Chocobar - a rookie attempt at Short-story telling

Chocobar

Evening 5 PM on Marina beach.

Harish walks on the sidewalk tearing the bus tickets he just traveled in with his family. He is dressed up in an expensive shirt that has not been pressed for a while and left un-tucked with a matching pair of trousers and battered sandals. Rupa his wife walks beside him holding their 4 year old daughter Ananya in the middle.

The cool evening breeze from the sea cruises through their bodies flapping their clothes merrily. They all walked towards string of shops on the edge of the service road.
Shopkeepers were trying to attract the beach goers with their colorful shops-on-wheels.
Adding to the carnival atmosphere were the street performances such as freak shows in tents playing mysterious sounds.

Just then a couple of swanky cars pass by and are parked nearby. Seeing those cars reminds Harish of his own car which was seized by the bankers along with his new flat a few months back. He lost his high flying IT job due to the recession and the right sizing exercise by the firm he worked for turned wrong for him. Being unable to pay house rent, they have to move into hi in-laws place. Just the thought was causing a piercing pain to his stomach more than his hunger. This evening he has come to get some inexpensive entertainment for his family.

Suddenly Ananya starts to run in the direction of an ice cream van. Harish and Rupa run to catch up with her. Ananya shows the ice cream shop and says "Dad. I want a Chocobar"

Rupa with a serious face and a stern voice says “baby... don’t bother papa.. I will cook something for you at home”. Harish unable to face Ananya feels his pockets for money.
After a thoughtful moment, he says to Rupa "just keep walking towards the beach... will join u ladies in few minutes...”. Rupa after an curious expression holds Ananya's hand and starts to walk towards the beach which is a good 200 metres away.

After some 20 minutes, Harish comes running with a chocobar in his hand.
Wiping the sweat on his forehead with his left hand, he hands over the chocobar to Ananya. Ananya happily takes it with a huge smile. Mission accomplished for a loving papa.

"How did you..." asks Rupa to which Harish responds with an evasive wink.

As Ananya happily devours her chocobar, the occupants of those swanky cars they saw on the service lane come towards them. The big man grins and says "Boss you really did a fine job of cleaning my car. Would you mind helping with my friend's car too? He is willing to pay you 30 bucks" pointing to a man next to him.

Rupa feels a mixed emotion of anger, pain and shame overcome her. Like that of residual hot lead from a bullet shot off a 303 rifle straight through her chest. Her eyes become watery and she stares at Harish with a sense of disbelief.

"No boss... thanks anyway" says Harish rejecting the offer from the big man. He keeps his head bowed down unable do face Rupa.

Just then Ananya throws the chocobar away and says "its not like what grandpa buys me" Hurt by the kid’s innocent behavior, Rupa tries to slap the kid with her right hand.
Swiftly Harish carries Ananya away from her mom and resumes walking towards shore lifting her to his shoulder. Wiping her tears, Rupa walks behind them.

Whatever entertainment that was left for them that evening was at their feet. The foaming waters of the sea touch their feet with a welcoming splash.

KANDHASAMY - Review

KANDHA(L) SAMY

A confused script with an oddly old vigilante subject and truckloads of money Kalaipuli Thanu managed to spend on this production.Stay away from this painfully long 3 hours and thirty minutes of stylishlishly shot collection of garb.

I missed the following when I watched this film..

• Susi Ganesan's wonderful narrating skills seen in his debut vehicle Virumbugiren
• Vikram's wide range of histrionics. He is seen wearing a cocky outfit in a vigilante role.
• Shriya's dancing skills given her ballet background

The story is about Kandasamy (Vikram) a CBI officer and his friends who start a crusade for bringing all the black money stashed in foreign countries (stale isn't it?). The motive is damn weak and the unnecessary cat fight betweek vikram and Shreya (daughter of the clicked villain) is atrocious.
Shreya has been done injustice in this film by making her dance to some really bad dance steps and the "Meow Meow" song was laughable. Songs didn't impress me even with visuals. But I have to confess that I loved the final song with some beautiful dance movements by Mumaith Khan who looks steaming hot delicious :-)

Dont even ask me about breaking the suspense of the story. Its got none. Ya..I forgot to tell you that Vikram appears in 2 more get ups. One as a lady (for comedy) and the other as an old man (dont even ask me why). I have to mention that technicaly film is top notch. Especially cinematography, the edits and the overall look of the film. It looks like the film travels to exotic locations such as Mexico just for this reason.
On the whole this film might earn loads of money within few weeks of release. This is due to the no. of shows being (100 in Chennai alone) screened and the prints made (900 copies i
suppose) like so many popular films lately. But if given a chance I would like to erase this one from the filmography of Vikram and Susi Ganesan. My 200 bucks went to drain :-(

Belated birthday wishes to a 62 year old young lady

Here is a lady with a beautiful posture with a literary book on her left.
She was born with beautiful features throughout her body. She even has few parts outside her body in bits. She is an aromatic mix of spices (say cultures) in various hues and flavors. These spices are in unrelenting effort for preservation of old and innovating modern ones

Unfortunately her body parts are being chipped and harmed by some red and green infections. Most of her body parts have troublesome infections that wan't to have a life of their own. These part don't realize the fact that they will consumed by infections (mean the green and red ones) if left alone by their mother. Its mother's love that’s stopping her from letting these parts to go alone I suppose.

These parts are all over the body. Many such parts on her left hand area and few even on the way down. Most unfortunate is the head that has a heart of its own. This is due to a surgery gone wrong when she was born. A bad English surgeon. This is an area where a few lice want to move on to another green lady. There are some nefarious designs by her neighbors who want to chop her and gobble her up like a pie.

All said she has been enviously intact through all these 62 years and will continue to be so in the millennia to come.

I Love Pain

Nope this aint a philosophical rattle mate! Its truth in the most painful (yet painless) sense. Here it is..

Just imagine yourself walking on a lonely road with no one around. You suddenly step on a sharp knife which cuts through your foot. But you don't realize this and keep. After a mile are so you feel dizzy and you fall down dead!

Only one thing can explain this above scenario... you have no sense of pain and you didn't notice the blood coming from your foot.

Trust me this is a medical condition that exists among us. This is referred as "congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis" in medical terms.

It really pained me a lot when I came to know how dangerous and stressful these patients and their caretakers have.
Taste this..
- babies with this disorder cannot even feel hunger
- imagine a baby gnawing its tongue and lips to a bloody mess without realizing
- can feel sharp objects hurting the body
- cannot feel heat and so doesn't sweat which leads to heat strokes
- cannot feel cold and might go into a state of hypothermia
- you can't even hug these patients as they absorb the heat from your body and make you dehydrated
- you can perform surgery to these patients without any anesthetics.

This is a genetic disorder that affects the a vital section of the nervous system that leads to the above problems. This seems to be due to a mutated gene that affects the sensory nerve cells.

One family in Pakistan has 3 members with this disorder. One of them has put this disorder to use by staging street performances in which he drives knives through his body.

This is a very rare phenomenon and only few hundred cases are known across the world. Researchers are trying to use this phenomenon to induce painless state for medical uses such as surgery or combat situations.

Even plants release ethylene (not sure if its pain as they don't have a nervous system) when they are cut. Hope they find a cure for this terrible disorder.