The Iranian Girl – 1

“Did I tell you, I have even been to Tehran”, I stooped and then walked away leaving the boy gaping at my extraordinary youth and the escapades.

I met her online. It was about 10 years ago, the yahoo chat was abuzz, everyone was doing it and even I got pulled in by the anonymous world of sleaze and strangers and salacious talks. I felt liberated and the garb of anonymity made me super superman. She was 22 and was from Iran.

She never told me much about her whereabouts except for the fact that her nose was too big and made her conscious and that she was seeing a rich kid because he was rich and gave her gifts. Her real crush was her English teacher at the university to whom she was practically invisible. She told me her efforts and schemes are failing to get his attention. She asked for suggestions and insight into the mind of a complicated man and how to win him; I readily supported her by quick searches in Google and from my experience. My advice sounded very apt for Sarah, that’s what her name was. She came online to chat with strangers to improve her English.

This continued for quite some time, she talked about her loveless boyfriend and the rejection from the English teacher. I had developed feeling for her in those months. She discussed everything, her pious sister who was a devoted Muslim and herself a loose girl who was a virgin to ensure a husband in future but had allowed Amir to please himself through other means. Amir, her boyfriend was attractive but boorish. He brought her gifts every time they met and the expensive gifts made his stick to him, though she had no love for him. She couldn’t break through the stoic and tough English teacher, that’s what she told me last.

Then we lost touch with each other. I hardly got time to get on the messenger to chat up and when I was online she was not there. I knew I would never ever speak to her; I erased her from my memory. I had feelings for her but never expressed them and was not sure if she knew about them. I closed the chapter.

I got a job that helped me get busy and earn living, years passed and then one day I had an offline message from Sarah. It seem to have been hurriedly written, it read, “I need HELP they would kill me, please tell someone to help me.” The usual and the customary smiley and cheerio was missing. I didn’t pay attention to it and dismissed it as a scam. In some days I again had a message from Sarah this time much longer. “He beats me everyday. I am so scared. I miss my sister and family, my tears have dried up I would die. Please help.”

I traced the IP address to Karaj in Iran.

A Sad True Story

It’s the story of a girl with the most beautiful smile in the whole wide universe. When she used to smile the blooms would blossom, the birds would chirp, the wind would sing and the woods would whistle and the animals would dance and even the might sun would shine brightly. The moon sulked as it never got too much of sunshine to see that beautiful smile; but was happy for the other who did.

The sun was in love with her. He would spend sleepless night and impatiently wait for the earth to spin around to see her and flush the earth with warm colourful rays. It became an obsession with the sun and the other planets got worried; if she happens to break his heart, the sun might not be able to contain the pain and explode – they all feared. They had started observing some eccentricity with the sun’s behaviour. They felt he focused more on earth and delayed things on other planets. Once he tread too close to one of the small planet just to get a better view of her, it led to destruction. Sun brushed if off as a slight miscalculation and positioning error but everybody knew what the truth was; they dared not to reason with him. This continued for many years until she found a handsome writer, it broke sun’s heart. She was unaware of sun’s affection for her. She could see the tan which made her look more beautiful but was clueless where it was coming from in that cold country.

The handsome writer loved her too much and expressed his love through his poems which she would wait for. The despondent sun consulted the moon who asked him to focus on what he has been created for and continue to shower his love and soft rays on the couple.

The legend has it that the sun shone the brightest when the pair vowed to be together forever. Many years have passed since she left earth but the sun still misses her. He has to be calmed by the moon from time to time by shielding the earth from his anger and pain.

[This is one of my most endearing story. I wrote it sometime in February 2010.]

Love AND Hate

I was waiting for her. The last thirty minutes had been the most difficult of my life in a good way. They were restless but blissful moments; finally she had agreed to meet me and I was not certain if she would be there. I didn’t want to be stood up; I would have so hated it. In these thirty minutes, I had seen and experienced more then what I had in my lifetime. I had never been an observer and never cared how people look, how they talk, how they behave and how they react and moreover how vulnerable they are.

She had asked me to wait for her at this busy street corner. On my right was the tea shop, it was more of a stall with a patched up tarpaulin serving as a canopy and saving the tea lovers from the burning summer sun. The smell of the overcooked tea with ginger was awful and just behind was the stationary shop. I am not sure

why she picked this spot but I heard her say, ‘I would see you there at 5 PM. ‘Where there?’ I said in a meek and shy tone. ‘The street cornet near the tea stall’ and she walked away smiling; she looked and sounded as happy as me. I gave my college lecture a miss and gave a slip to my friends and was there at 4.30 PM.

I looked at my watch it was 5 PM. My heart was beating fast and my mind racing faster then the subway train. My eyes searched for her in the crowd and while the eyes did the searching my mind practised and rehearsed and re rehearsed what I was to say and how I was to carry on with the conversation. I was happy and never had been in so high spirits.

Then it happened. I heard a deafening noise and the next moment I was on the ground and all I could hear was loud voices all around. I could see the blood gush out of my stomach but felt no pain. I passed out and never ever woke up.

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