Dead and Buried - Part II

Start with Part I. Click here If you have already read it, then read on...



The show must go on.

"Shabir's death is shocking," Shekhar told the reporters when they accosted him at the condolence meeting. "Right at my doorstep, right in front of my eyes, in the most unexpected manner!" he said. "He was so excited about the role I had in mind for him! We were just shaking hands on it when it happened..." he tweaked the truth a bit to add spice.

"Can you tell us about the role, sir? What are you going to do about it?"

Dead and Buried - Part I

"Wow! That's a fascinating story," Shekhar Bajaj exclaimed when the villager, Manoj, completed narrating the incident. Shekhar got up and looked around the haveli that was now in shambles. Manoj looked uncomfortable as he stood, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

"I think it will make for a wonderful movie," Shekhar muttered to himself.

Thoughts on Women's Day

Frankly, I have none
For I don't feel like one
I am a free spirit
Taking one body now
And changing it next minute

Limericks by Ashwath Srikant

When rushing to school, he paused to rattle off a couple of limericks that he had made up. That night, I asked him to pen some and here is the fruit of his effort:

I saw a boy
Whose name was Roy
He was drinking water
Sitting near a potter
And then he bought a clay toy

I saw a cat
Running on a mat
It slipped there
And lost some hair
And now it looked less fat

Musings on Death

What is the formula
To measure our lifespan?
What is too young?
When is the right time to be gone?

Brand Love

Lavanya sensed something brewing when she picked up her pre-teen son and teenaged daughter. "How was your day?" she asked as they got into the car.

"Mom, you have to get me an Adidas shoes," son Shail said in a stern tone.

Lavanya pursed her lips. "Haven't we gone through this several times?" she asked as she started the car.

"All my friends have branded shoes. In fact, Jose has shoes in all the brands, he has branded pens..."

Why Me - Part II

For the first part of this story, click here

The world became black, and then suddenly too bright. Someone was jostling him. And then all went quiet.

"Please behave yourself when you are with uncle, Bharat," Shyama said, the attractive smile that had so bewitched him turned into a thin line of disapproval.

Amit felt Bharat reasserting himself as he turned all his attention on his wife. "You are there to keep me in line," he said with an edge to his voice. She placed her hand on his arm and Amit felt a rush of tenderness. "Please don't make it difficult for me," she pleaded.

Why Me - Part I

Amit stood smoking in the open area behind the confectionary he had opened in a busy mall in the city. From there, he could see his neighbouring restaurant, and felt a twinge of jealousy yet again. It was, as always, busy serving visitors while his team was still getting things ready. He went in and shouted, "Lazy fools! Be sharp!"

He entered his small kitchen behind the serving counter and found his chef and the cleaning lady giggling about something. "Is the food ready?" he asked sternly.

The chef, knowing how indispensible he was, asked him sharply, "What do your diners want?"

Ephemeral Life

Even exhilerating joy
Does not forever last
So also sorrows deepest
Soon from us they part

Diamonds That Became Shards

"If He resides within,
Why do I seek Him
In the wilderness without?"

He abandoned that poem, unable to proceed. That's how the saints seemed to have sung of God. He wished to, too, but could not find himself inspired enough. He decided there was nothing to be inspired about, that it was all a sham. Otherwise, wouldn't he have experienced it himself?

The Perfect Revenge - Part II

Continued from Part I

Giri's head reeled as Kala finished narrating the story of how Radhakrishnan and she got married. While his story differed in a few minor points, it was almost as if he had seen their lives playing out in front of him. The most intriguing was when Kala mentioned a stranger. "My brothers were intent on killing Radha and me for daring to cross the caste barrier and getting married. They caught us by the waterfall, meeting clandestinely. That day, they would have killed him and got me married to someone else..."

"But there was another man who happened to be there, who saw the atrocity and intervened..." Giri said with glazed eyes. It was the very nightmare he saw, the very nightmare he wrote about.

The Perfect Revenge - Part I

Giri woke up with a start, the nightmare too real for comfort. The dream had chased him through his childhood, making him run to his mother every night. When he became a teenager, he learnt to deal with his fears, but that didn't make the nightmare any less...nightmarish.

Slowly, the fear of going to bed and see this sight made him delay his bedtime. Even as an adult, he found the nightmare disturbing, and the predictable repetitive imagery compounded the problem, making him feel stressed even during the day. He worked out, not so much to keep fit as to tire himself so that he could get dreamless sleep. He found only limited success in that.

The Dis-chord - Part II

Click here for Part I

Sharada felt heart-broken. Caught up in her own misery, she remained inure to the eyes turning towards her. She was puzzled at Harish's abrupt departure. She was hurt that he had not said a word about her performance. And to think that she had kept her eager parents away for today's debut, pretending she was nervous, all the while hoping to make it special for Harish and her. What a fool, oh, what a fool! She looked up with eyes flashing, and came to her senses as she realised she was still in the dining room. Prying eyes turned towards her, making her realise that she was being melodramatic.