Perception Cloud

 
It was a quotidian day of affairs for both of them. 'Hai,Nitesh'  raised a voice exuberantly.Nitesh, who had been transferred to  the new place,was shifting his house,turned to look at the person  calling at him; suspiciously uttered his name :'Rajam..?'. 'yes, I am Rajam.S.Krishnan' replied and greeted in a loud voice. Both were posted in the same office. Nitesh,formally  addressed as 'Nitesh Kripalini',was reticent,ideological,work-centered  person.Both were of same age;Both had a daughter of seven years old –  which made them to declare as persons of similar nature in the  first meeting;but truly they were not..   
Nitesh was gleeful that he had got a companion in the alien ambience.Rajam  was gregarious,people-centered person.Rajam used to jabber more,than one could expect;  and he could laugh as vociferously as he could. Both of them became neighbours; in the physical sense – their houses were situated adjacent.They enjoyed each other  companionship.And each of their family members exerted great sense of affbility  between eachother. They started to share eachother's felicitous and dismal happenings. They felt that they were fortunate enough to get a congenial neighbours,who turned out to  be good friends.   
It was on the day of Rajam's daughter's birthday. Celebrations and mirthful  faces were all around,greeting the birthday baby. Nitesh's family members were present  and dishing out the dinner to the guest and helping the Rajam's family in a great way. Rajam was anticipating Nitesh with bated breath,strolling infront of the house. His phone rang.It was Nitesh,who said,'Rajam, I will be late today, I won't make it  to the birthday party'. Rajam replied bluntly,'Ok nitesh, no problem!' and he hung  the phone.
     But their relationship grew,sprang up; and whenever any relationship grows,  the positive things about the opponent person would stay in the heart;and negative things  would inactively dwell in the mind;which would actively crop up  when ungrateful  moment arises.This is a problem between any relationships : people of the 'restrained' or the 'gregarious' clusters.
  
Rajam felt that Nitesh was talented,dedicated person. But in the mind, he  used to ponder that he was a work centered and selfish person.Whilst Nitesh perceived  that Rajam was helpful,friendly and ofcourse talkative. But in the mind, he used to  chew about Rajam's otiose and indiscreet talks. Both of them structured and  scripted their perception in their own way,based on the circumstances they both had  faced.And Time went by..
    One fine summer morning,members of the residential arena were gathered to  discuss about their grievances and had a discourse about the person,who was going  to lead them and plan the colony's proceedings. A senior member asked the members  to nominate the person for the coveted post.Members started to squall their favorites; Nitesh and Rajam remained silent.With in few constitutional seconds,Rajam shouted  Nitesh name; appended his good qualities with his shout. Nitesh felt chagrined; he left the meeting without uttering any word.Nitesh's presumption turned out to be  correct-as he felt that Rajam had exhibited his senseless talks amidst big gathering.  And Rajam's presumption also turned out to right- as he had a belief that Nitesh  was a selfish person. Their negative perception about each other began to uprise;  and the good thoughts began to diminish.Tough Days rolled by.Nitesh and Rajam  were not able to speak or even look at each other comfortably.Each of them was  right in their own terms; but their negative thoughts veered them to seperation.  Even each of the family members tried to fortify their relationship, but nothing worked.  Communication between the family members eventually shrank.Nitesh sued transfer  and sooner they fled to their native. 
   Nitesh and Rajam are quite an ordinary individuals,like you and me, who are  wrapped up by their egos and negative thoughts stuffed inside, with a thin or thick  layer of good thoughts stacked in between.whenever these good thoughts tries to get away,  in a view to resurrect the relationship, egos pops up obstructing the good thoughts  which is trying to elude,hurls the negative thoughts about the opponent person.  There is no way that they can revive their relationship, unless they have to get rid of develish 'ego' and negative perception,or they have to reborn again  to set anew the 'Perception cloud'.. 
    

V-Std-'A' Section

It was his D-day, as he was expecting his half yearly test results, which he had written a month back. He was studying fifth standard, infact; ‘V-Std-‘A’ Section, always expounded his educational qualification with that finer detail. His appearance was fat, rather an obese of nine years old, and quite a blithe, insouciant guy, always showed his regardless towards his studies. He was called ‘tummy’ by his classmates, for the apparent reason. His half yearly test preparation was never any different, though his father had assured that, he would present him a bicycle as gift, if he tried to pass half yearly examination.

He sat at the third bench, leaned his hand across his face, and started to think about the proceedings that would happen in the following evening. He was at the premonition that, he would get the last rank for sure. His class teacher entered the class, with the assortment of progress reports, heralding his diabolic scene. The students greeted and tweedled rhythmically, ’Good morning Teacher’. All the front bench enthusiasts were asking her the progress reports, as soon as she entered. He was cursing them like anything. If he were given any power, at that moment, all those enthusiastic dabblers would be deported from the country without any further delay. The teacher gestured a smile at everybody, as if everybody were passed. She started her mundane lecture in science subject, describing about the food life cycle in a cadaverous way. Many of them were uninterested, as they were eager to know their grades than her deadening lecture. Some of them steadfastly started to take notes, capturing the each and every word spelled or misspelled by her. He was neither pleased with her lecture, nor awaited his progress report, infact, to be precise; he was indifferent to the both! After noticing a few yawns and oscitations from the students, she stopped her lecture and started to distribute the progress reports.

Progress reports were arranged in a chronological order of their ranks. The teacher started distributing them with fervour, supplemented with her unrestrained advice and appreciation for the top rankers. Her voice and her excitement seemed to reduce, as she was giving out the reports. He was awaiting his name to be called, one after another, biting his nails, looking for that skittish moment. The progress reports were getting drained. His prediction turned out to be correct. Finally, the teacher called his name: ‘Mahesh’. She gave out his, without uttering any word. Mahesh sat and looked at the progress report, which was much excepted; nothing to worry/be happy about. But he pretended to be sad. ’Hey tummy, what is your rank’, asked one of his friend, who sat in the girls’ segment. Yes she belonged to that gender, who, some has spontaneous disposition of teasing the boys. Though she had known of his rank, she asked it. Mahesh boasted himself and said, ‘Yes, It is expected this time, I’ve scored fourth rank’. ‘Mahesh, I know your rank, it is your usual number that is out there’, she said. Mahesh never felt infuriated, he was an unusual cool customer, kept his report card on the bench and started to sleep over it. The school bell rang; The class teacher departed

A few were excited as they got the rank they had desired. A few were sad and despondent. The school head master entered the class. He was a martinet, with a monstrous moustache hiding his upper lip; Mahesh woke up after a small nap. The head master with his bigger radius belly, leaned against the first row, made the first bench enthusiasts to suffocate. He was there to teach the Moral science subject; he came forward voluntarily to teach the subject, as he felt he was the right person to teach; but the real fact was that the subject didn’t demand enormous preparation from the teacher. As soon as he started, students at the neighbourhood class were singing aloud to the tunes of the music teacher. So, he locked the door and ensured that any minute decibel of sound wouldn’t enter the room. He spoke superficially touching the wholesome topics such as ‘Honesty’, ‘Hard work’, ’Patriotism’ and the topics that flashed across his mind. Sooner, his throat got dried and hence he sat and comforted himself to get rid of his enervation. And he slept. The students felt as if they were released from the appetence of vampire. At this moment, one of a miscreant, who was studying in fourth standard, had been noted for his prankish thinks; had been the head master’s hit list; had been reprimanded many a times earlier, passed by the class room, where the Head master was sleeping. The miscreant locked the classroom front latch, ensured that the Head master would have a nice time inside. Time passed by...

Before a few minutes to the final bell, there was a commotion across the opposite corridors of the class room, yelling ‘Fire, Fire...’! The students in the ‘V-Std-‘A’ Section were sleeping as they were unfeignedly following the footsteps of the head master who was also sleeping then! The school teachers were running hurriedly and tried to vacate all the students. Unfortunately, Mahesh’s classroom remained unnoticed till then, as the class was completely dormant; the teachers presumed that the class was already been vacated, without coming nearer to the class room. Some of the class rooms’ roofs were not equipped properly, to face the thermal ignition. Fire rapidly snaked through those roofs; Mahesh’ classroom was one among them. All the classrooms had been vacated, except his. A few of the neighbourhood friends started to scream, ‘V-Std-‘A’ Section is missing’. Immediately, the physical training (P.T.) teacher blew the whistle and moved towards the classroom. By that time, fire speeded across the roof of that class room. The P.T. teacher released the front door latch and shouted,’ everybody move out, quick, hurry up’. He raised his voice as much he could. Fortunately, in few seconds, most of the students were vacated including the hibernated head master. Mahesh was also vacated. A few clusters of fire balls dropped from the roofs on the centre of the class room, making the rescue operation a little difficult. Three students needed to be rescued. They had been seated in the left side first bench of the class room (of course, enthusiastic dabblers, according to Mahesh). They were shouting for help. The P.T. teacher, the only saviour, balked for a moment, on seeing the fire balls. They were not able to mitigate the fire when it was too late. Mahesh came forward and hold the hands of P.T. teacher and prompted to move forward. Mahesh kept his first foot forward and stretched his small hand to touch his class mate’s hand. The P.T teacher invigorated and inspired by his small boy’s quantum of effort, pushed himself and stretched his long hand that could effectively touch the one of the three. Swiftly, the P.T. teacher and Mahesh pulled them out forcefully. And they were able to rescue them with their strenuous efforts. Everybody started extolling Mahesh and those three first benchers rendered heart-warming thanks!

All the parents were standing outside the school gate, anticipating their kids to arrive. It was the most satisfactory day for Mahesh, as he had rescued three lives, though he had scored the last rank in the class. Mahesh’s father received him and he was able to hear the laudatory comments (about his son), which even he hadn’t got in his lifetime. The father felt elated and gleeful. He had an every reason to proud. One of the parents approached Mahesh and said, ‘We are proud of you’ and gestured his son, who (the miscreant) was studying fourth standard and remarked, ‘you should come brave and courageous like this boy! By the way, which class you are studying’. Mahesh’s father rejoiced every gratifying remark, more than his son, replied earnestly, ‘Fifth standard’.

‘It is V-Std-‘A’ Section’, Mahesh emphasized!

The Shortest Night

The Shortest Night

On that day, I left my office very early around three. The clouds started to mizzle. I felt delighted as the rain tried to embrace me, after the blistering and perspiring hot day. Slowly, I walked out of the campus, boarded the bus and stepped in

I sat in the left corner seat of the bus, started to gaze at the cloud and said, “How beautiful you are today”. I said to myself as there was no one to speak nearby. Before my ruminating moments got ceased, a girl of mid twenties came and sat next to me. It was quite unexpected. She opened a book and started to read. I peeped at her to see the name of the novel, which she was reading. But I couldn’t, as she’d folded the title page of the book. She was so engulfed in the novel, that none of the distractions could possibly disturb her. Even I didn’t want to perturb her reading. So I again started to gaze at the cloud. Also, I was not able to witness her eyes for a long time.

Unbelievable scenes started to happen in the cloud. It was thirty minutes past three. The sun began to set. I was quite flummoxed to see the cloud getting darkened in the afternoon time period. Everybody in the bus began to shout. The driver stopped the bus. And all the vehicles on the Hosur Road were halted. And everybody, including me, was flabbergasted on observing the cloud. There was a huge pandemonium all over. But, a girl next to me, felt rather undisturbed even then. Concentration at its best even at the worst condition, I thought. I gently asked her,’ Do you know what is happening outside’. Infact I wanted to shout. She paused for a moment and said, ’Yes I already know it’...

And finally I was able to see the name of her novel. It spelled as “The Shortest Night”. When I was about to ask her the book, for a quick glance, I noticed that all her fingers were half-cut, with blood bleeding tardily at the fore finger. My eyes popped. I asked, ‘Who are you?’ She replied, ’you don’t need that ...But I know you...’ I was taken aback by her unexpected reply. She left the bus, as eyeing at me, leaving the book on the seat. The driver resumed and the engine propelled and all the vehicles moved. I took the book and read the title of the book again. “The Shortest Night” I muttered myself. I was not able to locate the author of the book. The book contained full of printed caricatures. I was not able to decipher what was all about. I skimmed and swiftly turned the pages of the book. A last few pictures in the book grabbed my attention. In those pictures, a guy was seen enjoying in drizzling rain; a girl of mid twenties was sitting near a guy; the guy was gazing at the cloud and the cloud getting darkened. Those few pictures portrayed the episode, which had been happening then on my day. I felt trembled, limbs quivered, heart throbbed. It was, at that time, the bus reached near silkboard, squeaking and the sounds of claps were heard all around. The Sun, which was as if shrouded itself till then, started to rise. It was fifteen minutes past four. I was able to see jubilant faces in the bus, but I remained panic.

I reached my house after the frightening ordeal. I switched on my Television. I realized that the whole world was in complete darkness for duration of forty five minutes. All the news channels, the scientists, scholars were earnestly discussing the illogical phenomenon, that had happened. Nobody had any clue. I remained restless and hurriedly switched on my laptop. I googled the word, which I had been cogitating: “The Shortest Night”. I didn’t get any satisfactory results related to the book which I’d read. I recalled the final words, which she’d uttered: ‘I know you’. I’d never seen her before. As I was remembering the final shot, she looked at me, I was petrified and transfixed.

And I don’t want to see her again...

The Shortest Night

The Shortest Night

On that day, I left my office very early around three. The clouds started to mizzle. I felt delighted as the rain tried to embrace me, after the blistering and perspiring hot day. Slowly, I walked out of the campus, boarded the bus and stepped in

I sat in the left corner seat of the bus, started to gaze at the cloud and said, “How beautiful you are today”. I said to myself as there was no one to speak nearby. Before my ruminating moments got ceased, a girl of mid twenties came and sat next to me. It was quite unexpected. She opened a book and started to read. I peeped at her to see the name of the novel, which she was reading. But I couldn’t, as she’d folded the title page of the book. She was so engulfed in the novel, that none of the distractions could possibly disturb her. Even I didn’t want to perturb her reading. So I again started to gaze at the cloud. Also, I was not able to witness her eyes for a long time.

Unbelievable scenes started to happen in the cloud. It was thirty minutes past three. The sun began to set. I was quite flummoxed to see the cloud getting darkened in the afternoon time period. Everybody in the bus began to shout. The driver stopped the bus. And all the vehicles on the Hosur Road were halted. And everybody, including me, was flabbergasted on observing the cloud. There was a huge pandemonium all over. But, a girl next to me, felt rather undisturbed even then. Concentration at its best even at the worst condition, I thought. I gently asked her,’ Do you know what is happening outside’. Infact I wanted to shout. She paused for a moment and said, ’Yes I already know it’...

And finally I was able to see the name of her novel. It spelled as “The Shortest Night”. When I was about to ask her the book, for a quick glance, I noticed that all her fingers were half-cut, with blood bleeding tardily at the fore finger. My eyes popped. I asked, ‘Who are you?’ She replied, ’you don’t need that ...But I know you...’ I was taken aback by her unexpected reply. She left the bus, as eyeing at me, leaving the book on the seat. The driver resumed and the engine propelled and all the vehicles moved. I took the book and read the title of the book again. “The Shortest Night” I muttered myself. I was not able to locate the author of the book. The book contained full of printed caricatures. I was not able to decipher what was all about. I skimmed and swiftly turned the pages of the book. A last few pictures in the book grabbed my attention. In those pictures, a guy was seen enjoying in drizzling rain; a girl of mid twenties was sitting near a guy; the guy was gazing at the cloud and the cloud getting darkened. Those few pictures portrayed the episode, which had been happening then on my day. I felt trembled, limbs quivered, heart throbbed. It was, at that time, the bus reached near silkboard, squeaking and the sounds of claps were heard all around. The Sun, which was as if shrouded itself till then, started to rise. It was fifteen minutes past four. I was able to see jubilant faces in the bus, but I remained panic.

I reached my house after the frightening ordeal. I switched on my Television. I realized that the whole world was in complete darkness for duration of forty five minutes. All the news channels, the scientists, scholars were earnestly discussing the illogical phenomenon, that had happened. Nobody had any clue. I remained restless and hurriedly switched on my laptop. I googled the word, which I had been cogitating: “The Shortest Night”. I didn’t get any satisfactory results related to the book which I’d read. I recalled the final words, which she’d uttered: ‘I know you’. I’d never seen her before. As I was remembering the final shot, she looked at me, I was petrified and transfixed.

And I don’t want to see her again...