Monday, September 9, 2013

The Mango Tree

"Dad, Dad!!! why don't we plant a tree in our garden? It would be a nice addition and fruitful too." Chimed Arnav and Ashima

"Sure we would think about it, right Ashi?" I asked my wife

"Yeah, that's a nice idea after all we have got such a big garden in this new house." replied Ashi my wife

"So which tree should we plant, then?" I asked

"Mango! Mango!" Kids exclaimed

"Of course Mango, they were constantly talking about mango trees since they returned from their school trip to a mango farm." I thought

"That's a nice suggestion, I would bring one plant from nursery." I said

Soon I brought the little mango plant from the nursery and we put that in a corner to be planted after a few days.

***************

"Dad we are planting the tree now, come home early." Informed my kids over the phone they were ecstatic

But I got stuck in a meeting at office after lunch, when I finally reached home at 9 my house was empty. I couldn't find anyone.

I ran to the garden in the back of the house and the newly planted tree was swaying with the wind but my family was nowhere to be found.

I checked every room, every nook, called every friend and relative, but no one had any ideas where they might have gone. I even called police but they said that they can only lodge a missing persons report if they are missing for more than 48 hours.

The clock chimed to let me know that it was 2 AM but I had no sense of time. I didn't even feel the hunger now which I felt when I was coming for home. I had no idea where my family went but they had left a tree behind to remember them by.

When the police finally came they checked the house too and found out that many jewelry items and some cash was gone too and in its place there was a letter from my wife.

The police explained that as per the letter my wife ran away from home along with my kids with her lover. She didn't say where they went or who this lover was. The constables were whispering to each other and snickering. Police ensured me that they would look for my family but advised that since she went by her own wish, it would be a little hard.

                                                               ***************

Police kept on searching for them and 10 years passed.

No news came and I was alone in my house with my mango tree. It was a big tree now and it bore fruits too. I loved the tree as my own kids after all they planted it and left it behind for me.

I used to sit in garden talking to the tree for hours on end. My life now revolved around the mango tree. Watering it, making sure that area around its roots was clean etc. People said that I was crazy but they couldn't have understood my pain. I attended my office but worked like a robot. I wanted to come back home to my tree. My Mango Tree.

It was a Sunday afternoon in January and I was sitting in garden clearing the grounds near the tree. Suddenly my eye caught something glistening in the sunlight.

I was a ring entangled in the root. My wife's ring. what was it doing under the tree? I had to find out. I dug and dug and dug near the tree and what I found nearly killed me. I immediately called the police and completed the other formalities and then they dug out what was buried under the mango tree.

My Wife and my kids. Along with the Jewelry and the cash. My wife did not run with her lover, she was killed and buried under the tree along with my kids. Oh my poor kids, my poor wife. There was no end to my pain. Police were trying to ask me something but all I could do was cry in pain.

I kept on crying while the police took away dead bodies of my family. I kept on crying till late in the night and then I remembered, the memory which I had suppressed.

                                                                    ***************

10 years ago.

I had come home early to surprise the kids and wife after I got their call. When I came home the kids were busy digging the hole in the back. But I didn't see my wife so I went up our bedroom. She was writing something.

"What are you writing?" I asked

And she jumped as if she was stealing something

"Not.. Nothing. Nothing, what are you doing early? kids said you told them that you were busy and would come late." She said while looking guilty

"I wanted to surprise them, but what were you writing?" I said

She tried to protest but I had the note in my hand

"What the hell is this?" I roared

Kids came running but were transfixed to the door when they saw that I was angry. I was so angry on her, she was having an affair. I was so angry and I snapped. I didn't even know what I did but the next moment I remembered I was sitting in office. I had no idea how the last few hours had passed or what I did. My mind had suppressed my memory of the terrible event.

"I Killed them." I mumbled to no one

Yes I had killed them all the buried them under the tree. I killed them because they were abandoning me.

"I killed them, I killed them, I killed them." I kept on saying while crying.

                                                                   ***************

Next morning when the police came they didn't get a response on the door. When they finally got in and found me. I was long gone from this world.

"Mentally disturbed man commits suicide." reported the news paper

But I was finally with my loved ones. 

We were all gone but we had left behind the mango tree.


.

Monday, September 2, 2013

End of the Times?

Its my entry no. 2 for September - September 2, 2013 I hope to post a new blog entry everyday on any one of my 5 blogs :). Let's see how many I am able to accomplish.


It was a normal day, at least I thought so, working in a supermarket numbs you a little, you know? 

I mean how can you not feel numb working through the same menial task again and again.

I worked with US military and after completing 4 tours of Iraq, I retired and came back to my hometown Dearborn, MI near Detroit.

Since there wasn't a lot to do, I started working with Walmart, like most of my neighbors.

So, we come back to the fateful day of today, of course I didn't know that there was something wrong.

I was working in the employee's area at Walmart managing the new delivery and other background tasks before the store opened.

At precisely 9 AM the stores opened and as always we immediately had few walk-ins to buy stuff they needed urgently.

And that is why it was numbing because it happened daily, but what happened next was not something that happened daily.

I heard a loud noise like there was an accident and it was immediately followed by cries of people.

I tried to see what was happening from my 4th floor working area but all I could see that there was a big clutter of few cars tangled together after the accident and people running around.

Now this was curious that rather than helping the people stuck in the cars they were running everywhere like headless chickens.

And then I saw the reason for their terror a mob that looked like rioters were marching forward and they were pushing and manhandling whoever came in their way.

Whenever they met someone they pushed them aside or down and then others would surround them and help them walk with them.

It was as strange as you are thinking while reading this... Well moving on...

I was stuck on the spot watching the mob with absolute concentration they were drawing nearer with each passing moment and somehow their numbers were increasing.

"Oye!!! what are you doing standing there? get back to work." Shouted Mark my manager

"Mark, come here quick and watch it." I beckoned him to see the strange sight

Soon both of us were stuck at our spots watching the crowd nothing was clear and the crowd was getting bigger and bigger as it came forward.

And then they started running towards our building, and then I saw ...

They were all covered in blood, some of them were missing a hand or they had one eye missing but nothing made a difference as now they all came running.

And then it hit us .. not us exactly but patrons trying to shop were quickly hit and bitten by these creatures ... Yes bitten by these Zombies ... were they really zombies ... was it really the end of the times?

Mark was paralyzed by fear but I had to do something.

I immediately activated the emergency shutters so that the zombies could not reach us or our staff in the back areas. But we were helpless to assist the poor shoppers stuck below.

 They were being killed easily by the fast zombies they were quite different than the movies made us believe, which almost always showed them as slow.

Now we were scared as shit and we didn't know what to do. There didn't seem any hope left for us now. All of us who were on 4th floor were huddled together. 

Boom, there was a loud sound it seemed like a bomb but we didn't stock ammunition here did someone came to help us. I tried to see below outside and saw that there were few Army vehicles outside our building. 

And just then many rangers also broke through our skylight roof.  There was lot of shouting all round and sound of machine gun fire spread throughout the building.

But the crowd was very big and so many military guys were still no match for them.

Grenades were dropping here and there and bursting with a loud bang.

One ranger walked towards me, "Sir, were you in Charlie 4th Battalion?"

"Yes, I was. I was stationed in Iraq and before that in Afghanistan." I replied

"So we need all the help, we can get. Are you still a good shot?" he asked

"Never left the practise." I said smiling 

And just like that I had a gun in my hands and few grenades in my pockets.

I saw many zombies running on the lower catwalk, i dropped a grenade there it took care of the lot there.

Then i asked all the people on the 4th floor to stay together and lock the doors behind us as we left the safety to counter the remaining zombies.

Suddenly I heard a loud scream and saw that few of my colleagues were stuck on 2nd floor catwalk and few zombies were coming from both the sides. I couldn't throw the grenade there as it would surely kill them.

"Do you have any other kind of grenade apart from the frag one?" I asked the closest ranger to me.

"Yes sir, we do have few EMP bombs too which affects the electrical devices."

"Well let's try this shall we?" I said and threw the  EMP grenade over at the catwalk and prayed.

There was a loud fizzing noise and then the cheers of my colleagues and I saw that amazingly the EMP grenade froze the zombies. And with little difficulty they pushed them over the rail to finish them off.

This was certainly new and wherever we could see someone trapped we threw the EMPs there and frag grenades when we saw only the group of zombies.

Soon enough our little building was free from the roaming undeads. We finished any remaining zombies and proceed to ensure that all of our friends were safe.

Then we all got together to ensure that everyone was safe and not bitten. Then we proceed to the outside to assist others and to take care of other undead in the area. We didn't see anyone for a long way. This sure seemed like the end of the time. But I never lost hope knew that if we all worked together, soon we would be able to help retake our town and our country back.

And we all got in the army vehicles and continued towards the next location to rid it of the zombies.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

The News

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 41; the forty-first edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The theme for the month is "SWEET AND SOUR"

'Hotel California' the song played as his phone rang

"Hello, what is it?" He said grudgingly, he was busy in a very boring meeting

"Sir very bad news" Said the voice over the phone

And he told him about what really happened

"Oh Shit!!! Arrange a meeting quick." He said suddenly very alert

*************

The office was abuzz with activity as News channels usually do every hour since they became 24 hours thing

Sahay's phone rang

"Sir very sad news" Said Varun the field reporter

And he came to know about what happened

"Really very sad news thanks for the news" He disconnected the phone.

Quickly send an OB Van to cover the news another to the Minister's home

He was little sad but very happy as there wasn't going to be any shortage of news now and he would be able to keep the channel busy for few days non-stop. He was also happy for Ad-Money they were going to earn.

*************

Phones were buzzing in every home

"Hello?" Said Mr. Sharma

"Hello?" Said Mr. Yadav

"Hello?" Said Mrs. Mishra

And then everyone ran from their homes to only one destination.

*************

It was a very confusing scene with everyone talking at once as they all wanted CM's comments on the issue.

But CM was still busy handling and directing the officers and weren't yet ready to address the press.

After all what can one say after such a tragedy?

*************

Two hours earlier - at the school

Kids were sitting in a line for their lunch.

They ate their food and it was different than usual, it tasted little different, it tasted a little sweet and sour.

But usually the food was bland and it was different so they ate ...

*************

In Bihar .. began the news channel

91 kids died after eating Midday meal.

It was indeed a busy day for the news channels and very sad day for everyone else.



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