getting influenced by a fictional character?(part 1 of the story)

Ullas was sitting on the beanbag, with a mug of coffee in one hand and his new Adventures of Sherlock Holmes book in the other. So much involved in the book he was that he had not realized that the coffee which he was supposed to have drunk was still in the mug. Boiling hot coffee was not ice cold. Not a single drop of coffee had touched his mouth.

Now ullas was finding it difficult to read. Reason? It was evening and sun could not be seen. He was playing hide and seek. And behind clouds is the best place to hide where he could be discovered only if clouds made way, and apparently clouds had not intension to unveil their naughty friend…

Only then did ullas realize that coffee had become cold coffee and his had was paining too. But he was determined to solve the mystery before Sherlock Holmes could. All he needed now was a substitute for sun. “switch on the lights you moron” said a voice from within him.

Lights… camera… action…

There is still some time for the real action to begin. And no need of camera no. so only lights on as of now…

“oh no it is almost 6 now and I was supposed to meet Rohan at 5 30. I ll tell him that I am not felling well. Now where s my mobile….. so he has already called me 5 times now. Hats off to you sir Sherlock Holmes. You got me so much involved that I could not even hear my mobile ring…”said ullas to himself.

‘tring tring… tring tring…’

“Hello rohan, ullas here….”

No answer. Only sound of rain in the back ground.

“rohan, you there?”

“you cheat!!! Your time is up. Say your prayers now.” came a female voice from the other end.

Then suddenly

“bang bang” 2 gun shots. And a painful cry “aaaaaaaaah……”
Then came a shrill loud laugh “haaa hhha woo hahahaha”

And the call got cut.

ullas s brain stopped giving signals for sometime. And then suddenly he realised what had just happened. He was not sure what to do. What could e do? Try calling again? thats the first thing that came to his mind. So again he called Rohan up. This time some other voice answered him “the mobile you are trying to reach is switched off. please try again later....”

ps: next part coming up in few days....

aisa bhi kabhi

abhilasha had just moved into #13 sukh villa. things were still scattered around. 2 of her colleagues who were staying there,were happy to finally get some stay with them to chat and of course to share the rent which was eating a lot of their salary... and what a day she chose to shift. next day was her birthday.

at midnight few more of her friends arrived with a cake and a bunch of candles....

a silent night it was until then. no other sound could be heard. the road was all deserted. the full-moon shining brightly.
the cake was cut, her face decorated with cream and cherry and some of the remaining part distributed amongst themselves...

suddenly akhil stood up. as if he saw a dragon flying by. he started looking around as searching something, something which was not there but he thought was there...
this sudden movement of his made everyone anxious. now he was the focus of every eyesight.

"what is it akhil" asked someone from the group...
without turning back he 'shusshed' at them....

suddenly pin-drop-silence....
howling of the street dog could be heard now (it is more on full-moon and new-moon s)...
more scared were they all now...

akhil was not himself now. the 'always cheerful, making fun of everyone' guy was suddenly demented...

leaving everyone behind akhil went into one of the bed rooms... and then came out of it, then abhilasha 's bed room and came out of it...
one more room left to visit. here he began to quiver. very hesitant to enter...

"akhil what s wrong. you dont look well. are you are shivering. and you had fever this morning. why did you get out of your bed?"

"shhhh. stay where you are. dont come near me."

this drained out the remaining amount of courage the other s had.

slowly akhil entered the last room. kruthi s room.

every second seemed to be a very long time...

then suddenly akhil came out of kruthi s room. he looked as if he was drained of all his strength. collapsed on the bean-bag
"water, water please"

abhilasha ran to him with a bottle of water and offered it to him.

"seriously akhil, you are burning. you need to rest. eat something and then i ll give you some tablets. you have very high temperature."

"kruthi, when did you shift to this place?"

"about 6 months ago. we have been here since them. why are you asking this now akhil?"

"how did you get to know about this place?"

"my uncle s friend stayed here"

"this place is not good. abhilasha, you have not unpacked your luggage na? shift everything out tomorrow. i sense something bad here"

abhilasha: "what are you talking about akhil? you are not well. your temperature is beyond 103. and you know you are not yourself when it goes this high."
akhil : "nothing s wrong with me. if there something wrong then it is with this place. i sense something evil here. some negative power. especially in your room kruthi
if i were you i would move at the first chance. there s something really wrong here"



kruthi: "i have been staying here for such a long time and nothing happened. abhilasha is right akhil. you are seeing things. you need rest."
akhil: "ya i am seeing things which you are not... but i am not seeing things which are not present"
kr : "what do you intend to say ?"
ak : "you guys might laugh at me. but i am very serious. i sense a spirit here. it was here when you cut the cake abhilasha. then went to bed... the ceiling fan of you room kruthi."

"what!!!"

ak : "yes. i guess the person staying here committed suicide by the ceiling fan in you you room... and she frequently visits there."

kruthi: "ya i know that. she was a good lady. do not know why she committed suicide. that s the reason why we are paying so less for this villa"
akhil : "you know what 'sukh villa' translates to in kannada ? it means no happiness' "

abhalisha was petrified now.
kruthi: "abhilasha i am sooo sorry. somehow this thing totally slipped from my mind. we have been staying here for so many months. it s all fine. you dont have to worry. and any ways that incident took place in the room where i stay
and dont tell me that you believe in all this nonsense."

abhilasha almost in tears...


kruthi: " abhilasha please say something. i though you do not believe all these..."

abhilasha hardly able to speak "not that i believe... but still you should have told me kruthi..."

total silence for some time

then suddenly a burst of laughter...

akhil "didnt i tell you kruthi, that abhilasha would be damn scared. you owe me a pizza now"



akhil: "it was all pre planned... kruthi told me that nothing could scare you... and i wanted to prove her wrong"

the very next moment akhil had cake all over him, drenched with coke he was...."


kruthi: "ok guys it bed time now.... good bye everyone. tomorrow is sunday so do not wake me up before 12"

next morning 9 am... akhil at the door, waiting for abhilasha to open it... door opens...

abhilasha: "i am ready... where are we going?"

akhil : "i have plans"
suddenly....
akhil : "abhilasha i sense something bad. somethings wrong here. i can feel it"

abhilasha : "stop it akhil you cant scare me with the same story again..."
akhil :"no i am serious this time. there is something wrong. something really strong. from kruthi s room"

abhilasha: "if you do not stop it, i ll kill you now. come lets leave"
akhil: "i am not joking. is she awake? kruthi?"
abhilasha: "no she had asked us not to disturb her till 12"
akhil: "wake her up. now!!"


no reply from the room

no reply

kruthi not answering calls....

the door breaks open...

kruthi in deep sleep.... so deep in sleep that she never came out of it.

enjoy life

day by day we are increasing the pace of our life. we never have time even to call up and say 'hi' to old friends.
life has reduced to 'travel to office- work- travel back- sleep'


in hospital.

"what do the reports say doc?"
"hmmm. "
"you dont have to hide anything doctor. just say it. each time i had a breakup my heart grew stronger. and i do not have the count of crushes/breakups i have had ;-) . so now my heart is strong enough. no stupid report of ours can break it or do it any harm. this i can voucher for. you can have 'vishvaas' in vishvaas"

"listen vishvaas, there have been lots of developments in the field of medicine. almost anything can be cured these days. of course some take time and patience and money too. treatments also depend on the way patient s body reacts to our medicines. there have been cases like your s. some have been cured and some not. and as you know it is always easy to mend a plant than a tree... we can start your treatment. we need your co-operation."

long silence.

"doc, be frank. what are the chances of the treatment being successful?"

"vishvaas, believe me if i could predict who survives and who wont, i would have been God and not doctor"

"but there certainly be some data atleast. please do not keep me in dark. and what treatment are you talking about? do i have to be admitted here?"

"yes. for sometime you need to be admitted. treatments are never painless. you knew me from such a long time. why did nt you tell me about this before. surely you would have got some indications."

"yes doc. but how was i supposed to know it would get so serious!!! will i survive the treatment??"

silence again.

"how much time do i have?"

"may be around 80 days"

silence

"around the world in 80 days" murmured vishvaas.

"what??"

"doc have you read around the world in 80 days?"

"vishvaas now stop calling me doc."

"ok Naina. have you read around the world in 80 days?"

Rishi enters.

R: "hi naina. what do the reports say? how s vishvaas?"
V: "man!! your wife has given me 80 days time"
R: "time for what? to start diet which you were planning for past few decades?"
V: "diet!!! what s wrong with you???. you know i have always wanted to travel like our hero does in 'around the world in 80 days. no fixed place to... just travel. have fun"
R: "what 80 days are you talking about. naina what do the reports say?"

naina almost in tears

V: "dude i have 80 days time. to pack my bag for an everlasting or ever-last journey"
N: " vishvaas dont say that. there still are chance of you being cured...."
V: "dont be emotional naina. this is not a movie where in heroin would run to the temple, dance for a devotional song and pray for me, and i suddenly get up from death bed. this is real life. and i would rather hunt death than staying here and waiting for death every moment"

V: "Rishi, Naina do you remember when we had just started earning we had a pact. that we would go on an outing atleast once in 2 months. then you both got married and happily forgot me and my pact. i too got too much involved in my work. never took any break. always wanted to be the best. 'best employee' 'best coder'. what crap!!!. it makes no sense now. i didnt marry whom i loved. of course i loved whom i married. but again work got in between us. we never had any proper picnic kind of thing. this stupid mobile always used to ring and divert my attention and she would get pissedoff... and then the kids. i never spent much time with them. i still remember my father teaching me how to ride bicycle. the number of times i fell, and patiently he 'the more you fall now the more perfect you become' each time i fell. i still remember how i felt when he bought me my first bi-cycle. he was always there to play badminton with me though i was pathetic. then his 2wheeler. he was afraid that i was not responsible enough to ride a 2 wheeler but still he taught me.... but me!!! i never knew when or how he learnt to ride bicycle and he knows to ride bike now!!! time has just slipped by. i have never spent much time with him"

V: "i have never spent time for myself for a long time. i do not remember which was the last novel i read. i do not remember when was the last time i laughed like the way we used to laugh when we were students. remember rishi the pj you made? only the two of us used to roll on the floor and laugh. i do not remember the last time i walked hand in hand with her on beach. i do not remember the last time i saw the sun set on a week day. i dont remember the last time i ever saw the sun rise. i do not remember where and when i lost the old fun loving vishvaas. now he has come back. and he ll live happily for the next few days he has. i hope that my wife and son ll be the 'young and energetic vishvaas'. he wants to live his life to the best in the next few days he has... he wants to hold her hand, and dance with her on her favorite tune.... there s alot he wants "

V: "i have met so many people. been friends with so many. but none other than you two whom i could count on.
. please do not keep me in this place naina. let me be a free traveler. do not bind me. let go of me. do not waste your time on me when you are sure that i have not much time. instead be with me for some time"

silence

V: "you know what!!! we can all go for a long trip for new year. what say? shall we renew the pact? we can go for 2 trips that way, before i go on my last one..."

worth it...

"hi!! wassup?? what plan for weekend? long time since we had a night-out at the same old place. i have called eveyone, we can all hangover as usual. what say?"

"sorry yaar. you should have informed me earlier. i am traveling this weekend"

"traveling? where to? onsite?"

"no. not onsite. i am traveling from one end of India to another"

"how come?"

"it s been long time since i met her man :-( . she wont be able to come here. so want to go meet her"

"oh ok. understandable. taking leave? "

"no. not left with any."

"are you crazy? you are going that far for just 2 days?? that too with a broken hand!! be careful"

"i ll be able to meet her for few hours only. but it s worth it. anything to make her smile. and i too and desperate to meet her. it s really worh the pain"

on incident

i was waiting for my cousin on a footpath in jaynagar.
a kid - 2 years may be, came by playing with his toy, tripped and fell down. he looked around him and could not find any familiar face running towards him to pick him up, to wipe his wound, to say to him 'son be careful'. his mother - a street vendor had left him to walk freely (which is not a good thing considering the heavy traffic). the kid soon got up, wiped his wound (if any) and continued playing with his toy.

i am lucky enought to have 2 people who have always seen to it that i do not have tears in my eyes, who have always been there to guide me, to pat my back when i do something good.

thank you amma and aNNA.

3 days - under nature s care

at last i was going on a trek!!!
after a long long long break.
it was 1 year ago that we(harte katte) had been on a trek...
we do learn from our past experience.
arun made it clear that carry mat and sleeping bag is a must and he would not allow us into the bus without them...

28th night
time 10 pm swaroop and me had just left shridhar s house after collecting the carry mats which were hoplessly packed.
the bus was supposed to leave majestic at 10 30 and we were sure that we could not make it.
what a start for the trek!!!
we decided to catch the bus at satellite bus stand (mysore road).
probably for the first time arun was late though not late enough to miss the bus.
satellite bus stand was empty... good for us we (swaroop, his sis, and me) made our best attempt to roll the carry mat, and this is what arun had to say: " thu! angDi avnge carry mat roll maaDakku baralla. waste fellow". swaroop decided not to take the blame on us :-)

finally the journey begins...
more than half the luggage in the bus was ours.
it was not a very eventful night. usually we end up getting scolded by our co-passengers for making noise, but this time probably they were lucky!!!
not much noise, the usual "hi, how are you?" s, some small chat. i tried my best to sleep. but was not very successful..

29th morning
the same maDikeri bus stand welcomed us. santosh who was to join us here was not to be seen anywhere. in some time saw a strange figure get out of sleeping bag...
and out comes santosh. in some time srinivasa and shreyas also joined us. after ablusions (better not use the terms we used) and breakfast got into the bus to hatti hoLe which is around 20 km from maDikeri. arun had described the place in a mail few days ago. this is what he had said "crystal clear water-u, very tempting-u but we wont be getting into water during uphill trek". indeed it was very tempting. we only went near the stream for photo session and then back to trek

it was not a normal trek where you just keep walking. it was almost a relaxing uphill walk but for the load we were carrying. had to walk along the stream for about 2km. here we exchanged our secret angle gifts. every one kept guessing as to who their secret angle was. santosh must still be wondering who calls him "gangster". keep guessing santosh. keep guessing santosh until you get "secret angle revealed" message from our moderator who by the way has done a very good job.

our yoga expert srinivasa rajan was telling us about some yoga aasanas. we were passing next to a paddy field. in some time we came by a house. looking a dozen of people in wierd clothes, carrying huge bags, with some cylindrical thing attached to it induces curiosity not only in humans but also among animals. and one such curious dog came out of the fence. i might have had a tough time judging us, to decide whether to bark at us or to wag its tail and come behind us and join us in our quest. at this very moment our srinivasa demonstrated 'simhaasana'. his ferocious roar scared the hell out of the dog. it yelped, and ran away with it s tail between its hind legs. poor dog sri, you probably made it skip a beat :). but you know what you missed a very beautiful place on monday.

crossing the hanging bridge and making it swing on purpse was real fun. arun spotted few birds here. and i captured some nice pics. eating "sweet, fresh, tender baTani kALu" was nice fun (thanks to seema). we were all marching at snail rate. enjoying nature and taking rest at every possible place. there were many small streams which provided us with chilled sweet water, and each halt at the stream was really refreshing.

we were all hungry, very very hungry when we passed by a house and each one of us could smell the food cooking. this made us even more hungry. people might think "what are thes fools doing here on a holiday in stead of staying comfortably at home" but at the end of the day its really worth the efforts. not everyone can understand this.
due to public demand we halted at around 1 near 'a dried up stream'. had lunch. all possible combination with poori was tried by arun and santosh - poori with chocolate, grapes, jam, pickle, saagu and combination of these (cocolate + saagu + poori + dry grapes what a combination!!). i saw trace of water on a rock a bit above and we went water hunting. a bit more of adventure...which all of us love :)

a short rest after a tiresome day, especially after lunch is most welcome. and once our group sits it is very difficult to make them get moving. as for arun he finds more peace under cool shade of tree (even if it is in the middle of the road, and on stones), than on soft comfortable bed at home.


finally everyone managed to get up and get going. every 5 min someone would ask arun "how much more to go?" and he had only this to say "just 2 more km" or "10 more mins". at one point of time seema told "i ll just walk for 10 more mins, be it peak of not i am going to halt there" and arun said "dont worry. in 10 mins you ll reach the point from where you can see the peak".

sri, santosh and me were the first to reach the peak. sun was about to set. waiting for us to reach the peak and appreciate the beauty of the valley with mild evening rays on it. santosh as usual sets the timer on for group phots and runs to sit amongst us, scaring everyone while doing so, many voices saying "no hurry, you still have time" could be heard.

the sun tired of his journey from east to west was soon covered by a blanket of clouds and was no where to be seen. and the stars which were shy of sun and hidden somewhere started appearing one by one. moon still lazily slept somewhere. now the stars took over remote control to AC from the sun. they unlike sun were not in favor of high temperature. they kept decreasing the temperature slowly. it was really tempting to get into the sleeping bag but we wanted some fun... there were lots of glow worms around. many of us mistook it as shooting stars initially. aditya taught us a game 'mafia' - a really complicated game. it took some time to seep into our mind but it was fun. police got killed by the mafia, innocent arun was convicted as mafia by the jury which till this day he keep reminding us... 'The Mafia' (shubha) sacrificed her faithful helper to gain supremacy...

it was dinner time. a trek is incomplete without a campfire. shreyas and santosh were successful in starting a campfire. i can never forget - the clear sky, millions of stars smiling on us, cool breeze, no work tension, no pollution, no idiot box, just the 12 of us and not a single soul (we thought so). with in no time 50 chapathis were over. dumb cheralds by the fire (no one ll forget arun enacting gothika), the noise we made, veda getting afraid to sit without a 2 body guards, aditya s 'logical reasoning' behind everything...
with this the day came to an end. campfire was put off. everyone went to the warmth of their sleeping bags. for the first time in my life i was sleeping under open sky for the whole night. only orion i could recognize, and of course ursa-major and pole star early in the morning. it really was a nice experience.

dec 30 sunday.
probably no sw engineer would have seen the morning sky before sunrise on sunday (on any day actually). i thought i saw river in the valley, which i somehow had not seen the previous day. only then i realize that it was not river but clouds. we were above the clouds. the view really good. the sun was still sleepy. slowly he came out of the blanket of clouds. his transition from apple red to golden was amazing.

we had variety of stuff for breakfast - fruits, bread, bun, biscuits, peas. not only did shubha (snacks incharge of our group) loved to eat bread n jam but also to apply jam to bread slices for each one of.

santosh, srini and me waned to have a dip in the stream which came along with for around 2 km last day - hatti-hoLe. the rest of the group had decided to enjoy water the next day. so we left the group behind us and went down hill at a higher pace so that by they reach the rest of the group reached the stream we would be ready to join them. so the 3 of us started... and it so happend that the same dog which srini had scared the previous day met us on our way down, and it recognized srini. it was so scared of him that i thought more than million times whether or not to eat the biscuits srini had offered it. and finally making up its mind, gathering up courage it came close to us and eat what was offered... we had a faithful follwer till the stream now.

the water was really cold. but didnt feel like coming out of it. after a day s trek, dip in water was refreshing. srini demonstrated some more aasanas in the stream. it was almost 3, rest of the group had not yet come. we started to think that they might have halted for lunch somewhere. we had a bag of snack, didnt know its contents though. we had emptied half of it when the others started coming. apparently we - srini, santosh and me had missed the adventure (which we are happy for). they were attacked by some insect similar to honey-bee. that was one bad experience for all of them.

lunch time at last. after a long walk, sitting in cool shade, on the river bank, having food together. and then a short nap.

wow!!! what a life. my new year resolution - have such an outing atleast once in a couple of months.

srini had to go back to mysore that evening. so from hatti hoLe he went to maDikeri and the rest of us went to somwarpete and hired rooms there. 11 of us in a room chatting all night, arun patiently read everyone s palms. which was followed by adventure and ghost stories narrated by different people made the girls hesitant to turn off the lights for the night.


dec 31

i had just slept (at 3 am) when i heard a voice "vivek get up, time to leave". it was 6 already. everyone had their eyes half closed. swaroop came to the room where i was sleeping and jumped onto the bed murmering "wake me up before arun finds me asleep"....

the journey to beedaLLi was hopeless one. some fool may be drunk and pretending not to be drunk was screaming on top of his voice. none of us could enjoy the journey. even the conductor got pissed off. to add to it

somehow swaroop got the brilliant idea of having lunch at some "home-stay" place near the bus stand which worked out really well...

the walk to stream (kumaradhara) was not tiresome. fun indeed. swaroop narrated some really interesting ghost stories. santosh was the first to dive into the river (not sure if i can call it a dive, water was only knee deep). again sooper-cold-crystal-clear water. spending time in water somehow make one feel more hungry. to add to it we did not have proper breakfast that morning. deprived of hot tasty food for 2 days we were... hot, delicious lunch served on fresh banana leaves - what more could we ask for!!!

2 more hours for bus. empty bus stand. we were about to get settled there when thousands of spiders fell on us from the roof .
so it was 2 hrs spent by the road playing DC again....

3 fun filled days had come to an end. first day started with breakfast in maDikeri bus stand and ended the 3rd day with dinner at the same place. every such trip shubha gets home made chocolates which btw are very tasty. i was wondering why we were deprived of them this time when she took out 2 boxes of those yummy chocolates as new year sweets...

3 fun filled days, which are among those which i can never forget. 3 days under mother nature s care. and of course under arun s care.

dream or real??

it was few minutes for midnight when someone tapped akhila on her back...

there was nothing great about that day, better call it 'working day' as akhila had been working all day and well beyond 'normal working hours'.
she had planned to leave early when she got a call from her OSC to finish some work ASAP, EOD (add any other terms which you know)... cursing him she stayed back to finish whatever crap or work he had assigned... it was around 10 when all her project mates left for a small break, which she knew would get extended for more than an hour. but she wanted to finish it ASAP and find some peace in her comfortable bed.

the entire floor had a deserted look. there was not single soul other than her s in the entire work area. it was hard to believe that this was the same place which used to be jam packed with people till day break. akhila had never experienced such silence. even water droplets from the tap in pantry was amplified n number of times. only voices to be heard were that of the guard s wireless, when he had to report status every 30 min. and sometimes voices of few house-keeping ladies who were cleaning the adjacent work area. it was very welcoming to hear a human voice now. any weak hearted would have fled from there at first possible chance... but our girl was brave(or rather pretended to be brave). probably the fact that the entire work area was illuminated was a bit comforting. she started working like a dog.

in about one and a half hour akhila finished her work and was ready to leave. she called up her flatmate whose shift ended at 12. akhila asked her to let her know when her shift was over so that both of them could leave together. she was very tired and fell asleep with her keyboard as her pillow...

it was few minutes for midnight when someone tapped akhila on her back...
it was hard to say if it was in her dream or someone had really come by. may be it was here flatmate who had come by to take her home. or may be her project mates had finally decided to come back and finish their part of work. but when she opened her eyes she could find neither any one around her nor anyone hiding to scare her... same silence greeted her... same sound of water droplets, same messages of wireless.

but something was different. what was it???
hmmmmm
oh yes. there was no light in the entire floor save her cubicle s. she perfectly remembered her monitor being on, but now it had been turned off someone had visited her cubicle for sure. also there was a note on her board saying "do not waste power"
'it must be abhishek, he and his stupid "save power" ideas!!! but where is he now?'thought akhila.

just then she heard some voices coming from pantry.
it became clear in sometime. someone was playing a song...
"gumnaam hain koi... badanaam hain koi... kis ko khabar, kaun hain woh anjaan hain koi..."
this is enough to scare anyone in a deserted dark building, that too past midnight!!!

gathering up all her courage akhila went near the pantry and the sight shocked her... there were white smoke like figures floating in air. her legs knew exactly what to do... RUN!!!.
but she was afraid to make any noise so quietly she went to her cubicle and was about to leave when she saw someone approaching. phew!! what a relief to see a living soul...
he came near her cubicle...
in a voice as low as possible she whispered "do not go near pantry. i saw strange white figures floating in mid air. they are ghosts!!!. do not laugh at me now"

he : " i wont laugh at you... i know there are few in pantry... infact i thought you were one too"
she: " no i am not. i am still alive"

he looked a bit disappointed...

she: " you came here thinking i was a ghost??? are you nuts? i would have run if i were you"
he : " why would i run from a beautiful ghost?? ;-)"
she: " very funny!! now dont make noise. you might attract them. lets get out of here before they notice"
he : " do not be afraid of them. they are friendly ghosts. they haunt only people who had caused them trouble when they worked here. of course if you waste power or do not respect nature you must be careful about prithvi. he was environment freak... the rest of the lot haunt their clients, onsite-coordinators appraisers etc etc... you dont have to be afraid of them."
she: " you seem to know a lot about ghosts. who are you"
he(moving his hand forward) : " oh! sorry i forgot to introduce myself."
she was about to touch his hand...
he : " i used to be Nischal"
she(looking up): "used to be?? have you changed your name? "
he was silent for a while. they had eye contact for a while. it is true that eyes say a lot of things... then his sight gradually rolled down... her s followed his. now both' s focusing at her tiny, gentle hands...
she did not take much time to realize what he meant by "i used to be...." her had hand passed through his...
realizing that she would panic he tried to comfort her.
he : " do not be scared of me. as i said earlier we wont harm you. i used to work here. when i started i wanted to be the best, so worked very hard. i used to be here even during weekends. later on my onsite guy started burdening me with more work. i was going crazy with work. my brain could not get the rest it required. it cracked up. you can say i was mental..."

there was a silence

he : " then one day i was riding my vehicle. i liked high speed. it used to be a tranquilizer. but that day something was wrong. a bus came in front of me suddenly. you might find this funny. but by this time work had affected my brain to such an extent that instead of searching for breaks my brain was searching for Alt Ctrl Del. and with in no time my body was under the bus and i was floating in air the other ghosts you saw in pantry...."

silence again. she knew not what to do. run away from there or comfort him, to be scared or to laugh out loudly.

he: " i have been observing you for more than 3 months and the way you are working, i can say that it wont be long before you join us."
she:" you have been observing me from the past 3 months?? where ?? and how come i didnt see you ?"
he :" we do not have to show ourselves to everyone. i only came in front of you because you looked tensed. you know i have a huge crush on you. that toy chair on you CPU is my favourite place. i sit there the whole day. your face looks very beautiful from there. you look really pretty with your lip gloss... i ll be waiting for you. not that i want you to die soon... live long and live happily... but just know that i ll be waiting for you."

listening to this she sank to her chair and lost consciousness...
then

it was few minutes "past" midnight when someone tapped akhila on her back...
she got up with a shrill cry to find that all the lights in the floor except her cubicle were switched off. her monitor was was also turned off. there was a note on her board saying "do not waste power".
her flat mate was stand behind her, asking her to calm down...

to this day she is not sure if it was really abhishek who had switched off all lights and her monitor, or if it was that ghost...
to this day she is not sure if it was all her dream or she had really met the ghost who had a huge crush on her...
however today she does works "normally"...
even today she has that "toy chair" on her CPU . she didnt want to hurt the ghost s sentiments i suppose ;-)