All those weird sounds

Praveen has been having some odd experiences today "Mom, this house is haunted". 
"Why do you keep saying that since you woke up?, this house is not haunted" assured Raji his mother, who looked tired most of the time these days, as she had been working twice as hard to keep the family afloat since his dad left.
"No, it is ", "I can feel them, I can even hear them" insisted Praveen.

"What has suddenly gotten in to you" enquired his mother "You are 13 now, and you are old enough to  know quite well there are no such things called ghosts, eat your breakfast soon, I will have to drop you in school and get to my office by 9 am".

He knew she would not believe if he told her that he had seen his pillow moving in the air, and then sounds of people conversing in the hall about a cricket match, he even heard a baby cry a few times, right besides him in the bed. So he decided it's better to keep mouth closed, may be he was imagining things, he thought to himself.

"Mommmm..... " screamed Praveen while his mother was cleaning the dishes, "Mom, today is Monday this is not Monday's uniform!, where is the other pair",
his mother got red with shame that she had forgotten and hesitantly pointed to the cupboard "sorry dear, I had forgotten to iron them, you will have to make do with this somehow".

"Okey, but just today", nodding with a stern look on his face, Praveen understood,  how difficult it has been for his mother so he had already decided to make her life easier in every little way he could.

"Praveen, Praveen, get up it's time for you to go to school" said Raji "it's 7 already,  I have to be in my office by nine".

When his mother left the room, he heard a girl shouting, "mother you only care about him, you have no care for me at all", and then an elderly women's voice replied "O darling, I love you, but he is just a baby he cannot take care of himself", Praveen alarmed, looked around the room, then outside his window, the sounds seemed like they definitely came from inside of his room, he shivered at the thought of what he had just witnessed and rushed away from his room.

"Mom, I have been hearing strange noises today" said Praveen during breakfast. But his mother  was not listening she was busy ironing his Monday dress which she had forgotten to iron yesterday.

"Mom, mom, what are you doing  it's 7.30, you should  be the one waking me up", shaking his mother's shoulders, his mother Raji slowly gaining consciousness from her dream state whispered in surprise "what it's 7.30 already! ", sprinted off the bed in seconds. picked up a brush and started brushing and simultaneously heated the pan over the stove,  "shit, it's Monday, I have this important meeting at 9.15" she screamed knocking her head with a brush.  

"Praveen, wake up, I have made poories and chana Masala  today, your favorite, and don't  forget to wear your Monday uniforms I have them ready too".

When Praveen went to the bath room, he heard a flushing sound, but he hadn't flushed the toilet, then a man's voice boomed right outside the bathroom door "who had left the tap open".

Praveen opened the cupboard to look for his unicorn when he heard chorus screams, a young female's voice exclaimed "look, it's opening by itself", praveen was alarmed, but there was no one around then a male voice whispered "it must be them, this has got to end today, I will call the Father, you call the previous owner". Scared Praveen ran to look for his mother, but she was busy getting the food ready so he restrained himself from complaining.

At the breakfast table Praveen muttered "don't you think something weird is going on", "what weird things?" questioned his mother curiously,
"I feel like there are people around  me, standing right beside me and talking".
" ha ha ha really funny, stop making  things up, we have no time for this now"

When they were about to go out of the house to the car, a loud deep voice beamed "Mrs. Raji, Mrs. Raji", it came from within the house, but they were the only ones there, Raji was in shock, but she answered back cautiously, in a very low tone " who is this?, what are you doing in our house?". But all they heard was
"I think  I am getting some kind of a connection", it seemed like the deep voice was addressing someone else, it spoke again "everyone hold your hands tight", both Praveen and Raji were shaking, Raji looked at Praveen who had a I told you so look on his face, which was imposed over terror.

"Mom look" Praveen pointed at the door with a sudden jerk, a translucent image of a man with golden red robes with a rosary in one hand and a hammer in the other hand started appearing, he was not looking at them but at the dinner table, the room started dimming and images of 4-5 people holding their hands appeared, they were shitting n chairs around the table, and like the man with the golden robes they seemed be getting clearer with time, a single candle was lit on the table was their only source of light now. Praveen held his mothers hand tight as she looked on with jitters.

"Can you hear me mrs.Raji? " questioned the man with the golden robes, "hear you I can see you" replies Raji and "please leave us alone, what did we do to you?".

"please mam, it's time for you to pass on" said the man "you should leave the family alone, they have young children, didn't you have a son too".

Raji got less scared now and more confused "I still have him, he is right beside me, what do you what?, I can't leave the house, this is my house, you should all get out now?".

"Raji" someone spoke from the table, this voice was trembling? It sounded like the person was crying, "it's Suresh, it's me Suresh".

Raji froze when she heard his voice, it was Suresh was her ex- husband, who left her for his secretary, his voice brought back all the painful memories of the messy divorce, "Suresh, what are you doing here, what kind of a sick joke is this".

On hearing her voice he started crying harder " Raji, it is you, it is really you, is Praveen with you too, I miss you both so much, I am so sorry" and  gave out a very painful growl, cleared his throat and started speaking again, " if I hadn't left you none of this would have happened, it is all my fault".

" What is you're fault Suresh" Raji questioned with all the anger towards him, replaced by sympathy now, "we are doing fine".

Suresh questioned "Raji don't you remember the accident?, don't you know what happened to you on 12th June 2010.

"Today is 12th June 2010" Raji snapped, "what are you even trying to say".

"Raji today is 20th January 2016,
you and Paveen, both died on 12 th June 2010, it was a monday morning and you were driving him to school, the doctors told me, both you died before you were brought in to the hospital".

the calls

       "This is the 45th call this month, its been just a couple of months since I bought this SIM card and from then I have started getting these mysterious calls, from the same number, the guy calls me never talks, just keeps breathing on the other side till I cut the connection, the calls are getting more and more frequent too!", exclaimed Abdul to his friend, abruptly thrusting his phone in front of his friend Dhilip's face to get his attention.
        "Gosh, that is mysterious" said his friend Dhilip trying to accommodate his sight to the short distance. "may be you have a secret admirer, a girl must have a crush on you and is too shy to tell you".
         Abdul blushing, brushed off the idea, "no way man, can't you be serious for once?, I am not in the mood for jokes".
           "Okay, then tough guy , why don't you call the person back, we will find out for certain who the caller is?" Suggested Dhilip.
             "Do you think I am stupid, of course I have tried calling, but no one picks up, but I will try again just because you want me to",  Abdul called the number, with every ring poking his head with ideas of who it might be, no one picked up like he predicted, Frustrated, he tried again, still no answer, he called again, and again no answer "see I told you no one is answering, I am gonna throw this SIM card away get a new number, this whole incident is scary".
            After a few minutes, the mobile phone rang, Abdul's adrenalin peaked when he noticed it was the same number, he attended it, expecting no one to talk, But a meek female voice said hello, Abdul spoke back " who is this, what is your problem?, your calls have been disturbing me....", he went on a rampage over the phone,  " hello" the voice said again but was more clear, and seemed like a old women's voice, " I am sorry, my granddaughter must have mistakenly called you", "Does she make mistakes 100 times!, and i have been trying to call you, why didn't anyone pick up before?", "listen here boy, don't talk to me like you are my boss, I will cut the damn call, to answer your question, my granddaughter is autistic, and this is her personal phone, her life is difficult as it is don't complicate it, but I don't know why she has been calling you, she hardly calls, could you  tell me your number",  Abdul wanted to say just look at the mobile screen, but couldn't as he was in shock and didn't want another lesson in politeness, " its 97989" the old women interfered "57589". "Yes, that is my number", confirmed Abdul, everyone was silent for a few seconds, then the women spoke "sorry, that used to be her father's number, he has been missing for sometime".

The stories I need.

Real stories to be told
Stories, stories, stories
I need to find,
Stories that would open
Make me unwind.

No stories of fictions,
Exaggeration, Depiction,
Nor Misguided perceptions.
But of people,
Living breathing-
From the mouth of dragon,
Stories of constant resurrection.

Stories of pained, broken
And stained,Contained,
And of valour, strength and love.
Of farmers, truckers,
Beggers, prostitutes and more,
Who fight with all honesty,
Though all closed doors.

The lions in common,
weeds for those wolves,
Isolated, scarred, abused,
But burning within.
Stories of diamonds among coals,
Not the one's polished and throned,
But one's which go clearly unseen,
They have great stories to be told.

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.

THE DARING SELFE CHALLENGE

I

THE DARING SELFIE CHALLENGE

       I am very nervous, hungry, sleep deprived, and frightened as I am about to enter my school, which probably will be my last time because today is the day I am finally going to be caught.

       I have not been sleeping well for a few days, could not eat either since they announced that they have a video surveillance tape, actual evidence that contains images of the culprit which is me of course, if I get caught the school is going to send me away, after the school sends me away my father the tyrant is going to beat me to pulp and en roll me in some boarding school with no toilets. Just the thought of that makes me want to puke.

           You might be wondering what the fuss is all about, I am dying to tell somebody, might as well be you, this secret has been burning inside my stomach for sometime now it's about time it got out.

           It all started last month when one of the boys in my class vijay decided to start a challenge, "the most daring selfie challenge" he called it, he announced that the person with the most daring selfie wins.

            Like always people got excited they get something different to do and started coming up with all sorts of crazy selfies, there was this one boy ajay with a snake (python) around his neck like lord Shiva, then this guy vineeth took a selfie of him jumping in to the pool (literally mid air),

One while driving his bike in traffic with a single hand, there were plenty of others with decent selfies, I was intrigued, "this is something that I could do?", all I to do needed was to come up with the most daring plan.

            I was ready to take the challenge, it was my time to be the star, be a somebody and a chance to get noticed by Sandhya my long time crush,

'Sandhyaaa, just saying the name out loud feels like drinking hot coca in a cold winter morning.

           I thought long and hard and finally came up with the most exciting plan, "the founder's statue". The founder's statue is a eight foot long statue on the edge and dead centre our roof, if I manage to get on his shoulder and get a selfie then it will actually look like I am flying over the school.

              The best part of it all was no student is ever allowed on the roof, and   the statue is our schools pride, and it's is the statue of the father of our current principal and director, he was the director before he tragically died and like I said the founder, so it has this large than world image to it, it's white washed every 2 months , a priest does some rituals over it everyday. So if I did manage the feat it would be the best selfi ever.

             On a Thursday 20 days before today I sneaked out of my house, jumped over my school fence and ran in to roof, when I  met  a locked door, I had thought about this as the door is nearly always locked, I bought my mother's hairpin, and gave the keyhole a few twists with the pin, nothing happened, I tried pulling the lock, hitting it, begging it, it didn't bulge, I was heart broken and angry so I gave  the door an  kick in all fury and it just flung open with a huge thud.

             The noice was so loud so I waited to see if anyone noticed, no one seemed to, as I got in to the roof it seemed like a victory, but I couldn't let it get to my head as I knew I had work to do, I got near the statue, jumped up and held his elbow with my hands, placed my feet over his knee and climbed over his shoulder, I turned towards the statue's back as I wanted me, the statue and the whole campus to be in the view when I took the picture, I clicked once, as I was about to take an other one the statue started shaking, I jumped down in to the roof reflexively, the founder came crumbling down. I agree I am bit on the heavier side but I did not expect that to happen. 

         Now you know why I am scared, after the incident, I got home, deleted the selfie, never spoke to a soul about it, feigned fever and didn't go to school for a few days. When I went back things were so different, there were flyers all around, it read "who ever did it surrender at once for minimal punishments or else they will be expelled and fined vigorously". Everyone in class was talking about it, teachers were talking about it, people forgot about the daring selfie challenge as they had something new to chew their mouths over, I felt sick everytime the topic came up.

          Few days went by like this, no one had any idea who broke it, I was getting better, until a couple of days ago, when one of the teaches found that the mall opposite to the school had a security camera which pointed directly to the roof, and all they had to do is get the tape that recorded that day. 

          Principal requested for the tape and got it, but no one saw it yet, they were going to watch it together with the rest of the school, in the afternoon assembly, they wanted it to be a surprise for the culprit and for them too, atleast that is what the watchman told me.

          With anxiety ripping my heart out I made a new plan, the only plan that could save me from absent toilets and roach rooms. 

          It is nine now this is the time everyone leaves, for the morning assembly, I skipped it, I went in to the principals office and there it was right on the middle of the table the tape, inside a brown envelope, I went in slowly closed the door behind me when I heared the door open, I swiftly hid behind the table.

           It was the principal he was talking to someone else, he came in only for a second, kept talking to someone on his phone and went out, I observed him carefully as he walked to the door. I knew that time was running out but suppressed the urge to check my watch. I took a deep breath and started counting in reverse under my breath. "Ten, nine, eight, seven... zero". I got up and looked for the tape, it wasn't there, he must have taken it with him. 

            I came out of the office, i felt numb, when one of my classmates beckoned me and said "Naveen aren't you coming, they are going to watch the tape now, it going to be funny". At that very moment my heart stooped, my blood turned solid, I must have looked like a ghost to an outside observer, I was so pale. 

            I walked to the assembly with every step getting heavier, the video was running, my worst fears came true the images though extremely small (can be zoomed in) were clear my final hope vanished, video was now running at  10 am  on Thursday, no one was on the roof during that time on the video, everyone knew it happned in the night but they wanted to build to the suspense so they were watching from the morning, they forwarded it to 12 pm still nothing,  then to 3 pm still nothing, when they were about to forward it two people were visible (barely) on the screen, in a corner, at 3.10 pm it seemed like the principal and vice principal, they were talking something seriously when the principal tried to  kiss her, the vice principal pushed him away, and she stormed down, everyone started laughing, the principal came running to the projector whisked out the tape and bludgeoned it with his foot, people were still laughing, and the funny part was both of them were married separately and the vice principal's husband worked there as the physical education teacher.

          The topic of gossip turned from the broken statue to the kinky principal gets caught.

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Short story

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Dating tips for introverts

                First we deal with  the "who" part, you choose a girl who you don't even know, you have never talked to and have no way of talking to, definitely don't know how to, you like her for reasons you can't particularly pin point yet you know she is the one and you are completely sure about it. You also know she is supposedly very religious and you are completely the opposite and yours is the kinda profile her religion wants their girls to stay away from but you decide "love trumps all, what the heck, I am gonna try".
             Then moving on to the wooing part, first thing you do is get drunk and anonymously post on the college page that you love her, and you use the word awesome to describe her and you are not 15. Then you forget about the whole thing for months.
               Your exams start, and you know now is the best time to start trying to win her over, you use all your literary prowess and conjure up a very moving message on how you have fallen in love with her, you think you sound incredibly romantic and funny,  "who wouldn't fall for your charms, she would reply back something, and you two will start chatting and soon find an awesome rapport and you two are an item now, you have the girl of your dreams" but that thought process blows away in to dust as soon as you realise that she is not going to reply back. The thought that she didn't even know who you were done not even occur to you, even you don't know everyone in your class.
               Then you describe your love to her using the skill that you have gained all through the years reading cinderella, snow white to very recent princess barbie, now that outta fix her up and move her to the very point of melting and in movements she will fall in to your hands, but she is a stone, she doesn't move, who does that?, you have sent her two long messages and she doesn't love you back yet, how could she be so cruel. During the process you don't even read for your exams because "she" who doesn't even want to speak to you, who might not not even know you actually exist, who you hardly know, is more important than passing that year.
                Then your mind starts to wander you realise she might have been scared because your cindrella story some how has a huge resemblance to almost all serial killer stories, so you are worried, you then send her an other message apologing for being such an insensitive prick, but you use very choosey words  which seem like they are right outta of eminem songs.
              No reply's again, but how would something happen in a day you have to try for it, try hard and you have to be passionate, so convince yourself you are very serious, and you resort to the oldest trick in the book "poems" but you want it to be funny like when people sent poems in the movies
          Violets are purple,
          Roses are red,
          Nothing rhymes with purple,
          I am so dead.
        But you cannot do that you are actually good at this thing so you write an actually good poem, which makes it very akward and does not in any way help the situation.
                You have learned your lesson, you know you have messed up big time, but you cannot stop now not when she is just about to speak with you, so you keep sending her messages, then you look up to the ever reliable maths for help, so u send her a message talking about possiblities, probablities, and give her multiple choices, she replies back saying she is not interested which was one of the choices by the way and she says never text me again, you decide to stop but she just started talking to you.
                  So you make a cartoon video because you are innovative, and she said never to text her and you looked up texts on the dictionary which is means word, and ask her for tips to impress her, she blocks you, that was un called for.
                Then your vacation ends and it's time to face the music, you get all scared and paranoid because you know what you did is silly and stupid as you mentally prepare your self to laugh, and laughed at, at all cost. You avoid all conversation regarding the matter, you fear that pursuing would be considered as aggression, and persistentance would be considered insanity, you have only confided in a couple of very trusted people about it, they were the cause of all this mishap in the first place.
                You stare at her in class because that is what people do in movies, eye contact supposedly has magical effects. Then you start showing up in places to see her, just to make your presence felt, you try to loop her in to conversations by debating her faith in mysterious ways possible i.e through whatsapp statuses, by distrpting public events and making them a laughter riot, messaging in all the groups she is in.
                 You start reading psychology to some how understand her find out what she is thinking, but that doesn't work so then you concentrate on people who are close to her try to read them by how they react when they see you because supposedly "your love story is all they  care about and they have no life of their own" but you get nowhere. You then somehow see this status on her app and think she is ready to fall in love because that status denotes love in your language, but the idea that it might be a coincidence is pessimism and you're sure that she is finally in love so you hack your friend's (because she blocked all your accounts)  account and send her a text enquiring, she doesn't even know what you are talking about but you double checked it, she changed her statuses again, now you are starting to question your sanity.
                You send her a couple of more messages form different accounts asking her to be friends after sending all those incredibly cheesy, odd messages, who wouldn't be wanna friends with the odd guy who keeps proposing to her, she blocks all of them,  then you resort to facebook, you decide that if she knows  what ever you are thinking she will fall in love with you because you are Einstein of India and your thought are highly moving and may be she will think she knows you from all those exaggerated messages, and you tell her how you cannot stop thinking about her and how you wanna look at her photos because that is what women want to hear a creepy staker's self portrayal.
    You have tried the following steps
               1) confusion-confuse her in to talking to you
               2)constant disturbance- try  and send her enormous number of messages until she finally decides to say "what is your problem why won't you leave me alone" then you become the smooth talker and sweep her.
                 3)crazy- make her think you are going crazy because of her
                 4) sentimental blackmail- make her think you are an emotional wreck without her.
                  Though  you didn't do any of these things "deliberately", you don't want her to think you are plainly stupid or actually sensitive, so you don't mind saying you are crooked.      
                     Finally as nothing works you send in your friends one of them succeed in talking to her, but it doesn't seem to be very fruitfull, all those conditions all those mature talk it doesn't work for you.
                    Then you find out she has her birthday coming soon so you start planning to sweep her off her feet. You plan a very cheesy birthday celebration bringing kids from the orphanage, and giving her flowers, and cutting her a cake, you make some calls find an orphanage that will send in kids for a check up in the hospital, and then stay for the birthday surprise a little later, But she has her exams on the day you don't want her to get a restraining order, So you decide to give her a gift send it through a friend, it had to be original hand made because you are cheap, you try carving something outta of a marble stone dosen't work, atleast pait her a picture of a guitar it didn't look like a billion dollars either. Finally it was too late you just sent her a happy birthday at 12 am and an akward picture saying happy birthday and tell her that she doesn't have to talk to you if she doesn't want to, she decides she doesn't want to.
                    You do all these things but never even try going and talking to her straight though she was in the same class the whole time, you were brave enough to sent these incredibly stupid very very very long messages but never brave enough to go and talk to her, because you think she might think you are a jerk of all the things she might have thought of you jerk is not bad. It would also make the whole thing very serious, very real, that would mean you actually tried real hard to make someone like you and you failed, and that would also mean you would have to shrug outta of this and move on eventually. If she even decides to talk to you, you have no idea how to maintain such a relationship or how to walk through the process of developing actual feeling of attachment, love, care, dependecy. The idea of the whole thing being real scares you more than it not bein real.
                  So you write a story and send it to her hoping she understands that you're actually cool, but situation has made you look like an stupid, emotional wreck. You are just an introvert who had no idea of how to make the whole process smooth. May be love at fist sight is not for us.