S19: "Rain and The Rainbow"

There were huge unremitting rains all over. Even without a tea break, the rains were continuously taking over the place. The thunders were accompanying the rains. It’s like both were dancing on their feet untiringly. It’s been a week since the entire place was covered with the blanket of clouds and was dim and gloomy. Dams were overflowing and the entire place was shivering without sunshine. Wheels were replaced by oars. The birds hid their heads in their shelters, the flowers got frozen and all were craving for the love of the sun.

Meanwhile uppity up in the sky-

The Rain was sitting on the cloud with his hands on his chin. He seemed depressed and sadness became his new best friend. He was crying relentlessly and the consequence was portrayed on the earth.

His brother Thunder came to him on a cloud and said, ’Brother, you have been crying since a week. I am not able to see you like this anymore. You need to calm down brother ’.

Rain didn’t listen to him and he kept crying.

With a wrath outburst, thunder threw his taunts on to the earth. He is a hunk with sharp blue eyes and enticing muscles. His silky hair was falling in his eyes, every time when he shakes his head in anger.

He loves his brother more than anything else. His anger is as strong, pure and intense as his love.

 He was standing on the cloud with a bunch of thunder bolts around his feet.  With every raging moment, he threw a thunder bolt on to the earth.

Thunder kept throwing the bolts and Rain kept crying.

To find out what was wrong with Rain, the Sun and the Moon came to his palace.

‘Hey, what’s wrong with you guys? What are you both up to?’ Sun asked them.

Rain and Thunder stopped what they were doing and looked at him baffled.

‘Who are you?’ asked rain trying to recognize the guy who was talking to him.

He was fair in colour with charming eyes and heart throbbing smile. He was holding moon’s hand. He had a neat structured body and he was a complete charmer.

Beside him , moon was standing. She was beautiful and gorgeous. Her hair was dancing along with her head movements and her sparkling eyes which can make anyone fall in love with her.

‘Who am I? Are you kidding me? You don’t know who I am?’ Sun busted out.

Rain and thunder looked at each other exchanging immense bewilderment.

‘You are....’, rain stuttered.

‘I am The Sun, you dumb heads’, sun turned into red raging hot fumes around his head and fire in his eyes.

The two brothers got scared. Thunder got frightened and shivered and slipped few bolts onto the earth.

‘Yeah yeah of course you are The Sun. We know you’, rain tried to persuade the burning sun.

‘Now don’t tell me that you don’t even know me. If you say so, the consequences would be real bad’, said the moon rising her eyebrow.

‘If he is the sun then you must be the moon’, rain said.

‘Of course we know you. Who don’t know you? Actually there was some dirt in our eyes. This wind..’Thunder tried to control the situation.

‘Well, well stop blaming me for everything brother’, the Wind walked towards them interrupting thunder’s words.

Wind is one quick-witted and wicked guy. It is said that ‘Watch your words when you are with wind’.

He always has a smirk on his face. He is wheatish in colour and looks stylish which misinterpret his identity as a good hearted and trustful guy. But 'Never trust Wind'. You never know when he will change his wits.

‘Hello sun and the ever gorgeous moony moon’, wind took her hand and gave a peck on her hand.

Sun gave a ‘Be in your limits’ look to the wind which was bluntly ignored by him.

‘Let’s come to the matter for what we are here. What the heck is running in your dumbheads ? It’s been a week since I and moon last visited the earth. There was neither sunshine and morning sparkle nor the moon dazzles.’

‘Will you both stop all this fuzz which you both created’, sun outraged.

Rain looked at him with teary eyes. He walked around, sat on a cloud and started weeping.

‘What happened’, moon got dazed.

‘Did I said something wrong?’, asked the sun.

‘No. It’s not you sun. It’s the epitome of my heart break. My heart was hammered into million pieces’, he started crying aloud.

Moon went towards him, patted his shoulder and said, ‘Tell us what happened, maybe we can help you to mend your heart’.

He looked at her, held her hands, ‘She is in love with someone else’.

‘Who?’ asked the Sun

‘Miss Rainbow’, said thunder unable to see his brother weeping.

Wind threw a snicker but stopped after getting hit by the sharp looks of the sun.

‘You are in love with miss rainbow? That’s cool. She is the most beautiful thing ever’, said the sun imagining her in his thoughts.

‘Ahem ahem’ coughed the moon which suppressed all the thoughts of the sun.

‘You should go and tell her rather than sitting here crying’, said the moon.

‘I did. I sent wind to tell her about my feelings’, rain said pointing at the wind.

Wind gulped and said,’ I told her but she said she is in love with someone else’. He shrugged.

‘Ohh peacocks feather! Now I understood why you are being her shadow these days. Following her everywhere, sprinkling your charms around her’ said the sun.

‘What?’ rain stood startled.

‘You are mistaken my dear sunny sun. I was talking to her about the rain’, he defended himself.

‘That doesn’t look like that’, said the sun.

As they were hitting each other with their attitude filled conceited looks, moon said ‘Don’t worry rain. We will help you in this. My love will go and talk to her, you stop worrying about it’

Sun, moon and the wind moved from his palace and rain stopped crying. Moon’s words injected him humps and bumps of hope and energy.

The next day, sun went to meet miss rainbow to discuss about the rain even after the disapproval of the wind.

‘Hey miss rainbow’, said the sun.

‘Hey sun. How are you doing?’ she hugged him.

She is the most beautiful creation ever. She looks absolutely flawless with her enticing eyes, smile and her perfect curves.

It is difficult for anyone to blink their eyes while watching her.  She looks like the meaning for the words beautiful and perfection. She is blend of all the wonders which makes us lost in her magical grandeur.

‘I was just passing by and cared to say hi to you’, said the sun mesmerized by her looks.

‘That’s so sweet of you. How is miss moon’, asked the rainbow.

‘She is wonderful as usual’

‘I always wished for a love like yours’, she got saddened and her eyes filled with colour-filled tears.

‘What happened?’ asked the sun wondering what could go wrong to this wonderful creation.

‘I love someone who loves someone else’, she started crying.

‘That’s not possible. Which cat’s whisker won’t love you? By the way who is that unluckiest guy?’ asked the sun

‘Rain’, she said. ‘He looks so fascinating, his curly hair, his looks, his body and he is an extremely wonderful person at heart but he has a girlfriend’

‘But who is his girlfriend?’ sun got baffled.

‘Thunder’, she said and started crying again.

Sun’s eyes blasted out. There was an intense perplexment in his brain.

He stood there statued for a few moments and as the winds of confusion cleared away in his brain, the first word that uttered from his mouth was ‘WIND’.

‘Did wind said you this?’, asked the sun expecting an yes from her.

‘Yes’, she said. ‘Wind told me that rain has a girlfriend’.

‘I knew it, he muttered.

‘What? Come again’, asked the rainbow wiping her tears.

‘Nothing, I was just wondering if you can accompany me for a walk’, asked the sun.

‘Yeah sure’, said the rainbow and sun took her to rain’s castle.

As sun and rainbow reached, they saw everyone was there- rain, thunder, moon and the wind.

‘Hi miss rainbow’, hugged the moon.

‘Miss rainbow, meet Mr. Rain and his girlfriend thunder’, pointing at thunder

 Miss rainbow got dumbfounded, ‘But..But..’

‘Yes thunder is a boy and he is rain’s brother’, sun said smiling.

Wind was trying to escape from there without getting caught but sun stopped him, ‘My dear windy wind, where are you going?’

‘How did that ridiculous thought bumped into your mind? Saying thunder as rain’s girlfriend, what a wonderful thought you squirrel’s tail’, said the sun.

‘What??’ shouted the rain and the thunder at once.

‘You are going to die in my hands’ thunder ran after him throwing his thunderbolts at the wind and the wind was escaping and was laughing at him.

‘It’s now time for us to leave’, said the sun.

‘Thanks a ton sun and moon’ the rain hugged them both and the sun and the moon left his castle.

The rain walked towards the rainbow who was blushing and he kneeled down and said ‘I love you. Will you be my bow? Will you be my princess?’

‘Yes’, she said. He stood up and kissed her and they lived HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

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S17: "Tinku-The Rascal"

The entire house was decorated with flowers; all the curtains were changed into new shining ones. The house was sparkling. The essence of Diwali was scattered everywhere. The sounds of the bombs were being heard regularly from the surroundings. The fragrance of the sweets was colliding with each other from the neighbouring houses fighting that they are the sweetest. All the special programmes in the Tv and diwali offers everywhere adorned the occasion.

Mom was making preparations in the kitchen and chinnu, a 4 year old girl was playing with her toys in a cute red gown.

Tinku was her elder brother who is very exuberant and never sits silent. He always has something running in his brain. In his colony, he is famously called as ‘Rascal Tinku’.

He is short, brown skinned with big eyes and curly hair. He was dressed up in his new dress, a blue Tshirt and black shorts.

Tinku was standing at the main door holding a packet of bijili, the packet of small red bombs. He looked around him and suddenly BOOM, there was a sound from inside the house. Chinnu got scared and started crying.

‘Tinkuuuuu’, mom came running from the kitchen with her hands drowned in the laddu mixture.

Tinku was standing outside innocently.

‘Tinkuu, is this a place to play. Get out’, she shouted.

‘Mom it was not me, it was chinnu’, tinku said innocently pointing at chinnu.

Chinnu stopped crying and looked at him with her big egg eyes. ‘Ga- ga’, she said.  The only words she could speak so far. Mom threw tinku outside the house and shut the door.

No matter what ever we do and where ever we send them, some people are born to make noise and to disturb others. Tinku was one of them.

Just after 10minutes there was again a BOOM from the neighbouring house. Tinku ran into the house and hid behind the sofa in the hall.

‘Rascal Tinkuuuuu’, came a woman in a high embroidered saree and wearing all the jewellery she own.

She rushed into the house and shouted ‘Tinkuu’.

‘Ga-ga’, said chinnu

Mom rushed into the hall, ’What happened Radha?’

‘Where is your rascal son? He blasted a bomb in our home’, She said very ferociously turning red which was matching to her saree.

‘My Tinku? No No, he is sleeping inside. This might be some other rascal’s prank’, she said trying to protect tinku from her angry rebuke.

Radha aunty believed her words and left murmuring about the child who did that.

‘Tinku, come out you rascal’, shouted mom.

‘Ga-ga’, chinnu pointed the sofa.

Mom stood infront of tinku who was hiding behind the sofa and laughing covering his mouth with his hands.

‘You are grounded. Stay in your room. No diwali, No patake’, she picked him up holding his ear and locked him in his room.

As mentioned before, no matter what some people never stay serene. Tinku started throwing the bombs from the window on to the dogs and the people who are walking on the streets.

While tinku bagged so much of fun, laughs, thrills and hilarity, mom bagged scolding’s, anger, vexation and rebukes.

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S16: "The Parent-Teacher Meeting"

It was around 8pm, he returned from the office. He dropped himself along with his bag on the couch.

‘Baby, I am so tired today. I interviewed hundred engineers and selected 20. It was hectic ’, he said loosing up his tie knot.

‘You want some coffee Abhi?’, I asked picking up his bag from the couch.

‘No baby, I had enough coffee today. By the way where is Sunny? Did he have his dinner?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, he finished dinner. He asked about you many times’, I said massaging his head.

‘Oh really’, he exclaimed.

Before he could finish his words, Sunny came to the living room playing a game in the phone.

‘Tomorrow you have to come to our school. There is a parent-teacher meeting’, he said with his head fully engrossed in the mobile.

‘Me?’, Abhi got excited.

‘Both’, sunny said and left even without lifting his head.

We both got very enthused. We were never excited before and not even shown a pinch of interest to attend a parent-teacher meeting in our lives. But being a parent, we gulped down the whole bunch of enthusiasm to attend it.

‘I am so excited’, he said with a widened smile.

‘What should I wear?’, I began my preparations.

‘You wear that saree which I bought for you last week. That looks pretty on you’.

‘Saree? Are you sure?’, we were dancing in excitement.

‘Yeah yeah, absolutely’, he said.

The next day, we got dressed up very sprucely. This was our first parent-teacher meeting since 

childhood as we bunked all of them as students.

As we reached the school, we got to taste two surprises which are unpalatable. 

The first one was there was no meeting, all the parents got assembled in the school grounds and the second one was no one is wearing a saree, all the mothers were in salwar suit accompanied with running shoes.

Abhi and I kept exchanging bewildered glances.

As soon as the principal started his speech, our ears and eyes blasted out listening to his words.

‘Running race?’, we both yelled at once. It was not a parent-teacher meeting, they were hosting competitions for the parents and the children.

The first one was running race for the moms and the second was the dumbcharads between the parents and children.

This rascal sunny who was engrossed in the game didn’t inform us anything.

‘I am not letting him to touch the cell phone for a week’, Abhi scowled.

‘Abhi how am I going to run with his saree and high heels?’, my nervousness touched the skies. I am not at all a saree person; I can barely walk in a saree. Running is not even a thought with a saree rolled around me.

‘Wear my shoes’, Abhi gave his casual shoes.

Anything is better than a 5 inch heels. If I would run with these heels, I will definitely drill holes along the school ground or fall down in the middle bagging awkwardness and humiliation. I wore his 

shoes and all the moms stood on the starting line warming up.

I tied my saree so that it won’t gift me any embarrassment during the run. All the moms were warming up, stretching their hands, legs, bending forward and backward with a smirk on their faces as if they are going to a wrestling match.

Even I started warming up the same way as if I am going to punch someone.

Sunny came running towards me and said, ‘Mom, Its ok. No need to run with this saree. I can’t see you fall. Just give up’.

I looked at him narrowing my eyes. ‘Sunny’s mom is not giving up’.

The whistle blew and the match began. I started running as if I was in a bull race and a whole herd of bulls are after me.

My saree started giving up. But I held everything tightly with my hands and kept running.

I crossed the line and stood in the first place, I was never this much happy to win a running race.

‘SHE IS MY WIFE’, Abhi ran towards me screaming all over the ground.

He hugged me and he was still screaming, ’She is my wife’.

From there, we saw sunny standing around the kids clapping and his friends patting his shoulder and congratulating him for our success. We saw his eyes drenched with proud.

The next round was the dumbcharads of the movie names. Some got their guesses right and some didn’t. It was our turn. Sunny picked a paper, read it and put it back.

He pointed at me. He was doing nothing other than pointing his hand at me.

We were clueless but we started guessing.

‘Me’

‘Maa, taare zameen par, maa tuje salam, vande mataram’, I started saying random movie titles.

‘Maa,Mom,mother’, Abhi too started guessing and as soon as sunny heard the word mother he nodded.

‘Mother India’, Abhi shouted and we got it right.

‘Oh my god, he pointed at me for Mother India’, I was extremely happy and Abhi was celebrating our success by smirking at everyone.

After summing up the scores of the two rounds, we stood in the first place. Though we chewed up some time in dumbcharads, we nailed it in the running race.

We were never so happy to win these types of competitions but being a parent, every small thing counts. We were overjoyed and started grinning at every child saying ‘we are Sunny’s parents ‘.

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S15: "True Love"

She was sitting on the beach watching the frisky waves, the sand castles, the chuckles and the giggles.

She was writing something in her dairy. The wind was very flirtatious and her hair was being playful and was compelling her eyes to see the ebullient waves but not the dairy. But she ignored everything. She was writing intensely, scribbling and even tearing off the pages.

She was writing something which her heart can’t bare and so she is transferring it on to the pages of the dairy. Her eyes became wet. Immediately, she stopped writing and closed her dairy.

‘Ahem ahem’, he coughed and signalled his presence.

She looked at him with her teary eyes.

‘Want some?’ he offered her a beer which he was holding.

For a moment, she hesitated to accept a beer from an unknown guy but she switched off her brain and accepted it.

‘Abhiram’, he offered her the bottle.

‘Sitara’, she replied.

He sat beside her watching her sipping the beer as if she was greeting an old friend.

‘I really like this one’, she said showing the bottle.

He smiled. He has sparkling warmth in his eyes.

‘You want some?’ she offered him.

‘Yeah’, he took a sip of the beer.

While he was drinking, her eyes fell on his tattoo. He had a beautiful tattoo of letter ‘S’ on his right hand under his fist.

‘Wow, cool tattoo’, she loved his tattoo. ‘Is that your girlfriend’s name?’

‘Sort of’, he smiled again. There is some magic hidden behind his smile.

She replied with her confused eyes.

‘I love her but I never told her’, he said.

‘And instead of telling her, you inked a permanent tattoo on your hand?’, she got baffled.

‘No, one day I decided to tell her and approached her but I got to know that she was already in a relationship. So I stepped back’, he said touching his tattoo.

‘Even before telling her, you had a tattoo?’, she kept staring at him open-mouthed.

‘Why are you concerned about the tattoo? I am ok with it. I still love her’, he shrugged.

‘Where is she now’, she asked him still confused.

‘She is single now. Her boyfriend cheated on her. She is so heartbroken. He is such a jerk. I always knew that this would happen’, he frowned.

‘I think you should go and confess her about your feelings’, she said with an excitement.

‘Do you think so? She is already heartbroken and is this the right time to confess my love’, he asked.

‘Yes, Absolutely. This would be the best time to tell her about your love. You have loved her no matter what. She has the right to know that someone loves her truly and selflessly. You completely deserve her love’.

‘By the way what is her name?’ she said gaining a lot of ardor after seeing that love still exists.

‘Sitara’, he smiled and his eyes were screaming that she is that lucky girl.

He got up and started walking away.

‘Wait’, she ran to him. ‘Me?’, she was wonderstruck.

He looked straight into her eyes.

‘When? How?’, she had hundreds of questions erupting out of her head like a volcano eruption.

‘I was your junior in engineering. I fell in love on the first day of my college when I saw you in the cafeteria. In the second year, I came to propose you but I saw you with him. I tried to get over you but I just can’t. I loved you since then no matter what and I trusted my love’, he beamed with delight.

He looked at her perplexed face and started walking again.

She smiled with pleasure and threw her dairy. She ran towards him and hugged him from the back.

‘I love you’, she said.

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S10: "My First Date"

He took my hand and ­­­slipped the ring on my finger. The atmosphere was more funny than romantic. That moment I saw something shining in his hair.

For the remaining story please visit:

http://yourstoryclub.com/short-stories-love/short-story-romantic-my-first-date/

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S14: "Twinkle and the Tooth fairy"

Twinkle banged open the door and came running to her mom dragging her school bag on the floor ‘Mommm, where are you?’.

‘Hey sunshine, how is your day?’, asked her mom assembling all the spoons on the dining table at perfect angles.

‘Mom listen’, she left her bag in the middle of the way and started pulling her mom’s dress.

‘What happened?’

‘Mom, today in school, I heard about the Tooth fairy. If we lose our tooth and keep it under our pillow, the tooth fairy will take that tooth and gives us a gift in return. Isn’t that cool’, she started dancing.

‘Look mom’, she stopped twirling and moved her right hand forward towards her mom with a closed fist.

‘What is in there little monkey?’, she caressed her fist and opened it slowly.

For her surprise, it’s a tooth. It’s Twinkle’s first tooth which fell off. She opened twinkle’s mouth, checked her cavities. ‘Oh Sunshine, It’s your first tooth’.

‘Yes mommy. The tooth fairy will come tonight’, she started twirling again.

That night, she kept her tooth under her pillow with a lot of excitement and slipped into sleep.

--x--

Up in the dense and moisty clouds, there is a vast island of Tooth-fairy. Clouds are the mode of transport in that island which are transporting the gifts for the children. All the tooth fairies are bringing the teeth of the kids from across the world.

Twinkle opened her eyes and she found herself between thousands of fairies flying around. For a moment, she thought it was a dream.

‘Hey magic! What’s up? You look so confused’, said the fairy who has a beautiful sparkling eyes and light pink fragile wings.

‘Is this a dream? Are you the tooth fairy?’, twinkle asked looking at her wings.

‘No, this is not a dream. You are in the fairy island’, she said. ‘I am candy, one of the fairies and the tooth fairy is the queen who lives there’, she said showing the queen’s palace.

The palace is in the shape of a Christmas hat widened at the entrance and dwindled towards the top. 

The top of the palace is far away somewhere hidden in the clouds. It was made of golden marble and the walls of the palace were scribbled with the names of the children who visited the fairy island. It has fairy dust in the shape of a staircase, winding around it until the top of the palace.

Twinkle tilted her head upwards to see the top of the palace and fell down backwards.

‘Careful magic, do you want to see the top of the palace? Come with me’, she clapped thrice and a cloud came and stopped before them. Twinkle hopped on the cloud along with her teddy bear and they flew to see the top of the palace.

They went along the glitter pathway and reached the top after hundreds of turns. On the top of the palace, there is a small fairy doll of palm size with a wand in its hand.

Twinkle was very much excited. She was literally on the top of the world. From there, even the fairies are seen like ants. It was magical.

Twinkle asked candy, ‘Does every child who loses a tooth can come here?’

‘No magic, not everyone. Only on their first tooth drop, they get to visit the fairy island and can pick a gift of their own choice’, she said.

‘Now can I take anything from here?’, twinkle shrilled in excitement.

‘Of course magic, anything’, candy comforted her.

They reached down and twinkle was scanning every shop and every toy.

All the shops were arranged in a particular order and there was a road in between which divides the shops into two and which leads to the Wish Granting Center (WGC).

WGC is in the shape of a globe half immersed into the ground and it has an opening in the top from where all the fairies can enter and leave. It was made of a highly polished stone which is appearing as a mirror showing one’s own reflection.

Candy and twinkle went into WGC. Twinkle stood amazed for a moment. The inner walls were fully attached with screens.

Each fairy goes near to the screen and presses a button. A tooth holder which can accommodate a tooth and which has a tooth shape mould in the middle pops out. The fairy places the tooth in that mould. After the tooth holder pops in, the picture of the child who owns that tooth flashes on the screen and his wishes also appears next to his photo. The fairy chooses a top most wish and fly to the respective shop and gift it to the child.

Twinkle was noticing everything with her eyes and mouth wide opened. She was awestruck.

‘Magic, let’s go and find a gift for you’, candy said. They flew out of WGC and were moving towards the soft toy’s shop.

Suddenly, the golden glitter around the tower turned red. It was the signal of emergency. All the fairies started rushing towards the tower. Candy and Twinkle too joined them.

As soon as everyone assembled in the tower, the queen arrived. She was very old and sick. She was barely flying, her wings are giving up but she tried to move forward. The guardian fairy was flying next to the queen. The guardian fairy takes care of everything in the fairy island. All the orders were given by the queen but all the orders were done under the supervision of the guardian fairy.

The guardian fairy cleared her throat and said in a high-pitched tone, ‘It’s now time to choose a NEW queen and a NEW guardian. Today, in this gathering a new queen will be enthroned.’

As she was announcing, the queen fainted and her wand slipped from her hand. The guardian fairy caught her but the wand fell on the ground in between the fairies.

There was an aghast in the crowd. All the fairies got petrified. Ignoring the aghast, twinkle walked towards the wand to give it back to the queen.

‘Magic, No don’t touch it’, candy screamed. But she was late.

Twinkle picked up the wand and showed it to the queen who was up in the air, ‘Here, your wand. Take it tooth-fairy’.

All the fairies got dazed. The horrified jiggles and the bewildered whispers filled the place.

Candy was flying towards twinkle but suddenly a high beam of light struck their eyes and made them unable to see.

After a few moments, everything returned to normal and to their astonishment, twinkle was up in the air with wings on her back and a wand in her hand.

The guardian moved towards twinkle and said, ‘Our new queen has been chosen. Human or a fairy, she has been chosen to be our queen’.

All the fairies bowed to her and they sprinkled fairy dust of respect from their wings.

Candy was overwhelmed and she was on the verge of tears.

Queen came towards twinkle and picked up the tiara from her head and crowned it on twinkle’s head.

The guardian fairy came to her and said, ‘As you are the queen now, you have to choose your guardian’.

Twinkle without any further mind-wiggling, moved her wand forward and pointed candy.

 ’Magic’, she said with her sugar coated voice.

Candy got overjoyed. She flew towards twinkle and kissed on her forehead.

Again the wings all over the place clapped and glittered. There was an atmosphere of exuberance in the palace.

The sun was about to rose and it’s time for twinkle to get back to her home. She said her fond adieu’s to all the fairies and started to home.

Twinkle’s wings appear only when she is in the fairy island and she used to visit the island every weekend.

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S11: "The ‘WHY’ day"

It was around 6 am and I was made to sit in the middle of the hall and my parents were in a deep discussion, making a few phone calls and walking here and there. I was sitting on the sofa lingering in my sleepy hangover. None of their words were reaching my eardrums and somehow I slept. A pillow suddenly came with a speed. It hit my head and conquered over my sleep. I woke up and sat there with my eyes and mouth wide opened.

‘How could you sleep?’, shouted my mom. I replied with the same expression.

‘Are you even listening?’, another pillow crashed my head.

‘Yeah, yeah I am listening’, I replied very annoyingly.

‘Why are you getting irritated now? It’s not me who is going to get married. You should show some responsibility’, my mom yelled at me.

Her words were reaching my ears as if I was hearing a rap song from a very far distance, unable to understand the lyrics.

‘Umm’, I replied rubbing my eyes.

Another call came. ‘9 am ok’, were the only words I heard. She hung up the phone and my mom and dad looked at me.

‘What’, I asked before she would hit me with another pillow.

‘They are going to come at 9am to see you. Go and get ready’, my mom said.

‘But its just 6am’, I exclaimed. It was a marriage proposal and they are going to come to our home to see and decide whether I would fit to their daughter-in-law’s position.

I had no interest to get ready traditionally wearing all the ornaments with fake smile and listening to all the exaggerated statements as if I am a genie from Aladdin. She can cook for 10 people in 10 minutes. She can make your home shine. See our house was entirely cleaned and decorated by her. She is like salt, she adds flavour to your family and also she will dissolve in all the issues and she will never ever talk back at elders. Perfect is just a small word for her, she is beyond that.

 But I had no choice. I was preparing mentally for all this and the phone rang again.

My mom was talking but this time she was giving more exclamatory expressions.

She looked at me and said, ‘they are not coming to our house’.

‘Why? They said no even before seeing me?’, I asked very calmly.

‘No’, she paused.

‘What’, I asked.

‘They said he wants to talk to you personally, so he will meet you in the mall at 9am’, she said with a pinch of disappointment.

I was surprised and relieved by listening that. Deep inside my heart, I also wanted that.

 ‘Oh’, I replied hiding my excitement. ‘Ok then I’ll go and get ready’.

They threw some weird expressions at me. Ignoring everything I went to get ready and I was very excited.

I reached the mall at 9am sharp and he was already there waiting for me.

‘Hey’, he said giving me the flowers.

‘Hi Santosh’, I replied. I had a very positive first impression.

We comfortably sat at some restaurant in the ground floor and he started saying everything about his life, his hobbies, his interests and his future plans.

My excitement levels were increasing gradually. He was very good looking and I liked the way he was talking and I was feeling very positive that we will have a future together.

An hour flew by and we were in a deep conversation, suddenly a voice came towards me.

‘Hey, long time’, he said. I retrieved myself back from the deep conversation and saw him.

My eyes and heart blasted out. I lost my senses for a moment. He is my ex boyfriend and who would expect an ex at that moment. I had no idea how to react.

‘How are you babe’, he said standing beside me.

I wanted to sit under the table and hide myself instead of facing that moment. By hearing the word babe, santosh started looking at me shockingly.

‘Umm, hi’, I stammered and tried to tell him to walk away with my eyes.

‘Your brother?’, my ex asked looking at santosh.

My heart stopped for a moment. You were my ex boyfriend and you know every relation of mine and you’re still asking that, you pig. I had a battle of words in my brain.

Santosh sat there looking at him angrily.

‘No. He is not my brother. He is my..I will talk to you later. I am bit occupied right now’, I said.

He was about to ask something but I interrupted and said ‘Bye’. He walked away from there.

Santosh was looking at me hoping for the answers. I threw a fake smile and said, ‘He is my childhood friend’.

He nodded and I diverted the topic. The awkwardness in the air was vanishing gradually but before it could vanish completely, I heard another voice. This time, it was a female voice.

‘Ohhh! Look who’s here’, she came towards me holding her shopping bags.

I looked at her and murmured ‘oh my god’. She is my best enemy. We messed with each other a lot and we were so true in our hate relationship. We never let the other live in peace no matter what.

 I had no idea why the hell this is happening to me.  What’s wrong with the planetary movements? ‘Why’ was the only word which was revolving in my head.

She came closer to me. She saw santosh and said,’Oh you got a new boyfriend. Boyfriend number..Oh I forgot the number’.

‘Mind your own business’, I replied.

‘Yeah sure, you look so tensed. By the way I saw your..’, she was going to say about my ex boyfriend.

‘Will you please leave’, I interrupted her before she could anything.

She looked at santosh, took a deep breath and said, ‘I pity you’.

‘Leave’, I got so irritated.

Santosh was sitting before me dumbstruck.

‘She is my enemy. We always talk to each other like this’, I tried to explain.

Santosh looked so puzzled. Though he diverted the topic, he had so many questions in his mind. I had enough for that day. I can’t afford any more shocks. ‘Let’s leave’.

Meeting outside for the first time was the worst decision ever when you are not a studious kid whose life was only books. I had so many thoughts punching my head. I don’t know what he will think about me and what he will say. I had this feeling that he will definitely say no. I reached my home and without answering anyone’s questions, I went to bed and slept to escape from all these mind-boggling thoughts.

By the time I woke up, my room was entirely filled with flower bouquets. For a moment, I thought it was a dream.

‘He said yes’, my mom came running to me.

‘Oh’, I was surprised. My phone vibrated with a new message. I opened it, ’Hey my fiancee’.

My smile had no limits and I was very happy after seeing that message.

A new message, A new beginning, A new phase, A new love and A new happiness.

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S1: "My Vacation with Minnie"

                                                                  

During my summer holidays, I usually spend most of the days at my brother's place in Vizag. They live on the beach road from where we can see the glimpse of the beach from the house. My brother's daughter Minnie is an 7 year old enthusiastic, boisterous and incisive girl who has wh question words for each and every single thing she notices.

 In my brother's room above the bed ,there's  an attic where empty luggage bags and cardboard boxes were kept. At one corner of that, she made out a place where she keeps every interesting thing she finds. It may be a leaf or a stone of an unalike shape and the origami stuff she made by herself. And the thing which captivated me was the spider webs and a lot of spiders.

She came near me holding a wooden scale and 2 books in a pretty blue gown and  with 2 little ponytails. I gave her a bag of soft toys which I bought for her. She was very surprised and her joyous expressions explains that she loved each and every toy.

Then I asked her, "So you stopped taking care of your place? I think the spiders undertaken your work and they resided on your place."

"No atha(Aunty) ! They are my friends", she said. I was quite surprised with her fascination towards spiders.

"Ah what! Friends?".

"Yeah ! I love spiders", she replied in a frisky voice.

"That is a bit strange. Wh..what is that in your hand?", I asked pointing out her hand.

"Dead insects, I found them in the  garden. Lunch time atha for my friends "

"Don't you feel  bad when spiders eat them?" , I asked her just hoping for an interesting answer.

she said ,"No atha! we also eat the plants even they are living beings", in a very innocent tone.

"Hehe carry on sweetheart!". Till that moment I was thinking that I was the only one who is strange in my family. Well I got a  tough competition here.

After lunch she was lying on my  stomach and we were watching TV.

I asked her, " what is the matter with spiders? why do you like them?"

"They look so cute and fragile atha".

"Don't tell me that you got obsessed by Spiderman series and you want to become one".

"Haha", she giggled so innocently. "No atha, but while watching the series, I sometimes get carried away and even ask golu to make me spider girl."

"golu ?"

"The name of the spider which is the biggest of all."

It sounds funny but the way she says that her cuteness overcomes the stupidity in the matter and leaves a smile on our face.

She put her both elbows on my stomach and raised a bit and said "Atha atha, Do you know something? Some of my friends say that when a spider falls on us, we will get a new dress."

"Aww! really ?",I exclaimed.

"Whenever  I want a new dress ,I make one to fall on me"

"So do you really get a new dress then?", I asked.

"Yes athaa! I always get a new dress"

"That's cool", I replied in a bit exclamatory way.

"Yes atha, when any spider falls on me. I go to dada(dad) and say 'dada, see this spider fell on me, I am going to get a new dress now'. Dada too replies the same way as you did atha"

"Oh! Now I got it how you get a new dress every time."

She is so fair and looking so adorable with her innocent eyes and curly hair. I kissed on her cheek  and laid her on my legs and lifted her up and we played for some time.

In the evening, she took her books and went to the garden.

My brother's wife made a filter coffee for me. I took my coffee and sat on the balcony where I can see minnie in the garden. She is walking from left to right studying loudly, with a scale in her hands waving as if she was teaching to someone. Suddenly she took her scale and shook and hit one of the branches of curry tree.

Suddenly I shocked and shouted "Oi ! what happened ?".

she turned and raised her head and replied "Nothing atha ! He is not listening, he is playing with the rose plant."

"wait I am coming", I put my coffee there and went down to the garden.

"who is not listening sweetheart?", I asked her.

"This is my class atha!", pointing out towards the plants in the garden.

"These are the toppers of the class", showing the leafy plants in the front row."These are the mischievous ones ",showing the rose plants.

"Be careful with these rose plants, they might hurt you", I said.

"yeah atha! they are very annoying, they don't even allow me to punish them. So whenever I want to punish them, I just pluck their flowers ", She replied very innocently.

I chuckled suddenly, "That's so cute".

"Finish the class quickly and come sweetheart we will go and play on the beach" , I said and went inside.

Children are the cutest and they will search for something good and interesting in everything. Spending time with children will keep us energized throughout the day and we will learn something new and exciting everyday which is a must in our boredom and stressful days.

She is the girl with full of pep, she will make me active and happy at any point of my life. Only because of her, I spent the whole vacation in my brother's house and I bookmark each and every moment I spent with her and carry a bag of memories with me until the next vacation.

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S9: "A Cup of Coffee and A Scoop of Vanilla"

It was a sunny day and was around 11 am, I went to CCD, ordered a cup of cappuccino and I sat on the chair where WE always sit.

I was sitting there peeping through the window into the petrol bunk next to it.

‘Oi’, he smiled. ‘Here’, he gave me the two extra sugar packets which I asked for. He sat in front of me callously eating the vanilla scoops.

My eyes laid totally on him, blinking slowly and feeling every breath seeing him and I don’t know why this happens, whenever I see him, the rest of the world will get blurred. May be I should ask my eyes about it or even better I should ask my heart.

‘I am so happy for you baby’, he said finishing his first scoop. He looked at me and smiled.

Till then I was not feeling any drops of happiness. I was selected for an MNC yesterday. From the moment he said he was happy, I was feeling all the happiness at once. It was like he just opened the gates of my happiness dam and it started flowing euphorically.

I smiled and said,’ I want to say something. I wanted to say this since a long time and I want to say it now’.

He smiled in a way that he already knew what I was going to say.

‘What?’, he asked expecting the words to spill out of my mouth.

My heart started thumping so hard that my eardrums were completely filled with its sound. My eyes started to count each and every corner of that place and were avoiding his eyes.

‘It’s ok! Tell me, what is the matter?’ he asked again.

I finally gathered each and every beat of my heart and try to pull the feelings out of my mouth which were hiding deep inside my heart.

‘We are best friends since two years and umm .. I want to say that I want you more. I want to spend with you till my last breath and’, I paused and took a deep breath and said ‘I love you Achyuth’.

My hands were shivering and by hearing these words he kept looking down for a few minutes and filled the atmosphere with deep silence. I started worrying. The what-if’s took over my brain and started terrifying me ‘What if he say no’ ,’ What if he ends the relation with me’, ‘what if he just walks away’, ‘what if something fall into my coffee’, ‘what’.

‘Achyu’, I said keeping all the what-if’s aside.

‘Ha’, he replied looking up straight into my eyes.

He stood up. I felt like he is going to leave. My heart beats were nowhere in control.

He looked into my eyes and kneeled down in front of everyone. He took my hands and said, ‘Will you marry me?’.

That one sentence stopped all my senses and I don’t know how to depict my happiness. I showed him with my happy tears and said ‘Yes’.

He kissed on my hand. I never felt so special. My brain kept searching for the words in the dictionary to explain how am I feeling while my heart was somewhere in the clouds and its every beat was chanting his name.

He was saying something about our future but I was so lost in his eyes that no words were reaching my ears.

Suddenly a voice came from nowhere. ‘Mam your coffee’. I blinked my eyes and turned to my left. The waitress came with my coffee and placed it on the table. I was dazed and kept looking at her without any word. ‘Mam Are you ok’, she said.

I shook my head and stammered, ‘Yeah I am fine’.

‘You want anything else mam’, she asked bending forward.

‘No thank you’, I said.

I shifted my eyes to the chair in front of me. It was empty. It was missing someone whom it had had seen with me a hundred times before. My eyes were wet and they fell on the words on the coffee cup.

My lips smiled after reading the words, ‘A lot can happen over a coffee’.

Oh yes. It was last year I was sitting with him making fun and mixing my coffee in his vanilla. And today I was sitting alone without him and my coffee without its vanilla. My heart which hopped on to the roller coaster ride with him fell down on the ground. It was injured very badly and was still recovering.

I bended forward and said, ‘Coffee, I know what u r feeling. U may be wondering where your vanilla is, it may be somewhere happy with its new partner. It’s just you and me now’.

I finished my coffee looking at the empty chair and took a lungful of air and moved from there.

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S8: "Prince and The Unknown Bane"

Between the rustling of the trees, the hide n seek of the rabbits and the deer who are running for life, came the prince on a black horse with an arrow in his hand aiming at the deer.

He has a muscular body with enticing blue eyes. He is wearing a red velvet suit embroidered with black threads, a golden scabbard with a knife in it along with golden boots up to the knee. He always likes to hunt alone.

While he was aiming at the deer, he finds something glowing behind the tree. He hops down from his horse and walks towards the tree. He was sure that it is not an animal as it was not moving. As he reached there, he notices that it is a small ball of football sized in gold color, glowing magnificently.

He stepped forward, his heart was thumping, his eyes popped out. He tried to touch it with his shivering hands. As soon as he touched it, the shine got disappeared and it turned into a normal white ball. He dropped that ball down and to his astonishment his hands were glowing.

His breath fastened, he widened his eyes and seemed that they will fall down. He was drowned with fear and anxiety. He saw the white ball which was moving on the grass. He picked it up and he saw words appearing in it.

Dear,

Don’t get scared or else the boon will turn into bane.

Ur glowing hands is a boon to u,

Touch any non living thing; it will turn into a living thing.

By reading this, the prince dropped the ball without letting it finish and immediately searched here and there to touch something.

He saw a small round wooden plank of his palm size on the grass; he touched it with his both hands.

In front of his eyes, the wooden plank turned into a living being. It got eyes, ears, nose, hands, legs and everything.

His jaw dropped so down that even the wooden plank can pass through.

‘Thank you your majesty’, the plank bowed to the prince.

At that very moment, the prince felt so powerful and his face was filled with power and something was up his sleeve that he grinned and left.

The wooden plank walked towards the white ball, the words continued.

My Dear, boon always comes along with a bane

If you say no to use this boon for any 3 living beings

Then u will lose your power; Use it well dear

And the ball turned down into ashes.

The wooden plank stood there astounded, as the prince was no where around him.

The prince returned to the palace keeping his chin up and a grin on his face.

He went to his room, spent the whole night keeping his brain under work and suddenly he jumped from his bed, ‘Amazing! This is just amazing!’ he said and then fell asleep.

The next morning he woke up and was ready to experiment the idea his brain gave him last night.

He took a few steps forward and he touched the chair, it turned into a living thing and started moving. His eyes fell on something that they started sparkling. He moved towards his only obsession; Gold.

He touched the gold bar, it came into life.  His eyes lightened up.

‘You’, he said.

‘Yes, Your majesty’, replied the gold bar.

‘I want this whole room full of gold, do u get it?’ said the prince bringing ten more bars to life. He also made diamonds and all the jewels came to life. He went down and touched all the chairs, tables. He made his palace into a magical place.

He threw all the soldiers out of his palace. His daggers, swords stood around his palace for his safety. He became so greedy, mean-spirited misanthrope. He didn’t care for the people in his kingdom.

While he was enjoying his magical power, a man from the kingdom came running to him. He was breathing heavily. He kneeled down before the prince, ‘Your majesty! My wife is dying. Please save her’, he pleaded.

Prince saw him, gave a thought and said, ‘Who allowed you into my palace? Throw him out.’ His callus words broke the heart of the man who came for help. Two giant pillars came towards him. They picked him up and threw him out of the palace.

He returned to his home with a broken heart and a broken hand.

After a moment he left, prince hands shivered without his consent. But the prince didn’t care much about it.

The palace became so invaluable. There are many rooms filled with gold, diamond and jewels. His every costume was made of gold and every accessory was made of diamond and precious jewels.

The next day, as he was walking in his lawn and a pillar holding an umbrella for him and a walking stick was holding fruits for him.

While he was walking, he noticed a rabbit which was injured badly. He stopped and made a snap with his finger, out of a sudden a big dustbin and a broomstick came running to him. He pointed at the rabbit and shouted, ‘I want my lawn clean’.

The broomstick picked the rabbit and put it in the dustbin. Prince walked inside his palace and sat on his throne. His hands started hurting terribly.

Then he saw the wooden plank that he gave life was walking towards him.

‘What is happening, what have u done to me’, the prince yelled.

‘Your majesty, I didn’t do anything. I am here to tell you about the bane u missed to see that day’, he replied bowing down.

‘WHAT BANE?’ he replied in pain.

‘Your majesty, you shouldn’t say NO to three living beings that are in need, if else u will lose your power.’

‘YOU ARE SAYING ME THAT, NOW?’ he said noticing his hands becoming dark red.

‘I started on that very day to inform you majesty and I reached now’, the plank replied making an eye contact with the prince feet.

‘YOU PATHETIC BEING’, the prince walked towards the plank to show his fury. As he was a few steps away from it, it turned into a wooden plank as before, into a non living thing.

He stood there petrified. He had no idea what was going on. The glow in his hands disappeared and they turned to normal.

Before his eyes, his whole creation turned to normal. Everything was falling down and returning to their original state.

He put weight on his brain to think when he said no 3 times. As far as he knows he rejected only two times. He sat on his throne pressurizing his brain. Suddenly an iron ball which returned into its non-living state, along with the golden chandelier fell on his head. He was badly hurt. His head was bleeding and he was screaming in pain.

A golden smoke appeared and said:
‘Dear, u should know that for every boon there will be a bane and u should learn to use it well when the power is in your hands.’

‘But I just rejected two living beings’, he said holding his head.

‘Dear, the woman who u said no was carrying a baby in her womb. With your one NO, u killed them both. Good bye dear, Rest in Peace’, the face in the golden smoke smiled and disappeared. Poof.

 After hearing this, the prince took a deep breath and he closed his regretful eyes with an ashamed smile on his face.

After a few days, the people in the kingdom came to know about the prince. They placed the prince golden crown on the throne and the kingdom lived happily ever after with the gold and diamonds the prince made. Happiness and peace were glittered in the air. And the prince was remembered throughout the ages.

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