Ex

"Hi. How is Rahul?"

"He's good. He had to leave for some urgent work, something suddenly came up."

 

"Really? I think the more likely reason is me, his ex-girlfriend, with whom it ended quite badly."

"No, some work actually came up."

 

"Seriously?"

"Okay, I guess there is no point in lying to you. You know him as well as I do. I don't think he expected to see you at this party."

 

"Well, these are my friends as well. Of course, I was going to come, and I am sure he knew this as well. Anyway, shouldn't you be with him?"

"I did, but he just wants to be alone for a bit. He said he will just walk around for a bit outside and then we will leave together."

 

"Oh, classic Rahul. Do you know he has been doing this since he was a child? He always uses this technique to cool down. His mother had once mentioned this."

"Yes, I know"

 

“When did you and Rahul start dating?"

"Around 6 months ago."

 

"That is just about the time that we broke up"

"Yes."

 

"Weren't you in his office? I think I remember seeing you in one of his office parties."

"Yes, that is right. I don't think we have ever spoken though, before today. I am in HR, and he is in operations."

 

"Interesting. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

 

"Actually, would you like another drink? I am guessing he will take at least 15 minutes."

"Sure, let’s have something"

 

"This looks interesting, take this drink. Cheers to Exes."

"Cheers. What did you want to ask me?"

 

"Was our breakup very hard on him? We had been together for quite some time, we were good friends before that; it was difficult for me. Was it difficult for him as well, given the circumstances?"

"It was. You were very close to him, and he hated that he was the reason for the breakup, reason for hurting you."

 

"He had tried reaching out to me a few times after we broke up, but I didn't respond."

"Yes, I had asked him to. I don't think that Exes can never be friends again. It can happen."

 

"I guess, though I am not friends with any of my Exes."

"Can I ask you something?"

 

"Sure"

"When you were dating him or the time that you knew him, did you ever think he could be...?"

 

"I didn't know, I was quite surprised. Many of his close friends were as well."

"Yeah frankly, I would never have guessed either."

 

"Okay too much serious talk to accompany these amazing cocktails. Have you met his mother? Seema Aunty is a fun person to hang out with.”

"I haven't yet. Rahul is still waiting for the right opportunity"

 

"Oh yeah, he took ages to introduce us as well, and now there is another level of complication. But his parents are cool. His mother is really nice."

"I can't wait to meet them."

 

"Oh, looks like he is back, he is waving out to you. It was nice meeting you...I am sorry I didn't get your name?"

"Mohit, Mohit Bhatt. Nice to meet you as well, Kavita. Take care."

Kavita saw the two men leave. She and Rahul had been good friends in college, which had later developed into a relationship. Rahul had later realized that he wasn’t straight, it had been a difficult time for both of them. He looked happy with Mohit now. She was glad things had worked out well for him.

Speed

I entered the bar. Rakesh and I always met at this bar before we broke into any house. Rakesh thought this bar was lucky for us. Well, we had never been caught after completing this pre-heist ritual.

“Hey Lakshman. Over here!” Rakesh called out to me. He was in our usual corner table.

I remembered the first time we had met here. Rakesh was in his late 40s back then. I had just crossed 30. I had been laid off and out of desperation, I had agreed to this meeting. A mutual friend had set this up. It has been over 15 years since that first meeting, we have had a good run.

I sat down. I could see Rakesh had ordered a burger and a Pepsi. I am sure his doctor would not have been happy with this order, but he didn’t care much about that. I ordered the same. While we did meet at a bar, we never drank before a heist. I had had a few beers once, but Rakesh had never broken this rule.

While eating a few fries, I laid out the plan again.

We had been doing this for many years, our pre-heist discussion had a fixed format now. I would start with the address and layout of the house along with the expected loot value. Rakesh would then run through how we will be tackling the heist step-by-step, right from who breaks the lock of the main door to our exit strategy in case of any issues.

We would then discuss risks and how we plan to tackle them. Lastly, we would always make our predictions on how fast we will complete the heist. Rakesh was obsessed with these numbers. He maintained an Excel file with just these numbers, our timings for all our previous heists. He had dates earlier too, but then I got them removed. I don’t want to be caught and have the police find a neat Excel file in my partner’s laptop linking us to all the other heists that we had done.

“This is our last job, Lakshman. We must beat our best timing of 17:27. In fact, it is ages since we have done a heist in under 20 minutes. The average of our last 10 heists is 26:23. Age is probably slowing us down. No wonder it is time to retire,” said Rakesh.

I just smiled. Yes, it was our last job. Probably the reason why I was nostalgic when I entered and remembered our first meeting. Rakesh was over 60 now, his health issues were starting to become severe, and he couldn’t handle this level of stress now. While he wanted to continue, I had decided that this will be our last one. We had had multiple discussions on this topic over the last few months, finally he had agreed.

“If we precisely follow the steps of the plan, I think we should be able to do it within 17 minutes. That’s my prediction. Let’s go out with a bang,” said Rakesh.

“I will stick to a safe 25 minutes,” I said. I wasn’t really interested in the speed of the heist. We always kept a buffer and if we did it carefully and within that buffer, it was fine with me.

Burgers done, ritual done, we decided to leave. Rakesh paid the bill, and we stepped out and walked towards today’s target. The house that we had picked today was just over a kilometer from the bar so we could walk it in 15 minutes. Weather was pleasant so we had decided to just walk over to the house instead of taking our bikes.

We reached the building and went up to the third floor. It was an old building with four floors and two flats per floor. Five of the eight flats were occupied, all by senior citizen couples with kids settled abroad. These were the houses we usually targeted. Also, there was no security guard today. There had been some miscommunication between the residents and the agency that provided the security. While one security guard and gone back to his village, the replacement wasn’t assigned yet as the agency hadn’t been informed. So, the building was without a guard for these 3 days. Of course, Rakesh already knew this, and which is why we had picked this day.

He carefully broke the lock, and we were in. This was a 2BHK. One room had a safe in a cupboard, the other had some jewelry and cash kept in the desk drawer. I made my way towards the safe, Rakesh went to the other room.

I started working on the safe. In most heists, the bottleneck is the safe. It could be either locating it or breaking it or both.

“Something seems to be weird,” Rakesh said from the other room. “There are no family photos or any kind of photos on the walls. Although the owners do have good taste though.”

I looked around. There weren’t any photos, just normal paintings and other artefacts kept here and there. I decided to get back to the safe. It took some time but finally I was in. I emptied the contents in the bag I was carrying. Rakesh was almost done as well. I always worked on the safe breaking while Rakesh would go through the rest of the house, carefully checking cupboards and drawers for other valuable items. He had a better eye for such items.

“Let’s go,” I said. This was the last job and I quickly wanted to get out of here. Rakesh nodded and we moved out. He locked the door, and we went down the stairs and out on the road.

“What was the time?” I asked Rakesh.

Rakesh was grinning. “16:42,” he said.

I smiled. We had been fast. I wasn’t surprised.

We walked over to his doctor. He had an appointment today, so we had timed the heist well so that he doesn’t miss it. We reached the clinic in just over 10 minutes.

I hugged him. I wasn’t sure when I was going to see him again. I wasn’t sure if he will even remember me. His Alzheimer’s had been getting worse and he was permanently going to be kept under watch going forward. In fact, it had become so bad that he had even forgotten his own house, the one that we robbed today. I had been observing his condition regularly and I had timed this last heist perfectly.

And yes, I had moved all the photo frames from his house to the clinic a few days ago. He hadn’t even realized they were missing the last few days.

And yes, that is why I wasn’t surprised with the timing, my partner of 15 years had just helped me rob his house.

Rakesh walked into the clinic. He waved enthusiastically; he was very happy with the timing. I waved back.

Time

Dr. Sam Holding woke up. The clock next to him said 6:00. He smiled. He was excited about today.

Sam liked Sundays. He usually spent the morning with household chores and reading. Evenings were exclusively with his wife, Emily, and 7-year-old son, Harry.

Today, he was also going to host a get-together for many of his fellow scientists and physics professors. He was looking forward to that as well.

 

He got out of bed and headed to the shower. He made some scrambled eggs which he ate at the table while reading the newspaper. Emily and Harry joined him around 7:30. Emily started with the preparations for the dinner. Sam had asked her to make her famous pasta and pudding for the get-together.

Sam then moved to his study. After going through the newspaper, he moved to the latest scientific journals that he had picked up. He read straight for 3 hours, making notes in his notebook as well. He got up only once, to make some coffee.

After lunch, he slept for some time. Harry played video games while Emily caught up on the novel that she had recently picked up. In the evening, they walked down to the park and spent a few hours there.

Emily and Harry had dinner at 8:30 and then moved to their rooms. Sam had decided to eat with his colleagues. His invitations said 9 PM, so he was expecting them to turn up by 9:15.

 

He sat in his favorite chair in the living room, looking towards the door every few minutes to see who would turn up. He was really excited about this dinner.

Nobody turned up till 9:30. His excitement started going down, was replaced with hunger instead as he looked at the amazing bowl of pasta on the dining table. He decided that if nobody turned up till 10, he would heat some up for himself.

He got up from his chair at exactly 10 and took some pasta in a bowl and placed it in the microwave. He opened the microwave, and he was greeted by the smell of cheese and garlic, it made his mouth water.

He sat back in his chair and started eating. As he took his fifth bite, there was a knock on the door.

Finally!

He looked at the clock, it was 10:13. He placed the bowl on the table next to him and rushed to the door.

It was a young boy, seemed to be in his early 20s. He wasn’t on the invite list.

“Hi. Dr. Holding?” the boy asked.

“Yes. Who are you?” asked Sam.

“May I come in first?” the boy replied.

Sam thought for a few seconds then invited the boy in. The boy came in and sat down on the chair opposite to where Sam was sitting. Sam meanwhile got him a glass of water.

“Who are you? Are you the son of one of my colleagues?” asked Sam, curiously.

“I am sorry Dr. Holding. But I don’t think I can reveal who I am. I am sure you can understand why. But yes, you are on the right track. I did discover the invitation while cleaning out my father’s cupboard and so decided to show up for the party” the boy replied.

Sam looked at the boy carefully. The boy had sharp features and thick hair. He had brown eyes. Whose son could it be? There didn’t seem to be any similarity between the boy and any of his colleagues. Also, he knew that many of his colleagues had children in a similar age group like Harry, so he ruled them out.

“Have you studied physics as well, like your father?” asked Sam.

“Yes. I just finished my PhD a while ago. I am sure that by now you would have figured out the topic of my thesis. I will be happy to discuss the same with you” replied the boy.

Sam nodded. He asked him about his thesis. While the boy didn’t go into complete specifics, he did describe the various experiments that he had done and his observations and conclusions. He also briefly went into the math behind it. Sam heard all of it patiently. He decided to note down the math in his notebook and work on it later.

The boy also briefly touched upon his time at college and his plans for his career ahead. He did ensure to leave out any details that could reveal his identity. They chatted for almost 2 hours when Sam realized that he hadn’t offered him any pasta. The boy politely declined.

Sam insisted that he at least have some pudding, the boy agreed.

He really enjoyed the pudding; he even took a second helping. It was almost 1:00 AM when the boy decided to leave. Sam could have easily stayed up another hour to discuss physics with the boy, but he too realized that it was late, and he had to be at the university by 9:00 the next day.

“This was a pleasure Dr. Holding. I had a great time. I am not sure if we will meet again, though I hope we do” the boy said before leaving.

Sam smiled and waved as the boy left. He still hadn’t figured out who the boy was, who could he be related to in the invite list.

 

He put the bowl of pasta in the fridge. Emily wasn’t going to be happy to see the quantity that was left given the time she had spent preparing it. Well at least she won’t have to cook anything on Monday, pasta for lunch and dinner. He kept the pudding in the fridge too.

As he walked up the stairs to his room, it suddenly struck him. Of course! It was so obvious.

He walked over to Harry’s room. Harry was fast asleep.

Sam smiled and whispered, “I am so proud of you”.

 

The next day Sam got up by 7:30. He quickly got ready and grabbed a toast and left for work. Emily and Harry hadn’t woken up by then.

On his way he stopped by the post box. He decided to post the invitations for the party that he hosted the previous night. The invites mentioned that it was a party for time travelers, but the date and time mentioned were of the previous day. This was the real test to prove that they had cracked time travel if they could travel back in time to attend the party.

He smiled. He was surprised that none of his colleagues had cracked it, but Harry had. He kept the extra invitations back in his bag, Harry will find one of these in the future. As he walked to the university, he wondered what would happen if he didn’t keep any of the invitations and instead threw them away. In the end, he decided not to test the future or the rules of time travel.

End.

 

(This was inspired by a story about Stephen Hawking. He sent out invitations for a Time Travel cocktail party after hosting one. There was also a banner that said ‘Welcome, Time Travelers’. Unfortunately, nobody showed up.)

Handover

 Arun took his phone, dialed the number.

 

"Hi. Sorry for calling so late, need your help", he said.

"Hey man. No worries, what time is it?" asked Karan. This was the second time this week that Arun had called him this late.

 

"Slightly after 2:30 AM", replied Arun.

"Woah, is everything okay?" asked Karan.

 

"She is talking in her sleep again. Also, a lot of hand and feet movement, looks like nightmares again. I am unable to sleep, I am worried for her as well."

"What did you have for dinner?"

 

"Simple dal and rice, nothing heavy."

"And when did she go to bed? Did you watch any movie before sleeping?"

 

"We were watching some TV show that she likes, nothing serious - just a sitcom actually. We were watching TV till around 11:30 and then we slept after that”, said Arun.

"Okay. Put your hand on her head, just massage her forehead a bit. Is she sweating?" asked Karan.

 

"She isn't sweating, she does feel slightly feverish though. Okay, I am just gently massaging her head now."

"Any improvement?"

 

"She isn't talking now, but her hands are still moving - just like the gestures that she makes when she is in a conversation."

"Okay. Just hold her hand, not that tight but firm. Sometimes this could also happen because she experiences pain in her feet. Just gently press near her ankles."

 

"Okay, I will try that."

"Sure, just be gentle though. Give it some time. Be patient, be comforting."

 

"This seems to be working, her hand movements are reducing."

"Yes. This should work, she should cool down in a few seconds. Could you catch any of the words that she was saying?"

 

"No, a few basic words here and there but overall, it didn't seem to make much sense."

"Probably another nightmare. How is she doing now?"

 

"Much better, movements have stopped. She is sleeping peacefully now."

"Glad to hear that. Any reason why you didn't wake her up instead? Get her out of this nightmare?"

 

"I had done this a few days back but then she had a difficult time falling asleep again. So instead, decided to try to put her out of her misery without waking her up."

"Works. Anyway, I think you should try and get some sleep too, I am sure it won't be easy for you either now," Karan replied, laughingly.

 

"Yeah. I think I will read for a bit, that usually gets me tired and drowsy."

"Okay then, good night, Arun."

 

"Thanks again, Karan. I never realized that once I marry Neha, I will be calling her ex-Husband for help every now and then!"

"Anytime. Anyway, you are managing well yourself. And we did try to end it well, Neha and me. So, I don't have any issue helping out when I can. She is an amazing woman, Arun."

 

"She sure is. Good night, Karan."

"Good night."

Bus

She got into the bus. I knew she would. In fact, I had taken this specific bus on this route just so that I could see her.

She looked beautiful. I was seeing her after a long time, she still looked the same.

My friend had seen her when he had taken a bus on this route a while back. A bit of online stalking and I had figured out which college she was studying in. Since then, I have been trying different timings along the same route. Finally got the right one today - 9:35 AM.

She was sitting 6 rows ahead of me, in the ladies’ section of the bus. She was alone, quietly sitting with earphones on. The bus was already very crowded, I was surprised that she got a seat.

I thought of going ahead and trying to get a seat near her or just stand closer to her. I wasn't even sure if she will remember me. She must have seen me like a few times prior to that day.

However, eventually fear was victorious, and I stayed glued to my seat till it was time for her to get off. Maybe some other day.

***

Almost 3 months since that day, I still haven't spoken to her. I must have taken this bus like every second day, just hoping for a chance. The one time I tried to initiate some conversation was when I offered her my seat, but she refused.

Just observing one person in the bus regularly can really tell you a lot about the person. I have seen her when she was stressed, desperately going through her textbooks for some last-minute preparation. I have seen how she interacts with the other passengers.

I have seen her good days. And her bad days. A few occasions, I even saw her with a guy. Luckily it was just a few occasions, I still haven't figured out who it was though.

I even got off at her college a few times and had a few cups of tea at the popular hangout spot nearby hoping to talk to her. But no luck.

***

Almost a year now, still haven't spoken to her. I wasn't in town for a few months, had to go to Delhi for work. But of course, that's not an excuse. I really need to try and talk to her. I am just not sure what to say. How will she react.

This fear is what keeps me from approaching her.

Every day I wake up, take the bus, and think about how I can start a conversation. I play it over in my head multiple times, but it never plays out.

***

Bad news, she is getting married in December. That is a little over a month away. It really is now or never. Her frequency of going to college has reduced quite a bit, just a couple of times in the week now.

I even went to her college once, hoping to see her. As usual, no luck. 

I don't think I will ever be able to talk to her. Tell her what I feel. Still have a month, let’s see what happens.

***

It is the day of her marriage. And no, I still haven't spoken to her in case you are wondering. However today, I got off at her stop. I walked to her house; I had always known where it was all these years.

Her house had a large gate, one could see the garden in front of the house. Today this garden was all decked up. I could see the marriage decorations. I could see a lot of relatives and a lot of excitement. I stood across the road, trying catch a glimpse of her.

I finally saw her; she was wearing a nice red saree. Makeup was minimal but perfect.

That was when I saw her mother.

She looked just as beautiful. Her mother looked exactly like how she looked 25 years ago.

On our wedding day.

I never should have walked out on her when she gave birth to a girl. I regret it to this day. She raised her all alone and they look happy now. I did go back a few years later but she didn't even look at me. That was when I saw my daughter for the first time, but I didn't get a chance to talk to her either.

All I wanted was to talk to her and apologize. There is no excuse for what I did, but I am ready to do anything and everything to make it up to her now.

I have had a year worth of opportunities to talk to my daughter, but I still couldn't. I am too ashamed of myself.

I have probably 20 years ahead, I am sure I still won't be able to talk to her.

***

End

Climb

Arun woke up. He didn’t know where he was. It looked like a hospital room. A doctor noticed that Arun was up and came over to his bed.

“Hi Mr. Arun Sharma, you have been unconscious for almost two weeks now.  Would you like some water?” asked the doctor

Arun nodded.

The doctor poured some warm water in a glass and gave it to him. Arun took a few sips.

“How are you feeling?” asked the doctor

“I feel tired, lot of weakness. I can’t feel much strength in my legs” replied Arun

“Yes, you will take some time to recover. You were very dehydrated when we found you, you must have been unconscious for at least a couple of days before we found you. What is the last thing you remember?” asked the doctor.

“Did we make it to the top?” asked Arun

“The top?”

“The last thing I remember, we were climbing up to Kalyani peak.”

“We?”

“Yes, Mayank and me.”

“I am sorry to inform you, but you didn’t make it to the top. When the rescue team found you, you were around 100 metres from the top.”

“Oh okay. And where is Mayank? How is he?”

“I am sorry to be the one to inform you, but Mayank didn’t make it. He was already dead by the time the team found the two of you.”

Arun was stunned. He didn’t know what to say. He closed his eyes, put his head in his hands.

“I am sorry to break the news to you right now. I had not planned to tell you for a few days. Instead, I had planned to tell you that he was also unconscious and recovering and give you the bad news once you had slightly recovered yourself. But I felt that it will be better to tell you immediately.”

“No, it’s okay,” said Arun. His voice was shaky.  He took a few more sips of water.

“I am glad you told me. Mayank wasn’t really interested in climbing this peak. He was going to get married in May and didn’t want to climb this peak right now. But I pushed him, I didn’t want to do this alone. I thought this would be our last climb since he is getting married and will be settling down. I feel horrible, I am not sure what I am going to tell his mother.”

Arun started crying. The doctor just looked at him, not saying anything.

“Can you try and remember what happened?” the doctor asked Arun.

“I have been trying to remember myself since you told me. The memories are faint, but I do recall that we had got caught in some snow, some snow or rocks had fallen over us, and we were injured. Mayank was injured quite badly; he couldn’t feel his legs. I couldn’t get up myself, my entire body was paining.”

“Was there anyone else with you? Did no other group find you?”

“It was just the two of us. And I remember shouting for help, I think we were shouting for hours or maybe days. I don’t even remember exactly. But the winds were strong, nobody heard us. Nobody came for help.”

“Can you remember how many days you were stuck there?”

“I can’t. It feels like many days. I think I now remember one of the last things Mayank may have said to me.”

“What was it?”

“He made me promise that I will take him down - dead or alive. I didn’t want to discuss this, instead I kept motivating him that a fresh group will be coming soon, and we will be saved. In the end, I did make the promise. Did the rescue team bring him down as well?”

“They did, but…”

“But what, Doctor?”

“His body was found next to you, half eaten. Initially we thought it was eaten by an animal. After analyzing the both of you, we realized that isn’t the case. The police have asked me to notify them the day you are up. They will be coming in the afternoon. They have some questions.”