She leapt on to his thigh and sat there as though it was a throne that belonged to her. He remained quiet. The fellow who was whispering in his ears dropped a white liquid on his left shoulder. May be molecule touched her which made her hop to the other thigh. He continued to remain still while she grew more restless and hopped to a stone above his head. The other fellow stopped whispering and flew to a nearby branch. Before disappearing into the darkness she whispered a soft 'Meoww...'

The Silent Ringtone

In our first year of college saary naat caalege, IISER, being the juvenile selves that we were, we decided to play a prank on one of my friends. It materialized on a lazy day when we gathered in Saudamini’s room post lunch for a quick nap before the next lecture began. As usual the break did not proceed as intended and my friends got to cribbing about the morning lectures while I entertained myself by playing the game ‘Bubble Buster’ on Saudamini’s mobile phone. While I was playing the evil idea flashed through my mind. When Saudamini left the room I poked Surabhi to get her attention and tell her about my plans. After a relatively long time for a sensitive person that she calls herself, she looked up from her phone, irritated and asked me to explain myself. I asked her, ‘Surabhi, I want to change the settings on Saudamini’s phone?' With a suspicious look she asked, ’Why?’ and I replied ‘Turn on ringing for the ‘silent’ mode?’ with an evil smile and I saw the expression mirrored on her face. ‘Hmm…That would be fun. I’ll call on her phone while we are in the class.’ she said and I added, ‘Yay....It will embarrass her....Muhahahhaha’. We first had to get over our moral dilemmas about whether it will affect our friend but with some bit of rational thinking, reasoning and analysing earlier behaviour of Prof. Nice we decided it might not be too much of a problem. I immediately changed the settings of Saudamini’s phone. Though it showed ‘silent’, the ringing was turned on with the weirdest ringtone one could ever think of. We decided to call her phone during the first lecture post lunch and also decided to sit somewhere behind so that Saudamini as well as the professor wouldn’t notice two girls giggling away to madness. 
We got ready to leave for class when Saudamini joined us. She took her phone and switched to ‘silent’ mode before dropping it in her bag. While we were going to the class, Surabhi and I were thinking about the fun we were going to have. Funny how Saudamini did not notice our rather suspicious behaviour. The class was already full and luckily we got a place behind. Surabhi and I went to sit in the 4th row from the front while Saudamini chose her usual place on the front bench with our other friends. We decided to call in between the lecture. 
The noisy class suddenly became silent which indicated the arrival of the professor. The professor went past me. I gave an ‘Oh No...What do we do now’ look to Surabhi. Prof. Not so Nice had come and he genuinely hated any sort of distractions and interruptions in the class. Most of the students in the class were terrified of him. He went and stood on the platform and announced, ‘Prof. Nice won’t be able to take the class today. So we are switching our class timings' and proceeded to begin the class without any other remarks. We had no choice other than to cancel our plans as it could go out of hand. Our moods dampened. Another thought began to nag me, ’What if someone else calls on her phone?’ I expressed my concern to Surabhi and we both dreaded the consequences of a call. We both couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the class and I started praying to all possible gods hoping no one would call Saudamini.
Ten minutes into the class, Ram, with his shabby hair and sleepy eyes, entered the class and everyone’s attention shifted towards him. Mr. Not so Nice expressed his disapproval by checking the time and then pointedly looked at Ram and gave him a furious look. Ram did not seem bothered and proceeded to occupy the only place left in one of the front benches. The lecture continued. 
Nothing bad happened till the next 20 minutes until the expected happened. A mobile phone started to ring with the weirdest ringtone one could ever think of. Surabhi said slightly loudly, ‘Oh My GOD! It has happened. Disaster strikes.’ I held her hand tightly so that she would keep quiet. Everyone’s attention shifted to the front bench while I muttered ‘Saudamini will be thrown out of the class and when she comes to know it was us, we are doomed'. We didn’t want that to happen. We just wanted to embarrass her.’ I regretted what I did. The professor stopped lecturing stared at the front bench while Ram took his phone out of his pocket and turned it off. The professor was fuming and shouted at Ram by pointing to the door, ‘Ram, out of my class, now.’ Ram stood up, stared at the professor and then decided to leave. While Ram was leaving, the professor continued, ‘If you are planning to come late anymore please don’t come.’ The professor got back to the board and continued lecturing. Surabhi and I were relieved but waited with bated breath for the lecture to get over. 
The lecture got over soon. I thanked my stars for what had not happened. No one called on Saudamini’s phone. I wanted to change the settings of the ‘silent’ mode back to what it was. I told Surabhi,’ Surabhi, I’ll go and change the settings’. She replied, ’Yes, yes please do’. I went and asked Saudamini for phone to play ‘Bubble Buster’. She took her phone out, looked at it disappointingly and then showed it to me and said, ’No charge. It’s dead.’ A wide smile was about to appear on my face but I hid it and put up a sad face. Surabhi who was listening to our conversation from behind shouted in delight, ‘Saudamini, your phone is awesome’. Saudamini replied, ’Get lost’.

Thunder?

I was reading a book when I heard a big noise along with the windows shivering. 'Earthquake?' I thought. I ran down the stairs to the room where my parents were sleeping. I asked my mom 'Did you heard that?' She said 'That was thunder, sweetheart. Did u get scared?' I replied, 'Yes'. I turned and walked back to my room. In another few minutes the power failed. It took 45 minutes for power to come back and for me to go to sleep. 
I woke up in the morning and my mom met me with a grin on her face. She said 'Do you know what happened yesterday?' I replied with a confused look 'No'. My mom continued 'There was a bomb blast in Rajendranagar (a place which is located 1- 2 km from my house). See the newspaper.' I read the news for details. So that was a neither a thunder nor an earthquake but a blast!

Extract from an early morning dream

I was walking down a deserted road on a cold winter’s night. I felt anxious and was scared to move my foot as it was pitch-dark. The streetlights were off and the moon was hiding behind cluster of dark clouds. Suddenly I felt warm and heavy on my cold hand. My right palm was resting inside someone else’s palm. I tried to release my palm while looking at the face. By then we had reached near a dimming streetlamp. In that faded light, I saw a glimpse of his face.  It looked familiar. He said, “Don’t worry. It’s me”. I felt better that I was not alone. We walked. I saw his face clearly under the bright streetlamp. The moon showed half of itself from behind the clouds. The face still looked familiar but it wasn’t whom I thought it was. The face made me feel more comfortable and happy. I held his palm tight. The moon was full and bright. We continued walking.