Apathy and Ecstasy: December 2010

Matters of the heart

30. Heart of gold

Raghav woke to a sunny day. He packed his belongings, bid his goodbye and promised to be back soon. Kanika did not know of Raghav’s plan and of course, Raghav used their handicap to his advantage, what she could not see would not hurt her. Raghav had thought about how he would make the trek back home. The issue of trust and safety was first on his mind, but he decided that a bit of bravery would do the trick. He took his cane and walked on the side of the winding road. He had done his homework; he knew which direction he needed to go and figured this with the help of a small and very handy talking compass he had bought on campus. He had to head west, and felt the sun behind him as he walked through the slightly rugged trail, feeling the crunch of the leaves under his foot with each step he took. He had his sunglasses on, and his cane ahead of him, and planned to hitch hike as soon as he heard the sound of a motorbike cross his way. Who would say no to a blind boy, right?

Raghav was surprised. It took him three attempts over an hour interval to finally melt the heart of one biker, to get a ride to the fringes of the city, and soon Raghav was having a rather odd conversation with a heavy set man (he could tell this by how little room he had at the back of his bike). The biker man ran a law firm. He was part of an adventure club for men over 50 and would occasionally join and leave the pack to get back to his family and work in the city. He was, apart from biking and adventure, obsessed with sun signs…and was now in the midst of his seemingly “ two- bit” astrological assessment of Raghav. Raghav was amused and annoyed…of all the subjects in the world, this talk of sun signs meant next to nothing to him. Though considering his background it was not surprising how he felt.

This went on till, suddenly, the bike, rattled and fumed to a stop, a good distance from where either one was heading. Luck favoured the brave was it? Raghav could use a bit of that right now! Oh wait maybe this was a way to get him out of a boring conversation. Lucky indeed!

Soon enough they were back on the road. In the time while the biker coaxed and kicked his machine back to life, Raghav had sat down on the stony path on the side of the road, out of harm’s way and anyone’s sight .He had now been back home a month, and had not done a lot to restore his faith in himself. But he had met some nice people, and especially on his mind was Mira… he would call her as soon as he could. She had seemed a bit troubled the last time they had spoken, and he knew he had speak to her…funny that almost as soon as he finished this thought…driving by him - sitting on the road and beside the now perspiring biker, were Nisha and Mira, rather sleep deprived and too numb to say anything to each other. If only they had seen Raghav on the road!

Through the rest of the ride, the biker man sang to them both, a hilarious mix of songs. If ever anyone could be described as jolly, it would be him… yet Raghav felt this knot in his stomach.

He reached his stop and thanked the biker man for his trouble. The man looked at Raghav and said to him “Boy…you have a cloud above you, clearing raining on the parade your life can be…give in to the wondrous possibilities life holds for you, step out of the cloud and you will be a better man for it...promise me this, and it will be thanks enough!”. As corny as it sounded, words of courage from a total stranger can do wonders to jolt you out of a rut! Make you see or feel more clearly again, and Raghav responded by beaming back at the kind stranger..

Now the city lay ahead of him, the sun above him and his cane and talking compass! The adventure would be small in comparison to what would be waiting at “home”.

Kirtana’s captor tied her to a chair and gagged her mouth. Her only aim was to find the money and she would not leave here without it. What she did not know, is there was none here. Mali would never risk anyone she lived with, keeping the money with her. She found safe places to hide the “loot” everywhere she lived. Mali had not returned that night, her own behaviour had put her in a mood where she was not quite ready to face Kit, and instead she found her way back to Manu…across the road from Kit’s place.

Manu and his sister had ended their conversation on the terrace the night before, Kavita had been right and Manu had said yes… it was Maliha, they were a natural fit, and the chemistry was undeniable. Of course they had to be careful to keep it from the rest of the group. They were not quite ready to make this relationship public to their friends. It was a good idea, especially considering the emotional complications among some of the girls..

They had been seeing each other after Mali’s birthday party, among the many feather’s in their cap, they had added each other. It was a little joke between them, but they had developed a great bond and this was at the forefront of Mali wanting to stay and make a life here… for the first time, she felt safe, like she belonged to someone, who would not rob her or leave her. She had told Manu everything that had happened last night, after all she now confided in him completely. He knew about her past, and about what she ultimately wanted to do, and was ready to do anything for Mali. It was beautiful to see.

Monkey was fond of Mali too, and in the morning Manu decided to walk Mali to Kit’s place. They set off.. not speaking, hand in hand. The morning was pleasant, the sun shine and light breeze…a pleasant side affect of the rains late in the night.

They made their way up Kit’s building. The security guard, missing from his spot…strange. Mali’s stomach knotted with the red number growing higher on each floor on the elevator ride up, but she would swallow her courage and her pride and apologize…

Her hands were cold, as she pressed the door bell. She had forgotten her keys again, Kirtana would have another reason to get mad! They waited…no response. That was strange…? Kit usually got to the door within seconds! Was she not home? Manu rang the bell this time, only to be met with more unusual silence…Manu got out his phone. He would try Kit on her cell phone… he hit the green button on her number and waited. A loud and shrill tone could be heard on the other side of the door, breaking the silence, and turning Mali’s curiousity of her friend’s whereabouts to a full blown worry!

They had to get in! Manu started banging on the door, as Mali looked around for the security guard. No one around…they would have to force themselves in.

Manu took off his jacket, and searched around the corridor for something to hit the door with. Around him lay terracotta pots of different sizes, but nothing substantial enough to break a door! How would they manage??? Mali ran down the corridor.. she found the fire extinguisher and immediately called out to Manu! They could use this…Manu grabbed hold of it and summoned all his energy to run back up the corridor to hit the door…but by this time, they needed to use the extinguisher for its actual purpose…because from the crack under the door, it was unmistakable, a regular stream of thick smoke…the house was on fire!! With Kirtana in it!

Nisha and Mira got home… their parents were out of town. Visiting a family friend at their new home in the hills.. They would need to figure out, how to get Nisha out of this mess.

Raghav made his way to a seat at the bus stand the biker had dropped him off at… the seats were warmed by the afternoon sun, and he sensed people around him were looking at him. He called out to someone who would help him get to the area Kit lived, and soon a kind old lady gave him a hand and told him his bus would be here soon, she would tell him and he would just have to trust her…the "kind" old lady rewarded herself… his wallet would pay for her dinner that night. Raghav would not be so naïve though. He’d packed another wallet with his real money on him…the other “removable” objects on him, would be tests of trust for the people he met on the way home. So far he’d lost a few unwanted personal effects, but he would always know a lawyer, with heart of gold in town..

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Excess baggage

29. Getting worse.. before it gets better!

Kirtana ran to the door… she was ready with a rehearsed angry speech for Mali. She opened the door to find no one there… and stepped out to see what had made the knock on her door. When she shut the door and turned around she found herself face to face with a stranger. This stranger with piercing green eyes moved very quickly. Covered from head to toe, with just a small slit open to reveal her eyes, she knocked down Kirtana in one swift movement, and looked the door behind her.

Mali got off stage. She had finished her “routine” and gotten off and was now feeling quite miserable. Clearly she had taken it too far, making Kirtana the subject of her jokes, and there she went, storming out of the restaurant leaving her to find her way back home and take care of a rather large bill. Well that was the price she had to pay, how would she make amends? She reached for her purse, and pulled out the wad of notes she so often kept crumpled in it… She always had money, and though she had never actually had a job and her “needs” were few it always intrigued everyone how she made ends meet. She always had money, and no one ever saw her go anywhere near a bank. She always offered to pay for everything, the first to reach for her wallet. Everyone knew Mali to be many different things, kind, resilient, always making her own rules… the works. No one really knew much more about her past than she had offered since her fall... But there was obviously a lot more below that surface. And off late her wanting to settle down and stop the vagabond life… meant something. She either had nothing to run from, or nothing to run to any more.

The real story of where Mali had been a year ago, and why she has since been doing a fairly good job of running from place to place, was because she had had a very interesting encounter. And interesting was a delicate and positive way of presenting it. It had begun when she had gone to a rather unstable part of the country. And stayed with a group at a hostel. She had done many things in this place…and for the most part her experience had been enriching. Many of the people in the town she lived had once been land owners, and wealthy. But the town had fallen into the wrong hands and with that came a slight harshness to the people in the territory. She had come there with a friend she had known, she was visiting on some habilitation project she had been sent on from her organization and Mali was just along for some company and fun times.

Things changed swiftly when Mali had walked in on a small group from that same hostel, up to something. The “something” had involved breaking in to a wealthy “business” man’s home and stealing every last note and valuable he had in his heavy duty safe. This had been achieved with some collateral damage, and his sleeping wife had been clobbered to death with a hockey stick. This particular group had gotten away with the loot, and were quite shaken from their experience that day, and bad timing had brought Mali to their door… to overhear and be witness to the entire thing… Many scenarios could have panned out, for one they might have killed her too, or maybe even paid for her silence. But, Mali had been held against her will, and threatened with her life. And if she breathed a word of it…she would pay dearly. Silly if you came to think of it…she did not really care much for what had happened. She would have gone to the police with it, but something told her in this town, that would not amount to much.What she wanted was her own life back, and to forget she had ever seen or heard anything. She often cursed her bad luck and timing and this time she would have reason to both curse and thank it. One evening a particularly fearful and young captor of her’s, he would have bearly been sixteen years of age, came in and freed her. He said that the others had gone to attend to some work, and would return in a few hours giving her enough time to escape. He said that he had never wanted to be a part of this in the first place, but his sister, was harsh and would not stand such betrayal by her brother. In the two days that had gone by since Mali’s “kidnapping” her friend had made fantic attempts to find her. But the town was uncooperative, more interested in maintaining their own individual interests than going after what was the correct thing to do.

Mali was freed, and in a flash gathered every belonging she had, noting her bag being much heavier that she remembered, but not stopping to check why. She wrote a note to her fried, knowing that she would be safe under the care of the organization that had sent her here, and bid this strange and beautiful place goodbye. She jumped in the first train she could get a ticket to, and was soon on her way… far far away from this little piece of hell. She had thanked the boy dearly. And wondered how he would explain this to his sister..

Mali made her way to her home city, at the time her apartment had been between tenants, to unwind, collect her thoughts and get the best idea of what she would do. She had, all the while she travelled not once opened her bag, and something at the back of her mind nagged her. She had a feeling she knew what she would find.

Once at her home, he suspicions were made clarified. Because in her bag lay a bulk of the loot that gang had stolen. How this had gotten there she would not know… but the boy who had saved her, would pay dearly. The group were the violent kind, and vengeance would be sought…

So the leader with fire in her green eyes… would hunt her down! How ever long it took, to get back what was her’s..silly and wasteful though it was, it for her was her only hope. All for for some money, which Mali had decided she would use… it had come to her, and she would not be able to do much with, what better than to use it…and that’s what she had been doing.

Some distance away Raghav stirred in his sleep.. he would set off in the morning back to the city, to see Mali, until then he would need his rest..

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How this story works..part two

So in a lot of stories there always is a gradual build up from introducing the main characters, establishing the relationships and elaborating on the plot, before it reaches the crux of the story and then finishes. I intend to keep that formula, but add my own flavour to this.. so read, and yes there will be more character introduction chapters, I'll get deeper into the story soon :)

Apart from this, I have decided to keep the names of cities a mystery. I will probably never mention the name of a city specifically, because when you do that, you have to be factually correct, and that might take away from the story on a blog :) so the only things I will ever write about specifically are my characters and what happens to them. The 'where' part will be appropriately described :) and will leave you guessing ;)

Behind this title...

So if you are reading this (thank you!) you are probably wondering what this blog title is about. Why a seemingly normal girl (if you know me or have read my profile) would choose to title her blog so. Well, I can explain it this way. As I see it pretty much everything and everyone around me , and for that matter you, is driven by one of these two sentiments. So no matter what I will ever talk about, it will always come down to something that was done to go after happiness or satisfaction or just not! It is my idea of simplifying the way I think of thoughts (yes think of thoughts), actions, intentions behind anything. And I am one for 'word plays'. So yes I like that my blog can sound like something (a book) we are already familiar with :)

So in this blog I will share with you a story I am writing.. its a story where the characters , events and situations are all derived from my own life. Enjoy :) and I would like your help and suggestions in building this story.. :)

Understand that this story is not true, its just an escape.. and completely a figment of my imagination :)