Chapter 9 : Batch Of 2020

A tale woven by  craftsmen in the Team 'Supernova'.

Read the previous part of the story here

Jennifer kept thinking hard what Sasha was expecting from her. She kept thinking what had possibly gone wrong that summer. Jennifer had just joined Damania Engineering College. Jennifer was a bright student and was an ardent art lover. She was someone who had no plans in her life. Everything she did was spontaneous and had to be total fun. She was totally different from the other girls in her college. On the first day, she remembered how she had come in late and how she had to be seated around an extremely feminine and stylish girl called Alka. Alka and Jennifer were different as chalk and cheese but something had clicked between them. Their friendship slowly became the talk of the college. They would bunk lectures, hang out in the college and have fun. They would go shopping together , hogging around in all the eateries and would act totally crazy when around.

Alka came in from a upper middle class background whereas Jennifer belonged to a middle class family . But this never affected their friendship. They were like soul sisters. Every student in their class wanted to hang out with these cool chicks in the college. Slowly and gradually they became a group of 5 , all kids of influential parents except for Jenniffer. Alka and Jennifer became hostel roomies too. Jennifer had shifted to Mumbai for her engineering studies but her interests lied somewhere else. She always wanted to do something exciting, like covering crime journalism. Alka , she just wanted a degree.All that she had to do was manage her dad’s flourishing business.

 It was just a month after their joining that their seniors had announced a Fresher's party. This year the college seemed to have announced Fresher's party. Everyone seemed to be excited for the party. The party was just a polite and decent way introduced by the seniors to rag the freshers and that too in front of the teachers. The date was announced and the venue was declared for the party. But Jeniffer’s group already had a plan set for the same day. They had decided to hang out in a friend’s farmhouse that weekend. And now this fresher’s party had come up.It wasn’t a tough decision choosing which party to attend for a gal like Jennifer who had her own rules of life.The other 4 in the group followed whatever Jeff (as her friends would call her lovingly) said.


They bunked the Fresher's party and headed to the farmhouse in Lonavla which belonged to one of their classmates, Mohit. They had decided to party all night. Booze and drugs all were arranged to add in more fun. . Late night the gang of 5 headed to Lonavla. Jennifer remembered, that was a night of fun. Alcohol flowed in abundance. No one to control over her. She was a free bird unlike in Cochin where her dad would control her every movement. She remembered him as a control freak.

On the other hand Alka was totally high on booze. She was getting close and cozy with her boyfriend of a month who was also called in for the party. Alka was totally out of control and Jennifer poured in more alcohol for her. Jennifer screamed in euphoria, “Have it more babes, Lets rock the party!" In the next few hours, the party became wild. Everyone in the party was lying around drunk.

Alka was having a wild time with her boyfriend. But Jennifer knew that was a night they all wanted away from their parents, they wanted their own world of fun. Jennifer had no guy around to hook up with, so she decided to hook up with the first love of her life, her camera. She clicked pictures of the party of everyone doing stupid stuff. She laughed thinking how the pictures of her classmates were going to embarass them once they came back to their senses. She knew, they were going to beg of her to clean up those pictures. But Jennifer had a rule, " Nothing clicked by her camera ever goes to the trash. It stays with her no matter what". She decided to explore the farmhouse and ventured out. She was drunk but she didn’t care about anything. Jeniffer had an eye for beauty and unusual stuff.  She went "Click Click Click " capturing whatever she saw..
The next morning as she woke up She found herself in the farmhouse with a heavy head and severe headache. Everyone around her was tensed. She woke up and dragged herself out and asked her classmates what had happened. Jennifer remembered someone saying " Alka was dead" and that is when reality struck her. How! What ! What are you saying?? Jennifer had screamed.She couldn’t believe what she had heard.But everyone seemed as clueless as Jennifer was. Jennifer had regretted making this plan and heading to Lonavla for a night of fun. Jennifer had a faint picture of Alka going out with her Boyfriend. That was the only ever image in her mind that she had of Alka.

Jennifer tried to think hard what had happened next... She remembered her running crazily to find her camera and go through the pictures. The camera had last snaps of Alka and her boyfriend on the road outside the farmhouse .They were seen cozying up in his swanky new car .

Jennifer cried out loud. Shekhar and Cyrus rushed to her help and asked her what had gone wrong. Jennifer had realised that Alka's death had some connection with the whole Sasha thing. Jennifers camera also had some pics of unknown strangers in the party and their was one face who was in every snap of Alka's. He was always in the background or somewhere around Alka. Jennifer had wondered who the guy was then but she hadn't paid heed to it. But somehow she now felt that fellow had some connection to it. Jennifer opened up everything to Shekhar and Cyrus about the party and everything she could remember had happened that night. She also told about the unknown stranger she had seen in the party. She also expressed concern as to who he would have been to Cyrus as he was also in the party.

 Cyrus remembered that it was indeed a tragic night and he never ever talked about that incident every to anyone. It was sad that a gal from the party had met with a tragic end and everyone in the party were grilled for hours by the police. That was one night he never wanted to be associated with and was reluctant to share whatever details he had with Jennifer and Shekhar. But their life was in danger and he had no choice. He had to share whatever he knew with Jeniffer.

Cyrus opened up. “There is something I want to share” , said Cyrus and paused thinking whether he was doing a right thing talking to two unknown strangers about that night. But did he have a choice?
He continued,”I do have an account of the party detail by detail written on my blog. You can read it there . I have also shared some photographs of the people from the party. I am not sure whether they would help us but you can go through it” . Jennifer tried surfing the net for Cyrus’s blog but realized that the network was jammed . “ Shit! This isn’t working. We are all going to die”, cried out Jennifer.

Cyrus tried on his laptop and then realized their efforts were in vain. He browsed through some files and folders to find whether he could find the blog posts saved as drafts on his  laptop.
“ Jeniffer, I think I have found it. This is the one .” said Cyrus. Both Shekhar and Jennifer peeped to check out the pics and the post.She was surprised with what she found. She kept staring into the screen . She became all pale and white. Did the post hold any clue to Alka's murder? Was the stranger found ? Was Cyrus sharing everything that he knew? Could their lives be saved… hundred thoughts ran across Jennifer’s mind.



The story continues here ...Read on

“Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.”

Chapter1 : A Strange Journey

A tale woven by  craftsmen in the Team 'Supernova'.

Read the previous part of the story here

As the train chugged along , Shekhar pondered how his life had changed totally with the birth of Roohi.  His life totally revolved around her these days.

Roohi was Shekhar’s nine year old daughter. Roohi was born after 7 years of his marriage with Tara. He kept looking outside the window and was lost in his thoughts about his marriage and life.

Tara and Shekhar were college sweethearts. Shekhar had fallen for her the moment his eyes fell on her. Tara was  different from the other gals of his college. She was tall, beautiful and carried herself very elegantly. She was someone whom every guy wanted to date. Some how cupid struck and love had blossomed for the young couple.  Both Tara and Shekhar were different as chalk and cheese but  there was something that kept them going together. Shekhar wondered what was that , that kept them going strong then. He broke into a smile lost in his thoughts as he remembered the old days when they would bunk lectures to have golgappas from a nearby vendor. Tara used to love them. It reminded him that it has been days that they went out on such a date . He missed those long walks in the rain , sharing tea from the same cup .Suddenly his thoughts were disturbed by the sounds of  “ Chai ! Chai”. The railway vendor served him tea .He was untidy and had worn torn clothes. Shekhar was too lost in his thoughts to worry about the hygiene.

As he sipped his tea, he thought how Tara’s career and priorities had totally changed after marriage. Shekhar remembered how pretty Tara looked in the wedding trousseau. She was dressed in all the fineries and she looked quite a goddess .Shekhar remembered how he couldn't stop looking at her and she kept gushing and blushing like every other coy bride. Oh! those lovely wonderful days he thought! He also realised how Tara's  priorities had totally changed over the years. With multiple miscarriages she had, she had lost hope in her life and had found peace in her career. She had become so career obsessed that Shekhar had taken a backseat in her life. And then Roohi had happened to them after so many years of their marriage. She was a cute bonny baby. Her chubby cheeks and soft  brown hair  were signs of her resemblance to Tara. Her eyes glistened every time Shekhar would take her out in the sunlight. Shekhar  was happy Roohi was blessed with her mother's beauty. Day by day Shekhar had grown possessive of Roohi  so much so that Shekhar managed the house, and Tara the office.

Roohi had grown into a plump little girl. She was a totally spoilt child . Notorious and bigtime prankster that she was , Roohi would often end up bullying kids of her age. Shekhar always ignored her mistakes. Shekhar had spoilt her big time.She always got whatever she ever wished for. She knew she could throw in tantrums and daddy dearest would give into her wishes. But her mom was different. Strict and stern , Tara had laid down rules for her. But she always believed that  " Rules were meant to be broken", something that Shekhar had taught her during one of her long conversations she had with her dad after school. And they both had laughed off Tara's rules and guidelines. Shekhar would bring Roohi back from school and spend time playing with her on weekends. Shekhar  still remembered Roohi's fourth birthday which was celebrated in such a grand way in one of the five star hotels in the city. 
She had asked for a big Disney themed party and  Shekhar couldn't  refuse.  
Those days were full of fun , he thought. He had started missing Tara and Roohi and he knew it was a long journey before he could actually meet his loved ones. The train kept moving with speed and Shekhar's excitement to meet his family just intensified every second.

Suddenly the train screeched to a halt and the tea spilt over his denim pants. The hot tea flowing down through his denims had brought him back to reality.

Jennifer and Cyrus by now had fallen sleep and the sudden jolt by the train disturbed their forty winks. Jennifer's camera fell with a thud due to the sudden brakes applied and she rushed in to save her costly camera. Cyrus looked around with surprise as to what had caused the commotion.

Read the rest at Ch 2: http://rafaadalvi.blogspot.in/2014/09/chapter-2-kick-off.html 

“Me and my team are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us.”

Stage & Me...

A big break I took from the blogging world and now there are so many topics I want to blog about. Will take you through everything that you missed from my life. I just switched to a new firm two months back and my heart still lies with my First Company IGATE which gave me a platform to actually identify myself and be what I am.

We had this initiative called as TGIM- Thank God it's Monday where in every Monday the employees would be encouraged to come forward and display their talent no matter how weird it was. It is a platform to provide 30 minutes of unadulterated pure fun and a place where we could hear some soothing and soulful music. An attempt to get rid of your Monday blues. The Mondays at IGate were something  that I would look forward to. I usually sang with my better half  Suchitra Vaidynathan and we earned a name for us - Chitra Sisters. I have had a blast on the stage singing with her .

I am sharing a link of the video with you guys  of one of my performance for IGATE Annual Event -2014. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4vR73xCxDo

 

The quality of the video isn't that great but it's one of our best performances and we performed in front of 10000 odd audience and its one of the most memorable events of my life. This post is not to brag about myself but  to encourage all my readers to overcome the stage fright that each one has.

What amazes me is the way I performed in front of such a strong crowd. I was fearless .I didn't know what fear was. I didn't care how the performance was going on. For the very first time I felt I sang for myself. People have an presumed image of me as someone who's bold and someone who is fearless and so performing on stage would be like a piece of cake for me.

But the truth is I have been booed many times during my college days and many times I have walked down the stage with tears in my eyes. One such incident that I would want to share with you guys is of my junior college days . We had an elocution competition and I had to talk on some topic. I had prepared it well and I thought I would crack it. I went to the stage as my name was called. The hall was occupied with hardly 50 people. One look at the audience then and I had went totally blank. I started with my speech ,I muttered something and then I went blank. There was complete silence in the room, I was nervous and anxious .I saw the audience staring at me waiting for me to speak a word atleast. The judges asked me to finish it off and give another competitor a chance. I had tears in my eyes and I asked the judges for one more chance. And they refused. By then the audience had started hooting, giggling and I was in tears. I left the room crying .I could have left the stage forever. I could have stopped being on the stage forever. I could have left the stage forever. But it just encouraged me further .I realized two things from the incident that the stage is where I belong to and secondly I need to be the best if I wanted people to cheer for me.

I know many of my friends who are so talented but fear from performing in front of people. Right from very young age parents identify the talent in their kids and put them for various classes to hone their skills. But not many parents encourage their kids to go and perform on the stage. Parents fear getting embarrassed themselves and most of the time never encourage their kids to be back on stage after one or two failed performances. I would suggest everyone  reading my post, If you think you have got it in you, just go there and perform without being bothered about the world. Your first performances may be a failure but that shouldn't stop you. Every time i get on to the stage, this incident comes to my mind and I realise that i have hardly 5-6 min to prove myself- so either I make it or break it. At times I dont even think about anything I just do it for myself. No matter what your age is, being on the stage has nothing to do with your age, you just have to be young at heart and you just have to do things wholeheartedly.

Fat to Fit...

 Not Everyone is fat by choice.No one wants to be ridiculed as a Fatso.Everyone wants to be like the perfect model on the front cover of Vogue. But yes now i do realise we are responsible for all that happens with our body. A doctor had once told me this, " You are what you eat "  and that had somehow made sense to me and had stayed in my thoughts for a longer time. And now i have totally started believing that I am what I eat. I was never a zero figure all my life nor i was an obese baby by birth. Slowly and gradually my weight kept increasing (thanks to all the corporate lunches and parties )and i didn't even realise when i turned 93. The first time the weighing scale showed 93 , I was alarmed. The warning bells had started ringing.

Apart from the weighing scale that i so so loathed to use everytime during a medical checkup, there were other factors too that forced me to lose weight. Frequently mocked and being ridiculed by people , I had started feeling depressed. Somewhere it had started affecting my level of confidence too. I was showered with so many embarrasing nicknames ( moti,fatso etc  etc) . I didn't care what people told about me, but i somewhere felt that i was losing my identity. I am a software engineer, a blogger, a singer, a dancer  but people never addressed me as“ a singer” or “ a dancer”.Inspite of being multi talented than most of them who called me names, i thought my talent was being overshadowed by my weight. I have had so many experiences wherein for stage shows I would be declined a role.Obviously the real reason never came up but it was put up diplomatically many a times. Not that I cared about people, as to what they said.It was a fight against my will power. I questioned myself whether I was this weak that I could succumb to fatty foods and risk my life when I had such a beautiful life ahead to enjoy.


And that is when i decided  I am going to walk my calories away.I wake up early in the morning and go in for a jog or a walk with my bestie Anu. If you plan to go for walks ,always have a company.  Try to rope in a friend, your spouse, your parents etc who are tough taskmasters and will see to it that you jump off the bed.You need such company so that the other person is always motivated to shed off the calories.Anu is one such task master and thanks to her I don't miss a single day.

Its been 6 months and i am 11 kilos lighter.The more I walked , the more the effects became visible and the more confident I was. You can see the change in the pic below.

Morning walks along with a proper diet plan are the best thing if you are planning to lose weight. I used to wonder whether walks are effective, but the picture speaks volumes. And yes dont start with the expectation that the results would be visible the next day... you need to have loads of patience.. you need to wait patiently with a positive attitude.Set up goals for the week and try to achieve it...
If you are on the heavier side and you think you are going through everything exactly what i have been, its time you question your inner conscience and get your life back on track. No one is born perfect but nothing can stop you from  being perfect. There may be times when you plan to lose weight and suddenly you find yourself hogging.Just question yourself what is more important to you an air filled bag of chips or your son /daughter who would be joining the kindergarten soon. Being with people who spread positivity also helps a lot in the battle to lose weight. Be with people who accept the way you are and motivate you. My fiancee accepted me the way i am ( yes with 93 kilos) and that further strengthened my resolve to lose weight and be perfect for someone who has accepted the imperfect ME! Also there is nothing like I cant lose weight or I cant do this or that... Everything is possible, if you believe in yourself...if you love your life. Start loving your body and see the results....

Trust me where there is a strong will power to achieve something in life, nothing or no one can stop you...

Recharge Your Hair...Recharge Your Life

This is an Entry for the Sunsilk Contest on Indiblogger


Few months back,i was totally bored with nothing exciting happening in my life. I decided to add few colors to my life. I pondered what to do, how to do... And i finally decided,i will actually add some colors practically if not to my life, to my hair....
I went to my parlor and asked the lady to get my hair colored. I had always imagined my hair to be burgundy in color. Unfortunately  i ended up forgetting the shade that i wanted to apply on my hair.(yeah ! yeah blame it on  my growing age)

The lady kept guessing, is it blond that you want? I am like.. eww no! A person with a wheatish complexion like me would end up looking like an African bird.. Then she said , what about copper color? And i was like.. emmm.. ok!! Lets try copper...We set out on the expedition of adding colors to my hair and indirectly adding to my life. She kept working on it and finally the time came in when she revealed her experiment on my hair with utmost pride.

I looked at the mirror and shrieked. My hair looked like this

                                      #dont i look like an Australian Imported Rare Breed Bird ? :(:(


.. It not only took away colors from my life, but also from my face.. My face had turned pale. I was not happy with the color et all.. And there was no chance that the color would fade away soon.

I resembled an imported bird with different shades of copper all on my hair. I did not know what to do and i cursed myself to go by the stupid plan.

I somehow wanted to get rid of this newly imported feathers and somehow tried to hide it. On the first day of the office, people were like,"Hello, whats this?" and i tied up my hair in a bun to save myself the embarrassment. I also became the butt of jokes of so many of my friend circles. I decided to get rid of the color by applying the not-so-timely-recalled burgundy color. Home experiments followed suit one after the another. My mom who arrived from Delhi a few weeks later wept and weaned and kept cursing me,"Guptaji will never accept a bahu (daughter-in-law)like this. God! what have i done to see this day"

Lots of melodrama, lots of stress and lots of chemical based color spoilt the texture of my hair. My hair became lifeless. It became dull and drab .The very reason i want to recharge my hair is though i look like an imported costly bird these days, i at least want to look that i belong to a good breed :P I want my hair to regain the shine , luster and beauty back . Only this will add zeal to my life and recharge me too. I wouldn't have to hide my hair in buns, ponytails and under shawls. I can be a free bird...emm gal.. and My hair will start breathing too.

And that is when  my friend suggested me Sunsilk. In her words," Oye birdy, One stop solution to all your hair problems.. Sunsilk!!!Ever touched silk, that would be the texture of your hair once drops of sunsilk fall on your hair. From the seasonal bird to the gal with the beautiful hair, the transition will happen in no time..

And Thanks to Sunsilk ! It did Recharge me Forever!! The results are for you to see....



                                            Doesn't My hair look much better and recharged now??
                                

       

                                                   #My friend who suggested Sunsilk

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