Sharmishtha Basu
5.12.11

All of a sudden she felt that someone was following her, she turned and saw a figure walking in the same direction at a distance; he or she was not clearly visible because of the fog.

She looked around her, there was no one else visible on the street, it was late and sane people were relaxing in their warm rooms.

She had no one else to blame but herself, she stayed late to finish the note sir has given. She might have done it tomorrow, by reaching there early, but no, she had to do it today so she could study it during the night.

She quickened her pace and turned back after a while the shadow too stopped and bent down, pretending to do something as she watched it, the distance was same just enough to make recognition impossible but enough to pounce on her at first chance.

Suddenly someone stepped up in front of her, “Hello Sweetie.” He hissed in a malicious voice.

Her limbs froze, she knew who he was, a notorious gangster of the area, infamous for his preying on women.

She realized that on one side of the road was a small park apparently from there Kalu has stepped out and on the other side was thirty feet high wall of a factory.

He was reeking of country liquor and a half empty bottle was dangling from his hand.

He reached out to grab her hand and then froze, his eyes started to bulge out of his face, he was staring right behind her and then he dropped there, unconscious.

She was about to turn when she heard a voice, the voice of a woman, “Don’t turn back child, just walk towards your home! I will be following you.”

Sharmishtha Basu
6.12.11

She dreamt of flying, kissing the blue skies, sailing on clouds.

“There is a witch that lives on that far away mountain. She can grant any wish.” A little bird told her one day.

She sneaked out of the sea to visit her.

“I can’t give you a pair of wings child.” The witch said. “That’s not in my hands.”

Two drops of tear rolled down the cheeks of the innocent princess, two greedy eyes noted two precious pearls rolling on the floor of her hut.

She imprisoned her. Her hut was far away from ocean, she took her captive even further in the middle of the island so her father will not be able to hear her cries.

Every day she invented new methods of making her cry, soon her hut became a marvelous palace, she bought the entire island and other islands in ocean but her greed only increased. She appointed slaves to torment her and started living in a mansion in a beautiful island, surrounded by slaves to cater her every whim.

The ocean god searched for her everywhere; then with time he thought he has lost her because the witch’s strong spell blocked his power to feel his daughter.

One of her tormentors sneaked out a pearl to sell it, he had to sell it out of witch’s island, so he stuffed it in his bag and started his journey across the ocean to escape the witch and her wrath.

The ship got capsized and the pearl reached its destination.

The fury of ocean god exploded; one by one he washed out the islands in ocean to seek his daughter till he found her and liberated her.

The witch now dwells deep in ocean, in a cage, surrounded by eels.

He was the pet of a minister, immersed deeply in human trafficking. He worked as his darling dog. Then a dumb police officer got on his heels and tried to expose him.

The cop won initially, he landed in jail and his master received a shock of lifetime. But, lucky for him his master did not needed actual votes to win elections, his boys controlled his polling booth, and his master just like all his brothers in cabinet was a despot. So in place of rotting in jail he was siphoned out of the country to a “safe” country.

These two countries were “brothers” in terms of “idealism” and often swapped criminals they had to relocate.

So he settled there and started to plan his revenge. He knew that the “dumb” cop loved a girl, but did not express it because he was married. The girl did not know about his existence in her life. The cop stumbled upon her when he was chasing him.

She was the daughter of the owner of the house pooch was using at that time for his dirty scams, of course without their permission or knowledge. Who needs permission of dumb landlords if your master is a minister?

Once settled in the new country he started his business from there, once the racket was established again he decided it was time to settle score.

If you can’t hit your enemy, hit his loved ones; that was his idea of revenge.

So he started a whine story, he convinced a large number of his “friends” in India that he loved that girl and the cop was the villain. Once he knew that he loved her he “imprisoned” her and is keeping her under his surveillance to catch him.

That is a common practice of cops so he was able to convince them easily.

Then, by using their murky power he made her life a living hell, because in reality she was just a normal girl of a normal family without high and mighty protectors; then on his instructions his father showed up as the “savior” to her family, he said that the only way the girl will be safe was staying under his supervision.

Who can mess with a minister’s (despot’s) dog?

So they had to give in, and she was shifted to a prison aka his hidden den to rot away; that was not enough for him; he made his father inject her with a HIV positive injection when she got scratched by a rusted iron knife trying to stop a violent argument that broke in their home; the compounder that gave her the anti-tetanus was of course one of his boys.

The compounder was dead within a week so the secret died with him; the only living persons that knew that were his family and he.

In his next step he convinced his “friends” with help of his father that the girl was of easy virtue, and when a cop cornered her, she betrayed him to the cop and as a result his business procured a huge loss and his father had to abscond.

To prove that he sent a girl from his workplace to his father, the duo trained the girl very well to play the part of the actual girl, as no one was much aware of the presence of the actual girl who was a shy, introvert, extremely ordinary girl. Quite eager to hide these days because of the ugliness poured down upon her openly, placing a decoy was quite easy.
All the fake one had to do was use a house near her place, and his father had to convince the world that she was her. Then she relocated to a faraway place with a lucrative job. Started to live a fairytale life there, he invited her to his new home sometimes because it was impossible for him to visit his own country.

Then in the next step the girl “accidentally” blew her cover to a cop and got caught by him. She was a true beauty and an amazing actor; she won his sympathy by her sob story.

She gave him the address of a fake den set up for just this purpose, that den was blown and his father played the role of absconder.

Then someone killed the girl, in reality the girl vanished without trace, that is, she went back to her native place.
Whereas the actual girl, now dead in the eyes of the world stayed in the house where she was, out of job, slowly inching towards inevitable death.

As for “his lover” he washed his hands off her, that death was of course the result of her easy life, and he was free to celebrate her death because he hated her with all his heart now, after all it was she who sealed his and his family’s doom in return of his “true” love.

His plan partially backfired when his master died, the ruling party of his master lost the next election and worst of all one of his “friends” got the whiff of his actual game. He made his own investigations in stealth and one day showed up at his new home, on pretext of visiting.

He was a drug addict. That night they celebrated the “death” of the “Traitor Delilah”

They had a rough party, in the morning his friend returned to India; he received a mail from his ex friend a week later.

“I have injected you with the same poison which you conned me into helping you to inject in the body of an innocent person.”

“I may be a murderer but I don’t help monsters to satiate their twisted vengeance through me.”

“Now I will be seeing your family members one by one. Let’s see how many you can save.”

Sharmishtha Basu
10.11.11

He kept it on his bedside table, in an ivory box, softly lying on a piece of soft velvet, spreading its lovely sparkles from whatever light it could gather.

He had a dream. A very vivid one, he saw a woman in the dream, sitting beside a river on a rock. A group of wild animals and birds around her, grazing peacefully or pecking the food she has scattered for them. Her face was of such purity and calm that he never forgot it again.

He woke up in the morning with a deep sense of peace in his heart.

Next night the dream returned, this time she was sitting in a palace, by the window, looking out of it, a soft beautiful smile played on her lips as her fingers played with the Veena on her lap.

Her eyes sparkled like the crystal eye he had, only there were two of them on that adorable face.

He was blessed with an all seeing eye, the girl could not see it but he could see it- a shriveled old man standing in the bushes watching her.

Her very face told him that she was in love with someone and his face told him that he was obsessed with her.

Then things started to change, the girl lost her smiles and started to age prematurely. The man in the bushes was a Tantric (one who practices black magic); he used his spell on her lover to make him believe that he made a fool of him by wooing him in her form, that broke his heart and he left the kingdom; then he used it on her to convince her that he was her real lover, who wooed her in (her actual lover’s) disguise.

Heaven only knows if she would have fallen for him but someone else was watching the entire show and interrupted- she did not had the power to show up or warn the girl but she could send her dreams, and in those dreams she told her of the treachery. That made her not to fall for the old man.

He settled his score by evil spells; he did not allowed any other lover or loving being in her vicinity, slowly she reduced to a shadow of herself she passed away in a few years.

Her parents made a beautiful statue of her to be placed in her memorial. The artist worked magic on her eyes. They almost captured the beauty of her soul.

Sharmishtha Basu
20.11.11

Laugh a little, smile a bit. Life is way too short enjoy it to the full.

Sharmishtha Basu

There are eyes that see beauty in thunder; there are eyes that see tears in rain. They are your eyes, let them see the beauty.

Sharmishtha Basu

Sharmishtha Basu
23.11.11

She could not resist herself, “Why are you blowing all the clouds in one direction? People there will never be able to see the sun!”

“They are my cloud, I will do whatever I want!” the boy said, and started to form another one.

Suddenly his mountain of cloud exploded and scattered all over the sky, creating a beautiful scene. White boats scattered in blue ocean- that’s how they looked.

“Wait you little mischief maker!” the boy dropped his straw and chased someone.

She could not see anyone at first sight; then she saw his glimpses as he maneuvered from one place to another to slip the chaser.

It was a girl, with a transparent body and eyes full of mischief.

Soon they disappeared in the distance.

She laughed sweetly and started to paint the clouds pink. It was time to wake up the sun.

Sharmishtha Basu
8.11.11