Flowers by the Window

Manoj shifted to his new apartment in July. July is the month of rains, when the heavens open up to spray the thirsty earth with cool showers. The month is enjoyed by nature and humans alike. Tender new shoots sprout from the earth, hoping to grow tall and reach the sun. The Bogan-villa that grew outside Manoj's apartment aspired to grow taller and steadily moved towards Manoj's window that was on the first floor. Every morning Manoj would wake up by watching the warm sun that beamed through his window, unaware of the growth below his window. By September, the Bogan-villa started touching the frills of the windows, and come December they danced on Manoj's fingers when he drank hot tea on cold mornings. They bloomed magnificantly in the mornings when Manoj came to dry his clothes by the window. Manoj was careful of the small thorns that the plant carried and hardly noticed their beauty.

With January, the flowers started to become pale with the cold weather, and that is when Manoj realized the missing colours.

Ustaad

Note: I have read this story in my 12th standard English textbook. Narrating it here again.....

Subhan-allah...... Akbar said after listening to the latest composition by Tansen. Allah has given you a great voice Tansen.
Sukriyaah.... Aalam-panaah.
Who is your Ustaad, Tansen.....I am eager to meet him. Please arrange for him to meet me.
Gustaaki maaf ho Aalam-panaah, he lives in the high ranges of the himalyas..... he does not go anywhere, we have to travel to him.
So be it, I want to meet him and listen to him, Akbar said.
Jo Hukumm.....
So they travelled up the high ranges and across the difficult terrain, and after 2 weeks of travelling they reached the foot-steps of the cave where the Ustaad resided.
Aalam-panaah, its close to dawn, we can listen him in his morning saadhana....
And then the raaga started to flow, Akbar stood there stunned by the depth of the raaga that flowed and echoed through the mountains.... Eyes moist with the heart-touching music that flowed from Ustaad's throat.
Subhan-allah.... your Ustaad is amazing, he sings 100 times better than you, why cant you sing like that ???
Tansen bowed his head and said, Aalam-panaah, I sing for you........, My Ustaad sings for HIM.....

Atomic Theory (Chapter One- The Basics)

So, You have interview in Atomic center for inventory management and since you are so expert in that, but have no understanding of Atomic reactions, you want to learn some basics. Right??? Shyam said to Mujahid in the empty first class compartment of the Mumbai local.
Yes, Mujahid nodded.
So shall i start with nuclear fission?
Mujahid's blank face was not encouraging. Start with something very basic, he said.
How about the periodic table??
Mujahid scratched his beard.....
OK, say we start with the atom, thats where all things start, OK ? Shyam said.
OK!!
See the atom has some positive parts, called protons, some negative parts called electrons and some neutral parts called neutrons. Understood so far ?
That was easy, Mujahid nodded.
Ok, Great! So, when God made the atom, he made the positive and negative in equal number, so the atom is always stable. Not only that, the protons and neutrons are very much central to the atom. The electons that are negative are external to the core and they revolve around the core.
Wow, Interesting! Mujahid Exclaimed. Listen, my station has come, and i need to get down, explain me more tomorrow.
Sure, Shyam said.
By the way, next time, dont blame me for my negative actions Shyam, those are my electrons in action, Mujahid grinned and jumped of the train.
Phew! Has he understood correctly? Shyam wondered, now alone in the train.

Eclipse.c

Are done with programming my lord ??
Hmm, I dont think, I can stop this. Working on a small piece of code....... God smiled,
*----------------------------------------------------*
* File Name: Eclipse.c *
* Copyright (c) God Corp. AD and BC *
* All Rights Reserved *
*-----------------------------------------------------*
#include
main {}
{
Recurrence = My Wish ! God: I will update later
for {i , 0: Recurrence, i++};
if { Moon = In Between Sun & Earth}; ! God: Loop Body
Darkness;
End;
End;
}
*---------------- End Of Code -------------------*

My Lord, Why is that you are playing with planets ?? Why in broad daylight, you want your children to see darkness ?
God smiled as usual and spoke, Darkness, is momentary, it doesnt mean that the sun is not there. In broad day-light the eclipse will evoke the dark behaviors only to be exposed to the sunlight minutes later.

The Safety Net

Dum dum dum ...... Dum dum dum ...... Dum dum dum ...... Dum dum dum ......
The noise was deafening in the market place, so loud that the housewives gathered to buy vegetables had to shout, and beans were interchanged with Spinach and Brinjals were exchanged with Green chillies...
Dum dum dum ...... Dum dum dum ...... Dum dum dum ...... Dum dum dum ......
But the boy didnt heed the noise, all he could see is the pole at the other end, his body balanced perfectly on the rope tied between the poles. With full concentration he took one step at a time moving slowly towards the pole at the other end. Sweat flowed down his brow. When he finally reached the other end, he bowed before the crowd and jumped down to the ground to collect the coins offered by the crowd.
Somewhere far away, in an indoor auditorium, the chant grew louder, Hip Hip Hurray... Hip Hip Hurray... Hip Hip Hurray, Come on Rahul you can do it...Everyone shouted, including Rahul's parents and his school teachers.
Rahul stood and waved his hand to the audience, and they cheered him more. He started his walk to the other pole, with confidence. He took a momentary glance downwards, then back straight ahead. He had a smile on his face, because he knew, there was a Safety Net below.

Hereditery Reflections

Note: This Story is adapted from " Vikram Betal" collection. If the story resembles to anyone dead or alive, it is purely coincidental !

Raja Veermani of Kalinga was deeply in love with Neelakamalakshi the princess of Barcapur, despite the strained relations between the two states. One day Raja Veermani slipped anonymously into Barcapur and managed to release Neelakamalakshi who was under house imprisonment. On their way they had to pass through the deep woods and the mighty Mahanadi river. The horse used by Raja Veeramani was tired and as soon as they neared a village he decided to exchange it with a fresh one.

Your Majesty, there are only two horses available, the stable-person said. The young one you can exchange for free, whereas the older one, you have to pay 20 gold coins extra.

Raja Veermani, a avid student of economics was surprised at the strange pricing strategy and hence asked the stable-person to explain this. The stable-person replied, Your Majesty, the younger one will not cross the river, it is afraid, so you will have to take a longer route that will lead you to a bridge. The younger one's mother was afraid of water, hence this horse is also afraid of water too.

Raja Veermani pondered over this reply for a moment, and then bought the older horse. He took the route back to Neelakamalakshi's palace and dropped her there. They never met again.

The Railway Track

Biju was playing in the field along with his pet Baalu, the buffalo. Baalu kept running, and Biju was persistent with his chase. Slowly Baalu moved towards the railway tracks that marked the boundaries of the land owned by Biju's father. Baalu seemed to have tripped on the loose gravel on the railway tracks and finally Biju caught him. Both of them sat at the steel track huffing and puffing from the game. Biju gazed far ahead along the railway track. The hot sun seemed to create a miracle. Biju rubbed his eyes. Paa, he called aloud.

His Father was close by and came next to him. See Paa, the railway tracks meet each other far far away. Paa smiled silently, and answered, No my son, the railway tracks do not meet each other. They travel miles and miles together, perfectly parallel to each other. Like the two banks of a river, like north and south pole of a magnet, they never meet each other.

The Outer Space

There was lot of exitement in the crew. Being selected to go and meet the stars is a great privelege that only a select few can boast of. The entire crew was rushed into the training camp. The atmoshphere was electrifying. All the crew ready to pay full attention to the instructor. The instructor walked in the class. There was pin-drop silence, barring his boots. The class expected rocket science to be unleashed upon them.

Step One for to reach the stars, my gentlemen, his crisp voice thundered across the class, is to leave from the clutches of the earth's gravity and move into the outer space.

A Beautiful Dream

Rohit was a dreamer..... always lost in dreams..... He dreamt of everything, his parents, his friends, his favourite sports and of course he also dreamt about her. She had long flowing shining hair, deep blue eyes and dew-drop-like skin.

Then one day he met her, on his way from home. She sat besides him on his overnight journey from Nagpur to Hyderabad. At first he couldnt believe his eyes. He sat silent, his eyes away into the darkness, away from her long flowing shining hair, away from her deep blue eyes. His hands away from her tender dew-drop-like skin. She was the first to break the dark silence.
Excuse me, could you help me lower my Chair ??, she said
Sssssure......, Rohit stammered
Thanks, Are you travelling to Hyderabad??, honey flowed again.....
Yyyyes !!
Nice to meet you, she chimed.
By this time Rohit was able to see Europa and the other suns of Jupiter......
Their conversation was stopped by the movie that was being played in the bus "Dil Chahta hai". He watched her secretly smiling at some of the scenes of the movie.

After a few hours the bus stopped for dinner. Rohit slipped away silently avoiding her (he has still not asked her name) hoping that she does not find him for dinner. He found a lonely corner and ordered a veg thali.
There you are, more honey flowed, Is the food edible ??
Yyyes, Rohit stammered again
The rest of the conversation involved her speaking and Rohit just muttering hmm, sure, yyess, nnooo, yeah...

After dinner, they boarded the bus and continued to talk. Finally the lights went out and she went to sleep. But Rohit could not sleep a wink! Finally he decided to steal a look at her. Her face reflected peace, her face smiling as if watching a beautiful dream, her hair undone and still shining in the half-moon light. This is it, Rohit thought and then he dozed off into his sleep.

His eyes woke up next day morning with her packing her bags. She thrust her card into his hand and smiled, please contact me if you require any help in Hyderabad, her teeth flashing like the famous pearls of Hyderabad. SSure, Rohit said.

They both descended from the bus, Rohit went towards Kondapur, Shailaja (he read from her card) went off to a distant unknown land. As she dissapeared in the crowd, Rohit looked at the card, and tore it off to 10 pieces.

That night Rohit had another beautiful dream.