The Egg by Andy Weir

You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. 

You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. 

The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. 

Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

And that’s when you met me.

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. 

“What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

“My kids… my wife,” you said.

“What about them?”

“Will they be all right?”

The Eternal Bond Of Friendship

"A friend indeed is what we need "

A minute quote with a profound meaning. What does it take to make friendships last? Is it wealth? grades? power?

Conversation between two enemies who happen to be best friends.

An easy evening sets the mood for some blame-games between me and my mom.The premise is the expenses that my mom has to pay on my year-round trip to Finland..and these are just normal conversations..nothing extra-over-the-top-of ordinary bullshit..Just a normal chat with her which often has humorous outcomes.

{(normal banter between me and my mom)}

Mom :-Why do you think I am getting paranoid on expenses?????
Me    :-Umm..because you like to worry to much,I guess?

Mom :-ha ha ha such blame game!

Me    :-yeah,what am I supposed to say, Not have coffee with friends?

Mom (in her monotonous and BORING sarcastic voice)  :- How convenient and what a lovely way to continue with the expenses.Sure have coffee but limit wherever you can.

Me    :-Ok!..I will have a decaf coffee with no sugar and milk and I will have my friend's brains if I'm hungry (Honestly..I always do that! Eat my friend's brain,I mean.Because my mom ate MINE!)..see..I know how to cut down on expenses,mom.Touché!

Mom   :-WOW! (I really WOW'ed her!).Such indigenious (yeah..she typed that! Its INGENIOUS) solutions! No wonder your friends love you.I miss you and I love you son.

Me (giving her the Leonardo Di Caprio Look)  :- in what way?   
                         

Mom   :-All the ways!!!!!!!!

Me      :-O_O......Pedobear Mommy!    :S

Mom    :-whats that?

Me        :-a female version of a pedobear!

Mom      :-what's a pedobear?

Me         :- (At this point.....I am really thinking-Seriously??? She doesn't know what a PEDO-BEAR
                  is? What did she have this morning, Marijuana? Hell..could be! She must be  voting for the                    Prop 19-I bet she doesn't even know what it means!)

Me (being a good son,I finally give her a hint) :- *sigh* Utilize your best friend of 14 years..
                                                     
                                                       

                                                 (After a few seconds of radio static)

Mom      :- LOL   (Laugh Out Loud for those who are socially not inclined)
           
          pagal bacha mere (Hindi text-translates to..crazy son of mine)


Me         :-Yes I am! Born from the Infamy of a crazed woman!


Mom     :-No doubts about that!
       
      _____________________________END OF THE LINE_______________________________

The elusive time machine :D

MY TIME MACHINE

Its complicated

Love-such a powerful bond!

I dreamt of her..the 3rd time.We were in a big posh mansion and we had some kind of super-powers and we were playing hide and seek with other people who had super-powers and the ones who lost were put inside a glass bottle filled with  a small amount of magical water which made the person turn a mere 5 inch tall because he lost his game.She was constantly looking at me,giving me these glances that hinted another shot at the broken relationship,a chance to rebuild again what was once lost.Then the scene shifts to a party hall the size of a Las Vegas Casino and I am having a gala time in here with the ladies,the food and the wealthy..when she comes into my spotlight.What caught me off-guard was that she was not wearing her veil.She had let out her hair for the first time in front of public and oh my what hair she had! Jet black..long...shoulder length with perfect curls..and she was in a black dress that seemed to accentuate her features and she was not wearing her usual glasses which instantly gave depth to her character.I was drawn to her like a geek to an Iphone..I had missed her so much..The whole hyper-real dream-scape was playing to the song "Far Away by Trumpet Thing" Click Here to listen to the song.I wanted to be with her without losing a second but I guess my male ego wouldnt let me.It kept telling me look away and act a bit flamboyantly .I think it did not wanted to get hurt by making me sound like a pathetic guy who loved his woman so much that he used to cry in her absence.But I guess..it was my fault that all of this happened."Never make a girl fall for you if you don't plan on catching her" I shouldn't have made her think about me all the time.I dont know what she found so charming in me but I guess that charm worked at my disadvantage as she was not able to keep this relationship of ours under-wraps any more and that's why it came to a  not-so-drama laden end.Its quite ironic though...She left me for the same reason she fell in love with me....I made her go crazy.Thats true..she typed the reason why she is ending this;because she went crazy during the holiday in my absence.She wanted to hear my voice, my lovely,beautiful words and harsh criticism,She liked me whole.Even though elder to me,she was..she still was possessive of me, so was I of her and even though she was O.K with me being with my friends during the holiday,she couldn't let me leave her side.I guess now I understand what she felt at that time.Somethings only come to our realization After we have lost those precious things.I think we had formed a symbiotic kind of a relationship...we could sense each other's thoughts.Msging her at the right moment when she was writing my name on her notes during her class was not a coincidence.But I know that there is no room for light to come in..there is no opportunity for this again.She made that clear when she msged me.."Can we really be just friends?!" I guess not.And although I am sad without her..I am happy that she is gone.she wanted this to end.Why would I stop her? If you love someone..let that being go,free that person from the thorns of love if thats what makes her happy.In the end,I guess we both are getting our lives back to normalcy.She was the catalyst of making me more mature in these relationships and the responsibilities that come with them,I made sure I let her know of this thankful gesture of hers.I am not in contact with her anymore and its quite heinous for us to not to be but I guess its best for the both of us..or is it?

Letter to Jamie

92100,Lehmirannankatu 5,
Raahe, Oulu, Finland,
20th September '10

Dear Jamie,
How have you been these days? We have never met and so we don’t know each other. I am Anmol, an exchange student from India and I know its very surprising but I know how depressed you were and how it affected your life. I study in Raahe Lukio:-a Finnish school and I read about you in my English class lesson aptly titled

“Too much, too young”

That is how I came to know about you, your problems, the things you must have gone through all these years. That is what compelled me to write to you.
I was a very violent person in my teenage years. That was partly because I was bullied and humiliated at school devoid of any reasons, I was abused, hated and treated at school badly. As you probably know VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE.I became a person I always feared I would become, I became an irrational, violent, short-tempered being. I enjoyed it at first, the new found self-confidence in me, I used to loathe about it, but then it slowly started to interfere in my social life, I was not able to mingle with new friends that easily as I used to. My mental state started to fall apart like shattered pieces of glass, small, nimble but piercing when touched. The wonderful relationship that I shared with my mom was strained so much that there was not a single day which passed by in peace and serenity. Fighting and arguing had become my second nature. It was havoc, a rift created in my world my petty but over-powering emotions. But as they say

“Once you hammer a nail in the fence, no matter how much effort you put into covering it, there still remains a hole”

and that is how the damage had been done, My world had became gloomy, dark without colors, so much that even the happiest moments of my life seemed cloudy and jaded..

It was then that I met a life changing catalyst; the school counselor. When it was announced that he was there to help us: - PEOPLE ‘who had lost hope and who thought that there was no way out’; I knew my time had come to improve,

The elusive light at the end of the tunnel suddenly flickered glimmering, basking me with HOPE.

I started to take his sessions seriously, I was habitual when it came to practicing stress-relieving exercises. Slowly but eventually things began to change shape for good. My confidence went space bound rocketing at an unbelievable rate. I started to make good friends, some with whom I am still in contact with even after 3-4 years. My social life improved exponentially-from 36 friends, it exploded to 166 friends on Facebook. Okay that was a bit too much and unrelated. But the thing is; I transformed. My teachers and well wishers were surprised by this change. Even my relationship with my mom soon became an unbreakable bond between two people forged by this ongoing peace with my inner-self. My soul was healing, I became a soft, kind-hearted, approachable person, which I am now, today and this was all possible thanks to my counselor, my mom, my friends and the faith that I had in myself.

I am really glad that your beloved mother took your signs seriously and took you to counseling sessions; it’s wonderful that you were able to pull yourself from depression. See how much you have improved! I await your reply with eagerness. Jamie.

Yours truly,
Anmol Bahl A.K.A Elusive Anmol

P.S :- Special note of thanks to my mother,Sarita Bahl for correcting my letter

The fighter in me!

Created by Oatmeal

Love is a fated tragedy and its only survivor is waiting to get rescued,will you lend a hand?

A simple thing thats says everything about my feelings for you.

Why is that my feelings for you have changed and are not like the same for you as it used to be.What happened to those moments when magic felt real.You were so close to me and yet you seem like a faded ghost.I have been swayed by this gentle breeze of love for so long that I cannot bear to touch the ground.All because of you.I savor the magnificent beauty each of the millions pixels hold, that form your pretty face and display the unimaginable.Your memories haunt me day and night as vivid as a surreal dream.You have made me what I lacked and for that I have enslaved myself to your piercing chains of passion.You have shaken the state of my mind and my body, and in so I have become very limerent towards you.Although it is an unrequited love,I have not yet been able to convey my feelings for you.This love-shyness has hindered me to come close to you or is it that the heavenly gates to your heart have been forever shut?

Camp Unreachable!

                     08/08/10 #1st   camp unreachable

Upon landing, we were greeted with two other students, they were:-Andrea, from Canada and Chung-An (Andy) from Taiwan! We also met our Man of the Job, a guy who was here to receive us. But we actually had to stay at the airport for a long, long time. We were in a bus but we were stuck in here because many students had yet not arrived. We were at the airport from 12:00 to around 15:45, which was pretty exhausting without food and water. People had not even started to familiarize themselves when Mexicans had already formed a group and having a party. Finally we hit the road and I was a bit surprised with the country side looks Helsinki and Karrkuu sported. On the way to the camp, we were attacked by a cloud of rain. It was quite heavy and reminded me a bit of Mumbai! As expected it was a storm that actually knocked the power of the camp when we reached there. We were greeted with many seniors and some of them were very helpful to us. We just had an Apple that day but it was ok. Things were supposed to turn into good things and I longed for it. I got myself a nice room-mate, he is Josh-from Ohio, U.S.A. The night ended as it had fallen…silently.

The journey begins!

Its time to leave India-Incredible India 

The bags had been set, documents were in the pocket, and emotions were suppressed, they will be needed in the final destination. With a heavy heart and a weary soul, I stepped out of my solitary house, ready to take on the world. With the realizations of the greater goal and the upcoming battle with oneself, I was ready to unleash the WARRIOR WITHIN.

Working towards a common goal :)

The journey did not take place in the physical world, oh no it didn't! It took place in my mind, playing chaos theory with my neurons. The memories, the fears were all coming back to me. But I had to hold on. I was being counted upon; I was responsible for the outlook that the exchange students were going to adopt for this country. India would not be the slum dog in this trip. I would not let that happen……The honking of the horns signaled our arrival at the airport. It was time for MOM to let go…to let go of her only son, the precious boy who survived despite being foretold that he won't make it. The passenger line continued to march ahead without a reason not to hit the others with the trolleys, all ready to go and try their luck, but it was me who was not ready to leave…yet. One THING was amiss, the hug that my mom deserved, and a hug that will be the only touch lasting my impression on her for the next year. But as they say, the world moves on, I was pushed inside to check-in. Standing there, a ticket in hand, the only thing that kept me going ahead was the time I will be able to meet her again, the next year. Although I had cajoled the moment of missing to say goodbye to mom, she wasn't about to accept that. I was able to bid her goodbye, only after the security fell for the excess luggage trick! Our parting did bring a relief into my heart. But it wasn't nothing compared to the isolation, alienation I was about to face in Finland. 

The flight took me to my new home via Frankfurt, an airport with such less amount of security; that it was way enough to jeopardize it and expose it .The distance covered to reach my connecting flight was enough to make me lose a 100 kcal. Is this what the world calls it now days; connecting flights!? Stepping on to the concrete covered runaway to reach my final flight to Helsinki, my face was kissed by the gentle air and refreshing smell that it carried with it. I began pondering whether I should make friends right from the start, during the orientation, or to do it after joining a school. My question was answered in the form of two exchange students from Canada. They were Karly and Alysha, both of them behaving like sisters in a park. After a brief introduction with them, I was made aware of another student who was with us. A Mexican, he was Enrique, a sweet guy to be friends with in the first impression. Our flight was as pleasant as it could be, with the addition of a rapport between us three. Finally…I had landed to a place where I was going to change myself for the better. I had set my foot on Finland.