She held the paper in her hand and read it out loud to the whole class. She finished with a click and kicked her heals. She was expecting some remarks some solid ones. She knew she had done a great job.



He was the new teacher of the subject called logic and reason. He gave away the first assignment. It was strange. It was an essay to be written on any topic. A black eyed girl sat on the first bench. She was far too intrigued by his way of teaching and could not get the need of the assignment. She some how felt the course wasn't getting its perfect treatment and the professor was making it all haywire. She went down to him and complained about how she felt about it. She openly made it known to him how she thought it was all a waste. How he was wasting the class hours and how it all just didn't fit in the institution.

"What's the topic you have chosen ?", he asked. The afternoon sun lit his face brightly.

"I do not know", she hissed.

"You need some help with that ?", he asked again casually smiling.

"Hell no!!"

She looked confused and went away only to call him back some time in the night all in tears.

"I couldn't think of any thing to write. I just couldn't. I am the best student in the class and have always been the first to complete the assignment. Somehow its all confusing. All this doesn't make any sense. What kind of assignment is it any way"

"Well I m surprised you say that"

"I couldn't think of any thing to write. I need a topic desperately."

"You need some help with that ?"

"Hell YES! What else would I call for............ "

"Tell me something what is the last thought you had in your mind which you think is significant?"

"Well it was about your stupid lecture and how it was all a waste and it just didn't fit the institution called college"

"So why not"

"Because it isn't like the ones we have had all these years."

"So ?"

"Well it doesn't work that way. Let me tell you...."

"Why don't you tell it to the whole class as your essay on Monday. I think you have stopped crying."

Click .... beep beep beep




"Roll number fifty four get ready to read you essay." Secretly he had been waiting to hear to what she has to say for the whole weekend. Somehow he had a feeling he knew what she would write. Things were reciprocating.

She looked at him with deep respect and pulled out a paper from her Grey top.

The topic of her essay was "Abolition of Institution"

When she was done she thought she had enlightened the whole class. She argued that imitation was the real evil and ensured that the real teaching could never begin at institutions. It felt like an external compulsion. Little children didn't have it. It came later on possibly "the school" was the cause.
Yes they were the reason. They taught you to imitate. If you didn't you got a bad grade. In college it was sophisticated imitation. You were supposed to imitate in such a way so as to convince the teacher that you haven't imitated. That way you scored your A. Originality might give you anything from A to F.

The class remained silent. They didn't have that edge of three day long thought process over the issue and hence were in the same initial state that she was in. No one liked what she said. Perhaps no one understood what she said and you never like things you don't understand its perfectly natural. No one seemed to be interested and it all hurt her. Somehow again she was lost. How could they not see what was so obvious.

But this didn't slow her down. Her voice caught an odd old-time religious flavor. A pleading tone. She begged others to listen, to understand this was really right.

"I am not saying this for him", she glanced at him and then looked back at the class.

"Its for YOU."







-------------------------------------------------------------------------
With apologies to Robert M Pirsig

"Is that the door bell ringing", she questions.

Yes surprise!! its him. Its seems like years since they have had a glance at each other.

He comes up with that perfect excuse and she is graceful as always. He would take her on a drive as they always did. No one spoke there was no need.

He parked in the backyard of her house this time somehow walking through that front door was a sin. A sin that would turn the two of them into stone statues. He kicks off his velvet neck tie which is caught by the arms of that old skeleton tree. She removes her uptight sandles.

And they danced in the moonlight. Barefooted they danced to the music of silence, the grass caressing their toes and still not a word. Finally they fall down laughing and crying the same time. Still no words and now the only sound is the crickets chirping. They both knew what the silence meant. She smiled and he turned away.

Far away in the distance stars wobbled and wept with that strange and unaccustomed joy.

"How was the tea?", she asks.

"Fine as always", he shoots back.

There was no tea. The moon hid behind his blanket of clouds. Rain begins to pour softly and steadily. No one notices. His best tie will surely be ruined. Her sandles they are already lost.

That night, of course, there was an earthquake, not of the kind the Richter scale could measure not of the kind anyone but the stars could see.

The Screw that was stuck

apologies to Henry James

Part 1

Life had been pretty prototype for last few months and it seemed nothing was more than ordinary. The screw was stuck. You eventually realize its the twist that is important & no damm amount of push or a pull can turn the course.

Its gonna be Saturday in few moments and it all began last Saturday.

Saturday:
The show day. Everything was fine

Saturday Night:
The night I had been looking forward to got so screwed ..... well that now seems like a million years ago but yeah sad night .....

Sunday/Monday
A phone call and everything goes upside down. Fear ... and that's all i remember
You suddenly feel utterly helpless and you hate it when you have got nothing to do about it.
The sudden urge to just get to that place.... even if it was a thousand kilometers away.... just to steal one glance...... You realize it wont be sane to go all alone you pack your bags and get ready

Someone tells you.... you gotta wait.... wait for a day that's all.... you listen and sustain the turnmoil

Open house and bla bla bla its like who cares ......
loud cries all around and its almost a cry from your mouth as well....

You have a rough day ahead ......
campus on rocks thats all i remember

Sunday night:
You chill out.... The screws keep working and they screw up big time this time

Monday:
no classes you just run around the whole day
Nukad attempt bla bla and fast forward

Tuesday morning 5 AM:
Ideological clashes
and yeah rough ones
yeah but when its friendship for so long it really isnt important

Totally SCREWED!!

And then began "The Journey" a journey that turned the screw.....

'Phew...' , he sighed as he finally settled on his seat next to the window in the 3 tier AC compartment to Mumbai. A long journey lay ahead.

He started to notice things around. His hands moving , fingers tingling to find something interesting. The hands went below the berth to discover a used chewing gum stuck to the seat.

Damm!! What were the odds of that happening? Unwillingly, he got up and started making his way to the washbasin. He had to walk a good five compartments to get there. Scanning the people around he was increasingly sure that a long boring journey lay ahead.

He thought he was looking around and he was the one who was observing things but then there was someone who had an exceptional view of him. Someone who was vey happy to be discovered.

'A nice handsome guy', thought that someone. 'It's a pity I cant talk to him.'

That someone was now looking straight at his face, no not face lips perhaps. The way the tongue swirled and licked the lips and the way it survived betweeen those thirty two bastards.

'How I would love to be marraged by that tongue of his!! To get a feel of his lips!!' thought that someone. And then that someone had this amazing feeling that she was being tranported with the guy. She wasn't sitting but had transcended her own self to always have a clear view of the guy as he moved about.

The guy now faced the mirror hanging above the washbasin.

The chewingum was stuck to the hand. He cursed his luck as he tried removing it off his hands , all in vain.

Just then he saw a face, a beautiful face come into the view of the mirror. She was a big eyed girl, with shoulder length hair.

'Whoa!!' he thought. So awed was he that he instantly turned around and stood there facing the girl akwardly. The absurdity of his action accentuated by the chewing gum stuck to his hand.

"Hey!! Are ou done there ???", she asked. " Can I use the wash basin ??".

"Yeah sure.... I am trying to get this stupid gum off of my hand. It just refuses to go away", he said trying to shake off the gum. What happened next was something he wouldnt forget for a long time . The chewing gum as if waiting for that chance jumped off his hands and landed safely on the girl's hairs. Agleaming white spot on her beautiful black hair.

The girl valued her shoulder length hairs more than anything. She got furious. She seperated what she could from her hair, cursed him , stuck it back on his hand & went away in fury.

But then in the end all wasnt bad. There was someone who was happy, someone who ended up with all smiles, safely back on the hands of the guy she so loved. To have him all for himself. At least to look and fantasize as much as she wanted even though if she was just a ChewingGum.

-- Bharath Bhat
-- Abhishek Deshmukh

PS : Bharth and me wrote this thing.
The blue ones were written by bharath
I wrote the grey lines.

With all credits to the professor who teaches us Operations Research.
Had he been teaching good we would have been writing notes rather than this stuff.

"Hey whats the matter", he asked ,"You never demand me."

A long pause. I froze and time dilated. Seconds felt like hours. It felt like years passed before he spoke again.

"You are not afraid of me are you?", he said coldly. 'How did he know that' , I thought.

A great screeching laughter, loud and clear, mocking me, scolding me with its every audible syllable. There was that sense of victory in those black eyes. Some unsaid words.
I stood there silent, secretly wishing I never came to him. I knew I idolized him but that overconfidence. It almost made him evil.

"C 'mon say it you idiot. What is it that you want to ask?", that voice demanded

"Its about me I have no idea about what I am supposed to do after I m done here. I am clueless ", I said meekly

I knew I had opened it all and had surrendered. He was winning. But hey why was I sad we were the same. Winning and loosing were all relative and immediately lost their significance here.

"To me you seem incapable and just ordinary. Mistake my friend in fact a blunder that is what you are. ", he shot back.

"But... Mistake ??", I found my voice resisting.

Calm and composed he smiled, that dreadful smile. I was trembling and he knew everything.

"You know you already have committed a mistake by asking me. Never ask any one else. No about nothing. It makes you weak, actually a leech a parasite living on other's thoughts and fancies"

"But their opinion matters to me. Its important. Right?", I questioned.

"Don't you know what you want out of yourself? Are you such a big hypocrite? How can you stand not knowing yourself?"

"But you know I m not sure. I am never sure. That is what I love about you. You are so sure. You always know ........."

"Dinners ready.... what are you doing there in dark all alone common darling its ready", mom shouted.

and suddenly everything faded .







---------------------------------------------------------

with apologies to
Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism &
the unnamed play in theater fest SRCC