Then the clock ticked

Three shadows that cast in the room seemed still. If a painter was brought in, he would have completed a painting without any hassle. The steam from the coffee mug seemed to blur one of men with spectacles. He grumbled, scratched his chin and removed his glasses. The other two didn’t even acknowledge each other’s presence.

The wood creaked every time they made slight movement. Many old dusty photo frames and medals were hung random on the walls. Being new to the job, Mr. Ruskin felt it was an odd and old fashioned place to enquire a criminal. Especially some one like Mr. Frussel.

“We thought we would never lay our hands on you”, said Mr. Merchin. He rubbed his glasses on his sweater sleeve.

Frussel didn’t say anything. It seemed of his nature not to speak more than what is needed of him. This was taught to him in twenty seven years with faith and fear of Lord Durne.

Ruskin smirked at the naivety of Merchin. It was just over a year when he joined the investigation bureau. To his knowledge , Merchin was with the enquiry department for past thirty four years but he handled only small petty suspects and criminals , so, this innocuous statement was not a surprise.

“Hope you wouldn’t bother me with questions about the whereabouts of Lord Durne”, said Frussel curtly.

“I was about to ask only that!” , squeaked Merchin in surprise. Ruskin rolled his eyes.

Frussel looked from Merchin to Ruskin. He felt it was strange that both didn’t act their age. The young man was silent and the old seemed to enjoy talking.

“I wish I knew”, he replied back.

Before Merchin could say anything, Ruskin spoke.

“You were the right hand of Lord Durne, what was your job?”

Frussel was slightly surprised and didn’t take efforts to conceal it.

“There was a hierarchy in the system. Lord Durne was careful not to involve just a person in any of the crimes that were committed. One person would not recognize the other even if they worked under him. I was responsible for conveying the messages from him to another”

Ruskin moved slightly forward, “How did he give instructions. Has he ever called over the phone? “

Frussel looked down at the table. “Usually it came in an envelope marked with a seal. It always contained the mark of Lord Durne. A red dove.”

“Red dove. That’s odd for a criminal like him”, said Merchin more to himself. He fiddled with his ring and glass but the other two ignored him completely.

“That was his daughter’s name , Dove. But she was raped by couple of drunken youngsters. The case didn’t even come to court.”

Ruskin rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “And who was assigned the task of killing?”

“I always delivered it to Orgy. That’s what everyone called him. So, I never knew who was assigned the work”, replied Frussel.

“Orgy? You mean the man who was killed last year?”, asked Merchin trying to butt into the conversation.

“Yes. It was him. There were rumours that Lord Durne killed him. He knew too much. Lord kept his men well but at the same time, wouldn’t wince a bit when they got too close or suspicious”, explained Frussel.

“You treat him like God. Have you seen Durne any time?”, asked Ruskin.

“He was our savior from poverty and miseries. No, I have never seen him. Not when I was conscious at least”

“What do you mean by that?”, asked Ruskin in a curious voice.

“I had a heart attack a year ago. He came to visit me at the hospital. I was dazed because of medicine and couldn’t see him well”, he looked down.

Ruskin collected all his thoughts and what Frussel had said. Lord Durne seemed to know what he was doing and was good at it. A man of his position was respected and feared.

“Remarkable guy”, he thought to himself.

Suddenly he saw Merchin staring into the coffee which he had sipped just a minute ago “Merchin, what happened?”

“It tastes weird”, he replied back.

There was ten seconds of silence.

“Don’t drink it!! Don’t drink!! It could be poisoned !!”, Ruskin screamed.

Merchin threw his mug on the table. It crashed sending echoes across the room. The other two picked their mugs to do the same. But, there were two gun shots.

The light in the room flickered. There was a strong coffee stench.

“Hello, headquarters?”

“Yes”, came the reply.

“There was a rift between a criminal and officers here at Bureau quarters and looks like they killed each other. Can you come immediately?”

“Shit! Who are you?”

He placed the receiver down and turned his ring on the right side which showed a red dove. He put on his hat and looked at the two dead bodies.In few hours, a third body would be discovered in the room. The body of the real Mr. Merchin.

“He knew too much”, he thought and left the place.

Yin Yang

Un-real

(What I write. The heights of exaggeration)

The heat wafted over my skin. The world seemed to nod to the violent silences. I followed as it moved stealthily and in the same pace as if it knew where it was heading. The circles made my senses spin in its own direction. The mind flew in the other and everything ceased to shatter in every direction that was not right. I shut my eyes to the unreality or was I assuming so? I did not want to confirm my fears but had to open my eyes to succumb to the endless movement.

My body felt heavy and fulfilled. The repulsiveness to spring upon remained though. I could not move and one side of the torso was reluctant to obey the other side.

Loneliness made its grasp and choked upon me as it were my enemy. Even when it was the case, I embraced the lost friend and let him torture me. He continued till I began to find him pleasant.

I began collecting all my thoughts that were hidden away in black vague shadows. I drifted to the place I never wanted to be but had to go. That was the norm of the moment.

Real

(What actually happens)

It was a hot afternoon and I was lying on the bed looking up the fan. I was following the rotation of the wings till my eyes and head hurt. I kept doing this because of boredom and having nothing to do.

The lunch was very heavy that afternoon and I had ‘kattufied’ moru kozhambu and everything that makes you sleep and because of this, I was not even able to move my body.

I was very bored and nothing was helping me at the moment. This all led to the feeling of loneliness.

I began to dream and drifted away to sleep.

(And there you go :D)

Realm of reality

Wise said beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder

Meandering that beauty make not exist in reality

It cannot be defined because it seems not permanent

But, defying that, I say beauty is permanent,

Or that is what it should have been.

Beauty, like every other instilling character, has passed through innumerable stages. It has been defined as external appearance and some other time, an internal embracement. Of all faults of men, this is one: to define beauty in the first place. It is the first nature of human to complicate things and most of the times, in contradictory to what should be made simple is made complex.

Beauty is such a thing in the ever unforgiving traits of generations. Two pairs of eyes see more than one and even more, interpret more than needed. If I say a particular thing is beautiful, would you agree with me? Beauty is opined according to every individual and let us keeps that distinct as it is. Let us give each the freedom to what he thinks is beautiful rather than allowing him to define it.

Shouldn’t beauty be last longing? Wars were fought, kingdoms were brought down and mythologies, histories were written. This might indicate beauty should have lasted long than few minutes of encounter or few hours of prejudice. If mistakes were made because of this very feeling, should it not be a part of seven deadly sins?

Is beauty a thing or a feeling hidden amongst the intricate gathering of emotions? Is it to be experienced or to be watched over carefully? I don’t understand the nature of it. Maybe it is one of the intriguing mysteries unraveled and better left that way.

Beauty is more invisible than air and even tasteless like water. It has no foundations to hold upon and stand for itself. In other words, beauty just looks out for a medium. It is like the salvation, free from something to get something else yet unknown. It is as dangerous as the unknown and as simple as a baby’s laugh.

Beauty can be omnipresent like God or be God Himself. After all, we did see God in many things. Didn't we?

Now, you ask me to define beauty.

A mother bears all pain to bring her child into this world. This is beauty.

A lover sacrifices everything to get her. This is beauty.

A soldier stands in between the divides and does not know for whom he is holding the gun. This is beauty.

A friend runs to help the other, come whatever may. This is beauty.

To put in simple words, beauty, to me, is the white light. It is sacrifice, pleasure, happiness, forgiveness, trust, care and everything that exist within God’s creation.

If there is anything that is going to make you content and show you the purpose of existence like a human being, it is beautiful.

Beauty is permanent.

P.S., This is a part of Dove along with Yahoo to promote beauty. Please vote for this write up here

Who am I?

• I am an Indian: Emotion is a weapon of defense and strategy
• I am an Indian girl: I have been stereotyped
• I am an Indian aspirant: USA still is a top priority
• I am a south Indian girl: Most of sex knowledge comes from books
• I am an Indian reader: I used to love Sidney Sheldon. For all wrong reasons.
• I am an Indian Sportswoman: I played basket ball, not for passion but to increase height
• I am an Indian B school student: Facebook is my breath
• I am an Indian Electronics Engineer: I did everything except understanding electronics
• I am an Indian daughter: I am a display doll in other marriages
• I am an Indian sister: I am used for comparison
• I am an Indian foodie: I look at the price before eating
• I am an Indian movie buff: Regional language movies are for watching and English for discussing
• I am an Indian educationalist: Speaking will get me anywhere
• I am an Indian employee: The more I sit, harder I seem to work
• I am an Indian spender: Food always seem taste better in roadside shops
• I am an Indian consumer: I buy a dress from a big brand and look for an occasion
• I am an Indian traveler: Bargaining with auto driver is my right!
• I am an Indian counselor: I have an advice for anyone and everyone on the road
• I am an Indian supporter: I would support both a cricketer and an activist even if they oppose each other
• I am an Indian activist: To me, religion is a cause and an excuse
• I am an Indian writer: I try my best to please others

Halogen killer

How naïve can we be? How ignorant in spite of all the education? Only after IndiBlogger declared this contest, did I ever bother to look it up in google. And to my shock, there was not a single thing about the harmful effects in first few pages.

I remember the times I spent in the swimming pool when I was 13 years old. I was fascinated by the deep blue colour that resembled the beaches that were portrayed in the bollywood movies. In an attempt to do a back stroke just like those heroines in the movies, I ended up gulping in tons of water. The taste was just the opposite of the beautiful sight. The other senses were awakened too. The smell was as bad as the taste.

There are millions of hotel and commercial pools in our country. Each of them needs to be maintained to retain their customers. This is the reason chlorine is added into the pool.

With many people using the same pool every day, it is obvious that the pool collects various containments like lotions,dirt,oil etc.

To clean this, chlorine is added to the pool.

Most pools contain both good chlorine and bad chlorine. The good chlorine is called free chlorine and is capable of killing germs. Bad chlorine, on the other hand, is called "combined chlorine" and is a poor germ killer.

Too much combined chlorine in your pool causes the strong chlorine odor. When the combined chlorine level reaches 0.2 ppm or more, it is time to shock your water. Shocking will eliminate the odor.

Routine shock treatment is necessary to destroy combined chlorine compounds and restore the chlorine sanitizer to "free chlorine" efficiency. A pool can be shock treated by adding large doses of chlorine, commonly referred to as superchlorination, or by adding a non-chlorine shock such as OXY-BRITE.

The shock treatment can be done with both chlorine and non chlorine substance. The non chlorine substance scores over the chlorine substance as it does cause any harm to person or clothing.

If such a thing as non chlorine treatment is available, why not go for it? By using these substances, most of the lives can be saved.

Why am I getting sentimental to mention life? Yes, the TCCA (Tirchloroisocyanuric acid) used to purify waters in the swimming pools can cause cancer. The dangers are as bad as the abbreviation of the acid.

This TCCA is not just used in pools but also in many households. Do you own a water purifier? Got yourself fooled again? Most of the purifiers also contain TCCA as a purifying agent.

What can be done?

· Raise voice against chlorine usage

· Use the medium like facebook to communicate to others

· Get people to read on the harmful effects

· When you come across pools or households using chlorine, warn them

As a citizen, it is very important to raise voice. Let us not delve in ignorance again.