Dreamer: Ashort story...

after a couple of b'day eulogies ...here i come back again.....i wrote a couple of stories, when i was waiting for my mba course to start at iit delhi.....i had a couple of months when i was completely vella....had nothing to do.....so i turned a couple of ideas i had into short stories...mind u this short story was written when i had nothin better to do...so dont expect masterpeices...but this was my first effort at writing a short story......so read on..and comments will be appreciated....

DREAMER .......

" Venky get up and clean the tables" Subbiah's baritone voice rang through the kitchen causing Venky to jump out of his sleep. He got up cursing the college canteen owner who had shaken him out of dream when he was just about to eat the mangoes he had stolen out of Veeru’s grove.

Venky was the cleaner in Subbiah's canteen. His name was actually Venkatiah but after coming to the city he had shortened it to Venky. He liked being called Venky since it sort of sounded trendy. It had been only a month since he had joined the job. Before that village had been his world. With its groves and fields where he used to roam with abandon, it had made him a part of it. But the city with all its variegated hues and multifaceted features made him seem trivial and out of place. He had lost his parents in a fire accident when he was an infant . His grandmother had brought him up.When he was around nineteen years old she too passed away. After her death one of his neighbours sent him to Subbiah who took pity on him and gave him a job in his canteen.

Venky was not exactly a good lookin guy, but he wasnot ugly either. He had a earnest smile which he used to flash often. He was quite thin for his age but he had a great deal of stamina and agility in his work. People say God bestows upon everyone some unique skill or talent as they call it. Venky had also come across people saying this but he could not decide what he was good at. Yes he was better at doing some things than others. He could play cricket better than football. He could swim better than most of the boys at his village. He used to sing to his hearts content but he wasnot exactly blessed with a mellifluous voice. He did not excel sufficiently in anything that he could claim that his future lay in it.

But there was one thing he did often and he did it pretty well. He used to day dream a lot. I say that he did it well because he really did let his imagination flourish. It was not like most others dreams,he used to construct his reverie to amazing detail. And he did not restrict his dreams about anything. Like after a day spent in playing cricket, especially if he managed a decent innings with bat or a tidy spell with the ball in the gully cicket he played with his friends, he would sit and fantasize himself playing in the test side against some country. He would constructing his fantasy to such details that he would imagine himself playing shot after shot and he would conjure all the score details including the extras. He had great enjoyment in imagining himself playing a shot against a bowler and he would also imagine the commentary in the match. And his dreams were not constrained to cricket .It could depend on how he spent his day.

His new job introduced him to a whole new world. It was a new experience to him. All the students , the way they moved around in their gizmo cars and bikes, the sophistication with they behaved was all a new experience for him. He had a keen sense of observation. He used to observe at the canteen different kinds of people. He used to admire the group of boys who always moved around wearing short t -shirts and flaunting their muscles. He wondered at the bespectacled student who always used to have his head buried in a book. He was amused at a group of girls always giggling among themselves. He used to see freshers who used to come into the canteen with frightened expressions on their faces like they were entering on to an exploration into a unknown cave. He also got used to boys settling down in a corner where they would not be visible to others and puff away their cigarettes. He used to observe all sorts of people in the canteen as he quietly went about his work of cleaning the tables. This job had changed his life. But one thing still was unchanged. He still day dreamed , only change was he built castles in air about new things.



Venky went about his routine daily without giving any one a chance to complain about his work. It was pretty much the same cleaning the tables, helping around in petty works in kitchen and cleaning dishes. Then one day he saw her . No it was not "love at first sight" stuff you find in the movies. He just was impressed with her. As he saw her he felt like looking at her again . Then he felt like looking at her from close quarters. More he saw her more he felt like seeing her. No it was not her beauty that captivated him ,he had seen more beautiful girls and he had forgotten them after they passed by. She was different , she had a certain gentleness about her. The way she moved, it seemed to him like a delicate branch swaying in the breeze. The way she talked , her voice was not harsh nor was it meek it was sweet like a lullaby. The way she used to look at something it was very fleeting glance like a muslin cloth slipping over a marble statue. Everything about her seemed poetic to him. She reminded him of the angels in the stories told by his grandma.



In a few days she was all he could think of. He used to wait all the day waiting for the moment she would step into the canteen. He used to feel a surge of energy on seeing her. At the same time he was mesmerized by her. He used to move around her the time she was in canteen. He would go to bed disappointed on the days she failed to turn up. He went home dancing on the day she asked him to get the tomato sauce. He could gather from the conversation of the group of students that her name was Gita and she was a student of science group. He observed she always used to order the costliest items and she used to tip the waiters quite generously. He could make out that she came from a well-to -do family. He used to observe every little detail about her like the way she ate ,the way she drank water and so on.



He knew at the bottom of his heart that all this madness meant nothing. But he used to sit and imagine himself talking to her, saying all the sweet things to her, singing songs to her and he used to feel exhilarated. He never used to lust after her. He sort of worshipped her, he deified her. He kept her on such a pedestal that he knew he would not be able to reach her. Yet dreams were his only solace, he derived his joy and happiness from them. His world of dreams was the only place where he enjoyed himself. All the free time he got was spent in conjuring up a new fantasy or re-experiencing an old one.He used to think of ways he would go and talk to her, the way he would impress her and the situations in which she would come to know about his merits and fall in love with her. But such situations never came up and it should not be surprising because if such things would happen in real life no one would perhaps imagine them in the first place. The moment he saw her he felt himself shrinking. He would feel so small in her presence. He used to be overawed by her presence.



Life moved on such terms. One day he watched an Eastman color film in which as is the usual formula the hero rescues the heroine from the goons and love used to sprout between them. As his wont he sat down after the film in a corner in the kitchen and started building his castles. He imagined that she would be waiting in the bus stop for the bus. Then a few goons would come and start eve teasing her. She would be feeling harassed. Then he would make his appearance like a hero and start beating the goons. He further went on imagining. He would kick one of them in his stomach and punch the other in his face. He would pick up a third one and throw him to the ground. Soon all the people would join him and soon beat those guys to pulp. Gita would look at him with admiration. He would go up to her and ask her if she was ok. And that would start their acquaintance which would soon blossom into a beautiful relationship. And so on he dreamed.

It was time to go home and he packed his belongings and started for his home. He stayed with Seethaiah the chief cook. As he approached the bus stop along with Seethaiah he saw Gita there. He was reminded of his latest daydream. He smiled to himself. Then he saw a few goons approaching her .His first reaction was one of shock. Then as he envisaged they started harassing her. He did not know what to do. For all his fantasizing Venky knew he was not exactly the muscular honcho who could bash up 3 to 4 people at a time. Then he realized that what was happening was the exact way he had fantasized. Perhaps God had decided to make his dream a reality. If that was the case the rest of his dream would also go the way he had dreamt of. This thought filled him with a great deal of energy. He dropped his belongings And he ran at the goons .He kicked one of them and punched the other one. "YES", he thought, "this is the way the dream went ,let me go on further" He tried to lift the third one but he couldnot move him. Instead the guy grabbed him. Soon all other people in the bus stop were rushing at them. Venky thought " Leave the aberration , the other people would help me beat these goons" . But the people started beating him instead. This was not the way the dream was supposed to go. All of them were raining blows on him. He saw Gita then. The look on her face was not one of admiration, but of shock and disgust. He just could not understand. As he was thinking her image began dimming before his eyes. Soon he passed out.



When he came back to his senses, he was on a hospital bed. He was bandaged at several places. He looked around; his eyes were searching for Gita .He could find only Seethaiah standing in the room. He mustered his voice and asked Seethaiah what had happened. Seethaiah flew into a rage and shouted back at him "What do you mean by asking me? what happened to you? Why did you rush at the students and start beating them up? They were after all harmlessly discussing their studies. What made you to pick up a fight with them? All the other students would not sit and watch if you were beating their fellow students. Subbaiah has asked me to hand over your belongings and the money for the work you have done till now. There that finishes my work I am going .You go your way after these people discharge you".After handing over his belongings Seethaiah went away.



Venky realized that after all there were no goons. He had still been in his dreams as he mistook the students for the goons and tried his hand at bashing them up. He had been living so much in his dreams that he had failed to distinguish between dreams and reality. Now life in all its reality stared him in the face. He had lost his job. He had no one in this world. He had no place to go. He could not go back to that college after all this hullabaloo. But more than all this what rankled him was the thought that he could never see Gita again. That thought made him mad, caused him a lot of pain more than what his wounds caused him. He spent his days at the hospital thinking about her. He always used to keep looking at the entrance in the hope that she would come. Not only her but no one ever came to see him.



After a few days they discharged him from the hospital. As he limped out on his way out from the hospital, he realized that he had no one to take him and he had nowhere to go. When he came out of the hospital he got the shock of his life .For there on the road Gita was standing holding a flower bouquet in her hands .He slowly moved towards her. When he came up to her she leaned forward and said " I know why you behaved like that on that day at the bus stop. It was your love and devotion for me which made you to fight like that. All the people mistook you ." Then after a pause she looked into his eyes and said " But I understand you and your love for me" Then she suddenly shouted "honk" .Venky could not fathom it. Why did she shout like that in between such a sweet moment? He looked into her eyes . Then she shouted again "Honk honk honk" .This time so loudly that Venky threw his head back and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes he saw not Gita but a large vehicle standing before him on the road and the driver was honking his horn loudly and shouting angrily at him. Then Venky realized " Oh My God! I was dreaming again".

an ode to a listener...

There was this guy who listened , listened and listend and kept listening....and i found that soon everyone liked talking to him......

as they say...the key to success is listening.....everyone likes people who listen...some one who listens about whatever u talk should be a perrenial favourite with everyone..one such favourite was vamsi .........he was always all ears..........an ever helpful guy....

he does amaze with his patience.....well it was fun......

those days in beach ...as u listened to all the drivel...

those days in the canteen....as we all put together the change with us...for a bottle of coke...

those days in theatres...as u dragged us to every hollywood flick coming to vizag....

those days in the ground ..as we scampered singles like mad....

those days in the library ...as we bunked classes and chatted away to glory.....

aaha only if we could relive those...atleast lets rejig our memories with that.........

anyways dude...u r such a integral part of my nostalgia.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ...Vamsi...hope u remain perennial favourite of everyone....

p.s: - i would like to see if u would listen to your wife in the same way in some time in the future..:P.....

TMS......

when i came to IIT, it was the first time i was staying outside my home...it was sort of unburdening experience...but i was naturally apprehensive about who was gonna be my roommate....then i spotted this guy..who looked distinctively north indian...in fact like a nepali...:P,.....who was alloted the same room as me...then i asked him something and instinctively he replied in telugu......it was quite a relief......iam not against north indians..relief was due to the fact i could listen to telugu songs with out any one objecting to it....as it turned out he did not even object to my playing tamil songs....we did not exactly become great buddies from day one...there was a kind of aloofness about us..but we interfered very little in each other's business....our paths seldom crossed ...so life went on smoothly.....

then after a few days.....during our exam times when we were thrown together because we had to read for our exams we were having one of our rare talks....as we kept talking i told him about my engg days..and as i went into my flash back....he soon started talking about his..and soon we realised that we had lot in common...............and from that day it was never the same...we went on to become very good friends.....one of the few really good friends that i could relate to ...in iit....soon we were best of friends.....helping each other out ...teasing each other...and along with raghav..we formed a trio....of very good friends, who had a gala time...................

soon we had our single rooms and we were on our own paths for our courses ..but our friendship still endures.......he has moved on from strength to strength....and i have come several notches in our academic schedules....but our friendship is still something to treasure and wonder....

He is none other Mahesh..alias Thakur Maheshwar singh....TMS ...as he likes to call himself.....he was the guy who was my inspiration for studying for the only minors i read in iit ...;)......topper and the bright boy....with a warm heart......and lot of smiles to offer.....he is one guy....whom i can tease with out worrying that he will take offence...for we have had that fizz going...anycase the only one reason iam giving this jerk a pride of place in my blog is......he has his birthday today......and i wish him a very very very,......Happy Birthday..........hope u get best of life in everything buddy........

WHY??????

today i began to wonder.....why is that in every movie...the hero gets the heroine at the end..inspite of all the twists and turns that take place to unbelievable extremes.......why is that in real life it does not happen..inspite of much simpler realities....why does it not happen in real life...aaah then i realise....that at the end of it.....Iam not the hero in this story........i dont even deserve to be the villain....Iam just the comedian....who makes people laugh, makes them forget their troubles and in the process tries to sidestep his own problems......and then fades away into the oblivion................thats what I am..................

cricket.............

well nowadays...iam back to playing cricket with full energy and vigour.........today i had a great day on field..batting with great abadon...seems like i struck a nice patch.....today was especially nice ..playing an nice aggressive innings...with shots all over the place..with out taking any risk...as me and asif closed out the match with out losing any wickets in a hurricane spell of shot making....

cricket has a laid back charm by itself...some sort of elegance which would be lacking in other games....just the feel of ball meeting the willow...the feeling of joy as the ball races to the boundary as u execute those shots of silken beauty........the sound of ball rattling the timber....the late swing which leaves the batsmen looking like a boy lost in a mela...the bamboozling spin which makes the guy with willow in hand look as if he is in midst of circus performing the clown act.....the stunning dives , the catches plucked out of thin air......all these things can only be appreciated by cricket connoisseurs.......

well when i was young i had this burning ambition to become a cricket player...i fantasized about cricket in my teens much more than about gals..........but ofcourse that dream has just remained that....now it has become an unfulfilled one.........now as i move on with my life.....the realisation sinks in that...in a few days i may not be playing this sport at all........may be all those shots , those dives in the field will be a thing of past...as i may lose the physical agility of a young man to slowness of a middle aged one..as i become more engrossed in the troubles of life which will be taking more and more of my time and mindspace................i may lose the joy of playing cricket...that makes me feel sad .In anycase will try to enjoy my last few afairs with cricket and perhaps try to have some more with it..whenever possible....:)

Peter Pan..???????????????????????

hey ....

i was browsing through blogs of my friends and came across this quiz and gave it as a na act of impulse......my god what all works will people do when they are "vela".."vetti"...or free from work....anyways here as the results..i dunno what they mean..but my alter ego is peter pan..hehe thts funny......

You scored as Peter Pan. Your alter ego is Peter Pan. You are a child at heart. Anything you believe is possible, and you never want to grow up. Peter Pan 100% Goofy 81% Pinocchio 75% The Beast 75% Ariel 69% Cinderella 56% Cruella De Ville 50% Sleeping Beauty 44% Donald Duck 31% Snow White 19% Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego? created with QuizFarm.com

valentine's day...

hehe...the seasonal bug has caught onto me..dont worry iam not gonna get mushy and harp on love, its beauty and its so called umpteen avatars.....what is that rankles me is that what a spectacle have they made out of this love and lovers day....

just look at love as being professed by people and in the movies, stories and other stuff..... going after gals with whom they would have never talked, whom they would not even know whether they will prefer coffee or tea. standing in the bus stops, bunking colleges and neglecting useful work.

people who would have never talked to girl, falling in love with 'love' with the first girl who would talk to them. .... people who do not have planned for their future...planning for a life partner.........well the other side of the spectrum is no good. .....people fall in love after looking at bank balances, future prospects, expensive gifts...wht r they in love with after all....

look at people who say they are in love, what is their love ....going to movies, discos, hanging out in restaurants.....is this love...

there is a huge juggernaut of marketeers waiting to take advantage of this bunch of lovers......just look at the shops springing up selling cards........ websites having love letters....well here we have templates ready..for people to get into love...was not love supposed to a personal relationship between 2 persons...........

people who cant even declare their love fearlessly, who cant talk to their own parents that they are in love with someone, who would not think twice before leaving their homes, parents just because they are afraid of facing them and tellin g about their love...........dont deserve to be in love.

and we have a bunch of moral policemen ready to spoil valentine day parties, break into card shops and to advocate values to the new generation as if they themselves are moulded out of perfection....persons who would not give respect to ladies in their houses giving moral classes to people on the street is not a digestable concept.............

wherever you see, this love is being sold to us...love in the movies..love in the songs.....love in serials, ...love in the books...love in the advertisements....wherever u look it is being sold as a compulsory accessory u need to have in life.....

well iam not against love ..but it should happen to a person on account of his own feelings, on account of genuine liking of another human being...but look at what is happening...it is being potrayed as something that happens to everyone..in particular times...it is as if everyone ought to do it..or u have some short coming if u are not onto it......

and result is ...we have youngs boys in school starting to look for out for a beautiful gal and declare that they are in love and go after that gal troubling her....sometimes with disastrous consequences...girls are also not immune to this stuff... a whole generation of gals bought up on mills and boons romanctic curry type of love...swoon on muscular looking guys and handsome looking hunks...and keep blushing and taking on their advances in the ages in which they dont even know responsibility of their actions..............

come a little farther we have guys and gals who are committing suicides just because some one did not love them..if they did not whats the big deal....everyone does not love us.... not even like us.......do we care.............then why does this happen...

we have people who think falling in love is meeting daily at bus stops,libraries, or whatever place they could find..a movie every week, goin to beach ....hanging out in discos......giving expensive gifts on every possible occassion........as if people who could not afford these things are incapable of falling in love.....

fine... i have ranted and raved too long ..do u wanna know what my idea of love is...how do you care...it should be between me and person whom iam in love with...why does the world care what i think?????????????

prisons.....

today i was watching this movie shawshank redemption...this dealt with a prison and the life of the inmates....life imprisonment...convicts, felons, jailers , wardens , wht queer characters.........

on one side u feel that these people who have done crimes should be punished , but on the other hand the inhuman conditions, strict boredom of their lifes, cruel behaviour of the jailor staff, the crooked behaviour of the inmates are something which could leave anyone disturbed...

but this is how things are meant to be....only if the things were as bad as it were in the jail would it act as punishment, it would act as a detterrent for people from committing crimes. and the nature of some of the crimes committed certainly would be deserving such a punishment.....

but wht would happen if a innocent person were to land up in this mess . life would such a mess for him. then what could happen if a good person is drwan committing a crime by quirk of circumstances???? would such a punishment be justified. or if someone does commit this crime in just a moment of madness. would it just leaving him rueing for all his life that one moment of madness...........well i dont have the answers for these questions.............lets see if will get some......

hope....

" hope is a good thing ..in fact the best thing...and good things never die".......

unforgettable lines from the movie "shawshank redemption" ......

wht a nice way to put things in perspective.....hope ....there are times when i have wondered about this hope....this is the thing which keeps us going......but again i wonder is this the thing which keeps people on useless pursuits...wasting the time which could have been put on better things...

well whether this hope which keeps people going is good or bad can be answered on a personalised basis...the tide of time will have its answers ready......and everyone will get their answers...so as for lets keep the hope going..........

lot of things in our life are beyond our control...we just dont know what comes next at us...we aspire dream and long for lot of things , but never are we sure of getting those things....but do we stop pining for those things???why....hope....its the only answer..but hope does bring with it dissappointment when things go wrong......joy when things go well....so its amixed package always..yet thats what is perhaps has been the differentiator...as it is said u can never discover new oceans with out losing sight of the shore...so take the plunge..and hope ...hope for the best.........

bliss....

well life seems so very blissful to me..at this moment...sort of calmness around me.....a comfort zone....let me recount some other moments of joy......

• in mother's lap....sleeping ..it is as a child u get to have maximum experience of this joy...most of us get conscious as we grow older...and dont sleep in ur mom's lap...well whats nicer than to fall into a blissful sleep in ur mother's lap.....
• listening to wonderful melodious song in the moonlight.....forgettin everything in the liltin melody of the song....
• returning to bed after a victorious day...after u won something, achieved something big...after all the rounds of congratulations and partying u return to the bed..tired, then as u fall asleep content it is moment to savour....
• when u r in the moonlight in a beach...it is then only u and the waves...u will feel a sense of calm pervade on you...watching the waves wash ashore in moonlight is something to cherish....
• early in the morning during the sunrise...watching the dew on the grass..as the sunlight spreads around ...giving you the energy to start a new day, face the world all over again....
• watching a baby sleep with little folded hands....as they seem to be in perfect bliss....
• when u do a good deed, make someone happy......bring a smile on some ones face...u have a feel good feeling...
  
• something i have not experienced , but have heard.....in the arms of the one u love.....

these r somethings i could think there could be many more...depending on the personal experiences......they do happen in everyones life at some point or other to varying degrees, but the secret is to recognise them, to capture the moment , treasure it and cherish it.....

Death?????

well iam not contemplating it ......so relax......well this topic is not quite something i would discuss very often..iam a great believer in life.....as some one said....

Despite the cost of LIVING...LIVING is quite popular.....

well no one wants to die....atleast in normal circumstances....given a chance evry one wants to live ....despite the fact death is the most inevitable thing in everyones life.......

well how would a person feel if he comes to know that he has not got much time in his life....say he is gonna die....in a few days , months ..or whateva.......how does he take it????...the inevitable is suddenly facing him.....wht does he do...for all his talents he cannot beat this turn in his life..the final turn.....

in one way....it seems its all so uselss ..all tht we struggle to earn to keep , to give..and what not...in the end nothin is left..................

but then why does everyonestruggle in life for what???????

obvious answer ...for LIFE......life is the JOURNEY that matters..Death is the DESTINATION..that does not matter...........

so secret of life is to live it....every penny saved is penny earned...but every penny spent is penny enjoyed.......so live life to fullest.....

" live life as if it is ur last day ...one day u will be right..."