55 fiction.!

I saw this contest in writing.com website. According to wikipedia

A literary work will be considered 55 Fiction if it has:

1. Fifty-five words or less (A non-negotiable rule)

2. A setting,

3. One or more characters,

4. Some conflict, and

5. A resolution. (Not limited to moral of the story)

6. The title of the story is not part of the overall word count, but it still can’t exceed seven words.

Love story.

He Loved me more than his own mother.

He vowed to even die for me.

He had a wife and two children. Yet, he loved me more.

He climbed mountains to show me his love.

His salvation lied in my love.

He fell into my arms.

His eyes cloudy..

"Jai-hind" ..were his last words.

Well, I don know how pathetic it sounds!! I dont even know if you can discern the hidden nuances. Anyway, I'll gather that from your comments! :)

20 things I envy about 'Girls'.! :D

1. Their stupid phrases are termed cute; But when a boy talks sense, he becomes a nerd.!

2. They always smell good. Damn.! Any friend of miki would envy that. Miki smells like a hippopotamus thats just finished sun-bathing. :P

3. They always manage to get movie tickets. Why should not it be the other way round? Like.. girls getting tickets for boys? huh?

4. Blemishes on their face look beautiful.! Well, ok. This one's not aimed at s*****.! No offence. :P

5. They can marry someone who earns more. :(

6. Their wardrobe never seizes to amuse them.!!

7. They can do wonders with a wink of an eye. Quite literally.

8. They always know what buttons to push to get what they want.

9. They always find a nerd to take them for shopping; And the worst part.. they can 'cute-talk' the nerd to pay even for that-one-green-patiala(or whatever you call it).

10. Their blogs are read by many.!! Grrr. This one's aimed at you.!! Yea, you know it.! :D

11. If you're a muumy's boy, you become a 'pazham'. If you're a daddy's girl, you become the princess. Heck.!

12. There is always someone to lend a shoulder when they cry. And there is always a boy who wouldn't mind changing the world to subdue their sadness.!

13. They're always missed and possessed by someone.! :)

14. They can shop in 'Dolce & Gabbana' and accidently get to meet scarlett johansson.! Swathi knows how?! ;)

15. They can wear anything thats pink.!

16. They can sing and more importantly.. be heard. I once tried singing and mom screamed "Stop shouting".!!

17. They look good in shorts.! Seriously, there was a girl who played tennis with me at school. And...Ahem ahem, I mean.. I played very good tennis too :D.

18. Their exclamations are always cute.!! :)

19. They get to hug a lot of beautiful girls, even when they accost a totally unkown girl.!!

20. They can hug a guy and still not be called gay.! :P :P

Words.! Words are all I have.! :)

Switch on the music in the side bar widget before you start reading this post.

Try this. You've got to.!

Beneath the orange sky - In other words, a pleasant evening.

A bottle of your favourite drink. (Non alcoholics can suffice with 'APPY FIZZ')

Slow music playing in the background.

Breathe slow for five minutes- breathe the air around.

It carries a message. It says.. 'Whats this life?'

And then, Start writing. Yea.! You heard me right. START WRITING.!!

Write about things around you. Write about everything you ever wanted to; about what you ever wanted to say people; about the sky above you; about yourself; about your life; life in general; about the drink;

Vent all the feelings you've crossed in the past; write about the near past that you can think of; about the distant past you can picture; your love, passion,hate,distress,friednship,enemity,things you've cared about; things you wanted to take a second look at, say like.. when a fairy-tale girl crossed your sight and you wished time could stall...

Write about all the conversations you remember, the conversations with your best friend, your lover, your parents, your sworn enemy.

Write the words; words that cry; words that laugh; words that demand a reason; words that thank; words that scold; words that describe your life, words that describe how your life should've been; words that plead to come out but never before did...

Write the words,write 'em all.. Keep writing until you feel liberated; Until you feel a blankness; Until you forget yourself; Until you..abruptly stop.!

And then, Look up the sky, thank the heavens, have a sip of the drink you had.

Now..Breathe again. Breathe the fresh air. It seems different. So pleasing and different. The air carries a message.. It says..

'Life is beautiful - indeed'.! :)

P.S : I tried. I wrote. I could've posted all that here. But it would take you aeons to read them. Perhaps, I have a lot to tell people. Lot.! :)

Those blue eyes...!

I had always believed in GOD. I had always been sure of the fact that GOD gave people what they deserved; nothing more, nothing less.

Period

Boarding a train at Chennai central is an adventure no less challenging than white water rafting.

Waves of men running, women ambling, petrified children and the worst of all, the nauseating smell of rotten fish.

I was on one such adventure. The target was to commute safely (unhurt) from the Higginbotham’s book shop to platform number 11 where my train had just arrived. I had seats booked on S5. And honestly, it was one of the most abortive attempts I’d ever made. I got buffeted by a cargo-trolley, nose banged by the distribution of fisticuffs at the door abutting the unreserved coach and the saddest part...earned the 'scornful look' of an unbelievably fat aunty by banging my suitcase straight into her bum. The fact that I still can't digest is that , her husband thought that I had banged on that lady on purpose!

But then, I was at least half successful. I had reached my coach. Guys generally have a peculiar habit. In trains like these, the first thing they check on the charts is not their seat number but the ones adjacent to them to see if there was a girl's name that sounded beautiful , or at least young enough to share corner-of-the-eye-looks with.! I did. And I was eager to see who 'Rita' was!

Manish - Seat number 25.

Rita - Seat number 26.

I was caught in an ambivalence of thoughts when I finally met her. Dejected because she was a 5 yr old child and at the same time, happy, because I love playing with children. I spend half a day everyday wrestling with my next-door kid. So though I was disappointed with the fact that RITA was not some sleeveless-dressed-brown-hair-streaked-babe, I was at least happy that I had someone to kill time.

To me, Kids are fun. They've always been. They never remain silent; They don advise you on anything; they wilfully share anything you eat; they're always happy; they are cute when they pretend to cry and they fall down too often.(That’s kind of cute too)! . Don call me a sadist. I just mentioned that on a lighter note. I mean, I don’t laugh my heart out when they fall out o balance or something.

Rita and I shared the side berth. She was sitting with her mom in the lower berth though. I was bored and took out the Frederick Forsyth novel that I had been reading for eons. That’s when my boredom intensified! And that’s when I first really cared to look at RITA.

RITA. She had blue eyes...Amazingly attractive and pleasingly seducing blue eyes.

I have never seen the eyes of a small child convey so much meaning. There was something mysterious about her. She looked cute, a little chubby and the perfect doll-kind that anybody would love to hug, like they hugged a teddy bear. She had a round face and curly hair, with a fringe of hair draping over her forehead and kissing her eyebrows. She was in all likelihood, the perfect teddy-bear-kid, the ones that are showcased in most ads and soaps in television.

I was longing to speak to her. She did not seem like so much fun. She did not seem like she was cutely-mischievous, but still there was something about her that enticed me into talking to her. I regretted not having a sister like her to play with.

She was sitting by the window, watching the mountains outside. Her eyes didn’t meet anyone, not the

smallest trace of smile on her face. The breeze blew to brighten the already gleaming face of the child. And then suddenly, the same fat aunty mercilessly ushered RITA’s mother to pull her child close so that she could have her window seat! I actually considered banging the suitcase again on her, perhaps with a little more vengeance and purpose this time. The child frowned. She was not the usual kid that found happiness in everything. There was an aberration in all her actions. She refused to enthuse like a 5 year old. She preferred to stay calm. She never looked up. She never urged to break-free from her mom's grip. She rather was holding her mom's hand all the time!

I then offered the child to sit next to me. She never looked up at me when I called her. She was not very curious to meet a stranger. She was not ready to leave her mom's hand and sit near me. But I wouldn’t leave. I kept making gestures so she followed. I wow-ed at the mountains outside, I waved to the cows, crows and kids we passed along. I took my face near the window and let the breeze tip my forehead clear and kept making actions akin to that, which, only window-seaters can possibly enjoy!

She wouldn’t budge until finally, it started drizzling outside. When your heart is pure, adages say...You learn to enjoy nature. No heart is purer than a young child’s. And boy did she enjoy the rain! Her eyes widened, and no longer could she resist the temptation of living the ecstasy.

People find tranquillity in different things. For some, it comes through boozing, For some its sex. For some like me, it’s in watching the sky when lying on the lawn after an exhausting football game. And for a child like RITA, happiness is watching the ants move, or letting the rain drops fall on the tip of their

tongue or in ‘dressing a Barbie doll’.

Rita gestured to her mom. She lifted her soft little hands and pointed her index towards the side-seat window, her eyes still down and afraid to face me (A stranger). Her mom first hesitated, but when I offered a smile and gestured back for her to come and sit near me, she didn’t mind.

I now had a chance to have a close look at her. She was more beautiful than what I thought she was. And she was more in sorrow than any kid I'd ever seen had been. I bent forward as if to comfort her and whispered to her asking for her name. She turned her head away into the mountains outside. She was not going to speak to me. I was clueless. I couldn't comprehend what could possibly bring so much sadness to a child of her age. Scolding and ramblings of parents could only bring momentary sadness, but her’s was not momentary. It was everlasting. It was as though someone had ordered her not to show any signs of happiness throughout her life.

There were a lot of such thoughts rushing through my mind. Those thoughts pushed me into getting to know her more, or at least, try to! My past acquaintances with kids, had taught me the fact that they never disliked chocolates and cookies. I took the 'smiley-faced-Milk Bikis' cookie out and waved at her. She first showed signs of amusement, but that didn’t last long. Within the bat of an eye, she hid all her emotions and continued looking at the never ending mountains. I wasn’t going to give up. I bit and chew the cookie making sounds of 'biting pleasure'. At the second cookie, she turned towards me, at the third, She slightly gaped, fourth, her eyebrows lifted in anticipation and when I ate the fifth, she finally gave up. She stretched her hands. Her hands were so cute and little that I suddenly stopped regretting the no-babe-in-the-train fact. If anything, I only wished there were more cute kids in town I could give cookies to. I placed a cookie in her pinkish palms. She then glanced at her mom for approval. I was afraid if her mom would give her a warning look implying not to take anything from strangers, but thankfully, she only nodded in approval. Perhaps, my face at least didn’t have the hue of a robbing-culprit.! ‘meh!

As Rita was about to split the two halves of the cookie (Most kids do that, they always lick the cream first!), I stopped her. I demanded something in return for the cookie. I demanded a smile from her, I asked her to smile, the same way the smiley faced cookie smiled. But she nodded her head in refusal. She was rather ready to return the biscuit back to me. I was shocked. I mean, what kid could possibly not just smile for the cookie she most loved? I then obliged and returned it back to her. She accepted it but didn’t even remotely show any signs of amusement. She split open the cookie and licked the cream inside. A small part of the cream stuck to her nose when she licked. It looked so so so cute.! I don’t know if you readers can picture what it'd look like when chubby cute faces have a pint of cream on their nose, but trust me, It looked sweepingly cute!

I pointed at her nose and told her that she looked like a 'Mickey mouse with a white nose'. A very small smile escaped her mouth, but she was again quick to hold it back. She did not like me making her happy. She rather preferred to be silent.

Silence, it seemed was her best friend, for it never betrayed her. She was comfortable being alone and unperturbed. I had never really appreciated silence. I am so used to the veneer of noise and partying that Silence always seemed depressing to me. But not then, for hers was the first silence I ever admired. Her silence was more beautiful to my ears than all the noise I had ever heard. But it pierced my heart. I was growing concerned, I was growing possessive. I wished she'd been remotely related to me.

Trust me, at that very moment I could've even stopped playing football if she wished.

Time flew with me admiring her silence. Rita's station was next. She would leave me in half an hour. I had to talk to her. I had to hear her voice. I pictured how her voice would be - Glassy and soft. But she never spoke. I then suddenly took her palms in my hand. She tried to take it back, but I held it firm. She was afraid, but then, she was longing to tell me something. I knew it. But she never did. I tickled her palms, but she never smiled. I asked for her name. She never even opened her mouth. I then pretended to guess them.

"Charanya??" - she nodded in refusal.

"Mahitha"?? - same reaction.

.

.

.

"Rita"??? and her face let out the first emotion other than sadness - Surprise.!!

She gaped with an 'awww' effect. She then gave me a quizzical look, slanting her head slightly and passing an askew look of astonishment, though she never smiled. But at least, she did not turn back to the mountains. She was interested in me. She wanted to talk to me. But refrained herself for god-knows-why.! She just kept looking at me. And I, at her.. Those blue eye.! oh My.! How I wish I had a sister like her!

I starting joking about all the things around us(Most jokes revolved about how the fat aunty would eat the smiley faced cookie!). She never laughed at any of that, but every now and then, a look of amusement surfaced in her eyes and I swear, I could've kept talking for days to see her eyebrows grow and thus dilating her beautiful blue eyes.

Five or ten minutes later, her eyes, for the first time looked at something else - a green monkey doll that someone was selling on the platform. She then turned to her mom who was busy packing something as their stop was nearing. Rita waved her hands at her mom, who was too much preoccupied to see Rita. The innocent child then frowned, and only kept gaping at the doll that she would lose sight of, once the seller leaves the platform!

Ten minutes later, Rita's station arrived. Rita was now a little comfortable playing with me. We were busy playing 'snake and ladder'. She did not want to leave. When her mother ushered her to leave, she looked at me with concern. Her eyes were pleading me to go with her. I knew I couldn’t, though I too was dying to. She had to leave. I then told her mom that Rita looked so cute. She just smiled, not being too pleased by my compliment. I turned to Rita and asked her to at least say a 'bye' to me. She still wouldn’t talk. She'd only wave me a bye. I demanded her to say it. Her mom who remained silent till then, came near me and whispered to my ears.

"Don’t mistake her son, she can’t speak. She is dumb by birth!”

After saying that, she lifted Rita and got down from the train. A thousand emotions were flowing through me. A defiant drop of tear escaped my strong will. I tried to regain myself, but I couldn’t. I had never ever cried for a third person in my entire life. Quite honestly, I had never even cared to care for someone else. I longed to do something for her. I peeped through the window and called for her. Her mom let her down and she came rushing to me, her little footsteps took long to run to me amidst the crowd. She came near the window and again waved a bye. I caught her palms, kissed them and gave her the 'green monkey doll' that I had bought for her. She then ran back to her mom with it. I could bet she was happy about getting the doll she liked. But she never showed. I peeped further out as she was leaving the platform. I called her with all my might though only in my heart and with no sound. I was dumb too. But she heard me. She heard my heart. She turned back and looked at me...and then...

..Rita smiled at me and her blue eyes shone in the dark clouds of her everlasting sadness!

P.S: I had always believed in GOD. I had always been sure of the fact that GOD gave people what they deserved; nothing more, nothing less. And then, I met those blue eyes!

Epiphany..Revelation..Apocalypse...well, Damn..REad it.! :D

A week or so before, when I wrote the ‘blessing in disguise’ post, I was not very keen on expressing myself. I laid emphasis rather on pleasing the readers, or must I say, Pleasing myself eventually. Am happy that I got a decent review for that post, for most people found it amusing if not more. But as always, not all were. One of my closest friends questioned ‘the very purpose’ of my blogging. She slammed all the positive comments saying that they were all flattery and that my blog was nothing but a ‘piece of junk’ that only bragged about my ‘intolerance’ towards my female counterparts. I eventually won the argument reasoning out that it was my blog and hence I had the right to even assert that ‘rakhi sawant’ epitomizes homeliness.Period.

Period it was..only to her because she never again could make up her mind to talk to me. But as far as I was concerned, though I had won the argument, which I always do, the thought never really got out of my head. Truth always hits you hard, and late..they say. May be so, for only later did I realize that whatever she’d spoken was brutally the truth. Truth, I was unwilling to confront. Yes, I had taken things for granted. And yes, I had made a mockery of one of my female peers in order to entice my readers to read my post.

That thought pushed me into calling her. I apologized for the way I bashed her genuine comments on my post. And that’s when I actually decided to publish the following post. The following post is an article I wrote on the topic ‘Women empowerment’. It might sound boring, for it has got no moronic aunties with equally moronic daughters.! :P But as my friend phrases it.. “It’s got substance, It reasons out the very concept of Women empowerment, And most importantly, it does not mock at any girl. :D

I warn you again. The following post might be extremely boring to you unless you’re a philanthropic social worker or a pioneer of the idea ‘awakening the modern women blah blah..’.

Revelation? :O

GOD has two forms of emanation, the masculine form..which is more aggressive and the feminine form, which is more subtle. Now, this is how god has designed the human race. For masculinity to be aggressive and femininity to be subtle. Having said that, we hear a lot of women centric organisations fighting for the rights of women, fighting for women to share places with men, preaching WOMEN EMPOWERMENT..!!

My question here is, how do you empower women?

As I told you, women are designed to be women. They can’t be men. But there is nothing to be ashamed of in that. Because, as long as women can perfectly do what they’re doing, they must be happy about it. I totally disagree with the concept of ‘empowering women’. I mean, how do you empower women?? By teaching them karate? Or, by teaching them climb mountains just because the men do? That’s ridiculous.!

Most fighting-for-women-rights organisations argue and assert that most women are not let to do things that men do. They’re not let to share seats in the parliament, They’re not let to bungee-jump. I mean, that’s bull..! You’re only degrading women by trying to allow them to do what men do. When men try to ‘kolam-puttufy’ they consider that a shame, because those are works of women. But women don’t consider it a shame to do Men’s works. They rather are fighting for that very right.! Isn’t all this ridiculous.

Women should rather stick to what they do and take pride in that. That’s when women take the honour that they rightfully deserve, They must do those works with so much pride that the men of their generation must look up to them to only realize how noble women are.! If they do that, the time when men fight for the rights to ‘kolam-puttufy’ will not be far away.

Women need not be empowered, by which I mean that they’re already empowered to a stage of saturation above which they no longer can be powered. They have that in-comparable ability to pro-create a child which no man can never do. Women can fight for rights to do the men-work, they may even successfully do it. But they’ll have to realize the fact that no man, let alone the fact that he shares the majority of seats in the parliament, or that he holds the upper position in everything(in bed too :P , well ok, no pervert thoughts.!), can never even fight for the gift to pro-create a child or to take care of it after birth or to breast feed it. Its an undeniable truth that no matter what men do, no matter what heights he achieves, no matter how hard he pushes the fact that he is superior to women.. he always has to look up to a woman lest without a mother(a women again) he is no men, or for that matter..no living being. Its a woman who can give life to a man, and the vice-versa can never, and I re-iterate ‘NEVER’ be true.!!

So until science finds a way for men to pro-create a child, women can stay happy doing their tasks. Tasks that they’re not burdened with but rather ‘gifted with’.!

P.S : I love my mom.! J

P.P.S : I think the above post is a good way of apologising to my dear friend who cared to comment. *Senti Senti*. And yea, btw, I had to apologise because, am lookin up to her.. to top me up for 50 bucks.! Like I told you..Women are great, aren’t they? :P :P

Blessing.. in disguise.!!

Two things every guy would hate to do the most in the world: Shopping with a girl (especially.. anywhere in the vicinity of t nagar) and talking to a girl who by her own conciet is a 'know-all' but in reality a dumb-know-nothing-moron.

I take immense pleasure in introducing to you.. my dear know-all friend..ok, i'll atleast have the decency to refrain myself from mentioning her name. For now, lets assume her name is 'gayathri', cuz miki often says that girls with that name are often morons. Who knows.!? Quite frankly, I could think of many such names.! :P

Gayathri and her mom think am a genius. The reason.. this one journal article they accidentally saw that I wrote a looooong time back. It was about women empowerment. Funny thing is, their understanding of the article was soo good, that, they even suggested me, I write about 'Men empowerment'. D'uh.!

Anyway, coming to the point, like I said, they're a know-all and in one way, that was to my favour.! They negated every talk about me being 'not-so-brilliant' , because they'd pictured me in their mind as a brilliant guy and not even a god-send could convince them otherwise. To be honest, I was quite happy about it. In some part of my 'brilliant-mind', the feeling that some girl thought I was brilliant tickled me.! :P

Gayathri has a bachelor degree in engineering to her name, and as the cliche goes..'waiting for a job that could entice some 'pakka-iyer-aathu-US-payyan' to marry her.! Gayathri's mom is a female whom I still regret meeting. She is a very serious lady who talks nothing but about topics that could equip her already overflowing brain with facts. Unfortunately, she happened to be my mom's friend. :(

One fine sunday, the one day when my plan to go to bessi-broken bridge with s***** and her bro had finally taken a realistic form, at around 11a.m , Gayathri and her mom came home. My mom has this 'philanthropic' habit of accustoming to guest's needs. She plays the host part really well, I must say. I appreciate it, as long as it does not disturb my privacy.!

Gayathri's mom.. though she had come in the pretext of 'dropping for little chit-chat' , had some 'kaariyam' that she had to get done. Bad part is, my mom can easily be cajoled into doing any favour. And the worst part, The 'kaariyam' G's mom wanted done.. involved me.!! :(

Yea.!, She wanted me to suggest some useful 'activities' that gayathri can pick up during the holidays ,so that she might both, spend time usefully and learn mannnnyyyy things, if not all in the process. Sigh.!

Am not going to mention the other crap that she talked about to my mom to convince her as to how useful it would be for me too in helping G plan her holidays. wtf? :X

I was actually not a part of the conversation until then, for I was in the other room chatting with Ram on how-to-spend-the-day-usefully. And, if you're curious about what we'd planned, well.. precisely, I go to his house, watch some movie and he comes back to my house , and we watch another movie.! :P And, there was this girl who looked up to me to suggest her ways to spend her holidays usefully.! Gosh.

For courtesy's sake, I invited her to my room. And there we were, The stupidest girl on earth waiting to hear from one of the many 'just-finished-engineering-vetti-guy'.!! It was she who broke the ice.. "What do you do da? lik.. in these holidays??". and thats one question any engineering student hates to answer. I mean, what am i supposed to tell her? , That I orkut for five hours, watch two movies a day, plan for the night during the day and plan for the next day during night?? Shit.!

But anyway, I had to answer ..and my answer was one of the most 'absurdest-stupidest-lie' any mouth could ever utter. I told her that I was indulging myself in many activities that help me improve my generic skills,personality blah blah. And yea, I was laughing in the back of my mind..I mean, All I did all day was wait for the night to come and vice-versa. We're engineers after all, what could we possibly do other than planning for never-to-be accomplished-actions.?! :D

But it was not all that funny to her. Because as i told you , I was a genius to her, cuz her mother had said her so.! Anyways, two or three meaningless conversations later, she finally asked me to suggest her some usefull ways to spend her holidays.! 'Useful way to spend time.. Asking that to me?? , Its like asking Illaya thalapathy VIJAY , 5 ways to improve acting.!' :D

Jokes apart, I manufactured a nod that could let her know how serious I was about suggesting a plan for her to spend her goddamn holidays. I was biting my lips, nodding my head up and down and doing other strange actions that could actually portray myself as a guy who was seriously thinking. Well, I must say that I atleast half-succeeded' for she seemed to follow my thoughts and was eagerly waiting for the first few golden words that were to come from my mouth.! Sigh.

And the words that followed purchased a 'uwac' from her. Cuz, I suggested her to take some sport/game and develop it. But it was a bigggggg no to her. She didn directly put a no to that, but the question she asked in return , made me rule out that option..She asked.. " Sports, Like you know, I play with my next door kid, every day, and I climb two floors up and down trying to catch the remote car that he operates.".!!!! Phew.!

My next suggestion was that she go to some 'foreign language course', the answer to which my head spinned two and half times around. She had a catalogue of courses that she'd attended during school and graduation.. Lik.,, 'Sanskrit in 10th, French in 12th, japanese during graduation, rashtryabasha in hindi........'. And I was like.. 'Is that all??, what about persian and mudhumalai singam baashai??'.!! :P

I then cleverly put forth a suggestion keeing in mind that she was week in math. I suggested she take the 'vedic maths' course in kk nagar.!! And her reaction was as though I'd asked her to run around the earth twenty five times. Her eyes galloped bigger than her mom's mouth and a grumpy " maths ahhhhhhh??? nooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuu" followed. Her arguement to justify her reaction was one of the most sweeping statements I had ever heard. She questioned the very 'Discovery of maths'. According to her, Ramanujam was a moron and a saddist. Moron because he invented her maths mark(you know what! :P) in unit tests and saddist because he finds pleasure in half the women in the world troubling their brilliant minds over elimentary math.!! :D

Her mention of the word ramanujam brought the ladies in the hall to my room. They were quite curious. The funniest part was, at the mention of the word ramanujam, G's mother thought that there was this highly-technically-extra ordinarilly knowledgable-talk going on between us and hence her 'ever thirsty' mind couldn let her not over hear it! She entered the room with the coffee in hand and enquired about how the talks proceeded. Now, as I've mentioned in my earlier posts, Women have a stupid way of using phrases.!! I mean.. "how talks proceeded??" Is this a G8 summit and am I the president? what the hell do you mean..'talks??'.!!??

But anyway, Gayathri, being another women, had an answer to that too.. she said that the talks were in the preliminary stages and that we've not yet reached on a definite conlusion. G's mom turned to me and asked.. "Is it so Manish?, I thought may be you could've come into a conclusion by now, you being experienced and all.." Now, what am I supposed to say to that??? Should I say sth like.. "Oh! yes mam, Its still in the preliminary stages, we're actually waiting for the state secretary's approval, so possibly, the deal should be done in a day or two.!" ?? Damn.!

And before I could say something, I was (thankfully) interupted by a 'baby laughing ring tome' from G's mobile. She picked the phone and her eyes widened again..so much ..that I for a moment womdered if the state secretary had really called her.!! But, thank heavens it was not to be. It was her friend rita, She'd called to inform that the final semester results had come.! :O

The whole ambience in the room suddely got a very serious tone to it. As though the walls were painted grey within a flash and the sky was brought down a mile above our head. Well, I was quite nervous about the results, Cuz like every semester, there was this one paper that I was hoping to get a 36+14(Just pass) and god knows if it might go the other way. I could see from the corner of my eye that G was already praying all the gods in the world in all the languages she had learnt over the years.! But I was praying for only one thing.. That the invigilator should be like my Principles of Management professor Mr. Maanga mandai( Yea, thats how we call him). Mr.Maanga mandai, is one of my sincere followers, for he has read all the articles i've written, not to mention the mystery story about three pimps, courtesy, all my POM unit test papers.! Yea. he gave me 14 on 16 for the 'little tommy' story that I wrote for the question.. "Write about Maslow's heirarchy theory of needs"? :D

And then suddenly, I heard words that I never had wanted to. Mom wanted me to check both our results. Now.!!!,, If you're an engineering student, you'll definitely pity me.! There I was, waiting to see my results in front of two morons ( G and her mom) , by whose conceit.. I was a genius.! Cha. :(

After myriad attempts to open the annauniv.edu website( the very sight of that site sickens me!!), it finally opened. G wanted to see her results first, or rather, I wanted to see my results laaaast(or better..never.!!). So I typed her reg.no and waited for the page to open. There were three eager faces waiting and in the center was me, looking all around to check if it was really.. a reality.!! And gosh, it was. The page opened... And her marks.. Well , 67+20, 70+20, ...nothing less than 80 and all internals 20.! D'uh.!! And then G's mom asked her something.. But G Did not reply her, for her mind was too much pre occupied calculationg her percentage which eventually came somewhere around 86.. I was shocked. 86 was alien to me.. I mean, in my entire engineering life.. I had never once got 85+ in a single theory subject.! But heck, It was not long before i realized that the real shock was yet to come.. there were these three faces eager to see the 'genius'oda mark.!! Iraiva.!! :(

I typed my reg number into the small yellow box. It was not very clear to me, the box.. i mean, it fluttered, lik it was a ghost's den from inside which a ghost was about to come and haunt me.! But then.. there came the angel...Yea, The first thing I saw when the page opened was four P's. Yea..P for pass.!! yea, I'd passed all the subjects.!! yea , I was an engineer!! On any other normal circumstances, after seeing the four P's, I would've done a back and front belty in my bed and ran to mom with an 'aatha..nan pass ayiten' effect. But, it was not to be so.. I had to stay calm. I did.!!

I'd closed the window without calculating the percentage and that was 'blasphemy' to G's mom. She was like.. "hey,, you don want to know your score????". And i suddenly pictured the whole scenario and tried to regain myself.. And i said.. 'Oh yea, I do aunty, Its just that...er..erm..the..the.window closed accidentally'. And after some stupid looks of apology and samaalichufication, I opened the window and calculated my percentage for the second time in my engineering life.. the first time was when they had asked for the aggregate marks for placement.!!

I had scored 84%, A whopping 84 %!! It was like getting the 'un gettable' for me. But not for G and her mother.. I also saw the imminent danger coming. They would next ask for my aggregate. And I did not want to answer that. But I had to.. Cuz the 'ten gallon headed aunty' wanted to know.. And when I said, 75, The kinda look that she gave was like.. 'aiyiyaaaaaaaaa'. :( :(

I'd managed to smile at that reaction, frankly I did not know how to respond to her overt disapproval of such a low score.!! But then, It happened to be a blessing in disguise for me. Cuz, from that day on, I never had to counsel her daughter.. G's mother had finally rubbed me off from her 'genius slate'.!! Ufff.!! Thank god.!!

I went to SATYA temple and did special pooja that day.! Trust me, I really did. Not only for the marks, also for the 'blessing.. in disguise'.!! :D