A Bowl of Elusive

For all the fans of romance out there, I am back with the fifth installment of the Angela & Eric saga. We go beyond the mushy and romantic in this one - into one of those testing moments that pave way for the time to come. For people who just landed on this page, here's the link to Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 & Part 4 . Go play catch up and come back to read this one. I know romance sells. I know that when you write romance, you write about the happy stuff, the relationship milestones, the first kiss, the first time they make love, the confession of undying love. Yet, in real life, the fights a couple has defines the mettle of their relationship. To reach the point in time that Eric and Angela are at, they had to navigate several serious fights which tested their intentions and eventually made them realize what they meant to each other. Angela and Eric loved to talk to each other. They could just sit there discussing this and that – their work lives, their life experiences, t

I know I have been missing in action for a while and that's because I was dealing with some personal crap. For the four or five people who read the shit that I write, I am back with the fourth installment to the Eric and Angela story. And for those who are joining just now, here's the link to Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 . Go play catch up before you read this. Or not. I can't tell you what to do.  *** Eric lay awake in his bed, reminiscing the events of that fateful night that he spent with Angela at that hotel. Had he been “just seeking sex”, he could have chalked that night as a win and moved on to the next conquest, but this guy wanted more, he wanted her heart and that’s why the following day felt more like a win than the night before. She was leaving, feeling dirty and repentant about their night together and Eric had broken down. Eric knew he had at least some claim to Angela’s heart when she decided to stay when he promised to keep it platonic.   Moreover

This is the third chapter of the Angela & Eric series. Here are the links to Part 1 & Part 2 . Read on to find what happened next. It had been two whole days since Eric and Angela spent that night together at his place. Eric had not seen her yet. They had been texting on and off, keeping the conversation light and avoiding the discussion of kisses and temptations as much as possible. Every now and then, Angela would drop in a term of endearment and make Eric feel lovelorn. Eric was half tempted to call out Angela for all the ‘mixed signals’ but he did not want to dig a hole for himself.  On the third day, it was cloudy in the morning and by the time afternoon came, it started drizzling. Eric texted Angela asking her if she wanted to get wet in the rain. Enticing as the idea was, Angela opted out on account of her tender health lately. She suggested they have dinner together if the rain stopped. Not one to let an opportunity pass, Eric commented that unless she wanted to eat on

This is the second part of the “Eric & Angela” series. Click here for Part 1 . A million thoughts ran through his head when Eric drove six odd kilometers to meet Angela. She had mentioned that the café they were meeting at was pretty close to where she lived, she preferred to walk. That is why she had chosen it for their first meeting. He had seen her pictures and he had heard her voice and they had talked to their heart's content but the two had not met yet. This was the fateful day, Eric thought to himself. The voice in his head often became a pompous news anchor and started narrating his own life to him when Eric got nervous.  “Eric being the neurotic son-of-a-bitch that he is, doesn’t want to be late for the first date. As Angela has reminded him thrice now, it isn’t a date. However, he is excited and has butterflies in his stomach, more than he had ever had before. In his excitement, Eric is trying to imagine what Angela looks like when he should be concentrating on the ro

Just when you think you know yourself, just when you feel like you’ve seen and felt it all, that nothing could surprise you, something comes up and it changes the whole dynamic. Describing Eric as a cynic would be the understatement of the century. He was a caustic, bitter, and sarcastic thirty-year-old going about his life like a clumsy fool, tripping on the various hurdles that life’s journey threw at him. In his three decades on this planet, Eric had seen various facets of the drama that life offered – death, grief, love, heartbreak; you name it, he had seen it. Eric was someone who had very rigid notions about the world, which he believed to be absolute truths because they were based on his real-life experiences. But as I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph, some things just change the game. Angela wasn’t a stranger. Eric had known her for over a year, having connected with her through a dating site. She was someone who’d fascinated our protagonist right from the beginning

My dear readers, this is the final chapter of the Siddhant-Ishika story. Here are the links to the earlier episodes:  Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4  |  Part 5 | Part 6 . I would suggest that you go back, read the earlier chapters, if you haven’t already done it and then come back to find out what happened at the end . In his endless pursuit of love with Ishika, Siddhant had laughed and he'd cried. And Ishika had been there with him, merely in spirit. Because it was clear that her heart wasn't available for love. But Siddhant persevered with an indomitable resilience, which was kind of pathetic actually. Siddhant was hungry for affection like so many of us are and in his hunger, he couldn't see that what he perceived as affection was just Ishika's 'altruism', for the lack of a better word. This was a house of cards and it was destined to tumble down. This is that story. Ishika had been in his arms and in his soul and yet, for all intents and

Akriti shivered a little as a gust of Ryan's warm breath hit the back of her neck. She had no clothes on. And neither did he. The room was cold and every touch was magnified in impact as Ryan's inquisitive hands explored Akriti's  delicate curves. He alternated between his fingers and his palm, moving them in a symphony of sorts over her naked and thirsty skin. And as he did so he buried his face into her luscious bunch of hair and sniffed in the perfume in it. His heartbeat rushed as he felt her back touching his bare body. He placed a light kiss on her head, and then another one. Even in the lust of that moment, there was a certain wide eyed honesty in Ryan's movements that was making Akriti go weak in her knees. And that was so unlike her. You see Akriti wasn't born yesterday. She'd seen her share of broken relationships and lying men to trust someone so easily, and yet, here she was, hours after meeting this guy, in his arms, feeling vulnerable an

I was returning to Mumbai after having lived in Singapore for nearly seven years. The connecting flight through Chennai was late by two hours, so I was listlessly wandering around the airport, browsing through the plethora of overpriced food and merchandise at the outlets, when I noticed her, a blast from my past. A vaguely familiar face, bright and shimmery, crimson lips so full of life. The years had no effect on her appearance, Sumiran looked just like she had the day I first set eyes on her. You know the kind of beauty that renders you breathless? That’s what Sumiran was like. And it wasn’t just the flawless skin or the golden complexion, it was her eyes and the way they nestled on that elusive form. I took a deep breath and changed my course to avoid bumping into her, praying she didn’t notice me. I know what you’re thinking. No, she wasn’t an ex. But we did go way back. And the history we shared wasn’t the most savory one. Back in 2006, Shreya, my girlfriend had complained

My dear readers, I managed to write yet another one of these. This is the sixth chapter of the Siddhant-Ishika story, and I think you’re fed up with it by now. Still, the story continues. Here are the links to the earlier episodes: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 . I would suggest that you go back, read the earlier chapter, if you haven’t already done it and then come back to find out what happened next. Ishika and Siddhant had reached an impasse. Like any great story, theirs had a big conflict in the plot and yet, they weren’t fighting about it. They were calm. A certain routine had set in between them. They kept in touch, neither of them going back on their stance. Ishika, still pining for the man she couldn’t have and Siddhant pining for Ishika, it was like a neatly tied bow tie where Ishika and Siddhant were two ends of the leaf.  More than a month had passed since they first met and Ishika had gone back to her hometown for a week, during which she couldn’