Smarter Thief

As he darted through the dense forest with the stolen gems of the king, he saw a short guy walking at a distance. He called out “Hello, stay there. I am with you”. The guy walking in front turned back, kept his hands firm on the shoulder bag he was carrying and stopped. The thief gathered pace, neared him asked “Who are you? Where are you from and here at this time?” He did not reply. The thief was smart enough to infer that the guy he was talking to is dumb.”Can you hear what I speak?” The thief asked loudly and the guy nodded in agreement. “Let me introduce myself. I am the smartest thief this kingdom has ever witnessed. I was never caught and will never be.” The dumb shrugged which tempted the thief “OK, you will accept my talent in a while”. They walked for 5 minutes and the thief asked him “Can you tell me the direction we are heading?”. The dumb looked into his pocket where he kept the compass and found it missing. Then the thief opened his closed fist to show him the compass. “What I have stolen is mine. Take my advice – never underestimate anybody. You did not believe when I said I am a smart thief and I had to prove. You lost compass in the process” the thief laughed. The dumb had an enigmatic smile in reply. They walked for another hour and asked him “Can I have some wine?” The dumb was not surprised this time. He was sure that the wine bottle he carried has been stolen from his bag. Hoping against hope, he searched for it in his shoulder bag and found his assumption true. Dumb had the enigmatic smile back on his otherwise expressionless face. The thief continued “Take my advice – you need to be alert while walking with a thief”. As they covered few more furlongs, they fell prey to few soldiers who guarded the forest. “Somebody stole the costliest gems of the king. And we are searching everyone. We don’t want to leave any stone unturned. We need to check you both. Please cooperate.” The thief was clever enough to place the stolen gems into the dumb guy’s bag and confided immediately to the soldiers. The soldiers checked the bag and found the gems. They arrested the dumb and decided to take him along to summon before the king. As they walked away with the dumb, the thief waved his hands at the dumb and he had his enigmatic smile for the third time.

The thief took a diversion and proceeded alone with a sigh of relief. He walked hours together appreciating each moment on how clever he was. The narrow lane took him to the bank of the river that flowed through the heart of the forest. He was tired and decided to rest for a while. He sat on the river bank. Collected water in his palm and splashed it on his face. As he rested on the bank, some writings on the sand caught his attention; first line of which read ‘What’s the direction you are heading ?’ He immediately looked into his compass and found the magnet missing. He proceeded with the next line ‘Why don’t you have a drink?’ He immediately fished his hands into his battered bag and took out emptied costly wine bottle. He opened his eyes wide in surprise to read the next line ‘Stealing myself from the spear point of the soldiers wasn’t a big deal either. Thanks for the gems. Take my advice: Don’t lose hope in the hour of panic’

The Strange Pain

When the private bus stood braked on top of the 200 cc Enfield bike, all that mattered was my left leg trapped under the bike. The cleaner who did a test drive on the bus ran away. I could sense blood flowing profusely from my leg. I cried for help till my throat cracked. I tried pulling my leg but the bus proved too heavy for my might. 10 minutes of helplessness and agony passed like a year. Few people came running from a distant tea shop, one of them fortunately a driver. He got into the bus; reverse geared and the bus moved back. One from the crowd took the bike away. It was then my turn to pull back my scantily fleshed leg. I could see the white bones between the blood and flesh. The red and white combination which didn’t look beautiful.

3 years in the same bed of room number 77 in Ramakrisha Hospital, Coimbatore. 8 surgical operations, expertise of Dr.Ramdas and Dr.Raja, 216 stitches, 2 steel rods and the crutches helped me limp. The decade long saving was spent in those 3 years. On the day of discharge, I had few thousand rupees in the bank, my home maker wife to love and 2 schooling kids who did not even know that their father is handicapped now. The accident did not deter me in anyway, for I did not have a choice.

30 years hence, I felt a pain on the same leg, somewhere near the fused ankle. It wasn’t a great pain, but now I felt weak to handle it. With wife, I decide to meet the same old doctor, Dr. Raja. He now owned that hospital and as before was busy. I waited for my turn to come outside his consultation room. The queue was pretty long and he was in the operation theater. After an hour of wait, he quickly passed by me. I smiled at him, as expected he did not return it. He rushed to his room. Few minutes later, the nurse called me in. I went inside, got myself seated. I told him about the pain. He asked me to keep my leg on the side table and asked the nurse to take few photographs of my leg. Reading the surprise on my face he said, “I have a seminar next week. I was looking for some of the micro-surgeries performed by me. Your case is an instance.” I again told him about the pain. His reply was outlandish “What are your kids doing?” I relaxed on my chair; pulled back my socks and said “Both of them are married and settled. One is a software engineer and other in the hardware Industry and I am retired”. And he replied “Hmm..That explains the pain. You had this pain even before, it’s just that then you were too busy to notice. Now that you are fully settled, you have started observing yourself. No medication required. Thanks for the visit”. We shook hands and left. Now, when I feel the pain, I have a feel of achievement. A feel of being settled in life, which I was not used to -The strange sweet pain.

Genes

The only fortune that she inherited was her voluptuous body and she made a living out of it. She stayed in a deserted hut ten furlongs from the village road. A self styled god-man and a village thief were her regular customers. Regular meeting with the demi-god gifted her with a kid. When she knew she was carrying, she told him “I have your baby. I am sure it’s yours as you were my only customer in the last one month”. The god man replied “How dare you say that, you bitch. You have customers from all parts of the village and how can you ask me to father someone’s kid. You should respect my race” He never came back. She gave birth to a baby boy.

In less than a year, she was gifted with another by the village thief. When she knew she was carrying she told him “I have your baby. I am sure it’s yours as you were my only customer for the last one month”. He replied “I cannot bring them up; you know I come to you as I cannot afford a wife. You earn more than me. Let the kid stay with you. I will accept him as my kid”. She gave birth to the second baby boy whose one leg was smaller than the other.

In the cradle of time, the boys grew up and the village witnessed the growth of a perverted thief and a selfless demi-god. Just that, the demi-god limped.

Other bank is Greener

When space research fascinated one of the identical twins, software coding was toy for other. They successfully completed their graduation. With no surprise, one of them got into world’s biggest software organization and the other achieved his dream destiny in Indian Space Research Organization. 2 years hence:

“Can you please throw some light on the reasons on why dint we achieve the timeline for this project. I am not trying to question your dedication. Just wanted to analyze what difficulty you were facing” asked the 30 year old well mannered manager. “I admit we have delayed. It’s not rocket science that we do every day. It’s really monotonous. Hence I tend to arrive late at office and leave early. Which pretty much explains the delay in delivering the project” the young software engineer replied.

“Hello…you have been sitting on this layout board for the past three weeks. It was supposed to be completed a week back. May I know how many eggs did you hatch sitting on this? ” The 40 year old bearded uncouth senior scientist questioned his junior. Younger scientist shouted back “It’s high time you realize that we are not into the software industry where you do the same thing every day and deliver things in the specified time frame. It’s a new thing every time and is tiring. Hence the delay”.