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...)