HOLY SATAN

HOLY SATAN

It was about six years after divorce that Pradeep took to learning Computer seriously. He had enough works
during daytime in the provision store he owned, but during the nights, he was feeling so lonely and restive that he had to find some or other works to keep him engaged, however small it may be, so as to keep his mind away from the two years of his wedded life. Seeing television till 11‘o’ clock in the night was beyond question and so he simply sat in his house looking at the darkness and listening the various noises till sleep took hold of him.

It was a friend who suggested learning computer, when he heard about the problem. And it was a
real solution. The friend taught the basics of computer operations and within a period of six months, he became able to operate it independently. The friend had also helped him to have a mail id, and Pradeep had insisted on adding the year 2008 as part of his id. He did not disclose the importance of the year to his friend, but it was the year of his divorce. Somehow, he felt it necessary to add the year with his mail id.

The enormous possibilities of internet fascinated him so much that he spent hours in front of it, searching and finding items which interested and appealed to him. Prior to this, he was not much interested in reading articles or stories, but now it became his habit to search out emagazines and websites, in order to read them. In course of time, he collected the mail ids of some of his friends and relatives and used to receive and send interesting mails to them.

THE UNSUNG HEROES

THE UNSUNG HEROES

 Come they from all corners,                                       
from golden fields of Punjab;             
from mill-studded Mumbai,               
from Kaveri and Ganges.

Mission theirs is sacred,                        
is to prevent and protect
the oldest thread of unison,
the holy land, motherland.

Silent, steady steps
the soldiers march ahead
they look straight and smile
at impending death.

MADAM STRANGE

  MADAM STRANGE

When my landlady said that the adjacent room has been let out to a new party, I became eager to meet them.

In the evening, I met them. My landlady had said that they are from Trichy. Even before meeting them, I had assumed that they too would be poor, illiterate people, like those around the neighbourhood.

The husband worked in a cycle shop in the town. A tender smile was always there on his lips and as if not willing to disturb it, he spoke very little. So, after the preliminaries, I turned to the girl. My immediate impression somehow was that she was twenty-nine years old. She said that her name is Vichitra. Her smile was so friendly that I dared to say that, since Vichitra means strange, I will call her Madam Strange, to which she simply nodded. Her Tamil was very beautiful and cultured with an aroma of sweetness emerging out of it that I could not resist asking:

 “How far you have studied?”
She simply smiled in reply.
On an impulse, I asked: “Twelfth pass. Eh?”
She nodded her head. The loose strands of hair danced about in approval.

Then I went a step further: “It seems that you are from Trichy or Madurai.”
“How?” 
“Yes. There it is. You are from Trichy. Am I right?”

FLIGHT TO ECSTASY

                                           FLIGHT TO ECSTASY

     

          She had no parents. No brother or sister or relatives. In her childhood, she believed that she had fallen from the sky. But later she knew that human beings do not fall from the sky. Maybe, it was from somewhere else, she convinced herself.

       It is not only the want of relatives that made her an orphan. She was deaf and dumb and so sound and speech were also not related to her. She knew only day and night and there was nothing called time in her mind. Being timeless, she was ageless too. She hardly saw the sun, since she always walked with a stoop and sat with her face towards the earth. But she always sat looking at the moon whenever it was there.

      And she had no home and slept below a small tree with very large leaves at a deserted area outside the town, after begging and getting a little food from some hotel. Even during heavy rain and lighting, she peacefully slept at that place.

      She never begged for or accepted money and believed that whoever gave her something to eat, were somehow related to her.

      It was a moonlit night. She was sitting below her small tree. There was nobody in the vicinity. She was looking at the moon thinking that she might have fallen from the moon since it was looking kindly at her.