Tag: Story

What can a hair dryer do?

Well, I would be wondering the same thing if you asked me. My reply would be something like “Umm, I dunno, like dry hair and ruin people’s hair just after they managed to comb it down before a party?”  But that would be before the Parcel arrived.

It was one of those fresh mornings that rarely come, one that makes you want to sit outside with a milkshake and a cookie and gloat over the fact that you didn’t turn any of your plants into The Sahara Desert or Michigan Lake, while your neighbour destroyed five of his plants and had to spend all his monthly savings (probably) into buying new crotons.

So, I did just that. I walked out of the door, with some cash in my pocket for buying milkshake and cookies. I hardly noticed a large lightning blue box, nothing like your average courier box. That is, until I tripped over it. I hit my shin, landing face-first into my chrysanthemums. “So much for my houseplants,” I grumbled.

I got up and started checking for broken bones. I was just checking my rather painful shoulder blade when I noticed the blue box, with an irregular imprint where my shin had collided with it. Confused, I checked my phone for any orders that week, though I already suspected that no courier companies used bright blue boxes for delivering stuff. And no, there were no orders due that week, that month, that whole quarter of the year!

Sceptically, I surveyed the box, the way a detective would survey a scene of crime. After a few moments of suspiciously surveying the box, I gingerly took it inside.

All the while carrying the box, I wondered who had sent the box to me. Could it be the FBI? Or the CIA? Or space monkeys who ate pizza? Definitely Space monkeys who ate pizza.

I set the box down onto the table. And inside the Bright Blue Box that beheld the mysteries of Space monkeys that ate pizza was a … hair dryer!?!

“Oh great, now I have another hair dryer,” I said, remembering that my uncle Jai had given me a hair dryer on Christmas. I reached for the dryer but instead my fingers touched the surface of something that burned like lava. The pain was so bad that my hand went numb. My vision was as if I were seeing through a layer of red frosted glass. Thank the gods I remembered to put my hand under cold running water. The tap became soft as clay when I touched it and the cold water turned to steam on contact with my hand. The ice I put on my hand did the same. But the worst was yet to come. The gel ice pack! It exploded into blue coloured toxic stuff that released an acrid fume.

I went to the laundry and fished out the baking gloves that my Aunt Isha had given me and returned to the box. But this time I wasn’t going to be fooled. I took out a pair of ancient tongs made of zirconium (who knew I had all that lying around) and carefully reached for the hair dryer.

Funnily enough, it came out, though not peacefully. The hair dryer burned a deep shade of orange. The moment the dryer (that is if you can call it a  dryer) came out of the box, it exploded. I hoped that my hand would go numb again, but this time I wasn’t so lucky. White-hot pokers of pain shot through my arm, screaming for me to let go, and my hand went limp, the pain however remained. I silently cursed myself for not calling the fire brigade. I almost screamed, but then remembered that I would need my voice box for the rest of my life. My vision flashed red.

Somewhere a jug of water turned over and splashed onto the dryer. It sizzled and burned, then suddenly, shot straight up into the ceiling and created one last, dying explosion, a release of such a tremendous amount of energy that the ceiling rippled like water.

But before the dryer had collided with the ceiling, I noticed something.

* * *

Finally, I woke up in my bed, with a faint memory of a bright blue box with a hair appliance inside. “I wonder what it could be?” And still I do not know. But if you get to know, please contact me on the planet of Space monkeys that eat pizza.

P.S. The author of this piece does not actually own a hair dryer nor does his allowance cover milkshake and cookie at the same time.

P.P.S This was written in the middle of a Lockdown so who are we even kidding.

The auditorium was full of a restless audience, eager to be part of yet another breath-taking performance of the renowned rock star: Tarun Bagchi.

Managing a single ticket, I somehow managed to secure my seat and sat with an immense feel of gratification for Tarun Bagchi, my student.

Tarun was a decent, amenable and bright student of grade 7. With his amicable nature, he became a friend of all. He was treasured by his teachers’ too. As a teacher, I would often cite the example of Tarun to other students. In a nutshell, one could conclude that he was a model-icon.

Besides being a good student, Tarun had keen interest in dance. On and off, he would participate in cultural activities and endeavoured to excel but there was something in his performance which gradually became a serious matter of concern. That was the touch of what was considered effeminacy, which he unconsciously dissolved in his creativity.

I remember, it was 15 August 2012. Tarun performed with utmost honesty but it was soaked with the grace and elegance of female style. He soon became a target for his peers to mock at, which eventually shred his confidence into smithereens. His pain and frustration were clearly visible in his studies and his behaviour.

Teen age is considered to be the most challenging phase of life when a tender floweret undergoes manifold changes. Tarun was not untouched. I could make out that he was stuck somewhere.

One day, I called him to my faculty room and requested him to share his problem. With tears in his eyes, Tarun poured out his heart. I then consoled him and said, “Tarun, continue your journey with utmost sincerity and passion. Don’t pay heed to what the world says. You will win one day and this world will applaud. Just focus.”

I don’t know how much the child understood but I could sense the switch in his attitude. I was happy to get my Tarun back, flying with buoyancy.

Our journey continued parallelly. I taught him till grade 10. Despite being in senior secondary section, he continued meeting me often.

Finally, the most awaited day arrived i.e. Farewell Day. The day when young chaps go for a makeover to look handsome and get the liberty to express their gratitude to school. Tarun started his thanks giving speech and to my utter surprise, he directed his speech towards me and extended his gratitude by narrating the way I motivated him in the past few years. Perhaps, this is the best honour which a teacher deserves after dedicating her entire life to the service of the society. I was speechless with happiness as the priceless gesture of a student had made my day.

In my teaching profession, I have come across a variety of students with different temperaments. However, by the grace of God, I do halt to develop a special bonding when I meet any sensitive student with a golden heart. Tarun was one of them.

Suddenly, there was a big round of applause and I returned, wrapping all my cherished memories, into this realistic world to applaud for Tarun Bagchi who stunned the whole world with his performance and made me proud.

Tarun Bagchi has become a busy celebrity now, overloaded with a hectic schedule but he procures time for me by sending lovely messages. There is no biological relationship between Tarun and me but Almighty has wonderfully bonded us in an undefined, beautiful manacle which is the sole source of inspiration for an old lady to fight the odds of life.

It was a stormy night. Tom wanted to be up till late but his mom ordered him to get into the bed. He fell into a deep sleep but soon some sounds woke him up. He peeped out of the covers cautiously. The house was eerily silent. Except for a strange sound and a silly giggling!

There were violent winds and screeching noises, shadows and other scary sounds. Tom was already scared when he heard “meeeooow” and a loud thud. The sound was a piano tune familiar to Tom. He had it heard earlier in a movie. He was not able to recall that movie, but due to the circumstances around him his heart started pounding and he himself declared it to be a ghost!!

After a long debate between his heart and mind he finally gathered some courage and moved down on tip toe. On hearing the sound again, he was able to make out that the sound was coming from outside the house. After reaching down he decided to peep through the living room windows to check who was outside. Without making himself visible he peeped out of the window and saw absolutely nothing there. Then he decided to go near the backyard door and see if there was something. As he started moving towards the backyard the sound became louder. Tom plucked up some courage and asked, “Who’s there?” On receiving no reply, he repeated, “I…is somebody there?” As he opened the backyard door there was a bright flash of light. When he opened his eyes after the flash, he saw something which looked like a part of a big machine which had fallen on the ground.

Now he recalled that he had heard that piano tune in his favorite alien movie and he had also seen that part where a big machine fallen from space. It was the part of a spaceship. Just then, something touched him on his knee. He looked down to see a small, green thing with a huge head and big, cute eyes. He put out his trembling hand. As soon as it touched the thing’s outstretched hand, he got a shock!

Suddenly, he heard a sound “Tom get up and have your breakfast”. He woke up, hugely relieved that all that had been a dream. He got ready and went down for breakfast. The breakfast was served in the backyard. But…..when he reached there, he saw the same machine part lying in a corner of the backyard. And ….he couldn’t be sure, but he saw cute, big eyes peeping from within a bush. Now, he was breathlessly waiting for night …..

Once upon a time, there was a dog named Snoopy. He was a very kind guy. Kindness made him happy. He smiled at everyone. When he was born, Doctor Hoppy practically dropped him when he saw Snoopy’s smile.

Not because it was cute or anything, or not because he smiled just after he was born, but because his smile was “creepy”, said Dr. Hoppy.

Not only the doctor, but the whole world thought so. This made Snoopy very downhearted. The only place he liked was the bank of River Soapy.

So he went there and shouted his heart out. Out came an extremely ugly gray fish. It had a hard time breathing. Snoopy helpfully threw it back in the river. It came out again. Snoopy knew why this was happening now. Just because of his ugliness, all the fishes detested him and therefore, excluded him from all the games.

So Snoopy found a poly bag, filled it with water and dumped the fish inside. He carried it home and took great care of it and decided to name it Cuppy. But the fish soon turned too big for a fish bowl. So this guy Snoopy, he bought it a hugenormous fish tank. Cuppy grew to be even bigger than Snoopy himself!

One stormy afternoon, Cuppy looked longingly outside; he seemed to really want to go there. So Snoopy took it out. Everyone looked at them as if they were really impressive. A scientist rushed towards Snoopy. Snoopy smiled. The scientist held out his hand. “Is this your fish, sir? Well, this is the rarest fish ever known!”

Since that day, animals buy TICKETS to see Cuppy. Snoopy became very famous, and even I’ve got a Snoopy pillow.

It was Lily’s birthday and she was eagerly waiting for her mother who was supposed to bring the birthday cake, chocolates and other gifts. She was keenly waiting for her mom as time ticked away for the birthday party. Lily was getting upset with her mother’s delay and to make it worse, her mother was not even picking up the phone when she called!

“Oh, how is it that mom is not even picking up her phone? Now what should I do?” thought Lily with anxiety.

Just then the phone rang indicating a call from her mother’s phone. Lily answered with an aggressive tone reflecting her anger and frustration. But to her surprise it was not her mother who was calling, but a stranger’s voice on the other end. “There has been an accident and we are moving the injured to the hospital. We found the purse of Mary Smith with a mobile phone, driving license and ID card. Please do not panic. We shall inform you as more details become available,” he said.

Lily was stunned and unable to utter a word. She ran to her room and between broken sobs prayed to God, “O God, please don’t do this. I don’t want any gift, cake, chocolate or party for my birthday, I only want my mom back safe.”

Suddenly, her mother arrived home, “Lily dear, I am sorry for the delay. Actually, I lost my wallet on the way. I must have left it in the bus,” she said.

“I love you mum, more than anything. I didn’t realize how important you are to me before I felt I lost you,” Lily said while crying in relief.

“Mom you are the best gift that I can have in my life.”

Hello! I am James. This great challenge which I am talking about was given to me a week ago. It was a very difficult job. The great challenge was that I had to babysit my little brother as my parents were going to a wedding. They left in the evening and were going to return in the night. As soon as they left, my brother and I were the only ones at home. My brother, Andrew is very mischievous and loves pulling pranks on me.

After some time, I went back to my room where Andrew was waiting for me. As soon as I opened the door, he suddenly shooting at me with his toy gun. He did not stop till he ran out of bullets. By the time he finished, he had hit every single part of my body. At that moment, I felt like I would just go and punch him in the face but then I thought that after all he is my little brother so I calmed down and started thinking of ways to keep him occupied till he became sleepy and went to bed. At first I felt clueless but then certain ideas popped into my head.

I knew Andrew loved to play with guns, so I decided to have a gun fight with him. At the start of the fight both of us kept hiding but then eventually we found each other and started shooting at each other. My shots were much more accurate than Andrew’s but he was playing much more strategically. I won that fight. Then we decided to fight a few more rounds. I let him win some of the fights to keep him interested. After the fights we got tired, so I thought that we could watch television but then Andrew came and told me that he wanted to play the new board game that I had bought the day before. I was quite surprised to see that Andrew was interested in board games. So, we started playing the board game and enjoyed it a lot.

When we finished the board game, it was nine in the night, which was only half an hour before Andrew’s bed time. Therefore, I went to him and asked him what he wanted to do for the next half hour. He said that he just wanted to go to bed. So both of us went to bed. The next day our parents asked us what we had done that night. We told them the whole story. After hearing the story, they told us that they were proud of us and thus they were going to leave us with our grandma for two days as they had to go to attend a conference. I was shocked and started thinking what I would do to keep Andrew occupied for such a long time. Just then I saw him grinning at me and so I understood those two days were going to be the most horrifying days of my life!

Once, in a kingdom far, far away, ruled this king named Arthur who had many talented people in his kingdom. Among one of these talented people there was an architect named Sid who could make almost anything from any material.

The king was a bit greedy and also loved eating chocolates. So, he asked Sid, the architect, and Ben, the chocolate maker to build a chocolate palace. Both of them disagreed to do this because the palace would melt and eventually lead to a chocolate flood. The king didn’t think about what Sid and Ben said and got very furious with both of them. He said, “If the palace isn’t built on time, I will execute both of you.”

Sid and Ben now had to work on the palace. It took some time but was a success.

The king started to live in the palace, sometimes eating the wall or the floor. One day, while he was enjoying some chocolate, sitting on his couch, he realized that a drop of chocolate fell on his face…and happy realization! The palace had already started to melt and as Sid and Ben had said, there did actually occur a chocolate flood.

The kingdom was now full of chocolate. There were people eating and drinking chocolate all over the kingdom.

Once the chocolate was cleared, Arthur was put in jail by his own people and there was peace once again. But now, Sid and Ben were the main highlights. Some people blamed them, some were impressed. Both of them said, “The king wanted a palace, we gave him one, but now if he wants a chocolate jail, then he is done.” The two were never seen again.

Yes, I know you’re saying, “Autobiography of a Balloon? Yeah, that’s all I’ve got time for these days?’’ But check it out.

I hope this reaches you some time in the future. Don’t even ask where I am because I’ll already be out of your reach by then.

So let’s start from the ‘start’. When I was born I was nothing to take pictures of and make albums and look at me and go ‘awww . . .’, to be truthful I looked like a squished up wad of clay on whom everyone in the city had stepped on. I was bunched up with some other guys (can you call a balloon a guy?) who were twice as grumpy as I was. Have you ever been in an elevator for ten and been pushed in with twenty people? Yeah that’s how it felt.

My packet was transparent and I was stuck on the side of the packet and looked at these things that walked on two stick-thingies and made sounds with their mouths, which I now know as humans.

I kept observing them for a few months. Or years. Who knows.

After these months (or years) I was taken out of my packet. I was so excited that my whole body buzzed with excitement. I, along with my twenty packet – mates ( balloon ‘guys’) was inflated with a funny gas that tickled me all over made me rise into the sky.

I was tied to a cart. I was free! Not one-hundred percent free but at least I was not a squished up wad of rubber. Oops! Let me tell you about how I looked. I was brilliant blue and shaped like an upside-down water droplet (but of course, I was way more handsome).

I was now aware that we balloons were sold to you humans for rectangular slips of paper. I was sold to a nice little girl of four, I think. She was O.K. But it was her brother who creeped me out. He smiled in a way a wolf smiles at a helpless goat. Anyway, she was wearing a shiny blue dress that complimented my colour (or maybe my colour complimented her dress. Aaargh I’m getting confused.)

I spent five days with her. She would talk to me about the world and how huge it was and that I was just a little balloon (who was very handsome, of course). I was bouncing around in the house with the little girl chasing me when her creepy brother caught me and pulled my string. He threw me out of the window and smiled (also in the way a wolf smiles at a helpless goat).

Well, I guess that was the end of Chapter One.

Andrew knew that the tables had turned and that he had to do something to save his company. He took out his folders and tried to find the numbers of the gentlemen who had offered help once. But all those gentlemen very politely declined seeing the company in deep crisis.

With dawn peeking through the clouds, Andrew sat in his office perplexed. The problem arose when they transferred all their data online. He lost all his customers and his sales kept going down. Moreover, his connections were cut. He had his suspicions that the rival company might be the culprit which caused this mess but he couldn’t make any allegations just yet.

After hours of investigation he came to the conclusion that he had been hacked by someone in his company – someone very high up since the information accessed was highly classified. He checked the users who could access the data and found one of his office computers online. He crept into the hall and saw a man fumbling with the computer keys. It was his brother Tim who was destroying the company files.

Once Andrew had caught him red-handed, Tim confessed that he had always been envious of Andrew’s position and how the family had handed the company to him without even considering Tim. He thought if he could make Andrew look bad, they would reconsider.

Andrew knew that Tim was very capable and it was just jealousy that had corrupted him. Andrew decided to condone Tim’s deception and offered him an equal partnership in the company. Tim realized his mistake and also how Andrew was truly the better of them. The two brothers from then on successfully managed the company.