Age bar

55 Fiction is a form of micro fiction that refers to the works of fiction limited to a maximum of fifty-five words.

She screamed “Come on! You can do it. Push!”.

“I am tired. Is this an age to do this?” he said.

“There’s no age bar dear. We can do it whenever we want. Show me all your strength.” She gave a mischievous smile.

“How is dada ji’s gym lesson going?” little Rohan asked his grandmother.

Shanta Bai

One month back when she shifted from Bangalore to Mumbai, one thing which she missed the most was her ‘Maid’. Setting up the house, cooking, cleaning, and work load in new office, was making life difficult for her. That time the only thing she needed was a maid. She asked her neighbors, colleagues and googled for a maid. She contacted some consultancies for house maid. Searching for job was not as difficult as looking out for a maid in that city.


One fine day, by god’s grace she found one maid through her colleague. Maid was supposed to visit her place on Sunday. She got up early, cleaned the room and arranged everything.

“How come you are so active on Sunday? Someone special is coming?” her husband asked her with a smile.

“Of course… this person is very important” She replied while giving a cup of tea to him.

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“It is 11:30 now. She was supposed to come at 11. Why she didn’t come yet” frustration in her voice.

“I have never seen you waiting like this for me” her husband made fun of her.

She gave him keep-your-mouth-shut look and looked at her wrist watch again.

“Relax dear, you will get the maid this time. I have some pending work from office. I am going in the study room.” He said and went. She was still waiting in the hall. After some 20 minutes the door bell rang, she ran to open the door.

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Shanta Bai looked over the house to estimate the area she needs to clean every day. She specifically asked, if they have automatic washing machine, because she doesn’t like to waste her time with semiautomatic machine. She checked all the kitchen appliances and inspected the bathroom.

Shanta Bai liked her house and the work she was supposed to do. Now they were negotiating on her salary.

Shanta Bai: Itna kit-kit nako karo memsaab… 7000 fix karo aab, nai tho main jati… khali pili time waste nako karo mera. (Madam, don’t argue so much. Let us fix it for 7000 rupees, else I will leave. Don’t waste my time simply)

She had no other choice but to pay Shanta Bai whatever she asked for, because she badly needed a maid. “Okay, fine I am ready to pay you 7000. But be regular and start working from tomorrow.” She told her.

“Oh so you guys fixed your terms and conditions.” Her husband came in hall to take some book. He smiled and said ‘Hi’ to Shanta Bai. He went back to his room, she turned to Shanta Bai “Fine then, see you tomorrow morning”.

Shanta Bai: Mere ko yaha kaam nako karneka… (I won’t work here)

She: What? But why? I am paying you whatever you asked for. Now don’t do any drama to get more money.

Shanta Bai: Tumhara pati aaise smart ban ke, body deekha ke ghar me ghumega tho mere ko yaha kaam nako karna… Waaise bhi aaj kal hum maid logo kaa hero logo se bahut problem hai. (If your husband will roam around, showing his body like this, I won’t work in your house. Now a days there are many problems going on between maids and heroes.)

She: But my husband is not an actor. He just forgot to wear his shirt and came out. I will tell him to take care. You don’t leave the job.

But shanta bai left.

She was fuming with anger. She ran to her husband.

“What happened? Are you angry?” he suspected.

She: If I had any clue that marrying a handsome guy will cost me so much, I would have never said yes to you…

He: What? What are you talking about?

She: Do you have any idea, what is the value of a maid in woman’s life? If husband leaves us, we can survive, but how can we lead a good life without a maid? My life is finished….

 

I wish to learn !

Many say I am a quick learner and I always feel the urge to learn new things and expand my area of expertise. So here I am with the list of ten things I want to learn in near future.


1. Salsa Dance: By god’s grace I don’t have two left feet. I have the sense of rhythm and I can move my body on tune, but this form of couple dance is something I crave to learn. Whenever I see this form of dance I feel like dancing too, but I fail because I don’t know the techniques of this dance and secondly I don’t have a partner who will be willing to dance with me :P . But I will learn it someday for sure.

2. Music instrument: I have decent voice and some understating of music but I don’t know to play any music instrument. I would like to learn the keyboard or the harmonium.

3. Investments and policies: I am working from past four years, but still I don’t identify with the Investments and policies very well. I think of them only when I see mails from finance team for investment declaration and tax computation. Now my parents help me in planning Investment, but as time progresses its better if I improve my familiarity with them.

4. Driving Car: This is something I don’t know at all. I have to learn it for sure.

5. Maintaining the lipstick: I wear lipstick only on special occasions but it never stays on for more than an hour. I thought there might be some problem with my lipstick and I bought one which claims to stay from 9 to 5. But all in vain. I see women eating, drinking and still there lip color is fresh, I have to learn this technique of maintaining lipstick while eating and drinking.

6. Knitting: I love the sweaters and scarf my mom and grandmother made for us. Handmade sweaters always feel special; it shows the love and care of the maker. So I want to learn knitting and make something for my dear ones.

7. Working in Saree: I know to tie saree and I manage to walk in it, but whenever I wear saree in office (ethnic day or some other function) my productivity touches zero. Frequent visits to restroom for rearranging it and efforts to maintain it, eats all the time. I wonder how my mom and other women do all their work in saree so effortlessly. Hats off to them :)

8. Cooking: I can cook the basic food, but I don’t know as many dishes as my mom or aunts do. Whatever I know based on that I can say that I am decent cook, still increasing the list of dishes I know is important. I hope it will help me for a brighter future ;)

9. Reiki: I came to know about Reiki from one of my uncle who used to practice this when I was in school. And recently one of my friends learnt it, which catalyzed my wish to learn Reiki.

10. HTML coding: I want to learn basics of this language; this will help me in maintaining my blog better.


This Tag/Idea came from Shilpa. Now I officially tag Nasia, Aneesh, Mayank, Nikita.
And If you like this tag, do share your '10 things you want to learn' . :)

Wordless Wednesday -4

PS: This Ganesha is painted and clicked by me :)  (technique used : water color and pen work.)

The Call

I sipped the coffee and started typing again. In that silent room only sound was caused by my typewriter. Now a days when everyone writes on computer and laptop, I still prefer my typewriter. This typewriter was gifted to me by my father, who was a famous writer. I write stories for a magazine and my first book is ready for launch in few months. Rhythm of the typewriter’s sound broke by interruption from a phone call. Our land line phone was ringing. My wife Shina and son Aryan were out for shopping, I was the only one responsible to pick it up. I received the call “Hello”. No sound came from the other side. “Hello who is this? Hello. Can you hear me?”  But no reply came from other side and call got disconnected. I came back to my seat and I was about to type the next word when phone rang again. “Hello…. Hello. Who is this? Whom you want to talk to? Hello …” but like before this time also there was no reply. I kept the receiver and returned to my seat but phone rang again. As if someone doesn’t want me to write peacefully. I received the call but again no answer. This series of blank calls continued for some 10-15 times continuously.


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We were discussing how our day was at work, when my wife told me about the series of blank calls came on our landline phone in the evening. I told her that the same incident happened last Sunday also when I was alone at home. I thought we should buy a caller id phone set. But my wife was not much interested in doing so, in place of that she suggested removing the landline phone as we both have mobile, and landline was old fashioned according to her. But being someone who likes old things I didn’t wanted to remove landline connection and dropped my idea of buying a caller id phone.


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I pressed the doorbell. Shina opened the door and hugged me tight “thank god, you are alright”. She looked scared and her face was wet with tears and sweat. She looked terrified, and was thanking god for saving me. I made her sit comfortably, gave her water and asked her what happen. She said that when she came back from office, some blank calls came as it came last week. After few blank calls in one call someone said that I (her husband) met with an accident. Shina asked him who that person is and from where he is speaking, she asked him how I am and where I am but the person didn’t reply and disconnected the call. After that she tried calling me but my phone was switched off, which frightened her more. I checked my phone, it was off. I only switched it off when I went inside a meeting and forgot to switch it on once I came out. I had no idea about who called Shina and why someone informed her about my accident, but this one incident scared my whole family.

Next day itself I bought caller id phone. And I informed my friend Suresh, who was in police, about this incident. He told me not to panic, may be someone had played prank on us.


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I walked in the hall to take the newspaper, and I saw Shina shouting on Aryan. I asked her the reason. She said “I am so upset with your son. He never listens to me. Today he took chocolate from some stranger uncles.” I smiled and assured her that I will tell Aryan not to do this again. I made my son to sit on my lap, but he being a naughty kid was trying to get out of my grip and run around. “So you made momma angry again?” he smiled. We both started playing with each other and soon room was filled with our giggles.


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I was working in my study room when I heard Shina screaming my name. I panicked and ran towards the hall. She said that Aryan went for playing in the park but he did not come back yet. I asked her “Have you seen in his room, maybe he is back.  She cried “I checked everywhere in the house, he is not here”. I told her not to worry and decided to go myself and call Aryan from the nearby park because it was getting darker. I did not find him in the park, I asked few neighbors also but no one had any idea about where Aryan went. I came back home and my wife was in worse condition then in what I left her. She was crying nonstop. I too got tensed and worried when I came to know about the ransom call, which came sometime back. My little son was kidnapped. Till now I had seen these things only in movies or read those in news paper, but today this happened to my 6 year old kid, it made me go weak on knees. I checked the number from where call came on our phone and called there, but no one picked up.

The kidnaper warned us not to call police. Still I called my friend Suresh and told him about the incident. He asked me for the number from which ransom call came and told me to mail Aryan’s photo to him.


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That was a sleepless night and early morning we got call from the kidnaper. He asked us for money and said he will call again and inform about the time and location where we should give him money. When I checked in caller id, I found out that this time the number used to call us was different. I informed the same to Suresh. Within an hour Suresh came to our home with his team. They all came in civilian dress so that no one comes to know that police came to our house. He said that his team traced the numbers and found out that both the calls came from some PCOs near the city engineering college. He asked us if anything else unusual happened in last few days. My wife told him about the blank calls we used to get some days back and about that call which gave her the wrong information about my accident.


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24 hours passed and Shina fell ill due to constant crying and tension. I gave her sleeping pills and somehow made her sleep, but I was restless. Around ten in the night Suresh called me and asked me to come to the police station immediately. He said that they arrested the kidnappers and Aryan is safe now. I reached police station in no time. My son was sitting in the police station and he started crying after seeing me. He was not beaten by the kidnappers but the whole incident scared my little boy a lot. I thanked Suresh and his team for saving my kid and asked him who the kidnapper was. I never expected even in my wildest dream that the kidnappers were some students from the city engineering college. These guys were addicted to drugs and when they ran short of money they planned this kidnapping. I was still confused that why they did this with me as I am not the richest guy of the town neither I am any industrialist. Suresh said “once you went to their college as chief guest for some function. There you shared your home phone number with few guys who were interested in writing. From there only they got your number” I came to know that these guys only used to give blank calls on my landline, to find out who used to be at home at what time. They only called Shina about my accident to check if we complain to police for such misguiding call or not. These students only visited Aryan outside his school and gave him chocolate to increase familiarity with my kid. I never thought that students from a reputed institution can do such crime. But someone rightly mentioned that addiction is always harmful. And their drug addiction turned these future engineers into criminals.

PS: This is my entry for the 'Blogeshwar 3.0' contest.

Return

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 14; the fourteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Everything was out of place, room was messy. Broken pieces of flower vase were still there on floor. Rishi unlocked the door and came inside, gave a sigh to the condition of room and went inside bedroom. Bedroom was also in same state. His almirah was open and bed was covered with heap of clothes. And there she was in the corner of the room, smiling..... “She has such a beautiful smile” Rishi went near her picture. It was Tia’s picture, his beautiful wife.

They were opposite. She was organized, he was clumsy. She used to love books; he used to read books to get sleep. She used to like soft music and he was a heavy metal fan. The differences were countless but they just cared about one thing and that was their love. They met four years ago and soon got into a relationship. Morning they would fight about something and breakup, by evening they would patchup again . There were many big and small fights but their love always stood taller than the fights. They decided to take their relationship one step further and with everyone’s blessings they married last year. After marriage facing each other 24X7 had brought out their differences more clearly. Fights increased but patch up time reduced. Tia was a cleanliness freak but Rishi was opposite. Most of the times fights started because of this and then get diverted to something else. Whenever Tia was very angry with Rishi, she used to go to the nearby park and he used to run behind her and cajole her. They managed well through all small & big fights until last night.

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Tia called Rishi in his office and asked him to get the ingredients for the cake she wanted to prepare. When he reached home Tia greeted him with smile.

Tia: Hi, How was your day? And where are the things I asked you to bring?

Rishi: Shit! I just forgot.

Her expressions changed. She went to kitchen to get water for him, and when she came back “Rishi, what is this? How many times I have to tell you to keep your shoes in the shoe rack.”

He took the glass from her “Sorry darling.”

Tia: Oh my god, look at this. You are so careless. You left your watch on bookshelf and morning you will turn the house upside down for this. When will you become responsible Rishi?

Rishi: Hold on! If I misplace my things that doesn’t mean I am irresponsible.

Tia: Oh Yes! I know how much responsible you are, I asked you to bring something but you forgot. I doubt how you work in office.

Now this was enough to hit his ego. “What do you think Tia, I don’t work well in office? Just like that I got two promotions in last two years? Do you understand how much work I do in office? Anyways how will you understand all this, you just sit at home and watch TV.”

Tia: What! I just sit idle all day? Mr. Rishi, you make this house look like a dumping ground and leave every morning, I am the one who makes it look like home again. I cook for you, I do your laundry. I take care of your home and you are calling me lazy. You men think that we women just eat and sleep at home.

Rishi: Oh come on. Give me a break Tia; don’t talk like your daily soap actresses.

Tia: Hey, I don’t watch daily soap all the time.

Rishi: As if I don’t know, How big a fan of daily soap you and your mom are.

Tia: Don’t you dare to drag my mom into this fight.

Rishi: Why not? You always bring my mom in all the fights.

This time the argument was very much heated and the peak point was when in irritation Rishi broke the flower wass which Tia’s mom bought them from Italy. After hour long argument Tia went inside bedroom room.

After some time Rishi saw Tia with luggage. “What is this Tia, are you going to stay in the park for some days?”.

Tia stared at him with anger “You think I do nothing. So now you take care of your house. I am going.”

“But….. Hey Tia, leave it dear. Such small fights are regular between us baby. I will keep my things properly from tomorrow” He tried to cool down Tia’s temper. But she was not ready to listen to him. “This time I won’t listen to your false promises. I am going and that is final. Good bye Mr. Rishi.”

Rishi: Hey Tia, listen…. But where are you going…?

She slammed the door on his face and left.

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Rishi called Tia and like last hundred times this time also her mobile was coming switched off. Last night when she left home, he thought she may go to some friend’s place and will return in few hours or by morning for sure. But when Tia’s phone continued to remain switched off and she didn’t return by morning Rishi got tensed. He was not sure whom he should call. Because if Tia’s mom comes to know from somewhere that Tia was not with him last night, she won’t like it. He called few of Tia’s close friends to enquire about her, but didn’t get any information. It was eleven in the night and he had called almost everyone he could. It was more than 24 hours and Tia had not returned home. He was feeling guilty for fighting with her. He badly wanted her back. He took Tia’s picture in hand and his eyes were wet “I am sorry darling, Please come back. I need you. Please….”

Doorbell rang. He slowly walked towards main door, anticipating who could it be at that time? He opened the door and stood there with his mouth open. He didn’t get how to react to it. She entered the house and he was still standing near door.

“Rishi, you didn’t clean the room today?” it was Tia. Rishi took her in his arms, and kissed her “Where were you Tia. I was so scared for you. Why you left me and went away for such a small thing. I missed you so much… And your phone was also off. I got scared”

Tia: I only switched it off. And I went to my mom’s place.

Rishi: What? Why did you do that? Now what your mom will think of me, that I fight with you always.

Tia: You only said I do nothing. So I gave you a chance to see what and all I do back home when you are in office.

“I am sorry. You know once I am angry I talk rubbish. I was waiting for your return. I am so happy to see you back baby” he hugged her. Tia smiled “I missed you too. I was also very angry last night. But I can’t stay away from you for long time. And more over next week is our first wedding anniversary, so I returned today itself.”

Rishi: Next week is our anniversary? Which date?

She threw him away “You don’t remember out wedding anniversary. This is too bad”.

“Oh dear I am sorry. You know my poor memory. We will have a grand celebration for anniversary. Okay?” He somehow managed to avoid the upcoming argument.

Tia smiled in agreement. She went to keep her luggage inside bedroom, and shouted “Rishi…. Again you got your shoes inside; I told you thousand times to keep them in shoe rack.”

Rishi: Oh god! Not again…..

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Wordless Wednesday -3