The Call Center Guy

I was immersed into the world of imagination as I listened to him & his adventures of a hunter (if you know what I mean). It happened all by chance when a cup of coffee can lead to such a revelation. Albeit, I take it with a pinch of salt knowing that guys will be guys and they like to boast their exploits like anything which can be a figment of imagination . I for one would never believe unless I see some proof.

These days I feel like I have become the call center guy. No I have not joined a call center nor have any girlfriend to spend that much time talking. It just that these professional commitments takes such a toll on my phone that it keep dying on me, thrice to be precise. It reminded me of the talk of my friend who had worked in call center who was so tired of picking calls that when at home, he won’t even pick up the land line ringing.

Old age is considered to be another childhood where the grown ups become kids. I would second that having seen people act like kids to get their work done. One of my recent interactions with one such person proved the point who almost made it a point not to listen to the words that came out of my mouth and insisted that I do as he said.

Why do they have to be stubborn to a point that they end up bullying people to do as they want? At the end, one has to come around to accept the reality. In my experience there are very few people who actually listen and others just prefer to give away their orders like they have earned it.

When I hear about the dating stories of couples, what amazes me on how nowadays girl spends money on the guy instead of the opposite. Have to say girls have come a long way. Its not easy for them to date a guy and make sure that their family does not comes to know about it. I know a girl who does travelling of two hours up & down just to meet her guy. The guy did that once and fall sick....

My work place has been hit with the iphone craze, Almost everyone I know now has an iphone. A colleague bought then another and it spread like a wild fire. All of this was put to an end by another colleague who got the latest model with the highest storage straight from the US. That put an end to the frenzy situation. 

Hide & Seek

I can feel the chill in the air when the wind blows be it day or night. The arrival of winter in a city like Bombay can be felt now but not earlier. Winter season meant only less heat but not this time.

Reminded me of the day as a kid, when I had woke up early in the morning for an NCC (National Cadet Corps) event with my teeth cluttering and the oil on my hair frozen. That was my last recollection of the winter I felt in Bombay.

Hide and Seek was being played out outside my office building. It first started with bike parking that used to happen along the compound walls near the entrance. There happen to be traffic policemen of around 8-10 ensuring that bikes were being taken away and fined people with no proper documentation. It seemed odd given that the road was away from the main road.

This ensured that the bike parking was turned into car parking. Next it was the turn of the illegal eatery stalls that was set up near to the building. Since they are hand in gloves with the local officials, they had ensured that their stalls were not taken away even as a beautification drive was carried out. Next day they are back at their usual places.

Wonder who won and lost….

Not sure how many watched the Olx ad about the husband & wife where the husband sells his car so that his wife can have a car too. She felt her independence was being fringed upon due to her travel woes. Seriously, I think a wife will have more important things to talk about then making her man buy a car to make her feel independent. Comfort food for thought anyone?

I came across a magazine on my desk and wondered if the owner would come forward to take it back. As it laid there for days, I decided to have a peek and read about the “Nyoma Incident” that took place between the jawans and the officers of the Indian army. Never knew something of this nature had taken place and people unaware of it.

Had a farewell of a colleague in the past week and I could not help laugh at the turn of his events. He had put in his papers a month back but yet to get an approval from his manager. Every time he approached her, he would be told to get back later.

Soon the weeks turned into days even as the sight of approval was nowhere to be seen. The irony part was that his day of farewell was announced by his team without no official confirmation from his manager. We chided him to start his farewell speech asking his manager to first approve his resignation.

Anyway, he did manage to get her approval on the last day of the job. Phew!!

Came across this ad during a movie commercial in the theatre and it certainly touch a chord.

Do watch it!

Intolerance Around Complicated Love

Last week, everyone was voicing their opinions strongly, condemned others and took sides in almost all of the whatsapp group that I was a member of.

I will be honest that I have never seen people raising their voices even when the nation has been struck with corruption, tainted ministers holding Govt. positions or misuse of public fund or inefficiency of Govt. to work towards the welfare of people. Yes, it did came as a shock when I saw people reacting.

All this happened as Amir voiced his concern on the growing intolerance in the country and the conversation that took place between a husband & wife in the midst of it.

It was good to see people raising their voices, but instead of pay attention to the topic highlighted they targeted the man who said it out loud. From banning his movies to watch to calling him a traitor and what not.

This proves that half information sometimes can end up creating chaos than seeking out complete information to understand the situation.

I don't think anybody tried to find out why Amir said that and in what context. If you are one of those, please do watch the complete interview on this link

Thank god for people's memory as everything soon returned to normalcy and my whatsapp group with its forwarded jokes and what nots...

Why do love have to be complicated? Why is that guys have to bait the girl before telling her that he likes her? Why is there no easy way to it? Why?

There are certain things that I am good at and one of them is table tennis. Had a go at it after a long time and feels good after sweating it out.

Nothing gets better than to end the weekend with bunch of friends hanging out together which happened last week. The irony part, the friend who actually did manage to arrange this was not part of it as his bestie was getting engaged on the same day. 

That brings my attention to another friend who has ditched the second time and would keep everyone wondering if he is coming or not. He will make you think that he will be reaching and then wont turned up. Any reason for doing that?

I would also like to share my appreciation for the municipal corporation for coming with up with the bumpers on road. These bumpers are small in width and height compare to the normals one. If you are driving in night on a bike, you can surely expect a bump when you go through this as they are not visible in ill lighted areas. I did got one...

Diwali Dhamaka

Diwali was over but the look of the office was still deserted as if people had the blues to join back.

The Diwali dhamaka happened post Diwali when work came in like anything that drives you mad.

I almost forgot to tell about buying a new phone. It was too be arrived two weeks later and driving me crazy. It had ruined my sleep and I started dreaming about it too.

The arrival brought me immense pleasure but then came the technicalities of changing sim card, moving one’s contacts, moving my files, etc. No easy way to do that.

If that was not enough, my colleague could be heard saying out loud to people about my new phone. I so wish to strangle him badly…

How good are you at laughing at yourself when someone makes fun of you? Do you take it in stride or get anger at. I will be honest to admit that I am not too good at it but only a few are allowed to take a jibe at me J What about you?

One of my colleagues found an innovative way to get his home loan cheque that he is pursuing for the past two and half months. The problem was that he had good relations with them and found a way to avoid it getting sore.

I must admit I am amazed by his methodology which seems to be working as he is getting calls from them and the cheque too is now ready for handover.

It rained and the weather just got better to have some ice creams…

Good Over Evil

It was Diwali week and you know it’s around when you see the lighting devices on the people’s balconies/windows and buildings with laterns. Who can forget people on a shopping spree…

Got to see the Marathi movie Double Seat and it’s a heartfelt movie about a family’s struggle to buy a home of their own in the city of Bombay. Do watch it, recommended.

Took time out to read blogs of others something that I have not done for a while. Glad I did it, coz there were a few bloggers who came out of their hibernation.

I connected with my ex colleague who can pen beautiful poems. This was before I started writing. Albeit she has stopped writing & does not mentions the reason behind it. I tried to cheer her up and hope she would write again that would help her get through the phase she is in.

Met a college friend after two years, our place of hangout will be the railway platform. It can be a lively place if you want to watch life moving at its pace or maybe some pretty faces…

Moral choices, do they make you regret later in life and wonder what would happen if you had gone ahead with your other choice. Was it worth making a moral choice? Would love to hear about it....

Chicken Pulav & Police Raid

I kept dozing on and off in the moving bus till I saw the time on my watch. I knew I was going to be late to my office.

My mind started working on the excuse that I had to give to my boss as I was coming from Goa to Bombay and going to be late. The other fact being that my colleague was also there besides me, so it was going to be for the two of us.

It happened to be the first time when the bus got intercepted by the police to check if liquors was been transported by passengers. It seemed that few people did carried it along with a permit, yet the police took it and no fine was applied. Found it odd as never come across such raid earlier.

As I tried to get back in my routine life, I read about the killing for beef eating. Sometimes people just end up taking steps they can never take back. All I could think that it was politically motivated given elections were to happen. I did had a healthy debate during lunchtime with my colleagues on it and no one was ready to take a stand except me given that we all were from different religions. Strange times ha!!

There was a time in the week that I felt that there should have been a clone of me just like in the movie Multiplicity and take care of the work that I have in hand. I wonder about the people who say they get up at 4/5 am in the morning, do workout, read and take their time out to get their work done. I would do the same if I had people working for me. I wonder if we should switch places so that they can know what it’s like to do everything on our own.

One of my friends said he was going to bring chicken pulav parcel. So we gave him money to bring for us too. He informed that the rate was 20-30 bucks higher which we were okay with. What we were not prepared when the parcel came in. It was half of the dish we ordered.

I was left with empty stomach even though the pulav was delicious. I think I can have more of it…

Dress Code

I was seated inside my office when the security guard opened the door, looked at me and started walking forward towards me and said “Sir, this is not allowed.”

My only argument was that I was going to leave in two hours so it should be ok. The guard won’t budge and I ended up changing my three-fourth and out came in denim trouser.

This happened when I was going to leave for Lonavala Apparently guys are not allowed to wear knee length trousers even though girls can get away wearing knee length or even shorter skirts even on a formal day wear. Apparently they can also get away wearing causal looking clothes and claiming they are formals.

I happened pose this question to the bunch of boys of why we are not allowed to wear shorts when girls can get away with it. Seemed like a valid point/question.

“Maybe because of the hair” One replied. I looked at my legs again and wondered were the hair on my legs grower bigger than the hair on my head. Yes, I was wearing three fourth that day and it was our unofficial cricket tournament.

Seriously, I wondered hair on legs? I thought having hair on your body was supposed to be a sign of your manhood. Not going to say excessive hair like on Anil Kapoor’s chest. Maybe he is the closest descendant of our ancestors.

Am I supposed to wax my hair now? Will the corporate world would make it a rule that if a man wish to wear knee length trouser, their hair should be waxed. It just made me imagine and yes I screamed when the strip was pulled up from my leg.

Girls are the ones who are supposed to do that to look pretty, not the guys.

Then again in this age of metro sexuality, I have seen guys caring facials creams in the washroom. Friends wondering if they should play in the heat as it will make them go darker. Heard stories of guys hair removal techniques and do at home bikni waxes too.

My next question is, where have the men gone?

That will be another topic. For now I feel discriminated that as men we are not allowed to wear shorts to office. What happened to the law of equality which is tilted towards the fairer sex  :P

The women in the office can only get delighted that we will be their piece of object whom they can check out. Not that we don’t when they wear skirts.

It will be a win-win situation JJJ

Any one there for taking up this cause with the corporate world?

P.S.: This one was long over-due and I am so glad I was able to write on it.

Marriage: Western Ishtiyle

Came across news of Russell Crowe refusing to divorce his wife of 12 years.

I find this news unusual. Mostly, because when was the last time you heard something like this.

It looks like Russell really cares for his wife and would really like to give another try to his marriage. I find it very inspiring coz you never get to hear news like this especially in the western societies.

The concept of marriage in a western society is very different than ours. For them it’s okay to date that starts right from the school which might cause some serious heartburn for girl’s dad over here.

Dating is okay over there and that’s how you end up finding partner for life.

It also does raise a lot of questions.

Like if you are dating from your school days and yes that also involves sex too, would you give all that up for that special woman/man when you can have all the fun and sleep around with anyone you want?

If you are married to the person you love, does it stops your urges of your physical needs or checking out the opposite sex to only wish and act on it after years passes by…

Let’s be honest, marriage asks for commitment when one forgets why they married when years passed by. Unless you can keep the love alive.

I wonder how it works out to stay loyal, committed in their marriages. Otherwise it’s pretty easy to stray outside marriage when lust lingers around you.

Divorce does no good to anyone including the children who carry the scar for the rest of their lives.

There are so many couples who give up too easily when it could have been worked out. Lives are then spent on what if?

It’s nice to see someone trying to work things out.

In the end, even if it doesn't, at least you know that you gave your 100% when you had the chance…

The Affair

Vijay caressed Chitra’s body all over as she felt the sensation of his touch that made her breathless and scream.

He looked at her as their eyes met and lips locked as they embraced and lost each other in the eternal time.

As their act got over, she turned her back on him. He looked at her back and pretty face and then made a move to be on top of her and asked “Why can’t we be together for the rest of our lives? You know I love you”.

“Is this not enough?” she asked as she wrapped her arms and legs around his body and kissed him.

“No” he replied. “I want you to be my wife” Chitra moved him away as she got up, started getting dressed and said “You know it’s not going to happen”.

“Why can’t you leave your husband and come to me with your kids? You know I have not got married for you” “Maybe you should then she replied as she draped her saree looking in the mirror.

“What about you?” A naked Vijay asked as he got up. “That’s up to you. We can continue like this or…..” Chitra replied as she adjusted her saree.

“We can. You know I cannot live without you” he replied looking at her through the mirror and planted a kiss on her neck and embraced her tightly from behind as they both smiled…

The Year 2014

A whole year has gone by and am wondering if that happened in the blink of an eye.

It feels like yesterday when I told my friend that the year had begun and planned for certain goals for accomplishment.

The year was a mix of everything like every potboiler Hindi movie. Be it drama, romance, suspense, thriller and the masala to keep the audience glued.

The highlight of the year will be my visit to the doctors. It must have beaten my no. of records of visit to them in my entire lifetime.

It started with swollen face (which till now is a mystery), dengue, cold, and then ending up getting my skin scraped when my bike skidded.

I have already started to go for morning walks (don’t ask me why I don’t go gym-ing or jog, I am a lazy person so walk itself is a big effort:) ) Hope to continue with it for a lifetime. The best part about going for early walk is that you can listen to your surrounding and yourself in it.

I got to use my bike only this year which I bought at the end of last year due to stupid company policies. It was worth the wait. I am completely enjoying it and loved the road trip to Lonavala. Hope to undertake road trips in the future too.

Another good thing this year brought was an award. I’ll be honest that I always vied for one in the past even had made to nomination list. Realized that it takes more than work to have your efforts recognized. It was completely out of the blue and yes it feels good. Then again they have lost their meaning…

Went on trips after a gap of two to three years and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am wondering if I should have more of drunkard friends now coz they are the ones who are always ready to go as against the ones who don’t. That what my experience says….

The best part of the trip was the planning part, we would consider a place, and then it would keep changing and then would plan somewhere in India and then abroad and finally back to the place considered in the first place. It’s like taking a world tour with your friends and imagination and coming back to the present having fun.

I am a pessimist (comes easily) who has been trying to be an optimist (trust me it’s not easy). I see things practically and I could say my logic is undeniable:). I keep forgetting that I am a human and yes need to see the humane side of it.

Marriage seems to be the buzz word that is doing the rounds. If you are one of the girls who think that they are the only ones who is asked when is the marriage, you are wrong. Guys too end up at the receiving end.

Our Indian society is so worried about singles staying single that they want to see them get married at the earliest.

I also amended my ties with a close friend with whom I had stopped talking for about a year over a small tiff.

I can see positive changes in me and hope to continue that in the future.

Hope you had a great year too and looking forward for the next.

Wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

In Search Of God

“People break down into two groups:

When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them.

Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance, I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear.

Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky?”

— Mel Gibson in the movie Signs

When one visits places of worship, you will find faces deep in devotion praying to the Lord and sometimes making you wonder if your devotion to god is less than theirs.

You will always find people around you showing their blind faith to the extent of keeping fasts, doing certain rituals or following certain customs that shows their love for their god.

The question is does it work? No one knows as they are open to all kind of interpretations. Believers and Non-believers will have their way of proving that.

We all have our experiences from our childhood where we are taught to pray to god who will protect us from the evil and gives us strength in our trying times.

A mental mindset that we also happen to imbibe in our adult age and when questioned why you pray to god, the answer comes out like the ones when we had to by heart the answers to pass our exams.

Question why do you believe in god and do you believe in his existence?

This will draw a blank for a few and others would repeat their answers like a true follower. It does make one wonder if following blindly without understanding/questioning a right thing to do?

If someone was to question why you believe in god, what would be your answer?

A majority of us pray to god for the well-being of our family and yes fulfillment of our desires and protecting from harm. Ever thought that you pray so that you protect your self-interest?

Never must have occurred that probably god wants you to worship them for who they are rather than taking out the laundry list and handing it to him to take care.

The existence of god is a subject that no one would prefer to touch. No one knows how we came into believing in god or in higher form. It’s like theories revolving around the Big Bang that brought our planet into existence. To put it mildly, one would question who came first the chicken or the egg.

Ever thought if god was the figment of imagination of our novel writers in the past who wrote books that today we considered sacred not knowing if truth is all what is written there to be true.

It’s like a book that is published which has its fan following and then their own interpretations and of course versions of what it meant and books on the characters involved.

What though needs to be stated that is we look for ‘hope’ when we pray to god to help us deal with our day to day struggle.

Believing in god gives one courage to and strength to fight the challenges that lay ahead.

It’s up to you how you believe and follow your god as there are no wrong ways but putting blind faith and following rituals/customs without knowing the true meaning is certainly not acceptable.

People often fail to differentiate between god and religion. Religion is man-made and god a mystery.

To find god we need to look deep within us as we find ourselves we find him.

The Blackboard

I am wondering where to begin with….

When your life becomes a big blackboard one can draw anything that they like and will remain so unless you decide to go for something better.

I realize that I have been holding the chalk in my hand for quite some time. Though I have been conscious now that I can draw whatever I want.

The only flaw of the blackboard is that it decides the lines that will stay around it and the rest will disappear as if they never existed.

One does not have any control when that happens. (You should read my earlier post capturing this phenomenon).

I understand that one does not have much of a choice when the lines drawn across disappear in thin air.

It’s when you take a step back and look at the whole picture, you realize that all along the drawing in your mind turned out something different then you visualized it.

I wonder if looking at the picture, you wonder if this was better this way or could have been better.

As for me, I am still wondering as the picture does not look complete to me. I do though have let go of my stubbornness and let the drawing take its own shape into a picture.

I guess I am going to surprise myself when I take a step back and see the white lines making its mark on the blackboard.

Maybe letting the lines grow on its own gets to you and changes your outlook. What do you think?

To My Friend

Friends are forever they say but it only sounds good in proverbs not in reality.

To keep in touch with friend, you need time and time is money for some. Even if you make the effort to stay in touch, it’s not necessary that they will too.

With the advent of smartphones, the world has become a smaller place and one can stay in touch with each other on real time basis through apps like skype, whatsapp, etc. The distance barrier becomes a mere line drawn on maps of the world.

Still you will find friends who would choose to disappear on you. No matter you how much you try to get in touch with them.

I have such a friend.

She has gone AWOL on me and my attempt to get in touch has been futile. She had informed me beforehand that she will do that but I took it as a joke….

We had met three years back, when I had resumed from my leave and found a girl wearing a while salwar sitting on my desk. As I went to her and told about it, she got up and sat at a different place.

Turned out she was a new joinee.

Few days later she approached me once when she had a query and observing her I thought she was a quiet one. That was it and we hardly had any interactions on day to day basis.

We had a change in the seating arrangement and she ended up with a desk behind me.

I take time to open and don’t really recall what lead one thing to another and we hit it off instantly. We could talk on so many topics/subjects that I start to feel that God finally listened to me and have sent some like minded being to mingle with me.

It does feels damn good when you find such a person to talk to as it can be considered as a rare find.

She liked to read books and watch movies that I enjoyed too. We used to end up chatting at the station before we departed different ways.

In a very short span of time, we become close friends say in a span of three months. For me, that’s nothing short of a record for making friends in such a short time.

Like every good things that comes to an end, this too had come to an end. I got moved to a different location and yes, we still kept in touch.

I have noticed that every time a girl becomes a good friend, they drift away from me in such a way that I cannot contact them. This has happened twice in the past. I was seriously hoping this should not be the third time.

If the fate is written, you can only watch it happen not change it.

I met her the time when saw came to my office and thereafter she went on leave, never to return.

Though we still stayed in touch, she informed me that she is going back to her native place to settle down over there and yes her family was finding a match for her.

She finally did found one whom she said yes. Her marriage got fixed for which I was happy but then she informed me that she hated the idea of being away when the people she knew were here. She indirectly hinted that she might not stay in touch as it would not be easy for her.

I did tried to cheer her up and informed the ‘importance of staying in touch’ & ‘friends forever’ and thought my words made her understand my point. It was not meant to.

I texted her on her marriage day and then tried getting in touch with her after a few weeks but the numbers were disconnected. There were no replies from her online account either.

I ended up losing my friend.

It’s been two years now that we have not been in touch with each other. I still miss her as she had become one of my closest friends and we had so much in common.

That reminds me that we share our birthday.

This is for you my friend, hope you are living your life happily and god blesses you for your wishes and dreams to come true.

Wishing you a Happy Birthday.

My First Motorbike Road Trip

Ever thought of a travel plan with your friends where you decided what you are going to do and then come back with happy memories.

Except in my case, nothing ever went according to the plan and will be memories that we will use on each other to chide.

It was a routine office day when one conversation let to another and we were conversing on going out on such a good weather of rainy season. Everyone got hooked and places were discussed to go. This went on for quite a few days and finally it was locked on to Lonavala.

The part of arranging transport for our journey turns out to be a tedious one. We were six people and one car was not going to be enough so we discussed on it and renting a bigger car was out of question as budget of the trip would have going high.

As we fixated on the date we were going to depart and confirmation taken from people; that one backed out. It was the guy on whose car we were going to travel started dilly dallying saying he will let us know. We had a back-up car with us but six people were going to be a problem.

Finally, the guy confirmed he will not be able to join. As we worked on an alternative, one of the friends suggested that we go on bikes since three of us had motorbikes. Everyone was game for it and it was decided that we will be going on motorbikes.

To be honest, my heart came to my mouth as I was going to be one of the riders. I have passed through those roads as kid with my Dad driving the car on our way to our native place. Who can forget the ghats? Ghats can be a nightmare if you were not a good driver.

Ever seen a traffic jam on a steep slope where you lose your foot on the break and you will find the shortest route to reach the base of the ghat. Memories of my previous trips came back to haunt me with my inexperience in driving in such roads.

As the day passed by my heart beat started to beat faster than usual. Somehow I managed to get rid of my negative thoughts as I discussed our journey with my friends. Later on, I was looking forward to go on my first road trip on motorbike. I was so excited that I could have left a week early than the scheduled date :)

Got my bike serviced and it was all set to burn some rubber.

The day arrived when we were going to embark on our journey. Before we could leave, one of the bikes got stalled and was nesting on the mechanics garage for repair. Two more people joined us and another friend bought his bike along.

Once it got sorted we began our journey by gassing up our bikes and v roomed our way to our destination.

I was also the official photographer for the trip as I made good of our short breaks in between by taking snaps.

We were supposed to be stuck together while riding but that did not happen. The guy who knew the route would speed away. While I and my friend would tag along, the other bike was nowhere in the picture.

It was supposed to be a two hour ride but we took more than that. We would meet at certain points, get together and then again be on our way.

It was evening when we reached the ghats, the road were not that scary from the one that I had seen. The roads leading up to it were beautiful. We even made a stop on top of the ghat and screamed with our lungs out.

We reached our destination around 8 pm and our journey was still on as we searched for accommodations. The climate was just awesome with chilly breeze blowing.

It was 11 pm in the night when we finally found accommodation and then went for dinner and stayed up late in the night.

The morning was another day to look forward to as we went to sightseeing and had fun which never went the way we expected.

It was in the evening we decided to head back to Bombay as we took with us the adventure of coming on a road trip on a motorbike.

The best part of the trip was one of the biker search for ‘power’ fuel which led him to 10-15 petrol stations but none to fill up his gas tank. He (who was the pillon rider on his own bike) and another friend reached all the way on reserve fuel and it was simply hilarious to hear their both conversations.

I really enjoyed the road trip on a motorbike and this could not have been done any other way. I am waiting for another road trip to happen. I guess there is no turning back ha :)

Being Anonymous

I have been holding on to this blog for quite a while now and yes it makes me reminisce about the time when I start blogging and making me realize that I have come a long way as I have grown with my blog getting older….

One of the things that I do end up doing these days is help people draft mails, sometimes to write stinker mails or to reply one :)

Many a times, I wondered if I should be there out in the open along with my fellow bloggers who have been blogging with their real identities and not hiding behind a pseudonym like I do.

When I started, I used an alias probably to test the waters and not get in conflict with people about whom I sometimes have blogged about. Those who have been following the blog must have come across me change my pen name quite a time until I found an apt nick name the “Tall Guy”

In real life too, I have more than one name. My real name is unknown to many of my relatives, friends and neighbors around whom I have grown up and the irony is that despite telling my name to people, they come up with their own version of what I should be called. People who do know my real name don’t know about the other :)

I did give a lot of thought of coming out of the closet though I have nothing to hide (hope you are not able to read my mind).  Probably letting people around me know that yes I can write and yes have my own space on the internet whose rights only belongs to me.

Then again, the benefits of being anonymous outdoes of being known.  The ability of people judging your post basis of what you wrote instead of who you are. May be I am thinking too much about it inside my head but that’s the way it comes to me. It’s what you write that connects you to others.

Somehow letting go of this identity does not come easy to me and I don’t think I will be doing it at least for now. Though the thought does come to my mind from time to time.

Wonder if other anonymous bloggers have given a thought about it. Please do share your thoughts.

P.S. It came as a surprise that the blog is six and half years old and probably one of the things that I have stick too for such a long time.

I did though published an e-book of short stories that was well-received and surprised many :)

Rain Drops

Rajan rolled down his car window as it came to a halt at the traffic signal. The wind gushed across his face as raindrops touched his face. 

His car engine roared into action as the signal turned green and cruise the empty roads in the night. He reminisced about the night when he and Madhu were together on such a night.

They were into each other arms, kissing even as the taxi they were in kept moving Their passion kept them oblivion to the outside world as they kept looking into each other and whispered “I love you”.

When the time came to depart, he held her palm as she made her way outside the car. Their eyes showed their desire to be together but they went their separate ways. It was a night Rajan knew he will never forget.

As he parked his car he looked at Madhu sitting next to him who had fallen asleep during their journey.

He looked at her for a while, leaned towards her and kissed her on the lips that woke her up. 

“What was that for?” she asked him. He said “We are home” he said and got out of the car with a smile on his face.

The Perfect Crime — IV

Rock music was blaring through the speakers when the doorbell rang. A man in his white shorts and black t-shirt opened the door to find police standing outside. “Sumit Sadh stays here? The inspector asks as and as the guy nodded his head, he informed him to open the door.

They walked towards the room from where the music was coming to find him smoking in the balcony with a glass of vodka kept on the side table and sitting on wooded chair watching the outside view.

The silence of music caught his attention and as he turned over he found them standing next to him. “You are under arrest; you will have to come with us. Constable, handcuff him” the inspector ordered “You cannot do this. Let me know what I have done wrong” he screamed and reasoned with them but they took him along.

Sumit was sitting on the chair in front of Sushil’s desk waiting for his arrival as a constable nearby kept watched over him. Moments after, Sushil walked inside and said “Hello, Mr. Sumit, how are you?” as he sat on his chair.

Sumit looked furious and said “Why am I being arrested. Can you let me know? I have already informed you that I have not done anything”. Sushil looked at him and said “Are you being honest with me. You really don’t know why you are here. Do you really want me to tell you why you are here? 

Their eyes glared into each other as Sumit looked at Sushil and said “Yes I want to know”.

“Okay, so you want to have it this way then so be it” said Sushil as he got up. “You might remember, we had called you for questioning for the murder of Chaitra Raghavan, don’t you?” Sushil looked at him as he leaned over the desk and Sumit nodded his head.

“We got you under arrest for killing Chaitra Raghavan”. “What proof do you have that I have killed her?” asked Sumit. “I knew you were going to ask that, so evidence number one you knew Chaitra and we have your friend’s statement to corroborate it.

“That does not prove that I killed her”. “I know. I am going to present evidence number two. We have text messages to prove that you were in touch with her and that you had spoken to her on the day she was murdered”. He looked at him and asked him “So you still believe that you are innocent or I should provide more evidence to you”

Sumit kept quiet as he looked other way moving his gaze from Sushil. “You still think that we do not have enough proof to nail you” he said as he walked away from him. “We know that you were blackmailing her” He turned his chair around looked him into his eyes and asked “Do you still say that you did not killed her?” he paused and said, “Come on answer me. Answer me, dam it” as he raised his voice.

Silence crept in as tension got built up in the room with Sumit looking down as Sushil waited for a response.

“Yes I killed her”. Sumit said slowly as he moved his head up and looked towards Sushil. “She was going to tell Milind everything and I did not want that to happen. I killed her by putting poison in her tea”.

“You did not want the money to stop coming through her. Am I right?” Sushil thundered as Sumit nodded his head and said yes.

“Take him to the cell”. He said to the constable standing in the room. As Sumit was taken away, Constable Shankar announced the arrival of Milind. 

“Bring him in”. Sushil apprised him of the events that unfolded and that led them to Sumit Sadh, killer of Chaitra. “The vital clue was provided by the landlord who confirmed to see her and overheard about talking about pictures” “Photos? Which photos? Asked a puzzled Milind.

Sushil face got grim as he looked over at Milind and said “He had shot obscene photos of her during their college days and was blackmailing her”. Taken aback, he moved back and said “She never told me of any such thing about blackmailing. Was she in a relationship with her and he made use of her? He asked.

“We still have pieces of evidence to tie up together and at this moment we cannot be certain if she was aware or unconscious when the photos were taken. We have arrested him and will make sure that he does not see the sunlight for a very long time”.

As Milind thanked him and left, Constable Shankar asked Sushil “Sir, how did you know which Sumit Sadh was the killer as they both knew her”. “That was not very hard once it came down to two individuals. We just needed to find out their whereabouts when Chaitra was murdered and everything fitted. The phone details also helped. That nailed our guy in glasses. 

“Remember one thing, there is nothing like a perfect crime” Sushil said as he gave a spin to the paper weight and it keep on spinning.

The Perfect Crime — III

Inspector Sushil was sitting at his desk having his morning tea when he heard an old man approaching him with anger and asking him “How could you let him go? He killed my only daughter. How could you let him go? I need an explanation thundered the man as Sushant stood beside him and as Sushil looked towards him, he said “I tried to stop him, but he would not listen” displaying his helplessness.

“Sir, please have a seat” Sushil gestured politely through his hand. As the old man in his checks shirt and trousers took a seat adjusting his glasses. “May I ask who you are and whom you are talking about? He asked him.

“Myself, Vishnu Iyer and I am the bereaved father of Chaitra who was killed by Milind and you let him go knowing that he stabbed her with the knife three times!!” He thundered as Sushil looked at him.

“Sir, please calm down. I know that you are upset thinking we let your daughter’s killer go away but that’s not the case.” “Your daughter had died before he could kill her as per the forensics reports. He was not at home at that moment and we have witnesses and proof that corroborate that”

“Are you trying to say that my daughter killed herself?” he questioned him. “It does look that way but we are not ruling out murder as we could find any evidence of the poison in the house. The watchman of the society also confirmed that he had seen Chaitra going out and then coming back to her home. CCTV footage of the building also confirms it. We checked all the house items for poison and did not find any. In fact when we checked the house, there was no sign of food being prepared”

Tears had filled up in Mr. Iyer’s eyes as he looked towards Sushil and he offered him solace before leaving him outside the police station.

Milind was taking out clothes of Chaitra from her cupboard and putting it in the suitcase as was informed to him by her father to give away all that belonged to her to them.

He noticed the drawers and opened one of them to find it full of accessories to her clothes. There was another drawer wherein he found a dairy.

He found the letters that he had written during their courtship days which took him down the memory lane as he recalled the times of their blissful relationship. As he moved to keep it back in its place, the dairy slipped through his fingers and fell on the ground.

As he picked up the dairy, he noticed the scribbling of mobile number along with date mentioned against it which was a recent one

Chaitra had an unusual habit of writing down dates against anything she wrote so that it gave her a recollection of what it was intended for when she used to forget.

Milind dialed the number but he received the message that the number is out of service. He wondered to whom the number could have belonged and if it could have any connection to her death.

He called up Suhil and informed him about the mobile number scribbled in her dairy. Sushil made a note of it and informed he will get back to him.

Few days later Milind was informed to visit the police station. Sushil greeted him as he approached his desk and he gestured him to have a seat.

“We did a check on the mobile number provided and found that the number was registered under the name of Sumit Sadh but the residential address provided turned out to be fake. So do you know any one named Sumit Sadh? He asked Milind as he looked on.

The name did not ring a bell in his mind. “I don’t know it could be Chaitra’s friend, but I have never heard the name before”. “Not a problem. We are checking with her office, family and friends, I would suggest you also do and if you know her online accounts like Facebook then provide us the login details to check for details”.

“Yes, I will. I don’t remember her login details but the login details are saved in our browser. I’ll message them to you once I am at home”

Milind was looking at his laptop monitor screen as the webpage of the social network loaded. The autofill dropdown list provided him with her login details and as for the password they used to keep common passwords just in case. 

He tried the password and it worked. He went to the friend’s list and put up the name Sumit Sadh but there was no name reflecting. He tried putting the first name and then the last name but the result remained the same.

He tried other sites too but the result remained the same. He decided to get in touch with her friends from her school, college and at office but they were of no help. No one could recollect the name not even her closest friends.

Inspector Sushil also did his bit and was unable to find anyone who knew Sumit Sadh. The case had come to a dead end.

Sitting at his chair, Sushil was sipping his tea when the constable came in and said “Sir, this is Vivek Nair. Dressed in formal trousers with glasses over his eyes he moved forward to shake hands with Sushil and sat down.

Sushil explained Vivek, a computer hacker with skills about the mystery surrounding Chaitra’s death and informed him that they were unable to trace the person online and required his technical expertise to do so. “Would you be able to help if she knew anyone by that name online” asked Sushil.

“Surely we would, provided you have her login details of various social sites. I can run a check on her list of friends and their friends to check if anyone knew him and that way we would be able to know if they were directly linked to her or she came to know him through common friends”

“How long would it take to find out?” “Give me a couple of days, as I will have to do create an application to do the search. You share with me her login ids and I will let you know”.

A few days later, Milind was summoned to the police station. Vivek was already there with Sushil as he joined them in the midst of their conversation.

“Have a seat, Milind. We were discussing about the results that Vivek has filtered out”. “Have we got the killer?” Milind asked anxiously. “Not yet but we have narrowed down the suspects. Vivek, if you could explain”.

“As per the login details that you shared, I created a crawl search that would check for two attributes that in this case would be the first name and the last name. It will check for social network friends and then search if their friends list includes the name. That way we will come to know if she knew anyone by that name through common friends”

Both Vivek and Sushil were trying to read Milind when he asked “Any luck then….” Vivek looked at Sushil who nodded his head and then he said “The search has narrowed down four names that needs to be looked into”. “We need to have them checked. Meanwhile we decided to show you the list first in case if you know any of them” Sushil said looking towards Vivek. Vivek showed Milind the profile and photos on his laptop. “You think, you know any of them?” Sushil asked.

“No. I have not seen them” Milind retorted. Sushil gave a grim look and said “That put us in a tight spot as we were hoping that you will be able to identify at least one of them that would lead us to the killer”

“I would have if I had seen them but never saw them once” Milind replied even as Sushil looked at him taking a note of his response. As Milind looked at Sushil, he looked back moved back on his chair and said “I guess we will have to then question her friends. Thank you for your time. You can leave”

Vivek saw Milind leave and then turned towards Sushil and asked “Do you really think that he is not the killer?” He looked at him and said “In our profession, everyone is a suspect, till we find the culprit”.

“Yes, he used to live here but a few months back he left as we gave the place to rent to another family” said the moustache bald guy who looked at the photo shown by the constable. “Do you know where he stays now?” he asked. “No, he was living with a friend but never gave the address but I do have his number you can check with him. The constable made a note of the mobile number read out by the landlord reading out through his handset.

He called up Sushil “Sir, Constable Shankar here. I have checked with the landlord with regard to the details of Sumit Sadh. He does not live here anymore but he has his number which he has given to me.” “Good job, sms the number to me” Sushil said and hung up the phone.

Sushil looked at the two details of  Sumit Sadh kept on his table and kept spinning the paper weight in his fingers as he wondered who the real culprit would be.

“Can you please let me know why I was asked to come down here?” a guy in spectacles in a blue shirt asks the constable as he sat on one of the side benches inside the police station. “Wait for sir to call you” the constable said and went away.

A short guy with a protruding belly walked in wearing a black t-shirt and jeans. He had a word with the constable nearby and was guided towards the man sitting on the bench. As he approached, the other guy sitting watched him coming over and sits next to him. 

He looked here and there for a while and saw the guy in spectacles next to him. “You are here to file a complaint?” he asked. “No” he replied. “What are you doing then?” he queried as he kept shaking his left leg. “I was summoned here but don’t know why.” “Me too” pat came the reply. “I am Sumit Sadh” sad the guy in spectacles as he move his hand to shake hands. The short gut stared into him and said “my name is also sumit sadh as he slowly moved his hand to meet him mid-way.

Time had come to a standstill as they both wondered if they were there for the same reason. One by one, they both went in Sushil’s cabin and came out after spending quite a time inside.

Constable Shanker stepped inside his cabin and said “Sir, this file of the theft case that you wanted” as he handed over the file. As Sushil looked into the file, Shanker said “Sir, who do you think is the killer among the two?”

“They both say they don’t know her but every killer makes a mistake and we just need to find that. If they did not make any then they will now” replied Sushil as he looked over Shanker.

The Perfect Crime — II

Milind looked at him puzzled asked “How is that possible? She was sleeping, when I entered the room, I put the pillow on her face and then stabbed on her stomach”

“As per the post mortem results that we have received, she was already dead by almost two hours and that she died of poisoning. Which again could be a case of suicide or someone might have killed her. Do you think, if there was anyone else who could have done it?

Sushil looked at him as he appeared lost in his thoughts. “Do you Milind?” he said that got his attention. “What about the man who was having affair with her? Did you find him?”

“No. We have not found anything that would suggest that she was seeing someone. We checked with her friends, office and we also searched for fingerprints at your home, but there were none apart from yours and Chaitra. So there could be a possibility that she was not having any affair” slowly said Sushil as he watched the facial movement of Milind.

After a silence, Milind said “she was having an affair. I know, I have seen her speaking suspiciously. Telling me that she was going to her mother’s house but wouldn’t be there. There have been several such instances wherein things did not add up. 

“One day I checked her phone when she was taking a bath and she had a message that would tell her where to meet. There were messages which looked like were sent by one who was having an affair with her. Did you check her phone?

“Yes we did but we did not find any such records which looked suspicious” “What about her other number? Did you check that too? He asked.

Puzzled Sushil asked him “which other number?” “She had two numbers. One personal and other official number” Milind replied. “We found only one mobile number and it’s this one” Sushil said as he showed the number saved on his handset.

“It’s the other one; she had said it was an official number which she used for incoming calls. She had a dual sim handset, you will find the sim card in it and then you can probably find the person too”

“Okay, we will look into it. The other thing that I wanted to say to you is that we are letting you go since the evidence states that she had died before your attempt to kill her”.

Milind looked at Sushil for a while and then said “Who killed her then, are we not going to find that out?” “We will. We will also require your help in resolving the case”. He got up, shake hands as he ushered him outside until the constable took hold of Milind.

Inspector Sushant entered the room as Milind left and said “Sir, do you really believe that he did not kill his wife?” “Well, only time will tell. We just need to wait and watch till he makes a mistake. After all no crime is perfect” Sushil said as he got up and both walked out of the room.

Been released from the jail, Milind entered his home which remain untouched in his absence finding everything in its place as it emanated strong smell of being kept closed.

He opened the windows, moved away the curtains as the light of the moon entered his home. He went inside his bedroom and sat on the very bed in which he killed his wife.

He looked lost in thoughts as his body appeared numb for a while and then he got up to take a bath. As the sprinkler hit his face with water, he could feel the rush of the water but that did not stopped the thoughts that lingered over his mind. The happy memories of Chaitra would come to his mind.

Why, why would she fall in love with another man, was I not taking good care of her was the question that was wielded into his heart as a knife. Tears stared flowing through his eyes even as the water splashed his face.

He came out, wore a t-shirt and shorts and called up his mother to inform her that he was released and at home. “Do you want me to come? I don’t think you should stay alone.” His mother said. He pacified her and said he would manage and kept the phone as he lied on the bed.