Accident

Image from TopNews

It was the accident which the government had to take notice off. The world watched the response of the nation. The lives lost were not ordinary ones. Some of the most influential business men and politically connected men had died. After months of arrangement, a week of excellent stay, it was unfortunate that the nation had to see these deaths. The head of the state had not anticipated for this catastrophe. How could he?

The bus was moving at a pleasurable speed in the curvy road along the Alps. The summer had just set in. The Alps was in its glory days again. Small caps of the snow covered the peaks of the mountain range. The traffic was only from the security vehicles surrounding the bus. The other traffic had been deviated on the otherwise busy road connecting the Swiss towns.

The men had enjoyed their stay in the resorts. They had made some strategic business deals and relaxed with their families. It was time to say bye and join their workforce in their home nations. They were on the last stretch to board the chartered planes at the airport. Then the accident happened.
 
A rock came falling from the peak and crushed the bus. The rock had settled well. Parts of the bus and humans were thrown all over the place.  The road was red in blood. Within minutes helicopters were hovering around the place. Rescue teams arrived from all possible sides. All they could do was to move the rock away and put the pieces of the bodies in different bags.

Now the head of states met to discuss the aftermath of the accident. The main agenda was to come up with a plan so that such accidents would not happen again.

“The road is repaired now. But the damage has hit the traffic. People do not use the road any longer. The rail traffic has increased. They prefer to take the longer train than drive through the Alps. This has affected trade in the two towns. Lorries refuse to take the road. The damage is in the mind”, announced a minister.

“What was the reason for the disaster?” came a straight question.

The home minister stood - “Global warming!”.

Eye brows went up in surprise. It was anticipated by the minister.

He continued “The actual reason for the accident is indeed Global warming. Due to the excessive heat during the summers, the snow at the top of Alps melts. There are lots of rocks on those monstrous mountains, which are held together by snow. The snow is a glue. And they have remained bonded by this glue since centuries. Now because of global warming, the glue melts faster. The bonds between the rocks are gone. They crash down. And one such rock claimed the lives of those rich men.”  The reasoning made sense – to everybody.

“What next?”

“We need to control Global warming. This has been addressed several times. The measures are in place. To prevent such accidents, we should watch the rocks and the glue. And watch them always. Technology will help us. It’s big money and work, but helps. Put cameras on the mountains watching the stones. Automatically monitor the snow movements by comparing the photos of the previous days. Based on this, if there is a danger - close the roads for human traffic.”

After some more discussions the plan was approved. 

After implementation, there have been no accidents but the road was closed many times.

Ballot

Image source

Since a month her husband came home drunk and without any money.

How could she run the family? It was just one woman earning that too as a housemaid. 2 children and a bedridden mother-in-law to be taken care.

She had seen many elections come and go. Nothing had changed her life. And never she had bothered to vote.

Her landlady had taught her a lesson in the last month. “Voting is everybody’s right. By voting the right candidate, everybody’s life would change. Including yours”, she had said.

Her husband had almost forgotten carpentry. Since the time the elections was announced, he stopped working for the furniture shop. He was now a campaigner.

He went to the “People party” office every morning. He held a flag in hand and went on a procession behind the party candidate to the villages. Shouting praises at times. Free food and free alcohol was up for grabs.

“A man would sacrifice anything for alcohol”, she thought.

Election day came. He had not got up. He had excessive alcohol the day before. She did not bother to wake him up.

She went to the polling booth to exercise her ballot for the first time in life. She remembered her landlady’s words – “Vote the right candidate”. In the queue, she met her friends and spoke to them about voting and shared her choice, even before voting.

As she went to cast her vote, she was clear with her choice – “Anybody other than People party.”

That night, her husband got up just in time for dinner. She had a victorious smile. A smile that showed that “People party” had missed the family’s 2 votes and some of her friends'.

Conspiracy

Salam Bhai,

Things are going according to our plan. We are all set for the D-day. India will shake. India will listen. And we will win. Months of effort will see fruits by year end. When we meet again in November, I have only good news to share. 2010 will be the year of resurgence for us.

Our British bhais have stuck to the task. It started with our agents bribing the organizing committee. Indians fell for it. I bribed a lot and sent them sub-standard material for their stadiums. But, I could not force our men into the venues. Security was very tight in India. That was when our master-brain came with this idea.

1. Our agents delayed the shipment of goods for the venues. Work lagged. Venues were not meeting deadlines. They are incomplete. Rains added to our joys. Leaks in the venues (partly because of our agents sub-standard goods) are creating panic in organizing committee.

2. I leaked the bribery stories to the Indian media. Indian media made big news out of this.

Bhai, I know that our agents will be caught. But a small sacrifice will help us in achieving the bigger motive.

Now all efforts of the Govt, is to make the games a success. They are covering up the bribery issues. They are working on fast pace to complete the venues on time. For this they have recruited more laborers. Some of these additional laborers are my men. Government has no time to do security check. And media is not capturing the security lapses. They are busy with the corruption scandal. So in one master move, I have removed 2 obstacles - media and security. Now it is our time.

My sources in Govt already told me that a mock security drill will be conducted at the venues. This drill will be done to impress the foreigners but there will be no serious security drill. They have no time for it.

On the day of opening ceremony, when the venues are full - the attack will happen.

The world would watch us. India will be shattered. What we did not achieve in South African world cup, we will achieve in India.

Shukriya,

Agent 617

Disclaimer –

This is purely a fiction. I wrote this before the Common Wealth Games, when media was exposing the corruption scandals surrounding the games.

My worst fear then, is described in the form of a letter. A letter by a terror agent to his boss. Boasting of his plot to derail Common Wealth Games 2010.

Double century

Image source

He had no writing experience...apart from writing exams in the school and college.

After graduation he moved to an industry where writing meant typing. Key boards were the new pens. He wrote using key boards.

Unlike his academic study period, in the industry he wrote code. LOC, they called it. Lines of code.

Occassionally he started writing something called MoM. Minutes of Meeting. Why is it called minutes, when at time it took hours to write it?

As he gained experience in the industry, he wrote SpeDes. Specifications and Design. And now he realised that writing also meant drawing. They were the new drawing methodologies - Flow charts, sequence diagrams, class diagrams etc etc.

In the midst of all these, the only time he wrote about himself was during the performance talks. He then wrote, what is good about himself, what he wants to do in future, what he did in the past, what he learnt in the process of writing LOC, SpeDes, flow charts etc. He felt happy doing this. And he felt that he has to do this more often.

That was the period, he learnt a new word called BLOG. He realized that this is the space where he can express freely about himself and the surrounding world. He started writing blogs. And he kept them private. It was the space to put his thoughts through words or pictures or drawings. Being shy, he did not want the others to know what he thinks. But one fine day he exposed them, and wierdly for no specific reason.

Like many other interests, after a few days, he just stopped writing Blogs. This was again for no specific reason. Probably he concentrated his free time on some of his other interests like music, cinema, books and stocks.

Early 2010, he started writing Blogs again. This time very aggressively. Yet again, it was for no specific reason. He was encouraged by friends in this venture. As the year comes to close, he is celebrating his double century of blog entries in a year. Uff...nice feeling.

Error

Image source - Wikimedia

Eshwar was very happy after the exams. It was easy and he was sure to get 90% in all subjects. It was a result of his efforts during the entire year. His parents would get him a new bike if he cracked 90%. This was the bonus and probably the carrot thrown at him. 90% would also mean that he could get a seat in the top class college of the city.

The result day had finally come. Eshwar went to the school with all his friends. He collected the score-card from the teacher. Everything was as expected – 90+. But one subject was a disaster. Eshwar had scored 58 out of a maximum of 100 in English. He almost fell on his knees seeing this. He could not first react at this. His hopes of a new bike and a good college were all gone now.

Eshwar walked alone, back to his house. He opened the English question paper and declared to his parents that he had done well in English. “58 is an error…impossible”, he argued. His parents agreed because his other scores were very good.

Eshwar decided to apply for a re-evaluation of his English paper. He hoped that the error in checking would be rectified. After a month, a letter addressed to Eshwar came to his house. He knew that it was a letter from the evaluation team. As he read the letter, he screamed in joy. The error was rectified. His score was now a swap of the digits of 58 – 85.

Fake

Location – Village in the India – Bangladesh border
“This case has 200 thousand. 15 hundred worth genuine ones. All others fake. Printed in Pak. Specialized printing.  Commission is as usual. No negotiation. Kaka will deal this. Take it to Kolkata. Shipment in cow’s stomach! “
“ok! See you later.”

Location – Kolkata’s small butcher yard
 “Kaka’s stuff has arrived. 20 cows and 200 thousand in it. I want all tonight. 11 pm. Get it to Dadu’s store.”
“ok!”

Location – Kolkata’s Dadu store
“Counting is done sir. Master class print. Can’t trace. Pak guys are best in business.”
“ok, what next?”
“Dadu, shipment will go to Haryana’s Jiten bhai, Mumbai’s Karim babu, Hyderabad’s Kumar Khallu. All equal distribution.”
“Who takes it to them?”
“All experts. In train. Naresh, Usmaan & Govinda.”
“Commission?”
“8%?”
“ok”

Location – Mumbai – Karim Babu’s garage
“Karim saab, 65 thousand here. All Pak made. No error. New serial number. Special print. Dadu’s guarantee. “
 “Ok! Circulation will start today. South India full circulation. “
“Commission ?”
“Going in vacation to South India. After coming back will pay Dadu directly.”
“Ok, Karim saab” .

Location – Hampi – Tourist destination in South India
“Karim uncle, please get me that toy. “
“ok!”
Turning to the seller - “ What’s price? “
“100 Rs sir. “
“Give me 5 pieces. “ Hands over a 500 Rs note.
“Thanks sir! I Krishna. Me doing export business of toys. Any orders let me know. ”

Location – Hampi – Krishna’s garden
“Raghu, here is your monthly pay”
“Krishna sir, why 500 Rs note? Give change sir”
“No change, go to Bank for change!”
“Ok sir”

Location – Hampi – Bank of Bharat
“Sir, can I get change for 500Rs?”
“Yes Raghu, who gave you 500?”
“Monthly salary sir”
“This is fake note. Police can arrest you for this. Do not use this note”
“Sir, that’s the only money I have for month.”
“I don’t know Raghu. You can’t use this fake note. Fake notes cannot be used. You will be arrested. I will cut this note and burn it. ”
“Sir, no money for a month”

Bank official tore the note and marked the pieces as fake with marker pen.