Tall, smart and handsome (part 3)

It is the face that was very close to her and very much dear to her. She actualizes it is her dad and wonders what is he doing, there?

“Sandy(Sandhya), where were you? Why did you not attend our calls? We got really worried. What’s wrong child, are you all right?”

“Uhm…yeah dad, I am fine. But where is the other person, where did he vanish, now?” looking around.

“Who the other person…?”

“Urgh, never mind…between dad, what are you doing here? I mean, why are you moving around this alley…er…I mean, are you going somewhere?”

“Hmm…confused, kid I have. I came in search of you, thinking you might be somewhere around the corner and came to take a look whether you are fine, coz you weren’t returning our calls and you seem to be driving as if in a dream. What’s all this about and now what were you just trying to do?”

“Dad, I am not a kid any more, I know my way home. I had infact informed mom about my late coming, I wasn’t going to be kidnapped or whatever…as she said that, she took a close look at the darkened alley and wondered…what if it wasn’t her dad.

All her disappointment was coming on to her face of not seeing the masked man, “Oh! Where are you lost and why are you torturing me…?”

“Excuse, me lady, can I come in?”

“Yeah, what…how long you know him and isn’t it little strange running after a masked man…as if he is the Antonio Banderas of Mask of Zorro…!”

“I know…I know…now you stop and get lost…!”

“Sandy, sandy….what and whom are you talking to?”

Looking around her once again, banging her head out her reverie, she says, “Ahem! Dad, I don’t know something weird is happening to me, Ok, come now, lets go home.”

Both the dad and daughter get back home lost in their own thoughts and dad wonders what’s wrong with her. If something of a problem brewing or is she hallucinating something…! Have to get into the matter and solve it. Sooner the better, he promises himself.

Sandhya, internally is still disappointed that it was her dad and not the masked man, for a minute she even seems to curse her dad for being there and spoiling the effect of meeting the masked man.

How can she even think like that…a man of her dreams walking out to her…out of no where and if it wasn’t for her dad, she might have gone and hit some building and would have been in whole lot of trouble in that lonely alley.

It is high time I get out of this weird dream of mine and do something about it. Again, at the dinning table the discussion around her strange behavior starts to take rounds, the dad, mom, and brother giving a different connotation to it as appropriate they thought. She kept listening to it and then denied all facts and truths and comes into her heaven.

She could not resist it, the urge to call her dear most friend and discuss about this masked man. But she will also react like dad, mom and bro, again she would have to deny the facts and truths….wait a minute!

What is the fact here and what is the truth? Huh?!

“Hello, people of this house there is nothing as truth and fact, there is only this thing…the tall, smart and handsome masked man, who keeps coming to me and never lets me know…what is what. Ok, people…do you all, get that straight….!”

Oh! Sandy, who are you talking to again….Grrr……..No, this can’t be happening….I am talking to no audience. Am I going insane? She looks at the mirror and her reflection; nothing is strange she looks the same as she does. What’s wrong?

Then, subconsciously, dials her friend’s number on the mobile and starts to open her mouth to speak as soon as she hears her voice….but then her friend, before Sandy could utter a word goes on like a little propeller jet plane that zooms past you but you still can hear its shudder…it goes on.

Sandy puts her hand to her head and listens to all the blabber she had to say and keeps the phone on the table beside her as it is not the right time to discuss. Shall I go discuss with, mom?

No…No…No…that’s all she will spin her own story and it will become a flash story! Why take so much trouble? Will sleep and he will come and then can talk it out with him…this will give me time to analyze his character also meanwhile…Aiyoo….what’s wrong with me?!

She hears a knock on her door and dismisses it as a dream…and then with a full throttle goes to open to door, thinking that her dream is knocking at the door and asking for her permission to enter. She opens it to find her dad standing there…”Oh! not again!”

She did not mean to say that but it escaped her mouth and luckily her dad, did not hear it. She just smiles at his a half-sly smile and he just looks at her with his hands folded behind his back and waits for his daughter to give way and enter the room.

She seems to be standing in the way…they both smile at each other again and then she realizing that she is standing in his way lets him in involuntarily and then again they look at each other and smile…!

Tall, smart and handsome (part-2)

It is half past seven and still Sandhya is breaking over some calculations on her desk. She can’t be at peace still she gets that right and leave for the day. This calculation of hers has made her forget the ordeal at the dawn and her beautiful dream of hers.

It being that time of the year, when the nights are longer and days shorter…it was just being a little late than a pleasant evening it appeared as night. She hurriedly glances at her watch on the right hand and sets to get going, coz her lanes will get deserted and even being in a car it was a bit scary to pass through those streets.

Her house is anew in the area; some suburbs of the city, which is yet to be explored and overlooking the Bay of Bengal. It was such a scenic place, but deserted, quite calm with the lovely breeze of the sea. Sandhya wanted to be away from the crowd of the city, yet accessible place. She got what she wanted and joined hands with her dad to build this place.

She starts from her office, gets into the lift hits the basement key, when she sees a tall guy walking briskly towards the lift and motioning her to stop it for him. They way he tells her, there is something that her mind relates to it; she ignores it and hits the button to open the doors wide.

When he quickened his pace, he hears his name being called and turns…Ka…r…thi…k….! She keeps looking at that turn of head, towards the sound and she finds her eyes also move towards to it.

In that event, she missed the pair of eyes that said, “Mam, I am sorry…you carry on” and turned the other side, the last tilt that head could take, she caught at the right moment, something struck a chord. She missed it and with a sigh she got to the buttons on the lift and continued her journey.

The basement was almost empty with a few cars around; it is unusually late for her. She has never stayed so late even on requests always had her timings right and kept to it. The tube lights in the basement were hazy and some were flicking for want of light itself and was creating an eerie feeling to the whole place.

She could find a guard lost in thoughts and unmindful of the surroundings in one corner of the area. She wonders even if she shrieked will he be able to hear, the thoughts sent shudders through her backbone and with haste unlocked her car doors and locked them. The sound of the car doors locked gave her a sense of safe feeling, with the ignition she gave the sleeping engine a kick-start and slowly and gently maneuvered the blazing blue Hyundai Getz out on to the ramp.

She kept going with her favorite music being played on, keeping her company on the long road ahead. Leaving the shears of the city lights, crowds and sounds, she drives into the roadway of her abode, the lonely and quite life that was hers…she looks around there is not much cars and her car lights giving her enough light to pass through the way.

She looks into the rear-view mirror for a car behind and then a car passes by with the light reflecting on the mirror and blinding her sight, she loses her balance and the shrill power of fright traveling down her spine; she clutches the steer and pedals on to her home.

She comes to the lonely lane that looks almost deserted on a frenzy evening as well, there used to be street lights and today it looked as if nature was as against her.

On the start of the street something makes her stop for a minute and a déjà vu takes place, the alley in her dreams comes true and she gasps for her breath, right at the corner of the road she sees a bright light beaming for her. She steps on the pedal and moves into the street with all her sense on the verge of breakdown, she keeps moving taking in the weird images that creep in the dark.

She is murmuring to her, her mind is speaking to her – ‘it is ok, sweetheart, you are in a car and safe, all you have to do it keep the car moving no matter what and just finish off with this road and walk towards the light, keep focused…’

The light seems to be moving far away from her as she gets closer how is that possible, she seems to be going on forever…nothing seemed right. She peeps into the rear mirror and finds the path is winding just behind the back of her car, nothing seems right, no this can’t be happening, I am dreaming…she keeps telling to herself, but no her hands are sweating and she is moving this car and there is music that is loud enough for her to hear, there is this favorite song of hers that runs on a repeat mode.

Then, suddenly from nowhere she hears a honk too loud to bear, she lifts her hands off the steer and puts it to her ears and applies the break so hard that the car goes completely an inch above the ground and comes to a standstill.

She had closed her eyes so tight that there was nothing visible to her, why is this happening to her; she can feel a tear roll down her beautiful eyes. She slowly opens her eyes not able to bear the knocking that is happening against a glass door. The tap is gentle enough but for her it is like some huge rock gathering momentum to crush her bones underneath it.

She opens her eyes to find a man standing on the other side of the window. The person looks familiar but she does not who is it, she hasn’t still collected her senses. She lowly responds to the sound and tries to lower her window pane and take a look, her mind runs wild is it the masked man?!

Oh! My god it is the masked man…alright so I get to meet him. She takes a look at her and as the window lowers she sees a familiar smile and a face, she finds it hard to place the face…where did I see it first.

(...to be continued)

Tall, Smart and Handsome…!

It is a dark alley. Nothing is visible even after your eyes adjusting to the surrounding, walking down it was like walking without an aim and endlessly knowing not for what…but she could not stop.

She kept hurrying though, through the alley and could see a ray of light from the further side and suddenly her heart wished for hope and almost ran towards it is.

She knew not why or for what but she kept pursuing not able to stop her and her mind that was raiding her with loads of questions and then the image flashed in front of her.

It was the usual image of a masked man, who smelt of sweat and cologne and he had his shirt buttons left open, the shirt tucked into his pants and that shinny pants…never could make out from where he comes, but he appears and always in the same attire and solves the mystery for her.

Only thing she does not understand in his appearance is that he is all that women talk about, tall and handsome, manly, the vigor, gentlemanly, his hands strong, they way he held her that tender clutch around her waist, strong enough to carry her to a safe distance, then drop her and does the vanishing act…!

In this ordeal everything else was different but one thing remained constant…he was not the dark skinned guy…like a women’s dream. He was fair and his skin had this perfect blend of the colors of a dark coffee bean and the milky cream…he did not fall into the genre of romantic hero’s off the romantic novels or the drop dead dark hero that women always fascinate with!

She never knew why he kept seeing him the same way again and again and never knew why he always kept disappearing after the safety turn…like he did now and she always could not continue further…!

She woke up with a start and looked around and tried to go back to her sleep…looking for that smart looking guy who came from nowhere and went nowhere…she is right at that spot…hill top, deserted plains, watery ways, the dry desserts, the wet swamps, the boat rides, the cruises, the landslides, the earthquakes…but he was not just coming back.

She turns to the right, clutches the pillow tight, closes her eyes shut and places her onto the reel again and waits for him to come…the alley running deep and dark, the light in the corner, she is almost there at the end of the alley…he should appear now…now…!

“S..a…ndh…ya, Sandhya….!” – her mom’s voice. How come she came here? She turns to her right again and finds a hazy figure hovering over her.

Opening wide her eyes, she looks at her mother smiling at her and asking her to wake up…she can see her mother mumbling a lot of things, but she can’t hear any. The room comes into her sight and the things around and finds that she is in her very bedroom and nowhere…the alley is gone, along with it the light and the darkness.

She shoves her mom off and tries to close her eyes again, and she finds a hand touching her…a smile spreads across her face and then it pushes her further and finds that her mother shaking her off her sleep.

“Mom, please do, let me walk to the end of the alley, please…let me see his face today, please. I know it is masked but I want to see his eyes that speak a volume to me…that warmth of the breath close to my lips…that sends slender tremors into my body and soul…Mom, please let me do it, just this one time.”

“Hey, what are you blabbering, Sandhya? What is it? Who is it? Now, you get up and tell me the truth what is all this about? Are you seeing someone? Who is it? Wait, till I tell your dad about this? You little naughty girl, behind our backs you have been weaving your own love story is it….Siva, Siva…come here, listen to your daughter.”

“Aiyoo….mom, nothing like that, said Sandhya pulling the rug off her body that had got tangled with her journey. What did I say? What did I blabber?

No, no, wait mom that was just a dream.”

By now, Sandhya was wide awake and was racking her brains for whatever she could have blabbered to her mom and the after effects of it. She was so sure that her mom is not going to let her go so easily and it would take a longer time to convince them…both the mom and dad.

She found her mom has already gone to tell things to her dad. She did not know what to do. She just closes her eyes and that pair of eyes came alive…Oh! My god not again…!

She ran into the bathroom and started talking to herself loud enough for the whole world to know. She got done with her morning duties along with her long explanations to herself. She opens the doors to find her mom and dad standing in front of her right at the doorway.

Instantly, she closes it and then regains herself and opens the door slowly with a sly smile. They both smile at her and her dad slowly holds her forehand and she starts off…“dad, dad, let me explain…it is nothing just a dream…….she goes on for some 20 mints without a gasp of breath!”

Her mom and dad just listen to her and then laugh aloud when she finishes it. They give a laugh so loud that she is bewildered and after a minute joins them…!

They all have a hearty laugh and get on with their work. She is not able to get this guy off her memory and he seems to be playing hide and seek with her especially with her today…she promises herself today she is going to find out who he is…tonight, wait my dear – she says forgetting the fact it – is just a dream.

(to be contd……..)

Crowing Crow!

Well, it has been really a long time since I sat back in a relaxed manner and listened to the sounds of the surrounding…!

Don’t know when was the last time it happened…must be when I was going to school and those lazy sunday afternoons when you don’t have much to do after a long and delicious lunch of your mom’s….you feel that the television is boring, the songs played on the radio is boring, your walk man is too much of a pain….and then you just sit or lie on the bed that is at few inches away from the window with the curtains playing a shadowy show on the walls and the breeze from the neem tree, is even and the sunlight hitting you hard….you just wish why the school does not work on sundays too……………..!

If this wasn’t enough you just try to think of something nice and doze off into dreams when this crow do not know from where it just appears at the tree and starts singing a lullaby for you….!

You can hear its distinct crowing and adding to this you hear a distant crowing….that is so distinctly very haunting.

Yes, the crowing of the crow is really painful and your heart stirs each time it crows…!

Have you heard those distant crowing of the crow…?

I heard it today again…I heard it very close to my ears but it was somewhere on a tree further from my window and the blocks….

I was reminded of these lazy afternoons…on a summer holiday is a distant village where the sunlight is so much that you can’t play in the sun with your friends and your grand mom and grand dad calling you indoors, you lie on the mat looking at the ceiling and listening to the mythological tales, tales about godliness and devils…and how the gods fought over the evil…and how you should always be doing good deeds to keep the momentum going and how god punishes people who do the evil…!!!

The crows being the incarnation of our ancestors…they bring us the news from the other world…and all we do is shoo it away…and wait for it devour the food we offer it on every thought of an ancestor….!

I am reminded of the lazy summer afternoons and the sun seeping in all its light on to the grounds…whenever it crows!!

Why do we do…what we do?

It is now almost lazy summer afternoons and after a hard week at the office, all you do on these hot afternoons is to have your own siesta or pick up an unnecessary conversation with your own siblings or family or your spouse or friends and end up with grudges that eat up the rest of the afternoon….and evening!

In one such afternoon, when the whole family somehow tries to sleep over the time….I was stuck with this stupid laptop of mine and nothing much to do either on farmville, fishville and cafeworld…all the virtual games on facebook….that only offers you ‘phase value…!’

Hmmm….so nothing much to do, I started pondering over today’s events and found some strange and interesting facts about ourselves – Human Beings….this isn’t a theory or a conclusion…and whatever I say here will not stand true to most of us…but there is relatively a higher rate of occurrence and repetitiveness in behaviour of ourselves…!

Here’s a list of things that I noticed…!

• Advice people only whenever they make a mistake in life and tell them to not do as thus…!
• Always wait for something to happen and then say,”I knew this is going to happen!”
• You slip or have a muscle catch the whole kith and kin knows about it…including those staying far away from you….!
• You always seems to have the last word in the family…!
• You propose something to your friends and end up following what they have to say or do…!
• You seem to make plans and you don’t seem to be doing it…!
• Only when you want something you don’t seem to find it in abundance…!
• You seem to gossip when it somebody’s subject when it is yours, you simply say,”lets talk something else…and come back to you…!”
• Praise somebody whom we like and neglect or talk ill of people whom we don’t like!
• Always scream at people below our age or who are working under us…even when we aren’t angry with them!
• Try to mumble something when we don’t find anybody responding to whatever we have to say…!
• Hang on to the good old days we had and keep saying them to maximum number of people we find and bore them?
• Listen to a song repeatedly even after listening to it a number of times…!
• Find it hard to memorize a thing of knowledge and never forget to remember a celebrity’s birthday or a celebration…!
• Get lazy to play any movie for yourself on a system or a DVD Player or the television but sit watching it when someone plays it…!
• Feel the thirst to drink water when you see somebody drinking water…!
• Feel the hunger till somebody offers you to eat…!

The list goes on and there are more weirder ways of living this simple….life.

Do share some of yours…let me at least know that so many of me…is around this weirder place called earth….that is a planet on the milky way…suspended somewhere in the galaxy – how much more weird that can be!

Do I know you? Final Part!

Ending -1 :

They both were wondering what kind of a situation is this, why aren’t they considered before deciding anything and next time they are not going to let it happen this way. Will control the situation next time something like this happens. Now, the next time will always be a different experience and it never happens as you intend to happen.

I patronize with the reader, who thinks that they should have met the first time or else developed the interaction while traveling up and down. Yes, I agree two strong individuals, with a similar habit; mostly preferences will also be the same, why did they not get together?

What if they get together and turned out to be bitter? What always seems same at the surface need not be the same underneath, do you feel so? They should have got together, now they have almost come at tolerating each other, but why separate? Can’t they carry on the same business as they used to and just wonder what if I had talked to her and she had responded?

Ending -2:

Life returns to normalcy and there is peace within and around. There is nothing to worry about and the natural flow of events takes precedence and life is back with a bang.

She is free to do what she wants to do and continue doing it and he is free to do what he did and does it without a hesitation and life seems to go on. On one such day of office and the usual bus stop, they accidentally meet after a long gap.

Nobody knew why the gap or how it happened, they meet again and this time there is a lighting of recognition and the acknowledgment leads to a wide smile. That does not mean that they will start liking each other and follow their heart instead of head. But, yes there is a certainty of friendship on cards.

But do all friendships end in marriages?!

Do I know you?(Part-3)

It often happens with us, we tend to see a person for more than once and end up seeing that person again and again, even if we don’t want to see them or even have a slightest inclination to have a glance of them….something like ‘selective perception’.

That is what exactly happens here, almost most of the days they find each other either standing there for the bus or in the bus in the mornings or in evenings. But, in due course of time, they become tolerable to each other to almost negligible tolerance to the appearances!

So, this is their external appearances, inside they were wondering what if one day I said, ‘Hi’ just like that what will be the outcome! But neither of them had the appropriateness to start off with and let it be there.

One day, a dull and chilly morning when it looked as if the showers were to happen any moment. At a distance, she walking towards the bus stop, she knew she was late and her steps were hurrying to the stop. Just then her bus zooms past her and she has never seen the bus in such a hurry before.

She was just a few yards from the bus stop and knew in heart-of-hearts that she is to miss it today and there is no escape and slowed her pace. She had walked in her own pace and found the bus still at the stop, surprised she found the doors open for her to enter, for a second she did not know what to do. She regained her reflexes and stepped into the bus in a jiffy. She stood by to find a place and found pair of eyes and lips turn into a smile and recognition.

She wasn’t that dumb, she knew who had stopped the bus and why? She wanted to acknowledge the help, but wonders why I should, no big deal would have come by the next bus. Forgetting all the manners learnt and taught, she just looks away, which widens the smile more into a titter. Well earned one…it relaxed the mind and soul in days!

Pressure from all sides, no remedy from friends, no decision seems fine, no amounts of explaining helps and nothing makes sense, at last have to give in for the requests of the parents, both decide to meet the demands of their respective parents and they agree for a gathering at the brides’ place one Friday evening!

Both of them wonder now, what…they had to give in but their mind does not allow them to do such a thing, and kept on questioning how to call it off! Each one looking for a reason to avoid this situation just wonders what to do.

He gets caught at last minute things at the office and totally forgets about his promise to his parents and they call him after an hour later of the appointed time to ask for the reason…he is so embarrassed never had he behaved so badly. Making people wait for him and not landing up there. He was to be at the bride’s place at about 7 pm.

She being a lesser human being had to be at home by 3 pm and prepare for the whole episode as if it was the only desire in life. She felt like being put to scrutiny but did to bother much to fight over the situation and took it calm. She did not know why or how suddenly she became calm at all this stuff but prepared herself for the ordeal.

She had been waiting at her place for the entrant except for his parents, who seemed to happy at whatever was being offered to them and overwhelming happy at the event and were all praises. They were friends and it was always obvious in a friendship that is lost and found.

The party dispersed and there is peace at least within the people who did not want such an even to occur and the people who were for it just wondered what could be the reason behind the absence.

Nobody seemed to be bothered about the happening for sometime and at the surface it looked at calm and forlorn thing for each party. Days went by and neither of them had the pleasant feeling of bringing things into light again.

Then, one day as a preceding storm that had been building silently under the calm sea, surges forward and destroys everything at its path. Once again the topic took form and shape and this time there was an amicable situation of the same. He had decided enough is enough will just go ahead and take a look and ponder over it and then give a verdict. After all the situations is under control, the least.

Both of them continue going on with their daily chores and are at peace with the situation and the surrounding. The general habits returning and courtesies flow by and there seems to acknowledgment of each others presence. This time it is neither the girl nor the boy who stand in the way to avoid the circumstances and they try to go in for the tide.

This time it is a different set up and the boy and girl are supposed to meet rather than the whole family meeting. So the pretext of seeing the girl separately without the hindrance of the parents gives an extra once of happiness. After all, it is an arranged marriage and who can avoid the event of seeing each other under the spotlight of parents!

At the appointed hour, he sets on his journey delegating the necessary mails and updates to his colleague and on his way out of the office. He receives a call and the simple update the meeting being called off on the pretext of the family and the whole event stands canceled for now.

Now, once a drop is an event is blamed on circumstances, twice cannot be coincidence. So both the families consider it an omen or a sign, and call the whole thing off.

PS: I have two endings to this stupid story, which should I post! :)