Pinku-Enchanted Life

The doll lay by the side of the street as if left behind by a careless hand. I had almost crossed the site before the fact that a perfectly good looking doll was lying there permeated through my thoughts and I stopped to look at it. I retraced my steps and looked at the doll again. It was a neat little thing in a pink frock and golden hair flowing down her back and tied up with a pretty pink bow at the end. I looked around for any child who might have dropped it. There was no one in sight. The thought crossed that it maybe a bomb, left there by miscreants who wanted to surely hurt some children. I kept looking at it for a while and then my curiosity took the better of me and I picked it up. After a quick check to see if it had any wires or batteries sticking out I dusted off the loose dirt that was clinging to it. Still uncertain what to do with it; I looked around for someone who would be the owner. The street looked completely deserted. Finally taken in by the charm of the doll I dec...

How did she get to know? Kiran wondered for the nth time. She had taken all precautions, no phone calls at home, not even an sms. She made sure she got back home at regular hours and yet her daughter had found out. It was so sad, she was a beautiful, happy child and this was the end of her childhood. The information destroyed her life. She was so bitter threatening to tell her dad. If he got to know no telling what he might do? He had such a terrible temper. The sudden inspiration solved all her problems. Kishore finished Ananya in one stroke. Her husband has been arrested for the crime. Kishore was now bound to her for life. She had pictures of him doing the deed. She smiled.

The mansion stood back from the road. A big park and driveway separated it from the lives of the ordinary people on the street. She could glimpse it through the bars of the gate as she stood irresolute; not knowing what was the right thing to do. She had been asked to come so should she just march up to it, since inspite of her many attempts she had not been able to locate a gatekeeper and the gate was open. Or should she keep waiting till someone told her that she may go in? The sun had climbed directly overhead and her shadow lay curled at her feet as if it too didn’t know where to head. The postman solved the problem for her. He approached the gate and without even a sideways glance at her walked through. She followed, timidly at first, then more boldly. As she approached, the mansion seemed to grow bigger. It didn’t seem as big from the gate as it did up close. Gleaming white in the sun, the many pillars and dark recesses for a moment made her visualize a massive skull bleached whi...

The café was half filled with chatting couples. She glanced again at the entrance, the guy was late, she felt ready to bolt. Her long felt irritation at arranged marriages surfacing yet again. She spotted him before he saw her. The guy was the kind the girls would have discussed over giggles. Just as he identified her and started her way, a man blocked his way. He looked over the fast chattering guy’s shoulder and sent a non verbal plea her way. She nodded and shrugged. Her dad’s sms came asking if they had met up. She answered back with an ‘yes, will call in a couple of hours’. He finally shook off the chatterbox and came to her table. ‘Hi! I am Puneet’s colleague; he was unable to come and asked me to convey the message since I was coming this way to meet my wife.’

The small advertisement in the corner of the newspaper was nothing great and it was a wonder that it caught her eye as it did. Maybe this is called destiny. She was bored to death had counted sheep, tiger, cockroaches, read books, gone through the sleazy CD’s and yet the day dragged on and that’s when she saw the ad. It was for a beauty parlour that promoted massages as part of its services. It seemed an interesting thing to do and she dialed the number more out of a feeling of something to do than anything else. The phone was picked up on the other end almost on the first ring, quite some attendant she admired mentally. The woman on the other end answered all her queries very solicitously and before she knew she had fixed up for a masseur to come to her home. She kept the phone down feeling adventurous even if it was nothing great it would be the company of a human being for sometime and if the masseur was half as good as those back home she could look forward to some relaxation. God ...

The cycle was again creaking too loudly, Sawant Singh cursed under his breath and got off it. It wouldn’t do to disturb Shikha, his daughter in law’s siesta otherwise his supper of two rotis and a little dal would again be the casualty. Already this week he had gone without food twice, once for forgetting to buy salt at the local market and then again for having fallen off to sleep after an unusually hard day. So he picked up the bicycle and moved with it slowly to the far wall of the garage. For the umpteenth time he cursed his deceased wife for his ill fortune. Had she not hurried to meet the other Lord and deemed it fit to stay on and serve her earthly master he would not have to face such indignity in this old age. To him it was almost an insult that Lajjo who had never retired for the night without pressing his tired limbs should decide to call it a day while he was still alive and in need of a million small ministrations. He wasn’t as cowed down always, there was a time when not ...

The balcony was a secluded affair. Small with just enough space to accommodate two chairs it looked meant for those moments in life when you forget about the existence of any other being except perhaps you and the person with you (if you are lucky enough to have someone with you that is). The view stretched out over the tin and slate rooftops to the mountain whose summit had vanished into the clouds. It was a sparkling green in color with pockets of darker green where perhaps the trees had crowded over too much. I sat with my pen and diary, as is my wont whenever I am traveling, ready to scribble whatever stray thought would enter my head. But both lay unused as I sat and looked at the rain falling from the sky, the rooftops, the leaves, the wires, the balcony grill. It seemed ironical that here I was on a beautiful hill station, in a secluded balcony, with the most romantic rainfall imaginable and no one to share it with. Why is life so unfair? My friends had hinted at just this when ...

The sky over the mountains was pink as if flushed with first love. She sat frozen to her seat enraptured by the sight, forgetting her surroundings even forgetting to breathe. A polite cough broke the trance and she had looked back to find an elderly gentleman smiling down at her. 'Its beautiful isn't it?' He asked, she had only been able to nod in answer while clearing the spare chair of her papers and books. She had offered the chair to him, he sat down and together they had watched the pink slowly turn into magenta to a deep purple to a despondent indigo. Only when the first star twinkled in the sky had they started talking. Rather he had asked and she had answered. She had been a little wary of telling a stranger that she was traveling alone, that she had fought and lost the battle for normalcy in her life and was now on her own. He had kept asking questions the way only those who have seen everything the world has to show can, brushing aside decorum and the need for pri...

Bunty sat straight without a word and looked out almost willing herself to see the bus that must be traveling somewhere before them in the darkness. The others had more or less regained their composure and Neha was pulling Subir’s leg about the bus number. Subir had memorized the number of the bus he was standing in front of while at the terminal and it skipped him that they had got into not that but the next bus. He had been very embarrassed. They had just stood there not knowing what to do next when the headlights of another bus shone on them. The conductor had hailed them with a “bus miss ho gayi?" He had offered to drop them at the next stop. They had hesitated, between themselves they barely had enough money to get back to Delhi, if they traveled further up and then were not able to get to their bags they would be in deeper trouble. It would mean having to call up home for someone to come and fetch them. Neha the ever impulsive had taken the decision for everyone by hopping i...

Rohit was trying to balance Neha’s dozing head on his shoulder while trying to stretch his legs and gain a slightly more comfortable position. These seats in buses and cinema halls were always a torture for him. He couldn’t manage the feat and Neha woke up bleary eyed to ask him what the matter was, saw the look on his face and realized it was the “Mr. Long legs” problem. She pulled up his feet onto her lap, telling him to turn so that he was stretched out over her. He said it was a stupid pose but did it nevertheless since there was no getting away from an idea once Neha had got it in her head. She gave a triumphant smile and then promptly dozed off again. Her confident smile had been the first thing he had noticed when he had met her at Malika’s party. She had known no one there and Malika had asked him and Amit to look after her. However within a few minutes of being introduced it looked like they were the one’s who had been put in her care. She asked them half a dozen questions in ...

Bunty’s face could hardly be seen so wrapped was she in her layers of mufflers and cap. The others grinned whenever they caught each other’s eye. Having been born and brought up in the North they were much better equipped to handle the cold. Bunty came from the more moderate climates of the Eastern part of the country. Incessant rains she could understand and bear but this bone chilling cold almost brought tears to her eyes. For the umpteenth time she wondered how she had let that scatterbrained Neha talk her into visiting Manali in December. She looked around to see both the guys lighting cigarettes. It looked like something that would give warmth, she wondered if she should take a chance and smoke one. Inspite of herself she wondered yet again how the lean, serious, methodical Rohit could be so enamored by Neha who was a compulsive flirt and had to be upto some wicked plan at any given moment. She on the other hand had so much in common with him, their serious natures, zodiac signs, ...