Emotions#ATOZCHALLENGE

Some short fictions for the letter of the day 'E'. 

#1

Enchanted, he watched her hide the spoon in her pallu

The mystery of the missing spoons was solved

As he demonstrated his newly learnt skill to Mom as she put him to bed that night

#2

'Excited to be back!' She said at the airport. 

'Looking for someone!' Her eyes searched the airport. 

'Found my home!' Her heart whispered when she found him in the crowd

#3

Euphoric, she touched her mother

He had decided to keep her

Eagerly she waited in the womb to thank her dad

#4

Exaggerating evidence pointed towards him

Still she refused to believe

He had promised to her a lifetime of togetherness

#5

Emails were exchanged and the final date was fixed. 

And when the day finally arrived

Only one broken heart was left at the altar

Demons #ATOZCHALLENGE

She always knew that she was different. She did not feel attached to ordinary things nor attracted to normal people. She was drawn to broken people. Or rather people who were fighting their demons. She felt that if she could help fix their demons, then may be there is a chance that her demons stayed away!

While people generally paid attention to the most effervescent and magnetic personality in a social circle, she would  be interested in the quiet subdued one sitting in the corner. To her, the quietest minds were the loudest and that was how she met him. The disinterested, disconcertingly silent guy at her friend's housewarming party. They had spent the first five minutes in absolute silence when their common friend had deserted them gladly leaving him with her. Then slowly, she saw his eyes light up and with a crooked smile, he asked "So tell me about your demons!"

Crazy Decisions ! #ATOZCHALLENGE

Recently I watched a video about being crazy at Being Indian. The host asks people about the crazy decisions that they have made and for most of them, it was a career change where they left their current job and veered off the way their hearts steered them. 

This got me thinking about my crazy decisions. I remember what one could say a pivotal moment after college. I was in a bad mess at one point, depressed after having returned from a cold San Jose winter where the work environment and personal relationships had turned sour. I was a workaholic back then and was particularly stretched on a Friday when I had worked until morning 8.I decided to not turn up to office that day. Luckily my good mood was restored after we had a small party that night and next day my friend called me up to go with him on an impromptu trip to Pondicherry. I made a crazy decision that day and decided to go on the trip no questions asked. The people I met that day are some of my most favorite people today. I went on to become flatmate with girl I met on that day and we had a very fun year doing random stuff, ticking off our bucket lists. I am a whole new person now and I can confidently tell that it was that moment which resulted in all this. 

So have you had any such crazy defining moments ? Comment below !

Brevity #ATOZCHALLENGE

I have always been a fan of short fiction. I love the way the tiny tales seem to pack a punch in such short verses. As they say, Brevity is the wit of the soul. I am going to try and use that in the below verses. When I first started thinking about the topics , somehow I wanted to write about anything and everything that started with the letter 'B'. Finally, I decided I shall indeed write about all of them. So here we go. - short fictions on different things - Betrayal, Bold, Beautiful, Brave, Bird,  Binoculars, Broken, Book

#1

Betrayal of the worst kind.

He looked at his mother with accusing eyes.

The promised candy happened to be on the doctor's table. 

#2

Be bold they said. 

Be beautiful they said. 

Being both, she wondered why no one told her about the ensuing loneliness. 

#3

Brave face on, she watched

As the tattoo took the shape of a free bird

Somehow the pain in her heart seemed more tolerable now

#4

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

To him, it was her eyes that held him captive

Even through binoculars, they seemed to look right into his soul

#5

Broken heart. Betrayed soul. 

They searched for happiness in the bookstore

Cupid smiled as they both picked the same book

Act of Travelling #ATOZCHALLENGE

I have taken up writing challenges from time to time unsuccessfully. But then, like they say, here I am again to try again - to try again and again until I succeed !

I am not going to lie and say that Travelling has always been my passion. Honestly, it was not. Reading books was my passion for the longest time. But then, reading can also be considered a form of travel. I am the kind of reader whose head is filled with characters she reads. I have sobbed at the death of my favorite characters and shed happy tears at the fairy tale endings. I have traveled with the characters to the faraway places, both real and imaginary.

Whenever I travel, I feel like I am in a book. Somehow the roles are reversed. Recently, on a trip to Gokarna, I came upon the most perfect sunset view. I had been pining to see sunset ever since we started on the roadtrip. But the right moment had not arrived yet.

So when I climbed up a hill right on time to watch all the changing colors all alone, I imagined myself in a book where the main character would be this girl who runs away to chance upon this perfect sunset. I had built an entire back story to this girl in my head. My reverie was broken when my friend joined me with a bottle of Coke. We both enjoyed the sunset and the moment along with the story in my head.

Dreamy Sunset that I chanced upon in Gokarna

So this is why I travel. The act of travelling creates tidbits of stories that remain with me. One day, I hope that I will be able to gather all of them to create my own masterpiece.

The Year I Met You - Book Review

Before I begin, I must say this; despite how it sounds, it is really not a romance novel. For a while now, I have been searching for good books that do not involve romance and this book was just that. Not that I am against love or something, it is just that I do not want to read something and sulk with the lack of it. I am not a big fan of crime fiction as well, too much suspense to handle. So I have turned to non fiction reading.

But then, this book was refreshing change. I devoured the book in a single day. It had drama, comedy and philosophy, all in right doses. This book is about two people who meet and what happens to them over the course of one year. The central character in the book, Jasmine can be you, me or any working woman. I am pretty sure all of us have had thoughts and feelings that Jasmine goes through the course of the book. If I were to get fired from my job tomorrow and forced to sit idle at home, I am pretty sure the book perfectly describes my emotions.

I love stories with imperfections and all the characters we meet in this have their own imperfections, most of them relatable. Jasmine has her fixation to be busy always while her sister Heather has her fixation with routines. Jasmine's neighbor Matt (the 'You' in the title) has a slight drinking problem while her other neighbor Dr. J suffers from loneliness. This book is all about how they manage their imperfections and still continue on with their lives.

If you are looking for something refreshing that would make you think about your own life and struggles but with an end that will leave you feeling good, then this is the book you want to go for.

A Random Act of Kindness

So I was randomly scrolling through my Facebook wall and this came up. Reader's Digest had put up some stories about the random act of kindness as a part of The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation's Random Acts of Kindness week. I know it is a lot of repetition of the words "Random Acts of Kindness" but then I feel it is not spoken about often enough.

I am pretty sure there has been a lot of instances where we have encountered these random acts of kindness. They might not be very significant, but then they are the ones that should inspire us to be nice and kind to people. There are times when I really want to be mean; no need to be judgmental now, all of us have those days. Generally I think of all the nice things people have said or done to me and then all my meanness goes away.

Below are some of my recent encounters with the Random Acts of Kindness

# Encounter 1
I have the bad habit of not having cash in my purse, sometimes nothing, not even a rupee. I know I should have learnt my lesson by now, with the Chennai floods situation but I happened to have no money that day. I was going to Narada Gana Sabha for a concert driving my scooty. I parked it outside the hall and was in a hurry as I was a little late already. I was trying to call my friends who were inside, but the ticket issuer stopped me in my path. He wanted me to get the ticket. I was juggling between my friend on phone and the ticket issuer, trying to explain to him how I did not have any cash with me right now. Now there was this other guy who was getting a ticket and he bought one for my vehicle too. All I could mumble was a 'Thank you'. But the gesture made me feel really nice and upped my mood to enjoy the concert.

# Encounter 2
I live 10 hours away from my hometown and travelling during the festival seasons can be really hectic. The bus stands are crowded and traffic gets jammed as every one tries to go to their hometown to celebrate. So there I was on the eve of Pongal, trying to reach home. The whole of Koyambedu was crowded. After waiting /standing for nearly 2 hours, I finally got into the bus which was supposed to take me to my original bus (don't ask me why - it was the bus operator's brilliant idea to skip traffic). This was a sleeper bus that I got into. I found an empty berth and sat there. As I was waiting for the bus to start, another girl came up and told me that it was her actual berth. I was very tired and sleepy by this point. I gathered up my luggage to again search for an empty one when the girl stopped me. She let me sit on her berth until I transferred buses again. It was the sweetest thing that happened to me that day. She could have easily made me move and went off to sleep, but did not do that.

# Encounter 3
This happened to me today. I have been trying to help out a friend to get her transcripts from the university. I already went there once and came back unsuccessful. Today, I was there again, submitting the forms. But then one of the xeroxes I had taken was not taken in the right way. This officer at the counter to whom I was submitting the forms was explaining what was wrong. I was exasperated that it was going to be another unsuccessful trip to the university. But then he got it xeroxed the right way for me after the explanation and helped me complete my submission. He need not have done it actually, He could have simply told me to get it corrected and come back again. But he did not and this is what random acts of kindness all about.

No one talks about the random acts of kindness they did because of 'hey! we don't kiss and tell', but then we should always remember that what goes around comes around. So to receive these random acts of kindness, one should do random act of kindness. So please remember to do your part and also leave below your encounters if any.