Story Series Part 3: Mid Air Crisis

Part 2

Flight AI 127 has reached 36000 feet, you can now turn on your wireless devices, out came the announcement. Vijay searched all his 6 pockets in his pant, 4 pockets in his denim jacket and 2 pockets in his shirt, then jumped up and started searching his bag-pack, sweating all over his body, he sat down in despair, "You are sweating is AC!!!" she said. "I can't find my mobile", he replied. "Why did you get a mobile while coming to US? We get mobiles free with the service you know", she questioned". "That's a very good question, but let me find my mobile first and then I will think of answering it!" replied in a furious tone. Got up and checked all his pockets again, then sat down dejected. With almost tears in his in his eyes he replied "that was my first purchase with my first paycheck, kind of first love you see". "Feeling nostalgia and getting goose bumps" she asked, "that ain't helping the cause!" he chirped. "Do you remember where you kept it?" she asked casually, "I have no idea why people ask that question! Anyways I don't remember" he replied with a red face. "OK, OK cool down, lets back track; let me put it in a nice way, when was the last time you saw it". "At 9 pm I saw it in my sister's hand and at 10 pm in her bag" he said. "OK ... after that?" she questioned.

Suddenly he began laughing loudly. "What happened, why are you laughing like RAVANA?" Priya asked. "Thumping his right palm against his forehead he replied "I didn't bring any mobile with me, I gifted it to my sister". "The fact that I was missing my mobile from my pocket for the first time in 5 years is a bit tough to digest", "That is why I got so scared", Vijay began laughing again. "TUBE LIGHT", she joked. "NO SUNLIGHT he replied", "tube-light takes only 8 secs, sun rays takes 8 minutes to reach the earth's surface", "see I exactly took 8 minutes to figure it out", pointed his right index finger at his left wrist. "Priya was suddenly silent", thinking about what lies ahead she starting staring at his non-existing wrist watch.

"Do you know the 3 Idiots funda ? Priya asked, 'What?' he questioned. "YES Idiots are of three types"; Some look like, Some think like and Some are actual; and you don't look like one, Vijay felt his lips Fevi-Quicked, he couldn't move his lips.

"Coffee or Tea Sir" the Air hostess interrupted, "Coffee definitely Coffee please" Priya replied, "Coffee for me too" Vijay replied, Priya was glad that the focus was shifted away from the wrist watch. Vijay poured in sugar and creamer and began stirring the coffee. The aroma of hot steaming coffee was enough to charge his batteries, let alone the caffeine entering his blood stream. He drank a sip, twisting his face he turned towards her, "Is this coffee?” he asked her. "Don't expect a 'V V Puram' coffee house coffee in Air India Vijay" she replied. "Hmm V V Puram coffee shop coffee", "Dark and strong filter coffee with froth enough to sink in your lips, " Vijay began imagining the coffee. Suddenly out of curiosity he said "V V Puram coffee shop!", "You know about V V Puram coffee shop?" wow he said. "So you live in and around V V Puram area?" now he began his Q & A. "Jayanagar 4 th block she said". "I used to go to V V Puram Coffee shop when I was studying in Engineering college there". "Oh that Eng College, I stayed close to it, actually across the street, Wow What a coincidence", he replied "Yes I have seen you many going to that Coffee shop, via our campus, eating bhelpuri and dosa on the way" she asserted. Vijay was stunned, doing a Micheal Jordan, sticking his tongue out, eye balls bulging out, wondering whom he was messing with.

"Here you are Mr Vijay" his friend Ravi broke the silence. "Hey Ravi what a pleasant surprise man" Vijay stood and shook hands with Ravi. Vijay could hear the crushing sound of his bones in his palm, Ravi was well built, dark and thick haired, fair dude who could give any women a knee jerk. "So still working in CHI KA GO?” Vijay asked. "Yea still in SHI KAA GO, I love the wind", he replied in a sarcastic tone. Suddenly Vijay felt an elbow hitting right his side, it was Priya who was hinting him to introduce her to Ravi, and little did Vijay have a clue about this. He continued his conversation with Ravi ignoring the elbow pierce, the elbow piercing became more powerful and frequent; suddenly elbowing stopped, pinching began. Vijay had no clue why she was torturing him this way, thought coffee had made her hyper; he continued his conversation; Ravi noticed Priya and her unsuccessful attempts to get introduced. So he broke the conversation, "So you have a friend along with you ?", he asked Vijay looking at gorgeously fair Priya with sharp black eyes, parrot nose, cute dimple and glittering set of teeth, will complimented with her aesthetic dress sense.

"I am Priya V, she introduced herself, nice to meet you" she shook hands with Ravi, and both stared at each other in silence. "She is going to the same University, but different branch" Vijay interrupted.

"How you doing?" Ravi asked casually, Priya started to blush

to be continued ...

Read more »

Short Story 3: Power Cut.

Wind was roaring like a ferocious lion attempting to enter the apartment via the small opening b/w two sliding transparent doors; that stood b/w the warm cozy 75 F interior and the cold darn 0 F exterior. Vijay was seen comforting on his soft spongy bed, had no idea what the day had to offer him. Sudden flash of light entered his relatively dark room and woke him up. As usual flipped opened his laptop to take a look at the time, realized that it was out of battery searched for the power cord but it was inserted to the laptop. It felt a bit strange seeing his laptop’s battery dead as he never ever removed his power cord and his laptop always ran 24/7.

He then reached for his mobile, the only other source of date and time in the house it showed 10:10 am with its battery indicating low. Plugged the phone to charger and it wouldn’t charge. Still in the state of sub-conscious gazed through the window to see his car submerged upto the wheels in the heavy snow, it felt like dream land everything covered in snow. He needed cricinfo to charge him up, did everything to power his laptop up, switched chargers, switched ports nothing seemed to work, and finally realized that their building had a power outage.

Vijay felt like an INDIAN batsman entering an unknown territory of pace and bounce in Australia, he had entered the unknown territory of blackout. Even though he had been through the power-cuts in his native country; he felt lost and didn’t know what to do, as he had never experienced this situation in this country before. Back in his country they had candles, emergency lamps, flash lights as backups; he had nothing close to any of those at his apartment.

Suddenly he felt hungry and the whole idea of skipping dinner as part of weight loss didn’t feel good. He took out the milk gallon from the refrigerator poured it into his mug and placed it in the microwave as he did every single day. He pressed the magic button (the add 30 sec button) and wouldn’t respond as it needed Benjamin Franklin’s electricity. For the first time in this country he was proud of his kitchen as it had gas based burner, other apartments had electric ones; he turned the knob of the burner to auto-ignite, heard the click but nothing happened; it took him five attempts to realize that auto-ignite ran on power. How ironical, power is needed for something that is an alternative for power. He felt like driving on the wrong side of the one-way street.

He needed some form of fire to ignite the burner; for the first time being a non-smoker pinched him very badly, atleast he would have had a lighter and with the absence of mini-temple eliminated the oil-lamps and hence matchstick. Suddenly the picture of his good looking neighbor smoking in the balcony struck his mind; he always hated smokers, especially women smokers. “Wow she smokes, thank GOD she smokes, long live smokers” were his words, how ironical `long live smokers!!!`.He had lent her sugar one day now it was her turn to lend him fire or something that produces it. Stepped out of the apt and entered the hallway, it was pitch black dark, walked to her apartment and knocked her door.

In this country since guests call before they come in, the host generally knows who is coming to their apt, so when someone knocks the door, the first reaction is ‘who the hell is it?’ that was exactly what he heard from inside. ‘Your neighbor next door’ he replied, ‘coming’ was the reply. No sooner she opened the door ‘can I borrow a matchbox’ he asked in a very low tone. He had a problem talking to women especially the good looking ones; prettier the women lower was his voice, a problem similar to Raj Kootrapalli of Big Bang Theory sitcom fame. Without uttering a single word he picked up the matchbox nodded his headed back to his apartment.

When he stroked the matchstick against the matchbox to create fire and ignite the burner he had goose-bumps; he felt as delighted as Tom Hanks in CAST AWAY, though the later had used stone to ignite a spark. Milk began to boil and the aroma of BRU coffee filled his eyes with tears as it reminded him of the coffee house at his native. Poured steaming coffee into a cup and started sipping it, gazing through the balcony. He now had enough caffeine and sugar in his body to survive the entire day.

Read more »