Story: "Avalanche"

"Look Anirudh!!” she stomped her feet to a noisy halt and turned around to face Anirudh who was busy kicking a battered coke can and was also simultaneously busy looking at her.

“Oh well, that’s what I’ve been doing for long babe, err.. I mean yah! I’ve been seeing you for a while now….which is ummm… politically right I would think” He winked at her not giving an iota for the intensity and seriousness in her tone.

Before she could react, he threw in… “By the way Su, Why don’t you call me Ani!!! I hate being called Anirudh… it makes me wince dammit!”

Now she expressed a cold scowl and told that “I will not do that! And you better stop calling me SU, for it sounds like “LOO” every time you utter that!”…..giving a short pause she gestured with her index finger carving a curve to her lips and said “Read my lips now…..My name is Swarnanalatha Sreedharan..Call me just that…and nothing else”

Ani let out a deep sigh and said, “oh common Su, get a life!!! I agree that I am madly, deeply, crazily, head-over-heels about the way your full name sounds in a very whimsical way.. Very stylish as I always keep muttering even in my dreams…but that doesn’t mean I would for my lifetime keep referring with your full-hell-seductive-name! It takes 2 seconds 79 milliseconds and 123 nanoseconds to do that! Which I would choose to do only when I am turned on full swing romantically…. Otherwise I just hafto spend half a second in saying “Su”… Energy Saver babe!!

At this Swarna was totally taken to the brink of her saturation point during which she always tended to pull at the string that had a small tweety bird attached to it which dangled down the side of her bag that she wore across her chest.

He came from behind her over her shoulder and cleared his throat with his classy way of pushing-up his 3rd and 4th eyes that were desperately sliding down his nose bridge… “Ahem… May I be blessed to know what on earth my sweety’s-tweety did to you that you are tugging at her so badly that she might end-up having a traumatic brain damage especially since that string that you’re trying hard to pull-out is popping out of her head?”

With levitating bitterness of his presence around her constantly to remind her of the recently-developed fright of losing to him in an argument which she never has with anyone in her life till date, she took two steps ahead with a disgusted look on her face; as if to mean that his nostrils letting out the air he took in few moments back feeling warm on her open neck is some kind of curse or irreversible stigma that she wanted to save herself from.

Although, this revolted Ani, he understood that he was going way overboard with a pro-conservative girl like Swarna. He calmed himself down saying “Easy Man! One step at a time” inside his head and letting few seconds pass by with impending silence during this preparatory class that he took often from none other than his very own mind.


“Well okay-okay…. My deepest apologies for having your right foot’s right most little toe hurt by my stinging words!.... now please please pretty please… will you smile please?”

“I am now all ears to whatever you were gonna tell me…. When you said “Look Anirudhhhh!” “… he said in a dramatic fashion trying his refined masterpiece of gimmick at her and Woah… it did solve the purpose for she burst out laughing uncontrollably and started chasing him around with her kitty-bag extended out to hit him if she ever managed to stop him.

After having run for sometime both of them stopped underneath a tree gasping for breath and longing with thirst and need for water, yet laughing maniacally at the whole incident.

Mr.Hero then vanishes to get a water bottle from a near by tupri shop while our lady still is in the verge of tears due to excessive running around and laughing and etc included.

After the long needle had traced a quarter past the numbers that showed on Ani’s brand-new Rolex that his dad presented him recently for his birthday a fortnight back…. Swarna started getting on to the serious talk that she intended to have with Ani for a while now.
“Ani, I have been thinking to tell you about this for a long time but you never gave me a chance everytime I wanted to do the talking……”


“Ooops! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I didn’t do it! Man I haven’t even gotten to the extent of laying my little finger on to your about-to-fall little toe!... So its not me! I cannot take this accusing, Although I really dream of being accused so one pretty & bright Sunday morning!” … That would be a ticket to marrying you…. You see!”

“Oh there you go again!!!!! Anirudh will you ever stop throwing these stupid & reckless stunts of yours and let me speak when I am still sane????”

“Yes your highness, but only if you will allow my name to be referred as “Aniiiii” instead of that painfully flinching full-name allusion!”

“Alright! Listen then…..do you know that I come from a family where-in skipping to wear a Bindi is considered as a crime and talking to a Brahman on the off-days of the month is taken to be an irreversible sin and letting my hair loose after washing my hair or as a style to maintain is considered as a means of welcoming bad-luck into our home?”


Ani raised an eyebrow and looked at her sideways with an intriguing set of curved lines knotted to form a design that only a slushy mud road with fresh signs of a container lorry that had recently visited them uninvited could have caused.

After a long pause, he said “Interesting………Ummm… know what babe, I am a Brahmin too and I do understand that I haven’t been brought up this strict, well I feel this has got nothing to do my wishing to be yours for this lifetime… I sincerely feel so!”

At this, Su really got heated up and in a mad pace, she went in a half-trot-half-walk manner across the road towards the river bank that had an exotic view of its natural life elixir on one side with the diminished long shot beautiful miniature of the whole city on the other. She chose to do this on occasions when anger went conquering her faculty of senses uncontrollably and hence this was an act of yearning peace at times of such mental crises.
Understandably our hero follows Su and stood beside her and spoke in her ears so softly that only she could have heard.

“What makes it so difficult for you to believe me? Do I look like a prankster to you? Do you think I am not being serious about things that I mention about us? What do I have to do to prove myself that I being dead-bolt serious about every word I utter about you?..... if you think this is what I am gonna ask you…… you are mistaken dude! That’s not Ani is all about. I believe in something that my freaked out mind urges me into, it may look impulsive but hey look, I don't care about all that.... what my inner instructor says is the white rabbit’s way for this Neo! I am not being dramatic here. Simple and Plain truth dame!”

Having said that he leaned across her who was keen on taking in the river’s serenity more than Ani’s words, bending backwards to face her better and said….
“ I wanna marry you! I have made up my mind. I don’t wanna force you, But I dont wanna listen to your silly justifications to be against this...”

Shocked at this statement, Su slowly turned her head and gaped at Ani unable to believe her ears at what they renosated inside her head with his last few sentences...... But somehow she knew something on the similar lines were going to be delivered.. well, not this deliberate though!

Alright, It's time for me to talk right now, She thought.....

“I’ve told this before and you are making me say it again. Anyways, if that’s what you want, that’s what you get! Now, that you got me started…So, here you go… sometime back when I said “Don’t make me fall in love Ani” , I didn’t mean that I am stopping myself with all my strengths from falling for you, rather I meant that it isn’t going to prove anything right, useful or wrong over here, but it just means … yet another sentimental ride, an emotional trip, a complete ramshackle of your mental resources when you would consider the entire fiasco as an afterthought at a later date. The reasons are manyfold, quite a few of them just for you ...all over again....
Factor 1: I am elder to you by age.
Factor 2: The way you think and I do are totally different.
Factor 3: The way you grew up and I did can never match.
Factor 4: Many of your likes are forever-toppers in my loathsome list.
Factor 5: What you call as “Fun” is “Shockingly & Surprisingly Maddening” to me.

With all of these and many more, I am unable draw a line as to where do I really stand or even snuggle hard to fit into your frame of expectations that would remain invisible yet strong sitting on my head as “a beautiful crown of responsibilities” to be borne (not worn...cos if it's worn I can probably... just maybe throw it away saying I just dont like it sitting atop my head!) by traditionally rich and marginally contemporary ladies of the Indian Manufacturing & Packaging! (Mind you! without any foreign collaboration anywhere at that by any means what-so-ever!)

Now, Having said that,I don’t know what’s in store for me in the future. It could be the worst that anyone can have or the best that anyone could get. But I am game for both or either. Absolutely no regrets at that one. But …if…. Let’s just say……..what if….. You fail to acknowledge certain things coming from me and even fail to realize that you faltered? I am not perfection personified.. and so are many humans till date… but this could happen to anyone like you and me…. So why take chances? Let’s rather remain glued, unfaltering in our very own paths and resign to what Mr.Fate’s got in his lot written for us. I feel this one sounds much better…much more realistic…definitely less complex… certainly much impressive and also much to say more S.E.N.S.I.B.L.E”

She took a long & deep breath.

For one, she ran out of breath having spoken the above without even the minimal pauses that’s required, as is the way of her speaking, for which again Ani loved her for, and the other out of a small relief in speaking out all she wanted to with him for quite some time now….

Without wanting to make note of his reaction to this long monologue of hers, She continued....

“So Anirudh, at this juncture (they really were at a junction of cross roads), I don’t want be dragged along to the right(turn) for I can clearly see that isn’t taking the road to my HOME, as the one that I am part of right now and the one that I would want to be as well. I would rather appreciate sticking to the left(turn) and tracing my way back to my very HOME the way I want it, just alone for now until I find one of my choice who not-even a wee-bit as insane or moronic as I am....Great men said Opposites Attract!... Right?”

She turned around adjusting her sling-bag that was laid across her chest without any motion or activity for a long time now and tried to take the left turn, but thought better to stop for one final moment, and spun-around to see Ani and wave him a final good-bye and spill that infectious little smile for the last time that had hit him hard exactly an year back when they met each other at the same
cross-roads, which then he thought (maybe still does) was a divine-intervention!

An avalanche of emotion was rushing into every vein of Anirudh’s body leaving him stock-still and anchored to the spot in the middle of the cross-roads, with the on-going traffickers honking and throwing profanities at him for obstructing their way.

Make what you will of that - Dear Reader!

******Story Ends On A Not So Impressive Note Here*******

P.P.S:Reasons withheld for Weird & Inexplicable Raison d'être

P.S: Copy Rights Reserved - Original Unabridged First Version - Feb 2008