Ghonchu catches a rat

Ghonchu was facing a crisis. Rats were invading his house like the plague. He ran after them; tried to catch them but to no avail. They continued to wreck havoc in his house damaging food and other items. 

Ghonchu, having watched Ratatouille had a soft corner for these rats. He didn't want to mercilessly kill them using rat poison, but instead wanted to catch them and get rid of them from his house. 

He had already tried the following approaches with no success-

Approach	Effect it had
Shouting at the top of his voice at the rat	The rat hid itself in one of the many cupboards
Running and lunging at it with a dangerous instrument	Same as above
Putting a poster of a cat on his kitchen wall	The rat excreted on the poster and bit it
Watching carefully that no rats were in the house and then bolting all doors and windows	After bolting the last window, Ghonchu turned to see a hitherto unspotted rat running across the kitchen.
Playing Tom and Jerry on his TV especially the part where Tom dominates Jerry	None

Ghonchu had had enough. He decided to seek external help and went to a grocery shop. The grocery shop he went to provided him a solution of using a rat pad. A rat pad is a wickedly ingenious device which is nothing but a pad with very strong glue such that any rat would get stuck on to it.

Ghonchu clutched the pad like a drowning man clutches a straw as he made his way back into the house. At night, he carefully analyzed the area where there would be maximum chance of catching a rat. With ice cold calculating hands and a face grim and hard as a mask, Ghonchu strategically placed the rat pad at an angle of 47 degrees near the fridge. He then went to sleep peacefully in the knowledge that  he had done everything possible to catch the mischievous little furry balls of terror. 

Deep in the midst of the dark night, Ghonchu got up. He felt troubled and thirsty. He went to the kitchen to soak his parched throat.

Pchhhhhh! Ghonchu heard a voice as he stepped into the kitchen. The noise of a sqelching rat caught stuck in the pad. 

Ghonchu switched on the light. Three rats stared at him from across the kitchen whilst he stood stuck to the pad. As a parting gesture, they stuck their tongue out at him before disappearing in the food cupboard.


Postscript: Ghonchu wished he stayed in the US so that he could sue the rat pad company for the mental trauma he suffered since he wasn't aware the pad was so sticky.

Ghonchu and the ghost car

Ghonchu walked confidently in the night. He was returning home alone and didn't have money for an auto. Walking in a slightly isolated and dark section of the road, he put on a brave face and kept telling himself that he didn't believe in spooky things like ghosts and witches and dolls like Annabelle.

He looked left and right, saw no floating women in white saris and continued with renewed vigour. He still had some distance to go before reaching home.

In the utter darkness, his brisk walk and brave demeanour was disturbed by lights. Lights of an approaching vehicle. Traffic on that road was not unusual even at this unearthly hour and he felt more comfortable and confident about lack of ghosts. Ghonchu was never too concerned about thieves and robbers since he never had any money anyways. It was only the unearthly beings that worried him!

However his relief on seeing car lights was soon cut short. He observed that the car was moving in a zigzag pattern. It seemed the driver had lost all control of the car. The car weaved its way like a drunken person, groaning and creaking left and right with headlights on, bumping into the divider and finally stopped only after a head-on collision with a tree along the side of the road.

Ghonchu started forward with concern to see if the car passengers had got badly injured before he saw something that made his blood run cold.

There was nobody in the car. 

All he saw was a doll hanging in the dashboard constantly revolving and staring eerily at him. 

In his knowledge, ghosts had not been known to drive cars, but one never knew when they might indulge in new whims or fancies. 

Ghonchu wanted to run. His face was petrified in shock. However, when cars are seen moving without drivers and all they contain are miniature dolls, feet get stuck in quicksand and blood circulation stops. Despite his best attempts, Ghonchu couldn't run.

 
Whilst Ghonchu stood stuck in glue, he now observed a new menace. He could see a shape coming from behind the car in darkness. That shape seemed to half limp and half run.

Ghonchu's feet had resigned from their duties. However Ghonchu's brain was still partly functional. He began to recite Hanuman Chalisa, "Jai Hanuman gyan gun sagar, jai kapasi tihu lok ujagar." Then he cursed himself for never having learnt more than that.

The shape turned into a human covered with blood on his face. But was that a human or a ghost who had returned to haunt him? Ghonchu watched blood dripping from the shape's cheek.

Ghonchu now understood everything. This man must have died on this very road and his tormented soul had come back to haunt passing folks. The doll must be his accomplice. Ghonchu accepted that today his end was nigh. He waited as the ghost continued to approach him.

When the ghost reached sufficiently close, Ghonchu screamed in a panic-stricken voice filled with desperation, "Hooooosh".

The ghost replied with an air of puzzlement, "Hain?"

Ghonchu paused on realizing the ghost was speaking.

The ghost continued, "Bhau, madad kardo. Paan thookne ke liye gaadi ka darwaza khola tha, roadwa pe speed breaker aa gaya, aur main bahar gir gaya."
(Please help me. I opened the door of my moving car to spit paan, however encountered a speed breaker on the road at that moment due to which I fell off the car.)

When ghosts speak Bihari and chew paan, blood circulation tends to come back and glue from under the feet dries off.

Ghonchu turned in disgust and continued walking towards his home.

[Thanks to Saurabh for the idea of this story.]

Ghonchu talks on the telephone - Part two

Link to part 1

Ghonchu was a smart, competitive professional who had the excellent ability to talk to people face-to-face. However, his telephonic conversation skills were yet to improve, hitherto as seen previously.

......................................

Ghonchu was having his regular afternoon siesta in his office cabin when sudden music filled his cabin - "Main tera hero oo oo hero oo". Ghonchu turned comfortably in his sleep feeling happier with the music. He began to dream of singing these words to Sweetu. 

The music continued - "Tu mera hero oo oo Tu mera hero". Ghonchu's subconscious realized that it was highly unlikely that Sweetu would sing those words back to him and jerked wide awake suddenly as he realized that was his phone ringing.

“Hello”, spoke an obviously irate Ghonchu.

A Voice spoke, “Dear Sir, Nēḍu eyirṭel viniyōgadārulu kōsaṁ oka goppa āphar undi....”

Ghonchu’s irritation increased. He had been rudely awakened by a salesman from his never-to-be-fulfilled dreams and was then talking in a language he did not understand - this felt like the last straw. However, Ghonchu if nothing was the consummate gentleman. Rahul Dravid would have been impressed by the tone in which he replied –

"Telugu Radu.” (I don’t know Telugu).

The Voice continued, “Krindi āphar vivarālu unnāyi...”

Ghonchu’s irritation increased. But he took a deep breath, retained his calm remembering Sweetu, and repeated again in a louder voice –

“Telugu Radu. English or Hindi.”

There was a pause. Ghonchu wondered if he should try speaking Telugu, but his past experiences in speaking a language he didn't know had not been good.

The Voice came over from the other end, “Tood ede eirtel oofrs oone pisekool perm int.”

Now Ghonchu got disturbed. Sweetu was the last thing on his mind now. He now changed his tone. Virat Kohli would have been proud him.

“Arey, you **** idiot. Telugu Radu, Telugu Radu. Kannada Gothila. Tamil Teriyaada. English or Hindi. English or Hindi. Understand??” 
(Ghonchu added 'I don’t know Kannada' and 'I don't know Tamil' as a safety measure not sure what language was being spoken).

Again there was a pause. A longer one, this time. The Voice at the other end finally spoke humbly and slowly –

“Sir, Engleesh .. onlee .. speeeking.”

Ghonchu revisited the words being spoken last –

“Today the airtel offers one paise call per minute.”

Ghonchu disconnected the phone!!

Of land mines, explosions and …

I walked quietly. Scared and shivering! All around me, the world was collapsing.

All of a sudden, a bomb exploded in front of me. I screamed and tried to find a hiding place. I felt hunted. Every step was a potential landmine and there seemed no place to hide.

Another bomb exploded - this time, from my right. Heavy smoke rendered the air. I coughed and tried to search for a new direction where I could escape. No such place seemed to exist.

Some distance away to my left, I was startled by continuous firing. That seemed like the last straw. Seemingly never ending, it lasted for a few minutes during which I cringed in agony and fear. I tried to hide my head under my body. That was about as useful protecting me as throwing a stone at the bombs.

The land mines continued to explode. I slunk off in another direction, thinking that to be quieter than the rest. How mistaken I was!

The land under me exploded. Like a cat on a hot tin roof, I changed direction and sprinted away. But where to go??

I found an uninhabited bunker. It seemed like only a temporary respite. I reached there, closed my eyes and lay down. I waited to die.

Soon afterwards, a fellow being found me there. He had been my sworn enemy. But in this age of madness and day of chaos, we put aside our quarrels, quietly acknowledged each other and waited in the bunker. A common empathy ran between us.

By and by, another being found us there. She didn’t belong to our community. But what is community in the face of fear and quest for survival. We gave her her own space. We all waited to die. We all waited for the moment when this bunker would be torn apart by bombs or gunfire.

I heard laughter. Till yesterday, the same people who had walked along side us had turned in to demons today.

I whimpered pitifully. Scratched my tail and lay in agony. I was unable to withstand the explosions and the noise. Even a small bark refused to come out of my mouth.

**************

The festival of lights and joy, they called it. Joy, eh? Landmines, explosions and ... joy?

Ghonchu drives a car

Ghonchu proudly stood outside his new (old) car and got his photo clicked. And then came the hard part. He sat in his car and attempted to drive it.

He turned the key and his car sputtered to life, “Vroooom”. He prayed for blessings and then put his left foot on the clutch. His hand shook unsteadily while putting the car in first gear.

His right foot pressed the accelerator as Teachu, his instructor had taught him. Press the accelerator and release the clutch gently, he knew. He tried doing just that.

“Dhoop!” The car stopped with a jerk.

Ghonchu looked sheepishly at Teachu sitting next to him. Teachu encouraged him calmly, “Don’t worry! This was bound to happen the first time. Try again.”

The car roared to life again. “Vroooom”.

“Press the accelerator and release the clutch gently”, Ghonchu repeated in monotone as though memorizing the words. He pressed the accelerator ever so slightly and as gently as a falling leaf, released his foot off the clutch.

“Dhoop!” The car reacted the same way as the last time.

Perspiring, Ghonchu tried again. Teachu maintained a stoic silence looking dead straight. Ghonchu remembered the words, “Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.” He mentally replaced them with “Why do we stop? So that we can learn to start.”

Teachu advised, “give more race (press the accelerator more)”.

Ghonchu did as suggested. “Vroooom” said his car again on turning on the ignition. But it kept silent on pressing the accelerator. Timid as a rabbit, Ghonchu whispered in anguish to his teacher, “the accelerator is not working!”

Teachu, then for the first time looked carefully at Ghonchu’s feet, sighed as a coach whose pupil had thoroughly disappointed him and looked straight ahead.

“The brake is the one in the middle, and accelerator is the one on the right.”

Mortified, and with his face as red as a ripe tomato, Ghonchu corrected his feet position and tried again. The accelerator roared this time, “vroom, vroom, vroooooooom.”

Ghonchu exulted in delight as a naked Archimedes might have once done. The car began to move forward. In his delight, he had missed the passerby who was about to cross the road in front of him.

• The accelerator screeched, “vroooom”.
• The passerby screamed, “aaaaaaah”.
• Ghonchu turned as white as a sheet. He screamed but no noise came out of his mouth. He had lost his powers of speech.
• Teachu sharply brought the hand-brake into play.
• The car stopped few inches before the passerby.

The passerby had turned into stone in the middle of the road. Ghonchu started trembling like an aspen leaf. Teachu mopped his brow.

The stone gradually returned to life and crossed the road mumbling a few obscenities which Ghonchu did not understand as they were in Telugu. Teachu added a few of his own which Ghonchu understood perfectly.

The aspen leaf realized he was sweating from all sorts of awkward places. His seat now needed drying. He relinquished control of the car to Teachu (who blissfully unaware sat in Ghonchu’s seat) for the remainder of the journey.

******************

Enough time has elapsed. Ghonchu now understands the difference between brake and accelerator and is able to successfully drive his way around without hitting pedestrians.

The she-crab

The she-crab sensed the receding sun and the incoming night. The harshness of the day was gone. It was time!

She stepped out from her hole and cackled. The night was young and the evening breeze of the Bay of Bengal whished past her pincers. She paused and took in the breeze for some moments and looked around.

The humans were gone; some of the huge population of her neighbours was coming out for a tentative reconnaissance. Sensing that the beach was now theirs, scores and scores of her neighbours scuttled out. The sandy beach which lay plain suddenly transformed as though punctured. Holes of all shapes and sizes miraculously appeared in the hitherto unblemished sand as crabs poked their heads out of their lay.

Clack-clack-clickety-clack, went their pincers. They danced to the tune of the waves. The waves came across with full force of the high tide that night. The crabs scurried across in delight as the waves swept them to the shore and took them back in to the sea.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab

The few months old she-crab took in the atmosphere with a sense of wonder. She had only recently come ashore having spent her formative months in the sea. The giant things called humans were new to her and she was still getting used to the concept. The fact there was anything other than water in this world also took some getting used to.

Without the humans, and in the company of her own kind, she felt more secure. She took a few tentative steps across the sandy beach, sideways. One or two of her neighbours looked curiously in her direction. A new-comer, one who could be bullied, they concluded.

They came towards her trying to find out more. Her hole where she had stayed during the day was untenanted. The she-crab alarmed by the interest shown in her, rushed defensively back to her hole and buried herself up. The bullies paused, unsure what to do next. They lost interest and decided to focus on more pressing needs such as food.

After a certain lapse of time; slowly, with more caution, the she-crab poked her head out of her hole. Her stomach was rumbling. Making sure no one was paying any attention to her; she quietly observed her neighbours and their ways of catching food.

A small worm crawling near her abode caught her attention –a likely candidate for dinner. She hesitated, timid and unsure about leaving her abode. By the time she made up her mind to hunt the worm, it had vanished. She sat plaintively at the edge of her burrow taking in the activities of her fellow-crabs.  

Soon another worm presented itself to her as an opportunity. She made her way across before realizing she wasn’t the only one who had spotted the worm. Another of her neighbours was stalking the worm and he was closer to the potential prey. The she-crab’s stomach rumbled once more and she endeavoured to have her way. A feeling of competitiveness overcame her. Neither of the two crabs backed off as they proceeded in the direction of the worm. And then, it began!

The fight over the worm lasted a minute with other neighbours acting as curious though passive bystanders. Both attacked the other with their pincers. One blow after another was traded as they sparred brutally. However, the end came as swiftly as it began. One blow on the opponent’s pincers left him injured and he backed off. The worm was hers for the taking.

Sadly though, the worm had not stayed around to watch the conclusion of this sparring match. It had disappeared. The she-crab, not for the first time regretted her crab-like mentality.

However, the fight had not gone waste. She had earned the respect of her peers and could now stride confidently amongst the rest. She made swift progress - watching and learning with the others, digging into the sand and finding worms for her meal.

The waves continued to make roaring noises as it lashed the beach. She felt soothed in the music of the waves and the serenity of the moonlight. She had found her place in the clan and was now accepted.

Dawn was in the offing. It would soon be time to scuttle back into her hole before the humans polluted their space.

Ghonchu watches Cricket

Ghonchu was excited. He was watching the India-Australia one day match with his friends Sweetu, Superstu, Logicu and Irritatu on a big TV and the match was poised nicely for any team to win. Sachin was hitting fours and sixes at regular intervals. He had made a difficult target achievable by his batting.

Ghonchu’s friends were excitedly discussing the possibilities of the match’s result – the various ifs and buts. India still needed to hit more than six runs per over; so more fours and sixes were needed. However, soon disaster struck. Sachin got out and so did another batsman.

As all of them were sitting in despair, Ghonchu got up to go to the washroom. Unsurprisingly with the Ghonchu’s of this world; catastrophe struck. He turned around to go to the washroom; and in the immediate 3 seconds after that the following sequence of events happened in order:-

  -Ghonchu promptly tripped over Sweetu who was sitting just behind him.

  -Ghonchu’s left arm went up at 10 o’clock w.r.t his body.

  -Ghonchu’s right arm quickly grabbed Sweetu’s shoulder in an attempt to balance himself.

  -Ghonchu’s right leg was on the ground while the left was in air.

  -Ghonchu’s right arm went up at 2 o’clock.

  -Ravindra Jadeja hit a six.     

  -Ghonchu’s left leg contacted the floor; he landed on all fours, behind Sweetu and his face hit the leftovers of cheese burst domino’s pizza which they had ordered.        

“Six!!!”, screamed Superstu, Logicu and Irritatu while Sweetu tried to help Ghonchu get up. Ghonchu, eventually got up looking totally bemused and his head was rotating 360 degrees.

Then, Superstu looked at Ghonchu and exclaimed in delight, “Ghonchu is the key to our success.  He must be in the same position, for India to continue playing well.”

Everyone got excited by this theory. Ghonchu however snapped, “What rubbish! I don’t believe in this all this nonsense.”

However, everyone shushed Ghonchu. Superstu ordered, “Ghonchu, stand with your face away from the TV. You ‘ll not watch the match.”

Irritatu added, “Both your hands must be up in the air, and left leg off the ground.”

Ghonchu refused angrily, “No, I will not.”

Sweetu added, “I think you should, Ghonchu. What if this actually helps.”

“Et tu, Sweetu”, thought Ghonchu reminded of Brutus and Julius Caesar.

“But I want to see the match, it is in such an exciting stage,” moaned Ghonchu. “Also India was hitting fours and sixes earlier too, weren’t they; and then I was watching every ball.”

“That was Sachin, Ghonchu. Gods don’t need your help. Mere mortals like Ravindra Jadeja need all the help they can get from us”, reasoned Logicu.

Ghonchu looked left and right for support, saw none coming and miserably twisted his body in the desired position. Soon, however something struck his mind.

“When that incident happened, I caught hold of Sweetu’s hand to balance myself. Should I be holding her hand too?” asked Ghonchu, hoping that some good might come out of this situation.

“No”, said Irritatu coldly. “At the exact moment when the six was hit, both your hands were in air. Do just that.” Ghonchu subsided quietly.

After sometime, Ghonchu’s body reminded him why he had gotten up in the first place and what caused the accident. “Ummm”, he began. No one paid attention to him. Superstu ordered him to shut up.

 “Ummm, actually the reason I got up then was because I wanted to go the washroom”, mumbled Ghonchu. They all looked at each other and then eventually Logicu said, “Okay, go at the end of this over and come back quickly.”

Irritatu further rubbed salt in his wounds, “Seriously, Ghonchu!! People are fighting for our country, here they are playing hard and trying their best to win; and you can’t exercise a little control for your nation.”

“Ya, well easy for you to say! Its not your bladder”, thought Ghonchu but did not voice his thoughts.

After this happened, another ten minutes passed by where India continued to play averagely, scoring singles but the required run rate kept going higher. Ghonchu unable to see, was depending on commentary as to what was happening behind him.

Soon, however his left leg started aching. He humbly requested, “Can I at least change the leg which is off the ground?” Just as he said that, Ravindra Jadeja got run-out. 

Logicu explained, “Changing legs is like doing the absolute opposite. Hence even your suggestion to change legs had this terrible impact.”

Superstu and Irritatu both looked at him angrily,”Ghonchu, why don’t you just keep your mouth shut?”

Ghonchu resigned to his fate decided probably that was the best thing to do. He stood quietly in the awkward position as the match neared its end. However, despite Ghonchu’s best efforts India continued to lose wickets and eventually lost the match in a close finish.

With a sigh of relief, Ghonchu came back to normal posture as the others around him looked forlorn at India’s loss.

“See, I told you this is all superstitious nonsense. You just had to trouble me”, Ghonchu feeling he should prove a point.

Superstu looked at him and said angrily, “Because of our belief in you we brought the match so close. If you had a little belief in yourself, we would have won the match easily. It is your lack of faith which cost us the match.”

Irritatu ended, “yes, now you will be made to stand like this for the next match too.”

Ghonchu uses a smart phone

Ghonchu was the proud owner of a new smart phone. He walked proudly in his office cafeteria and strategically took the phone out of pocket in a place where there were more females around and pretended to type busily on it. On looking up, he realized nobody was paying any attention to him (or his phone); then he remembered; his company had gifted the same phone to everyone.

Disappointed, Ghonchu kept the phone back in his pocket thinking that he couldn't catch anyone's attention (as usual) even with his new phone. However, while thinking of such thoughts, Ghonchu forgot that his pocket didn't usually hang (in thin air) outside his jeans, and dropped the phone with a loud 'clunk'. Twenty pair of eyes turned towards him with an expression of stunned disbelief. Ghonchu quickly picked his phone up (which thankfully suffered no damage) and walked away wondering what gave him the idea that his phone couldn't be used to catch attention (albeit not in the way he expected).

Ghonchu went back to his desk and decided to show off his phone on the internet. He logged into facebook intending to publicize the fact he had a smart phone. However, on checking other friends' updates, he was thoroughly disgusted to realize that each and every company employee had already done the same. Facebook was flooded with posts from employees flaunting their new phones.

Now, baffled Ghonchu racked his brains as to how he could show-off his new phone. Not being very techy by nature, he didn't know too many features of the phone which he could rave about. He decided to flaunt it in circles outside his company. He went to a restaurant outside with friends where he sat on the corner seat next to a table where some girls were sitting; took his phone out and kept it on the table. The adjacent table's nearest seated girl looked at his phone, completely ignored Ghonchu (no admiring glances or eyelashes); and continued chatting to her friends.

Tired Ghonchu went back home and decided that phones are meant for only one thing and nothing else. To make/receive calls. Ghonchu kept his phone on a table and decided to go to bed.


However the new phone had something better up its sleeve. Ghonchu, who didn't usually get many calls, got a call that night. It was from Sweetu. Startled, Ghonchu managed to drop the phone again; when he finally picked it up and talked to her, he could barely talk coherently. The reason for the call was a mundane one.


Ghonchu slept that night clutching the phone close to himself and with happy dreams. "This is a lucky phone. On its first night, I got a call from Sweetu. So what if no one was impressed by it!"

Ghonchu eats Vegetarian food

Ghonchu stepped into the city of Hungryland with a look of awe. The cities of Europe were beautiful and Hungryland was no exception. He was impressed. However although Ghonchu was impressed, his stomach wasn’t. He hadn’t had much to eat since he had stepped onto his flight from India to Hungryland a few hours ago. His stomach which had rumbled politely earlier now voiced its displeasure more powerfully. Though it is the season of fasting in India, Ghonchu’s fasting ability extended to fasting from dinner to breakfast the next day.

Ghonchu decided to look for food options. He could see multiple options nearby. He discarded some of them after concluding they would be too expensive. He chose to go to a dingy little place which sold burgers and sandwiches.

Ghonchu walked to the shop and asked the shopkeeper, “Do you have anything VEGETARIAN?”

“Eh?”

“Vegetarian!! Anything without meat.”

“Aye, aye! Of course”, she replied happily having understood what Ghonchu wanted.

She took out two sandwiches (both looked similar) and told Ghonchu, “Theeese twoo sandwiches are vegetarian.”

Ghonchu happily paid for one of the sandwiches and just confirmed before unwrapping it, “No meat eh?”

She replied airily, “No. No. No meeet at all. Only feesh.”

Ghonchu mentally puked and kept back the sandwich.

The shopkeeper then pointed to the other sandwich and said, “Thees one has no feesh, no meeet. Only vegetables.”

Ghonchu took the other one and quietly walked away. It tasted okay.

PS: Ghonchu still doesn’t know whether what he ate was vegetarian or was the shopkeeper trying to avoid returning money to him, but he is happy with the fact that he ate whatever he bought thinking it was vegetarian.

Ghonchu gets an email

[Thanks to Soumava for the idea of this story]

Everyone gets emails from time to time.. Why should anyone be surprised that Ghonchu got one!! Well, this one was special.

Ghonchu switched on his computer at office on Monday morning with a bleary eyed look, of having to withstand five continuous days in office again. Outlook said 17 unread mails in his inbox. Indifferently, Ghonchu turned away to drink a cup of tea assuming most of them must be from his manager asking why he still hadn't started on a task expected to complete last week.

After drinking tea, and chit-chatting for some time, Ghonchu got back and casually perused the subjects and the senders of the mail. His heart leapt (as it always did) when he saw that one of the mails was from Sweetu, a colleague in his office. Even though he knew that the contents would be purely impersonal and would probably about some technical ask, he still cherished it. Ghonchu did not open the email from Sweetu straightaway. He was like a child who didn't want to eat his ice cream out of the fear that it would be finished too soon. He stared at the name for some time, gloated over the fact that he got an email from Sweetu and very carefully with one religious click of the mouse opened the email.

The email was very short. The contents were :- "Missed you :)".

Shocked, Ghonchu's heartbeat increased from 85 (when he was opening the mail) to 110. Ghonchu read-and-reread the mail again in a state of shock.. "Does she have similar feelings.. Are we twin souls after all!"

Ghonchu quickly started composing a reply to the mail. "Dear Sweetu, Even I missed you over the weekend. Two days are quite a lot of time to be separated from you. Regards, Ghonchu." Ghonchu re-read his email a dozen times, removed the second sentence as being too mushy and changed the word 'Regards' to 'Love'. Finally, as he was about to press the 'Send' button, when he saw something else which made his heart turn cold.

The original email from Sweetu had gone not only to him but also to Irritatu. Ghonchu uttered a few choice things (@#%@#$#^#) he would like to do to Irritatu whom he had always suspected of being too close to Sweetu.

However, he didn't have too much time to ponder before Sweetu and Irritatu came over to call him for lunch. Ghonchu glared at Irritatu, smiled sweetly at Sweetu and joined them. The two of them were casually chatting about some movie which Ghonchu had not seen, so Ghonchu fumed inwardly.

In the midst of conversation, Sweetu turned to Ghonchu and asked, "Oh Ghonchu! You will follow up with the partner team on our requirements, won't you."
"Eh!", said Ghonchu blankly.
"I forwarded you an email! Didn't you see? To both you and Irritatu."
"Oh!", said Ghonchu.
"The mail I had forwarded contained the context of what needed to be done. I had forgotten to add you and Irritatu in the thread originally, so forwarded it to you both in the end."
"Ok!", said Ghonchu quietly and focused on finishing his lunch.


Ghonchu went back to his desk and reopened the mail. This time he read it completely.


From: Sweetu
To: Ghonchu, Irritatu
Sub: FW: Partner


Missed you :)



_______________________


From: Sweetu
To: Senioru
Sub: Partner

Ghonchu and Irritatu should be able to take care of the dependency on the partner team......
......

Ghonchu goes to Nagarjuna Sagar dam

Ghonchu got up in the morning, feeling excited. He was to go on a road trip to Nagarjuna Sagar dam on Krishna river, around 150 kms from Hyderabad with his team-mates Vidu, Ronku and Somu. Had he known what all adventures lay in store for him, his excitement might' ve been much lesser.

Having rented a car, they set off with Somu at the driver's seat. After however driving for an hour or so, they ran into their first hurdle. The car started stuttering, and finally stopped. However Somu and Ronku had some expertise about cars and they figured the problem was that the car was overheating. On opening the bonnet, they figured out that they needed to feed something called coolant to the car. Ghonchu, who himself didn't know anything about cars, pretended to nod intelligently agreeing with the others.

They all bent expectantly as Ronku poured coolant into a cylindrical can under the bonnet. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, there was a sputtering noise ptttr, ptttr and steam started coming out of the outlet. Ghonchu, whose nose was closest to the bonnet in his bid to show-off his knowledge of cars; jerked backwards and landed 4 feet away on the ground.

Ghonchu decided nodding at the right time was sufficient to look intelligent.

After performing some more experiments on the car, and it failing to start, they started despairing. They kept pouring more and more coolant; which the car kept happily guzzling, making noises like grrrp grrrp grrrp. However, they were lucky enough to get hold of a car servicing shop where they towed their car, left it for repair and continued their journey to the dam by bus.

On reaching the dam, Ghonchu felt it was worth the effort taken to have come there. The dam looked monstrous with water flowing elegantly out of six of the gates, and causing a waterfall-ish effect with water hitting the standing water with brutal force.

Soon thereafter, Ghonchu's friends decided to take a bath in the catchment area. Their enthusiasm went up on seeing other groups there - with girls. On reaching that area, they saw a sign - "Danger. Crocodiles may be found here. Do not enter the water." However, Ghonchu's friends disregarded the sign seeing other groups there. Ghonchu, himself was extremely worried and judging by his reaction to lizards, his fear of crocodiles was only around hundred times more. Since he did not wanting to seem a coward, he entered the water. Since Ghonchu didn't know how to swim, he didn't stray too deep. He just stayed close to land and looked around at his laughing friends who had gone further in. The other groups had gone. All seemed peaceful.

Ghonchu decided to put his face underneath water. Having done so, he saw something which sent a chill up his spine. He saw a long, dark object floating towards him. With a strangled yell, he shouted "crocodile". He was waist deep in water, and hurriedly tried to run back to land. In doing so, he lost his balance, but still managed to reach the rocky outcrop near the water. With his eyes facing the water, he moved backwards until he stumbled and ended up sitting on a log of wood. The others had swam out of the water too and were watching with baited breath.

Gradually, a shape emerged.. It turned out only to be a log of wood.
"Whew!", exclaimed Ghonchu and wiped his brow and looked at the others in relief. However, the others still seemed to have expressions of horror on their faces. Ghonchu quickly cross-checked the log, and then told the others, "Hey, its just a log of wood. Can't you see?"

Nobody responded anything. All three, Ronku, Somu and Vidu seemed to have frozen into silence with shocked expressions. Before Ghonchu could ponder more on why that was so, he started to feel the ground shake. "Hey, an earthquake's happening!!", Ghonchu exclaimed thinking that so many things were happening today. The others still didn't react before Vidu slowly raised a finger pointing towards Ghonchu.

The log of wood, Ghonchu thought he was sitting on was actually a small crocodile which had just moved. When Ghonchu realized that, he leapt up in alarm with another scream and sprinted away from the catchment area. He kept runnning and did not look back until he reached the road.

Soon the others reached to the safety of the road as well with panting breaths. Ghonchu's face was ashen white from shock and it did not seem that he would ever speak again. Somu quietly asked him, "Ghonchu, are you ok?" Ghonchu tried to reply but no words came from his mouth. When finally he was able to say something, it sounded very similar to the noises the car had been making in the morning. "Gpppr wpppr", his teeth chattered with numbing shock.

They collected the car on their return journey, with Ghonchu still not speaking too much. Unfortunately, on their return trip too, the car started giving trouble by overheating. Since it had now become dark, Ronku asked the others to provide light from their mobiles while he poured in the coolant. Ghonchu, with quaking hands and remembering his morning experience enlightened the surroundings as Birbal had once prepared khichadi.

Ghonchu eventually reached home at midnight. He consoled himself with the thought that if nothing else, atleast he got a nice snap taken of himself with the dam in the background which could be posted on facebook/orkut. This was the pic taken!