Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve written a long fictional story and I just really felt the need for one. Again, this is a new genre from anything I’ve tried earlier. Hope you like it.
Please, do share your opinions about it when you’re done.
Amberville - Chapter One
Amberville - The End
"1,2,3..."
Xa felt tired that day. She was walking hurridly through the fields. She was late. In her hand she clutched the packet her husband had demanded 
she get for him urgently.
Xb felt like celebrating that day. Anyway, the next day was a dry day so might as well get a drink tonight. Anyway, his hospital ward work was over for the day. Soon, his internship would end and he could finally get a job as a doc after all these years.
Xc felt like relaxing that day. He was free for the next 24 hours. As he drove home, he wondered if perhaps he should take his wife and kids to the movies tomorrow as a treat.
Xd felt like having a drink before dinner that day. Not that he ate much. In fact, he'd been vomiting everything he ate since morning.
Xe felt like praying that day. She decided to take the fast like her daughter and grandchildren for 12 hours.
"13,14,15..."
Xa felt the sting on her feet before she heard the telltale hiss. Too late, she saw the glistening snake slither away and the drops of blood on her leg.
Xb had 2 vodkas. They were safe as the hostel warden couldn't get a smell. Besides he felt more stable driving his bike with vodkas. They never gave too high a kick. His reflexes were good enough to avoid the little girl who suddenly ran onto the road, but he couldn't avoid the stationary lamppost.
Xc got down a mile from his house for a cigarette. He had to quit the habit. His wife always nagged him that it would kill him one day. As he crossed the road to reach his car, the speeding jeep overtook the bus in front of it. Xc could only stare.
Xd didn't feel too good. He knew he shouldn't have had that drink. The doctors told him his system was different from everyone else. His heart and spleen were on his right, his weak liver on his left. Before he could voice his thoughts though, he started vomiting blood.
Xe took her medicines regularly,just as she had the last 10 years of her life. She decided to sleep and wake up at the time of breaking the fast. She didn't get up an hour later even when called.
"28,29,30... CPR's not working. Start the defibrillator."
Xa reached the hospital 4 hours later. Paralysis had long set in. She had to be intubated and placed on a ventilator. In her hand was found a small packet.
Xb reached the hospital an hour later. His spleen was ruptured, his brain bleeding. His pupils did not react to light. He was intubated and rushed to the operation theatre.
Xc reached the hospital 2 hours later. His skull was smashed in and multiple injuries were present over his abdomen. He was intubated and placed on ventilatory support.
Xd reached the hospital 2 hours later. His skin was yellow and he was disoriented. He would get progressively worse with his abdomen distending like a hot air balloon as his kidneys, liver and brain shut down.
Xe reached the hospital 3 hours later. Her pulse was feeble and slow. Her skin was cold. She had taken her diabetic medication and fasted. She was in a hypoglycemic shock since the last 3 hours.
"Clear !!"
Xa never recovered from the lack of oxygen her brain suffered once the venom started paralysing her lungs and diaphragm.
Xb was brain dead when he was brought to the hospital as the pupils confirmed. The 12 blood transfusions, the neurosurgeon and general surgeon working simulaneously at two ends, the icu staff working day in and out to keep his body stable... were all measures delaying the inevitable.
Xc deteriorated slowly. He went into cardiac arrest on day 2 and passed away.
Xd turned violent as his brain deteriorated. On day 3, he started waving goodbye incoherently to everyone who passed by. An hour later, he went into cardiopulmonary arrest.
Xe was given sugar formulations rapidly intravenously. She opened her eyes 10 minutes later.
"Clear!! Ok, That's it. He's not responsive to defib. It's no use. He's gone..." Xd died from cardiopulmonary arrest on Day 3.
Xa never got to give her husband the packet of beedis he left while going to work in the farm.
Xb, an only son, died 2 months before graduating to become a doctor.
Xc never got to tell his wife and kids how much he loved them.
Xd died at the age of 35, a case of situs inversus who went into liver failure, a chronic alcoholic from the age of 15 years. He was the nephew of a minister of the ruling government. The minister could not do anything to save him.
Xe lived to celebrate India's 61st Independence.
If you gave 5:1 odds to an Intensive Care Unit physician on the game of life and death, they'd gleefully take it. Because they know how fragile life really is. How death lurks at every corner... how even the most insignificant daily routine, like crossing the road, missing a meal, having a drink or just getting your husband his daily vice... can be as fatal as a viper bite.
Stare at the pic to your right... Done ? 
Ok, here's the deal. This is my laptop wallpaper. I was due to present a seminar on 'Obesity and Anaesthesia', which sadly kept getting delayed for one or the other reason. Finally, after a lot of "will there be time / how many cases running in the operation theatre" sequences, I was scheduled to present it on Wednesday afternoon. Yeeah !! I can be done with it, once and for all. I mean , reading the same thing over and over for 2 weeks takes a lot outta you. It gets to the state that you don't even feel like reading it on the day before the seminar. Of course, I had a backup plan. If the seminar started going really bad, I could always remove my coat and shirt and walla!!! Live demonstration of obesity at it's finest !!
Well, as it turned out, there was no need for such a display of my fine 36-48-72 figure.( What !! People told me the fit muscular human body looks like a triangle. How was I to know they meant 'base of triangle' up !!?!! Sufficed to say, by the time I found out that fact, it was waaaay too many burgers too late !! ) You see, there was this medical representative too who wanted to showcase his drug and it's effect on obese patients. Thus, we had a scenario where, with 70 % of my presentation to go, a bazooka full of questions still left to fire at me and my finger dangerously close to unbuttoning my top shirt button, the rep interrupted to talk on his product. The department decided that, owing to time constraints, it was better that I present the rest on another day.
As a token of gratitude for listening to them ( not to be mistaken for a bribe ), the rep's company was kind enough to 'grace' us with cakes, pastries and the mandatory tea. Ironic, really, considering the topic was on Obesity. Sigh.. if I'd only known these reps were topic-related like this, I would have chosen something like "Baywatch babes and Anaesthesia." Rowrr.
Aaanyway, while I was shutting down my powerpoint, this pic was visible on the big screen. And it caught the attention of some of the senior staff members who, while amazed by it, wanted to know it's meaning. Well, I've always just considered this to be a darn creative work , but interpreting it ? Hmmm.. I'm really the last person for that..I read too much into normal everyday events. heck, I struggle to interpret daytime children cartoon shows, for crying out loud. ( Seriously, what is the deal with SpongeBob Squarepants... ok, I get he's a sponge, but why does a sponge need pants ? What's he hiding in there? More sponge holes, right ? And what's so great about a square sponge wearing fitting pants anyway..and why is his surname based on his underwear ? In that case, shouldn't the Transformers leader Optimus Prime actually be Optimus 'Metal Balls' Prime ? Is Superman's full name really 'Superman Red Thong' ? )
Sigh.. As always, I digress. The point is, my new assignment ( in addition to finishing my presentation on Obesity ) is to get as many interpretations of this wallpaper as I can from as many people as possible. Tadaaaa.. that's where you come in.
What is your interpretation of this picture ? Do tell. Fast. Or else, come seminar day, someone's gonna be topless in front of a horrified audience.. and we ain't talking Mallika topless, pals... we're talkin King Kong topless.
P.S. My interpretation of it was "anything is possible".. yeah. I know. Lame. But it was all I could think of at the time. Hope you guys do better.
P.P.S. I also realized belatedly that my "Menu" section was all wrong sending people to the wrong link for the corresponding button.. that's corrected too. Warn me next time.
As I write this, my handy mob-net has just conveyed to me that India won the 2nd test in Sri Lanka. Yeeeah. Whatever.
You see, with IPL sucking all the joy out of One Day cricket, leave alone Test matches, this win should mean nothing to me... if it wasn't for a moment of brilliance that I heard about, that occured in between the match..
Rewind to India's first innings. Virender Sehwag is standing tall among the ruins. The score stands at 327 for 9, with Viru on 199 not out. He's been there from ball one. The twin duo, Murali and the new wonder kid, Mendis, have broken India's back again. And now, there's just Ishant Sharma, as good a batsman as my mom ( ya,ya, ok... and me. ) to keep him company. Sehwag atlast got his chance to bat and thus reach the magical figure of 200 if he could only get the single.
And then, the unthinkable happened.
On the 3rd ball of Muralitharan's over, Sehwag hit the ball to a vacant part of the ground. The Indian team rose up to clap for this bald ball beater.
And he refused the run.
He said no.
He turned down the free single which would have got him to a milestone any batsman craves and few achieve.. just so that the number 11, Ishant, wouldn't be exposed to 3 full deliveries of and risk him getting out. He wanted to make sure the Indian score carried on, rather than reach a milestone and watch his partner get out and deserting him, as they had all day.
Then, being the drama queen that he is, Viru tried and almost got away with, of all things, a reverse sweep of the 5th ball of the over. Finally, he took a single of the last ball of the over and reached his magical 200.
The very next over, left with just 2 balls to defend, Ishant Sharma got out to the very first he faced, undoing Sehwag's plans.
Sehwag won the man of the match. Darn right. But in my books, it isn't for the 251 runs he scored in the match. It's for the one run he so selflessly refused. The run that mattered the most to any cricketer on this planet.. except him. For showing me the ending to a phrase I didn't know had another ending.
You see, I always believed that Sehwag never used his head while batting, getting out to 'brainless shots'. I was right. He never uses his head.. he uses his heart while he's out there. And for that, today, I respect him more than any cricketer I ever have.
I can't help but remember the countless times in recent years when THE LEGEND, Sachin, has gone at a snail's pace, just to ensure he reaches a landmark. Sehwag came into cricket, touted as Sachin's clone. Today, as far as I'm concerned, he has overtaken his mentor, records be damned.
I know one thing to be true always. The shrewd will win. You will never succeed or reach the heights of your career or field unless you use your grey matter. But, for me, the soft spot will always be with the 'also-rans'.. the people who thought with their hearts rather than their brains, and in doing so, brought a moment of brightness in this 'winner takes all' rat-race we call life. Because they dared to follow their hearts rather than follow protocol, they dared to do the unexpected when only the expected made sense... they dared to show they cared for others rather than themselves.
Applaud this brainless baldy, guys. He's finally made me realise that, besides the army, there really are some people in this land who do indeed put country over personal happiness.
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