Cut-throat

                               

Karim Lala stealthily walked down the Subedaar street and halted in front of an electric pole which bore a payphone. The payphone was fixed to the pole with the help of couple of bolts both on the top and the bottom. The handset was hooked and was bound to the base unit by a twisted tinsel wire. Standing there, Karim scrabbled his right hand inside his trouser pocket and picked a coin. He carefully took the handset out with his left hand and held it appropriately. Doing so, he inserted a coin with his right hand and punched in a number. Karim could hear the phone ringing on the other end.

“ Hello ”, a voice mumbled.

“ Bhai, this is Karim ”, Karim spoke into the phone.

“ What is wrong with you Karim. Its 2.45 AM in the morning ”, the person yelled with a low-tone on the other end.

“ Bhai, I think we got Thakur.”

“ What do you mean by ‘We got ThKari ?  “, came through the receiver.

Karim looked around two make sure no one is watching and slowly whispered, “ I have solid information from a trustworthy source that Thakur is coming to a saloon in Subedaar street at around 3.30 AM. And moreover Tony is out of the town. I have my men already in their positions. Bhai, trust me this is the perfect time ”.

“ How do you know Tony is out of the town, Karim “, questioned Bhai with a light cheer.

“ Through my source ”, Karim replied.

From a distance, Vinodh and Mukesh, the onlookers, watched Karim speak over the phone with gripping silence.

“ Karim ! You decided to take down the biggest and the most formidable man in the city and yet you inform me just half an hour before the act. It isn’t easy Karim. Without days or probably months of flawless planning and enough manpower we cannot dare lay a single finger on Thakur. You know not about Thakur’s immunity. He is not the same person who he was years ago, Karim. Thakur has grown along with Bombay. Today Thakur IS Bombay. Bombay IS Thakur ”, Karim heard Bhai gasp heavily.

“ Bhai, I don’t believe in planning. We are not doing a marriage to plan and distribute cards. We are doing a MURDER. It has to be done instantly. And planning for days is not safe because there are chances that the information might be couriered to the other end. It has to come as a surprise. Believe me Bhai, we will strike the tiger right at its heart ”, Karim explained.

“ I am still uncertain Karim. We are not dealing with a tiger. As far as I am concerned Thakur is a dragon. I know him and the people around him very well. Loyalty of the people around him is his immunity. You know Karim, a person with LOYALTY is invulnerable, infallible, indomitable, impregnable, invincible ,unassailable, unbeatable, unshakeable ,……………. ”

“ Bhai, enough of his abilities. Your dialogue is intolerable, unbearable and uncomfortable to listen. When I say I can DO it. I MEAN it. Trust me ”, Karim interrupted.

“ Would you mind revealing the name of your source, Karim  ? ”, Bhai asked with curiosity.

“ Bhai. Don’t be shocked. My source is Rekha.”,Karim uttered slowly.

“ Whaaat !!  Rekhaaa ?  She is Tony’s wife. Why on earth would she entangle her brother-in-law’s life ? Are you sure Karim ? How did you get to her Karim ? “ , Bhai exclaimed with little joy.

“ Because Rekha is my sister ”, Karim responded with a grim on his face.

“  I knew from the beginning that she is not a routine lady. She is definitely not a wife material. How could Tony be so dumb and blindly love her ? “, Vinodh spoke to Mukesh.

“ Just shut up Vinodh. Please don’t draw any attention to us ”, Mukesh whispered angrily into Vinodh’s left ear.

“ Good Heavens !  Then I think I have hired the right guy Karim. Very well done. You are a genius. So how are you going to send him to grave ? “

“ Bhai, we are a total of 7 in number and going in with the daggers “, said Karim.  

Karim continued, “ Pistols or shotguns leave the clues behind. I hate that. And also they are very noisy at this hour of the day. I surely don’t want to awaken the neighbors ”

“ I have a guy in the house at the end of the street who turns on a bulb when he first notices the vehicle. This is an indication that Thakur’s vehicle is approaching. I have men positioned at different angles of the saloon. As Thakur descends his vehicle and walks into the saloon, our men are set to attack him. And don’t worry, they have veils on their faces to conceal their identities. I promise you that Thakur will not see today’s dawn. Is that fine Bhai saab ? “, Karim pushed his words into the transmitter.

“Hey you SCUMBAG, Karim !!  How long are you gonna talk to your Bhai over the phone with just one coin inserted. You idiot. This is the reason why I hate these directors. They take their audience just for granted. I hate this stupid movie “,

Vinodh yelled at the big screen loudly.

Ashamed of his friend’s act, Mukesh  slowly told , “ Hey ! Vinodh calm down. People are watching us. Shut your loud mouth and just watch the movie. ”

Conceived and Written By,

Jayanth

Xclamator !!

Please avoid reading the below article if simple and silly things do not fascinate you :)

                                   A blue colored Bajaj Chetak sounding “brrrrrrrr” sped through the main gate of Elena Bettini School. Sitting on it and propelling it was Vittal. Anyone who cleared the main gate could see the mammoth building risen above the ground. One could see a huge oak tree standing in front of the building. This tree was encircled by a small and colorful circular garden. A sculpture of Mother Mary was installed in the shade and it made the entire garden look picturesque.

Vittal pulled-in his vehicle at one side of the school and walked towards the entrance. He barely strode across the exquisitely tiled corridor before Sister Lucy, the headmistress of the school, greeted him.

“ Hello Vittal, good morning ”

“ Good morning Sister Lucy “, acknowledged Vittal.

“ Very rarely do I see children’s fathers walking into this premises ”, smiled Lucy.

“ Yeah, I agree fathers are little lazy ”, responded Vittal with a broad cheer on his face.

“ Is there any purpose for your visit or you just dropped by , Mr.Vittal ? “, inquired the headmistress as she walked along with Vittal towards Class IV.

“ Yeah I will tell you, but you must not hold any impression against Rahul “, sighed Vittal and continued to walk along.

“ I had a longer day at office yesterday and returned home late. Rahul was already busy watching his favorite toon show on television.

 To unwind myself I took control of the television and tuned in a sport show ”, continued Vittal.

“ However Rahul was unhappy and instantly sulked at me for my act. I turned a deaf ear to his request and asked him to do some reading for which he protested.

He even went to the television and operated the buttons manually. I never gave up kidding with Rahul. He wouldn’t stop bugging the TV. So I took advantage of the TV-remote in my hand and used the power of CHILD-LOCK feature that seizes the manual operation.

And this event made him more grumpy and he ran away to his mother ”, heaved Vittal as they reached the mouth of Class-IV.

The kids had completed their lunch and was making most of their lunch-break. From outside, Sister Lucy noticed that the blackboard was filled with something peculiar.

The blackboard had a heading PUNCTUATION MARKS. By the style Lucy could make out that the content was written by Miss Bindu, the teacher dealing with English. Miss Bindu had a unique and fascinating way of teaching.

Lucy could see that the board had the following content.

  . –  Stopper

 ? –  Interrogator

, –  Separator

“ –  Highlighter

She ignored the rest and turned to Vittal.

“I hardly understand why you are talking about all this to me Mr.Vittal ”, confessed Lucy as Rahul took a glance at his father standing at the door.

“Sister Lucy, I thought yesterday I had won over my kid but….“,Vittal gasped heavily.

Sister Lucy who was still confused - dressed her face with an “Interrogator” and was about to talk as she saw Rahul coming close to his father with a TV-Remote in his hand.

Lucy was surprised and hardly knew how to react when she instinctively 
tilted her head towards the board which had one more line  ! –  Xclamator

Conceived and Written By,

Jayanth

Child’s Lullaby

                       At around 3:50 P.M, Laxman pulled out the class diary from inside his school bag. Apparently his school bag was lying under one of the wooden desks placed inside a classroom with a plaque “III STD” on it. One corner of the blackboard had all the homework for students. This activity of putting up the homework (for the day) on blackboard was done by all the teachers just before leaving the class. Every day, students copy down all the activities from the blackboard into their diaries. Laxman opened the page which had 28^th JANUARY , 1999  watermarked on the header section. He jotted down that day’s homework, put his class diary back in the bag and ran towards the main gate after the long bell rang.

                              It was exactly at 4:30 P.M. when an auto-rickshaw arrived before Sumithra’s home. Sumitra was 32 , wife of Dasarath and mother of Laxman. She was embroidering one of Laxman’s hand-kerchief when the auto arrived. She saw Laxman dragging his bag which had the face of Scooby-Doo printed on it.

Laxman came to his mom, saw her and yelled  “ maa, I reiterated that my hanky must have LAXMAN on it. Not LUCKY . “

“Lucky boy, I will have LAXMAN embroidered on your 4^th- grade hanky. Now go and refresh yourself. I will have the milk boiled for you.”

Sumitra had packed Laxman’s bag and prepared him for his tuition before Dasarath came home. Dasarath came home at 5:15 P.M. He bespattered his face with water and tidied up himself.

“Are you ready Lucky ?”,Dasarath enquired.

“Yes paa”, Laxman replied frivolously.

“Sumi, I will leave Lucky at his tuition and meet my friends “ told Dasarath.

“Should I pick him up at 8:00 P.M. after his tutelage ? “, asked Sumitra.

“No my dear, tonight , I will have him picked up .” responded Dasarath and walked out along with Laxman.

                               Laxman hung his bag to his back as his father had him seated on the baby seat of the old fashioned Hero Cycle. Then Dasarath rode the cycle away from his residence. While Dasarath sped fast across the streets, Laxman watched through the roads as he did regularly. At 5:45 P.M., Dasarath’s cycle entered the front portion of Gulshan Theatre. Laxman was surprised to see the poster of Toy Story -2. The poster was wide and very large. The poster had the characters Woody, Buzz Lightyear and many others on it. Laxman was excited as well as surprised by looking at it.

                               Dasarath bought Laxman down from the cycle and made him stand on the ground. He parked the cycle at one corner and bought two tickets while his son was busy staring at the poster.
Dasarath came to Laxman, stretched his right hand and knelt before him saying “ Now promise me that you won’t speak a single word about this to your mom.”

Without a single tint of hesitation on his face, Laxman hastily placed his hand on his father’s and smiled – “Love you paa.” Later the duo walked into the theatre. Laxman was utterly gleeful because he had skipped his tuition for his favorite cinema. Laxman had watched Toy Story-1 on television. Since then he had developed a special interest on all the characters of the movie. Particularly Buzz Lightyear.

Usually, the theaters of Dasarath’s hometown never screened animation movies. Even if they do, the screening would last only for 2 days. And today being the last day of the screening, Dasarath hardly wanted Laxman to miss this opportune moment. And he knew that Sumitra would turn down this request if he asked her. Hence this sweet conspiracy.

                           Just before the movie started Dasarath thought – “My son has bunked his tuition even before he learnt the meaning of the word BUNK.”

This thought brought a broad cheer on his face. During the movie, Dasarath noticed Laxman watching the 70 mm screen attentively with sheer dedication.

“Does he exhibit the same interest while watching blackboard ? ”,Dasarath wondered.

After the movie Dasarath rode Laxman back to home and behaved as if he had picked Lucky only from the tuition. Both father and son were very careful all the night. After supper Sumitra helped Laxman in finishing his homework and put him to bed.

                  Next day morning at around 8:30 A.M, Sumitra stood at the porch of her house, carrying Lucky’s school bag. Dasarath was busy tying the shoelaces of his son’s tidily polished shoes while Laxman relaxed in a chair. They were waiting for the auto-rickshaw to arrive.

“So which movie did your father take you to ? “ asked Sumitra by looking down at Laxman.

Laxman stared at his father before he opened his mouth. He noticed that even his father’s face was as baffled as his.

Later they both stared at Sumitra with a puzzled look on their faces which read “ How the hell on earth did you find out ? ”

 “I found a little popcorn packet in Lucky’ s bag with  ‘ Gulshan Theatre ‘  imprinted on it “, Sumitra cleared the air.

“paa, now I see why you keep saying - maa is not only beautiful but also intelligent “,Laxman spoke turning his face towards his father.

“But Lucky, why didn’t you complete your popcorn in the theatre ?” Dasarath enquired.

“I thought I could distribute it to my friends at school. And moreover they won’t believe me that I have been to Toy Story -2  until I showed them some solid proof “ Laxman responded immediately.

“Hmmmmmmm !! So your popcorn testified both of us”, Dasarath sighed as the auto revved its engine in front of his house.

Laxman watched his mom and asked her to come to his face. She came to him asking “Now what !! do you want to say sorry ?”

Laxman came close, kissed her on the cheek and whispered  “ MOMS ARE TOUGHER THAN MATHEMATICS “. Saying that he slid with jet speed into the auto.

Sumitra, with her eyes wide open, watched his little son get into the auto as Dasarath asked her  “Should I also do the same to cool you down ? “

Conceived and Written By,

Jayanth