BackPunch

With the spark she always had, she stood there. She stood there alone looking at the mess all around. All of her friends were burning. She was spared probably because she wasn’t as good looking as them. Elections were just over. The ruling party lost. Hours after the results were announced the goons from the ruling party ran riot. They spread across in groups and started burning vehicles. The goons had got information that the entire residents from one particular building had voted against them. They entered the building and set afire all the vehicles. They spared Cassiopeia ’s cycle. She stood there alone witnessing her friends being burnt. Roy’s bike, Tantra’s scooterette, Tuffy’s bullet were all burnt. She lost all her friends. She realized the fact that the goons found no value in her. She just felt her limbs were cut off and the goons had rendered her handicapped. If she could move, she would have jumped into the flames and gone forever with her friends but she didn’t want to

The Central After a rather peaceful parade of the marine drive, Tantra was all set to visit Bombay Central (name of a town and not that of a mall) the next day. She had to board the local from the Malad station. Mukfiya, her friend, was waiting for her at the Bombay Central station. Tantra jumped into the ladies compartment of the local. The ladies compartment was much cleaner. The digital display of the upcoming station was more than enough for her to judge her destination. On Mukfiya’s request, Tantra got down at the next station after Bombay Central, Grant Road. An entirely different Bombay was waiting for Tantra. She caught hold of Mukfiya amidst the crowd. Mukfiya took her to Biryani Darbar, a place which boasted of a Times Food Award for the Best Biryani. Bang opposite the hotel was a C-Grade theatre. The poster had morphed images of Shah Rukh Khan, Dharmendra and scantily clad women. After lunch Tantra took a left turn and i

The Drive For a more clearer view, she went ahead and stared. She stared. She looked deep into the blue sea. She stood on the cemented railing constructed around Marine Drive. Tantra had just heard about this place. She had been to the Kochi Marine Drive, which was obviously much more cleaner. But she was more attracted to this place. She took a cab from CST. Her head was outside the window as soon as she came in contact with the sea. Foreigners sticking up every shot of the Drive up their SLR, couples locking lips in full public view, beggars, peanut vendors and the Mumbaikars for whom this place is just any other road. That’s what Tantra thought. The Mumbaikar too, looked towards the sea and then, walked with a smile. Tantra was totally amazed by the sight. She got off the taxi, crossed the road and stood on the railing. She looked downwards. The human-made rocks. Specially made to cease the tides from coming onto the road.

 That Could Be YOU!  It probably is heartening to see people smoke even after seeing a deadly image on the cigarette box. Well after another day in the office Roy sat in the cab just to realize a fact that this driver had an even better story of choosing life over death than the sleepless driver. (Refer: Sleepless Mornings). Roy just sinked into his seat. A Tavera. The AC was on. He saw a packet of Nicorette right behind the steering. “Kya aapne smoking chod diya( Have you quit smoking)?” Roy asked. “Nahi Bhai, kam ho gaya( No, but it has definitely reduced),” the driver, Suryakansh replied. Roy wondered. A chewing gum. He took the packet and just read through the words written on it. For people who continuously smoke, they require a flow of nicotine in their blood. This might help them. The rest of the conversation happened in Hindi which has been translated. “I mean how much did you smoke.” “3-4 packets. Now it has come down to 1 or 2 cigarettes. My lips had become black. I used

She opened the door and saw Roy standing with a worried look. “Lakhan has been picked up by the police for reasons only the God can answer.”   Tantra was taken aback. Lakhan was from Bihar, a man who shifted to Pune to earn a living by ironing clothes. He had a handcart and lived in a makeshift tent on a barren land. He was true to his work. He used to come and collect clothes from Tantra, Roy and Tuffy. Wash them, iron them and deliver the next day. He had no one here. He used to send a major part of his money to his parents back home. Well Tantra had seen the police demanding money from Lakhan many a times. She always intervened. The police had a common answer that he isn’t a registered hand carter. Roy and Tantra rode to the police station and saw him behind bars all beaten up. When asked, the police replied, “Well let’s just say that all the robbery cases in your area have now been solved.” “Then where the fuck is all the stuff,” Roy shouted. The policeman protested saying that

She lived a happy, single life. She never let loneliness captivate her. She had the best of friends, the best of hobbies like reading, listening to music and playing her PS3. The one thing which gave her a lot of joy was a smile. Smile from any random person would actually make her day. Tantra actually treasured those little drops of joy. When she rides her scooter behind a bus and the commuters getting down flash a smile onto her or when a truck driver driving through a waterlogged road, splashes water on her and smiles, she smiles back. She has no time for worries. She wants a life without complaints, without tension and obviously with a lot of joy. She visits orphanages during her off days, distributes chocolates, clothes, knowledge, etc. And in return she is overwhelmed by the happiness on the faces of the kids. That again makes her day. While she is riding across the city she always carries a box of chocolates with her. The only thing she gives to the children begging near the t

                            NOT FOR SALE 2 STORY OF THE SOLD “Holy Crap!” Roy exclaimed. In rather shock. He had to go and pick up Tantra after the exams. Tantra had called him. He was on his bike. It became a missed call. He missed out checking the missed call. He missed the missed call. Funny. Tantra had given her Suzuki Access for servicing. The exam got over at 9pm. She called him. He missed it. They were just the best of friends and next door neighbours. Roy saw the missed call at 10pm. Here’s what Tantra did in that one hour wait. She came out of the exam hall, out of the gate, holding the phone, calling Roy. He didn’t answer. She thought he was on his way. She bid goodbye to her friends. They offered to drop her home. She pleasingly denied. She sat on a bench on the footpath. She saw a lady defecating on the footpath. The lady then came and sat on a newspaper about 10 metres away from the place where she defecated. The lady was right next to Tantra’s right leg. She went to th

After a rather tiring week, Tantra woke up to a lazy Saturday morning. She switched on the TV and saw rather depressing news. Riots had broken out. The Ram Sena’s president had been beheaded. She lived in the heart of Pune, MG Road bang opposite to the slums where the ‘victim’ and the culprit lived. Apparently he was beheaded as he gave a speech demeaning the Muslims when he was invited to inaugurate an orphanage. Funny. She thought. She lived on the fifth floor. It was 11am. She could clearly see the events happening in the nearby slum from her balcony. The sun was venting out the anger too. A ray of lightning hit her face.  A young guy had taken out a sword. Its shine took Tantra by surprise. The shine was blinding. She really wondered as to what would happen. She realized the fact that her weekend was effectively ruined. She came in and sat in front of the TV again. She quickly made some coffee, sat on her couch, cosying onto her cushions with all eyes on the TV. Someone knocked

Disclaimer: This post is not against the working women It was the last 30 minutes in school for that day and he knew he had to walk back home and face a locked door. He was in his sixth standard and it was a totally different phase for him. His mom was working in a bank and returned home only by 6pm. Nihar reached home by 3pm. As he was the only son he expected his mother to be waiting near the door to see her son come back home from school. He never wanted school to get over. He just wanted to be at school. The bell rang. It was 2:45. In another 15 minutes he would reach home. He knocked on the neighbour’s door, took the keys, unloceked and got in. The food was waiting for him. He removed his uniform, sat on a dining table, meant to be for a family, all alone. He switched on the TV and watched SWAT KATS which was his form of entertainment during lunch. He kept the plate in the sink and slid into his room to unpack his school bag. He started getting ready for his tuitions. At 6pm

Based on an idea by Tushar Kathuria (Tuffy) He woke up to a rather serene Monday morning. Perhaps knowing the fact that he has to resign today. He was rather upset with his 9-6 job and wanted to do something he would get satisfaction with. Money never mattered for him. Tuffy Singh had the best of friends and loved spending time with them. That kept him so busy that he never had time for a girlfriend. He never wanted one. Tuffy was an occasional drinker. He used to go out with his friends to a pub probably to vent out his frustration at work. He sat on the lounge sipping his beer and munching the chips. He had been to ‘The Spirits’ with his office friends yesterday on a chilled Sunday evening. Kinjal was also a part of those friends. He knew she had a crush on him but he never showed any kind of attraction from his side. He just sat on his seat and watch all of them dance. He was a terrible dancer. The only thing he could do was head banging but the pub never played rock. Kinjal

The Ancestral Damage 2 Youth for Equality-Say NO To Reservations Panic galored throughout the neighborhood when Tantra cut her wrist after she missed out on getting a seat in one of the IIM’s by a whisker. Blood flowing out. She lived with her room mates and was rather in a silent mode after the results were declared. Roy being her next door neighbor and one of her best friends rushed her to the hospital. He wasn’t sad but rather disturbed with Tantra’s sudden move. He knew the way she toiled to pass out of the IIT, Powai with flying colours. All close to her believed that Tantra getting into the IIM was a rather easy task. She didn’t.  Her friends were in more of a shock than her when the results were declared. Merit got blasted once again. Thanks to the great Arjun Singh who had done the damage before he relocated to hell. Tantra had to sacrifice her seat for people who scored less than half of what she did.  Tantra belonged to the not much hyped about Open Category. She hasn’t

                                  Based on a true Story “Woah,” Tuffy yelled out after drinking his wine. He had added 3 drops of LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) into his red wine which Roy gifted him while he came back from Goa. Tuffy was 26 years old. He started smoking when he was 18. He learnt it from his neighbor who used to smoke bidis. The complex he had in him forced him to smoke cigarettes. He literally felt heaven on earth when he made smoking a habit and that went on for 2 years till he met his Ganja smoking friend whilst working in a software giant. He hated the smell but he said it gave him a feeling of a naked headless chicken free from all the tensions of the world. Roy was taken aback by witnessing the confessions of his drugaholic friend. All this came out after Tuffy uttered the WOAH word post the LSD effect. He never tried to quit. He cut all relations with his parents, never had a girlfriend, never had money problems. Roy thought. Cigarette smoking was still fine

“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