Life is…… A cup of tea???

long time since i wrote one!!! :)

hope this one s at least as good/bad as the other 0nes!!! :)

Parag wanted to throw the files away, such was the way last week treated him at his office and what better way to finish off the week? It was already 7 in the evening and he was still stuck. 7 in the evening was not too late, but considering that on an average he was at the office for more than 18 hours everyday during this week, and for today he had plans to leave early, it was already too late. The workload was killing him and he could see some tension building up between him and his manager - 'Is it for real or is it just my feeling?'. He wanted to concentrate more on this last report, on finishing which he could leave. The report was on the company's involvement in sports and the benefits that it brought to the company; and sports, as always, interested him. 'Something interesting at this stupid office!!!'.

He felt satisfied looking at the report. It was made in his trademark style, which he thought was good and about which his manager never complained. He took the report to the manager and submitted it and was about to leave, when the manager asked him "Can't you do something better? Why do you always come up this same kind of bullshit?".

'Today should have been the worst day in my entire career', Parag had no doubt about it. He had wasted more than an hour to modify the report as per the comments from his manager.By the time he reached home, it was already 11 at night and his wife was watching some reality show on TV. He went straight to the kitchen, 'A tea for me too' said his wife, guessing what he was up to.

Lately, with him busy at office his relationship with his wife wasn't going all that smooth. It looked as if she wanted to have a talk with him and he wasn't in any kind of mood for that, at least not tonight!

He tasted the tea and loved it! It was perfect - it was strong and was a little too sweet, just the way he liked it. He felt proud about the tea, and even the thoughts of his office was almost out of his mind. He always believed in the refreshing power of tea. He gave a cup to his wife and was on his way towards his recliner on the balcony when his wife shouted from behind - "Same shitty tea again!!! Can’t you do any better?"

Love of my life!

The eerie silence associated with dusk, has stopped inducing angst in me lately. This was so unlike me for I had always feared the dark, and even dreaded the thought of walking out alone. But today, being at this garden all alone, awaiting him, in fact, fills my heart with joy instead of fear.

I never thought that I would fall for someone in such haste. But he is so mesmerizing; his eyes could hypnotize anyone looking into them, his words - comforting, and his tone - enthralling. Everything about him is fascinating. Even the thoughts about him stimulated a deep longing. I guess this is how every other girl feels about her love.

Love changes a lot of things, they say. Love indeed brought out a new me. The shy girl who feared everything around her is long gone. The one who hated animals and feared most of the inferior life is now more confident confronting them.

A dog started howling afar and all of a sudden many others joined. It felt as if the dogs are singing out of joy in meeting their sweethearts. These sounds would have brought chills to me before, but not anymore, I could now see the beauty in it. The garden grew darker, with sun gone. I saw a snake winding away from me at a distance. I could even see a dog watching me from the woods nearby. The look on its face was endearing and it had a long furry tail.

My heart started pounding faster. It was not out of fear, but of the realization that he will be here any minute from now. I felt as if I could communicate with him through my thoughts, or is it just my thoughts?

And then I saw him coming, the captor of my mind and soul. I ran into his outstretched arms and kissed him, as he lifted me up, taking out the air in me. Being with him gave me a feeling of immortality. It felt as if our love will last for ever, till the end of the world, even beyond that. We stood there clutching each other close, with our eyes closed. I could now feel his head moving downwards searching for the mark, which he left just yesterday, on my neck. I could hear him whisper “The blood is the life…”

I saw this movie again last week and loved it. So i thought - y not write a story around this? :)

Planned Deception

This story is purely a work of fiction. All characters and events in this story are completely fictional. Any resemblance in whole or in part to real people, living or dead, or any events is purely coincidental.

Dheeraj was a happy man tonight. Why wouldn't he be? He was about to receive 30 Crores for organizing a drug deal. He just spoke to Gaurav who was confident about the deal taking place tomorrow without any hassles.

This was the biggest drug deal that he had handled, probably bigger than the biggest India had ever witnessed. It was a month back that he was asked to find a potential buyer in India for the American dealer. It took Dheeraj some time to finally find someone. He only met Gaurav, who represented the buyer during the talks. Once the deal gets over, 30 Crores is his for just acting as the middleman. "If everything goes well tomorrow..."

Pranoy, an upcoming businessman, was not as lucky as Dheeraj and was trying hard to catch some sleep, at the other end of the city. It was like this for Pranoy for the last 2 weeks, from when he received the first of the many anonymous phone calls.

Pranoy was not much different from many other successful businessmen in India. To surge ahead even Pranoy had to take paths which were not pleasant. Somebody just found out a lead that could connect him to a famous political murder, with which he accidentally got involved, that he thought was very well covered after so many years. They had decided to meet tomorrow to settle the whole thing.

If this leaks out then he would be spending the rest of his life in jail, and he didn't want that to happen at any cost. Pranoy closed his eyes, though he knew that he couldn't sleep. "If everything goes well tomorrow..."

Gaurav's boss was spending the night planning for the day ahead. "Poor Dheeraj and Gaurav" he thought, "What ever happens tomorrow, those 2 would be dead anyway". It was impossible to pay up the money that the American demanded. But he wanted the drugs anyway. And the only way to get it was by force.

His agents were good at tracking down all members of the American gang that landed in India. They scattered themselves within the city, to avoid being captured if something goes bad. "Not bad, but not good enough to save you all" he thought. Now its up to his men to finish them all off and he had a very good plan to cover up the entire operation too. "If everything goes well tomorrow..."

Pranoy met with the blackmailer, by 10:30pm next day, at the Railway station, but was not given the evidence that he was promised. "You won't stop milking me for money huh? I bet you'll regret your decision!", thought Pranoy and just pressed the send button on his mobile phone to send a message that he had composed earlier. The blackmailer left in some time and Pranoy merely smiled.

Gaurav's boss had a busy day making sure his plans worked to perfection, and he was sure it would, based on the progress he made so far. He merely turned on the TV and waited for the action to begin.

Gaurav reached the hotel as he was asked to by 10:45 at night and met Dheeraj there. The American came a while later. Everything went fine till a gunshot killed the American. Gaurav started running but a bullet found him too. Before taking his last breath, he saw Dheeraj lying dead among many others. The guns didn't stop firing that night.

Gaurav's boss was getting live updates of the "terrorist attack" that he had planned. It was 2 days since it all started, and the attacks still went on, even after all his targets were dead. "They are worth the money they were paid." It took some meticulous planning to make it all look like a terrorist attack and it worked. The vague clues given to the intelligence was his agents' idea and that too worked to perfection. The only thing that he couldn't understand was a bomb blast that killed a man in a car.

The man who triggered the explosion in the car couldn't understand the gunfire that killed his boss near the railway station.

David Abraham, the underworld kingpin, could only smile watching the news on TV that related him to the attacks!

The Day I Woke Up

I woke up late at night feeling really fresh, which was quite abnormal given the fact that I hated sleeping during the day and I always felt tired after waking up. It was then that I noticed that the room I had been sleeping in was not my bed room. I failed to notice it in the first place as it was quite dark inside.

It took me sometime to find the door to the room, and once I got outside, I found that it was not night exactly, the darkness inside the room made me feel so. How did I end up sleeping here? I couldn’t remember anything now. Suddenly it seemed that everything went blank all of a sudden. Did I lose my memory??

I sat down on the floor near by and tried to remember things. It seemed futile at first but slowly everything started running through my mind. I was getting my memory back! Strangely it was memories from my childhood that came to me first.

It took me sometime to remember the recent times. I was married to my girl friend from college, and we had a very happy life together. We had decided not to have children for the first 4 years, and so it was just the two of us. Then more recent memories revealed that we had problems lately. There was a virtual break up between us. We slept in different rooms now, found excuses to avoid talking to each other, and when we talked, it was just her asking me to get a new ‘water can’ or me asking her for an extra ‘dosa’.

I then figured out where I was, and started walking back to my place, which was not very far from where I was standing and more memories started flooding my mind. The problems started with her arriving late from office rather frequently. She was into a new project and it was in a critical state was how she explained it. That was followed by frequent phone calls at odd times, which again she said was because of the nature of the project. As I was working in a software company too, I could understand what she was going through. Even I was part of many such projects before, but once I got married, I made sure that I left office early to spend more time with her.

I once woke up at night and found that she was on the phone outside in the hall and was about to ask her something, when I heard few words that she talked, and it was normal chit chat. I thought that it was one of her friends that she called up, and then I asked her who was on the line. She was startled to see me awake, and quickly disconnected the call. This was not one of the reactions that I expected to see and obviously suspicions filled my mind. I quickly rejected them and went to drink some water from the fridge, by which time; she went inside the bed room. By the time I went in, she looked asleep.

Some time later I happened to read a message on her phone and that ignited the doubts again. This time I decided to find out what exactly was happening. The detective work that I did helped me find that her project was not exactly running in critical mode! And she was leaving office like she was doing it right from the start - early!

It was yesterday, that I followed her on her way back from office, and she went directly to a house at the far end of the city. I followed her there, and had a tough time deciding on whether to follow her into the house or not. At last, something got into me, which got me going into the house. I had a knife in my hand, when I banged the door.

I was near my house now, and found that the front door was open. It was a man who opened the door, and I couldn’t find any trace of blood on his face; he was staring at me in bewilderment, probably the knife helped too. I went inside the house and there was nobody in the hall. I could hear voices from the bedroom.

In a fit of rage I tried stabbing him and he somehow prevented me from doing it. We ended up in a brawl. Now I could hear her shouting to stop the fight but who cared to stop? I was outside the bed room now and found them both inside. They both seemed to be in a hurry packing things. I barged into the room shouting. But they didn’t seem to care. I felt pain near my chest! ‘Oh my God! Am I…??’

I wish...

I wish that you people would be sharp-eyed reading this story!! Or you will be disappointed for sure.

Now read on!

I checked the time on my laptop and it showed 11:30pm on June 13th 2008. The work was not all that interesting all week, and I was relieved that it was Friday night. I was reading a post on my friend’s story-blog. The recent story that he posted was quite interesting and he had tried his best at creating a Robert Ludlum effect in his ‘not really a short’ story. After I read the last line I felt disgusted. The story ended with a twist!! – What ever happened was a dream!!! “Can’t you think of a better twist? How can you all be so naïve?” I wondered how many more stories I would be reading that gives me the same ‘extra ordinary twist’ – a dream - crap!! I quickly switched off my laptop. I didn’t want to spend anymore time on the internet. I even removed my friend’s blog from my Google reader.

By the time I went to bed it was around 12 and its then that I remembered that it’s Friday the 13th. “Is it just a coincidence that I am all alone here?” I virtually cursed my room mates who left for a trip to Coorg that evening. I turned off the lights and quickly got under the sheets. “Did I close the front door? Yes, I think I did. But, should I go recheck? No, I’d better sleep” and then I turned on the music on my phone. I had a specific playlist created on my mobile to help me sleep – songs that will induce sleep in you. I actually got so used to it that I just had to listen to a minute or two of the first song and I was sleeping the next minute. It was usually my room mate’s job to turn off the music. Now that he’s not here, it’ll play till the end of the play list. It was then that I noticed the battery power left on my mobile, it was less than 10%, “but why care, I don’t need an alarm to wake up tomorrow”!!

I woke up hearing a small sound, “a ‘thud’ of paper on the door? No it’s not morning yet”, I searched for my mobile to check the time. The Mobile was off, I tried to turn it on but it wouldn’t. “As usual…, when you need something, that something either wouldn’t work or you can’t find the Damn thing”, I fought the thought of whether to turn on the light or not. I decided not to. I made me to conclude that it would be Lokesh going to his apartment which is above mine, drunk as usual, may be with his girl friend too. I tried to sleep again and this time I didn’t have my mobile for help.

It was then that I heard another sound and it was from inside the house for sure. It was the sound of fiber chair legs scraping against mosaic floor. Considering the size of our Hall and the way we have arranged our computer tables, it was difficult to avoid one of them. “Didn’t they go for the trip? Did my room mates cancel the trip?” This time I decided to check who it was and fear gripped me a little as I was not so sure that it was really them. I tried getting up from the bed and my mobile fell down and it sounded like it got disassembled. It was total darkness and afraid of breaking any parts of my mobile, I tried getting out of the bed by the other side. It was then that somebody jumped over me; it felt like his weight will crush my bones.

I was sweating all over now and was in total panic. I wanted to scream but couldn’t as he pressed the pillow against my face. He asked for my purse and I frantically pointed towards the cupboard where I keep my purse. He then asked for my mobile, to which I pointed to the side where it fell. He then asked me for the pin numbers to the credit and debit cards, and he removed the pillow so that I could tell him the numbers. He instructed me not to shout as he moved the pillow– but I couldn’t control myself anymore. When I started to scream – he just let a small sound out of me as he quickly covered my face again with the pillow. And then something pierced my chest and blood was oozing out. I could feel the handle of the knife that he used.

The pain was unbearable but it is reducing now. With the pillow still pressed to my face, screaming was not an option. I struggled to escape from under him, but I was losing my strength. I am losing a lot of blood; my hands couldn’t prevent the bleeding. My vision started blurring too. I knew that it wouldn’t be long…

So many images started playing in front of my eyes; images of my parents and my dear ones- my memories! I couldn’t believe that all this was happening to me. I wished this was just another dream. I wished for a twist in my tale too; let this all be a dream.

Then I remembered something – I pinched my hand to see if I could feel the pain; I couldn’t!! And that means it’s just a dream!! I felt like laughing out loud; but couldn’t!! I did smile though..

NB- All those who thought that what ever happened was just a dream - please read this story again - I guess u missed something, please dont let the last two lines fool u! If this was just another dream, why would I give it such a title? :)

Last few minutes from the life of Mr.. what’s his name?

He was getting ready for his much awaited travel abroad. He knew that this is a long term onsite assignment unless something bad happens in production. He was quite happy with what ever happened in the recent past. It was not easy for him to get this far. Many of his project mates were also expecting this onsite, but all the others failed during the interviews and tests. Even the client didn’t want so many of them there. “So, it’s just me”, he thought, “I’m traveling tonight, for a life abroad. I’m really lucky; my friends might be envying me now. They got reasons too!” Just then he saw something, somebody is looking for him. “Why anyone would be doing that now?” he couldn’t think of any possible answers!

Then he heard the manager shouting, “How did you miss that bug, after all these tests? Ask the development team to fix it now!”

The testers were busy assigning a name, a sequence number, to the bug and assigning the bug to a developer.

"I will never travel onsite", thought the shattered bug, "funny that these people assign us names just before they actually kill us!"

A Dog's Life!

This is one story that i wrote - when i got really bored! Probably my intention was - 'c, m getting all bored here - y shld u b any different? read this and join the club!' :)

Nadeem was ecstatic after watching the Indian win over Pakistan in the twenty20 world cup finals and was celebrating all night yesterday. He decided that he will proceed with the ‘mind travel’ today. He had enough fun reading the minds of Adam Gilchrist and Collingwood during the matches. They both were wondering how to get Yuvraj out. How they wished to see the back of Yuvraj! He also listened to the silent prayers of Shoaib malik - asking Allah to protect them and their families from crazy fans.

Nadeem had this ability to read minds from birth, though he couldn’t exactly differentiate between ‘people thinking’ and ‘people talking’. During his childhood he tried telling his parents that he could read minds, but nobody bothered to even listen to him. From then on he kept the secret to himself and started using it mostly for his advantage. Then he started reading minds when ever he got bored. He knew how much the servant disliked her husband, but always said, ‘Darling, I am so lucky to get you as my husband’. He also tried reading the minds of many politicians and wondered where they will end up if he ever joined the police force.

Today he was planning to try his ability on animals. He saw the dog of his wealthy neighbor, while looking out of his balcony. The German shepherd was named Jack and had all the freedom within the house. He was then looking at a street dog, Kallu, across the street. He tried reading his mind and yes, he was able to do it.

Jack thought, “Though he doesn’t spend most of his time in AC, or live in extremely posh apartments, he is living his life, enjoying it. There are no rules by which he has to live. He can eat where ever he wants and needn’t always eat the same packaged/fast food that he gets. How I wish my master ate the same food as I did. Kallu has all his freedom. Look at me. I am locked up within these walls most of the time. And I never get to enjoy life the way every other dog does. I can only still dream of the life away with my own family. I was brought here when i was a year old and from then on I was never allowed to go home. How I miss my family. Kallu doesn’t need to be awake all night to do his work of guarding the house. He gets to roam around with the girls of his choice. Didn't i count them? Was it 10 or 11? oh.. does it really matter? How many girls did I date so far? How can i date one if i cant even go out? I have even heard that a Master often kills his dog when a dog is old. May be I should escape from this place! But then how will i survive? I dont know how to find my food. I never had to fight or hunt for my food. Where will I stay? If I leave this place for a life of my choice then will the other dogs envy me the way they do now? I have often heard the silent murmers, filled with jealousy, of other dogs when I walked past them. May be I should stay here. Where else will i get the comfort that I get here? Where else can I keep my self clean and eat clean food? The rule of life is that i should sacrifice something to gain something else? What am I sacrificing here? My own life? My freedom? God.. help me.. What should I do here? Please help me decide. "

Nadeem wondered how much of the dog's thoughts really differed from that of his friend's who works as a Software Engineer in a big Firm.