Justice?

Do you like to sip coffee while watching the rain battering the window pane? Do you like to linger on the 'Upper Birth' of a reserved train compartment all day long reading mystery Novels? Do you like to go out and eat in a restaurant once in a while? Do you like to see new places with your family?

There are so many other questions and if you answer 'Yes' to even one of them, my next question will be 'Where is your sense of Justice?'

There has been a lot of talk and newspaper space being spent on the issue of giving justice to those slum dwellers who lost their lives and are continually suffering even today. Most people are baying for the heads of big shots from Warren Anderson to Arjun Singh to Entire congress government. The anger is against the rich and famous using their privileges for escaping justice. They demand justice for the poor.

But what is justice? Had those people been alive today, most of them would still be lingering in those slums. Scurrying around every time rain hits hard filling up whatever hole they call home, traveling by unreserved compartments jostling along with hundreds of other people for space enough to keep their b*** on, to struggle or steal whenever the prices of pulses go high, to dream about those beautiful places which they had to leave behind from due to lack of food/work. While the whole middle class, which seems to be the main support base of Bhopal Victims, do what they like to do as mentioned in the first paragraph.

And the only reason 'We' can afford these little pleasures is because our parents earned enough to afford us private education, and let us study without interruptions for 'field-work'. Every time you travel by reserved class, their might be an old blind sick lady suffering in the unreserved compartment, unable to make through the journey. Every time you shoo a young lad trying to take shelter from the rain under your window, he might get sick of pneumonia, result of getting drenched in the rain.

Do we care? No way. This is the life 'we' would be giving them, had they been alive. And we won't be blaming ourselves.

Lets not forget, humans are born hypocrites. Our sense of justice fails us when the society asks us to give up our little pleasures. So why be jealous if somebody else makes use of his own position to save himself some trouble?

Here is a challenge. If you still want to cry for bhopal victims, give up everything which your birth has bestowed on you. And then lets talk about Justice.

Devil's Workshop

A lie repeated often becomes truth. And when it is mixed with two months of reading adventure novels and an idle mind, a highly combustible mixture is formed. A spark is sufficient for it to explode. And it did explode for Sameer. However, lying in a puddle on a dark wet night with mud in his face is not an ideal situation for such thoughts. Worries about the immediate future occupied his mind fully. The cyclist had disappeared in the dark, leaving behind a wet and muddy Sameer busy making up a plan to keep the cook at home from reporting the incident to his father. But when he reached home, the cook was in no mood to even look at him. She was shivering with fear and sobbing on the porch in the dark.

Looking back Sameer wished he had not knocked the door that day. He had even come very close to not knocking, yet he had. This knock had possibly saved Savitri’s life, but had culminated into his lying in that muddy ditch.

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It was a hot summer evening and Sameer had been searching for Ganesh hoping to have some good time. Sameer was really bored. He had recently graduated as an engineer and had even secured a job. But the ravages of the economy had forced the company to postpone his joining. His father worked in this village. He himself had never stayed here for more than a few days at a time. He did not know many people around here and had no friends. His father, being the only doctor in the vicinity, was busy beyond limits. Sameer was starved for human company and Ganesh, the priest at the local temple, was one of the few people in the village whose company he enjoyed.

The temple was locked. Sameer made his way to the house where Ganesh lived. Surprisingly, from far Sameer could see that the windows and door of the house were locked. Sameer, assuming nobody was at home, turned to go back while wondering where could they have gone. Ganesh had mentioned nothing of this sort the previous evening. Sameer decided to inquire about Ganesh’s whereabouts from his neighbour.

Ganesh stayed in one of the old style houses, where one of the walls was shared with the neighbour. The front doors of both the houses were next to each other. This arrangement meant that the neighbor was likely to know the whereabouts of Ganesh. Sameer walked upto the door which was open. He glanced inside before knocking. The house was filled with smoke and nobody was in sight. There was somebody chanting far inside the house. Sameer hesitated for a moment. Just then, from the corner of his eyes, Sameer noticed that Ganesh's door was in fact unlocked. He hopped in front of the other door.

It took three hard knocks before there was any sign of life inside. A small slit opened from which somebody suspiciously peered outside. Confirming that it was Sameer, Savitri, Ganesh’s wife, held the door wide open. Rather it was the door which held Savitri, who had inclined on the door for support. She was deathly pale and shaken. So shaken was she that it took her another 5 minutes to open her eyes and another 15 plus a cup of tea to open her mouth.

With hot tea in her hands, Savitri finally regained her composure. She thanked Sameer for saving her life. Sameer looked puzzled. It was his father who was doctor and saved lives. Savitri continued unperturbed, "If you had not knocked at the right time, the Witch would have taken my life". It was clear that she was referring to the next door neighbour, Kamala. Sameer was still puzzled, and Savitri took it upon herself to explain the events of the whole afternoon.

Savitri was alone in the house that evening. Ganesh had to go to the town for an emergency. She was feeling uneasy since morning due to the religious activities of the neighbour which was disturbing her by producing lots of smoke and chants. The uneasiness increased with loneliness and soon became anxiety as the quantum of the smoke and chanting increased as if on purpose. Savitri closed the door and the windows hoping to shut out the smoke and the chants. She felt tired and needed a quick nap. Savitri lay on the bed.

The room was dark. Savitri was half asleep when Kamala appeared out of nowhere, wearing a black cloak with her hair open. She had extended her arms to welcome Savitri into her fold. Savitri tried to call for help, and became more terrified when no sound escaped her mouth. She heard a loud schreeching scream. With a jerk Savitri opened her eyes, only to see the witch give an loud evil laugh and with a puff disappear into the smoke which had almost enclosed her body now. Savitri lay awaiting the grips of death when she heard the knock on the door. As if by magic the smoke vanished. Savitri stirred to open the door.

Sameer sat their stunned, unable to believe a word Savitri had said. Savitri sensed his disbelief and was offended. "You are new to this place, and you are too young. You won't understand. This witch first consumed her husband, a great man he was but he withered in a matter of days. Then her own son disappeared without a trace. I am sure, she is torturing her daughter-in-law now."

This was the last Sameer could get out of Savitri on the topic that evening. He waited there till Ganesh's return. It was late evening by the time he reached home, still a bit shaken by the events.

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Next day, Sameer was having a peaceful breakfast while being deeply engrossed in reading the day's newspaper when an amulet appeared on the table. The cook who held the amulet for him was still debating in her mind the appropriateness of her actions. Finally she spoke, "Sameer babu. It was very valiant of you yesterday, the way you saved Savitri. But in the process you have incurred the wrath of the Witch. This amulet from Baba will save from her curses." After praising the strength of the amulet and its maker for a few moments, she finally left an amused Sameer alone. He went back to his breakfast while brooding on yesterday's events.

Sameer stared at the amulet debating whether to inform his father. He decided against it, justifying that his father had many other worries. Since his mother's death 4 years ago, father had got himself transferred from the city to a remote village. Leaving his city he hoped to leave his grief behind. He did succeed partially as the hectic work here hardly gave him any time to think. He lived alone, except when Sameer, their only child, visited during vacations. Sameer decided that the cook would be a better source of information. Sameer made his way into the kitchen where the cook was doing her job. He did not have to try hard for the information he sought.

Kailash's wisdom and education had got him a lot of love and respect in the village. So much was the respect that the village had dropped everything and had flocked to the town hospital on that fateful day when he met with a freak accident, and required blood transfussion. It was one of the rare occassions when the village had agreed and acted on something unanimously. They had agreed only one other time, when Kailash had decided to marry Kamala. The whole village denounced the choice but when Kailash persisted, they believed that Kamala had bewitched Kailash into marrying her.

Kamala was the only daughter of the most revered and most feared person in the whole province. Revered because he could cure anything, from earthly to divine, just by a flick of his hand. And feared because the same flick of hand could be used against those offending him. And he was known for his temper. Kamala being his daughter, she was hated and feared as well. She did not show either the temper or the temperament of her father. Yet her looks inspired the fear.

They tolerated her as long as Kailash was alive. But soon the blame of Kailash's death fell on her shoulders and the whole village turned against her. And when Girish, their son, disappeared, she was more feared and all the memories of her father became alive again. Girish was an ideal child, disciplined, intelligent and agreeable. He was held as an ideal to achieve for many children growing up in the village. But when few months after his father's demise, Girish disappeared, villagers suspected something fishy. Girish was missed dearly, and Girija, Girish's wife was pitied. But nobody dared to do anything, for one, Girija never complained about anything and secondly, nobody had the guts to confront Kamala.

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Sameer met Ganesh in the evening at the temple, as usual. Savitri was recovering, he said. Ganesh did not believe much of what Savitri had experienced the previous day, yet he was anxious. He felt sure that something was afoot in his neighbor’s house which was secret. There were many unknown people visiting them in recent days. Sameer had nothing to say.

Just as they were parting, Ganesh suddenly fell silent. A dark muscular man passed by riding a bicycle. The moment Sameer saw the man, he knew in his heart that this was The Villain of this whole episode. He wore an untidy bright shirt, unkempt long hair and an expression on the face which was overflowing with hatred. This intuition was then re-enforced when Ganesh related that this man was frequenting Kamala's house ever since the disappearance of Girish. Nobody knew his business or where he came from. The man never entered Kamala's house for more than few minutes and sometimes there was an exchange of some packets. Ganesh was sure that it was some witchery scheme and this man was her accomplice. The visits had increased in recent days. Ganesh warned Sameer to be careful as he might be on Witches radar after saving Savitri.

That night while Sameer was sitting on the porch after dinner, his father asked him about the previous day's incident. 'The cook told me you saved poor old Savitri' he said. Sameer explained the whole incident from his point of view and his father laughed at the superstitions. "You don't believe in such vodoo, do you?' Sameer assured his dad that he was too intelligent to believe in black magic, never revealing his suspicions that Savitri might be involved in some other villainy.

Sameer found himself thinking about it a lot. Later that night, Sameer amused himself by thinking that he may be in an 'Enid Blyton' novel. Unsuspecting elders, a dangerous looking villain and a shady sneaky character, all were there. Sameer's untapped andventourous spirits were being released, atlast.

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Sameer was dumbfounded. He was in the bookshop in the town, browsing through book shelf when he heard somebody addressing him in what he thought to be a sweet voice. 'You are the Doctor's son, arent you?'. Sameer turned around to face Girija.

He had spent two days trying to find some more information about Kamala. He had planned his tasks meticulously with the lone objective of maximising the number of trips in front of Kamala's house. However all the walking went futile as no information could be obtained. The house looked normal enough and he could not detect any activity beyond the routine. And when least expected, he had met Girija, the ultimate source of information.

For first few minutes Girija held her side of conversation going on even as Sameer replied only in monosyllables. But soon they were having a real conversation. Sameer offered Girija to help with her heavy bag, and hence ensured her company from the town to the bus stop and all the way to the village. She seemed intelligent and interesting but Sameer had other agenda on his mind.

'I should have been home by now', Girija was getting anxious of the delay on the bus stop. Sameer picking up this opportunity, jumped in. 'Will somebody get upset because you are late'? Sameer asked (appreciating himself for the question). But Girija looked at him with a smile and said 'No. Don't worry. Nobody will get upset for me being late except myself.' The smile was very sweet, Sameer thought, but felt that he had also detected a pain in her eyes. Sameer kept wondering about this. Their bus journey was quite silent. After getting down from the bus, Sameer suddenly realised that they were very near to Girija's house. He knew that this may be the last chance if he wanted to know more about Girish.

"Can I ask you something?" Sameer asked, but did not wait for the answer, 'Where is Girish? What happened to him?". Girija suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, turned around towards Sameer, and calmly spoke "He is fine." It was clear she was trying to preempt the discussion. "But where is he?" Sameer was adamant. Girija gave a very curious expression which puzzled Sameer for many days to come, 'You are the Doctor's son, aren't you?". With this she turned left the place. Sameer was stunned. He kept wondering why did their conversation start and end with the same question!

Somebody was staring at him, he realised. It was Kamala who had come to the door. She was a lanky woman of average height with nothing remarkable, until one noticed her eyes. They were sharp and combined with the hawk nose, they gave an ominous look. He felt as if he had been bared. He suddenly turned around and left as fast as he could. He had not yet taken a few steps, when he heard a faint scream starting out and suddenly being muted, as if somebody had pressed the hand on the mouth to drown the scream. As chill passed down his spine, Sameer felt empathetic with Savitri. With great will power he managed to turn around, but nobody was in sight. Even Kamala who had been staring at him few moments ago was gone.

Sameer made his move towards the house stealthily. He was determined to help Girija, if it was indeed she who had screamed. He found an old hedge across their house where he took shelter while investigating. His 'famous five' instincts were rising once again. While he was busy trying to figure out what was happening inside the house, there was a rustle of leaves behind him. He jumped, turned around to meet the constant gaze of Kamala, now at an arms distance. Sameer thought very hard to come up with an excuse to be there, but Kamala was expecting none and she never asked for any. She held up a pear which she seemed to have been collecting. Sameer unconsciously took the pear and a bite before he realised the risk he had taken by eating a fruit from so dangerous a woman. Unable to swallow or to spit out, he held it in his mouth without chewing. 'Saviour of Savitri!' Kamala seemed to be smiling. There was surely mischief on her face, but no evil. Sameer was dumbfounded, not only because he could not think of any answer, but also because his mouth was full of the bite he had taken of the pear. He was trying hard to suppress the thought of the pear being poisoned by the witches curse, when suddenly he started sweating profusely. He managed to excuse himself, without uttering a word. With great restraint he walked around the turn, and spit out the bite of the pear. He threw the rest of the fruit on to the road side and ran towards his home.

He had almost reached the door of his house when he fainted.

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That night Sameer slept uneasily. Two images kept recurring. Kamala staring at him unblinkingly, making him feel chill even at that distance. And the curious look which Girija gave him. He was sure that Girija was hiding something. But what was that? Was she asking for help? He could not understand. Finally he slept.

Sameer woke up suddenly with a scream, his hand extended. He was searching for something, but he could not find it. Girija was burning while her mother-in-law laughed. The longer it took for Sameer, the more desperate he became. Finally he touched something, lifted it up to the light. It was his alarm clock. It took a moment for him to realise that he was having a bad dream, and another few minutes to cool himself down.

Sameer could not sleep anymore. He had been sick for almost a week. His father had declared that it was a combination of heat stroke and junk food he had eaten in the town. Sameer knew better, yet he told nobody. He was now determined to expose Kamala once and for all. And he had a plan too. Kamala was too dangerous to confront, but the villain who ran her errands would be easy to apprehend.

Sameer was walking towards the temple. It was evening and clouds were gathering in the air. In the temple he met both Ganesh and Savitri. Savitri had been very worried that day and had refused to be alone in the house. She had heard that piercing scream again. It was a new moon day, a very inauspicious day. She was sure Kamala was plotting something.

He walked along with the priest and his wife to their house. After arguing unsuccessfully with Savitri that there was nothing inauspicious about the new moon day, Sameer left their house. It was getting dark and the clouds were threatening to pour any time. He decided to take a shortcut to reach home. Just as he got off the road, he heard the scream again. Sameer froze. His heart gathered pace and he was sweating. Just as on the cue, it started raining. Now Sameer started believing the intuition of Savitri. He decided to wait and watch. He chose a hedge some way across, this time making sure that there was no path crossing behind it. The care was unnecessary as it soon got dark and even the street lights failed to light up. He could hardly make out his own hand, but Sameer did not dare to move.

He waited for 15 minutes in the drenching rain. The street wore a deserted look. Just as Sameer had given up he saw a light near the turning. It was moving slowly and few minutes later a bicycle appeared. As the bicycle crossed near the hedge Sameer saw the same dark man with huge mustache. He seemed liked a 'daitya' from any movie, drenched to the core yet riding on coolly. He came to a halt near Kamala's house. He waited for a couple of minutes and soon the door opened. The witch was expecting him.

Sameer started moving towards the bicycle with the intent of examining it for clues when the door opened. The man was inside for not more than 30 seconds. He saw the man holding a packet. He did not turn back nor talk. He pushed the packet under his shirt and started riding again. Sameer had to make a decision fast. He jumped on the road ahead of the bicycle with a scream. He had taken the cycle rider by surprise. There was a crash and both fell down. Thunder drowned the sound of the crash. The man quickly disappeared in the darkness, leaving his cycle on the road.

Sameer was lying in the pool, wet and dirty. Trying to search for the man in the darkness would be futile, sameer concluded correctly and he started making his way back home. On the way, he made up his mind to bribe the cook into silence. But when he reached home, the cook was in no mood to even look at him. She was shivering with fear and sobbing on the porch in the dark.

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Sameer was all alone in the house. He was talking bath, washing off the mud he had accumulated during the evening's adventure. It had taken him many minutes before he could calm the cook, convincing her that he was not attacked by anyone. Somebody had visited the house in the evening looking for Sameer whose looks the cook did not like. She had sent him away to come later, had tried calling Sameer's father who had not picked up the call. She was waiting for Sameer's arrival so that she could warn him of this person. However when she saw that Sameer was limping and badly bruised, she got convinced that the same person had attacked Sameer. She was almost sure that it was the witch who had instigated the attack and could not forgive herself for not warning Sameer earlier. She calmed down only when Sameer told it was an accident due to the rain. Sameer asked her to go back home, he could take care of himself.

Just as Sameer was getting dressed, the door bell rang. Sameer, expecting his father, opened the door carelessly. A man in his mid thirties barged in. He made himself comfortable on the sofa, before looking up with a crooked smile. From somewhere suddenly a big knife appeared which he placed on the table in front of him, obviously as a threat. He surely must have another weapon in case Sameer tried something foolish. Sameer had read enough novels to realise this. He also had a big mole on his cheek that made him look like any number of villains in bollywood cinemas. Sameer's throat ran dry.

'You have been making lots of trouble. And you seem very desperate for answers.' the crook said and waited as if expecting an answer. Sameer tried to defend but the man was short of patience and he interrupted: 'I have got you answers. And I hope you will like it'. With a swift motion he brought out an envelop. Sameer took the envelop and reading the '"From" his fear vanished in a moment and was replaced by eagerness. It was addresses to him by the company which had offerred him employment.

'You father sends you congratulations. He will join you soon for dinner.' The man said with a smile.

'And forgive me if I over did my act. Your father had asked me to only make a scene as a lesson to you. But I could not resist the knife when I saw this one in the market. It suits the character'. With this he left.

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The letter was from the company's HR requesting (sic) him to join next week itself. Sameer was more eager for his father to return. How much did he know? Sameer soon realised that his father had known his intentions all along. Being a doctor, he met many people. If he wanted he could get any information. It was not long before his father returned, and the real story unfolded.

Sameer's Father confirmed everything Sameer had known about Kailash and his family. It was a happy family, inspite of what the villagers talked about Kamala. but then tragedy struck. First Kailash met with a freak accident and only few months later he was detected as HIV positive. The treatment costs a lot and they had to take loan on the farmland. and it had to be done in secret because they din't want to reveal the disease to the villagers.

'But why secret? And if you say he had such a good character, how did he get HIV in the first place?' Sameer's father smiled. "Your second question answers the first. If you, being so educated, can doubt Kailash's morality for getting HIV, what about the villagers? Remember, Kailash needed a lot of blood after the accident. And many more injections. Somebody slipped in the town hospital and Kailash and his family are paying for it. I had suggested them to make it public. I wanted to use this as a publicity measure to spread awareness about AIDS. But they preferred to keep Kailash's memory pure."

Sameer was ashamed at his own lack of thinking. Father continued, "To repay the loan, Girish had to go to the middle east. Again there were two reasons for hiding the fact. Firstly, people would ask why he had to go when he had so much farm here? and Secondly, the local politics would have left Kamala and Girija very vulnerable. Its easy to extort money when they have the means to pay."

"But now things will be better for them soon. Girish has paid back all the loans and his mother and wife will be joining him. They don't want to come back. The dark man who is accomplice of Kamala according to the villagers, is actually the agent of the bank managing the loan. He is also Girish's friend and acts like a proxy for letters. The local postman cannot be trusted."

Sameer felt he understood the whole mystery. He was deep in thoughts when he heard the evil scream again, this time from inside his house. Seeing Sameer start, his father gave a smile, took out his mobile phone which was ringing. 'Isn't it nice? I got this ring tone from Girija today."

For Free

A young lady walked into an old age home. She wore a stylish dress and was clearly out of place in the surroundings. She stood out in the building dominated by age, from furniture to fans to people. Her each step was noticed from the moment she entered the building all the way to the administrator's office. Although it was clear she did not belong there, she walked with surety of a person familiar with the surroundings.

Nirmala, the administrator, looked up with a smile. She was an middle aged lady with a big kum-kum on her forehead and tightly tied hair. Nirmala was sitting on an wooden table, another relic of the bygone era and a big wooden chair with only 2 pillows for comfort. The visitor had to adjust on a similar old wooden bench with no back support. Nirmala recognized the young lady immediately, 'You are here to meet Mrs Murthy, isn't it?'.

The young lady was surprised. 'You have a sharp memory. I am coming back after almost 4 months, I have been here only a couple of times. '

Nirmala protested 'Don't flatter my memory. It is only seldom that we get such a beautiful visitor. It stays in mind.' And with this Nirmala waved at the attender and ordered 2 cups of tea. 'You are here at the wrong time. Mrs Murthy does not like her siesta to be disturbed. The age makes them very excitable, you know.'

The young lady was not in a hurry. She could wait for an hour.

The tea arrived and served. With the first sip of a very sweet tea Nirmala spoke, "I thought you were no different than so many others who come to visit these old people. Just to satisfy their conscience. They visit the old people a couple of times. But the concern is not genuine. They soon forget them and arrive only when everything has ended. Just to make a show of things.' Bitterness was evident on the face of Nirmala. Managing an old-age home was not for weak hearted. Death was more than reality here.

Nirmala continued "You look too young to be her daughter."

The young lady replied 'I am not her daughter nor I am like the relatives you mentioned. Its a long story, if you are interested.' Nirmala had nothing to do that afternoon, and so the young lady went back some 30 odd years.

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'Maya Murthy was a young girl then, neither too intelligent nor too beautiful. She had just finished her graduation and was depressed. It was almost a year since her parents were searching for a match for her. But all the proposals were going nowhere. She felt that she deserved much better than what was being offered. Maya was the only daughter of Mr. Shridhar and Sunanda Murthy, a typical middle class couple. Shridhar was a government servant and Sunanda, a house wife. Shridhar and Sunanda themselves were getting frustrated with the whole match-making process. It seemed like searching for a needle in a haystack. They did not know it, but the wheels of fortunes were turning.

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Maya and Kumar got married in December. It was an almost fairy tale marriage, the preparations were perfect, the food was excellent. Shridhar had a sort of worried look on his face. People attributed it to tensions of getting daughter married. But few guessed that the reasons ran deeper than that.

Kumar, an engineer working in US was a dream match for Maya. When the proposal came, Shridhar approached it with caution as the proposal seemed too good to be true. But after couple of meetings, everybody including the boy and the girl gave their consent. Shridhar felt comfortable with the family and the discussions progressed smoothly until the familiar issue of dowry cropped up. Unexpectedly Kumar's family asked for more dowry than what Shridhar was prepared for. Shridhar was not shocked because of the demand. Rather he was shocked that Kumar, whose salary was many times that of Shridhar's should have taken active part in the negotiation. Shridhar had a feeling that Kumar may be too dominating and money minded. He started having second thoughts about the match, it was not too late to cancel the wedding.

Maya, who was swept off her feet by Kumar, was behaving almost like a teenager. She literally could not stop talking about Kumar. She was also the saddest when the blow came. When Maya learnt that Shridhar was having second thoughts, she despaired. Maya wept all night long. Finally Shridhar and Sunanda, unable to see her plight, took a decision with a heavy heart; they decided to borrow money for the first time in their life. With the borrowed money and along with every scrap of saving, Shridhar arranged for the dowry and the wedding expense. But it turned out to be a wise decision in the end. Kumar and his family were at their best and did not create any more trouble. Shridhar was soon an object of envy for his friends and family for having found such a great match.

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Time flew. Soon it was one year since the tearful farewell was give to Maya at the airport. Those initial days were the best for the Murthy's as they enjoyed the glamour which came with daughter living abroad. The talk in their household always revolve around 'Maya and her experiences' in those days. However the joy turned sour when they realized it will be long before they can meet Maya. Maya had informed that they could not travel to India at end of one year and that they would be missing the festival. It was the most important festival where son-in-law is the guest of honor. Sunanda was aghast. She started suspecting that all was not well between Maya and Kumar. When asked, Maya was elusive. But Shridhar had a suspicion that expenses incurred by Kumar during and after marriage were the real reason. Shridhar felt that he himself would have done the same thing, save money even if it meant giving up petty joys. Shridhar consoled his wife. Kumar's stature in the eyes of Shridhar went up considerably.

But all came down when, in one of the phone calls, Maya excitedly told them of the newly purchased car and explained the features in detail. She was too excited to realize the 'sadness' at the other end of the phone. However hard Shridhar tried to explain this phenomenon, he failed to convince himself. He could not think of a convincing reason which could justify replacement of a 3 year old 'ancient' car at the cost of meeting the parents.

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The end of second year was a time of joy. Earlier that year Maya had joined a local bank. With the double income, said Maya, they could afford a trip to India every year. This plan was also executed successfully. With arrival of Maya, Sunanda could not contain her happiness. What excited Sunanda even more was the silently announced news that Maya was expecting. The prospects of becoming a grandmother made Sunanda almost dance around the house. The spirit was dampened a little when she realised that Maya would be having the baby in the US. Maya had asked for Sunanda's help. Sunanda was skeptical as it not only involved traveling alone to US, but also because Shridhar would be left alone at home, the first time in their 25 years of marriage. A little cajoling and emotional blackmailing by Maya was sufficient to convince Sunanda. A compromise was reached that Sunanda would stay in US only till the child was 3 months old. Maya happily agreed.


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Tara was a silent child since her birth. She never cried much and had a kind of satisfied look on her face. This amazed everybody. Her grandmother, Sunanda, was pampering her from day she came back from the hospital. Sunanda was taking care of Tara as Maya was not adept at handling the baby. What worried Sunanda was that Maya was not even interested in learning and was happy letting Sunanda take care of the child. After some nagging, Sunanda had given up on Maya thinking that Maya will have learn to take care of the kid, once Sunanda leaves. Tara's third month-birthday was approaching and Sunanda was looking forward to going back home, although going afar from Tara made her sad.

Shridhar on the other hand was suffering, although this fact was happily omitted during their weekly phone calls. He was missing the daily comforting talks, her cooking and although he hated to admit it, her very presence. It was easy to get depressed when alone. The first few days after Sunanda left were easy for Shridhar as he was invited for dinners and lunches by his many friends and family. Time passed very quickly as social interactions eased the lonelyness. But soon Shridhar was forced to decline the invitations as he felt he was intruding too much on the hospitality. He started cooking on his own and soon realised it was not an easy task. He soon got bored of cooking. However he also realised that his age was catching up and that he could not digest restaurant food too often. He started eagerly waiting for Sunanda to return.

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It all started with a phone call from Maya's boss asking her to join back the job immediately. He had canceled the remaining three months of leave. Maya felt that only option will be to resign. This had put Maya and Kumar in a fix. They were discussing about hiring a Nanny to take care of Tara. And Kumar was worrying about the cost. And this was the reason why Maya had once again cajoled Sunanda into extending her stay. But all this was not known to Sunanda when Maya had desparately declared her inability to look after a 3 month old child if Sunanda returned according to the plan. Maya said that she was worried that Tara would suffer. This pushed Sunanda into considering to extend her stay.

Sunanda took the decision to extend her trip with a heavy heart. Sunanda was worried of Tara as she genuinely felt Maya was not capable mother. This tilted the matter in favour of Sunanda staying. As a formality Shridhar's permission was taken, but Sunanda knew that Shridhar could never refuse her request. It was only after Maya joined back, that Sunanda realised the real reason. The plan of hiring Nanny was never acted upon.

The day Sunanda decided to stay on in US, Shridhar slept hungry. He did not feel like cooking nor going out. He spent the next day in the bed, eating biscuits and drinking milk. It took him more than a week before he came back to behaving normally. Shirdhar had lost many kilos from his otherwise healthy frame by the time Sunanda returned.

***********************************
Fast forward 5 years. Shridhar had just retired and was looking forward to Maya coming home. She had not come home for 3 years now. Some or other reason had pre-empted their plans, but she had assured them that they will surely come this time. They were looking forward to meeting Tara, who was 5 years old now. Although the Maya would not be coming for 2 months atleast, Shridhar had started preparing, first by painting the house and then by cleaning inside out.

Phone rang. It was Maya at the other end. And she had a bad news and a good news. The bad news was that Maya would not be coming. Although it was a disappointment, the reason was that she was expecting again, and doctor had recommended no travel. And Maya wanted her mothers help with the baby. Sunanda was more than happy to help this time. Shridhar had retired and hence neither she had to travel alone, nor he would have to stay alone back in India. Suddenly a flurry of activity started, Shridhar was more excited than Sunanda, for this was his first foriegn visit. He started collecting the bags and had informed half the town of their plans when another phone call changed his plans once more.

************************************
Sunanda boarded the flight alone. Even now she could hear the voice of Maya telling them that Kumar is not able to pay for Shirdhar's ticket. He could hardly manage for Sunanda's travel. She could still see the disappointment in Shridhar's face. And she could still remember the fortnight she had spent trying to decide on whether to go alone. She could not let Maya suffer for mistakes of Kumar. And she was eager to see Tara again. But then Kumar's behavior was unpardonable. On the other hand, after having spend most of the savings for the dowry, Shridhar could hardly afford sponsoring himself. It was Shridhar who resolved the dilemma by asking her to go and help Maya. "We should not let children suffer for the mistake of their parents." And hence she had agreed to travel. All she wanted to was to come back as soon as possible.

************************************

Tara was afraid of all the noise in the house. She chose to hide behind the curtain in her bedroom. Sunanda had become her favorite grandmother. Partly because she had not met any other grandmother but also because this grandmother told lots of stories and prepared all her favorite dishes. And most importantly, she never scolded her. She had gone to a zoo with grand-ma. This was not her first visit to the zoo, but this was her best. Grand-ma had a different story about each animal in the zoo. That moment she had decided that grand-ma should never go back. But today she could see her grand-ma sitting outside in the cold, shivering.

The baby was crying loudly, mother and father were arguing about something,while grandmother was sitting outside in the snow as if the cold could not harm her. Tara was wondering how quickly the house could turn into chaos.

Everything was normal till the evening. The baby was almost one month old now and playing all by itself. Grandmother was in the kitchen preparing something when the phone rang. The phone conversation suddenly turned serious and grandmother lost all the color from her face first and then she lost her cool. Grandfather had been admitted to hospital due to food poisoning.

Sunanda wanted to go back immediately. She pleaded with Kumar to get her tickets of the same day. Kumar said he would check. Sunanda started packing her bags. Outside there was an argument. 'If you are not going to tell her, I am going to.' Maya said. Maya entered the room with a serious face, and tried to convince her mother to stay. When Sunanda tried explaining that she was needed to take care of Shridhar, tempers rose. 'Do you know if you go now, how much the nanny will cost us? We have been planning for this new house for past 5 years. If we hire a nanny now, we cannot buy that house, we cannot afford both the mortgage and the pay. All because of silly emotion of yours.''

Maya banged the door and walked out. Sunanda felt light headed. She sat down on the bed for a moment. And then reality which had eluded her over past few years finally dawned on her. The truth behind Maya was revealed. Maya was never like this. She was putting down a price on husband wife relation. She was putting owning a house in front of need of her father. Maya was not her daughter any more, she had changed . Sunanda walked out of the room and soon out of the house. She sat as if in a trance in freezing cold. Tara watched all this from behind the curtain, peeking. Kumar insisted that Maya apologize to her mother immediately and ask her to come in. Maya flatly refused. Kumar tried to request Sunanda to come in to discuss. Sunanda did not respond. And it was freezing cold outside.

It was Tara who called the 911. Soon the paramedics arrived and helped Sunanda. She was taken to a local hospital where a social worker gave her shelter for the night. Kumar booked the tickets for the next day. Sunanda never returned to Maya's home. She went directly to India without meeting Maya. Shridhar's health had improved considerably by the time Sunanda reached India. But he still needed care.

Maya did not speak to Sunanda till Shridhar's death which occurred few years ago. Sunanda had not pardoned herself for deserting (in her own words) Shridhar when he needed her most. After Shridhar's death, Maya did not come to meet her mother. She tried talking to Sunanda over phone but Sunanda refused. As for Tara, the image of her grandmother sitting in cold stayed with her although she never again talked to her grandmother. She was her favorite grandmother forever.

A couple of her nieces and nephews offered her to come stay with them, but after what she considered betrayal of her own daughter, any offer of help was looked upon with suspicion. Afraid of living alone, she finally decided to move into this old-age home.

Nirmala smiled knowingly, "And so she continues staying here, may be till the end." Although Nirmala was smiling, her eyes were fixed far away. They definitely looked sad. This story had a deja-vu factor, almost every person in this home had a story, a sad story.

**************************************
Just then Sunanda entered the room, having been informed by the attender. She was smiling. The young lady concluded, "Now to answer your question, I am not her daughter", she held her arms out towards Sunanda, "I am her grand-daughter. And I have come back to take care of my grandmother. She will be living with me from now onwards."

It was for the first time in many years of managing the old age home, that Nirmala experienced the joy of saying goodbye with a genuine smile.

A Love Story

He was sincere, hardworking and dumb. She was beautiful, street smart and stupid. They met. They fell in Love. They got married. And they lived happily ever after. The End?

No. Not so fast.

Rajesh and Priya were classmates. Priya joined the engineering course unwillingly. She would rather be in the hep Seven Hills College. But her father wanted his daughter fulfill his unrealized dream of becoming an engineer. He paid a hefty donation and used all his contacts to get her an engineering seat in the local college. Rajesh was an unwilling student of this college too. He was eligible for a much better college in another city, but his father could not afford the hostel expense. So here he was, by far the highest scorer to take admission in this college.

An unusual incident occurred in Rajesh's life in the first week of the college. Rajesh was sitting in a corner trying to make heads or tails of a newly acquired book, when a beautiful girl arrived from nowhere introduced herself as Priya asked his name and disappeared. He reveled in it for next couple of months. Talking to a stranger, that too not a very attractive stranger was not usual for Priya either. She was forced to do this by a senior who was interested in seeing the bambling expression of a geeky fresher. Ragging was still in vogue those days and Priya complied with the order. She went over to the individual, introduced herself and asked him his name. It took three attempts before she could understand he was mumbling ‘Rajesh’. When she returned the seniors were not interested in his name anymore and Priya herself forgot the name and the face associated with it soon.

Rajesh spent most of the next two months trying not to stare at Priya in the class while Priya was not even aware that a person called Rajesh existed in her class. She was more interested in Amit. He was the only person who had scored less than her in the qualifying exam and had paid more donation than Priya. In addition he was the only person who owned a car in the class. Rajesh rode his father's bicycle.

It took two months for Rajesh to finally find guts to speak to Priya again. She was sitting in the library, her assignment open and deep in thought. He had been at loss on what the conversation starter he should use. But the assignment resolved his doubt. “ I can help you with the assignment, its very easy” he said. She looked at him with a startled expression, but them smiled at him and accepted his help. Priya was deep in the thoughts not about the problems in the assignment (which she had not even read once) but rather about the party Amit was throwing. She was disturbed from her thoughts by the offer for help with the assignment. She had the quick wit to realise that any help with the assignment will allow her to concentrate on more urgent matters, she accepted the offer. Rajesh almost dictated most of the assignment line by line. Soon afterwards, Rajesh had even accepted the responsibility of submission of the assignment while Priya left to attend her first party.

Few weeks passed by. Priya had almost ignored Rajesh. Their interactions were limited to few smiles exchanged in the college corridor. Priya had even ignored his existence a couple of times when she was talking to Amit but Rajesh did not mind. And so everyone except Rajesh was surprised when Priya invited Rajesh for a coffee. They ordered coffee, had small talk. Even before the coffee glass was half empty, Rajesh had agreed to help Priya for the next assignment. Priya thanked him and left the shop when some of her other classmates arrived. Rajesh paid for the coffee, ofcourse.

Even the coffee before assignments became soon unnecessary as Rajesh took to helping her with assignments without asking. This arrangement suited her well. She got rid of the responsibility of studying for the assignments, freeing up her time for more fruitful activities. While Rajesh thought of this arrangement as… Actually Rajesh never thought. He was so smitten with Priya.

While Rajesh was busy preparing for exams, Priya was utilising her new found freedom to full extent. The semester exams were held and results announced in due time. Priya considered the results a success as she had managed to pass most subjects and failed only in 2 of them. Priya's father was shocked. He blamed it on her association with wrong set of friends. This caused a bitter argument between Priya and her father. During the argument he asked 'Why cant you have friends with people like Rajesh?"

Meanwhile Rajesh was the toast of the college, having topped not only the college but also the in the university.

Priya's father had been unduly strict in the days after her results. Trying to know every minute of her schedule. Priya soon realized that getting more of Rajesh's help was a win-win situation for her. On one hand the burden of assignment would get lighter while her father would stop worrying being satisfied that she had a sincere friend. Rajesh had eased her dilemma by requesting Priya to be her lab mate in the computer lab. She showed as if she is doing Rajesh a favour by accepting his offer. But infact she was overjoyed as Priya had no intention of spending any time to learn coding. He was seen many times now carrying Priya' books and equipments while Priya walked ahead chatting excitingly with a female friend. This strange sight was talk of the college for days to come.

Rajesh was happy with this situation. He was often seen in company of a beautiful girl which made many people green with envy. Although it did not take long for most friends to realise the on-way direction of their friendship and they sniggered behind his back. Rajesh was completely oblivious to this and thought Priya was a very good friend.

Priya had not lost any of the 'non-academic' interests inspite of the results. She knew that Rajesh did not care what she did most of the times, although he was a bit edgy when she mentioned Amit. This did not prevent her from harmlessly flirting with Amit. Soon Priya realized how valuable catch she had made when an offhanded remark about likely questions in an exam from Rajesh caused her to score the highest marks ever. By the third semester she promoted Rajesh as her official guide. Although she studied the week before the exam, she managed to pass comfortably and was in the middle of the class. Her other catch, Amit, allowed her to enjoy movies and good food free of cost.

Life was idyllic for both. Rajesh was enjoying the cool friendship while did not mind spending so much time doing Priya's assignments, coaching her for exams

A couple of weeks into the next year Rajesh wanted a book which Priya had borrowed, he tried calling her. The mobile phone rang full length but Priya did not answer. When he tried again few minutes later, the phone was switched off. Then, through an ‘unauthorised’ source, Rajesh came to know that Priya was planning for a 2 day picnic to Goa, with Amit. Rajesh was furious that Priya did not even inform him and was worried as Amit was not the kind of guy to be trusted. When Priya returned, Rajesh confronted her for going with Amit and his friends. He did not trust Amit, he said. She tried to argue unconvincingly that she knew what was good for her. But it was argument seemed unconvincing even for herself. She could not hold back her tears. Priya had enjoyed the first 2 days of the trip. They had visited churches, bathed in the sea and enjoyed good food. But on the last night, Amit had got drunk on the cheap beer and as 'incident' had occurred. To make matters worse, he was also unapologetic the next day. Priya was shocked. Upon coming back, when Rajesh started scolding her, she saw the truth in what he was saying. She was sorry for what she had done. And she cried.

Damsel in Distress is a difficult idea to resist even for a normal person. Rajesh was a hopeless case already. He forgave her almost immediately. This was a turning point in their friendship. The final year saw Priya and Rajesh together more often than before. It is a matter of debate what caused the change: That she needed a partner for the final year project. Or that Rajesh had secured a good job during the placements. The salary he had been offered impressed everybody including Priya. Whatever the reason, Rajesh was her partner for the final year project and he single-handedly won the best project prize for that year. Of course, Priya was on the stage enjoying the spotlight to receive the award.

After their final year, Rajesh joined the job immediately and moved to Bangalore. He had an education loan to repay while Priya was still searching for a job. Priya convinced her father that Bangalore was the place to be to search for a job. Rajesh helped Priya search for a PG, buy the necessities, even took her out for dinner. Now that Rajesh could afford taking Priya to more expensive restaurants. During the weekend he took her to malls and coached her for upcoming interviews. Priya received a job offer after a couple of hitches, which Priya credited to Rajesh's coaching.

He took her out to a posh restaurant to celebrate her success with a candle night dinner. This was not the best restaurant in the town but the best Priya had ever been to. She was delighted. They laughed. Then Rajesh did the unthinkable. He proposed. Priya was shocked. She said she was not ready for commitment yet.

The world was not same for them any more. Rajesh was disappointed. Some people take to drinking to drown the disappointment. Rajesh took to work. He started working late nights and over the weekends. They met for coffee or for dinner, but they never could connect any more. It took another year before any semblance of normalcy appeared between them.

Priya was excited. The money meant unlimited opportunities. She shopped at malls, she ate at expensive restaurants, she partied at pubs and watched numerous movies. Before she knew 2 years of Bangalore life had passed. So the matter stood. Life was perfect for Priya, and work was life for Rajesh.

One of the weekends Rajesh called and asked to meet. They met for dinner. Priya was fed up with her father pestering her to get married. She complained a lot about this and offhandedly asked Rajesh "What about your parents? Are they pestering you too?"

"No not yet, but..." Rajesh said. Then Rajesh narrated an incident. It had so happened that while working late in office one night Rajesh felt sleepy. It was past mid night. He got a cup of coffee from the vending machine from the terrace. He liked the cool breeze blowing against his face. Emily was there on the terrace too. Their eyes met. And..

"It was the first time I noticed her eyes. But the full moon is intoxicating. And her blue eyes seemed like deep ocean."

Priya got excited, she wanted more information. Rajesh obliged. She was french, here on a long term assignment. They had known each other professionally for some time. But that night something clicked. Priya felt that Rajesh was too optimistic. There are many a slip between cup and lip, she thought.

That night Priya felt strangely sad. She could not locate the source of her feeling. She was the one who had rejected Rajesh's proposal. Now that he had moved on, why should she feel jealous? She could not understand. Next few days, she seemed normal to her friends and colleagues. But a keener observer would have noticed sadness flickering through her eyes once in a while.The next weekend, Priya called Rajesh. They had idle chit chat for around 15 minutes. After the call Rajesh smiled to himself. This was the first time Priya had called him without asking for a favour. Smiling to himself, he picked up his phone, called Emily and setup an appointment.

It was another couple of months before Priya met Rajesh again. They were invited to a party of a common friend. After every body else departed, Priya wanted to eat icecream. Rajesh agreed to accompany her. The moment they were seated Priya asked Rajesh about Emily. Rajesh was reluctant to talk about Emily. Emily made a point to meet him for coffee break everyday. They also had been out a couple of times, once to a museum, another for a movie. It seemed to Priya that it was only a matter of time before Rajesh and Emily would be committed.

That night Priya lay awake. She was sad and depressed. She was thoughful. Just then reason dawned on her. And her hopes rose. Obviously Rajesh was playing a prank. There was no Emily. She knew Rajesh more than Rajesh knew about himself. Rajesh was not the kind of guy who could play pranks. But Rajesh being able to impress a girl bwas even more unthinkable. That too a French girl, it was too good to be true. Of course Rajesh was playing a prank.

Her spirits rose. She decided to play a counter move. Rajesh was trying to beat Priya in her own game. Priya was confident that she will prevail.

Next day Priya called up Rajesh and asked him if she could meet Emily. She was arranging a party, only for three of them. Priya was confident that Rajesh will refuse and be exposed. But rajesh seemed adamant. He agreed, on the condition that Emily had no problems. It seems that Emily agreed readily and the plan to meet was set. Rajesh had raised the stake significantly.

Now it was Priya's turn to get anxious. She kept hoping that Rajesh would call and cancel the plan. She was not yet ready to meet Rajesh's 'would-be-girl-friend'. Priya had booked a table for three in a restaurant. She reached there before hand. On one hand she was trying to cool her nerves while hoping that Emily was just a figment of imagination.

Rajesh and Emily arrived almost simultaneously. He was wearing his usual casual. but Emily was wearing a stunning red saree. Priya had never imagined that somebody could wear a saree so well. She was truly and deeply jealous now. The evening went well, thanks to Rajesh who kept the table entertained. Emily was charming and it looked like she already knew quite a bit about India and culture. 'Quite ready to trap an Indian boy' Priya thought.

They parted. Rajesh offered Emily to drop her home. Priya reached home alone. She opened the refrigerator, opened a wine bottle. That was the last thing she remembered for that night. Next morning, she woke up in her own bed. Her father was there. So was Rajesh!

Once Priya woke up Rajesh asked her how she was feeling. After she replied fine, he told her to take care. 'I will be back in the evening', Rajesh told Priya. Priya was confused, but happy. The moment Rajesh left, Priya asked her father why was he there? And Rajesh?.

Her father explained. Priya had made 3 phone calls to Rajesh. The first one was abusive. Priya screamed, cursed and spoke incoherently about Emily being a french W****. The second one was apologetic. She apologized about her previous behavior, wished Rajesh a good life. The third one was suicidal. Priya said she was ready to sacrifice her life so that Rajesh would be happy. 'But I wanted you to know how much I love you, and that's why I am calling'. This third phone call worried Rajesh. He called Priya's father and they arrived at Priya's home. She opened the door, both father and Rajesh relieved that she had not acted on the threat. She had hugged Rajesh before falling unconcious. They found 3 empty bottles of various spirits rolling on the ground.

Things were smooth after that night. Rajesh took care of Priya as she recovered from her binge drinking. It seemed like a barrier between them had broken, and they were good friends again. Priya's father was happy too. He took the initiative and before the end of that year, Priya and Rajesh were engaged to be married. To each other! Of course Emily was part of the ceremony.

A couple of weeks after the engagement, it was time for Emily to go back home. Both Priya and Rajesh went to the airport to see her off. When Priya was out of ear shot, Rajesh spoke softly to Emily "That was a beautiful night. Full moon was in the sky, wind was blowing in the face. We should have met before. But atleast it was not too late. Thanks for bringing me back from the brink. You gave me my life back, literally and metaphorically".
Emily smiled 'I met you at the right time. If you were not so desperate, you would never have agreed for my plan. Even after succeeding, you still don't believe that in the matters of heart, Jealousy never fails. '

Devil's Advocate

There was a time in my life when I used to be a proud atheist. Now I do consider myself somewhere between agnostic and theist. Let me clarify lest you misunderstand me, I am not talking about belief in god-'theism', but belief in devil theism. I used to be sure that devil does not exist. Now I am not so sure.

The incident which changed my outlook happened on a rainy night on a highway. The car I was driving broke down. It was my friends car and I had borrowed it for the purposes of sending-off my sister to the airport. I dropped her successfully and I had just started on my return journey when my car broke down. The car just won't start. It was past midnight and I was some 5 kilometers from the airport and not sure how many more from any other civilized place. It was raining heavily for it was month of May in Bangalore and it always rains heavily at that time of the year.

I saw a tea-stall nearby and the temptation of hot tea could not be resisted. By the time I reached there I had already regretted my decision, I was getting drenched. I knew what 'bone wet' is that day. I had the audacity of not getting either an umbrella or an jacket with me while getting into the car. I had just ordered and recieved the hot tea when an SUV with blaring death metal came to a halt near by. I got more curious as a girl in early twenties wearing tight jeans and a sleeveless top got down. I noticed she had couple of piercings on her face, and I started wondering whether she could have more elsewhere.

I must have been shivering, because she looked at me and asked whether it was my car which had broken down. When I answered in affirmative, she offered me to drop to nearest garage or anywhere else I wanted. I refused. I was sure that my friend Kaushal will pick me up. After all it was his car and he had left it un-serviced car. I tried calling him many times, but he refused to pickup. 'Not sure whether he sleeps or hibernates every night' I cursed. I was then forced to accept the offer from the girl.

She called her self Shri and the name which never got elaborated further. The moment in the car, she offered me a cigarate and started driving in her fashion. It seems fast was her fashion and so was ignoring all the traffic lights. I started regretting the second time. It was 25 km drive before we come into the city before I could hope for any alternative transportation. Just then she lowered the volume of whatever metal she was playing and started chatting with me.

After 15 minutes of chat, I realised that she was a sweet girl. Very contradictory to her looks in fact. Only after we reached within the city limits did I realise that I did not even notice the many kilometers we had passed. I saw a taxi nearby and asked her to stop. Before getting down she asked my mobile number. Hopes rose in my heart and I gave it to her happily. But then the balloon of hope burst when she flatly refused to share her number. ' I will call you if I want to. You need not call me' She said, once again sweetly.

I reached Kaushal's house. As expected, when I found him he was sleeping and his mobile was still showing many missed calls. I cursed him a lot about the car. Told him how I got drenched in the torrential down pour and had to hail a taxi from a dark corner. I carefully glazed over tryst with Shri. By the time I cooled down, I had offered Kaushal to go with him to pick up the car. He refused. It seems his insurance covers tow anywhere in Karnataka. He just needed the exact location.

Next day morning I woke up late. And the first thing I checked was whether I had any missed calls. Although I do this regularly, I was especially excited today. From that moment onwards my heart skipped a beat every time my phone rang. It skipped a beat even when somebody else's phone rang and had a similar ring tone. By evening I was getting anxious of Shri's call. Next day I began to despair. By the third day I had become philosophical. She wont call, I consoled myself. After all, I am neither handsome, nor rich.

But then I was in luck. She called me. Call lasted exactly 30 seconds. Her only words 'Meet me today, same place, same time. Okay?' 'Okay' I said. She cut the call. I immediately checked the number she had called from. It was a land line. I called back. Some guy picked up. I asked for Shri. 'This is a public phone Saaar. No Shri here'. A dead end.

I went to the place where I was stuck a few days ago and the place where I was supposed to meet her. I was there 15 minutes early. The place was deserted. Only the shop owner was busy closing down the business and a old man smoking bidi. What was he doing at this time of the night I was not sure. He seemed least interested in me, and I ordered for a tea and started my wait.

'I know you. You went with devil the other night' The bidi guy was talking to me. I tried to ignore him but he continued. He must be drunk I thought.
'She is coming back today. She will kill you.' I was still trying my best to ignore him but he seemed coherent. Then he came near me:

'You don't believe me. There was an accident a year ago. At the same spot. She was daughter of a big politician. She had a big fight with her father as he was trying to get her married for his profit. Family alliance they say. But she flatly refused. While she was driving down this road soon after the fight, she was hit by a truck. Spot dead. People say her father killed her. But I am sure the boy to whom her marraige had got fixed killed her. His ego was hurt by her refusal. That day onwards, she roams around. She is looking for somebody. And once she finds him, she will kill him.' I was getting curious. Her secretive behaviour was fitting in.

But then I had a plan of my own. After her phone call I had talked to Kaushik about the incident with Shri (finally). We discussed at length on how to track her down. Plans ranged from hiring a detective agency to bribing RTO official to get the vehicle registeration details. But we finally decided to trust a device which broadcasts its location every 2 minutes. He is a geek in such things, and he downloaded the application on my spare phone. I just had to just slip the phone in her car and then we could trace her sitting in comforts of our home. I would miss this expensive phone, but then I was getting desparate. Plan A was simple. I was supposed to try and find out more about her. But if I could not get more information about her, then the phone-tracking was to be our plan B.

But now the old man had started giving me tips on how to recognise the devil.
'Check her legs: Devils dont have legs, they have hooves. And they dont blink. You have to be careful. Her nails will be large but retractable. Dont allow her to touch you with those. You will be dead before you know.' He was getting excited.

In order to cool him down and get rid of him, I told him that I knew this girl since child hood and she was not the devil he was talking about. Just then Shri arrived in car, she opened the passenger door without even saying hi. I got into the car, quickly so as to avoid any further of old man's non-sense. But the moment car started moving I could see him running behind the car. There was fear in his eyes, his hand were flailing. As if he was trying to stop me.

My heart skipped another beat, but for a different reason. This time I was afraid. There was a seed of doubt which the old man had succeeded in planting. I tried to see her legs. But she was wearing a long skirt today, almost covering not only her legs but also the controls of the car. She was also wearing dark sunglasses. And I was not sure how to ask her whether her nails were retractable without sounding foolish. So I kept the 'devil' thoughts aside for some time.

Today she said she wants to take me to a coffee house which had live band playing tonight. She still drove like crazy. At the same time she was composed. She coolly asked me about my interests and then we spoke at length about the french writers of the french revolution era. It was supposed to be my major and she knew almost as much as I knew. I was impressed. She also liked painting and during day time she was a fashion designer, she told.

I was totally engrossed in her talk that I forgot about the plan B till the last moment. We went to the cafe. Then to an icecream shop. Then to top it all, Biryani palace. I never knew Bangalore had so much night life. I was enjoying her company. But she was still being cautious. Most of the talk was about me and hardly anything about her. I had slipped my spare mobile between the seat cushions before I got out. Then I tried desparately for plan A. She still refused to share her number. But she promised to call me back. And she drove away.

I went back home, woke up Kaushal and started tracking. The mobile went all the way around the city and then stopped for almost half an hour. When we checked the location it was the city railway station. We spent next 4 hours tracking it. But it never came to rest more than few minutes. Finally out of desparation I decided to track the vehicle down. I borrowed Kaushal's car again and followed the signal. It was to be another disappointment as the signal was being emanated by an Auto. When we stopped the auto and started searching in the back seat, the auto driver called me by my name. I was shocked, but then he gave me a packet on which my name was clearly spelled. He said a lady had given him this packet and told him that I will come searching for it. He was confused how, but then had not dared to open it. Where did she meet the auto driver? A few blocks from where she had dropped me.

This was getting scary. I hardly could sleep for next few days when I got a call. This time again it was a thirty second call from another public phone booth and I was asked to meet at the same place, same time the very same day. I was confused. But inspite of Kaushal trying to desist me from the mission, my curiosity won over my fear. I reached the place.

This time the place was totally deserted. I was half expecting the old man to be there and reassure him that I am still alive. But neither he nor any body else were to be found. I had reached just in time and was expecting Shri anytime soon. While my eyes were searching for trace of Shri's car on the road, I heard a female voice:
'You are being duped, I can see it in your eyes', I was scared. The lady in white kurta was standing some way off. She had beautiful eyes, but there was something haunting about them too.
'You are being duped just like I was duped. He ran away with Her getting rid of me. A devil I call him now.' The word triggered something in my mind. I turned to ask her something, but she had disappeared. I thought she must have hid behind the shop because at the same moment Shri arrived in the car. Just as I was getting in I noticed that the lady must have been standing in a ditch, but there were no human foot prints there. And I knew why she had that haunting look. Her beautiful eyes were missing the natural blinking. I started sweating. This time fear gripped me. I regretted for third time.

Today Shri wanted to show me something special, something different. I assumed this would be about art or literature on which we had common interests. I was excited and almost forgot the incident near the tea stall. She took me near a stadium and through the gate into it. She asked me to sit down on one of the spectator seats. The whole stadium was dark and empty. I could see shapes in the shadow everywhere. The fear started creeping on me.

Shri told me that she is not what she seems. And I had to know the truth today. She took out her hands from the pockets where she was keeping it since the time we got down. She removed the sunglasses and looked at me. And it flashed: She was staring straight at me, without blinking. With lot of effort I looked down at her palms. She had grown long finger nails within matter of minutes.

I have not run so fast in my life. I was nearly at the gate, when I turned back and saw. She was standing there staring at me. Then suddenly somebody shouted 'Lights!!!!!!!!!' and the whole stadium lit up. Kaushal was standing in one corner, smiling. So was the old man from the tea stall. But this time he was not smoking bidi, rather he seemed to be the director of the cameras which were focussed on me for the time being. Who else would sit under an umbrella in the dark and in the middle of the night?

Then it all dawned on me, I had bragged in front of Kaushal few days back that I don't believe in Devils and will not be afraid even if one were to come in front of me. This was Kaushal's way of getting back at me. Now things started falling in place. Kaushal's car breaks down (he must have arranged for it somehow), kaushal did not pick up the phone, the tracking idea given by Kaushal fails. He had even tutored Shri had pre-knowledge of studying about my major history and my hobbies. kaushal was always in control of the whole thing.

This was a result of a competition for an idea to start a new kind of reality show. And Shri was nothing but an actor. IPL was scoring badly with TRP of some channels and they were desperately trying out anything to win back audience. This idea was given by Kaushal, and I was an unsuspecting actor in the game. I congratulated the director on the role of the old man. I told him that he had nearly succeeded in sowing the seeds of doubt. And the final act done by the lady today at the tea stall was brilliant, I told him. But he seemed lost. He did not have anybody at the site today.

While we were discussing who it was, one of the crew member rushed towards us with a copy of the evening news paper. The Girls photo was printed in large size and news said it was a suspected murder case near the airport of a girl. I was sure I had met the same girl near the tea stall. Few hours AFTER the murder.

Smiles vanished from the faces of the crew. The show was wound up, never to be broadcasted. The producers were not interested in negative publicity if something untoward happened. Thus I lost my chance of 2 minutes to fame. Kaushal lost his chance of becoming a quick-millionaire.

But I was in for another surprise. In my pocket I found a chit: 'Shri: Phone number 98XXX-XXXXX'. Ofcourse X's were real, I blocked it here.

Rain and Tears

I was sitting alone in a cafe watching through the glass as wind blew the rain at steep angles. I was in San Francisco cursing the weather for spoiling my 'touristy' plans. A girl entered the cafe. She looked Indian and I found myself staring at her. She was the only Indian face in all white crowd, and she was beautiful. Of course I was staring at her. She gave a smile and carried on to the counter to order a coffee and a box of delicious cookies. I know they were delicious because few minutes later she was sitting at my table and offering me those cookies.

She introduced herself as Neha and was supposed to meet somebody there, but he got delayed due to rain. She apologized for disturbing me. In my mind, I was praising the rain and hoping that it would never stop. There were no other free tables, and she preferred to share the table with an Indian. Within a few minutes of short conversation, we realized that both of us had a lot in common. We had grown up in same city, had attended same school (few years apart), were taught by same teachers, had been to same tuition classes and knew the same dialect of the local language in India. She seemed pleased to chat with me.

As we exchanged some of the memories from the place where we grew up few years apart, I realized that she was not up to date about the new developments in the region. Did not know about the new Mutiplex or about the new highway. She confided that she had not been to the city in many years, infact she had not been to India since more than 3 years.

I teased her about converting to a 'firangi' and soon regretted it. She was almost staring at me, with what seemed like fire her eyes. I seemed to have dug too deep into the past. Then she spoke:
'The last time I left the city, it was cold and windy and raining heavily. I was bare feet, crying and just enough money to buy train tickets to Bangalore.' There was silence.

'The weather was similar to what it is today. It depresses me even after so many years. Now you can guess why I am having coffee with a stranger. I don't like being alone'.

It was now my turn to apologize. We managed to steer away from the topic for a few moments, but curious as I am, I took the risk and asked her why was she depressed and more importantly barefoot and without any money.

'The story starts few months after my graduation. I was working in Bangalore. I had big plans of higher studies. But once while I was visiting my parents, a photo appeared in front of me. It seems there was a proposal for my marriage, and my parents were insistent that I should atleast consider it. I protested. I was too young for marriage. It took lots of tears from my mother and lots explanation about financial advantages of this match from my father for me to agree to meet this guy. It seems Kaushik's parents had promised to take up all the expense for the marriage. I knew well enough that my father had struggled to educate me and could not afford much financially. It was an offer too good to be true. I did not know it then, but it was my lesson on 'No food is free food'. I paid for it later in my life.

'I met Kaushik. He seemed a nice guy although a bit aloof. He was working in Bangalore as well and his family stayed in a near by town. I agreed to marry him. He also consented. We got married soon. His parents were in a hurry and my father was not unhappy either.'

'The first 6 months of our marriage were a bliss. We learnt that we had a lot in common and it seemed like the marriage was going on smooth. Kaushik had said that he never drank, but soon I realized that every time he had a dinner meet with 'customer', he seemed strange. He confided that he drank only because it was a social custom and he was always in control. Even I gave up the issue.'

'One day, around 6-8 months after our marriage, Kaushik called me that he had arranged for a party at our house. A couple of friends will be coming over and he had arranged to get the food from outside already. It turned out that some one had brought some drinks. First few minutes of the party were good as I got introduced to his friends. I had met only one of them earlier, his colleague Prateek. But as the drinks started taking control of them, Kaushik slowly changed. Their conversation slowly degraded as if they had forgotten my existence. When I tried to speak, I was cut off mid-sentence by Kaushik. I felt humiliated.

'I got up, collected my purse and keys and started to leave. It was almost midnight, but I could not stay there. Kaushik did not even notice, or so it seemed. Prateek offered me to drop me to wherever I wanted to go. He was sorry about their behavior. I thanked him but said I was fine. I went to my office nearby. And I cried for the first time after my marriage.'

'I was woken up the next day with sound of my mobile. It was Kaushik, who was apologetic. I had cooled down by then, but managed to get a promise out of him not to drink at home again.'

'Then one night, Kaushik did not come home. I tried calling him, but he did not answer. I was getting frantic when I received an SMS from Prateek saying that Kaushik is with him and he is fine. It was only the next day that Kaushik arrived home as if nothing had happened. He was disheveled as if he was drinking all night, but otherwise fine. I felt as if a cold war had begun between us.

'This started happening every week, when he used to disappear without telling me. I also got used to it, or so I thought until one day my mother in law arrived without notice. She offered that she will get the food packed for all three of us for dinner. As dinner time approached and passed, I realised that this was another one of Kaushik's disapearing nights. And I broke down. I narrated the whole story to my mother in law.

'She was quite for a long time. Then told me that they knew about Kausik's drinking habits all the while. 'Look, beta, We were thinking that once he gets married he will improve. But we were mistaken'. She continued philosophically 'It is a woman's life that she should bear what is given to her. You will have to understand Kaushik and hope that he will understand you too. We cannot do much more than sympathize you'. She waited for a long moment, obviously upset. Got up and left. Bang. Closing the door behind her. I did not know it then, but it was only the beginning. This was only the first of many doors which will be closed.

'Next day, Kaushik arrived as usual, especially bad. His shirt was half in, half out, his hair was ruffled, and he seemed to have lost his belt. I told him coldly that his mother had come yesterday night. He was shocked. He asked me what did I tell her? 'Did you tell her that I was busy at work?'. I did not lie. I could feel the rage building inside him. He first kicked the dining table upsetting yesterday's untouched food, then raised his hand to hit me. But then he regained his senses, turned around and Bang. The second door had closed.

'It took me 15 minutes to pack up, and leave to catch the train to visit my parents. I needed a break. When I reached home 8 hours later, I found the house was already grim. My mom-in-law had called and told the story, her side of story obviously. Although my parents welcomed me, they wanted to know what did I do to upset Kaushik so much. And when they realized that Kaushik had not called me for one whole day, they started nagging me to call him and apologize.

'It was few days later, during the visit of my aunt, my mom and aunt were closeted in the kitchen for quite some time. I was then summoned. My aunt started telling me about how neighbours have started talking, and even have started suspecting my charachter. She suggested that I should go and patch up with Kaushik. I started arguing that Kaushik does not care.'

'My dad who has listening till now suggested that I should go back to Bangalore. 'This is not your house now, beta. Your house is Kaushik's house. You cannot stay here forever' Bang. The third and last door had banged on me.

Neha came back to present, 'Now you know why I left, how I left. Upon reaching Bangalore I rented a house with a room mate. I cut-off almost all old contacts/friends. Kaushik did not even contact me, and I did not regret it.'

'Only once, on Prateek's insistense, I agreed to meet Kaushik. I wanted to see whether things have really changed. But, Kaushik turned up drunk and I left without a word.'

'One more year passed. I was happy living alone, when I heard that Kaushik was married again, yet again. I felt bad and decided to warn his fiance about his behaviour. Dumb as Kaushik can be, I still had access to his email ID. Half in spite, and half out of pity , I sent the fiance whole story of my life. It seems like the marriage was called off and along with it Kaushik's character was exposed. I came to know this when I received a threatening call from my ex-mother in law on dire consequences. My mother also called on this rare occasion to express her dis-pleasure.'You have spoiled your life. Why are you spoiling some one else's life too?'

'Things turned bad to worse one day when I found my room mate crying in the house. She had been threatened by some people who had come in search of me. Sent by my in-laws. To save myself, I lived next 6 months hiding from one paying guest to another, always dreading another of those threatening calls.

'Then things got better. At my work that is. I got an offer to come to US for long term. I took up that offer, came to US and have never returned back. I don't intend to either.'

I was in shock and did not know how to respond. I expressed my regrets saying that no one should suffer such as this. It was such a tragedy.

That is when she said: "All that happened was not bad. I met somebody during this ordeal who is special.' Just then I saw a young man walking towards us.

Neha said 'Meet Prateek, my fiance. We are getting married next month'.

Ignorable and Irrelevant Sena

In the field of web design there is a principle. If you keep some text in huge red font and blinking, the users are more likely to ignore that portion of the web page than read. The web user's brain subconsciously blots out such portions which was popular among advertisers on early internet. This is part of the self-defense mechanism of the brain so as not to get over-whelmed by information being bombarded and also so that the user is safeguarded from such information which is not so agreeable.

When a friend of mine asked my opinion about the current controversy between the Sena and SRK, I was surprised about my own lack of knowledge. I don't even know what was the original statement made by the film actor which is causing headlines in the news papers all over India for more than a week.

Agreed that I am not a TV buff and dont watch news channels at all, but I read news papers and this news has surely been under my eyes (literally) quite a few times. The only reason I could find for my ignorance brings us back to that principle in web design. My brain has understood that this is an irrelevant and should not trigger any interest.

Every idea has its day so does a political party. Only a political party without an ideology can survive more than half a century and still be strong. No wonder the Grand Old Party of India still wins elections while the 'ideological' parties go to page 3 of news papers. This is the case of the Sena which has out lived its utility. It started with 'anti-madrasi' stance and came to power with 'Hindutva' philosophy.

What it has failed to do is to catch the pulse of the people in these days of capatalism when everybody has only one aim: Making more money. The same God, Ram, on whose name the whole of India had burned in 1991 could not even create a whimper during the Ram-Setu controversy few months back.

Now that the passions of people could not be inflated by Ram, Sena seems to be searching for new avenues. But it has missed the bus. And hence has become irrelevant. Not worth spending even few minutes of my time.

Soon Sena be history, a history well-worth remembering may be, but history none the less.

P.S. Mr S who asked my opinion on this issue may be repenting asking it already ;).

Give me sunshine, Give me some rain

Give me sunshine, Give me some rain,
Give me another chance, I wanna grow up once again.

Depicting a youth who is disappointed with the ways of the world, he sings that he wants to live once again in which he would like to lead his life along another path. He wants to be somebody else. A noble cause and true for many rather most people.

The song (and the movie) is a comment on attitude of today's (and yesterday's) parents: Engineer/Doctor or nothing. There are many people with talent in a different field who have failed in life as they could not achieve the Engineers or Doctors degree which their parents pushed for. On the way they not only lost many years of their life but also all of their self-confidence. Only a few can ever manage to come out of those failures in a field for which they
were not made and succeed in their another field. The rest will just be reminders of failures of the 'Great Rat-Race'.

BUT, most of my friends are fans of this song. The people I am talking about are from premier institutes successful in education as well as work (if salary is what defines success in work). They are supposed to be among the 'lucky' ones with right kind of talent to succeed in today's world, talent for logic, maths science. All of them, children of proud parents, who have seen them gain everything their parents dreamt of.

But why do these people like this song? Are they being empathetic? Unlikely in this fish-eats-fish world. More likely its a form of self-pity which leads them to relate to this song. After all, everybody has regrets of the past. 'What-if-I-had' is a thought more common that generally accepted.

The relevance of this song in this subset of population shows the depth of malice in Indian education system. One of the most successful class still thinks that they could have done better had their teachers behaved differently. Its a proof that although a person succeeds in their chosen field, they still loose a lot on the way to gain success. The pressure on even those who are successful prevents people from achieving their best.

At the same time, the fact that this generation has this realization springs some hope that the next generation will be much better off than the current generation. The education will be more fulfilling and wholesome. The children not pushed towards anything other than enjoying while learning. That will be a revolution I am looking forward to. That and only that can transform our country and our world in one generation. Or may be I am too optimistic. Time will only tell.

Americanization

'I am a working mother, I have to take care of children, work, home, etc tec.. Life is so stressful'. True. This lady can be speaking for any of thousands of working mothers in bangalore. But the solution she offers? Apply XYZ cream and the skin looks like that of carefree woman. Wow! And what about the rest of the body and heart and health?

'Flu can be serious' a somber voice on radio informs the listeners, expecting that the listeners will panic and buy that flu vaccine being marketed by a multi-national pharma company. Wasn't flu always part of life in India? And how many people we know were seriously ill with flu? I am very sure many times more children die from road accidents due to bad roads than from Flu. But there is no single shot vaccination for improving roads, is there?

'Ab meri maa ki office mein 25% jyada tareef hogi...' a child speaks because some beauty soap is giving 25% free when you buy one. Ignoring the fallacious logic that more soap one applies more beautiful one becomes and the MCP attitude that the praise in office is directly proportional to beauty of a female employee, I listen further: 'Ab maa muzhse 25% jyada pyar karegi'. One again, Wow! A mother will love only as much as she is beautiful. What does this child (or the writer of the ad) wants to say?

I take back some morals from these ads:
- Beauty is only skin deep. As long as you look beautiful, you are happy.
- I have produced a vaccine for flu, so suddenly flu is dangerous for you kids. It does not matter that nobody you know has been (seriously) ill with flu.
- I should buy MP3 player and listen to it in gym. This is the place where I am tortured with these ads day in and day out.

Marraige of Convinience

In olden day, when kingdoms were the rule rather than exceptions, the kings and dynasties were prone to various semi-legal activities to increase/lengthen their influence over the land. One such tactic was: Marriage.

Say Shahapur and Raghavpur were neighbours in a mythical land. Raghavpur wants to increase his influence but cannot do so due to fear of Imaginarypur. King of Raghavpur realises that Imaginarypur is stronger than Raghavpur, but it is not stronger than combined strength of Raghavpur and Shahapur. Now, conviniently, Raghavpur has a son of marraigable age. He proposes to the king of Shahapur the marraige of Shahapur king's daughter and his son. King of Shahapur is not excited withthis offer, as he was expecting the Iparpur to for his daughter. But after lots of wheelings and dealings, which are of no relevance in todays world, he agrees.

Now this poor son is unaware of his scheming father and is happyly engrossed in his studies of Archery and Elephant-riding. Similarly his daughter is still playing hide-and-seek with her freinds and dreaming of a knight in shining armour to arrive from a foreign country.

Now the simple-minded mother is also in another corner of the palace scheming her little plots to get more jwellery and more silk for herself when she suddenly recieves a roll of cloth with the royal emblem. This was called mail in those good old days. This letter informs the mother of the plan of getting her son married to neighbouring princess, and is promised even more jwellery if she agrees.

Even now the prince of one kingdom and princess of other are unaware and busy in their own ways.

Then suddenly, as if divine hand hath commanded, they are invited to a big party where all the courtiers are busy merry making. They are made to sit on tall chair with even bigger partitions while both the kings lock hands as a sign of eternal friendship while drinking with the other hand. And they announce, one sentence each alternatively, of the divine match they are planning and how the great God himself came in their dreams to seed this idea.

Then it dawns on the prince and princess what they have gotten into. But they have no choice left but to sit in their chair and wonder.

This practice vanished along with the kingdoms, or so everybody thought. Until somebody analysed how some of the big organisations work.

The Ultimate Truth

Around 500 years ago the whole religious world was shaken by one man. He almost single handedly disproved the theory that earth was the center of the universe. He proved that not only earth is NOT the center of universe, it is not even the center of our world (the solar system). And the sun around which the earth revolves is one of billions and billions of such stars neither the biggest, nor the smallest, but yet another neighborhood star. This man, Copernicus, showed us that earth was a humble abode with nothing special. This made life of most religious leaders difficult as they had now to answer the question why God chose earth for creating life. They reacted by abandoning Copernicus and jailing anybody who supported this theory. While the proofs against the earth-centric theory mounted, these leaders went into denial. Finally, 500 years after the first discovery, the Pope accepted that the church was wrong. Just in time. The same church was already involved in another denial. This time involving a 150 year old theory of evolution.

Did humans (or life in general) just spring into existence? Or did somebody create them? These were the only 2 alternatives on the table when a third alternative was proposed. This time, the earth shattering theory was provided by Charles Darwin in his book 'The Origin of Species'. According to Darwin, life as we see today has evolved from very humble origins of single celled organism. Every time there is evolutionary pressure, species develop traits to counter the pressure. That explains the speed of Cheetah, the power of the lion, the echolocation of the Bats and the direction sense of migratory birds.

Also, according to this theory, humans are yet another animal in the path of evolution. As Copernicus disproved the Earth-centric theory, Charles Darwin dis-proved the Human-centric theory. This puts lots of religions into a hard place as this gives God lesser and lesser space for maneuver. As God did not create life, he is unlikely to be guiding force in our life either.

Then came along Richard Dawkins, and his The Selfish Gene.This is a relatively new theory, published in 1976, and hence not yet dissected as thoroughly as the other two theories mentioned previously. This theory is a gene centered view of evolution, a theory in which gene is both the cause and the end result of the evolution.

This theory reduced the 'Humble Human' as proposed by theory of evolution into a 'Remote Controlled Humble Human', where humans (and for that matter every other organism) is existing only to defend the genes in us.

The gene which are part of our DNA is store house of data, it governs indirectly what we are, what we do and how much we succeed. The mechanism through which gene influences the physical and mental development is state of art involving 8 levels of translations. The data is flawlessly copied from DNA into RNA, RNA is translated into proteins and proteins influence the embryonic (and latter) development.

This gene is also passed near flawlessly from parents into offsprings. I say near flawlessly because sometimes copying errors occur, and when they occur, they occur in random directions. These copying errors are then passed on to the offsprings. In most cases the copying errors make the offspring worse off than rest of 'normal' beings. These errors are quickly relegated to history. However in few cases, the offspring is better than the normal beings. And in this case the gene spreads through the society like wild fire (on evolutionary scale) and in a few generations it ends up being a trait of the organism.

Consider a 2 set of genes, 1 of a predator, and another of its prey. Assume that under the current conditions both are capable of producing a predator which can kill the prey (sometimes) and a prey which can outrun the predator (other times). These genes are in perfect harmony and can live forever without any need of evolution. However consider the case where a predator develops a mutation which makes it faster than the rest and hence can catch more prey. This makes the predator successful and this gene spreads around. Within a few generations most of the predators can outrun the prey. However this brings evolutionary pressure on the prey whose genes may evolve into having longer legs for running faster. Since this mutant prey is more likely to outrun the evolved predator, it (and its desendents) are more likely to survive and hence soon the equilibrium is reached where both predator and prey can survive. As you can see, in this race both the predators and prey are mortal while the genes is the one which is eternal. This is a race between different genes to adapt and survive.

But in this race of gene survival, where do we come into picture? Well, here comes the truth. We are nothing but a survival machines for these genes. There are various genes who have developed different mechanisms to destroy other genes. And we are the defensive (and offensive) response. As the attacks got more and more sophisticated, the survival machines got more and more complex. First just a protective shell around the gene was enough. But then, when a gene developed a mechanism for breaking through this protective barrier, a more complex multi-cell defense must have emerged. This process continued which resulted in the complex and perfected survival machines we see around in the form of birds, animals, insects and bacterias. And the truth is that Humans are nothing more than a highly perfected survival machine. Nothing more and nothing less.

Now is there a place for a God in this explaination? Is there a place for Atma (soul)? For Re-birth? And for the end-less cycles of birth and death? You decide.

P.S: The genes which have formed humans have perfected the machine so much that the machine itself is threatening to exterminate the genes itself. Humans have become suicide bombers determined to destroy themselves along with the enemies controlling them.

Normative References:
[1] Wikipedia: For many things
[2] The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
[3] Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

Informative Reference:
[4] The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins