Strange

On a Sunday afternoon, Robert was invited to an Indian family. Although he doesn’t take a liking to spicy food, he thought he’d give it a try; besides he thought that once in a while change of taste was okay.
Strange as it seemed, he had taken a liking on a particular course, the mix vegetable. As goes the belief in Sukumar’s household, that if you mixed all vegetable the juice it secretes while cooking adds to the taste, also it is very healthy.

While eating, he met a man his age with whom the conversation went like this:

- Good afternoon. This is Robert.
- Good afternoon. This is Roger.
- Ha ha ha! I see you are also enjoying the same course?
- Yes indeed.
- Strange as it might sound, but I must have seen you somewhere. You must be on my whatsapp group?
- Not really.
- Then we must be on FB? Or on IG maybe?
- Not really. But I find this strange too!

As they exchanged cards, they discovered they were next door neighbors.

Some part of the flash is borrowed from one of the WhatsApp forwards.

Free Barbie

What do you think of me huh? 

A puppet, a doll?
Or even worse, a ping-pong ball?

Barbie was disappointed with her parents. Her mother Piya, one fine morning, just went absconding... until,  two days later, she was found safe in her grandpa's place. 

Domestic violence? Yes she agrees, but who would abandon her only child to seek refuge like this? She was only 12 when this happened to her! Angry, violent, withdrawn, she felt rejected by her own mom! 

Not one day did she call her up to find out how she was! So cruel? 

She needed her the most during her teens. She isn't able to take it anymore when elders of her family advise her now to go to her mom? Isn't she a monster why should she go to her at all? She feels blessed to have her Bomma (big mother, her father's elder brother's wife) by her side when she needed a mother figure to fall back on, especially when she suffered acute chest pain, fever, or migraine, or when she was unsure of falling in and out of love. 

In all these seven years, she tried hard, at least for the first few months, to see that her Mom came back and settled their differences, but what do you do when adults mess up with their lives? Their children suffer... but does it bother them at all? She gave up on her Mom and concentrated on her studies. She somehow survived her school days withstanding immense verbal torture from her schoolmates, their parents, from friends in her neighborhood.

'Hey where's your Mom? She just disappeared? How's this possible!'

If only her father could forgive her Mom, Barbie wondered at nights. But life is never a fairy tale! What if Barbie died? She attempted once, wasn't successful cutting the veins from her left wrist. Even then her mom didn't come. She doesn't matter to her at all???

And now after all this, elders of her family, except her Bomma, are asking her to go her Mom? Why should she? No, never.

It's not that she likes staying with her father and his family either; staying here with Bomma is also insulting in a way, she has to be obliged to her all the time. She hated the word 'sacrifice'... the word got the better of her. Then there's this 'who called, did they call, why, no you won't go alone, wait I'm coming with you'... it feels as though she's under lock and key, she wants to be on the lose! But how she wouldn't know!

'Bomma, why didn't you have your own child?'

'I wasn't capable Barbie. Also I stopped trying after Piya abandoned you.'

Where should she go? She's determined to crack the CAT exam and make it to the IIM, Ahmedabad and build a world of her own. She's thankful to have a handful of friends who don't judge her; they accept her as she is...why wouldn't they, what's her fault? Yes one fault was to be born into this family, or to be born at all? One thing is sure, she will never ever get married.

That's final.

Barbie is just nineteen. As she grows up she'll understand that nothing is final.

She'll also understand that it was because of her Mom she got to see the light of the world; her IIM exams, her friends, her Bomma wouldn't be possible otherwise. The realisation that her Mom could leave because she was sure of Barbie's well-being? Piya after all came from a rich family, both her parents being doctors, with many domestic help. Piya couldn't take it any more when she was asked to cook for the entire family; she wasn't given anything to eat because she didn't cook. Could be her Mom tried to take her along; the other day she received 13 missed calls from an unknown number in her Bomma's mobile, she never got a convincing reply from her when she asked who the caller was! 

'Some stupid telemarketing executive', she snapped. Indian mothers go through situations that are unpredictable and baffling... most of the time it's not within the box! So it could be that her Mom thought what was really good for her, even though it meant giving away her priceless possession? Asking her legally could make Barbie feel like a puppet? Or worse, like a ping-pong ball? Maybe she let go of her. And what if her mom's father wouldn't accept her? When Barbie grows up she'll perhaps find answers to these questions?

And these answers could
fill her with gratitude;
it could liberate her for good,
she could be a free Barbie.
This is based on a true story. Barbie is a third-year student of a reputed college in Kolkata. She studies BBA. Let us pray for her so she gets the very best in life she truly deserves.

Red light

Sujata, like any other child, wanted to study. She was admitted to a good vernacular medium school far away from her neighborhood. 

Initially, she had many friends. She was good at studies, but as time went by she discovered herself as a flutist. Slowly, she became very lonely, this flute became her only company. She stood like Krishna and practised playing the flute for hours. Everyone appreciated her art, but from far. She had this tremendous social scar, that of being fatherless. Slowly, she saw herself sitting alone in the classroom, in the garden. Everywhere.

Today, while she's receiving the Women of substance award, she recounts, with pain, her scarlet past. She received the award for two of her significant contributions to society; one, for setting up a school which teaches acceptance, tolerance, and kindness, where students come from varied backgrounds, including some from her erstwhile neighborhood without feeling ostracized and two, for empowering women who are trained by her in healing through music therapy. 

Dr. Sujata, a true doctor, is asked to end the award ceremony, with her flute. Red lights on, she stood like Krishna and played Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia's raga Yaman before an appreciative, august audience.

©Supratik Sen

Based on the true story of Sabita Debnath. She recounted her experience in the most popular reality show of Bengal, Didi no 1 anchored by our greatest charismatic personality, Rachana Bannerjee. 

Hands

Her shadow followed him like his own. They were inseparable. Like any other couple, they would also do things together, but there was something unique about this pair. He could sit with her for hours looking at her nimble fingers that wrote dissertations for him, cooked for him, ran softly through his hair, muscular biceps, his wide rough terrains, while his would help her in the kitchen, on the roads, or simply  feel her delicate form dancing, singing, being in the shower, dining; his hands would tell her millions of starry stories gliding through the known meadows; while she would  melt in his hands, he could do anything for her touch. It was as if both the pairs of hands had eyes to see, ears to hear, the foursome knew and played with each other like young playmates.

They were not pressed for time. Both were writers, but their lifestyle was fueled by huge inheritance, or blessings from divine hands, as they would call it! 

- Writing is very fast, isn't it love?
- Fast? How!
- You can wash your hands of a twenty-five-year-old story in just one paragraph!
- Or finish in a flash as they say!

And they laughed together. At other times, they would argue on why Sanskrit literature didn’t have tragedy and why Greek's was so full of them. In the middle of nights, they would wake themselves up, have coffee, talk about losing as winning and other subjects in great depth that couples their age wouldn’t even think of; for instance, how unconsciousness drifts people away from the truth, why relationship is more important than material success, how would Shakespeare talk to Tagore had the two met, and so on; their poor daughter would sometimes come in the middle and say to her parents, perpetually engaged and involved with each other as if the two were one, that she didn’t want to feel like an orphan.

They were known in their neighbourhood not only as lovebirds, but also as responsible parents; one loving daughter was their world. Hands-on activists, they helped the less unfortunate wherever they were and whenever they could. However, they were not attached to any NGOs. A warm and close-knit family, they also helped many people fighting loneliness.

- You are getting more likes now.
- What do you mean?
- Nothing. But I like it.
- Good to know that.

Slowly, they stepped into a strange world, a world where their passion was defined and valued by others. They stopped giving each other a hand; didn’t realize that an invisible monster was invading into their lives. Years ago, they waved off the same monster that attacked them in bits and pieces, as family members; strangely, hostility from their respective parents-in-law and the comfort of blaming them brought the writers closer. Later, both pairs of parents made amends and the monster fled, for good. But this time around it had become very personal. Society never played an important role with them. Their bonding was never affected; they were consciously in their green room practising how to face the stage together. But this time around the monster got the better of them, as there was a room for jealousy they hadn't figured. Words changed, actions weren’t characterizing them anymore, their daughter was unable to recognize them.

They broke off. Now they stay in the same conglomerate, but in three different flats; their daughter, working in an MNC, has also moved out. In all these three flats there is one common picture, a large one that occupies their living rooms.

It is a picture of a beach with a big sand house that looked almost like a ship, built long ago on one of their usual trips to the Kovalam beach in Kerala, in front of which the daughter is seen swinging in the middle of her parents. Underneath, there were these words written in italic:

Nothing can destroy it

With wedding rings still on their fingers, the hands, full of stories, occasionally meet to say hello. 

I am Tapan Das

Hello!

I am Tapan Das. Have come back from history; was responsible for forming the hockey team for India in 1948 that won the Summer Olympics. People have a mixed opinion of me; I toss between being good, bad and ugly in the minds of people in my times. But now it is not about me, it is about the team I formed, the strategies I adopted to see India as the undisputed champion of hockey. I had to suffer a big blow following the partition of India because, of the team formed, brilliant players had to leave for Pakistan and Australia. But this also belongs to the past. From the pages of history, I have reappeared; but this time with a different mission. So here is how I go.

-          What? Mr Tapan Das! This is not possible. You see we are very happy that you have come to form a football team for the FIFA 2022, but you are asking for the impossible. Why!

-       This is my first condition. If you do not concur, I will go away. I will form three teams, one for India, one for Pakistan, one for Bangladesh; three teams.

-          But this will involve lot of political interventions.

-          I can wait. Although I understand the difficulties, but I will only concentrate on Sports, on Football; for me the political challenges is not my concern; I am sorry if I am hurting your sentiments, but this is my condition. You asked why, for this I will quote a famous line from a song written by Arthur Altman, it was made very famous during my times by Frank Sanatra, it’s ‘All or nothing at all…’ I still have close to four years; we are in July 2018 now, that should be okay.

(The whole room full of people who matter looked at him in utter surprise, but didn’t ask him to clarify further).

 After a lot of talking, meetings, discussions the leaders of three robust countries, who were also eager to see their countries play, sort of agreed. But none of them was ready to believe what was going on.

-          Will you give the same type of coaching to all the teams?

-          100%, it’s because…

-          Okay we get you. And you say you can help us win?

-          No.

-          Then??

-          You see the three countries have hardly been in the football world, despite being great lovers of this sport; we love the game as much as the Europeans, Africans and the Latinos. Winning is not important. Of the thirty-two countries that participated this year in 2018, only two countries won, sorry three, but all the rest have participated; participation is important, I will help the countries to be in the football map. We deserve to be there in the map at least for heaven’s sake! We must be there before 2030..that's when FIFA will be celebrating its centenary...it seems we have accepted that we can never participate in world cup football; my sincere effort will be to change this frozen mindset.

-          Okay, we get it. But what happens if none of the three teams qualifies?

- I will tell you when the time comes. If you ask me now, I will go away.

- Meaning? Do you understand it involves crores of money?

- I know. We have many industrialists, intellectuals, football freaks who will willingly contribute. Why don't you found a company called INDIA FIFA and have it listed?

   What!!! INDIA FIFA...you are talking about three countries, aren't you?

Oho sorry. Then you can found three companies, like PAKISTAN FIFA, INDIA FIFA and BANGLADESH FIFA and have them listed in your respective countries?

What rubbish! And then have them liquidated after four years?

Four years? It's a lifelong journey, after 2022, we have 2026 and so on. Of course, I don't understand the complications; I know nothing of anything, that's why I am depending on people who have visibility and understanding of how the business world functions. I was just suggesting of how funds can come in the noblest of ways.

So if it is public money, then we don't have to be answerable. Is that what you're trying to say?

- So it means we don't have to be answerable.

- Did I say that? Okay. Let me leave then. Bye.

- Stay. Do you have any other conditions?

-           Patience. I will reveal everything to you.

-          Okay carry on. We are listening.

It is very simple, but it will need your patronage and support. I will first form a team which will decide on the selection. Selection cannot be influenced by anyone; I need your concurrence on this. Our target will be to complete the selection procedure of three teams from three countries by the end of January 2019. Our target age would be from 15 to 18 so that they become just right by 2022. Then the training will start. We would like the boys to practise in the weather that’s close to Qatar; know that the training team will have many divisions, as follows:

Training the legs – we need to hire the best coaches of the world

Football (3 in number)

Long jump (Ideally 6)

High jump (6)

Running (3)

Relay race (3)

Training the body

Gymnastics (9)

Yoga (9)

Acrobatics (9)

Light to medium weight lifting (9)

Mountaineering

Swimming

Kungfu (3)

Taikwando (3)

Karate (3)

Training the mind

Meditation (9)

Sign language (9)

Cooking (9)

Playing with an invisible ball at night (3)

Joint events (like CSR activities)

Body language (9)

Ethics and compliance (9)

Sportsmanship (9)

TV sessions and theory of football (9)

Painting (the type of painting will centre around football, field, various type of shots depending on positions of players, the traditional landscapes and calligraphy of common mission ) (9)

Writing of dreams (concerning football) (9)

Self talk (1)

Prayer (3 or 4)

-          Is that all?

-          No.

-          Carry on.

-          The teams will be prepared to play by 2020. From then we will invite various countries to play friendly matches; our players will also visit countries like Argentina, Nigeria, France to have on-the-field experience. However, our focus will be to invite teams here. So from July 2020, there will be practical sessions with other teams.

      Okay. Are you done?

-          Yes

-          The room laughed; where is your budget? What are all these numbers? Painting!!! Self talk?? Cooking!!! Sign language?? What’s going on Mr Das! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!! And what will be your fees?

-          (Ignoring the laughter) The numbers are arbitrary as of now; they represent the number of trainers for each criterion. Only for self talk I have put myself as a trainer, will do that in batches. I will clarify the reason one by one. Before that I will talk about my fees. My fees are your support, your preparedness of spending whatever I ask for, your belief in me. I need your support. I do not need any money, if I take money, my power will go.

-          (The room was suspiciously silent. Some of them started checking him out. Some were still controlling their smirks and their grins) What will you train the players on self talk?

-          Some specific prayer tables, the most important is ‘ I play to play’; ‘I play my best’…like this there will be some more.

-          What? You need to correct it…make them practise ‘we will win’

-          No. Winning is not important. I told you.

-          Then no one will respect you.

-          I don't want respect. I am here to give respect, not to beg for respect. This is the major difference between my earlier version and my current one. I will take out the fake stress from the players; they will play on the field like magicians. We will guide the football coaches to train the players mainly on passing, heading, flipping, and kicking the ball from all positions of the field apart from the specialties they will bring to the table.

-          Well then are we good to go? You will mail us the reason for imparting the various trainings that you have decided, we will see and then approve.

-          No.

-          What?

-          If you want to approve, then I will go away.

-         What is this ‘I will go away’! Are you threatening us? You seem to be like the Pied Piper!

-           I may sound like him, but you are certainly not like the Mayor(s) of Hamilton. You are good people, well-meaning leaders, but there are certain things you cannot see. I will help you see that. You cannot approve. I will only inform you the reason, you cannot approve, I want the boys to be trained in all the subjects without fail, for two and a half years. We are good to go only if I get your consent on this.

-          (Times) Okay Mr Das. From when do you want to start?

-          Yesterday.

-          Aha…you are smart, but we want results. Please mail us the details.

-          Sure.

The most engaging process of training to bring the three beautiful countries in the map of world football begins from tomorrow. Tonight Tapan would have to write the reasons for the various training he strongly recommends for the boys. He is aware that leaders may not agree with the ones they'd think as not connected, irrelevant as they'd like to call. He has never been able to see India as three different countries, but he respects the separation, he has to, but how could he get the consensus from the leaders so easily. He has to make it right, he has to try his best; even if he fails, won’t there be other Tapans who would carry this forward? Trying is far better than accepting defeat. Now is the night, now is the time, everything will depend on how he sells his ideas. Stars are blinking more in his eyes than in the sky. After supper, his wife has just gone to the kitchen to fill the flask with black coffee. 'All, or nothing at all' by Sanatra is slowly filling the air. Tapan starts writing.

After this, the real thing will start, 24/7 schooling. Tapan is looking forward to it. No, it is not important for 'you' to know about the letter that Tapan will write, substantiating the reason for having all the training modules in place; Tapan is here to plant the seed of possibilities in your hearts, that's all my friends...see you there in Qatar, where our flags will dance in the tune of our national anthems.

Woof! Woof!

The Beagle had just arrived, 21 days. Puja’s friend Priya named him Snoopy who became very popular in the neighborhood soon after he came. Priya has a lab, about a year old. His name is Simba. As days went by, both of them became very good friends, almost like Puja and Priya; but Simba would maintain his seniority and demanded respect from Snoopy all the time. Snoopy was always respectful, well not always, especially when they were given those yummy rawhide dental chew sticks. Snoopy would always catch them faster than Simba, the old boy would play the role of an indulgent big brother…didn’t mind sparing him one or two, after all Snoopy was the little brother. Hunters by instinct, you had to watch them play Frisbee in the park; everyone would in absolute wonder. When they ran chasing for the Frisbee, it felt as if they were gliding away. There was only fun in the game, they wouldn’t even know the name Frisbee, and there was no winning or losing, no rules, just playing and running around.Yes it was addictive too. The other day, an old man threw his stick and started running with them forgetting his pains…everyone laughed as the old man fell on the ground laughing helplessly, then stood up again and went running after Snoopy and Simba. Everyone was in splits. When the children in the park would say, ‘you have such nice dogs’ Priya would tell them, ‘please call them Snoopy and Simba, like you don’t call us girls, you call us Puja and Priya, don’t you?’ Children are fast learners, for soon the Beagle and the Labrador were known as Snoopy and Simba. Some elders would also call Simba as Veeru and Snoopy as Jai; the two fast friends from the famous film Sholay (Embers). They conquered everyone’s heart with their looks and their wagging tails, but many were also fascinated with their ‘woof, woof’, all through the evening they would run around saying ‘woof, woof’. Like this, Simba and Snoopy aka Veeru and Jai became die-hard friends.

Puja and Priya are not friends anymore. Priya stopped talking to Puja not because she has a newborn brother now; she stopped talking to her two months ago when Puja's family was preparing for the baby’s arrival. On a fateful day, Puja, out of nowhere, bluntly said to her, ‘the dog died’.

Simba still looks for his friend when he passes by Puja’s home. He still sniffs, looks at the sky and then says, ‘woof, woof’...as if wanting to say... how could you go like this Jai without even tossing head or tail. In the film, you at least fooled me tossing... remember? This is not fair. Woof! Woof!

Note:
Sholay (Embers) is the most popular Bollywood film the industry has ever known. Ever since its release in 1975, the two protagonists Veeru and Jai in the film have become iconic friends. In real life, best friends in India are given the status of Veeru and Jai when their friendship matches the standard of these heroes of the film. Without going into the main plot, let me explain the touching story behind tossing of a coin. Jai has a coin that he would toss every time the friends would choose between a yes and a no. Jai would tell Veeru if it was head, Veeru would win and he would lose. The last scene unfolds when Jai was seriously wounded and Veeru wouldn’t leave him but surrender to the Police who were searching for them. Jai, as usual, tossed the coin and told Veeru he had to leave if it was a head, could stay with him only if it was tail. Veeru didn’t leave. During the funeral Veeru discovered that the coin Jai tossed had heads on both sides, his friend Jai had always given him the better option all through his life.

The flash fiction, ‘Woof! Woof!’ tries to present a grim picture of dog owners being dog killers in a discrete way. I don’t know about other countries but sadly, it is very common in India. The flash, most humbly urges its readers to think many times before bringing a pet into the family, once brought pets become family members whom you cannot desert or clear for any justifiable reason. 

On the move

She was not even twelve when she saw her mom kissing Sudhin uncle. They were all traveling to Chandigarh to meet her father; when she woke up in the morning on the train with sleepy eyes, the first thing she wanted to know was how far was Chandigarh; she bent down from the upper berth, saw her mom kissing Mr Dasgupta, occupying the middle berth. Babu, her brother, five, was sleeping then with her mom on the lower berth…little did he know what his mom was doing...he was perhaps dreaming his usual dreams, fairy godmother that looked like her mom, hugging him, feeding him, kissing him.

This stays with her even today. She called her mom names, never understood why still her father was committed to her! Years later, she saw her father on the high, making it with her aunt out in the garden in a moonlit night. Her mom was then cooking in the kitchen. She just heard her aunt say… ‘O so now I know…that’s why didi had to go to him?’

She never discussed this with Babu, not even after her mom died. But these questions about how elders live went deep inside her, she was thankful to God that at least Babu didn’t have to witness those incidents. Two years later, when she was beginning to enjoy her teens, the whole family went to Digha with Mr and Mrs Dasgupta. On the beach Mr Dasgupta took her to a silent place, held her tightly and tried to molest her. Furious, she went to her parents and complained, her father hit the man badly, but that was all, the teenage girl didn't know why the two families did not part. Of course, she never spoke to the virile uncle anymore.

Sutonuka, instead of becoming a potential criminal, as a psychiatrist told her, became a healer. No, she did not find any letter in any cupboard, no one told her why her parents did what they did, she went searching for answers everywhere possible, she discovered Mrs Dasgupta to be a very honorable lady, her aunt’s husband to be happy with the marriage, and she herself was very happy when ‘others’ saw their family as picture perfect.  Perhaps not knowing the truth is bliss.

She was sixteen when her mom died. In the last couple of years, she became best of friends with her. She understood her not only as an erudite who would be comfortable talking about scriptures as well as novels and poems of Tagore, Bankim, Shakespeare, Flaubert, Camus and so on, but also as an outstanding mother. When she'd laugh the sky would fall in love with the earth. If people still remembered her, it was also because of her melodious laughter that had a healing effect on people. She refused to let her mother be defined by only that one incident... this wisdom came to her much later.

At forty-two, she has a broken marriage. Apparently she broke off because her husband was impotent. She works in IT and still takes care of her ex-husband by paying all his bills. He lost his job because he was charged of stealing and was also an under-performer. She stays with her daughter now who has decided not to marry and Sutonuka is okay with it, her ex-husband lives in another city where luckily he has a house of his own. Her daughter simply adores her, doesn’t respect her father at all… why not, respect has to be earned.

She also has another profession…it’s not a profession because she doesn’t charge anything, it is rather her passion, she calls it her raison d’être!

She heals traumatized children. Children whose parents had either abandoned them, or whose parents continuously fight with each other. She heals also those whose either parent has outrageous extra-marital affair. She is doing it quite successfully. How no one knows. She hugs them and says only one thing… shh… mum’s the word… she says “I am indebted to all of you.”

She tries to look for the unanswered questions even today, seemed to have responded to some of them herself, through her life. Whenever she closes her eyes, or becomes unmindful, she has this impression of being on the move, going nowhere on a train.