"You better stop shooting and save some bullets. You only have limited number of those." says a voice in the dark. Rajat opens the chamber of his gun and sees that there are only 6 bullets left. He looks around from behind the piller, which is covering him from the gun fire from the other end and sees the mess around him. He sees plenty of glass pieces scattered all over the place. There are bullet holes in almost everything in the room. The cotton pieces from the sofa are floating in the air. The only thing that is not damaged in the cross fire is the TV, which is at the far corner of the room and it is playing the dubbed version of the mandarin movie Hero starring Jet Li. It's 7:30 on the wall clock with a broken minute hand, which seems to have stopped ticking when a bullet hit it. He checks his watch, it's 10 now. He says, "as if you have an unlimited supply." "No, I don't and that's precisely why I have stopped shooting already" replies the voice from behind the bar table. Rajat remembers hitting him on his foot before he jumped behind that table.
There is silence for some time before Rajat speaks,"how long are we planning to sit like that? It's really painful sitting quietly waiting for eternity." "We can talk, if you are interested." the voice replies. "What should we talk about?" Rajat questions. "Have you seen that movie? The one on the TV right now." the voice continues speaking, "can you please increase the volume a bit?" Rajat looks for the remote and finds it lying in front of the TV on the floor. He answers,"Hero! I have seen this one, in mandarin though. Had to read the subtitles to make sense of the dialogues. It's really painful watching the movie reading subtitles when you don't understand the language. By the way, remote is too far from my reach and I am not exposing myself to your gunshots." "I am not shooting at you right now." the voice explained. "But you will at the first opportunity" added Rajat.
There was silence again. Rajat puts the gun on the floor beside him and pulls out his vallet from his pocket. There is a picture of a woman. He looks at the picture and touches the face in the picture gently with his thumb. A smile runs over his face, which soon changes into comtempt. "Don't you wanna know, why I want to kill you?" he asks looking back towards the bar table. "I know and I don't blame you for that. I might have done the same, had I been in your situation," the voice replies, "but I cannot let myself die just like that. I will try my best to live, even if it means killing you."
"So, do you remember the story of this movie, Hero?" the voice said after few minutes of silence. "Barely. I watched it mostly because I like this Chinese marshal art. People flying in the air fascinates me." Rajat replied with little indifference. "In the movie a nameless warrior played by Jet Li conspires with three other great warriors to get an audience with the King, so that he can kill the king and revenge the killing of his family by king's men." the voice continues, "When he finally is in front of the king and is about to kill him. The king unafraid of his death, examines the scroll by one of the three great worriors involved in conspiracy and realises that the ideal warrior is he, who has no desire to kill." the voice speaks further, "When the nameless warrior realises the true intentions of the king, he leaves him unharmed."
"What's your point?" asks Rajat looking at the picture of the woman in his vallet. "Nothing. I was just talking about the story of the movie. By the way, in the end we are told that the King of Qin united the Middle Kingdom under one rule, unifying the Chinese language, its weights and measures system, completing the Great Wall of China and ushering in the Qin Dynasty of a unified China. The King of Qin became Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China. So you see, his intentions were never wrong and had the nameless warrior killed the king that day, China would have never been the great empire it became later." the voice answers. The voice speaks further after a small pause, "When you barged into my house, you were very angry. You were not thinking clearly. Now you seem calm. Think about it. My intentions were never wrong." Rajat doesn't say anything.
The voice has stopped talking and there is silence once again. Rajat, who is still looking at the picture, takes the picture out of the wallet, puts the wallet back in his pocket, picks up the gun, stands up and starts walking slowly towards the bar table. He walks behind the bar table from where the voice was coming and looks down. He keeps the picture on the table, pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes the gun clean of any finger prints. He keeps the gun on the picture and looks down again. Rajat gets his cellphone out of his pocket and dials a number. "Hello!...Rajhans Hospital?...I am calling from Swarn Bhavan, there is a man lying unconcious here and he seems to have lost a lot of blood due to a bullet wound on his foot." He disconnects the call and slowly walks out of the room.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
What forced Shashi to resign?
PM is back from his foreign visit and before he landed at IGI Airport, Delhi; he knew he had to deal with a big problem. A problem which could have been smaller, had he banned his External Affairs Minister of State Mr. Shashi Tharoor from tweeting, when he first tweeted about travelling with cattle class. He was cursing himself for leaving him just with a warning then and not forcing him to delete his twitter account. He regretted the day when he failed to explain Shashi that Indian government is still formed with MPs selected by the population for whom twitter is just a bird noise and blackberry and apple are mere fruits. How come Shashi did not understand this simple fact that most of his 700K followers on twitter would not even go out of their cozy rooms to vote for him. These people are only good for signing online petitions in his favor, which are sadly not recognized and understood by major section of Indian population.
PM reached his office thinking about damage control. He was certain about one thing, "jo ek baar ho use galti kahte hain, lekin jo baar-baar ho use aadat kahte hain. galti ko sudharna aasan hota hai, lekin aadat badalna mushkil." He knew that this time he cannot leave Shashi with a warning. He had to take an action and the action had to be strict to set an example. While his mind was occupied with these thoughts, his personal phone rang. It was his wife. The conversation went something like this,
PM: I am so sorry. I promise it will not happen again.
Wife: Good. You dare not do this again. I am watching the TV and I see that idiot is just getting inside your office to meet you. Do the right thing this time.
His personal phone rang again as soon as he hung up. It was Sonia madam this time. His hands started shaking, because it was him who supported Shashi for the ministry despite madam's doubts. He answered the phone after waiting for good 30 seconds, which seemed like eternity to him. This is what they talked,
PM: Yes, madam. (trying to control his weight on his shaking feet)
Madam: What is this Manu? I told you keep him under control.
PM: Madam, I was out of country.
Madam: Then you better stop going out of country. Send only Krishna to all such trips. Isn't that the reason we appointed him the external affairs minister? You better keep check on these internal affairs.
PM: Don't worry madam. I will find a solution.
Madam: You better.
He hung up the phone. A peon entered the office, while he was wiping sweat off his face. "Tharoor sahab aaye hain, bade pareshan dikh rahe hain", the peon said. "Uski wajah se to main pareshan hun. Ghar me biwi bolti hai foreign vacation ka plan kyon cancel kiya aur wohan madam bolti hain internal affairs samhalo. Bhejo andar, aaj uski khair nahi", he replied.
Shashi entered the office holding a neatly folded paper in his left hand and his cellphone on the other. "Sir, I have prepared a statement explaining my situation in this entire episode", Shashi said looking at his cellphone following Lalit Modi's tweets. "I wonder, why you had to come with an statement, when you could have tweeted me the same", PM said fuming with anger. Shashi hurriedly kept his cellphone in his pocket sensing the anger in PM's voice.
PM walked to Shashi, held him from behind his neck and looked into his eyes. "What is this Shashi? Every time I go out of country, you do something that forces me to cut short my trip." he said in a soft voice, as if hushing it in his ear. "I cannot have a nice quiet foreign vacation with my family because of you. Madam is asking me to concentrate on internal affairs first and I have decided to start from my home. That is the reason I am planning a foreign vacation with your bhabhiji to compensate for all the foreign trips those were cut short because of your continuous careless tweeting habit." he continued. "I am sorry sir, but this Modi fella.." Shashi apologized. "We were struggling with one Modi already and you have given us another Modi to fight with. Were you out of your mind? I think, we will handle this Modi. PC has been working on it for over a year now and I am sure he will come up with something. He sure is 100 times smarter than you are." he said looking away from Shashi.
When PM looked back at Shashi, he looked calmer. "You must resign Shashi, I cannot afford to cut short my next trip and anger your bhabhiji and madamji. You must go Shashi," he said.
PM reached his office thinking about damage control. He was certain about one thing, "jo ek baar ho use galti kahte hain, lekin jo baar-baar ho use aadat kahte hain. galti ko sudharna aasan hota hai, lekin aadat badalna mushkil." He knew that this time he cannot leave Shashi with a warning. He had to take an action and the action had to be strict to set an example. While his mind was occupied with these thoughts, his personal phone rang. It was his wife. The conversation went something like this,
PM: I am so sorry. I promise it will not happen again.
Wife: Good. You dare not do this again. I am watching the TV and I see that idiot is just getting inside your office to meet you. Do the right thing this time.
His personal phone rang again as soon as he hung up. It was Sonia madam this time. His hands started shaking, because it was him who supported Shashi for the ministry despite madam's doubts. He answered the phone after waiting for good 30 seconds, which seemed like eternity to him. This is what they talked,
PM: Yes, madam. (trying to control his weight on his shaking feet)
Madam: What is this Manu? I told you keep him under control.
PM: Madam, I was out of country.
Madam: Then you better stop going out of country. Send only Krishna to all such trips. Isn't that the reason we appointed him the external affairs minister? You better keep check on these internal affairs.
PM: Don't worry madam. I will find a solution.
Madam: You better.
He hung up the phone. A peon entered the office, while he was wiping sweat off his face. "Tharoor sahab aaye hain, bade pareshan dikh rahe hain", the peon said. "Uski wajah se to main pareshan hun. Ghar me biwi bolti hai foreign vacation ka plan kyon cancel kiya aur wohan madam bolti hain internal affairs samhalo. Bhejo andar, aaj uski khair nahi", he replied.
Shashi entered the office holding a neatly folded paper in his left hand and his cellphone on the other. "Sir, I have prepared a statement explaining my situation in this entire episode", Shashi said looking at his cellphone following Lalit Modi's tweets. "I wonder, why you had to come with an statement, when you could have tweeted me the same", PM said fuming with anger. Shashi hurriedly kept his cellphone in his pocket sensing the anger in PM's voice.
PM walked to Shashi, held him from behind his neck and looked into his eyes. "What is this Shashi? Every time I go out of country, you do something that forces me to cut short my trip." he said in a soft voice, as if hushing it in his ear. "I cannot have a nice quiet foreign vacation with my family because of you. Madam is asking me to concentrate on internal affairs first and I have decided to start from my home. That is the reason I am planning a foreign vacation with your bhabhiji to compensate for all the foreign trips those were cut short because of your continuous careless tweeting habit." he continued. "I am sorry sir, but this Modi fella.." Shashi apologized. "We were struggling with one Modi already and you have given us another Modi to fight with. Were you out of your mind? I think, we will handle this Modi. PC has been working on it for over a year now and I am sure he will come up with something. He sure is 100 times smarter than you are." he said looking away from Shashi.
When PM looked back at Shashi, he looked calmer. "You must resign Shashi, I cannot afford to cut short my next trip and anger your bhabhiji and madamji. You must go Shashi," he said.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The Ride
"You always do this," Akash told Priyanka and looked away. She could not see the irate look in his eyes, but she knew the look as she had seen it before, many times. This is normally how all their fights end. Him turning away but making it a point to make her realise that it's her fault before he turns away. Akash gets a beer from the refridgerater and switches on the TV. It's wrestling on the TV. He knows she doesn't like wrestling, in fact she hates it. He keeps the TV tuned to wrestling. She knows he is doing it just to irritate her. It means tonight he is not going to look into her eyes and say how much he loves her and cares for her. It means that he is not going to offer her a hot tea or drop her home on his old yamaha RX 100. It makes the worst noise and never starts in a single kick, yet she likes to sit on the back seat when he is riding. She is not sure, whether she will like it if someone else is riding. Since there is no ride back home and he seems to be in no mood to talk to her any longer, at least not tonight. She stands from the bucket chair she was sitting on, picks her handbag and gets out of the apartment, closing the door carefully behind.
She is on the street at 2 am and it seems like the darkest and the lonliest night ever. She holds her bag tight in a hug and looks at the sky. It's a clean sky, why cannot she find any stars. There are no autorikshaws tonight. Is it like that always or she had always been thinking about him to notice the empty roads on her rides back home with him. She just hopes he comes after her and offers her a ride. It's already 30 minutes she has been waiting on the street but he is nowhere to be seen.
She sees a bike pass her, the boy riding the bike turns back and looks at her but he moves on. Her feet hurt because of standing there for so long, and she so much wanted the boy to stop by and offer her a ride. She is no longer thinking about Akash, she is thinking about the boy on the bike instead. It's strange for her, because she has has not thought about another guy except Akash in last 2 years. She no longer wants Akash to come, she wants to boy on the bike to come back for her instead. It's strange, because she doesn't know anything about the boy, but she wants him to come back for her.
She is no longer able to stand and decides to sit on the footpath. She is almost to tears when she sees the bike coming towards her. The bike stops in front of her. The boy is wearing a helmet and she can only see his bespectacled eyes. He takes off the helmet. She stands up from the footpath and is facing the boy. She is almost to tears, and not able to tell whether these are the tears of sadness because of the fight with Akash or of joy of seeing her knight in shining armour.
"You seem lost?" the boy asks. "I was, I think," answers Priyanka and suddenly there is a smile on her face as if she has realised something. "You want me to..." the boy speaks, "will you drop me to Andheri?" she interrupts. They start laughing. Priyanka sits in the back seat and feels more comfortable than she used to on that old RX 100. This was the last time Priyanka thought of Akash.
She is on the street at 2 am and it seems like the darkest and the lonliest night ever. She holds her bag tight in a hug and looks at the sky. It's a clean sky, why cannot she find any stars. There are no autorikshaws tonight. Is it like that always or she had always been thinking about him to notice the empty roads on her rides back home with him. She just hopes he comes after her and offers her a ride. It's already 30 minutes she has been waiting on the street but he is nowhere to be seen.
She sees a bike pass her, the boy riding the bike turns back and looks at her but he moves on. Her feet hurt because of standing there for so long, and she so much wanted the boy to stop by and offer her a ride. She is no longer thinking about Akash, she is thinking about the boy on the bike instead. It's strange for her, because she has has not thought about another guy except Akash in last 2 years. She no longer wants Akash to come, she wants to boy on the bike to come back for her instead. It's strange, because she doesn't know anything about the boy, but she wants him to come back for her.
She is no longer able to stand and decides to sit on the footpath. She is almost to tears when she sees the bike coming towards her. The bike stops in front of her. The boy is wearing a helmet and she can only see his bespectacled eyes. He takes off the helmet. She stands up from the footpath and is facing the boy. She is almost to tears, and not able to tell whether these are the tears of sadness because of the fight with Akash or of joy of seeing her knight in shining armour.
"You seem lost?" the boy asks. "I was, I think," answers Priyanka and suddenly there is a smile on her face as if she has realised something. "You want me to..." the boy speaks, "will you drop me to Andheri?" she interrupts. They start laughing. Priyanka sits in the back seat and feels more comfortable than she used to on that old RX 100. This was the last time Priyanka thought of Akash.
I wish it happened like this.
It was the bright ray of light from the window or may be the sound of my alarm that woke me up. The alarm told me that it was 7:30 in the morning. It started as any other day, although I was hoping this day to be different as I hope almost everyday. I so much hate the routine, but there was nothing extraordinary about this day to make me believe that there will be anything different about this day too.
It was 8:30 now and I was ready to go to work. I took the stairs rather than the elevator, just to start the day differently. It was a sunny day and at 8:30 in the morning the sun was shining as if it was noon. I put my glares on to protect my eyes from the brightness of the sun and started waiting for a rickshaw, which would take me to my office.
I could not find any empty rickshaws today to take me to my destination. It was unusual, and that's exactly the reason I felt little good about it. What I felt even better about was the fact that there was a beautiful girl standing beside me, waiting for a rickshaw to her workplace, which I realised was at walking distance from there. We stood there for good 10 minutes without speaking a single word. It is when my robotic brain gave me a logical idea and I spoke, "You better learn to walk. I am sure this happens everyday". She looked at me, smiled and said, "I think so". I think it encouraged me and I spoke further pointing towards two other girls walking towards the direction of her office, "See those two girls have already started walking". She didn't respond this time. Deja vu, same thing happens every time I try to have a conversation with a pretty girl.
Disappointed, I called my colleague, who I know passes from there in his car during that time and asked for a ride. He agreed. I was waiting now for my colleague to pick me up. At this point there was a rickshaw and surprisingly it agreed to take the girl to her workplace. The girl looked towards me and asked, "you want me to drop you somewhere?" At this very moment I saw my colleague's car approaching from a distance, it was getting late for work and I could not afford to be late. I did a quick thinking and for once my brain did not behave like a robot or may be I did not wait for the answer from my brain. I jumped inside the rickshaw with the girl.
Before I could realise, I was inside an auto rickshaw with a pretty girl, whom I knew nothing about. I don't know if I was nervous or excited or worried and at that moment I couldn't really tell the difference. I knew this ride was not going to last more than 5 minutes. I had to think right and think fast. I decided the better. Don't think, just say whatever comes to my mouth. Couldn't really rely on my brain in such situations.
To make the situation easier, the girl spoke first, "where do you want me to drop you?" "I think it would be easier for me to drop you on the way and take the rickshaw to Kanjurmarg." I replied. "You work for Lionbridge?" I asked. "Yes, how did you know?" she asked looking little surprised. "It was just a guess" I said with an innocent smile. "By the way, I am Gaurav." I continued. "I am Riya" she introduced herself. I for the first time wished to be caught in traffic. It's not usual to be caught in traffic at 9 am in Hiranandani but today everything decided to favour me it seems. A best bus broke down blocking the way. I suggested, "we better start walking now, we are almost halfway to your office already." I know there was a smile of joy on my face, however not sure if she noticed it.
We started walking and for the first time I saw her properly. She had brown shoulder length hair, her eyes were blue and she had a very bright smile. I kept on looking at her admiring her beauty while she was walking looking at the road. I couldn't speak a single word and kept on walking beside her. I remember, she looked at me twice and I am sure she had noticed my stare. I am so sure because I realised how it made her uncomfortable and how she looked away almost immediately.
There is a thing about time, it moves really fast when you so much want it to move slow and the same thing happened. Before I could gather the right words from my limited vocabulary, we were in front of her office. I noticed her looking for something in her handbag. I was still searching for words, to my surprise she pulled out her cellphone from her bag and saad, "give me your no, may be you can walk me to office more often. I really hate waiting for rickshaw." A smile ran over her face. :)
It was 8:30 now and I was ready to go to work. I took the stairs rather than the elevator, just to start the day differently. It was a sunny day and at 8:30 in the morning the sun was shining as if it was noon. I put my glares on to protect my eyes from the brightness of the sun and started waiting for a rickshaw, which would take me to my office.
I could not find any empty rickshaws today to take me to my destination. It was unusual, and that's exactly the reason I felt little good about it. What I felt even better about was the fact that there was a beautiful girl standing beside me, waiting for a rickshaw to her workplace, which I realised was at walking distance from there. We stood there for good 10 minutes without speaking a single word. It is when my robotic brain gave me a logical idea and I spoke, "You better learn to walk. I am sure this happens everyday". She looked at me, smiled and said, "I think so". I think it encouraged me and I spoke further pointing towards two other girls walking towards the direction of her office, "See those two girls have already started walking". She didn't respond this time. Deja vu, same thing happens every time I try to have a conversation with a pretty girl.
Disappointed, I called my colleague, who I know passes from there in his car during that time and asked for a ride. He agreed. I was waiting now for my colleague to pick me up. At this point there was a rickshaw and surprisingly it agreed to take the girl to her workplace. The girl looked towards me and asked, "you want me to drop you somewhere?" At this very moment I saw my colleague's car approaching from a distance, it was getting late for work and I could not afford to be late. I did a quick thinking and for once my brain did not behave like a robot or may be I did not wait for the answer from my brain. I jumped inside the rickshaw with the girl.
Before I could realise, I was inside an auto rickshaw with a pretty girl, whom I knew nothing about. I don't know if I was nervous or excited or worried and at that moment I couldn't really tell the difference. I knew this ride was not going to last more than 5 minutes. I had to think right and think fast. I decided the better. Don't think, just say whatever comes to my mouth. Couldn't really rely on my brain in such situations.
To make the situation easier, the girl spoke first, "where do you want me to drop you?" "I think it would be easier for me to drop you on the way and take the rickshaw to Kanjurmarg." I replied. "You work for Lionbridge?" I asked. "Yes, how did you know?" she asked looking little surprised. "It was just a guess" I said with an innocent smile. "By the way, I am Gaurav." I continued. "I am Riya" she introduced herself. I for the first time wished to be caught in traffic. It's not usual to be caught in traffic at 9 am in Hiranandani but today everything decided to favour me it seems. A best bus broke down blocking the way. I suggested, "we better start walking now, we are almost halfway to your office already." I know there was a smile of joy on my face, however not sure if she noticed it.
We started walking and for the first time I saw her properly. She had brown shoulder length hair, her eyes were blue and she had a very bright smile. I kept on looking at her admiring her beauty while she was walking looking at the road. I couldn't speak a single word and kept on walking beside her. I remember, she looked at me twice and I am sure she had noticed my stare. I am so sure because I realised how it made her uncomfortable and how she looked away almost immediately.
There is a thing about time, it moves really fast when you so much want it to move slow and the same thing happened. Before I could gather the right words from my limited vocabulary, we were in front of her office. I noticed her looking for something in her handbag. I was still searching for words, to my surprise she pulled out her cellphone from her bag and saad, "give me your no, may be you can walk me to office more often. I really hate waiting for rickshaw." A smile ran over her face. :)
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