A Dream shattered!

***Note: This article is peppered with abusive language and read at your own risk. I find no other way to express my anguish and shock.


She was like any other 23-year old. She was working hard to become a physiotherapist, she wanted to become a good one at it, she had a boyfriend and loving parents, she loved good food & chocolates, she loved pink, and she loved children and dreamed of having her own at some point of time,and generally she was happy & content. Period.

On the fateful day, she must have been thinking what she is going to do with the rest of her life, and in the immediate future. After all she is only 23, and a whole, beautiful life is ahead. She was full of life, full of joy. She had a pleasant outing with her boyfriend, watched a movie together and may have been harboring thoughts of other pleasures.

Then she board the fucking bus! Yes, literally.

Now think about those 5-6 goons! They are the typical indian male, arrogant towards any woman.
The general trait is, pan-chewing and spitting anywhere, beedi-smoking, and passing lewd comments on passing-by women. They were out for a joy ride, if reports are to be believed. What a joy it was!

When the whole thing started, the girl and her boyfriend must have been thinking that it will be harmless, and if it gets out of control, they can get down. Then when it was heating up, the boy intervened. That's when the whole hell broke loose. He was assaulted, and the girl was grabbed, her clothes ripped off, and the rest.

The bigoted sick mother-****, they not only tried to rape her. When she resisted, they did the unimaginable, forcing an iron rod up her private part, which has damaged the entire uterine & vaginal wall. The beasts then had fun, pushed her out of the bus and left to the safety of their slums. The assholes told the police that they wanted to punish them, the girl for not cooperating and the boy for intervening!!!

Back to present, it is yet unclear the extent of damage to her physic and mind, but a few pertinent questions raise their ugly head in my mind.

1. Could she have a normal relation with anybody anymore? Wouldn't this incident will leave her psyche permanently scarred, specially when it comes to man and sexual life?
2. Could she ever conceive again? The damage to the intestine and re-productive organs, is it minimal?
3. What happens to her social life?
4. The people who know what happened, the stigma, would she be able to withstand it?

five minutes of brutal fun, ebbed out a life, which would have been a  promising & beautiful one. And the remorseless scums of earth, returned to their chores next day! If wasn't caught, they would have done an encore!!!

My guts are churning with disgust which is increasing each moment and my mind rings up so many methods for punishing those scumbags.

1. Strip & bind these goons, put their organ on a wood block, drip Sulfuric Acid onto it, drop by drop, and when the little pecker is completely gone, start with his balls. Should know what pain is when one's body is violated.

2. A special equipment, with a collapsed flaring tip inserted into their fucking anus, flare it up, and hang a weight on the other side for weeks at least.

Any method, but they shouldn't die immediately. Torture them! Make them suffer! Make them feel the pain that poor girl has gone through. Let them die the way they deserve it! a slow, painful death and in an utter disgusting way, so much so that even Dogs & Pigs shouldn't touch their damned dead body!

Do away with Democracy (as it is in India). replace it with A fool's idea

Democracy is imploding under its own weight! The system as it is in India is in total chaos. So is the standard of our parliamentarians. The divine altar of democracy – the parliament – has witnessed the worst of it, brawls among members, derogatory remarks against each other, etc. The srpouting of regional, narrow-minded (state interests over national) parties, and its by-product, the coalition government – has taken the already bursting-at-the-seams behemoth to a new burgeoning level. India’s most current problems, anarchy, corruption, non-accountability, criminals ruling, to name a few, has a direct link to the system of governance that we chose, about 65 years back.

Just a minute, don’t take out the sword to cut me into pieces. Let me reason. 65 years of this so called – of the people, by the people … - democratic rule, and where are we today? During this six decade, other countries have grown exponentially; technology has grown to phenomenal levels, but we are still where we were. Except for some powerful people, India’s mass population still reeling under utter poverty, reliance on methods that are long disappeared from rest of the world to find their daily bread, and our mindset, still stuck in the 18^th century… BC! With poverty, superstitions, human sacrifice, selling / killing of girl child, dowry system, casteism all these evils at its all-time high.

Too many cooks spoil the stew

Who is running the show? Party boss? Or Prime Minister? Or the Rubber-stamp President?  chief of defense staff? An overly active but morally declining (gradually) judiciary? It’s all about delegating, you see. Whenever there is something wrong, the opposition point fingers at the Ruling party, and ruling party retaliate by saying that the decision / policy was formulated by the opposition.

How many politicians sent to jail for misdeeds?

During the 65 years, how many politicians are send to jail for criminal charges, which are clear like daylight, but for some reason, not visible to the judiciary? Corruption, murder, dacoity, election manipulation, encroaching government land, rape, intimidation, abuse of power, the list is endless. Some brave whistle blowers bring some of these out in the open, but most of them are silenced, either by killing them, or bribing. Who thought A. Raja would come out so easily and will be celebrated like that?

31% of today’s MPs have criminal records! Including murder. Can you believe it? State party heads are embroiled in dubious cases against them, still it is in their power to decide who rules! People from UP have this logic-defying habit of electing murderers and dacoits to parliament continuously and over and again!

Election rigging

In Indian Democracy, vote is money, or the other way around! Does it make a difference? When a strong-hearted district collector took every step to prevent money distribution in Bellary (a northern district in Karnataka State), many of the voters came out in open, giving statements on media, that this is the time they can make some quick buck and the collector killed that opportunity, and I believe there were protests against the collector. Despite named in many scams, the candidate who offered most money (1500 per vote) won against the less fancied opponents (150 per vote). But the electorate took money from all the candidates!

Scaring the booth agents out, and right in front of the polling officer, votes were cast en masse. Liquor bottles served right in front of polling booths. Gun-trotting goons patrol obvious trouble areas to ensure the votes goes in their favor.

Me, my children, and theirs too!

In a brazen manner, every leader put his next-of-kin to take charge with / after him. Every plum post is reserved for leader’s relatives. And some shamelessly promote this while lambasting others for doing it.

Accountability

Due to red tape and other political reasons many development projects die a premature death. Crores of rupees spend, but who is responsible? Newly built infrastructures collapse, who to blame? Lakhs of crores rupees spend on numerous things, but who is the beneficiary? This government says it is the previous one, that party says we have nothing to do with it. Don’t they keep records of who started, at what stage the other party took over, etc? A CM orders his followers to start genocide, and later denies despite a senior police officer giving testimony against him. The result? The officer is imprisoned and might be killed in the jail! Land scams, Mining scams, political murders, scams, scams, more scams! Nobody dares to question!

Caste based reservations

Hold your breath, the biggest joke of Indian Democracy! Caste based reservation. Where on earth, do you think, such a discriminating policy will be allowed? Isn’t it against the law of equality? During the initial years, when the neglected tribes and castes find it very hard to survive, this was required, and makers of this law stipulated that it will eased out gradually. But dirty vote-bank politics and other vexed interests made sure that it is grown to mega-proportions and come to such a threatening situation where even promotions will be on reservation! Ha!

I am not against a reservation for economically weaker sections, for education, giving access to best institutions etc. Once they are proved themselves, why a job / promotion reservation is required? Does that mean, even if you proved you are no good, you will be heading important departments because you belongs to a certain caste? What is the motivation to do good? Where is the example set? Wonder why our research organizations / public sector manufacturers / other departments always produce sub-standard products?

Have fun at the expense of Public!

Our hard-earned money is spent on giving all these incompetent and ignorant lot a luxury treatment a la foreign tours, luxury villas, imported cars etc.  Every few weeks, petrol and essential good’s price increased. Would you ever consider cutting down the expense of yours, dear leaders? Great way to rule us. You have it in your power to beat up, even if it is a police officer doing his duty! You have it in your endless power to cheat us, and still come out on next election promising more!

Freebies! It’s raining freebies.

Some southern states indulge in this dangerous game. Offering freebies. If one government given free TV, the next one goes one step ahead and offer laptops. I believe in near future, they would be getting Hgh-end smart phones, digital cameras, luxury cars etc. India is prospering. What kind of a message these idiots are sending? That even if you don’t work, you get good things? Just like cast base reservations, this will also become a huge monster and will result in the collapse of the system.

Oh, so we are doomed? No way out? I don’t know. I am not a thinker. I am not a genius. After discussing with many like-minded people, I have drawn up a list of reforms, which is purely my way of seeing things. Opinions welcome.

Election process – revamp it.

Start from the root. There should be schools specially for training those who are interested in joining politics. Then make them attend exams. The first 10 or 15, should get a chance to draw up a comprehensive development program for their village. Let this be judged by a eminent group of people from all walk of life and rate it.

Their journey starts there. Allow the first 4-5 to start a debate among them, in public. And let the public vote for who is best in that. Until someone get a heavy majority (70%?) this should continue. Let the winner head a Panchayat, with runners up forming his cabinet. Implement what he has envisioned in his manifesto. If he fails to deliver, redo it, and find good, born leaders.

From these leaders, the next level should be identified. Ask every Panchayat head to draw up a plan for their district, and do the same. Every stage, the debate should be aired live, and at a convenient time so that maximum of the electorate can watch it. Just like before an important cricket match!.

From district level to states and state level to national!

Make them declare their assets, their immediate families and other close people. Every year declare anew. Any unproportional accumulation must be thoroughly investigated, and if any anomalies found, banish him / her from politics lifelong.

Retirement age for politicians

Set the retirement age. 60 / 65 maximum should be age to retire.

Two party system

Too many cooks spoil the stew. Let there be two parties. Those who can’t garner more than 30% of the vote banish them / merge with a party of their choice.

Scam trials should be fast tracked

Within 6 months of the trial give verdict and cease the entire property of that person, disqualify from contesting / holding any position in the country, and if convicted put him behind bars for rest of his life.

Monitoring authority

Appoint disciplined and clean record Military / Judiciary heads as advisors to government. This should be a term appointment by the concurrence of both parties.

This is my two cents. Democracy is dead! Long live democracy!

Truly, India is a free country

Yes, India is a great democratic country, where the government is of the people, by the people, for the people.

One poor cartoonist, a Mr. Aseem Trivedi, took this cliché by its literal meaning, which should never have been the case in India. India is a place of promises, just that. None of these promises are meant to keep.

During elections, we get thousands of promises - subsidized rice, TV, laptop, check the inflation, dams, canals, airports, roads, new trains, new irrigation projects, new schemes to ease the pressure on the people etc. etc. Once elections are over, even we forget about those promises.

We proclaim that ours is a free society. Every citizen is a free soul. He can travel / work anywhere in India, perhaps not in Jammu & Kashmir, but all the other states. Try telling that to a certain self-anointed monarch of Mumbai (Maharashtra), and you get the real meaning of freedom to travel / work anywhere in India.

Yeah, ours is a free society. When China restricts & censor the internet, we raised a big hue & cry. You see, the people of china should get freedom to read what’s there on Internet. Yeah, when some cartoons surfaced on a leading social networking site, our very efficient cyber crime wing woke up from the usual slumber, and shot letters to the site to remove the contents that in any way depicts a certain lady and her puppet. Or some articles that reveals the sources of foreign bank accounts. Or some references to the leading politicians in scam related articles.

Today, the new Mumbai police commissioner said that Creative artists should know their limits. True, they can continue praising the government, praising the great country, but any voice of dissent will be treated as treason. This cartoons, depicting the government as blood-thirsty hounds, will result in anarchy and chaos. Alas! Give me a break Mr. Satyapal Singh, do you think public doesn’t know these truths? They are unaware of the huge scams unearthed day after passing day?

The police can collect hafta, harass lovers, beat-up people, do all the goddamned stuff, but yes, cartoonists, they should mind the stuff they do. Such a pathetic force, who can stoop down to steal from beggars, trying to be the devil’s advocate? Get a life officer.

It’s just that Indian public are lethargic and carry on with their lives. We won’t raise a little finger to protest against any atrocities, any attack against our freedom, any interference into our private lives. The Coal-gate scam is 1.86 Lakh Crores? Fine, anyway I have my job. The 2G spectrum is 1.76 Lakh Crore? Oops, sorry I need to catch a train.

Mr. Trivedi, fear not, you have done nothing wrong. It is your creative freedom that you exercised. Yeah, they can hang you, but we will always praise your courage, via this kind of cheap blogs. You sacrifice your freedom and writing my protest in a blog, read by only me (perhaps a couple of people) and I am happy, I have done my bit.

India is a free country!  Incredible India!!!!!

Demo - Crazy (Sponsored by all)

So another huge scam came out in the open, stealing all the airtime and reams of newsprint.

As usual, a news anchor is shouting and regularly interrupting the guests from explaining their side of the story, and force-feeding them his opinions.

As usual the opposition is up in arms, shouting and sloganeering, interrupting the precious time of our lawmakers, and making sure the loss to the nation is compounded.

A baba, who have miserably failed to fast for 3 days in the first attempt despite his self-proclaimed abilities via an ancient form of mediation , somehow managed to fast for the same duration, and putting up a great show for the waiting cameras by leaping out from the window of a bus, declaring his ‘love’ for the incumbent government. Yeah sure, he is apolitical.

A Gandhian, who was hailed as the knight in shining armor to save this corrupt nation, withdrew to his shell, in revenge to the nation who clearly has had enough of his theatrics and disillusioned at the lack of action. The vultures in the ruling party, who learned their lesson from the first incident, in which they erred in tactic by attacking the Gandhian Team, played by the tried and tested method, delaying tactics and silence, and proved a handful the the Gandhian team by registering hundreds of cases against them, thus casting a pall of gloom over their otherwise hallowed heads. The team is in tatters now, the core members themselves issuing conflicting statements in major issues like the disbandment of the team.

Somewhere, ethnic clashes (read communal violence, this is the new sophisticated and much more polished term for that old, rusted cliché) erupts and people from a certain region of India, believing some mischievous SMS / Internet messages, flee from their workplaces, ironically from the calmest place in the chaotic India.

Somewhere, the Government employees of a certain sector started a pan-India strike that crippled an already struggling economy. The reason: They don’t like the reforms that are put forth by the authorities. It curtails their freedom, like they will become answerable for their misdeeds.

Somewhere, seeing all this, a certain king from South of India heaved a sigh of relief. The focus have shifted from his corruption amounting to a meager 1,75,00,000 CRORE.

Somewhere, a certain Italian lady has heaved a sigh of relief. The attention from the foreign bank account has been shifted, which was threatening to tarnish her husband’s puritanical image if they ever made a legislation to bring back all the money stashed in those banks. Anyway as long as her puppet is at the helm, she doesn’t need to worry, but still…

Somewhere, amidst all the shout and walk-outs, the opposition leaders heaved a sigh of relief. The focus is shifted from - their inactivity, mismanagement of issues, a certain leader who is still playing a big role in deciding how the party is run despite a slew of judgment against him on corruption charges, the damning evidences that is coming out against their future PM candidate on genocide, the mining barons etc. etc. They still like to believe that India CAN shine under them only.

Somewhere, a wealthiest man watching all these drama unfolding on TV from the coziness of his plush living room sofa in the most expensive house of India, wore a smug smile, knowing that whether this party or that party, he will always get a preferential treatment, be it spectrum, Coal mine, or oil fields.

Somewhere, an office worker, hurrying through his breakfast and watching the same scenes as the above-mentioned wealthy man, wondered that how someone can steal that kind of money without anybody noticing. He felt dizzy at the thought of money involved. He wondered that if these loots were ever to return to the country, how would it be like? May be they can reduce the taxes that are killing the middle class?. May be they can reduce the petrol prices? May be they can build better roads and more options for transportation, and thus provide some relief to the struggling common man who is always the one to bear the brunt of these scams.

Somewhere, in a remote village, a poor man looked up at the sky, praying to god to provide some relief from the scorching sun and willed the rain to come. If it didn’t rain for another week, his crop will be ruined. He can’t pay back the loan he has taken to cultivate his small piece of land. He doesn’t have electricity to run a motor pump, no irrigation provided by govt.

Somewhere, a wife was set ablaze with her newborn girl child by a crazy man. He wanted a son.

Somewhere, a girl was being raped and killed. The rapist, being an influential man, knows that nobody would punish him.

Somewhere, a contestant in an election, brazenly distributed money & liquor infront of the booth, witnessed by the polling officer.

Somewhere, a child was being sacrificed by his own father, instigated by a Godman, to retrieve a long-lost treasure.

Somewhere, a self-anointed god man, just out of jail for raping / sexually abusing many of his disciples, was getting a royal reception, with HAVANA’s performed to PURIFY him off the evils from the jail. Well-known politicians and religious heads showering their blessing on him.

Somewhere, a newly built bridge collapsed and killed a few.

Somewhere, a few thousand soldiers laid their life to prevent terrorist from a rogue nation entering our space. The nation cheered our win against that nation, in Cricket World Cup.

Mera Bharat Mahan!!

A state in Hangover.

It was my off day, and I was sitting in this restaurant, having a coffee and a cigarette. My usual spot was close to the window, so that I can smoke without bothering anyone.

“Hello”. A voice woke me up from my thoughts.

A total stranger was sitting across the table, but I bet that I haven’t seen him when I came. He must have joined later, but still, how he could come without my notice?

“Hello” I replied politely.

“The weather is nice, isn’t it?” he said while glancing outside.

“Yes. It is beautiful”. I replied in the same tone.

Then we started talking as if we were long lost buddies, meeting up after a long interval. After the regular weather talks, we ventured into the more interesting topics. Very soon we found a mutual passion, the riding of two-wheelers. We discussed about the new models of economy bikes, and like a kid talking about the moon, the Harleys and the Triumphs, and Yamaha R1s for that matter. The talk veered off to my exploits on the bike,the numerous trips and the recent adventurous trip to Abbey Falls, near Madikere, Coorg. He exhibited a keen interest about the trip. Ofcource I told him that the road was so good, that I was doing the corners at 90-100 KPH, without any bother. Out of the blue, came the next question.

“You travelled a lot on your bike, Bangalore to Bellary (320 KM) and back, Bangalore to mysore (150), Bellary to Madaksira (180) etc.. Why don’t you go to your place on bike?”

I was contemplating of doing the same, but the advice I got from all quarters is NEVER attempt it. But I was hesitant to admit a certain fear inside me, that I wouldn’t complete the journey. So I kept quiet.

After a long pause, he answered his own query. “You wouldn’t be talking about it the same way you talk about your adventures in Karnataka. It’s a punishment to ride on those roads”.

That reminded me of the pot-holed roads on the half of mind’s canvas, the other filled with visions of the sprawling new fly-overs, metro rails and spanking new roads of Bangalore, Mysore and even Bellary.

He started another topic. “How you plan to visit your folks?”

“I am planning to go by bus”, I said without knowing where this is leading.

“ofcource, you must be travelling Karnataka Road transport corporation, not Kerala, right?”

Again, as in the previous question, I kept quiet. When a person is revealing an uncomfortable truth about you, why should you cross him? The fact of the matter is, Kerala R. T. C running superfast buses from Mysore, which would be suitable for an hour’s journey, a couple maximum. Who, you think, will travel on those pieces of junk for 12 hours? And the reservation system, ah, a primary school website would function more properly and professionally. Ofource a GARUDA (Volvo A/c) is displayed on the site, but neither gets its timings or fare, nor the booking facility. Why should I bother? Karnataka R. T. C has more than 3 AIRAVAT (Volvo A/c) running between Mysore & Ernakulam daily, so I didn’t feel I should look at keralartc.

Suddenly my phone rang. The screen displayed the picture of my wife & daughter together. It’s home calling, I told him. I excused myself and took the call. Everything is fine and daughter is recuperating. You see she was hospitalized for more than 7 days for a viral fever. My wife is coming down with that now, and it seems the hospital is full with the seasonal viral attack. Every year the scenario is same, only the name changes. Dengue, Japan Encephalitis, Chikungunya, god-knows-it names. My mother is sick, so is my sister-in-law. My neighbor got it, so is his’. 

Seeing the concerned expression on my face, like a true good friend, he questioned. “Is everything allright?”

I told him the story. He just smiled. That all-knowing smile. Then he asked me one question.

“You pride yourselves in keeping a high level personal hygiene, you bath twice, you wear clean clothes, and your neighboring states are not so lucky. But have you heard any epidemic hitting them so regularly?”

You know what, I hate you for that all knowing smile. I told myself.

It was almost evening, and a slight chill started to descent upon us. I was about to order another hot tea. He had other ideas.

“Do you drink?” he asked with his solemn eyes fixed upon me. His gaze never left my eyes. I felt a little uncomfortable, but I lied to him.

“Occasionally”. I replied hiding the fact that it is more than occasional.

“Let’s have a drink then. It’s getting colder and we need to keep ourselves warm”. I was more than okay.

So we shifted this conversation to his regular hang out place, a hole-in-the-wall kind of bar.

He ordered his poison, me mine.

I scanned the crowd. There was a sizable crowd, all with their own groups or alone, lost in their world. Few unruly elements, who are literally high on spirits, just squabbled with the waiter or some of their regular enemies, and left without much fuss. My mind flashed some scenes from our own kerala’s bars. And to what end we go to drink. If the beverages shop is closed, ex-militaries are hunted out from their hiding place, paid whatever been asked, but DRINK. And moreover, it’s a shared property, so the more and the quicker is the way to go. I watched this guy who silently sipping his drink, enjoying the cool weather. Ahem!

I vaguely remembered some statistics from a newspaper a year back. That our little, paradisiacal, serene state has topped in consumption of liquor. Beating big, thriving metros like, Mumbai, Delhi, etc. Way to go folks. Cheers!

“So, how long have you been working?” His question brought me back to present.

“Almost 18 years now.” I replied with a touch of pride.

“Wow! Amazing. How many years outside of kerala?”

Innocent as he seems, now I started to believe this guy has got something against me.

“Well, you see, I mean… err… all of it.” I managed.

“Why? Why you never worked in Kerala?” his innocent query.

I saw it coming. What should I answer him? That we have no industries left? That only thriving business is Liquor or tourism, for which I have no expertise / qualification? The one business which needs no expertise and thriving at the moment is sex rackets, which I am finding a bit too risky to enter into? That big names hesitate to come to our state? That when neighboring states were offering free of cost land to develop IT cities / smart cities, my government whining about a clause about the ownership of a small piece of land? That we live in a perennial state of fear, that any moment there will be a shut-down because some small-time political party’s leader’s dog shat? That ours is the only place in the entire universe (perhaps), where I have to pay for somebody watching the others doing hard labor? God, I am missing the fun, but I have a family to feed.

Again, my cell beeped. This time it was one of my buddies from my village. I took the phone. Initially I thought he is speaking Greek, then slowly it registered. As intoxicated as he is, it is a great feet that he is able to search my name in the list, dial and more importantly, hold the phone to his ear.

“Hey buddy, when you coming here?” was the opening line. When I met him last time during the first first hour of my visit to my place, his opening line was “When did you come?” and upon answering that the next salvo was “When you are going back?”. Now he want to know when I am coming?

“I plan to come soon, probably for Onam” I dutifully replied.

“Hey, liquor is cheap in Karnataka. Bring two or three full bottle of Rum, okay? Don’t forget. And tomorrow is shut-down here. Some criminal is arrested by the police and he belongs to the RED party. So we are stocking material (liquor) for tomorrow. Ha ha ” The line went dead.

I wanted to ask him, whether he will pay for that, but that is unnecessary. It never happens. And he doesn’t bother that it is illegal to transport alcohol inter-state. He want it and I am somehow, bound to obey him.

“What do you grow at your place? Rice? Vegetables?” once he was sure I am through with my phone conversation, he raised another, seemingly to irritate me, query.

I thought of the endless rubber estates, the trucks passing the Valayar checkpost every day with all the goods we need from Tamilnadu / Karnataka. If any one of these states decide not to, we would be eating rubber from the next day. I expertly skipped the question with another one.

“You must be retired, aren’t you? What were you?”

He was more tactful than I, so it turned out.

“Why don’t you start a business, if you can’t find suitable offers there?” Again he is hitting the bulls-eye, you see. I hate this guy now. I just wanted to finish the drink and go to another bar, without him. But somehow, I sat there, thinking about his latest suggestion.

What could be the best business? Start a hospital, hire a few doctors at exorbitant salary, compensate it with fresh nursing graduates and make them work for 12 hours a day, make every patient undergo the costly scans & tests, because I just bought those fancy machines?  These tests may not have any relevance to the patient’s illness, but I have it, so you have to use it. Or start a new pharmacy company, copy some successful formulae, pack it in a new name, pay the doctors bribe and make them write this particular medicine (ofcource the price of this has to be over the roof), but never ever take that medicine for yourself or your family, because you know what are the poisonous things goes into it?

Or better, start a school. That is the best going around these days. Start some in a Christian saint’s name, get teachers who wouldn’t make it anywhere else and who couldn’t spell bee properly, and pay them peanuts, but charge the parents a king’s ransom. Who bother about quality, when you can be flashy?

I was lost in my thoughts until someone tapped my shoulder. I raised my eyes to see the waiter hovering about me.

“Anything else sir?” he asked in a tone, which was smooth.

“I am done. What about you?” I looked across the table, checking with my new friend.

The chair was empty. 

“When did he leave?” I asked the water.

“Who sir? There was nobody with you, when I took your order.” He replied, hiding a smile.

“Come on. This gentleman who was talking with me all these while. Where is he?” Suddenly I realized that there is no chair opposite to me. Nor there was a glass, nor the snacks we munched on, nothing. 

“Sir, you came alone, you drank alone. Here is your bill.” The waiter said with little impatience.

I checked the bill. He charged me only for what I drank. The other man must have paid his bill separately while I was lost in thought.

I paid the waiter and walked out of the bar. I was feeling a bit dizzy. How can a person vanish like that. I still remember his soft, dreamy eyes, the fluttering of his hair, his deep voice, and that annoying all-knowing smile. The waiter must be drunk, I deduced. Yes! There is a way to prove. I remember giving him my helmet to free my arms to buy some cigarettes. 

I jogged to the parking lot, where I parked the bike. I stopped in mid-step, not able to believe.

The helmet is locked safely on the grab rail of the seat, and the only key to it is resting in my jeans pocket.