Author: Sunny Jaiswal

Mumbai Diaries – Part 6(The One with the sisters)

Akriti and her sister were sitting on the couch, overlooking the rains through the windows.

A few moments before, they had this huge fight, over a phone call. Sukriti had informed Akriti about a phone call from a guy.

“I should never have taught you about changing voice on call in mobile phone.”, Akriti, still angry on her sister.

“But what difference does it make, you get calls like that every other day. Why is it any different.” Asked Sukriti.

That question left Akriti wondering for a bit. All her life, she had been avoiding getting close to anybody, because of her commitment issues and she should have been thankful to her sister.

But here she was, rebuking her sister. ‘Attraction works in mysterious ways’ she thought and proceeded to let go her anger or whatever it was.

Taking cue from her body language, Sukriti broke the ice.
“Do you know our college dance group is performing in a college fest, and I joined as well”, she informed Akriti.

“Ohh good, what are you performing on?” asked Akriti.

“We are depicting 8 songs on 8 different emotions with 8 different songs in 8 different languages.”

“Ohh thats….nice. Tell me one thing, does it also suck in 8 different ways?” Akriti joked.

“You wouldn’t even be able to do one step from it. You need flexible muscles for that”

“Atleast my funny bone will tickle while watching your dance.” said Akriti sarcasticly to end the topic so that she can talk about what she had in mind.

“Listen, the guy that you talked to; his name is Atush. Last week, he came into the video parlour to play Laser tag and…”

“What is that?” Sukriti said interrupting her.

“What is what?”

“Lasertag”

“You should really care atleast a little about what I do. It’s a game played among 2 teams, they each have a gun and they have to shoot their opponents to collect points”, Akriti explained.

“Okay got it….move ahead!” Sukriti said getting interested.

“So he has been my closest competitor so far, I thought I would lose to him, but somehow I won.”, continued.

“You are talking like you have never lost a game.”

“No, I haven’t and that is why I like my job”

“Don’t you think you are too obsessed with gaming? I am surprised you didn’t start to play that Pokemon Go game.”

“I would play it, but then I would have to go retard first. But anyways, I am not obsessed that much about gaming. I just like them a normal amount.”

“Oh yeah? Last night you were chanting ‘Go Go Go’ while you were asleep”

“Wow, that was a nice dream, I killed so many counter terrorists in my favourite map De Dust2.”

“Uff! Sometimes, I feel like I live with a boy.”

“I know you wish it sissy, but that is not happening in my flat.”

Sukriti shifts a little uncomfortably. But continues fighting with her.

“What’s wrong in bringing friends over?”

“Sissy, I fought with Papa to get you out of our small city, so that you can make a life here in Mumbai, and not ‘make a life’ here in Mumbai” Akriti joked.

“I love him, but I am not stupid. And I told you hundred times, that these talks make me uncomfortable.”

“Yes and that is why you can go live-in with ‘Whats his name’, but just don’t bring him in here. It creeps me out as well.” Akriti replied.

“His name is Rohan and yes, let me get a job and I will move out soon.” Sukriti said decidedly.

Both looked each other in the eye. They had nothing but respect for each other.

 

Karan’s place

Karan was playing FIFA in his laptop, when the phone rang. It was his dad. Karan immediately paused the game and started thinking about all the bad things he had done in the last week, that could come back to haunt him.

Surprisingly, we found nothing. So, he turned his thoughts to some bad news. After contemplating a lot, he heard from a distant corner of his brain, ‘Dude, it’s just Dad’s monthly call. Pick up!’

He picked up the phone.

“Hey! Hello Dad!” Karan started first.

“Hello Beta! How are you?”

“I am fine, dad! How about you?”

“I am also good. So, what’s new?”

“Nothing much!”

“Hmm…okay”

“What’s new in our city?”

“Well, nothing much. Same old things in same old city.”

“…”

“…”

Awkward silence was reaching its height, when a silver lining came to Karan.

“What is mom doing?”, Karan leapt for it.

“Yeah, mom is right here. Wait! Let me give her the phone.”, Dad also breathed a sigh of relief. He gave the phone to mom and went to see the TV.

“Haan beta, How are you?.”

“I am good mom. I was just playing football in my laptop.”

“Still playing games. Should’t you be studying for CAT exams?” she asked.

“Oh mom! I am not a kid anymore. I know my priorities.”

“Yeah that’s true, now you have a job, you don’t need to listen to your mom.”

“Emotional blackmail? That came very early today in our conversation. Tell me what happened.”

“Nothing.”

“Mom”

“We found a girl for you.” Mom said happily.

“No No No” Karan managed to say, before getting in shock; a shock that every child has to go through once in his lifetime, at some stage.

To Be Continued…

Click Here for the next part.

 

 

 

 

Once upon a time – Terror Tale

We had an office group and we planned for a trip to Matheran, a nearby hillstation decorated gracefully by nature. We had heard so much about its huge waterfall and its beauty in the rains. Everybody was excited about the trip and nearly everybody joined. The journey to the upper hills and the different points were fun, but the highlight of the trip was when we started to return.

Image Courtesy: Someone from the group.

We had visited all important points, did some trekking, clicked great photos and were enjoying the clouds at zenith. It was around 3 or 3.30 in the afternoon and time to return was upon us.

As soon as we started, the clouds started collecting, reducing the visibility and little drizzles also started pouring. It was a welcome change in the atmosphere.

We knew the path to return, but someone suggested a new path which would be shorter to return, so for obvious reasons, we took that path.

Little did we knew, that path will make us rewind all the scary movies we have seen in our lives.

We started on the path. On one side, we had this great view of the city kilometers below. If someone were to fall, he/she will have a mini experience of sky diving, before being shattered to pieces. On the other side, we had a hill where forests had taken over.

While walking, we could feel someone was following us and each one of us felt that. And we could listen to a constant sound, as if someone walking in the bushes from the right side of the hill.

At first everybody was joking and having fun, as it was a classic Bollywood(specifically Kaal type) situation. We were throwing small pebbles at each other feet’s and act like we know nothing, to scare them off.

Suddenly the clouds darkened and visibility reduced even further. It must have been around 4 pm, but the darkness corresponded to 7 ‘O clock evening time.

And then we saw the path on which we were travelling, it was laden with fog. So nothing could be seen of the path on which we were travelling. We couldn’t see what lay even 5 meters ahead.

We formed 2 groups and started walking when we came across an electrical pole half fallen on the ground.

It was bent as if wind knocked it over. We came close to realize it was not only knocked down, but it was twisted, as if some monster or devilish power had knocked it in half and then twisted it.

That part scared me the most, still sends chills down my spine when I think about devil work’s on that pole.

Anyways then we moved ahead, scared like Dobby is scared of his master.

We took around 30 minutes of walk and couldn’t see any soul apart from our group. In the whole area, that must have been spread around 5-10 kms, it was hard to believe that no humans were spotted.

We came across a crossing, from where 3 roads originated and we didn’t knew which to take.

Then we all got collected at the junction and sent one person to check on one of the paths.

He went ahead on the right sided path and crossed a curve on the road, so he wasn’t visible to us. After sometime, when he didn’t return, we started shouting for his name. He didn’t answer!

We had to send another person and he repeated the same.

And then we heard a loud thunder and it started raining heavily all of a sudden.

Everybody panicked and started taking out their umbrellas, while some ran for cover. I had to shout at them to stay together. We regrouped again with the exception of the 2 person that were missing.

The two persons later told us that when they started to explore the path, they had heard some sounds like someone watching a TV, so they had moved further away from us to find out the source of the sound. Hearing them come closer, a very old woman in her eighties, came towards them asking something in Marathi. She was wearing a white sari and living alone in that isolated place. She was indicating the direction with her hands and that was enough communication they needed from her. As soon as they understood the directions, they ran away from her.

Anyways, back to the story. Somehow we felt that the right side path is the one that we should take that would make us reach our destination, so we started for that together.

When we reached on the curved path where the two guys got lost, we saw them coming towards us, the smile on their faces indicating that we were okay. Another guy came with them to help us with the path.

We felt a sigh of relief to see another soul apart from us.

I looked back once on the cursed path that we had travelled and then continued our journey.

Though it was not a scary place per se, but the way nature conspired to get us scared was an experience in itself.

 

Mumbai Diaries – Part 5(The One where Nauman can’t talk)

“Are you using the m-indicator app that I provided, while travelling around Mumbai.” Nauman asked Jaya.
“Why would I roam around Mumbai? I hate travelling….” Jaya replied.
Jaya and Nauman met for a coffee date. The rains were expected in a few days and as always happened, every Mumbaikar was pretty excited about the coming rains. The rains brought with it, the comfort and relief, and accompanied by sun dresses, it was the most awaited event after the scorching summers.
This was the time when Mumbaikars, took time off and went on weekend trips to nearby locations. Some went to Lonavla, some to Matheran, some to Mahabaleshwar, while some planned and planned and eventually failed, cursing their group.
“….I just love to spend my weekends reading and cuddling my bed.” Jaya continued.
“Wow, you are a weirdo, stuck in a city like Mumbai”
“I don’t see it that way. Anyways do you know we have a place in Pune called Bhosari. I heard a joke about it, but couldn’t understand it.”
Nauman listened to the joke wide eyed, and he knew he had to change the topic.
“Hah, you don’t need to go far for silly names. Have you ever heard of Chembur?”
“Yeah, I hear about Chembur and my mind goes straight to Harry Potter and Chembur of secrets.”
“Harry Potter….more like the boy who was born in Mumbai. What would the first part be? Harry Potter and Santracruz to Sion?
“Lame.”
“I have a good one for Order of Phoenix…..Harry Potter and Order from Panvel.” Jaya continued.
“How about ‘Patient of Alzheimer’s’ for ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’?”
“That will work” Jaya said a little more awkwardly than she always does.
“What about ‘Goblet of Fire’?”
“It should be ‘Ghatkopar ki aag’?”
“This looks even lamer than RGV ki aag.”
“Haha, it certainly is.”
“Wow, this is awesome. We just made the whole franchise Mumbai based. They should put our conversation in the textbooks of Marathi children. They will learn about their city.”
 
“Give me credit as well, when producers line up at your doorstep.”
“Haha…sure. Anyways I should leave now, as I have an important meeting after this.”
Nauman was going to meet Gaurav to talk about the situation. Neither Gaurav nor Jaya was aware of the special situation that was brewing between them. Day after day, the guilt was getting heavy to carry for Nauman and so he had decided to talk with Gaurav first.
(1.5 hours and 2 local travels later)
 
Gaurav’s home
 
Gaurav was sitting at his home when Nauman comes in.
Nauman sits beside Gaurav somewhat awkwardly.
Gaurav was thinking something before Nauman had rang the doorbell. He tried recollecting but couldn’t.
Nauman knew that nobody would be there at home, so he thought it was good opportunity to talk to Gaurav. Though Gaurav was a localite of Mumbai, he used to live in a rented house, so as to be closer to workplace. It was a pretty common thing in Mumbai, for youngsters to live closer to workplace, for the obvious reasons, plus this also gave them the independence to enjoy night life of Mumbai.
“Bro, I need to talk to you” started Nauman.
“Yeah tell me.”
“Have you ever felt something inside you burning and you have to get it out before it eats you alive?”
Gaurav suddenly remembers what he was thinking.
“Oh yes, what a great coincidence. I was also thinking of similar lines before you came in.”
“Eh?”
“Yeah, you know you feel like that when you are about to puke”
“No I didn’t mean it like that. I mean…like when you have something to say but you don’t how to say”
“Are you in love bro? Because that shit happens only when this kind of shit happens”
“Kind of! Not exactly love…”
“Wow that will work as well. What a great coincidence, I was thinking for a reason to party, and now we have one.”
“You don’t understand what I am going through”
“We are gonna have whiskey today”
“Its such a big fear that is eating up my brain.”
“No beers today, only whiskeys.”
“I can’t seem to understand whether should I tell you or not?”
“Why tell me, go tell her. You know what I have been struggling with my drinking problem too much now. You don’t see me crying about it.”
“This is serious dude. This concerns you as well.”
“I am pretty sure you are concerned for me, but leaving it altogether is not a solution I fancy.”
Nauman understood that nothing is going to work today. So he decided to just roll with the flow.
“Yeah bro, we are concerned, please find something or someone worth leaving this hobby for. I would suggest Breezer, but looking at your current status, I think you would finish the drink along with the bottle.”
“I might.”
“Anyways, I should leave now. Thanks for the talk.” Nauman said sarcastically.
“Anytime mate!”, said Gaurav raising his bottle.
Nauman starts to leave, when Gaurav remembers something and calls Nauman.
“Do you know my sister?”
Nauman freezes to death. It was as if Gaurav was waiting for all the conversation to finish so that he can ask this question.

To Be Continued…

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Mumbai Diaries – Part 4(The One in the Office)

Nauman and Gaurav walked into the office to see Karan and Atush already taking coffee in the pantry area.

“Dude, I told you to wait for us”, Gaurav complained.

“Sorry bro, I have a call to attend, so had to rush early.” Atush explained.

“And you?” Nauman asked pointing to Karan.

“Nothing, I have a KT call to attend to, so that means I am free as a bird. I will join you too. Grab your mugs.” Karan replied winking.

“So, you are not liking your new project?”, Gaurav inquired.

“I must say its incredibly boring. I feel like starting MBA preparations again.”

“Well, as they say, ‘Life is what happens, when you are busy making plans’, I think instead of thinking, you better start doing something.” Gaurav said.

Karan folds his hands in a praying motion. “Please spare me the lecture, and go get your mugs”

Nauman and Gaurav went to get their mugs. Atush also joins them to attend his call. Nauman and Gaurav worked in the same project. While Atush was gaining momentum in his projects working on proposals, Karan had recently joined this office and project. He was taking knowledge transfer(KT) sessions from individuals in his projects to familiarize himself with the work.

Karan started thinking about what Gaurav had said and started searching for inspirations in his mind. A lot of people came; Gates, Jobs, Elon etc. He had to stop his chain of thoughts when Mia also came to his mind.

Meanwhile, Nauman and Gaurav came back.

Then they saw Atush coming with his coffee mug again. Apparently his call got cancelled due to a mild earthquake in Kolkata region. The recurring earthquakes in east India, were making Atush’s life difficult as the workload came to him in absence of the kolkata team. But this time, it returned to give Atush some much needed relief, that heightened his mood.

“Dude, I just saw two HR arm-wrestling over a holiday home.” Atush came running into the pantry area.

“What? Seriously?”, everyone asked puzzled.

“Nah re, just kidding. They were beat-boxing.”

“Oh please shut up and lets talk about something real.” Nauman said.

“Like?” Atush asked.

“Like” said Karan still thinking, “Did you call Akriti yet?”

“No bro, I don’t want to seem so eager. You all saw how different she is. I won’t be doing any standard thing here”

“This is why you should call her soon. Waiting for 3 days to call is the stereotype these days”

“But I don’t want to look needy.”

“Okay, making whole office think you and boss are a Romeo and Romero OR shattering those rumours by calling the girl?”

“I better call her.” He proceeds to dial her number. “By the way, Romero? Really? Is that all you could think of?”

“Go get your gamer Juliet, who kicks your ass.” Nauman was nearly shouting as Atush moves to a more private place to call.

Gaurav turns to Karan
“So, when is your MBA truck moving from thinking stage to doing stage?”

“The driver of the truck has abandoned the truck because of bad

Image Courtesy: Google Images

road conditions.”

“Don’t worry dude, ache din are coming. Your roads would be fine soon”

“Abe what can Modi do, when the truck is shit and….” Karan had to stop as Atush had returned.

He looked distraught and consternated.

Everyone asked him what had happened.

“Some boy answered the phone and said the number doesn’t belong to any Akriti.”

To Be Continued…

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Mumbai Diaries – Part 3(The One where they Meet)

Few hours before…

“BC, is that my station?”

Nauman tried to decode what Gaurav might have said.

While he was trying to make sense of it all, his eyes set upon a set of eyes even more restless than his. He kind of wished her eyes would rest on him, but ofcourse this was real life, so nothing of that sort happened.

Nauman stood thinking of all the pickup lines as he had mugged up during his desperation days. But he kind of knew that pickup lines won’t be necessary on this girl, not in a ‘him like a casanova and its going to be easy’ kind of a way, but in a way where being genuine would easily work.

He approached her making as concerned face as possible.

“You look lost.”

“Can you tell me which train number will go to Churchgate?” she asked.

“What? Trains don’t have numbers here…”

“Ofcourse they have, how else they will distinguish one from the another?”

“Well that’s true, but…..wait a minute….are you travelling in a local for the first time?”

She nodded embarrassingly.

“Can you help here? Just tell me the train number…I will find out the rest”

“Ohh, enough with the train number. You will need to wait on Platform 3, the Churchgate train leaves from there. This is platform 1.
And you see that train going…that is leaving for Churchgate. So you have solid 20 mins before another one comes.”

“Okay” she said feeling a little relieved.

 “So, first time huh? Did you move to Mumbai yesterday?” he asked hoping to use these 20 minutes effectively.

“Nah, I have been born and brought up in Mumbai only.”

 “Huh…weird”

“Nothing weird, have you seen the rush here.” she explained her predicament.

 “So why now?”

“Just a bet to get a gift.”

 “Care to explain?”

“I will get a new phone if I get a selfie with the Churchgate station.”

 “What kind of competition is this?”

Before she could answer, they were interrupted by a sea of passengers trying to get on the train. They moved to a more central spot on the platform.

 “Do you live here? Weren’t you waiting for that train?” she inquired.

“Ohh, actually I am waiting for my friend, who will be coming shortly here. He just got victimized to the passenger love and couldn’t de-board.”

 “Ohh that’s scary.”

“So please board the ladies coach only. And which reminds me that you should install ‘m-indicator’ into your phone.”

 “Give me your number, I will text you the link to download the cracked version.”

She gave her number with a wry smile and proceeded to uninstall ‘m-indicator’ from her phone.

 “You know once I was on the beach and drew a heart on the sand with my name on it…and the next I know is 7 boy’s names written inside the heart. Please don’t be one of those boys.”
Image Courtesy: Google Images

“No I am not, I am Nauman, by the way”

 “Ooh, I already like your name. Nauman, as in Roadies wala Nauman?”

“Yeah”

 “My name is Jaya, by the way. I should leave now. And yeah don’t forget to text the link, you don’t want me to be lost in Mumbai”.

“Sure”

 They parted ways. He saw the confused girl bumping into people, asking for directions to her train.

…Back to Present

“Did you call her yet?” Nauman asked Atush.

After being flustered in the laser tag game, they were back to the pub, enjoying last few moments of their weekend.

“No dude, let me get home atleast. I have tomorrow’s go live to look for. I have my boss hanging on me like a clingy girlfriend already.”

“Oho, so we have a triangle here.”

“I can bet I will receive a message in next 10 mins regarding his concern over the developed code.”

Everyone looked at Atush’s screen. A notification sound did came, but it was on Gaurav’s phone.

“Shit, its my sister. I have got to buy a new phone now.”

To be Continued…

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Dreams Matter

Akarsh was walking on the road with his mother in the warm afternoon. The sun was spewing the UV rays like sprinklers spraying water everywhere, making sure everything in vicinity gets some radiation.

Its a pretty normal noon, dogs are trying to find a comfortable place to sleep in, some people trying to catch a bus for their offices, playschool students seemingly happy to get back to their parents, the pride of parenthood showing up on parents faces. The street kids running half naked towards the nearby lake. The shopkeepers cleaning up and loitering on the streets. The cars going at 40kmph on the narrow roads creating ruckus at an ear-deafening level. Akarsh makes a mental note of everything as he reaches home.

While going to bed, he asked his mom, “Mom, why do people throw garbage on the streets?”
His mother replied “Beta, they are just lazy people. You please go to sleep.”
“But they can keep a plastic bag with them na, if they are too lazy?”
“Its not that simple beta”
“But…”
“Okay tell me what superhero power you would want to teach them a lesson.”, she cut him off.
“I would become Flash and would go back in time and keep repeating the past till they don’t throw the trash in the bins”, Akarsh said giddily.

The mother smiled; half proud of her son’s passion and half on the ignorance of the idea of paradox of time-travel that her son was fathoming.

She listened to the mumbling of her child as he carried on the idea and eventually slept.

Akarsh woke up to a voice calling his name. The voice came from a long distance that he knew he couldn’t trace. The voice asked him “What is making you anxious?”

“It’s the people” said Akarsh in a muffled voice.
“Hahaha..you have to be a little more specific on that.”, said the voice grinning loudly.

“Why do people throw their garbage on the streets? Why don’t they understand its a moral duty to keep your area clean”

The voice culminated into a shadowy figure and came close to him.

“I am tired of dropping hints to them. Tell me if you have any good idea.”

Akarsh whispered something into the shadow ears.

Next day, Akarsh walked around with grinny face. Everywhere he saw, it was so clean. The half naked children were still running to the dirty pond. The dogs still couldn’t find a warm place to sleep. The ear deafening cars were still a big trouble. He thought to himself, atleast one thing got cured. We will work for other problems some other day.

“Look mom, its so clean today. No garbage, everything either in the dustbins or in the ‘houses’.”, he giggled.

“How did this happen?”, mom thought loud enough in order to make Akarsh answer.

“I asked the ‘voice’ to turn the garbages into 10 rupees note for few minutes”

They continue walking the road as Akarsh is singing happily and his mom scratching her head.

Image Courtesy: Google Images

 

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Mumbai Diaries – Part 2(The One with the lasertag match)

“Where’s our beer? The service here is crap” asked Nauman.
“Just like the bus service here. Man, would you believe that it took me 2 hours to cover the stretch of 8 kms. In my city, it would take me 20 mins and a cigarette break only”, chuckled Karan.
“You want to talk about traffic??? I was nearly fried, stuck between two BEST buses.” cried Atush.
“You could have used your AC” said Gaurav.
“Remember what we did last time we were drunk?” replied an angry Atush.
“Oh yeah, we left the car and AC running on the highway with windows open.” chuckled Gaurav and started laughing hysterically, but had to immediately stop as Atush started to pick up the fork in anger. “Nature’s call bro, can’t avoid!”
“The battery got so damaged that my father said if I use AC again, he will hack my account and will post a #supportJNU status to teach me a lesson.”
“Oooo that’s cruel.” everyone tried to suppress their laughter.
“Abe let’s change the topic. You won’t believe what happened at the station…” said Nauman.
“I thought, it will be more of a change.” interjected Karan.
“But this is interesting…”
“Yaar, its Mumbai, these things keep happening.”

Image Coutesy: Google Images

“Yeah, let’s leave up the redundant traffic talks and tell me with the show of hands, who is up for a game of Lasertag” said an enthused Atush raising his hand expecting a string of high fives from all parts of the table.

“Dude, no way I am going back in there”, said Gaurav explaining everyone’s dropped shoulders.
“Don’t you remember the carnage we conceded last time?” said Nauman
“Get over it man, we lost it big time. That girl single handedly beat our team” added Karan
“And that is why we should go and get our self-respect back.”
“Man, people find romances in weird places these days”, said Karan understanding the situation now.
“Ohh, our man has got a soft spot for the young lady” exclaimed Karan.
“Its not like that, I just love competition and yeah she is now one.”
“Then we have got to go and get our man his girl” everyone roared.

They had this new energy inside coming, injected by the things shown in the movies. When its time to impress a competition, everything falls into place and nothing can get you down. That was the scene when they entered the arena, ready to crush anyone fighting against them.

20 mins later(outside the lasertag arena)

Everyone returned with dropped shoulders, lowered to a new level.
“Well there is 200 bucks and a girl I would never see again” said Atush.
“Chill out man! You did come second. Thank God she was in my team.” said Karan.
“I think she was cheating” concluded Atush.
“Excuse me?”
They looked back with shocking eyes. It was the girl that had beat Atush and his team.
They still stared at her like the star troopers looked at a Jedi before getting cut in half.
“Did you really think you could win by making such a dumb strategy? Who leaves the base undefended?”
“I thought…. I would!” said Atush stuttering. Although scared, he was really impressed by the passion with which she was talking about the game. “Damn! You are so cool”, he imagined himself saying.
After completing the virtual nuptials, he finally muttered, “What are you doing outside your arena. Go depress some souls.”
This time she hesitated.
“Oh I came here to give these. These are congratulatory coupons given to the players who are just a little short of my high-score. It gives you some special privileges.” She said winking.
“I will beat your score someday. I will…”
“Huh! In hundred years!” she cut him off.
“The expression is ‘In a thousand years’!” corrected Atush.
“Well that explains why you being such a girl.”

She turned to leave and shouted in anger “There is a number mentioned in the back! Call it if you have any doubts.”
The three of them were in disarray, as they didn’t get what just happened here. They were astounded with the intensity that this girl shouted at Atush. They looked at a supposedly embarrassed Atush, but he looked serene and yet playful in his expression. He gave a wicked smile.
“So, her name is Akriti.”

 

To Be Continued…

 

Click Here for the next part.

 

 

 

Mumbai Diaries – Epilogue (The One with the Closure)

He came back to her, bruised and exhausted. She wondered this can’t be real…it wasn’t, but it felt so real.
He could see the pain and love in her eyes, but there was something missing beyond his comprehension. There were no tears. He asked “How have you been”. She hugged him, a hug firm but hesitating one, a tender one yet corruptible.
The distance between them had put them in a position where both were trying to understand each other, just looking at each other, words not required between them, they never were necessary. She thought could this be the reason for putting distance between them. Could something so beautiful once, be destroyed by a mere words; or the lack of it?

Suddenly the pain seemingly felt physical, she thought about the unspoken dreams that she had dared to imagine, the dream of a life adulterated by no one; the only life she could imagine since their meeting 3 years ago. Fighting the world seemed like a formality, when they joined forces.

Image Courtesy: Google Images
 “Does it have to be so hard? Doesn’t this pain makes you realize that what we have is real and its a mistake to go apart?” he asked again.
 “The pain not only makes it real, but reminds that it is not meant to be” she replied.

That hit him hard.

 “Shouldn’t you be happy that what was not meant to be is not happening and you got rid of it.”

“I wish things were that simple.”

 He went numb.

She spoke, “What we had was not love”

 “We had love. But unfortunately love is not enough these days. Maturity is required as well.”

She chuckled “Maturity! Isn’t it an overtly used term these days. Blaming everything on it. When it comes to adventure and shenanigans, everyone seeks immaturity, but otherwise maturity is required. I am beginning to think that immaturity was what kept us together, in fact led us towards each other…”.

 “What?” he cut her off.

“Yeah! How else would you explain us. We are so different from each other. Our interests don’t match. We are like two sides of coin, never destined to meet each other. On some level, we should have known that this day was bound to come.”

 “Well, if you put it like that, it sure seems the explanation. But it seemed easy that time and looked like our difference somehow were connecting us.”

“Well, that was our infatuated mind taking over maturity.”

 “I understand now” he sighed, dropping his shoulders. “But how are you okay going forward with this?”

“I think I am being mature now”, she smiled. He smiled back.

 “But tell me this, how do I get closure?”

“Ha, never the one to shy away from the technical terms.”

 “How else to prove I am different!”

“Closure is nothing but accepting that there is no ‘us’ anymore and being brave enough to imbibe that.”

“Like being happy for you and future?”

“No you fool, you don’t have to feel anything for me anymore…be as apathetic as you can. If you care, you are only hurting yourself.”

“It will be the toughest thing to do…”

“Me too”

“Who would have thought not caring would be this tough….”

“It is tough when you have promised ‘Thousand years’ to each other”, she tried to joke, but the gazing intensity of him melted anything that was calm inside her.

“Yeah, a thousand years” his words carried something venomous that even shook the nothingness in her.

Suddenly she felt lighter. The cloudy dust that had shrouded everything seemed to be clearing out and she could sense this from within. The heaviness that his remembrance brought was felt no more and she could un-shackle herself easily.

Atlast she woke up with a smile. After an array of dreamless nights, she leveraged the all important lesson that would catapult her towards an ordeal free world.
She can be herself again, completed after a long time.

This dream had done the job much better than her own consciousness could ever do.

“Thanks for ‘the thousand years’ and I am coming back”, she mumbled as she smiled her way back to sleep.

 

Airlift-Uplifted


Airlift – a movie with a heroic attempts by an Indian- Kuwaiti businessman to evacuate 1.75 lakhs Indian from Kuwait via Jordan.
First of all, commendable job by Akshay Kumar and Raja Menon, for bringing into highlight, one of the best and largest evacuation effort by a country.
The story starts with a racist joke “How do you fit 20 Iraqis in a telephone booth?” showing Ranjeet(Akshay Kumar), imbibed in Kuwaiti colours.
We don’t get to see more colours of his character as soon enough, the Iraqi forces invade Kuwait and render the inhabitants homeless. In these tough times, Ranjeet finds himself on a crossroad, as he has to decide between his responsibility towards family or towards the people who are dependent on him. The moment of decision has been shown very subtly and simply.
Ranjeet realizes that he is more Indian than he gives himself credit for, as he takes on camp preparation for the dependents and tries to find ways of evacuation.
Nimrat impresses yet again in her portrayal of strong wife. Though cynical of Ranjeet’s actions initially, but she comes on board later as she realizes that Ranjeet is not going to leave anyone behind.
Purab Kohli, playing Ibrahim stands out in the crowd full of Indians in the camp. His cool and calm portrayal yet again shows his immense talent in bringing justice to any role he is trusted with.
The screenplay is balanced with apt focus on the internal struggle of Ranjeet and Amrita(Nimrat) while focusing mostly on the issue at hand.
Some scenes have been portrayed so well, they will get you emotional. A applaud-worthy effort, ending in a clichéd slow-motion waving of Indian flag, but that still works. J
We would have loved it more if it was based more on real life characters. Though we see some names like “Mathunny Matthews” and “Vedi” in credits, but they could have been portrayed in the movie itself. But, I won’t take credit away from Akshay, as this was a brave and flawless effort from his side.
In an era, where directors really shy away from making movies on historic events, due to fear of backlash from intolerant India, this is definitely a good start. We hope to see more of it.
I would definitely advise you to watch once and revive this genre of movies.
Image credit: Google Images

Air Guitar Rocks!


The worst habit that damages us is our inability to understand that patience is the key to a lot of things including early success.

We lose so many abilities in our lives just because of our impatience.
How many times in our lives we have taken a new thing and at the start we are star-eyed about it. The new thing is fun and brings out a lot of things out of us. Say, for example, coding; at the start, at the basic level, its all fun and easy. But, as soon as the challenges start to creep up, we start to lose interest in them. Although, it may also be the result of an unprecedented start, without acquiring necessary textbook knowledge, but my point is, impatience here also plays the same role. Instead of acquiring the necessary theoretical knowledge, we jumped on the coding section, without being equipped with the necessary troubleshooting knowledge.
Had we been patient enough, things would have been different.
Another example that we commonly see, is about joining gym. We start expecting as soon as the first bulge of tightened muscle we see.

What we need to understand that things don’t work that way. One must toil a little to achieve something. Although its known by all of us and we do keep it in mind. But somewhere down the line, right between joy and the first roadblock, this particular thought becomes blurry.
To look on the positive side, these acts of impatience sometimes define and prioritize our passions. There are some things in life, we keep coming back to. They keep crossing our path, until we accept or discard it completely.
It is only when we are too passionate about something that we give it all and achieve it. In my perspective, life is all about achieving milestones, however small it maybe. And the smaller the aim, the better. Small achievements or goal completion give us that something motivation to keep us going in our monotonous lives. Don’t we love it, when we have a small but surprising bonus, or the happiness to beat out our rival in a cricket match, or for the nerds, the completion of a level that had been a pain in the arse for so long. So, basically what I want to say is that patience is a key stakeholder and companion in our ‘Harvey Dent’ or ‘Two Face’ phase.
So, the actual and only roadblock that we face is our will to submit to the circumstances to give up or to dust ourselves up and keep up the fight. Even though it may become boring, but it won’t be fruitless.
In the words of Paolo Coelho
“You can think of yourself as a victim and suffer throughout your life or you can think of yourself as an adventurer who is always ready to move on and experience the best out of life.”
Image Courtesy: Google Images