And so, the story ends...

Apologies for posting this before coming out with the part 2 of Light At The End Of The Tunnel. But, this just had to be posted today.
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Life changes so much in just a few months. Sometimes, a few months, is a lot of time. And yet, sometimes when you think of it, those few months would’ve just flown by.
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He left by the 9:30 train. She knew it would happen so. What was she expecting for? A miracle? If so, what? She was the reason he had left, and she knew the story was over. Things were back to how it should have been and they were leading their own separate lives. Yet, it felt weird to her, that he was leaving town.
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She hoped for something to happen. She didn’t know what, but something! No, she didn’t want things to go back; no, that was silly. But was she happy this way? She was ok. And she knew ok would turn into happy, some day. She thought of all those movies she had seen, where the hero would dash into the railway station, at the last minute and proclaim his love for the heroine, just in time. And she smiled, at the goofiness of her thoughts. Yet, she wished for something to happen. But she knew nothing would.
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And nothing did. He left. And she went to the temple nearby, to pray for them to be happy, leading their own separate lives.

Light, At The End Of The Tunnel (part 1)

It was the wee hours of the morning. The sun was just rising and it was still dark. That beautiful time at the start of the day when people woke up to look at the face of their loved one lying beside them, waking up to the chirping of early morning birds that sung sweet tunes of love into the light breeze that carried the mild fragrance of blooming flowers. It was that beautiful hour when any normal person, if awake, would feel blessed for everything that he had in life, especially for that special person. All but for one woman; she sat by the side of the dirty old stream under the bridge, all alone, with a dead look on her face. No, she had no special someone to thank God for. Sitting there, despite the foul smell of rotting garbage from the stream, Sunita felt strangely better than staying in that dingy hut of hers- The hut where she was held captive by her own inhibitions. But what other option did she have?
She looked at the dirty waters of the stream, stagnant, the floating rubbish making it move sluggishly. She closed her eyes and the events of the previous night came rushing back to her. She had had just a moment to look into those brown eyes of the man whom she had once loved; who, until a few years ago was her everything, her hero, her savior, the reason she was alive, her God. She could scarcely stand up, shivering and whimpering in front of her husband, seething, his eyes bloodshot, bellowing at her. She had hardly had time to move, when his hand had come hard upon her, sending her smashing down to the floor, face down. Her head hurt and her cheeks burned but he had not been satisfied. He was shouting like a mad man, dragging her by the hair as she tried hard not to scream and wake up her three kids. What if he did the same to them too? Her nose had started bleeding and she was slowly beginning to lose consciousness. Maybe it was the blood, or perhaps the copious amounts of liquor in him had taken its toll because he had left then and gone to sleep under the only creaking fan in the tattered hut. She had then huddled up in a corner and cried, not too loud, lest he should wake and beat her up again, lest she woke up the kids from their peaceful dreams. She cried the whole night until finally, at some point, she drifted off to sleep.
And now she sat there thinking of all the dreadful things he had done to her. She thought of all those times he had beat her, stamped her, snatched away her hard earned money only to return unstable and violent in the night, his head full of brutal and perverse thoughts that only alcohol could induce. When had it all started? For there was a time, she had loved him. There was a time she had seen love and kindness in those brown eyes. But now she was living with a fiend whom she did not love, who scared her, who had betrayed her, who had enslaved her forever.
Sunita was 14 years old when she had fled with her brown eyed hero who used to work in a tea shop next to where she stayed with her step aunt. He was around five years elder to her and was always full of stories that he heard from the workers who came to the tea shop. He used to tell her that he wanted to run away from there one day and go to the city that his worker friends so often spoke about. She was mesmerized by his descriptions of the magical place he called city. She was fascinated by his words, his voice and the way his brown eyes widened with excitement when he talked of his plans. She hadn’t been in love with him then, or perhaps she was; she didn’t know. It mattered little now.
She remembered the night that she had overheard her step-aunt talk to a big burly man who had come to the house. She had heard only snippets of the conversation ‘….yes grown enough… just the right amount… not bad looking… good money… pick her up in two days’. Sunita was old enough to understand what the conversation had meant. And she had known there was only one person who could help her right then.
And so she had fled, with her brown eyed boy in the middle of the night. He was tall and strong and she had a feeling of utmost safety when she was with him. She was in awe of her hero, who seemed to have it all planned out. It had been difficult, the first few weeks but she knew all was well. She was living with the man she loved and who loved her back. At least, it seemed so at first.
(to be contd...)

Something About Me

Me: Kangaroo… repeat after me, Can-ga-ru… starts with a K!
Kid: Eye yo… teacher you know nothing! It’s Gangaa-roo!
Me: : |
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Me: c for?
Kid: errr…
Me: carrot. C for carrot
Kid: c for carrot.
Me: g for??
Kid: errr…
Me: g for gate... ok?
Kid: yes teacher (with an oh-so-sweet smile)
Me: e for??
Kid: idli?
Me: no. Elephant! Now tell me, c for?
Kid: c for sun, g for jug (yet another sweet smile)
Me: sigh…
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For a long time now I’ve wanted to blog about what’s keeping me busy of late.
I am volunteering at the Olcott Memorial High School, a non profit charitable organization (I had posted about it earlier here) and I absolutely LOVE it :) I had started off with fund raising work which involved traveling, marketing and lots of ECS forms. Now, I teach. Yep!! I have around 250 of my very own students who call me teacher! :D well, at least, most of them do! The 7th and 8th stds don’t though... they think I’m not old enough to look teacher-ish :| I’m a multi specialty teacher :P -> Math/ Computer/ English… how cool am I! :P *wink wink*
And NOW I know what my teachers had to go through with brats like us!
But even when the students are yelling at the top of their voices, pleading with you to let them go to the toilet (8 at a time!), pulling at your salwar, running around the place, complaining about another student (but teacher, he hit me first!) and what not… they are still adorable (mmm… except for when the little ones get a cold… that can get eeewww!) and the kind of respect and admiration they have for a teacher is worth it all :) Plus it’s a great experience to work with such an organization and to interact with the students.
Anyway, so that’s what I’ve been up to… and I also need to make a special mention of the headmistress here… Mrs. Lakshmi Suryanarayanan… Oh. My. God. What an amazing woman! There are very very VERY few people like her! Think I’ll keep my reason for a next post… there’s so much I can talk about the school and what all I’ve learnt from the place. I’m so happy I decided to volunteer there :)

Happy Birthday P&P!!!

It has been a good long one year on blogspot for me! wow!

I had started writing on Swati's pestering compulsion :P and had started the blog as a dedication to her, my best friend who has been there for me through thick and thin and not so thick and thin :P who would've thought I'd stick it out for a year! Not me!

But i guess it's thanks to her and a lot of you people. after all, your comments are my incentives ;)

So, first of all it's HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Petals and Pebbles... and here's hoping I never get a blogger's block again, or at least, not much of it :P









Second, it was Swati's birthday on this 16th.. I am a little late, but i was caught up with the surprise we had planned for her... and boy was it worth it :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTI!!!!!



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Right, so I've decided to spread the joy and pass on a few awards to you. Congratulations and Celebrations!!! :D





I had never known blogger would be a place where i could get so many good friends. I present this award to Arvind, Vinu, Kartz, Richa & Chriz :)
for apart from my blog posts, they have to endure my non stop bakwas over gtalk/orkut too :P







Yep.. truly truly in LOVE with your blogs!
This cute award goes to Swati, Vinu (Conjuring Kreativity being the best, of course :D ), Sameera (Her posts and her templates both!), Chriz, Bhai with Chai, Divinediu & Scribblers Inc.










And another I love your blog award; goes to Trinaa, Kartz, Richa, Ayushi, Farah, homer simpson.















Diana, Sid, Rajesh, Toonfactory, Mahul, Priyajoyce ... I believe you truly deserve the thoughtful blogger award :)






Kochu, HP, Anwesa, Chriz, Princess Mia, Bhai with chai, DivineDiu... cool as cool can be! =D




AND that's about it! Happy people, Happy me, Happy blogposts, Happy Petals and Pebbles, Happy Comments, Happy me again :D

pic courtesy:photobucket.g

LoveStruck

I have no idea what was going through my mind when I wrote the following load of crap. But since it is Valentines day and I don't want to be behind the rest of the blogging world in writing something dripping with love and mush and insanity, (don't know about the first two but there's loads of the last one), here I present, what is to follow :P
You swim in a yellow candy floss sea.
You drench in a shower of confetti.
Under a merry green sky above,
the purple waters of the calmest sea
rise in tides and rain over the trees.
While the ice cold sun blazes black and blue,
it melts the rocks into sticky glue
that sticks to you and your muddled mind,
bringing close a world you want to be in
and the crazy world that wont let you in.
You smile at the kid who let the butterfly fly
and watch it zig zag up into the empty sky.
The clouds now they fill the voids above;
Your mind wanders onto things unknown.
And you, caught atop clouds of love,
Wonder, has sanity left you for good?
And with a slight shrug you walk away;
A blissful smile adorning your dreamy face.
photo courtesy: flickr.com

and again, hi!

the winter birds fly away and slowly,
the land of ours forgets them;
till a snow flake falls down again...
sometime...
and he fades away, slowly,
from the good old days;
till we meet ways again...
sometime...

no. i'm not even attempting to come up with a reasonable alibi justifying my absence. all i have to say is, my lappie is back!! :D and hello all :)

2009 seems very interesting indeed. so much has been happening this month.. on the work front, on the higher education front, on the personal front.. so much! do i like it all? somethings yes, somethings i dont know! nothing bad has happened yet so thats a good thing in itself :)

i can't be regular for a while now.. got plenty of things on my mind.. more importantly two very very important interviews coming up... so, sorry in advance.. till then happy blogging y'all! :D