One Creepy Journey

Vacation was over and it was time for Shilpa to return to her hostel. Her college lectures were supposed to start from the next day.  It was 9 pm; Shilpa’s parents went to drop her to the Bus terminal. Shilpa smiled at the elderly lady who was sitting next to her seat. She placed her luggage in the overhead bins and sat comfortably. It was a non AC bus. Well, those days, AC buses were not that common. Shilpa was happy to get the window seat as it was always her preference. She slid the window glass slightly and the sudden blast of cool air embraced her face at once. She was refreshed and looked outside the window. It was an over-night journey and Shilpa would reach the city by 6 am.

It was summer and she was in her casual jeans and t-shirt. Shilpa was enjoying the cool breeze, lost in her thoughts, trying to get some sleep. Suddenly, she sensed something unusual. She felt someone embarrassing her waist smoothly. Shilpa was very nervous and didn’t know what to do. She tried to catch hold of the unknown hand but it departed instantly.  After a few minutes Shilpa again felt someone fondling her waist. She remained still for a while, but it was getting embarrassing. She again tried to hold the hand tightly, but it escaped in no time. The lights were off and it was dark inside the bus. The lady sitting beside her was sleeping deeply. Shilpa knew it was someone from behind but she didn’t want to create any scene. She continued to bear the embarrassment for the next couple of hours and then, the bus stopped at a place for tea/snacks. The bus illuminated as the lights were switched on. People were slowly getting off the bus one by one. Shilpa stood up and looked behind. She saw two men sitting there. One of them seemed to be in his thirties and another one looked a little older. Shilpa was confused. She wasn’t sure who the culprit was.

Shilpa also went down and had tea in a tea stall. It was middle of the night. Shilpa noticed a small shop where people were buying cigarettes. She bought a chocolate for herself from there.

'Do you sell blades, brother?' Shilpa asked the shopkeeper guy.

'Yes, I’ve blades but we are not supposed to sell any sharp things during night time,' the guy replied. It took some effort but Shilpa was able to convince him and bought a packet of blade, for which she paid double the price. 

As expected, once again Shilpa felt the unknown hand embarrassing her waist. She was holding the sharp blade in his hand, still confused whether to go for the assault or not. Meanwhile, the mysterious hand grew in confidence and it was slowly moving upwards towards her breasts. Shilpa held the hand tightly with all her energy and attacked it with the sharp blade. 

“Ouch, ouch…” Shilpa was expecting sharp screaming but all she could hear was some mild and uncomfortable sounds from behind. She couldn’t hold the sick hand for long. Shilpa’s hand became wet and she could smell raw blood, but it wasn’t hers. She was prepared for another assault but the evil hand never bothered her anymore. Everything happened silently and except Shilpa and the mysterious man, no other passengers were aware of the incident.

PS: This is a true story that happened many years ago, one night, in the highways of Assam.

Love, That Shit!

"Like a roller-coaster, relationships have their nauseating ups, downs, twists and turns… Sure, like a rollercoaster, relationships are also fun and exciting but what happens when the ride isn't as smooth as you thought it would be? What do you do when you want to get off the ride but disengaging the safety harness is a lot harder than you thought? Or simply, what if you’re finding it difficult to get on a ride in the first place, especially when there isn't a height restriction?
…Unfortunately, relationships don’t come with perforated edges and Love, That Shit! (LTS) hopes to help you through the process of getting into, dealing with and even the aftermath of relationships. What sets LTS apart is its contemporary approach, aimed at enlightening while simultaneously, entertaining.
Challenging norms and common thinking at times, LTS hopes to keep you chuckling, or at least smiling, as you embark on the journey and absorb its message"

I'm not a big fan of non-fiction books, particularly self-help kind of books. A self-help book on love, relationships and marriage is definitely not my cup of tea, but there’s something in the title that had grabbed my attention. I was sure that it would be an interesting read and I wasn’t wrong. The author had written the book with some good humor. He mentioned that there’s not much of a difference between online dating sites and arranged marriage. The main variance between them is that parents are the portals and they simply use more traditional means. The author described about many faces of Mother in laws (MIL). We have the L’Oreal MILs, who refuse to go silently into the night and continue to cling on to their youth. There are Status MILs. This breed of women is all about designer wear and making sure everyone knows about it. Some other categories are Yummy Mummy, Kitty Party, Owl MILs, Nosey, Google MILs, Hari-Om MILs. 

This book is all about different phases of relationship. Even though I enjoyed the book a lot, but I'm not sure how much knowledge I have gained. I think every relationship is unique and it's not easy to generalize the problems. Also, I felt that the author didn't give convincing solutions to the relationship issues. He suggested that it's always better to walk away from a relationship if it's not working and find a new one. Well, Chandru the author lived most of his life in abroad. Born in Africa, he was raised between Nigeria, India and the UK. After graduating with Masters in International Business and Management, he moved to New York where he worked for three years as a Business Development Manager. In 2002, Chandru returned to Nigeria where he currently resides and runs a trading company.

Title: Love, That Shit
Author: Chandru Bhojwani
Publisher: Om Books International
Genre: Non Fiction / Self help

Not An Ordinary Love Letter

Rakesh and Rumi were in their eighth grade. Adolescence is an interesting phase of life. Guys get to learn many new things and girls start getting undue attention, particularly from the senior guys. Well, some smart girls also make their first boyfriend. Rakesh had a crush on Rumi. He had even expressed his love to her many times, but Rumi was not interested; neither in Rakesh nor in any other guy. She was matured enough to think beyond love and wanted to concentrate more on her studies. Gradually Rakesh was getting obsessed with Rumi. He wanted to win her heart at any cost, but he didn’t know how? Some of his friends had tried to help him. His friends played the mediator role and exchanged messages between them. But Rumi was not at all interested. Rakesh was getting crazy and his condition was becoming miserable day by day. Rumi’s thoughts and images kept occupying his mind. Then one day, out of the blue Rakesh had an idea. He thought to write a love letter to Rumi. Well, not an ordinary one, but love word written with letters of dripping blood, his own blood.

It was middle of the night and Rakesh was pretending to sleep. His parents were already asleep in the next room. Rakesh calmly got down from his bed and started to walk towards his study table. He switched on his table lamp and then opened his geometry box. He picked the compass and stared at its extremely sharp edge. Rakesh wanted to pierce his skin to get some blood. He had also placed a small container on the table to collect his vital fluids. He was a little confused with which part of his body he would pierce. Lost in his thoughts, he was very anxious and also very scared. He was sunk in an ocean of emotions. Even though Rakesh was distracted by the annoying mosquito sounds and their bites, but those tiny irritating creatures couldn't take away the feelings he had that moment. Rakesh tried to be calm as he feared his parents might wake up. It was a long night for him, but he was successful in his mission. He managed to express his heart in a couple of lines, written entirely in blood.

The next day one of his mediators passed on the note to Rumi. The guy had conveyed to her that Rakesh had written it with his blood. Rumi read those beautiful words. She took the letter close to her nose and inhaled a cloud of air making a loud sniffing sound. She could smell blood and became very emotional. She looked at Rakesh and their eyes met. Rumi didn’t know what to do and she was on the verge of crying. Rumi hadn't spoken to Rakesh for the last few months and now she wanted to talk to him. She became very emotional for Rakesh, but she was still hesitant to talk to him directly. During lunch break she talked to Rakesh's best friend Santosh. Rumi said to him that she was very disturbed.

'Why Rakesh had to do this? I’m feeling so guilty. I was always rude to him. He loves me so much, he had cut his finger to write to me,' said Rumi and tears streamed down her cheeks.

On seeing her condition Santosh felt very bad and he said, 'Rumi, I have to tell you something. Actually,  last night Rakesh had seriously thought to pierce his finger and take out sufficient amount of blood to write a long letter to you. But he was scared to hell. He tried his best, but couldn’t dare to pierce his skin. He then came up with an idea. During these monsoon days, Rakesh's room is usually a shelter for mosquitoes and they use to suck his blood all the time. Last night he had killed about fifteen to twenty mosquitoes with his hands; all of them were healthy, loaded with fresh human blood. Rakesh somehow managed to write a couple of lines using those mosquitoes blood'

PS: This is a true story, but the names of the characters have been changed.