Author: Arsh Kabra

The most boring person at any given party.

Categories
Thoughts

The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense. It’s a movie that immediately puts a series of chills through your body if you’ve watched it. If you haven’t, then let me just go ahead and say SPOILER ALERT!!! It’s a really breathtaking movie, and I don’t want to be the guy who spoils it for you. You, like me, deserve the best experience. So, watch it, and then read this.

I’m going to talk about the twist in the tale. It’s something that kept me glued to the bed that I was sleeping on while watching it. As soon as the credits started, my head sank back into the pillow, and my hand slowly crept up to my mouth, covering it. I found myself saying, “Whoa,” but obviously, that was barely scratching the surface. That’s when the alarm on my watch went off, telling me to go to my class. I gave it no attention. My mind was absolutely blown, and I couldn’t be bothered by Physics just after this! After class, I looked the movie up to see who to congratulate on this masterpiece. I was surprised to find that it was the same guy who directed The Last Airbender, an absolutely horrendous and atrocious movie. My father then told me that The Sixth Sense was what brought M. Night Shyamalan onto the map.

Director aside, I’m now going to get to the meat of this post. The twist: Bruce Willis’s character, Dr. Malcom Crowe is dead. (I’m now realizing how weird this sounds to people who haven’t watched the movie. What are you people doing here anyway?)

I checked out some reviews to see whether people thought the same way I did, but no one even mentioned some of the things that stuck with me. I now realize that some of these things are something no one has thought about. Therefore, I’m sharing my thoughts with all of you, and if you decide that the question has been answered, let’s discuss it in the comments!

My questions is: does the boy, Cole, even exist?

The boy himself says, “They see what they want to see.” We know that Vincent Grey, the madman that shot Dr. Crowe caused major guilt in the psychiatrist. It is safe to say that Dr. Crowe wanted to help that guy. What if Dr. Crowe imagined Cole and helped him? He could be all made up.

If that is somehow answered, I feel like it could have been best left unanswered. I really like thought provoking movies, and this is the perfect example of an excellent movie.

For aspiring movie-makers out there, you know what you need to do to make it into my good books.

Categories
Random Stories

Ishita and Akshay

Ishita pedaled as hard as she could and as fast as she could. She had done a horrible thing, and she regretted it. Why did she succumb to the charm she distinctly remembered calling creepy? Why did she have to go and hold Manoj’s hand like that? What power in heaven decided that that should be the point where her boyfriend, Akshay walked into sight?

The weather had been wonderful on that winter night. She had seen the bouquet of roses fall from Akshay’s hand as her hand quickly retracted, and she shot straight up from the bench they’d been sitting on. Manoj hadn’t moved a muscle. He knew that Akshay was weak. A fight would have ended badly. Akshay, however, was smarter. He just gave a cold look into Ishita’s eyes and simply walked out, as if Manoj wasn’t even worth looking at.

Therefore, Ishita was cycling down the streets of Pune to get to Akshay’s house, three kilometers away. She was going dangerously fast, but she didn’t care. She knew that Akshay would not forgive her, but she would not let it go down in history that she had done such a thing and not felt sorry about it. She swerved through the cars like an expert and could have mastered the Tour de France easily. She noticed the turn for Akshay’s and a red street light. She decided that traffic rules could wait and turned. A loud honk filled her ears, and she felt a sharp pain throughout her body. After that, she saw nothing. She was vaguely aware of being taken somewhere with loud sirens … was that an ambulance?

The last thing she remembered was the multiple doctors standing around her for a very brief second, and then … darkness.

Categories
Random Stories

What Happened in Delhi

The messenger clambered into the silent court and found confused faces staring at him. He didn’t care. He had an important message. It had to be delivered. “All hail the mighty Emperor!” he cried, and fell to his knees. “Rise and speak, young one.” said the Emperor. “Thank you, my lord. The sepoys from Meerut have reached Delhi and seek refuge. They will soon fight against the foreigners. They would be forever indebted to you if you were so kind as to provide some extra troops.”

The Emperor turned to the mir bakshi. “Arrange for them to stay at the barracks. They will march into battle tomorrow morning with hundred of my men. Make it so.” he then turned to the messenger and asked, “Anything else?”

“Nothing, my Lord. I thank you for your time.”

With that, the messenger tore out of the court and left the Mughal Emperor in deep thought. Bahadur Shah sat, thinking of the best way to asses the situation. He knew that he needed his wife and children safe. Especially Bahadur Shah II. He was the heir to the Mughal throne. His ancestors would have never wanted the throne to fall to the unworthy hands of the British. Should he sit back and watch the sepoys hunt the British down, or should he join the fight? He had been hearing for a few days now, that many places were rising up in revolt of this foul power. The Rani of Jhansi was probably also planning something, seeing what had happened to her four years ago. What was the best thing to do?

Suddenly, the doors blasted open, the blood of the guards staining them. The guns cocked and shot. Chaos prevailed. The Britishers had come, and a massacre had unfolded. Blood splattered on every wall of the court. Bahadur Shah pulled his sword out, but he realized quickly how stupid it had been. “No!” yelled the leader of the brutes. “Don’t shoot him. Let him realize his treason.” But Bahadur Shah wasn’t going to come quietly. He threw a small knife across the room, which impaled one of the guards. A loud scream ensued. “Seize him!” cried the leader. The Emperor readied his sword. “Don’t kill him!” yelled the scum. He swung his sword, which collided with one of the guns. He jabbed at another guard, who blocked it. The guard whacked him with the butt of his gun. He was forced to his knees. The chaos had subsided. The Emperor was in the arms of filth. “Now,” said the leader, kneeling down to Bahadur Shah’s face. “I’m going to ask you one very simple question. And you’re going to answer it, or get everything you worked for taken from you, you understand?”
“I answer only to God.” hissed the Emperor.
“Where are the sepoys?”
The Emperor was silent.
“You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Where are the traitors? If you don’t answer, you’ll be treated like one yourself. You want that? No? O.K., then. Where are the sepoys?”
The Emperor gathered up saliva in his mouth and dispatched it onto the leader’s face. One of the guards advanced and smashed the butt of the gun into Bahadur Shah’s stomach.

The Mughal let out a loud scream. “O.K.” said the Britisher, wiping the spit from his face. He turned to a guard after pointing at five. “Search the palace. Find any children in it and bring them here.” He turned to the Emperor. “Let me give you a little extra incentive.”

The Emperor cursed the Britisher loudly. The leader merely laughed. It was an evil laugh. The laugh of a demon.

Bahadur Shah had heard what the Britisher had said. They would find his sons. What would they do? He hated to think about it, but he couldn’t push it from his mind. He knew what was going to happen. Information for the life of his children. He knew he couldn’t betray his country – his motherland. But could he do that to his children? Could he betray his children against the country? Could he betray his country for his children?

In they came. “Get your hands off me!” yelled Bahadur Shah II. “Do you know who my father -”

He caught a glimpse of his mighty father, Britishers holding him down, a look of worry and surrendered defeat on his face. “F-f-father?” his second son had also seen it. The sons exchanged looks. Their strong-willed, big-hearted father had been subdued.

“Now, Bahadur.” said the British leader, “Tell me where the sepoys are, or your sons get it.”

Bahadur Shah’s mind was racing. He couldn’t just let them kill his sons, nor could he betray the sepoys. “Alright, then,” said the leader, “Mr. Anderson, shoot this one -” he pointed to the elder son, “on the count of two.”

The guard roughly pushed the elder son to the ground. Bahadur Shah II screamed and kicked, but he was no match for Anderson. “One.” said the leader. “No, please! Not him! Shoot me instead!” yelled the Emperor. The leader scratched his chin in mock consideration. “No,” he said, thoughtfully, “That wouldn’t be as much fun, now, would it?”
“Please!” yelled the Emperor.
“Where are the sepoys?”
The Emperor was desperately searching his minds for things to say.
“Two.”
Bahadur Shah II looked into the Emperor’s eyes, tears streaming through them. “Fa-Father?” said the boy in Persian, before a loud Bang! filled the court, and Bahadur Shah II crumpled to the ground.

There was a moment of complete silence. The Emperor was to shocked to say anything.

“Now are you willing to talk?” said the leader, kneeling in front of Bahadur Shah. “I’ll ask you once: where are the damn sepoys?”

The Emperor once again spit in the leader’s face. “I won’t even count, this time!” yelled the Britisher. He whirled around and shot the younger son square in the face.

Everything stopped. The Emperor didn’t remember anything after that, except waking up in prison, and spending the rest of his life in there. He didn’t remember being taken to prison. His world, as he knew it, had stopped.

Categories
The Legend of Larbantos

Chapter 2: Plans

The captain of the spaceship Exploration sat with his maps, making lines. The Exploration had finished a complete circle around the mysterious planet they had named Larbantos 3. The Geography team of the Arkhalmanosk spaceship had prepared a map of Larbantos 3 and its other satellite, the spherical rock shape. They decided that it was a natural satellite. On mapping it, the team found it very unremarkable, but the planet itself was a different case.

There were five pieces of huge solid rock on the planet, two of which were covered by ice. A few smaller pieces of rock were also present. The rest of the planet was a blue liquid. For a full report on what the rock was and what the liquid was, they had to send down teams. The Captain’s job was to plan out the teams and stay above it all, recording discoveries. Yet, he had a sensation of curiosity. He wanted to get on this planet. He wanted to do what he had been assigned to this mission for. Explore.

He devided the five rocks into eight parts. Each part was big. He would need enlarged maps. That was easy. The Geography team probably already had them ready. Before the captain had the chance to reach for the intercom to turn it on, a ringing brought up a notification on his desk. Renevorkh put his stylus down and pressed the notification. It was a message from the Geography Office. The screen showed the following message.

Does the captain require enlarged maps?

-Gemtokharm, Geography.

The captain typed in a reply. He hated those damned voice messages. They got on his nerves. He would die before he fell to that level.

Yes, please, thank you. I have made the divisions in the map attached. Enlarge accordingly. Send immediately.

-Renevorkh, Captain.

In no less than five seconds from the moment the Captain hit the “Send” button, had the images arrived. The captain picked his stylus back up and began drawing lines again. For the first time since his departure from Arkhalmanosk, he was having fun.

A meeting was called with all the Heads and the Captain. Ishkhalmar, Galmanormus, Zeredbith, Caradveriamth, Redvarkhorsk, Talmanorkhim and Leekhnishar were all seated around a table. The captain was standing and displaying his plans for a thorough search of the Planet Larbantos 3. The captain had decided that the entire world had to be cut up into eight sectors, and each sector had to be divided into seventeen segments. Each segment was to be explored by a different team. The Science team had to stay on board for any informational relay that would have to be made. Any samples would be teleported on board, and were to be studied immaculately.

The entire crew had to be taken into account. For the expedition required, they needed seven Arkhalmanosks per team. Seven Arkhalmanosks for each of the seventeen segments. That would be one hundred and nineteen Arkhalmanosks per sector. There were eight sectors. They needed nine hundred and fifty two Arkhalmanosks in total for Expedition Ishkhalmar 1, excluding the Heads. On including the eight heads of Ishkhalmar 1, there were nine hundred and sixty Arkhalmanosks required. The total head count was 1,167. The science team had seventy Arkhalmanosks. That left 1097, excluding the Captain, Second-in-command, and all the heads, which made eight Arkhalmanosks. Altogether, 1105 Arkhalmanosks were left to choose from. One hundred and forty five left after choosing nine hundred and sixty, from which, two were the doctors. So, one hundred and forty three. Adding the seventy of the Science team, there were two hundred and thirteen Arkhalmanosks left on the ship. Enough to keep the ship in orbit. That was their job. Fairly easy. The computer and gravity did most of the work. Renevorkh hoped that there would be no complications in the matter. If any intelligent life form was found, it would be reported immediately, and the search would be stopped. Second-in-command and Captain would take over from there. There would be no need for any more complications. In case of an emergency, if the intelligent life doesn’t like the Arkhalmanosks, Leekhnishar and Renevorkh could handle themselves, and will ask to teleport up immediately, and the ship would move on. The mission for Larbantos 3 will end there, and the planet would be deemed unfit for friendly relations. “Now, without further ado,” said Captain Renevorkh, “Prepare one hundred and nineteen Arkhalmanosks each. Let us explore Larbantos 3.”

The Captain’s team teleported down to Sector 2 Segment 13. He had sent all the other team members to the other parts of the Segment. Any development of would be instantly relayed to him, and he would relay it to the Science team. The Exploration of Exploration had begun.

Days seemed to be a little shorter on this planet, but he searched for three Larbantian days. He had mapped out whatever he saw, but nothing of much interest was found. Some plant life was seen, but no walking, talking life. Nothing. Just days of searching with just a few hours’ rest. It continued like this until miraculously, The Captain was triumphant.

Renevorkh was walking through the gray corroded area that comprised of the Mred substance, where he found no signs of life whatsoever, but something definately told him that there used to be a dominant life form here. What happened to this life form? What was the sudden force that wiped out all life on this planet? What was this planet anyway?

He had no time to think, because just in front of him, out of a hole in one of the walls of the buildings, something jumped out. It caught Renevorkh by surprise. Life! “Ah!” he exclaimed happily, “Greetings, life of this planet! I hope we have not invaded your-” but just at that moment, a roar was issued from the creature.

It was nothing like what Renvorkh had seen before. It walked on four limbs and when it opened its mouth to roar, Renevorkh saw huge teeth protruding out of its gums. The body was a strong mass of fur, and it was coloured in orange, with black stripes all over it.

“I am sorry that I am not fluent in your language, but I’m sure the Arkhalmanosks on my spaceship, the Exploration will certainly find a way to – what are you doing?”

It was advancing. Slowly as ever. Cautiously, as if it was calculating every move Renevorkh made and was deciding what was the best way to get at him. The stare was intimidating, but Renevorkh returned it, nervously.

Renevorkh took a step back. “I – I must warn you, any attempt at violence will end in pain. I don’t think you really want to do this. We come in absolute peace.”

But the creature didn’t back off. It snarled at Renevorkh. It moved to the side, and so did Renevorkh. He was ready for attack. But how would it att –

Too late! The creature lunged at Renevorkh, and made a biting gesture. Renevorkh pushed it back, and tripped into the hole through which the creature had come earlier. The Captain felt dizzy, all of a sudden. The creature bounded to the Captain and bared its fangs. Just then, a voice screamed in his head, “THE FOOD SHALL BE OURS TO EAT!”

Renevorkh used his Arkhalmanosk power to burst into a cloud of molecules and reappeared behind the creature. Where … ? Said the voice in his head. Renevorkh became six times more alert than he was. The creature had made an attempt at Renevorkh’s life. The Captain of the Starship Exploration had to much dignity to just let that slide.

Renevorkh brought out his sword from his belt and sank it into the creature’s hide. An ear-piercing scream tore through his head. The Captain felt as if his ears were going to explode. In front of him, the creature roared in pain and lopped to the ground. In agony, Renevorkh held his head and fell to his knees, screaming. Then the screaming stopped. Renevorkh got up, breathing hard, and suddenly, a new, deeper voice filled his ears.

What the hell was that?

Categories
Grammar Exam Essays

A Good Movie

A good movie is sort of hard to come by these days. All you ever really get is a bunch of remakes or sequels that completely obliterate anything good about the original movie, or book adaptations which, believe me, you’re better off reading the book for.

Before we start, SPOILER ALERT! There may be some spoilers to movies you want to watch but haven’t gotten around to watch it yet. I can offer no other warnings. There will be a lot of movie mentions, and I’m not going to go listing them all here.

But sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get some absolute gems, like The Martian (probably the best book adaptation ever), Interstellar, Gravity, Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy, and Dangal. Other times, you get garbage like the Fast & Furious series, the Transformers series, or Suicide Squad.

So, what makes a good movie?

Well, there are a lot of things, and most movies get some of them right. Obviously, no movie gets everything right. There will always be something wrong. Here, I will list everything a good movie needs to get right, which ones did it perfectly, and which ones got it all wrong.

First, there’s the story. The film’s story must have no plot holes. It must be a complete story from start to end. I understand the hardships with that, being a writer of stories myself, but an honourable mention here is The Martian. The story is awesome. A guy gets stranded on Mars, finds a way to grow crops on a different planet, and eventually survives. The story is thrilling and keeps you on the edge of your seat most of the time. For all you fellow bookworms, I am angry that they didn’t put some parts from the book into the movie like that Rover accident in the Schiaparelli crater. I hated that they didn’t add it, but the movie was actually good. On the other hand is the Fast & Furious franchise. The movie has absolutely no story, and introduces new, crucial characters without giving any hints whenever they damn well please.

Next, there’s the acting. Most movies do amazingly well in this category, but some, like The Last Airbender don’t. The way the lines are read in that movie, you’d think they were reading from a text-book. A movie that did this perfectly is … well … any of the “gems” I mentioned above.

Then we have the stakes. A movie should seem like the characters are in some sort of danger, or in some sort of trouble, otherwise it’s just boring. I really can’t think of any movie that did this part properly, but some movies bend the rules of this criteria a little. One movie that completely mauls over any rules of this criteria is Furious 7 or any Fast and Furious movie, really, but the 7th one has a scene where the car’s skeleton can be seen after a topple from a cliff, but the occupants of the car have ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNS OF INJURY! None! They just got out from the car and continued on their merry way like some kid who recovered from a minor fall in the park.

Some movies absolutely captivate me, and some movies make me want to stab the screen with a pencil. But, somehow, I enjoy 75% of the movies I go to watch. The key, I feel, is to think of every movie as if it’s going to be horrible, therefore, it’ll be double as magical if the movie is good, and the bad ones will make you go, “Oh. Well, that was better than I expected.”

Sometimes, I break this rule when I get too excited for a Star Wars movie or a Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie, but usually, I come out of the theatre saying, “Well, that was pretty good, actually.”

Categories
Grammar Exam Essays

The Day of Crime

The humans had forgotten their interplanetary divisions ever since the Gringlons and themselves had discovered each other. After learning the languages in 2025, Earth had united all the nations and started having a single administration. This continued every five years. Since 2025, Ranjana Kumar had been unbeaten as the President of Earth. In the election of 2040, Jeremy Randall had competed, and no one had given it a second thought at the time. Then, Randall proposed the synthesis of a huge program called Mission Roddenberry, honouring the creator of Star Trek in this mission to “seek out new life, and new civilizations”. A whole lot of people liked this idea, compared to Kumar’s stupid “colonize the Gringlons” idea. No one understood why she was going with such a stupid campaign. Her campaigns until now were nothing but awesome! So, naturally, they voted for Randall.

On the Twenty-Second of February, 2040, Jeremy Randall was sworn in as President of Earth. Everyone was ready to hear the start of Mission Roddenberry. Harry McCall, a citizen of London, turned on his T.V. screen showed thunderous applause as Mr. Randall sat in his chair. “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” said Randall, “I’m sure all of you are waiting to hear me start Mission Roddenberry. But no. There will be no Mission Roddenberry.”

Harry was astonished. What the hell was he doing? What happened to “The continuing mission to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one had gone before”? What was Randall’s deal?

“Instead,” continued the President, “The legislative committee and I have decided to start a new festival. We don’t know what to call it yet, but here are the premises: No rules apply on 26th February every year. Everything you can think of is legal. This new law is effective immediately. Thank you.”

No thunderous applause followed him out. No reporters followed him out. Everybody was too dumbstruck to contemplate what just happened. Harry McCall had lost all hope in humanity instantly. He didn’t necessarily have a dark mind, but he had a clear one. Even if crime was legal, he found it unethical. Harry switched off the T.V. in disgust and grabbed his phone. There was only one thing any man worth his salt would do. He called Kalyani.

Kalyani Sharma was an Indian born, down-to-earth Londoner, who was surprised at the status of the woman. It had not improved since 2015, and now this weird law? The rapists were going to be everywhere. Her phone started ringing. It was definitely Harry, suggesting that he should accompany her wherever she went tomorrow. She picked up her phone and assured Harry that she would be fine, and decided that it would be best to carry a small club around with her. Unfortunately, she didn’t have anything near as awesome as that, so she settled for her bottle of pepper spray. She did have a cricket bat, but that would be a little to bulky to carry. She put the spray in her bag and decided to retire for the day. She sat down at her desk and opened up her writer’s log. She pressed the record button and spoke, “Captain’s Personal Log, date: 25th February, 2040. We’re pretty much screwed, yo.”

Harry McCall woke up to a loud thud in his house. As a reflex, he jumped out of bed and picked up his cricket bat. He was still in his pajamas, but he didn’t care. There was a person in his house.

Harry heard the loud, clumsy footsteps come towards the bedroom. He anticipated the burglar’s location. He heard the burglar right outside the door, and pushed it open with all his might. The door crashed into the burglar’s face. Harry closed the door behind him and brought his bat crashing down onto the burglar’s face. He noticed the gun in the burglar’s hand and reached for it. The burglar was too fast, and pointed the gun at Harry. The gun was then knocked out of his hand by Harry’s bat’s handle, as it came shooting up. Harry jabbed the bat into the burglar’s stomach. The trespasser doubled over in pain and received the face of Harry’s bat straight in his nose. Harry went around the burglar and jabbed the handle into the back of his opponent’s knees. The burglar was now kneeling, and Harry, in a savage blow, brought the bat into the back of the burglar’s head. The burglar let out a roar of pain and crumpled to the ground.

Harry quickly knelt to his opponent’s side and grabbed his wrist. He felt nothing. The burglar was dead. Harry had killed a man with a cricket bat. He dropped said bat to the ground and slumped into the floor, horrified at what he’d done. He had no provocation. The man had only broken into his house, and he died for it. It was legal to kill today, but was it worth it? He hadn’t wanted to kill him. Just drive him away. Heck, the man hadn’t even attempted to kill Harry! Harry had killed him nonetheless. There he sat, crying. He cried until his pajamas were soaked with tears. He just sat twas not thinking of Harry at that time. She had more pressing matters to think about. Likehere, with a dead man in front of him, and a cricket bat at his side, stained with blood. What would his parents think of him? Moreover, what would Kalyani think of him?

Kalyani wondered how she was going to get to work. It was going to be rough. There would definitely be rapists on the loose, and she had walked there every single time. She hadn’t even thought of buying a car. She could get anything she wanted by calling a taxi or walking. Why would she want her own car? Now, her own car sounded like an awesome idea.

She would have to conquer her fears. She would have to bring back years of self-defense classes that her school had made her go through. She had to bring out her pepper spray, and hope that nothing happened on the way to her office.

As soon as she walked out of the apartment complex she stayed in, she saw a man and a woman going at each other in a fist fight. She was happy to see that the woman was dominating the man, and then immediately scolded herself for thinking this was in any way a good thing. Diplomatic resolution of disputes had always been her ‘thing’, and there was no one who could beat her in an argument.

It wasn’t even a dark, dingy alley where those three creeps cornered her. Heck, it wasn’t even a corner! It was a footpath. They came in, yelling, “Heyyy, there, purrdy!” and Kalyani wanted to puke. She tightened her grip on the strap of her bag, and continued walking. One of them blocked her path, making her bump into him. “Get out of my way, half-wit,” said Kalyani, looking straight into the creep’s eyes. “Before I beat your face so that even your mother wouldn’t be able to recognize it.”
“Ooooh!” said a different creep, coming in behind her. She slipped her hand into her bag and closed her fingers around the spray. She turned around and said, “I’m only going to say this once. Back. Off.”
“Or what?” said the creep, showing her a toothless smile, “You’ll stop talking to me?”
“I’ll break whatever teeth you have left.”
“Oooh!” said the third creep.
“Is that all you guys can ever do?”
That’s when the creep made his biggest mistake.

He pushed Kalyani into the compound wall, and she got angry. She took her hand out of her bag with the pepper spray in it, and punched the rapist in front of her in the stomach. She sprayed pepper in the eyes of the advancing creep to her right, and sent her foot crashing into the third guy’s crotch. She sprayed the pepper into his eyes. She dropped her bag and advanced at the first guy, punching him twice in the face, and spraying the pepper into his eyes as well. He stumbled over to the edge of the footpath, trying to clear his eyes. He tripped and fell into the road, and a racing car ran over him, splattering blood everywhere. She walked over to the guy on her left, grabbed his ear and twisted it with her left hand, and punched him with her right. He fell to the ground, unconscious. She turned to see the last rapist wildly grabbing at her. She walked over, and gave him and uppercut under the chin. She grabbed his ear, twisted it, and whispered into his other one, “Don’t ever – ever – underestimate a woman.”

She pushed him away, punched his stomach, and brought her knee up to his nose as he doubled over in pain. He flipped over and fell on his back. Kalyani grabbed her bag and ran as fast as she could, wiping the tears from her eyes. She had just killed a man. She made him fall into the road and get run over by a car. She had committed murder. What would her parents think of her? Moreover, what would Harry think of her?

Categories
Uncategorized

Independence Day

“Ma’am, stapler, please!” cried Arnav as he threw his hand up in the air with a sigh of relief. The end of the physics exam marked the end of 9th standard, and Arnav felt as if he had just completed a milestone in his life, even though he had the most talked about standard of school life to go: 10th standard.

He’d heard that standard 10 was a bit overhyped, and that 9th was harder than 10th, and he felt that nothing could have been harder than what he had gone through, but that hadn’t stopped the teachers from constantly saying, “You’re going to 10th now! Buckle up!”

Honestly, 9th had been hard, academically and emotionally. Embarrassing comments from his parents about him growing up was one thing, but going through the other changes in his life was hard. On top of that, some of his favourite people had died that year. A few actors, one sportsman, and, above all else, his grandfather.

Dada, as Arnav had called him, was secretly his favourite grandparent. He was fun-loving, child-loving, and the one person who Arnav could relate to in an instant. Throughout his life, Dada had been an introvert, and had always been nervous around people, but he learnt to discard that and move on with his life. After mastering that psychology, he went on to master Astrophysics, and became a pretty well known Indian astrophysicist. He was the first one Arnav would talk to at Diwali, and every time there would be a facts session, where a few of the newer discoveries were shared with Arnav, and he would get updates on the recent pictures from the voyager, though he didn’t really get to see a lot. He found Dada really cool, and you could imagine his devastation when he died.

The grief had overtaken him, and he gave up studying for a week. He went to school, but he was always distracted. He still laughed and joked. No one who would have seen him in that week for the first time would have known that his favourite person in the whole world had left him forever and was never to come back.

Yet he played, and joked, and laughed, but the thing he hated the most was, “You sure you up for playing? Do you need a break?”

No. He did not need a break. Why would he need a break? He understood that his friends were just looking out for him, but if he needed a break, he would take one. He didn’t need their permission. Besides, taking a break would make him think of Dada, plunging him once more into grief. Why would he want that?

Logically thinking, it was stupid, but underneath, he appreciated his friends. Every time he heard that, he scoffed at them, and told them off, but later, as he curled up in his bed reading The Godfather, he thought of it, and said to himself, a warm, fuzzy feeling rising in his chest, and his lips spreading in a smile, “My friends are just … awesome!”

Then his passing father would stop in his tracks, look at him, an eyebrow raised, and say, “Oookaayy … ?”

That was the highlight of his day. Curling up in his bed, smiling into the pillow, thinking, what a spectacular day that was! Not the many wonderful things that happened during the day which he overlooked in his grief. For example: Mayur smiled at me today. Sanika found my joke funny. Man, that joke was funny. Naresh and I fist-bumped! Ranjana said I played football well! I didn’t know that was possible!

And here he was, sitting in his exam chair, stapling his papers, not caring for the outcome. It had been a good paper, but the past was in the past, and the future in the future. Right now, all Arnav had to think about was nothing. There were five minutes more for the test time to get over. How do we pass that time? Well, we could totally think about how awesome yesterday was all over again!

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Chapter 1: The Invisible Life Form

Exploration: Captain’s Log (Translated Transcript): Earth Date 2nd February, 2020

We have been in uncharted territory for seventy days now, and have entered a new Galaxy as logged thirty days ago. This galaxy is now known as the Derekrion Galaxy, after my Navigator who pointed out the new galaxy. I believe that this will be a perfect opportunity for exploration on the Exploration (I feel so happy for using that pun. You hate me, but I don’t care for you, do I?).

The Knowledge Team has discovered a star system with eight planets. It has been logged as the Larbantos system because Worker Larbantos was the one to bring it to Head of Department Ishkhalmar’s attention. He, in turn, brought it to my attention. The third planet, according to Ishkhalmar and Larbantos, shows considerable potential, which somehow went without the Government’s notice. That is probably because of the large distance between Arkhalmanosk and this system. Life has been indicated, therefore we will send a message down to the planet in all language forms. I see no point, since it is uncharted territory, this life may have a different language form from what we know, but the Government has a law stating that we have to communicate before transporting down. We’ll see how this goes.

“Greetings, life form. We wish to communicate. Please comply.”

Sounds a little blunt. How about, “Greetings. We come in peace. We wish nothing but to communicate with your honourable community. We are ready to send down a team of seven Arkhalmanosks to learn about your culture and community, while honouring whatever policies you wish. We are ready to teleport whenever you are ready to receive us. Warmest regards, Renevorkh: Captain of the Spaceship Exploration.”

Much better.

Exploration: Captain’s Log (Translated Transcript): Supplemental

The message has been sent, but we have received nothing. We’ve traveled halfway around this planet at standard orbit speed, and no answer. What has happened to this planet?

We see a considerable number of spaceships with weird symbols on them. I suspect a language, but after teleporting one of these spaceships on board, Head of Culture, Galmanormus cannot recognize these symbols. They are of many types. One seems to have some symbols repeating, so they mean something. A certain phonetic maybe. All this can be seen under the Cultural log of Planet 3: Larbantos. I think there may have been several life forms on this planet(intelligent life forms, I mean), or several species of one life form, or several cultures of one life form. Whatever it may be, space travel seems to be achieved by them. Judging by the number of spaceships here, it was achieved a good amount of time ago.

However, these spaceships are too small to contain any life form that can achieve such tasks. Conclusion: They were unmanned. They were orbiting the planet, like us, but unmanned. Orbiting the same planet. Inference: Satellites, Conclusion: The life on this planet was an intelligent, civilized race.

On these satellites, we see rectangular images with pictures on them of different colours. Probably the equivalent of our flags. Inference: They needed something to identify groups of people of different cultures. Conclusion: There were several cultures. But this is just one planet. No other planets in this system show any signs of life. Conclusion: Many cultures of one life form.

I remembered when I was a commander in the Seventh Lignatish War, Year of Barald, a ship had come. It was over a thousand days ago, but that’s what started this mission. A stray spaceship had been found in the space surrounding my home planet, Slignith 7, which the Government failed to identify. The rectangular symbol on it was identical to the one on the satellite we brought in. That was most certainly an incredible coincidence. It has exactly fifty, five-pointed, white figures in a smaller blue rectangle in the top left, with stripes of red and white across the rest of the rectangle. I looked again at the satellite, looking for a symbol with the following four symbols on it. I have drawn them in the written log corresponding to this one.

NASA

As we can see, the second and fourth symbols are identical. It is the written form of a language. I am absolutely sure of it. It may not correspond to our language, but I’m sure as hell going to try.

Exploration: Captain’s Log (Translated Transcript): Earth Date 3rd February, 2020

I was up late yesterday taking pictures of the rest of the satellites. The language form has a lot of different symbols, so I segregated them into a few sections. It was backbreaking work, and I could only finish Part 1 of Larbantian. Written log contains Part 1.

Exploration: Captain’s Written Log Direct Copy (Titled: Larbantian Part 1 (Translated)): Earth Date 3rd February, 2020

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. (26 Characters)

क ख ग घ च छ ज झ त थ द ध म (13 Characters)

May not be full. I am new to this language form.

-Renevorkh: Captain of the Exploration

Exploration: Captain’s Log (Translated Transcript): Earth Date 4th February, 2020

This planet is intriguing. No signs of a life form are there, but a life form lived here. There was definitely life on this planet.

Don’t need any space equipment. As of now, the planet has the general atmospheric composition as Arkalmanic atmosphere, which is extremely convenient.

Larbantos will be getting a huge load of publicity back home. I wonder whether this has reached Arkhalmanosk?

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The Legend of Larbantos 3: My story.

Hello, dear readers. Just a bit of information:

I’ve been working on a story, and I wish to share it little by little. I’ll be posting it here chapter by chapter. Maybe once a week, maybe once a month? Whatever it is, I’ll be posting the first chapter shortly.

“Larbantos” is a word I made up. It’s a name, so don’t be confused.

Thanks.

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Why, Hello There!

I’ve looked over the past few blogs and cringed at each one of them. What was I thinking with this story? What kind of language is that? What stupidity made me do this? I was but a little kid at the time of writing those, and they are truly embarrassing. Now, I am a little older. My vocabulary, along with my body, has grown, and I know how to write good stuff. Maybe.

I’m pretty sure I’ll come here again sometime next year and think to my self, What the heck? But for now, this is it.

I write for myself, and those who read it can read it at their pleasure. If you don’t like the matter, leave a comment. If there are some better words for me to use in some places, leave comment. If I made a grammatical or spelling error, leave a comment. If you find a better way to express something, leave a comment. If you differ from my point of view, leave a comment, and we can have a little debate of our own. I’m here to improve, not show my superiority. Not that I have much of that … but you get my meaning.

So, what will you get here? Whatever I see fit. Whatever I want to write. You read what I write and you give feedback.

A variety of essays will be posted here: instances from my day, essays about something that impresses me or makes me angry, and an occasional story.

So, dear reader, I implore you, read. I hope you’ll enjoy yourself.