Random Thoughts

Early Morning

April 22, 2020 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 0 Comments

I looked around. The time was already half past 12. I could see around and look at my father and brother deeply engrossed in sleep. Taking my mobile out, I saw whether to play any game online. But, I was least interested. Kept my mobile in agony, I went ahead to sip water.

‘Haven’t you slept yet?’ my mother asked me suddenly from nowhere. I was shocked to look at her and she didn’t have any sleep till now and just saw me roaming in the living room.

‘Mom! Why are you waking up still?’ I asked her again. She looked at me right up.

‘It’s already 12.30. You should go and sleep now!’

‘Yeah fine am going, just came to pee’

I looked at her back again to ensure, that she had slept. May be to see, yes she has, but I know she won’t sleep until I move to the bedroom. I don’t want her to wake up all night to look at whether I had slept or not. So I paced myself to reach the room and covered myself under the bedsheet. Slowly my eyes started to doze, and soon I was in my dreamland.

I was careful to keep my alarm at 6 am. But I was very well knowing that it is a herculean task to get up at that time. Yet, I believed in the corner of my heart that this miracle will happen. With these random thoughts, running on my mind, I couldn’t be in my dreamland for more than an hour. I turned around, the time was 1.30 AM. I cursed myself that I became insomniac.

At that time, I just wanted to get rid of all the things that were running in my mind and to get some sleep. I was very well aware that I have some important appointments the next day and have a few meetings to attend. I closely started to think about the beautiful days that I had in my life and started to cherish the moments. Suddenly, I felt very apprehended that I missed those beautiful days in my life. What I thought to make it a good approach to fall asleep, soon made it to crushing thoughts that made me miss my days. I ruled out that option.

Moving on to the next thing, on how and where I need to present myself better, I wanted to make note of important points in the meeting and conference that is going to be attended by 30 odd people. I felt nervous, and I was sweating. The important documents which I wanted to present tomorrow are still unfinished. Remembrance is very rare to me, I keep forgetting things and postponing without any timelines. I checked my mobile. It was 2 AM.

‘Anyway, I wasn’t getting any sleep, why can’t I sit down and make the presentations out?’ I thought to myself. But I was afraid of my mother, whether she would come from nowhere and screw me up. But it’s better to finish off the things which have been started rather than making it worse. One thing was very sure to me, I was going to get some heavy blisters, as I wasn’t prepared for anything that is going to happen on that day.

I took my laptop out, and slowly muting the sounds and dimming the light, I sat on the corner of the room to start my analysis and presentation. I looked at my family, they were all in some dreamland or on some others dream and happily sleeping. Well, it’s a boon to get sleep when you readily go to bed. Yet, I haven’t blessed with that.

I’m a freelancer. Freelancing comes at a much higher price to devote yourself entirely to the ongoing project or to get projects from clients. But people see them like they are in some free world getting paid a lot while doing less work. Well, the grass is always greener on the other side. Freelancing was my earnest dream. This thought occurred to me when I was working hardcore on my company doing the project in application development. While getting peanuts, not getting the recognition, I wanted to quit and make time and money to be owned by me. Easier said than done.

Disposition of my regular career was a tough task. I had bills to pay and had commitments that rarely allow an individual to pursue his dreams. To dream of becoming my boss with no subordinates or supervisor. I know I had my strengths and weakness and made a good analysis to fix those and jump into this. The hard part of the job is, sometime you won’t get a single client for months and still you have to be economically stable to meet your basic ends.

While I started to prepare the presentation, I had no idea how to start, as I was invited as a guest speaker in my college. It was an alumni meet and my college dean has requested me to throw a guest lecture on my career and growth of a top paid freelancer at that time. It is indeed a privilege, but most people don’t see the other side of it. It took almost 5 years to get high paying clients for my services and make them my regular clients. When you become a freelancer, you are almost everything.

I finished drafting my presentation to be given on the meet and saw the time, it was close to 4 AM. So my whole night is been ruined. But, anyway, I was able to finish the task in an untimely manner. Switching off my laptop and getting some sleep for a confident speech, I again went to sleep trying to make it possible somehow.

The alarm rang up exactly at 6 AM, to wake up for the day. With my drowsy eyes, I looked at my mobile cursing with all the foul words coming to my mind.

‘Good Morning Rakesh,’ my father saw me waking up from the bed. ‘Haven’t you got up early?’ he asked.

‘If at all I have slept!’

Today’s Post

April 17, 2020 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 0 Comments

So the title for today’s blog post is nothing but today’s post. Well, it couldn’t be much more intimate than that. Anyway, to suit a particular title to the post, one has to say about something related to that. I hope I will do the same.

This is the best time to utilize my writing. I thought to myself. Many reasons provoke that. In this pandemic, we all are either sitting simply at home safeguarding ourselves or working at home with extra care. We have to manage the work and household activities if you are a woman. It is tough and it gets more challenging when you have a kid or kids at home. Both your husband is also working and you, on the other hand, is also working. Maybe when grandparents are with you, it would be helpful, but it is a hypothetical question, isn’t it? We need to see how many houses, grandparents are still on their son/daughter’s home.

Safeguarding yourself and around is the first most priority anyone would have in these times. Almost everyone in the world is in fear and medical and healthcare professionals are pushing their maximum ends to save every life. That is true to be appreciated. More than that, their personal life is been minimized, as most of the time, they spend their time in hospitals curing patients. On the other hand, roads, streets and nearly every corner area of the locality are on mute. You can either hear birds chirping or some of the dogs barking. You sit on the sofa, or you can stand on your balcony to view the scenes happening on the roadside. If you are privileged, you are blessed with good power supply, internet connections and essentials are always available. Yet, our minds languish on the ones we have lost. Like, having a chit chat on the roadside or going out. It is in our mind that we always pine for something, which isn’t ours and create an imaginary world inside us to make it work. Crazy, our human minds.

We are nearing a weekend, but well, now weekends have lost their credibility. We had numerous options for a movie, get together, or some may even join classes and many more. But now, as you can see, there is a whole lot of a thing that can be done at home, on your desk. Have we thought about that before? Only a tough situation or a time teaches us, what we are capable of. It pushes you to limits that you wouldn’t have thought that you would be doing. Still, if you can observe around, the local stores are pushing their hard to move out stocks for the essential needs. And at the end of the day, you can see that these are the essentials that are needed for us to survive and it costs much cheaper than we thought it was. Lifestyles has been changed, and our outlook towards our life is also much changed. Don’t know about others, but mine, yes drastically.

Mothers are the first gods of our society. You can see them working all along. Either it is a working day or a weekend or in these times of lockdown, you can see them busy more on household activities. As in these times, when all of them are at home, that adds more work to her. Her rest time is reduced and she goes round the clock for serving your needs. On the other hand, your father sits idle and tuning channels on television. He even comes forward to help your mother, because he is not able to do anything. Men are not prone to sit inside with idleness. It kills them, but this also applies to some ladies but not all. Exceptions are always there.

You, seeing all this don’t know what to do, stare at a wall. If you have work, you are busy doing that. You can also expose yourself to all bullshit social media content. Web series became the next big thing in this period as many of them enrolled online to watch the trending series out there and guile about it. One big lesson that has been learned is that it’s these basic things you are made up of and you can still live with this. Practically, think about it and change your spending habits to a minimum. Furthermore, think about your passion, don’t deter that anymore, as this is the best time to pursue it. Life is short.

Things we don’t remember

January 29, 2019 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 0 Comments

Alright, after a long time, while I sit on my laptop to craft a blog post, it is difficult to search for a theme and write about it. So let be it. I don’t have a topic today to discuss about. But, yes, there will be something I will be talking here about. It would be about my night travel from my office to home, or something I that I wonder it would better not happen than to make it happen. Okay, enough of crap! I understand it is being very bad to not tell anything than a crap of work. It would be very boring for you to read as well. Let me try to make some justice here!

While we commute to work or any other place for example, we tend to cross roads, signals and many turnabouts. On those areas, we would see many beggars or some small children selling something for their living. How many of us considered them and bought one? Okay, let’s leave the beggar part for now, as we have justification that they are begging from us, and we also turn them by saying we don’t have anything. Yes, it is common among us and we have to accept that. Even though we have some money, may be it will be some use of them, we don’t give them. It is sad yet reality of most people. We just turn them by saying ‘no change’, yet, it is us whom we have to change. When nobody is willing to offer anything which we least can, it is us who have to bring the change.

On the other hand, we have some people, may be they are street selling kids, whom we also refuse buying it from. Why it is that so? May be the product will be defective? Or it is the ugly appearance of them? No! It is not either. We are actually fooled by the things that amaze us in the glass windows and multi-complexes. We are awestruck by their design and the product they arrange in order for getting picked. I’m not telling anything against the big shops that offers products are defective. But, we are actually avoiding something, which we should have look into than the others. When small children sells something, it can be for their day to day living. We shouldn’t underestimate them and the lifestyle of those people. They get some money out of that, and it will be used for their bread and butter.

At the end of the day, it is all about being contented and happy. Products may differ, people may differ, and places may differ, always chose something when there is no substitute to another. Buying a pen from the roadside small girl on signal shall be fulfilling to you, than the one bought at a big shop. Here, I said there is no substitute to another, because, the joy and satisfaction that small girl gets from you is no equal to the shopkeeper getting your money on the big shop, buying the same pen.

You don’t have to be smart in order to be fulfilling to others! Sometimes common sense speaks a lot!

I think I have made some justice here! And well, I will do so in the coming days!

Saying the unnamed

May 19, 2018 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 0 Comments

Sitting on the floor thinking about life, when all the decisions has already been wasted, and no other option has left to proceed with the journey called life, I look straight on the street and there is already a man peeing opposite my house. Nobody dares to ask him a question of what the hell he was doing there. A gigantic electric transformer was standing still and he doesn’t even care about the consequences when a single drop of urine was spilled there. He had that confidence of urinating without any problems of getting offended. He also doesn’t care about the people walking on the street seeing this disgrace. All he wanted was to make that place dirty and get down from his urinating urgency. I was watching this and thought how people are so lethargic and cool with doing their work when they aren’t thinking of what that would mean to others. But those are the people who live freely and doesn’t care about anything.

Slow breeze started to wave around the place and i thought to vacate the place to my house terrace. Dusts and small leaves from the coconut tree were all on the stairs.

‘Where are you going?’ a sound from downstairs. I turned back to see my mother having a broomstick on her hand getting ready for cleaning the stairs.

‘Going to terrace mom,’ i said and thought for a second, ‘anyway you are not going to sweep the terrace right?’

‘Right now am not going to sweep the terrace, but once you are finished with the work on terrace, i will come,’

‘Okay,’ i uttered and entered the terrace.

Mild waves started to flow with cool breeze. I saw the coconut leaves waving each other on the blush of air and the environment was lively filled with fresh air. I liked that environment when your heart is free and mind relaxes itself.

Walking for sometime, i peeped the streets sitting on the wall. There was a high sound from the mosque nearby the local market and the bustling sounds of motor vehicle never seemed to end. I got up from there and slowly walked around the terrace. My mind was wandering, and i couldn’t control it. I saw the opposite house and a maid from that house was filling water on her bucket from the tap on the backside of their house. I slightly bend down to hear a child crying from the house beside ours. As the windows were closed, i couldn’t really sense the reason for that. So i continued my walk on the terrace to look around the huge horizon. Blue skies are slowly fading away and the sun slowly settles down for a sleep. I sat down on a corner of the terrace and brushed my hair.

Knowing for a reason that all are brought by the almighty here for some reason, i was still waving my head finding one. May be if i had already found one, i was the one who didn’t stick to it for a definite amount of time. Looking at an empty gaze in the sky, i slowly lied down to close my eyes for looking all the flashbacks around me.

And yet, with all the confusions in mind, I just woke up to see that i’m still in bed and the scorching rays of sun made me to wake up. For few minutes i couldn’t guess what was happening and i saw my mother crossing me to the balcony for drying up the washed dresses.

‘Mom, what’s the time?’

‘It’s already nine, wake up soon, how much time you would sleep?’

I smiled and slowly removed the bedsheets around me. Well, what was the reason i had a bizarre dream about me, on the terrace.

‘Hmmm, let’s find out!’

Futile Attempts

April 20, 2017 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 1 Comment

The doors are locked inside and I on my long sofa, drafting the content to post. Well, most of the time I am at a disadvantage when I start to write. I get distracted easily and move on to another task. But today, that won’t happen. I have made up my mind and I’m going to post a write up, without any topic. Scorching heat; a person going for a walk for even just a kilometer, is guaranteed to perspire profusely. Thirst is an indispensable element this summer. There is a thirst within everyone, but this kind of thirst only occurs when summer in India.

Television is the big winner now. It is summer and all school exams are over, IPL has already started and the channels went whole lot crazier in displaying their programs. But there are some television channels and they still telecast the usual soaps, well, we will leave that. It is best time to stay inside your home, eat and sleep. But there is a major issue. Power cuts. It’s usual in summer. Well, we are going to handle that too.

After some uneasiness on the sofa, I moved to my plastic Nilkamal chair, which holds me comfortably. Time flows slowly and it is half past four. I open the door to my house door and see the sun rays are still high. Mild breeze blowing along and it is hard to see any trees near my house. Everywhere there are huge buildings, and I can see people roaming in streets. Some stood near a newly constructed building in deep discussion, with a map in their hands. A few ladies are outside their house gates, one holding a child was smiling while feeding the child. A street vendor, who sells green groceries was on his usual rounds to sell the vegetables.

People were watching the clouds, wondering if they would join together to provide some rain. The clouds, didn’t hear the man’s thoughts, as they remained silent and stubborn, cursing us with heavy sunrays. Our earth is getting older day by day and the water resources are slowly depleting. Yet, there are some people who are at the top position, does the work of damaging and killing our mother earth rather than saving it.

There is a popular saying called ‘Unave Marunthu’ meaning food is the best medicine. But, we eat as many tablets as the amount of food we have. Adulteration and hybrid varieties of food has started to ruin us. Our farmers are the ones who are getting affected by this. Many people die in the villages and few are struggling to make a livelihood. What are we going to do for them?

Yes, it is said that the underground water level is declining. The government is busy in election campaigns and has no time to look after it. They loot the public’s money, they make farmers suffer and they embrace some corporations who would provide them with exorbitant money.

I’m still unable to understand what harm did the farmers do to us? Why are they being tortured attacked and made penniless every time. Few people forget that, without them we can’t even think of having our morning breakfast. As a democratic country everyone has an equal voice to raise against the government in failing to meet the expectations of farmers.

We cut down many trees and named it as urbanization. We are now selling agricultural lands to the governments and term it industrialization. They forget to remember that, without food what will they do with the earned money? Amusing isn’t it?

Genuine people hesitate to come out and speak because they are afraid of the consequences. They observe the situation and comment it within their circle and vanish off. But, in other case, there are malicious people who take advantage of this situation and break barriers to protest. They know exactly what they are doing and inspire many people to join them in giving a tough fight to the opposition. At last, people get carried away by the crowd and many come and visit the protest ground as spectators only.

The shore looks empty and few people were walking on the sands. The Sun slowly sets, as I finish up with my writing. The sounds of the waves crashing on the shore made many a child to stand to dip their feet in the cooling waters. Typically our life is like that. We tend to forget our childish nature and abolish that in the name of grown-up. Yes, I do agree that we are all grownups and we tend to behave maturely. But childish nature within everyone should not die and it should be kept alive. When your childish nature dies within you, then you are no longer immortal.

Grow, reap benefits, and live the life you want. It is a popular saying from the spiritual leaders that Kali Yuga has the shortest life span on human being. So I would rather suggest that forget all our worries, get along with the life you’ve got and more importantly, do not forget the past from where we have come from. It is important not to forget our footsteps, so that somebody in your future may follow them.

I started to write this fiction story with limited or no idea and ended up somehow making justice to my writing. It is like the life of everybody. Let’s do justice to our life and make it worthwhile.

Off late thesis !

February 21, 2017 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 0 Comments

Well, it has been several months since my fingers touched the keyboard. My poor laptop would have longed for my touch after all these months of sitting in the dark and getting covered in dust.

In order to write, I should have an idea in my mind to convey. But this time, the situation is different. I have absolutely no idea of what to convey; yet I will try to do justice.

The novel which I was writing for more than a year (august 2017 marks two years) bears fruitless gains due to the distraction towards career advancement. Choosing writing as a passion and trying to make a career out of it is not an easy task. When your first novel fails your expectations, when your job doesn’t earn you satisfaction, when your health is not good and most importantly when you don’t receive support from your colleagues and relatives, you become frustrated and fatigued. People value you for your money. That was rightly said years ago by some saint. Unless you are famous or wealthy, you are practically invisible and your voice goes unheard. You do not ‘Live’ on this Earth. You just ‘Exist’. Walking, sleeping, eating doing nothing else but follow the robotic motions of a mundane life.

In this course of time, I had forgotten my writing. My last blog post was 6 months ago. For the last two years after my novel has been published, I faced a traumatic series of failures and unfortunate events that dragged me from my writing. Once your peace of mind is lost, the creativity within you diminishes. That is what had happened to me. Having a body ridden with sickness, doing some routine job and struggling to make an impact with your writing which you thought would earn your bread, has lead me to the path of darkness. I was certainly lost and my journey towards my life and career was looking bleak.

At the beginning of last year, I was losing concentration towards my goal and simply couldn’t resist looking out for career opportunities towards financial stability thus enabling me to get settled in life.

Passion stays with you, not with your surroundings. We must be ready to earn bread so that we can prepare ourselves to enjoy the wine. Instead, I chose to have wine quickly and was struggling to earn the bread. Eternally, the truth stays positive. I was solely responsible for the decision I had taken regardless of the influence of others on me. Plain and simple, it was me, who had to take the choice of earning enough bread to fill my stomach rather than searching for the pleasures of wine.

Now, here I stand fully determined, focused and with enough confidence and energy to chase the bread for my stomach and leave out the rest to enjoy my wine, so that I can fill my stomach of lasting desires.

My Weird Office

April 2, 2016 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 3 Comments

It was a dark and humid climate inside the office. When she was walking straight with the doors open to the bay, she could hear only her footsteps in the office. She turned around to find nobody on the floor. It was usually a crowded place with more than 100 people working on the bay and it is now empty. She checked the time and it was 9 am in the morning. So it is the normal working hours and she thought who shall get into the office at the prompt time. Yet, she found no one inside.

‘Am I under a trap? ’ she murmured in a low voice.

Eyes were blank, as she couldn’t see anything next to her. She stopped proceeding towards the front and charge in the mobile was low. It beeped. She took her mobile once again and checked whether she has entered the office at night 9 PM. But, with the low battery, it was showing exactly the same time.

Suddenly, to her surprise, she could hear a ‘Happy Birthday’ song inside the conference room. She wasn’t sure where the song is playing, but to her vision, she guessed that it was playing in a conference room. Confusions started to roll up her mind. The room and the whole office was still dark and a mild cool air breezed through her shoulder.

Her curiousness for the timing in the office was knocking her head. Her head was rolling with confusion, annoyance and the stillness in the present situation was haunting her to the core. She lifted her hand to scratch her hair, but she found few hand already started to scratch her hair. She still lifted upwards and neared her hair. To her overwhelming fear, she found many hands scratching her hair. Her inner-self started to rage with a huge sense of fear, she shouted aloud. But, nothing happened. She could find the same number of hands that were scratching her hair. She didn’t know what to do. With the fear rising above the level, she wanted to run from the place. But, she heard a loud scream backside. When she was about to turn, her neck got stuck sidewards and she was unable to turn too. Her legs were glued to the place and her legs can’t move an inch. The room was still dark and with her eyes wide open, she could only see the dark hollow space around her. Yet, she could hear the birthday song left to her, on the top there were few hands which were scratching her hair and her legs were glued. Accidentally now she can move her head and rotate it. But, her head has now started to rotate 360 where with her legs are glued, her head rotates overall to see the black, dark hollow space in the office.

Eyes were dropping tears slowly down her cheeks and she felt utmost devastated that she could no longer do anything from that place. Suddenly she felt a touch near her and someone came near her ears, ‘Ruthvika’

It’s a lovely life indeed!

October 6, 2015 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 1 Comment

A midday afternoon, and the traffic was quite tedious to cross through the road. Sunlight poured in heavy rays as sweating became impeccable. Helmet was rather hurting him and added more sweat to the hair. Whole body generated an immense heat and he couldn’t continue his travel any longer.

‘Let’s take the shorter route’ uttered Ram Ganesh and his brother at the pillion nodded.

Accelerating the bike with an arduous effort, he could turn into few streets and crossing few lanes, landed him into the no man land spot. Ram wondered whether he has taken the wrong route to his travel, his brother shrugged him to move forward.

In a long way up the road, there were two trucks facing each other in the opposite direction. The trucks were in the yellowish red color and few people were standing near to it. Ram thought it was standing because there is a repair work going on. He hesitated to go back and geared direct in the road to reach the destination. The bike raced and it went in the middle of the both trucks.

Ram couldn’t see the road forward and he found himself in a hut accompanied by few people around. He was lying in a bed and he turned around. It was a small hut house with few people around. The new place made him frightened to speak. To his right, his brother was disappearing slowly bidding him ‘Good-bye’. He just went in a flash. Ram, amused with the activity following around the new place, made him comfortable to ask for help. He started sobbing as his brother left the place. He wiped his face. Woke up from the bed in a brisk manner. He was in a rage to ask the fellow people what is the thing that is happening around him.

One old man looked him coming towards him.

‘Yes my child, what I can do for you?’

Ram felt relieved, as he found a man who can solve this puzzle.

‘Thanks sir, I don’t know how I came here, and what is this place called? Why I’m here? Could you please explain me?’

The old man smiled by seeing him. He put his arms around him and pointed to all of the people in place.

‘These are dead souls. And you are here because, you are dead’

Ram felt nervous. His anxiety arose to the extreme level as his body was full of sweat. He couldn’t believe that he is died. His lips became dry. His eyes became watery by looking all of them.

‘You mean I have died? Oh! How is that possible? I’m good enough to live with no problems in my physical body!’ said Ram and was anticipating answer from the old man.

The old man again laughed and tapped his shoulders and moved forward.

Ram was confused and he couldn’t believe that he is died. But the words from the old man and the form people around made him to believe that he is died. At that moment, he felt very much for his family and friends. His life and to his dream he has bid a good-bye. He sat in the same bed and sobbed heavily.

That made him to disconnect wholly from earth and he felt very much to his family and friends, that he urged himself to tell them that he hasn’t died. He wiped his tears and made him comfortable. He walked around the house and was amazing to see a doctor sitting and chatting with few people around. He wanted to end an everlasting confusion prevailing in his mind.

‘Hello Doctor, sorry to disturb you. I know I’m dead now! But I need to know the reason why I’m dead! I mean the reason for it’ Ram pleaded the doctor.

He looked him for few minutes and asked him to sit.

‘Let me check’

He examined him with few checks and he confirmed that he has no disease or disability that caused him the death.

‘Thank you sir’ said Ram and left the place with immense confusion.

Ram turned around wiping his eyes from the dream. He turned around and his house was looking like the old hut. His mother was sleeping in another room and he confirmed that he hasn’t died. But he had a confusion and pinched his hands. It was paining. He assured himself that he was alive. He sat in the mat and removed the bedspread which was covering him. The moment, the dream which was so realistic that made him to realize that he has dead, had made him to dare his dreams.

Ram also had dreams and aims in his life, but he was severely beaten up by the external things that made him to sit and low down with minimal inspiration. Now the dream proved him that he isn’t mentally dead and he’s just physically dead. He stood up and washed his face and sat in the chair.

He realized that life is running out in an impeccable speed that would leave him at any point of time. He smiled widely. The deadly dream has taught a life lesson to live the life. He folded his fists and made himself confident.

‘I’m alive and I would make my dream come true’

Oh My Gaawd !!! Week – 5

May 10, 2015 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 0 Comments

Arun turned back in anxiety. He couldn’t believe that she asked his contact number. He thought for a moment and turned back. She was looking him for a reply. He smiled and began

“It’s 988…” he went along but was interrupted.

“I’m sorry, I think you understood wrongly. I asked your seat number”

Arun was dismayed. From boarding the train till the arrival, he gets the same sarcastic comments from her. He was frustrated.

“Yeah tell me, what about it? It’s 25,”

“Thanks, but I’ve asked you because, there was some left thing in that seat. So just want to check out whether it’s yours” uttered Priyanka and moved slowly in the queue.

“Oh okay, but I think I haven’t left anything over.” Said Arun and immediately turned back.

“So this is not yours?” asked Priyanka and showed him a pair of gloves.

Arun saw that with eyes wide-open. “One minute,” he uttered and started to unzip the bag and kept searching for a pair of gloves in his own. But he couldn’t find it. He smiled weakly.

“Alright, now this is yours!!” said Priyanka and handed over the pair to him.

Arun got the pair of gloves from her after getting out from the train. Even though that gloves belong to him, he wanted to have it as a keepsake in reminds of Priyanka.

“See-you, bye Arun” uttered Priyanka and took her baggage from the platform. Arun smiled and shook hands with her and both of them headed towards their paths.

Both of them started walking towards their places. Arun meanwhile started to walk towards the station exit, got the call from the Cab driver. The cab is been already been booked for him to reach his hotel. He boarded the cab and reached the hotel.

Meanwhile, Priyanka boarded the auto outside the railway station, and called to her cousin who is residing there.

Arun reached the hotel and got ready for the interview. He took a hot shower and wore business formal attire. It made him look like a gentleman. In the meanwhile, he booked the cab for travelling to office from his hotel. As everything is reimbursable, he had absolutely no problem in doing that.

Cab driver called him from the basement parking of the hotel and Arun reached the cab in minutes, locking the room.

Arun boarded the cab and they were on the way to his office. He was watching the wonderful city of Mumbai through the glass window of the cab. He really liked to live in Mumbai, as he loved the people and the culture there. Arun is fortunate enough to make it to the elite companies. His intellectual ability and his technological brilliance made him to be there.

The cab entered the 25 storey building in the long main road. Arun came out and boarded the lift to the 15th floor after getting the security pass by showing the ID details of the interview.

Arun was seated inside the conference room looking around the bay. He made ready with the relevant documents which would be required for the interview process. The conference room was entirely covered by glass around and as a circle if he rotates in the chair, he would be able to see the busy traffic around the roads of Mumbai. He gets out from his seat and stands along the glass corridor, watching the busy traffic.

While he was watching the city from standing alongside the glass window, his mind wandered to the train travel from Chennai to Mumbai. His encounter with Porter, Priyanka and others were flashing through.

He rests himself alongside the wall and was floated in thoughts until he heard a sound in the door. He was deep in his emotions and couldn’t able to listen to the knock on the door.

A man dressed with a bright white color formal shirt, and a black pant entered inside.

“Excuse me, Arun. I’m sorry for disturbing you,” uttered the man standing next to him. Arun was frowned, and turned back. “Hi,” he uttered and smiled awkwardly.

“It’s alright Arun, come let’s have a seat” said the man and both got seated in the conference room.

“I’m Harsha, Chief HR of Globalsoft Limited” said the man smiling. Both shook hands.

Arun was smiling at him, and didn’t speak. “So Arun how was your travel,” asked Harsha.

Arun took a deep breath and answered, “Well, not so bad. It was okay.”

“Good, let’s start with the procedures” said Harsha. Arun sat straight and decided to listen to him.

Harsha and Arun started to talk about the company, HR policies, package and the office timings. Harsha explained to him everything about the company and the allowances he would be getting. He also explained about the work culture and the type of the work. Arun just heard everything and wasn’t listening to it. He shook his head for everything and didn’t utter a word.

“Are you okay Mr.Arun?” asked Harsha staring him.

Yes, I’m. Travel tiredness. Just need to take some rest. I’ll be alright!” said Arun in straight forward manner to him. Harsha nodded and smiled “Alright,” and started to surf the papers he had in his hands.

“Okay Mr.Arun, you will be appointed a junior resource who would be helping you in all the activities. And as per your request, your work location would be in Chennai.”

Arun was dumbstruck. He wants to live in Mumbai and doesn’t want to return back to Chennai. But fate made a crucial encounter in his life. He wants to say to them that, he wasn’t willing to go back to his hometown. But he couldn’t.

Meanwhile, Harsha had a phone call and answered it.

“A small request,” said Arun. Harsha while bending forward to look to his request heard a knock in the door. “A minute Arun,” said Harsha and got from his seat to the door.

The glass door opened and Arun turned back to see who was that. To his amazement, Priyanka and Harsha were jointly entering inside. Arun felt he was victorious. What a transition! Arun was flying in air.

Priyanka saw him and was taken aback. She didn’t realize that her fate would play with this guy.

Harsha came forward and introduced them. Both smiled weakly and took their seats.

“Arun, you was about to say something right? What’s that?” asked Harsha.

“When is my return ticket to Chennai?”

Oh My Gaawd!!! Week – 4

May 2, 2015 / Sudarsan Nagarajan / 0 Comments

Arun felt very cold. He doesn’t believe what was happening. She just pulled his hands and he stood up from his seat. She held his hands for quite some time and crossed people and reached the compartment door. Arun looked shocked. He was staring at her when he was readily next to her near the compartment door. Train was not on stop, but it was running continuously without a brake and they could feel a heavy shake on the door. Air was flushing alongside the door, making her hair flowing in air like waves.

“So tell me Arun,” she started abruptly staring at him.

Arun, who was already taken aback by the happenings around didn’t say a bit. He was not having an eye contact with her. Instead, he was seeing outside.

“Look here and answer me,” said Priyanka. Arun was staring at her.

“Nothing,” said Arun and stepped to move inside.

But Priyanka was not leaving him and put her hand before him blocking his way.

“What do you want Priyanka? Please leave me alone” cried out Arun.

Passengers who were sitting beneath the seats looked up Arun. He was in his upper berth and was crying out loud “Leave me alone.”

All the people including the married couple stood up and watched Arun in his upper berth.

Arun was tapping his hands and swinging his legs and uttered. Priyanka was sitting beneath him. She stood up and tapped his hands. To his shock, he woke up from his sleep unconsciously.

Arun woke up in all of a sudden and looked everyone staring at him. He wiped his eyes and looked at everyone again. This time also none moved their eyes. They were looking at him like an alien. Priyanka, started giggling all round. She couldn’t able to control her laughter and sat in the lower berth covered her mouth with her hands and giggled.

“What?” asked Arun to the fellow people who were watching his comedy drama lively. Nobody said anything, gave one dirty look and took their seats.

Arun was quite amused by their reactions. He started to think of what has led them to watch him more curiously. He wiped his eyes and bent forward to look beneath. He was amazed to see Priyanka was silently laughing in the corner of the window seat which she had occupied few minutes earlier.

Now Arun slightly got to understand, something might have happened in the time of his sleep. He arranged himself more in good manner and slowly came down and sat on the berth. The time was 7 PM in the evening and the environment was very dark.

There was a gap between Arun and Priyanka’s seat. Arun looked right and the person who was already sitting has gone somewhere and the place seemed to be quite empty for long time, decided to move around.

Arun moved to the middle and quietly seated. Priyanka who was in a phone call to his next also was comfortably seated. To their opposite there were two young boys and an aged old man. So the people who were before had already departed except Arun & Priyanka.

Priyanka turned to his right and found him staring at her. But immediately she fell into a laughter, where she closed her mouth with her hands and Arun found it embarrassing.

“Khanna, sir,” said a small ponderous man with a tub full of night dinner meals. Arun watched him and shook his head. The man looked at Priyanka. She also shook his head and he has to leave now. Arun stared hardly at Priyanka and she doesn’t know what it means to her.

“Arun,” she uttered and looked him. He didn’t move a bit. She tapped him and now slightly moved his body. “What’s it man? Looking me so hardly?” said Priyanka and waits for a response from him.

“Absolutely nothing. I’m just reckoning the beauty of yours with mine!” said Arun and slowly came near to her.

Priyanka became much afraid of him. She turned herself looking at the window. In a few minutes Arun moved himself and drank a lassi, which was bought earlier from the vendor. Her commentary was still running in his mind.

“So what’s up Priyanka?” asked Arun with a tense mood. He very well got to know that she’s afraid of his behavior. He tried to limit his feelings. He wanted to ask a sorry to her for his behavior, but couldn’t.

“Nothing Arun need to have dinner and would sleep” said Priyanka and turned her face in a quick succession. “Ah, yes” he replied and wiped his eyes. He started to feel sleepy. He wasn’t in the mood to eat dinner that night, just settled up rapidly in his upper berth as usual.

It was a complete staid journey for him from the first till the end. The next morning when he opens his eyes, he would be in Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus. Her appellations attracted him so much as when he closes his eyes he gets remembered of her very easily.

Arun climbed up to his berth and started to look beneath her and wished to ask sorry. But he felt it was expedient to do so. He was just silent and closed his eyes. Slowly he slept as the train was rapidly moving towards its destination. He felt as if he’s a time-worn machine which is less interesting to others.

The train reached the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai @ 4 AM in the early morning and everyone was in the long queue for getting down from the compartment.

Arun & Priyanka both shared a weak smile together and proceeded to exit. People were slowly moving inside the coach and they could hear the sounds of porters outside for the baggage. Whenever he heard those voices his mind flashes towards his encounter with the porter in Chennai. He smiles and proceeds towards the door.

Priyanka staved in the unbearable silence between them.

“Hi,” said Priyanka and tapped his shoulders. Arun turned and saw her in amazement.

“Yes,” he replied calmly. He was fain to proceed.

“Tell me your number”

– TO BE CONTINUED