We thought it would be the best if the complete stories are posted after all of them have been received. So, for the time being we are posting excerpts from the various entries received.
Entry ID 1108: Better Late Than Never by Neelam Chandra
As he stood on the railway platform of Nagpur station, Sam was lost in his own thoughts. He had come to Nagpur after a long time. He still could not fathom what had made him come here. He had been working in the US since last 15 years now. He had his own world there. After completing his engineering, he had gone there to complete his M.S. and then continued there. He had a PhD degree now and was a well-known name in the field of optics. He was a senior faculty at M.I.T. and enjoyed his work there.
However, he was lonely. And absolutely alone. He had no one in the world whom he could call his own. His parents had expired long back. He was the only child. He had lost contact with all his other relatives. The only connecting link was the house owned by his parents once upon a time – the house in which he had grown up. It was a two room flat, but it didn’t matter. It served as his only link between his childhood and his present. He had preserved it after his father’s death like his own child. He loved the house and he loved his balcony. It was this balcony from which he would observe Appu from a distance.
Entry ID 1109: When Love Strikes by Sunil Sharma
Love can strike in most cold circumstances and sprout in most odd pairs.
Friends of Imtiaz Ali and Serena never thought the two complete opposites could ever meet, talk and fall in love. They were proved wrong…by Cupid. The two oddballs not only met and talked but also fell in deep love.
Their scandalized friends vowed never to judge people on the basis of the externals. They had anticipated pure hatred and repulsion. Instead, love blossomed. It is like snow falling in Dubai, remarked a surprised friend.
It was.
This is how it happened. Love in most unlikely combination.
The consensus was that Imtiaz Ali was of no good and a born drifter but what was not generally known about this tall and wiry post-graduate student of history in the Nagpur University was his sheer perseverance: Once Ali decided to follow his heart, there was no stopping the maverick actor. This trait was known to Ravi Kant Desai, a close friend of Ali. And he made Ali do an impossible task by campus standards—seduce Serena. If you are searching for motive, Desai was brutally rejected by the lady and public humiliation was part of her famous arsenal. Desai was naturally itching for a swift retribution against the arrogant beauty. The answer was Ali.
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