ONLY INSIDE THE EXAM HALL..

..does a song suddenly get stuck in our head, and we can never get rid of it.
..does questions seem so familiar until we start writing its answers.
..does our watch seem to play pranks.. If we are done, its too early and if we still have things to write, its too late.
..can Physics laws seem so striking that even a tiny leaf falling outside the window reminds us of Newton's law of gravity.
..does it suddenly seem extremely likely that our mobile has not been put in the silent mode.
..does Rajini’s punch dialogues seem to fit us and our situation perfectly.
..do we suddenly recall all the answers that we should have remembered for the previous exam.
…is it impossible to erase a wrong pencil sketch quickly without ripping the paper.
..do we feel humiliated by our wooden bench which squeaks whenever we shift positions.
..do we rail against the fact that all the problems asked in the question paper are harder than the ones worked out in class.
.. do we get strange innovative ideas and groundbreaking plans which disappear the second we get out of the exam hall.
… do we long for helplines like the ones they give in Kaun Banega Crorepati.
…does the sight of people walking in the corridor seem so peculiar and captivating that we can't take our eyes off them.
..can insignificant noises like car horns, ambulance sirens in the distance, cough etc seem so disturbing that it makes us forget the answers.
..are we seized with severe guilt when we recall how badly we had wasted the day before the exam.

THE STALKER'S VICTIM

(Just wanted to try my hand at short story writing..Genre:as anticipated,fiction)

The street lights were flickering mildly.. I shivered as I strode along the lonely lane at 1.00am in the night. Fresh air and adventures were all that I needed.. Bach was blaring through my earphones… After walking  nearly a mile , I reached a lonely road( cannot call it a road, as it was more of a narrow clearing, hardly a feet wide, cornfields on either side). I watch a lot of horror movies  and probably that is the reason I ain’t intimidated much. This field has witnessed numerous snakes, and of course, snake-bites. People have seen large cobras and asps slither in and out of the greens. And what makes me assume that one of them  wont slither out of the bushes right now??

Though my thoughts grew wild, I did not give up or beat a hasty retreat. I wanted to take the chance. I wanted to seek thrill. So, i proceeded…

I heard a tiny hiss behind me. My heart skipped a beat. I guessed what it was, and just did not want to turn back. Oh no. my worst fears have come true, in form of a perilous serpent. This creature could slay me any second and my agility is no match for it… yet, my obtuse instinct remained numb and frozen and gave me no further commands.
No other go, I had to run!! I did. (Though i knew it wouldn’t help)...suddenly, I heard footsteps at my back.. definitely not an echo. A steady thumping on the ground.. Means, am being followed. not by a snake but a human..well, how on earth could I presume  it to be a human? did I see him? no .. I shook off my thoughts, I had to look back.. There was a hiss again and the footsteps grew louder. I ran faster, but it was no longer a hiss. It was more like a howl, a low moan, maybe a growl, a sound of thirst..bloodthirst? what if  am being followed by a werewolf or a vampire?  No.. the possibilties are remote. werewolves dont exist ...what if it was a ghost??Nah..I heard footsteps right?..ghosts never had any legs.. so, summing up all that I witnessed,I must say heard, it was the hiss of a snake, and footsteps of a man..what if it was a snake-man? what the hell is snake man? i am going insane..perfectly insane !!

my lungs felt ready to burst. .. I have to stop running. NOW ..!! my breathing came out in short heavy gusts. I jerked to a halt... I knew I was going to be attacked, and didn’t want to be attacked from behind.. I have to face the interloper.  I slowly turned back. there was nothing..  I should not be relieved. Not yet. Because, I have lost my way and am now standing amidst nowhere. I hardly noticed my way while sprinting, as  my only aim was to evade the slayer. Maybe I am standing in his territory now, maybe he succeeded in bringing me into his arena. I am the stalker’s victim. Snake is going to strike me in a while.

I realized that I had lost my mobile,  earphones, and my mind during the sprint. . I was helpless... tried shouting the hackneyed ‘help’ cries. They didn’t aid. The cold nighttime wind blew stronger, I know Snake will come for me.. I will wait.. I kneeled onto the parched ground and began to wait..

After an annoyingly long delay, my fears faded.. I yelled “hey!! come on. face me if you can.let me see how strong you are!!!".. the reply was another gust of wind...exasperated,  I collapsed onto the ground. I badly needed sleep... Snake will find  me in the morning.. My fatigue blacked out all the thoughts..

The next morning I woke up to find myself lying on my comfy bed.. So?? Blow me down!!… Was it just another nightmare?? that was way too realistic.. my pillows were damp, suggested that I had perspired heavily…I was reminiscing my dream over and over, and the bed gravity was too strong to let me go.. I was thinking of the snake.. What a perverted dream I have had. Strange!!

All my thoughts shattered with my mom's shrill scream followed by the clang of a falling vessel. i leaped out from  bed, ran outside and  found my petrified mom, standing at the gate in a puddle of milk(implies she had dropped the milk bowl). Facing her, was a black Cobra, some seven feet long.. It was partly coiled with its hood up in the air,  and was baring its deadly  fangs.. I was traumatized… Was it a mere coincidence?? I don’t know...I don’t want to know…

ANOTHER NEW ACTION MOVIE!

I have laid the plot for a new Tamil movie...this type of movie is really unseen, the concept is new and all the scenes are designed out of my own creativity. I hope this movie project, if undertook and released, will become the fanatics’ favorite smash hit!

Genre: action/romance.

Our heroine: fair, size-zero, average height, real age: 40 but looks around 18, sings well, sweet voice, dancer, glamorous, too fragile and romantic.

Our hero: wheatish complexion, well built , average height, real age: 70 but looks around 35.knows kick boxing, kung fu, martial arts, tai chi, telekinesis, teleporting, wizardry, singing, dancing etc.

Our villain: insignificant. Once, our hero's childhood friend. Later,  turned into a foe for no apparent reason.

The movie:-

The hero and heroine are standing atop a cliff.. The heroine is upset with the hero and attempts suicide. She screams hysterically and jumps off the cliff. She gets unconscious while falling and clings to a tangle of a tree's branch.. The tree's branch breaks and the heroine falls down. The charm of her fall is awe inspiring. She maintains a graceful pose while falling into the pond beneath the tree..  the hero jumps off the 15000 metre cliff, lands on a solid rock, slides into the water, wades across and saves our partially drowned heroine. The heroine gains consciousness and strength. She instantly changes into glamorous outfits (instantly! I mean less than a second) they switch to a snowy place and the boy and the girl prepare for a duet. The hero sings a song for her (its a lonely place alright. But the music suddenly pours out of nowhere), and they start dancing alike (maybe they developed the art of telepathic synchronized choreography)..

Now we turn the point to the villain who was once the hero's childhood friend....this villain kidnaps the heroine and ties her to the rail track. Meanwhile, the hero is busily working at his college, which is two kilometers from this rail track. The train blows its whistle and starts speeding towards our helpless heroine. The villain watches the heroine wriggle and squirm and lets out a monstrous giggle. As the train(which is moving at 150 kmph speed) draws near to the heroine, the heroine shouts the hero's name...she shouts with such a resonance that our hero(he is about two kilometers away from the spot, I remind), hears his lover's cry, runs to the terrace, catches a glimpse of the speeding train, and takes a leap.. He takes a leap so high, so wide, so forcefully that he crosses the wide chasm that spreads across and successfully lands near the track with a LIGHT JERK.

The train is still speeding towards our heroine, and now it is about ten feet away from her. The hero stops the train with simple waves of a red cloth screaming "stop!!!!! Stop!!!!!” . The driver hears the shrieks and instantly applies brakes .The train stops.(I remind .the train was traveling at about 150 kmph.. yet its brake system was too powerful and it halted abruptly!!).. now the hero frees the heroine, they exchange hugs and kisses (the train had peacefully left, the driver even gestured a thumbs up to the succeeded hero), and switch to the Himalayas(just like the way they did before), sing a duet and come back to the exact spot where they were standing before... they tried to live happily ever after but... 

the villain is still standing on the same spot, grinding his teeth( maybe he waited for the lovers to finish their romantic duet, and then planned to strike)...

he takes a gun out of his pocket and shoots at the hero.. The heroine ducks and the hero catches the bullet with his teeth, and spits it out.. now the villain gets furious and snaps off a metal grating from the rail track and strikes the hero in the chest..the metal plunges deep into the hero's chest and  blood begins to gush out..but the hero does not drop dead, neither does he give up!! He becomes ferocious, groans in pain, and strikes the villain too hard that he flies into the air and drops on another rail track where a train is speeding towards him at 150 kmph .. Poor villain isn’t lucky enough to get up and escape like our heroine did. The train smashes him.. Now the hero is perfectly alright(inspite of what happened to him a few seconds ago)..love healed all his wounds.. The blood stops gushing, the chaotic danger music ceases and now the blustery, unpleasant, parched atmosphere changes to a sunny, breezy meadow and the hero and heroine walk away hand in hand. they lived happily ever after..

SAILING ON THE SAME BOAT. AREN’T WE??

Holidays have almost come to an end. The wearisome work-filled weekdays are going to pull in shortly.

It would be pleasing indeed if our life becomes a big vacation and money, knowledge, marks and everything else drops from the sky.

Unfortunately weekdays become quite monotonous for the ones who sit adhered to wooden chairs for almost seven hours , staring at the morbid blackboard..We badly long for weekends, which annoyingly pass away too fast, before we could even realize they arrived on the scene.  Monday mornings are the worst that we could ever imagine!! After two days of 12 hour sleep, we are forced out of our beds at 7 am in the dawn (a few face it at 6 am or 5).

After so many days of sailing on the same boat with my comrades, I managed to figure out the amusing similarity in the student-lifestyle that exists during holidays(esp weekends). 

And if you feel every activity mentioned below fits you perfectly, join the crew!! you are leading a normal student life!

Wake up at 10:30 am: give or take a few SECONDS. This happens every week, yet we say "God!! Finally I’ve managed to get some good sleep after a very long time" and in return, get a long disapproving stare from our parents.

  

skip breakfast, eat scarce: Get stuck before the television or computer, lose track of time. Occasionally we hear our names called in the distance, which our mind interprets as hallucinations, and carry on. We turn up late in the afternoon at the empty dining table and say "uh oh... I thought it was breakfast time. Guess im a bit late. Sorry!!"

 roam around the house aimlessly: though we live in our house, we roam around exploring every single room as if we have never seen it before, and opening the refrigerator a thousand or more times (hoping to find something interesting to eat inside), whine complaints "there is nothing tasty to gobble inside this house!!" . Some of them start digging up old stuffs like photo albums and old certificates (possibly to prove their joblessness.)

plan for an evening jaunt: no matter what happens, this plan always gets accomplished successfully and with due punctuality. Not a single outing is missed or delayed. A few of us prefer quiet evening strolls than hanging out with friends. And a few remain idle, or as they call, ‘admiring nature’s beauty”

 Books, what are they: take the bag out of the cobwebs (probably after noticing a plump spider crawl into it), arrange all the books, one atop the other, and play 'jenga'. The first book we take outside becomes the specimen. Open a random page, slouch in the sofa, assume a comfy position (headphones may be present), and study its preface, about author and any such minor details. Some of us may take a pencil or highlighter in our hands, and...Draw doodles in our books (I do that every time)

This phenomenon continues for a half an hour or more (depends on the person's patience and ability to act). Finally, drop the book on the floor with a loud thud (more effective when someone passes across), and say "Phew!! Finally im done with it!!" or a few of them go on like "Ah.. The rest of ‘em for tomorrow".

 Chatting!! Chatting!! : Finally we ought to make sure that everybody else have had a similar weekend, and none of them managed to do something constructive. We succeed. Instant replies are obtained." hey dude, I did not smell a book. You too?? Wow that’s cool!!"… Unfortunately some of them fib for the sake of prestige. Else they will have to face strong gusts of mockery. 

 Sweet dreams, GOODNIGHT: slowly goodnight messages start seeping into our mobiles, and we realize its time for sleep.  Yawns escape our mouths, and the alarm is set (yet again).. A few of them give in to late night gaming or chatting, and a few of them set off to dreamland quickly.

The rest of em sit on their beds, wide awake, feel utterly guilty and mutter to themselves "so, the next weekend, I ain’t gonna waste my time like this. I am gonna study hard" (please control the urge to guffaw) But we all know that next weekend is…After all… yet another weekend to enjoy.

THE BLUE BALLERINA

(One of my favorite poems. Occurred to me while listening to Tchaikovsky's swan lake..Soft classical music can truly ignite the poetic flair deep within us.)

She looked like an angel in a long lost dream,

Mirth in her face, so happy it may seem

She fastened her cords, snug and tight,

Lifted onto her toes, felt lighter with delight.

The tune set in and the breeze blew swift,

She looked at the blue sky, felt an uplift.

Her poise was stark and her passion was true,

But deep inside her, she felt lonely and blue.

She swayed in the dusk, alone she was

Her partisans were none, but the sky and the stars

Her friend-like foes, used to jeer at her with envy

She adored all of them, but they ruined her glee.

Dancing was the only way to get over it.

She thought, she believed that it was the only cure.

The burden within her heart, she felt it hard to endure,

And started dancing swift; like the gale, yet agile.

The lace from her slippers hung loose and flowing

And the sweat poured out from her face, so glowing..

Yet she didn’t care, she was still dancing;

Dancing away from the world, the blue ballerina..

Not a drop of tear did her eyes shed.

Nor a wail or a whimper heeded.

She picked up the pace, dancing with grace

Away from the world, away from her angst.

The sun did hide its glare from her,

The moonlight did sparkle in the dark.

Time fled, yet her dance didn’t seem to cease,

The pace was steady, sans unease.

She swirled and twirled to the end of the dark,

No sound was heard, no screeching of the owl.

The music was within her, merged with her soul,

And it all ended with the coo of the lark.