Horror Shorts: Mine's Broken

Nirvana was going through a tough patch in life, and she decided to take a break, far away from everything. When she discussed this with her friends, one of them told her about a farmhouse that his cousin owned in the outskirts of town. He said that they rarely used it and that they had given his dad the key to the place and they would be glad to have guests staying over. Nirvana saw the pictures of the place and thought it was beautiful - greenery all around, farm animals, a beautiful lake - who wouldn't be tempted? So she said yes, and 3 more of her friends decided to go along with her. 

As soon as they got there they didn't sense anything out of the ordinary. The place was beautiful. Zen's dad, who had the keys to the place, had already stocked the house with all necessities, including a well-stocked fridge. Nirvana was touched. All her friends - Zen, Karma and Gayle were so understanding about her problems and had set aside their own problems for her. 

But bad things don’t wait for the right moment to happen. It just happens when you least expect it. That night they all went to bed, after laughing over some silly prank that Zen cooked up. Nirvana's heart was light and she was still grinning as she turned off the lights in her room and nestled under the covers. She soon fell asleep.

She abruptly woke up sometime after midnight, for some unknown reason. Wide awake and alert, with not a vestige of sleep left. Her eyes were drawn to the dressing table mirror. Moonlight filtered in through the window and eerie shadows flickered along the walls. In the mirror she saw herself sitting upright in the middle of the bed, and… something else leaning against the headrest – a dark form, with its head drooping off to one side in an impossible boneless manner, all its joints twisted at odd angles and its body was so disfigured that it didn't really resemble a person. It was making a raspy sound with its mouth, as if it were struggling to breathe. Nirvana was paralyzed with fear and her heart was beating so fast that it had started to hurt.

The Thing started mumbling something in a hoarse whisper. It was sounded like “teee...cc...kkk, ti…cc...kkk”. It kept saying that over and over again as if practicing it and in between took croaking mouthfuls of air. The girl trembled and was her mind was slowly blanking out when suddenly the Thing leans over, its bones creaking, its stench fowl, its rotten lips pulled wide across its bony cheeks, its gnarled knobby hands outstretched... and it touched her. Right above her wildly beating heart and whispered with longing, “Mine’s Broken”.

Time

"Time and Tide waits for no man".

To us mortals Time seems to be constantly flowing. Each second, each minute, each hour, each day, each week, each year.. flowing into the other - so synchronized, so rhythmic..

But have you ever stopped to wonder whether it is Time that changes, or is it us normal human beings that change? Time is constant. It just isn't our friend that's all.

We consider our existence in terms of Time - we age, we wither, we die. But is an alternative possible? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not talking about time travel. Maybe If we view Time from a different angle things will be different for us. Why the 24 hr crap? Why do we dutifully sleep at night and wake up in the morning, have tea at 4, have dinner by 8 and blah. Time. Time rules us all.


Blah. Random drivel. One midsummer afternoon's insanity. Time and Time Again... 

When the Wind Calls

Sneak Peek: New Story

Chapter 1

Nighttime is the window to terror... a time when unknown things lurk in the shadows, monsters hide under beds and creep out of crevices in the wall. It is a time when attics become a portal to the other world, moaning and creaking as it comes alive.

I have never feared anything but fear itself. I loved the night. To me night was soothing, a balm on a disturbed soul. I loved watching horror movies but found them too exaggerated - fear would be nothing like that in real life. Like the rest of my friends, I didn't fear entities and the supernatural, but hated getting startled. I hate surprises. I want everything to be planned and organized, no glitches, no last minute panic. 

Right now, as I hide behind the bushes in pitch darkness, my heart beating erratically imitating the hypnotizing rhythmic drumbeats of a tribal drum , I repeat to myself, "True fear is intangible." 

I vaguely remember hearing cries, the motion of the wiper as it tried hard to brush off the torrential rain hitting angrily against my windshield, to the high pitched ringing in my ears and hazy outlines as I stumbled out of my car and soon ended up staring at the bright streak of red in the deserted road. 

Across the bush I had ducked behind in fear, the rainwater pattered down on the forlorn figure that lay lifeless in a puddle of water under a lone streetlight, her bright red scarf hiding her face from me. The sirens seemed to lament her death.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

I am a huge Avengers fan and it was with great excitement and expectations that I went to watch The Avengers: Age of Ultron. And.... they didn't disappoint as usual. With a pow-wow mix of comedy, action, a little bit of romance thrown in and also a great deal of emotion clinchers, this movie was just AMAZING!

The movie plot revolves around how Tony Stark, with the help of Bruce Banner uses  Loki's scepter to kick start his peacekeeping initiative to protect the world and maintain "Peace in our times"- Ultron. Things take a turn towards the dark when Ultron emerges as a super villain bent on destroying the world. The Avengers assemble to take down Ultron. But backed by his superior artificial intelligence and access to systems worldwide, Ultron seems invincible. But Ultron wants one more thing to make him complete - a proper invincible body akin to a living being. Once he has that no one can stop him.

Avengers get more amazing characters to help them in the face of this huge threat to mankind. And they are all Kickass! (atleast one of them was "Kickass" **wink wink**)

**** ALERT!! : SPOLERS AHEAD****

Best Scenes:

The Enhanced twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff attacks the Avengers in a South African shipyard - 

While running at super speed Pietro sees Thor's hammer flying past and he's like "hey that looks cool" and grabs it. He's no match for the power as he is taken several miles away with the Hammer. Epic moment. 

Wanda brainwashes Bruce who becomes Hulk and runs amok in the nearby town. Iron man uses his "veronica" Armour to subdue him. Superb action sequence of Hulk vs. Iron Man showdown.

Scene where all of the Avengers try to lift Thor's Hammer. No one could and Thor is smiling smugly. Then Captain America tries and the Hammer moves a little. Thor's face - hilarious. 

Fast forward a little and we are introduced to The Vision (I absolutely LOVE him!!). We are all hanging on to our seats , trying to determine whether he is good or bad. End of his speech he turns around to Thor and the others saying "There's no time, lets go", and hands Thor his..... HAMMER!!! As easy as that he wields Thor's Hammer! That was one HUUUGE moment. The Avengers' faces! Hilarious! The audience - stunned silent and then we were all like "Ohhhh shit. Ohhh wow" Lol.

There are so many more such amazing moments in The Avengers: Age of Ultron. You simply have to see it for yourselves. I think I'm going to watch this one again and again. :D

Turn Inwards...

You see a woman walk past in tiger print leggings and a mismatched striped tunic top and you think "Ugh! Faux Pas alert!" and exchange glances with your friends and snigger. Then next minute you feel contrite and berate yourself for being so judgmental and shallow.

If you have been in one such situation, you fall under those category of people who are genuinely flummoxed when they analyze their personality. Who are you really? This question haunts you. You are neither good nor bad. But then again - what is "good" and "bad" but a reflection of what is acceptable by different people, cultures and societies. It is a variable not worthy of consideration. So reality is the standard you set for yourself based on humanity and the morals and ethics that are laid down as universal laws. 

Pull on the strings of your soul, bring it up and outwards and look at it. Take a good clear look at it from various angles. Who are you, each part, even if it is just a fetus in development - look at it. What do you see within you?

Do some soul searching. Who are you when things boil down? If you listen to your heart, it will tell you what you need to know. If you are conflicted go by the truest emotion you feel and not by what the society thinks is right. Just to be accepted into the whole system sometimes people mold themselves into different adulterated versions of themselves and somewhere along the way forget their true form.

You are unique - good bad or whatever. See who you are. Dare to look inside even if it scares you. You are who you are. Just. Turn. Inwards. Take a good long look at yourself. If you don't like what you see, try to change - but this time with your eyes wide open, your heart willing and your soul trusting.

When They Met...

How beautiful Dawn and Dusk is, right? The symbolism of romance and adventure. It inspires you to write sonnets and love songs. Here's one such inspired poetry written by me at dusk, my muse, on a serene day :

Night and morn meet
In dawn's tender embrace
And again at dusk
Like secret lovers.

Fleetingly they touch
And give way to the other
In sweet surrender
As tendrils of sunlight
whisper over the night sky.

Review of Flipkart Women's day offers : The Discount Drama

Happy Women's Day people! If we women were not here on Earth, how dull and drab would it have been, right? Here's to all women who bring laughter, joy, support and inspiration to everyone's lives. Cheers!


Now onto my interesting discovery of the day. Flipkart has put up an amazing sale for women on this day as a Women's Day gesture. Yayy! all good. B.U.T..... anyone with an ounce of sense would cringe at the faux pas they did with the discounts :

( Click on the image above to enlarge )

Notice anything my wee little lambs ?

We customers aren't lambs and we aren't fools. Studies show that women make up a majority of online shoppers. And we women are extremely good at evaluating the price range of a product, have math skills, and also know what a product is worth on different markets.

If Flipkart puts up MRP of a mediocre saree as 5,99,999/- (Imagine that! lol) and with discount of 99% ..... do they think we are brain-dead to be so awed by the discount alone and go buy the product?
I mean, c'mon people. Does Flipkart actually think that if they quote an impossibly high MRP on a product , slash it write a huge discount and then put the original price next to it, they wont be caught red-handed? I had a saree in my wishlist which was 1,899 bucks. When I checked today, its MRP on the offer page is 3,99,999 and after discount .. voila! the price is 1,899/- only! Such a great discount offer! Rofl. This has been done to all other products like accessories, seasonal wear, other clothing items, etc. Extremely tactless. Tch tch!

Anyways this was worth a good laugh. Online shopping websites should be reasonable when they are playing the online marketing game since they should realize who their target audience is and approach in an "intelligent" manner.

Online Shopping - The Jabong Experience

I'm a serious online shopper. Name a website and I'd have bought something from there.. lol - I must admit , that is a slight exaggeration. :D

I follow the golden rule of never paying by cash in the first purchase , but opting for COD, so that I can analyse how they deliver, the quality of products, delivery lead time, customer service, etc. and not lose money and time on some scam. On well known websites which do not have COD (most websites have them, but there are good websites like Purpple.com, fashionandyou.com, Mirraw etc which do not have COD) I buy something which is less priced so that again I don't get to lose a lot of money even if the product is bad , and thus, I can decide on which websites to trust and be a loyal customer to and which to ignore and put in the blacklist.

 But I went wrong somewhere and overlooked a major factor that is easy for anyone to overlook. The following experience I had with Jabong.com is being cited here for the awareness of the general public. Customer awareness is an important factor while purchasing online.

Now, Jabong.com is one such website that I trusted. I have been buying stuff from the big players like amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, fashionandyou.com and the rest and had included Jabong as one among them.

Continuously I have faced issues with Jabong.com. They gave me damaged products, I have had to return items multiple times, they sent me a different product from the one I ordered, their quality check was poor and so on. Still I went back to purchasing from Jabong on and off, thinking they had good offers once in a while, especially on branded products. This time however I found out something shocking,  from my order history.

I bought 5 items on COD (Cash on Delivery) with COD charges of Rs. 49. Others like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal do not usually charge shipment and delivery charges (*certain conditions applied, they state all charges upfront, if any), but Jabong.com charges that for all its products. Now the site said 50% off sale, and taking the example of one of the products - it was 650 Rs on the product landing page, then it became 715 rs on the order page (the breakdown was not stated. The plus sign next to the price just shows MRP and the discount deduction).

Same way, the other products also showed one price after discount and when it reached the order page, it showed an additional amount. an overall tax collected was stated, but things didn't really add up. I had initially not paid attention to this matter, since with other similar websites I had not faced such a thing - I was unaware. I had just looked at the final amt and final bill where no such tax was mentioned.

 When my husband asked about the delivery charges I just casually checked my order history and discovered this whole thing. Each item of the order had an additional 50Rs, 30 Rs and more added to it and then the total amount was calculated, and added to it all is the COD charges. The breakdown is not clearly stated anywhere.

To find an answer to this confusing billing process I called up the customer care. The executive explained that a "tax"is added to each product. One item had tax 50/- , one had tax 29/- etc ans supposedly it varies product to product . Now where the hell was it mentioned separately? He said it is mentioned in the billing page - but there is no clarity on tax per product beforehand. This is a hidden charge.

To check, I added one product to the cart it shows tax collected  xyz, add one more, still it shows same tax - rs. XYZ in the overall bill. But once in the order page, tax is different for the two products.

Point to clarify - I am ok with taxes if there are any. What I'm not ok with is if these additional charges are not clearly stated, and I'm not aware of what additional costs I'd be paying for my purchases. If I knew about the taxes beforehand I would have opted for other websites which do not have such "taxes" on the same products and are offered on similar discount. I guess this is why this additional cost wasn't put anywhere on the product page in Jabong or clearly mentioned in the order page. These additional charges should not just show up when we are paying for it, but beforehand so that the customer can decide whether or not to buy the product based on price.

The product price listed is different from actual price of product shown

Other websites like amazon, flipkart, etc. clearly state all their charges - MRP , Discount, shipping charges, Taxes per product, COD charges if applicable and so on . There are no hidden charges. I repeat :  it is mandatory that these additional charges in whichever form, should not just show up when the products are being billed and we are paying for it, but beforehand in the product page, so that the customer can decide whether or not to buy the product based on price.  As a customer I want to know how price of each product I am buying is affected by the tax. Not a round figure in the end of the order billed.

Jabong.com having such charges which customers aren't easily aware of and which are not clearly stated upfront, and placed in such a way that it can be easily overlooked, is indeed an unethical practice. Why should the customer have to go to FAQ's page if you just state the tax upfront? It is a more transparent and straightforward way of doing business if you include additional charges while the customer is on the product page, or if the product is added to cart then if it is at least shown in the cart directly next to each item. But no, that has not been the case here and overall, I am a highly dissatisfied customer who has decided that she is never ever going to purchase from Jabong.com again - it is a matter of trust once broken. 

High time they changed their policy and if they have various "taxes" they should mention that in the product landing page and not vaguely in a corner while billing (at least an accurate one should be provided) and try not to take their customers for a ride. Dear readers, kindly watch out for such things when you are buying from such online websites.

Happy Shopping!

Bangalore Travalogue Checklist

I have been planning this for a while now - to be more specific - ever since I got to know that we are going to move to Bangalore. I was super excited! New city, new things to see - the usual.

But so far I haven't been able to go anywhere except to Commercial Street. So I decided to write down a check list of sorts, of the places I can go to for a weekend getaway or holiday, on a budget.

So I thought why not share it with you guys ? So here goes :

• Chikmagalur

• Pondicherry

• Mysore
• Nandi Hills

• Shravanabelagola

• Coorg

• Hampi

• Yelagiri

• Srirangapatna

• Belur - Halebid

• BR Hills

• Nagarhole

• Shivanasamudra Waterfalls

• Hogenakal Waterfall

By the way you can also make easy budget international trips with direct flight from Bangalore:

• Colombo
• Bangkok
• Hong Kong

annnddd check out these amazing links for more detailed information !

http://www.travelpaisa.com/hotels/resorts-near-bangalore/jungle-lodges.html

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Attraction_Review-g297628-d2414350-Reviews-XtremeZone_Getawayz_Manchinbele-Bengaluru_Bangalore_Karnataka.html#photos

and this too

http://www.thrillophilia.com/bangalore-weekend-getaways