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Showing posts from July, 2024

Fairytale

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  She could not have been happier! Marrying her Prince Charming and ridding off with him in their carriage. Off to their splendid Palace where a lifetime of joyous bliss awaited them. And to think all this came to pass only because she dropped that glass slipper as she ran away. She supposed she should thank her lucky stars that she had lost track of time and had rushed to get to the carriage that Fairy Godmother had given her..... The birds and the mice had told her to do it. To make a dress and wear it to the ball. But her evil stepmother and stepsisters had torn it to pieces. However, luck would be kind to her for once and her Fairy Godmother would appear. The dress she then recieved was prettier than any she had ever seen. So big and blue! So lost she was in her happiness as she twirled in it, that she couldn't even hear the screams of her stepmother and stepsisters begging for their lives. As the mice were turned into her horses and the big pumpkin into a carriage, she rode ...

"I was just watching!"

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Geeta was on her way home from work, when she decided to stop by at her favourite fast food restaurant and pick up a cheese and meatball sandwich. She hadn't eaten lunch and was starving. Barry, the young employee took her order. He and Geeta had interacted often, and on one occasion he even asked her out. Geeta had turned him down as gently as she could and he had taken it well. Their interactions remained pleasant and Barry always greeted her with a smile. Today was no different as he handed her her sandwich to go and told her to have a lovely evening. Geeta took a shower as soon as she got home, before she proceeded to eat her sandwich while watching a YouTube video. Once she had eaten, she decided to head to bed. As she climbed the stairs to her second floor bedroom, she thought she saw movement in her kitchen. However, on entering the kitchen and turning on the lights, she found there was no one there. She figured she was just tired and headed to bed. Geeta was just about...

When the mask comes off...

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  "Ma!! Mamma!! NO...." Renuka awoke at six in the morning from a nightmare that was all too familiar. That one childhood memory had been haunting her, her entire life. Therapy had helped, but the scars on her heart and mind remained. However, she couldn't spend time dwelling on it. She had to get ready and get to the Hillman residence, where she was to fill in for her colleague as a Home care nurse. She was to spend the next week taking care of a man in his late seventies, named Randall Hillman. He had alzheimer's and dementia, and was now incapable of taking care of himself and needed round the clock care. His nurse, Alisha, had to attend to a family emergency. Her brother had lost his life in a car accident. Alisha herself had recommended Renuka to fill in for her, as she was a superlative caregiver. Renuka had chosen to become a nurse because she had strongly believed that taking care of others, showing them kindness when they needed it, would help her deal wit...

In the interest of fairness

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  Interviewer : Hello Ms Eye! Welcome to our show! Ms Eye : Thank you. Thank you for having me. Interviewer : So tell me.... why are you calling for the genocide of all Needles? Ms Eye : Ummm... I'm not. Not at all. All I'm saying is that Needles should, at the very least, acknowledge the crimes committed by other Needles against Eyes. And acknowledge the fact that those inhumane crimes were committed simply because the victims were Eyes. Interviewer : Hang on there, Ms Eye! You can't just label all Needles as genocidal. That's hate speech. Ms Eye : That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm sorry if I haven't been clear. I'm saying that today's Needles should at least acknowledge the fact that Needles did horrible things to Eyes in the past. And even today many Needles continue to do so. We Eyes simply want an acknowledgement of our immeasurable suffering from our Needle friends. We only want our good Needle brothers and sisters to stand with u...

She didn’t want to be found

  As a private investigator, I'm quite used to being employed by families of missing people. Often times they have left their kin simply because of familial tensions. Some unresolvable differences, toxic relationships are usually what drives them away. So when a middle aged man walked into my office, and asked me to find his nineteen year old daughter, it wasn't all that unusual. His name was Vincent Avery. What struck me however, was just how crestfallen he looked. The man looked as though the weight of the universe was on his shoulders. "I've been trying to reach her for three weeks." He told me, barely able to keep the tremble out of his voice, "Her phone is switched off, she's not on social media. Even her friends have no idea where she is. I'm.... I'm just worried that she might have drifted into bad company." I agreed to take the case. And asked him what kind of a relationship he had with his daughter. "We're very close, alw...

A growing reminder

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  Romila had not expected a plant to grow in that particular spot in the backyard. But it did.  The sapling sprouted and soon developed into a plant. It was only when the plant began to flower that Romila became uneasy. That first unique looking flower with four petals - two blue ones and two brown ones. Just like.....Her eyes.  Why had that plant started growing in that spot? Romila wondered every day.  Her husband, Pramod and her son, Aakash began noticing a change in Romila. She had grown distant and quiet. Earlier when she came home from work, she would sit with her family and talk about her day, ask about theirs. But now, she would spend hours sitting by the window of the guest bedroom, and stare at that strange looking plant that was growing in the backyard.  At first, Pramod had assumed that his wife was fascinated by the plant. But he soon came to realise that she was fearful of it. She wouldn't go near it and would only look at it with the eyes of a mou...

Vegetables

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  When it first started, the reactions ranged from horror to fascination to amusement. People would post pictures of deboned vegetables and videos of bones bring removed from veges. At first, this was dismissed as a hoax. Juat another "trend" started by a generation that lives for "likes" and "shares".  However, as the phenomenon became increasingly common, people realised that it wasn't made up. Somehow, impossible as it may seem, vegetables had bones. It started with potatoes.  Nupur could remember the first time when she felt that strange hardness when she tried to cut a potato. As she pulled out the white hardness, she realized it looked a bit like a chicken bone. Though the rest of the potato looked just fine.  The government kept denying it, but Nupur would bet her life that all this had started ever since those strange lights had appeared in the sky above their farmhouse. No news channel had reported on it, but thanks to the wonders of social me...

Am I a Monster?

The waitress brought us our drinks as my partner Ryan and I relaxed on the pristine beaches of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We have been together for about three years now and have been talking about getting married. Neither of us wants children. In fact, Ryan has undergone a vasectomy which assures me that he really does not want to be a father. That's lovely. I can be sure that what happened with my first husband will not happen again. You see, about seven years ago, I met George. He and I dated for about two years. I made it quite clear as soon as we were committed to each other, that I do not want kids. He told me he was on the fence about it, and sometimes had thoughts of becoming a father. I suppose this should have been a red flag. However, I was rather taken with him and soon we were married. About three months after our wedding, I found out that I was pregnant. I panicked. I just wasn't ready for motherhood. I didn’t know if I ever would be. I wanted to abort. ...