Mad, Me or you?
Steve was a cheapskate who lived alone in a mansion. He was such a niggard that he refused to handout candy at Halloween, saying it would cost too much money. Every evening he used to see a beggar sitting outside his house feeding a dog. Steve used to wonder why the hell is this beggar feeding dog when he doesn't have enough to feed himself. One day he went out and asked the beggar "Hey, Are you mad? Why do you feed this dog daily? You could buy something for yourself with that money instead of spending on this useless piece of shit". Beggar smiled and replied " This dog might seem useless to you but for me he is not just a dog, he is like a true friend of mine, he follows me wherever I go. He never lets me feel that I am alone but what have you got?" All this money and none to talk with. So, is it me or you who is mad?
Game for Game
Back in India lived a boy named RAKESH, he was sixteen. He lived with his mother in a village called Kalpathy, in Palakkad, Kerala. Rakesh was loved by all in the village; he was a young and smart boy who used to excel in his academics as well.
Back in India lived a boy named RAKESH, he was sixteen. He lived with his mother in a village called Kalpathy, in Palakkad, Kerala. Rakesh was loved by all in the village; he was a young and smart boy who used to excel in his academics as well.Back in India lived a boy named RAKESH, he was sixteen. He lived with his mother in a village called Kalpathy, in Palakkad, Kerala. Rakesh was loved by all in the village; he was a young and smart boy who used to excel in his academics as well.
He had a best friend from his childhood, his name was RAJIV. They were so close to each other, that both of them knew about one another as we can say they both were like two bodies with one heart. The villagers used to appreciate their friendship to such an extent that every parent wished they had children like them as they were so astonished by their friendship.
Rakesh’s dad was doing business in Dubai. They were a small and happy family. They were very rich too. His dad was the owner of Nico Milk Powder Industrial Ltd. The company was very successful and one of the top ranked company in Dubai.
By the time Rakesh finished his 10th standard, Rakesh’s dad decided to settle down with his family in Dubai, so he told Rakesh to complete his pre-degree course, 11th and 12th standards, in Dubai. Rakesh, after hearing this, was in a dilemma. He didn’t know whether to burst out in happiness that he was going to meet his dad or cry out in depression that he is going to miss his Rajiv. Even Rajiv was full of sorrow. He wouldn’t see his friend till he finishes his pre degree. But Rakesh had no option but to leave as his dad was the one calling. It’s the culture prevalent among villages in India that it is not fair to outsmart what elders say. So Rakesh and his mom left for Dubai.
He joined one of the top schools in Dubai. As you know, Dubai is a ‘Dream City’, full of excitement. It is easy to imagine how a young boy, a teenager, might enjoy when he sees all the wonder that surrounds him. It happened as expected. He changed a lot. It was a transformation from a village boy to city stud. His dressing style, hair style, looks, culture, tradition, everything changed. He became one of the yo-yo type boys that we mostly see in places like Dubai.
Once, while he was roaming around with his friends, he unknowingly hit a girl and both fell down. When he looked up to apologize, he was stunned by her beauty. She had long blond hair, a celestial face, irresistible luminous dark blue eyes, adorable dimples, naughty-but-charming expression, cute smile, long eyelashes, and pink lips. He was totally dumbstruck and was in an imaginary world, it was love at first sight. She kept saying sorry to him expecting a reply in return, but he was busy admiring her beauty. She gave a beautiful smile and left the place. Rakesh was still standing there gazing at her beauty; he was kind of lost himself. Day and night he dreamt about her.
The next day when he went to class he came to know of a new admission in his class, a girl had come to his class, her name was MERLIN. She was crowded by the boys. He was unable to see her face as she was surrounded. When the first bell rang, everyone scattered, rushing to catch their seats. When Rakesh turned to open his bag, a breeze blew and he saw the new girl arranging her hair. He was shocked to see the girl. She was the one whom he hit by mistake the day before. He was filled with joy and thought of himself as the luckiest person on earth. During the classes he was continuously gazed at her. He was mentally absent from class. He was in a world full of duets, music and dancing. He discussed his feeling with Rajiv, confused whether it was an infatuation or love. Though Rakesh had changed a lot, they still shared everything.
That day, they talked for an hour about this. Hearing everything, Rajiv advised him to open up his heart to her, since he had already fallen for her. The next day he picked up his confidence and was ready to tell her, but he was a bit nervous. He tried to talk to her before class, but he couldn’t. She was busy with her friends. During the break, taking a long breathe, he went towards her.
Seeing him,
“Good Afternoon!”
She said.
He stood like a statue front of her. He tried to talk but nothing came out. She smiled and was about to leave.
He interrupted and said,
“Ah...ah I want to talk to you…”
“Yes..”
He was a bit hesitant to tell and was worried how she might take it… This was the best time to tell, none of her friends were around and it’s not so easy to get her alone like this.
“I love you!!”
Saying so, he dashed to class without waiting for her to respond.
He never looked at her face for the rest of the day, as if he was a criminal who had done a terrible crime, hiding himself from everyone. Throughout the day he kept gazing at his books. When the last bell rang, he moved out of class still not ready to look at her face.
The very next day, she came directly to him before the first bell rang. Seeing her standing near his bench he stood up very slowly taking his time.
“Good Morning”.
She didn’t reply. By now he understood.
“Sorry.”
She laughed.
“Why sorry?”
He took a little time.
“It’s for what I did yesterday.”
“But you didn’t do anything wrong, you just said what you felt.”
Hearing this he got relieved and looked at her face. She still had a smile on her face…
“Even I liked you when we first met. Even when I saw you in this class, I still didn’t know whether it was love or infatuation. When you told me about your feelings yesterday, it kept me thinking all night long… I LOVE YOU!!!”
Saying this she left to her seat. Everything happened so fast. Hearing this Rakesh was ecstatic. He was carried away with joy. He called Rajiv and shared this happy news.
After that, it was a reign of happiness and love. Merlin and Rakesh became the love birds of their school. They shared their feelings with each other. Rakesh tasted the pleasure of love, he was a lovable person and so was Merlin. Falling in love is like jumping off a really tall building. Your brain tells you it is not a good idea, but your heart tells you, you can fly. When two people are meant for each other, no time is too long, no distance is too far, no one can ever tear them apart.
Rakesh gave all that he had to Merlin. They had no barriers between them. By now, both were eighteen. They had completed their schooling. As he was the only child, his dad’s belongings came under his name and they planned to run away. He wrote everything he had under Merlin’s name to be safe, it was idea suggested by Merlin. Even if something happens to Rakesh, Merlin wouldn’t have to beg for her living.
Many felt jealous seeing their divine love. They were like made for each other.
They took tickets to fly to London, prepared to run away and live happily.
One day, they were romancing in a quiet place late at night; suddenly some gangsters came and surrounded them.
The leader asked,
“Who are you? What’s your relation with the girl?”
“She is the one I am going to marry.” Rakesh said.
One of them pulled Merlin and started misbehaving with her. Rakesh could not tolerate. He started to react, but the gangsters beat him, the leader gave a hard bang on Rakesh’s head and he fell down unconscious; his eyes was half open. The gangsters pulled Merlin to one corner and raped her brutally; Rakesh could hear her crying out in pain but he was helpless. He cursed himself for not being able to protect her. He felt himself incapable to bring up a family as there is a saying that a person who can’t protect his wife is not capable to lead a family life. With great difficulty he lifted his head up and the scene he saw made him cry. Merlin had lost everything, her clothes, her virginity, her life… she was lying lifeless on the ground naked and torn apart by those butchers, mercilessly killing her.
Rakesh’s eyes filled with tears and he spoke with a wavering voice,
“You.. bloody fuckers… You all... will… suffer… For what you…”
Not letting him complete, the leader stabbed him on his head and that took away his last breathe and he lay down dead. They burnt his body to mislead the police.
Police kept investigating and ultimately concluded it to be a tragic accident. The police reported the accident to Rakesh’s dad. He got deeply affected on hearing about the tragedy; His mom fell unconscious when she heard about Rakesh.
The very next day they flew back to Palakkad with their son’s body. Outside their house, there gathered a huge crowd, filled with tears to have a last glance of their dear Rakesh. Rajiv was deeply shocked to hear the death of his best friend; he locked himself in his room. He didn’t come to see Rakesh for the last time. He was deeply moved by this terrible accident and remained mentally shocked for many days. He neither had food nor water.
During his loneliness, the spirit of Rakesh visited him. At first, he was frightened to see the ghost, but later on he overcame his fear and started mingling with him. Rajiv started to recover slowly from the shock. Now he was happy. Even though his friend was dead, he was able to talk to his soul. The spirit shared everything that happened to him and said that his intention to have come back to this world was to find the gangsters and kill them. He was curious if Rajiv could help him. Rajiv, boiling with anger and viciously wanting revenge, gladly accepted his invitation. They made plans to fly to Dubai.
One day, Rajiv saw an advertisement in newspaper in which Rakesh noticed the photo of the gang leader. It was an advertisement of a company famous in Dubai and it stated that its owner, Mr. Rejo Mathews, had come to Palakkad to select young sales executives for their company in Dubai. He would be staying in India for the next six months.
Both were shocked when they read the advertisement. Doubts started arising. They couldn’t link his connection with the gang.
‘Why should a great entrepreneur like him join a dirty gang? What was their intention to kill me?’
Thousands of doubts arose, confusing them both. In order to clear everything, Rajiv decided to meet Rejo.
Rajiv went to Rejo’s house. He stated that he is also an entrepreneur and would like to talk about some business dealings with him. Rajiv got an appointment with him.
Rakesh’s spirit accompanied Rajiv. It was visible only to Rajiv.
Rejo greeted Rajiv with great hospitality. They introduced themselves and started talking business.
While they were chatting merrily, a girl entered the house. Rakesh, on seeing the girl, got shocked. She was just like his lover; she had the same face.
Rejo told him she was his dear sister, MERLIN. Rajiv stood and gave her a polite handshake.
Rakesh was totally puzzled. ‘What the hell is happening here…?’, he thought.
After the meeting Rajiv and Rakesh came back to Rajiv’s home. Rakesh’s parents were there. His mom was crying and his dad was sitting as if he had lost something precious. The whole atmosphere was dull. Rajiv’s father was consoling them.
Rajiv was totally confused what was happening here. He enquired about it to his mom.
“Why everyone is so sad?”
“It’s all because of your so called best friend Rakesh. Every one of his dad’s property was under his name. Before he died, he gave it to some girl called Merlin. Now they have nothing with them except the house in which they are living now. That alone was under his mother. That is the only thing left with them.”
Rakesh hearing all this, felt himself helpless. Being just a spirit, he couldn’t possibly do anything now. He now understood, he was cheated; but he wasn’t sure who the real culprit was or what their intention was.
To find an answer to all his questions, he prepared a plot with Rajiv by his side.
Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth. Hand for hand.
Rakesh asked Rajiv to play the same game which merlin had played with him,
“The Game of Love”
Rajiv had already been introduced to Merlin by her brother. He took this as a stepping stone to enter her heart.
From that day onwards, they planned wisely to make Merlin fall for Rajiv and they succeeded in doing so.
When Merlin was deeply in love with Rajiv, one day Rajiv called for a day out. They had their romantic chatting as usual. Out of the blue, Rajiv enquired if she had had any previous love. With a pause she said,
“No… Never…”
But Rajiv did not give up. He started to cross question her.
“But I heard from one of my friends that you were in love with a Rakesh or someone during your school days in Dubai.”
She was alarmed.
“Not only that. I even heard that you cheated him, is it so?”
She knew she was caught red handed. She knew that even if she tried to change the topic, it won’t do any good. She decided to tell the truth.
She wept
“Yes, I knew Rakesh. He was very good and lovable to me, but I was forced to cheat on him. It was my brother’s plan and I was just an instrument for him.”
“My brother is the owner of Ramco milk powder, well known in Dubai. But they were in heavy competition with Nico milk powder. Nico industry started flourishing very fast. As a result, Ramco started declining. My brother could not stand this, he became psychotic. He wanted his company to rise back up at any cost. The only possible way was either to compete against Nico or to destroy it completely.”
“For many days, he was deep in thought. It was at this time he heard about Rakesh, who was the son of the owner of Nico. He also came to know, from a spy, that the company and all the belongings of Rakesh’s dad was under Rakesh’s name. He would be getting everything for himself when he turns eighteen.”
“From then onwards, everything that happened was according to plan. From our first meeting to joining his class and dating him, everything went as planned by my brother.”
“When Rakesh turned eighteen, my brother forced me to ask Rakesh to write all his belongings under my name. He made me give a reason that even if something happened to Rakesh I could live without begging from anyone else.”
“Rakesh was so nice. He never doubted me. He wrote everything he had, under my name. My brother feared he might find out our game eventually. So when his use was over, he thought it was best to kill him asap.”
“My brother, along with friends, disguised themselves as gangsters. He told me to call Rakesh to somewhere quiet, late at night, saying its urgent. I did as he said. He came alone to the place. My brother and his friends were hiding behind the tress. As soon as Rakesh came, as per plan, they entered and my brother gave a bang on Rakesh’s head. He fell unconscious. Before he regained his consciousness, my brother created an impact that I was raped and killed. When Rakesh woke up, what he saw was that I was brutally raped and killed. His eyes was flooding with tears. With a shaking voice, he shouted ’you.. bloody fuckers.. you all.. will… suffer.. for what you…!” Before he could complete, my brother stabbed him and took away his last breathe. He lay dead”.
Hearing this Rajiv’s temper rose with a harsh voice he shouted
“STOP!!..”
Merlin got frightened. Holding her breathe she asked,
“Rajiv, what’s the problem?”
Rajiv’s face turned burning red.
“You want to know what the problem is? YOU are the problem. You told me about one Rakesh right? DO YOU know who he is? He was my soul, he was my life, he was my best friend.”
“His death may be a simple death for you but that’s not the same for me. You killed ME by killing HIM!! I won’t allow any of you to live!! Do you know why I’m here? You played a drama of love, to kill my friend and I did the same in return.”
Merlin paused a second…
“So your love to me…?”
He laughed loudly.
“The same thing what you did to my friend. It’s the same game which we played back at you. We played this drama to hear everything from you.”
Tears poured out of her eyes.
“Oh!! You might be wondering who is this we? He is standing next to me. He is the same Rakesh you mentioned.”
Merlin was puzzled. Rajiv smiled.
“Don’t worry he is not alive. You guys succeeded in killing him but his soul is still here with me. He is standing next to me.”
Rajiv took a gun from his pocket and was about to shoot her, but Rakesh interrupted. He told him to stop. He didn’t want to kill her. He still loved her sincerely. His heart was throbbing.
Rajiv understood his pain…
“You bloody bitch!! Even after doing all this to him, he is not willing to kill you. You guys cheated him, took all his belongings and killed him. Even then he cannot hate you, he still loves you…”
“You cheat!! I don’t need to kill you. You are already dead. Bitches like you are a burden to this world. Get lost you bloody fucking bitch. Never ever repeat this to anyone. But your brother and his friends… they don’t and they won’t… get any mercy. We WILL send them to hell.”
Saying so, Rajiv threw his gun on the ground with a grudge. He turned his back towards her and started to walk away. Suddenly, he heard a gunshot. He looked back and saw that Merlin had shot herself. She had punished herself for the crime she committed.
Their next target was Rejo and his friends. To bring them all under one roof, they plotted a brilliant plan. Rakesh asked Rajiv to give Rejo a call.
“Your sister is with me and if you need her alive come with your friends to the place where we say.”
Rejo on hearing this busted out of frustration and he was crying in phone...
“Please...Please don’t do anything to my sister. I will come wherever you want. Please please!!”
And he did too. He came along with his friends to the place where Rajiv had called them. Rajiv and Rakesh were waiting for them. Seeing Rajiv, Rejo asked
“Hey you. I know you. I have seen you somewhere.”
Rajiv laughed aloud.
“Ya you do know me. I’m the same person who met you for a deal remember?”
Rejo wasn’t ready to hear this blabber.
“Where is my sister? Give her back to me.”
Rajiv smiled
“How will I give back someone who has already reached hell?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, she is dead. She punished herself for her mistakes.”
“Then why did you bring us here?”
“There is a need for that. Do you remember Rakesh? Ya, the same Rakesh you guys cheated and killed. Your sister told me everything before she died. Everything you did to Rakesh. Do you know who that Rakesh is? He is my friend and he is here with me.”
Rejo and his friends got puzzled. They started looking about to see Rakesh.
Rajiv smiled.
“You can’t find him. He is not alive. Only I can see him.”
Rejo got scared.
“Don’t worry. We are not here to hurt you but to send you to hell. Be friendly with us then you can go to hell without hurting yourselves. So please cooperate.”
“Stop blabbering and let us go. Or else YOU will be the one to die. Not me!!”
Suddenly, a heavy wind blew and petrol started pouring on them from the top. Rajiv was laughing when he saw them panic and run around like rats.
Then Rajiv stopped laughing
“It’s time for you all to leave. May all of you reach hell safely, pay for all the deeds you did.”
And he took a matchbox from his pocket and lit up a matchstick. With a huge grin, he threw it at them. Rejo and his gang were crying out in pain. Soon their body was fully surrounded by flames and within no time they were burned to ashes. Having completed his mission, it was time for Rakesh to leave.
“Rajiv… It’s time for me to go. My parents are alone. They don’t have anyone else. Please be with them as their son. Consider them your parents.”
Saying this, he left to the world where there would no cheating, no crime, no revenge. To the ultimate place where all goes to rest in peace.