Choir of Flames!

Hi Guys,

A guest post after a long time. This time it is a short story written by my friend Chirag Dagar.
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Every breath, every moment proclaims an unheard story; the story about the past minute, second and about the moments of impact.

The sun shone brightly in the early hours of the morning welcoming a new day, the winds subdued against the might of the sun in the long arduous days of May-June. For all, summers meant a time to rejuvenate, relax and enjoy; but for Charlie it was an opportunity, an open window to work instrumentally towards his goal of qualifying for the National Diving Championships. Fascinated by the beauty and elegance of a dive suspended mid-air, he started swimming from an early age to later on pursue his dream of performing Dives at major levels.

Diving encompassed the conclave of the mind and the body, the body pristinely executing the directions of the mind. It was about procreating each moment, those fractions of a second, that impulse, the stance, the grace, molding your body, articulating the body to that perfect posture.  It was only when Charlie commenced his journey on the path of relentless efforts, he realized the paramountcy of faith in oneself when odds stand against, savor the pain, yet stride perpetually on the path undertaken.

Having triumphed at the State level, Charlie was destined to make it big at the major championships.

And then came the day, the arena packed with assessors, supporters and a few chosen ones to compete for the elusive spot. The moment had arrived for which Charlie had gone through grind, trained his mind to get the picture of the perfect dive engraved in his mind, body and soul. Doubts, they stare at the face like the jagged daggers of the enemies, diminishing the trust in ones’ potential to deliver. Doubts existed for Charlie, his first step towards a breakthrough, so did hope. It was his time to shun the clouds of uncertainty and shine through to claim what was there for him.

On the blow of the whistle, Charlie synchronized the reverberations of the spring board to dance to the tunes of his body, and ascended to make this moment, a moment of impact, a moment of victory.

Contemplating back, he emphasized on the transition from doubts to the belief of conquering the fears, the illusions created by mind. He reflected on the smallest of the moments, the moments of work and the grind that brought answers to the doubts, dwelling into the unwavering faith to fulfill his destiny.

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Happy Reading!

P.S: The author's profile is https://www.facebook.com/chirag.dagar

The Doomed Dwelling!

Hi Guys,

I had been thinking about writing a story for a long time. I have penned down something which you might call a story, if you are generous enough. This story is inspired by some of the events that happened to a few of my friends years back. Please read it and let me know your valuable comments. Thanks!

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The day still remains fresh in my heart. After spending two years in college hostel, my parents had agreed to allow me stay outside. I was a hot May morning, but I was so fresh and the day was simply great. To the readers who are confused as to who I am, let me introduce myself. I am Ram, a Mechanical Engineering student in one of the private Engineering colleges in Chennai. Staying in hostel has its own issues. We have to stick to the idiotic rules, we have to bear with the poor food, we were not allowed to go outside, we were not allowed to use mobile phones and so on. Staying outside has its own advantages and freedom. So, I and three of my friends got into a house in the suburbs of Chennai.

It was a quite an old house, but nevertheless a big house with a few spacious rooms. We were in the first floor. The house owner said that the ground floor was being renovated and that he was in search of tenants for the second floor which was also big. The rent was much less compared to other houses in the area. There are certain things in this world that you won’t believe until it happens to you. Getting a house for cheap rent was one such thing and I was happy with it. Little did I know that I will experience other unbelievable things too.

A few weeks passed by. It was the starting of September. My roommates had gone to their homes for weekend and I was staying alone in the home. I was a Saturday night and I was watching a random movie in my laptop. The tube light in the room started to flicker and it was off before I tried to do something. I went to the hall and switched on the light, but it refused to switch on. The neighbouring homes had power supply, so I thought there was something wrong with the fuse. I took a torch light and went to the electric meter box. To my shock, the main switch was turned off. I turned it on, but was observed in thoughts as there was no one else in the home.

I came back to the room to find that my laptop had been turned off. I thought it had run out of battery, but then realized the power source was still on. My first thought was that it was a thief. Slowly and steadily, I went to other rooms and switched on the lights to find that no one was there. I had a thought that it might be a ghost, but then I never believed. I thought, there was something with the electrical connection and slept off.

The next day morning, I got up quite early. I spent most of the time outside my home. The night came. By the time I came home, all the lights were turned on. Confused, I called my roommates. None of them had reached home. I was scared now. The house was open. I went slowly inside and found that no one was there. Sweat started flowing down my face. I was standing by the entrance for some 10 minutes. Someone was opening the door in the second floor. I starting walking down the steps when the house owner called me. He said he had come with a plumber to do some repairing works in the pipeline. Sometimes, mind does play games with us.

Night came. I locked myself and I was trying to comprehend whatever I had written in Thermal Lab note to write in my record. It was then that a small girl in the opposite house started to scream as if she had seen a ghost. The girl was pointing to something in the second floor of the house we were staying and she fainted. Her parents came later and took her, probably to a hospital. Her terror ridden eyes remained in my heart and was very scared after all the events. I tried to stay awake with lights turned on. My eyes and brain were playing games with me.

Somehow I drifted off to sleep. It was around 6 in the morning when I got up. I found that my roommate Siva had come from home. He was sitting in hall and writing something. He didn’t seem to note me. I brushed my teeth and I was having headache due to the events that happened in the previous night. I wanted to have coffee and came out. The mother of the little girl was standing outside. I enquired about the little girl and she said the girl was fine. She asked us to get out of the home soon as there was apparently a ghost in the house. The home was used as a hostel few years back and a girl had committed Suicide in the hostel. Due to that, the house has remain uninhabited for a long time. If someone comes to the home, the ghost makes an appearance. She said the so called plumber was a witch hunter. I suddenly remembered that he had no tools with him.

Confused, I reached for the tea shop at the end of the street. I saw Siva walking towards the street with his bag on his shoulders. Then who was sitting in the hall? I suddenly remembered the fact that I had locked the doors and no one could have come in unless I opened. Things dawned on me suddenly. I waited for Siva and told him everything.

He said he had been experiencing some strange dreams after coming to the house. A dream where he was walking somewhere with a long pathway with no rooms on the side and a photo of a beautiful brown horse in the wall. We went back to home. Other two friends said that they would come only on Tuesday.

We went to college and came back. We went to the second floor of the house. There was no lock and we went in. It was clear that the house was full of dust and no one can live there as of now. There was many old household things. I heard a cry from Siva in the next room. There was the picture of the horse that came in his dreams.

We came out of the house. We called the house owner and asked him to come immediately. He came and tried to convince that the house was safe. After a few nasty dialogues, he accepted that there was something scary there. He said the witch hunter would probably drive it away in a few days and wanted us to stay there and was ready to reduce the rent by 25%.

But, do you think we would have stayed there? Yes, we did. We wanted to get out as soon as possible. But, we didn’t get any other houses nearby. Our fears reduced as time went by. A few notorious things would happen now and then. But, it was some silly things and it didn’t increase in magnitude as shown in horror movies. We and the ghost got used to mutual existence. We stayed for two years and we never had a problem!

Was there a Ghost?

Hi Guys,

Wish you all a very Happy New Year! I wanted to write a post around the end of December 2012 or atleast the very starting of 2013, but then I had a hectic schedule.

The first post of 2013. I was thinking of what to write about and then decided to write about an interesting incident that happened some months ago. It is about how our mind can think about things and have an immediate effect.

This is something like a continuation of the post in which I had written about one of my friends seeinga ghost. I wrote this one in October 2011 and if you haven’t read it, read it before continuing with this post.

After that particular incident happened, it became a hot topic in my classroom and many a times lot of comedy stories were running around in explanation of the incident. It was somewhere around March or April last year. I just went to their room as a few other friends were also present.

I was bright summer afternoon. We were playing cards for some time. The topic of Ghosts somehow came in. Apart from the regular roommates, myself and two other friends were there. We started ridiculing them saying how things might have gone terrible that day and it might have been someone else and it can never be the ghost.

The one who had actually seen (or the one who said so) got angry. He said a lot of other incidents too have happened. That night was not the only time it happened. On a particular day (might be a full moon day!) one of the room mates had a dream. In the dream, he went out of the bedroom to see that there was a long corridor with so many doors on either side. There was a wall painting with a Horse picture. The next day, he went upstairs for the first time and there was the same Horse picture in the window.

In another incident, a girl who lived in the opposite house has seen a girly figure sitting in the staircase at an awkward position. The stair case was in the other side and to go to the stair case a door in between has to be opened and the door was locked. In yet another incident, one of these guys had gone to the terrace to dry clothes. The terrace is protected by an iron gate and when he returned back, he found that the door was latched from outside and no one else was in the house at that time.

After some time, these guys went to have food. Myself and two of my friends (who were not staying there) were there. We were continuing with our Card game. It was some time. My mind was already playing games with me. A few days back, I had seen the movie 1408. The movie had many such scenes. In one particular scene, all the key characters whom he thinks are actually alive will be ghosts. I was thinking what if these guys come out as ghosts.

The first guy said, ‘I was having a thought in which everything in this room can come out as ghosts’. The second guy said that he was also thinking the same. I said that I was too thinking of the same. 2 seconds later, we were outside the room and standing in the Balcony. We no longer wanted to go inside the home, before the actual roommates came.

I don’t know whether the incidents happened for real or not. But for sure, the house was not having a good name around. No one was ready to occupy the big portion that was empty in the second floor. From what these guys had heard from around all the tenants who had come previously had fled the house within a few months. I still don’t know how we had the same thought at the same time. Was it a coincidence or something else?

I never really believe in the superstitious things like Ghosts. But when something like these happens, our mind automatically deviates and lead us somewhere.

Happy Reading!!!

Encounter with Ghost - or was it a Ghost?

Hi Guys,

An interesting event happened a few days ago.

My parents had been on a 10 day trip to Varanasi and other holy places around. So, I was alone in my home for those 10 days. The days went quick as I had some works to do and I was also in charge of organizing a Quiz competition in my college. One evening I went with my friend to take printouts of the posters. We came back by 8.30 pm and I went to his home. He is residing with some of my classmates in a rented home. When I went there, power was not there and the whole room was dark.

He asked me, ‘Karthi, are you alone at your home?’ I said yes and he asked me, ‘Don’t you have any fear?’

I said I was used to it since my parents go to many functions frequently. He said, ‘I too don’t have fear sleeping alone in my home (at his native), but here I am afraid’

I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a big house and its quite bad in shape too. So, you may have fear’ He replied, ‘No karthi, the size is not a problem. There is something is this house’ I was shocked. I said ‘What???’

He said, ‘Yes karthi, everyone here has experienced that’ I thought there was really some ghost and got afraid. There was no power and my eyes were looking everywhere around. I said, ‘Ok mate. I have an urgent work and need to go home. Bye!’

Next day, in college I asked him what was there in his house? So he narrated his experience.

‘A few days back I was sleeping in the second room and all my roommates were sleeping in the other room. I didn’t sleep there as I was having cold and that room had two windows and cold breeze would intensify my cough. I was sleeping quite well until 2 am.

‘I woke up by 2 am and went to the bathroom. I came back to the room and I saw that someone was standing outside the hall window (which is visible from the bedroom). I went to hall and asked who it was. There was no reply. I came back and lay down.

‘Two minutes later the person was knocking the window heavily. I went to the hall and shouted who he was. There was no reply for some time. I switched on the light, but the person was invisible. I switched off the light and then I heard a reply “Why are you concerned about who I am. Go and Sleep”. I went back and covered my face with bed sheet and slept’

I was expecting a big story and when he finished his narration, I was furious. A few days later the whole story spread in my class and he got famous with his ghost encounter. I and few of my friends sat with him and convinced him that it was not a ghost. He doesn’t believe and says that he is sure that it was a ghost.

Here are a few reasons put forth my me and my friends

1.  It might have been a thief. My friend says that the door to the balcony was locked and there is no way a thief may come. We say that there are lots other places to climb or fall other than the door.
2. The house owner is a drunkard. His roommates say that he often drinks and babbles. There are lots of possibilities that it was him as he has a key too.
3. We asked him why he didn’t awaken others and call for help. He came with the greatest explanation. I didn’t do anything to the ghost and so I knew that the ghost would not do anything to me.
4. The other possibility is that it was a dream. But he says that it was real and he remembers things, but half his explanations look imaginary.

Half his roommates are more afraid than him and now they are having sleepless nights and this story has become a big comedy in my class with lot of imaginations flowing in.

Happy Reading!!!

Energy Sucking Aliens!

September 04, 2004

It was an unforgettable day in my life. I was 14 then, a dreamy boy wondering about things that would never happen. I came across this interesting news in the daily newspaper.

The International Space Station (ISS) was orbiting over Madurai and it would be visible to naked eyes for the next few days and there was a time table. The time schedule of ISS crossing Madurai along with the directions was given. The first day, it was early and I knew it would not be visible. For the next three days it was between 7 pm and 10 pm. After that it was in the early morning. So I decided to watch the ISS on all the three days.

September 06, 2004

The first of the three days came. The time specified for observation was 7.18 pm and it was given that the station would be moving from Southeast to Northwest. It was the first day and I didn’t know what to expect. I went to terrace by 7.15pm. I called my brother and parents, but none were interested. I was looking into the space constantly. A few minutes later, ISS appeared. It looked like a bright star moving at a constant pace. It was brighter than other stars and it just moved across the sky. It was just majestic to see. I was just wondering about the brilliance of scientists at Space Centers across the world.

September 07, 2004

I was very eager to see the ISS again. The specified time was 9.13 pm. I was feeling very excited that day. There was fervor inside me and I was not able to eat properly. I didn’t know why. I was feeling feverish, but I thought the excitement created that. I went to the terrace by around 9.10 pm. My subconscious was saying something was not good, but I was not hearing.

The ISS appeared in the northwest direction. I started looking, before I realized the ISS was supposed to appear in southwest direction. I looked in the southwest direction. Well, the ISS was coming out from there. So, what was in the northwest direction? I looked again there. It was something different. It composed to three symmetrical dots and each dot were in separate color. One was Red, the other orange and the final one Violet. It was brightly glowing as it became more visible.

I have heard of UFOs and Flying Saucers, but never thought I would see one. It was travelling is such a way that it was going to collide with ISS. Danger, said my mind. I was awestruck and I kept watching both the flying stuff moving towards each other. When they came at the same spot, I realized that the UFO was flying higher than the ISS. But, when they were in same axis, ISS stopped moving. There was some sort of an invisible bridge between the two stations. One moment I was able to see, the other moment I wasn’t.

Suddenly the invisible bridge extended all the way down to earth. All the creatures in the trees started to hoot and cry because of fear. I felt a sudden drop of energy inside me. It was as if someone was sucking my energy. I was able to see someone coming down through that bridge. It was a different creature, something I had never seen before. The more closely it came, the more energy I lost. I was not able to stand there. A lot of heat was emitted and there was an invisible heat circle. The circle was growing bigger and it pushed me farther. At one moment, the heat was so great and I lost all my energy. Last thing, I remembered I fainted and fell down from the terrace.

September 08, 2004

I was startled and I was awakened suddenly. I was about to fall down from the bed. I suddenly stopped myself and I was not able to recollect the dream quickly.

I remembered I didn’t visit the ISS the previous day. I was more afraid to visit it that day. I thought my dream might come true. But my mind insisted me to go up. I went upstairs to see ISS. Well, there was no issue that night.

The energy sucking Aliens never came back!!!

An Entertaining Story!!!

Hi Guys,

We had some fascinating activity in the Communication Lab period today afternoon.

Most of the students were not present in the class. They had gone to practice for the cultural competitions. Only 32 out of 67 were in the class. So we had an interesting game. The class was divided into two. But our group had 12 members and the opposite group had 20 members.

We were given the theme ‘Entertainment’ and were asked to write as many related words as possible in 5 minutes. The team leader must be the one to write. I was the leader of my group. Pasanga ennaiye palikada akitanga!

They were saying many words and I was scribbling them. By the end of 5 minutes we had written 28 words and the same time the other group lead by Bala Kumar wrote some 41 words. Now both of us were given 2 minutes extra time to write more words. In that time, our boys came out with 43 expressions, whereas the other team wrote only 22 words. Actually the secret was we divided the job. Vimal wrote on one side of the note and I wrote on the other side.

We were asked to read the words. I started reading and in the middle I was unable to control the laughter. The reason was, a series of words Vimal had written were Football, Volleyball, Cricket, Hockey, Tennis, Boxing followed by Theatre, Cinema, Movie. Anyway the staff said nothing. But the other team started shouting that they all meant one and the same. Nothing happened in favor of them!

By this time 40 minutes had passed and we were told to write something creative using all those words. We sat in to write a story. The story began well, but within some time it collapsed, since everyone suggested something and I was not able to follow. It was a great comedy reading the story. I present it below, but don’t know whether you will be able to follow (all words in red denote the words related with entertainment).

I have had so many dreams in my life. Some were just dreams. I have thought of riding a horse. I was amused to see sea surfers. Trekking will be a nice experience, but I never got a chance. I wanted to visit a resort, go boating nearby seashore. I wanted to go on an adventurous outing and put a campfire in a hill station. I wish to visit a village and visit the temples there. I like to ride a sport bike with an earphone in my ear. I wish to be entertained in an amusement park. And last of all I wanted India to win the hockey gold medal in 2008 Olympic. Some dreams have come true. India won the T20 cricket world cup in 2007. I have visited palaces. I have played football. I’m collecting coins…

When we were spinning the story (if you are a writer, forgive me) time was out. I finished this story within 10 minutes that too hearing 12 different suggestions continuously. To end with Vimal read the story. The opposite team just wrote some sentences using these words. That was the end of it. The greatest comedy was some guys were fighting ‘nanga than jeichom… nanga than jeichom’… Enna Koduma sir idhu!!!

In the end it was announced that we won the game. Though we collapsed with the story, we were announced the winners, encouraging our effort.

Happy Reading!!!