Friday, July 22, 2011

Revenge

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 22; the twenty-second edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

The moment she saw him, she was overwhelmed with all the old emotions that she had been trying to suppress for years now. She began to feel sick in the stomach and could not help feeling short breathed. She could immediately remember each and every detail just like it was yesterday.

Some 12 odd years back, when she had just entered her first year of graduation. Belonging to a small town in the eastern UP, the big city of Mumbai was like a dream to her. She could not believe that she was able to convince her parents to let her go to such a big city. Her parents, while not very rich themselves, were not exactly poor. They had a sizable amount of agricultural land and led a comfortable life with all modern amenities. Even then, it was a task for her to convince her parents to let her pursue her dream of higher education.

So the first day of the college came and boy! Was she excited? She went to college and began regular studies. Very soon she was able to establish a close group of friends. Of course, being in Mumbai, very soon they started going out for various parties; some even extending to the early hours of the morning. Despite all the partying, boozing going on around her; she used to maintain that humble air about her which most people took her as being shy.

It was at one of these parties that she met Vikas. There was an instant connection between the two and she felt that she could easily talk to him. He seemed to be a nice guy. That is until the midnight of 14th Feb, 1999.

As her friendship with Vikas developed, they started going out more often. But she was still hesitant about anything further because of her small town, cautious upbringing. And she discussed this with Vikas as well, who said that he was fine with this. But apparently he was not. After the V-Day party, he took her for a midnight drive. Being unfamiliar with the city landscape; she did not know the area well. Vikas stopped the car at a lonely place and forced himself on her. Try as she might, she could not get herself away from his clutches. She was shattered after the incident while Vikas absconded from the city. And she could not even create too much ruckus about it else her parent would have cut short her studies and that would have been the end of her career, much before it even began. So she kept the things to pretty much herself and maintained a low profile for the rest of the time.

But that was the day which scarred her life forever. That day was the reason that she pushed herself so hard that she would not have time for anything else in life. That day was the reason that despite all the psychological counseling she still needed sleeping pills every night.

And all those memories flooded her as she came face to face with Vikas on her flight from HongKong to Sydney with her feet still aching in her Jimmy Choo stilettos and the LV bag refusing to stay in position. So, she purposely dropped her purse in Vikas’ lap to let him establish the connection. But all she got was a smile in return. Bloody man didn’t even have the courtesy to hand her bag back to her. Absolutely no trace of recognition! How could it be that while that one incident has scarred her so badly; Vikas seems to have forgotten her completely?

That could not be right” thought she. And it was then that she saw him sipping scotch and a plan began to form in her mind. She requested the air hostess to switch her seat to one next to Vikas.

L: Hi! I am Liz. What’s your name?
V: Hey! This is Vikas. So what do you do Liz?
L: I am a director with a multinational entertainment giant. I handle a lot of fortune 10 clients and their advertisement campaigns.
V: Hmmm… that sounds interesting. I am into an NGO for social welfare of poor and illiterate women. Teaching them how to read and right, among other skills.
L: Wow that is so cool…

And the conversation continued so on for next hour or so with more drinks being ordered. Being a teetotaler, she did not drink but ensured that Vikas had plenty of it. When, after another hour or so, she was sure that he had stopped moving, she pulled a nightcap on his eyes, switched off the lights and whispered to the air-hostess “Poor guy… dead tired… Please ensure that nobody disturbs him till the flight reaches Atlanta… not even in the stopover at Sydney”.

She de-boarded at Sydney and went to the luggage section to pick her baggage. Where she was standing, a boy was asking his mother “Mom please help me with 6-Down. A seven letter word. Best served cold.” “I don’t know honey… please let mama check the baggage out”.

Revenge” offered Liz “Revenge is a dish best served cold!” 

"Thanks ma’m” said the boy.

Liz walked away with a new spring in her steps, stopping just long enough at a waste-bin around the corner to throw away the freshly emptied strip of sleeping pills…

Images Courtesy: thefarpoint.org, blog.30dollardatenight.com, chinatownconnection.com

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective postshere. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

30 comments:

  1. Revenge is Sweet and best when served cold. I like your post bud. It is beautiful, sad and fresh.. Good luck.. Here is my post.. Oh, this is horrible ReVeNge

    Someone is Special

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such was the impact of the story that i ended up desiring more cruel revenge !!

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Eternity: Well I feel that she did... as there was no way to trace who was sitting next to Vikas!

    @Someone: I am glad that you liked it... and yes revenge IS SWEET!

    @Vaibhav: May you get all the revenge you want... but hoping you dont need to!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7/23/2011

    Perfectly written. The flow , use of words with emotions , the psychology, the plot , everything seems to be in exact place .. Good luck buddy !

    ReplyDelete
  5. In short an inspired Post. Thanks for your efforts to select unique and emotional stories from the natural world. Thanks buddy!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Dreamygal: Thanx for liking the story... I hope no one has to have a revenge like that!

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Sunny... I am glad that you liked the psot!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Positively sinister !
    Liked you choice of dialogues, reminded me of Terminator-2 a bit !! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ok, now that was some revenge, perfect flow and usage of words, good going Aashish, all the best :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aashish the story is very presented and your way of using words is great.

    I have a grouse with your making that man a NGO worker, working for women's empowerment .. May be there are such NGOs that do it only for money, but I would have preferred if he was with some multi-national, they are supposed to be more money minded and heartless.

    Lastly a question: with all the terrorist attacks, etc. can airlines allow a person to travel to another country just because he is sleeping, even if he had checked-in for Sydney? I think that after the lady got off, the air hostess woke up the guy and told him to get off!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Whoa! I want a revenge too :P

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well, wish all women can have this luxury. But yes, I agree with Sunil Deepak's suggestion about air hostess waking him up though :-).

    ReplyDelete
  13. @Brijesh, Animesh, Sunilji, Ketan: Welcome to the world of my Wandering Thoughts... Feel free to explore more!

    @Brijesh: Terminator? I guess I should be flattered, and I AM :D I like Sinister, don't you?

    @Animesh: Thanx for liking the post sirjee!

    @Sunilji: I am glad that you liked the story! I hope you do look at some others too..
    I purposefully made it an NGO with women because that was the irony that a rapist was thus!
    Secondly, that was just a stopover and not a changeover as the flight wasn't supposed to be changed and the guy eventually had to go to Atlanta in the first place!

    @Priya: Hope no one has to! :D

    @Aativas: I too wish all the women had similar luxury of being able to take a revenge on wrongdoers! And my views on that flight thing above!

    @Ketan: A justified revenge I feel!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nice narrative. This is the third one I am reading with this storyline. Same storyline but each of you have handled it differently. I liked the way you brought in the ending. Really cool it was. A bit of grammatical errors here and there were a bit distracting though. For instance
    "sick to the stomach" should have been "sick in the stomach"
    "humble air around her" should have been "humble air about her"
    "Tried as she might" should have been "Try as she might". Usually typos don't catch my eye so much but these type of errors seem to catch my eye easily. But overall a nice narration. You can check out my Blog-a-ton post here : Revenge

    ReplyDelete
  15. Brilliant, love the story line, and the very flow in it ...

    ReplyDelete
  16. hello bhaiya.... loved your story... revenge is actually sweet... i have never viewed your this side... that was really a strong and tough narration... that was sweet... keep it up bhaiya... i m really looking forwards towards these kind of articles of yours...great...peace...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi there! I found it a little hard to believe that the air hostess would listen to a co-passenger instructing her not to wake up a passenger for a change of planes :( But otherwise the story was very credible, esp made so with your choice of simple words :) Good Luck!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Good one.. the ending was particularly good...Here's a link to mine - Revenge

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow cool story though you turned me in to a rapist.

    Good flow and nice ending ATB Buddy

    ReplyDelete
  20. ha vikas..hope it is not u :)

    nice narration....enjoyed it

    here is mine
    the revenge of aparniyan- Revenge

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oooooh, nice!:D I like the way she toned down her revenge, no drama at all:)

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  22. cold fr sure!
    gues i missd d twist ur prone to givin each time i visit ur blog cos d title spelt it all.
    nice theme...subtle n u managed to keep it very basic. gud stuf

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oh. I read an amazing and very very different write up today. Must appreciate your ideology. neat and nice.

    ReplyDelete
  24. @The Fool: Thanx for pointing out the errors... will attend to them ASAP!
    I am glad that you liked the narration... Yah many posts with the same theme but that was to be expected! I am glad that all had such a different narration style!

    @Menachery: Welcome to the world of my Wandering Thoughts... Feel free to explore more!
    I am glad that you liked the post!

    @Mahak: Thanx dear for liking the post! Stay tuned for more such stories! And I hope you like them as well!!!

    @Shilpaji: Welcome to the world of my Wandering Thoughts... Feel free to explore more!
    I am glad that you liked the storyline. As I explained earlier, it was a stopover and not a changeover! So no flight needed to be changed!

    @Vikram: Welcome to the world of my Wandering Thoughts... Feel free to explore more!
    Thanks sirjee for liking it, the end especially!

    ReplyDelete
  25. @Preethika: Welcome to the world of my Wandering Thoughts... Feel free to explore more!
    Thanks for liking it! Hope you do come back for more!

    @CPE: And I am glad that you read it and commented as well!

    @Vikas: I am glad that you liked the story... I do hope that I havent been able to turn YOU, or for that matter anyone, to a rapist... LOL :D

    @Critics: I too hope that it was not Vikas... though that would be too much of a "Stranger than fiction" kind of a thing!

    @Priyanka: Welcome to the world of my Wandering Thoughts... Feel free to explore more!
    Well I felt that a person when gets too emotionally disturbed by such a thing, they would kind of approach the matter with a cool, calculated mentality... Very often Scary! I am glad that you liked the post!

    @Sadiya: I wanted to give a twist there initially, but then decided against it and went for a cold blooded revenge! I am glad that you liked it! BTW, have some more in line with a usual twist in the end! Look out for this space!

    @Sushmaji: Welcome to the world of my Wandering Thoughts... Feel free to explore more!
    I am glad that you liked this post... and this one is as different from your post as it can be... the one in your case is sweet, simple and pure hearted... The one here is cold, calculated murder!

    ReplyDelete
  26. thanks to post here because i got a very nice post here.

    ReplyDelete
  27. This was an interesting short story; I enjoyed reading it. Revenge and/or paybacks can really be hell, especially if you're on the receiving end and a female is involved. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Sweet revenge indeed! At least she didn't do any harm. She just let him sleep and rest.

    ReplyDelete
  29. That was a nice story-short & compact...nice blog.

    ReplyDelete

Powered By Blogger