to understand. She slowly let her hand out to him. She was giving him something which he was not able to see. She thrust it into his palm.

She slowly, gathered a bit of air and said, ‘Save.. them..’. Then, she was dead.

‘Hey..?’

‘Wake up..!’

‘Oh no..! Wake up..!’, Vardhan kept shouting. But she was dead. She was dead for sure.

Vardhan closed his eyes tight for a few seconds frightened to the core. He didn’t know what to do. He opened his eyes to see if he was dreaming, unfortunately not. He was sitting there near a dead girl in a pool of blood.

He opened his palm to see what she had given him. He didn’t know what it was. A small rectangular thing? She said something? To save them? He didn’t know who to save? He didn’t know what to do with what she had given him.

Just then he noticed it. The bright red dot again. This time it crossed his hands and moved across to his chest. It stayed there for a couple of second and Vardhan started breathing hard. He knew what was going to happen.

Adrenalin rushed through him in a flash and it made him react to the instincts. He rolled aside as fast as he could and then came the shot. Thank God, he had moved just in time, the bullet just hit the edge of his sleeve.

In an instant he got up on his feet. His eyes search widely again, but he could not seem any one. Then, he started running, running for his life.

‘Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..!!!’, some one screamed behind him. It was someone who had come out of the theatre. Vardhan didn’t know whether to keep running. Vardhan stood there and was confused if he would be able to get some help. Another silent shot was aimed at him. And that made him run without any doubts in his minds to stop.

He reached his bike and drove at a reckless pace, faster than usual. He wanted to be far away, far away from what had happened. He was unsure of the consequences. Who was she? Who killed her and why? Why did someone shoot at him? Will someone link it to him? What about the Cops? He was going mad with the questions.

He would have driven like mad for not more than five minutes. He heard it for the first time. He thought he it was just his imagination. But it was coming closer to him. It made him drive faster.

The sound of the siren grew louder and louder. He looked into his rear view mirror. A few hours before, Vardhan had seen the girl in the same mirror. Now, he could see the cops chasing him.

He drove as fast as he could. Of course, he was skilled in driving but not now. Not having witnessed a murder and being shot at. Not now when he was being chased by the cops.

He could see that he was being chased by at least four police vehicles. The sound of the siren was getting closer and closer. The police were gaining on him every second. Vardhan didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know if he could stop and shout at the peak of his voice, ‘I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING..! I DIDN’T KILL HER..!’. But no one would believe. Not with all the blood on him and his finger prints on her.

He thought about the distance and quickly hit the disc brake. The bike came to a skidding stop and turned straight at the cops. He rushed his bike onto full throttle and whisked like a rocket towards the vehicles chasing him. Just when he was close enough, he hit the brakes again and steered into a small road deviation leaving the cop vehicles very less time to make the turn.

He drove having a look back to see that he had gained a lead from the cops. He reached the end of the street on to the main road. Just when he raised his speed on the road, a car bumped onto the road out of nowhere.

He did his best to handle the situation but it had happened too quickly. He hit the brakes hard but the bike skidded at such a pace that it was uncontrollable. It collided with the car and Vardhan jumped of the bike leaving it tumble like Jill did from the hill.

Vardhan fell hard on the road and rolled onto the side over and over. He was trembling with shock of the accident. He was unable to move for a few minutes with pain and shiver all over his body. Too many things were happening in a few minutes, just too many things.

The cops were nearing him. He got on to his feet, still shivering. He started running from the cops. Things were going in vain. He was not able to run fast. The cops caught up with him.

The vehicles came to a skidding stop around him and the cops were quick to jump out with their guns in their hand, aimed right at him.

‘Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze..!’, shouted a cop but Vardhan was furious to get away.

‘I warn you..! Freeze right there..! Don’t get shot..!’, the cop commanded again. Vardhan had no choice, he had to stop right there. He had run like mad to avoid get shot by an unknown person and he surely didn’t want to get shot by the cops.

Vardhan was breathing heavily. He was hurt, shocked and shivering, all at the same unfortunate moment. He was bleeding and sweating. He was surrounded by atleast ten cops, all of their guns aimed at him.

‘Hands in air..!’, it was the cop.

‘I didn’t do anything’, said Vardhan.

‘Hands in the air..!’, shouted the cop again.

Vardhan did as he was commanded to. ‘I didn’t do anything..! I didn’t kill her..!’

‘Take out your weapons and place them on the ground’, he commanded to Vardhan.

‘What do you mean? You got to be kidding me..! I am not armed..!’, said Vardhan.

‘Do as we command..! Take out your weapons and place them on the ground’, said the cop.

‘I don’t have anything with me! I am not armed..! I don’t have any weapons..!’

None of them spoke for a few seconds with the noise of the sirens settling in. The situation was getting tensed every second with a few more cops joining in. The last man who arrived was clearly in command. Vardhan could not even ease himself for a second.

‘Sir, he says he is not armed.’, the copy said into the headset.

‘I know... I know… let’s cut the crap..’, said the man in command.

‘Are you part of the group?’, he asked.

‘Group? Which group?’, asked Vardhan confused and almost in tears.

‘Are you from the same group as the dead girl?’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about..!’, Vardhan cried out loud.

‘The dead girl is a sought after terrorist. How are you related to her?’, the cop shouted.

To Vardhan, it was like a nightmare. A Dead Terrorist. Chasing Cops. A perfect nightmare and he was right in the middle of it.

‘I am not a terrorist’, Vardhan cried aloud.

‘Why did you kill her..?!’

‘I didn’t kill her..! I was there that’s all..!’

‘Who killed her then?’

‘I don’t know..! I just don’t know..! I am not a T..e..r..r..o..r..i..s..t’

‘I.. I.. was just there..! just talked to her..! That.. That was all..!’, pleaded Vardhan.

‘They.. he.. they.. I don’t know.. I couldn’t see who did it.. they even tried to shoot me..!’, he added.

‘Do you think we are a bunch of clowns here? What was your group trying to do in the theatre? Bomb? Mass Destruction?’, asked the cop irritated by the non-stop talk from Vardhan.

‘I know nothing about her.. nothing.. nothing..!’

‘Why did you try to escape?’

‘What do you expect me to do? I don’t know the girl.. She was shot.. someone killed her. Some one shot at me.. I was running for my life..! To hell, I was scared.. Scared to death..!’, Vardhan broke down. ‘I.. was.. I was scared..!’

‘I just tried to help a crying girl. Just tried to.. help.. I never expected that she would be a terrorist.. I never expected she would be killed.. She just gave me some stupid thing.. and said ‘Save them’. That’s all she said.’

‘What did she give you?’, the cop asked.

‘I don’t know. It was a small rectangular piece of.. a piece of something. I don’t know.’, Vardhan said.

‘Was she killed for that? The thing that she gave you?’

‘I don’t know..!!! I just don’t know anything..!!!’

Just then one of the cops noticed it. He noticed the Lazer marker, the red dot move across Vardhan. The marker rested on Vardhan’s forehead. The cop grasped what it was.

‘Sir, he is being aimed at..!’, the cop warned into his microphone.

‘Bloody.. hell..!’, said another cop.

The cop ran out of his position and jumped at Vardhan. He had reacted in time pushing Vardhan off his position and covering him. The shot landed on the cop’s arm. The cop shouted in pain.

It made all of them to take cover and reconsider their aims. Someone was firing from the buildings around but no one knew from where. It was dark and no one could see who had fired.

‘Take cover..! Open Fire..!’, shouted the man in charge. Everyone fired a series of shots in to the dark the wounded cop pulled Vardhan to safety behind one of the vehicles.

‘Take him away..! Take them to safety..!’, another cop was ordered.

Two of the cops ran in for help. One helped the wounded cop away from the place while the other helped Vardhan out of there.

‘Drive him out of here..!’, came in the command while the firing continued.

‘Yes sir.’, said the cop.

‘Run to one of the vehicles, they will drive you out of here’, he said to Vardhan.

Vardhan moved out of cover and started running to one of the vans. As in sync, the van started moving and he ran as fast as he could. The van door opened and Vardhan was pulled into the moving van.

Having run like hell for his life, Vardhan stuffed himself into van and was breathing heavily. He was grasping every bit of air he could and the adrenalin rush was at its peak. Too many things had happened and it was going to take a long time to calm down.

‘Where is the thing she gave you?’, he was asked.

‘Its in.. Its in my jacket pocket.. it has been there right from the moment I started running..’, Vardhan said amidst his hard breathing ‘.. in the right pocket..’

He was still breathing heavily but felt safe. Safe after a long and horrid time, ‘Thank you.. thanks for saving my life.’

The guy who had pulled Vardhan in to the van looked sharply and through the darkness an enigmatic smile appeared on his face.

Vardhan slowly noticed that the man was smiling at him.

‘What are you smiling at?’, Vardhan managed to ask.

He continued to smile and asked a bizarre question, ‘Who do you think I am?’.

And his smile grew broader.

Are IT women Safe?

2008-10-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

'Are IT Women Safe?' - A guy's Blog? Well, Yes..! And I was wondering if it should be 'Are Women Safe?' instead of saying 'Are IT Women safe?' Yup..! The head count of IT women is much greater than it was a couple of years back and this title sounded apt. wherever you go now, you are surely not the only IT person there. No, certainly not. And majority of my friends circle fall in IT.

I have this habit of talking like a gentleman from the Shakespearean Era, a bit philosophical. People who have talked to me for a few times would have sure noticed that (most certainly that’s why they escape when I start talking). And, do you think I would not have talked to any women on this topic? I certainly did. And the responses I received, here they are.

“IT women are certainly safe compared to women from other professions. They belong to and work in an educated environment where moral values and work ethics are followed to perfection” - An MBA final year Student in Chennai, a batch-mate of mine in under graduate course.

“Women are nowhere safe, leave alone IT.” - Another MBA final year Student in Coimbatore, a similar batch-mate of mine in under graduate course.

“Women are supposedly not safe in this world at all. However you categorize them, may it be working, non-working, IT, non-IT.” – A senior Software Architect in Bangalore.

“Come on, that’s a silly question. IT women live in hell everyday and I am a perfect example. You know that very well don’t you?” – A Software professional in Chennai, my best friend.

IT industry on the whole has created the illusion that it’s a high paying, highly ethical, highly modern and perfectly safe environment for women to work in. Thats really an illusion, isn’t it? A survey says 88.76 percent of women graduates from professional institutions feel IT is the best step in their career. And sadly, more than 80 percent of them vote against the decision in less than a year. What causes this? Is it because of the insecurities around them? Bingo! Yes, it could be physical or psychological or both. And, it could be within office as well as outside office.

IT industries are mostly concentrated in cities. And to a lot of people, these cities are not their home towns. They live away from their families and friends. Decisions, shopping, friends, etc are all on their own and obviously with no chance of help from their parents. That itself comes as a mental block. True stories of a girl’s life going astray just because of their parents staying away from them are one too many. One might right away point out these stories happened due to wrong judgments of the girls and not safety. Give me a few minutes, I am not done yet.

IT companies are usually concentrated in the outskirts of any city. And areas near those outskirts which were never residential area, areas where women would be scared to come out of their house after six in the evening, etc have now become the most sought after areas in the real estate graphs. Have these areas become completely sophisticated like what has become of the so called outskirts. Not really. The people and their mindsets still remain the same. I do agree that we have shuttles and cabs for transport. Let me ask everyone of you there. Are the women safe when they walk-back home from where they are dropped considering the time when they leave work? One of my friends has narrated four incidents when some guy was trying to misbehave when walking-back home and that too in the first two months she joined her dream company. You want to call it an isolated incident? Call it if you want but that’s not the case. And more shocking thing was these guys involved in a couple of these incidents were not the rogues of the locality but rather Software “Professionals”. When I asked my friend now, she says, “I am used to it. There is no other go.” One of my sincere prayers is that nothing serious happens to her.

Another devil under the pillow is the mobile phones. When I was doing my UG in Coimbatore, never have I seen even the most ill-mannered guy in college shooting out a wrong message or an unidentified call to a girl. May be mobiles had not gained much of an importance back then. Nowadays, I would say at least 40 percent of women, mainly in the IT industry where mobile phones have a major user list, receive more wrong calls than the actual right ones. Obviously guys do it and to them it’s the “Right” calls. And the messages that are sent across are even worse. The words would be easily censored in movies even. “Only god knows how they find out the numbers”, complained a girl who was sitting in front of me in my daily shuttle. In one of the cases, a colleague of mine was shocked to find that the other person had got her number from the office outlook. And in another case, the guy was a friend of the girl’s roommate. That’s a good example for a wrong decision of friendship and a wrong selection of people whom you select to stay with.

As I had mentioned previously, there is a misconception that IT women have a safe way of traveling. Yes, to a certain level on working days. How do they commute during holidays or on chances of shopping? Obviously, it’s the public transport. This is the case of all women and that’s the pathetic case. I hope there is not need to explain this part of the blog further. It has been happening for years and it will happen for years to come unless women don’t stay quiet when some thing wrong happens. Had the girl slapped or punched the guy’s nose when he jammed into her, I don’t think he would have done it again. But women are scared to react. That’s natural and difficult to think about consequences.

All the mighty air-conditioned IT buildings give a brighter picture from the outside. On the inside, are women happy and safe at work? Give it a thought. The answer in most of the cases is a “No” with a capital “N”. I accept that there are a lot of women who are strong-willed and have an appreciated way of working. But there are some women who have their sad untold stories that happen to them while at work. A friend of mine, with bright hopes, entered the industry almost at the same time as me. But her story had so many twists and turns than you can imagine in a Hitchcock movie. She faced all the psychological tortures from a guy who happened to be her lead. She neither was able to learn anything for those six months nor do anything substantial for her career. I can never forget the smile on her face when she was finally released from that project and moved on. Yet again, you want to call it an isolated incident? You obviously can but that’s obviously not the case. I did ask her one question. “Why didn’t you raise this issue with the seniors of the HRM?” The answer was simple and of course the girl’s way of dealing with things (no sarcasms intended). “I didn’t want to spoil the guy’s career.” And that’s the case in almost all the incidents.

This industry has made life more socialistic. Social gatherings are one too many. That’s unavoidable and acceptable as well. How many of these social gatherings, say a treat for a promotion, take in mind that women employees are going to join the gathering as well? May it be the timing or may it be the consumption of alcohol. May it be the comments passed or may it be the consideration of the comfort levels. An honest point would be none of these things are considered. “Don’t drink and drive” say the hoardings. Why do they say that? That’s because you would not have a control over yourself. Same applies in these gatherings as well, doesn’t it? How many of the guys think ‘teasing’ a girl is fun? Yes, fun for the moment. The same fun slowly keeps creeping and creeping and creeping and finally ends to be a psychological torture to women at work. Never confuse the socialistic trends and the psychological rudeness. There is a definite demarcation there and guys should understand that. I remember a batch-mate of mine attending twenty two counseling sessions with a psychiatrist before being able to sleep properly amidst of the fun, sorry to say, psychological rudeness.

Are guys the real problem to women? I didn’t exactly say that. Wrong decisions may be the problem, wrong friends may be the reason, the wrong habits may be the reason and to some extent women are responsible for the mishaps of safety too. But majority, sad to say, guys have become a girl’s problem. “Eve-Teasing” and “Cyber-mobile crimes” are punishable offenses. But who cares?

I would expect someone to say, “What’s your problem dude? We guys aren’t like that.” If you aren’t like that, I would give you a royal salute that I have never even given my dad. I remember one of my professor’s quotes. “All men are animals.” The words did create a fuss in class room even back then. Not all but some men really are. And because of those “Some” men, “All” men are still being considered animals.

My friend just reminded me, “Dude, you are writing a blog and not a novel.” Yeah, its time to wrap it up and I am very sure that there are just the very normal problems that IT women face. If I had to go on with the much more serious part of it, it would look like and FIR (First Information Report filed in case of a crime) and not a blog.

If at the least one male employee would change his view on his fellow female employee, I would be happy. If that could happen, I would say that the chances of my friend reaching her home safely or having a wonderful time at work will increase. That’s one of my sincere daily prayers.