“Destiny of life” – My entry for the Get Published contest

Source: http://liz-green.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/destiny-road.jpg

The Idea

The story is about two individuals who are as different as chalk and cheese. It’s the story of their love transcending years and continents. If he is quiet, calm and reserved, she is bubbly, cheerful and vivacious. If he rarely talks to people, she talks so much to anyone and everyone that she could create a racket. He’s a suave, young and dynamic working man of today. But his life revolves around work. There’s something he wants to forget. There’s something which is bothering him which he wants to escape from. So he keeps himself as busy as he can. There is a strong desire to earn as much as he can in the least possible time.

Short Story 8: The Betrayal

“I charge 2000 bucks for one night. Take it or leave it.”

“2000? Isn’t that too expensive?” With wrinkles all around his face, hair which had turned white and a frail body structure, age seemed to have caught up with him.

“Hey uncle! Looks like you are new to this place. No one has the guts to ask me such questions. You are old enough to be my grandfather and that’s why I lowered my rate out of respect. Otherwise, you can ask anyone, my rate is not less than 3000 per night.

Looks like, you still want to enjoy some nice sex, is it?” I nudged his arm and winked.

And so I got my first customer of the New Year. No one cares how the customer looks or thinks like. If he is ready to pay what one demands, there’s nothing better than that.

Short Story 7 – The dark secret of the grasslands!

“Is this the same country which people routinely trash when discussing about tourism?” Sam seemed awestruck by the beauty all around.

“Yeah that’s the question running through my head as well.” Ginny had heard the same from her friends back in Auckland.

“From the greenery to the valley, from the wildlife safaris to the unspoilt beaches, this place is paradise rediscovered.”

“Yes it truly feels like. God! They scared us to death while departing. Thankfully we kept our foot down.” Over the last few days, they had realized that this place was nothing like what had been described by their friends.

“Who knows; maybe they assumed that we were going to a concentration camp rather than an adventure trip.” Both of them had a hearty laugh.

Sam and Ginny were not your regular couple who meet in a college and fall in love. They actually never worked in an office at all. Whether it was rock climbing, rappelling, bungee jumping, paragliding or any other adventure sport – both of them were always game for challenges. And it was during one of these adventures that they happened to meet.

Short Story 6 – Life’s lost minutes

With its off white walls, dreary and dull surroundings and the pungent smell of some godforsaken chemicals, the room felt excruciatingly depressing. I had to summon all my reserves of strength to keep my eyes open. But all I could see was medical equipment strewn around. With my arms and legs covered in plaster and me on a saline drip, it seemed as though I was fighting a losing battle with life.

As soon I held on to the bed to get up, I felt a shooting sensation in my arms. It seemed as though 10 needles had been inserted into my body without any warning whatsoever. All I could do was scream my lungs out for help. And almost immediately, a stream of doctors rushed into the ward to regulate my breathing which had spiralled out of control.

How had I reached a hospital? What had happened to me? Am I going to survive this? More than a day had passed without me even being conscious. The last I remember, I was flying to New York with my family. Despite my desperate condition, I was still trying to figure out the exact turn of events. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t realize someone else enter the room.

“Hi Matt. I am Adrian from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The doctors didn’t want me to be here so fast lest you suffer a fatal attack. But the situation is so desperate that I need your help. I rushed into the room as soon as you gained consciousness.

You are the luckiest man on the planet right now. Surviving that sort of a plane crash with just minor injuries, you really got to be God. There were just 4 others who we were able to rescue from that ill-fated jet. But all of them are fighting for their lives.

I am not sure if you can hear me. But if you can, please tell me what happened that night on Rossia Airlines Flight 204.”

Short Story 5: The night that was!

“Where are you Ritesh? All of us have been waiting for you since long. You had promised to take all of us for dinner tonight, hadn’t you?”

“Yes darling I had. Have I ever broken any of the promises I have ever made?”

“But you told you would be back by 6pm. It’s already 7 and there’s still no sight of you. Is everything ok?”

“Yes jaan. There was a lot of work at the office and that’s why I got late. I promise to make up to you. I am already at the station and the train would be here any moment. Once in, it’s just a matter of half an hour.”

“Come fast my love. I am getting worried.”

“Don’t worry darling. The train’s here now. I will have to hang up because of the extreme rush at this hour.”

“I will be waiting.”

“Just close your eyes and I will be there.”

Short Story 4 – Cruel Twist

Cruel Twist

“Sir! AG 323 has veered off the radar.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Yes sir. Look at this. I can’t see it at all.”

Over the next few minutes both of them tried desperately to contact the flight captain but were unsuccessful.

And then there was a phone call –

Short Story 2 – Everything happens for a reason!

“Do we have a future together? Don’t you think that the distance between us would make things really difficult?”

She looked at me with nervousness and bloodshot eyes. Eyes that seemed to say a thousand words; eyes which had dark circles around them from days of staying awake talking at nights; eyes in which I had seen the kid in her jumping and smiling over the last two years.

“We will be together Anahita. It’s just a matter of a couple of years before we can tell our parents. Rather than worrying about destiny, we would write it ourselves.”

Seeing the confidence I had in us, she snuggled into me as she had always done over the time we had started seeing each other. It was an indication that she felt secured and protected and I loved that. Sitting together in her ‘Mary’ (her affectionate name for Maruti 800), both of us were lost in the memories of the past.

The Gupians Gang!!! – My virtual friend circle on Twitter?

Twitter is one of the most amazing mediums of communication in the world. It is vastly different from Facebook, Orkut and various other social networking websites on the basic premise that it helps to connect to people ranging from Shashi Tharoor to your own classmate. The world is a person’s audience. I won’t go further into Twitter’s uses, importance and all that as many of my blog posts I have dealt with that earlier.

To remind many of my readers I had written a short story on Twitter for a book recently. Though it got rejected due to various reasons, I put it up on my blog for the world at large to read it and give their views / reviews. Needless to say, some of the comments were good, some bad and many didn’t care. The story dealt with the life of four individuals from different walks of life (a mother, a youngster, a singer and a journalist) and how they connect with each other through the medium of Twitter. Though many felt that it was something which couldn’t happen, I knew and had a feeling that this is something which is really possible with Twitter in the future.

The links to the story (In 3 parts) for those who haven’t read it: -

http://aseemrastogi2.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/virtual-rendezvous-part-i/

http://aseemrastogi2.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/virtual-rendezvous-part-ii/

http://aseemrastogi2.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/virtual-rendezvous-part-iii-of-iii/

I have connected to a lot of people such as students, executives, young professionals etc. through Twitter. But until the formation of the “GUPIAN GANG”, I hadn’t ever in my life been part of a virtual friend circle. So what is the “GUPIAN GANG”?

First the members: -

Follow Gupians on Twitter:

Viral Dholakia – LegRj (Entrepreneur / Writer) – The biggest fan of Rajnikant ever and the one who guided me to write on Trakin – Pune’s No 1 technology and business blogs!

Rajeev Srivastava – Rzzev (Working in the fashion industry) – My first friend on Twitter!

Kartik Jain – _stoic_ (Working in the software industry) – The Database Head in a company in Pune, from UP and MP partially both

Lata Singh – TheMasakkali (IT industry) – HR Consultant and the only female in the group

Sanjay Pratyush – sanj_pratyush – Settled in Bangalore

Aseem Rastogi – aseemrastogi2 (MBA student) – That’s me!

Bhavik Shah – TheAngrezJailer (Completed B.Tech) – One of the most funny guys I have come across on Twitter. About to start working.

Chirag Jethmalani – CJethmalani (Founder of squamble.com) 20 | Finance Buff | Blogger | Traveller | Value Investor | In Constant search for Gyan (Waah kya bio hai!

Jinesh – jinesh007 (Student of Animation) – As his bio says! I am a wanderer on this planet

Anmol Chawla – want_beer – A relatively new entrant

The name “GUPIAN GANG” was given by the leader of the group – Viral (Gupians from “Gups” – Guys!). So what does the Gupian Gang do?

The gang came into existence from jokes on Rajnikant with the hashtag #LegendofRajni and then followed with #LuckyAli and then the GupianQuiz #GQ. Now its about wishing each other in the morning / evening / afternoon, asking about daily activities and basically discussing about anything under the sun. We also created a Facebook Fan page for the group: -

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Gupians-Awesomeness-Redefined/161337623889066

The group is turning into somewhat of a virtual friend circle. And the most interesting part is that all the members are from different backgrounds and are in their early or late 20s.

So where does the Gupian Gang go from here on? Some of my suggestions (You are free to add on!!): -

- Building up opinion on causes / issues which affect us Indians (such as CWG)
- Giving support in terms of retweets for different causes
- Basically becoming a group of friends who support each other, joke around, have fun and also fight and tweet for causes

I know it all sounds too much. Why would anyone want to waste time on Twitter doing this and instead do more meaningful things? But think again. If this really happens, wouldn’t it be something of an example?

All the members who have not read the story, do check out. And tell me. Isn’t this a case of real life mirroring the written word?

Virtual Rendezvous – Part III of III

I, Vivek Sen was a famous journalist with the Navyug Times based in Delhi. With the advent of social networks and other social media sites, I had become sufficiently active on Twitter to catch up on any latest piece of news.

During the Mumbai floods, I was assigned to look into Twitter to see what people were talking about. I somehow saw this entire campaign handled by Akshita Rane and two other people. This had to be a front page story for our newspapers.

@akshitarane we would like to know the details of the campaign you ran on Twitter for inviting donations for people affected by the floods

Akshita immediately replied back to official Navyug Times account (@navyug07) on Twitter.

@navyug07 why? What do you want to know?

@akshitarane we want the world to know the power of Twitter and how people are utilizing it..We have mailed you the details..Would it be ok?

@navyug07 ok that would be great

After a face – to – face discussion with Akshita, I published a report on the front page of Navyug Times on November 7th 2009.

Akshita Rane creating a sensation on Twitter

She’s young!
She’s hot and happening!
She’s sexy!
She’s as melodious as anyone could be!

Akshita Rane, one of the most popular Bollywood singers of our times already has many awards and songs to her credit. Now she’s creating a sensation on Twitter like never before.

For the uninitiated, Twitter is one of the most popular social networking sites where one can send status updates of 140 characters. Most of our stars today are using it for branding and marketing themselves. But Akshita seems to have done much more than that.

She has gone ahead and made a sort of ‘friend circle’ on Twitter with a 55 year old woman, Lata Prabhakar, a resident of Bangalore and Ronnie Dsouza, a 22 year student from Hyderabad.

I am sure you readers must be wondering as to how did this happen? To know more, we posed this question to her.

“Twitter is one of the most amazing online communication mediums I have ever used. Initially I was also using it just to brand and market myself. But Lata and Ronnie made me realise that at the end of the day we are also humans. And we just connected. Rest as they say is history.”
Interesting words from a star who at one time had seemed completely unapproachable. The saying “Times and circumstances do change people” holds so true for this situation.

And this is not all, the three of them recently organized a campaign on Twitter to mobilize people to donate willingly for those affected by the Mumbai floods. Contacting over 1,50,000 people to get donations worth Rs 40 lacs doesn’t seem to be a mean achievement any day.

Only time will tell as to how long this human side of Akshita Rane would stay in the public domain. What do you think of this? Do write to us @ navyug07@gmail.com

Akshita immediately tweeted about the article to both Lata and Ronnie.

@lata55 @dummyknights guys! Did you check out the front page of navyug times today?

It was Sunday, November 8th, 2009 and Lata was really busy as she had to go out shopping to the nearby mall for household items. But Ronnie replied immediately.

@akshitarane yeah interesting article..we are becoming famous because of you for sure..

@dummyknights hahaha..that was a good one..

Later in the evening, Akshita got to know of a bomb blast in a mall in Bangalore which killed 150 people and injured many. Fearing the worst, she dialled all the helplines possible and finally did get to know the TRUTH.

After hearing the news, she didn’t know what to do and whom to talk to. Finally she ended up sending a tweet to Ronnie.

@dummyknights it feels as if I have lost a part of myself..It feels as if I knew her forever and ever..I am shocked 

@akshitarane the way we connected on twitter it didn’t seem that we never knew each other..

@dummyknights i miss her as much as I would anyone in the real world..You guys made the human come out of the star in me..

@akshitarane I wish we could do something for her to honour her memory..

@dummyknights what do you think of organizing a concert in the memory of the victims of the terror attack?

@akshitarane don’t you think that would be monetizing the whole situation?

@dummyknights no! no! The money generated would go to the victims’ families and those affected in any way

After Ronnie’s initial reservations, he was ready to help in organizing the concert and mobilizing opinion among the people via Twitter.

@akshitarane then I am all for it..We can make people aware of this via twitter..What say?

@dummyknights yeah that would be amazing..let’s get going..

Mobilizing opinion among people on Twitter to honour the victims of the terror attack and also the Bollywood industry was a really tough proposition. There were questions ranging from the need of doing this to the financial proposition of this initiative.

Finally on 1st December 2009, the biggest music concert in India was organized at Bangalore in the memory of the victims of terror attack. Akshita managed a coup by inviting the who’s who of the industry.

50,000 people with more than 50 lacs generated through this initiative – the concert was able to reach legendary status.

Akshita and Ronnie were shocked out of their daylights seeing a tweet from @lata55 the next day at 10:22pm.

“The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive – perhaps for some purpose.”

Virtual Rendezvous – Part II of III

Over the next few weeks and months she herself made it a point to respond to @dummyknights. From the id, she could understand that this person was a blogger, novelist, music geek and also a twitter addict with over 15,000 tweets and more than 7,000 followers.

The fact that @dummyknights’s tweets didn’t sound as if he / she is worshipping her like a star made her even more curious to find about him / her. She realised that this was one person she could be more as a human being to rather than being a celebrity.

@dummyknights great to hear your honest comments on my recent album..I see that you are an upcoming composer…that’s awesome

@akshitarane Not really a composer ..More of a music freak who loves creating and learning new sound pieces..

@akshitarane loved your songs for last yrs movies..But this year not been very happy..Hoping 2 hear some good stuff soon..Expectations mounting..

With time, Akshita realised that this was a 22 year old guy and knowing the work he was doing at such an age made her hold him in awe. She also began to share information about her upcoming projects with @dummyknights. Though she never got to know his / her name, she felt like some bond of friendship developing with this person.

@dummyknights sorry to disappoint fans like u ..lot of plans 4 the future..Biggest project is theme song 4 the upcoming world sports games

@akshitarane waiting 2 hear your upcoming tracks..Oh my God! You the voice behind the theme song? Am sure, it’s gonna be cool 

However weird or surprising it may sound, she started connecting with @dummyknights like a real friend does, though this happened at a virtual level.

@dummyknights by the way, would love to listen to some of your sound pieces..

@akshitarane great  you can check them out on my personal blog..

Many of the Bollywood websites used to organize “Meet Akshita Rane” contests which were also endorsed and supported by her. Winners of one such contest were @lata55 and @dummyknights.

@lata55 @dummyknights Congrats! You are the lucky winners of “Meet Akshita Rane” contest. You are required 2 reach Mumbai by 14th March 2009

Lata was worried that her family won’t allow her to go for the trip as they had already started saying that she said more things online than in real life. It had seemed as if Twitter had come into her life and become everything to her. So she immediately replied to Akshita.

@akshitarane it feels great to be a winner ..I wanted to know the entire details regarding the trip

@lata55 the details have been mailed to you on your email id

After lengthy discussions, arguments and fights, Lata finally managed to convince her family about her decision to go to Mumbai.

While in @dummyknights case, the biggest confusion was where he was located as he had never revealed his location at all. Whether this was on purpose or coincidental was something which no one knew.

@dummyknights could you please tell us your location so that we can arrange the entire travel plans for you?

@akshitarane thanks a lot. I live in Hyderabad..Looking forward to the meetup

The entire trip to Mumbai and back was amazing and fantastic to say the least. Akshita finally found out the name behind @dummyknights – Ronnie Dsouza. Talking with him was such an easy task for her. Even though they hadn’t ever met before, connecting with each other through Twitter meant Akshita and Ronnie didn’t meet like strangers.

Akshita always thought that her songs were mostly for the young. Seeing, Lata, destroyed some of her perceptions. She was thrilled to see a fan of her mother’s age.

“So you are the @dummyknights huh! It’s an honour to meet your sir.” It was weird to hear a star speaking like that.

“Hahaha! Honour to meet me? You must be joking.” Ronnie dismissed Akshita’s comment with a whiff.

“It’s been really amazing to find a fan who criticises you too equally as much as he praises you.” Akshita hadn’t met many fans who were critical of her.

“I guess that’s why we bonded on Twitter. Didn’t we?” Ronnie replied with a smile.

“Yes for sure.”

“Aunty, it’s so nice to see a person of your age at such an event. I am really happy to know that people of your age like my songs too.” Akshita wasn’t used to meeting the senior age group as her fans.

“I love all your songs. Zindagi Ankahee and Anjaana from your recent album – Khuda Yeh Hai Zindagi are tremendous.” Lata was a big fan of Akshita.

“Hey even I love those songs. They are so easy on the ears. Akshita, it seriously shows your versatility.” Ronnie joined the discussion.

“Thanks so much guys.” Akshita was overwhelmed by the praise.

“Ronnie, you seem like a very interesting personality from what I have seen of your twitter profile through Akshita’s twitter feed.” Lata wanted to know more about Ronnie.

“That’s really nice of you. Knowing your age, one wouldn’t think you would like such songs. You should check out some of my tunes on my twitter id @dummyknights.”

“That’s an interesting name. I sure will”.

A 55 year old mother and a 20 something meeting up a celebrity through a contest organized on Twitter would have seemed totally unthinkable a couple of years back. But due to the reach of the online world, it became a reality. And above all they were bonding like friends.

After going back, the three of them remained in constant touch over Twitter. It seemed like some sort of friendship had started to develop between the three of them – maybe very unlike in the real world but so much possible in the virtual one.

On September 22nd 2009, Mumbai faced its biggest ever flood with more than 500mm of rain in a single day. This crippled the entire city with the closure of schools, colleges, ways and means of transport and also led to a lot of loss of lives and damage to property. People were using Twitter to disseminate information about the areas which were flooded. Many others who were stuck up around the city were using it to ask for help to be rescued. News channels and journalists from all around the country were in Mumbai.

Lata and Ronnie with the help of Akshita’s star power and list of followers decided to spearhead a campaign for the Mumbai floods. They started mobilizing opinion across Twitter to encourage people to willingly donate for the flood victims.

In the first one week, more than 50,000 people were contacted through this campaign. By the end of it, more than 1,50,000 had donated a total of more than Rs 40 lacs. The campaign was a legendary success and showed the true power of Twitter. Akshita thanked both of them for their efforts.

@lata55 @dummyknights thanks so much guys for your help..If it was not for you this campaign would have surely failed

Lata and Ronnie replied back with the same enthusiasm.

@akshitarane kudos to you for thinking of this idea..We have loved to be a part and it has brought all of us much closer