The Last Day

I walked with a brisk pace to my cubicle. I was already late and Today was the day I had chosen to present my new algorithm to my boss. In my hurry, I almost bumped into a couple of people on the stairs. What was up with everyone, trying to bump straight into me (?). I had no time for that. What with all the talk of mass layoffs and the big boss's knowing glances, I didn't want any more reason for them to take me out.

When I finally reached my cubicle, something made me stop on my tracks. My team lead Akshay was asking a facilities worker to take away all my belongings and put them in a box. All my nightmares since I overheard that conversation between my managers last week had suddenly come alive. This is what it felt like, being told to go. Being told that the place I frequented or even haunted if you count the number of midnights spent here, was no longer mine. I looked at him closely. There was more than a twinge of sadness on  Akshay's face. It must be the big boss, who's making him do it. Akshay always liked me.  Maybe, they sent me a mail this morning. I'd heard that’s how it was for a bunch of people in the customer care department when they got fired.

I decided to wait, to compose myself before meeting any of them- my (ex) team mates. Then I saw them all huddled together in the conference room. Not a single person had a smile on their face. It was obvious even from a distance that usually cheerful banter was completely absent. Reena and Shashank almost looked like they had been crying. I wondered if they were all being fired.

As soon as I saw Akshay get into the meeting room, I decided to go to my seat unseen, one last time, before they cleared it out. I looked at my cubicle with wistful eyes. “Good Bye, my Second Home“. My gaze shifted to my locked computer screen and realized that more than anything; I wanted to log in and see my layoff email. Maybe I should delete my personal stuff too before somebody realizes how many copyrighted Bollywood songs I have downloaded. I sat down on my chair and typed the password. Nothing happened. The ever familiar key board and mouse were refusing to do my bidding. I bent down and verified that the cables were connected. Then the unthinkable happened. The two facilities people walked right through me and picked up the chair I was sitting on, as if I didn't exist.

Then it hit me, precisely like the bus that hit my bike as I was rushing through peak traffic to reach the office. I was not solid anymore, only a meager spirit that lacked even the power of touch, which people walked right through, someone of no earthly consequence. As I was walking despondently away towards the exit door wondering what was ahead, I noticed my notepad on the floor. My algorithms ... my designs...my solutions. I wished there was some way I could save them from certain death at the jaws of the paper shredder.

It  was only inches from Vineeth's' cubicle. Vineeth, my best friend, who had worked with me on this project. I’d overheard the bosses talking last week that he'd be laid off in a week if he didn't present a working algorithm by then. He was absently walking back to his cube with some print outs, sense of direction obscured by the mist in his eyes. I wished, with all my might, that he would see my book. On perfect cue, a wind blew out of nowhere knocking down the print outs in his hand. As he bent down and examined my notes, I could almost see him smiling through his tears.

With one final glance back, I made my exit. It was my last day after all.

Rain Snippets - My attempts at 55 Fiction

"On a rainy day , Incy Wincy spider climbed that water spout. But the rain came down and washed him out. " Chanted my son.

"Will the spider be able to climb up again when the sun comes up?" He asked.

"Oh Yes". I said, smiling, as I kicked the dead spider out of the puddle.

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On a rainy day , she got into the bus as usual , and sat on a  window seat.
Feeling the beauty and romance of the rain on her face, she fell into a contented sleep, oblivious of her co-passenger, who got down before she woke up.
She was happy , until she found her umbrella missing.

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On a rainy day, he was making paper-boats to sail in the puddles.
He hoped the rains would continue tomorrow , so he could play them with his grandpa.
He didn't understand why his parents were anxiously scouring news and making frantic inquiries.
All he knew was that grandpa was supposed to return from Kedarnath today.

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On a rainy day , she saw him . As she did every time it rained.
He offered her his umbrella and they walked away together in the rain.
One day she asked . "Who are you? ". He smiled showing off his vampire teeth.
She reciprocated..her fangs making her wickedly beautiful. And they faded into the rain.

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On a rainy day , I saw her for the first time.
It was raining too the day she became mine.
On another rainy day , I lost her for ever.

I was distressed beyond words. I had to think of another excuse for losing my third umbrella in a month.

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My first attempt at writing stories under 55 words. And I wanted to stray from the usual Rain/Romance saga.
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

Yeah!

Out of this World

Amber was walking aimlessly along a narrow winding path to a beach. There had been nothing other than discussions of Armageddon and world end all day. She was tired of it all. "What if the world ended ? Would she really care? Should she confess her love to him before it was too late? Now , that's stupid." She chided herself. "What if I told him and the world did not end. His ridicule would be the end of the world in itself." She walked on., as a storm prepared to brew overhead.

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

Shekar was working on a top secret mission at NASA. It needed only one more approval. The space craft was ready to take off into the outer space. At the first sign of catastrophe , it would take off and orbit the solar system . The name on the space shuttle read 'Noah's ark'. "Are you ready for adventure?" He asked his  young friends. They nodded.

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

Adam was working at his usual shift in the meteorological department. They had seen a number of weird things going on this past week . Flash floods, Tsunamis , Torrential rains, large blocks of ice floating around in oceans. Enough and more for a panic reaction if the public came to know. But he wasn't sure if all these were some weird climatic aberration that would go away (may be not without claiming thousands of lives) or something more sinister that would destroy everything in its path wiping out life from the entire planet. Suddenly his face drained of all color as he watched the blood red alert dots spreading across the map on his screen.

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

Samuel suddenly realized he was not reading a word of the book in front of him. His thoughts had wandered off in a tangent from when he read that word 'Amber' scribbled across the page footer. May be he should put an end to her suspense. He thought of how he had tormented her , kept her waiting ,secretly rejoicing in the fact that she loved him. He didn't for a moment believe in the rumors of world ending. That was just another myth invented by worthless people. He tried to call her on her cell phone and got her voice message instead.The phone connections are bad in Hawaii. He thought wryly. At that moment , a television weather alert caught his attention.

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

In another dimension, two scientists in lab coats were watching the clock. It could be called a clock only in the sense it showed a measure of time. Other than that it was another piece of sophisticated lab equipment. One of them looked into the microscope and sighed,

"You know , there is a panic reaction down there. "
"Yeah , this was bound to happen when we experiment with intelligent beings. "

"Is it time yet?"
"On count of three ", said the other.

On count of three the experiment container was destroyed.

"Too bad this one got itself into this state and couldn't be repaired. It will take millions of years to get one half as good. "
"Not if the Noah's Ark makes it to the new culture.I'm 99.9% sure it would ".
" I have to admit that it was a brilliant plan".
The two men exchanged smiles and walked out of the laboratory.

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

10, 9, 8 ,7, 6,5,4,3,2,1,0 ... Blast Off..
Noah's Ark flew into the orbit taking with it animals , plants and four children specially chosen for the task.The color of their skin or the language they spoke did not matter any more. They were the future of the world. The only future.

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

P.S : I started writing this in December when the world was rumored to end .. This write is totally fiction and any I categorically deny any involvement with Aliens or  Mayans or Mad scientists for that matter.

P.P.S : After I wrote the story , I found that there is a book called Noah's Ark Rocket by Tony Frais. I have to read it now.

When I made my Daddy Happy

I was playing with my Thomas and Friends train set when I saw Daddy reading that book. I was immediately interested. It had a picture of a laptop on it . I loved laptops . Ever since I could remember which wasn't really much, since I had been born only 3 years ago. But I had been fascinated enough by it to take out keys, try feed it corn flakes and even pull out a CD drive . Now I know it is something that needs to be handled with care. I can watch you tube videos all by myself. (swells with pride).

Source

That book looked like it is full of laptop pictures. I decided to employ my usual methods of coercion to wheedle the book out of his hands. I wailed and I howled . Daddy just walked away into a different room to read. I decided to pester him until I got what I wanted. Little babies like me always had their way. "I wanna book....". I wailed again. Mama came and lifted me off my feet. I wailed louder. "I wanna book". Finally Dad got tired of it and kept the book with a bang in front of me and walked away in a huff. I got what I wanted. I quickly grabbed the book. But suddenly ,it wasn't fun anymore. I looked around hoping to flash my victorious smile , but Daddy had gone off somewhere.

I went to look for him. I found him in the bedroom lying down on the bed . Realization struck me. I understood. I lie down on the bed by myself when I'm sad . I had made Daddy sad by taking the book all for myself . I felt sad too. I wanted that book badly , but I wanted Daddy to be happy too. I looked at the book and then at Daddy. Then I made my decision. I quietly kept the book near Daddy and walked back looking for Mama. I ran into her arms and wept my heart out. Then I felt a kiss on my tear stained cheek, and the rugged feel of an unshaven face .I out stretched my arms and jumped to hug my Daddy. He was smiling at me and telling Mama how proud he was of me. That I had given up something I really really wanted to make some one else I cared about happy. That I would grow up a fine man.

The world was alright again as Daddy placed me on his lap and we looked at the laptop pictures in the book together.

P.S : Giving is not an art. It comes straight from your heart. This story would be my son's take on the topic :)

Vindicated

Already posted it atDarlings of Venus, the group blog, but posting it here for my reference.

He walked slowly to the bus stop, treading carefully over the inches of snow that had accumulated all around him.Damn winter. "This Winter had been a grouchy old man with no sense of humour. He had just dumped 10 inches of snow on my driveway that I had worked so hard to clean yesterday." He thought angrily.He looked back at the empty house and stifled the loneliness that was creeping into his heart.


Heart..His wounded,sutured, weak heart. He often wondered that it still pumped blood after all that it had gone through.

He covered his face with his gloved hand to protect himself from the cold wind that was blowing as he waited for the bus to show up.He thought his plans over. First of all, he needed a drink and some Italian food. Yesterday's bus driver had told him of a nice Italian family restaurant in this route that he wanted to try.

"I need to get down at the Italian restaurant near Normandale Lake .". He told the driver who was a nice lady who agreed to help him find the right place to get down. Normally, he would have made an effort at pleasant conversation , but lately, he always felt weak. Increasingly conversations had become time- fillers with little purpose and even less meaning.He even ignored the amused smiles of co-passengers as he misheard Computer Ave as Suture ave .His hearing hadn't been the same after the surgery. Who was he kidding, nothing was the same anymore. His thoughts re winded themselves into the past and he dozed off exhausted.

It was already dark when he got out of the bus. It was only a short walk. But out of sheer habit, he checked his pocket for his gun.It was there and he felt safe.He had promised himself that he would never be caught unawares. Never again.

He walked into the restaurant and was struck by a wave of nostalgia.It was a small family run place with lots of food and drinks and fun.There weren't any customers yet and the place looked empty.

As he slowly sipped his drink, the sadness and loneliness that he had been trying to bury resurfaced , like it always did, after a few drinks.But now,it seemed more bearable like the bitter sweet taste of tears unlike the blinding pain that would often come to him when he was sober.He could accept that he was all alone in this world.That he did not belong here any more. That he had no purpose on this earth. Nobody waited for him. If he died just now, nobody would miss him. But may be somebody would be waiting for him up there.. He looked out of the glass window into the star studded skies that seemed to be calling out to him.

He was startled into reality by a harsh voice and the screams of people. There was a man with a gun . "It is a hold up.Give me all you have or I'll shoot you". The guy with the gun was holding it straight to the cashier's forehead". The lady behind the counter was screaming and the restaurant owner was pleading "Please don't shoot my son . I'll do anything you say.Please..."

Suddenly a shot ran out. The gun-man had fallen down in a pool of blood. Some one called 911.There was a crowd near the counter now.

He slowly put the gun back into his pocket and walked out of the door oblivious of the family that was thanking him, oblivious of the blaring police sirens and ambulance and oblivious to the people watching . For the first time in ten years he felt at peace. Vindicated.

If only there was someone to do what he did tonight on that fateful day when three of them walked into his restaurant, killed his family and left him for dead.He looked at the sky and felt that the stars were shining down on him.

N.B :Dedicated to the old man I saw in the bus , whose story it partly is.

The Promise

Saranya  looked at the mirror .  Her long waist length hair was shampooed and brown . Her dangling earrings were black metal and she wore not a tiny speck of gold anywhere. Her tiny black chain looked rusty over her faded T shirt. She looked as less traditional as a girl could be. Usually she would have loved this look. But today she hated herself.

A few months back , her look was a constant source of discord within the house. Each time she came down for dinner dressed this way, Sumitra aunty would make her life miserable. She would scold her head off ."Why can't you dress like an Indian girl. Why can't you wear some gold ornaments. It is not that your parents are poor and can't afford any of this." Saranya would ignore here completely and this angered her even more. Saranya's mother tried to make peace. She is here only for a few days and she is here for treatment. You have to be nice to her. And to her credit , she tried , but wearing gold ornaments and traditional clothes were beyond her."I can't wear ornaments just to please somebody". One day a frustrated Saranya shouted , only to find out that Sumitra aunty had overheard. From then on , she never uttered a word.

Months later, Sumitra aunty became weaker and weaker and lost all her hair after treatment. She would look at Saranya sadly , but did not say anything.Soon she became bedridden.One evening , she called Saranya to her side and said ,"When I was young, I used to love ornaments and new dresses, but my parents had no money to buy me anything.That is why when I see you not wearing any ornaments that your parents buy for you, I scold you so much. I can no longer wear them, At least I may see them on you.Her eyes filled with tears." Saranya understood. "Tomorrow. I will wear my new set saree and show off all my jewels to you and I will dress you up too. Let us take some photos then".

That was the last conversation Sumitra had with any body in this world.

The next day saranya sat alone in her room staring at the mirror. She looked as less traditional as a girl could be and first time in her life, she hated herself. On an impulse she took out her saree and wore it for the first time with out a complaint.She wore her gold chain and earrings. She looked at the mirror again . Tears were streaming down her face , but she felt at peace. She knew she had kept her promise and somewhere deep in her mind felt that Sumitra aunty too knew that  where ever she was.