Answers
The quest to find answers, to find peace
ends in the most unexpected of ways.
Find the story at Answers
The Right Thing to Do
Scene
Thoughts
Doubts
Judgements
Reflections!
Find the story at The Right Thing to do
P.S Back after a long time. Feels great to be back 
Small Acts, Big Difference
We all have our everyday lives . The usual rush, the excitement, the eventful days, the uneventful ones,the lazy ones, nevertheless all a part of our own lives. And it is absolutely possible to get warped in to it. In fact getting warped in to it is inevitable. But then there are those few moments that escape the rush, the paranoia , the never ending run of the monotonous lives that make us think. The moments that ask us questions. Questions about who we are, what are we doing, why are we constantly running and what are we running towards? Questions that make us wonder if what we are doing is worth it. If its worth living a life that is miles away from family. If all the luxuries and wealth mean anything. Whilst we might not have answers to those questions, I believe there are ways in which we can give these questions a nice fat retort that will have them tongue tied .
It is to touch other lives in a positive way. Everybody has something which can make another soul happy. Everyone can make a small positive impact on another person’s life. Every life touched is a life worth living for. As I say this I think of an organization that is striving to make a difference in people’s lives.
I came to know of Asset India foundation during my grad school days in University of Arizona. The daughter of the dean of Engineering had pioneered this program. Asset strives to provide a better life to children of sex workers by making them computer literate.
I don’t think the ones who have had a normal wholesome childhood can even imagine the gory details of the lives these children have lived. The organization’s main goal is to prevent these children from going in to the same profession as their mothers. Education is the only way that this can be avoided. Asset goes a step further and believes in making the children IT literate. After all even a help desk job today is not without technology. Asset also focuses on using Microfinance to help these sex workers start and run their own technology affiliated small business thus freeing them the perils of their past.
How can we help?
The fast and the most easiest way to help this foundations for those who do not have the time to participate directly is to donate. Someone once asked me why it takes us such a long time to decide whether we should donate while we do not bat an eyelid for a new dress or a fancy dinner. The reason is when we want to spend for someone else, we want to make sure, its worth it. I agree. Go through their website, call people, talk to people involved. If it seems like something that you would like to be a part of, don’t bat an eyelid.
However if you are one of the lucky ones who stays in one of Asset’s working locations and think you can spend some time teaching these kids communication of computers or anything else please contact Asset and you can be a volunteer or even an intern.
Remember those questions that keep coming back and interrupt us making us wonder if we are just another face in the world or if our lives mean something?
The big fat retort that will drive away those questions are actions like these.Cause YOU have contributed towards making someone’s life a tad better. YOU are variable in the equation of happiness of some other soul. You did a small part to put a smile on faceless person who wants to bid goodbye to a life of misery.
Know more about Asset here :
http://www.assetindiafoundation.org/HowYouCanHelp.aspx
Redemption
Need for Revenge
to achieve Peace
Find the story at The Redemption
P.S : A long story, make it your tea time read:)
Whose God?
Silent sobs and high pitched melancholy cries adorned the house sandwiched by two different faiths.
Prayers of both kinds were said. Gods of both faiths were evoked.
Aryan walked to his dad and hugged him tight.
“What happened to dadaji* baba*?”
“God has taken him away from us beta”
“Whose God baba? Yours or ammi’s*?”
dadaji – Grandad , Baba –Father , Ammi -Mother
P.S :Heavily inspired from Delhi 6
Break Up
Foreword: I have been recently introduced to 55 Fiction and I found it very intriguing. So here is my first attempt. Hopefully this will be a regular feature in my blog. As of now I am calling it 55FictionSaturdays. The name is borrowed. I found it in this blog. So here goes.
“So that’s it, you want to break up? I can’t believe you” stormed out Swathi
Ram waited and then walked to the beach.
The moon played with its own reflections along with the jumping waves.
“There was a reason” said Ram extending his arm
Swathi’s smile drowned the radiance of the moon and the diamond.
Hooked!
Adi decided to face his addiction. He tried denial. He tried to ignore it. He tried running away. But nothing worked. The defining moment had come when he was at work trying to concentrate in the conference call that he was attending when his hands automatically did a refresh on Facebook. It was not so much the action but rather the facts that he could not accept that were no new updates from the last time he had checked it. And the last time was 5 minutes back. It all came to him in one huge flash.
His new laptop, the computer, the internet, the email, the YouTube, the Facebook, the Twitter. Everything. It was time, he told himself. He decided things would be better if he decided to face the demons of Gmail, Facebook and Twitter by himself. He had to. He had to get his life back.
Adi went back to his house to tell his mom about his decision. He just entered his house to only find a kitty party going on. He went straight to his room postponing his decision by a few minutes. After about an hour he came out to see him mom. She was still talking to Malini aunty. It did not matter now.
“Mom, I have to tell you something” said Adi
His mom turned to him “Not now Adi, go drink tea and freshen up, you look tired”
“Noooooo mom” Adi stressed.
Adi’s mom turned to him a little shocked at his rather vocal disappointment. She raised her eyebrows which was the obvious “How dare you raise your voice in front of a guest” gesture. Adi knew it too well, but desperate times meant desperate measures.
“No mom, I have to tell you this. I ..I..I have to go to rehab. “he said.
“What, what do you mean? Rehab for what? And please tell me it’ is for curable and simple things like drugs or alcohol” said Adi’s mom. Malini auntie’s expression was a mixture of curiosity and delight at finding a new topic of gossip.
“N..N…No mom, it is serious. It’s the web 2.0 addiction.” Said Adi looking away facing the window.
“What! No, no that cannot be true” whispered Adi’s mom and sank in to the couch. He closed her face with her hands. One could her broken words like “bad mother” “how” “god” “what” etc. The incident seemed to have a brought out a nice color on Malini aunty.
The door opened and in came Adi’s dad. Adi’s mom walked towards him quickly sobbing. Mr. Suresh was quite obviously taken aback from the rather strong sense of discomfort that was floating in the air. He knew such situations. These were the exact kind of situations that he hated being. He wished he would get an email from his work calling him back. He took out his iphone and refreshed his outlook.
“Oh stop doing that? No wonder our son is addicted. It is all because of you and all along I thought I had been a bad mother. Oh god, what will I do. How can you do this to us?” wailed Adi’s mom.
Sensing that this was going to be a rather long evening, Mr.Suresh respectfully asked Malini aunty to leave. That was when Maini aunty had an expression that was fitting the situation. She did not take kindly to sacrificing such a juicy gossip.
“What are you saying Sunita, what is wrong with our Adi?” said Mr. Suresh obviously concerned. One thing about Tamils is that they don’t take kindly to anything extreme. Everything had to be in limits. You don’t laugh too hard, you don’t smile too much or too long. You don’t talk too much, you don’t wear too bright colors. Anything that was a little excess was always a no. And Adi clearly had stepped the limits. I mean an addiction was the last thing Mr.Suresh wanted his son to have.
“Adi, is this right? What were you thinking? Can you believe what an insult to the family this is ?” said Mr.Suresh. “I mean how will I face , Govindhan downstairs tomorrow . Gosh! That too the most dreadful web2.0 addiction? How many times have we warned you? Is that not the first warning I gave you when you bought a laptop? I mean off all the addictions, you had to get hooked on to this? My god! It’s all company, I know it is. It’s that Anand and the gang of boys you hang out with. They have done this to you. Those boys and their stupid blackberrys and iphones. I can’t believe this. Why cant you hang out with other kids who just do drugs and drink or something. Seriously Adi, you disappoint me” said Mr.Suresh and walked out.
Adi walked in to his regular meeting and waited for his turn to come. It was not easyto battle this addiction. But at least he faced it. When his turn came he got up
“Hi, I am Adi and I have the web 2.0 addiction”
The group gasped. Some ladies put their hands to their mouth. Others just pouted and nodded to show that they understood.
“Hiiiiiiiiiii Adi” the crows responded.
“So, Adi, how often do you refresh your Gmail or Facebook?” asked one of the members in the group
“Urgh.. Umm.. “stammered Adi obviously worrying about the crowd’s reaction. It did not seem a friendly crowd this one.
“Come on Adi, we are all here to help you, No one will judge you” said the moderator.
“Almost every 5-10 minutes” said Adi hanging his head down. He did not have the courage to see everyone.
“Oh my god!” said one.
“God save you” said another.
“Really, wow” was another.
“Yeah, way to be non judgmental guys, Thanks!” said Adi and sat down.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry Adi, but 10 minutes my man is really bad. I think social networking screwed you really bad, So how do you feel if you have not got a mail in 15 minutes?” asked the moderator.
“I feel very irritated. I get jittery and the tension makes me refresh at least 2 times more. I worry if it’s me, you know. I feel that I am not loved. Makes me feel very low on confidence” said Adi.
There were sighs and sounds that meant people sympathized for him.
“And what about others like Twitter and Orkut?” asked the moderator
“Oh I have this obsessive need to twitter like every moment of my life, I just have to. Otherwise it is like the great moment that I just experienced has no value. It is like everyone has to be jealous of me, or feel sorry for me, or just know all about me. “said Adi .
“Don’t you think it’s becoming a little too much of you, Adi?” Asked the moderator.
“I don’t know. But then I can’t stop myself from it. I go out with friends and want to take photographs so that I can post them on Orkut. I care more about the photos than the event!” said Adi
“Do you stalk people in orkut Adi? Do you look at random girls who are friends of your friends and check out their albums?” asked the moderator.
Adi was dumbstruck. “I.. I…I am ashamed” said Adi.
“I am sorry, you can’t be helped. I must say your state seems rather out of hand. I am sorry Adi…” said the moderator.
Adi immediately took his iphone out and updated his status in Facebook and Twitter. It read “Apparently I can’t be helped L”
The whole group was shocked. “What are you doing Adi?” screamed the moderator.
“I can’t… Stop.. I can’t… I.. I… simply can’t”
“Adithya, are you ok?” asked Shilpa walking to his cube.
“Urgh..Hmmm. Yeah, Hi Shilpa. I am ok. What is up?” asked Adi trying to cover up the fact that he slept off at work.
“Heavy lunch huh “asked Shilpa winking. I saw your update on facebook, how was the new Vietnamese restaurant?”
Adi responded “Yeah, good. Good. Listen I probably have to get back to work. I shall catch up with you later”
He alt tabbed and saw his Mozilla struck on facebook. It took him a few seconds for him close Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and Orkut. He went back to his excel and started spending time in his work. It had been a while and Adi never realized he actually had that good an attention span when suddenly there was great hustle in the area around his cube. He saw all this team mates rushing somewhere. He stopped one of them and asked them where they were all hurrying to.
“Dude, dint you check your facebook, Anand just updated the status, apparently there is free food in the conference room near his cube” and rushed off.
Adi went to his cube and signed back in.
The Mistake called Life
mistake
“The shirt Ram, there are some stains, can you laundry it yourself” said Nina passing it on to Ram.
Ram reached out to get the shirt without looking at Nina in the eye, looked at the stain. His lips twitched. Nina knew that twitch. She did not like it and hoped to never hear it again. But then there it was the twitch along with the stain. She just picked the rest of the clothes without as much as throwing a glance at them and told her house help “Laundry these clothes. They need to be spotless” .
“Madam what about the shirt …” paused the house help.
“Sitaji please just do what I tell you to” I need them by today evening.
Ram came back and gave the shirt back to Nina, clearly avoiding her eyes yet again. He was scared of those eyes. It was one of the few eyes which reeked honesty. And he could not face it. He had long had a fall out with honesty.
“How much longer Ram” said Nina
“What Nina?” said Ram knowing very well what she was referring to.
Nina just stared at him and looked away back to looking at the dirty shirts.
“It’s not like what you think Nina, Let me explain” said Ram.
“Are they not affairs Ram? Cause that is what I think” said Nina while inspecting their closet for more dirty linen.
“It’s not like I love them Nina. You know that, you are the only person I can and I will love” said Ram.
“Thanks Ram, I got the answer I needed.” Nina said.
“Can you make sure, you don’t bring lipstick stained shirts back home. It really disgusts me, It makes me want to pick up whatever that is available nearby and hit you with it” said Nina. If ever there was any anger in her, the sheer coldness in her voice made it sound like she just told Ram, she had his morning coffee ready.
“I am sorry Nina, I promise this won’t happen again. I was drunk, I was not thinking clearly. I swear Nina, please don’t leave me Nina. I will not be half the man I am if not for you . I don’t deserve you , after everything you have done for me, I am so sorry I did this. I have always wanted to come clean but somehow it was too hard. I swear Nina, I will put a stop to all this. Never again Nina, I swear” said Ram.
It was all empty words for Nina. Empty words. Empty promises. She had heard them far too many times. She had believed in them far too many times. She had hurt herself far too many times. Now, it did not seem to matter anymore. Why did she even ask Ram about it? She did not know. Did his answer make a difference! She could not say.
Was she going to leave him. Isn’t infidelity the reason most marriages break up. Why does she still live with him? How can she sleep next to him in the same bed knowing he is cheating on her, regularly? How can she look him in the face and talk to him. How can she live a lie? Why is she living a lie? Nina asked herself these questions a dozen times.
“You deserve more than this. You are your own boss. You cannot be treated this way. Wake up, rise up to the occasion. Take a risk, take your life back. Take control of your reigns. You are living a mistake, A big mistake” the TV blared. The symbol that her son came back home from college.
“I am living a mistake” Nina said under her breath. “A mistake that gave me something to live for” she said going to the living room.
“Bhel puri, Nikhil?”
“Thanks mom! You’re the best”
Image copyright: http://th01.deviantart.com/fs9/300W/i/2006/027/6/f/Mistake_by_frixin.jpg
from google images
The Eleven
Every dream big or small someday finds itself peeking at reality.
My biggest dream today has just had a small debut.
I hope and pray that it grows bigger
“The Eleven” -Collection of short stories by bloggers is out today in India and I am one of the eleven authors whose stories are published.
The Book!
I am super excited, happy, elated, name the superlative and I am that.
Please check out the book.
Here are a few links that will help you do so
Details of book = http://www.saikiranpublications.com/projects.html
Order now = http://www.saikiranpublications.com/orderform.htm
If you think you like the sound of it, buy it. I am sure you wont regret it.
Yay! Wooooooooooohoooooooooo
Read the review of the book by a fellow blogger here