El Dorado-Part 2

(Contd from Part-1: http://suchithraravi.blogspot.com/2008/05/suggest-title-for-this-
part-1.html )

'There', I tot, 'go my dreams of a coffee day treat', for I was sure that in the best case, he would only let us share the money.... N a fifty is never as good as a hundred, u kno... I jus gave him a vacant stare...

"Look, there comes my friend.." And sure enough, there was another middle aged man on a bike comin in our direction... And in one of those rapid turn of events, b4 i could realise, my neighbour vanished on the bike along wid his frnd!!!

I would ve danced on the road, had i known how to. But im one of those souls wid two (or probably more than two!) left feet. N besides im a normal gal, or at least aspiring to tat title, so I jus smiled to myself...

N now, back to "Mission Im-sure-its-possible"... I looked right n den left. (No! No sentiments here.. I jus happend to look right first!!), my eyes scanning every square inch in sight. Convinced that there was no human soul around, I decided to bend down n pick it up b4 i lost it to some other cruel villian! N den somehow the tot struck me tat mayb i shud think twice abt my decision. I could hear my primary school moral science teacher say "Haste makes waste"!

Wat if someone saw me jus wen i took the note?? Of course, I could pretend ntn had happend n continue as tho it ws my note. But wat if they knew? Wat would they think abt me?? I mean, imagine ur image crashin from a self respectin young girl who has been this perfect idea of the good-gal-next-door , performin excellently in school etc etc, to dis greedy lil creature that grabs onto that piece of currency that surely wasnt her own... a thief, to say the least??!!! Did that sound nice.?? - No, of course not!!

N worse still, imagine some neighbour of urs walkin into ur flat n tellin ur family- "u kno wat i saw ur daughter do yday...."; particulary in tat complaining (read poisoning) tone that middle aged Indian women have!

That landed me (as usual) into a short reverie on the norms of society that bind us. The pangs of living in a so-called civilised society whose rules condition all our actions... N we say we have freedom!! For a minute, i fell for that temptation of saying that all freedom was meaningless.. I mean, if i see a neat hundred bucks n cant walk straight n take it, wat is the point in my constitution granting me 7 fundamental rights?? (Of course, much later, on second thoughts, i realised that i was grossly mistaken, and freedom is not defined like tat etc. But we humans often lose our sense of morality and correctness in important situations, you kno..)

N wat if that note brought some sorta ill charm??? I mean, why would anyone so mercilessly leave a self-respecting hundred rupee note right in the middle of the road and walk away, if they hadn't had some problem wid it? Now, dont you imagine me to be a gullible gal who goes around believing superstitions n stuff. NO! Im jus not tat kinda person.. But somehow it dint quite seem plausible that someone wouldn't notice their money falling down while crossing the road. N obviously, it did not fall wen they were involved in some transaction. I cant imagine anyone paying/buyin in the middle of a road. (Life isnt one of those Indian movies, wher the cars n buses wait as the hero stands obstructing the traffic!) N maybe, it jus runs in the Indian blood (call it genes if u want!) to come up wid arbit sentiments at the spur of the moment.. I cant be blamed for wat runs along wid my erythrocytes, u kno.. :)

N then i thought... Wat if it was a counterfeit note? U kno, like in the Jeffrey Archer short stories, wat if i took the note n entered coffee day, n got caught for using fake money?? I dint even know the penalty for that... Was it jus a fine or a few months in jail?? I racked my brains for an answer. Obviously, i couldn find nethin. (GIGO, v call it...) But I knew tat gettn anywher close to the police wud ruin my reputation... N our family name n honor n such things.... Worse stil, for an Indian gal, the future mite be even more bleak.

N I had heard somewhere that these days counterfeit notes look very much like real ones. They call it some process, i don remembr the name, by which they copy all the motifs on real notes, so that only the machines can find the difference. I could almost see my future crashing down as they suspended me from college, n i wandered from company to company searchin for a job n i could hear prospective employers say "9 pointer wid a criminal record?! u mite be sriously dangerous to our company!! Try somewhere else..." What a comedown it would be, i thought..

N b4 i could come up wid a hundred more contentions, it happened rite b4 my eyes... No, nobody else walked away wid the note!! It was the breeze... And right b4 my eyes, it carried the note away to I-dunno-where!! U kno, the meteorological centre reports a maximum windspeed of 20kmph in Chennai this month!

I did not take the 6A tat day. I chose to walk to my destination!!!

(Concluded.)

El Dorado -Part 1

So, here I am.. puttin fingers to keyboard again! (Yuck! What a poor parody of "puttin pen to paper"!!) Anyway, this time, startin a set of pseudo-short stories... I ve always been scribblin stories behind classnotes (sometimes, even in between, like writin my first mystery under the title- 'advantages of dc motors'!!). So I tot- why not put them up for ppl to read..
N ya, i mostly write in first person, n some of the characters n situations may seem to be real. But pls be warned tat wat follows is only a figment of my imagination... or in a more formal manner.............................

....Disclaimer: All characters and incidents in the following post are fictitious and...... (c'mon! how many times have u read this! And u expect me to type the whole thing?!! :P )




It was a warm afternoon. Of course, warm is an understatement, considering that Chennai burns at 42+ celcius these days. N i was standing at the infamous Besant Nagar bus stop. (For those of u who are unfamiliar wid Besant Nagar, chuck the location. It hardly matters! :) ) I could feel the hot wind slapping (not beating on) my face every minute, n the bus was jus not arriving... I must tel you that the public transport of Chennai strictly obeys Murphy's law. In fact, many years ago, wen I stil dint know that Murphy wasn't Indian, I was under the impression that he propounded the theory while waitin for a bus! Neway, I was waiting for a 6A n every other bus (even ones that come hourly!) had arrived. The bus stop was deserted, since it was 2 in the afternoon- typically lunch time.. In fact, there were hardly 2-3 ppl on d road, n I dint even have anyone(or anythin) to watch. I jus kept staring at the house opposite the stop. No signs of the bus yet....

I would surely not have seen that, but fate, o fate, I did!! Now before u start gettn ideas of me rescuing someone from some grave danger (or the Indian version of the Mafia), or of falling in love wid the gr8est lookin guy or somethin of tat sort which always happens in novels, let me bring u back to good ole' Earth n tel u that wat I saw was a very common but quite a worthy object--- A hundred rupee note!!(Applause for those who guessed it rite!! :) ) There it was lying on the road, the colour of the note in horrendous contrast to the dirty black tar road background, sadly orphaned by its callous (careless?) owner! N I immiediately wanted to fling myself to its rescue n save it from its poor fate... After all, there it lay, about 2 feet and 5 inches away from my right foot. Of course i dint bend down n measure, but den, it helps a reader's imagination if i write some numerical values, however crazy they may be... N it is definitely better than sayin tat the note lay i-dunno-how-far-from-my-foot away!!!

It was a beautiful note. No, it was not a new one with shiny paper n the smell of ink still lingering on. It was slightly aged, wid the experience rendering it a slight sheen of beauty n tenderness tat youth never seem to possess!

Sorry for the digression.. As i was sayin, i almost bent to save the note n treat it wid the respect it deserved! However, jus wen I was about to bend, there came along in jolly fervour, who else but my dear sweet neighbour, waving the most friendly hi, as he crossed the road n walked to the bus stop, towards the place where i was standing!!

"Hullo, young lady!", he said.. (Some of these 'uncle's have the worst ways of addressing, n even tho quite respectable, i hate bein calld 'a young lady'!) "Vacation, eh?"

"Yes, uncle." i nodded. (Dude, if May isn't vac for us, wat d u think it d b??)

N he proceeded on with the routine pleasantries n questions on my future plans (GRE or CAT?) n den, of curse, the standard ones that parents of 12th goin kids(?)ask engg coll students (how did u prepare for entrances, do u think she shud take AIEEE coachin in d vac or will the IIT one suffice, n so on ad infinitum...) N there it was, my beautiful note, lying still on the road, innocent of the tortuous conversation I had to put up wid. I almost envied it for living in a world far far away from my dreary life, n was reminded of those lines from some crazy poem -"I am safe in non-understanding!!"

Neway, this man standing next to me showed no signs of leaving, n i was hopin he dint c the note too... I had read somewhere that God transmits to ppl's minds al those things v don want them to hear. (Another of those damned corollaries of Murphy's law?!!) I jus hoped he dint.
N when I was still hoping, my neighbour, squealed in excitement, "Hey, what's tat?!!"

(To be continued...)

Kaleidoscope

A rainbow of dreams that i rode upon
For days, months, years...
Carefully spun a web of love to imprison myself in,
and watched the days slip through my fingers
like grains of sand at the beach.
Poured my life as water for a weed,
and threw stone after stone into the clear lake
trying to build castles!!

Now I look back at those toddler steps
as their meaning dissolves in a solemn dreamy funeral
- a revelation of my innocence!
As time unravels new mysteries each day...
I'm unsure if it has made me happy but...
We have all grown up!!

Sur La Voie Du Changement (On the path of change)

So, vacation again!!! N I guess I must blog at least now...

Anyway, after nearly a year of being around, I ve finally given in to popular demand n changed d layout... I remember tat dis had been the first suggestion/comment.. N somehow, I never tot twas necessary to change it.. But, a walk at IITM last evening, (when i was lost in thoughts as usual) somehow gave me enlightenment n i tot- "Why not change?"

I must admit I found it difficult to part wid my favourite sunset n d black background! But den, I had to give in... After al, wats d point writin a blog, if oders cant read it?!!
So, hope dis is more reader friendly...

N ya, abt new posts.. Keep checkin... Doin some interestin ones... They ll be up soon...