Category: Stories

When the police knocked on his doors one fine morning, he didnt know what hit him. the story made the first page in the days that followed. He still remembered the conversation with the policeman who first questioned him.
Policeman : are you the owner of this apartment complex?
He: not exactly, but i am paid to look after it.
P: are you related to the owner.
H: no, but i have full authority in all matters pertaining to it.
P: so you are liable as well as accountable.
H: yes, but why these questions?
P: do you personally know all tenants?
H: not all, but my office makes sure that all papers are intact and we give it out only to good citizens.
P: do you know the tenant in 6A?
H: not off the cuff. but let me look at the records.
(after a quick look) ah yes, the schoolteacher, he has been here for quite a while.
P: can you explain why he has so many schoolkids visiting him?
H: well he offers extra tutions to help out weak kids.
P: oh well, the kind of tutions he has been giving, are not for the weak of heart. he has been running a pornography racquet here.
H: you must be mistaken.
P: we are not, and we have come to arrest you.
H: Me?! what did i do? why dont you arrest him?
P: he is absconding, and by your earlier admission, you are
accountable and liable for whatever that happens here.
H: well, i have been a law abiding citizen. i have his permanent
address and i can help you trace him.
P: thanks for the help, but thats beside the point and i’d still
have to arrest you.
H: but i didnt do anything.
P: legally you facilitated the base for the operation.
H: but i didnt know what he was upto.
P: again, by your own job description, its your liability to have found out, and if you didnt, you are accountable for it. sorry, but you are under arrest.
H: i am a respected citizen and the community is not going to stand for it.
P: sorry, but no one is above the law.
As they took him away, he wondered what would be the scenario if a similar issue had occurred in the organisation in which he was CEO, an online bidding site.
until next time, be a responsible owner!!

P.S: for an alternate version of this template, please check this out and tell me if i should use that one.

They met at one of the Bubble Cafe chain outlets. They sat near a window, and so could see the sea down below…. not a sight which many people were comfortable with.. but they were, for they were quite confident of their role in the scheme of things..and if still something happened to them, well, it would happen for a reason..
They were meeting to review the plans that were being implemented as part of the legacy that had been handed down to them a long time back.. some of them were people whosevoice mattered in business and society, and some were normal people.. but it didnt matter,between them, it was their job to make sure that everything was done keeping the plans in mind.
the origins of the legacy was at a time when mankind still couldnt grasp the significanceof the messages being sent to it by the system in which it operated.. and therefore earthquakes, cyclones etc ravaged the lands one after the other.. each time a calamity occured in one part of the world, it was seen in isolation and mankind’s typical response was two fold – one was “god, whats happening?” and the other was “lets all pool inresources there to help those affected”…
between these calamities, people moved to ‘safer’ locations, and those unaffected continued to lead their normal life after ‘pooling in resources’, feeling smug about having done their bit. the normal life included massive felling of trees in tropical areas to overtaking from the wrong side and everything in between…
sometimes consciously, and sometimes otherwise, the million year old mankind and the billion year old system fought each other in a ‘who blinks first’ contest till the system left mankind with nowhere to run, literally.. fortunately, a few had begun to understand the significance of what was happening around them and had begun to try and set things right.. from trying to inculcate values that were longforgotten, back in to humanity, to designing alternate habitats and lifestyles that didnt harm the system, they tried to make peace with the system…
and thanks to the way of life advocated by those few, and followed increasingly by others,the system stopped its war with its favourite creation… what was lost couldnt be regained,but mankind had learnt a lesson it should have never had to learn- humility…….
and thus they sat in the Bubble Cafe, uncorked the water they had specially ordered for the occasion, and toasted the few, who ages ago, had revamped mankind…. the few who used to have meets then too, the few who knew each other only through their words, and thoughts…
until next time, make a plan

P.S : with regards to the template i have 3 ayes yet (pleo, stone and blues) and 5 vehement nays (cynic, pallavi, wings, austere, coolcat) :).. have made some changes to make it better looking at all resolutions (as part of my new year resolution).. so, can we wait for a few more responses and a few more days, before we take a final decision on this? 🙂

he had the graveyard shift today. unlike others, he always had it, because after all he was watching over the cemetry.. but again, unlike others, he liked this, watching over the remains of an existence that once was.. youth, old, male, female.. once in the cemetry age, sex, nationality , nothing mattered…. to the monitors that scanned the cemetry they were all the same.
they would not have spared their mortality a thought while they existed. it was only when age and fatigue slowly crept up on them that some of them would have even thought about mortality.. of course there were some who were so young that they werent capable of such thoughts, their existence was as though a little kid was given control of the life creating mechanism- the kid crated the life, then, treated it like most of his other toys- played with it till he got bored and then either ignored it or snuffed its existence… yes, these little ones deserved pity, for they did not know what it was to grow, and grow old; they didnt have the time to love enough, or be loved enough, in their short burst of existence they were given a glimpse…
the majority of the occupants were ones that had gone through the entire life cycle, felt the pain and joy of existence, felt happiness, sorrow, anger, hate, envy, love, peace, companionship and all the thrills and frills of existence…
his job was to guard the cemetry, from gravediggers, who came to pilfer from the remains of what once was.. but that was the lesser part of the job, there was another part which actually made the job interesting to him.. sometimes while he sat staring at the monitors, he would suddenly detect an occupant coming back to life..strange, but true!!
for these were no ordinary cemetries, they were giant servers – virtual cemetries, that housed blogs which had ceased to exist, and to him, there was no sight more thrilling than a blogger becoming active again…
this one’s for all those blogs i once used to read, for those who have moved on….
until next time, think about the symmetry…

It wasnt a normal delivery, and the doctor certainly didnt appreciate it. For although midnight and early morning deliveries were quite common, he still wasnt accustomed to them. he would have still not minded it, except for two things – the father who was sulking, and the fact that the couple had chosen not to have the delivery in a hospital. must be one of those new fangled ideas that youngsters today came up with…
the father claimed that this was a premature delivery, and the doctor also felt that there was something else that was bothering him. but the doctor was still of the opinion that the father had no right to sulk, for only a madman would have brought his wife on a roadtrip in such a late state of pregnancy!! amazingly, in spite of all this, the woman in question was quite calm, as though she could see beyond all this. in contrast, the doctor was bemused by all the eyes that were focused on him, human and animal, for it looked like all the animals in the vicinity had decided to take an intetest in the pregnancy, maybe it was some primitive bond they shared.
thankfully though there was no light, the candles and the extra shiny night sky made sure that visibility was not a problem. as he was tussling with the pregnant situation, the scene became more bizarre. in walked three people. and no ordinary ones, at least one he certainly recognised, and two others he thought he did, but couldnt place… with a supreme effort, he concentrated on his job, and though it was a difficult one, he was finally rewarded.
a beautiful, smiling boy. and as though a pleasant message was delivered to him, the father was suddenly all smiles. as the visitors and the father congratulated the doctor on the good work, the father murmured,“he’s not mine, but i’ll raise him like a son of god”.
the doctor looked into the baby’s eyes, and was suddenly filled with peace. but he had a sneaking suspicion that his role in all this would be edited in the annals of history. but, inspite of that thought, he decided he would remember this day and celebrate it every year….
until next time, merry christmas…

She sighed, putting the final touches to her latest creation. one would have thought that after so many of them, lethargy would set in and she would stop. but no, it was as though she understood that she was in a league of her own, and on her depended the future. well, if truth be told, in her line of work, she was the past, present and future.
sometimes she wondered if people really had a choice. not really, because if she discounted the guy whose very existence was thanks to her (he added his own flavours to her creations, and rarely took pains to be original), she had unchallenged supremacy. but these days, he was suddenly becoming more than a slight irritant, because his flavours were fast growing in popularity. she often wondered why, because personally, he found his style quite morbid and gruesome.
she also wondered if she should style herself that way,but she loved her characters too much, many of whom were quite famous in their own right, sometimes rivalling her in terms of fan clubs and cults. but she didnt mind that, after all they were her creations. maybe his flavours were just a fad, and would pass.
she smiled to herself thinking of the debates that went on in her name, the ones she triggered through her creations, mostly because she was not a public figure (she believed her work spoke for itself and did not warrant public appearances) and therefore, an easy subject to speculative minds. sometimes, in a particularly naughty mood, she would hint that she was not a woman, but a man; sometimes even say that she was not one, but a set of entities.
she was sure her latest creation would also be a bestseller, just like all the ones before. and like all the ones before, there would be reactions ranging from love to hate, anger to awe, and despair to hope, and they would use her name again, in vain or in a lighter vein – ‘GOD’!!

until next time, dont lose your character!!