A Sachin who could not become ‘THE SACHIN’

Amidst all the frenzy in bidding farewell to the Master blaster, in a parallel world Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar sat in front of his Desktop lazily browsing through his E-Mail. Sachin worked in one of the IT companies in Chennai. Several mails came from his boss asking him why he had not delivered his project. The same old feeling of helplessness took over him as he scratched his oversized belly. Though he worked day and night he could not excel at his work. It felt to him as though he was not born to be this. Shaking his head, he brushed these negative thoughts aside and moved onto other E-Mails.

 Suddenly his face brightened as he saw one of the mails. It said ‘Registrations are now open for CricoFest’.  His face drooped as fast as it had become excited. His mind raced back to those early years when his parents forced him to forgo cricket and take up studies. He had been livid with them then but now he was able to live with it. What would have happened had he failed? He tried to convince himself.

Sachin heard a enthusiastic voice from behind, ‘Hey Sachin, Aren’t you registering for CrickoFest?’

‘Only if you are the captain’, Sachin grinned back at his friend who was from Kolkatta.

Sick with Click

‘Bring the Mangalyam(sacred thread)’, shouted the bride’s mother on top of her voice. ‘Muhurtham time is almost over. Mappillai must tie the knot now’, said the Iyer to the groom’s father. The close relatives gathered around the couple. ‘Gettimelam Gettimelam’, the iyer signaled the nadaswaram-thavil troupe to increase the tempo. The Iyer then gave the Mangalyam to the groom to tie to the bride. The groom stopped halfway, ‘Where is he?’ The relatives too realized he was missing. Then suddenly out of nowhere the Cameraman rushed towards the podium. The couple entered into a new phase in their lives looking at the Camera.

Ramayana Revisited

I sat debugging my code trying to correct the 1008 errors in the Application and with every change I made, I was hoping that all the errors would vanish but instead they only kept growing.

All of a sudden my monitor started flickering. Must be a loose connection, I thought to myself and bent down to check the power cable connection. There was a sudden surge of power into me and I fell unconscious.

I woke up in the middle of a forest. I realized that I had been teleported to a different place or may be a different dimension of the world. Hearing some footsteps in the distance, I quickly hid behind a tree and peeped to see who the strangers might be. They were a group of 5 people, all dressed in prehistoric attire. The leader of the pack made me jump. It was a bear wearing a crown.

‘Show me yourself’, the bear king bellowed.

I slowly crept out of my hideout and faced the group.

’ Introduce yourself’, the king commanded

‘I’m a Microsoft Certified .Net Professional with 2+ years experience in ASP.Net, C#, VB and Javascript’

‘What??’, the angry bear bellowed and raised his sword.

‘Sorry.. sorry, I got used to it in team meetings. I’m Gokul and I think I come from a different world. Can you please help me to get to my world?’ I pleaded

‘I think you must me from Rajni’s world. He usually comes here for vacation. We know how you can go back to your world, come with us’

‘ok’, I agreed 

‘I’m Jambavan, the king of bears and he is Angada, son of Sugriva, the king of monkeys and others are our servants. Our king Rama’s wife Sita has been abducted by Ravana and so we are on our way to Lanka’

I was dumbstruck, I was in world were Ramayana was actually happening.

I will sound foolish if I tell them about Ramayana so I managed to suppress my excitation and continued to walk silently with the group.

‘So, What do you do in your world?’, asked Jambavan

‘Do you mean Job? I work as a software developer for an Multi-National Company’

‘What?’ , asked Jambavan

‘sorry again.. Rich countries employ people from poor countries to do their work for a wage that is lower than what they would give to a man from their own country. I’m one such employee’

‘So, Are you a slave?’ asked Jambavan

I stared blankly at him for a few seconds and then responded, ‘In a crude way, yes!’

Atlast we reached the shore and Jambavan turned towards the group and spoke.

‘We need someone to cross this sea and convey our king’s message to Ravana’

‘I can jump a distance of 10 km’, Angada said proudly.

‘I can jump 5 km’, said another. They started arguing with themselves when suddenly a bolt stuck me.

Where is Hanuman?

I turned towards Jambava and said, ‘This might sound stupid but whatever is happening in your world is already written in one of our Epics called Ramayana and according to which at this moment Hanuman is the one who is flies to Lanka to meet Ravana. He is the only one capable of doing this’

Jambavan looked puzzled. ‘Who is Hanuman?.. We don’t have such a person here’

A Ramayana without Hanuman?? I got bewildered and said, ‘Jambavan, you are the one who will make Hanuman realize his powers and give him the courage to fly across the sea. Without Hanuman, we are all doomed there is no way we can reach Lanka’

Jambavan thought for a few seconds and then said ‘We have got out Hanuman’

‘Where.. How??’

‘You’, Jambavan responded with a smile.

‘No way.. I’m a ordinary person, I have no such powers like Hanuman. You are mistaken’, I argued.

‘Call it destiny or fate but you are our Hanuman and like you said you don’t know your powers and it’s me who has to make you realize your greatness’

‘But….’ I protested. On seeing Angada taking his sword out of it’s sheath, I agreed.

‘I can’t fly but I’m an Electrical Engineer with 78% marks. I could construct a motor boat to cross the sea’

‘but I need some components. I need a motor, a battery, fan blades, some wires etc.., Could you get me these?’

‘Thathasthu’, Jambavan uttered and all I asked for appeared before me.

I arranged all of them in order and wondered where I should start. I took the motor and thought to connect it with the battery. I was stuck, I didn’t know which was the positive terminal. I smiled sheepishly at Jambavan.

‘I was never good at Lab you know’

‘Could you get me the Motor Boat itself I asked without shame’

‘Thathasthu’

Jambavan gave me a ring to give to Sita which I put inside my pocket. I got into the Motor Boat and bid farewell to everyone. As I moved further into the sea, suddenly the water near me swirled and out of which a huge Rakshasi emerged.

‘I’m very hungry, I’m going to eat you now. What is your last wish’, she bellowed

‘Ok, but I have some advice for you. Hear me out, this is my last wish’.

The Rakshasi looked puzzled but nodded me to go on.

‘What is your Weight?’

‘Do you know your BMI?’

‘What is your body Fat %?’

The Rakshasi got angry, ‘I’m going to eat you now’

‘Waiiit!!’, I screamed. I’m saying this for your own good. In another 5 years you could get a high B.P with high cholesterol which could in turn lead to a heart attack. You should take care of your health you know’

The Rakshasi looked confused. ‘What should I do?’

‘A balanced diet is a must. Never eat Non-Vegetarian food, especially humans. Walk daily in mornings, yoga also helps’

‘Do you have a boy friend’, I asked

‘No, the Rakshasas always fancy the rambas and the urvasis’, she said in a sad tone.

‘To be honest with you, I find no fault in them. With a belly as big as this no one would even look at you. Maintain a strict diet, get to zero size and then see the magic’ I winked at her.

The Rakshasi smiled finally and thanked me for enlightening her. I bid her farewell and proceeded towards Lanka.

After a few minutes, I reached Lanka. I sneaked into the palace grounds to find Sita. She sat under a tree meditating silently. I moved closer to her and spoke. ‘I’m Gokul, I come as a messenger from Lord Rama. I was asked to give you this ring as a token’

Sita was elated, ‘I knew Rama would find me, Let my husband come soon and destroy this evil Ravana’

I nodded ‘He would definitely save you.. but….’

‘But what?’ Sita queered

‘I don’t know how to say this.. but Rama would eventually doubt you and ask you to get into fire’ I mumbled

‘How dare you say such a thing about Lord Rama??.... Guards… kill him!!!!’ She shouted

‘Adapaavi Sita…! Intha ponungaley ipadithan boss!!’

Within a second, guards who were sleeping until that time surrounded me and took me to meet Ravana in chains.

Ravana was seated in a big throne and other ministers sat at his side. ‘I’m a messenger from Lord Rama, I demand that I should be given a equal status to you’ I said

‘hahaha’, Ravana laughed ‘Neither you nor your Rama deserves such a status’

Immediately I got reminded of a similar situation in Thalaivar’s Padayappa movie.  With one swift movement, I brought down the swing which was hanging up and jumped into it.

(background :Padayappa theme music)

I was now able to see Ravana’s face clearly. It was a very familiar face. As I was thinking where I had seen him before. Ravana spoke in a stern voice, ‘When will you deliver the code?’

Suddenly there was a surge inside me. I woke up in my desk.

‘When will you deliver the code?’ asked my Manager with a stern look.

Strike - A short story

‘Get up, it’s already late’, screamed Saravana. 

‘What time is it?’ ,murmured Vijay. 

‘It’s 8.. Get up Vijay we have to start now’, said Saravana

‘But we slept only at 4 yesterday..’, Vijay murmured to himself and wearily got up from his bed. He peeped outside his room to notice that most of the students in the hostel had already left for the college. He quickly brushed his teeth and switched on his PC. Nearby, in his bed, Saravana sat with his laptop and egged on Vijay to join in quickly. As Vijay’s computer booted, he clicked on an icon in his desktop, Counter Strike.

For those who don’t know about Counter Strike. It’s a multiplayer game where you can team up as either counter-terrorists or terrorists. You will be given a set of goals to complete in each mission and you get a new mission with higher difficulty after you complete one. You also have buying, upgradation of weapons and things like that you normally find in a shooting game.  Counter Strike is a rage among students in wifi enabled hostels.

‘I joined’, exclaimed Vijay.

‘Good, Now upgrade your weapons. It would be difficult otherwise. This is one of the toughest levels, you know. I bet no one from our college has crossed this level’

‘Will you two ever stop?’, said Manoj entering the room fully dressed and ready to leave for college.

‘Did you know that we have Microprocessor Lab today? It’s one of the important sessions in the Semester. Surely you wouldn’t want to miss it’ Manoj claimed.

‘Who cares? I’m already placed in an IT company. I don’t need to attend such boring labs anymore. Just a pass in the final exams would suffice’, beamed Vijay smiling sarcastically at Manoj.

‘What about you Saravana, you are not yet placed, right?’

‘Ahh Who cares? As though attending this lab would fetch me a placement’ remarked Saravana with contempt.

Manoj shook his head and started walking towards college while the counter strike duo started their mission. 

‘I will go and find the bomb while you kill the terrorists’, Saravana commanded Vijay

‘Roger that’, said Vijay

Vijay reloaded his gun and slowly moved towards the enemy’s lair. On seeing a terrorist from a long distance he fired a shot without aiming properly. Suddenly there was gun firing all over the place. Bullets came in from all directions. Vijay frantically shot in all directions, clicking his mouse like a maniac. But the mission ended for Vijay.

‘Are you dead?’, Saravana shouted still looking at his laptop and moving his mouse like an expert.

‘yeaah , let me know when you die. We can start the mission again’, Vijay said awrily and picked up the newspaper nearby to find the headlines as ‘Two Army jawans dead and several injured in a shootout with the Pakistani Army…’

‘How can you die so soon? Do you have any sense of responsibility??’, Saravana barked at Vijay.

The incomprehensible Mind

God’s greatest gift to mankind

A tool too powerful to wield

A complex algorithm it has

Evolving continuously as seconds pass

It dwells in the past, plans for the future

Seldom does it know it has a present to nurture

It feeds on your fear

Only to proliferate like a cancer

The more you try to control its venom

The faster you are engulfed by the phantom

Your mind is not 'you', know this and

The phantom is yours to command

The Night Crawler

It’s half past two in the morning, I shifted uncomfortably in my bed expecting it. My phone beeps throwing a faint light into my girl’s beautiful face. I kissed her cheek softly and moved her arms aside. I silenced my mobile and got dressed. I took it out of my cupboard and looked at closely before shoving it into my jeans. The time has come. 

I reached the building in 10 minutes. It was heavily guarded as usual but I didn’t deter, I had to do it. I took it from my jeans and pointed at the guard. He raised his arm and let me in. As I walked along the dark corridor, my thoughts raced elsewhere. Of all talents I had, I could have been anything yet I chose to be this. I lowered my head in shame but kept walking. This is no time to repent.

As I reached my destination, the phone rang. I picked it up, I exactly knew who it was and what they wanted from me. ‘Gokul, the Application is down. This is a priority 1 issue which needs to be solved asap’