Game Over (Part 2)

If you missed Part 1, read it here.

It took me ten minutes to change my clothes and come back out of the restroom. Some people were still staring at me. I still kept ignoring them. I occupied my seat and looked at her. She still looked miserable. I tried to dump my clothes inside my bag, and after much effort, managed to do so. I settled down in my seat and she opened her mouth to speak.

'My name is Krithika." she said, as she offered a handshake.
"Oh, nice name. I am Karthik." I accepted her friendly gesture.
"Are you going to IUPUI too?" she wanted to know.
"No. Actually I am going to IUB." I noticed the disappointment creep into her face as I said that.
"Oh, good. I wanted to apply there, but I missed the deadline." she explained.
"That is bad. But IUPUI is a good university too."
"Not as good as IUB though." she added before I could finish.

And there it started. We spoke as if we had been friends for long. The talk started with university rankings, admits and rejects, and other academic stuff, and slowly moved on to hobbies, parents, and personal stuff. We had talked to each other for almost 2 hours, and I felt I almost knew her entire life history, and I had told her mine. An old lady sitting in the front row was glaring at us because I guessed she couldn't sleep. I ignored her looks. Anyway, both of us felt tired after the long talking session, so we decided we needed some sleep. And we fell asleep soon after.

By the time I opened my eyes again, she was awake already. I drowned in her eyes as she said a "Hi" with the same cute smile. I smiled back sheepishly, rather sleepily. She was watching something on the personal entertainment system. I leaned forward to see what it was.

"Rock on." she whispered before I could recognize the scene.
"Oh, nice movie." I replied.

Bored, I started watching some old tennis matches. Before long, a voice in the PA system announced that we were about to land in New York. Ah, finally after so much preparation and struggle, here I am, at the United States of America. A huge sigh of relief. Little did I know, that, two weeks later, I wouldn't be so relieved after all.

to be continued...

Love at work

I hated to work on Saturday evenings. Especially since all my roommates would be enjoying in Kilroy's Sports Bar, while I would be cleaning up trash, or serving burritos. That Saturday, I was put up at the Italian food joint, and it was particularly busy. I had never seen so much crowd before, and it was tiring. The only solace was that Hafize was working in a place right opposite to mine.

I first met her when we both were put up in the same place for the shift, the Deli. Being the evening shift, not many people wanted sandwiches, so it was relatively free. I managed to strike a conversation with her, introducing myself, and that I am from India. She introduced herself and said she was from Turkey. Boy, was she pretty! She was the most beautiful girl I had seen in years. I got lost in her eyes for sometime, before I managed to get back to the real world again.

The word 'India' worked wonders, as she started raving about how great and beautiful India is, and how handsome Indian guys are. Then we started talking about the university, our respective courses, how she finds speaking in English very difficult, and so on. She seemed to know most other people working in the food court. As one of the guys, Dan passed by, he commented.

"Hey, nice boo@#" he said to her. I couldn't hear properly what he meant to say, as I shook my head in disbelief.
"Thank you." she replied with a big smile on her face.

I was thinking, what the hell is wrong with this girl. Then I realized she was wearing quite a nice pair of boots. I literally banged my head against the wall. Time seemed to fly as we kept talking. By the time she left I knew it. Yes, I was in love.

Sadly, after that one time, I couldn't meet her much. Even if we did, we didn't have time to say anything more than a 'Hi. How are you?'. Even on that day, there was no way I could talk with her, but I had all the time in the world to look at her. Ah those pretty eyes. I could swim in them forever.

Soon after that, my shift ended, and so did her's. I met her when we were clocking out.

"So, how was your shift?" I asked her.
"Not bad. How was yours?" she asked me back.
"It was awesome." I said with a smile.
"Any plans tonight?"
"Nope, nothing as of now." I told her honestly.
"Oh. Where do you live, by the way?" she wanted to know.
"Park doral apartments, it is near Best Buy. You know?" I tried to explain to her.
"Ya. Actually that is quite near to my place."
"Oh is it? That is cool." I told her.
"You know what? You can come to my place, and have some food. Then I will drop you in your apartment. What say?

I couldn't believe my ears. Did I hear her correctly, or was I just imagining something?

"Er, you have a car?" I managed to blurt out.
"Of course, stupid. Tell soon, my husband is waiting outside in his car." she said quite clearly.

There was a huge shattering noise heard somewhere inside the huge hall, and everyone rushed to see if any of the glassware crashed to the floor. Alas, it was the sound of my heart breaking.

Evolution of dreams

Age 7-15 : You dream that your mom/dad is dead and wake up scared.
Age 16-22 : You dream that your girl/boy friend is dead and wake up scared.
Age 23-30 : You dream that your spouse is dead and wake up scared.
Age 31-55 : You dream that children are dead and wake up scared.
Age 56-69 : You dream that your grandchildren are dead and wake up scared.
Age 70+ : You dream that you are dead and realize it wasn't a dream.

The last words

Another of my 55fiction works:
She held his hands. It felt warm and nice. How she wished she could have married him! Even now, he looked so handsome. She realized she could never live with him again. After much trouble, he opened his mouth to speak. "Why did you kill me?"

Game over (Part 1)

"Welcome to Indianapolis!", the driver announced as the shuttle entered the airport. Though it was the second time I was going to Indy, something about the place looked unfamiliar to me. Maybe it was the weather? I didn't know. It was kind of chill and foggy when I got down from the shuttle. There was the scent of rain, but I hoped it wouldn't rain, at least not till I get back inside the safety of my apartment.

I walked towards the exit gates of the airport. The bus stop was a little further away. I had been told that a bus arrives exactly at 12.30 pm, so I figured out I would have at least ten minutes before the bus arrived. My mind started wandering towards the happenings of the last two weeks. Everything had been a blur. I wondered for the umpteenth time whether I was living in a dream, and when I wake up, everything would vanish. But I knew without pinching myself that I was indeed in reality. And I had some serious work to do.

Everything had started during my flight two weeks back. I was excited about traveling in a jet, because I had never been air-borne before. Add to it the excitement of a new place, new country, and new-found freedom, and you have got a hyper-excited guy. It was supposed to be the beginning of an important phase in my life. A ticket to all my dreams. Higher education in the United States. The first leg from Chennai to Brussels had been smooth. I got a window seat, and there was this pretty Indian girl sitting next to me. There was a mutual unspoken understanding, which meant we ignored the existence of each other. I tried not to sit too close to her, as much as possible, and she tried the same too. No problems whatsover. I was perfectly fine with the arrangement.

Trouble started during the second leg of the flight. After a one-hour stop at Brussels, it was hardly fifteen minutes after take-off towards New York, when she puked on me. It was so sudden. I didn't know what to do. I kept staring as she kept on vomiting on my shirt and my brand new pair of jeans. I tried to react by avoiding the path of flow, but it didn't help. In the matter of seconds, my clothes were ruined. She looked at me with a look I could only classify as apologetic. I still didn't know what to do. She spoke first.

"I am so sorry. I don't know, I have been feeling sick for the past two days, and now this turbulence during take-off. Before I had time to control it, I just vomited. I am extremely sorry."

I kept glaring at her. But the gentleman I was trying to be I told her, "It is okay. Are you feeling okay now? Do you need medical attention?"

"Oh no, I will be fine. God, look at how badly I have soiled your clothes! I am so sorry! I feel so bad I did this!" she moaned.

Actually she looked kinda cute when she said that. But I tried not to show any emotion. I just said, "No it's alright. I have a couple of tees and some pairs of jeans in my cabin bag. I guess I will just change and come." Saying that, I stood up and tried to retrieve my bag from the overhead compartment. I felt that a lot of people were looking at me. But I tried to ignore them, and concentrated just on taking my clothes from the bag. When I finally managed to do it with some help from the girl, I rushed to the rest room and changed. My clothes were stinking from all that liquid.

to be continued...

Images in the rain

It had been an unusually hot afternoon. So, it was no surprise that it grew dark and cloudy by late evening. With hardly five days left to start, I had to get a photocopy of all the important documents. But by the time I decided to step out of my home to do my task, I started to drizzle a lot. Therefore, I went back home, ditched my plans of going to the photocopy shop by my bike, took an umbrella and decided to walk all the way. Not that it was too far away. It was hardly a ten minute walk.

I had hardly walked a few blocks away from my home, when it started to rain quite heavily. I had the documents safe inside my shirt pocket. The road I was walking on criss-crossed one of the many slums in Chennai. It was amazing how rain causes different reactions from different persons. People who had so far been sitting on the roads and chatting aimlessly, rushed inside their respective shelters. A nearby tea shop, which I had noticed as always empty before, was teeming with customers. The shopkeeper appeared to be thanking his lucky stars, or rather, his lucky clouds. I had every reason to believe that by the time I would come back home, he would have earned enough for at least a couple of days.

A little further down the road, another shopkeeper looked as if he had been completely shattered. And he had every reason to believe so. He was dealing with construction materials, and it seemed that he had no time at all to prevent all his cement stock from getting wet. So, there he was, looking completely lost and sat staring at all the wet cement bags from inside his small and dilapidated showroom.

As I walked a little more, I saw that a lot of people had left their motorcycles on the road and were seeking refuge from the rain near the entrance of a small temple. On one of the bikes was written 'Masha Allah'. Well, rain knows no religion nor caste, does it? A small kid was riding his bicycle, enjoying cycling over the large puddles of water. I envied him, for he had no worries about tomorrow or the day after.

The rain had become heavier, and soon there were strong winds too. I positioned the umbrella in a position that would counter the effect of the wind, but it didn't prevent me from getting completely drenched. I had completely forgot that my documents were still inside my pocket. I rushed inside a nearby ATM, and took them out slowly. All I recovered was shreds of paper. Amazing isn't it, how rain can affect a person's life so much.

A very funny story

I just found this story on the internet when I was browsing casually. Thought I could share it here. The author is unknown.

Rajinikanth was bragging to Jayalalitha one day, "You know, I know everyone there is to know.

Just name someone, anyone, and I know them."

Tired of his boasting, Jayalalitha called his bluff, "OK, Rajini how about Tom Cruise?"

"Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it" Rajini said.

So Rajini and Jayalalitha fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's door, and sure enough, Tom Cruise shouts

"Thalaiva! Great to see you! You and your friend come right in and join me for lunch!".

Although impressed, Jayalalitha is still skeptical.

After they leave Cruise's house, she tells Rajini that she thinks Rajini knowing Cruise was just lucky.

"No, no, just name anyone else" Rajini says.

"President Bush", Jayalalitha quickly retorts.

"Yes", Rajini says, "I know him, let's fly out to Washington".

And off they go. At the White House, Bush spots Rajini on the tour and motions him , saying,

"Rajini, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come on in and let's have a cup of coffee first and catch up".

Well, Jayalalitha is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced. After they leave the White House grounds, he implores her to name anyone else.

"The Pope," Jayalalitha replies.

"Sure!" says Rajini, "My folks are from Germany and I've known the Pope a long time".

So off they fly to Rome. Rajini and Jayalalitha are assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Rajini says, "This will never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I'll come out on the balcony with the Pope."

And he disappears into the crowd headed toward the Vatican. Sure enough, half an hour later Rajini emerges with the Pope on the balcony. But by the time Rajini returns, he finds that Jayalalitha had a Heart attack and is surrounded by paramedics.Working his way to Jayalalitha's side, Rajini asks her, "What happened?"

Jayalalitha looks up and says, "I was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on the balcony and the man next to me said, 'Who's that on the balcony with my thalaivar Rajinikanth?' "