Life and The Grey Notes

By Mayank s. Sengar

The collection of short stories in English, Life and the Grey Notes, brings home the simple truths of human nature, the essential human ingredients. The author has you reflecting, smiling, as you relate intimately to the characters and situations that people these stories.

From the inescapable dilemma of a tea stall owner caught in the mesh of societal hypocrisy, to the inherent tendency to presume and judge that lurks within each one of us, the cherished place we accord to individual faith and the element of divinity, the intricately entwined threads of emotion in the Indian ethos can all be derived from this collection of experiences in the form of a book. The turning point in some stories where the protagonist emerges as a hero or confronts his own inevitable human frailties will warm many a heart, cutting across reader demographics such as age, geography and language. Suitable read right from a teenager to a young adult to an adult.

Heartwarming, thought-provoking, explores human relationships and human psychology yet light and humorous, this short stories collection makes for an ideal quick read with your leisurely cuppa chai..

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zorba Books
• Release date: Jun 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9789385020544

Mayank s. Sengar

Mayank Sengar hails from a family of culturalists based in the holy city of Varanasi. He is blessed with a keen eye for detail and a fine sense of appreciation for life’s varied experiences in equal measure, glimpses of which can be found in his work. He has a talent for being able to connect easily with people from varied spheres of life, and this reflects beautifully in the way the characters in his stories are very real, very compelling, irrespective of which strata of society they belong to. Mayank currently lives in Gurgaon with his wife and two lovely kids.

Book preview

LIFE

and

THE GREY NOTES

This book is purely a work of fiction and bears no resemblance to any individual or organization, past or present. Any such resemblance is entirely a coincidence for which the author bears no responsibility.

LIFE and THE GREY NOTES

MAYANK S. SENGAR

Published in India by Zorba Books, 2016

Website: www.zorbabooks.com

Email: [e-mail]

Copyright © MAYANK S. SENGAR

ISBN Print Book - 978-93-85020-53-7

ISBN eBook – 978-93-85020-54-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system—except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the Web—without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this book, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any inconsistencies herein. Any slights on people, places, or organizations are unintentional.

Zorba Books Pvt. Ltd. (opc)

Gurgaon, INDIA

Printed in India

To Dearest Mummy – Mrs. Beena Singh

This is the first one, and this is for you.

For all the support you gave when everyone else believed I was not that good, for all the dedication you put in to make me a better human being, and for showing me the path of courage and conviction. By your example I know it doesn’t matter how many people are with you, what matters is honest and continued efforts. With your blessing I am starting a new journey... Keep blessing me always.

Acknowledgments

This book is the result of united effort from many people who are an integral part of my life. I thank you all for letting me borrow examples and events from your lives that have helped make my stories come alive. This collection would not have been possible without you all.

I would like to thank my loving wife, Abha, who has supported and encouraged me in every possible way from start to finish, on this book. It has been a long and difficult journey for her. Aadya and Aaryahi, my lovely daughters, aged five and two, were like the icing on the cake, so a special thanks to both my little angels, for making my quest for a peaceful working atmosphere in the house impossible! I love you both no matter what.

I would like to express heartfelt gratitude to my parents and the rest of my family who believed in me and supported me unflinchingly, throughout.

A big thank you to all my friends. Without you guys, it would have been very difficult to remain sane and focus on my book. I treasure you all for a lifetime.

A special mention here for Zorba Books, and Shalini in particular, for making my dream come true in the printed form. I feel fortunate to have found in you a publisher who truly believes in the potential of amateur writers.

And last but not the least, I ask forgiveness of all those who have been with me for all my years, whose names I have missed mentioning here. You all already know how dear you are to me.

Contents

1. Inside Bermuda Triangle

2. The Evening Call

3. Hoping for Hope

4. Who’s the Pet?

5. The Golden Fear

6. The Religious Atheist

7. Blood Group H+

8. Let’s Judge

9. The Unlucky Betrayal

10. The God Particle

Prologue

All of us wait for that one Big Bang event of our life, ignoring all the other incidents that happen in our lives. We want to listen to the revelations of God, not paying attention to other significant conversations happening around us. We are all looking for divine signboards to decide on the right direction, remaining blind to the myriad hints that are actually available to us all the time. The apple that Newton saw falling down from the tree was not the first one witnessed by humanity, and certainly not the last one either. It became the most important apple in the history of mankind because it sowed the seeds of deeper thoughts in an ignited mind. There are many things that happen to us that have the potential to redirect the trajectory of life but generally, the inertia attached to the status quo and the ignorance that comes with our sense of comfort and leisure far outweigh this potential. To tilt the balance towards change, we need to shift the direction of our optimism and capacity for acceptance in favour of such change.

The black and white episodes in our lives are easy to deal with; it’s the grey shades that are the most difficult to understand and handle. Emotionally, we all consider ourselves either black or white but the truth is, we are predominantly grey. Interestingly, it’s these grey shades that hold out to us maximum opportunities and multiple interpretations.

This book is a collection of such grey incidents of life, presented in the form of short stories. The characters and the situations they find themselves in will lure the readers to interpret the grey as black or white, depending on their own experiences and understanding of life. The premises are eminently relatable, the emotions as old as human history, yet the correlation between them entirely contemporary.

The boundary between reality and fiction sometimes becomes paper-thin, the difference between success and failure becomes insignificant and the juggernaut of the circus that society is becomes irrelevant. What remains is the need to set aside everything and look for the real purpose of life. The ten apples presented in this collection then will hopefully lend a spark to many ignited minds and help release their true potential. When you have read through these stories, every conversation will become gospel, every incident will metamorphose into a significant event, and all the hints we usually miss out on will converge to create a key to the riddle of life.

Every end is a new beginning; every pause is a precursor to new thoughts; every thought is potentially a new story; every story is a new interpretation; and every interpretation is a new shade of grey.

Inside Bermuda Triangle

One of the greatest unsolved mysteries in human history for many centuries is the Bermuda Triangle. Also known as the Devil’s Triangle, it is a triangle-shaped area in the North Atlantic Ocean, stretching from Bermuda Island to Miami, USA to Puerto Rico. Innumerable aircrafts and ships have reportedly disappeared over this area under mysterious circumstances and no scientific or logical explanation has ever been able to successfully account for these disappearances. With no survivors to provide a first-hand account, the legend of the Bermuda Triangle has grown out of proportion over the years. With over a thousand lives lost over the last hundred years and on average, four aircrafts and twenty yachts going missing every year, this is the second most mysterious triangle of life.

Sanjay lay on his bed, pondering his next move, as the narrator’s voice droned on in the background in a documentary on the Bermuda Triangle showing on the Discovery channel. Winter had begun and in colleges across India, placement season had just kicked in. Sanjay had spent the last three days thinking about the same question and was still miles away from any feasible answer. His deep meditation was interrupted by the comments of a naval officer in the United States Atlantic observatory who had studied the happenings in and around the Bermuda Triangle in persevering detail.

‘My research confirms most of the mishaps here can be attributed to human error. In my opinion, there is no Bermuda Triangle, and if there is any, it’s created by us and it’s in our minds.’ Sanjay immediately switched focus to the television set, a question mark in his expression. Is he talking about me?

The naval officer continued. ‘The number of lives lost is high because this has traditionally been the busiest trade route, and if we compare it with other similar routes, the numbers are in proportion. Sit at the drawing board and think rationally; everything can be explained. We just need to look into it carefully.’

Sanjay had only two days to look into his Bermuda Triangle and fix it forever. The triangle of emotions he had been struggling with ever since he had tried to take the first independent decision of his life... a triangle that has taken a singularly huge toll in recorded human history. It has no logical explanation and has managed to grow in influence and impact over time. The worst thing about it—unlike the other triangle, this triangle exists within every one of us. This one does not take lives; it performs robberies—robberies of dreams, of love for life, of vigour and energy, of one’s faith in abilities and the knowledge of one’s weaknesses.

Sanjay contemplated the words of the naval officer, trying to delve into his own problems, when he heard somebody coming upstairs. Sanjay’s room was on the second floor, the first floor was occupied by tenants, and on the ground floor of the ancestral house lived his parents.

The other room on the third floor belonged to his uncle, a shadowy figure in the family who had left home some fifteen years ago in search of spiritual knowledge. That room was opened only on weekends for cleaning and upkeep. The house was located in one of the busiest and oldest parts of the city on the banks of the Ganges. It was almost midnight and very unusual for anybody to come upstairs at this hour of the day. Sanjay’s parents avoided the second floor even during the day because of their arthritis. Sanjay came out of his room to see who it was. He was surprised and frightened at the same time to see a man with a long beard in characteristic saffron attire standing in front of him. He disguised his nervousness and shot off a volley of questions—Who are you? Where have you come from? What are you doing here at this time? In the same breath, he screamed in his loudest voice in the direction of the ground floor, his voice carrying through the courtyard in the still of the night.

‘Mom, who is this guy? Who allowed him inside at this time?’

His mother replied from her room.

‘Beta, try to recognize, he is your Kaka, Ravinder Kaka. He is here since evening. I have given him the keys to his room. Let him take rest and we will talk about this in the