The Voice of SK

Chapter 9 The first few drops of rain evaporated as it hit the ground. Four needed of the last ball. My eyes scanned the ground for gaps. My teammates cheered from behind. "Would it be a slower ball?" "Would it be a wide? Should I hit it or leave?" "Should I close my eyes and just swing?" "Should I hit the ball the same way I hit the previous?" A flurry of these questions impinged into my mind as I took stance. The bowler was starting his run up. As he took his last stride and I was ready to face it, Diya entered into my thoughts. Moments later, there was celebration, the stumps were uprooted and held high. I crouched with my bat supporting me lost, still figuring out how I had missed that ball totally. I could have whacked those full tossed balls out of the park any day but I didn't that day. The captain from my team rose and claimed that it was a no ball because it went above the waist height. After a long heated a...

Chapter 8 Within the blink of eye, the semester exams were upon us. There were plenty of sleepless nights (There were none for me, I slept tight) and sojourns at coffee huts at evenings for snacks and chit chats with friends persuading them to take time off from studying. Movie nights were mind refreshers. The season finale of Game of Thrones was airing then. I watched G.O.T. even on the days of the exam while my roommates were studying sincerely (That season was a complete disappointment though). That was also the time of water crisis, people went from hostel to hostel to bathe while some never bothered. In the middle of everything, Diya and I spent our time preparing for exams together. The tables at the Science and Humanities building had witnessed all our stupid jokes and geeky gossips. In the times I spent with her, I was into a phase of rediscovering and unravelling parts of me that I myself seldom knew existed. I was like a caterpillar in its cocoon undergoing met...

Chapter 7 "I'm going to trigger the emergency alarm now. As everyone starts running towards the emergency gathering area, we are going to dissolve into the crowd" I explained my plan. I inputted another command to the computer and the alarms went off. There was a sudden commotion and people started running towards the emergency gathering area. I took her hand and rushed towards the emergency gathering area taking the shortest route possible picturing the factory's layout in my mind amidst the workers running in panic. There was no smoke or fire. There was chaos and confusion. Everyone demanded an explanation.  "Silence!   Who rigged the alarms?" A grim voice questioned who turned out to be the factory manager. He looked way past 50 dressed in a formal coat. "It was me sir!" I told trying to be bold. Everyone's view turned upon me. Some stared. "I want to talk to you in private sir. Also I want none to leave this pla...

Chapter 6 I examined her for injuries and she was well except the swell she had in the back of her head. I looked around for a first aid kit. "I'm ok. A bit shaken but fine, let's find a way out of here" Diya assured me. "Let's go and inform the authorities" I told Diya. "We can't, they probably had found out that I was missing and would have started searching for me and we still don't how many people have been compromised" Diya said frantically. She had a point. My mind was racing, searching for ideas desperately. "Why can't we just sneak our way out?" I questioned her. "There are security cameras everywhere, we could be monitored and get caught" She replied. "Are there CCTV cameras everywhere?" I blinked at her with sudden excitement seemingly not noticed any of them. "Yes" she nodded. "Were there cameras in the section they were printing currency?" ...

Chapter 5 The symposium craze had just ended and we were going for an industrial visit. These visits held the very best moments of college life. The industry we were going to visit was situated at Andhra Pradesh near Tada and would take nearly 2 hrs to reach there (The longer, the better and more enjoyment). Speakers and music (strictly kuthu) were the lethal weapons to be equipped during IVs. I stood in front of the logistics building waiting for signal from the driver to board the bus. Seats were almost like reserved and who sits with who had been already carefully mapped and I was wondering if I would get a seat near my friends and not near any of the staffs. When I got into the bus, most of the seats were reserved already (I had already anticipated this and was cursing my bad luck). One of my friends called me and offered me a seat. I looked at him surprisingly and sat near him. We started chatting for a while. Midway near the college entrance, a girl got in. My intu...

Chapter 4 March had thrived. The charmy thing about March is that there were flurry of symposiums coming up in your way. Three days of merriment with no classes. As soon as the dates of the symposiums were released, we had the dates marked on our calendars to remember paying a visit to your friends from other departments (The deal was to offer food in your symposium in return for your friend's symposium food). There were some who maintained a complete schedule about the symposiums happening in the college along with the information about the food that would be arranged. Those people's friendship was the most sought after during this month. You could suddenly find photographers everywhere coming out of nowhere taking pictures all around the college with the hope of winning photography contests and dreaming about becoming a PC Sreeram someday. These symposium days were the best days for taking awesome pictures together with your friends. Students eagerly wait for t...

Chapter 3 I was lying on my cot with my phone in my hand. It was way past my sleep time. "I should have atleast waved her a bye. I had screwed it up. Now what would she think of me?" my thoughts wandered unnecessarily. I opened my whatsapp, went to our class group and searched for her number. I found her number. "Diya", her username read and her about had a lamp emoji. Her dp wasn't visible as we hadn't saved each other's numbers yet. I clicked her name and selected message. I typed a Hi! with an introduction and a sorry for what happened today message. My thumb hesitated. "It's rude to message a girl whose number I took from a group" my thoughts warned me. I backspaced everything I had typed and decided that I would speak to her tomorrow in person and get her number. I locked my phone, put it to charge and was going to sleep. My phone beeped, lighting up. Ignoring it, I removed my specs, lied on the bed and made myself comfo...

Chapter 2: My heart was pretty much with me throughout my first year and was beating for none but me. It took me almost a year to actually talk to a girl and also not face an impending threat of an anxiety attack (I said I was a slow learner, that's true). By the time, I was comfortable speaking with a girl; my roommates had already hooked up with one each. I didn't have much interest in love then. Love was just another word in my dictionary. The meaning read - An emotional disease with symptoms that include driving your roommate crazy and sleepless so that he runs away from your room. I had to go through the pain of constant whisperings and chuckles at 1 in the morning. Phone calls would start at 11 PM and would sometimes go on till 1 in the morning. I used to wonder what these people would talk all night long. I had tried using pillows to cover my ears but it failed to fetch me sleep. Sometimes I put on my earphones, play music at high volume and slowly sleep. ...