S28: "The Scare-Crow"

‘Is it necessary to go brother? Our entire summer holidays will get wasted. It will be so boring at grandma’s house’, bunty said.

‘Yeah I know, but its fine bunty. She wanted to see us since many years’, kiran said packing his bag.

‘I am going to pack all my video games and your books. I don’t know what she is doing there alone in that house. I think she should come and live with us’, bunty said.

‘She is so attached to that house and that place bun’, kiran replied and zipped up his bag.

Bunty is a 6-year-old chubby boy and his elder brother kiran is a 10-year-old lean spectacled boy.

They started in the afternoon in their car and they reached their grandma’s house by night. The driver dropped them and drove back.

It was dark and the lights were not bright enough to see everything clearly.

Kiran switched on his cell phone torch and they made it into the house without hitting any of their toenails.

‘Hey kiran and banuu’, she came and hugged them. She kissed bunty and pulled his cheeks.

‘It’s too late hon’s. You both go and sleep. Your room is on top left side’, she pointed with her finger.

It was a very big duplex house with the smell of old books. They entered the room and noticed that it was clean with newly changed bed sheets.

They put their bags aside, freshened up and just laid on the bed to sleep.

‘Strange place brother’, bunty said.

Suddenly they heard a sound, a knocking sound in their room.

‘What was that’, bunty shouted.

They jumped from their beds and switched on the lights.

The knocking sound is making them terrified. They saw that it was coming from the trunk which is lying beside the bed.

They started walking towards the trunk.

‘I am scared’, bunty was shivering.

‘It’s ok, I am here na’, Kiran said.

‘Are you not scared’, bunty asked holding kiran’s arms tightly.

‘I am but I don’t want to show that I am scared and make ‘whatever-it-is’ feel stronger’, kiran said and they were now closer to the trunk.

‘What if it’s a ghost?’

‘Sshh’

Kiran opened the trunk and suddenly a big mouse ran out of it.

‘What the hell, who puts a rat in a trunk’, bunty said. He was relieved that it was not a ghost. As he was walking towards bed in relief, he stepped on some liquid.

‘What is this’, he exclaimed. He tried to move his leg but he couldn’t.

‘Brother, I am stuck’, he shouted in aghast.

Kiran ran towards him and tried to pull and push him. But his leg got stuck to the floor.

‘Remove your sock’, kiran shouted.

‘No it is my favourite sock. I am not leaving her’, bunty said trying his level best to move his leg.

Kiran pulled his leg out of the sock and they both jumped on to the bed to avoid more exclamations.

‘Its super-sticky glue’, kiran said.

‘What the hell, bro I am scared here. Just go back to our home’, bunty grumbled.

‘Relax, just this summer’, kiran convinced him.

Though sleep was no where around them, they somehow tucked themselves into sleep.

They woke up pretty early and bunty was pepping into the garden through the window while kiran was getting ready to bath.

There was a huge garden in front of the house and there were various sorts of flowers and fruits.

Though how scary the place was, the garden was like a beautiful lotus in muddy waters. It was magnificent to see.

There were various flowers and in between them, some square area was occupied with corn fields. Between those corn fields, there was a scare crow. And everything was just eye pleasing.

While bunty was enjoying the grandeur, suddenly the scare crow swung.

‘What the hell’, bunty screamed.

‘What happened’, kiran ran towards him.

‘Look at that scare crow brother’, he got frightened.

It swung again and clapped its hands.

‘Bro, this place is crazy. Let’s go back. I am calling mom and dad today’, bunty cried.

‘No, let’s go find out what’s wrong’, kiran dragged bunty.

‘No, I am not coming anywhere near to it’.

‘I will be there na, let’s go. Atleast we will inform grandma about this’, kiran said.

They walked towards the scare crow. Bunty was shivering with fear and kiran didn’t show any fear on his face.

They were right behind the scare crow and suddenly it turned backwards.

Bunty shouted to the top of his lungs and kiran didn’t make any sudden movements. He was looking at it very still and wide-eyed.

‘Hey there’, the scare crow said.

It removed the pot on its head and to their surprise it was grand-ma.

‘What are you scared at bannu’, she asked pleasantly.

‘What’s all this for’, bunty cried.

‘Oh this, these stupid birds will smash my plants’.

‘You can put an artificial scare crow instead of scaring us’, bunty said.

‘But it’s fun to be a scare crow’, she smiled.

‘Grandma, what was that rat doing in the trunk’, kiran asked her while returning to the house.

‘Oh that rat, it always creates mess, it destroys all the food. When I was cleaning your room yesterday, I saw it was eating something in the trunk and I locked it in the trunk and forgot to throw it outside’

‘And that glue? The rat did it?’, kiran exclaimed.

‘No I poured for it to get stuck’, she smiled showing her teeth.

‘My sock got stuck’, bunty said disappointedly.

‘Oh’, she busted out into a laugh.

They walked inside the house and bunty saw a small wooden plate nailed to the wall with some peanuts on it beside the door.

‘What is this’, he tried to take them.

‘No don’t touch it’, she shouted.

‘Suddenly, a wooden stick came towards him from nowhere in a swing.

He bent down and escaped a punch on his face.

‘What the hell’, he screamed.

‘I am an old woman; I can’t run here and there. So I made some alternatives for the birds, rats and cats. Do not touch anything which doesn’t seem normal’, she said innocently.

‘Old woman, I doubt that’, bunty said.

She gave a loud laugh showing her teeth which were randomly distributed in her mouth.

After breakfast, they went to the fields and became a scare crow for some time and collected some fruits and vegetables.

And she cooked lunch for them and more than being a crazy old lady, she is a great cook.

They tried to catch that rat till dawn. They explored each and every corner of the house.

The house was full of fun and surprises. She even made a pulley arrangement to go upstairs so that if she sits on a chair and pull a rope, the chair will take her to first floor instead of walking on the stairs.

After dinner, she told them so many stories and she told how much she missed them. And they couldn’t ask her to come with them because they knew that the house, the garden and everything there was a part of her.

In the blink of an eye, the holidays passed by and bunty and kiran decided that they are going to spend every holiday at their grandma’s house and promised her that they will return very soon.

They enjoyed every moment there and they returned to their house with untouched video-games and unopened books.

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# My Blog's Happy Birthday !

May 16..

My baby blog turned one!

It’s been a year since I started blogging. When I first got this thought of writing a blog, I had so many second thoughts.

Firstly, I am a very commitment phobic person, and running a blog is a huge commitment. You have to treat it like your boyfriend, who needs continuous nurturing and pampering.

But somehow I tried to keep up to it(well most of the times). Okay I promise, I will be better (tee hee) :D

Happy birthday to you and Happy anniversary to us !

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# My First Published Story

It's like my little baby girl who was always playing in my lap and stuck to my bosom started to walk. She took her first baby steps.

15^th April 2016-The day which is going to get marked with the pink sketch.

It was a mundane day, which started with a weary driving class in the blistering sun followed by the random vexations from the people on the road for my bad driving.

After reaching my home, I just laid down, watching my fan with the three wings which are trying to chase each other.

‘Why are you chasing each other when you know you cannot catch’, I said to the fan.

It didn’t reply.

‘Is this just like my dream? Just chasing and never catching?’ I said.

I have this very own habit of criticizing myself, at least once in a day.

‘Talk to me’, I whispered to the fan.

‘Talk’, I shouted.

‘Why am I so useless, what am I even doing?’, the scorching sun showed its effect. I was high with frustration.

Then I took my phone, opened Facebook, the only addiction in my life and kept scrolling down.

Eating in KFC with my colleagues

Travelling-having fun

Engaged-feeling happy

Married-life time moment

In love-feeling loved

New job-feeling excited

Bla bla bla

‘Fan, just stop chasing, you won’t reach it anyhow’, I said to the fan again. But it seemed to ignore my words. It shooed out my words with its wind.

Again I kept scrolling down,

Then I saw this, someone's status:

“My writeup is in print form as well, thanks to eFiction india for publishing my story”

‘Everyone’s stories are getting printed out except mine’, I mumbled.

‘Maybe you should just walk to your printer and ask it to print your stories’- my brain said using its sense of humour.

I googled efiction india and clicked on the newly arrived magazine. I was searching for her name with a ‘whatever’ face.

Suddenly, that ‘whatever’ expression turned into ‘what the eff’ expression.

I saw ‘MAGIC-RACHANASITA’

‘Me?’, I stumbled.

‘What!’

I picked my phone in a bolt speed and called my friend.

I had tears in my eyes; yes it was special as it was my first published story. I told her that my name was there in the magazine.

And then the celebration started.

Getting my story published is happiness but the people around me turned it into a celebration.

I looked at the fan and said, ‘Fan you are god, you really listened to me’.

And then fan whispered something to me-‘Be like me, like a fan, don’t ever doubt yourself; just keep chasing unconditionally.

PS: Guys, though thank you is a petty word, I am going to say it.
Thank you, you guys sparkled my day! If I ever write a book, you are all going to the dedication page. Hugs and kisses to you all !

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S27: "Harry, Ron and Hermione"

She took out her jacket and zipped it up to her neck, wore her snow boots and looked outside the room through the window.

Everything was covered with lumps of snow. It was like the whole town was scooped up with vanilla ice cream.

The sun’s direct glare attempted to dust out the snow from the roofs, the cars and the trees. But he could only melt them a little.

The dangerously cold weather didn’t allow her to step out of her room since two days.

The ogre winds let all the houses down and people in.

It was freezing cold, her hands hid in her gloves from the piercing breezes. Her white skin became dry and scaled. Her hair which was being tied into a bun hid in her red knitted cap.

Her head inclined downwards as she took her steps forward against the opposing horrendous winds.

As she took a few steps, she saw some kids playing in the snow, building a snow man, throwing snow balls at each other, falling and laughing their heart out.

She smiled with her dried lips and salivated to them with her tongue.

She saw the cars totally covered up with snow cover. The only colour she saw was ‘White’

White on the streets, white on the trees, white on the houses, white on the cars; she began to get vexed with the colour white.

She felt like she is living in a bowl of vanilla ice-cream, like a chocolate chip.

She walked for a while and stood there watching the beatific one-colour scenery.

She felt like she got colour-blind and the only colour she could see was white.

Suddenly,
The ground under her trembled and cracked, before she could conclude whether it was an earthquake or something else, she fell down into the water.

She tried to shout but the voice couldn’t make it to the surface.

The chillness and darkness stabbed and speared her body. She was losing her breath, her body became stiff and her senses were dead.

The only thing she could see was the small dot of the molten-gold sun glistening in the sky like a street lamp.

She asked the sun for help, screaming with her eyes.

She felt like death was closing her, she was about to close her eyes and the last thing she saw was a stick coming towards her.

After a few minutes-

‘Ahh’, she breathed heavily.

She was now outside the water and alive.

She was breathing heavily and was trembling with wonder.

‘Arghhhhh’, she screamed. ‘Am I dead’

Everything was white and heavenly and in front of her she saw three snowmen standing and talking.

‘Am I dead?’, she shouted again.

 ‘No, you are not’, said the middle one, the perfect snowman with  small, medium, large snowballs one over the other, with black cookie eyes, walnut nose, grass mouth, two thin sticks of hands and same cookie buttons.

‘She is alive, She is alive’, said the two other snowmen.

One is gracefully thin with three same-sized snowballs covering with black knitted cap, blue button eyes, carrot nose, bended-straw mouth, cookie buttons, red scarf and two stick hands.

The other is short, adorably fat and of only two snowballs with a cap, black stone eyes, carrot nose, stony U-shaped mouth and walnut buttons throughout its body and stick hands.

‘Am I in heaven?, she asked breathing heavily.

‘No, on earth’, said the middle one.

‘Yes earth, yes earth’, chorused the other two.

‘I am talking to snowmen’, she said shivering.

‘Hi’, I am harry, this is Hermione and this is Ron’, the middle snowman introduced itself and the others.

She kept looking at them with her eyes like the golf balls and without uttering a single word.

‘The kids built us and named us, they went inside their houses and we migrate after everyone left pretending as if we were drowned in the snow’

‘We have our own place, every snowman that born here will go to that place which I can’t tell you as it is confidential’, said Hermione.

‘We were passing by and we saw you drowning, you know we can’t let someone die to protect our secret and we came to help you’, said Ron.

‘Promise us that you won’t tell anyone’, asked harry.

‘Promise’, she said still not believing her eyes.

They smiled and started walking away.

‘Hey, thank you so much for saving me’, she said and stood up.

She took her scarf which was around her neck and tied it around Harry’s neck.

‘Don’t forget to make more snowmen’, harry said.

‘I will never forget you three’, she said misty-eyed.

‘We will leave now before anyone could come and see us’, said Harry.

‘One last time, thank you and I love you Harry, Ron and Hermione’.

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S26: "A Boomerang"

‘You can’t do that’, she heard a husky female voice from the other room.

‘I don’t want to take the risk’, another familiar voice replied.

‘But that’s not possible’, said the same female voice again.

She took a few steps forward to hear the murmurings. She stood at the other side of the door and now she can hear the voices more clearly.

‘Are you sure you are going to do this?’, the female voice asked.

She can recognize the voice now. It’s her sister-in-law’s voice.

‘We can’t take her to the hospital then’, the other voice replied. The voice caused a chill in her spine; it’s her husband’s voice.

‘So what are you trying to say? We have to make her delivery in the house?’, she said in a much little tone.

‘Probably, there is no other way. I can’t afford a girl’, he said.

‘What if it is a girl?’

‘She will die’, he whispered bluntly.

By hearing the word ‘die’, her heart busted like a volcano and her nerves stood still.

She bent her head downwards; her bewildered eyes looked down at her feet but in between there was a bump, a nest of her baby, a safest place for her baby from this vicious world.

For a moment, she couldn’t trust her own ears. Her own husband plotting to kill their baby, the words were still echoing in her head.

She wanted to slap her husband for thinking like that and her sister-in-law, being a girl who is taking his side. But she couldn’t. She was not strong enough. Any moment, the baby will be out and now she can’t cosplay a lawyer and talk about what’s right and wrong.

She had no idea what to do. She decided to leave him and that house which was no more safe for her baby.

She wiped the sweat on her face and tears which were dribbling over her cheek.

She can barely walk. She held her stomach with her hands and tried taking baby steps without making any voice.

Now she was standing outside her house drenched in tears and not knowing where to go.

Suddenly, she closed her eyes tightly and held her stomach with both hands, that moment she realized that her water broke.

She pulled herself to the next lane. She held her stomach tight with her shivering hands. She realized she had very less time, she can feel the blood through her legs.

She knocked the door of the first house. She knew that any moment her baby will be out. Someone opened the door.

‘Oh my god’, the woman shouted seeing her on the doormat shivering in pain.

‘Help me please’, she begged.

The other woman pulled her inside the house.

‘Don’t worry, I am a doctor. I can help you, just breathe and push’, the doctor said.

She can feel her every muscle tearing out and her bones shattering into pieces. Her eyes were barely open.

‘Just push’, she shouted.

There was no strength in her. She was losing her breath. She was actually experiencing death.

The words she heard from her husband were eating her from inside.

‘It’s a baby girl’, the doctor shrilled in happiness.

She saw the baby and said, ’Asha’

She smiled and left her last breath. The doctor tried to save her but she couldn’t make it.

She found a photo and note in her hands. It says:

‘If it is a boy,

Tell him not to look up to his father

And he is alive just because he is a boy

Make him a better person

If it is a girl

And if she could make it to this world

Never tell her who her father is

But tell her why

Keep her away from him’

She had tears in her eyes from reading that note. She hugged the baby tightly to her bosom.

Someone knocked her door but she didn’t open. She had a hunch of who it can be.

--After years and years--

‘Ma, I am going to the hospital. Are you coming with me?’

‘Yes, wait a minute Asha’, she said.

As soon as they entered into the hospital, they crossed a person on the stretcher who had met with a terrific accident and is being admitted into the hospital.

‘An accident case doctor, he need to be operated immediately’, the nurse came rushing.

‘Okay I am coming, take him to the ICU’, Asha said.

The doctor saw him and she realized that he was Asha’s father. She could never forget that devil’s face.

‘I want to say something before you could go and operate him Asha’, she said and stopped her.

‘He is your father’, she said.

‘What?’, Asha got petrified.

‘Did he cheated on you and left us alone. Is that the reason why you never told me about him?’, Asha asked the unanswered questions which are locked up in her brain since her childhood.

‘He broke your mother’s heart and she died because of him’, she said in a wrathful tone.

‘She?’, Asha got collapsed.

‘That night your mother died just to save you because your father didn’t want a girl and I couldn’t save her’, she said.

‘And you didn’t marry because of me?’, Asha stammered.

‘Yes since then you are my life and my first priority and I was scared to bring someone else between us’, she said and hugged her.

‘I will go and operate him Ma’, Asha wiped her tears.

‘You don’t have to. Let him die’

‘I am a doctor’, Asha said and left.

--In the ICU--

‘Hi, do you know who am I?’, she asked her father who was laying helplessly on the bed soaked in blood and pain.

‘Doctor’, he said with difficulty.

‘Your daughter’, Asha said looking straight into his eyes.

His eyes busted out. Though he couldn’t make larger movements, he had a mini heart-attack.

She sat on the chair and kept watching him.

‘My mother died just to save me and my other mother never married because of me. Two women sacrificed their lives for me’

‘Why are you having a conversation now? I am dying’, he said unable to move.

She took a pair of scissors and pierced on his wound.

‘Argghh’, he shouted in pain.

‘Oops! Is it paining?’, she asked innocently.

‘Yes’, he said with terrific pain.

‘Okay then, I won’t touch you at all’, she said.

‘Please save me, we will go to our home’, he begged.

‘Our? Remember you didn’t want a girl. Let’s pretend that you killed me after my birth and technically I won’t exist now’, she said sitting on the chair playing with the scissors.

‘Please’

‘You are a doctor’, he tried to shout.

‘Before that I am a daughter’, she said and left the ICU.

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