Gems Amidst Stones

“Dunno what I am gonna do tomorrow!”

That is the standard dialogue of every student one day before the exam. No matter how much they study and work hard, the dialogue remains.

“You will do well! Don’t worry so much! Just study well,” replied Gina.

“I am. I have been studying for 2 days for this lousy lab external but I am still not confident,” said Nate.

“That is fine. That feeling comes with the exam tension. You’ll do fine. All the best!”

“Okay.”

- After the exam –

Beep! Gina’s phone said.

She checked who the text was from.

‘Text Message from Nate.’

She opened it apprehensively.

“:(“ showed the text.

“Hey,” she replied. “How did the exam go?” she added even though she had figured it out.

“I’ll be happy if I scrape out a pass. I could only do one program right and the viva was an absolute disaster.”

“Aww! Vivas are meant to go bad. Don’t worry about that. But you had studied the programs well, right? What happened?”

“Remember I told you I wouldn’t study two because I was short on time? Remember I said I’d exchange if either of them came?”

“Yes, I do. You couldn’t exchange?”

“No, we weren’t allowed to this time. My rotten luck!”

 “Oh no! That is awful.”

“Yeah. You know? Everyone copied. Everyone! Except me.”

“You don’t copy?”

“I do at times. But for today I had studied well and worked very hard and I wanted to be honest with myself. Even though I could copy, I didn’t. Everyone else did.”

Gina’s chest swelled with pride. She was so overwhelmed. She was so happy to know that even at such troubled and nasty times there were guys like Nate who chose being truthful over cheating; chose honesty over undeserving marks. It is very easy to get tempted and copy or cheat during exams. But in the long run it is not the marks but the values imbibed in you that matter. However, that seemed like a lost value. That is why, as she heard Nate’s pained voice she felt very proud.

“I am so proud of you,” she told him.

He was befuddled.

“What? Why? My exam sucked!”

“Exams don’t matter, Nate. You are a beautiful person. Don’t let low marks or badly written exams tell you otherwise. Ever. Okay?”

“Okay. But..”

“Shh. No buts. Take some rest and text me once you wake up. You must be tired.”

“Yeah, I am,” he replied, still confused.

She smiled.

“Bye. You are a gem!”

“Bye! I am not.”

“Shh. Sleep.”

Indeed these small things make a person stand out from the crowd. Such small flashes of beautiful character make a person special. The world is not messed up yet. There are still many out there in this bad world that are so tender and pure that they can’t do bad even if they want to. There are so many such people; in fact each of us has one such character that makes us human. One such feeling or emotion that we feel makes us good; it makes us good people. We may have a hundred bads but one such good is enough to overshadow all of them.

Each person is special and ‘good’. You just have to be patient enough to realize it.

Memories

Memories play a game,

n' bring the picture out the frame

They make you laugh and make you cry,

Give you a high and then leave you dry.

Memories play a role

In cleansing your soul.

Yet they hurt, they tear

They pinch and they scare.

Memories in the long run

Become the sole source of fun

When nothing is yours anymore

Memories knock on your door.

With tears streaming down,

Memories make you smile

Memories are beautiful;

They make life worthwhile.

Appreciate.

Days become months

And months make years.

We go down memory lane

And cheeks flood with tears.

Happy days come and go

As do the sad.

Everyone has ‘em all –

The best, the meridian and bad.

Blinking tears away

As we look back now,

We wonder why we lost it all

What went wrong and how.

Never take anyone for granted

Or pay you will, one day.

You may have hundreds now.

But you’ll stand alone on D-day.

When you do the Crime and Someone Else Pays

“Tomorrow, 5 PM. Okay? And I do NOT want procrastination again!” came a strict but sweet voice.

“Okay, okay. No postponement of this meeting. Tomorrow for sure! Did you tell the others?” came the reply through a calm but naughty voice.

“No, that is your job.” She said with a slight laugh. “They are always ready. You are the killjoy, hon.”

“Yeah, yeah. I ruin everything. I know. But I get busy!”

“You aren’t the only one who works round here” now the sweet voice turned threatening.

“I know. I didn’t mean. . I am sorry.” He faltered, not wanting to rile her up again.

“No worries. See you.”

“Bye.”

-------------

He was wearing his shoes when he heard loud banging on his door.

“Open up Busy Bee! It is time to go!!!” Jenny cried in glee. “We even have to pick the others.”

Rohan ran with only one shoe on to open the door because it seemed like Jessica would bang it down if he didn’t. The banging grew louder.

“Wait a second you noisy brat!” he bellowed and pulled the door open. Jessica almost fell on him due to the force because she was still busy knocking with all the ATP she had in her.

She surveyed him from top to bottom and glared.

“You aren’t ready yet? What are you, a girl?”

“Oh shut up.” He replied wearing his shoe and jumping up. “Let’s go!”

She ran behind him and kept chattering away in enthusiasm. “I brought cookies! And, chocolates! And and, chips!”

He smiled at his silly, cute friend and started the car as she wore her seatbelt safely. “Hey! Wear yours too!”

“You know I won’t.”

“You are an ass. Wear it!”

“Stop it!” and with that, he drove out on to the road.

Jenny’s head was moving in sync with the music when the phone beeped with a text.

“cum soon. Whr da hel r u gys?” She boiled looking at the chatspeak but managed to stop herself from retorting, making it a mental note to bonk Nathan’s head when they reached his place to pick him and their other friend Lisa.

“See, he is yelling now.” She said to Rohan as she stuffed her phone back in her pocket after reading the text out loud.

“Oh, he won’t yell, don’t worry. We’ll be there in 5 minutes.”

“5 minutes?!” she spluttered. “He lives at least 30 minutes away!”

“Not when I am in the driving seat.” He replied with an almost insane laugh and pressed hard onto the accelerator.

“Oh no! Oh no! Not so fast.” she realized she had unleashed the speed-freak in him just by reading the text out. He loved speed and he hated being told off. 

Both combined together made him the mad fool he was now.

“Slow down!”

“Shut up. I know you want to be there more than I do. The sooner we reach the resort, the more we’ll party. Plus, I know you like speed. So sit back and enjoy” and he laughed.

Jenny quietened down and distracted herself with the music as he drove fast and furious.

CRASH.

Three bodies lying on the floor; one of an infant held tightly against his dead mother’s chest. A moped broken and destroyed lying a distance away. And blood; innocent blood.

He got so carried away only 2 minutes into driving that he forgot he was on a busy road. He lost control and he drove straight into a young couple on a moped, the lady with their infant in her arms.

Three lives – innocent lives – ended in a second. Blood was shed for no fault of their and the baby died even before he could learn how to speak.

Rohan and Jenny only suffered minute injuries and a dent in their car.

Drive safe.

Give a damn to innocent people at least.

Youth: Messed up or Misunderstood?

“Aaj kal ke bachche bhi na!!”, “Kids these days, I tell you!”  And that disgusted expression.

Only the other day, I was in the supermarket quietly looking through stuff when an old man passed me, turned around to look at me as if I had sworn at him and muttered to his wife, “Kids these days are so spoilt! Their parents should be blamed for buying them such expensive cell phones while they are still in school.”

I looked up. He had noticed my cell phone. I shut my eyes tight for a nanosecond to stop myself from saying what was going through in my head and smiled pseudo-sweetly at him. Then I very politely said, “I am not a school kid, sir. I am a post-graduation ‘kid’. Also, my parents don’t spoil me by buying me things. I spoil myself because I earn. AND, I pay my own college fees.” I so wanted to mouth, “Problem?” in the end but I managed to keep it to myself. I swear I would not have retorted had he kept my parents out of it.

He stared at me as if I punched him in the face and I simply walked away with one final smile.

This is the problem everywhere and with everything we do or say. Why is the train of thought about youth today so messed up? Okay, we know how to use a cell phone at an age when you didn’t even know what a landline was. But is that really our fault? Aren’t you the ones who taught us to stay on par with the changing world? Now that we are, there’s a problem?

So what if when you were kids, you listened to your parents? We sure as hell listen to our parents too. The only difference is that we have the guts to voice our opinions. You never spoke a word in your time and that is why most of you were forced to study subjects you didn’t even like. We know what we want today and we want to pursue it. Most of you even regret not telling your elders what you want to be in life. Now is it bad that we refuse to be the same puppets? Agreed that we can be very rash at times but that does not give anyone the right to misjudge us so brutally.

Yes, I agree hands down that some of us are indeed messed up, indeed spoilt and have no values whatsoever towards elders, family and even friends. But are you telling me that your whole generation was whitewashed with purity? That none in your generation were spoilt? To which generation did Osama Bin Laden belong to again?

Most of us see our parents work in a 9 to 5 job that they absolutely hate just because they ‘respected’ their parents too much to tell them what they wanted. We don’t want to end up like that. We want to work in a profession that we love so that we don’t quietly blame our parents for ruining our lives forever. That does not mean we disrespect our parents at any level. Most couples live together today because they are married and not because they are happy. The relationship stays intact just because they are now parents and the damn society will talk in their backs. We don’t want that. We want to marry someone we love so that we live together because we want to and not because we have to. We DON’T care what the society thinks of us. Is that so bad?

We may make decisions in haste but that is why we always look for our parents’ approval. I know a big handful of people who have obediently given up on relationships because their parents did not approve of them. We know how much we respect our elders and how much we try not to hurt them. Why can’t one just PLEASE get out of the clichéd thought and see that?

We have a world of opportunities open to us and the world is no more divided into doctors and engineers. Some of us want to be photographers, some writers, some dancers and some journalists. We only believe that this is our life and we will live it the way we want to. It is up to us to make it or – spoil it.

We respect you deeply and we have all the values our parents imbibed in us. It aches that we are so widely misunderstood. Just give us one chance to prove that to you. And please don’t judge us OR our parents by the clothes we wear and the gadgets we carry.

A Boy

A boy holds a soft heart

Engulfed in a hard shell.

He smiles even if he's being ripped;

even if his heart is unwell.

You will never see him cry

but know that he's very weak.

He's ego is just a facade

behind which lies a worried child meek.

Oh, his ego is everything to him.

And thus he acts carefree.

But he is super possessive;

in seconds, high on a burning spree.

He will show loadsa attitude

but inside he's inferior.

He has doubts about himself

hidden in that coarse exterior.

All he needs is for some support,

For someone to share.

He's the guy we know to be harsh;

in reality the eden of care.

When Fantasies are Betrayed

She woke up at 8 A.M. sharp.

That was pretty early for a girl who was known to sleep like a log straight into the afternoons. She was used to sleeping late at night ergo; she barely had caught any sleep. Yet she wasn’t lazy or sleepy or even irritated as she normally would be on waking up so early. Today she was excited; nervously excited. She hummed to herself tunelessly as she brushed her teeth- she brushed with extra care today, eyeing each tooth in the mirror and making sure her brush reached even the areas deep inside. Finally, a good 8 minutes later [5 minutes more than her usual], she washed her mouth.

But, she wasn’t finished yet. She skimmed through the shelves and found what she was looking for. She uncorked the brand new bottle of mouth wash. [She had it for days but was always too lazy or short on time to use it.] She washed her mouth twice with it [once is generally more than enough] she replaced it in its place and showered, still humming away to herself and dancing as the warm water poured on her. She used extra shampoo, extra body wash and extra conditioner - double of everything. She came out of the bathroom half an hour later, dancing into her room. She blow dried her hair; individually drying a handful. She had tried drying each strand actually. But she realized it would take her about a year plus that it was quite impossible. Happiness and excitement can sometimes addle your brains.

Her first date with the guy she was madly in love with for 5 whole years elevated her mood to a degree that it never reached before. Once she was done with her hair, she wore her clothes; dark blue slim fit jeans and a red tee-shirt. The girl who usually yelled at everyone and no one when she couldn’t find her things, called out for her roommate in her sweetest voice. Her roomy bustled into her room to stare at her normally irritated roommate as she asked her in the same sweet tone, “Babe, I can’t find my ear rings. Can you help me look for them?” and choked out, “What.. What is the matter with you?!” The girl just giggled’ planted a kiss on her flabbergasted friend’s cheek and whispered, “I’m going on a date. With Justin.”

Her roommate’s eyes widened in shock as she heard the name. “Justin?! Justin!! Justin Stevens??? That guy you have been head over heels in love with forever?? He asked you out? Oh, my God! I can’t believe this!” She sat on her bed, wiping her forehead as the girl insanely giggled away.

“Now will you please help me find them?”, she asked her friend. “Yes, yes. Sure.” The latter said and looked around for the jewellery, mumbling away, trying to work out how this impossible event happened. “Aha! Here they are!” Jenny said after two minutes, triumphant, holding out a pair of beautiful red ear rings and Jessica slumped onto the bean bag, watching Jenny scamper around happily.

She had never seen her so happy before. She couldn’t help smiling as she saw her. It was such a great feeling to see someone you loved so cheerful. A good 45 minutes later, Jenny was ready. And there was only one word to describe her. Beautiful - breathtakingly beautiful. Even though she wore only a casual pair of jeans and a tee, she looked amazing. Well a natural beauty she was. So that was obvious, thought Jessica. Her beautiful long hair left open, a tad of mascara and a dash of lip gloss- that was all the makeup she ever used- enhanced her beauty and just completed her look.  She wore her sandals and sat on the bed, careful not to move too much for the fear of messing her hair as she so often did. She sat there waiting for his text to ask her to come down stairs as they had agreed he would. It was eleven. He should be here any time. It was a lunch date. She was already hungry. She hadn’t even had breakfast in her excitement. 

After a while, she looked at her watch. Eleven fifteen. No text yet. Eleven thirty. Nothing. He said he’d be on time.. “Guys. Never on time.” pitched in Jessica, sipping her coffee. Yeah, Jenny thought and waited for another half hour. At twelve, she got anxious and texted him. “Where are you? How much longer?” No reply. She called his cell. No answer.

Panic struck in and after a while she was hyperventilating. Where was he?! Two hours and he was still not here! She called at his place. His roommate had answered and told her he was out. She asked him if he told him where he was going. His roommate said no but casually added that he might be out with Angela- his rumoured girl friend. Jenny ended the call and stared at her phone. He had asked her out and he took Angela instead? The very thought shot an electric current in her spine. “Are you sure he was going to come babe?” Jessica asked, “Because it seems like he isn’t. Even the most unpunctual guy would be here by now.”

Jenny looked up at her. She found it too hard to believe that Justin had asked her out. But.. Justin doing this to her.. Justin.. Betraying her.. The guy she loved for so long.. The guy she spent nights dreaming of betrayed her in the last minute. Even though her heart found it impossible to believe it, her eyes did. And, they poured out. Tears of agony. Tears of betrayal. Tears of pain. How could he do this to her? Break his promise? So he had fixed a date with me but was out with that B* who was supposedly her girl friend all along. That thought sent another lightening fast current seeping into her whole body and she chucked the glass of water she was holding onto the wall. It broke into thousand pieces. She slid down onto the floor, with all kinds of depressing thoughts overwhelming her.. Why? Why did he do this to her? She was much better off admiring him from a distance. At least she wasn’t in pain when she dreamt about him.. Her mascara flowed away with the tears and she sat there on the floor, her brain and body refusing to co-ordinate.

It was 5 P.M. when she received a call. Jessica, who had been sitting next to her trying to soothe her answered it as Jenny was oblivious to everything at the moment. The call ended in less than a minute. Jessica turned to look at Jenny who looked up. “Was it him?” she asked in a barely audible, strained voice. Saying his name aloud felt like torture to her. Jessica shook her head. “It was his roommate. Justin.. Met with an accident.. While coming here to pick you up. He was admitted in the hospital.. He passed away half an hour ago..”

Jenny was betrayed indeed. But not by Justin. She was betrayed by life. . .