That Last night?

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 26; the 26th Edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The topic for this month is 'That Last Night'.

I was walking out of the bar. I lost money and now I didn't have any money. I always played 'Teen patti' well. I had made some money but today my luck was running out. I walked out of the bar after having some beer. I was singing songs, whistling and kicking empty cans of soda on my way to the local train station. It was 11.30pm but I didn't want to go home. Whom should I go home for: father who comes home drunk to hit me and my mother. My mother who sleeps until he comes and after that all she does is crying. Ours was a screwed up family. I come from a poor family and I am 21yrs. I don't have a constant job. I change my job from being a security guard to ploughing fields in farms.

I was kicked out of my last job where I was an auto driver. I had put up a fight with a traffic cop and because of that my driver's licence was jeopardized. So, currently I had no work and that made me to learn teen patti. Enough of my background now. Lets come to what happened that night. It was a night of girl, gambling, money, power... etc. It's very hard to forget a night like that.

I was walking towards the train station when I saw a girl standing near a tree. I glanced at her, she looked well dressed and shiny. I thought she must be a bar dancer or a red light resident. I ignored her and walked further, but I saw that she started following me. I stopped and turned around. I tried to give an angry look but I saw that she broke down. She thought that I am a safe player and that's why she was following me. I somehow sympathized her and asked her what she wants. She wanted some money, to go back to her home. She was in trouble. I first decided to take her to a safe place since she told me that she could be kidnapped. I didn't want to take her home and I didn't had money to send her to her home. So, I decided to go back to the bar and hide her somewhere in the corner. She first refused to come over there since people would recognize that she is a hooker. But I told her I didn't have any option.

We went back to the bar and I asked for opening the storage room since there nobody would recognize her and she would be safe. I had no other choice but to wait for few hours in the bar. I decided to go back to the teen patti table and see how people were doing over there. Two underworld mafia's were betting on large money and that had attracted the crowd. Unfortunately, mafia don 1 was lucky today and that was making mafia don 2 loose confidence. People started cheering him up and when I walked in he saw me and told me to play on his behalf. I told him my luck was not good enough that night. It was around 1.30am.

I started playing his game and looked like my luck turned out well and he started making his money back. Seeing this the other mafia got enraged and since he was drunk as well, he started abusing me. I got scared by his move. Suddenly, when I wanted to quit I saw few people barging in and going towards the storage room. I forgot about that girl and started playing when I heard her voice. She was screaming and asking for help. But I couldn't do anything since now I was on the gun point for the mafia don for whom I was playing against. He told me "If I make up my money, then I will spare your life and also help you in getting that girl back. But if I loose then I am going to shoot you." It was 3am now.

Now, I didn't even have a choice and I prayed to god that something magical would happen and either I make money or something else. To my luck, Police entered the bar and it was a raid. Now, it was their turn to run away and what luck.. they left their share of money. I had never seen so much money in my life, I started putting the money in a nearby sack and as soon as I wanted to run away policemen surrounded me and asked me to leave the bag. Again my luck went upside down. I was dreaming for a minute what I would do with the money but another second I had to give up the bag. Somehow the girl sensed my desire and she started crying and creating a scene. They were 3 policemen and they got attracted to her story and went towards her. She signalled me to take the bag and escape from the storage room where she was sitting till then. I quietly moved with the bag and from the storage room I jumped out of the window. I was on top of the world. I was on 7th cloud. Within few hours I had some money to take care of my life. It was 4.30am.

I walked for a while and I heard someone screaming "Hello.. wait!". It was that girl. I stopped and thought I should help her. The moment she started running towards me, a Maruti van came and someone abducted her from the middle of the road. It happened in a fraction of a second and I just couldn't do anything about it. I felt miserable but I couldn't go back and inform that to the police since they were after me. I went home that night and forgot about that girl. But all the incidents that happened that night still give me nightmare. I earned money and now I can start my own small business but at the cost of loosing that girl. I just hope she is safe. I know you all will feel I could have been like a hero who would go and release her. But hey! I am just an ordinary person like you. I hope I find her some day.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Dreams gone wrong -- well not mine!

Sitting at my computer one night, I decided to login to yahoo messenger and join a chat room for the first time. I searched for a chat room of my interest and the moment I joined I got an instant message popped at my screen. At first I got a little weirded out, since I didn't know who she was. She started off with a simple "Hi, would you like to chat with me?". I went ahead and started chatting with her. She checked my profile online and said that my interests were quite unique and she liked that. We chatted couple of hours and discussed about our likes, dislikes and stuff like what we do do, from where do we come from and she somehow got my attention.

Slowly, my mornings started with her "Good morning" messages and nights ended with her good night kisses. Yes, we started an affair. But wait a minute, we never met each other but somehow I felt attracted towards her. The romance became intense between us and I asked her to send me her picture. I had never seen her but I could imagine how she would look like. She was my dream princess. I imagined her to be extremely beautiful, with long hair flowing in the air, she would have a sweet fragrance that would spill in the air and make the atmosphere magical. I was in my deep thoughts when I got disturbed by her sms and she replied that she won't be able to mail her picture. I felt disappointed but waited patiently for another day. When I opened my email I found picture of her hair locks. I was surprised and asked her the reason for which she said " I want you to see me gradually and not all at once." I liked her long hair and now I was convinced that she would look like a princess.

After a month's wait, we decided to meet each other face to face. Instead of being happy I was little nervous as it would have been our first formal meeting. I know everything about her but why was I feeling so nervous. she told me that she would be wearing a blue jeans and pink top.

I blinked twice when i reached the coffee shop. It has to be her.. She was the only one wearing pink top. But her hair was looking longer than I had seen in the picture. Well, I thought lets go and ask if she was Alisha. She said nodded while drinking coffee. Wow, she was so cute.. much much sweeter than I had imagined about her.

"Hey, I came early. How did you know I would be here?" she asked me.

"Well, I thought we were supposed to meet at 2pm. right?" I was checking her out.

Her face was little thinner, she had beautiful lips which were right now covered with coffee. We initially hesitated how to proceed talking to each other. "Can I know your real name?" she asked. "Well, its Adam Muller" I said. I don't like to put my real name in my email ids. She slowly told me about herself and what she does and somehow I was sensing that she was little different than how I knew her and how I dreamt about 'Us'. But her beautiful face and long hair would make me forget about that.

We met again, and again for the rest of the week. We both felt like we discovered a new person. It is little different chatting with a person online and meeting someone in person. Soon on Friday afternoon I opened my email once to check any messages. It had been like a week and I didn't check my messages. The last message was from Alisha and she mentioned that she wanted to meet me today at 'Li's bar'. Well, what to say she read my mind and I wanted to take her over there. I thought instead of calling her why don't I just go there and wait for her. It took around 30mins to call me. "Hey, where are you? You were supposed to take me somewhere" she said. "But I thought I already informed you. Or rather it was you who decided where we should meet." I was getting anxious now. "Okay. No more puzzles. Where are you?" she said. "I am at Li's bar. Just come over, I am waiting for you baby" I said.

Now, I was feeling disturbed. Mainly because she was not the person I thought about and secondly about this confusion. With this dilemma I went to the Men's room and while coming out I brushed past a woman who was hurriedly entering the bar. "Excuse me, she said and she dropped her purse." "Mam, you dropped your purse!" I screamed but she didn't listen to me. While my girl 'Alisha' arrived and we sat on the table. "So, Adam what is this all about?" she asked me. I wanted to answer her but I thought I should first take care of the wallet I had. I opened the small purse and found the driver's licence. Also, I saw the name 'Alisha simpson' inscribed on it. I was shocked! What the hell's happening to me. I wasn't even drunk.

Soon, the confusion was clear. I went to coffee shop on that day and met another girl who claimed to be Alisha whom I met on yahoo chat. But surprisingly she also met someone online called Bob and it was supposed to be their first date. But we never revealed each other what we used to chat/text message each other. I saw the real Alisha with whom I spent my time chatting and dreaming about. She was a simple girl with short hair and medium built. She wasn't much attractive as I had seen the other girl. It was my chance to either hide the fact from the real Alisha that I am Adam or be bold enough to go and face her.

I chose to do the latter. "Hi Alisha, so this confusion happened for the whole week. You are a very good person that I have known till then. But the girl I dreamt about all the time wasn't you. It was this other girl 'Alisha'. When I saw her I thought my dreams have come true and I have found the right girl. But now I feel everything went wrong!" I tried to express her everything while the second 'Alisha' had already left the place. "See, I understand Adam. I know this online dating is not a fair game. We dream about someone and start living in that dream believing that it is true. But there is a different world out there where even though we refuse to go , we have to deal with it. So, please without bothering about me go and get your girl. It's nice of you to stop by me and tell me the truth but I want you to go and get the girl of your dreams" she gasped. I could understand what she was feeling but I never wanted my dreams to go wrong. I ran out quickly and started to search for 'Alisha'. I screamed her name and searched for her. She came running to me and crying. 'I love you Adam' and she hugged me.

Since then we are together. So, I guess my dreams didn't really go wrong!

P.s. This post is written for Blogeshwar and Anubhooti

Speed and the thrill

We all go for many journeys in our lifetime, but there are few that remains in our memory forever because of good or bad experience. I want to narrate one of my road trip to Tirupati.

I had never visited Tirupati in my lifetime until last year when I went to India for a month. I requested my husband to arrange for the trip as soon as he can. I personally don't prefer long road trips in India, one because I don't feel its as safe as taking road trips in USA and secondly since I want to relax when I am in India, I didn't wanted me or my husband to take the pain and drive all the way. After a day of hassle and discussion, my husband somehow stuck to the idea of taking a road trip. Along with we both, one of our cousin joined our trip. I was not so comfortable with the idea since I knew that he drives like crazy but my father in law had given instructions to him to drive safely.

So, finally we started for the trip. My nephew was crying to join us but since he was just 3yrs old I thought I might not be able to handle him all alone. But I felt bad to leave the poor boy. We brought some chips, coke and water and started from Hyderabad. Initially the road was good but because of traffic we couldn't cover much distance. After travelling for 100 kms we decided to take a break and switch driving. Now, my cousin started to drive and I was very cautious. He started driving at the speed of around 120kmph and that alarmed me somehow since I saw few auto rickshaws on the highway and few times he had to literally stop because of the signs.

We were driving on NH-44 and somehow we missed the route and instead of going towards Bangalore we continued on NH-40. We started at 10am and it was around 5pm and we had just reached Kadapa. My father in law was calling so many times and taking tension. Since, we wanted to reach Tirupati before it gets dark since now we had to cross the ghat roads and that would have been scary. For some reason while we were talking to our father in law, my cousin sped off and he over looked a bump because of which our car literally flew. He was driving at 120 kmph and on top of that there was an auto rickshaw driving in front of us. Our car dashed into the auto rickshaw. I don't know if it was god's grace or my cousin somehow managed this crisis, nobody got hurt except the car. I could see the smoke from the radiator and the car stopped with a thud sound. After this massive incident, the auto driver came out to fight with my cousin and they started arguments. Slowly, it converted to a fight and my husband and my cousin started fighting with him. Looking at this local people surrounded them and I got so scared. It is believed in my family that Tirupati journey is never easy for us. My mother in law had already warned me before heading for the trip. I don't know why but I started crying and came out of the car and shouted " Please go away, no body is hurt here.. stop this fight"

After few mins, everybody dispersed and when my husband started the car it somehow started but the wheels were shaky. On top of this, it started raining heavily. We were just 10kms away from Kadapa district. The wheel alignment had got disturbed and the headlight had broken. We found one auto repairing shop in the town and it was getting dark and rain was making it more worse. To top all these, electricity had gone off in the town and mechanic had somehow managed to align the wheels but he couldn't set the headlight properly. My head was already spinning with what was happening since morning and I felt miserable. So, finally I collapsed in the back seat but couldn't sleep. I was somehow sensing that something bad is going to happen so I requested my husband to find a hotel in the town and we can drive to Tirupati in the morning since we were just 120kms away. It was night 8pm and we had to take a pick. Since I was sleeping after enquiring few people they both came to know that the place is not safe and the hotels nearby were not that good. They made up their mind to drive on the ghat roads. I protested but since rain stopped they thought it would be better if we continue the journey and reach there.

I slept hoping that we would somehow reach our destination without any hassle. But our journey was filled with many hardships as my mother in law had told us. The headlights were not properly placed and that made it difficult to clearly see the pits and holes on the ghat road. After driving for an hour it again started raining and we were driving on ghat roads. I woke up from my sleep with a big thud sound again. My heart started pounding since I didn't wanted any other trouble. This time since my husband couldn't see the road properly and he was sleepy he couldn't see a manhole. The wheel balance again got disturbed and that got me on to my nerves. I started praying god and asking for forgiving any past misdeeds we had done. We took a break at a local dhaba that was open at 10.30pm. After having food, I asked my husband to take a break since food somehow induces sleep. But who listens to me??

After driving for some more time, I woke up with another shock. While driving on the road my husband closed his eyes, thanks to my cousin that he was awake and saw that my husband was driving on right hand side. He forgot unconciously that he was driving in India and not in USA and there was a truck honking at him from a distance. My cousin suddenly turned the car to the left side and thank god my husband woke up and applied the brakes else that would have been our last road trip ever on this earth! I can still get scared remembering this incident. We were some centimeters close to death. At last after fighting with our fate, we somehow reached Tirupati at around 2.30am.

At that moment I was so happy to not bring my nephew. Poor kid would have got scared by all this and what if something were to happen on that night! With all these scary thoughts I finally fell asleep that night.This was a scariest road trip of my life.

We learnt a lesson that speed and thrill definitely kills! I can never forget this trip in my life.

This story is a part of Mahindra XUV500 "Incredible Stories" contest!

When journey meant more than destination

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 25; the Silver Edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The topic for this month is 'When Journey Meant More Than Destination'.

I was working in Calicut from few months and I was badly missing my family back in Mumbai. So, I decided to visit them and boarded my train just in time. I thought I had this compartment section to myself and nobody would board the train but once the train started after few mins when my tickets were checked, there was a girl standing near the compartment. She was about 18 or 19yrs I thought. I just checked her out a little bit and she appeared smart. She was talking to the ticket collector in Malayalam asking for a reserved seat. After debating for few hundred rupees he finally agreed to give her the place in my compartment. She felt relieved after her seat was reserved.

I wanted to make the first move and say hello but when I turned to her, she said "hello" -- on the phone !! She made a call to her mom and told her that she got a reservation and all that. Once she was done, she looked at me and smiled. Perhaps she wanted me to stir the conversation but before I could do that the train came to a halt. The girl concentrated on settling down and she took her shoes off and started reading a magazine. I looked at her and gave a hesitant smile and she asked me "Do you want to say something?"

I was very nervous, but I said "Hi, I am Shaleen. Basically from Mumbai but staying in Kerala because of my job."

"I am Meghna, I study in Mahabaleshwar. I came to meet my parents and now the vacation is over so heading back to my hostel."

After few mins I learnt few things about her. One, that she is very soft and naive girl and secondly she didn't wanted to study in a different city from where her family stays. Later she again went back to her novel and settled down.

In the next couple of hours train arrived to Bangalore. One young couple, boarded the train and after some hustle bustle they settled down. Their seat was close to Meghna's seat. They came with lot of luggage as if they were going to attend a wedding or something. I felt like sleeping since it was an over night train, but I couldn't help but hear their conversation with Meghna. Meghna was a nice girl, well behaved, nice communication but I thought for a second how can a naive girl like that go alone to a city like Mumbai and then go to her hostel. Does she have any relative, any friend who is going to pick her up from Mumbai? I wanted to ask this but somehow I thought its none of my business and kept listening to their talks. The couple were Mr. and Mrs. Kumar and apparently they just got married and were going to Mumbai to make some money.

They asked so many questions about Meghna but they spoke very little about themselves. When Meghna mentioned about her hostel Mrs. Kumar suddenly mentioned about her sister studying there and later Mr. Kumar showed his eyes and that made her to change the name of the hostel. I thought it was strange. I learnt that Meghna is a topper in her class and once she finishes her school she aspires to become an airhostess. She looked like an ambitious girl but yet too soft and sensitive. Mrs. Kumar mentioned to her that they had a garment business in Mumbai and she could buy dresses from them. After a while our train stopped at at station where everyone started to buy stuff for dinner. As the couple had so much stuff, they stopped Meghna from buying food and offered their own food.

We were supposed to reach Mumbai in the morning and I fervently hoped that train won't be late and thought of sleeping early to wake up on time. I woke up at 5am in the morning and was glad to know that the train would reach Mumbai by 5.30am. The Kumars were also up but Meghna was still asleep. I wanted to wake her up but thought I should leave this job to Kumars. Mrs. Kumar tried to wake her up but Meghna felt drowsy and she fell asleep again. Later when the train stopped I offered Kumars to help them bring Meghna down and get her stuff but they refused to take my help and said that they would drop her safely home and I shouldn't worry about that. I saw Meghna opening her eyes when I told her "All the best". She wanted to say something but was unconscious but I remember her eyes.. they wanted me to stop right there and take her to the hostel safely.

I don't know whether it was my dumbness or my belief with Kumars I left Meghna with them and arrived home. I spent time with my family for a week and went back to Kerala. When I entered Kerala I immediately thought about Meghna and her habit of reading magazines. I purchased a newspaper and was shocked to see the headline. A young girl murdered and raped in Mumbai station. When I saw the picture, it was hard to believe but it was Meghna. How did that happen? Did the Kumars left her unconcious in the station and left their home. Did Meghna unknowingly came across a criminal? All sort of questions started arising in my mind and I felt restless. I saw the same ticket collector coming to ask for tickets. I told him about the incident and he was shocked too. With his help i got the contact information of Kumars. When I tried to call them it was someone else. I guess their real names were different. I contacted Calicut police and helped them to make a sketch of Kumars. Suddenly, it occurred to me that Mrs. Kumar's sister studies in the same boarding school where Meghna studied and was two years younger to Meghna.

This clue was enough for them to figure out the rest. Soon, I heard back from them that they are Mr. and Mrs. Ameya and they were into kidnapping young college girls and selling them to people in Kerala and Dubai. This whole racket got exposed to the police and they awarded me for giving some clues in this regard. These people targed innocent college going girls and used all the tricks to kidnap them. That day they dragged unconcious Meghna in a cloak room and when she refused to go with them to get sold. They beated her, the guy raped her and later killed and locked her in the restroom. I felt like to kill Mr. and Mrs. kumar or whoever they were. It was very unrighteous thing to grab someone's life.

I went to meet Meghna's family and consoled them. When I saw her picture, I felt like she came right infront of me wearing air hostess dress and saying " Hello sir, what is your destination?". I felt very bad for her journey on that day that became more than mere journey or destination in a real sense!

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.