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Sunday, November 06, 2005

Story tag answered and a few other things....

Please welcome Lexington's all-rounder Ashokla to the blogging world...:)
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Some songs have lyrics that you can just lose yourself in. On an otherwise dreary day, I was lost in appreciation of a few lines from the song "Engey Andha vennila.." from Varushamellam Vasantham:

"Mazhaiyil nadakkiren, kudaiyAi varugirAi
Veyilil nadakkiren, nizhalAi varugirAi
Dhaagam engiren, neerAi varugirAi
Sogam engiren, thAyAi varugirAi"

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Thennavan had tagged me. So, finally, after days of procrastrination, here is my piece to the story....


He thought it would be an ordinary journey. Standing behind the pillar he watched the train snort arrogantly into the station. With each snort he was reminded of his grandfather's words "You will fail in the city and return penniless"; with every heavenward whistle, he heard his cousin, "Don't worry. Come here and I will get you a job at the construction site." Now he had a 34-hour journey to prove one of them wrong, and he expected the excitement at the end of the journey. He looked at his ticket once again: compartment S9 berth 23.

Pushing his luggage under the seat, he sat close to the window. "Papa, when will you be back?" - his four year old daughter Munni asked innocently. He stared into those soft brown eyes of the motherless kid. He held her frail palms in his, through the window. "Munni, Papa will get you a nice gudiya from the city..Say tata," his sister spoke to the kid, to avoid an emotional outburst. In a minute, the train pulled forward, and Munni's little fingers parted from between his. "I need to go..", he thought, "I have to, at least for Munni's sake.."

The humid summer breeze and the rattling train coaxed him into an uncomfortable state of drowsy consciousness. He dreamt that Munni ran away, the closer he ran to her, the farther she was, like a mirage. He woke up with a start and squinted at his watch."What is the time please?"A smallish woman, a meek voice as if she was scared that her existence would annoy someone. Her only noticeable feature was her rather large, expressive eyes."4.30"Something made him look at the woman again. He had stopped noticing women long back. Ever since Meenakshi passed away...

But this woman was different. He She reminded her him of someone he knew. In an instant he realized who and the painful memories came flooding back. She looked exactly like his childhood sweetheart Madhu. As teenage lovers in a conservative society, they had often met secretly and had declared undying love for each other.

Then someone had found out and all hell had broken loose. The elders in the village Panchayat had ostracized Madhu's family as she was from a lower caste. Unable to bear the humiliation, she had committed suicide by drowning. That was twelve years back...


Back then, he had thought that the world would stop for his grief; that life would still for his sorrow. He had learnt the hard way that Time's relentless march had little sympathy for anyone. Life had indeed gone on. He had met Meenakshi, loved her, married her, had Munni and lost Meenakshi too, all in a span of 7 years. Suddenly his small town and its confines seemed suffocatingly oppressive. He wanted to immerse himself in something bigger than his life and its problems and his little town offered nothing by way of distraction. He had decided to move to the city, to try his hand at new things and shake away the cobwebs of the past. So here he was on the train to the city. He started thinking about his new career in the city....

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(Everything below the dashed line above should be copied and pasted with every accepted tag)

This is a Story Tree and is best nurtured as follows:
1. A blogger can add only 90-100 words (not more or less) at a time
2. All previous snippets of 90-100 words need to be copied before the new set of 90-100 words are appended.
3. Each entire snippet should be linked to the respective author (and not just the first sentence or so)
4. Characters, scenes, etc. can be introduced by an author
5. Bizarre twists, sci-fi, fantasy sequences are best avoided.
6. A tag must be accepted within 7 days else the branch is a dead branch
7. After appending 90-100, the Story Tree can be passed on to at most 3 bloggers.
8. If more than 1 branch leads to a blogger, s/he is free to choose any one of them but cannot mix the snippets of the individual branches.
9. The Story Tree is best left to grow than concluded
10. Please attach the image of the Story Tree below with each accepted tag (the link address can be copied and used).
And I tag:

Karthikeyan
VS
Madhangy

9 comments:

Krish said...

Subha, the story seems to go on another interesting path, quite different from what Visithra had done and I would love to see how the baton is carried on by the others you have tagged. Thanks for picking up the pieces and weaving the "relay story magic" into them again :-)

Kay said...

Subha,

Thanks for tagging me.Ill try to keep up the Rhythm u guys have built on this story.
Avan Career pathi osikum pothu correct'aa enna Tag pannite correct thaaane :)
Avanukku oru nalla career naaan kudukuren. Cityla avanukku oru nalla job wait pannitu iruku ;)

Anonymous said...

pottta da blog'a....

etho Nature pathi blog nu ninaikiren ( tree paathu avvlo thaan guess panna mudiyuthu), ada athaa mukkiyam..
inimel inge vara comments thaan interesting part :)
- Prabhu

P B said...

Subha,
Arumaiyana story.. Did not know there is a story teller in you. Thanks to thennavan. Good work guys.

Threada en mela podama enga venalum podunga..Ana namma kay ku english kathai ellam over.

ENkitta thread vantha two words la story mudinchurum!.

Anonymous said...

Terribly sorry to butt in. at this critical juncture of the story this is kind of future i see for the hero :-))

It seriously violates rule number 1 but who cares, this is not going to be the next part right.

Disclaimer:- any resemblance to other stories is purely coincidental :-)

now onto story we go...



At 6:00 am the next morning Surya arrived at Mumbai VT. It was raining heavily and there was only a sparse crowd in the station. As he started walking towards the exit he was knocked down by a running elderly man (Varadaraja Mudaliar VM). By the time he stood up he could see four other guys running behind VM with shining swords (probably a thirupachi brand) in their hands. All of sudden VM got cornered and the four guys closed in.

Surya realized that VM is in danger. He knew he has to do something (nobody told him to mind his own business in the city). He grabbed an iron rod from the nearby railway construction site and ran towards the gang of 4. He tried to talk sense to them but to no avail. If he doesn’t act now there will be two casualties and not one.

Like a commando he got to work. All his frustrations, his failures, his losses over the years erupted at once and he beat the living day lights out of those guys. Before anyone could realize what happened all 4 were lying on the ground, unconscious.

He turned to see whether VM was ok. He was more than ok. VM was watching the entire thing. He didn’t see Surya there but he saw himself, he saw the same guy that he was 25 years ago. He saw the same potential that helped him build a huge underground empire in the big bad Mumbai. He saw a trusted lieutenant in Surya.

Jeevan said...

Nice tag.

Anonymous said...

That was a good addendum with a nice elegant touch. Keep it rolling guys.

-Vasu

Gnana Kirukan said...

Since everyone has finished commenting - I am commenting..naan comment pannuna ethavuthu pirachinai varuthu :(..

Yeah the lyrics is nice - but if u see the song - u will dread it! That manoj and kunal are just terrible! The only good thing with manoj is his pallu (teeth) - they are so white! He must be using some bleaching powder!

mathangi k said...

subha...
bayangaramana oru thiruppumunaila vandu niruthittiye...
enna vera tag panni irukka... mmhm. muyarchi pannaren

:)
Mathangi