Ahem... Ahem...

The Mysterious Joy

2011-06-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

I stood in the middle of nowhere…

As she walked away into darkness…

The farther she went,

The closer she got to my heart…

I felt something I hadn’t felt before…

Something I couldn’t get enough of …

A mysterious joy had pervaded my soul…

The joy with an inkling of pain…

The pain of being away from her..

I had to wait to meet her the next time…

She had me musing already…

I called her again, her honeyed voice echoed..

Our thoughts were in accord…

It was an enchanting date…

We kissed goodnight….

I stood in the middle of nowhere…

As she walked away into darkness…

Remains of a Lost Heart - The Finale

2011-03-17T02:41:00.000-07:00

Heya guys... I know its been eons since I've promised this post. Lotsa work and other useless things kept me from completing this one. Anywayz as the popular saying goes... better late than never :) READ & ENJOY. Ofcourse do not forget to leave me your amazingly valuable suggestions. It keeps me going. If you actually read this long. Thanks a ton :) All those who want a PDF or a book like copy IM me or PM me... :) Ill send it across :)

Chapter 11 - Lost in Love - Yet Again?

Arya walked quickly behind her and knocked on the door. “Leave me alone for some time Arya.. I need to think about a few things….”, she said weakly but affirmative enough to make him stay on the other side of the door. “Things like what Divs?”, he questioned. He stood there never to hear an answer. He sat down on the carpet and leaned back against the door just as she did on the other side. A couple of hours passed. She called out softly, “Arya, are you still there?” She waited a couple of minutes for an answer. “For you… Always …”, he said. He heard the door knob above his head turn, he was nervous. His hands trembled and he was almost scared to face her.

She said, “Arya, leave me alone for a bit, I have to figure out why this thing that you just told me worries me so much…” He said, “Ok I will. I am heading to the university now. I think I’ll be in the student union the whole day. Call me Divs. I’ll be waiting….” He walked out of the house with his head hung low. He held his laptop under his arms and walked slowly towards to the university campus.

“Hey Arya.. Why do you look like you just lost a million dollars?”, a voice on the way sounded as he passed a coffee shop. He looked at where the voice was coming from and saw a face he knew forever. Nisha waved at him almost like her hands were going to fall off. He stared at her in shock. She ran towards him and gave him a tight hug. He hugged back and said, “What are you doing here?” and immediately realized that wasn’t the conversation start she was really looking for. Nisha’s excitement almost died with that question and she took a step back. “Is there something wrong Arya? I was just walking around the downtown and I ran into you. I did not mean to freak you out or anything”, she said in an apologetic tone. Arya felt even more miserable. He immediately apologized, “It’s not you Nish… I am so sorry I did not mean to be that rude. Can we just go into this coffee shop and sit down to talk?”

She readily agreed and they sat down with cups of coffee and some cakes. “Ok.. so can I ask what is bothering you so much Arya?”, she began. He had no clue where to begin. She sat there staring at him waiting for an answer. “Let’s not talk about that then… So, tell me where do we go this weekend? Take me some place nice Arya… Will you?”, she tried her best to pull him into a meaningful conversation. He stared deep into her clueless eyes and said, “There are a lot of things I have to figure out Nish… I’ll talk to you later. I am very sorry I am being such a jerk, but, I am not really in a place where I wanna talk about anything. And about the weekend I’m not too sure now”, he sounded very apologetic. She sounded very persuasive as she said, “It’s about something very important I have been meaning to tell you Arya… all these years.. So please make it this weekend” and she left the coffee place paying for all the coffee. He was even more confused as he sat alone at the coffee shop staring into his empty coffee cup. He saw through the glass that Nisha seemed to be fiddling her handbag as she walked away with a worried expression on her face.

Somehow when he left the coffee place he decided to go back home. He opened the door to see Divya seated on the couch. She was on the phone. She immediately changed conversation and hung up almost abruptly. “Is it a good time for me to talk?”, Arya asked with doubt in his tone. “What is wrong with you Arya? You can say anything to me anytime you want….”, she said like nothing had happened. He started, “Divs… I don’t know where to start and also I have no idea what you’re thinking now…” She interrupted him, “It’s ok Arya I was just being dumb… I have no clue why I was in a crazy mood then… I am sorry if I freaked you out or something…” He did not how to react and he just stood dumbstruck. She got off the couch walked up to him and gave him a tight hug. He held her face between his palms and looked deep into her eyes and said, “Honeybunch you have nothing to worry about… I only told you the whole story ‘cos she’s come here and she wants to meet me over the weekend. She has something very important to tell me…” She looked up and sounded out, “What? Why? Does she know about us yet?” Arya sat her down and told her what had happened when he went out. She listened patiently.

“Are you meeting her this weekend and taking her some place nice?” she said with a deliberate tone of sarcasm and envy. Arya stared at her flustered not knowing whether or not to answer that question. She giggled and then said, “Look at you all worried and tense! Sorry Arya… if I freaked you out before, frankly, I was just being a girl. But, I know you too well to have even an iota of doubt. I am really sorry, I did not mean to… sweetheart… I was just pulling your leg now” He heaved a huge sigh of relief and then smiled. He held her close to him the whole time they sat there. He leaned against the wall sat with his legs spread out so that she could lean her back on his chest as he hugged her from behind. They chatted late into the evening and they both just napped away till it was late in the night.

Arya’s phone was vibrating by his side, he woke up with realization, but, he couldn’t pick up the phone without disturbing Divya. He let the call go to the voicemail. He sat there and stared at her eye lashes that curled upwards like they were reaching for the sky, as she slept. It was a few minutes later Divya was disturbed by some noise from outside and woke up. She turned back to look up at Arya and she looked straight into his eyes. She could only see herself in them. She reached up as Arya moved his head forward and they kissed passionately. Divya let a tear trickle down her cheek as they kissed. It was a tear of mixed emotion. She was sad that she had freaked Arya out that morning and she was happy that he was beside her at the time when she most needed him. Arya knew what she was thinking and quickly stopped the tear and wiped it off her cheek gently with the back of his hand. They cozied up and she slept in his arms that night.

The week went by with both Divya and Arya buried neck deep in assignments and preparations for the mid-terms after which they had a break. Friday evening they came back and sat down in their apartment and were organizing stuff for the party they were having at their place that evening. Arya suddenly realized that he had forgotten to call Nisha. He picked up the phone and called her. “Finally… I was scared you would never call”, she teased as she started the conversation. He smiled and then said, “So, I am thinking it will be a good plan to catch up tomorrow evening and head to some place in San Francisco… what say?” Divya stopped what she was doing and stared at him like she were angry. She giggled and continued. Nisha thought for a few seconds before she said, “Sure… anytime. But, make sure you take me some place real good ok?” He replied in the affirmative and hung up after making plans. Only the place was a surprise. “So…”, Divya dragged on, “where are you taking your childhood sweetheart? Any place I know?” He looked up and said, “Oh! I don’t think you know. I’m taking her to some place real special…” in a sarcastic tone.

He was taking her someplace special. After all if she did not deserve it, who did?

Arya woke up from a cozy corner of the living room which was strewn with empty bottles of soda and alcohol from the party the previous night. A few of their friends had stayed over and were still asleep. Arya, snuck up behind Divya slowly and drew the hair that brushed her cheek, behind and kissed her on her cheek. She woke up and smiled.

The day was moving along slowly as they cleaned the whole place out. They had a car rented for the weekend. Arya planned to pick up Nisha before they headed out. It was around evening when she called and said she was downstairs. He called her home. Divya looked through the blinds as she parked the car. She came upstairs and knocked on the door. Divya continued cleaning as Arya got dressed and opened the door. She walked into the house and sat on the couch after setting aside the jackets that lay strewn on it. He called out, “Divs, we have someone special at our place… Come on out for a moment, will you?” She yelled out, “In a minute …” Moments later she walked out wiping the sweat on her forehead with the back of her palm as she held a brush in the other. After a brief introduction there was a moment of silence. Divya said, “No wonder he was smitten by you for so long… You look very pretty Nisha….” Arya was starting to feel a sudden discomfort.

Nisha shifted in her chair and said, “Thank you for that compliment... makes me feel much better about my bad haircut… especially a compliment coming from someone as pretty as yourself.” Divya looked at her head very sympathetically and said, “Bad parlor? You should’ve asked me where to go….” Arya suddenly felt better about the situation and interrupted, “Oh you can have these girl talks later… Let’s now hit the road Nish….” She got up to leave and went towards Divya, gave her a tight hug and whispered, “I’m going to have to borrow your boyfriend for a few hours…. I’ll take good care and turn him in before 11PM tonight ok?” Divya looked at her and they giggled. Arya did not understand anything that was going on. They left.

It was a quiet drive until Nisha asked, “So, have you asked her to marry you yet??” He looked at her and nodded suggesting no. She then asked him how everything happened between him and Divya. They arrived at the Golden Gate. She got out of the car and was almost literally pushed by the wind. It was a windy day in San Francisco. Arya came by her side and she immediately hugged his arm tight. Arya flinched. She told in a reassuring but sarcastic tone, “Don’t worry, I have permission for all this…” They had a quiet but interesting night. When Arya was dropping her at her place, she opened the door to leave, turned back hugged Arya tight as a tear uncontrollably left her eye. She quickly wiped it off before Arya could even react, she said, “It’s ok Arya, don’t say anything please. Thanks for the evening” and she walked off into the darkness like she always did. Arya went and picked up Divya to drop off the car at the rental place. When she cleaned out the glove box, she found a carefully folded note signed Nish on it. She slid it into her pocket and they went home. They reached home and sat on the couch. Divya pulled out the note and gave it to Arya. “What is this? A love note after all this time honeybunch??”, he asked. He saw Nisha’s signature and looked at her blankly. “It was in the glove box. I think she meant for you to find it at the end of the day”, she replied. He told her what had happened when he dropped Nisha off.

They sat together and opened up the note.

“It wasn’t too hard to say I loved you more than anything,

All I wanted was to be with you.

It wasn’t you I couldn’t believe,

It was the doubt that the distance did bring,

That made me think, that choked me till I went blue,

Will you ever forgive?

Will you ever accept me I kept thinking…

I did not deserve it after all, after all the time that flew…

For, you loved me without a question, a complicated web of doubts I did weave….

All I did was run – from what… from what was I running…

It was latent in me, the feeling all the time grew….
It was what I truly felt; it was the very emotion, every moment of my life I wanted to live…

It was simply the feeling I got every time I heard your voice…
And the feeling that I wanted to wake up next to you every single day…

I guess I ran for too long and too far,

For, I now live with the remains of a lost heart,

Long lost in a web of love – your love…”

Below the note there was a post script that read, “Ok, I can’t write as well as you do. So, stop laughing you moron. But, don’t bother calling me et al… I don’t want to talk about any of this. Lotsa love and hugs to Divya and you. Maybe I’ll come to the wedding.”

Arya sat and stared at the note for the next few minutes as Divya held on to his arm. A tear fell onto the note and he quickly folded it and kept it aside. She hugged him tight and kissed him on his forehead gently and said, “Don’t worry honey I’ll take good care of you” and she winked. He hugged her and they cuddled away to sleep on the couch.

He decided not to talk to Nisha about this to avoid losing what they had. Divya only agreed with him. They had planned to go ice skating the next day. They went in the evening with a couple of friends. It was well lit and the rink was in the middle of the downtown and was heavily crowded. He held her hand all through the time they were skating. It was around 9PM when all the lights around went out and they were the only couple in the center. There was light only around the rink. The entire crowd went silent as Arya went down on a knee and proposed to Divya.

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Happily Ever After or Lost in Love???!!!

Sometimes It Takes A Lifetime.....

2011-02-26T01:55:00.000-08:00

Not because she wore the nicest dress,

Not because she was the smartest woman I had met,

Not because she was the prettiest girl in the crowd,

Not because she had the most divine smile I had ever experienced,

It was because sometimes it takes a lifetime or more to know,

Why you fell in love…..

Not because she loved me more than I thought one could be loved

Not because she accepted all my petty mistakes and forgave me,

Not because she cared for me like I was her world,

Not because she made me a better man than I was,

It was simply because sometimes it takes a lifetime or more to know

How much one can be loved …

I love her just a little more, little more than my own life…

I treasure every moment I spent with her,

In my memory she still lives,

Call it fate, call it destiny, this wasn’t how I dreamed of it,

She left because she had to…

I am still madly in love with her,

Not because there aren’t other great women around …

It’s because, sometimes it takes a lifetime or more

To forget….

Haunting - The Ghosts from the Past

2010-11-23T00:28:00.001-08:00

I stood there in the middle of the world,

Guilty and ashamed.

Not embarrassed by anyone but myself,

Wished I was invisible to the world, Wished I knew no one…

Prayed and pined, I hadn’t done all those things....

No one but me was to be blamed....

Did I ever get over the past? I stand to know..

I fight a battle that has to be won...

Not against the world, not against my enemies, but the ghosts of my past ..

I choose to fight the battle,

Because, I will not let past consume me,

I will stand to silence the ghosts within me….

I will fight alone; I will fight myself…..

I will LIVE...

Long since I've posted here.... This one goes out to all the folks who are fighting their own battles... Wrote this one with a purpose to inspire and let the world know.... Every battle in life is worth fighting, there are no small ones or big ones and there are definitely NO losing battles. Every battle we are in, we live and learn.

On that note, I'll be right back with part-11 of Remains of a Lost Heart very soon :)

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 10

2010-10-05T01:49:00.000-07:00

After a crazy coupla weeks. New workplace, crazy semester at college only meant no time for anything! But, I felt the compulsive need to write. So here goes the penultimate part of The Remains of a Lost Heart. Yep, this tale is gonna end soon. Keep reading. Read and Enjoy this one.

Chapter 10 - The Beginning of the End

He woke up with a start. He realized that not telling Divya about his past with Nisha could harm the bliss in both their lives. Divya did not demand to know, but, he knew he would feel much better if he told her anyways. He had to look for the right time to bring it up with Divya and tell her. But, the previous night was a real awakening for Arya or so he thought.

“Divs, Sweetums wake up. We need to head to meet Professor Comer today morning in his office. So, get ready and gimme a buzz sugar. We’ll head for breakfast and then straight to school.”, Arya mollycoddled. She replied weakly as she tossed and turned on her bed, “Ok dude. Will do. Love ya…See you soon.” They had breakfast and headed to meet their Professor. The day was pretty uneventful.

He sat down in her bed and opened his laptop to check some mail. There was an offliner that said, “Need to talk. Where are you? Send me your number I lost it.” It was from Nisha. He was shocked. He had no clue what it was about and the first emotion when he saw the message was fear. He had lost all his ability to think rationally. He just replied with his number and closed all windows and stowed his laptop into his bag and laid himself down on the bed.

“Hmmm…. There seems to be something in the back of that head Arya. You are still worried about what you should say about the moving in thingy eh? Look, I will not be upset if you don’t want to. So can you just stop looking so tense all the time?” Divya said in a completely convincing tone as she walked into the room with dinner. He did not say anything. He looked at her and somehow all his worry and thought vanished. The way she looked at him took his breath away and put him in a trance every single time.

He hugged her from behind and held her up close as he rested his chin on her right shoulder. She could feel his warm breath on her neck. Her face turned pink and blood was rushing to her face. He spoke as he tucked a tuft of hair behind her ear and kissed her on her cheek. She half-turned and looked him in the eye. “I have spoken to my roomies about moving out and …..” he started. “And and and??? What is it?? Spill it out dude..” she sounded out in excitement. “Let’s start looking for an apartment baby doll”, he said with a look of accomplishment on his face.

The two weeks passed in no time and they moved into an apartment together. They were now living together. But, the thought of telling her about Nisha was still scaring him at the back of his head. He sat alone in the room on his bed while Divya was out in the storage organizing all the boxes they had used to move. He then went out and started helping Divya with all the cleaning up.

It was a long and tiresome day and they had dinner with their old roomies that night. They kissed goodnight and crashed. It was early in the morning and Divya was still sleeping like a baby. He woke up brushed and went up to the refrigerator to find milk for his breakfast and realized there wasn’t milk in the house. He walked to a nearby store to get some milk. His phone rang the minute he stepped out. It was a number he did not recognize but, he somehow knew who it was. It was Nisha.

He answered the call. He said, “Hello…” and waited for a response from the other end. She responded in a rather excited tone, “Hey!! Long time… How are you?” she paused and continued, “Wait… Guessed who?” There was a small pause before he realized it was the voice he knew for eternity. A voice from his past. He said, “Hey Nish……… How are you? Where have you been and from the number I am guessing that you are back in the Bay Area.” She wasn’t surprised he knew her voice. She said, “Yup dude I am here on work again. This time around I am going to stay here for a longer time. So, when do we meet up?” He thought for a while before he could reply and said, “Nish… Will this be your number? I am at a store to buy some groceries. I’ll buzz u in a bit if that will be ok… So let me know when you get off work.. We’ll plan something around it.” He felt comfortable talking to her and there was nothing worrying him anymore for some strange reason.

He walked back home and had a huge smile of relief across his face all through the day. He did not know why. But, he felt like a huge load was taken off him and kept aside as he happily troddled away. He was too happy to think about what it was. He came home and woke up Divya. He told her that they needed to talk. Divya was surprised by his energy and curtness that early in morning. She had a small worry as she did know what it was about. She brushed her teeth and walked out as he stood there with his arms spread out. She went right into them and hugged him. “Now tell me what it is..”, she said.

“It’s Nisha…. She’s here in the Bay Area” saying this he made a long pause. “What Nisha? Who Nisha? Tell me clearly Arya you are starting to worry me. Don’t let me start imagining anything ‘cos you know it could make me really mad at you” she said impatiently as she withdrew herself from his hold. “Ok. She was the one girl I was crazy about for a very long time. And by long time I mean a really long time. A little more than 8 years or so” he continued to tell her the whole story and showed her all that he had written for Nisha. “And that pretty much is everything…” he ended looking her in the eye.

Divya did not look too happy. She appeared mad at Arya. She stared at him coldly and walked into her room and shut the door loudly behind her.

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Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 9

2010-09-15T01:45:00.000-07:00

As crazy as it might sound, I was at Niagara this weekend and also college work has been keeping me completely tied up. I am seriously trying very hard to keep the parts coming on time. I am going to try harder for the next one. Read and enjoy the next chapter in their lives.

Chapter 9 - Guilt and Voices from the Past

They saw each other on webcam every day and as the days went by, they only missed each other’s company more and more. The three painful months of separation went by and Divya returned. She called him as soon as the flight landed. It was to take her another half hour to get home. He had waited three full months, but, the last half hour was even more torturous than all the time apart. He walked from corner to corner inside his apartment. She called him the moment she arrived.

He met her at the sidewalk in front of her apartment. She got out of the cab and ran straight into his arms. The cab driver had put her luggage out behind her and had left by the time they decided to get indoors. He picked up the bags and they went inside. He had a little hop in his step. She was smiling wider than usual.

“So are you jet-lagged and all that?”, asked Arya as he helped her unpack. “Not really…actually I don’t know. But, I am kinda hungry…what do we do for dinner?”, she asked rubbing her tummy. He asked her to stay back home and he went out and got some sandwiches for both of them. They both had their sandwich and they sat next to each other catching up on all the lost time. He was telling her about his new job when she fell asleep leaned up against his shoulder. He carefully set her head down on a pillow, pulled a comforter over her and locked the door and left quietly.

The next morning, he woke up early and went over to Divya’s place to wake her up. He went into her room and saw her asleep. She lay there curled up inside her pink world. Like most of the girls she had a very pink room filled with stuffed toys. The biggest one, a giant panda in the corner, was Arya’s gift. Strands of hair were grazing her cheek gently. It looked like they were fighting the fan in the room in their own way, moving back and forth. A little ray of sunshine brightened a part of the room. He went and kissed her on her forehead. She woke up with a smile. He felt like he was in paradise. He muttered, “This must be how it feels to be in heaven.” She mumbled in a muffled early morning voice, “You know you’re the sweetest thing. Love you. Now get the hell out, I’m gonna sleep” and she giggled and kept her eyes tightly closed. He just looked at her and smiled to himself. He ran his fingers down her face and kissed her gently on her forehead and then her nose. He almost kissed her perfectly formed lips and withdrew. She woke up.

They had a long day planned up ahead. They had to meet number of professors regarding their coming semester. They went back home late in the evening and crashed early. She was still jetlagged from the trip to the east. She was still getting used to being in the Bay Area. Arya crashed at her place. They slept cuddled up in each other’s arms.

The next morning they woke up when Arya’s alarm rang loudly and continuously enough to perturb their blissful torpor. She brushed and made coffee as Arya was brushing. “So, considering we have been practically living together, why don’t we actually move in together? Anyways, the lease on both our apartments are going to expire in a fortnight and I am sure our current roomies will understand” she asked out of the blue. Arya was gargling and he almost spat all the water on himself. He was taken aback. He had to say something and had no clue about what the right thing was. He raised a question, “Do you think our parents will agree?” She nodded and said, “They know about us anyways and we will be married in a couple of years. Mine will be ok. I am sure your parents will be ok too. They are pretty forward.” Although she was saying the truth, Arya freaked a little thinking about the pace of things. He came out clear and said in an honest tone, “I know that it’s the greatest idea and all that. But, somehow it is scaring me a little. Can you give me a day to figure things out sweetums?” She looked at him, smiled and said, “Loverboy, take your time. There’s no pressure and all. Was just thinking it will be awesome fun!” He nodded passively and they got busy with the day. It was late in the evening when they came back home. They were both tired. He went to his place and changed. The new semester was starting the next day and he had to get up early and wake her up.

He sat down and thought about how his life had changed in such a short while. It wasn’t very long back before he thought he couldn’t live without Nisha. That’s when it struck him he hadn’t told Divya anything about her. It just never came up. He did not care about her past and neither did she care about his. He was in a dilemma about whether or not he had to tell her. Over time the thought just skipped his mind. He suspended his senses and embraced sleep.

“He woke up to a ringing phone. He did not know the number that it came from, so, he was going to silence the call and sleep. But, something suggested it was important. It was Nisha. She had called from India. He was still dumb-founded and he could not comprehend what she was saying. All of a sudden he hid his phone behind his back as Divya stormed into the room. It was impulsive and he had no clue why he did it. Divya was fuming with rage. He sat there guilty and dumbfounded.”

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P.S: Even if this were a NY times bestseller..... Your comments and feedback is extremely valuable to me. Love y'all followers :)

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 8

2010-08-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Photography and other things have kept me busy for the last coupla weeks. Hence, the delay in the part 8 post :) Here goes read on...

Chapter 8 - Lovestruck Vacation

Divya called back. She said in a very low tone, “So, how serious are you about what you just asked? Or has the project really gotten to you? ‘Cos I thought you were pretty serious…” Arya said, “Look Divs, I don’t know how or why I asked you today of all days. All I know is that, when I tucked you in today morning, it gave me a sense of happiness and belonging that I wanted for the rest of our lives. So, Coffee? Seriously.”

She almost in an irritable tone, “Seriously Arya I think your stupid…” and she paused. Arya was dumbfounded and he did not know what went wrong. She giggled. He was completely puzzled. “Moron, when you’re asking a gal as pretty as I, think more classy. Let’s have an amazing dinner. Just you and me.” Arya was elated. He stood with his phone in one hand and held the towel around his waist with the other. “Wait I am gonna get dressed and come right over. We’ll decide where to go”, he hung up and left. There was a small hop in his step and he kept humming some tunes as he walked by. He was radiant with the love that filled him. He had fallen head over heels for Divya. She was equally crazy about him.

As they sat down at a famous Chinese restaurant, the lights from downtown San Jose reflected against the walls of the building they were in. It was an unusually quiet start. They were both dressed for the occasion and they just picked up the menus and looked at it. Arya broke the silence and said, “So, why again are we unusually silent?” Divya chuckled. “May be we should have gone to some place cheaper. What say?” It was a pricey place and they felt out of place. It was a crowded day. So, they just told the waiter they had forgotten to lock the house and left the place. They held hands as they walked on the festively lit streets and they laughed about what happened at the first dinner. They stopped by a famous fast food chain and took their dinner to go.

They settled down on the stairs of Divya’s apartment. They held hands as they finished their dinner. They went up to her apartment. She invited him in to sit and chat for some more time. The room was dimly lit and her roommate was out at her friend’s place for some project work. They sat beside each other and chatted away into the night. She started dozing off on his shoulder as he sat there and looked down at the blissful beauty she added to his life. He moved very carefully replacing his shoulder with a pillow. She opened her pretty eyes and with a look on her face that melted Arya, she held his hand and said, “Don’t go Arya. Stay back here. I promise I won’t sleep. I wanna spend all the time we can together.” Arya said, “Sleep now sweets, I’ll be up and with you early tomorrow.”

She got up and headed to the door and stood up against it. Arya tried to sweet talk her into letting him go. She said, “Ok, if you wanna go find your way past me” and she winked. Arya pulled her close to him and reached for the door knob. She just submitted weakly to his action. She hugged him from behind. His hands all of a sudden withdrew from the door knob. He turned around and hugged her back. She looked up at him and said, “I have been in love with you from the time I saw you bite into you sub. I really love you Arya and please don’t ever let go off me ok?” Arya held her even closer and almost lifted her off the ground. He said; “Never will I remotely think of it until of course I meet a hotter gal…ok?” and he chuckled. They closed their eyes and stood there in each other’s arms for several minutes. After sudden realization they looked at each other and realized how deep in love they were. They were lost in their own world. Divya tried weakly to get out of the hold and suddenly she felt his lips close against her own gently. She gave in. She kissed him back.

Few seconds later, he looked deep into her dark eyes, pushed her hair backward and held her face between his hands and told her, “You are extremely special to me sweets. I really can’t tell you how much I love you. Promise… you will stay by my side forever and make me a better man…?” She blushed and barely managed to say, “I love you too Arya. Now go home. Try not to miss me too much ok? I’ll see you in the library in the morning.”

They met in the library and worked on studying for the finals that were coming up soon and they had to finish their project. They sat there through the day and finished all that they wanted to. After that day, they hadn’t spent even a single waking moment apart. The finals came by and they both aced the semester. Divya was to go to her cousin’s place in Chicago for the vacation while Arya stayed back in San Jose to try and find some on-campus employment. She was leaving in a couple of days.

Arya did not want to let her go and she herself did not have the heart to go. But, she had to do it for the sake of family. The night before she left, Arya sat down with his laptop and typed away to glory. She was curious and kept asking him what it was. He shoved her aside and continued typing, “Hold your breath Divs, there’s a little surprise coming your way” he said as he stared into corners deep in thought. She slept by his side as he sat up and continued to look into his laptop screen.

After a few minutes he shook her awake and asked her to check her email immediately. “You’re a total moron. We are sitting right next to each other and you wanna tell me something through email”, she almost frowned as she picked up her laptop. She read in awe.

Oh! that beautiful feeling, I hoped it was never ending...

For that little kiss, felt like heaven on earth…

I never wanted to let go,

But, I had to, for I needed to tell you how much I loved you.

It has been long since I have needed anything else to live,

All I need now is to breathe you…

How will I live if you went away…

If only there was a way to make you stay…. If only there was….

“Oh my sweet god… I had no clue you could write Arya. Seriously, are you really going to miss me that much?”, she said and flung herself into his arms. “That is such a stupid question Divs. I really have no clue what I would do without you” he said. She had an early morning flight to board. Arya stood at the door. She stood pressed up against him. “It’s 3 frikkin’ months… can’t you come back earlier”, Arya frowned. “No sweetheart.. cuz won’t let me go. You know how it is, dontcha?”, she replied back. “Don’t worry Arya, we’ll talk over phone every single day. We can also see each other on cam every day…”, she said stroking the back of his hair with her hand in consolation. He was fiddling with a twirl of her hair and set it back behind her ear carefully. He held her up and kissed her passionately. He said, “I hope this keeps me going for the time you’re away” and smiled. He wished her a lovely vacation and left. She left the next morning.

The days of separation and restlessness began.

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P.S: Leave me you valuable comments and feedback. I really thank you all for following.

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 7

2010-07-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

Seriously, this delayed posting of parts has almost become a habit and I have a different reason all the time. This time around, its Nyah. Yup, she caused the delay in this post. Shes my new Nikon D90 and she is keeping me busy enough not to write. Now, here goes Part 7 of the story. Read on......

Chapter 7 - The New Company

Arya was lost for a few minutes and he tried to build random conversations to find out who it was. And then it struck him, it was the very same voice he was pining to hear for the rest of his life, a few months back. Somehow it brought up all the memories he had tried to bury over time. He felt the same nervousness and excitement that he felt eight and more years before.

“Oh my god! Is that you Nisha and you are calling from a local number. Am I thinking right?”, asked Arya with a clear tone of excitement and joy in his voice. He was literally jumping up and down and his friends had no clue what was happening. “Oh yes dude. You are thinking just right. I am here on work for a few weeks. So tell me… Long time no see, How have you been?”, said Nisha in a rather un-enthusiastic tone. They caught up over all the time they hadn’t spoken and then Nisha asked, “So, when and where are we gonna meet Arya?” He thought for a while and he said, “I am kind of busy with settling down here Nish.. I’ll call you during the week and we can make plans. Ok?” They both agreed and went about their daily activities.

He sat down to think and there was something about the call that made him uncomfortable. He did not want to go through the whole confusion again. He was determined not to let any memories harm him anymore. In her couple of weeks of stay, they only met once. They went to a pastry shop and had something to eat. It was like a very formal meeting of two people who have hardly met before. Arya tried hard to make void and shallow conversations. Somehow, towards the end of the conversation, he couldn’t take it anymore. His heart won the battle over his brain. He asked, “Are you seeing anyone now? I am still wondering, would you have gone out with me if the distance wasn’t an issue?” Nisha was surprised and taken aback by the question.

It made the already uncomfortable situation, awkward. He told her not to bother answering the question. She did not. He walked her home. She waved goodbye and walked away. He thought about what had happened and walked away into the darkness. She stood in the balcony, looked at him and waved into the darkness. She wanted to answer the question but she wasn’t sure. She was leaving for India the very next night and he called her just before she left. After a routine bye-bye conversation, Nisha said, “About yesterday…” and she was quickly interrupted by Arya, “Well I told you, you don’t have to answer the question and I am sorry if I brought up something even without knowing whether or not there was someone in your life now.” Nisha heard him out patiently. “You know what…I want to answer the question. It isn’t easy for me. But, yes. I would’ve gone out with you but for the distance. Anyways, now it doesn’t seem to matter to you. All the best.” and she hung up.

Arya felt miserable. The only reason he did it was because he did not want to put her through the same old confusion and get himself in the same trouble. He thought about the whole thing for a couple of days and he let it all pass. He was now thinking he had to move on and let her do the same. A new school, new people and new routines had him immersed neck deep and he had no time for any old thoughts to penetrate his time. He was sitting outside the café one fine afternoon and thought out aloud before he dug his teeth into a 6-inch sub, “Whoeva said an idle mind’s a devil’s workshop must be a genius!” and he took his first bite. A sweet voice distracted his thought, “I can’t agree more… ” He looked up at the source of the voice.

She was the prettiest girl he had seen. The little smile she had across her face made a small dimple on her right cheek. A small subtle, but, persistent breeze threw her tied dark and long hair in front. She carefully moved it back and removed the clip to redo her hair properly. She pulled out her band, put it around her wrist as she adjusted her hair. Arya almost went into a trance. “Well, now that you are looking here, I may well tell you, I am Divya. I am a Software Engineering major and I joined this Spring. And you are?”, she said thus and extended her hand for a handshake. She waved in front of his eyes to get him out of the trance and then he shook hands. “Well, I did not mean to stare. But, you are so gorgeous. So software huh? We are classmates for the next two years. I am Arya.” After the brief embarrassment, they caught up about where they were from and what they had been doing before they had landed in California. They were both from Chennai and they seemed to have a lot of common interests. Arya and Divya soon became the best of friends.

It was almost end of the semester and they were doing their project together. Arya had dozed off sitting next to her. She woke him up when she was done with her part and was pulling his leg about the way he slept. He worked on his part and she slept off right next to him and she asked him to wake her up before he was going to go back home. He finished his work and almost tucked her in and slipped out of her house silently the next morning.

It was around noon when she woke up and gave Arya a call. “I asked you to wake me up…u crazy fella. Why didn’t you?”, she questioned. He had just gotten out of the shower, “Well, you were in deep sleep and you looked too cute that way. I just did not have the heart to get you outta that”, he answered. Divya was blushing and with a tone of embarrassment she asked, “Wait…. Are you trying to hit on me?? ‘cos you know it will not work right?” Arya hadn’t thought of it till then, now he was thinking. Out of the blue he just asked her, “So, do we go out and get a cup of coffee today evening? I mean… go out …go out.” Divya wasn’t surprised he asked her. She knew that he was quite the sweet-talking charmer when it came to women, but, she was surprised. In a surprised tone she said, “Well, I will have to think this through. Can I call you in 5 minutes?” He hung up and waited for a call.

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P.S: Please leave me your valuable comments and feedback.
P.P.S: At this point, I would like to make the disclaimer that, as opposed to popular belief, all characters in the story are purely fictional and any resemblance to any real life person is purely coincidental.

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 6

2010-07-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

I am sorry about the delay in Part 6 guys. Just that lotsa other stuff was holding me up till now. Just made some time for Part 6 and here goes Part 6. You can start with Part 1 and read on if you haven't yet started. I promise to keep Part 7 and remaining parts bang on time.

Chapter 6 - The Player

“How much do you mean all the stuff you wrote?”, she asked him in a single line and ended her mail. Arya returned from a team meeting and checked his mail and he did not have a ‘right’ response he thought. It was true. There was no right or wrong. It was the woman he loved and the one whom he had intense feelings for. His mind and heart were waging their own battle while he called her. “I really meant every single word of what I typed into that poem Nish”, he said and waited for her to respond. After moments of awkward silence she replied, “Hmmmm intense … Very intense.” But, there was something more she wanted to say that she wasn’t uttering. Arya felt there was something missing from what she said. He pushed her, “Then….. go on…” Like almost those were the magic words that were needed for her to say it she went on, “I don’t know if I am worth all this Arya. I am not the angelic girl you make me feel or look like. I think the problem is we are not in the same place in this relationship. And I think the long distance is going to be a huge factor. It’s hard for me.” Arya quietly listened. He uttered as she paused, “I am off for a meeting now, I’ll call you tonight. Bye and have a nice one” and he hung up.

Arya knew what exactly was happening. She was walking away again. Arya mailed Nisha in the evening, “Ok I know I am an intense person and I write what I feel with even more intensity. May be it was the first date for you. But, I did not feel any different than I felt eight years ago. I still like you just as much. I will not go as far as saying you will be the only love of my life. I dated a few girls before this. I am sure I’ll go out with a few more after. If long distance doesn’t work for you, I understand completely. Just so you know; I have no problem with the distance. Again I understand you fear where this might end. Well, I had thought this through. Anyways if I made you feel uncomfortable at any point, I just want to say I am sorry. Luv Arya.”

She read the mail and she called him immediately, “Arya, may be this wasn’t meant to be. May be we should let this go.” Arya listened patiently and said, “Sure, if you think so. Anyways, it is something we let go sometime back. This isn’t new. So, stay in touch Nish. Just because all this happened doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Right?” There was an odd pause which Nisha came in and eased out. “Of course nothing will change. I will still keep pinging you and bugging you just as much as I used to”, she said that. Arya let out a painfully tough giggle from his side and she knew there was something awkward. He told her he was tired because of all the work and he hung up and crashed. He slept with the thought that things were never going to be the same again.

Arya woke up to a good morning message from her. Not replying to it was not his usual response. He walked into the shower with a blank face. He came out like someone had sucked the life out of him and went on with his day. He messaged Ajay about what had happened and Ajay met him in the evening. “So it is over huh? I thought it was all fine…” Ajay asked in an inquisitive tone. “Screw the details man. I am now gonna need a date. Whom do you think I should call?” Ajay with almost a wicked smile on his face asked him whom he was going to call. Arya said in an affirmative tone, “I want to meet some new people, if you know what I mean. Can I join you for that party you are going to this Friday?” Ajay was more than happy that Arya was coming. Ajay said jokingly, “Thank god now I have a designated driver.” Arya replied in a sarcastic tone, “I am not sure you will have a ride back though. Is that ok?” and winked at him.

Arya continued to date different girls as time went by. There were two months left before he could leave for the US. His relationships lasted weeks or sometimes even days. As time went by, Arya and Nisha lost touch and just before he left to the US, he called her. “Alright Nish, I am headed to US tonight. Just thought I’ll say bye. Keep in touch”, he said that with a discomfort in his voice. Nisha almost coldly replied, “Sure. Bye dude. Have a nice time. Be good and tell me all about your girlfriends. Bon Voyage.” After a few seconds of deathly silence, they hung up. The silence meant a lot more than what was said during the conversation. It was a silence both of them did not enjoy.

He reached the US and was settling down. It was a couple of weeks since he had reached California and it was easy to settle down because of the large Indian population. He had a new phone, new place, new friends and a new life. He had made up his mind to start afresh.

It was a lazy winter afternoon before school had started. Arya was sitting around and talking to a couple of his friends as he browsed the internet on his new laptop. All of a sudden his phone rang. The number that came up was not known to him. He picked it up anyways. A sweet voice, a voice he knew for eternities sounded. “Hey Arya, Guess who….”

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P.S: Leave me your valuable feedback guys. I really could use it.

P.P.S: I am planning to write may be 2 more parts or at most 3 more till the end of this story :)

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 5

2010-07-09T04:53:00.001-07:00

Well, a day's delay on this one. I am really hoping all you readers out there are finding this interesting and please please do leave me valuable feedback. If you haven't already read the remaining parts, find them right here. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. Read and enjoy. Here goes the next installment.

Chapter 5 - The Day After

Arya saw her walk away, turn into a silhouette and vanish into the darkness. The second she vanished, it almost felt like the darkness, into which she went had consumed his thoughts. He was clueless about her state of mind and he just turned on some music and drove into the night and crashed at his cousin’s place.

He got up very early in the morning and messaged Nisha asking her why she wouldn’t meet him today and if it had anything to do with the conversation he had started. She called right away and squeaked into the phone, “Arya, don’t be a fool. I just had forgotten that I had to take mom for a complete checkup today. I really miss you and I hope we could do this much more frequently. Any bright ideas kiddo?” Arya was just silently nodding away in the conversation till he almost got out of the trance and realized he had to reply. He said shakily, “I promise to drive down every month to Bangalore. We have a good time till January and I promise we’ll make the best of it. I suggest you come to Chennai too sometime. What say?” Nisha was smiling, smiling wide. He could almost see her smile through the phone. Her joy was evident in her voice as she said, “That sounds amazing. Now I am headed to the hospital dude. Miss you tons and big big hugs. Leave me a message about when our next date is. Buhbye.” Arya sat in his car and grinned.

Arya spent the rest of his Sunday with his relatives and left for Chennai in the afternoon. He thought about Nisha all through the drive and at the end of it he still did not have an answer to his question. She had left him just as confused as he was eight years ago. Just as Arya parked his car at his house, Ajay called him on his phone. Ajay sounded very concerned, “Where the hell have you been dude? You haven’t picked up the calls of any of the guys.” He went on until he stopped in shock when he heard Arya say, “I was with Nisha. It was the first date after 8 years man. I betcha nothing has changed.” Arya took a momentary pause when Ajay jumped in, “Whoa dude… Where are you now? Tell me what happened? Got any new pics of hers? It’s been quite a while since I met her.” Ajay was then teasing Arya for a little bit before he told him that he was going to drop by and hung up.

Arya was lazing around the house with an eternal grin on his face that almost made him folks think he was deranged. Arya’s mom asked, “What are you so happy about Arya? Whom did you meet? Found a new girl or something on this Bangalore trip is it? I heard that you did not spend any time at Thatha’s place.” Arya was caught off-guard; he had never lied to his parents about anything. Arya out of impulse said, “It is an old friend I met after 8 years mom. Just a lot of memories and all that. You know how it is” and grinned sheepishly. His mom looked at him in suspicion, smiled at him and went back to her work in the kitchen.

Arya was very close to his parents and they understood him very well. He told his parents about everything he was going through. He hadn’t told them about Nisha. He wasn’t himself sure about what was going on, so, he did not want to make a fool of himself or end up disappointing them. Arya sat in a bean bag and picked up his notepad and scribbled in it as he was lost in thought. He almost jumped out of where he sat when Ajay came in and he shoved the notepad quickly under the center table. Ajay was greeted by Arya’s mom. He went up to the couch near which Arya sat and whispered, “I saw you shove that notepad away, so, what is it? A poem? A love letter? For Nisha right? Give it to me or I am gonna invite your mom to this party” and giggled as he took the notepad from Arya.

Ajay said he had to check his mail and walked into Arya’s room with the notepad in hand. As he walked by, Arya’s mom called out “Ajay and Arya dinner will be ready in sometime tell me when you want to eat.” Ajay halted at the kitchen and sniffed around and chatted with Arya’s mom about what was cooking. Arya was losing patience as he waited in his room and called out for Ajay rather impatiently. He came in and Arya told Ajay the entire story about how it happened and what had happened. “So what do you think she’s thinking dude? Any bright ideas?” asked Arya with a quizzical expression on his face. Ajay quickly escaped the conversation and asked him jokingly, “So, you went to Bangalore just because she sent you one message and I have been telling you we should go there for eons now to party.” Arya sat there with a slight smile on his face with blood filling it bright red. In all the bantering that was going on, Ajay had forgotten about the notepad and they both went to have dinner and he left immediately.

Arya jumped at the phone as soon as Ajay left and it looked like he was waiting for it. He went into his room and called Nisha. “Is mom ok? What did the doctors say?”, he asked with a tone of concern. “Oh ya it was just routine dude. Nothing to worry about and all. So how was your drive back?” she replied. Almost like he expected that question he said, “Lonely. I thought my car was a much better place when you were in it.” Nisha giggled as she said, “Whoa. This is the kind of talk you used to charm all those girls eh?” The conversation went on with the both of them pulling each other’s leg and they ended the day on a happy note. As he spoke to her he completed writing the poem and he told her he would mail it to her the next day. Arya went back to his notepad, sat there and thought about it and kept smiling. The notepad read,

Why did she have to come back? Why…

She makes me go just as crazy and keeps me thinking, only about her,

Back in time, every second I go, the higher my thoughts soar, high into the sky,

Boundless is the confusion her thought evokes, sometimes makes me go blur.

Her love for me, people tell me, she might never descry,

I can feel it anyway, I beg to differ.

Her thoughts quench my thirst, for the joy that goes dry,

Her love only makes every waking moment of my life better.

All I want to do is be with her, I try my best to, I try...

I want to love her, take care of her and pamper her.

She addles me alright, that doesn’t make me want her lesser, more, if any…

‘Cos she blows me away every time and that will never change, ever.

Nisha read the poem the next morning in her email. She read the poem twice. She hit the reply button the very next instant.

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P.S: Please leave your very valuable feedback here :) That keeps me going

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 4

2010-06-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well, yet another delayed post. As readers (yes I am being hopeful there are such people ;) ) I hope you really are enjoying this series. Find Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 here if you haven't yet read them yet.

Chapter 4 - The First Date Again?

Arya finished up with the meeting and almost ran out to his cubicle. He had to call her right away to see if he was going to meet her for real. He dialed her number and waited for her to pick up the call. He waited till a sweet and monotonous sounding woman said “The person you’re trying to reach is currently unavailable. Please try again later.” He walked out for lunch with a rather disappointed look on his face. He sent her a couple of messages over lunch and he waited for her to respond.

Nisha called an hour later and he picked it up like he was waiting for the phone to ring. He was circling the phone like a vulture prying on a dying creature. Arya almost yelled in excitement and lowered his tone as people around him started giving him weird looks. He said “This weekend? Whoa. I was pleasantly shocked. I don’t even know how but, I am going to be in Bangalore this weekend. Seriously, so two full days of fun. Eh?” Realizing he was rambling out of sheer happiness she let him finish. Nisha then slowly said, “Hey Arya, slow down man…. You really wanted to meet me that much, why did you not mention it before?” After a couple of uncomfortable seconds of silence, he replied, “I did not know whether you wanted to meet me or not. I could never be sure. It has been 8 long years right?” She sounded extremely furious when she said, “What do you mean what would I think? Sometimes you really know how to piss me off Arya. I’ll talk to you later. Bye” and hung up. Arya was totally thrown off by what had just happened. He sat down to think how he just screwed his own happiness and hers.

Arya went back home that evening and was fidgeting around. He did not know what to do and she hadn’t replied to his messages or calls since afternoon. He logged onto his computer to check work emails. He saw her online on his IM client. It said Nish is now online. He pinged her and waited for a reply.

“I know what I said was crazy and stupid ok? I did not mean to hurt you. I am reallllly realllllly sorry sweets” he typed. After a couple of minutes a message popped up on his screen, “Arya it’s been 8 years has that changed the fact that we sit and talk for hours together over phone or chat. It hasn’t changed the fact that we are the best of pals and it hasn’t changed the fact that it worries me if I don’t receive a message from you every hour.” Arya had no reply and he was just guilty. He sent his next message with a great courage, “Nish. There are things that I am kinda worried about. Can we just talk about when and where I should pick you up this weekend?” For some strange reason Nisha just smiled at the message and asked him, “How come you are picking me up? How are you coming? I thought I’ll come to the airport or the railway station.” Arya was planning to drive down to Bangalore. They continued making plans for the weekend the following hours before they logged out.

Arya was nervous about the weekend. He had no clue Nisha was thinking. She was right nothing had changed in 8 years apart from the fact that she did not wear her spectacles anymore and she confused him just the way she used to. They planned to meet for lunch at a popular hang out in Bangalore. Nisha got there before him and she waited while he had a tough time fighting his way through the traffic and finding parking. He called her and asked her where she was. She told him that she was on the first floor. He walked in and Nisha rose from where she was seated. His hands literally trembled when he pulled out a huge bouquet full of gerberas and tube roses from behind his back and handed it to her. It was big enough to cover her pretty face. As she sat down the waiter came in with a box of chocolates and handed it to Arya. “Now hoping that you love the flowers.. here goes a box of Belgian chocolates just for you”, he handed it to her and sat down.

He noticed that Nisha was just as nervous as he was. Her hands trembled as she took the bouquet and the box of chocolates from Arya. They both felt the same way they did eight years back. Nothing had changed indeed. Nisha was blushing with all the attention she received from onlookers in the restaurant. Arya said, “Ok I thought it would be a nice surprise Nish…. Did you like them? I really hope you’re not allergic to pollen or something.” Nisha was still trying to get out of the surprise, “She said thanks a ton Arya… Love them. That was by far the best surprise I have received in a long time.” Arya quickly diverted attention to a different topic and asked her about her recent vacation. “Where are the pics Nish?”, he questioned. As she sipped on her soup she said, “I clicked quite a few with my mobile dude.” Before she could finish the sentence Arya took her mobile from where it lay on the table and started checking the images out. As he went by a couple of images he joked, “I can check out the pics rite?? Hope you didn’t mind” and let out a sheepish grin.

He was almost sighing loudly looking at some pictures. She sat by him and explained each picture. “Can I actually send myself some of these pics Nish, really love them and I don’t have any pictures of yours”, he asked her. She nodded and he sent himself the ones he really liked. The lunch went on till evening and they paid and left the place. They hung around all evening in a nearby mall talking about anything and everything under the sun. They had a very light dinner and some dessert in a fast-food place and walked to Arya’s car. As he drove, Arya asked her, “Nish, it feels so fresh and the same like it did eight years ago. Where do you think this is heading this time around?” Nisha remained silent for the rest of the drive and did not reply at all. He dropped her. As she got down from the car, Nisha waved to him and said, “You make me feel like a school girl all over again Arya. I had a wonderful time with you today. Goodnight and sweet dreams man. Drive safe ok?” Arya was surprised by the way she totally ignored the conversation he had started. He got off the car as she walked away and asked, “Nisha did you actually not hear what I said or do you not want to think about it now?” She walked up to him, gave him a hug and said, “I think I’ll not be able to make it tomorrow Arya. Have to take mom to the hospital. See you around.” She turned around and walked away. He stood there and watched her turn into a pretty silhouette as the moon shone down.

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P.S: Leave me your valuable comments guys
P.P.S: More parts coming soon.... :) Keep Reading budds!

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 3

2010-06-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all... Hope you guys enjoyed Part 1 and Part 2.... Here goes the third installment of this journey..... Theres more to come... Keep reading and leave me you valuable feedback.....

Chapter 3 - The Beginning of New Lives

A few months had passed; Arya was having an exciting time at work. His work was well appreciated by all the seniors in the management and his team. He was well recognized and his appraisal was expected to be amazing. He was looking forward to it. All this while, it became more of a routine in his life to call Nisha every night after he got home from work. His GRE and TOEFL were done and he had scores sent to all the universities he had planned to apply to in the US of A. Arya was busy with the process of applying and getting ready with all the documents, and all the usual stuff that a student would need for a post-graduate degree in the USA. “Oh man I am so tired from all the running around!”, said Arya heaving a huge breath of relief. “What is it about dude? What are you upto? Too much work eh? Kabhi tho kaam kiya kar re….” , she said sarcastically and chuckled. “Oh look who is talking about work. I know how much you pity your manager for doing all your work. It is all about my applications and all that for the USA. If I had known this was as tough I wouldn’t have bothered doing or planning for my masters. Phew…”, said Arya and was interrupted by a “WHAT? You are going to do your masters in the USA and you could not even tell me. Arya I am gonna hunt you down and kill you. You are going away to such a faraway place and you did not even bother telling me. Why do you want to go now anyways?”, she sounded panicked and tensed. Arya was silent. He had no answer to her question. After seconds of awkward silence, Arya asked in a rather skeptical tone, “What do you mean by why sweets?” Nisha sounded very upset as she ended the call with a very terse and abrupt goodbye instead of the normal fifteen minute routine of take cares and miss yous.

Arya sent her a good morning mail with a little poem and a huge sorry written at the bottom.
“Oh so sweet the dawn of another day,
I slept guilty yesterday,
Will you forgive me? Forgive me please….
For, I did not want to see the pretty smile fade, when I told you I had to go across seas….
Please forgive me for we have time, time to keep this separation at bay…”

Nisha read the mail and called him immediately. “So when are you going away? Tomorrow…Day after?? Is there anything else you haven’t bothered telling me, you jackass….” , she just kept yelling at him. Arya listened patiently until she calmed down a little bit and then replied, “Look it is just September now, and I am going away only in January. So tell me what we are going to do with these four months we have with us?” Nisha thought a little and they were in silence for quite a bit before Arya’s meeting reminder popped up on his monitor. He told her he had to run and told her he would call her later. Arya was nodding like he had a broken neck that he couldn’t control, all through the meeting. Half-way through the meeting, he received a message that said, “Its been eons since I have seen you and you have seen me. Why don’t you come down here to meet up for a coffee or something? I can’t wait to see you. And so you still write poems eh? Luv Nish.” He looked at his mobile phone under the table and had a little pleasant shock. He put his mobile back into his pocket to reply later. He thought to himself how he had to get there and then his thoughts were disturbed by a question from his manager and he went on to participate in the meeting.

**********************************************************************************************

Nisha and Arya met in school the next day. Their class teacher announced the schedule for the model exams. Arya and Nisha hardly spoke that day in school. Things did not seem normal. Ajay went and asked Nisha, “Hey Nish, so when are you and Arya gonna start prepping yaar?” She just stared at him coldly and replied, “Go and ask him. Why ask me. He is this the one who keeps a lot of secrets.” Ajay was thoroughly addled. Arya overheard the whole conversation and told Ajay, “Tell her it wasn’t any secret I kept from her, just that I needed to muster up the courage all this while.” Ajay stood in the middle of this frenzy not understanding a single word of what was going on as they fought on like this for a while.

Arya went home upset. His folks had gone out. Ajay came over and they sat and spoke about what had happened. Ajay was freaking out. But, he was very upset that they fought. “Dude, whatever happens, you guys were great friends. Why don’t you call her?” Arya refused, “Why can’t she call? What’s her problem man?” Ajay convinced him to call. He picked up the cordless phone and threw it to Arya.

“Hello Aunty, this is Arya here, may I speak with Nisha please?”, Arya asked politely as her mom picked up the phone. He heard her mom call out to her. He could hear Nisha coming closer to the phone and when he heard the rattling noise that the phone made when she picked it up, ran a shiver down his spine. “Hey. Who is this?”, she questioned. Arya said, “Hey Nisha” and then a long pause followed the hellos. Arya began to speak, “I am really sorry…..”, when he was cut-off by Nisha. “Idiot, do you even know why I am mad at you? What are you apologizing for?” Somehow what she said brought some relief to Arya. May be he wasn’t totally wrong. The randomness and the frequency at which his mind was generating thoughts was way beyond what he could handle. Arya responded with a huge amount of skepticism in his voice, “Err… No. I was thinking may be me falling in love with you is what made you mad.” “Listen. I was only angry about why you did not tell me much before”, Nisha replied and paused. Arya did not know what she was trying to tell him. Was she in love with him too? She continued in a softer and yet affirmative tone, “I really like you very much Arya. In fact I think I love you too….” Arya was grinning from ear to ear. Ajay was getting restless on the other side as Arya walked into his room and shut the door leaving Ajay behind. Arya did a little jig and was jumping with joy. She went on, “But, what is this boyfriend-girlfriend thing going to change between us? I still find it hard to trust you Arya. What if you like someone else suddenly? What if you ditch me?” Arya spent the next few hours trying to convince her everything will be just fine. “Nish, look I really love you. I don’t know what I can say or do for you to trust me. Tell me if there is anything. All I can say is I will never do anything to hurt you.” There were minutes of grave silence as Arya could feel his heart thump against his chest. Nisha was quite flustered and was still confused. She was in a tougher situation than his. She loved him and yet couldn’t get fully involved. She confused herself and confused him. “Ok Arya, now that models are coming up, we should finish working out more problems. When do we start?” she threw him totally off with that question. She was digressing and clearly showed she did not want to decide. Arya asked her in disbelief, “Oh my god, out of the blue, where did that come from? What did you decide about us?” Nisha with some discomfort said, “I don’t know dude, I still cannot trust you and I am really confused. Can we stop talking about this?” He sat there and thought for some time and suggested, “If it is time you want….” Before he could finish he was cut-off. This time with more clarity and lesser thought she almost blurted it out like she was telling a secret, “No Arya. I don’t want to spoil our friendship and ruin everything. I know you like me, you know I like you. Leave it at that and let’s just be friends.” Arya stood there in total shock and all of a sudden his excitement died down. He continued to listen to her in a state of utter disbelief of what he was hearing. When she ended he told her in a questionable yet clear tone, “Ok Nish, let’s work out first 10 chapters this weekend. Ok?” They both hung up after 4 hours and they felt very bad. They both were now in a place where it felt like there was something between them, which they both were trying to stifle and get rid of.

The following weeks were serious studies and they spent most of their time talking about academics. On the day of the last model exam, Nisha walked up to Arya and they discussed the question paper. After it was done they went back home. She called Arya and they were discussing how much they would potentially score. He was quite casual and said, “These aren’t the boards Nish, why bother so much?” She let him speak on and then finally like she was gathering courage all this while spoke up, “I cannot stop thinking about you Arya. Have you really forgotten me?” He was taken aback. She surprised him all the time. “What do you mean forgotten? I am still trying hard to digest the fact you said no. I am the one trying to find my lost heart.” She retorted almost in anger, “What do you mean you are the one? I am in a worse situation if not the same. It’s not been easy for me to see you like this ok? So stop talking nonsense.” They continued to tell each other how much they meant to each other. All of a suddden Nisha said, “I love you Arya. I don’t know if I said it the other day when we spoke. I really do. So what do you think? Should we go ahead and be in a relationship?” Arya had nothing to say. Arya had lost all his capacity to think. He sat in his room speechless and awed by how confused a girl can be. “No Nish, over the last two weeks I just realized how important the board exams are for our lives. I think we should concentrate on our studies now.” Nisha was almost in tears after hearing that. He could hear her sniff on the phone. “Hey Nish, please don’t cry you know what I mean right.” She hung up on him.

They met in school the following week. It was the last week of school. Their study holidays were starting and they had their board exams to prepare for. In the last week they hardly ever spoke. If at all anything it was mostly about some doubts they had to clarify with each other. Ajay and everybody else found out there was something wrong, but, no one could ask. The board exams went by and Arya called Nisha. “Hey Nish, how are you? How did your exams go?” he asked like nothing had happened. Nisha replied tersely, “Yeah all good man how about you?” Arya told her it was all fine and he went on to ask her about what she had planned for summer. Nisha told him she had some work to do and hung up very quickly.

A couple of days had passed and Nisha called Arya early in the noon. “Arya, I am going away to Bangalore. My brother is going to work there. We are going away.” He did not have enough time to digest what he was hearing. He had to say something. “What? What? Seriously? Or is this one of your jokes?” Her response was affirmative, “No Arya we are taking the flight the day after tomorrow.” Arya still in complete shock asked, “What will your address be? I’ll write to you. What will your phone number be? How will I contact you Nisha?” Nisha sounded worried, “I will write to you dude. I am really going to miss you. Keep writing to me ok? Keep in touch.” She left Arya no time to say anything; her mother was calling her continuously. She had to go. There were a couple of letters exchanged in the few weeks of summer, after that they both got busy with their new lives and they lost touch.

Arya wrote something for her in the last letter, that he awaited a reply for, a reply that never came.

“I wish I could have stopped you…
I don’t know why I said no…
I thought the moment was lost…
But, now I know I am still in love, insanely in love and this is true…
I am still trying hard to let go…
Every single thought still lingers, every memory of the sweet past…
This life I am living sans you is completely new…
Used to it, I have to get, I know….
The void you have left in me is vast….
For, all I have left are the Remains of a Lost Heart….”

***************************************End of Chapter 3****************************************

P.S: Keep your fingers crossed to see how this emotional journey evolves :)
P.P.S: Please leave me your valuable feedback

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 2

2010-05-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

If you did read Part 1 here.... continue reading this :). This is the second installment in this journey of emotions :). Read on ................

Chapter 2 - The Reunion and The Fallen

Arya got up with yawning from his bed and looked straight into the mirror. The reflection he saw in the mirror scared the wits out of him. He decided he needed a shave that was now long pending and thought of what happened last night as he splashed water onto his face. For a moment, he stood still staring at the mirror in his bathroom and cleared his mind and decided to go for work as he had a meeting a little later in the day and lots of work to complete.

Arya was a software engineer in one of the leading IT firms in the world. A 23-year old, bright young lad, with a special passion for computers and a fanatic craze for automobiles and speed. Academically, not the toppers but was easily one of the most brilliant one could find in times of doubt. Arya was a person who was fun to be with all through college and even at his workplace. Arya was a popular guy and he had the looks and intelligence to back him up. Arya was extremely good when it came to people skills and that was an added advantage. He had a great reputation at work place for his efficiency and productivity and had a well designed career ahead of him.

Arya was planning to quit the company and head out for higher education. He was in the middle of various things when he came across Nisha’s profile on a social networking site. He added her as a friend and waited for quite a while before she accepted his request. “She is not a regular visitor to the site I guess”, he thought to himself. One fine day, he found her online and they started chatting. Arya kept chatting and did not realize how late it was. They just caught up on all the time they had been apart. They were just giving each other updates on what was going on in their lives. It was just about 1AM when Arya said he was sleepy and that he was going to log off soon. Arya just then asked her for her phone number. “I’ll give you a ring sometime”, he typed and put a winking smiley right next to it. She took some time to reply back with her phone number and she just gave him the phone number with a smile and a line that read “Sure doJ”. Arya sent her a GNSD (Good Night Sweet Dreams) and a rose emoticon and logged off. He stored her number on his mobile and stared at the mobile with a blank expression on his face for a few minutes and then dozed off.

Arya jumped into his car and drove off to office. While he was driving, he thought about Nisha and the times they had spent together during school days. It brought about a special feeling in him that he could not get over for the rest of the day. Arya was caught dreaming in the meeting and left the conference room, quite embarrassed. He did not even know what he was thinking and had no clue why. Arya went home that evening and called Nisha. They rambled on and on for hours together. They ridiculed and laughed at each other, thinking of all the stuff back in school. Arya all of a sudden asked “So, how is your love life? Found anyone yet?” Nisha did not take any time and replied instantly “No dude. And you? I am so sure you would have found at least 10 girls to flirt with by this time. You were such a charmer” and she giggled. “Aaah no…. I am still single ‘cos you weren’t here right?” and Arya giggled. But, deep down both knew there was some bit of seriousness in what Arya was saying. They changed the topic spoke about some other things and Arya hung up at about 12AM. He then messaged her goodnight with a flower emoticon and dozed off.

**********************************************************************************************

Arya now was too involved in thoughts about Nisha although his concentration in studies never slumped. Every passing day and every single moment he spent with her, he only wanted to get better. She had that influence on him. It was school excursion time and they were heading to an amusement park. The whole class was excited and so were Arya and Nisha. The day came and everyone had a band around their wrist and ran into the park. Arya stayed behind the rest of the pack. Nisha a few yards away stopped and turned back and asked, “What happened Arya? Come on… Let’s hit the ferris wheel.” Arya sighed heavily and said, “You go on Nish…. Divya wanted to go with you. I heard you guys talk about it in the bus.” Nisha walked right back to him, “Oh this was it eh? Buddhu^*you should have heard it fully. I told her I was going with you on all rides and no one else.”, saying this she rapped him on his head and took his hand in hers and dragged him along and joined the other kids at the ferris wheel. Ajay looked for Arya and waved to him asking him to come ahead and he subtly nodded saying no and Ajay immediately knew what he meant. Ferris wheel was a great time when Nisha held on to Arya and was screaming on top of her voice and Arya was putting up a brave front and was smiling and laughing at the way Nisha was behaving. They both thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the day went on like that till lunch break. When lunch time came, they had lunch with all the kids and all of a sudden Nisha started feeling sick after going on all those rides. The kids moved on to all the other rides and so did the teacher after asking her to drink some lemonade. Arya stayed back with her and they wandered away to a place which was free from all the frenzy. She started feeling much better and she held his hand throughout. They sat down at a bench and she rested her head against his shoulder. Arya looked at her cherubic face and admired the innocent look on it. The day ended on a great note for them and other kids.

Ajay and Arya headed to Arya’s place that night as it was quite late and Ajay’s house was too far to go. Ajay was too tired and he slept off. Arya stayed up and waited for Nisha’s call after she had reached home. She called and told him she reached and ended it soon. Arya sat up and thought how amazing his day was. He picked up the notepad next to him and started writing a poem, something he had started doing too often these days.

“Oh, how I wish time could have come to a stop….

When we were on the ferris wheel, right on top….

I think it was just great when she held my hand tight in the roller coaster….

Never felt like that before, I could feel my heart beat faster….

A kid’s glow I could see on her face, as she went on the merry-go-round,

It gave me boundless joy, as I sat there and watched her go around.

We walked around hand in hand throughout the day,

Every single moment, in my memory - will stay…….

Now I think I know what being in love feels ……..

For her I know, I have gone head over heels!!”

Ajay got up next morning before Arya and saw the notepad. Ajay started worrying about this and he wanted to make sure everything went well. He shook Arya out of his sleep and asked him, “What the hell is happening? What is going on? I saw what was happening yesterday. All these days I did not see anything, but, yesterday I could see something different going on. Do you guys love each other or something?” Arya stood there and stared blankly at Ajay and said “I don’t know man. All that I know is I cannot stay away from her at all. Looks like my life is blank without her……” Ajay quickly cut him short and retorted, “I think you are mad. We are 16 years old and I do not think this is the right time for all this. Shove all this aside; let us start preparation for the half-yearly exams and the boards. May be it is a crush or something; it will go away as time flies by. By the way, have you told her?” “No. I am planning to talk to her today. I will go mad otherwise”, said Arya. Ajay frowned heavily and walked out.

Arya called her and started talking about usual math problems and science homework stuff. Arya went over to her place. “Hey all the fun yesterday, it was great and now we are stuck with crappy geometry and stuff, damn it would have been great if time had stopped yesterday”, said Arya. Nisha retorted quickly, “Oh man it should have stopped when we were on the ferris wheel” and Arya was taken aback. It was as if she was reading his mind now. “Oh beautiful!”, Arya struggled to get these words out of his mouth. Nisha looked at him with a doubt on her face and replied “The view from there was so beautiful, I can’t agree more man.” He quickly shook out of the little state of shock and said, “Ya ya the view …. It was awesome.” She looked at him and instantly found he had something else to say. “So are you going to tell me what this is all about or are you going to behave like a lost moron all day?”, she asked him teasingly. “Uh ….Ok….”, Arya was cut short at that and she said “so let us both break our head with trigonometry now.” He just agreed and they worked out math for the next 2 hours.

Arya was now tired of this and could not take this anymore. He wanted to tell her what he felt. He looked up from the book and realized she was staring at him and he just looked her in her eyes. “I cannot take this anymore. There was something very very special that I felt yesterday between us. I don’t know if this is how it feels like to be in love or something. But, I really think I love you very much.”, said Arya mustering all the courage that was left. He showed her the poem he wrote the last night. From the expression on her face, he could not make out if she was surprised or shocked or offended or anything. He just looked her in her eye for some kind of acknowledgement. “I am going to leave this poem with you and I am going to leave you alone for a bit. Not that I expect some answer or anything. I had to tell you. I really do love you.”, saying this Arya walked out of the room and said bye to her mother and brother who were in the living room and went back home.

**********************************End of Chapter 2**********************************

P.S: Leave me your feedback and suggestions on how this should go ahead :) Bouquets and Brickbats welcome :)

The Return

2010-05-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all.....

I was sooooooooper busy this whole semester and had to put my love for photog on the backburner...
Now that the semester is almost over..... I decided to take a hike... well really... I went on a hike to Big Basin Redwoods [Simply beautiful]!!!! I thot the best way to get back to photography and clickin would be this.... SO here goes the shot of Sempervirens Waterfall :) :)

Leave me ur comments guys!! :)
P.S: BTW is my current wallpaper :D :D

Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 1

2010-05-14T02:32:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all... Wadduppppppp?? How are things going? Well here goes - this time around a short story :) May not be really short.... The very fact that I am still writing a lot more could mean its not really short :D ..... Read and leave me your super valuable feedback as always....

Chapter 1 - Now and Then

“I don’t know why, really man, but I can’t get her out of my head”, Arya rambled on and on as Ajay listened intently. “What the freakin’ hell is wrong with you mate? Are you in love with her or what?” asked Ajay. Arya made a weird noise to show he was thinking. Ajay freaked out, “Dude, been 8 full years man, now it’s like you don’t even know who she is or whether she actually likes you.” And he walked to the study table where he found a paper that had a little poem written on it. Ajay read it out aloud,

“I know it’s been long, I know,
I don’t know if it is love,
I just think of her more, every new day,
Her thoughts keep my sanity at bay,
I don’t think this feeling will ever go,
B’cos a single second without her thought, my life hits a new low.
It is still very fresh in my heart, the very first time,
The very first time she spoke, sounded like a chime…
It rang the bells in my head and heart right away,
I knew she was the one for me, and she was the one who was going to stay”

“Dude you are outta your freakin’ mind and trust me this is so not going to work. Don’t behave like a love struck puppy, look at your life, you have a girl right next to you waiting to be with you and you are going to blow her off and go back to a woman you had a ‘crush’ on when you were in your 10th standard? Insane you are….” and mumbling away Ajay walked out of the room and the door closed behind him making a huge noise. Arya just looked at himself in the mirror and buried his face down in the pillow and slept off.

**********************************************************************************************

She joined Arya’s class in the 10th standard. Arya was one among the brightest students in the class and she was tough competition to him. Her name was Nisha and she had shifted from one of the Gulf nations to Chennai, where Arya lived. The first time they ever spoke was when she got teased by Arya about her habit of rocking back and forth when she was studying seriously. She gave him an angry glance and just continued studying. They kept fighting all through the day after that. End of the day they somehow knew they would get along well and Arya asked her for her phone number. She gave it to him almost instantly like she was waiting for him to ask. Arya and Nisha became very good friends and spent every moment they could, together. They could be seen together all the time. They did not just ramble on about useless things, they discussed subjects and they grew much better in their academics too. In school no one actually could find anything weird or suspicious about their closeness because they were just great friends who spent a lot of time together and had lots of fun with crap talk and bantering. They spoke about everything under the face of the sun.

Ajay casually dropped in to Arya’s house one evening after school and found a notebook with a pen inside. “Hey is this that boring science assignment that we were supposed to complete?” saying this Ajay opened the book and Arya pounced from his bed and tried to grab the notebook from Ajay’s hand. Ajay withdrew his hand beyond Arya’s reach and started reading,

“She looked at me, she smiled at me,
I am definitely wondering what it could be…
I don’t really know how I feel,
Never felt it before, never for real...
She is very beautiful, she is so cute,
I cannot say a single word I would want to, Her very sight makes me go mute…..
What is happening to me now? What…….
Is this just a start of something bigger? Is this is a start….?!?!”

“Nice poem man. Just out of curiosity, since when did you start writing poems? I know you from the time we were in 6th grade, never seen you write. Is this for someone special?”, asked Ajay and winked at Arya teasingly. Arya took the book from his hand and told him “I started writing poems just half hour back man. Just random and was not meant for anyone in particular. Come on lets go play Need For Speed on the computer. Ill thrash you easily man.” Ajay made a funny noise and said “Blah Blah Blah …. you have been saying that forever now” and patted Arya on his back as he walked towards the computer.

*****************************************End of Chapter 1**************************************

P.S: Bouquets and Brickbats welcome as ever....
P.P.S: Missed writin so long!! :(

The One I Still Love.....

2010-03-10T01:51:00.000-08:00

Hey how y'all.... 51st post. Been quite a bit since I have posted anything. Hope you enjoy this. Yep, yet another poem to start with.... a sequel to this one :). Leave me your valuable feedback guys.

The One I Still Love……

She is celebrating life may be,
She has moved on, people would say,
My heart will never accede, and it will never be the same for me….
For it was Her. Forever, lost in her love my heart will lay.

Waking up to her ever-ringing sweet voice,
A day would otherwise, never dawn I thought.
I have to move on, I had no choice,
But, to rise every single day to naught.

All the sweet nothings, all the romance,
Still brings a smile on the face.
Makes the heart want another chance,
To hug her, kiss her, to make love to her. Death after, I will happily embrace.

All it needed was some talking to set it right,
To see it through till the final call came.
Someday I will have to come to light,
The brain knows, the heart is to blame……

Every time I think of the heat and chemistry,
I close my eyes and breathe to smell her around me.
Why the magic failed, still remains a mystery,
I could see nothing but love, two souls deeply in love, together - pining to be.

She is the one, who gave me my first kiss,
She is the one, who taught me how it felt to be loved,
She is the one, whom I really miss,
She is the one, whom I’ll love forever….

P.S: Bouquets and Brickbats welcome as always....
P.P.S: Yep, I am back!! :) Back to blogosphere :)

For The Love Of The Dream - Final Part

2009-11-05T18:24:00.002-08:00

The next morning when Swapna logged in she had forgotten completely about the surprise and they were chatting about random things as the conversation went by. Ram did not bother to remind her either. Swapna quickly typed, “We are going to have a huge bash for Anisha’s birthday tomorrow at her place. We couldn’t have a party that day ‘cos she had plans with her family.” Ram exclaimed, “Wow, that’s awesome sweety…. So, you are gonna be at her place all day tomorrow eh?”

Swapna giggled to herself and replied, “Why do you ask like you’re going to come to the party? ;)” Ram sighed heavily on the other side and keyed in, “How I wish babe… how I wish……” They continued and she went on and on about what she had planned for the party. Ram was missing all the action and he felt bad about it. Ram typed out in frustration, “Damn! Semester ended yesterday and if only I could afford to get to India :( :(.” Swapna asked anticipating a positive response, “Is there no way you can come now?” Ram made a quick and short reply, “Nope.”

Swapna was now asking Ram what else they could do. Swapna asking him for some ideas for the party. Ram said his mood wasn’t ok and he logged off. Swapna tried to persuade him to stay, but, he refused and left. Swapna was missing him online and she was suddenly reminded of the surprise that he had promised. She was now very curious to know what it was and she called him. The conversation was very terse. Ram answered the call and in a very depressed tone replied, “I will call you tomorrow. I know you were reminded of the surprise I promised you. I’ll let you know tomorrow. Waiting at times increases the value of the surprise. Hold on to your curiosity sweety.” Without waiting for her to reply, he hung up.

Swapna was confused and had no clue what it was about. She had to plan for a huge party the next day. So she just slept. The next morning the moment she woke up, she went online to check what Ram was upto. Ram was Offline. But, seconds later a message popped up and she read the message that said, “Go and check my blog for your surprise.” It said, “I know you have a party to organize, but, DO NOT LEAVE WITHOUT READING THE SURPRISE” in CAPS. It was about 11AM in the morning for her.

She quickly went to the Ram’s blog and started reading the story. It was titled; ‘For the Love of The Dream.’ The story was approximately 3-4 pages long and it had a few 5 liners. She did not understand the consequence of the surprise as she read on, pretty obfuscated by the whole situation.

When she was nearing the last part of the story that began with ‘The Dream – The Manifestation’, she was wondering why the reality of the last few days was written down as a story. Although very puzzled, she continued to read.

I couldn’t wait to meet her,
How I wish time moved faster,
Oh so I went, with no idea what to get,
The golden moment couldn’t be missed, when, for the first time we met……
For, it is all For the Love of The Dream, For Me, For her, For Us, Forever………….

She read it. Although she knew what the story meant till the point where he leaves her an offline message, she had no clue about why this story at this time. She sat there puzzled missing him. In a few minutes, she got dressed to go to Anisha’s place. She opened the door as she looked down at her dress and made adjustments to it.

She looked up and Ram stood there with a huge bouquet of red roses in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other.

****Happily Ever After*****

P.S: Bouquets ;) and brickbats welcome. Thanks for reading this far.
P.P.S: The story is based on totally fictional characters and any resemblance to any real person is not intentional and is purely coincidental ;)
P.P.P.S: The blog has reached 50 posts. Thanks for the support and feedback guys.

For The Love Of The Dream - Part 2

2009-11-02T22:24:00.002-08:00

Swapna said she would check it later. They continued talking for the next few hours. She was talking about her childhood and school times. Swapna all of a sudden pinged him and said, “Dude, I’ll go get my lunch” and that is when they realized they have been lost in talk for the last 4 hours. They had spoken without a break and they decided to scroll to see what they had spoken.

Ram quipped, “Man I can write a whole biography of Swapna and call it the Tale of the Dream may be!”
Swapna chuckled to herself and replied, “Oh well, it isn’t any lesser here. I even know what the color of your first bicycle was.” Realization is the funny feeling that dawned upon both of them. They had met 4 hours back on an instant messaging client and now they stood at a point where they knew so much about each other.

Swapna in almost a shocked state typed out, “Where on this sweet planet is this heading? This is so fast.” Ram was slow and realized the magnitude of the situation only when he read out what she had typed. He typed a quick “BRB” and sipped on some orange juice as he thought. Swapna was lying in wait at the other end. Ram replied, “What are you talking about? I think we are doing just fine. Let us slow things down if you think it’s weird.” Swapna read it to herself and started asking herself several questions before she said, “I don’t know what is happening. I thought it was going to be some casual flirting and just getting to know kind of chat. It seriously is headed somewhere now. Just that this whole feeling is very new.”

Ram now was beginning to take this very seriously. He said, “Listen, we have not met at all. Does this make any difference to you? It doesn’t make any to me. I really think I like you. If I were in Chennai now I would come right over and ask you out.” Swapna read this to herself silently and replied with a very weak, “Hmmm….” This could mean a zillion things and Ram was confused with this reply. He was left clueless as to what it could mean.

All of a sudden she pinged him and she almost screamed out aloud, “Dude, it is almost impossible to be that fast!!” Ram said, “Oh ya sure it is. I know. But, I think you are one of the prettiest, sweetest and cutest people …..” He was cut short by, “I just read the poem that you had posted.” Ram had no clue how to react to what he was reading. He could imagine the look on her face. He turned pale with fear of what was going to happen next. Swapna again intervened and said, “Dude how serious are you when you type stuff like this? Are you just flirting with me for the fun, ‘cos all of a sudden it feels weird and I don’t know whether what is happening is right.”

Ram kept reading and said nothing.
She waited for his reply. Ram typed out, “Look I am very very serious that I like you a lot and I don’t know what else to say. I have no issues with how long the distance is ‘cos I strongly believe distance is what lies between the hearts and that I am sure cannot be measured in kilometers or miles or cannot change across timezones.”

Swapna read this patiently and replied, “Well well well…..someone is all emotional and serious et al….. ROFL. I know dude… I know how serious you are. I think I can figure out what you mean and trust me, you make me feel like a little school girl - you make me go pink, butterflies in the stomach and all….”
Ram was ecstatic when he read this and said, “Hey you know what? I can’t wait to see you in person. I am making another post now  and this goes out as a special dedication to the cute dimple on your cheeks.”

My eyes were waitin to meet ....
The beautiful face of the gal so sweet....
The missing muscle, oh so cute....
Makes her prettier and makes me go mute....
The moment my eyes first met the face, Oh I sure know, my heart skipped a beat....!!

He told her there was another update. It was now 5 AM for him and she had to go out in the evening then. She said, “Hey I gotta go now dude. Temple time now. I’ll see you around.” It was 5 AM when Ram read that message on that window. Ram rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and changed his status on IM to “Sleepless” and then he replied, “Hey baby………I think I’m gonna miss you. Take awesome care of yourself. And I have a surprise for you when you come back.”

She tried to persuade him to tell her what it was. She insisted till he told her he was going to sleep and he said bye to her. She left for the temple as Ram stayed up and made up a surprise for her.

*****The Dream – The Manifestation*****

P.S: I still need feedback guys. Do leave some :) Thanks If u have read this far.

For The Love Of The Dream - Part 1

2009-10-30T04:25:00.003-07:00

Sometimes it is funny how you meet people who become a very important part of your life. Here goes a fiction, based on how interesting it can be to meet a person who becomes as important as they are, overnight.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE DREAM

It was Anisha’s birthday and Ram had called to wish her at midnight. It was a difference of twelve and a half hours between them. Ram sat up in his bed with a bowl of cereal and dialed her number rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “Many more happy returns of this day da… Have an awesome day and an even better year ahead”, he said in a ruffled voice as he attempted to clear his throat. Anisha screamed into the phone “Thankyou Rammmmmmmmmmmm and why the hell are you calling so late????” After a brief explanation she said, “All my friends are here do you want to see us on a webcam?” Ram woke up with a start and turned to his laptop and logged on. He said hi to all her friends on the cam and took notice of one pretty one. “So who is that with the black t-shirt?”, he queried inquisitively. “Hey Ram. I am Swapna, a friend of Anisha’s for eternity now.”, she answered in a voice that had him listening in rapt attention.

“So you are the Swapna she keeps talking about…You indeed justify your name”, he said out of impulse. She asked, “Huh?? What does that mean??” as she let out a giggle. Ram braced himself and mustered a little more courage and said in a clear voice now, “You look like a dream. A dream every man would want to have. You look very pretty.” Swapna blushed and ran out of the room. Ram was worried if he had said anything wrong. Anisha broke the silence and introduced her other friends to make the situation less awkward. Ram heaved a sigh of relief and hung up before Swapna could return.

Swapna asked Anisha who Ram was. Anisha told her about Ram and gave his id for her to chat. Ram was online that whole night, when he got an invite from Swapna on his chat client at around 10 o’ clock. For a minute he was overjoyed and confused and did not know what to do before he accepted her invite.

“Hey how you doin’?”, he typed. Swapna was typing for a while and the message on Ram’s screen read, “So, what were you saying about me during the video chat yesterday night?” Ram was flustered for a moment before he could reply. He typed, “Well Swapna I think you look very pretty and I think you have extremely pretty eyes.” Swapna said a very weak thank you and a conversation began that would last in their memories if not inboxes for the rest of their lives.

Swapna was a very pretty girl from Anisha’s class from middle school. She wasn’t quite the dream girl back in school days, but now she was the kind of girl every man would dream of. A very outgoing person, who knew where the line exactly was. She would party hard and still make it a point to go to the temple every day. She was the bubbly and cheerful person everyone would love to have as a friend and yet she was the one who could be trusted with any problem. She struck a balance in life that many could only dream of.

Ram met Anisha through another friend at a party and became really close. Ram was doing his masters in computer engineering in the USA while Anisha was back in India after completing hers in the UK. He was academically brilliant and had a flair for writing. He was a major hit among the women around him and he remained single waiting for the right one. His looks were only an add-on to the whole package. Every guy around him envied him and wanted to be him.

“She was a dream, she was a fantasy,
She was the one, every woman wanted to be,
People who looked at her, would say God was partial,
For He had given her all that they thought; could never be real,
She is the dream I had, She is the one who took my heart away from me……”

Ram made that update to his blog and passed on the link to Swapna.

*****The Beginning of The Dream*****
P.S: If at all u read this far... Do leave me ur valuable suggestions.

Till Death Do Us Apart

2009-09-16T03:43:00.002-07:00

Hey floggers[fellow Bloggers, I mean]...... Again a long pause between my last post and this one.... Hmm I cud say indolence was getting the better of me.... I just won a battle against the deadly sin and here goes the result :) A poem after long......

Till Death Do Us Apart..........

She took my breath away,
The first time I saw her.
Every time, my love for her, I wanted to aver…
The cherubic look on her face,
Always ignited, between my heart and my mind, a never ending fray.

All the world would be mine I thought,
If only mine, she could be.
Did she want the same? Sure, I would never be,
I had to ask her, so I did…
She ended my desolation, happiness into my life she brought.

With her love,
I had a new reason to live,
The best to her, I wished to give.
She loved me more than her own life.
I had everything, I had everything now.

We were ready to tie the knot,
We were ready with our vows.
The whole town was there, we made sure everyone knows.
When she walked down the aisle and we said I do….
We knew it was forever and till death did us apart…….

I wake up to her every single day,
Only to know my love for her keeps growing.
We live everyday to be the last and seeds of love we keep sowing…
One fine day, the call of the Elysian fields may do us apart I fear,
Not our hearts I am sure, ‘cos every time I look at her, she still takes my breath away………

P.S: Bouquets and Brickbats are welcome as always.....
P.P.S: Bouquets are of course preferred :P
P.P.P.S: If !P.P.S else goto P.P.P.P.S
P.P.P.P.S: Go back to P.P.S
P.P.P.P.P.S: Usual question answered. All characters in this poem are figments of my imagination.

Stiky and Sticky - English Anybody?

2009-08-17T00:49:00.003-07:00

Hey fellow bloggers and followers(I am just being optimistic here, I know ;))

After a long vacation in India, I am returning to blogosphere now :) .... If at all there was anybody who missed my frequent posts... Here goes one to mark my return :D

Another comic strip :)

Your comments and feedback are welcome as ever :)
Read and Enjoy :)

Stiky and Sticky - Stiky Sit's

2009-05-27T09:30:00.001-07:00

Sit, Chennai will be conducting their first of many to come unconferences on the 31st of May, 2009. Please visit us at http://www.sitchennai.org/ to register as a participant and for more info.

The Closet of Fear

2009-05-27T04:31:00.003-07:00

Another 55 fiction one ....

He woke up startled and a sweat ran down his spine. He had dreamt of a vampire. He looked around the room and slid himself back under the warmth of his blanket. He drank water, turned the lights out and shut his eyes close. From a small gap in the closet, a bat flew out.

Hope all of u enjoyed this one.....

55 Fiction - A Try

2009-05-26T16:29:00.005-07:00

Hey guys... This is now an attempt at 55 fiction. Some are going to be funny, some are gonna be crazy. Hope you enjoy em all :) The first one coming up right now :)

Dream on ??!!

He held her tight in his arms. She was so close to him that he could feel the heat of her breath near his neck. She was trying to wiggle away, but , he wouldn’t let her go. Lucy licked him all over and forced her way back to the dog house, her cozy home.

P.S: All of you out there leave me an honest opinion on this genre of writing cos I am considering more of these based on what you guys say!!

Stiky and Sticky - Roman Confusion

2009-05-22T13:15:00.004-07:00

The exams finally end.... I finally breathe... And here comes Stiky and Sticky!! Back again!! :)

P.S: Leave me ur valuable feedback on this series guys!! :)

Stiky and Sticky - Summer Bummer

2009-04-30T22:55:00.006-07:00

Hey folks.... Kinda late this week with Stiky and Sticky. Thanks to tons of assignments that never seemed to have an end.

Read and Enjoy!!

P.S: No offense meant to anyone from the UK or the Queen
P.P.S: I have to compulsorily put in a P.S or I just cant sleep :P

Of fruity luxuries....

2009-04-28T01:16:00.002-07:00

Slurp… lick …slurp……gggulp………mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I was in a state of total bliss a few moments back when I had some yummy watermelon and some honeydew. It was too yummy and fruit after dinner is just too good.

Back in India, this was a luxury. Every summer meal of mine was followed by mangoes, apples, watermelons, musk melons (American variants are cantaloupe or honeydew), or any other fruit that can be found in a veggie/fruit shop. All the fruit is placed in a bowl diced and chilled and seeds taken off as the case may apply. Dig a fork deep in or tooth picks or spoons or if I cannot resist the temptation till the forks are at the table or till I get one, just grab and gulp.

This I thought was a simple thing and some days I have not bothered to take the bowl and drop it off at the kitchen sink. I just relished the fruit every meal and washed my hands and walked off. Sometimes I even complained, “Oh damn we had the same fruit in the morning. Can’t we have something else now?”

Today, I had to dice the watermelon I wanted to eat, myself. Guess what? I knew how much effort it took to dice up a whole watermelon. It took me almost a half hour to cut up one little watermelon, and then another 15 minutes to clean it up.

PHEWWWWWWWWWWWWW and then came the slurp…… and my hand still hurts from cutting up a whole watermelon. This blog entry might be meaningless and too much about fruit I ate.

I just wrote this blog as a realization and a small way to THANK my DAD and MUM for all the ‘fruit’ they have given me. I now realize it was luxury I was too used to. I now know what it actually takes to enjoy a fruit after every meal.

THANKS DAD AND MUM for all those mangoes, pineapples, watermelons, musk melons and everything else.

P.S: When I go to India the next time, I wanna dice a complete watermelon myself and give it to my dad and mum for atleast a meal. :)

Stiky and Sticky - Movie Trouble

2009-04-19T20:04:00.002-07:00

Here goes another Stiky and Sticky for this week :) Enjoy the strip folks !!!!

P.S: No offense meant to any X-Men fans or actors or director or anyone who thinks this might offend someone.... This is for fun :D

Stiky and Sticky - Paranoia in USA?

2009-04-15T15:13:00.005-07:00

Hey folks.... Long time since Stiky bugged Sticky and I bugged you :) Here goes. The return of Stiky and Sticky :)

P.S: I am now gonna try and make Stiky and Sticky a weekly strip. Watch this blog space for every week's Stiky and Sticky fun :)

Hopelessly in love....

2009-04-14T13:22:00.004-07:00

Hey everyone... been quite a while since I have updated my blog .... Here goes another poem ....

Anyone who looked at her would definitely realize,
Why I fell in love; some would say her smile so beautiful,
Some would say it was her pretty eyes,
To me it was everything about her; everything made me go crazy for her.
I went to her to let her know,
About every single feeling I had gone through,
Every single thing, every single thing in my face she did throw,
My heart did not break, for it was lost in love, hopelessly in love.
I knew I had to let it all go,
I had to find my heart, really did have to,
She did not deserve it, so,
Not a little bit did she deserve.
That did not mean, my love wasn’t true,
It only meant, I was depriving the soul who really deserved it,
Time went by and a new heart I grew,
Just to look for the one who was really in need, who really was in love with me.
It was just about the time I left everything to destiny and moved on,
She came back into my life,
And asked we could spend the rest of our lives, as man and wife,
What would I do?
How would I know what my destiny was,
All of a sudden my heart did not feel new,
My heart was lost in love, hopelessly in love, not alone this time……

The Dream Story....

2009-02-19T23:33:00.004-08:00

Folks this is a story I dreamed of writing. No literally, I had a dream sometime back in which I was writing a story. I jus remember the story I wrote in my dream very sketchily. Hence, I am adding a little bit of my masala in it and presenting it to all of you.

It was early Monday morning and there stood Anita tightening the knot on the tie of Ram little aware of the prying eyes that were watching all the events rite since morning. Ram and Anita were a newly wedded couple. They had been married for 3 months now and post honeymoon, Ram had to move to a new place for his work. The firm that Ram worked for provided them with a beautiful looking house in the countryside and made sure they gave him transport as well. The house was maintained by a maid who was a local. She would come twice in a day and do all the work that was told to her. (Sweet I wish I had known this company... :( Recession time man....me and my dreams!! )

Ram and Anita were a happy couple and theirs was an arranged marriage. The house even though beautiful, somehow gave passersby an eerie feeling, mostly, because of the sheer size, location and the isolation from the rest of the houses. But, Anita and Ram were enjoying the sheer privacy and the location was just rite for newly weds. Right from the day they moved into the house, there were eyes from all around looking out for opportunities. These were prying eyes waiting and some watched lustfully and some diabolic motives.

The maid had told Anita various stories about the locality. (Why do maids always have to say scary stories about the area... damn ...this is sooooo cinematic!!) Sometimes late in the night Anita would hear noises, the sources of which were unknown to her and she preferred it like that. She would tell Ram in the morning about it and Ram would just make fun of her and hug her close to him, ask her not to worry and leave for work. This was almost a usual occurrence in the household. Anita would walk back into the house and shut all the doors and windows.

One fine morning, after Ram left for work, Anita sat on the couch watching some of her favorite soaps on the huge Plasma and home theater. There was a noise from the first floor that she heard. She waited for a moment and called out to her maid to check what it was. Anita was in the living room and she did not get any response from her maid as well. Anita slowly muted TV and walked around the kitchen where the maid was supposed to be. To add to her shock and fear, the maid wasnt in there anymore. Anita came back to the living room and checked the main door. It was locked. She heard the noise again. She slowly went upstairs. She peeked into the room. She looked around carefully with a rolling pin in her hand. (Man..... Weapons of Man Destruction... ) She could not find anything out of place and then she looked up at the window and was shocked and scared to death. It looked like it was almost painted red and it was dripping down.

She did not have the courage to go out of the house. She was scared out of her wits.
She did not know what to do. She called Ram but could not reach him (Now it gets very cinematic). Ram calls her about 10 mins later from his office number. "Honey. I gotta go outta town for 2 days. Will come back ASAP. Don worry. Take care." "Ram...." she almost screamed..... Click. He had hung up. She was too scared now and she slept through a creepy night in the living room.

Next morning, she almost forgot about it and her usual routine continued as the eyes from outside kept watching her continuously. Then her maid, Lakshmi came for work. "Where the hell did you go yesterday?" asked Anita. "I did tell you before I left. You were watching TV then." replied a flustered Lakshmi not knowing what had happened. Anita had to go shopping to the near by store for veggies and groceries.
Lakshmi finished her clean up process and they both went to the store in Anita's car.
They came back in about half hour and heard some noises upstairs. They ran up and checked the room. All the things were strewn about and the room looked like someone had ravaged it completely. The mattress was torn in various places, the cotton and foam from pillows flying around. Anita looked up at that window and saw that all windows were opened. She came down to check and the kitchen and dining room had been ravaged too. Food lay strewn all over the place. Utensils were all over the floor and the place was messy.

"Who the hell opened all these windows and who left the door to the backyard open?" Anita yelled at Lakshmi. The house was fenced and it was high enough for anyone to scale. Lakshmi stood there scratching her head. "I left them open for some fresh air maam". Anita freaked out. She yelled at her and asked her to clean all the mess. FEAR now was at its max for Anita. There was someone watching her she knew. She did not even change her clothes out of that fear and she made sure Lakshmi stayed with her that night.

Ram would arrive in a day and then she thought she will set it rite. A blessing in disguise, Ram's work was over early and he came the next morning. She narrated the whole series of events. Ram was initially scared and then he decided to stay home and find out what was happening.

The minute he heard the first noise from upstairs, Ram went out with a huge stick in his hand. He went by several trees and went to the one that was rite outside the bedroom window. He noticed it was a plum tree. And he looked up and plop on his head fell a huge plum and his face and shirt was full of red pulp. The monkeys in GANGS looked down at him and made a noise that sounded like a giggle to him. He laughed like a mad man and he went into the house. Anita stood there and with all the red pulp all over him she freaked out. Ram let out an evil laugh and this made Anita shiver. The closer he went to her she was scared.

He then laughed his ass off and told her about everything that happened..... They laughed their way to sleep that night.

P.S: Do not hunt me down :) I cant help if I dream this way :P And for those who expected some serial killing or some gore ghosts... :P :P :P!!! ROTFL!!!

A Movie Review - Naan Kadavul

2009-02-15T00:39:00.005-08:00

Movie: Naan Kadavul
Language: Tamil
Rating: U/A
Cast: Arya, Pooja
Direction: BALA

You might or might not be thinking the same when you walk out of the movie hall. This is my opinion and you may choose to disagree. And this might.... this does contain spoilers!!

The movie begins with a brilliant video footage of Varnasi. A brilliant footage. All the places and the essence of Varnasi were captured brilliantly. A very well shaped Yoga posture and Arya is introduced. A song in the background brings out the Aghori lifestyle Arya is used to.

A little drama here and there and a long lost father convinces his Aghori guru with the help of a local pujari to send Arya(Rudran) with him. The Guru tells Arya to get rid of all his ties and that he will know when it is time to come back. However, it leaves the viewers puzzled as to how the Father identifies Arya to be his son after 14 years of no contact. A missing link I wud say. They bring Arya back to a small town in South Tamilnadu to show him to his Mother.

An Aghori Arya has no ties to his mother or anyone and goes to live near a temple in the town. As all this happens. There is an introduction and build up of characters. An underground lair as we can call it, houses several physically handicapped and deformed people. This is a place where the 'Bad' man houses his Urupudis as they are addressed in the movie. The Bad guy makes these folks beg in various places and thrives on this earning. In this group he has a man named Muruga who takes care of a particular set of beggars who beg in a temple. Now comes the connection. This is the temple where Arya now lives all the time and does his weird routines. One of which involves smoking Ganja(Bhang/ Marijuana).

Muruga sees Pooja singing in a train someday. She begs for a living with a group of people. She is blind. She has done justice to the role for sure. She has a voice of a nightingale and Muruga sees the opportunity of earning much more with her in his group of beggars. He 'acquires' Pooja with the help of the local police and takes her to the underground lair of beggars. Muruga at some level has developed an emotional connection with his group of beggars and takes as much care as possible.

A Malayali, Nair....another bad man comes to the underground lair for buying out some 'urupudis' and takes away a lot of small kids from Muruga's group. Muruga is broken now. But, he still does it for the money. And then life goes on and people realize there is something weird about Arya. The next time round the Nair comes to the underground lair with a very rich but very very ugly customer who wants a a 'fine' woman who cant see his ugly face but satisfy his lustful desires. No points for guessing. They want Pooja. Muruga sees this and gets a heads-up and asks Pooja to go find some help.

Pooja goes to Arya and holds on to a sleeping Arya's leg. The bad guys try to pull her away and in the process disturb Arya. Arya beats the hell out of them and thrashes Nair like crazy and drags him into the dense woods. What happens to him, no one knows. Police arrest Arya and keep asking him questions to which he replies "Aham Brahmasmi". He proclaims himself God and that he gave Nair what he deserved.
He is produced in court without evidence and judge dismisses the case and postpones the hearing to 5 days later. The corrupt policemen tell the bad guy about Arya in the mean while and 5 days later Arya is acquitted as there is no evidence. While all this happens, Pooja is captured by the bad guy and is tortured like crazy.

Arya is shown in his 'Sirasasana' with a gash in his forehead bleeding and drops of blood wetting the steps of the temple. The bad guy waits to lay his hands on Arya and so he does. Again no points for guessing, Arya beats the bad man to death. Pooja comes to Arya when he is in the pose and rants about why she is tortured like this and that she cant take this anymore. Trust me, all fans of Pooja are going to be crying their hearts out to see the babe in that shape. She has a face that is swollen very badly and has various cuts on one side and hair pulled out of various places. A brilliant job on the make-up and to keep the emotion going, great job Pooja. Arya, sets her free from this world. He slits her throat and kills her. He sets her body ablaze and walks out of the little cave like place. He is shown taking a dip in the Ganges all of a sudden. He comes out of the water and walks towards his Aghori guru Kasi. Ends A film by Bala.

Moral of the story: "For people who can't take this life anymore, death is a boon!!"

A very short movie, a very loose plot. There is nothing that you can call a story in this movie. The amount of realism as shown in the movie grosses out many. I liked the realism though. At interval, all the characters in the movie were introduced and that is all. The word Interval at this point in the movie, a wild shock!!!! I expected more details with respect to the Aghori aspect of his life. And what Arya does to Nair and the Bad man.... no idea. How does Arya's father get to know Arya is his son, after about 14 years of no knowledge? Lots of missing links in the plot. May be some important scenes were taken off at CBFC India. Definitely, appreciate the guts of Bala to do a subject like this. But, has he stuck to the subject?? I dont really think so. In my view, the film lacked details where it was necessary to outline a story. I will give it a 2.5/5 . More was expected from Bala.

P.S: I am almost sure there is atleast about 40 minutes that was cut-off due to censorship problems. These 40 minutes would have made the vital difference. If someone knows of the facts of the amount that was cut-off due due to censorship problems, please highlight it.

Journey to the West - Getting to SFO

2009-02-13T14:55:00.007-08:00

The Final part of my journey .... I know I have bugged u guys there by elongating this story just as much and before u get annoyed and start hunting me down... here goes the last part of my Journey to the West.

Ok now I am on the flight stuck between an old Korean couple and a German guy next to me. The old man next to me slept off in an instant and started snoring. No, I don get disturbed by sounds wen I sleep, so that did not cause me any problem whatsoever. But, on this flight I made sure I used the in-flight entertainment and so I sat up and started watching Forrest Gump. Yup, the same old Tom Hanks movie. I like it so........I first have the juice tat was served. Then comes the Asian Vegetarian Meal :) It was pretty gud, I must say. I enjoyed the meal and then finished watching the movie and guess what?? I slept again :) :)!!!

I got up when it was snack time and had some nice snacks and immediately post tat, we were served sandwiches. :) Delicious they were :) :)!! Had them and then we were given the immigration forms to fill up and instructions to fill em up as well. Once tat was done, we were asked to fasten our seat belts and so we did. We had a lady captaining the plane. No offense meant to women. But, the landing was the suckiest I have ever been in. I looked arnd and ppl arnd me seemed to agree with me. The german guy next to me cursed the pilot. The couple next to me prayed!! I thot ok... Ill say my prayers as well and closed my eyes....... Glad we were safe, but, realized tat quite a bit later. Now tat it was safe to be excited.... so I was!! :D

I was excited, not because I was going to Uncle Sam.......only because I was gonna meet my dearest sister after quite a while and ofcourse very excited tat I was gonna live with her. Man I was so excited tat, I ran out thro the aerobridge and reached the immigration check. It was a quick check on my docs and a bright young officer was doing it, he said Welcome to California and all the best for ur education :). I ran out from there to grab my checked-in baggage and I stood near the conveyor belt and bang there it came!!! I got it and I grabbed a trolley from nearby and put all my stuff and moved thro. The security officers asked me if I had anythin eatable.........Ofcourse I don I said. They let me pass. I ran through the exit door of the terminal and looked around for a very familiar pretty face I had known forever.

Take my word on this, the moment I saw her it was nothing but sheer bliss. It is just amazing to go home aint it. Yep I was home away from home now. I was in the Silicon Valley of the world and I still was home. :) :) :)!!!

*** JUST THE BEGINNING***

Journey to the West - The Little Ordeal

2009-02-08T01:26:00.005-08:00

Ok now... now... I step out of the flight to head to the Terminal 5. I had a connecting flight to get at 10:40AM. Now flight lands at 9:10AM. I get off the flight and get into the bus that was to take us to the Terminal at around 9:40AM. My boarding pass says gate B42 for my connecting flight to SFO. I thought the Terminal is gonna be 'rite around the corner' types. And no points for guessing I was grossly wrong.

It was a 15 minute ride to the Terminal. Now starts panic time. Time is 9:45AM and I have exactly 55 mins to get onto the plane. Ofcourse, flights gate close by 10:20AM. :O :O OMG!! I enter Terminal 5 expecting a quick dash to my next flight. Yup I was wrong :D. I enter the terminal and it says Flight connections to my right hand side. I look up to see a nice huge escalator. And I thot it was painfully slow as I was panicking like crazy!! Who wud wanna miss a flight??

I run up a huge escalator along with a few others who had the same flight to catch. But, I can be sure about one thing. They somehow got to the flight much before me. :( Im sure this aint their first time!!! But, I was the guy who was running the fastest. I see a huge queue for connecting flights and no one was in a hurry. So, I did wat we do best. Ran out of the queue and went rite in front. There was an airport official who saw the flight timing and guided me to the Zone D - Baggage drop zone. I was issued a new boarding pass there and I thot I get to the gate now. And now the time is 10:00AM.

I again run up a painfully slow escalator holding on to my cabin bag and head to a place where they did the security check. Yaaay ... Yipppeeeee now where the hell is gate B42. [*VV thinks... it must be somewhere 'rnd here]. OH NO U DON'T VV. It was all wrong. I stare at a Ferrari and an Audi on display at LHR for a minute. Ok now the time is 10:10AM. 10:11AM and I run to find where B42 is. "Head down 2 floors and get to the center." I heave a sigh of relief. Ok it wont take me 10 mins to do tat, or so I think. But, something suggested I should run. I run at a crazy pace and get to the center. Only to meet an underground rail tat says ---> To gates B&C. OMG!! I think I am gonna miss my flight. 10:15AM I am inside the little train thingy. Gladly, it was more like a dash and I was out by around 10:20AM at gate B.

Doesnt end so easily. B42 meant I have to find the gate number 42 in B. :O!! OMG. Run run run.... I see the tallest and slowest escalator rite in front. I run the fastest I ever think I can. I think I would have beaten Usain Bolt at that speed!!! Ask him to run up tat escalator with 10kgs of cabin bag and another 5kgs in the form of a lap top bag on the back. I wud have beaten him hands down. And now it says B42 and time is 10:30AM. I head there and there is a mini security check kinda thing there.

Finally, I get onto the aerobridge tat led to the flight tat was to take me and a whole bunch of others to SFO city. I find my seat and put my cabin bag 'up there' and shut it. I sit down and belt up and look at the time in my watch. It is 10:35AM.
The flight begins to taxi in just a few moments. I Sighed loooooooooudly this time and I was really relieved. Now .....who could imagine you could sweat till u drip at 1 degree centigrade??? :-s

End of part 3....
Man did I need rest or wat!!! Coming up the last and final part of my Journey to the West!! :)

Journey to the West - The Flight from MAA to LHR

2009-02-02T22:59:00.003-08:00

Glug...Glug.... Glug... Duh.. remember they gave me something to drink??? I am just getting done with it.

Glug..glug ...glug... oh no... I jus asked for another drink :D. Man was I hungry or wat at 4.00AM in the morning. Now the flight starts taxiing... and a couple next to me start praying :-s!! I am like...WTH!!!!This is my first international flight .... stop scaring me. However, flights before were fun 'cos I had my family around and it only excited me to travel in aeroplanes before.

Not wasting a moment more, Vinay Vijayakumar, ya that is me :D went to sleep. I was meddling with the in-flight entertainment screen and controls and it kinda put me to sleep. I turned the playlist in iPod to my sleep-time playlist and entered a physical state that I was gonna spend the next 10-odd hours.

Now, this is the time wen I have no clue of wat time it is. But, from wat I figured, the air-hostess woke me up to give me my Asian Veggie meal.... and I was like ...Uhhh.. Wat.... OMG hot airhostess.... [thinking don drool VV.... ]... "Thanks. But, I don want it now. [Wide smile here]." The airhostess cracks a nice lil joke and asks me if I was sure. [Thinking.. I aint any lesser, I shud crack a joke too.] I aint sure wat time it is now and chuckle. She smiles and walks away. :D!! At this point I was thinking, wen did I start cracking such lame ones and......

I sleep again. And I get up exactly half hour before the landing at London Heathrow. No points for guessing who woke me up to gimme snacks this time. I ate the snacks and we landed in London. It was 9:10AM GMT. The scheduled arrival at LHR was at 9:40AM.He parked on tarmac and not at an aerobridge. It was 1 degree celsius outside and I did not even bother to wear my jacket or sweater. Everyone else around me wore sweaters and heavy jackets. Who cares. I was to get off the flight and board a bus that would take us to Terminal 5 at LHR where another flight was waiting to take me to San Francisco which was set to take-off by 10:40AM.

End of Part 2....
Next part is the little thrilling and exciting and tiring ordeal that I went thro :)!!!

Journey to the West - Getting on the plane

2009-01-31T11:01:00.009-08:00

Finally.... After mentioning this blog quite a few times and coming up wit it jus a lil after a month :D :D ...PHEW was I busy or wat.........!! So here goes.....

10.30PM, December 27th, 2008
Location: Besant Nagar, India
The last minute of packing and weighing the bags and trying to keep them under 23kgs. No, that is not realistic. It is never true and it is never possible to get that rite. Wateva we try, its gonna end up at least a KG more than wat is allowed. Packing done by 11:00PM and a final round of hugs and namaskarams to grandparents. I was cuddling my dearest Kutty to last me a long time before I come back to India(I miss her soooooooo much :( ). We head to the airport. We means, my parents and me. I went into Anna International Airport along with several others. I went in and had no problems with my bags and went on to check-in and come back and spend time with my parents and friends. I go ahead and see a queue as long as the longest I have seen. I din wanna stand in one of those. But, this was the first of many I was gonna see. So, just went ahead with a SIGH written all over my face.

All of a sudden, a British Airways attendant comes by and asks the queue starting from me to go to a different check-in counter. PHEW, wee headed to the business class check-in counter and guess wat I was the first to check-in. I had a great time with my parents and friends till much later. BA staff again comes and tells me, "All flights are running full, Sir, head to Immigration." I go ahead and at around 1:30AM, 28th December 2008 and go through Immigration at Chennai's Anna International Terminal. Now, now now.... Me being a genius :D.... I gave away all the Indian currency I had on me to my Dad before I came thro'. I go up and wait for the security check for my flight to open up......only in vain..... I was there at security at 2AM for a flight that was going to depart at 4AM!!!!!!! WTH!!! And now the best thing happens, I start to feel hungry as I sit in the lobby there. My brilliance made sure sometime back that I did not have any Indian money on me!!!! So I cudnt buy anything from the shop that sold all the goodies rite in front of me. Now, there were rats running in my stomach and for some strange reason I started to believe they were running some kinda race in there :( :(!!!!

All of a sudden, the security check for BA is announced and I go through tat and now switch some music on. My iPod was dishing out beautiful numbers as I waited for a boarding call. And in sometime came the magic words. We all headed to board the flight. Now, I start going thro a number of feelings.

Excitement & Fear, cos this was my first international flight.
Happiness, I was heading to the Silicon valley, and more so, I was going to be wit my dearest sis whom I missed for the past 2.5 years
Sadness, I was leaving my parents and Kutty behind and a whole ocean of friends.

The inner me was emotionally mottled. And I boarded the flight wit a lot of thots and rats racing around in my tummy. I sit down and in very less time all passengers were offered something to drink..... PHEWWWWWW!!!!!

End of Part 1............

Stiky and Sticky - Directions

2009-01-16T20:14:00.002-08:00

P.S: This one was taken from a real-time joke by my mum :)
P.P.S: Yes PJing runs in the family :D

Move On....WTH???

2009-01-13T21:33:00.007-08:00

I have been noticing a new trend nowadays...... Nowadays, its become fancy and a 'fashionable' thing to say... "Oh this is being blown out of proportion ... Just shove it aside and move on." Seriously, when some incident in India happens, be it bomb blasts, terrorist attacks, or corporate frauds or more such incidents this is a common dialogue or statement heard all round!! Phew....

There is a majority of people who want to discuss this in the political context and dish out opinions and ideas and the political repercussions and possible failure of the ruling party......... There is another portion of people who are some kind who like to look at the 'human' side of an event and gain some mileage (for him/herself of course) and of course they only talk about it...... they don't do anything of course...

There is another very small portion of people who do some very serious analysis of the situation and actually talk some real sense and of course its not 'interesting'. Ok this, WTH bothers me wat is happenin arnd....now I see a common comment from people who dont want to concern themselves with the views of the category of people mentioned above. These guys, actually are very smart, they have their own opinion on the situation, which is actually a logically and very sensibly correlated view of all the categories which were mentioned above. No, very very smart I must say. You sit all through and read and follow an incident totally and read all the things and follow all things being said. Then, you form a brilliant opinion and tell people "Stop blowing.....blah blah..." :)

My take, "Smart men learn from their own mistakes, Wise men learn from mistakes of others." So, I wud rather say, every thing deserves a fair share of attention :D !!!
Sometimes going down to the root cause of certain issues may help us identify the weaknesses in a system as a whole and take a corrective course. Maybe, only maybe, India did figure out certain issues tat could lead to an economic crisis and probably that made our Finance minister take corrective measures. I am not saying this 'is' the truth. I am saying it could have been a possibility :D. Learning from the past is a very important trait that could help us better our future. I am not a person who lives in the past. Wen someone says, "Stop giving all attention to blah blah...". Remember, they know the whole thing. They have learned already. Don't listen to them and miss out on what you mite need to know :D.

I learn from the past,
Implement corrective measures in the present...
Only just to have a better future. :D !!

Does tat imply I am wise?? :P :P

P.S: Nope... this is not a vague post
P.P.S: Trust me, some of these learnings from larger incidents could always be applicable in certain situations in our own personal lives (at a lower level of course) and tat makes it important for 'individuals' to learn from such incidents/events!!
P.P.P.S: You might want to read SRK's post before reading this :) That post of course 'inspired' me to write this one :D

Stiky and Sticky - Power in a name

2008-12-30T11:53:00.001-08:00

Read and Enjoy.....

P.S: Travel tales posts coming up soon :)

Stiky and Sticky - Shoesome Awesome

2008-12-26T10:32:00.003-08:00

Read and Enjoy.....

Stiky and Sticky - Cursor Trouble

2008-12-23T09:44:00.002-08:00

The second in series...

Read and Enjoy!! :)

Stiky and Sticky

2008-12-21T01:55:00.002-08:00

Hey folks,

I am just trying my hand at creating a comic strip series. This is the first one. 'Stiky & Sticky '. This is the intro strip for these guys. I will be calling it S&S from the next strip on.

Stiky & Sticky - The first time we met.......

Do let me know your feedback on this one.
Thanks to www.stripcreator.com

Happily Ever After.....

2008-12-19T10:47:00.002-08:00

The last one of the trilogy. I thot of makin this another tragic end like most of my poems. But, due to popular demand. I had to make the ending predictable and happy. :)
Hope you enjoyed the series :D

The Memories that were buried deep down in my insane heart,
Did not stay there for too long, I just let them die,
I knew I had to play my part,
As a husband, a father and let the past just fly by.
It was son’s high school year when she came back,
She wanted to meet; she gave me a call,
I knew I was strong at heart and I would cut no slack
She told me she had loved me too much and made a request too tall.
She wanted to be mine now…After all these years.
I told her I was married and I had a son,
The next moment, I could see her still angelic face, wet with tears,
I did not know what to do; I stood there, every single second wanting to run.
She told me, she would go,
But, she wanted a first and a last kiss,
My conscience wouldn’t let me do it, B’cos I loved my wife that much so,
My life till now was in a state of bliss,
sans confusion, problems and thoughts about the past.
I took her hand, held her close,
She looked up at me with her eyes filled with passion and love,
I kissed her forehead gently and said goodbye,
She looked at me pained and hurt,
She turned back and walked away, never to return.
I went back home that day,
Only just to love my wife more than ever.
I thought I will be… I was, The Memories remained, and I let them go,
I beat myself in the battle of thoughts only just to live
Happily Ever After…………….

Breaking Up - Part 2

2008-12-19T06:35:00.002-08:00

Between 2 friends, maybe very close or may not be close, they could just be friends. Assume that the guy has feelings for the gal all of a sudden.

Like I said before, the guy decides to tell her. "Hey, I have started feeling differently about u lately... blah blah.... this is off topic"

The gal if interested says 'Yes' and all is well. OMG here comes the other if. NO??!!?? Ok now wats the next step. I have commonly seen the gal starting to distance herself from the guy. Cmon give him a break he is not gonna stalk you. Guys give her a break. She said NO which means any amount of hanging around doesnt work. So give up and atleast be sane enough to respect her feelings and her space.

If you are very close friends, give it a small gap, may be one or 2 days, call back and just be normal. DO NOT ATTEMPT to talk about wat happened unless u r sure, both u and her are comfortable talking about it. Otherwise, its best to avoid it. Agreed it is tough to start with. A few days, and u will be back to comfort zone and then probably, u will be able to discuss it in the lighter vein.

Ok, here goes. What is it about expressing love that people think its an offense? The guy had an 'opinion'. I use the word opinion just because its just precisely what it is. You go thro this phase where you think a person is special to you. Hence, its an 'OPINION' you form about the person. Freedom of Speech/ Expression(This I know is not applicable completely to something of this kind) but, I want to use this to play down the misconceptions surrounding the 'Opinion'.

The girl, you will accept/not accept an opinion about a car, bike, house, etc...etc... when the guy says it. Why is it when this opinion is expressed and then asked about ur take on it... you get so offensive??
He just said he loves you and wants you to be his 'ONE'. Just say whether you agree or not and get moving along. Yes, again a play down on the whole concept of expressing love.

Life is too short to be spent losing people becos losing people takes just a few seconds, but, to think about wat you have lost/ get back or gain new people is not particularly an instant thingy.

P.S: Never let anyone GO away from your life bcos of silly reasons.This is all about situations where the intent involved is genuine. This could be vice-versa too :)

Breaking Up....

2008-12-18T06:27:00.003-08:00

A guy looks at a pretty gal, hmm lets say in college, office, wherever. Now, the guy really likes her and the gal doesnt know who this guy is.

Our hero, manages to find a common friend from somewhere. The guy now takes the initiative and starts talking to our heroine. And then they meet here and there and slowly, they become friends, then close friends and closer friends and closest friends and so on...

Here our Hero has lost his focus and direction. Why did he start talking to her? He liked her a lot and he maybe wanted to go out with her/date her and then make her his gal friend and if everything goes ok.... his Wife..... WTH!!! And now he is her BEST FRIEND!! [Don ever say that again] Here's the deal, the guy likes the gal and he expects her to go out with him... Well, wats he waitin for? Whoever said 'Pyaar Dosti hai' deserves to be shot.

So this is the idea... We r best friends now... As there is no higher level, lets jus become lovers eh??? Shoot again with a bigger gun!!!!!!
I am not saying friends can never become lovers or partners for life. I am saying, if at all there is such a thought across your mind, express it right away. You are not doing any justice to the relationship otherwise, by holding it back. And by calling it friendship your ruining the complete idea of friendship

And what happens? One fine day, she goes out with someone else or you ask her out and she refuses, you start avoiding her. Or she starts distancing herself from you. This is not matured behavior. Soooo not. What have you done?? Let a beautiful relationship go down the drain in a few mins.
If you think, you asking your good buddy out could ruin the friendship, then do not do it. Its not a very nice feeling for either of u.........

P.S: Make ur intent very clear, even if not explicitly, a few inklings here and there wudnt hurt anyone
P.P.S: U should be a good friend too, to ur galfriend.
P.P.P.S: This could be true even vice-versa.
P.P.P.P.S: Please do not ruin the brilliant feeling called friendship in such cases!!!

A Random thought....

2008-12-16T11:28:00.002-08:00

We all know the proverb “Practice makes ‘a Man’ perfect”

Well, my take on “Why has the Woman been left out?”

Thought1 (Extreme Optimist): “A Woman was already perfect, she doesn’t need any practice”

Thought2 (Pessimist/Chauvinist): “No matter what a Woman does, she can never be perfect”

Thought3(Optimist): “A Woman is never satisfied, at a point when she thinks she’s perfect, she thinks complacency is setting in”

P.S: I am always an OPTIMIST, so all women there spare me!!!

The Memories Remain.....

2008-12-15T08:38:00.002-08:00

This is the second in the trilogy of poems..... Here it is!!

Things did change….Life had to go on…….
Living every moment just to know what was beyond….
I made a lot of money …… earned a lot of fame…
For myself in this world, I had made a name……
No one to share with, the taste of success so sweet,
All these days it was one thought that was haunting me - It was her I was dying to meet.
Where she was I had no clue…
Although in my heart she lived I knew….
I asked her friends, I asked my foes….
I wanted to find out if someone knows….
To no avail of course……
For some reason I knew I will never meet her again…
Thinking about her - I started to refrain…..
For, I now had a family to care for….
I knew it was all over,
Not just for now, but for ever……
Still some where deep down in my heart – insane,
The Memories Remain……….!!!!

For god's sake its a compliment and that's all

2008-12-11T09:34:00.001-08:00

Why is it that people(read women) get all suspicious wen u tell them the truth???

I make some acquaintances through some common friends or something..... really doesnt matter..... On day 1, I see her say hi and bye and prolly leave....

Imagine some other day, she's well dressed and pretty........ I am more a person who speaks out as I think...... :D Hence, I would walk up and say "Hey ur looking good today" and prolly go on with a conversation......

This is where the problem lies..... The gal now thinks im trying to flirt or hit on her!! :O !!! WTH!?!?!?!?! Is it so wrong to compliment anyone??
Its not like I actually say it to the gal wen shes alone or somethin...... I say it irrespective of anybodys presence/absence.... I dont expect anything outta it!! Its a simple comlpiment. U can thank me if u want to or just let it go!!?!?!?! :-s

Is this behavior a regional/cultural aspect that has somethin to do with traditions or something? What exactly induces such irrational thinking in otherwise sane ppl?

Wat if I walk to someone I dunno at all, and just tel the person she looks good and just walk on??

P.S: I will continue to tell ppl wat I think and jus go on...
P.P.S: The whole thought cud go vice-versa as well, as in, a gal complimenting a guy randomly and all crap thoughts come in........
P.P.P.S: I just put in my perspective... Could be crap.....
P.P.P.P.S: No I dont look like a rapist/psycho killer!!

I Will Be....

2008-12-09T08:05:00.004-08:00

This is the start of a trilogy of poems..... A series of 3 poems, more so to say a story. I think I started out with this idea thinking it was something new. I have no clue on how this will come out. The 3rd poem in the trilogy is something I am still working on. Do let me know what you think of it.....

Those days, when everything was so right,
The heart that was beating for her, every day every night,
The eyes that only wanted to see her,
The mind, how beautiful she was, just to wonder,
The ears only to listen to what she was going to say,
Loving her every moment, pondering - she too may,
She didn’t break my heart,
She tore “me” apart,
The very reason for my being was defeated…..Or so I thought,
The only greenery in my life now going through a drought…..
I don’t know why she didn’t love me ……………
Was it something about the way she wanted me to be?
Was it something else in me she looked for?
She didn’t tell me………
I still wander in search of the reason…
She set my thoughts free,
And no matter autumn or spring….or any other season,
Life has to go on … I have to be…
I can’t lose myself to her memories…
I need to know what life has in store for me…
That gives me a reason to live …
And no matter what, I will be…!!!!!!

Mil hi Gaya.....

2008-12-05T12:41:00.001-08:00

The goddam irony.....

I get a Visa to do my Masters!! :D

The sun .....

2008-12-01T09:33:00.002-08:00

"He rose high on the sky
only jus to give us all the light....
He shone all day with all his might...
Wen we din need him anymore, he decided to shy...
Only jus to rise another day!!"

P.S: Straight out of the cam except for the border and signature on the pic...!!
A620 | F7.1 |1/1250s -- The settings I used....

The good old beach....

2008-11-29T08:16:00.006-08:00

This picture was clicked in VGP Beach Resort. It was clicked in sepia mode to give it a vintage feel.
The gear I used and the details of the mode....A620 | F4 |Shutter speed priority| 1/500( I had no clue that I had set the Shutter speed tat high for this pic....and the mode so not the rite one)The pic has a kinda blur bcos I had screwed up the settings ....and resizing it screwed it even further..... But, kinda enjoyed the final feel and composition of the picture.....

Variety.....

2008-11-27T20:43:00.007-08:00

Ok I come to wonder about the origin of a certain phrase....and almost my motto!!
"Variety is the spice of life"
My take on the origin...

Q:What is the plural of mouse...??
A:Mice

Now you know wat Im gettin at?? Hmm here goes........
The plural form of Spouse by this derivation is Spice ;)............ :D

"In Spice lies the variety of life" :D :D :D!!

P.S: The picture wasnt clicked by me....

Flower.........

2008-11-21T12:51:00.003-08:00

I was walkin by and all of a sudden this beauty appears there... Inside Infy shols...
I just liked the way the light came out on this picture.... I wud love to know wat flowers those are.... and sadly I had to use my mobile phone to click that pic!!! :-s

Colors......

2008-11-20T11:09:00.002-08:00

This is a pic tat I tried shooting in the color accent mode..... Liked the blend of colors......

The network will soon follow :)

2008-11-19T11:06:00.003-08:00

This is the picture of a 15-day old Pug. This guy was so willing to pose albeit he was in a state of torpor!! :)

Loads of love.....

2008-11-18T06:45:00.002-08:00

When I first saw you,
You were the one for me, I knew.
All the world looked colored to me,
For I knew You were my love to be.
To talk to You was I keen,
'Cos that much to me, You did mean.
When I spoke to You, I always heard,
the melodies unsung by a cuckoo bird.
You are not in my dream, i dont sleep a wink,
'Cos all thro' the day and night, about You I think.
I long to see You wherever I go,
'Cos I love You that much so.
I think You luv me too,
tell me my thought is true...

Gone are those days......

2008-11-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

Gone are those days of sheer happiness and fun,
Sweet memories flash by- thinking about things we’ve done,
Those years were total bliss.
The first few years – no one we did know,
As time flew by – didn’t want to let anyone go,
Because we would miss anyone and everyone so.
We became so indispensable for each other – not a clue we had,
All the times together were just crazy and mad.
Not a thing of fun we did not do,
Everything could get us into lots of trouble, we knew,
Nothing could stop us though!
All the hilarious moments and all those little fights,
Talked and joked about these – all through the day and endless nights.
It’s all over now,
No one really knows – when, where and how?
‘Cos Life’s like that!
No one knows where and when next – we all meet,
Till then and forever will last – so fine and sweet.
Because gone are those days….. !

A Love Triangle.... Or so they thought....!!

2008-11-08T08:56:00.002-08:00

It was Sameera’s wedding and all her friends were there to celebrate the occasion. Her friends from her old workplace saw her and Vinay with a look that can be termed hateful.

Vinay and Sameera were equally puzzled with this indifferent behavior from people whom they considered friends. But they just went on with the celebration. Sameera and Vinay worked with 2 different leading IT concerns before they went off to the US of A to pursue their higher education. Sameera’s and Vinay’s offices were close to each other and so were their houses. Sameera’s office was on the way to Vinay’s. Vinay used to commute by his own bike or car to office and even though Sameera had paid for her office bus, she used to go with Vinay most of the days. And getting back home was not a very different story. All of Sameera’s friends in office knew that she had a boyfriend and was committed. They did not know anything about her boyfriend, not even his name or where he worked. They knew she was being picked up and dropped by a guy almost everyday and they were almost certain that Vinay was her boyfriend. They made sure they had to meet him and one such evening when Sameera had to be picked up, Vinay came in his car and halted in front of her office campus. All her friends came along and got introduced. Their heads now felt so much better after seeing who ‘the guy’ was. As time flew by, her friends kept meeting him and they all started hanging out together in the weekends. Vinay was a fun-to-be-with kind of guys and they really liked hanging out with him and Sameera. Never once did they probe about their relationship because they knew for sure that he was “the guy”.

Vinay casually once told them all, their ‘story’. They knew each other for at least 12 years, starting from their 6th grade. Since, then they have been friends and Vinay joked “God alone knows how I managed to put up with her till now. And holy cows, there’s more to come” and he winked. This gave them all the information that they needed. Subsequently, they ‘caught’ them both in several coffee pubs and the bessy beach lots of times and teased them about it. Vinay and Sameera took it in the lighter vein and just ignored it, knowing less that they thought these 2 were a couple.

And why was there a look of disgust??? It was mainly because, Sameera was getting married to Arya and Vinay was the Best Man (Mapillai Thozhan).

Arya was Sameera’s senior in college and they got together not by freak chance. They lived in the same area and hence, used to commute by the same bus to college. It so happened that one fine day, they both missed the bus. Sameera decided to call Arya to find out where the bus was. We all know it’s a common practice in college. She picks up her mobile phone from her bag and almost like he read her mind, Arya called “Hey! I missed the bus too da. I’m planning to head to college by bike.” “Oh ok”, said Sameera in a hesitant tone. He now popped the question. No, not “Will you marry me?” “Hey do you want me to pick you up. Only if u don’t mind.” Sameera jumped at the opportunity because she had an important lab to attend that day and Arya was a guy she could trust. They started hanging out together and spending a lot of time together. Arya being a year senior and an overall smarty, could help her out with her acads and extra-curricular equally. It was Sameera’s second year in college and his third when they both were office bearers for their college Rotaract Club. There was an event organized by them at Le Royal Meridien and it was quite late into the night when the function ended. So Arya who lived near Adyar had to drop Sameera back home. It was this opportunity that he seized. He stood in front of her “I don’t know why, but, I just know I’m a better person when you are around. Will you be around and make me a better person in life?” and saying thus he handed a huge bouquet of red roses. Sameera was floored, but, she knew she had to think practically and said “Let’s first get back to our houses. It’s already quite late. We’ll talk about it later.” Arya was almost taken aback by this kind of a response. Sameera came back home and quickly called her closest friend from school times Vinay, who was in a different college and was oblivious about what was happening. Sameera narrated the whole story non-stop to him. He did not have to say much then. He asked her not to rush things. Before she could give any sort of a reply to Arya, she wanted Vinay to meet Arya. Vinay met Arya at the beach one day and they had a nice time chatting about various things. And then that night Sameera called Arya and gave him a YES. They had been together from then to forever. Arya and Vinay took to each other well and became very good friends and most of the times they teamed up to pull Sameera’s leg. The Troublesome Trio as they called themselves went to the US of A together for education and to the same university.

Knowing less or in fact nothing of all that was between Vinay and Sameera and Arya, Sameera’s friends, not being able to bear the crap they were witnessing, went ahead and took Vinay and Sameera to the room nearby and asked. “How on this sweet planet can you 2 do this to yourselves? It is not right. Don’t do this; come on after all you guys know each other for more than 14 years now and you guys have been together. Why is Sameera getting married to Arya?” They were in absolute rage now. Arya just happened to walk by and came in after hearing the noise. Vinay and Sameera held back their laughter and told Arya what was going on.

Vinay, Sameera and Arya started laughing like mad. They were in complete state of insanity after hearing what was said and they were laughing their hearts out. It was after all an occasion to laugh and smile and enjoy. It was the wedding of Arya and Sameera, who were together since college times. Sameera’s friends not understanding a thing, stood there ignorantly with a jackass kind of feeling running through them.

P.S: The people in the story are no way fictional and any resemblance to real life characters is completely intentional....

When I think of you.......

2008-11-08T07:58:00.000-08:00

When I think about you,
I just feel like….
the world is born anew,
‘Cos friends like you,
Are really very few.

When my mind is filled with problems,
And I don’t have a clue ,
About what to do….
I think of you – the way you go about them,
They vanish without a trace – believe me !

When I feel sad and forlorn,
‘Cos of neglection & desolation,
I think of you…
The way you care for me…
Within no time I know ,
I’ve undergone rejuvenation !

When I feel guilty after wrong doing,
And when the whole world is cursing me,
I think about you – the way you accept my mistakes time & again…
I feel absolved and the pain in my heart is alleviated !

When I feel bored with life,
I think about you – the way you keep me entertained,
I just feel great and interested in everything I see,
‘Cos you are simply the best - trust me!

I think of you all these times…
‘Cos I can’t stop thinking about you,
Neither during these times nor the other,
‘Cos friends like you are really very few!!!

When I think about you,
I just feel like….
the world is born anew,
‘Cos friends like you,
Are really very few.

The One I'll Love Forever........

2008-11-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

It was the time when life had become monotonous and boring…….
In this world of evil and selfish people, not one to trust………
I sat in solitude, waiting to see someone loving and caring……..
That was when I saw Her, when all emotions in me, surged up with an intense up thrust………

I walked up to her – For, who she was I wanted to know….
The angel within - in her eyes I could see…………
Thoughts about her and me in my heart started to flow……….
‘Cos, now I knew she could be the one to complete my life, complete me…….

I mustered all the courage left in me, and told her what she meant to me………
I knew I couldn’t hear no for an answer, I knew I wouldn’t be able to withstand it……..
She agreed and she promised, with me she will be………
My joy knew no boundaries and the happiness knew no limit…………

I knew there was something about her all along……..
I knew I loved her more than life……
I was sure nothing could ever go wrong……
And she was the one who was meant to be my wife…………

All of a sudden, she asked me to change a lot of things…….
That was not the way it ever was……
All those words in my ears – still rings………..
I changed – Changed it all to the way she wanted things as……

She wouldn’t change for me….
Not a thing the way I would want it to be…..
The way I always was – she wouldn’t let me be……
I had to set my mind free – free from the entirely imposed boundary……..

I did not know what to do …….
For somewhere I read compromise was meant to be two-sided…………..
It was completely out of the blue….
To let her go, I decided.

I told her one fine evening, when together we were out………
That I would have to let her go…….
She did not want an explanation; she knew what it was about, without a doubt……
She knew she was wrong, but, she had to nurse her ego…..

She walked out of my life; she took away the entire glow,
Not a moment did she want to work it out or talk………
My life was never going to be the same, I did know………..
She compelled the thought, she never was mine, she never was…..

I don’t know how she feels, now that it’s all over,
She won’t reply to my messages, she won’t answer my calls,
I know this is something I’ll never get over…..
‘Cos every single moment I spent with her was magical and that is where my thought stalls………

She was the one, who gave me my first kiss,
She was the one who, taught me how it felt to be loved,
She is the one, whom I am really going to miss,
She is the one, whom I’ll love forever….
Whether or not she does or she deserves………….
Should I or Should I not???

For Now, Forever.........

2008-11-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

I think of her – all day all night,
Makes me feel ecstatic – her very sight.
So blissful and beautiful, her smile,
The very thought makes me helpless – just can’t stop loving her.
Madly in love with her I am,
Forever I will let the feeling last.
How much I love her – I don’t know!?
But, I know I don’t want to let her go.
Does she love me – I ponder……..
She leaves me clueless all the time – why, I wonder…
Every time I want to tell her – something stops me…
Even though I know it is meant to be.
I just want to know everything will be fine,
‘Cos for all I know – she has to be mine
For now, Forever.....

The Parting......

2008-09-24T08:52:00.002-07:00

For you and only you,
My thoughts will crave,
‘Cos this whole thing is new,
I’ve never been apart, I never have.

All the times together, that we had fun,
All the thoughts we shared,
All those things said and done,
The very thought of being apart from you, made me scared.

All the fun talks over phone……
The very feeling you were there for me……
I just knew you were mine and my own…….
Never alone, could I let you be…..

All the hanging out together…..
All the times of silly anger and little fights ……
Life could never get better…….
Even though we had our share of wrongs and rights…..

All those little trouble that you helped me get through,
At least, little it was made by your presence,
Every single moment, the relationship just grew….
And without you in my life I wouldn’t have tasted its real essence.

I thought we would be together forever, come what may,
Life had different things in store for us…..
How was I to know, just was happy with you all night all day,
And lo! One day you tell me you have to go and go you mus’

Life without you right next to me,
Is like a void, where my heart should be,
You have no idea how much I miss you…
This parting, however I will make it through,
Because I know, in my thoughts, with me you will be…….

There's something about her.......

2008-06-22T11:48:00.001-07:00

There’s something about her…….

There’s something about her – that makes my thought flow…..

Is it that cherubic face or its brilliant glow??

There’s something about her – that keeps me floating for a while…..

Is it that inherent charm or is it her beautiful smile??

There’s something about her-that makes me feel like I’m dreaming…………

Is it the heavenly beauty or her eyes that are gleaming??

There’s something about her- that makes me go crazy………

Is it her angelic look or her hair so mazy??

There’s something about her-that makes me feel she is mine……..

Is it just her august presence or her demeanor so fine??

There’s something about her-that keeps me far from despair ……

Is it because she sets things right or just her love and her care??

There’s something about her- that makes me feel her absence……

Is it because she’s far or is it because she’s my life’s essence??

There’s something about her-that now makes me feel like I want to weep……

Is it because she’s not there anymore or is it because of the promises we did not keep??

There’s something about her-that now makes me feel alone…….

Is it because she’s forgotten or has she just gone??

A plethora of questions and no real answer……….

Is it completely insane or will it still, in my mind, create the stir??

All that I can say is its not yet over…......

For now I know There’s something about her!!!!!!!

Love! Lost and Found......

2008-04-22T07:46:00.001-07:00

Vinay was now forlorn and dejected for he had to let his first love Mandira go. He and Mandira were together for the last 6 years. They had been with each other in times of thick and thin. They thought nothing could do them apart until one day; Vinay’s parents gave him the ultimatum. They told him they couldn’t be together anymore.

Vinay’s heart broke even though Mandira left his life, literally walked out on him, without a thought. All that he knew was, she left him high and dry and he had not a single clue as to where she was now. It was probably set up by Vinay’s parents, he did not know that either. He was helpless.

Vinay did not look for her because he knew for sure that she walked out on him without a second thought. He was looking ahead at very boring and desolated days of his life. Till then Mandira had been with him every place he went, not anymore though. Vinay sat by himself in office on a not so busy day and thought to himself. He had accepted this situation that Mandira put him into and had gone into a shell. So, he now decided to come out of it. He was determined to find a new interest in life, he was focused on changing the way he lived. But, how he would do it, he did not know.

He was riding on his bike one bright Monday to office, when he stopped at a signal, knowing little that it was going to change his life forever. Vinay saw HER. HER eyes glistened in the beam of sunlight. He had this sudden urge within him to protect Her, but, he couldn’t. She had a shape that in any common man’s terms would be addressed as voluptuous. Vinay now knew that the change he needed in his life had to be Her. To his surprise She came to the same office as his. He then saw her quite often in some places that he went to. This overjoyed him, he wished to find out more.

Finally, one Saturday when he went to a mall, he saw her there. He was determined to find out more. He asked some of his friends about her in office and figured out that her name was Sanjana. He wanted to do it with care and caution this time. He decided that if it was ever to be, the commitment should last him a lifetime. He wasn’t ready to let her go, he wanted to make sure everything went on fine.

Vinay, not making any mistakes this time, walked straight to her house with his parents and asked for her hand in marriage. They said they needed time to decide on this issue. They took about 1.5 months to get back to him and his parents. It was the most grueling 45 days of his life, not knowing what would happen.

Then on the 46th day when he was in office, he got a call. The next moment he was jumping up and down in his cubicle and he left office a few hours later. They had agreed to the marriage. It was fixed a week later. She was well dressed and looked the brightest on The Day.

Vinay walked in with the biggest smile ever, caressed her gently. Looked all around her, stroking her voluptuous body gently again. Vinay now got into her and turned the ignition on and they lived happily ever after.

P.S. Mandira was my old Maruti 800 and Sanjana is none other than my new black Swift Vdi. and for those who expected a dramatic sounding love story, all I can say is Muhahahaahaha ;)

Mondays Ain't That Bad After all.........

2008-04-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

Arya was getting ready for office at a lazy pace on a gloomy Monday morning. His life had become way too monotonous for him to expect something new this week. Arya worked as a S/w engineer in a MNC for a client named Trust Financial and had a very successful but dull life. It was at least 2 years since he had been to an actual party, apart from the usually boring and artificially sophisticated project parties. He was lonely most of the time, not by choice though; he somehow always managed to get himself stuck to work.

As though in a trance he was thinking of all the good times he had had as a college student and during the unforgettably enjoyable training days.He thought of all the coffee shops he had been to and the different people he had been with. He sighed loudly just as his cell phone brought him out of the trance. Arya's friend Srivats was on the line.

"It's getting late, today the clients are coming, what's taking you so long?", asked Srivats in an inquisitive tone. "I just got up late. I'll probably drive down to office today" said Arya in an unsure and hazy way. "Are you Ok today?", inquired Srivats. "Ya", replied Arya curtly and hung up. It was a drive that would take him around 2 hours to complete.

Srivats was one of the very few people Arya spoke to in office as he was his classmate from high school times. Arya was mistaken by the others as a very serious person for he was sincere at work and never used to gossip, unlike the others.

Arya took out his Honda City from where it was parked and started driving towards office. He was driving at a good 80kmph when he saw a stalled car in the left hand side at quite a distance. He saw the driver of the car dressed in glaring white, signaling him to stop for some help. "I am already late for office, and someone wants me to stop for help", he thought to himself. But, some part of him made him flip the indicator to the left and slam the brakes just behind the stalled car. The driver came running and said in a quite broken english "My car's tyre is punctured and I don't have a spare. Madam has to reach ITL. Can u drop her if you are goin that side?". "ITL is where I have to go too, but your Madam should be willing to come." said Arya in a somewhat egotistically deep tone.

Arya waited impatiently as the driver went and said something to the lady in the car. Arya kept looking ahead as the driver nodded in the affirmative from a distance, meaning she was coming with Arya. She got down from the car, and walked at a brisk pace towards the car. She was using her palm rested against the forehead, to protect herself from the sun. She was very well dressed in business formals and a laptop bag hung from her side. She was the prettiest girl he had seen in a long time now. The chivalrous man inside him got him to get off from the car and open the door for her.

She smiled subtly at him and said thanks as she got into the car. Arya sat in the driver's seat and watched her with admiration(;)) as she settled herself in the seat. "I am Mia Fernandez. Thanks for the help. I am in a hurry", she said sounding very thankful. Arya thought she looked very Indian, but her accent sounded very American. She was the typical dusky kind of beauty that Arya liked. He was a big fan of Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz and similar people because they were all dusky and very Indian looking in some ways. "Hmmmm..You are welcome. I am Arya Vishwanath and you are lucky I am going late to office", he said and chuckled. She had a confused look on her face. "I would have been in the office bus if I had been on time", he explained. She just complained that she found Mondays very boring too.

For some reason this put Arya in a mood to crib. "How boring is office on a Monday or for that matter any other day. First of all, the idea of coming to office on Monday is ridiculous and beyond that some dumb client sitting a few 1000 miles away comes for a visit just to tell us that we had all the requirements wrong." Mia was smiling at him with an acceding look on her face. Arya just went on and on rambling about how much he hated Mondays and how clients should be clearer on what they want.

He then swayed into his personal life or the lack of it. He knew he was rambling and could not control it when he had found someone to listen to him. He just wanted to let the steam out. Arya even told her that the last time he had dated any girl was back in his college days with a tone of sadness. She just kept nodding and giving out exclamations as he went on.

They reached the destination and Arya parked the car. They both got down and started walking towards the gate. “How do I get to building 6 from here?” she asked Arya. “I’m heading there, why don’t you join me?”, said Arya and they walked towards the workplace. She went ahead into the building and enquired the security about something and went into the elevator with Arya. Arya asked her where she was heading. She replied with extreme composure “I am heading to the Trust Financial work area.” Just then Arya realized his whole mistake and before he could attempt to explain they reached the floor and she walked briskly out of the elevator and into the work area. Arya couldn’t work at all. He was sitting in his cubicle and his body was shaking all over, he was sweating profusely and was cursing himself, when a call came in from the PM’s extension.

He picked it up with his hands shivering. He barely managed to hold on to the phone, he heard the PM say he had been promoted and he will receive official communication through mail. He half fainted in his place after he heard it, thanked his PM and hung up, still shivering and shaking. It was lunch time by now and he was still in his cubicle with a great deal of fear still in his head. He decided to go to lunch alone, just as ever, he stood up and turned to see Mia standing there smiling at him divinely. With a shamefully regretful look he said “Errr……..I am….” and before he could complete she interrupted him “Care to join me for lunch? I don’t know anyone here.” They had lunch together and had a hearty laugh about the morning. Out of the blue Arya asked her if she would like to look around the city and she agreed. During the rest of the week Arya was out with Mia, showing her around the city and having a nice time himself. Somewhere during the course of their ‘meetings’ they fell in love with each other and got married. At the wedding party Arya stood up, tapped his glass of champagne and said “Mondays aren’t that bad after all, and the evidence is what I am married to. I love you Mia” and he hugged her.

X----X----THE END----X----X