Tutors World Wide India Limited - A Tribute...

October 4. It was a Monday, one of the memorable days in my life. It is the birthday of one of my best buddy from back home – but that’s not why it is memorable. It’s definitely not my birthday – those who’re close to me would know that. Then, why is that day special? It’s a special day because it’s the day I started my professional journey. It is that date that earned me a set of friends who I’d never forget in my life. It is on that date, I transformed from a ‘college boy’ to a ‘man’. It’s that date I joined a company called “Tutors World Wide India (P) Limited”.

To tell you about the company, well it’s been closed for some time now – I think it was on Feb 2009 when the operations shut down. Makes me sad, when I type this – I always wanted to see that company produce more and more professional people – the way it made me. Everyone would love their first company – I was no exception in it. Be it the night shifts, be it the English training session, and be it the “Typing” lessons. I loved each and every one of the lessons they taught me. Situated at the main area – opposite to the “All Sec” call center at Velachery was our TWWI, we call it short for the Tutors World Wide India Ltd. Every time when I cross Velachery, I can’t help but notice the SRS Arcade. That SRS Arcade once was like a home to me – what I see there now is the “State Bank of India”.

We were called the ‘Batch 4’, a set of enthusiastic 25 odd people from different part of the cities in Tamil Nadu. We literally were the 4^th batch to be employed in that company – there were about 50 people working in the company when I joined. Right from the beginning, I had some kind of an attraction towards this company. I don’t know if it was because the way “Sivasankaran” or “Siva PSG”, an assistant manager at that time, who answered the phone and talked to me very nicely when I first called the company regarding the joining formalities. I don’t know if it was “Sridhar KS” – a manager and a man who almost always had an answer to any question – who almost always says “Excellent” when you answer him. I don’t know if it was the “Sucharita ma’am”, the CEO of that company at that time – who encouraged me to pursue my higher education during the day time. I don’t know how often you get a chance to talk to a CEO of a company that you just joined!

I still remember the way we hustle when a student had joined. I do remember the bashings you get when your session has been one of the worst. The appreciations you get when your student gives you a compliment and the satisfaction you get when you taught a student something new are some feelings, that’ll be hardly forgettable. While the mock sessions and the tests gets your pulse quicken, the music on almost every bay relaxes you. You’ll get the felling you’re not working in an office, but you’re along with your family! Inspirations were all around – be it my first mentor “Krithika” [I still remember the way she talk – the way she often use the word ‘nahi’], followed by “Sundar”, the infamous “Seval Pannai” team lead by “Thala aka Saravana” and last but not least, my TAG [Tutoring Administration Group] team lead “Srini” [who I humbly call ‘Ji’]. Every one of them had a passion to work and a passion to teach. Outside my team, I could point “Gyani”, “Alfred”, “Elango Kallanai” "Vishnu Senior" and many such others, who I’d have forgotten over the time period.

Almost all of the ‘Batch 4’ members were recognized for their talents – I became the Team Lead of a 10 member TAG team. Satish Narayan went on to become the lead for the “Image” team. Shanmugam became the important person for the “Content Development”. “Stat Karthi” or “Karthick Subramaniam” went onto became the lead for the “Statistics” team and all this happened within a span of two years. I still am proud for getting the “Outstanding” rating during one of the appraisals. Beyond work, we became thick friends – from staying in one room to watching almost all the movies together. I still remember my first ever movie at Chennai – with my buddies, we went to the infamous Udhayam theatre for the movie “7G Rainbow Colony”. The last time we were in Chennai & working for TWWI, we watched “Vettayadu Vilayadu” at Mayajal.

When I pause and look back after 9 long years, I see almost all of the people who I remember from TWWI are successful today. Well, as for me – I’m working in a software company – same goes to Satish and Somesh. Stat Karthi went on to become a statistician on Ford. Sivasankaran is a HR in one of the companies. Shiva Kumar, mentor for Satish is living in UAE and so on and so forth. That great was that company! It taught you so many stuffs that you’ll survive any where.

To write about the company TWWI or the work culture there or about the people who inspired me there would take atleast 10 pages for me. Please don’t mistake me if I missed any one of the legends from TWWI – it’s just that my memory is becoming weak.I just wanted to re-live the memory of the days I spent with that wonderful company – and the mission is accomplished!

[The White Knight] - 1 - The Light Effect

Introduction to The White Knight is Here. Read this before you continue the story.

Disclaimer: While the technology described in the story can come true, chances are they are my wild imaginations and creativity. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Episode: 1 - The Light Effect

His wife didn’t know about this. She’d have stopped him if she’d known what he’s about to do. But, it was too late. She is the only person in the world who knew he is the only person in the world who could do it. And he did it!

—— 00000 ——

The indiannews.com website didn’t know they were being hacked. He did so in a prime-time and displayed his message which couldn’t be taken off the website for atleast a day. He had hacked into the news website’s database server and hard programmed the news on the database like it’s a notice from the press to the public and its backup DB too. He took a deep breath and published the news. He said to himself, “One down”.

This is what he posted on it (Click on the image to get a better view):

The news went viral. The indiannews.com didn’t know that this had been published on its entire Tamil Nadu version. People started calling the company and asked who the White Knight is. They had no clue. Chennai commissioner went on to make a public statement that the news company didn’t know about this and people don’t need to worry about it. He said that it’s just a stupid computer genius who’ll get caught very soon for the nuisance that he created.

—— 00000 ——

She walked into his room. He was alone and having his regular JD, watching the commissioner’s statement on the news. She walked over to him with the breakfast she prepared and set aside.

“It’s too early for a JD.” He didn't respond.

“So, why’d you do it?”

“You know why” he said.

“I know why, but why now?”

“Someone has to do it. I can and I’m going to. World has to change. And I’ve decided to change it. I don’t want people to go through what I’m going through.”

“So, you’re going to be a vigilante?”

He let out a dry smile on that comment and clicked on a switch. The entire library that was before them started moving aside and a rack full of computer monitors started moving towards them. One keyboard popped up in front of him and he started typing codes.

—— 00000 ——

Inside one of the biggest MNC, its employees were busy discussing the possibility of detecting high beams. “You think this white knight could really stop people using the high beams?” “Kill a high beam? This guy’s an idiot!” “I don’t think this maniac has any rights to do whatever he’s up to” “People do use high beams these days – I almost hit a two wheeler a couple of days before because one idiot came flashing up towards me!” “He doesn’t have any rights to do anything to our cars. It’s my car and I use it the way I like it” “I don’t think anything’s happening tonight – watch my words, he’s lucky he got that news published!” “White Knight? Hahaha. I think this guy had way too much to drink last night!”

—— 00000 ——

Sun was all set to go to sleep after a tiring day of smoking things up. The news created a big impact, one passed it to other and almost the entire Tamil Nadu knew that something does gonna happen tonight. Or probably, nothing but a hoax! They were about to find out as it was almost time to switch on their lights. Almost all the news channels made sure they covered the city traffic during the night time and some even started running live coverage. “I’m standing here at one of the high traffic area here in Chennai – Old Mahaballipuram Road. The morning news from The White Knight had claimed that people who use high beam has to watch out tonight. We will see if this white Knight will really do something about it in a short while. This is Priya Malhotra reporting from OMR, Chennai for indianews”

People started rushing towards home with their four wheelers after a hectic day at work. After all, who has a good day at work? Time to put their lights on. The news did make the impact on people – most of them were running with their lights on the road. The live coverage said there’s nothing happening tonight so far, people are going home with their normal lights and seemed to stop using high beam. And then it happened. One of the non-believer, started his car and switched his high beam, and entered into the traffic. He smiled to himself – “White Knight – a drunken idiot!” and increased his speed on the traffic. He heard a bursting sound – the sound of his head light dying. Smoke was coming out of his car’s head lights. At the same time, he heard the same sound around him and realized that he’s driving only with the help of the street lights. Panicked, he switched on his left indicator and pulled over aside to see smoke coming out of his car’s head lights. And then, like a magic, when he saw the traffic, he noticed, one by one, the head lights of the cars that have their high beam on, started bursting up like a cracker. “Damn you White Knight!”

The live coverage went on to report the incidents. “We are bringing you the live coverage from the Mount Road where you can see a lot of cars are pulling over. Apparently, their head lights have been burst out after they switched on their high beam. Looks like the White Knight has made something that is making the car’s high beam lights go burst like a cracker. People who use the normal lights don’t have any impact by this and are driving safely. We advice people not to use the high beam inside the city for your own safety.”
The coverage from another news channel showed some accidents because of the light bursts. It was chaos all around the city that night. At 9, a channel summarized the incidents happened on that night. About 30% of the vehicles were in the service center for a new head light and most of them were IT company buses that had about 6 lights on a side.

—— 00000 ——

“Stop this” she said after bursting into his room.

He gave her a look and then started typing more codes.

“I said stop it Ram. You better watch the news – it’s chaos out there and there had been accidents because of what you did”

He stopped typing for a moment as if he heard what she said and then started typing codes again.

“Are you hearing me?” she started coming forward as if she’s going to pull the keyboard from him.

“I can hear you alright. Do you think I didn’t know accidents would happen when I planned this?” he was still typing.

“Then why the hell are you doing this? People might die, Ram!”

“Then it’s the price that I’m willing to pay for no such future incidents”

“No Ram. This is not you. You’ve taken junior’s accident seriously. You couldn’t have done anything to stop it. It’s not your fault!” She realized it too late.

He stopped typing. A tear rolled down his cheek. There was a long silence. “I could have Raji. I could have. I don’t want any more accidents happen because of a high beam and I don’t want any father losing his only son. This is for a greater good and a brighter future.”

She walked over to him and gave him a hug. “I know Ram. I know what you’re trying to do. I just don’t like the way you do it” tears came down from her eyes too.

There was a long silence once again and then he moved her aside and started typing more codes. She knew that nothing she could do to stop him. It’s that attitude that attracted her to him.

“So, how did you do it?” she asked looking over the codes.

“Are you interested in my vigilante program?” he said with a little smile.

“May be. How do bursting head lights work?”

“Through the cell phone towers. I’ve hacked into almost all the cell phone service providers and use their signal to detect for a high beam. Once the source is identified, I use the internet to locate the car key’s resistor and using the circuit, I kill the bulbs of the source by sending 75% of the car’s battery life into it. Using the maps, I’ve programmed it to work inside the city, so the highway high beamers won’t be affected.”

“Hmmm. Interesting”

“Is that compliment?”

“You could say so. A vigilante not only kill peoples’ head lights – what else have you planned for?”

“Oh, this is just a beginning. A personal satisfaction, I would say. There’s lot more to come!” he said with a smile on his face.

“What are you doing now?”

“Sending out the news that The White Knight will continue to serve!”

She looked up at the screen and a news paper column showed the message (Click on the image to get a better view).

–To be continued.

Newspaper image courtesy: fodey.com

The White Knight - An Intro...

He was a glorified software engineer. Anything anyone asks him for, he’ll get it done – the maximum time he has taken to do so is 1 day. He had never switched company because, the company that he worked for made sure to raise his salary twice in a year – an exception that’s not even made for the CEO of that company. He infact negotiate/withdraw salary in US $s while working in India. He had everything he needed for his life – a good job, a loving and caring wife, good money (ofcourse!) and the blessings of his parents. He had been earning in $s for the last 10 years and there’s a talk going on that he’d soon be the richest man in India. He had multiple houses in and around most of the cities in Tamil Nadu, almost all the states in India and even a couple in the US of America. God is not the type who’d give only happiness to his fellow disciples, is he? He had issues too and the major one being his only son died in a terrible accident. With the wealth he had, he could have sued the lorry driver who hit his car and taking away his only child. The case was closed as an accident and the driver’s license was ‘punched’ once and he paid for the bail and walked away. After that night, he resigned his job and settled in the almost-farthest-end-of-India – a remote village near Kanyakumari. Six months passed and the world thought the emerging wealthy had lost his mind after his only son’s departure and very soon, forgot about him. Little do they know on what he was doing in that remote village or what comes the following day.

—— 00000 ——

Say hello to my “White Knight”, my first attempt at creating a ‘series’. This is a super hero story, inspired by many, many such movies that I watched. I’m naming it “A White Knight”, after my favorite “Dark Knight” and a recent photo shared at Facebook (below). I’ll try and create each and every part as one episode – i.e., one story per episode, so people who miss one could still follow the next. This is not going to be a mega-series with lots of episodes. The frequency of the episodes depends solely upon my availability, so please don’t be disappointed (!) if I don’t write often. First part would be published shortly. As always, your feedback’s important! Please do leave them on the comments section!

Image Courtesy: Facebook

 

This and That...

When I was busy writing “What the hell”, my Honda Shine celebrated its first birthday, courtesy of me filling his stomach up – yep, that was his treat! When I now pause and take a look at him, I feel like he feels violated. During this journey of over 13300 kilometers, he never let me down – even literally! But, every morning when I take him to office – with the one stop at “Hotel Raja”, I see he has the knack to attract all kinds of mud and dust. No matter how many times I clean him [for the sake of an argument]; he’s like a kid who, when let out to play, comes back with dirty clothes and muddy feet!

There was a cubicle decoration contest held at Walgreens offshore (don’t remember why, but who wants a reason) and out of the 6 bay here, 3 themes were given. It was a country theme – Egypt, Paris and China – one country for every two cubicles. You’ve to decorate your cubicle with things that’ll resemble the country assigned to you. Our theme was Egypt and I don’t know why, but the contest was postponed for multiple times after the announcement. Nevertheless, we were born ready and soon our cubicle mates came up with ideas (we even had a meeting held up in one of the conference rooms available). Until the D-Day, I was only involved in buying things like color paper or scissor or something-like-that. In the last moment, I don’t know whose idea it was, but the team decided to pose me as a live ‘Mummy’. I’d never been interested in any of these things throughout my career – whenever there’s such a contest, you can see me as one of the ‘Gethu’ [கெத்து] people who wouldn’t get involved in any of the activities. But this time, people were so good to me and the fact that I contributed very less in the theme, made me guilty. So, I accepted to pose as a live Mummy and as if they knew I would accept, they brought the tissues ready with them. They then wrapped and wrapped and wrapped me until I couldn’t see a damn thing and only hear naggings.

When the chief guest came and asked about the live ‘Mummy’, I said “Hello Sir, I can offer you my hand, but I’m a bit tied”. I don’t know if he was able to hear what I said because the area was filled with laughter most of the times. In the end it was “China” who won the contest and we finished as a runner up. People took quite some snaps around me, my honest thought was – when I wasn’t a ‘Mummy’ no one was willing to take a snap with me, but when I became a ‘Mummy’, people just rushed in! It’s a Crazy world, huh?

PS: After the contest, people started calling me – “Hey Mummy”… I told them – “Don’t call a future-to-be-daddy as a Mummy!”

What the Hell? - Final Part!

First part of this story is here. Please do read before you continue this!

----- 000 -----

With that, he fell silent. His enthusiasm slowly started dissolving. He felt even stupid for wanting to stay here longer. The meaning of ‘hell’ that he learnt when he was alive slowly started a feel of him.

“You can see the future of your loved ones and the mistakes that they are committing day by day. You’ll know when your son will fell down and break his arm, but you can do nothing to stop that. You’ll feel the pain that he feels when he sleeps. When your wife has a headache and takes a tablet, you’ll have a headache when she sleeps. When your daughter falls in love with a total psychopath, you’ll know what plan he has for her. When you watch your dog hit by a car or a bus. When you watch your best friend getting divorced. When your sister gets a cancer. You’ll feel happy when your son tops his class. You’ll never be able to see your loved one’s faces – just the image of them that you saw before you died. You’ll see your son at the age of 18 and you’ll still see his 8 year old face. Pain or gain – whatever you loved ones go through during the day time in their world, you’ll feel the same in their night time.”

Tears started flowing in his cheeks and he shouted “Why? Why? WHY?”

His father, reduced his flying speed, took a glance at his son with a face full of emotion – one that says ‘sad’ all over it – said “Because this is hell, son”.

For the next twenty minutes or so, he was just following his father and let his mind go blank. He now understood why they call it hell. He now understood that the super power he has here is not a power, but a curse. He now wants to get the hell out of it as soon as possible. All he wanted now was to meet God and beg for his sins. And if he doesn’t forgive, atleast, he’ll have his father’s company here – he should be here as long as he would be. His father, after reading his thought stopped short in the mid-air.

“Son, there’s two more things that I’ll have to tell you.”

“What more is there?” he said so assuming nothing’s worst when you almost watch only terrible things and feel terrible pains.

“This is the last time I would be talking to you. After I leave you at the gate of the God, we would not see each other. You’ll be spending your time here – alone. Although we share loved ones, we would not be together. You’ll not see me and I’ll not see you. We share pains.”

Now he understood why he said “use this one precious hour” earlier. He also understood that this is a world, mostly filled with regrets and pains. Ofcourse, there’ll be pleasures too when their loved one has, but he will not have anyone to share pain or pleasure.

“One hour is all I got with you? Is that the last thing you want to say?”

“It’s down to ten minutes now – we’re almost here at Argentina. The last thing is – you’ll be meeting all our relatives who departed earth and are still here in hell. You’ll be meeting them at the gate of the God – your mother among them. This would be the second time I’m meeting her here. You’ll have less than ten minutes – you can’t talk to them as you are doing with me now – you can just see them. Remember when I said you can only see the image of your 8 year old son’s face when he’s growing up? You can see his actual face only when he dies. That’s the sad part – the utmost punishment a soul can get – to wait for your beloved one to die to see their face.”

Those last words of his father felt like the accident that caused his death sometime before – terrible pain. With utter silence, he saw his father descending and followed him to what looked like a dense forest. They reached the gate of the God and he could see his mother, uncles and aunts, his best friends. Tears were flowing in all of their eyes – some of them waved and he waved back. There was a big tree which stood like an Eiffel tower. They were standing just in the banks of a river for which he didn’t know the name.

His father said “It’s time son. Good bye to you. May you see a happy future and reach heaven.”

“There’s one last question before you go” he asked his father “Who is God?” 

He pointed at the Eiffel tower like tree and said “He is”. And then, one by one everyone disappeared, waving their hands towards him.

The gates opened up and the tree started talking. “Can’t say welcome to hell – do you know why you are here?”

“I died and came to hell”

“Yes. Do you know the sins you committed?”

“No”

“Pollution of the very earth you lived upon and for cutting down trees”

“You mean Gods?”

“I’m not a tree if that’s what you mean – I’m just a representation of nature.”

“Nature is God?”

“I know, right? The world once believed nature is God!”

“Why do we have Jesus and Allah and lot of other gods like Shiva, Vishnu?”

“They are my messengers. You can’t blame me for your belief”

“What is a heaven and where is it?”

“You’re standing in one!”

“Who goes to heaven?”

“If you ask current statistics, only babies come to heaven. People are rare, not very rare, but they do come.”

“Why do you make us born again if you think we’re polluting the earth?”

“A chance and risk I’m willing to give or take”

“I was able to talk to my father a little more than an hour before. Why can’t I talk to my father afterwards? Why do we have to suffer this much in hell?”

“Every time before someone dies, one of the relatives or friends will be chosen for them to guide the new leaf to me. As for the suffering, it’s the punishment for your past crimes”

“Why do you make us forget this suffering and knowledge that we gained here before we born again? Don’t you think the memory will help us avoid polluting earth again?”

“You not only gain suffering and memory here, you gain another lifetime experience. With that memory, I know you can live without polluting the earth, but the experience will only make you a better person than you were destined to be. The mistake that you commit during your lifetime becomes an experience – imagine you commit no mistake at all – where’s the fun in that and what do you learn? Believe me, if you were born again with the memory of this world intact, you’ll wish you let me forget!”

“I don’t understand!”

“I don’t expect you to.”

There was some awkward silence and finally when God spoke, “You lived for 40 years, 2 months and 26 days. You spent 15 years, 8 months and 8 days in sleeping. You planted trees which benefited the earth – that gives you 15 months. You once volunteered for channeling a river – which went on to fertile a village. That gives you 2 years and 16 days. You’ll spend the rest of your 21+ years here in hell. Your knowledge will be updated with the approximate figures shortly.”

He now knew that he had to spend 21 years and 3 months in hell.

“What should I do to end up in heaven?”

“That doesn't depend on your actions. It depends on how the world changes as you progress these 21+ years. Know that I cannot completely erase your memory when you leave this world and born again. Some of your memories will become your dreams. That’s why most of the time you don’t remember a dream! It’s when the world starts to understand their dreams – when they realize the potential danger that awaits them – when they stop polluting the world, slowly, everyone will come to heaven.”

With that, God stopped talking and he realized why he called this place a heaven. When you start planting trees, you’re actually giving a soul a heaven. He then was left alone in hell with his prayers for a greener planet.

The End.

----- 000 -----

The 'hell' thoughts described in the story were inspired by Dan Brown's "Inferno" book - the 'visual' he describes of Dante's "The Divine Comedy" (Not a copy from the book. You can check both Inferno and The Divine Comedy books!). The "God" character is inspired by the 'tree monsters' in the Lord of the Rings movie.
Honestly, I had a lot of questions that I could ask "The God". The thing is, when I started making the second part of this story, I felt like it was going on and on and the end was no way near my thought reach. I'm not a novelist or a mega story writer - I decided to end it somewhere. So, I had to reduce the questions for the God. Please input your comments about the two parts!

What the Hell?

This is a fantasy story that I'm trying my hand for the first time. It became a little lengthy than I expected, so it comes in 2 parts. This is the first part. Comments and Critics are welcome.

It all happened within a second. There was absolutely no time for him to take that turn – the idiot who drove behind him hit him so hard that his car’s glasses shattered and some of them even came flying and hit him on the back-head. Bewildered, he tried to take a left turn, but as I said before, it was too late. The car automatically gained speed despite his break attempts and started falling from one of the biggest bridge in the city. The recent drought added insult to the injury – the car, with its wheel still running, landed as shown in most of the ‘hero-entry-in-Tamil-cinema’ and immediately started dropping most of its parts. His head banged the steering hard and immediately, the happy blood rushed out having found the freedom from his body. The car ran a few more meters before the weird shaped wheel came to a halt. Smoke was coming out of almost all parts of the car and it looked like he was still alive. He thought about the good things happened in his life – his wife, his 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter. And then, everything was blacked out and he died. Or, atleast that’s what he thought.

With a sudden burst, he woke up as if he had a bad dream and saw his father in front of him. Well, his father died years before and he was absolutely shocked to see him. He now thought that he’s definitely dead and believed he was in heaven as he considered his father to be the good person and that he would’ve reached heaven for sure. When he started to talk, he couldn’t. He could clearly think, but could not speak. He saw his father and he seems to be observing him and not speaking as well. His father was surprisingly calm and showed no emotion on his face. It was then, he saw the surrounding and found that he’s still in Earth – lots of people crossing him with utter silence. The place looked to be the same – the water-less-river where he believe he was killed, but this time there were a lot of people who were walking around.

“Wow, you look much older than I thought you would be. By the way, you’re dead, son” – said the father his lips not moving.

“I am what? What did he just say?” he thought.

“I said you’re dead. You can’t talk – you can only think. I can read your thoughts, and so can you” he said, lips still not moving.

“What the… you can read my thoughts?”

“I can, and you are reading my thoughts now”.

“How is this possible?”

“In our world, it is the only way we communicate?”

“Our world?”

“Yes, the world you’re in now”

“But it looks like I’m on Earth. Where the hell am I?”

“You’re right, you’re in hell!”

That last word really hit him in the head. “I’m in hell? Why the hell am I in hell?”

“Well, to start off, you say hell-a-lot-of-hell!” his father smiled, pleased by the sentence he formed. He thought about the life he lived so far – the moments before his death – his wife and children – all the good deeds that he did – why am I still be placed in hell?

“To know the answer to that, you need to meet God” said his father.

“I can meet God?”

“Yes, every dead leaf meets the God”

“Leaf? But I’m a man – err… atleast I used to be a human”

“Let’s just say you’ll understand when you meet him”

“That’s weird! So, where is he? Is he here in hell?”

“Well, the answer is somewhat difficult – he lives in hell as well as in heaven”

“What? OK, he’s a God, so he’s everywhere eh?”

“Nah, he’s not everywhere. I think he used to be, not now!”

“Oh, that’s even maddeningly unhelpful!”

“Still quoting Jack Sparrow?”

“Whoa, how the hell did you know that?”

“I was dead before you, remember? Let’s go meet God, shall we?” said his father.

“Ok. Do we have a transport system in this world of yours or just God appears out of nowhere?”

His father smiled, amused by his rookie son’s question. “Remember, this is your world too, so you might wanna consider saying ‘ours’ instead of yours”

“Oh yes, I keep forgetting that I’m dead! So, how do we go?”

“Think ‘Fly’”

“Fly?”

And then it happened. As if he was in the outer space, he started floating. “Whoa, what the hell?” he said and started seeing his hands and legs – the usual response we do when something amazing has started happening. “We can fly?”

“Oh yes, how do you think we’re gonna reach over 3000 miles from here?”

“3000 miles? Is he in Africa or what?”

“Close, but now he’s in Argentina”

“Ok, do you know the route?”

“I do, follow me” he said and started flying. Knowing nothing to do, he just thought, ‘follow him’ and he automatically started following him – at his pace.

“This is cool – how come we fly?”

“Because, you don’t have a body now – all you have is soul. We have about an hour time before we reach Argentina – I know you’ll have a lot of questions – use this one precious hour.”

“How-”

“Don’t ask me how I know the duration – just ask some important questions. Questions that you want to know the answer for, desperately” said his father, cutting him off.

“Ok, what happens after I meet God? Will he decide if I am to be sent to heaven or hell?”

“Oh, you are in hell as I said before and you will be for the rest of your soul-time”

“Why is that and how long is that ‘soul-time’?”

“God will tell you why – I guess you’ll know why when you see him. To answer the other question, you spent about 40 years alive, is that correct?”

“Right”

“So, your soul-time is about 20 years”

“20 years? OMG! Why am I spending half of the lifetime in hell?”

“It’s for the sins you committed during your life time”

“What sin?”

“You’ll know when you meet God”

“Err… ok, why half of the life time?”

“Why do you think there’s day and night and why God lets us sleep? Just because we can relax? No. That’s the time you don’t commit sins.”

“What?”

“You lived about 40 years and slept about 20 years. It is during the other 20 years – all the other activities you did when you were not sleeping – those are the time for which you’ll be accounted for.”

“Wow, every dead people spend half of their lifetime here?”

“Not dead people, leafs. And no, not everyone spends half of their lifetime here. Some gets lesser.”

“Ok, you’ve been here for sometime now – do you think staying longer here helps or get out as quickly as you can help?”

“The latter part”

“Hmmm. I like flying, so I might consider staying longer! What happens after our lifetime here ends?”

“God will decide that after your soul-time here. He has two choices. He may let you born again with no memory of you being here or in your other life. The other choice is what everyone here wants – send you to heaven”

“Wow. Heaven sounds promising! What will I do during these 20 years?”

“You’ll spend your 20 years or so here by watching your beloved ones back in the earth”

“Cool. Would they feel my presence? Can I talk to them?”

“Have you ever felt my presence when you were alive?”

“I thought I was the one asking questions. Hmmm. No, I never felt your presence”

“They’ll not feel your presence or hear your thoughts. It’ll just be like watching a movie – except that you can hear them thinking as well”

“Well, that sounds like a boon!”

“Believe me, that’s curse. Watching them do sins and hearing them thinking dirty is one of the worst time that you’ll spend here. Worst of all is the moment you see when they die. Like the way I watched you. Painful.”

---To Be Continued.

2nd & Final part is here.

Movie Marathon - A Lone Long Weekend

Due to unforeseeable circumstances, I didn't plan a trip home last Thursday. My room-mates did and I was the only poor soul left alone in my room for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thursday night. I returned home from office at around 8 PM and found my room-mates had already left for their hometown. The only companion during these times – my laptop – was brought to life and I connected my 1TB HDD full of movies and series. I decided to take the Movie Marathon.

I’d been a little busy at work these days, so I couldn't spend my usual times to watch movies in the recent times. Nevertheless, I never stopped downloading them, you know – you never know when you’ll get the time!  So, I’d been personally making a list of films that I should be watching whenever I get free time. “Inglorious Basterds” was at the top of the list which I downloaded about 6 to 8 months back. I liked the director of that movie – Quentin Tarantino – (his name kinda rings a bell in your mouth [---tin ---tino], you know!), so decided to give it a shot on Thursday night. About a 2.5 hours movie, which I finished watching in about the same time, without any breaks. The movie didn't disappoint me – lived up to it’s expectation. A different Brad Pitt I saw there!

Friday. After breakfast, I saw some songs and bit-by-bit movies in the TV and decided to continue from where I left the marathon. Before lunch, I watched “12 Angry Men” – another top on my list film which I downloaded almost a year back! The movie’s about 1.5 hours length and was taken inside a hall for almost 95% of the movie. I’m not a fan of old films – hell, I even hesitated to watch The God Father some years before for the same reason. This movie released at 1957, absolutely shattered my view about the old films – I ended up watching it twice on the same day. If you are reading this and haven't watched it or have the same view as mine, go watch it! I bet your views will be changed too!

After a lot of recommendation from my friends over the years, I decided to include “The Lord of the Rings” in the marathon. All I heard about this movie is positive, Good, extraordinary and so on and so forth. I gave a try on this movie earlier once on a sleepy day, and failed to watch more than 1/2 of the film. So, Friday night, with me not getting any sleep, I decided to give it another try. A whopping 3.5+ hours movie – “The Fellowship of the Ring” I managed to finish it off on the early morning of Saturday. I should say, I took a lot of breaks in between the movie, phone calls and water and what-not. After watching the movie, I somewhat felt a difference towards the opinion I had about the movie. So, I continued “The Two Towers” Saturday afternoon, after waking up late and skipping breakfast and having lunch directly. Another 3.5+ hours movie, changed my entire view about the series. It was late in the evening when I finished watching it – I had a quick tea and decided to skip dinner and continued “The Return of the King“. It was worth it and I ended up giving 10 out of 10 rating for all 3 movies in the series in IMDB.

It was pretty late in the Saturday night when I slept after watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I woke up late on the lazy Sunday almost-afternoon, impact from the movie I saw last night, intact. I was too lazy to go out and decided to cook Maggie  As soon as I finished eating the awful Maggie that I cooked, I powered my lappy on. Infact, my lappy was the only thing which was active during this long weekend. One of the other movies which had been on the list for a very long time – “Scent of a Women“. When I finished watching this 2.5+ hours movie, I felt like why on earth I haven’t watched this movie earlier? Al Pacino, as usual, was outstanding in this movie.

My plan was to end my marathon right there – but, I got greedy and decided that whatever the movie I watch during this marathon, it’s going to be awesome! I wasn't wrong – I extended my marathon 1.5 hours more – watched “The Lion King“, the musical animation and now, “Hakuna Matata” is my motto (if you know what I mean [if you don't know, Google it]!) In the end, I quite enjoyed the lone long weekend. Hell, I could probably do the same this weekend too!

If you have watched all the movies that I listed above, you’ll know how good of a marathon that was!

Image Courtesy: Google.