Blue Seas

I looked down. From where we were sitting, forty storeys above the road, every car and bus that whizzed past looked like the size of a toy. Every tiny walking human being looked like an ant. My vision blurred momentarily and the bright Sunday lights of the city looked like a golden haze. I yawned and turned my attention to my dangling feet. I was wearing the same dark-blue, skinny jeans, the ones you helped me pick out last summer. It was too hot for jeans. It was always too hot. But I was wearing them anyway. My nails were painted with my favourite nail-polish, the bright, dark pink one which glitters. And the single silver toe-ring twinkled back. You were sitting next to me. Your sneaker-and-jeans-clad legs drawn towards you, not dangling from the fortieth storey terrace like mine. The two glass bottles lay abandoned next to us, unfinished. "Why don't you write something? It might cheer you up," you suggested half-heartedly. I thought about that thing. And t...

Free fall. Just when I had stopped looking. I found you. As I closed my eyes. And let myself go. The wind whistling in my ears. I could almost see Fate smiling back at me.

It didn't start with a ''Once upon a time...''. It's not going to end with a ''...and they lived happily ever after''. I don't know what true love is. But I do know, of that time when you had organized and pulled off your first national level debate, and the contestants were on the stage, and the judges in the front row, and your family in the crowded hall, you, in a sari, leaped from the stage to hug me, as I stood in the aisle. And there was that time when we were sitting in silence in the cafe, and, without saying anything to me, you reached over the table and took my half-used sugar sachet and poured it over your own coffee. You stay up till 4.00 a.m., studying, long after I've gone to sleep. You're tired, and you have college tomorrow. But without being asked, or told, you take out the suit I have to wear at tomorrow's presentation and iron it. And before switching off the lights you murmur "Sweet dreams......

Large group of police cadets patrolling in front of the MRT... P: See S, I'm so glad we decided to step outside for dinner. A: Why? You like one of them? *nodding her head in their direction* S: *without looking up from her cell phone* She likes all of them. *** On the way back from CNY holiday in the tropical mangrove forests... N: You know what the highlight of the trip was? P: What? N: Those three hot, shirtless Spanish guys we passed on bicycles. P: Let me get this straight. S took us to a magical, tropical island with mangrove swamps and coral beaches on a freaking ferry-boat. We hiked for fifteen kilometers and had the most amazing lunch. And you think three hot, shirtless Spanish guys whizzing past you on their bicycles was the highlight of the trip? N: *pauses to think for a second* Yeah. S: *rolls eyes* N: I wish we could meet another of them though... Lady at the jetty: I need three volunteers to accompany this gentleman on the ferry boat. N: Yeah! Wi...

One cold and rainy Monday afternoon in our Social Science class. "Today for the in-class exercise I want each of you to take Rubin's Quiz Part A and B," said Prof, "All of you take a copy..." I look down at the stapled sheets of thirty odd MCQs in front of me and read the bold black lettering on the first page. THINK ABOUT THE PERSON YOU ARE CURRENTLY DATING OR LAST DATED AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. "What?" I said stupidly. 'Oh dear God..." said the girl sitting next to me. After twenty-five minutes of soul-searching Prof called out, "That's it. Time's up! Lets discuss the answers, shall we? But first! Tell me...what did you think of Rubin's Quiz A? What do you think its really about?" "Commitment?" said a student. "Sacrifice?" ventured another. "A waste of time?" followed by a smattering of laughter. "No guys! Come on...its about love!" said Prof ...

What's worse than an alcoholic room mate? A sober room mate undergoing withdrawal symptoms from alcohol. True story.

We sat there on the steps by the waterfront. The night breeze from the river whipped our faces. We flicked the hair from our faces and pulled the beer cans closer to our knees. In the distance, through the dark I could make out the wonderfully painted windows of the MICA building. 'Peculiar city this is', I thought to myself, remembering the statues of the six cartoon animals in the field next to the MICA building. I saw them everyday on the way to the university. They looked like six giant cream puffs and were called the 'Sorority Lion' or something like that. S looked across the river from where we were sitting at the restaurant on the opposite bank. Hooters. They were playing some kind of catchy music. She sighed and muttered, 'I hate this damn country. They have no bandhs, no strikes. It rains everyday but it never even floods. They freaking don't even have load-shedding.' Somewhere within the dark, silent waters of the river, a small, white fis...