When The Eyes Went Dead - I

When I came home from school, I noticed something was different at home; something was not right. There was an unusual silence blanketing the house that grew thicker as I went inside. Tie, my pet dog wasn’t waiting for me at the door, as he used to every single day. I yelled out “Ma, where are you?”, hoping for an explanation from my mother.

            “Come to the backyard.” She yelled in a controlled tone. It was obvious to me that she was trying desperately to hide the anxiety in her voice (living with a person for 14 years teaches you so much about the person that the slightest hint gives them away.)

            I walked slowly towards her voice, thinking the longer I took to go there the more time there would be for everything to be back to normal. If only everything you thought would be true. I saw Tie lying on the ground, wrapped in his favourite blanket, wearing an exhausted look on his face. Mother explained how he had gotten sick in morning after I went to school, and how he had only gotten worse as the day had gone by. She had tried all the usual ways to make him feel better, but nothing had worked this time.

            I went closer to him and sat right next to Tie. He had lost all his energy so he couldn’t get up, but he still managed to wag his tail a little and looked at me. I could see that he hadn’t eaten all day.

            As I sat next to him, praying everything would be back to normal and Tie would be running around the house causing trouble like he always did, I remembered the first day we welcomed Tie into our home. It was only 9 years ago.

             I saw my mother walking in through the door carrying something in her hands. She had covered whatever that it was with a veil. It was my birthday and I was expecting a new bag for school, but the present I got was something much better.

            As my mother slowly lifted up the veil, I saw a black wet nose sniffing me! As she pulled the veil up even more I saw that it was a small little puppy, as wide eyed and surprised as I was. Everything around was new to him and everything about him was new to me. My mother had finally gotten me a pet dog that I was begging her for, and how glad I was.

            I sat next to Tie, smiling at him, remembering how scared he was the first day he came to our home and how happy I was to have him. How was I to know then that I would become so close to Tie that even the slightest discomfort caused to him would cause me such great pain.

           

Continued to When The Eyes Went Dead - II

Facing The Mike - II

     Continued from ---- Facing The Mike - Part I   

The dreaded day was here!I came to college hoping it was all a dream or atleast the cultural dept. head would have forgotten yesterday...but No!Just as soon as I entered my class, she came behind me and called out the six debaters that she had preyed on yesterday.I had no choice, I had to go behind her.....I hadn't prepared even a single point for the argument......What would I do?......
      I had an hour to flee from there.But, the cultural dept. head had her eyes on me.It was almost as if she was reading my mind.I made up my mind, took a piece of paper and a pen that I had grabbed at the last moment.I wrote down the topic and wrote down a few points, all the while the cultural dept. head was checking up on me.
      The judges were entering the room.My heart started beating really fast!I was told that I was the fifth speaker.That was good news.This meant I had more time to prepare and also grab a few points from my opponents(Clever eh?).All the speakers before me were good.They atleast had prepared 3-4 sheets of information to say at the competition.But I?I had a sheet with about six points on it!!!My name was called out......My heart started beating really hard as I walked towards the stage, it was pounding against my chest, maybe in an attempt to escape before I would be humiliated in front of the whole audience gathered in the auditorium.
     The walk towards the podium seemed to take forever!Finally, I was facing the mike....so many teachers were sitting right in the first row....so many college-mates filling up the hall.....so many eyes staring at me!..... Worst of all, the ACP(Assistant Commissioner of Police) was sitting right in front of me. What is so specail about him you ask? he was a young, smart and undoubtedly handsome man in uniform! Need I say more?
     I finally said my first few words. I put my everything into the speech and meant every single word I said! And before I knew it the entire hall was in applause and ACP had a smile on his face(I inferred that I was not that bad). Later that day they announced that I won second place. Not bad for the amount of preparation and effort I put in eh?
     I learnt two important lessons that day. Nothing is impossible! If you try you can pretty much do anything. And the more important lesson - Stay Away From The Cultural Dept. Head's Sight At All Costs!

--- THE END ---

Facing The Mike-I

     It was the usual boring chemistry class.I and my gang of girlfriends were sitting and pretending to be listening  in the middle benches, the safest benches to sit in.You are neither considered a spoilt rebel of the last benches, at whom all questions are posed by the teacher ,nor a geek of the front benches, who is expected to answer all those questions the spoilt rebel fails to answer.Just then our cultural department head who was also the head of the English department entered into the class with an announcement.Finally, some break in the mundane lecture of the chemistry ma'am.

     It was an announcement of a debate contest conducted by the city police department, with an aim to spread awareness about the police and how as citizens one could help them catch 'evil doers'.It sounded interesting, and I did have a fondness towards debating so I thought I will participate.But then I got bored even thinking of the amount of effort and preparation I would have to put in!I didn't give much notice to the rest of the details as I had no intentions of participating.But fate had something else planned for me....or rather, the cultural department head!
     I and my girlfriends took this opportunity to grab a small chit-chat.We were debating whether we would eat gobi manchuri or dahi puri during the lunch while the teacher was still trying to convince the students to participate for the debate.Not a single student raised their hands.She started sounding desperate as she went on with with her attempt to convince the potential debators.All the while I remained undisturbed by the teacher's robotic voice accompanied with an equally robotic set of expressions.She must have just then noticed me trying to hide behind one of the girls, and she screamt "I can see you hiding behind soumya there, come on....stand up"
    "No ma'am.I wasn't hiding at all" I said standing up as slowly as I possibly could.
    "You are good at debating and all isn't it?" she said in her last desperate attempt to bait a student into participating in the debate.
    The chemistry teacher who was silent all this while suddenly exclaimed "oh yes!she is more interested in debating than listening in class!".I bet she comes to class everyday with the aim to make our lives miserable!She continued "surely write her name down."
    The cultural head wasted no time in jotting down my name despite of my continued protests.This was a breach of my constitutional right to freedom.This was pure cultural torture against a minor!But who is there to listen to teenagers and their problems?The cultural head and the chemistry teacher pursued on with their hunt for orators while the shouts of protests only grew louder.We all stood there like deers caught in the car's headlight and the cultural head jotted down about 6 of her victims' names.
     The damage was all done!My name was there in the hit-list and I had to prepare a 5 minute long argument on a topic I didn't know much about, for a debate which was the next day!!!!!

    Continued to ---- Facing The Mike - Part II

Who's The Lucky Girl? - Part I

   The first day of the new college life is always a day to remember for the rest of our lives, or so they say!My first day at college was nothing too special.A bunch of new faces checking me out from top to bottom(especially the boys!), lecturers showing their bossy attitude and seniors probably strategising on how to rag me.I didn't speak a word to anybody other than a few friendly hi-hellos.It was a normal day at a new college.But there was this one boy of my class who seemed different than the rest.To begin with he was quite short, timid, had really small eyes and walked kinda weirdly.I joined classes about 2 weeks late,so by then the rest of the classmates knew each other and I was their new topic of discussion.While everybody stared at me and whispered around me, the boy with the weird walk seemed to not notice me.
   A few days then a few weeks and finally a month went by.My classmates and I got to know each other quite well and started hanging out a lot.Well, except for the boy who walked weirdly.Even after a month he didn't seem to notice me at all.I was a little uncomfortable with this because I observed that he was more than friendly with everybody else in class except me!His attitude towards me was very different and rather rude.He even began ignoring me which disturbed me quite a lot,because I knew for sure I had not offended him in any way to be receiving this attitude from a new classmate.I even asked his friends if there was any problem, to which I was suggested to talk to him directly.
    Mustering all the courage I had I confronted the boy with the weird walk.I Asked him "Hey!I'm sorry but did I do anything to you?cuz you have been ignoring me and avoiding me a lot".
    I could see from his face that he was not expecting me to attack him in this way.He started talking in this really weird accent which was clearly put on and was quiet funny and cute.He said "No...no...nothing like that.I've just been thinking a lot and when I think I don't talk much to people".
    I admit I wanted to roll on the floor laughing with his answer but not wanting to offend him I continued the conversation "Oh!That's nice.So what have you been thinking so deeply about?"
    His accent became even more strange when he replied "I write songs and that's what I've been trying to do.When I write songs I become very silent and start thinking very deeply".
    We continued our conversation and I must confess the boy with the weird walk and a weird accent began to grow on me.He seemed very sweet and cute and his weirdness made him all the more interesting.As our conversation pursued on I couldn't control my curiosity and finally asked if I could see his song, and surprisingly he showed it to me.It was a beautiful song about a girl and his feelings for her.It was entitled "My angel".He had poured his heart out on that piece of paper and it was a very touching song of how he loved a girl but had no courage to go up and talk to her because of all the other boys who were always around her.
    After having finished going through the unfinished song I remarked "It's a beautiful song.I wonder who the lucky girl is!".
    He only smiled and said "It's only a song.I've written just half of it now."


Continued ---- Who's the lucky girl - II

Who's The Lucky Girl? - Part II

     Continued from ---- Who's the lucky girl - I

 Over a couple of months the boy with the weird walk and I became really good friends.After our conversation he stopped giving me the rude attitude.I didn't understand why, yet I didn't ask him because I thought it must be a part of his weirdness.We started spending quite a lot of time during the college hours and having loads of fun.We had the perfect friendship that others also began to notice.As the days passed by I completely forgot about our conversation and the song he was writing.His weird accent soon faded off and I could see his normal side.
    A month later, it was a usual monsoon day.Our classes ended so we got to the parking lot to get our respective bikes and head home before the rains poured on us.A few drops of the rain fell on my head.I put my hands in my pocket to get my bike key, but it wasn't there!We looked for it everywhere but couldn't find it.I realised I must have left it in class, so the boy with the weird walk and I went running back to class as the rain drops started to become heavier.
    Just as we got inside the class it started raining cats and dogs.The monsoon days in my city are very unpredictable.One can never know when it will rain and for how long.In spite of being stuck in college because of the heavy rains, I was happy I found my bike key and being stuck wasn't all that bad because the boy with the weird walk was with  me for company.We were having our usual talks with a little bit of gossipping and a little bit of craziness.
    Then I saw his little green book, where he writes his songs, peeping from his bag.I suddenly remembered our first conversation and his unfinished song, and I grabbed it without telling him.He squealed like a little girl, why I didn't know.He tried grabbing it back but the prankster that I am, I held on to that notebook tight.
    He was still yelling, "Oh please!Give it back to me.Don't go through my book."
    I got to the page where he had written the song and I said "I see you have completed the song!I wanna read it" with a big smile.
     He started turning red like a tomato, still squealing and yelling at me.I had never seen him act this way and I was enjoying teasing him.I said "I still don't know who this song was for" and began reading the song loudly."My angel......".
     He turned even more red and finally gave up and bent his head down on the desk.After finishing the beautiful song I asked him "Why on earth are you blushing so much like a girl!I have never seen you like before".
     Then he said "because the girl I wrote the song for is reading it in front of me!!!".

- THE END -