A Ride of my life - A travelogue

This Trip was one of the most amazing, adventurous one I have ever went on august 2008. 


It was some time last year I had come to bangalore for my friend's brother marriage. Friday night we started in a scorpio to the place called SITANADI national park [ I am not sure, if the name is correct. This place is near Shimoga...which is around 6-7 hrs from bangalore, around 1 hr or 2 hrs ]. This place is too good for Water Rafting.


We reached the Park around 12 in the noon after having few stops in the night and having few long and short breaks.


The organizer said We will have to wait for the previous batch to come to the place.


2 P.m


We boarded a van, which took us to the starting point of the Raft course. The guide was telling us abt the precautionary measures while rafting.


2.15 pm


We carried the Raft on our shoulders and placed on the water , we were like 7  +1( the instructor)  on the raft..


2.30 p.m


We started rafting on the river , with a cloudy atmosphere. The experience was wonderful. Initially the path of the river went through the bridges and roads, where people were able to view us, but after  15-20 mins , we entered forest region, where there was only trees which has grown rapidly every where, giving you a feeling , as in you are exploring something in dense forest. The whole rafting area was 12 km for 1250 bucks. and 25 km for 2500 bucks. we opted for 12 km.


2.55 P.m
Rafting is no fun if you dont raft in the river which doesn't have rapids. They classify the rapids to be level 1 - Level 5 .


We encountered first Level rapid, which is easy for to move on .


For a rookie and if you have the guts you can go till Level 3.


Level 4 and 5 is for guys who knows to raft perfectly. These levels are kinda highly dangerous.


The instructor told us how to row in rapids and in normal waters.
Mostly the group was divided into 3,3,1
3 on the left side , 3 on the right, 1 on the back center place.
As you know any kinda boat, rowing has to be uniform. This was totally missing in our Raft.




3.15 P.m
The clouds were getting darker and darker. It started to rain heavily.. giving a feeling that you are really in a dense forest. The instructor said the river was 20 ft deep.


3.20 P.m
We encountered Level 2 rapid.By this time we are all totally rowing in our ways without even listening to the instructor's call. We did not know What was in store for us!!


3.30 P.m
The Raft was upside down, I was literally drowning.. in the river, with all my friends scattered over the river.. Wait I am missing something here A'int I?


3.27 P.m
A Level 3 rapid was on course. We tried to row as the instructor said and one of the adventurous guy in our group didnt follow..
The raft toppled upside down, making all of us fall from the raft..


3.28 P.m
It all happened in a few seconds, with a blink of eye,  all were scattered across in the river. I was gulping a lot of water, tried to push myself to go above the surface. Those 5-10 seconds when I was inside the water.. My whole life went like a recap to me.. a flashback of my own life.. right from my childhood to a 23 yr old young guy .


I just came up to surface and saw my whole world was dark, for a moment i thought.. I have reached some other place.. But someone's shouting and yelling brought back to my senses. I realised that I was totally under the inverted Raft.


3.35 P.m
The instructor inverted back to its position and slowly got all of us into the raft one by one.


Ever single guy was totally dumb struck with the experience. Imagine with the rain pouring down and all this happening.. We got ourselves back to normal and started to row as the instructor said..


After some time we crossed all the Level 3 rapids easily.


4.15 P.m
The instructor said to us, that they usually do something to make the people scared, but this time the incident has made him scare because , he never expected the raft to go that way ..


4.45 P.m
It was drizzling and we are back into the smooth water area.. One of my friend started to jump off from the Raft and was enjoying the water.


5.15 P.m
We reached the end point of the Raft course.


All of us could not come out of the experience..


This adventurous expedition taught me something that day.


How to value life not only yours , but also others.


You can live for so many years.. but death can catch in a millionth of a second. All it takes is just that time..


After experiencing this, I have started trying out all the other adventurous sports after this trip.


This experience has given me a Lot of courage to do things.. which I would have not even thought of attempting before.




P.s : I went to this trip around 2008 August.

What's there in a Name???..

Not many know about My previous name..When I was born... I was named as (yeah! you heard it right!!) "ARUN DEEPAK GNANADURAI" other than my school and college friends none of the others know that this was my previous name: D

The fun fact was I got to know my Full name when I was studying 10th.Before it was either  DEEPAK, ARUN DEEPAK.I had my first nick name in college alone -ADGD. Buddies from college called me AD.
I know about the Big question arises in every one's mind is "WHY THE HECK DID HE CHANGE THE NAME? IS IT BECAUSE OF NUMEROLOGY? OR SOMETHING ELSE...?"

Neither was the reason, the reason was because of one stupid rule by the current CM of TAMILNADU in her previous venture as CM.

Note: My parents fell in love and got married to each other.

My Father was a Christian and he got converted Hindu even before he fell in love with my mother..

2002-03: Miss Jayalalitha came with a (religion changing rule) If you are a Christian and u belong to one caste and you have converted as Hindu then you are considered as another.

College 2nd Semester: We got a call from collector's office in my native…That they need us to come to the native to check on the community certificate that was issued to me when I needed it for the Board examinations.

We went there...we met the deputy collector since the collector was not there, elaborated him the whole scene and he got a written statement from each and every one of us(Dad, Mom and Myself )

After everything was over, he called all of us and said it was because of the rule the university had to have an investigation on this. (because I had got the college admission because of the community certificate).It was because of my name "ARUN DEEPAK GNANADURAI".


After that we Left to Chennai and during my 6th sem, I was called from college office saying that my community certificate was cancelled due to some reason which was not at all given and asked the College administration to send the Community certificate back to my native.

When inquired the government officials said they have sent a notice to my house, Which they never did.

Now my certificate being cancelled, my whole degree was in jeopardy, so we had to act quickly, we checked with the authorities in my native, the reason they said was more than shocking indeed, we should not  have got our community certificate from our native; we should  have got it in my place of birth in , Chennai.

Again we went to Chennai office, there again they said, whatever we did before was correct, we were literally toiled around for certificate,  atlast with some high authority giving assurance, they agreed they will give the certificate. One of the close friend of ours revealed that, the explanation we gave was rejected by the authority in our native, which was the cause of this big problem.

My Mom scanned about the whole scenario and decided to change my name after like 20 yrs ...
Though I didn’t know what was going to be my name. They consulted every some numerologist who came up with the name DEEPAK RAJ.

Thus ARUN DEEPAK GNANADURAI has been changed to DEEPAK RAJ. The weirdest part was, even after changing the name to DEEPAK RAJ, the Chennai Collector was very skeptical saying that even then the name was more of Christian originality.

And we think what’s there in a name?

Bus-o-phobia

The above incident is a true incident and I have tried to put things as it is..

Its not very often we experience an accident ..
A few accidents will leave you with some memories that will be haunting you for rest of your life..
This is one such accident which is still haunting me... I guess it will be for rest of my life.. It affects the mentally than physically..

My family had planned to go to Ooty during my second semester holidays. I was forced by Mom to accompany for the trip( guess my ESP worked correctly... should have listened to it and stopped others too..)

This trip was planned all in a hurry, my father had to book buses to coimbatore in some unknown travels.
Sometimes even there are signs that help you , its just our common minds that doesnt see it.

The day we had to board the bus.. we tried to catch Bus to go to  bus stand, but we had to board an auto which was very bad since it was already late since none of the auto-wala agreed to come with us.

On the way, I got a thought.." What will happen if an accident.. happens?"
Strange co-incidence or fate... , the auto tyre got punctured... We had 15 mins to board the bus .

The auto driver caught an another auto for us and asked us to board in. As my father paid him in a hurry .. and off we went to meet our sourful destiny of the night.

We reached the place on time , the bus was abt to start .. we rushed in and kept the luggagges and went in to our respective seats..

I have a brother who wanted to sit near the window. I gave him the seat and asked my Mom to come to sit with him .

Myself and my Dad were sitting in a 2 seater ..watching the film which was getting played in the Bus...( we were seated on the right side of the bus..column where the driver sits..)

10.30 P.m
The bus crossed over bangalore trunk road.. Something was disturbing , made me feel so uncomfortable in the bus.

11.30 P.m
The bus was crossing Ambur, by the time I had fell asleep...

11.45 P.m

There was a loud sound coming from the front, when I opened my eyes.. all I can see was dark... the moment I realised something bad had  happen..

The bus driver turned left to avoid an accident from a over taking lorry which was coming from the opp side.

To our bad luck when the driver turned right to make the bus come to road.. the back tyre of the bus got stuck on a pit causing the bus to roll over the slanting paddy fields..

The bus toppled twice.. All happened in a split second...
I got up and got to see only dark.. there was chaos every where..every one was shouting to break the glass of the back door

My dad was shouting to check if every one was fine... every one acknowledged positively..

Imagine you are standing on a amni bus which is now totally on the toppled position. When I saw there were few people climbing out of the window.. only one thing came to my mind.. Am I dreaming ??

" Thud!! crash" The back door glass was broken by some one .. All rushed out of the Bus out of fear that the bus might catch fire any time..

After coming out, my Dad examined every one of us for injuries... my brother was kinda scared.. My mom got so scared, that she could not come out of the scare.. that she broke down.. on that place itself..
We checked our selves... I had minor blow on the head which was bleeeding,my brother had got some injuries on his hand and nose.

My Dad was alright. My mom was the one who got seriously hit.. she was covering my brother from getting injured which lead to her hitting the luggage rack on her back..

My mom was not able to sit down... its just later we found that she had incurred a spinal fracture due to the hit.

Its been more than 9 yrs , still the impact is heavier..

My mom is still getting treatment for the fracture.

Till now my mom is scared of buses even if she tends to see it..
and I have got one thing for sure .. the fear of buses..

I have started to live with it... though I say that I am brave enough to travel in a bus... when ever the bus makes quick turn or the driver stepping suddenly on the break..I have my heart in my mouth.. may be I can call it as BUS-O-PHOBIA.

GOD? Who is God??

I know,  this is really a sensitive topic to Blog on, but again being an Indian and seeing all the fights about religion and gods, I  always had my own perspective on this topic till now, which ends up in a post today.
Being a son of a couple who followed different religions altogther and joined by Love.
 I had the privilege of learning about Christianity as well as Hinduism. 4 yrs of in a Muslim College gave me glimpses of Islam as well.So, I can say I have a fair amount of knowledge all 3 major religions in india.

Let me not Blabber more. I have always had this question in my mind, Who is God ? How do we define GOD ?

If Christians worship Jesus as God/ Mary as God/ Baby Jesus as God and Hindus worship lot of GODS and for islam its Allah.

When I started writing abt this topic , only one story came into my mind. Its a story which tells about shrewdness of Birbal in the court of Akbar , which also gave the answer for the questions which I had in my mind.

Birbal, as we all know was the smartest minister in Akbar's courtroom. Every decision was taken by Akbar only after consulting with Birbal.

This made the other ministers jealous. They went to Akbar and asked him why do he favour Birbal all the time and he doesn't consult any of them. Akbar said Birbal is wiser than all of the ministers.This only made ministers pretty angry and they left the palace at once, some how this incident started spreading in and around the palace and  Birbal came to hear it too.

The next day a sadhu came to Akbar's court room and asked Akbar that he indeed want to test the knowledge of his wise ministers.Sadhu asked Akbar to select his best Minister to answer his questions. Akbar was searching for Birbal and he could not find. He sent a soldier for Birbal and the soldier came up saying that Birbal has left town due to some urgent family issue.

Eyeing a Chance to prove, the rest of the ministers wanted to prove that every one was really wiser than Birbal. One of the ministers came forward quoting  "Birbal is not the only  wise Minister here. So let us try to answer his question." Akbar acknowledged. Sadhu pointed his head with Munda and asked the Minister "What is this?". The Minister just laughed and said "the whole world knows its a Munda".

The Sadhu untied the munda and wrapped it around his shoulders as a towel and asked the minister " What is this ?". The minister without hesitating "A towel". Sadhu smiled.

He took the towel and tied it as dhoti , asked the same question again , the minister said "Dhoti".Again sadhu laughed out loud.

Sadhu " All of your answers were Wrong!!". All the Ministers gave a puzzled look. Sadhu continued "I asked what is this, the obvious answer is "it is a piece of cloth", but you called by the name of the place where it was tied."

Akbar, stood up . He understood that this Sadhu is no ordinary man. He went near to Sadhu and asked him about his details.
Sadhu took his disguise off and every one in the court room was astonished to see,  that it was Birbal. The other Ministers understood the wisdom and knowledge he possesed.

Now if you see the crux of the story, I got the answer when I read this, God is only like a piece of a Cloth. Different people call GOD in different names when placed in different religions and we humans are manipulated puppets in the hands of the so called religionist people in earth...Poor Us!

The Curious Case of Briston Prison

With reference  to The Curious case of Briston prison
                                    The Curious case of Briston prison -Part 2

Chapter – 3 

The Young detectives

Melinda received a call on her mobile.  She came near Dave and delivered the message. “Excuse me Students! We have got the permission to visit the Crime place tomorrow morning. So till then take the day off.”

The students left to their respective rooms.

Allan, Buma, Crillan, Mark and Cindy had their rooms adjacent to each other. All gathered in Crillan’s room to discuss about the case. 

Quinn, Max, Bruce, Alicia and Catherine had their rooms opposite to the others .Allan, Buma, Crillan, Mark and Cindy have been friends from their high school. Allan, Buma and Crillan are child hood friends; they always wanted to become the best detectives. When they went to high school, they met Mark and Cindy who had the same ambition as these guys. They started to check out every important Case which makes news.

Allan has a terrific memory and he loves solving puzzles and getting clues. Buma has good Analytical skills and she is bio- technician and provides supports in finding the clues. Crillan is a techie guy; he roams around with his laptop and has information in the finger tips. Mark and Cindy are good athletes with exceptional analysis and questioning capabilities. Cindy is a Criminal psychologist too.

Unlike Allan, Buma, Crillan, Mark and Cindy, Quinn, Max, Bruce, Alicia and Catherine are individuals put together as a group. Quinn and Bruce know each other in high school. Rest of the members in the group got to know each other in Dave’s academy.

Quinn has exceptional qualities of puzzle solving and quick thinking. Alicia is an artist with a very good memory , which helps in lot of things in case solving. Bruce is highly ranked football player in his High school; he is well built and strong and can man handle 2 guys. Catherine and Max are technology assistants, who can get any piece of information with a quick turnaround time. Catherine is also a bio technician.

Allan “I cannot even think of a way that how would have Jack  done the act of getting the key inside a locked room lying next to the dead body, there are 2 possibilities here.. Either he should have made a duplicate key of Donald’s or he should have been used by someone, may be the Commissioner himself “, explained his point of view to others.

“We will have to analyze on every possible ways to crack this one “Buma jumped up with anxiety in the other room.

All the guys nodded with an act of agreement. 

In the opposite room, “If Jack was so dangerous, why was he allowed come out of his cell? Even if he was left out of the cell, how did he get access to Food Storage building? “Quinn began to question himself and analyze the scenarios.

At Dave’s Room “You think I am putting lot of burden on these kids, don’t You?”  Dave questioned Melinda. Melinda just gave a smile and replied “May be “

“Excuse me Mr. Dave! Sorry for disturbing, May I come in! “. 

 Melinda and Dave turned their attention towards the voice that interrupted their conversion. “Yes! Please Come in”. 

A tall middle aged man with a knife-cut scar on his face came inside to the room and gave a glance at Melinda and moved his sight towards to Mr. Dave.

“Mr. Dave, here is the duplicate key of the food storage room that you have asked for, the Commissioner asked to deliver it to you. Let me know in case of any issues”. Dave received the keys and said “Thank you very much”. The Officer turned back and walked towards the door “Officer, May I know your name?” Dave questioned him.

  He turned his head “It’s Dustin Edwards, Mr. Dave” said it with a small grin on his face and went out of the room and saw Melinda. Melinda did not like the way he saw her. Melinda just went to door and closed it lightly and came back to her table.

Dave slowly moved his wheel chair towards the window of his room.

The night was darker than before. The wind was blowing nicely, it was cooler than the city. The sound of the waves hitting the shores echoed off the walls.

The Silence was once again broken by someone “Knock! Knock!”

Dave and Melinda turned their attention towards the door. “Please come in!”

Quinn was standing there in a very confused state. Dave saw his face and understood this kid has got some questions which he needs answers. “Quinn! What happened? Do you need any help?” Dave questioned him.

“Sorry to disturb you this late Mr. Dave!  I was thinking about the case and got a little restless and I needed some information too. So can I spend some time with you now? “Quinn asked Dave hesitantly. 

Dave smiled at Quinn “Come in, have a seat.” Quinn did as Dave said.

“So what made you restless?” Dave questioned him.

“You said that Jack was executed by the police officials!”

“Yes, as per records Jack was executed by the officials. It was given in the report. There was no evidence of jack’s dead body since the officials, burnt most of the bodies before the inquiry troops arrived here.”

 “You mean to say that there is every possibility of Jack being alive. If I ‘m correct?” Quinn expressed his views on the.

“Hmm... we can’t reject that case too. There is a possibility too. But if he is still alive, only if, then we can expect some breaking news”. Dave expressed his points.

Quinn got up from his seat “Thanks for your time Mr. Dave”. 

“You are welcome. Quinn “

Quinn gave a smile to both of them and said “Good night Mr. Dave!! Good Night Miss. Melinda”

Melinda and Dave wished him. “I think I will move to my room, call me if you need anything Mr. Dave” Melinda spoke as she went to the door and closed it. “Good night, Mr. Dave” Dave heard her wish from outside the door after it was closed. He greeted her too. And he went near the window. The cloud was getting ready to pour heavily.  It started raining heavily. The tides were rising up every time. The tides hit the rocks of the prison really hard.

Dave moved near to his bed.  He pulled himself up by gripping the bed and got onto the bed, switched off the lights and laid down and slept calmly.

Expect the Unexpected

It was 7 a.m.  “Knock!  Knock!”  “ Mr. Dave! Can I come in? “Melinda sounded. 

Dave woke up from his sleep “Yes! Please!”

Melinda came in. “Good morning!” With a bright smile! She was accompanied by a butler with a morning tea/coffee.  Dave wished both of them and had some tea.

It was drizzling outside. The clouds were getting darker. 

“Melinda! Ask the students to assemble in the meeting room around 9 a.m. We shall leave to food storage room” Melinda gave acknowledged Dave with a nod.

 

 The clock struck 9. All of them assembled in the meeting room. 

“Students, Let’s move” said Dave .All of them started to move towards the food storage room. A man was waiting outside the dining room. He had a scar on the left side of his face. The scar was really deep. 

“Mr. Dave. I’m Jason Barnes, am an officer here. I was one of the officers who were there, when the riot happened. The commissioner asked me to accompany you and explain the whole happening”.

“Hello Officer. Thanks for accompanying.”

  Officer Jason Barnes narrated the whole incident, the working of the prison and the timing when food was served to the prisoners.

“And this is the cell of Jack Daniels and Donald North”. The dusty cell, with its rusty walls was entirely covered in graffiti; Alicia who went near it had a full view of the graffiti. Few people went to the adjacent cell in which Donald was put in.

Allan “Officer, May I ask you  a question?” asked for permission put forth his question to Jason.

“Yes! Please…” answered Jason, “Why was a psychopath like Jack Daniels  kept near any other prisoner when you guys knew how dangerous he was?” Jason moved closer to Allan “Mr. Jack was supposed to be changed to another cell before the riot happened. In fact the crime was committed to exactly on the 10th day after his arrival into the prison and two days prior to his case went to hearing.”

“First 2 days, Jack never came out of his cell, not even for having food. The officers, who were on duty saw him speaking to Donald frequently in his cell and made him believe that he was convicted for the murder which he has not committed.”

“Donald used his influence and friendship with the jail wardens to get Jack out of his cell and help him out in the Food storage area.  In this way, Jack was roaming around the prison in which he is not supposed to be.” explained Jason.

Every one listened to Jason without even a blink. They reached to the crime area “THE FOOD STORAGE ROOM”.  

Jason Barnes turned to Dave and asked him “Mr. Dave can I have the keys, Sir. “ Dave got the keys from his pocket and gave it to Jason. Jason inserted the Key in the key hole and opened it.  As soon as the door was open, a stench of blood hit their nostrils as the air rushed at them .In that moment every single person in the room knew they were not the only ones in the room, there were something else in that room. Something, which didn’t belong there.

Jason moved around the food boxes that was stacked up in the room and when he reached the end. He just screamed “Oh my dear Lord!”  Dave and rest of the group went through the stacked boxes. The girls went “aaaahhhh!” A body was lying there in the floor with the room key lying next to it.

Dave “Dustin!!” he screamed. It was Dustin Edward’s body which was lying there in the corner of room.

Case yet to be solved…

The Curious case of Briston prison

With reference  to The Curious case of Briston prison 

Chapter -2   

The Case, The Killer, The Murder

            Dave and every one assembled at the Police warden’s meeting room.   “The case details are there in the folders which have been provided to you.  Let me brief you guys about the case. The victim was supposed to be in the adjacent cell of the Psychopath. The victim’s name, Donald North and the Psychopath was Jack Daniels. We will see the slides “he turned to Melinda and nodded his head giving the signal to switch on the projector and switch off the lights. Melinda acknowledged him and did what she was said to.

“Donald and Jack were kept in adjacent cells. They had nice friendly conversations, Donald was found guilty of murdering his brother and his wife, for their illegal affair. He was given a life time imprisonment. Donald used to be one of the food servers inside the Jail, who was serving the food to the prisoners.”

“If we can notice, the crime has happened in a different room, which was used to store food supplies.  I want you to take a close look at the picture, the victim was sliced into 2 pieces and the knife was right there next to the Victim’s body. “   Buma raised her hand interrupting him.

“Yes Buma...” acknowledged Dave

 “ When we have the  knife ,  the Victim and the style of murder as  evidences  and the police very well  knew that this can be done by only one person, Jack Daniels,  how come they failed to prove him   guilty? “Buma questioned Dave

 “I was about to come to that point,   you think Jack Daniels would get caught that easily after committing a murder?  Jack is a very smart and intelligent guy. The police had a real tough time in tracking him and arresting him actually. “Dave started to explain more about the case.

“If you can zoom in and check the pictures there will be a key next to the Victim’s body.  That is the duplicate Key which was used to open the very same room, in which the Victim was murdered. The thing is Donald North was in charge of the food department and he had the duplicate key, whereas the original was with the Commissioner of the Jail.”

All of them viewed the picture closely and acknowledged Dave. “During a usual check up in a morning, the police officials could not find Donald in his cell. They started searching for him in a lot of places. Jail commissioner was informed about this and he had to order a wide search across the island. Every nook and corner was checked. The police officials returned to the commissioner giving him negative answers.”

“The next day morning, a foul smell started to come out of the Food storage room. When they opened the door and went in , they were astonished to see Donald’s halves lying there in a pool of blood and a writing on the wall saying “ I AM BACK  AGAIN“.  The key of the room which Donald had was lying next to him. ” 

“The police officials know that this kind of horrific murder can be only done by only one man, Jack. They took Jack into custody and tried to make him accept the crime. Jack did not even utter a word. The case went to the court for trial; the judge released Jack because of the lack of evidences that was produced against him. The media made a big issue of the case, saying the Commissioner might have had a hand in this murder too, the prisoners started to believe the media and started a fight  leading to the riot “

 “About the room, it is located in the south west corner of this island, no windows or anything “ 

“We are here to solve this case. If we can find out, how the key got inside the room, then we can easily prove that Jack is the murderer with other evidences” finished Dave briefing about the case.

There was a pin drop silence in the room. 

“Any questions? “, asked Dave looking at everyone in the room. Quinn raised his hand “What happened to Jack? Is he still alive?”

“Jack is no more as per records. He was supposed be one of those people that the police officials killed in the riot” Dave answered to Quinn’s question. “We can go to the place where the crime was committed, tomorrow morning. I have asked for special permission to visit the room, which will take some time.  Till then relax.” said Dave with a smile.

Case yet to be solved…

The Curious case of Briston Prison

The Detectives: 

    “The aircraft is ready for takeoff, Mr. Richard”, Ms. Swann informed her boss. Dave Richard is one of the best detectives in the country; who enjoyed solving weird cases and sending the perpetrators to the right place, prison.

“Thanks … Ms.Swann “Dave acknowledged, and gestured the group of 10 students with his hand to move towards the boarding point .He then turned to address Ms. Melinda Swann, “We can leave      Ms .Swann.”   Melinda went behind Dave and pushed his wheel chair and started moving towards the boarding point.

Within minutes Melinda and Dave reached the Boarding point, with a group of youngsters, whose ultimate dream was to be a detective like Dave. Dave had picked these individuals by himself for this educational trip.

“Hello  ...Students... You are here, because each and every one of you is blessed with the mind and ability to become   one of the best detectives in the city. I have arranged an educational trip which I think will be very useful to you guys in honing your abilities. This trip will be useful to me as well, because I get to examine each of you… ”  . He turned to his right side and saw all the youngsters, whose faces were lit with anxiety.

“I have divided you guys into two groups.  Allan, Buma , Crillan, Mark  and Cindy will act as one group and Quinn, Max, Bruce, Alicia and Catherine will be another group … Happy Case solving !! “, the students looked at each other, when he finished.

   “Let’s Move!!” said Dave to the aircraft.

All of them boarded the Aircraft. Melinda helped Dave to get into the Aircraft. Dave started to think how much his life had changed, because of one dreadful bomb blast.

The Captain started the engine and gave instructions. The aircraft flew towards the destination, BRISTON.

The Prison:

 

                  Briston, an island which is located around 80kms from sea shore of Van dart City. The island is a master piece of Mother Nature.  Briston is also famous for one more thing, The Prison, which was built on the island for security concerns long back.

The prison remains closed for nearly 6 yrs. It was mainly used to lock up the most dangerous criminals in the history of Van dart City. 

A riot broke out in the prison after death of a prisoner. The police officers in the prison had to execute an undercover operation to wipe out the prisoners. Since then, the prison remains closed and only can be visited with proper permission. 

The Air Craft landed on the island. Dave, Melinda and the 10 youngsters carried their luggage and got off from the plane. Melinda started moving along with Dave towards the entrance of the Prison. A guy, who dressed in suits, greeted Melinda and Dave and guided them to the entrance office.

Soon the caretaker of the Prison came to greet Dave. Melinda handed over a piece of paper which illustrated the order for their stay in the Prison.

 Melinda, Dave and the students followed the caretaker, as he took them to their respective rooms. On the Way the caretaker was telling them the history of the prison.

The students saw blood stains on the walls of the prison, which had remained after the riot.

The Students were shown their respective rooms. Dave “Students! You have got an hour to freshen up yourself.  Please be there in the Dining table for lunch on time”

The Clock struck 12, all the guys assembled in the Dining table. Dave was activating his chair, Melinda accompanied him.

 “Please help yourself with the food” said Dave.

All of them grabbed a plate, got their food and sat around the table. Dave “Guys! We are here to solve a mysterious case which happened in this very old prison. I hope this would do a world of good for you.

Long back, there was a guy, a psychopath who was killing people, somehow the police traced him and caught him. This guy was so obsessed by“JACK THE RIPPER”, , that he had his own way of butchering the innocents into pieces.  He was addicted to killing; the blood smell was a drug to him, which made him more of a serial killer with different patterns.  Please check the patterns of how he has slaughtered the people” 

 Melinda passed the files to each and everyone.

“As you people are aware of the Riot, which broke out in this very old prison, was because of this guy and very few people know about this, since the victim was sliced in a certain pattern. The police were unable to prove that the murder was committed by the psychopath. It’s a very interesting case actually. Lets finish our lunch first and we will have discussion about the case in detail”.

Case yet to be solved…

Transformation

Mona suddenly woke up from her bed with a loud cry, Ron and Cheryl came running to her and consoled her. It was 2 am in the early morning. A cool breeze was brushing against the window of Mona’s room. Cheryl, as soon as she came into the room hugged Mona, took her in her arms and started to console her.

“It’s OK! Dear... It’s OK! Mommy is here...Nothing will happen...” Cheryl started to move away from the bed. Ron followed her. 

“Mommy!” Mona sobbed “I saw a man with wings and with Snake like teeth... chasing me and trying to hurt me!” Mona was so restless and started weeping out of fear.  

“It’s OK! Sweetheart! It is just a bad dream… “Cheryl patted over Mona’s shoulder. After 20 minutes Cheryl made her sleep again, with a lot of struggle.

When Mona fell asleep, Cheryl wiped her tears and looked at Ron. “Does a 9 year old child have to go through all this, that too every night.” She leaned over Ron. “Ron! I can’t take this anymore. I can’t see her suffer like this every day.” 

“Cheryl, you know this will happen, it  has to happen. She will have to go through these things, that is how it is...” Ron sighed.

“Yeah! But…” Cheryl sighed. “Can’t we tell her the reason for her dreams; at least it will make her a little brave.”

“You know, you can’t do that, it’s just a matter of few days! Cheryl. Things will be alright. Believe me. “  Ron hugged Cheryl and consoled her, went to the bed waiting for The DAY.

A few days later..

Ron knew this was the day everything will change for good. He planned for camping in the forests. Ron, Cheryl and Mona went for a camping out near the forests. It was Mona’s first camp fire. It was a full moon day; the moon was looking very beautiful.

All of them went inside the camp at the time of Midnight. The wolves started howling far away from the tent. A lot of creepy sounds were coming from the tent.

All of a sudden, there were two big wolves coming out from  the tent and  started howling loudly. The two wolves turned  and stared towards the tent, a whelp came out and joined them , together they howled and ran into the forest.A new member  has joined the wolf pack.

After dawn, Cheryl and Ron went near Mona and kissed her over the cheeks and said “Dear, we have something to say about the  Transformation

The moment Cheryl and Ron looked into Mona’s eye, they knew she was not going to be afraid of anything now...

A father's Love Story

“Where is your Biology test paper? Ram!!" Rajesh was screaming like hell at his son.

Rajesh was a very strict father; he used to be like Hitler to Ram. He used to really scold him, he has even gone to extent to beat him up even Ram does a small mistake.

Coming from a Farmer Family, Rajesh was the first person to study and work in a Bank in his village.
He fell in love with a girl and married her and got settled in city for past few yrs now.

Rajesh's mannerism was more like of his father's. His father never allowed him to speak; Rajesh was always scared of his father even if he never committed a mistake. Rajesh's father made him think that this is way to lead a proper n successful life.

Rajesh believed that being strict to his child will make his child more proper than now he is.

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"Where is your test paper? Ram! I am asking you! Give an answer!" Rajesh screamed again with his veins popping out in anger.

Ram was so scared. Ram did not move his lips. Ram was staring at his father's eyes.
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Ram is in 8th Standard.

Ram was a pretty good student in studies. Ram will surely make it among the top 10 pupils in the class.

Rajesh was never contended with Ram until he tops in his class and maintains it.

Ram always used to wonder why his father is always scolding him and so mad at him for whatever he does.

There was small thing which started to grow in the small kid's heart, that his father doesn't love him.

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Rajesh used to sit with Ram for hours and make him study till 6th standard, after some point of time Rajesh could not sit with Ram since the subjects have gone a lot deeper and more science oriented.

Ram had to study on his own and thing started to look meek. Ram's scoring gradually decreased which made him move around the average guys.

Somehow Ram failed in the biology paper in a unit test that occurred a month ago. Ram was so scared that he did not show his paper to Rajesh. He kept the biology paper hidden.

Some how Rajesh came across the biology test somewhere and was so angry that he had failed in the subject, what made him angrier was that Ram not telling him about this.
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" What is this Ram? I am asking you? What happened? Why have you hidden this paper? Where did you get this much guts to do this Ram? Uh!"
By saying this he removed his belt and started to hit Ram.

Ram was screaming in pain as his mother tried to pull Rajesh back.
Rajesh started to hit Ram like a mad angry man. The whole room was filled with screaming of rage and pain.

Rajesh stopped hitting Ram realizing that the belt has got cut into pieces by now.

Ram had so much striped marks, his arms and thighs were swollen because of the beating.

Rajesh threw the belt away and went outside...
***********************************************************************
Ram's mother was crying and wiping her tears and came to aid Ram.
That night Ram decided to elope from his house. He totally came to a conclusion that Rajesh doesn’t like him at all.

Ram went to his room started to write a letter with a lot of tears. He got his cloths and packed it and kept it ready so that he can go out once his mom and dad are asleep.

Ram lay crying on bed. His mom came with dinner and applied some cream for his wounds. Wiping her tears and his, she fed him dinner which she had got and went out telling him to close his eyes and sleep.

Ram was lying down in pain and was murmuring something and pretending to be asleep.
***********************************************************************

Ram slowly opened his eyes, took the letter and was getting ready to move out.

Suddenly he heard someone open the door, he threw the bag down went to bed with letter in his hands.

Rajesh opened the door and came near Ram... touched his fore head.
Ram was totally pretending to be asleep.

Ram started to hear a sobbing sound. Rajesh was crying and caressing, patting Ram to sleep.

Ram understood that Rajesh loved him so much. Ram started to have tears in his eyes. Rajesh's wife came near Rajesh and " You beat him too much today and you are weeping like a kid! "

" I never thought he would do something like that, being a father I was angry on myself that how would he do that? It made me more angry and frustrated. You know angry makes a man really mad and I lost my senses!" he wept holding his wife's arm

"Now I realize what kind of a monster I have been to him. I love him so much that even a small mistake looks big to me. I don’t know why?" Rajesh was literally crying out loud.

Ram couldn’t stop his tears rolling out from his eyes. He was crying silently.

Rajesh heard him cry and he wiped his tears, wiped Ram's tears and started to pat him and made him sleep...

An Untold Love story

“Excuse me? Are you Ragasiya?” Shaun questioned her with a hesitating tone. Ragasiya turned back and gave him a weird look and thought “Who is this guy? “. “Uh...Yeah... I am... and you are..?” answered with a long pause. “Hey don’t think too much, I am Shaun Ratheesh, we used to be class mates in college… remember me!!”

“Oh Ratheesh!” with a big smile on her lips and hugged him. “Damn! You have changed so much… Man...” was expressing her joy in meeting her college mate after several years. “And you thought you look the same uh? No way lady you look more different than me?” said Shaun pointing at her.

“What? I look the same … I haven’t changed since college” Ragasiya spoke as both of them started walking around the mall. “Naah! You are different… You used to be one nerdy female in class with those spectacles… Now see you ...Looking good in the saree, typical homely girl look! Damn how did you get rid of your nerdy look by the way? Uh?”

“Oh! Shut up… the same old Ratheesh who always pulls my leg. How’s Life? Where are you now? What do you do? You got married?”

“Whoa! Whoa! Too much of questions… Ha! Ha! Ha! I am not married, I am working in MNC in California just came down to India for vacation.” “So... How about you? You got married na? How’s Ravi? You got married to him? Right? Man you guys were for each other in college and you were going around with him too. Did he propose to you after our farewell? He was so much in love with you.”

The moment she heard the name Ravi, her expression changed , she just went back to her college days, recalling those memories. “Nooooo! I am not married to him; my husband is a Businessman. What did you say? Ravi wanted to propose to me? What are you blabbering? Are you speaking about our class mate Ravi, right? Are you sure?” a lot of questions started to come up on her mind. “Hey... don’t get serious, Sorry about that... I was just again trying to pull your leg like good old days” Ratheesh tried to move away from the topic “So tell me about your husband? “ and they spoke for 30 minutes in which Ragasiya listened only for the first 5 minutes, after that her concentration was on the phrase what Ratheesh told her “ He was so much in love with you..” those words started to echo in her ears.

They both departed and Ragasiya went to the parking lot thinking about what Ratheesh had said. She unlocked her car door and got inside, started the car and drove out of the parking lot.

While she was on her way back home, she recollected things that happened in college, how she met Ravi, they were really close friends. Anyone who saw them thought that they are in love. In fact everyone knew that they were in love, the whole class used to tease Ravi with Ragasiya. Neither of them made any attempt to stop them too.

It was pretty obvious that both were in love but they had not declared that to anyone. Ravi was always there for her. For anything and everything she would turn to Ravi too. The feelings between them were mutual and they had better understanding.

Every time, her friends asked if Ragasiya is in love, she used to just say “No”, so did Ravi.

“Honk!! Honk” the car honking behind her car in the signal brought her to the present. She reached home, opened the door, without wasting a second she just went to her room, climbed up and started to search for something and took out an old dusty notebook.

She patted on the dust to clean it up.

Her mind started to question her continuously now

“Why did Ratheesh think that I was Ravi’s wife? Was Ravi really in love with me?” She started to move around the room like a curious cat thinking…

“There is only one way to find it out.” She murmured and stood up with the note in her hand and started her car and drove to Ravi’s house.

Ravi’s house bell rang continuously for 2 times. Megha shouted from the kitchen “Coming… Who is it?” She opened the door “Hey... hi…Ragasiya… how are you? Come inside please.” Megha greeted with a warm smile. Ragasiya came in with a smile “Hey Megha I am good… how are you? Is Ravi around? “ . “ Why you won’t speak to me uh? I am that bad to have a conversation with. Uh?” winked Megha. Ragasiya just smiled at her “You know that’s not at all true. Don’t you!” She hugged Megha as her eyes searched for Ravi.

Megha “Ravi! Ragasiya is here...” she called for Ravi. “He is up in the room doing something.” Megha smiled as she said.

“It’s ok Megha, I will check with him.” Ragasiya started to climb the stairs.

“Ravi!! “ she called his name as she climbed over , Ravi came running out of the room with some presentation papers in his hand.

“Oh you… There are only 2 people in this world people who can scream my name like that. Can’t you ever call politely?”

“Ha! Ha! I can understand I am one of the people you mentioned, I am really curious who is the other person?” said laughing her heart loud.

“You would have just met her…” the moment Ravi said that Megha screamed from the kitchen “Ravi! I heard that…”

“See what I said “laughed out Ravi as Ragasiya too joined him.

“Ravi… I met Ratheesh today in a mall”

Ravi‘s smile kind of faded out when he heard Ratheesh name. “Oh great! Where is he now? What is he doing?” questioned Ragasiya with a fake smile.

“He is doing well, a lot changed actually in appearance…but the same old fellow we used to know” “Listen.. He said something which has been disturbing me a lot…” Ragasiya explained the reason of her visit.

“He said that you were madly in love with me and you were about to propose to me?” shot her question directly at Ravi.

“What? You have to be kidding! Ragasiya! You know about him and how he plays pranks and cracks jokes with others? Right?”

“But…” Ragasiya started to question again.

Ragasiya sighed and made up her mind.

“Okay! I think I will leave now Ravi! Thanks!” Ragasiya moving down. Ravi followed her down to her car.

“Bye Megha! Will come some other day!” she said to Megha. Megha waved Ragasiya a good bye.

She got into the car and started her car waved to both of them and she drove to her home. After the car left their house, Megha went in and Ravi came to the front gate and closed it. He just stared the way Ragasiya went and wiped his tears and told himself “Once Love is untold it will always be untold”.

Ragasiya stopped the car far from Ravi’s house. Took the note book and flipped the pages… Every single page had Ravi and her in it. She came to the last page. It had “Today is the Last day in my college…I hope Ravi proposes to me. I love him so much…”

She wiped her tears and thought “At least now!!! you could have admitted that You were in Love with me! Ravi!” She Sighed and started her car and went home with a heavy heart.