Annihilation. #Z2AChallenge

Have you seen the eyes that linger in the shadows of the day, even when there are no shadows.

Have you seen the pain that is concealed behind the lips that smile, or perhaps try to smile their way.

Have you seen the agony when in the cries out yet too silent to notice!

Have you seen the dilemma in the lost eyes, however present.

Have you seen the fear where there is nothing to be afraid of.

Have you seen the scared soul afraid of living.

Have you seen the blind never taking risks.

Have you seen the hatred they have for themselves.

Have you seen the loss of faith in the lost opportunities. 

I have. I am.

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Day25 #Annihilation #HaveYou #Questions #Life #Me

#AlphabetA #TheLetterA #A

Bubble. #Z2AChallenge

The instability of thoughts evade the consciousness of reality. What is what? What!? Exactly! The very defying entity is questioned and there is no definitive answer to it. Question. Answer. Questions. What? When? Where? How? Who? The questions become the paradigm of the conscious mind plaguing the very stability of life, of nature, of thoughts, of each one. The bubble of our thoughts.

The bubble, this bubble of thoughts, that never bursts. The confusion, the instability, the dilemma, the war, the enigma, an emulsion of unsolicited complications. But besides all this atrocities that the mind has to deal with, there is a comfort place of its own. A place where it is safe. A place where everything settles down. A place where the war ends. The place outside the bubble. Because as deadly the war may be, there is a smile that always cleverly deceives creating an illusion of calm. The eyes staring at the eyes, trying to leap into the very fragments of soul, could only see a calm, yet lost. But, if only they know the raging war inside, the endless battle. If Only. 

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Day25 #Bubble #Thoughts #War #Battle

#AlphabetB #TheLetterB #B

Calamity. #Z2AChallenge

Reaching you from the endless dreams. 

A fragment of reality in concealed thoughts.

In the effervescence of life, you

A memory thats growing too fond

The symphony in laughter

Comforting in a warm embrace

Letting go of all the troubles

Drown in a world, surreal

Transcending memories of yesteryear

The voice soothing the temperment

Solace to the soul

Peace to the mind.

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Day24 #Calamity #Life #Love 

#AlphabetC #TheLetterC #C

Damn. #Z2AChallenge

I don't have a lot of conversations online. The other day, my phone buzzed in the middle of the day. I don't get any messages in the middle of the day. But this time, it caught my eye, because the icon that was visible was that of a burning fire with a background, if you are wondering what it is, take a guess. Let me give you a hint : It is the most popular dating app. You got it, didn't you? So, the message from Tinder said " Congratulations! You have a new match". I left my work in between and jumped in my seat. As you might have guessed, this was my first Tinder match, after well Domino's Weekend Damaka offer for Valentines Day. Wait, are you too, like me, excited to know who this mystery match is? Well, it's a mystery after all. I navigate to the matches screen and there was nothing. Empty. Blank space. Umm, not exactly. It said, "Get Swiping : When you match with other users, they'll appear where you can send them a message". But, but I just got a match. I. JUST. GOT. A. MATCH. What happened to it? Why you do this to me, Tinder? Why?

Clearly, even the Tinder is also mocking me. Also, I guess you observed the word. So, who else was mocking me? I, myself. Because for *cough* celebrities *cough* like me, love is a distant dream. Here is a conversation I had with a friend of mine just yesterday, while I was mocking myself. Please note that the following conversation took place on Facebook messenger, and all the actions thus indicated in the asterisks are actually emojis! 

Friend :  Congratulations. Looks like you're finally in love .

Me : I am? *completely confused*

Friend : *sounding disappointed* You're sucha liar .

Me : *even more confused and trying to figure out what gave that impression* I have no idea...

Friend : * sounding a bit angry * oh plz shut up okay

Me : * couldn't keep up with the suspense * Why do you think so?

At least tell me that.

Friend : This is why :

Me : That's John Cena.

Friend : *as if I didn't know look* don't start now.

Me : "You can't see me" is his tag line.

Friend :  Yes but the smiley that you attached to the post. How will you explain that?

Me : *grinning* Just have a lot of crushes

Friend : *grinning* Idiot.

Me : That's all I can do. * pretending to be sad, or actually being sad*

Friend : *kinda angry* I'll give you a kick. Someday, your parents will get you on an arranged marriage. Then, you will understand.

Me : Help a friend out, please.

Friend : *squinting* Now, asking for help! Shameless. Fight your own battles.

Me : *emotional blackmail* A friend can only help a friend out, right? 

Friend : Ok.

Me : So? 

Friend : ... [ Seen at 5 : 23 PM  ].

I am still waiting for that reply, I mean help though. Well, you can help me out, meanwhile. You are a good friend to me. And you always want to help your friends, especially good friends like me. Thank you, in advance.

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Day23 #Damn #Disappointing #Life #Love 

#AlphabetD #TheLetterD #d

Emptiness. #Z2AChallenge

"What are you thinking about?", asked my dad when I was sitting in the balcony on one winter night after dinner. It was cold, the wind slowly making its way into the warm embrace of home. "Nothing", I replied, like it was the only feasible answer to the question vibrating in the soft breeze. But what was I thinking about? Really nothing. It is hard to explain the empty thoughts. They don't have a beginning or an end. They are just pointless, random, hazy thoughts dancing around the vastness of the limbo.

"What are you thinking about?", the very question offsets the balance of the randomness and lets it trip over. Imagine it like this : The random thoughts are tandem walking on a thin wire from one point to the another suspended in the limbo. When the foreign entity such as a question comes barging in without a knock, each thought trips and falls into the darkness. Now, its just empty space and you see the questioning eyes staring at you for an answer, and you have it. "Nothing". Easier right? 

But I would be lying if I really said Nothing. Did I convince you with the explanation, I just made? I was pretty convincing right? Now, let's rephrase and get to the bottom of the truth. "What are you thinking about?", the question that has been a constant ring in my ears for a very long time, until I moved out of home for college. But still, it was always there during holidays. Because curiosity. A curious mind always asks questions and now it's about finding what is actually going on inside the head. But as life happens the thoughts change accordingly and not everything can be answered the way they appear. So, no, it wasn't nothing that I was thinking about. I was thinking about the miserable life that it is and why it is getting difficult to even breathe properly. And sometimes, it just feels easier to put is all behind and just end it all. Wouldn't that be easy? At that precise moment, the question makes its way. The thoughts are still there, fresh like the cake out of the oven, but it's not that easy to explain the magnitude at which the thoughts were vibrating and the intensity of truth they hold. Its' not easy. But what's easy is saying "Nothing". I wasn't thinking anything. I was staring at the emptiness, the emptiness of life.

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Day22 #Emptiness #Life

#AlphabetE #TheLetterE #E

Freedom. #Z2AChallenge

Tell me little bird, what's wrong? You have been caged for so long and it is time for you to be free, fly and explore. I heard you sing the songs , the songs beyond the confinements of this cage, the dreams beyond the horizon, the stories that you have heard and told, about the world, about the adventures you plan to have. Fascination drew as how could you know about the world so much, though you have seen nothing. Now, its time. Its time for you to find a place in this world, the place where you can live the dreams , sing the songs, tell the stories you have heard and shared and the adventures you have had along the time, You could design your destiny, a life of your dreams.

As excited as the bird was to explore, to fly away into the sunset, it took a step back. A small hesitation, a little fear, that however freedom was what it wanted, it was scared of being free, of being on its own. Scared that it had to fight it's own battles. Scared that it had to do it's best to survive the big wild world. Scared that the comfort it had even behind the caged irons, it would finally end. 

That didn't stop the bird from taking another step back in the cage. It realized that it was what life is all about, it was what everyone had been talking, whispering and shouting about. It was what everyone was writing stories about. It took a step forward while assuring itself that one day everyone will talk about it's story, how  the scared little bird flew away into the horizon to etch a story, a life of its' own. 

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Day21 #Freedom #Bird

#AlphabetF #TheLetterF #F

#AprilChallenge

Happiness. #Z2AChallenge

Let me ask you something, do you believe in balance? Do you believe that everything that is around us is in balance, of entities that we don't even know of. Do you believe that the nature does the noble deed at balancing everything? As a matter of fact, do you have a balanced life? Because, if you don't believe in balance, going further won't be such a good idea.

I once had a conversation with a short period friend where we discussed abou...what? Why are you looking so confused? Are you wondering what the short-period-friend is? I got acquainted with a person who blogs and started conversing over emails. This was going fine until my friend decided to take some time off, for reasons completely unknown to me. I was being anonymous which was one of the concern. I did feel bad and since there would be no more exchange of emails, I decided to spin the magic 8 ball and reveal what card she was talking to. That was the least I could do, considering I knew my friend's name, work and all the essentials. I didn't expect what came next. My friend was angry at the revelation. That was when the last email was exchanged. So, anger. Feeling. Yes, I am going to talk about two most prominent sides of the coin. 

"Everything in this world is balanced", my friend said. I believed it too. I usually, end up disagreeing, always. But this wasn't one of those cases. The topic we were discussing was happiness. Now, I said I usually disagree to things, even when I know I am on the wrong side. The reason for agreeing this time was the mention of the balance of happiness and sadness. These two are opposite ends of the pole. And that's what attracts them the most. If you have a happy day, you will have a sad day too. "What? This sounds preposterous! I don't agree to it", I hear someone shouting. "I can be happy all my life. I am happy now. I was happy yesterday, I will be tomorrow as well". Yes, you were, are and will be, may be. But I believe you are here because you believe in balance. 

I believed it. No, actually I lived it. So, I believe it. If you are happy for one day, you will be sad for one day. But you wouldn't want to remember that sad day, or as a matter of fact any sad day. If you smiled for a day, you would cry for a day. Am I sounding childish? Think whatever you want. But if you don't believe in the balance, at this point, you just lied to yourself. Anyhow, you are enjoying the happy days and collecting memories while you are at it, because like I said, we don't want to remember the sad days. But what happens when you have the sadder days more than the usual as the happier days become gradually scarce? You become conscious of the fact that you are sad, were sad, and the future becomes an uncertain possibility. I am the product of that deranged conclusion. At one point, I completely forgot all the happy days. And at another point, I got scared of laughing, smiling and enjoying. Because well, the balance is a crass manipulation of unsettling emotions, and I stepped on the wrong stone, every single time.

So, excuse me when I see everywhere #100HappyDays. But after that?

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Day19 #Happiness 

#AlphabetH #TheLetterH #H

Infinity. #Z2AChallenge

The profoundness of the thoughts evade the gloomy atmosphere that surrounded the ambiguity of a well arranged ideas in the scrambled mind. I stumble upon a lot of things at same time as I see myself floating from one perpetual idea to another. I am just wandering in the whole wide world with the destination of an unknown place. The problem with my wandering is that I don't know where I am going. But I reassure myself that I got the required thoughts to keep me sane. I am kidding myself and I don't even know for the better of me.

I dwell in the innocence yet brilliantly categorized human ideologies that revolve in the epicenter of each ones' lives that are interconnected with the human element of the search for the mystery that shadows the gloomy tomorrow. What do we want in this world? What are we doing, so many galaxies away from the unknown? The mystery is what makes it more interesting, they say. Why are we even here? The questions that haunt us like every single day which are overpowered by the daily dosage of our problems with life. 

Life! Life, such a small word yet our perpetual existence involuntarily depends on it and we strive to build beautiful castles from the sands of the shore called time. Aren't we afraid of tomorrow? Are we a little hopeful of the future. The mystery that we live in is what life is all about. If we had every clue of what life was what we have happened to the beautiful castles or the hope? The energy revolves around us like the aureole but only that we could never see it, in darkness or in light. And what importance is a life to a man among all the adversities of the world. Though we may be the small particle among the mountains of desert sand, the possibility of we being the supreme never leaves the human mind.

What are we? What am I? Am I the the reason for something big, or are you? What is the purpose of any of us in this whole wide world. Our whole story revolves around this mysterious things. We have tried to decipher it, sure. But what is it? We could never know. The universe is wide. There are infinite possibilities. "Some infinities are bigger than other infinities" as an author quotes. I believe it. I hope we all agree to that. 

_____________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Day18 #Infinity #AlphabetI #TheLetterI #I

A Joke! #Z2AChallenge

A Joke, not really!
_______

"I joked for 45 days. If that doesn't prove that I am a great comedian, nothing else will".

- ak

I was busy staring at her trying my best to keep a straight face and still admire her and not slip into some day dreams. It was the English class and the class was sort of silently reading a book, probably the next chapter in the textbook and be prepared for any surprise questions that might come our way. We, as usual were fooling around and passing chits with jokes or comments, which basically read as 'If you read this you are stupid'. So here's the deal : Passing chits was sort of cool. We didn't have SMS to text the guy in the first row while we were in the last or middle row. So we came up with the idea of conveying "important" messages over chits folded so that the people on the way cannot read it. But the people in between passing were getting curious what these guys were talking so back and forth. They would just peak in to look what on earth is so important. And they do. Because curiosity is what didn't it actually killed the cat. Anyhow they come to face with a realization that the guys made this person stupid, literally. "If you are reading this, you are stupid". Oh boy, that burned. Some take it casually and while others shout "Ma'am", proving what we said the right thing about it.

So, we were in the process of trolling people while I silently stole some glimpses of the big time crush. Oh boy, the heart raced whenever I talked to her. But all this daydreams and fooling around came to an abrupt halt when the teacher shouted my name out loud. I was in deep shit, and I know it.

The Summer vacation ( also known as spring break) passed by like one month ago. Usually the vacation assignments are supposed to be submitted just after returning from the vacation. But our English teacher kind of went on with the usual curriculum and after nearly a month, she shouted Assignments. To our amazement, we realised that we had to do an assignment during out vacation. It wasn't so hard actually. The task was to write a diary entry for the nearly over a month vacation. "Bring it on Monday", she said which lifted our spirits a bit. Because if she had told to bring it the next day itself, we would have died. The whole weekend, we wrote the 45 day vacations. I had forgotten most of it. The reason would be that all those 45 days felt like a day. So, I did exactly that. The same routine I copied and write for the while duration of the vacation, cleverly skipping some days and adding something I didn't even do during the vacation. 

"AJAY!" *with and agitated look* (I was already scared what I did wrong. I mean I did write the whole diary of 45 days just in 3 days. I might have made some terrible mistakes. The worst being it was the same thing for 45 pages) ( Now you might be thinking that I'm a blogger, so writing that diary wouldn't be that difficult of a task and it could easily be termed as a piece of cake. I will just go ahead a throw water all over your opinion by saying I was a blogger then. I was the last person you would want to talk to in English or write. Not that I have improved w bit over the years. But don't you start judging).  I was shit scared already and the whole class of 38 people were staring at me. "What's the spelling of jogging?"

I used to think I was good at spelling the  English words. How hard could it it be, right? Just break the word down by the syllable and spell it. For example alphabet : al-pha-bet. Lets take another example, joking : jo-king. So, apparently I went for joking for 45 days during my summer vacation, every morning. I started off with one lap of joking and gradually increased to 3 laps of joking. It used to tire me a lot, but still it was for fitness and I started enjoying it. Okay, may be I was stretching it a bit too much, but that was the gist.

I spelled the word "jogging" for my English teacher, the exact same way in the example above. As you might have guessed, I did a terrible mistake. I pronounced the word jogging so wrongly, it made her furious. So she asks the girl between me and her to spell it and give a tight one to me. She spells it correctly, of course and being a little hesitant to give that tight one, she gives a slow one. 

"I didn't quite hear it", says the English teacher. So the girl gives me another one, a bit more harder. I was glad I didn't have any beef with this girl. Or else she would have completely enjoyed it twice. I was already numb when I heard my name resonate in the classroom earlier. I didn't even feel a thing, not the first time, neither the second time. I am tough that way. Not only did I spell the word wrong, it was sort of quite embarrassing, that too in from of my crush(es).

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Joke #Jog #School #RealTalk

#AlphabetM #LetterM #Day14 ( Day 16)

_________

This is written under the series "Real Talk" wherein I finally talk about my real life and share some (not so) scandalous short (and sweet!) stories. To follow from the start click on the "Real Talk" label below for all posts in this series. The initiative is first started by IQ, who blogs at "Supercalifragilisticsexyalidocious". Do check out this blog, for some more awesomeness.

Kaleidoscope. #Z2AChallenge

We all interpret things differently. Just make sure you understand it as well
- ak

Challenges are part of life. We need them to know where we actually stand and what all we can achieve. I have a knack of explaining things that doesn't make sense. So, I will get right to the point : #Z2AChallenge.

As soon as I started this, I took it to Twitter that I was doing a challenge. As usual, everyone ignored it. But the intensity of, let's say 'boasting' about the challenge went to its' peeks which provoked one the person to ask the question : Why?

April is the month for #A2ZChallenge where people from all over the world participate in a common cause to blog continously for the whole month, in which the alphabet for the day decides the central idea of which have the alphabet for the day, while the genre could be anything ranging from fiction to poetry and everything in between. This is to challenge each and everyone who is taking up challenge to push the invisible boundaries that we are net even yet aware of. This is actually a great way to manage time, bring out the creativity in each person and what not. Believe me, it is not an easy task.

Two years ago, I have taken up this challenge and failed miserably. I stopped mid way. At which point, I was more into completing the post rather than enjoy writing the post. For me specifically, it takes time. I am not a 'here's-a-topic-write-1000-words-on-it' and expect me to produce a small masterpiece. No. It happens at its own time. It has a mind of its own, which I why I can't write when forced to or under pressure. And even if I write, it won't make much sense and it won't be something I would be proud of. Coming to the point I failed miserably. All I could do was praise the people who took up the challenge and completed. Kudos to them.  They just proved that they ar the best. So, its' no surprise that when I say I have a littel respect for them. There were many such blogging challenge that pushed writers to the extreme point, I have always encouraged them and given a helping hand whenever necessary in the form for motivation. 

While I was being the same self, placing writers-taking-the-challenge on a higher ground, someone provoked me. I was doing my part of motivating and helping in whichever way possible, but then someone said something. Not only was that uncalled for, they took it a little further when they started boasting about it. So, you see these challengers are part of a group which shared a common interest of the "30 days ofblogging". They felt superior or atleast the tone in which they spoke was. So this extraordinary group would share the other extraordinary people's post, each one of them. Basically that meant that the people who weren't taking up the challenge were 'wait-who-are-they?'.

Yes, I agree with your point that is building up in your mind : "It's not wrong to share the posts of the people taking up the challenge". The basic idea of taking up the challenge is to celebrate writing, the passion for it while appreciating the people who are taking the challenge and also "those-who-weren't". It is to celebrate writing. It's not to celebrate challenges. So, I was gravely shaken by the revelation of these people that were a step above and they had a "cool" group of themselves. I was part of the group as well, once. But, knowing this I just couldn't. The very thought of bringing the people around the world to one common platform to share their writing, knowledge and knowing them better didn't quite meet the mark.

So, I started my own challenge as a Social Experiment to see how many of the people(challengers) were really unbiased and actually celebrated writing, without the basic obligation that they had to read the post of only the people taking the challenge. But you know what, I have been half way through the month, and I don't see any such thing. The experiment is still on. Now wait, I am having a feeling that you might be thinking that I am over-doing it a little bit too much with the 'celebrate-writing' rather than 'challenge' thing. I am not here to justify what you think or don't think. But think from your point of view only, if you are a blogger / writer / likewise.

__________

A simple thought can provoke the silent mind to take irrational decisions.

- ak

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#A2ZChallenge #Writing #Why

#AlphabetK #LetterK #Day16 ( Day 19)

_________

Lost. #Z2AChallenge

"

Innate dawn of prosperous life,

Ambiguously isolated broken dreams,

Mystified soul yearning for help,

Loseless crazy ideologies,

Overly remorseful heart

Starving thoughts and memories,

Tensile is the life, after all.

"

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Lost #Life #Tensile #Thoughts, 

#AlphabetL #LetterL #Day15 ( Day 18)

_________

This post is modified version of one of my very (not-so) old post. #ReVisit

Misery. #Z2AChallenge

"

Mellowed life of hazy situations,

Instituted thoughts of unclassical confused ideologies

Stimulated pessimistic aggressive decisions,

Eloping burden of the hurtful feelings,

Roughly dragging simplicity to complexity,

Yearning the life, one memory at a time.

"

__________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Misery #Memory #Life

#AlphabetM #LetterM #Day14 ( Day 16)

_________

 #ReVisit

This post is modified version of one of my very (not-so) old post.

Niche. #Z2AChallenge

I saw

Innocence in the child's eyes

Maturity of an old man's knowledge

Arrogance in a teenager's stubbornness

 Dedication in the soldier's devotion

I saw

Strength of the youth's unity

Excellence of a teacher's intellectuality

Knowledge of a scientist's enthusiasm

Loyalty of a friend's devotion

I saw

 Carelessness of the politicians' decisions

Jealousy in the hated envious

Wickedness in an enemy's immorality

Injustice to innocent's helplessness

I saw

Pride in the parent's love

Hope in the struggling eyes

Peace in the agitated minds

Faith in the humanity's endeavor

________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Niche #ISaw #Emotions 

#AlphabetN #LetterN #Day13 ( Day 15)

_________

If Only. #Z2AChallenge

If only happiness was contagious.

ak

As I traverse through the multitudes and the abstractness of today, the maligned reality of life, the world befalls in a transcendence. What  is reality? What is fantasy? What is happiness? What is sadness? The questions form a web of complicated mess. Yet, the intriguing part of the endeavour of searching for the unknown and questioning the morality is understanding the stories they have to tell. For life is nothing but a carefully structured stories. 

They say eyes are the gateway to one's soul. 

The obvious question to which is how much can be learnt from the most incredible pair. The much more obvious question is how much truth is there to it. No science can prove that eyes told a story. But science does tell you that eyes are the most expressive even when they don't have to do anything. I fell at the behest of understanding the stories, said and unsaid. The animated conversing eyes, the silent preservering, the dark gloomy, the blazing angry, the sympathetic soft , the expressive deep, the reserved shy, the sleepy lazy, the happy content.

The most intriguing part of understanding the language of eyes is that when you find the happy eyes, you feel that involuntary happiness. It's more of a reflex than a conscious decision. You slowly sink into that feeling and it doesn't matter whether you understand the reason or not, but you are a part of their surreal world as you embrace the happiness. That's when the conscious kicks in. Because it just got comfortable with something sad and this alien emotion called happiness is invading its' space, trying to take over the their kingdom and it does its best to keep it out. Then it takes over. There is no more surreal world. The eyes, those eyes still beam with happiness inviting you to embrace it, sand forget about everything that haunts and distraughts you. But it's too late and you just look at the happy eyes and hope that one day you will see those same eyes, that same feeling in the person standing in the mirror. 

_________

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#Happiness #Feelings #IfOnly #Emotion

#AlphabetO #LetterO #Day12 ( Day 14)

_________

This is written under #IfOnly series

Project Phoenix. #Z2AChallenge

"Look, we brought you two closer. We deserve a party for the effort we are doing".

The soft sunlight played hide and seek in one winter afternoon. The wind blew softly through the trees singing the afternoon song. The symphony of the song mixed with the chatter of the people added a new aroma to the music. It was lunch time and people have just started flooding the canteen. Of all the things in the world, food is a religiously followed on time. As usual Neel was out with his colleagues for lunch. While his colleagues were busy trying to decide what to eat, he was on the lookout for a perfect spot for "bird-watching". As they all settled in their seats around the table with their food plates, they get into conversations discussing about the office melodrama and sometimes about politics.

Under the cacophony of multitudes, an image caught his eye. As the words that left him started faded, the world went silent for him. He sunk slowly in the world surreal as his eyes trailed her through the crowd. It took a while for him to get back to real world, while the other people just stared at him blankly. He had everyone engrossed in his conversation when he just trailed off midway. He also forgot what he was telling. "What happened next?", his colleague asked him to get him back on the series of events he was explaining. "What happened when?", he said feeling completely confused about what they were even asking about. "I just lost her", was the only thought running though his mind right then. It didn't take much for others to realize what just happened. Everyone has in one way or the other been in similar shoes. He kept searching for her but she was just lost in the crowd.

In the week that followed he had seen her a couple of times and finally figured her lunch time. What happened next was the whole group adjusted their time table to align with the new timetable. The ritual they followed everyday apart from having lunch at a specific time was  a after-lunch walk. It was important part of the curriculum. The group had not yet seen her. This one particular day while she was walking to the canteen, he spotted her and signaled the others the she was walking with her group dressed in black. What he didn't see coming was the whole group of 8 people turned their heads to know the mystery lady who paced the heartbeats of their dear friend. That was real awkward and he believes that at the moment she realized that some guys were watching her. From that he has just tried stay casual and not to give any impression that one of the guy is hitting on her. Everyday the lunch time starts with searching her and finding a place to her, probably the adjacent table or anyone that in the line of sight. 

This one day, as he didn't spot her in the canteen, he selected a random empty table and get comfortable in his seat while his colleagues were at the counter waiting for their order. Meanwhile two more of his friends joined Neel at the table and they just started off with the lunch as they had lunch boxes with them. Meanwhile, the mystery lady makes her presence known as she goes to the counter while her friends chose a table at the far end of the canteen which is way too far from the one Neel and his gang was sitting at. While his colleagues returned with their plates to the table and realized that she was sitting at the far end of the canteen, instead of sitting at the already chosen-seated table by Neel, they just made their way to the table just next to her. The canteen was completely empty per say and Neel insisted that he won't move over there because that would just give the impression that he had been trying to hide-not hide. The other five members sat there and they called out to Neel an the two others to join the table. With a little huffing and puffing, he put the lunch back in the box and made his way to the table. The other part of the change in table also included that he would be sitting at the far end of the table which is just beside her. 

"Look, we brought you two closer. We deserve a party for the effort we are doing", said the one who had insisted on changing the table. That was the awkward 20 minutes for Neel while he ate the food with his head down. Though he didn't do anything wrong, he was one of the decent bunch. Now they everyone has helped them get close, in some way, the next task was : Project Phoenix -  Find her name . This might sound too dumb but Phoenix is the name of the project she was working in. 

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#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

##OfficeSide #OffSide #OfficeStories #Fictionalizing #Colleagues #Friends

#AlphabetP #LetterP #Day11 ( Day 13 )

Quarter past twelve. #Z2AChallenge

Ego is a maligned form of human disaster.

ak

The night sunk in the tiredness of the day. The night admired the darkness that surrounded. The darker the night, the brighter the sky. The stars sang a symphony  as the night twickled in dims and shades. The moon slept under the million stars while its light softly swept across the city. The hustle bustle of the day was replaced by the melodies of the wind that ruffled through the empty streets. 

"Twelve!", she shouted when she accidently glanced at the time in her watch.  It was ten minutes to twelve. But having exceeded the usual time of 6 by six hours, she jumped at the realization. She always kept the phone in silent mode while she worked. She hated distractions. "2 missed calls, 25 new messages", the notification on the phone read. It was unusual for her to stay late at work. And if she has to, she would sort the calender for the whole date about how to deal with it. She grabbed her things while she waited for the presentation to get uploaded and as soon as it did, she hit the send button. It was almost twelve now and she would have to call a taxi for going home. Only that there weren't any available. "No cars available", the message read on the location she was standing at outside her office. The only way she could go back home is through the metro. The Metro was a few blocks away. The night wasn't as dark after all and the moon was silently sleeping in the sky with its radiance. "Gosh, it is beautiful", she said as she stared at the moon as she felt that it is the best company it could have at that hour of the night.

He was slightly drunk. "You are not a man!", the words haunted him, pierced him as he ordered for one more drink. It burned as it went down the throat, but he could care less. "That bitch, how dare she?", he kept shouting in his mind. The drinks doubled and the piercing never stopped. "One more", he said too angrily as his purpose for visiting the bar didn't suffice. "Can't even one thing go right?", he murmured to himself under his breath. The bartender made an apologetic face implying that they were out of stock, but he could give him something else. He just threw some cash he had in wallet and took a beer on his way out. He was tripping as he got out of the bar. He wandered around for a few blocks without knowing where he was going or what he wanted to do. Then he saw the sigh "Metro" pointing towards right. As he made his way trying to balance himself he saw her. "Gosh, she is beautiful", he said as he saw her under the moonlight, in a white and black combination.

As he made his way towards the Metro, the same way she was heading, he had a few more emotions building up. "You are not a man", the words screamed him. His ego bruised a little more every waking thought. He just lost it. He had to prove her wrong. He had to prove him right. He needed that assurance. He gulped the last fraction of the beer and it slipped through his hand and landed on the cement pavement breaking into a hundred pieces. He thoughts were temporarily suspended as she heard the glass break and turn around to see the origin. She figured he was drunk and didn't pay much heed. He started pacing faster towards her while she returned to her thoughts. She was thinking about how she could improve the work she was doing and get that delivered in time. Days like these shouldn't come to her or anyone working under her. She was managing a team of close to fifty people but she was more of a leader-team player than a boss. The words echoed in his mind like a terrible headache pounding the walls in the head with each heartbeat which fueled his ego. Her thoughts were again disturbed by the fast clicks of of feet on the pavement. She turned around to check whether he was alright, but he was closer and she caught a glimpse of his eyes - they looked devilish, hungry and completely out of control. It was time for her to panic as he paced a little faster towards her and almost caught her. She stood still and swing herself just out of his hand's reach. An unanticipated move from her made him stumble as he balanced himself from falling but failed. The alcohol was kicking in and he wasn't thinking clearly as well. From the pavement he saw her, standing near his feet and he assessed she was small for him but something disturbed his thoughts. She was calm and not at all scared. This should have given him the message but "You are not a man" voice filled his mind. He stood up with double the speed, the adrenaline mixed with alcohol kicking in, made his move again.

She saw his eyes, still dark and hungry as he just turned towards her a moment after he fell on the ground. By the time, she set her laptop bag down beside her. Because she wanted to end it sooner to catch the metro. She stood there and watched him stand up and wished he just gave a thought to what he was doing just once. But he didn't. His hand was reaching for her hand while the other for her dress. Two swift moves and he missed both again. He was shocked and very angry. One punch to her face and she will fall unconscious and before he could finish his thought he raised his hand. She ducked and squared her elbow into his jaw. Having not anticipated this either, he stumbled back almost falling as he felt his head burst inside a little. She thought she could have gone for the groin, but it would have been very easy. By now she felt like he learned his lesson. But the voice kept haunting him, laughing at him for proving it right! His eyes now burned with rage that needed that assurance to shut the voice. He pounced with double the speed he could thought of with his clenched fist. He was determined to take her down, but that she was prepared for everything and anything he had up his sleeve. Three swift moves from her and he couldn't touch a single strand of hair on her. She could go on but she realized that she would she would just provoke him more and more and he wasn't going to learn his lesson. He took a second to catch his breath while her fist kissed his right cheek, before he could react, her left fist was in his gut which made him bend forward while she lifted her left knee just the right height for her to hold back of his head and smack it on her knee. He had no choice but to go fall down and crawl away. Too many sudden shocks has rendered him almost unconscious to move and there was alcohol. She dialed the emergency services for an ambulance with the location she was at. By now he might have learnt his lesson, she thought. Though the popular belief that "Men will be men" kind of crept in her mind, she was sure that a woman wasn't afraid of men like him. She went back to her thoughts she was so engrossed in earlier while she boarded the quarter past twelve metro. 

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Not everyone is here to validate your opinions.

- ak

#Z2AChallenge,

because I can spell the alphabets in reverse.

#QuarterPastTwelve #WomanPower #Fiction #Fight 

#AlphabetQ #LetterQ #Day9 ( Day 12 )