“I Love You…” He told her.

She did not reply. She looked at him and kissed him.

*                *              *

He woke up. His hands started searching for her on the bed. He could not find her.
He got up and looked for her in the kitchen. She was not there.

“She might have gone out.” He thought.

He prepared the coffee and poured it into two cups. He finished his cup but she did not come home.

*                *              *

He connected to VPN in the office and logged into twitter. He went to her twitter account. Her last tweet was approximately one month old. He likes stalking at her profile.

“Why is she not tweeting? I should talk about it today.” He thought.

It was 1 PM. He looked at his mobile. No missed calls.

He called her.

Her mobile was switched off.

He skipped his lunch. He did not feel like having it. He was waiting for the clock to hit 6.

*                  *              *

He reached home. It was still locked.
He sat at the door and called her. It was still switched off.

He prepared dinner for both of them. He was waiting for her.

The phone rang. He lifted up. It was Krish.

” Dude! Come down. Let’s have a small drink.”

” I’m waiting for her. She feels bad if I drink.”

” I shall talk to her dude. You come down.”

*                   *             *

They were in their fourth peg.

” Life would never have been beautiful if she were not in my life. I met her three years back. Earlier, life was routine and very depressing. But she changed it…”

” Stop it dude!” Krish shouted.

He looked at him in shock.

Krish continued:

” Come to reality. She died a month ago. And why you still can’t accept that fact? Come to reality. I can’t see you living in illusion. “

He did not speak. He went home. She had not yet come home.

He called her. It was still switched off.

He slept off and had never woken up…

*                    *               *

Every evening, they meet at the park. They discuss about their lives, emotions and feelings.
They discuss about the humiliation they face at home. They discuss about how they get ignored at home.

... They are in love...

On one evening, they decided to get married. They knew that they had to fight at home. They knew that there was only one way for their marriage. They have to come out of their families.

He went home that evening. He drank some water and sat in the couch. Nobody really bothered to look at him. It did not surprise him because he had been ignored since he quit his job. He then understood that they had seen him like a 'Money Machine'.

After couple of hours, he told them that he wanted to marry her. As he expected, they did not agree to it. They looked at him in a disgusting way.
He thought, "It's time to move on..."

On the same evening, she went home. She told her family that she wanted to marry. They asked her to leave the home.
She thought, "It's time to move on..."

On the next morning, they got married. He took her to his home ten miles away from the city.

"Finally, we got some time to live our lives..." They told each other.

He was 63 and she was 61.

Yes.. I deleted “The Girl On The Train” post.

Few of my female friends told me that the way I described the girl was very ridiculous and it hurts them.

Through this story, I wanted to explain that there will be Men who think the way I have described in the story. I don’t say that all men think that way. But there will be men of that sort.

My protagonist was one such individual at the beginning of the story.

Her eyes were reddish because she was undergoing lots of pain in her life and hence she did not have proper sleep the previous night. But the guy saw it the other way.

We stand on a road and suddenly we see a girl and comment on her.

She was reading the book but her eyes were not. Because she was thinking of her problems… she was worried of her survival. But the guy thinks the other way.

We see the outer appearance and comfortably forget the inner feelings.

I just wanted to portray this in the story.

When I sat down to write this story, I decided to write it an abstract way…

Its not my failure to portray the real meaning. Because I wanted the story to be in the same way of what it was.

The reason why I deleted the post is that I can’t waste my time involving in the discussions about this story.

Please read part – 1 here.

‘What are you doing? Copying is not good in any case.’ Shankar started screaming.

We were in front of the Fresher’s Building. Our Mid Exam would start in another half an hour. I was busy writing slips and he was busy revising the already completed lessons. I couldn’t understand why people waste time studying when there were better ways of scoring good percentage. People are just cowards.

The exam started. I couldn’t believe that I knew the answer for one question. I started writing.

After 10-15 minutes, the invigilator came near to me and took out a paper on my bench. I was shivering. He read the contents of the paper and said, ‘Get out.’

I knew that there was no other way for me except leaving the exam hall. I came out.

I went to the canteen and ordered noodles. I knew that they would take at least half an hour to prepare them. I can waste my time waiting for the noodles.

Soon, Shankar came to the canteen.

“I already told you that copying is not good.” He fired at me.

I did not say anything. I took out a paper from my pocket and gave it to him.

“What is this? “ He asked.

“This is the slip I’ve prepared.” I answered.

He was surprised.

“Then, what about the slip that invigilator got?” He asked.

He knows the answer too. That might have been somebody else’s slip.

“It’s mine.” We heard a sweet voice.

We looked back and it was her.

What a beauty!!!  I couldn’t stop staring at her. It never happened to me. May be, this is what they call ‘Love at first sight’.

“Hi! I’m Aparna. Number 43. “

There was this tradition of prefixing and suffixing the roll numbers with their names. I didn’t know how it started.

It was only two weeks since I joined the college. My first task after joining in any college is to scan for the viruses. Somehow, I missed this Virus. I need to upgrade my Anti Virus Mechanism.

“And her hobbies are watching TV, playing caroms and copying in the exams.” I told Shankar.

I knew that she felt bad.

“I can understand. But then, I have had no other option. I tried to throw it out of the window but it didn’t go till the window. Later, I really felt guilty and that’s the reason why I came to you. I shall inform the same to our HOD too, if you want. “She explained.

If it were some other girl or guy, I would have immediately asked them to appear in front of HOD. But now, my mind started working on the equations. On the LHS, my mid exam was standing. On the RHS, she was standing. I could see the balance tilting towards her.

“It’s okay. I can understand. Let us leave this here.  But as a punishment, we demand a treat from you.” I told her.

“Sure. Saturday evening… Bagels?” She asked.

We agreed.

My next task was to find out if she was already seeing someone.

This is Aparna. Oops… Sorry… This is Shekar. Yeah… you guessed right. I’m in love with her and this is her love story. By ‘her love’ story, I truly mean that its just her love story… not mine!!!

Great love stories start with the first meeting. But this great love story, I feel comfortable if ‘great’ and ‘love’ are missing in it… Okay, where am I? Yes… this great love story starts with the BREAK-UP.

I start this story with their break-up coz of the very obvious reason…

I don’t just love her…

But I love her break up too…

*             *             *

‘Most of the creative people are emotionally driven.’ She started her break up speech.

I looked at her giving a hint that she was going too poetic. She understood.

We were sitting in the canteen. He was sitting opposite to her while I was sitting next to her. I could feel that he was not comfortable with my presence.

‘They also say that two intelligent people can’t live a happy life together.’ She started again.

What did she say? May be… it doesn’t apply to me.

‘It’s been wonderful time spent with you excluding the last two months. Thanks for everything.’ She finished.

‘Not a problem.’ He said and left.

She was upset.

What a chance for me!!!

I don’t know why but I feel the moment to be a romantic one.

I have been waiting for this moment to come since a year.

I’ve tried all possible ways to separate them.

*     *             *

14 months back…

Now.. It’s time for yet another change.
Yes.. I’ve moved to WordPress platform.
As usual, change is inevitable.
It’s been 4+ years on blogger.
Thanks Blogger for all your features.
Hope to see you soon if not satisfied with WordPress

A story I’ve written for a magazine few months ago…

I was at the sixth floor of my hostel. It was almost midnight. By this time, most of the people might not be sleeping. But majority of them might be trying hard to sleep. We get up at 5 in the morning and sleep at 10 in the night. And, the rest of our lives just revolve around EAMCET, IIT and BITS. It’s been one year since I came to this place and I need to be here for another year. May be, I need to stay here for longer duration because I’d already failed in two subjects and I wasn’t sure whether I’d pass all the subjects in the second year. I was sure that I wouldn’t be in Engineering and that reason was enough for me to end my life. That was why I was at the terrace of my hostel.

One step ahead will end my life. How simple is Death!! But it takes lot of courage for that one simple step. After struggling hard for about 5-10 minutes, I finally decided to step ahead. And like hell lot of other stories, someone stopped me from doing it. When I looked back, I could see an old man smiling at me. He looked calm and his smile was awesome.

“Congratulations!” he said offering me a warm handshake.
“For?” I said rejecting the handshake.
“Because you’ve got few more minutes to live in this world. Congratulations for the bonus life!!” he said smiling at me.

“This is not the time for jokes. And, who are you?” I asked. I asked him because I’ve never seen him before.
“I am being called as God.” He said.
“So, are you God?” I asked with a bit of sarcasm.
“If that’s the name with which you wish to call me, then I’m the God.”
“I can’t argue with you. If you have anything to say to me, then do it and go away.”
“I don’t have anything to tell you. But I know that you have something to tell me,” he said.
“I don’t have anything to share with a stranger,” I said and turned around. I tried jumping from the building but surprisingly, I couldn’t do it. Some force was stopping me from doing it.
“You can’t do it. I already told you that you have got a bonus life,” he said.
“Okay. Tell me… what do you want me to tell you?”

“Why are you doing this?”
“I want to die because I don’t have anything to do here in this world. I failed in two subjects. My father went bankrupt. My mother doesn’t love me anymore. My girl friend left me. I don’t even have friends. If you were in my place, you would have done the same thing,” I said. I did not know why I told him all these things.

He was just listening to it. I continued:
“If I were you, I would have been sleeping by now.” He told me.
“If I were you, I would have saved people from suffering.” I screamed.
There was no reaction in His face.
“Happiness without suffering is same as mere suffering. Success without failure is just the same as failure. After all, how do you differentiate success from failure if you haven’t faced failure in your life? You don’t know what’s in store for you tomorrow. You’ll get a call from your girlfriend in 5 minutes. And in the sixth minute, you’ll regret for what you are doing now.” He said and disappeared.
There was none at the terrace and I was nervous. And suddenly, my phone rang. I took my phone out of my pocket and it was from her.

“Hello!” I said.
“I’m Sorry… and I Love you…” she said.
I couldn’t understand what was going on. I started searching for Him but couldn’t find him. I felt like God has finally granted me happiness. I was about to tell her that I love you when I suddenly realized that I was on the edge of the wall in the terrace and I got slipped.
“What God! Why are you doing this to me?” I screamed. I was in the mid air on my way to the ground. Falling from sixth floor will guarantee you with death. After few seconds of travel, I finally fell on ground. With blurred vision, I could see Him.
“Thus ends your bonus life!” He said.
“God… I want to live” I said.
He did not answer me. Slowly, my eyes were getting closed…

*    *    *

I got up from my bed. I looked around. My roommates were sleeping.
“What a dream!” I said to myself.

I looked at the letter I’ve written few hours back. I read it again and threw it into the dustbin and said,  “Thanks a lot, God…”

R K Narayan

Of all the books I’ve read so far (though the number is very small), I feel the books of R K Narayan are the best. It might be because of the book Swami And Friends. I really enjoyed reading every word in the novel. Till now, I’ve been reading novels of the nature ‘Pulp Fiction’ and my favourite author was Chetan Bhagat and he was the one who influenced my style of writing. But after reading R K Narayan’s literature, I realised that I’ve been reading the B-Grade novels. I’m not criticising CB or his novels but obviously these are not the novels one should read except for just entertainment and nothing else.

I was just browsing through the titles in Crossword when I saw this book ‘The Magic Of Malgudi’. ‘Why did I miss reading R K Narayan’s books?’, I thought and I immediately bought this book as it is a compilation of three novels by R K Narayan.

Then, I realised that it was easy to write like Chetan Bhagat but it was not easy to write like R K Narayan ( write like .. doesn’t mean ‘copy’).

P.S.: Will be reading Hitler’s Mein Kampf this week. Expect a review on it in the coming weeks. Expect an article of about 1000 words.