Strangled - With a Corpse

Chapter-3


Looking at me appearing silent for quite sometime, Miss Glitter asked me questions in the bottoms up way; “Oh, I forgot to ask your name”, I said “It’s Webbee” and I tried to stretch my lips for a smile. Ruby asked: “So tell me something about yourself, like your friends, favorite color, where is your home?” I thought rather than thinking of how I would be gulped down someone’s mouth, its better for me to mark my presence on this planet in some or the other way, simplest way at this time was by telling my name and identity. So I started, “I live in a colony, in the south-west of the forest, near the huge waterfalls, which shimmers in the bright sunlight; well, about my family they call my mommy as the Queen bee” I said with a proud smile. “I have many friends and today I was with Debbee, she is the sweetest of them all. Umm..and my favourite colour, as per my current condition, that would be anything but white, I like crimson a lot though” and smiled again, thinking of honey…ohh..! Ruby seemed satisfied, may be ‘coz I had answered her Quiz show, now I wanted a prize! A life would do..!

Later, Ruby gossiped a little more and flied somewhere, telling me to be calm and pretend like I’m dead. I dint find that job very difficult. With passage of time, I knew my family must be worried, only then I heard my name once again;”Webbeeeeee” it was them, it really was them!! I wondered what to do, to call back and tell them I was here and I had missed them so much, or to follow Ruby’s order, I decided to go with the later, and tried to hide. The voice seemed to come closer and my terror rose in direct proportion, so I tried to hide my face and moved a little; but unfortunately got more messed up in the sticky threads, so again tried to lie quietly and motionlessly. Their voice became low, I felt sad, and gradually it disappeared. I felt a little more messed up than I really was. A tear rolled down my cheeks. I could visualize my good old days at home. Now, my body was numb ‘coz of constant stability on these threads, the only thing that moved was my lips, when I was chatting with Ruby.

While I was lost in my own grief, next minute I heard a cracking sound, I started moving my eyes with curiosity and to my surprise, it was the Egg. Of three, one of them cracked and a cute little bird was breaking the shells around and came out of it; she had big brown eyes and was curiously looking at her mom, the other eggs and her nest. Her mom looked so happy, she was overwhelmed with the joy and she pecked on her baby with her beak, smiled and played with her. It all seemed so beautiful.

Moment of joy was really momentary, when I saw a four-eyed huge brown spider jumping on the rocks, a little away from ..my.. this web. I stopped breathing, may be I had forgot how to breathe, things happened so suddenly, he jumped on a small web near the rock, I wonder how I missed observing that web, it was at the corner of my eye, there was a someone on it, his prey, entangled badly into the threads, possibly dead already. He injected venom through his midgut into the prey and then sucked the liquefied tissues of the prey into his gut, eventually leaving behind the empty husk of the ……prey. I choked, I was going to be perforated and I was next.

Strangled- Now with Ruby

Chapter-2

Thinking of the little time that I had with me, nervousness pinching me from inside, I wanted to think of something else, at least to keep me distracted and breathing, so I started moving my eyes at the things around me, a bird sitting in her nest was watching me and around her laid three Eggs, yellowish and big, also I could see watermelon near the pond, butterflies were fluttering amidst the air, I felt they were mocking at me. Oh how much I missed flying now! I closed my eyes, started praying to god, to save me from dying and promised I’ll be a good Bee. I heard; “that’s a little difficult”.

I was smiling because God was speaking to me, but then I felt I shouldn’t smile, I have no reason to be happy and suddenly I opened my eyes and saw a fire-fly staring at me and said, “You are on Argiope’s web, he’s a gigantic spider, has got four eyes and eight legs, so it’s a little difficult that some one can really save you.”



Then I realized that it was the fire-fly who spoke to me and not God, though what should really make me sad at this point of time should be that I was going to be a food for someone, oh he had a name, Argiope, why did she had to tell me Mr. Spider’s details, wasn’t I looking scared enough! I asked” What should I do?” She moved her brows up and said, “Just don’t move, Argiope is a genius in sensing vibrations on his well-meshed web”

I was thinking, should I be thankful to her for sharing the genius’s exquisite details or should I be grumpy at her for scaring me more and more. I just gulped and kept mum. She asked, “Do you want me to go and call someone, from your home or so? You want to have a word with them?” I was plainly looking at her, was she here to help me, did she mean ‘last words’? Or she wanted to make me feel terribly small? Somehow, I managed to say” No, thank you. I don’t want anyone at home to know about me in such situation”.

She said” But they might be worried for you” I dint wish to prolong this
conversation, so I asked, “You dint tell me your name.”

She cracked a little smile, looking at my curiosity to know her and giving her more words to blabber. She said: “Ruby, that’s because of my color at night, I glitter you know.” Oh well, so I had a company here, who could speak as long as I wished (does that matter), who was slightly able to distract and retract me, supplying me with knowledge of my predator.

The Phone Call

Few days back, I received a call from an unknown number; let me call him Mr. Z for the time being. He called several times till the time I picked up his call, and then he claimed that my phone number is same as your phone number.

Me: What..!! That’s not possible.

Z: Madam, but your number is same as my number at home (some family member’s no.)

M: It aint possible and please don’t call me again.
Bang.

But the calls kept on coming, but I was busy in something or the other that I couldn’t receive the calls and so I thought now it’s the end, Z wont call again, but some people are unpredictable..!

This time I received his call, thinking of giving him a solid scolding.

Z: Arre Madam, my son-in-law had also given a ring to my number at home and you got it.
(Background Story: I had received another call from an unknown number x-( Damn..!!)

Z: Your number is same as my number Madam.

Me: OK. Do one thing; give me a ring from that number which you say is same as mine.

Z: Ok madam.

Later in the evening…
Tring …tring…

Z: Madam, dekha na aapka hi number hai na .!! ( Did u see its your number only!)
Yet again, this was some other number and NOT mine and he was still claiming that this is mine.!! Whoaaaaaaa..!!

Me: No, it’s a different number, now please stop bothering me and if u still have issues with you not getting your calls on this number, post a complaint in Idea office.

Z: OK madam I will do that, but if you say this is not your number, then what is your number? I need to tell in the Idea office.

Me: Grrrrrrr…you are dialing my number, how come you don’t know it, and if you don’t , then I’m sorry I’m not giving it and if you cant complain, then I will.

Z: Ok if you want to complain, I dint say anything to you, but Ok you complain.

Then I just thought that the calls are being diverted to my number and I tried calling on that number (which was claimed to be same as mine) and it said call Diverted ! Bingo..!
Then I instantly called up Mr.Z and told him your calls are being diverted to my number please cancel it.

Z: Madam mujhe phone operate karna itna nahi aata hai.

Me: Hmph.! Ok, anyone else in your family knows?

Z: Yes, my daughter knows a little, please wait.

Daughter (D): Hallo. Kya karna hai?

Me: Go to Settings-> Call-> Call Divert->All Calls-> Cancel.
She was still not able to find the “Settings” in her phone and was took a long pause.
Me: Can u see the nut-bolt waala icon?

D: Hmm….(still trying to figure it out)

Me: Ok do one thing, get a pen and a paper and note down the steps.
And once again: Go to Settings-> Call-> Call Divert->All Calls-> Cancel.
And then I confirmed with her, u got it? Right?

D: Yeah yeah. Its “SAY-Ting” and “cancel”

Me: Ok, whatever, just get it done.

I still keep on getting calls from unknown numbers but I never receive and I don’t know who and how “MY” number was in their call divert list..!!
People get something better to do..!!

Strangled..

I was strolling with my buddy, over the bushes, when the weather was warm and nice. Pleasant sunny days are always welcomed! We were looking for some fresh beautiful flowers, there were many, colorful shades. But today I wanted to be a little different, try something new. So I thought, why not break the Rules! I was told not to go very close to the ponds, but I saw a light, like an ultraviolet light reflected by flowers and I really wanted to go there, but Debbee frowned at me and warned with a scowl:”Don’t!”

I sniffed and moved to the other direction and as soon as Debbee was busy in her own expeditions, I couldn’t resist going back near the pond and I flew swiftly and quickly towards it. Before anyone noticing me, I bashed into it with a thump and there I was..!Over and above it. I looked in every possible direction, and yeah no one saw me, but I felt sad, sad because I was over sticky white threads, which were all so symmetrical. I dint know what to do, I lay motionless over there, on the white shiny spider web.

My brain wasn’t working, may be I never had a brain, may be I should have listened to what I was told, may be I shouldn’t have deceived Debbee, may be then I might have stayed alive a little more longer.


“Webbeeeeeee” , I heard someone yell my name, I knew I was in a sticky mess and I dint wish Deb to be here as well. I wished I could be like a tiny chamaeleon and change my color to the surroundings. Beneath me was the pond, above were lush green trees and surrounding were small herbs and bushes. Deb was getting closer; I just closed my eyes, took my breath in and stayed motionless. After sometime, the familiar voice vanished and here I was, alone, strangled, nearing my death.

Marriages- Past and Present-Part 2

In continuation with earlier blog..

When a girl would have got married in the old Era, her parents might have given her gifts, as a token of love. This is where the mistake began. A father giving gifts to her own daughter is committing no fault, after all she is his daughter, but the groom expecting gifts is seriously sad. Not just expecting, but demanding and thinking of it as his right is a crime. With time, the expectations of the boy increased, gifts later started taking form of TV, fridge, tickets to fly, jewels and money off course. The parents still delighted to make the groom happy, shower more gifts on him, considering he will keep their daughter happy.


His happiness increases, self respect decreases…(or is rather vanished) and he starts placing more orders for expensive and flamboyant gifts, to his in-laws. The groom’s family, trades their son, as per where he stands and asks for a compensation for the amount they have spent in educating and upbringing their son and fixes his amount, which is termed as Dowry.


In India, dowry was originally designed to safeguard the woman and it was the provision of "Sthreedhan" ("Sthree" meaning woman and "dhan" wealth) in the form of money, property or gifts given solely to the woman by her parents at the time of her marriage. "Sthreedhan", an inheritance, was meant to exclusively belong to the woman at the time of her marriage. But sadly, not it doesn’t!

In 1961 with the Dowry Prohibition Act, dowry was officially outlawed, but in reality eradication was far from accomplished. Many of the victims are burnt to death - they are doused in kerosene and set fire to. Routinely the in-laws claim that the death happened simply due to an accident. In India not only was there an apparent increase of dowry-related deaths from kitchen fires but from this weeds other covert forms of related oppression sprouted. Some of these led to psychological torture, suicides and murder of married women, desertion by their husbands, rampant abortion of female fetuses, and poor families resorting to female infanticide for fear of not being able to provide dowry.

And if there is a death, the groom now has a chance to get a new wife with possibly a better and bigger dowry adding to the one before making the family wealthy. So greed is a big contributor to dowry deaths and if the husband at all feels that the dowry is not enough this usually ends with a bride burning.



The years in 90's showed a steady yearly increase in bridal death tolls, with many more deaths unreported. Every 12 hours a dowry related death claimed to have taken the lives of over 20,000 women across India between 1990 and 1993, and even now a dowry case is reported every three hours.

In this one case a women was burned and survived.


It took nine plastic surgeries for her to look somewhat normal again. The picture shown below is she holding a picture of her before she was burned.

I can state many cases here and the list wont end. But now I’d just wish to have a society where people eradicate such evils.


What can be done: Providing your daughter with a solid education, and encouraging her to pursue a career of her choice is the best dowry any parent can ever give their daughter.
Also, educate your son to stand on his own feet, having self respect and ultimately social responsibility will rest upon the initiative and mentality of that segment of the Indian male population having an understanding that the dowry system is corrupt and illegal.
Youths: Spread the word and your belief, increase awareness and say NO to dowry.

It’s the dirtiest word. Loud and clear..!

Marriages- Past and Present

Many many centuries ago, I believe, when there was no caste, rituals and creed; people weren’t educated and there was no society, they must have fought a lot to differentiate themselves from others, to prove their humanity. There would have been lots of murders, thefts and wars. It would have been a male dominated world and women would have been treated as prisoners and kept hidden from others. It can only be assumed that they were hinged with hefty chains and locked in a room.


I wonder how would have the population increased then, were there marriages? If yes, then even they wouldn’t have been peaceful. Win a war and snatch a girl away. The man would have come with his armors and sword on a horse with all his family and relatives, fought a war with the other family and on winning the war, takes the young girl away with him.




The family of the female would have been unhappy, since they used to consider the females, their wives and daughters as their own property and a loss of it meant a major loss to the entire family. In the end, the girl’s neck would have been tied with thick chains and her waist with another. Hands were handcuffed, legs were manacled and nose nailed. She’d have been assembled like a luggage and the man would have carried her on his horse. Also, the wealth of the girl’s family would have been looted, leaving them deprived of the girl and the riches. Thereby, the girl’s family and relatives were left sad and crying.


Even today, I wonder, do such things happen? I doubt, but still see a resemblance between the past (a theory) and the present (a fact). May be past has left its mark on the present and certain incidents have taken the name of rituals.



The groom or “dulha” comes on a horse, with a sword on his waist, though it’s not put into use (thankfully) and is just a tradition. He comes in a “baraat”, with his family and relatives. The women (girl’s side) welcomes them at the door and jokingly tease him, the groom, and sing songs with abuse, “gaaliya dena”. The girl’s friends and sisters tease him, fool around and have fun. Also, they hide the shoes of the groom, so that he doesn’t run away.


Though, now the chains and handcuffs are replaced with jewellerys , necklace, bangles, anklets, nose-rings etc. She is taken away, in a car or so with the groom and along with Dowry.., leaving the girl’s family crying.

Blog will be continued…

Twilight-Book Review

Twilight is a vampire-human romance story written by the author Stephenie Meyer.

After Twilight follows New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn and yet unfinished Midnight Sun: The Twilight Saga. I’ve seen the movie and waiting for New Moon to release by 4th Dec.

The story begins with seventeen year old girl, Bella moving from sunny Arizona to Forks, a town with constant mist and rain, also leaving her Mom to stay with her Dad so as to study in Forks, despite the fact that she dislikes the foggy weather without Sun and had to make whole new set of friends and settle into a new school.

Though she quickly makes new friends and finds her gaze fixed on the Cullens family, esp. Edward Cullen, who were all different, inhumanly beautiful, stunningly attractive and used to stay aloof from the rest of the students.

Bella is portrayed as realistic teenage girl, shy and lacking in confidence with her sarcastic inner voice.

Edward and his family are a mystery, which is slowly unraveled through out the book.

Bella finds herself attracted to Edward who seems to be exasperated by her mere presence. Soon, they fall irrevocably in love with each other. Edward has to fight his feelings of his ultimate desire, the smell of her blood and the fragrance of her body. Bella trusts Edwards and knows that he will never cause any harm to her and feels safe with the Vampire. He fights to save her, from himself and from others.

The love-story is intense and captivating that will keep you reading and you won’t want to end.

Twilight is young adult novel and is surely enjoyable. (Let us not compare it with Harry Potter)

The drawbacks I felt were repetitive sentences, overly-perfect characters and shallow romance. Yet, entertaining and worth a read.

Guys: It won’t bite you…eh…you might not find the book very interesting.

Girls: You’d all Love it. No wonder these T-shirts are being so much on Amazon.



Happy Reading.

2 states

Synopsis by C.Bhagat:

Love marriages around the world are simple:
Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.

In India, there are a few more steps:
Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.
Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it? From the author of blockbusters Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life, comes another witty tale about inter-community marriages in modern India.

My Review:

I have read Chetan Bhagat’s previous 3 books, 5 point someone being my Fav. I read this book in one go. Though I feel Indians who watch Bollywood movies will get a feel of the book by its cover and will not jump off their seats after reading the twists in the book, but the book is good enough to grab your attention and interest.

The book is dedicated by the author to his in-laws* (with a * marked which says which does not mean I am henpecked, under her thumb or not man enough). Men…!! :P Its ok if they express their gratitude to their in-laws for giving their daughter to him, why * and clarify..!

The story is about Krish and Ananya, who met at IIMA. Krish is a Punjabi boy and Ananya is a Tamilian Brahmin girl, who fell in love with each other (a little 5 point some-one like love story in college.)

Krish is fair, intelligent, and good in economics and is madly in love with Ananya. He likes to take care of her Mom but is in no talking terms with his Dad, as in mostly pissed off when at home.

Ananya is independent, modern, educated, practical and logical (like most girls are) and is fair unlike other South-Indian girls (exceptions include Sri devi and Hema malini)

They both try to convince each others family in-turns. Krish got posted himself in Chennai ( Ananya’s hometown), lost his sleep, had to give tuitions to Ananya’s younger brother, and then helped her Dad in his (Bank) office work and her Mom by acknowledging her singing in a huge public. Hard work to get the love of his life. After all nothing in this world comes for free.

Also, asked the complete family to marry him and gave all three of them gold rings. Tons of appreciation and gold gifts….they liked the guy.

Ananya then went to Delhi to meet Krish’s parents, and received a lot of sarcasm for she being a witty and clever Madrasin and having trapped her baby boy. Later, Ananya’s parents gifted Krish’s mom with 3 sarees, krish wid 4 shirts and with dry fuits fromGoa.

Dowry system in Punjabi weddings is written well, and how “boy’s side” can put a life long relationship to hold if they don’t get a free luxurious car from the “girl’s side”.

Our MBA girl showed her smartness and confidence and subsidized the dowry, at the same time getting blessings and admiration from Krish’s family.

The book has well portrayed the differences in North-Indians and South-Indians, weddings, music tastes, food, clothes, cleverness etc etc.

Also, prejudices about caste system still prevalent in the so called modern India is shown well and not only parents smirk about it but also the children tend to think that will this be worth it? Giving unhappiness to everyone in the family for their own sake will not be worth..! Marrying outside the clan is still a huge question, why so narrow minded about it?

2 States brings together people of 2 different states and unite it to one- called India.
I hope people in my country open up and free themselves from the clutches of caste system and think of all as One, all as just human beings.

Overall, the book is a nice read.
Wedding is quite funny.
Though there was a time travel in the book I suppose, as he once said mobiles had not become very popular yet and are its very costly to talk on mobiles on the other hand he made Ananya’s mom sing the song from Kaho na pyar hai… :-/

Rating : 3/5

PS: Author kept the price unchanged since his first book in 2004. It is still Rs.95. The prices of commodities have increased, but Chetan Bhagat's books are still priced what it was five years ago.

Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani

The movie started with a background of a place called Wellington, based on great Lord Wellington, where a statue of THE lord stood in front of Govinda Co-op Bank and a reporter comes and finds the city evacuated and our statue tell him WHY….. and our story starts.. with our reporter cleaning the crow shit behind the statue :P

START :
Gazab kahani statue ki zubaani :P

Ranbir’s entry in a heroic eshtlye :D …bahaduri se daaku ko pakda and gaon ko bachaya..

Clap clap clap..( even if it was the wrong shot at the right place..)

Our hero is the “President” of Happy Club, with 5 partner friends.
Why does a good looking hero alwz has ugly frenz around him..!D-uh..! Insecurity..???

Location : Coffin Shop :P

Well even in this movie he is thrown out of house, just like Wake Up Sid….poor Ranbir….thrown out all d time ..be it Any Dad..! :(

And he acts like SRK when he is e.e.e.e emotional …

Overall Ranbir the “Good-guy”, mom’s Fav…(as alwz ) and plays Ranbir ne bana di Jodi…in d movie..for his frenz…
This reminds of a gay-kiss of extras…D-uhhh..Whyyyyyy?

Katrina is looking pretty in d movie..dialogues well delivered… though she makes Prem sounds like Frrrame.. :P

Kat wore nice one-piece dresses….all summer collection…sober shades…

While Ranbir wore Summer collection ..!! Whoaaa :P
Ranbir had big-checked shirts and sweaters (which are very much in trend) and undoubtedly looked good.
Sometimes looking like Jonny Bravo :P….esp when going to work to impress the girl.. 8-)
The age gap between the actors is visible…Ranbir looks too young in front of her…!

I loved almost all d songs of the movie :)

AND in apni to naiyaa hai ram ke bharose : they are in East Street Café in Pune……my all time FAV place :) :)

As the name says ajab “PREM” ki gazab kahani….ne1 wud have guessed that Sallu will have a special appearance in the movie and so he did.

It also had Upen Patel, accent of Kat n Patel Zindabad…just like in Namaste London..

Kids ‘njoyed watching the movie….were chuckling all the time in the theatre :D

Overall….a typical bollywood masala movie which has Dance, emotion, drama,action,”comedy”
And has been made after fragmenting few minutes from every desi movie. It's more Priyadarshan then Santoshi….but a nice…easy and light movie to watch..! :)

And then our reporter finds out the complete story from the speaking Statue.
Hero and Heroine lives happily ever after.
Happy Ending.

THE END.