Four mangoes

"Where is it? where is it??" The mob of children were asking Ghani to show where the snake was. He was in the middle of gang of children of all age groups and many of them were even elder to him. He was explaining the incident over and over again with each newly added audience and was obviously enjoying all the attention. And each time the drama was unfolding with greater intensity.
He started off again with greater enthusiasm as his younger sister joined the listeners, "Arey, it was as long as the skipping rope. It had a huge hood which could be used as umbrella for babies. It was as black as Sharma uncle's doberman. It was just a feet away."
Shanti almost squeaked, " Bhayya, where did you see that and why did you go there?".
He raised his chin as far as he can and answered to this unnecessary question, "I had gone to pluck some mangoes from the orchard near the bunglow. It was on that tree which has a hanging branch towards the gate. Do you think the snake stopped me from what I had started? No, It did not. I came out with four huge mangoes. And one of them is almost ripe."
All of them gasped again together and were awed with their super hero. Innocently, Shanti extended her hand and said, "Bhayya, can I have one mango please."
Ghani was annoyed at her now, "I wont give you. Its my hard-earned fruit. Go and get for yourself."
With that everybody giggled at Shanti as grew red in her face. Sobbing uncontrollably she ran away to their home. Beforeshe entered their garden, she stopped and turned around. Then she resolutely walked towards the orchard as the twilight was approaching fast. In few minutes she was at the gate. She looked around in the little light to see if the snake was around. Then with a jump she held on to the low branch over the gate. She pulled herself up and lowered into the orchard through another low hung branch. It was darker inside the gate. Traces of fear started to creep into her heart. But still she went ahead to look for mangoes. She loudly declared, " I will find four ripe mangoes, then I will see who comes begging for it." With a vary eye for the snake she went from tree to tree for finding reachable fruits. She suddenly heard a rustle behind her. Shanti jumped and looked around but saw nothing. She started to sweat, but didnt want to go back without a fruit. As she was plucking her first fruit, something touched her hand and it was soft. She pulled back but there was nobody there. Trembling she dropped her fruit and ran for the gate. something started to run behind her. She could hear the sounds. She shouted and ran faster. A hand bolted out of dark and held her shoulder. Shanti turned around and saw the face of a bloody vampire grinning at her. Then three things happened at same time, she screamed, fainted and her heart stopped beating.
Ghani ripped off the mask and caught his sister before she fell down but she was not moving.

Sadhana

Sadhana was getting married and it was taking so long for the fact to sink in. It started with an easy attitude but slowly she was getting feverishly happy. Her wide smile was infecting the whole house now. There were so many people in the house and so much work was going on. At every moment there were bursts of laughter and excitement. One festive occasion had united all the chains of relatives under the same roof. Children were having the best of their time and elders were fulfilling all their whims and fancies.
She was standing at the balcony of the house and absorbing the whole scene. She wanted to remember each and every moment of these happenings throughout her life and to their very smallest detail. She took a deep breath and with a tear in her eye she ran to her mother to give her a tight hug. She wanted to remember this hug more than anything. Her mother was blushing with this sudden attention and showered kisses on her daughter. She saw the sparkling tear in her daughters eye and before the next moment passed she started crying her heart out. This emotional embrace was soon joined by all the other relatives and soon a laughing congregation turned into a series of sobbing. The only difference was that they were happy at the bottom of everything. An elderly lady scattered the group by reminding them of the pending jobs.
Sadhana went back to the balcony and started to rewind her life right from her childhood. It was a great time that she had spent. She couldnt count many days when she was sad or distressed. Theirs was a very happy family with a wonderful couple as parents. With an elder brother and an younger sister, Sadhana just about had an ideal family. She was always secretly proud about being a part of a perfect picture. For about an hour or more she stood at the balcony refusing all pleas to go inside and take some rest. The ocean of happiness was forming a lump in her throat. There were huge waves of emotions surging inside her. Was this because she was going to say a goodbye to all her jeweled past under such elaborate festivities? Was this because the future held a huge puzzle of how its going to be? Or was she afraid that anything more wonderful in life will diminish the significance of her past? Was having a perfect life the biggest gloom ever? She was not sure what it was but something had burst inside her in the past hour.
She wanted to seal this hour in its unique intactness. She wanted to stop the time, the hour, the minute. And she knew exactly how to do it. Thats what her name meant right? Work for whatever you want. And this time she would work till her last breath. Almost literally.
As she thought about it there was a slight peaceful smile on her lips and a radiance in her eyes. She turned around towards her bustling family and drank to her fill with the present moment.
The whole house reverbrated with a dull thud. People ran from all directions towards a bloody spot at the bottom of the balcony. Sadhana was deeply immersed in her final meditation with a gentle smile adorning her face. She had sealed her happiness forever.

I love you!!

She was again losing her temper on the other side of the line.....and he was grinding his teeth in self-control. It was always like this. She will go on and on digging on old stuff, imagining new things, always in fury or worry. He was having enough of it....he was even considering to break up with her. Nobody had given him this behavior. He was always being bossed around and shouted at. What had he done to get all this from her. She was not even his mother or grandmother to give respect for age and experience.
Finally she went into a huge sob and ended the dialogue with a loud wail and banging of phone. He was angry, distressed and miserable at the this end. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temple with agitated shivering fingers. He was unable to get back to work and there was loads of it to do. He got up with a loud sigh and went to the water fountain to get a sip. As he saw the water pumping out of the fountain, he could not drink it anymore. He could only see her eyes in the place of the fountain. He cursed in general on his position and got back to work.
Again failing to concentrate, he tried calling her. She didnt pick up the call. He rang atleast a dozen times more. Each call was making him more angry and helpless. He slapped his forhead, packed his bag and left. It was snowing outside and it was so brutally cold. He had forgotten to wear his gloves and scarf and had left them at office. He considered going back to office to get them. Then decided against it as it was only a ten minute walk. He started to walk faster all the while rubbing his hands to keep warm. Just after few more steps it started to snow. The walk became tougher. His hands started paining and he was shaking vigourously. A sudden shot of pain started to crawl from his spine towards head. Suddenly out of nowhere his eyes started burning and watering uncontrollably. He wiped them off with sleeve which gave way to more of the tears.
Abrubtly, he stopped in his tracks and his mind started to run. He realized that he was also crying now in the same way as she was crying. What had made him cry? Yes. It was the cold. And as the realization hit him he sat on the snow now oblivious to the snowfall and the cold. What had taken it so long for him to realize? Why was he unable to see this before? Now he knew why she cried so much and so badly! It was because he was as cold as the snow. It was him who was not giving thw warmth for the tears to stop flowing. He could stop his own misery and he could stop her from crying. All he had to do was to be more warm. It was as easy as that!
He stood up in a hurry and started running, towards home, his atheletic body making good progress in snowfall. He was no more cold. He was very warm. That was warmth of love. He will give it her, he will do it fast. She will stop crying too, she will be happy hereafter. Their love will stand alive forever and ever......

thats how i smile :)

My first prose blog and i want it desparately to be a happy blog. So desparate that I have spent last half an hour writing and deleting many lines on too many different topics. I wanted to make this special but at the moment the only fun topic can be my "liver-peice" my "chic-let" my "Lord-la" that is my nephew : KAUSHIK He was the bundle of joy that i never saw arriving into my life. Never thought a small body with big head can make a difference to my sad-tuned nervous system. I saw few of his first snaps and my brittle heart started to crumble into crystals of smiles and myriad of emotions. That was the starting of a new bond that will help me rebound from the steps of gloom. If i were to be the director of my autobiography i would put background-laughter in all the scenes where kaushik is present. Or i might be laughing for real too all the way. Then the first time i met him, he was a crawling-laughing-buddha. A round (again huge) head with a wide toothless smile. The twinkle in his eyes sprinkled sparkles of life in me. He was a foot in length and and a half in width but was spinning a family of six on his obese fingers. He was the teddy bear i never had in my life. He was my laughter-buddha. The next trip home, he was a foot and half and two half-teeth and he was blowing kisses and hugs to his "atthas". In his 213 grey cells of brain(purely fictious statistics) he had image of a lady who had the capacity to duplicate whenever she wished to. He couldnt imagine there could be two of "them". One form could really get on his nerves, and that was the loudest member of family too and YES that was me. Recent trip was when he was full two feet and full four teeth and thats when he met his one of the best buddies of life(again me). We had three weeks and we rocked all the seconds of the minutes of the hours of the days of the weeks. And so "my-reason-to-smile" that was your best parts written down as my first entry and i wish to meet you soon. Bless you my with 26 more teeth and four more feet.