A short story

So some of the readers would be aware of the Write India campaign. It is a contest started by TOI to encourage budding writers to write. As part of this contest, I had last month written a short story for their contest. While it did not make it to the final list, I wanted to share it on my blog for some valuable feedback on whether my stories are worth reading 😛

So my intro might seem quite rustic. This story is something I have written after a rather long break from writing (as usual.. )

‘Are you sure, Rhea?’ asks my mother.
‘Of course I’m. Survival of the fittest, mother. I’m not going against Darwin. Also I don’t want unnecessary scars on my body.’
It’s a known fact that we are all born to die. And frankly, I don’t understand why it has to be made into such a big deal. If it were not for my mother I would have said that to the bunch of people outside my house, some of them with young kids, shouting slogans, waving placards, literally wanting me to cut one of my beating hearts out. “Save A Life. Donate!” they shout.
For someone who is one in billions, 7.125 billion to be exact, I expect to be treated better. Scientists are still befuddled regarding my condition that gave me two hearts in my mother’s womb. But years of research and sticking needles into me have led them nowhere, and they have labelled me as a freak mutation. It’s so rare – literally one in all humankind – that they didn’t even name the anomaly (as they call it, I will call it awesomeness). I wanted to name the condition myself, something on the lines of Rhea’s Heartsawesome but the doctors aren’t thrilled with the suggestion. Instead they want to cut one of them out and save a life. Huh?
An IQ of 180, increased concentration, exceptional athleticism and a phenomenal metabolism rate – are just the few boring benefits of an increased blood circulation. Why would I ever give that up?
“Let me tell you a story”, she said…

(So this was the passage that was given to develop on)  And from here starts my story.
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He was one of those guys that any director would cast on their movies – six feet tall, perfectly sculpted body (thanks to 2 hours of gymming everyday), and a color the shade of milk chocolate. His sexy smile and stylish gait had every woman swooning over him. A man of sharp intellect and easy manners, he was the best of both worlds that every man wanted to be in. He had all the genes for a successful career and he was – a well-paid job in the marketing team of an automobile giant – a job that he coveted and worked towards since he stepped into engineering school. He had now been on the job for 3 years and he was “of marriageable age” – as his parents put it. The prospect of a marriage and permanent companionship excited him. For all that outward charm and easy humour, he was like a cream filled doughnut, all soft and sweet inside. In his moments of solitude, he saw himself with a wife, two kids, a big house and a fat salary that ensured he enjoyed every bit of his existence. It was with these thoughts that he was driving back home after a rather tiring day at work. As these thoughts went through him, he unconsciously slowed down the car. A blast of a horn behind him jolted him out of his reverie and looked to his right to see who it was.
And he beheld a most comical/unbelievable sight – a girl staring at him with such anger in her eyes, loud music blaring out of the her car’s player, head bobbing slightly to the tune of a recent movie album (which, by the way, he loved). She mouthed a rather colourful word at him and continued on her path. He was quite struck by what he saw and decided to follow her. He weaved in and out of the peak hour traffic trying to keep in touch with her. Every time he almost caught up, she quickly swerved out of view. He could see her eyes on her rear view mirror glancing up quickly every now and then and it did not take him long to understand that she was keeping an eye on him to prevent him from overtaking him. He was rather amused and decided to play along.
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She had just had a rather nasty fight with her parents over the phone. They were as usual asking her to get married to that “wonderful boy” who was working with a leading IT services company in the USA. And on top of that, she had messed up a small proposal at work and had gotten a royal scolding from her manager. The proposal needed a sign off from Sheela – the fake hair lady at accounts department and she had asked Ravi to get it from her because she wasn’t going to fall prey in the hands of that maniac who always touched her inappropriately every time she went to meet her. She had often told Sheela that she was totally into men and had no interest in women. She understood and respected Sheela’s wishes but she simply wasn’t up to it. Sheela knew that Meera would never let her secret out – Meera was a soft one, despite the fact that she was the loud enough to bring the roof down and abusive enough to earn a petname – “rowdy” they called her. Despite Meera’s rather profane refusal, Sheela loved pulling the kid’s leg. So she never missed a chance to piss her off every time she came down to get her proposals signed off.
Sheela was an old hag who had lost her little daughter to a fierce divorce battle with her ex-husband who decided he couldn’t remain married to her after finding out that she was equally attracted to both sexes. It was a surprise she even came out of it in one piece. The only decent thing that the ex-husband had done was citing a different ground to come out of the marriage so she wouldn’t lose her job. Meera did not want to make things worse for her.
She tried her level best to keep interactions with Sheela to a minimum. Sending Ravi out to get the approval for the proposal was also her avoiding tactic. And that son of a gun had forgotten. Meera had listened to twenty minutes of the choicest scolding from the manager.
And it was after all this happened that her parents had called up to “discuss” with her about some new guy they had found on the matrimonial site. She cursed silently under her breath for letting herself be persuaded by her parents to put up her profile in that good-for-nothing website that made tinder look positively amateur in matchmaking.
She was still recalling her heated discussion with her parents about why she did not want to throw away her career just to get a one way ticket to a foreign country and cook and clean for some pseudo American. She was happy to get married – in fact wanted to get married and have a family. But she’d rather stay single than marry a guy that she couldn’t relate to. But somehow, her parents just did not get the point – it’s not that they did not try, but just that they couldn’t understand the thought process – when she said she had to have a basic level of compatibility with the guy she was going to bed and bear for the rest of her life. She stubbed her lights – an occasional practice based on her stress level – and got into her sole haven – her Silver Maruti Alto – a companion that had seen her in her wildest furies and her happiest moments. Her car had a calming effect on her. It was like some bad-mood expeller. Irrespective of what her mood was when she entered her car, it managed to completely transform her into a happy soul.
She got into her car and plugged in the music player – a habit she couldn’t get rid of. She had to have the music on when she drove. She had often gotten quizzical, funny and downright ugly expressions from people for her crazy head-bobbing (to the music) act in the car. She started driving and could feel the stress ebbing away she pushed her dear car to the maximum level of performance on the surprisingly desolated stretch of road on her way home. The speedometer inched upwards to 100Kmph and the song she had on was reaching a crescendo when she was suddenly jolted by the sudden appearance of a flashy black Honda City ahead of her. And what was worse, the guy was slowing down. She pressed hard on the break, overtook him and mouthed a rather colourful word at him. The car levelled up against his and she looked at him and suddenly went blank. Her head was still bobbing from the song she was listening to but her mind was all taken by the exuding hotness of the guy sitting in the car she would have given anything to see broken down a few seconds back. A quick succession of anger, distraction, and finally embarrassment flushed her face red and she immediately turned ahead and drove on. “Ha ha.. That was awkward.. But hey he was hot.. What was I supposed to do”. She continued on with a big smile on her face thinking about what just happened. She’d never had luck with relationships. Every time she met a guy along the same wavelength as her, she ended up friendzoning them rather than think about anything else.
She had driven on for some more time and casually glanced at the rear view mirror to realise that the hot guy was still behind her.
Thanks to the government’s ban on tinted glass, Sid could watch her everytime streetlight illuminated her face and he could make out that there was nothing striking about it. But there was something about her expression. “Maybe I am just imagining things, but I think there is something about this girl.” Just at that moment, she looked to her mirror and he saw that her face was flushed. He felt a squirm inside him. “There is definitely something going on here.” He was wondering if she would call the police if he tried to stop her and ask her out for a coffee. He prepared to overtake her when she suddenly swerved to the right and stopped near the pavement. He saw what was happening and quickly stopped the car and jumped out.
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She was really starting to panic now. She had already driven quite a way and hot guy was still behind her. She was wondering if he had taken offense at her abuse earlier and wanted to accost her. She was desperately looking around to see if there was anybody else on the road – not that they would have been of much help, but just to feel a little safe – but there was no one except for a little plump man slowly trudging along the pedestrian. And as she was watching, he suddenly collapsed. She swerved to the right and stopped right beside the man and noticed that hot guy had also stopped just behind her and was already running towards the collapsed guy. He knelt down beside the man, examined him for a moment and beckoned her to help him lift the man off the floor.
“We can’t wait for the ambulance. I have done some first aid training. Let’s quickly get him into my car and drive to the hospital nearby”, he said. She silently nodded and helped him lift the man off the road and into the car and slipped in and rested the man’s head on her lap. He looked at her quizzically. “What? I can’t let him fall off while you are driving, can I?” He looked at her with an unreadable expression on his face and quickly jumped into the driver’s seat and drove as fast as he could to the hospital.
They reached the hospital and the little man was quickly wheeled into the emergency ward for treatment. They found his phone and called his family who rushed to the hospital in sometime and profusely thanked them for their timely help. Raju was working as a clerk in a private bank and was the only breadwinner in the family.
With the patient safely in the custody of his family, Meera and Sid slowly walked up to Sid’s car. He took her back to the place where she had left her car and walked her to the door. “How did you trust me?” he asked. “I wasn’t thinking. Haven’t actually been able to think since I saw you the first time. Coffee??” He was taken aback. A smile lit up.
“Sure”, he said, “Now?”
“Yes”.
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That first coffee led to another and yet another and before long, they were battling their parents to get married. Surprisingly, Sheela turned out to be the best friend here and totally took the onus of convincing both parents. Once they were married, everything happened like a fairy tale. Both of them did well at work and Sid’s dream of an own home happened.
And after a few years’ of medical help, Meera, became pregnant.
This was 18 years back and fertility clinics had just started treatments for desperate couples looking for the joy of parenthood.
“It all began in the sixth week of you inside me”, my mother said.
I was already shell shocked at the possibility that my mother – always sweet and calm, always with a smile on her face (even when she was scolding me for being.. well.. awesome) and always ready with a solution to all my problems could have actually had such a wild past. And what was that about a love story? I know that that Ma and Pa are from the same city, speak the same language and were always against me having a boyfriend and stuff. So where did this love story happen? I always thought that she met Pa in a traditional setting – served him tea and touched Ammamma’s and Appacha’s feet and all that. Now don’t get me wrong. They are both pretty awesome – I just did not think they had such a wild story behind them. I made a mental note to ask her later about how Sheela aunty came into the picture of their love story.
“I was to have my regular ultrasound check and the doctor felt an abnormality. While a normal baby’s heartbeat at that stage would be around 130 heartbeats per minute, yours was racing at a whopping 280 beats per minute. The poor doctor who was only doing his fifteenth ultrasound unattended rushed out of the chamber palms sweating beneath his rubber gloves and the senior specialist rushed in. This was followed by a few more doctors coming in and checking if there was something wrong. Apart from the heightened beat, there seemed to be nothing wrong.”
“It took them a few more weeks to understand that there were actually two hearts beating inside of you. I din’t know what to do. I was scared as hell. Suddenly people were asking me to give you up. They said you were some strange creature. Not to be delivered. Pa and I had the worst nine months ever. I had conceived you on the first day that Sid and I had met and I wasn’t going to lose that ever. As you grew stronger and bigger inside me, resistance outside grew worse.”
“It wasn’t until you were actually born that people actually saw you for what you were. My pretty little daughter. I cried that day like I did no other. Sid cried too. We both couldn’t contain our happiness.”
I found myself wipe away a tear.
“But Rhea, today, I feel differently. I really hoped that you would make a decision on this without me having to tell you this story. But that man you will be saving – is none other than Raju – the very same man who brought your Pa and me together. Sweetheart, my life would not have got here if not for him. I did not want to put this on your shoulder, but you had to know. I am ok for any decision you may want to take and I will love you more than anything whatever maybe that decision. But.. You had to know.”
My head went blank – What if?? What if?? I am plagued by thoughts and possibilities. I know what to do.
I looked up at my mother – and smiled. Pa – who was standing at the doorway all this while, joined us and smiled.