Love, lock, stock, and barrel

Love, lock, stock and barrel

To all my lovely friends of the YES group

‘ONLY TWENTY minutes left’… Shreya writes hurriedly. The examiner is standing beside her staunchly… His stolid face unresponsive of the desperate expressions she delivers. ‘How do we prove two triangles congruent?’ she asks herself… She bites her nails, scratches her head and pulls at her locks. Still, the teacher shows no trace of emotion... She looks around and finds that Ruchika has completed her paper. ‘Psst… Hey Ruchi!’ she whispers. The examiner glares at her… She lets go of a guilty smile. ‘Five minutes to go’, the examiner announces. The pen shakes in her fingers, beads of sweat are there on her forehead… She tries hard to recall what she had studied. Vicky asks for another answer sheet and the teacher moves away. She couldn’t let the chance slip away. ‘Hey, Ruchi, how do we prove…?’ She says quite loudly, all heads turn towards her. The examiner shouts, ‘Shreya, your paper is cancelled!’                                                    

Suddenly everything vanishes… The teacher, the desks, the classroom… Shreya finds herself at home. Her smaller brother is watching the world cup finals. She enters the room silently and catches a glimpse of the score- Sachin has hit another century… ‘How was your exam Shreya?’ asked Shreya’s mother. Shreya is drinking water, the glass slips from her hand and falls… Her mother is shouting at her… But she hears nothing… Everything slowly recedes into the background, the cricket match, her mother, the broken glass… Shreya sees blackness… She feels she is being picked up… Faint voices speak quickly to each other… Then everything is still and black… She isn’t able to breathe, something is suffocating her… She is about to drown.

Shreya woke up with a jerk. She was breathing rapidly. She shot her hand out to the side table and fumbled for the light switch. When the light switched on, she quickly drank loads of water and calmed down.

NEXT DAY in school, Shreya saw that everybody was very much tensed about the exam. “Hey, Shreya, are you prepared?” Nehall asked her. “Yes, but not very well”, she said, taking out her book from her satchel. “Oh! None of us are”, said Nehall. They sat in a group gossiping and discussing. After sometime, Ruchika arrived, she was looking very jolly. “Hey, Shreya, may I have a word with you?” she asked in a cheerful tone. “Sure!” Shreya replied and began to pack up. “Yes, why not? After all, Shreya and Ruchika are best friends!” said Chetna, stressing on ‘best’. “Shut up Chetna!” said Shreya and the two of them trooped away. Chetna and the other girls were still giggling.

“I can’t wait to tell you this, Aman was so flattering yesterday! He was looking like a guy from the English or American bands. You should have seen his hairstyle! He went on admiring me and my beauty and I kept on gazing at him and…” “Hey, wait, give it a break”, Shreya intruded in Ruchika’s seemingly endless chatter. Ruchika fell silent. “So your date was good?” Shreya asked. “It was awesome!” Ruchika cried. They both stared at each other intently. Ruchika wore a smile and Shreya was grinning. “You really love him, don’t you?” asked Shreya. “Loads! Not even our Physics sir’s measuring units can fathom how much!” Ruchika replied. “You are so lucky!” Shreya said, laughing.

The school bell rang. It sounded more like an emergency call to everybody. Students hastily had their ‘a last peep at their books’ which usually never came. Some bunged their books shut and sent up a prayer or two. Others just kept on studying, as if it was not the bell but only the croaking horn of a lorry.

Shreya and Ruchika proceeded slowly towards the assembly hall still chattering happily. In the midst of the conversation, Shreya remembered the dream she had seen the last night and excused herself from the talk. Quickly, she produced her mathematics book from her bag and went through the axioms of congruency. When she was satisfied, she rushed to the assembly hall.

“Good luck Ruchika!” Shreya whispered as the examiner handed out the papers. “Thanks, and same to you”, replied Ruchika. Shreya blinked at her.

Shreya got the paper. She began writing with great zeal. After solving two sums successfully, she stretched her arms and drank water. She began writing again, but the questions were getting tougher. She scribbled a lot, scratching and cutting again and again.

After a while, the examiner said “Twenty minutes to go.” He stood beside Shreya’s desk and kept a watchful eye upon the miscreants. Shreya wrote hurriedly. There was a lot left to solve. She gulped. The next question asked her to prove two triangles congruent, and she failed to remember how to do it. She bit her nails, scratched her head and pulled at her locks. The teacher seemed to be oblivious to Shreya’s gesticulations. Shreya swiftly turned her head towards Ruchika. She was bowled over! Ruchika had completed her paper. “Hey Ruchi, listen!” she whispered softly. “Five minutes to go!” roared the examiner’s voice. Shreya noticed that he was looking at her sternly. She grinned.

Her fears were confirmed when Vicky asked for another answer sheet and the examiner walked away. “Ruchi, How to prove…?” Shreya asked abruptly, but too stridently. All eyes were upon her. Shreya was astounded. “Shreya, Your paper is cancelled!” the examiner rasped.

 “It’s the truth!” Shreya yelled. “How can it be? You are lying! I have never heard of such things as dreams coming true!” Ruchika retorted. “Okay, don’t believe me, but if Sachin hits a century today, then will you believe me?” Shreya questioned. “So you saw that too in your dream?” asked Ruchika. “Yes” “Let us see”

Shreya stepped into her house stealthily. Her heart was beating fast. She had her fingers crossed. The door creaked open. Keshav, Shreya’s little brother exclaimed beatifically as she entered- “Sachin has hit another century didi!” Shreya faltered. She couldn’t believe her ears. Trembling, she proceeded towards the kitchen. Her throat had become very dry and she wanted to drink water. “How was your exam Shreya?” asked her mother. She tightened her grip on the tumbler. ‘I can’t let it slip!’ she thought. All of a sudden, her hand started itching terribly and, in order to rub it, she loosened her hold. The glass fell down and the water spilled.

“I am feeling dreadful”, Shreya told Ruchika over the phone. “This is serious Shreya. It cannot be coincidence. Watch your step. I am not feeling good about all this”, replied Ruchika.

‘Don’t do this to me!’ somebody screams… ‘Scream, yell and shout! I won’t hear you. It was you who betrayed me’, says a cruel voice… ‘Believe me! I wasn’t with any guy! It must have been somebody else! You are mistaken!’ the girl beseeches. ‘No, I can’t believe you, not anymore… You have conspired against me, toyed with me! I won’t forgive you! I am breaking up!’ the merciless voice says… The girl breaks into a fit of sobs… ‘Please, you are everything for me… Please don’t go. Please don’t say such things!’ ‘Do you think that when I saw you with that guy, it was a pleasing sight to me? It left a scar on me, an indelible impression… Now you have to pay for it…’ The words eventually became inaudible and then ultimately stopped… Shreya is drowning… She is flailing her arms and her legs but it is useless… She is suffocating.

Shreya tossed and turned in her bed. “Where is Ruchika?” Shreya asked Poonam at school. “I don’t know> Why are you asking? What is the matter?” Poonam asked as Shreya flitted away. She sighed.

“Are you okay? Is everything all right?” Shreya asked a stunned Ruchika. “Y-yes, but why?” Ruchika asked. Shreya let out a deep breath. “Thank God!” she exclaimed. “Why? What happened?” Ruchika pressed upon her. “Ah- it is nothing, just a trifling”, she replied.

After school was over, Ruchika called Shreya, “Hey Shreya, come fast to my house!” Shreya darted off.  “It wasn’t just a trifling”, Ruchika said as Shreya entered. Ruchika was in tears. “No… No… you did not…” “Yes, we broke up!” Shreya threw her arms into the air. She could only half-hear the cries and grumbles of Ruchika. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? You could have stopped it, but you chose not to!” the voice resounded. Shreya held her head, she was feeling giddy. The world turned and turned. Shreya whirled and passed out.

“Yeah, I am okay now…” Shreya explained to her parents. “Okay, good night.” They went away and the lights were turned off. Shreya couldn’t sleep that night… Haunting memories of the past days kept her awake… She had now come to believe that all her dreams were real happenings…

The looming image of the teacher materializes before her… He is chuckling hysterically… He has gone feral… mad… Slowly Aman and Ruchika appear before her… They seem to be scowling at her… They are cursing her, abusing her… They also vanish. That night, after seeing these horrific sights, Shreya saw another dream…

It is dark… very dark… As dark a room as Shreya has ever been in… Shreya watches a girl entering the room… her silhouette is seen against the light that is being dispelled from outside… The girl enters the room… She seems to be very blue… She pulls a chair from a corner, the scraping sound of the legs creating a sense of aversion in Shreya’s mind… The girl gets up and attaches a rope to the ceiling… She succeeds on the second try… Then she gets up the chair and tests the rope by tugging at it…

Shreya woke up. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “I can’t let this happen!” Soon, everybody in Shreya’s house was awake and Shreya was blabbering on at full pace. From the mathematics examination to the spilling of the water and then to the break up, Shreya fought hard to convince her parents that she spoke the truth.

“We will see to it tomorrow morning”, said Shreya’s father. “No!  You shall see to it now!” Shreya cried. “Go! Inform her parents. I can’t let her suicide… No!” Shreya broke down. Her mother’s soothing words and solemn promises lulled her to sleep.

“This is serious”, said a dour-faced Shreya’s mother the next day at Ruchika’s house. Ruchika’s parents sat around Shreya and her mother and listened attentively to her narrative. Shreya’s father wasn’t there. She spoke swiftly and in a firm tone. Her tears had just dried up and they had formed salty patches on her face. As she spoke, she moved her hand to add emphasis. She had made a remarkable impression on Shreya’s parents by the time she had reached the event of the spilling of water.

“I held firmly to the glass”, she said, “but something caused me to scratch my hand and it fell. It had to happen, I couldn’t stop it, but I am feeling that Ruchika’s suicide can be averted…” she spoke at last. “Ruchika’s what?” blurted out Ruchika’s mother. “Her suicide… Yes, yesterday night I saw her hanging herself and I came here to inform you right away”, said Shreya, speaking in a more diplomatic fashion. Then she explained the break up between Aman and Ruchika and the harmful impact it had made on Ruchika’s mind. “She is very much hurt”, Shreya said. “Where is she?” she asked after a certain span of muted time. Ruchika mother spoke- “She is still asleep. I can’t imagine…” “I think we should believe in her. It won’t harm us if we be careful for just a day. One day, isn’t it?” asked Ruchika’s father. “Yes, it is only one day”, said Shreya and these words were followed by a deathly quiet.

The day began. Ruchika’s mother wouldn’t let her out of sight for the first few hours. She didn’t speak to her harshly, but kept calm and silent. “Why are you acting so strangely, mumma?” Ruchika inquired. “It’s nothing. I was just wondering if you were okay…” said Ruchika’s mother. “Yes, I am perfectly all right, but you seem disturbed”, said Ruchika. So the day saw many other such disturbed moments. Ruchika was never left out of sight. Shreya stayed with her the full day, taking all the care not to let her get depressed or even annoyed. “What has happened to you?” Ruchika stammered when she broke a costly glass piece and her mother didn’t even speak so much as a word. “All of you are acting so strangely! Why?” Shreya looked at the troubled form of her best friend. This was the moment she had been waiting for… All of them were waiting for… Ruchika kept on screaming and Shreya stood there fixedly… Stunned… Stunned at the way her best friend was behaving, stunned from the memories of the past night, stunned from all that had occurred and all that was coming… All the events had uprooted her life… She wasn’t ready for anything like that… But life plays its own games…

Shreya’s father arrived there. He couldn’t bear to see Ruchika’s condition. He He was flared up. “Poor Ruchika has to pay for your stupid dreams. Now get out of here before I thrash you!” roared Shreya’s father. After apologizing for his daughter’s foolish behavior, he returned home with Shreya. He took her straight to his room and locked the door behind him. “Who do you think you are? Do you think that you are the daughter of a rich merchant?” Shreya was taken aback. Her father was very furious. “No! Do you think everybody will hear your silly pleas? Keep them to yourself! Shut up or I will beat you like anything! Next time you open your mouth and speak your stupid dreams, you wait and watch what I shall do! Bloody orphan!” Shreya’s head whirled. The words echoed in her ears. She let out a quail of terror. “Yes! You are just a bloody orphan! Your parents died in a flood and it would have done us good, if you had died with them! Damn it! Why did you survive?” he barked. Shreya couldn’t bear it anymore. She ran out of there, into her room, slamming the door shut. Her heart felt like an anchor, always sinking down. Her eyes felt like they were overflowing mugs, tears brimming in them and spilling all around. Her arms and legs felt like pieces of raw meat, worthy only of being thrown to the vultures. Her whole body seemed to have become a tool for others for their self-fulfillment…

Shreya slept…

After a short while, she got up… It was dark… very dark… As dark a room as Shreya had ever been in. ‘Bloody orphan!’ Shreya seemed to be very blue. ‘Your parents died in a flood’ She pulled a chair from a corner, the scraping sound of the legs perturbing Shreya’s mind… Shreya attached a rope to the roof, she succeeded on the second try. ‘Why did you survive?’ Shreya tugged at the rope to test it. ‘It would have done us good, if you had died with them!’ She closed her eyes. ‘You could have stopped it, but you chose not to!’ The chair slipped and fell, its crashing sound echoing in the depths of the night…

                                       

   

A spark from the legends...

A spark from the legends…

Dedicated to the "INNOCENT DEVIL"

The cabbie steered around the city slowly. For the first time in Nelson's life, the thought of home didn't give him contentment. He sat in the backseat and pondered about the bicycle his son had asked him to get, but working as a waiter in a roadside restaurant hardly permitted him two meals a day and buying a bicycle would have made him go without any food for two days. He was feeling dreadful, half because of the bicycle and half because his wife thought that he had found a job in some big company. Ciara will surely find out the truth today. A tear escaped his eyes and dropped on his hand.

The Indian cabbie whistled as he drove. The night was very dark, darker than usual. Suddenly, a black cat crossed the road. The driver rammed the brakes and the car stopped. The cabbie had heard of a superstition that said cats crossing the road brought bad luck, but practice had taught him to never believe in them. "Easy man," Nelson said. "Sorry sir, I didn't notice the cat before," replied the driver. He keyed the engine once again and accelerated slowly. The speedometer rose to ten. Then something hit the underside of the car. Before the sound could reach the cabbie's ear, the car blew up.

Jove stood in the foyer. "Come back in. It is cold outside. Your dad must be on his way," said his mother Ciara from inside. Jove was very excited for his father was coming back home with his new bicycle. Each time a car passed by, Jove would run out of the house to check if it was his father. "Where is dad?" Jove asked slowly. "He was supposed to be home half an hour ago" said Jove. "He will come back soon" said his mother.

Ciara's ears cocked up. She had sensed a disturbance in the air. "You go to sleep now," Ciara said to Jove, now looking concerned. "No, no, no. I won’t. I will sleep only after father gets home." Ciara, using her fingers, motioned Jove's eyelids to drop down. "Only after father is back... Only after he is..." Jove drifted off.  

Out of the blue, seven people appeared in the Hall Of Illusions. They quickly seated themselves.

"The waves have helped," said Madonna. "Ciara's trick has worked."

"There are five of them. The Black Hoods, this time they are far more powerful and determined." Ciara said.

"We are seven. What do you say?" Sophie nodded.

"We have to be quick. Madonna, you will go for the metro. Clara, you have to defend the city mall. The airport will be packed. It will be for you, Jolie and you, Marga; Katy, the movie hall. Sophie and I will try to save the Intelligence Corps Department. We have three hours and then we will report here," said Ciara.

"There is one more problem," said Clara. Everybody's head turned towards Clara. She sighed and then said, "Today is Christmas eve."

The City mall was looming with people that night. All the stores were open. There were two big Christmas trees flanking both sides of the main entrance. A person dressed as Santa Claus was distributing sweets at the entrance. The snow had gathered on the trees and on the path. Two people were busy cleaning the path of the snow. They were piled it into a heap at one corner of the road.

A person with a black hood stood watching all this from the terrace of a nearby building.

Clara was speeding to the city mall. She jumped from building to building, dodging the lines upon which clothes were hung for drying, stepping on the window panes and bracing against shadowed areas whenever anyone would glance at her figure. She stopped at a distance from the city mall and began walking. She didn't enter the mall but ambled around on the outside. She scrutinized the place. Three people were eating hot dogs, quite a number of people were resting on the seats and some children were chasing each other around the place where a mass of snow had been collected. I can sense some turbulence. There are so many people out here. It will be tough to get hold of the brute.

The boy who was chasing the other kids followed a girl past the mound of snow. At that moment, the top of the snow spilled out itself. The boy fell down hard and blood flowed out from the back of his head. Oh no! The girl who had been running away stopped dead in her tracks. There was a short pause as everyone watched the spectacle awed. The next moment, the snow spurted out and everybody was falling down. The road had become dangerously slippery. A hurrying van, which was passing the spot, crashed into another van that had turned around the corner. Clara, too, fell down with a thud. She quickly got up and looked around. She noticed a figure disappearing from the terrace of the building that stood opposite the wall. "Clear out!" she yelled.  

The black hood turned and vanished. He had a cruel smile on his leaps.

Sophie and Ciara were the only ones left in the Hall of Illusions. "Let us go," Sophie said, turning to go. "No," said Ciara. Sophie turned back and raised an eyebrow. "You move out. I will be there after some time. Nelson hasn't returned home. I fear something is wrong," Ciara said. Sophie had an alarmed look on her face. "What happened?" Sophie asked.

"I don't know. I will go and check out. You see that nobody trespasses the department."

"Sure. Won't it be closed today?"

"Yes and that makes our work all the more easier!"

Ciara blinked and disappeared.

Sophie rushed to the Department. It was locked shut. Everything was quiet and still. She sighed. Everything had happened so fast that she had been stunned. Nick had been dating her for the first time in her life and, much regrettably, it was that moment the Black Hoods had chosen to invade the city. She remembered Nick, his deep and persistent gaze, the way he looked at her for hours long without speaking a word. How he would always ask if she was feeling uncomfortable and the way she would always deny. At that moment, Sophie felt that Ciara should have never put on the protection around the city- an invisible wall which when touched by a black magician sends disturbing waves rippling through the whole city. In the Hall of Illusions, they came to know those five places the Black Hoods had targeted. Dirty guys, but smart. They have targeted the four most crowded areas of the city, and this Department which is the backbone of the Security Team against Criminals.

Ciara half ran, half flew to the mess. Nelson lay under the debris, scorched and scarred, and- she gulped- dead. She began feeling it then. It was an itchy feeling; it turned into a scratch; then it became a wound; then turned into an indelible scar.

All was quiet inside the building. Silently, she trod around the rows of computers that contained all the information on the city's miscreants. She tiptoed forward, all senses alert. Something flicked on the left. On the spur of the moment, Sophie hurled a chair at the figure. It dodged the chair and motioned the chandelier to come down on Sophie. Sophie threw up her hands and barred the chandelier from crushing her. She threw it sideways and it crashed into the wall. "Ciara stop! It’s me!" Sophie yelled. There was a deafening silence. "Oh no! We have created a hell lot of noise," whispered Ciara. Both of them fell silent.

Three security guards rushed inside. They were sure they had heard something bang. Their flashlights scanned the whole room but they could see nothing disturbed. Bewildered, they returned to their posts.

The Black Hood came before long. Ciara was the one to notice him first. He tiptoed towards Sophie, and Ciara followed her lightly.

Sophie turned around and saw Ciara crouching. She yelled, “Hurry Ciara! He is behind you!”

Ciara halted perplexed. Slowly, the brute in front of her vanished into thin air- it was just an apparition! Then something tugged at Ciara from behind. After a second, Ciara was hurtling through the air and outside the window.

Sophie dived under a desk. The Black Hood did not want to play and hide and seek. With a wave of his arms, he sent all the tables, chairs, computers and wires flying. In a moment, the hall was emptied of everything, except Sophie.

“Oh!” Ciara exclaimed, “all is lost,” she said as the computers, wires, chips and cables fell through the window and made one huge pile. It was a horrifying spectacle to see all the years’ job damaged and lost in few minutes. The chain of falling machines, outlined against the dark sky, looked ominous.   

Sophie tried to stop the flow of blood from her right foot, but it was futile. Ciara appeared right there. “He is gone,” she murmured in pain. “We must leave right away!” And they disappeared.

Because it was Christmas, the metro would be running till midnight that day. Madonna checked if the tracks were clear; not a speck of disturbance could be seen. She waited. The metros were running smoothly. It would be tough to prevent an attack. Her heart was palpitating. She leaped through the tunnels, always on the alert for the slightest hint of trouble. She caught it then. It was a shriek, a soft one, but it was enough to tell her which metro had been attacked and where it was.

The Black Hood leaned on the subdued girl. "Leave her alone!" somebody beat him with a handbag from behind. He leaned in closer, almost touching her face. The death bite. All of a sudden, the metro began shaking. The Black Hood stood up straight. The shaking stopped. Sophie burst in through the door. The Black Hood raised the girl and hurled her at Sophie. Sophie caught the flying body and laid her down. She was unconscious.

Sophie ran towards the brute and used the pole to swing herself. Her legs hit the crook hard and he fell backwards, crashing through the train and thudding against the wall. "Move it!" Sophie screamed to the driver.

Sophie flew out as the train turned round the corner but the beast was no more there. “Back to the Hall of Illusions,” she said to herself.

Even though it was Christmas, the movie halls were not quite empty. Katy didn’t enter any of the halls but lingered outside and kept watch. “I hate fighting”, she whispered to herself. “But I don’t, and- oh that’s sad- because we are going to have a good show right now!” Katy wheeled around just in time to dodge a flying car. The Black Hood was uncovered, his abominable and unsightly face showing all its horrible gashes and repulsive scars and its single nasty smile that could scare anyone to death.

Katy sped towards the brute, her sword drawn out. As soon as she reached him, she tried to hit him towards the left, but quickly changed direction and thrust the sword straight in him. The beast staggered and screamed, but the pain was all fake, because the Black Hood pulled Katy up with her sword and thrust her onto the ground. Blood ran from Katy’s mouth.

Something kicked Katy in the head, Katy got up slowly. The blow had left her giddy. There were people all around her and they were running away from something. When she regained her calm of mind, she saw that all the movie halls were on fire.

Jolie and Marga kept watch from a distance. “It will not be easy,” Jolie whispered. “You go and secure the airplanes. I will take the care of the other passengers,” Marga said.

Jolie stood and watched from the side of the runway. A plane was about to land. It was descending slowly. Jolie noticed that the plane had come very close to the ground and yet the wheels had not come out. She was alarmed! When the airplane was dangerously close to the ground, Jolie acted quickly.

Soon, the plane had landed safely and all the passengers were saved.

Marga was caught in the chaos that followed the accident. People were elbowing and pushing to get to their relatives. Marga thought it best to leave the spot and go and find Jolie.

Marga's decision proved to be wrong because as soon as she left the building, a huge quarrel arose between two groups. It all started when one man thudded against another in the hustle and bustle. The bigger man had, accidentally- well that was what he said later on- stepped upon the other man's foot, and they began grappling with each other.

Marga couldn't find Jolie anywhere. By the time she returned, there was a commotion raging inside the building. Everything was being torn, burned and ransacked.

The Hall of Illusions lit up. All seven of the magicians returned, having failed in each of their tasks. Jolie was lying down, badly injured due to the overexertion. "She has only a bit of energy left!" Ciara exclaimed, bending down upon her. "Heal yourself!" she commanded, "and do not waste your energy… Don't breathe and don't speak. Just heal!" Jolie parted her lips. "No Jolie! Don't speak!" Ciara screamed but it was too late, "The Black Hoods are here," Jolie said.

Ciara didn’t flinch. She could now sense their presence suddenly. There weren’t just five of them, she could say that for sure. Her fears were confirmed when she stood up and looked around. There, standing in front of her with their hands up ready to strike stood thirteen Black Hoods.

That same night, Ciara said to Jove, “Hey, dad isn’t going to come back.” “Why?” asked Jove. “Listen Jove, this world is made of dark things,” Ciara said as she pulled Jove closer. “And each pf us, you, me, and every stranger you see, have a light in them which is just a spark. You have to provide the fuel to the spark. You must shine and let your light defeat the darkness that is all around you. I may have to leave you and go, but then in those times you must believe,” she continued, “Believe in the light that is shining within you and unreal things will be made possible. It is all very easy, you just have to believe… Mark my words, just believe,” said Ciara. “Mommy, where is dad?” asked Jove, perplexed. Ciara collapsed. “Mommy!” he shouted. He pulled at her and pushed her, but it was of no use. Ciara was dead but the legend was not over. ‘Believing’ was the fuel and it kept the spark of the legend alive.

  

Ciara - my love

A tear trickled down Ciara’s eyes and fell on my hands. She got up picked her cell and her keys went towards the gate and vanished.
It was just in seconds. She was talking properly, I didn’t tell her anything, she wasn’t angry, she was smiling then what happened. The thoughts circled my mind throughout the night. I tried to call her but her cell was switched off she wasn’t online. I was very much worried about her. I was almost near to burst out in tears and then I dozed off.
I got up at 9 o’clock the next day and all the last day thoughts occupied their rightful position in my mind. I was tired, exhausted and jaded of the problems. Our relation had been for 2 years and problems every third day but this was something very bizarre. I went to her house and waited for an hour but anyone neither came to the balcony nor out of the house. “Where the **** have they gone”, I thought in my mind and then I saw her father and mother returning home in their car. I went back of their building. She was not in the car and her cell switched off. I was in a mood that couldn’t be explained. Only a true lover with a lost heart, problematic life and a worn out mind could understand my feeling.
I got back home and sat to study. I couldn’t concentrate. I called my friend for going for a walk but later refused to go. All I could do was to sit and find a clue to this problem. I didn’t know what it was so I couldn’t solve it also. That day passed next day passed and then the next month and six consecutive years passed. For first few months I had completely ruined my life but as time passed my wounds started healing. I was now 21 and I had started an espresso bar. Ciara was not now a part of my mind. She was now to me a girl for whom I had ruined my life.
One day I was sitting at the billing counter and my eyes fell on the gate. A girl or rather say a beautiful girl wearing white t shirt and blue denim entered my shop. I had a crush on her. I went to her table and when she saw me the menu dropped from her hand. I was amazed. “Am I so good looking”. I thought but the next moment I also recognized her she was Ciara. My life, my heart. She couldn’t say anything and I too. For about two minutes we just stared each other, our eyes were facing each other and we came closer to each other every second. When our lips were just one cm away I came back to my sense and when I looked around I saw everyone was gazing at us. I asked her if we could go for a walk. She agreed and we went. I had completely forgotten about the day we had met the last. Neither she told about it nor did I ask. I had got my love once more and my thinking which had changed before got back to the same. I started loving her. We talked to each other for quiet a long time and then she had to go somewhere so she went away. I was very happy, excited and the original Akash. I returned home and was in my best mood. I took out my guitar, washed my bike, listened to songs, danced and also played on my psp. I felt that I was the same person I was six years before.
The next day as planned we met in a café. I was very much excited about this date. We were talking to each other and I wanted to know now why she left that day. I asked her but she told she couldn’t tell. I pleaded her and after around 12 minutes of continuous pleading, begging and imploring she agreed. She told that she had been cheating me. She loved me but loved another guy more than me. She couldn’t be away from any of us but the day before that day the guy kissed her and she realized what she had been doing so she went away and got admitted to a hostel in a new town. I was terror-struck and bewildered and taken aback. The coffee was not coming down from my throat and I went away. I went home and slept. I woke up at night 2 o’clock. I was not in any mood to sleep. I felt like crying. I went outside and saw the last day’s newspaper and began to read. When I came to the third page the newspaper slipped from my hand. It read –“a girl named ciara found dead in the bank of the river” and a smiling face of her……..!!!!!

Who took my heart?

I touch my face, ‘tis perfectly alright

I feel my nose’s length and my ear’s height

My nails are bit longer, or its okay

And my blood is busy with a foray

I suppose that everything is in place

Yet, something is missing and that’s the case

I’m feeling like I’m leading from the rear

My God! It’s my heartbeat and it’s not there!

He had tiptoed mutely into my dreams

I was on a bench with my girl it seems

Giving her a rose pack, my arms athwart;

When he took it and fled; it held my heart,

Because it was no more than a naive dream

Like a humane human, I let him stream

Out of my dream, and when I awakened

I found my heart truly gone; my blood drained  

I am in pursuit, in search of the guy,

Around the world, every bosom I pry

Searching for the one enjoying two hearts:

“It’s very prized, neither nines nor carats

Can measure its worth”, I tell every one.

I detain a suspect; he has a gun

Which I don’t notice, “The heart or this knife,”

eHe He shows me the gun, “Your money or your life.”

At last, after all the labor and toil

And all the salt drops that fall on the soil

I give up the search, when out of the blue

Like from a cannon mouth, a firefly flew

I find my heart with that forgotten girl

Who was my last love, my previous pearl

And then I realize, I’m in the wrong

It was she who taught me love; made me strong

Not my present girl; yes I’ve come to know

This forged love is all but a pomp and show

‘twas the thief of my dream- I owe him one-

Who lured me from my wrong; for whom I won

Thus ends the tragedy of a lost heart

All of which, from a painful part did start

And ended there, with the reunion-

Most incredibly- of the moon and sun.