55 Word Stories

The Wait

 

Totally bored, he glanced at his watch. He had been waiting for the train for nearly half an hour. He had decided he would not try the bus or any other transportation medium. Only the train should take him to his destination.

 

Then he heard the horn.

 

He prayed God and sat on the tracks.

 

Beautiful

 

Vineeth, a shy software engineer, met Rithika, a flamboyant software engineer in a code review session. He was the owner and she was the scribe. Butterflies flew everywhere.

 

He kneeled in front of her one fine day and she accepted the proposal. They got married two weeks later and developed code together happily ever after.

 

Tempoar

 

The assassin released the safety catch and pointed the gun at the victim's temple.

 

"Any thoughts before you die?" he asked.

 

"This is the third time you are asking that. For Chrissakes, kill me fast." The frustrated victim cried.

 

Next day there was a small news item in The Hindu. "Man found dead – cardiac arrest"

 

Racism

 

Indian New to the US: "One Bean Burrito and a medium Pepsi please"

 

Girl behind the counter in Taco Bell: "For here to go?"

 

Indian: "Excuse me?"

 

Girl: "For here to go sir?"

 

Indian(enraged): "Why should I go from here? I have an H1B and a valid I-94. I can stay here till July 2005."

 

War

 

The Indian soldier cautiously examined the enemy post. He could see someone inside. He silently went to the rear of the post, took aim and fired. The man inside collapsed in a heap. The soldier examined the man who opened his eyes and spoke, "I took the enemy soldier down before you came. Jai Hind!"

 

Faith

 

The man had never doubted the sincerity of his faithful wife. She however had some secrets that she intentionally hid from him. One day the man chanced upon a diary written by her.

 

"Tell me why you hid this from me" he asked her. She responded sadly – "Never knew you hated people who maintained diaries!"

Reality Bytes

She sat under the Banyan tree, munched the corn and mulled over her decision.

 
 

The world in front of her was bustling with people. She could see her Business Development Manager in a heated argument with someone near the smoking area. Then her project leader was almost running to the next building perhaps to attend a meeting that probably started five minutes ago.

 
 

Her flame Vikas was seen talking on the cell phone to probably his flame – Rita, an Ex-employee of the organization.

 
 

She worked through the corn. She had a deliverable to be sent to onsite that evening. That hardly concerned her. She knew when to shut off her mind to such thoughts.

 
 

Arthur entered the scene. "Hi" He startled her. She sprang to her feet and couldn't believe her eyes.

 
 

"Arthur? But I thought you…" Arthur cut her short – "That is correct. I just returned to guide you. St Peters has a soft corner for me you know!"

 
 

"I can't believe this is happening" She was almost out of her breath. Arthur smiled and suggested they could debate on the reality or lack there of of the current situation – comfortably seated under the Banyan tree – It was not very convenient for the him and for her also to stare at each other while standing near a very comfortable bench.

 
 

"You mean you could come back just like that?" She was still not able to accept that Arthur was in front of her – apparently in flesh and blood.

 
 

Arthur sighed, "Let us not venture into that. You'll only be opening a can of worms. Let us just assume that Arthur is here as he really is and get on with your burning problem."

 
 

She silently nodded, "Arthur, you know I have read" – He impatiently coughed, "I know you read all my works umpteen times. Now what is it that you want?"

 
 

"I want to write a novel." She declared with a quivering voice. "I want to write something on the software industry. A big book of 500 pages. And I want it to be as interesting as your Airport or Overload."

 
 

Arthur smiled, "That's a great start. Intent is the most important aspect of writing a novel. You've nailed down the subject too."

 
 

"Yes," She said, "But what do I write?"

 
 

"That's a million dollar question. Isn't it?"

 
 

She shook her head, "I don't even know who my hero is"

 
 

Arthur smiled, "Why do you want to single out a character as a hero? Why not talk about a group of important people?"

 
 

She did not reply. She weighed her options.

 
 

Arthur sighed, "OK, let us just start with the character profiles. Shall we? Talk about one of the characters of your novel – Develop that character's personality methodically and see if he or she is a potential hero."



"I want my characters to be real - so real that they can't be heroes. Like me for instance." she said.



Arthur smiled again. "Maybe you are a character in my novel."



It was her turn to smile. "But I know I am not."



"How?"



"Because I feel myself. I can't be a character of a book. I have a soul. I have a sense of being" she could not understand where all this was leading to.



Arthur took a paper and wrote a sentence. "Monalisa Kumari is disgusted that she is a human being."



"Now tell me, is Monalisa a real human being?" he asked her.



She stared at him



"She is disgusted. She knows that she is a human being. Is she real? or is she just a part of the sentence I've just written?" Arthur pressed.



She looked at him disbelievingly. "But I am real."



"That's what you think. People who are reading this don't think so. For them you are just a character. Character in the story - Reality Bytes."



She blinked, "You mean someone is actually writing me?"



Arthur nodded. "That's a distinct possibility."



She took her bag and stood up. "I'd better be going. This is crazy."



He didn't move. "How else can you explain my being here and talking to you?"



It then hit her - the realization that she had taken Arthur's presence for granted. She had actually believed that she was talking to Arthur. She knew Arthur could not have been talking to her. She realized there was a fundamental gap in her perception of the reality.



"You mean I am just a figment of someone's imagination?" She was about to break down.



Arthur held her hand. "I think so. If I am in India talking to a software engineer under a banyan tree instead of sleeping peacefully in my grave, something is definitely fishy. And I suspect someone called Venu Vedam."



That gave her a jolt. "Wait. I know this guy."



"How?"



"He is my project manager!"



Arthur laughed - "Now you know whom to kill."



She saluted Arthur - "Doesn't matter. I had a chance of meeting you - I don't care whether it is someone else's imagination or real. Probably I will return the favor to Venu by going back to my cubicle and completing the task he has assigned to me - on time!"

 

The End.

Market your movies well. Reap the benefits.

How do most Yash Raj Films movies manage to succeed at the box office? Is it because they are great scripts? Or is it because Yash Raj Films spend a fortune on marketing their movies?

 

They sure know how to smartly package a movie. The result? An otherwise average movie opens to great weekend collections all over the world thanks to the initial hype created by the excellent promotions. In fact around 40 to 50% of the total budget of the movie is actually spent on promoting the movie.

 

This is a very good tactic because it ensures that the producer (or Distributors as the case may be) recovers his or her investment by the time the talk spreads about how good or bad the movie is.

 

These movies depend solely on the first weekend collections. In nine of ten cases, the opening weekend tickets are sold out well in advance. This is because by the time the movie hits the marquee every Tom Dick and Harry in any corner of the country know even the minutest details about the movie.

 

Switch on the TV and you see an interview with the lead actor in one channel, a Page 3 report on something related to the movie in the next channel and a staple diet of the movie's songs in the third. Enough about the idiot box. Grab your newspaper – You see reports after reports on how this movie is made.

 

Interestingly, there is this "Est" factor. People talk about their movie and use words ending with "Est" liberally. (Best movie, Scariest time of my life, Funniest experiences…) This superlative "performance" of the media partners works big time for the movie.

 

Recently while watching a Hindi movie, I was amazed to see the number of media partners the movie had. The titles flashed at least twenty partners!

 

Compare this with the Telugu movie industry. Most of the movies in Telugu suffer from inefficient publicity. The professional approach Hindi movies adopt is missing in Telugu. While some movies are bogged down by over publicity, others have practically zero publicity.

 

When I mentioned this to a friend, he opined that perhaps the Telugu movie makers were scared of creating a hype – which might work against the movie.

 

What differentiates Hype from Publicity? You can't hype a movie but you can publicize it. Smart packaging of the movie's prerelease media exposure is called "Publicity" while elevating the movie to the zenith purely based on the actors/technicians involved amounts to creating Hype.

 

The differentiation aforesaid is off my hat. I am sure the line dividing these two is very thin and quite fuzzy. Clear definition of Hype and Publicity maybe not possible. However we can very well tilt the equation heavily towards smart publicity – by taking a leaf or two from the marketing cookbooks used in Bollywood… especially by Yash Raj Films.

“Have you seen him” I asked Julie, my best friend.

She nodded. “Pink”

Now, as much as I would love Ishaan to be “pink” in complexion, anybody with a sane mind would find it odd that an offspring of a man who was born and brought up in a tropical city like Madras could be described with that rosy an adjective. Either the commentator was kidding or perhaps the definition of pink had changed over the last twenty four hours.

“Pink?” I responded.

“Yes. The word that comes to my mind – Pink.”

“Interesting”

“What is so interesting about it? Haven’t you seen his face you dumbo? How could you remain so calm?” She flared up.

That was when I realized that “Pink” was not what it sounded like.

“Uh, Julie – Exactly what do you mean by ‘Pink’?” I was alarmed.

“Mosquito bites. Do you even realize how dangerous they are?”

I took a deep breath. “I know. What can I do? There are a million mosquitoes out there. The liquid repellents don’t work. The coil – Doctor says NO – Too toxic for the baby. He banned even the repellent creams like Odomos.”

Julie stared at me. “You are hopeless.”

“Why is that?”

“What about a mosquito net?”

“We already have one in Hyderabad. Didn’t want to buy another in Chennai because we are going back to Hyderabad in a week’s time anyway.”

“Till then?” Julie was relentless.

“You tell me”

She told me the solution. Probably it was something to do with a mystical concept known as Woman’s Intuition that she came up with an idea like that. I was dumbfounded to say the least – by the illogical nature of the solution. However I had to try it out at least. I wouldn’t be able to face Julie the next day.

So I went home and switched the AC on. It was as simple as that. Julie instructed me to keep the temperature at least five degrees below the room temperature. Agreed it was Chennai we were talking about. Yet, in the month of December, in a beach facing apartment at ten in the night, the weather felt a bit chilly and I felt like a fool switching on the AC. As per Julie, cold weather drove away mosquitoes.

“But mosquitoes like cold and damp places” I argued with her.

“Yes. But not cold weather. They hate it.”

The next day, little Ishaan woke up with a broad smile on his face. Julie took one long look at the kid and exclaimed. “Why! It worked. He is not so pink anymore.”

I somehow managed to smile. It defied all logic. Why would mosquitoes hate cold weather?

But it worked. The number of mosquito bites had come down drastically. My wife and I threw a party in honor of Julie for coming up with this great suggestion.

So next time you are troubled by mosquitoes, you know what to do. Just bring home an AC!

- Venu

PS: Because of the AC, we had to fully cover Ishaan with two layered blankets. That was why mosquitoes spared him.

A Little Bit of Calvin...

P1010471, originally uploaded by Venu Vedam.

Me and Calvin went to Nellore this weekend. The house may be a bit rundown but our spirits were soaring high :)