Almost Got Bit

This is very well an untrue story. Every character in this story is an imaginative experiment. This is a story.

Second year of college. This time when you suddenly feel the power to question and take up things that might end up screwing you in the wrong hole. Anyway, we used to live in a house we rented out near the college. Everyone was very much active in politics and stuff like that. One fine day, there was a party meeting, the one where the party dignitaries come and talk everyone into how awesome they do stuff and all. This meeting started off with a big procession and shouting slogans against the rival parties; party to be exact. The whole thing was a pointless blabber after that, the great comrades telling the greatness they are and how they won everyone independence. There was a talk about how the rivals are looking to attack everyone of this party, this was crazy as there was a warning even to be vigilant and precious.

The night followed. Some of the inmates chose to sleep; two to be exact. The rest of us decided to pay some seniors a visit to see how they are doing and of course there was caroms. After some finger-muscle twisting and flying Boric acid, we were returning. Instead of taking the longer main road, we walked along the shortcut. There were some houses behind the place we lived; three to be exact and the rest was a big ground and a community pond. The was a three way junction, were one way leads to the ground and the other way to the place where we live, beyond the three houses.

Half way around, we started seeing people walking towards us. They stopped near the turn, maybe because there were many of us; six to be exact. They were wearing black, possibly covered in some black paint or something, also wearing masks (no kidding, real masks, like old burglar masks). As we walked past them, they had axes, hammers and sticks in their hands. There was an awkward bit of silence. Everyone ran (read walked) past them quickly into the house. The last person, luckily a strong guy, strongest to be exact, saw one of those guys running towards the us and the door. He slammed the door and pushed it really hard. The door wasn't properly shut as his slippers got under it and the guy had his fingers between the door. What followed after that was a big 300 like shout (I honestly don't know why we shouted instead of screaming). Everyone was running haywire, locking  the back door, windows and trying to wake up the sleeping duo. The one of them sleeping never believed anything I said, and just thought we were shouting for fun. 

We overpowered the others pushing the door, the guy whose hand got stuck must have suffered gravely. Finally we managed to close the door after some serious pushing. They removed the bulbs from outside, we couldn't see anything through the windows. Suddenly there was glass shattering sound from everywhere. Then one guy broke the main window, pointing the sword like thing or a vadivaal inside. They could possible see everyone, we could see only the hand and the sword. It was rusty till the base and looked unused, like forever. That guy only spoke even, warned us and told that this was the last (of course after half a minute of endless swearing), and if either of us were involved in politics, they would end us. They were even specific about the names, two of us to be exact. They broke some more glass panes and ran away. The first thing we did was call the police. 

The next two hours went so fast, people came in, ran around; hearing the noise, there was even our land lord and his group of drinking buddies. They came so fast, like the switching scenes of a movie. The police came and took some pointless reports. We had a hard time making other folks in hostels believe that we were attacked by some lunatics as everyone we phoned thought we were playing some prank. Some finally even came over and stayed for the night. There was glass all around the place and everyone slept in the hallway.

Then, one of us was missing! No one remembered about him until then. He usually baths around midnight, the same time when this happened. "We are in deeper shit!!", we all thought, then suddenly, he came out from under the bed. Seems that, he was "hiding". He was apparently sleeping and (he says) he thought that all of this was some earthquake and went under the bed when he started to hear the glass fall. Also, he knows karate and stuff. The next day followed an, even bigger slogan shouting, and there was police all over the place. We managed to get everyone a reason to go wild. The was a local hartal and college was suspended for the day. And for the police, came to get more of that FIR. We never heard from them again.

When I think back, we had a few hard to sleep nights after that. And also a few long night discussions, about who could have done it. There were lots of rumors that followed too. I still think, many people had hand in this. The fags who lived around the college have always been trying to bully us students. Whatever the truth maybe, it ended in us paying for all the damages. Such an incident never happened after that (yet), there was routine police rounds around the college and surroundings after (till today). And the ruling party got a better image, makes me think if it was and inside job even. Politics, I say.

Starship Bloopers

Hollywood movies were so exciting those days. This guy from school happened to have an Uncle who shipped him all sorts of movie CD's. It happened when we were in 9th. Thanks to our school, the last working day of every month is a half day. This happened to be one such day and what better to do that play football (Yeah, this is India and we call it Football and not Soccer, FYI).

So this CD guy got a new shipment and he gave a movie called the "Starship Troopers". Yay! Sci-fi movie!, we thought. So the plan was to meet at another friend's place, watch the movie, eat lunch and play some football. He kinda had a pretty big family living there. They cooked up some lunch and was waiting for us. So, we started the movie. Wonderful, action movie, we thought. We were served lunch with the pleasure of watching the movie.

More bugs, bombs, guns, grenades and killing. Dope!, we thought. We called in all his family, small kids, grand parents and cousins to enjoy the movie along with the lunch. There was a big crowd applauding to the bug killing (Well, this movie is actually about killing some giant alien bugs for living). Awesome atmosphere!, we thought.

Then, this guy and one another friend finished their lunch and went out to fill air in the football and he took the remote with him. While in the movie, they killed a big alien bug, I guess it was the alpha bug or something and the party began. Certain dialogue was the last thing I remember, "Go, enjoy boys!". Suddenly, the girl from the movie took her shirt off and was topless and started making out. That awkward moment. I stopped eating and was stoned. I got myself together and looked back. One guy was frantically searching for the remote, the guy behind me had a weird smile, most of the lady folk already left and this one guy was clinging outside the house by the window, watching. Two guys sitting in front of me never dared to look back and were enjoying everything.

The next few events took less than a minute. Everyone finished off their lunch and started playing football. Strange thing, I never knew we could eat this fast. We heard that dark things happened to the guy in the house. His mom also called up two other friends home and complained which was followed by some others getting grounded and all that. Luckily, I escaped without a scratch. Some family movie time that was My advice, never watch a movie with family. Btw, I dunno what happened to that CD. Really what happened to that CD?

The College, The Life and Whole Lot of Achaar.

Everything ends but nothing does actually. Its kind of a strange observation that people tend to miss something or someone even though they are connected via the phone or internet, like all the time I mean. So, for me, its an end to an era, of being happy, carefree and all that fun.

You see, there will be a time you actually think you don't belong here. But its more than that. You start to miss the silliest things, the lamest joke, your friends and this you. So, if you weren't here all the time, at least when I was here, this is for you.

The college part of this life is the same old sick joke, maybe. Boring lectures, assignments, crappy test, fights and all that running for internals. But the best things happen after that. Why this place was special was because of all there people over here. The hostel was the best thing happened. We lived outside the campus and 10 of us in a house. We were kicked out, reinstated, shifted and hell it was fun. Nights were the most adored stuff, fights and weird leg pulling. Life here was the shit and parties, God! Those late night preparations, long drives, late night eating at Ashtamudi. This life was all about do what you feel like doing. If you were not here, you missed it. Really you did.

Lot of things happen in the middle. If I start cribbing all of them, this will never end. And suddenly there was Achaar. There are many theories how Achaar was formed, it was impulsive, it just happened, just like that. The best part of Achaar was, no one knew nothing. No one sang, played any instruments or had some special talent. But we were different. Like the crowed loved whatever we did. Hell, they did. I dunno actually why, but they really did. Achaar was us, the group of like 10, who joined forces to do whatever we felt like. We were awesome.

If you were not here, you missed the forest, its lions, the stream, the ponds and the reckless paths around. You missed the mangoes and all those strange fruits that grew inside. You missed the last night preparations. You missed all that food, those day scholars brought and we ate. You missed throwing paper balls at the lecturer and each other. You missed the sleeping in the class. You missed telling lies to get all the money to buy ice-creams. You missed the crappy food from the canteen. You really missed our awesomest tours, our hideouts and surprise visits to some random friends house just to eat. You missed going for marriages of some stranger. You really missed just watching everyone in class. You really missed the hostel life. You missed the goondas. You missed stupid cocktails. You missed a lot of things, small things that made this place special, if you weren't with us. This place was fun. This place had life. We were.

Wherein Lies Her Memories

Stories I've told of my friends comes right from them. You get them some booze and bribe, and voila! They get you these things, wonderful stories. But this doesn't belong there. Everything began when there was this confess-your-love round  in the middle of the University Exam preparations.Usually for most of us here, studying is a mass effort.. Combined study exactly, as no one will have the textbooks or the notes. So it all works on photocopies, self-enlightenment and creative writing. 

Well, this piece is about a man, dressed in the worst and finds no time to bath, 'cause he thinks a lot, really! For this story to happen, we need to jog back exactly 1.75 decades back, the days in the kindergarten, when everything seems to be green, sunny and chocolate. He met his little girl. She lived next door, went in the same school bus. Sat together, ate together.  They became friends and more, they went and came back to and fro for six long years. He felt happy. They loved holding hands. But when you expect everything to be this perfect, entropy happens. This guys gets a kick in his head, and the next thing he knows is that she moved. The best of his days were over. The depression, the pain. Well, not exactly, when you are in 4th grade, everything goes away with some more chocolates, a milkshake and cartoons. Life!

So, when you think everything's over that easy, think again. This so called life, gave him a second chance, something to hold on to. After around 10 years from then, one fine day, she came back to his life. Well, at least the news. She asked about him to his Mom. This became significant in the calculation as this was repeated and she wanted to see him. But as usual, Mom forgot all about this and yeah, life! 

He picked up his phone and it was her. She called to say hi and to invite him for her marriage. Some second chance. His mind was hard to explain, desperate efforts to see her. Nothing worked. So on the day of marriage, that didn't even work. He was late and everything was over. But life, oh yeah, after the twists and turns, he finally got to met her. Engulfed in silence and smiles, the meeting was short lived. Whatever happened was blemished into a deep darker parts of his cerebellum. Facial hair growth recorded an all time high and 4 was the total count of days that he 'forgot' to bath. Life moved on, somehow.

Well, I don't know if this is a love story. But this, a requiem for her memories, the not so forgotten ones.

Balloon In Flavours

I always like to blog about my friend's experiences. Stories they tell me, love, hate, embarrassment, lose - whatever. This is yet another true story.

Protagonist is a fellow being, who confessed this in the strangest of times, dunno why, but still it makes a wonderful subject for my blog. This happened when he was a little bit more younger, like say make 7 years from now. The cities monotone made him to enjoy the family get-together's, usually packed with cousins and friends and kids of his age. That's a probable relief from school.

To add up to the fun, it was his youngest uncle's after-marriage-math hours. The couple wedded 4 days ago and this being a Sunday, had the whole family down pour for party. This gave the lady folk yet another opportunity to blabber till eternity and the gents to do some talks too about the effects of - "Poverty after marriage" and "The Political Roller-coaster" , not to mention the "occasional" drinks. In short it was a fun-filled-all-talk-full-rubbish-awesome-big-fat-Indian-semi-wedding-reception-party-with-lots-of-kids-to-play-around like situation. 

These pack of kids where running around frantically to find new things to do. To be in limelight. They were running around the place, not knowing what to do, reminds me of the Sea-gulls in Finding Nemo :P. Anyways, the restless search around the house ended in finding a pack of balloons. Cool, he thought, and started blowing it up. It became big, really big and was kind of strange looking too. 

The delighted pack of monkeys, started making the most out of it. They played a round of football, and then some tennis, and some rugby and some more cricket and some ping-pong and to end it with a dodge ball session with the balloon of course! They ran across the corridor where the adult folks were having their part of the share.

Suddenly, everything went so quiet, dead quiet. It was like America has just dropped down another Little Boy, this time, without a sound. Every pair of eyes where glued on the kids and the balloon. The masculines gave the ladies a strange stare. In a split second, the kids where shooed away and the balloon was thrown away. They poor kids went, perplexed. What the boy didn't know was, that was a condom!

The Murderer Who Lived Among Us

What don't you have these days?, the whole world just a Google away, flashy iPhones, "awesome" police force, people cracking the origin of the universe. Amidst all that, someone among us got away with a nearly perfect crime. Something done with the precision of a diamond cutter - what is really an art. But the catch is that he got away with it - just that easily.

She - cheerful girl, jack-of-all-trades, smiles good. He was the most perfect guy in the class - Prince Charming, Class Topper and a guitar personality. And like in all usual Bollywood romances she fell for him. All this happened back in 11th grade. An year passed by. It happens to be so that she was madly falling for him and he was a monster in the making.

Scene 1

The day started with a phone call. She was desperate and restless and wanted to talk He asked her to come to the school. The place was empty as it was a Saturday. He took off in his bike and drove along the market place grabbing somethings. They met at the school entrance. Perfect day, he thought.

Scene 2

He asked her to come with him to the top of the school tower so that no one would see them. Unsuspectingly she walks with him. She could not control her emotions. Tears broke out as she told him that her marriage was being fix and would be engaged soon. Shocked, he thinks for sometime. Before he could stop thinking, she gave him the shivers. "I'm pregnant"-she said. P-R-E-G-N-A-N-T the words were like being told in slow-motion. The words took forever. He felt numb and deaf. Suddenly he talks and tell her that he needs more time, more time to think, "...its just 12th grade you know, I'm not ready for this". She had been crying since they climbed up the ladder. She refused. Cries became louder. In a split, he pushed her, down the 3-storied building.

Scene 3

She went down like a lead balloon. Crraaasssh!!! It sounded like she landed on a car. Beep-beep-beep the car alarm burglar alarm sound. His heart was pounding like its was going to rip down his cage and come out. Quick, he thought, climbed down the ladder with 3x speed. Took his biked with was tactically parked at a distance and drove back home. Just another day at the store. He hugged his mother and gave the groceries.

Scene 4

The sound of ambulance, impregnated the school premises. 3 days, she lay like the dead, doctors running in circles making prescriptions. She woke-up the fourth day. Like in a dream, she stared at everyone. She's lost it. She doesn't remember a thing. Not her name, not her school, her parents, and lucky not even him and the incident. She broke her elbow, multiple fractures  in both legs, injured jaw -  she was saved as she landed on that car. Luck did not all ditch her.

Finale

She is in a wheel chair pondering who she is? He parents takes care of her, still wondering why she jumped of the building. Her marriage was all doomed and their child, schooling - all took a big U turn.

He, topped his school, took the engineering entrance and studies happily back in Kerala.He trashed her and her memories, just like that. He still walks, sings, and laughs around us,  walks among us, quiet unnoticed and masked behind his true dark self.

No crime is perfect. It leaves trails behind, its natures rule. This story is written based on the experiences of a security who was at the school, that day. But no one believes him, 'cause he was the perfect little murderer.

The Avatar Day

Avatar, it took about 4 years to make the movie and another 9 years of planning and a humongous budget of about Rs. 2000 cr. Heard that James Cameron made up a new production and "invented" the technology for making the movie. My God!, besides all those hype, and a rating of 8+ in imdb, we decided to watch Avatar 3D back in Cochin. Well, after a quick completion of the week's classes, we were out there to watch Avatar.

It all started back in 19 December 2009 (:P), (the 2nd day of release of Avatar) when we boarded the train to Cochin. According to our planing specialist, we were expected to board a train at 12:00 am or like 1:00 am (like there is a big difference) and will be reaching Cochin around 5:00 am in the morning, which leaves us plenty of time for shower, breakfast and getting the tickets. Well, but nothing goes according to plan, as always. We got an earlier train this time, which was pretty much all empty. We got in and after a couple of stations, it went hay-wire, the completely empty train was crowded by pandi's. Everyone probably back from Sabrimala. Damn! all those noises and shouting and smell, gross. People were sleeping - on top, under the seat, besides the toilet, hanging down the window, and like in some yoga position.

And finally, Cochin, the fresh air... ahem. 5:00 am.

We made it to my Dad's place, had a couple of hours of sleep. Hit the shower and after a struggle around Cochin's very own traffic, we made it to Sreedar Cineplex. All those made us to quit the day's breakfast (like any other day in college) Oh no! we could see the long queue from the other side of the street. Aaaahhh! There was no screening on the first day? What? (there was no show on 18th because of some technical problem) That makes this show, the premier of Avatar 3D in Cochin. Great!!! :'(

By the time we reached the place, balcony was already full. No tickets in black. No nothing. There was more police than you can find in the stations and the tickets costs over a 100 bucks. Pheeeww... now whats next? Heading over the longer queues we found guys from college standing there for hours in that queue extending beyond the entrance to the theater. Poor boys. Probably we won't get tickets either, if we stand in there.

OK! time to think. The line was bent at the entrance to the ticket counter due to all those rush. Anyway (due to our widespread technical expertise in the field of ticket purchasing from years of painstaking experience, dude, we are engineers - at least!), we got a couple of our best guys into the line, just another trick up our sleeves! There was this police guy who was getting nuts by all the crowd, doing strange thing with his cane, more like in a Kung-fu movie. He wasn't allowing anyone to get near the counter, but our boys were in. That police guy gets more action-hungry when girls gets near, he beats all the dudes away, poor dudes! (like always the girls blame boys for all that). Finally after some constant texting and calls with our ticket-boys inside, we got 'em. Carrying those heavy bags on our back which was there from the staring of the trip, 'cause everyone was returning back for Christmas Holidays, it was just a pain in the ass. Well we got our tickets as everyone jumped in joy and enthusiasm. What? The seats were almost filled! We managed to move those poor guys at the front rows and finally got ourselves a front row seats. (moved a couple - here and there for getting consecutive seating) The movie started. Perfect. Everyone was spellbound. The 3D was so real too.

What-you-know!, we didn't go through all that for nothing. The movie was spect-a-cularly-fanta-bulous. Best in the year maybe!

Poor guys from our college, heard that they didn't get the tickets for the whole day's show, after being in that line like - forever.