BackPunch

Living all alone had taken a toll on her. She left for work at 9am and reached home at 6pm. Her parents were in Vizag. She came to Pune to achieve her dream of working in a media company. She wasn’t alone 6 months back. She had a boyfriend. He died. Mukfiya still believed that his spirit lived in the house. She went into depression but music brought her back. She had witnessed his death right in front of her eyes. The image of him looking at her and crossing the road and hit by a speeding truck is one of the dumbest climaxes for a love story. He died on the spot. She fainted, which was pretty obvious. She didn’t go to work for 2 months. The sheer fact that the landlord would throw her out if she delays paying the rent forced her to join back. She just dragged herself and always stopped when an Ashok Leyland crossed. She couldn’t believe the fact that she was doing such things considering the practical girl she was. She was 24. He died 22. Her life had become ...

“Every 54 minutes a girl is raped in India.” Tuffy was taken aback by that piece of information run on a news channel. It was 08/03/2010. International Women’s Day and this is what a national news channel was discussing. Thoughts flashed through Tuffy’s mind. He thought about Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Indra Nooyi and the various other Indian females who have made their mark in the international circuits. And the first thing discussed is Rapes & The Indian Women. Tuffy wasn’t a flirt. He respected the Indian women. He has a group of friends who refers to a female as an item or a chick or a bitch and the likes. He warns them and ensures that they don’t use such words in the future. It’s not just Tuffy’s friends but those are the words which come out of a guy’s mouth. Reciprocate. He has a mother, a sister, a female friend and he wouldn’t mind knocking down someone if they were ill treated or bad mouthed. When it comes to rapes no one is spared. Right from a 6 month old girl to a 6...

Disclaimer: The surnames mentioned do not fall into ‘a’ specific category. Read. Reciprocate. “I mean who cares. Fuck the world! Bring it on dude, I just want to get sloshed. Dude I studied like Einstein and sacrificed my seat for some reserved category idiot just because one of my ancestors tortured one of his ancestors.” Roy missed the first list by a whisker. He passed out his B.E. with a distinction. He gave the CET to get into an A Grade Management Institute but misses it. He scored a 187/200 and surprisingly a Tuffy Singh gets through the first list after scoring a ravishing 102/200. Komal does a mistake by mentioning the great Arjun Singh’s name, “Don’t you mention his name. God made a mistake, He created Arjun Singh. The Indian system made a mistake, made him the HRD Minister. Is that Tuffy related to that dead old man by any chance?” Komal didn’t really care. She got through the first list but she felt bad for her friend.   “You’ll get through the next list dude...

HELP SOMEONE QUIT SMOKING He didn’t budge. It was for his own good. I tried to convince him by stating the fact that he has a girlfriend whom he loves endlessly. The sad part is that even she smokes. Tuffy Singh used to smoke up two boxes of cigarettes every day. 40 cigarettes. I wondered. His partner Kinjal stuffed up five of those. Together they were called the Smoky couple.  They surely loved that name. Smoking was a style statement for him. Tuffy was 24 while Kinjal was 23. He started smoking when he was 17 and she started when he fell in love with him. Poetic isn’t it? We’ve heard people quitting alcohol, pubbing or even smoking when they finally fall in love with someone. Here, it was the other way round. I really didn’t know who Kinjal was but I really cared about Tuffy. Look at the impact. 280 cigarettes a week and 2100 of those in a month. He is sure to have a long life. Tuffy always wanted to quit but he couldn’t. He didn’t want to go into rehab. He showed a gen...

“His touch had the mesmerizing feel of a million feathers. I always thought if it hadn’t been for him my life would have been empty. He added a colour to my life. A colour no one could erase. The way he seduced me by his touch made me live life in a cocoon of dreams. I just didn’t want to come out of that cocoon. When he lay on me, I just wish I had glue to keep him attached to me always. We had our own set of differences. At times when he touched me it felt like he would rip me off but then he would return with his seductive feather touch. The one thing I always admire about him is the knowledge which keeps flowing out. I sometimes wonder how lucky I am to have a lover like him. There have been days when we haven’t met. The understanding person he is, communication gap never affects our relationship. My friends keep warning me that he will dump me for someone else. I never see that happening because I’m sure he is not that kind of a person. Although we don’t speak much, the fa...

And that was a quick turn he took. He had just jumped a signal. He was too happy to go home as it he had a new story on mind and wanted to jot it as soon as possible on his laptop. Roy was speeding home. He knew how much ever he accelerated his 125cc superbike won’t go past 70kmph. He shut the glass of his helmet as the breeze hitting his face might actually put him off to sleep. The wind was the perfect lullaby for him. Roy was also kind of superstitious. He didn’t want his thoughts to venture out of his head by keeping the glass of his helmet open. Roy started writing the book in January 2011 and wanted a perfect climax for the book. The thoughts he had, wasn’t for the climax but instead was for a story which would have a solid connection with the climax. He finally was almost done with the book. The road just seemed to lengthen on its own the moment he accelerated. Home still seemed far away. He slowed down. He tried editing the story he had in his mind to better. Roy prepar...

After a tiring day at work, Roy reclined, as if it were a couch, in his cab which would drop him home. He closed his eyes with a sense of relief that he doesn’t have to work for the next 12 hours. He was immensely satisfied with work but the fact that the weekend was 5 days away made him sad. The driver, after having a chat with his colleagues came inside and greeted him. The whistle blew and we were past the company gate. Still 23 kms to go and that equals a good 30 minutes drive home. Roy didn’t want to doze off as that may affect the driver as well. It was around 11:35pm. He tried to have a conversation with the driver. He knew that the driver didn’t understand Hindi and the best way was to start speaking in Marathi. Roy never saw the driver pick him up during the daytime. It was just the nights. “Do you have drops after this?” The driver replied,”Well I have drops until 5 in the morning.” That didn’t surprise him. He further asked,” That’s fine, you can do pickups the next week ...