Cheque it out

What I like about a Cheque is that you can crumble it or tear it into pieces and throw it away in anger but the actual amount/money is not lost... one can't really dare to do that with a note or a Demand Draft !! :P
This property of a cheque has often been exploited in movies where the hero tears off the cheque given to him by the heroine's father as a price to stay out of her life, and he says with style, "Nahi chaahiye aapke paise, main aapki beti se pyaar karta hon, aapke paiso se nahi !!" (English: I don't need your money, I love your daughter, not your money."
No wonder the heroine's father never offers cash or Demand Draft to the hero !! :P
In my case the cheque given to me by my father was kept by me with utmost care until I didn't know this unique property of cheque...
Now a cheque with sign of the account holder but without the amount, also called the blank cheque has also been used in movies a lot, but something I never got from my father!
Ironically, the heroine's father who hates the hero is ready to give a blank cheque to him but my father who loves me dearly never did that. Ironical!

The Drunken Writer

"Damn it !! With every next day I feel I'm getting lousier at my writing."
Frustrated, Abhishek flungs away his pen. He holds the loose sheets and re-reads what he has written.
"This is bullshit!" He crumbles the sheets into his fist and throws them angrily towards the bin. It bounces off the wall behind the bin and falls outside the bin. Before he loses his temper and feels the urge to drink again, Abhishek takes a deep breath, gets up from his chair and walks to and fro in his room for a couple of minutes. He runs his fingers across his hair and observes his tummy come out and go in following his breathing rhythm, as he had learned in his meditation session last week.
Forcefully sitting back on his chair he takes a deep breath, jerks his neck sideways and rotates his wrists.
"That's it, I'll just write whatever comes to my mind, lets see what happens."

The man you just read about, is Abhishek Sainani, a 26 year old bestselling novelist, short-story writer and standup comedian. Two months ago a young boy met with an accident by his car, and he sped away without stopping to help the kid. He was heavily drunk and ignored the boy's pain which is unlike him. Although he got sober, the hangover of the guilt remains. Since then he has given up drinking and, although unaware, he subconsciously gave up writing as well. Now he lives in frustration of his lack of imagination and spark that had made him the most sought after storyteller.

He pulls out few fresh sheets of paper and starts scribbling whatever comes to his mind. He just writes, every word of the soliloquy in his mind. A few times he stops to edit, but eventually decides not to edit and simply continues writing. He finishes writing five sheet of pages and starts looking for more available sheets. From his cupboard he tears open a new bundle of white sheet of papers and gets back to his study-table with handful of them. He happens to glance at the sheets he had earlier written and sees that the first few sentences he had written are not the same, they have changed! They were very memorable, so he could distinctly remember them and so there was no mistake, the lines are different now! He reads the last few sentences and realizes they are not the same either!

He ignores it and continues writing. He is thrilled enough to be in the flow of writing now. Perhaps he was wrong, perhaps the lines never changed. Few minutes later he takes a toilet break. During that time he starts thinking what all he can add. "I think this guy should go and apologize to his sister for screaming at her like that. And then...", happily discussing with himself he returns to his desk and reads the last line he has written... and what he reads baffles him again, its not the one he had written !!

"Am I drunk? This only happens when I'm drunk. Did I drink today?" He feels flabbergasted. He is unable to recall what he did the whole day!
"I promised them I'll stop drinking. And I had stopped drinking! What's happening? Where are the sheets I had just written?"
He spreads out the sheets on his table, picking some of them and reading through them, and not being able to decide if the words have changed. With shaky knees, he leaves his room and walks out into the hall and looks into his closets and fridge to find any trace of liquor, but there's no liquor anywhere.
He gulps few sips of cold water from the fridge and walks back to his room. At the door he stops dead when he sees something hovering over the sheets. Squinting his eyes, he walks a little closer to see words glittering and hovering in mid air, one replacing the other on different sheets.

He starts sweating.
"I am definitely drunk. This only happens when I'm drunk. That's how I used to write stories, this was my spark, my magic trick that everyone called. I'm drunk. I must call Harsh."
With shaky fingers, after few minor edits, he is finally able to find and dial his number.
"Damn it, Harsh, please pick up the call." Abhishek blares into the mouthpiece, then pushes the disconnect button forcefully.
He walks out, gets into his car and drives away.

"Sorry officer, was I speeding?"
"Sir, are you drunk?"
"I don't know!"
The test confirms that he is in fact sober. Confused, Abhishek decides to drive back home. He walks in with uncertain steps, and his study table looks normal. He walks up to the sheets of paper. They look fine. He starts reading.
Yes, the words were the same, their positions had changed, and so had the overall meaning. Those five sheet of pages now tells the story of what had happened to him in last one year, including how he sped off, leaving that kid bleeding on the road, how he confessed this to his sister who helped him recover from his alcohol addiction and how he lost his 'spark' in storytelling. The last line towards the end was left incomplete, without a full stop, waiting for him to complete it, and perhaps resume the story from where he has left.

Running

"Abhishek, go on, join the line."
WHAT? Abhishek thought, standing under the shade of a little tree, in the hope of protecting himself from the blazing sun. He looks at his faculty house captain and gives his best 'confused' look to her.
"Yeah! Go on. We want everyone to try out to pick out the best ones." She said in an isn't-it-obvious tone and motioned him to join others in the lateral line standing just behind the starting line drawn by the white chalk powder on the soil covered hard ground.

He wondered, what makes her think I could survive this, leave alone qualify to represent my house! Or maybe I have a hidden super-power that only she knows, maybe I am a superhero!

The whistle jolted him out of his day-dream as he saw everyone else take off, leaving him covered with soil dust. He took off rather clumsily, but with a determined will to give his best. And he did. He ran like he never did before. He could feel his feet leaving behind the ground like the speed of light. He kept running and running, until he realized that he was the only one running. He stopped as he was already out of breath. He caught up with his breath, put his hands on his hips, and looks around. He felt good by the after effects of the adrenaline rush and the testosterone secreted that was going waste by his lifestyle that included only watching TV and playing video-games. He looked back from where he had started just to see how much distance he had covered, and to feel good.
He wasn't sure if he saw it correct. So he looked at where the finish was. And then again he looked at where he had started. From where he was standing, they looked equidistant !!

Exasperated and with all his adrenaline high now faded because of a disappointing performance, he just left the track and went back to stand under some tree away from his house students. He sat on the ground, and started fooling around with the little stones and twigs by pretending to play Hockey, or chasing ants sometimes with his finger or the twigs.
"Abhishek, you have some water left in your bottle?"
Abhishek looked up to see the house sports captain Chetan all covered with sweat looking at him.
He took his bottle, shook it and felt some water moving inside it.
"Sure."
Chetan grabbed the bottle with one hand like he usually did, as Abhishek had always observed, while he watched him gulp down water greedily by pouring it from above into his mouth.
"Thanks buddy." And Abhishek saw him jog back, the champion athlete of their house, and of their school.

Abhishek never really had any particular interest in sports or athletics. In fact in games period when he was younger, they used to have race among the boys of the class and he always came last in that. He didn't mind that, it never bothered him. In fact he never cared to put enough effort in running. He never pushed himself to win, even participation was like a punishment for him. But today, when pitched against everyone else in his house (some 15 boys in total), he felt inadequate, he felt weak when he couldn't even finish the distance of 100 meters. He wasn't fat, he was just so weak! He could now feel his weakness, his fragility in this world where he could be so easily defeated, or destroyed as he would have liked to put it.

News of bombings and terrorist attacks always disturbed him and his blood used to curdle within his veins and he always swore if he got one chance to face them, he would want to shoot them all, send them a message to stop their atrocities because he will be there to stop them. But how can he, when he can't even finish a 100 metres on foot?!
With a tired mind and a sad heart, he slept early that day. He opened his eyes and saw the roof of his room. He slowly sat up and looked around in semi-darkness. He flung his bedsheet aside, walked up to his window, moved away the curtains and looked out. It was still dark. He looked at his table clock beside his bed, it was 5:43 AM. His alarm would ring at 7 AM, he had more than an hour more to sleep. But today he just couldn't get himself to go back to that bed.
He dressed up in his track suit, and sneakers, and quietly left the house. He walked out into the street outside his house, he felt he was ready now. At a distance across the children's playground, he saw the milkman on his bicycle leaving one house and pedaling towards the next house. He started running in the same direction as the milkman and tried to keep up with him. For a minute he was at par with him and even overtook him a few times but finally Abhishek had to stop. He was gasping for air, exhausted by all the effort, all the excessive bursts of energy he demanded from his body. He held on to his knees and stood there, sweating, panting heavily and smiling. In his mind he knew it had begun.

Talaash Spoilers !!

"Hey Rohan, you saw the movie Kaash?" Kapil asks.
"Not yet dude. BTW, how's it?"
"I haven't see it either but I heard its pretty cool."
"Oh, okay."
"I'm planning to go tonight, you wanna join us?" Kapil invites Rohan.
"Nah man, I have some work tonight. Maybe some other time."
"Sure!"

Later next day.
"Dude, I loved the movie !! Its the best thriller movie I've seen in so many years !!" Kapil says in an excited tone.
"Ahaan, its that good!" Rohan asked, a bit skeptical.
"Yeah buddy! I mean, this police officer is in search for this killer and he's totally clueless where to begin. He has these series of incidents in this case and he's confused. Then he meets this lady who surprisingly wants to help him. And then there's something that happened in his past... anyways, I really enjoyed it !!"
"Alright." Rohan smiles.

Few minutes later.
"Dude, and you know I still can't figure out how Kareena was the ghost!" Kapil just spills out the ultimate spoiler in the movie !!
"What?"
"Oh sorry you haven't seen it yet! So sorry!"
"No problem buddy, a good  movie is a good movie in spite of the spoilers."

Few days later.
"Dude, how could you like that movie? I mean, sure the movie was well made but the suspense made no sense, it was quite far from reality." Rohan seems a bit disappointed.
"Hey I'm so sorry I told you the ending before only..." Kapil sighs.
"Dude, that wasn't even the ending! Rani was the ghost!"
"WHAT?" Kapil is shocked to know that!

Enters Anjali.
"Hey what you guys talking about?" Anjali jumps into the conversation.
"The movie Kaash. You've seen it?" Rohan answers.
"Not yet. I was at my hometown and you guys already saw it naa..."
"Yeah, it isn't that great!" Rohan says.
"No, are you serious? Its awesome !! Trust me, its really good!" Kapil defends the movie.
"Okay! Let me see if I can find someone who hasn't seen the movie." Anjali says and leaves.

Few days later.
"So what do you think?" Kapil asks eagerly.
"Uhm... I liked it!" Anjali says.
"Yes, I win! Its a good movie." Kapil grins.
"Ok leaving that aside, who was the ghost, Rani or Kareena?" Rohan says.
"What are you talking about?" Anjali is confused.
"He says its Kareena, I saw its Rani. I think he was playing this mind trick on me and I really hate that. I want to know, who was the ghost." Rohan explains the situation.
"You both are playing that mind trick on me, right? Aamir was the ghost naa !!" Anjali is a bit confused herself now.
"WHAT?" Kapil and Rohan are shocked !!

Last month during the final promotion of the movie before the premiere.
"Sir, how are we going to release this movie with so many different endings?"
"Different endings every week. I don't care for the loss, I'll pay for any loss we incur. After what happened to my previous movie, Talaash, with the ending being revealed on the first day itself, this time I want to make people experience the real thrill !! They will now understand how it feels..." the director replies.

The Storyteller

"Would you be interested in reading a story, Mr. Sainani?"
I saw this message flashing on my screen, with the name 'TheStoryTeller'.
What the hell! This is no time for silly jokes. I am busy preparing a report due in two hours. This is no time to read stories. And who is this guy?
"Who are you? Sorry buddy, I'm racing against time here. Later!"
"Always procrastinating! The usual Mr. Sainani."

"TheStoryTeller" is sharing story.doc file with you." flashed on my screen.
I don't know why but I accepted the story! I looked at my watch.
I think I can take a break for 10 minutes, I told myself, and opened the story.doc. The moment it opened up on the screen, I was impressed! And as I started reading it, I felt as if the text is pulling me gently into itself, the reading was so effortless. The words, the alignment, the indentation, the punctuation, the spaces, everything was so at the right place and the right time. I felt refreshed, like a person feels after consuming glucose after a long run. I took a deep breath and realized that my head didn't feel heavy anymore. I went back to his messenger window but that person was offline. In spite of spending 15 minutes at reading the story, I finished my report and submitted it on time. Something changed within me that day. I still have that story with me, but it doesn't feel the same way on subsequent readings. I never procrastinated since that day. I thought it was because of the story that I got rid of my bad habit, so I tried helping others by sharing the story, but it didn't work on them, and if it did, it was temporary, but in my case it was permanent.
I wish I could come in contact with him again. I don't know how he did it, even hard to imagine something like this could happen. I'd spent half of my life reading self-help books and watching inspirational movies but it didn't work. But his story instantly did the magic. But who was he? How did he know I procrastinated?

Man with umbrella

He opens the umbrella and holds it on his head. Next moment the first set of raindrops touch the umbrella and drops off from the edges. He can somehow sense the rain in the heaviness of the air itself. As he stands there waiting, he sees all the other people surprised by the sudden rain, running for the roof nearby. He sighs and wonders yet again, why do people get scared of water falling from the skies, don't we have bath everyday?
Standing there 10 minutes, he witnesses situation get from bad to worse. The road in front of him fills up with water and looks like a small pond. He takes few steps back, lest he'd be drenched with the muddy road water when some car's wheel would roll into the puddle.
He sneezes. Afraid he may catch cold due to the cold wind that starts blowing a moment ago, he takes out his scarf, and wraps his neck and ears, then puts on his hat again. His trouser is getting wet from below, and now he can feel some water drip from the water soaked trouser to his socks, then to his leg. It never gets old, he smiles. Sniff! Sniff!
He hears the door open from behind. A lady in her mid 30s walks out. She smiles when she sees him.
He rushes to receive her under his umbrella.
"I'm so sorry dad, I made you wait."
"Its alright princess. People here kept me amused, and rain added to the entertainment. How was your class?"

Episode 9: The Pot Belly Guy!

Previous Episode

Few months later...

"Did I tell you about my idea about the Pot-Belly guy?!"
Parth stands there holding the door after opening it with a sudden thrust, looking at Aditya who was browsing on his laptop.
"Hey hi", Aditya responds, without taking his eyes off the laptop screen.
"What man, what are you doing in the darkness?"
"Just watching some videos. Hey did you watch Lady Gaga's latest video?" Aditya asks curiously.
"No! Anyways, remember the Pot-Belly guy?"
"Yeah! Man, that's an awesome idea."

Sniffing the air.
"Did you just smoke weed?!" Parth asks curiously.
"Yeah, little bit. Can you smell it or what?"
"Yeah, I like the smell. Wish I could smoke it too."
"O yeah, doctor has asked you not to."
"Anyways, back to pot-belly guy! Lets pitch this idea to Dreamworks or Pixar for an animated movie !!"
"Yeah, ok wait. Let me think. So what's your idea?"

After a very satisfying nonsensical discussion on the Pot-belly guy's idea, Parth walks up to his room and tries tweaking his idea to make a better story out of it.

One week later.

"What's this Parth? What have you done to yourself?! I went home for vacation and in my absence, you betrayed me!!"
Natasha gasps, staring at his tummy!
"I am so sorry honey, you were gone and I was so lonely... I really didn't mean to, but all the time I was thinking about you only. You know how much I love watching sitcoms and munching Lays!"
"I see... I need time to think." She turns and starts walking away slowly, suppressing her giggle.
Parth catches up with her, holds her hand, and faces her.
"I'll do anything, anything you say!"
"Then get rid of this." She says, gently tapping it.
"What, you don't like the pot belly guy!" Parth says, pointing at his belly!
"I like the guy, not the belly. Its cute... ok let me show you why i don't like the belly. Come here."
She wraps her arms around him and hugs him. Parth feels his neck getting pulled away.
"See?"
"Yeah! But isn't it cute?" Parth says, grinning and moving his hands over his tummy.
"In that case, you know what you'll be missing."

As he saw her turn away and leave, Parth suddenly feels like Karan Shergil in Lakshya.

Haan yehi rasta hai tera,
toone ab jaana hai,
haan yehi sapna hai tera,
toone pehchaana hai,
tujhe ab ye dikhaana hai.

He pulls his tummy inside.

An hour later.

"Buddy, how do I reduce this?" Parth says, looking down upon his tummy.
"C'mon man, don't even think about it. That's our inspiration for our story!" Aditya says.
"But Natasha doesn't like it!"
"That's unfortunate, coz you're keeping it!" Aditya says nonchalantly.
"But she's back from her home! I don't like carrying this around when I'm with her."

That evening Parth decides, today it begins. He rolls up his sleeves, adjusts his pants, and sits down to download Rocky series !! "Time for some inspiration!!"
"Will watch Rocky 1 and go for jogging in the morning."
One and a half hour later.
"Wow, Rocky II also downloaded. I guess I can watch this too, its only 10:00 PM."
Two hours later.
"I think I should forward the stupid dialogues and get straight to the training part."
One hour later.
"I think its too late for waking up early in the morning. I'll finish the inspiration part tonight."
After two hours and Rocky IV, he rips open the packet of tomato flavored lays and starts munching.
"mmmm... wow, I'm loving it."
After 3 hours and Rocky VI, Parth jumps out of his bed.

"Eye of the tiger, buddy, eye of the tiger." he says to himself.
With the Rocky music playing in his mind, he walks out of his room and enjoys the beautiful scenery and cool breeze of early morning, and yawns a little.
"I ain't that sleepy, I think I should get into the habit of going for jogging in the morning."