A Bowl of Elusive

Describing the night Shireen & Sashank had as awkward would be the understatement of the century. Their rhythm was definitely off. And it was but natural, since they hadn’t met for a while, after the last time. And the last time was tumultuous, to say the least. They had spent a couple of days in bed and then they’d freaked out in the aftermath. So obviously, when they decided to meet again, it was a little awkward where neither knew how to behave normally.  They downed a few drinks at the club and took a little walk, talking about this and that. Sashank slyly kept on inserting praises disguised as silly observations. The subtlety wasn’t lost on Shireen. Her situation had changed since the last time she met him and she felt liberated. It wasn’t like she didn’t have any apprehensions about this, but the volume on the apprehensions was turned way down. Plus Sashank had an air of confidence that drove Shireen crazy. Midnight was approaching quick and Shireen had to do the d

People in love often ask each other, "Why do you love me?". When has there ever been rhyme or reason to love? For example, Arya and Meenal weren't even supposed to meet. They came from different worlds. The only link between them was Nikita, Meenal's cousin and Arya's classmate. Those days, Arya had been seeing this girl, Noorie whom he'd met right after breaking up with a girl he'd been really in love with. So, it was just a rebound and Arya kinda knew that there weren't any great things in store for Noorie and him. But he hated being alone and Noorie was decent company, kinda goofy but decent. Then one day, while Noorie and Arya were visiting Nikita's place, they met Meenal. She wore an orange salwaar kameez, had a husky voice and spoke in a strange tone that made her sound like a fat boy bully. She was so different from the women Arya came across every day. He was smitten, and he was smitten hard. Later on the same day, Arya called Niki

Aarav stared at his sweaty palms. Why the hell were his palms sweaty in December? He wiped his palms on the side of his denim, and adjusted the little overnight backpack over his shoulders and moved towards boarding gate number 51 at Terminal 3, IGI airport. The crisp morning breeze hit his face and ruffled his hair as he stepped out into the open airfield to board the long domestic flight. He loved the feel of cold air on his ears. Aarav was feeling nervous, for he was heading on to meet Avni. Avni was a girl Aarav knew back from his school days. They'd re-connected recently and he was now boarding a three hour long flight to the city she was in to meet her. It was a totally impromptu decision and he didn't know what to expect. Avni and Aarav always had a spark but had never managed to make it into a real flame. But in the last few months, things had changed. Things had escalated quickly when Aarav wrote about school days and mentioned Avni with nostalgia and Avni notic

Ah, life! The more you think you have it all figured out, the more it puzzles you. Atul and Ipsita were in love. And being in their thirties, both of them felt like there weren't any surprises ahead. They were both upfront with each other regarding their pasts and they were both pretty okay with each others' former love lives. They got along famously and were really excited about creating a life together. Then one fateful day, Atul had to move to another city for work. And just like that, the fairy tale romance that the two had created got a twist of reality. I've always believed that long distance relationships are unnatural. Think about it, just hundred years ago, a man living in Chennai could not, under any circumstances, be in a relationship with a woman staying in Aizawl. Yeah, you can give me some bullshit about people falling in love over letters back in the Victorian days, but that was simply because they were so repressed in their real lives that they sought

The day before yesterday, the office cafeteria served Balushahi during lunch. I was in between a heated debate with some colleagues when I bit into the Balushahi. As the flaky sweet crumbled between my teeth, I was suddenly transported to another time, another place. I suddenly had tears in my eyes and a strange pain in my heart. This little piece of sweet had managed to remind of him, my father. Back in 1997-98, I lived in Choudwar, a little industrial settlement near the city of Cutack, with my father and a tyrannous caretaker who abused me. While the years spent in Choudwar, which eventually led to my father's death, were traumatic as hell, they're peppered with some of the fondest memories I have of my father. He had been mostly unaware of the hardships I was being subjected to at the hands of the woman he'd hired to take care of me. But he sensed that she was strict in her approach and every other evening, he'd take a break from work and sneaked me out f

And just like that, Neel found himself all alone. Somehow, the last few years were over and he was just left behind, a shell of the man he once was and out on his own. He knew he had to rebuild his life and he just couldn't begin to fathom where to start from. He had to do something about the house as he couldn't, for the life of him, manage to clean and maintain such a huge place. So he decided to move in with some friends. The move was smooth and by the end of October, Neel was settled in at his room in the new apartment. He had set up all the essentials to keep him content and that was the beginning of his second life. Now for the loneliness, Neel had a few ideas. He signed himself up for online dating, hollered at a few old flames and explored the vast playing ground called the internet. He came up mostly empty, of course. Turns out, you need the green if you want the scene. And Neel wasn't rich. So soon, Neel was off the dating sites, cut off from most of the ol

I read this article on Psychology Today that states that humans "carry the biological imprint of polygamy, the opposite of lifelong fidelity to one mate." The article also goes on to state that "80% of early human societies were polygamous." The article goes on to speculate that later societies adopted monogamy just to better raise children, and also because maintaining harems wasn't cost effective for men who weren't sultans. (Here's the link to that article if  you're interested to read it.) Now this article and various other like it got me thinking about monogamy and its relevance in today's time. You talk to single men and they'll tell you how many women treated them like options and women seem to have the same opinion of guys. Makes you feel like monogamy as a concept might be a myth or redundant for that matter. While the idea of finding "the one" is still quite revered, the means can be pretty flexible. What with

Guys, have you ever noticed how a lot of our life revolves around our relationship with women. Whether you're a player or a lost-in-love kinda guy, women seem to take up a lot of your time and energy. So its but natural that so many movies are made on the subject. But movies seldom get it right, do they? Women are either portrayed as saintly or vamp-like in Hindi movies, but in real life, women are just as complicated and diverse as men are. So, in this article, I won't generalize women at all. I'll only talk about a certain kind of women. It can be argued that all women have, at some point in their lives, been the kind of woman I am gonna talk about. The "thankless" kind. I know the word sounds harsh and judgmental, but it has to be read in context to be understood better. My colleague Rishabh (name changed) talks about his ex-girlfriend, who went to another city to pursue a degree course, made Rishabh pay a part of the tuition fee and then grew distant an

Those three days were the toughest three days of Ray's life. Laurie had gone out of town to meet her folks and Ray had made things awkward before she left. He had always been a bit of a mess around her, maybe because he liked her so much and her hot/cold reaction towards him made him insecure about the whole thing. They'd been seeing each other for a few months but Laurie still wasn't very sure about Ray. Ray did understand Laurie's apprehensions and he was adamant about making those apprehension's go away. He wasn't a quitter. But he wasn't very cool either. Laurie and Ray weren't similar people but they'd clicked well ever since that first date. Laurie was this carefree, whirlwind of a person, who'd had a tough childhood, was unapologetic and spoke her mind. Whereas Ray was a tame teetotaler trying to be tantalizing and of course failing at it. Their first date was stuff of the legends, smooth, effortless and just right. Even though it h

Raunak happens to glow in the dark. Rather brightly. Its a medical condition and very little is known about it. I won't bore you with the details or the name of the condition as that's not relevant to my story. Just know that Raunak starts glowing as soon as its dark. He glows like a bulb and sometimes he is hard to look at. So my question is, how is he supposed to find love? You see Raunak, like any other guy of his age, yearns for romance. He wishes he had someone he could fall for. But the harsh truth is that it is very hard for a glow-stick to find love. And he has tried. All dating customs seem hell bent on sabotaging Raunak's plans. Dates are usually dinner dates. Those don't work well for him. Oh, how he wishes people went to morning dates. The last time he managed to ask a girl out, they met for lunch. He'd been upfront about his condition and she seemed to be genuinely cool about it. That is until it got dark. Once it did, she started taking

Waqt pe saath nibha na paye, aaj wafa ki ummeed karte hain... Mere humraah bhi ajeeb hain, bewafai mein rehnuma ki ummeed karte hain. Bhula diya hai humne bhi saari un alfaz-e-mohabbat, un bekaar ki baaton ko... Kahaan aap banjar sunsaan galiyon mein aake mehfil-e-aab ki ummeed karte hain. Khairiyat se rahein aap, ye dua bhi maang lenge kudrat se... Ab ajnabee hain hum, begaane naqshon pe akele safar karte hain. Aapke aage jahan aur bhi thi, ye ilm to tha tab bhi humein lekin... Aakhirash jab bicchde to ehsaas kiya ki hum khudse bhi kaafi mohabbat karte hain. Humse bayaan-e-haal  kis ummeed se karne chale ho, ai ajnabee musafir... Aapke awaaraa kadam kab se humare khushiyon ka khayaal karte hain?

Not all relationships are meant to be great love stories, some are just destined to be flings. While love stories make it to the printed page, flings are often forgotten and flushed down the memory lane. This story would have had a similar fate, had this happened to anyone else. But if you meet a writer who's hit a block, and pour your heart out about that girl who just wouldn't call you back, be sure he'll write about it. That's exactly what Poorab (name changed) did. I will surely take some liberties with the story while narrating it for you but will try to capture the essence of what happened as well as possible. Poorab & Ruchi were set up by over-zealous common friends. They started texting each other first, something Poorab excelled at. Especially since he had just recently broken up with his high school sweetheart. Ruchi was the morose, self-deprecating and depressed kind of girl who often finds betrayal in love. Or that was what she made him believe. Poo

Measuring the degree of how much I want something has always been a challenge for me. I do understand the difference between yearning and obsession but I'm afraid my definitions may vary a little from the societal norms. You see I tend to be a little intense with my feelings. It usually plays out well for me because there's not a lot I want in life. But sometimes it becomes painful, especially when I have no control over the causality of things. That happens when its SOMEONE I'm yearning for. Because the way of the heart can be treacherous and all consuming. If I like you, I like you. There's not much in my control after that. I don't just get infatuated easily, only to be disillusioned later. I often know what I want and when I come across it, I'd pursue it through heavens and hell, through good and bad, through suffering and joy, because it's worth all that. But there's another side to it. An ugly one. I have never had things easy. And

Teri har khoobsurat jhooth ko sach maan loon, aisi maasomiyat dhoondhta hoon, Bas tera chehra dekhta hoon aur usmein aage ka rasta dhoondta hoon. Toot ke bikharna to sikha hi diya zindagi ne, ab zara simatke jeene ka hausla dhoondta hoon. Tere baahon mein aisi bhi raatein guzri ki bas sab bhula diya, main ab unmein agli subah ka sooraj bhi dhoondta hoon. Tum nibhaa na paaye rishta uska ghum nahi kiya maine, tere diye huye har jawaabon ke ab main sawaal dhoondta hoon. Thodi der ka jo saath raha tumhara, usimein khudko kho diya hai maine...ab bas tumhari ghair maujoodgi mein apni aks-e-rooh dhoondta hoon. Ye khoj, ye talaash kab khatm hogi meri, jis jheel ke saamne khada hoon, uski paani ke liye main zubaan pe apni pyaas dhoondta hoon. Jo mil jaaye aaj manzil bhi, to shaayad rukna manzoor na hoga mujhe, ab kisi aur sheher mein, koi aur hi thikana dhoondta hoon. Note - I don't usually write in Hindi but this one just wrote itself. I would have preferred

As you grow up, fewer things surprise you. Eventually, you've seen it all, you've lived it all. There are very few new experiences to be had, very few things that excite you. Eventually, you lose the wonder you once had, the excitement you once felt and I think you just wither away and stop living. But don't underestimate the power of new things. Things that can surprise you, things that can knock your socks off, things that can take your breath away. Like meeting someone new, someone who fascinates you, someone who gets your heart racing, someone who invokes feelings you'd forgotten you had inside. All of a sudden, you're ten years younger, wondrous and hopeful. You can't stop thinking about it. About how good it made you feel. You're inside your own head again, reliving meeting that breath of fresh air, wanting it more. So much so, that it scares you. You wonder if you had that same effect on them. For some silly reason, you look for validation,

Disclaimer - This is a work of fiction and can get pretty graphic and explicit at times. Read it with an open mind.  It was a humid evening in Kolkata. I could see the puddles created by the rain from this morning. Somehow I had managed to get off early from work. I was visiting the city for a meeting with the team. I wasn’t very fond of Kolkata as a city. It was crowded and loud and unorganized but it had Rashmita. I knew her from my brief stint at the Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai. She had been an Industrial Trainee then and I was a manager-on-training. Being an employee, we considered all interns “kids”. She was still in college after all. It didn’t matter that she was actually older than I was, by a year or so on account of having started the vocation a few years later than I had. So, I was a little stand-offish when she’d asked me if I was single. It had seemed unethical to get involved with a “junior”. But her internship ended after a few months and she left. I did notice her abs