A short story-3

--------------------------------------
Matches are made in Heaven...
--------------------------------------

This was it. His destiny. He was going to marry Revathi, a total stranger. Mohan could not believe what was happening.
"Dinner's ready", announced Revathi's mom.
Mohan walked along with his parents to the dinner table. There were five people at the table including Revathi's parents. There was a sixth plate for Revathi. She had been asked by her mom to serve their food and join them after the initial serving. The food was excellent, but Mohan couldn't have cared less.
"I have not had better Potato curry all my life", declared Mohan's dad. Mohan's mom gave him a stare. All of them seated at the table laughed except for Mohan and ofcourse, his mom. Revathi joined them at the table now.
Revathi was tall, fair, had her Masters degree in Environmental Engineering from MIT and was very attractive, yet homely. Mohan's parents were content that they had chosen the right girl for their handsome young son who had a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard.
Mohan was staring at Revathi now- but everything his eyes were seeing was Divya.
Divya was a friend from his undergrad college. She was not very attractive, had not studied beyond Bachelors, was dusky and short. But, he liked her very much. She was cute in her own way. She could keep him interested for hours, just by talking. He spent all his free time with her when in college. They have had lengthy phone conversations and chat sessions after he left to the US of A. Yet, in all these years, he had never thought about the possibility of being in love with her.
A month ago, when he met Divya to tell her about Revathi, she had said casually, "I have sometimes wondered if you had feelings for me. I have always assumed that our friendship meant something more than just that. All those phone conversations and chatting...i should admit that i have learnt a lesson- "Never Assume!" ", she smiled. Mohan smiled too and it was never discussed again. But the last 2 days were really disturbing for him, to say the least.
"Enough of ogling at your would be!", said Mohan's mom. Mohan realized he was staring at Revathi and changed focus. It did not take him long to be lost in Divya's thoughts again...
The possibility of losing Divya's friendship if Revathi turned out to be a possessive wife, the thought of missing Divya's smiling face that he was so used to seeing every time he wanted to, the thought of forgetting the feeling of liking her, the thought of not being loved by her.....he couldn't dare think of the consequences. He knew...he loved her too. He had loved her, all along...he knew it for sure only now.
He was now worried about how his parents might react. How will Revathi's parents react? Most importantly, what will be Revathi's reaction? Will she slap him on his face?...the very thought made his face turn pale. Yet, he knew he had to do it right then and right there. If she slaps him, let it be- he deserved it. He wouldn't be doing good to either of their lives by not telling. He knew he could never live without Divya...she meant everything to him. He mustered all the courage he could and started talking.
"Revathi...I have something to....", he stopped, seeing Revathi rise.
"Mohan. I am really sorry I had to put you and your parents through all this. There's someone else. I am in love with Karthik, a colleague of mine. It was really silly and stupid of me to have let you all go through this in the first place. I am really sorry", she was crying.
The elders were speechless, and Mohan was shouting excitedly, "Wow. I have not had better Potato curry all my life", munching the piece of potato in his mouth.

Of Open Book Exams and Deafness...

Guindy Engineering College, Chennai is considering having open book examinations. I am not sure if other colleges in India already have open book exams, but this, i believe, is a good move.

I was aware of this concept only while taking courses during my MS Degree, here in the United States. Most of my courses had open-book exams. The first time i took an open book test, i realized how tough it was! The questions were in no way related to what was already analyzed in the book that was in my hand! I have scored some really embarassing marks in some of these exams! It was a humiliating experience for someone who was used to scoring near full marks in almost all the exams back home! But the exams my university(in India) offered were mostly jokes! The scores mostly depended on how much one wrote and how the answer sheet was decorated! Here, it almost entirely depended on what one wrote! A huge leap and being nothing close to an extraordinary student, it took me a few attempts to get a hold on things. My worst grades were in the courses that were THE MOST important for my degree/thesis. Well, the grades don't matter much now- but then, they did!

But there's no denying the advantage these open-book tests offer. They make you think impromptu and extract fresh ideas out of your mind- something which can only mean good at any point of time in one's career/life. So, i guess it's a good thing that GEC is planning to introduce open-book tests. This also requires a great committment from the professors' part and if that's a given, i hope to see major improvements in the education system of GEC.

Another news i read today was both heartening and inspiring. It's really great to see the efforts taken by the students to help a friend restore his hearing, who they strongly believe deserves this kind of help. People like Senthil are always an inspiration. It doesn't sound great when ur mom says, "See- he's a poor kid and he studies well. What good are you, with all the comforts/luxuries that you have?"- but, when you get to know about such characters on your own, the inspiration is always there...a lesson to follow when i grow old!

The Godfather...

"Over with yet another novel", was the feeling after i finished reading "The Godfather" last night. I have not liked a single book as much as i liked "The Da Vinci Code" ever since i read the DVC. Maybe, only books like the DVC are for me. Started off with "Windmills of the Gods" today and the opening pages seem to suggest a story similar to "Deception Point" or something like that in store. Chances are that i'll like this book better than the GF.

GF was not bad- i can never call any book bad, more so because i choose to read only widely acclaimed authors/books. My reading habit started pretty late, only after i was 21...so i need to finish reading the good books first! Coming back...the GF could have been written a lot better, i felt. It had a very strong story, but somehow the screenplay(am yet to figure out if this is the right word to be used!) seemed to drift a lot. Shifting the story back n forth did not help either. Thankfully, i haven't seen any of the GF movies and i got the feeling that helped me to not hate the book. I heard that there's more story in the movie than is in the book- that the entire third part was made-up for cinema. I chose not to see the movie until i read the book and the i'll be seeing them soon, during the next chance i get. Honestly, i dont have a lot of positive things to say about the book. Quite possibly the first and last book of Puzo's that i'll be reading.

This book sure has inspired the making of "Nayagan". But then, "Nayagan" was very well made, keeping in mind the Indian public. Not to mention the genius(es) of the actor Kamal Hassan and the director Maniratnam and in my opinion, to top it all, Raja's BGM. Movies like that aren't made every day...

Today's Song: Malarndhum Malaraadha from Paasa Malar.

More Cricket...

We had our second practice game on the 15th of May, 2005. This time we had a formidable opponent in Columbus Cricket Club(CCC). It was again a 13 on 13, 35-over game where 11 get to bat(actually all 13 batted in the end although the score when the 10th wicket fell was what was taken into account) and 11 field. Our captain lost the toss for the second time in a row and this time the opponents decided to bat first. The venue was a neutral one- Dayton(since the weather was bad at Columbus and there was a game scheduled in Cincinnati). I did not get to open the bowling this time since i bunked practice on friday. It was only in the 8th over that we were able to make a breakthrough. I bowled overs 9, 11, 13, 15 and 28 and got 2 wickets. We managed to get them all out for 91 in 27.5 overs. My figures were a very satisfactory 2/14 in 4.5 overs(it was 2/18 in 3 overs last game). We managed to win by 3 wickets. We were 73/2 only to find ourselves suddenly struggling at 81/6. I went in to bat for a few balls after the chase was over. We gave ourselves a virtual target of 30 runs in 4 overs after the chase was complete and managed only 21 in the end. In the end, it was a good game. Our bowlers bowled 44 wides in their total of 91, which needs serious attention. I bowled *only*(it'd have been too much on any other day) 4 wides though ;). The batting looks a little shaky as usual, but it's always been the bowlers who have won games for UCCC. So, that wasn't much of a surprise. Two more weekends to go before midwest tournament begins.

Songs of the day : 44 songs in my winamp playlist from Shankar's 7 movies so far. Not one song was boring!

Lalu...

now, this is ridiculous...

A short story-2

The Dawning of Truth

He felt ashamed. Not in the worst of his dreams did Dev imagine that he could drink. He was the kind of guy who got people that drink pissed off so easily by giving them all sorts of advice and ridiculing them when they failed to listen. He was arrogant, they thought. But he believed he was doing the right thing and strongly believed that
drinking should be totally banned. After all, it had no positives, he reckoned.

Prakash was cleaning up Dev's vomit. They were roommates for 2 years now. Prakash remembered the day when Dev vehemently refused to let him store one beer bottle for one night in their refrigerator.
"Bring that bottle in and i am out of this apartment. I dont give a damn as to what kind of lease i break", Dev had said.
Prakash knew he had no choice there. The bottle was out and Dev had won the bout, which was never really there.

Dev was beginning to get back to his senses. His head still ached a little. He had drunk 8 bottles of beer and a couple of vodkas, all in his first ever attempt at drinking. It was the seventh time he vomitted that night which was being cleaned then...
Dev was crying now. Prakash walked up to him and put an arm around Dev's shoulder.
"I am sorry for what i did Prakash", he mumbled.
"It's ok. I understand why you did what you did. You never really had a choice", Prakash was feeling sorry that Dev broke up with Shweta.

Dev had dumped Shweta earlier that day. They had been seeing each other for over a year now.
"I dont have the courage to tell my parents, Shweta", Dev had said with tears in his eyes.
"I can talk to them Dev. Don't worry. Am sure they'll like me", she had tried her best to be convincing.
"No Shweta. It's not worth it. I cant put them through all this just to make our love successful".
The words had hit Shweta like a spear. There was tears in her eyes then.
"So our love means nothing to you? Why did you have to tell me your love in the first place then?", she had asked.
"It does mean a lot to me. I can never forget you. But my parents are more important to me, Shweta. I am sorry", he had left without saying another word, tears flowing down his cheeks.
She had not stopped him.

Prakash's arm was still around Dev's shoulder.
"I am not sorry that i broke up with her, but i am sorry that i did not let you store that beer bottle for one night. I never gave you a choice. I love Shweta a lot, but my parents wont give me a choice. Now i know what it is like to be left without a choice, Prakash. I am sorry", Dev was crying like a child.
Prakash patted his friend.
"Do you realize that you never gave Shweta a choice today when you broke up with her? If you are really sorry about not giving people a choice, you should go back to her and give her the choice she deserves", Prakash said.

The first rays of dawn came rushing in through the windows...truth had dawned.

Smell of Leather...

I played the first cricket match of this season for the University of Cincinnati Cricket Club today. It was a practice game in the build-up to the Midwest Cricket Tournament 2005. We played against Wright State University and it was a home game for us. It was expected that we'd win the game but the convincing manner in which we won it was very satisfying.
Having put in to bat first, we managed to score 207 in 30 overs. I did not get to bat. In reply, WSU managed just 73 runs and were all out in 15.1 overs. I managed to take 2 wickets in the 3 overs i bowled with the new ball. It wasnt a "great" match personally, but the manner in which every member of the team played his part to perfection was adorable.
We should be playing 3 more practice games before the tournament begins and hopefully atleast a couple of them against good teams. Am very much looking forward to those games and this season.

Shankar's strategy?

Anniyan's audio was released last week and i must've listened to every song in the movie atleast 20 times- "kaadhal yaanai" and "iyengaaru veettu" being exceptions- must've listened to those two atleast 50 times each! I think the songs are very good- far better than anything i've heard in tamil films in the last 2-3 years.
From Gentleman(1993) to Anniyan(2005), Shankar's has been a success story throughout(assuming Anniyan's a hit), but for the Boys(2003) fiasco. Needless to mention, all 7 movies of his have been hits audio-sales wise. What struck me as odd was the nature of the songs in all these movies. One common thing amongst the songs was that there was not a single moody song in all of his 7 movies. The only one coming close to being called as a moody song was "Punnagayil Thee Mootti" from Jeans(1998). Interestingly, that song wasn't included in the audio cassette until after the movie was released and running 50 plus days!
What makes the whole scheme of things interesting is that most of Shankar's movies are serious ones giving him atleast one chance to include a moody or atleast a thought-provoking song...but interestingly, Shankar seems to know what he's doing very well. Most times, a moody song upsets the speed of the movie and i presume that is the reason why Shankar doesn't include such songs in his movies. Anniyan, sure looks to be a serious movie...but u will think it's a romantic comedy if u go by just the songs in the movie!