Friday, December 11, 2015

Short Story: The Flood

A little wetness on my left cheek awoke me. I rubbed my eyes and tried to sit on my mattress. Damn! Not only my left cheek, but half of my body was wet. The pillow and bed sheet was no different.

'Am I hallucinating?' I asked myself. I touched my forehead to find it extremely cold. I tried to open my eyes with a lot of difficulty. My room was filled with water. Half of the things kept on the floor was submerged in it. While the other half kept floating over it. Worried, I looked at my mobile. I used to feel too lazy to wake up every morning and most of the days I switched off the alarm put on the mobile and slept again. To avoid the practice, I started keeping it at some height so that I have to stand and switch it off. Luckily the phone was still kept on the rack above. I stood on the mattress in a shocked state of mind.

'Shit! Did the Chennai flood come to Bangalore too?' Another question popped up in my head. 'No. It can't be true. I live on the second floor. The two floors have to submerge in the water to reach me.'

I tried to switch on the light with fail. There was no electricity. I placed my foot safely and walked towards the window. I could see the water drizzling outside my room. I rushed towards the other room to see the damage.

Loud knocks at the door called me back. Keeping my foot with utmost care, I walked towards the door. Meanwhile, the door bell rang and the knocks turned louder. Someone on the other end of the door was too impatient to hold on. 'It might be the neighbor,' I thought.

I opened the door. My landlord shouted at the top of his voice, "How many times would I have to tell you to close the kitchen's tap properly? The whole tank is empty."

That's what I have for today. A small try to give you a sigh of relief that it's all over! Please let me know your views/comments/suggestions or feedback. Tada! :)

Friday, September 25, 2015

Find the Sachin Tendulkar in you!

Let me tell you a story today. A story of Sachin Tendulkar!

I believe, most of us know him as one of the greatest cricketers of all time. But then, Cricket is a game and cricketers are just few players. Every player has good and bad days; times when they perform well and times when they couldn't. It wasn't good time for Sachin Tendulkar those days. Most of the times, he used to get out under a score of 10. Many of the people started criticizing his abilities. Few others commented that he should quit Indian Cricket team. Matches after matches happened but his performance could not improve. After he was out one day and was returning to pabellón, a man questioned him from the crowd, "Why do you play Cricket if you can't?" 

He listened to the man's words but ignored him. Later BCCI President, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya called him and inquired about his poor performance. Sachin answered Mr Dalmia's queries. Months passed by. Sachin practiced harder and achieved his form. He created several new records and made his mark in World Cricket that can never be removed.

Why am I telling you this story? Because I believe, we all are nothing more than players of our life. Sometimes, we perform good while at others, we fail to do so. People criticize/comment/question our abilities. But we choose to answer all/most of them. While most of the times their views hardly matter until he is Mr Dalmia in the story above. 

Thanks to a college friend for narrating me this story years ago. Maybe, I will remember this story all my life. Though this story is fictional and I don't know if something like this ever happened or not. But I believe, I have started making differences between the masses and Dalmias. I know whom to answer and whom not to. I don't want to answer everyone and waste my time which I would have otherwise used to do something constructive. Maybe, I've found Sachin Tendulkar in me. Have you?