The kid with dreams

          Siddarth was so angry with his parents, as they never trusted his potential one bit, so he decided it's time to go, he packed his bags, left the house in wee hours of the morning, with a duffel bag full of his clothes, his guitar and some money and his 10 grade certificate. He had left a letter, explaining to the folks back home the reason for his absence, and how he will come back there as a winner after reaching his destiny.
           He boarded the first bus to the city, he was so excited and scared, had multiple second thoughts about the plan, but this seemed to him like the only way he could ever be a musician, his family was never pleased with his dream of being a guitarist, they explained to him again and again that very few made it big in music, and he was not that talented, studying was the only way for success for middle class families, he was not going to accept any of those excuses, they even went to the extent of stopping his guitar classes because they thought it was an hinderance to his studies, hence he had to leave, he couldn't take it anymore.
            After he made it to the city he had no idea what to do, never having gone anywhere alone before, he was naive, confused, he had to no answers to to the very basic questions for survival like, where to stay, who to contact, how to eat, how to reach his destiny, and the money he had was not going to help him for more than a few days, first day he slept on the bus stand bench, ate in the shops around the bus stand, the next few days, he asked passerbys on how to become a musician, very few stopped and responded, the once who did seemed to give him "multiple choices", "cinema, movies, kollywood, music director, padam", all those advises pointed him to one direction kollywood, he went to AVM  studios in chennai, it was closed down to make way for a multiplex complex, he roamed around the city searching for movie shoots, he asked the crew men for music chances, he was always shooed off, laughed at, rediculed, slowly his money started to dwindle Without any actual work, and he ate less and less until he had nothing to eat just scraps from temples, churches and odd marriage celebrations. He started feeling weak, Sleeping outdoors had taken a toll on his body, he repeatedly got sick, he searched around a few places for a job but they all declined him, he was so hungry so he needed some money, he had this big craving for poori in the road side.
                One day when he was roaming in the sunny afternoon,  Siddarth abruptly sat on the pavement in t-nagar, he spread his blanket, displayed his guitar and the few clean clothes he had with him, ready to sell anything for some food, he was so hungry, he sat there for hours all the while thinking  if he should go back home, or call them, may be God was punishing him for leaving home, he thought, he had been taught that is what happens to bad people like him who chase dreams against norms, kids who do not obey, when someone with a brown cap, beige shorts and khaki tshirts showed up disturbing his thought process, said "how much for those shorts?" Pointing at his favourite pair of black shorts, he didn't know what to say, thought about it and blurted " it's 200", capped guy replied "Rs 200, for these?, these look used, I will give you 70, what do say you?", he nodded, and snatched the money off the man's hand as  he offered it.
           He was about to go get the pooris he had been craving for, when the guy came back, "hey kid, how much for the guitar?", RS 300, Siddarth said spontaneously without thinking, "300? do you even know what this is worth?", examining the guitar which would atleast sell for RS 7000 if it was new "did you steal it from someone?", "no this is mine, I have been learning to play this for years" he replied, "if are you telling me the truth?, play it for me?", and Siddarth did, he played a couple of songs in succession, a small crowd gathered around as he did, he did not winch, it had been a few days since he played so it felt amazing, and when he stopped, all the people applauded, he felt proud, energised, accomplished.
         The man with the hat who waited patiently for all the applause to drown and people to move away, exclaimed "kid you are really good!, we have a small band which plays in functions, we are looking for a back up guitarist, we have decent pay and regular gigs do you want to join?". Siddarth suddenly lost his hunger.

The longest minute

            He had always been uncomfortable of heights, so he tried not to look down, if he did he would never jump, "it's time to go" he said to himself, but his body failed to move, he couldn't make his legs to initiate the jump, they felt so rigid, so he took four deep breaths to loosen himself, walked a few steps back, closed his eyes and jogged towards the edge of the 8th floor of his office building, as his legs hit the low wall, it toppled him over and he knew was in the air, as he felt the pull of gravity under him.
             He kept his eyes closed, waited for all of it to get over in a minute, he kept counting, 1.... 10, 11... 20... 30... he counted till 60, paused to feel the concrete hit his chest, with his heart beat  pacing rapidly he was ready to embrace death with open arms, but he felt nothing, it seemed like he was still falling, may be he miscalculated the distance , so he kept counting till it was 120, but nothing happened, curiosity made him to open his eyes, he was definitely falling down, but to his surprise as he was falling towards the floor, the floor was moving away from in the same pace, this confused him, this was not how gravity is supposed to work, may be if he tilts towards the ground a little bit he might get there faster, so he arched his body to a ninety degrees, now the ground moved away from him faster than before, then he started moving faster too, as he moved faster and faster, his skin started to peel off him, layer by layer, then his muscles, his bones, all he is a brain now, his brain started to evaporate, now he was just a sprit, formless, shapeless.
                 He stopped falling down as his sprit was lighter than air, he started to spiral upwards, upwards, what is happening?, who was he?, why was he spiralling upwards?, what is his name?, what is this?, is he dead?, what is death?, questions kept pilling over him, then he had a massive headache, it was tearing him apart.
              "The best", "what", "you didn't listen a word I said, did you?" remarked Robin, "what" he said again, "Like I was saying, the one's you took a minute ago, the best Lsds in business".

         

Dead again

              When Mr. Samuel was back from the hospital, there was no surprise party waiting to welcome him, just an empty, half destroyed, relic, a poor excuse for a house, after recovering from his coma of 10 years he came to see his family thinking they will be happy to see him, happy to know he is alive, but to his dismay, he learnt that his parents were dead, hardly anyone in the town remembered who he was and the ones who did were old or dying as most of the men around his age had migrated elsewhere in seach of better jobs with their family, his wife had re-married a rich land lord in the adjacent village 7 years ago and he had no news about his son, who was a 6 months old when he left.
              He left for a construction job in the city with so much hope that he was going to make life better for all of them, but he met with an accident. When the hospital told him he had been in coma for 10 years he couldn't believe it, he remembered everything like it was yesterday, the concrete slab falling towards him, how his legs froze, and then everything went black. They must be joking he said to himself, he even tried to snap out of the bad dream, but he couldn't, it was all real. They told him no one in his family came to see him, the construction company had been paying his expenses.
            He had so many questions did his wife did know what had happened to him?, did his parents ever find out before they died?. Should he go meet his wife, But wouldn't that make her life more complicated?, to her he is someone she called a husband before 10 years, but to him she was his wife few days ago, just last week he bought his son a new dress, now she was with an other man, his son someone else's son. All these thoughts caused a concoction of anger, jealousy, resentment. He finally decided to leave the place before he does anything stupid, destroy someone's life.
             He decided to go to some other town, get a job and start over, as he was just about to tred past his village in search of a new life, he heared someone calling out his name, "Sammy, Sammy", he turned, saw a very familiar looking women was calling out a little boy, "Sammy come back here, I cannot handle this boy!", Mr. Samuel realising she was in distress, went closer to the women and said, "mam do you need some help", "yes if it's no trouble, my car just broke down and I have no idea what to do", she was holding the  boy by his shoulder, he had a wide grin on his face and same blue eyes as his, "I will take a look" opening the engines he whispered, "Samuel, huh,?", she nodded "that is his father's name, he died years ago, he was the kindest man I knew", Mr.Samuel trying to hold his tears muttered  "all over mam" without looking up. "Thankyou sir, and may I, know your name?",  "call me George" and then looked in to Sammy's eyes one last time, he squeezed his cheeks and whispered "be good to your mother", and continued his journey away from the town.
           
     
        

Flash fiction 3 - move faggot

Move faggot
     
      "Move faggot" was the word he heared before Jeremy was shoved to the ground, 'you weakling', said Smith walking past him throwing his fist up the  air, with his entourage trailing behind laughing.
       His friend Joseph, after making sure Smith and his friends were gone came to help him up, 'are you alright man, that was seriously funny', Jeremy regaining his posture, gave him an empty look, grunted 'it probably was'. 'Come on dude, I know how Smith and his boys give you a hard time, but they are right, you are creepy, you walk and talk weird, you behave like a total sissy, man up dude'.
           Jeremy had been the butt of jokes in his school for some time now targeted mostly on his "feminine" behaviour. This has opened up an avenue for bullies like Smith to use him as a punching bag because no one feels sorry for the creepy guy.    
            He had enough of Smith's abuses, he needed to something, he had already tried complaining to his parents, they want him to man up and stand for himself, his teacher gave Smith a lousy warning and had a similar advice "man up", His friend wants him to "man up", His sister "man up", everyone wants him to man up, but he can't, he can't be rude or aggressive, he can't even raise his voice to another person. He knew that people bully whatever they fear or they think is different, so he made a plan to use his problem as his weapon.
            Smith came up to him that evening, gave a huge whack on his back and walked away, Jeremy did not startle, he call smith out "hey smithy darling, back for some love", smith turned back startled 'What did you call me you faggot' smith was red, 'I called you darling' said Jeremy and grabbed his hands and went to kiss him on the lips, Smith slapped his hand away and ran, Smith's entourage were furious 'what are you doing Jeremy?',
he replied 'you want some darling' and moved closer to grab atleast one of them, they all shrugged and swiftly moved away.
               Jeremy was not attracted to men but he wasn't covered with girlfriends anyways, so if him acting the steriotyped and feared version of a "gay guy", would make them leave him alone, until he leaves for college it was good thing.

Diwali story

Jothi ruins diwali.
           It was diwali, everyone was wearing new clothes, beautiful lights illuminated throughout the little street, colourful crackers roared, this was the scene jothi woke up to, when she peeked through the window at 4 am.
            'No diwali for us this year' jothi muttered to herself before getting out of bed, the festival depression pulling her out of her sleep. Some distant relative of her's died that was why the family wasn't celebrating diwali, Jothi was looking forward to this particular year because this was supposed to be the year she progresses to the explosive things, till 9 she was only trusted with fire fountains and fire circle and some fire craker sticks.
           She went down to check on her mom to see if she was awake and she was, but her mother looked blue, was coughing hard and breathing heavily, Jothi was a little concerned never having seen her like that before 'mom what happened', she replied that all the smoke was giving her allergies and it was nothing as she had been an asmatic all her life. Her little brother who was 1 and 1/2 woke up and started crying because of all the sound and her mother was trying to console him. Her father had gone for a walk so her mother had to take care of her brother all alone in her asmatic state.
                She then ran to the terrace knowing she was not useful to her mother, walked to the edge of the terrace to get a glimpse of the celebrations, but all she saw was smoke filling  the entire street, this was the first time she noticed that, then she remembered her mom and brother suffering in the ground floor, she was thinking about what she can do help them when her eyes fell on a garden pipe, she took the pipe, opened the tap, stood near the edge, pointed the pipe towards the sky and sprayed water everywhere, the neighbours who were celibrating,  assumed it was rain and ran inside their houses.
           Jothi then excitedly told her mother the story of how she sprinkled water on them and how they all stopped bursting crackers, her mother was a little angry that she spoiled their fun and gave her a stern warning, then she told her that they will come back as soon as they notice it wasn't raining, pulled her in to the bed and slept hugging her daughter, But little did she know, no one in the street
was going to burn any crackers that day as Jothi had accidentally drenched all their crackers which was put together in one huge box.

Flash fiction 1- lost dog

Flash fiction 1

Lost dog
         Shyam was a blind 10 year old who lived his mother and maternal grandparents. His family was poor completely depended on his mother's income, her typist job was a low income gig.
         When he was 7, shyam heared a commercial on tv that said guide dogs made blind people's lives so much easier, shyam ran to his grandfather and begged him for a dog, his grandfather did not want to disappoint him by telling him that they couldn't afford to maintain one so he was given a dog, Shyam called him Mike, this was the first time shyam was in the presence of a dog, he had hardly ever been out of his house, he was home schooled.
            Shayam's grandfather suddenly became sick one day, they had to admit him in the hospital, but his frail body could not handle the pain anymore and he gave in. After the funeral, shyam and his family returned back to his house, he called Mike out having missed being with him, Mike didn't come, he usually barks when he is called. Shyam took a walking stick and searched the entire colony, but he could not find him anywhere. He asked his mother, she said he must have run away somewhere and he will come back. He couldn't not just wait and not do anything, Mike was his brother, so he took the only photo he had of Mike and him and went out to enquire, he asked a couple of passerbys if they had seen the dog in the photo, they gigled and said no, a little girl was walking by, and he showed her the photo and asked if she had seen the dog in the photo, the girl in a confused tone questioned "what dog?, I don't see a dog in the photo, all I see is you and an old man with a rope on his neck".