The Bridge.

Alan had seen this view before. He'd loved this view every time he did. The view from the Helix bridge summed up his entire love life.

To the right near the Esplanade theatres is where he had first met his wife. They both enjoyed the concert performance that evening with their friends. Alan and she stayed back for a few drinks. Their conversations revealed that both were orphans who had worked hard to succeed in life. There was a mutual admiration which turned into affection.

The Promontory to the far left was where they had enjoyed the fireworks in the Bay Area on one of their earlier dates. He remembered that the place was packed with people and that gave all the more reason for her to stay really close to him. They walked back home that night and were walking around through the next morning. That was when he realised how much he loved her.

Towards the left behind him was the giant carrousel, the Singapore Flyer, where he had popped the question to her. The setup was planned by him with close friends present while he went down on one knee and asked her to spend her entire life with him. Her answer had been a resounding Yes! Her tears had been those of absolute joy that evening.

To the right behind the theatres he saw the plush Mandarin Oriental where they had their wedding reception. With only their friends in attendance they had a small intimate affair. He remembered the crazy photos they had taken that evening. Even when she was making funny faces, his wife looked gorgeous.

Their favourite Italian restaurant was at the centre of this view. The last time they were there was to celebrate their wedding anniversary. He remembered they had shared a sinful dessert at the end of their meal, compliments of the restaurant. She looked radiant that evening!

Yes, his life with his wife was almost summed up entirely with the view that lay before his eyes as he stood on the Helix bridge.

But that life was now only a memory. His wife had passed away last week. He lost her in a car accident. Alan had been devastated since then. But now he was calm as he stood their admiring the view. He had walked down from his office to the bridge after a day's work and was still in his business suit.

Alan stood their motionless as he saw his life with her flash before his eyes. After what seemed an eternity to casual observers, Alan moved to take support of the railing of the bridge as he lifted himself up.

It is then that people around Alan noticed a handcuff around his left hand chaining him to the briefcase he was carrying. They realised what he was about to do. But before anyone could react, Alan had already taken the plunge into the Singapore river below and was propelled all the way to the floor due to the weight of the stuffed briefcase. An hour later when his body was recovered, his life was long gone.

Earlier that day Alan had decided to end his life. But wanted to have one last glimpse of all the places where he had enjoyed a happy life with his now late wife. He left a simple note on his work desk which read -

"Headed to The Bridge, one last time."

Last Night

She woke up with a smile. And why not? Last night was phenomenal! HE was phenomenal! There was a spark that she hadn't seen in a while.

He had just taken her as she lay there,without any warning or any hesitation. She found it brutal and sensual at the same time. That had excited her.

The foreplay. The caressing. The kiss. The lovemaking. All of it felt sublime. Almost surreal but in a fantastic way! She didn't even have time to turn on the lights. And after they were done she just fell off to sleep.

This morning she awoke before he did. He was facing the other way and seemed in deep sleep. She decided to surprise him with some breakfast in bed.

She tiptoed out of bed and into the shower. The shower helped her feel a tad fresh and relaxed. She stepped out of the shower and noticed that he was still asleep. She made her way to the kitchen.

As she stepped towards the kitchen she saw the main door swing open. Startled at first, then completely astonished, she screamed!

The man who walked through the open door was her husband, the man who supposedly was making love to her last night.

The Lucky One.

Raj was a having a terrible day, the worst in a line of truly bad ones. All day he'd been the victim of a cosmic conspiracy which was out to ruin his aspirations, goals and everything in between.

Or so he thought all day. 

He missed his usual train to work and ended up reaching an hour late to the office. That would've been alright had this not been the day of the big meeting with all the associates. His tardiness caught the bosses' eyes and cost him that coveted promotion he was eyeing all year. 

Or so he thought all morning.

Afternoon did not bring any respite with Raj having to skip lunch to work on an absolutely critical presentation. It didn't help that his co-workers were out on a fabulous team lunch at a newly opened fine dining restaurant. He knew they ditched him on purpose.
Or so he thought all afternoon.

As if things weren't bad enough already, Simran, his date for the evening, called up and cancelled on him. He was absolutely certain she was cheating on him and seeing that weasel Prem from management.
Or so he thought all evening.

As the work-day came to an end, Raj felt he was possibly the unluckiest person in the world. He decided to simply call it quits and head to the pub across the street for a stiff drink to drown his sorrows.

As he made his way across the street he noticed a small crowd gathered. Walking closer to the crowd he saw they were witnessing a performance by what appeared to be school kids, no older than 10. Although he wasn't in the mood to appreciate performances, the energetic movements of the dancing children were hard to ignore.

The dances continued for another ten minutes and Raj found himself glued to the ground as he felt overwhelmed with awe of the spirits of these little angelic children. As their performance drew to an end, the children all huddled around one of the performers, the youngest and the most energetic of the lot, and held up a banner with an arrow seemingly pointing to the child who was the centre of attention. Raj began reading the wordings of the banner. What he read made him wince -

"This is Ajay. He is 8 years old. He is HIV+ Please help support him with a small contribution"

Raj stepped back. Suddenly all the sorrows, the troubles, the hinderances he had faced all day seemed inconsequential. Here was a child, who for no fault of his own, was suffering from a disease with no cure and for whom the future held nothing but bleakness. Yet he was smiling, dancing and living his life.

And so Raj thought, for the rest of his life, he was the lucky one.

The Couple - A Short Story

It had been a long day at work for Divya. Her week long work conference had left her completely exhausted. Fortunately she was able to leave a day earlier. All she wanted to do was reach home and have a glass of wine with Arun. In her haste to catch the next flight out, she missed informing her husband of the change in her schedule and then later decided to surprise Arun.

Once she reached the apartment, she removed her keys to open the door. She was a tad concerned that the door wasn't locked. She figured that Arun must've left in a hurry that morning and missed locking the apartment door. Once she entered the apartment, a few other things caught her eye that raised her suspicions about something not being right. There was loose clothing lying around the living room leading a trail to the bedroom. She began tip-toeing and followed the trail of clothes, all the while trying to keep her imagination from running astray.

Once she reached the bedroom door, what she saw completely surprised her; her husband in bed with Mrs. Kamini Mehta. The adulterous couple froze as soon as they caught a glimpse of Divya. Divya's husband stumbled to get words out of his mouth, anything that could help him with the rather awkward situation he was in. Unfortunately all that he could manage was "What are you doing here?"

Before any other words were exchanged, Divya stormed out of the bedroom and left the apartment. As she entered the elevator, she removed her handphone and dialled a number. The telephone ring at the other end was abruptly cut short as a friendly male voice answered - "Hey!".

Divya replied gleefully - "It's me! Guess who I caught cheating with YOUR wife? Yep, MY husband! Looks like we won't have to worry about the divorcing our spouses after all, Arun."

The Ring

It had been over a year since Abhishek saw his girl friend, Divya. They were college sweethearts. They's been together for over seven years now. But neither had told their families about the other.

He was away from home on account of work. He had left their hometown of Bombay to secure a better paying job in Singapore. The decision was one that they both accepted grudgingly. But it was one that would secure their financial futures, they thought.

Although they didn't realize it, the separation took its toll on their relationship. At first they kept in touch via frequent phone calls and web chats. But time differences and work caused their daily interactions to reduce to weekly ones until finally it became a monthly affair. It had been over two months since they last spoke to each other.

But all that wasn’t going to matter today. Today Abhishek was going to give a fantastic surprise to the love of his life. He had flown in from Singapore to Bombay to be with Divya to celebrate the anniversary of the day he gave her an engagement ring, professing his undying love to her. It wasn’t a very extravagant one. He was a lowly engineer. He couldnt’t afford anything more than a single diamond ring. It had cost him two months salary, but it was a modest wedding band.

His plan was simple, walk up to her apartment with a bouquet of red roses and see the look on Divya’s face as she saw him at the doorway. It was a simple plan. But he knew it would be one that would sweep her off her feet.

He rang the door bell and waited with baited breath. He was anxious as well. The door opened and he saw Divya. She was even more beautiful than he last remembered. Divya seemed distressed on seeing him. Abhishek hadn’t expected this look but was delighted to see her anyway. He extended his arms to give her the bouquet. She extended her’s to accept it grudgingly.

That’s when Abhishek noticed it. Her ring finger sported a Solitaire ring. A bright and shiny single piece diamond sat atop a pure platinum band. That wasn’t the ring he had given her. It was another. Divya’s parents had gotten her engaged to be married to another.

The First Time

Abhishek was nervous. And rightly so. It was his first day in a new school. The anxiety levels were through the roof. His previous school was one that focussed on the kindergarten levels and hence had fewer classes and in turn fewer students. But his new school was one that moulded minds right from kindergarten to the metric levels. The building, the classrooms, the people all seemed gigantic to the six year old.

He just couldn't let go of his mother's wrist. With each step that he took towards the school gates, his grip got firmer. His mother could sense the fear in Abhishek and knew that it was only natural. She was scared too, but hid her true feelings and put up a brave face for her second born. She knew if Abhishek saw her in a vulnerable state, he would never be able to let go off her hand.

It was almost 8'o clock, time for the school day to officially begin. Parents would have to now take leave of their children and hand them over to the school for the remainder of the day. Abhishek knew that the comfort of his mother's hand was soon going to slip away and that he would be on his own in this huge maze.

She was holding her father's hand. Her eyes had a sense of anticipation. An unmistakable smile beamed on her face. Rutuja was anything but scared. On the contrary her excitement was hard for her to contain. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

His first look left him puzzled. Abhishek couldn't believe someone could look so beautiful! Suddenly his fear seemed to have vanished into thin air. He no longer had anxiety or doubt in his mind. His grip over his mother's wrist begin to loosen. Sensing this his mother looked at him and then looked at what had caught her son's attention. As she saw Rutuja, she couldn't help but smile. Her son was smitten and that too by such a sweet looking girl. She almost giggled at the thought of her little tiger going all weak in the knees for this little angel.

She finally let go his hand and watched as Abhishek inched towards the fair maiden. Suddenly Abhishek froze in his steps, turned around and ran back to his mohter and tugged at her sleeve, signaling her to bend down so that he could talk to her. As she obliged, Abhishek asked her

"Mommy, is that girl an angel?"

Abhishek's mother almost guffawed at her son's question. She whispered back in his ear,

"If she is, she is the most beautiful one I've ever seen son. Why don't you go and talk to her?"

As Abhishek started walking towards the little angel, he felt a sudden knot in his stomach. He couldn't quite tell what this new feeling was. But no matter how alien this new emotion felt, for some reason, he did not want it to go away.

Abhishek, the six year old boy, had just experienced his first crush.