Neel Anil Panicker

“NON-VIOLENCE, MY FOOT!” by Neel Anil Panicker

I want to tell you that I spent last night at the police station. But that's not what I want to tell you. I want to tell you why I spent last night at the police station. I want to tell you that last night, well not exactly the whole night, but for over four hours for sure, I was at the police station. Reason: I had hit an elderly man, a senior citizen. I had boxed him in the ears, my right fist landing on his non-existent right cheek, the impact so strong that the poor old sod's false dentures rattled and had yanked; ultim...

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“I AM HIS, HE IS MINE” by Neel Anil Panicker

'We're just too different.' I hit the send button, and closed my eyes as I took a deep breath. A moment later I heard the all too familiar sound. The notification. I opened my eyes slowly and stared at the phone screen. His response had arrived. In a jiffy. That's why we're made for each other. My heart glowed. I smiled inwardly. And then I did something I didn't remember doing in a long, long time. I sprang off my bed and danced, flung my arms and legs, turned and twisted my massive 80 kilos, running and scurrying f...

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“THE BLACKMAIL THAT WASN'T” by Neel Anil Panicker

"I'm sending you something, a video that I guarantee is going to change your life forever", were his exact words over the phone.Zombie like, Manoj stared into the rectangular screen that was ablaze with a million psychedelic colours one moment, now gone blank like the Arctic Sea, white as white can ever aspire to be-from choc a bloc with myriad figures, known and unknown, to an eerily still canvas sans any colour, hellish white as a freshly widowed young woman's saree.His mind a turnstile and all at sea, unsure as to what had just happened,...

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“SHIFTING SANDS” by Neel Anil Panicker

Get lost, you swine...You do not belong...you two are poles apart...you are from another Planet...Kriti deserves much better...she is in a different league...get lost...get out of the frame, you gold digger...For a long, long time Prasad stared, vacant eyed into the screen.Darkness fell, long arms of the night enveloped the room in a tight clasp. The deep black of the massive window curtains did their job, rubbed in further his misery by accentuating the sense of forlornness and utter deep dungeon like despair that he was experiencing.A bell...

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“THROUGH THE CRYSTAL BALL ” by Neel Anil Panicker

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of Kings to search the matter out. That's the first thing that Ashtha Agarwal noticed when she stepped out of her silver coloured Mercedes Benz on a sultry mid- May afternoon in downtown Bengaluru. Not just her, none, not one person who ever even swept past the main arterial road that arched like a serpent's tale would fail to notice the massive all red with black border rectangular sign board. As the 44 year old ex- owner of an IPL cricket franchise walked on the perfectly shap...

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“FIRST RAINS, FIRST LOVE” by Neel Anil Panicker

Were it not for the slight oblong slit in the lower left edges of the window that hung just above her bed, Shirley wouldn't even have heard it.So feeble was the sound.And when the faint yet sonorously familiar sounds wriggled their way in from the street to her room, her sanctum santorum got inundated in ways more metaphorical than literal.The 21 year old final year Miranda House student who had planned to spend an evening delineating the wonders of Jungian philosophy found her thoughts meandering elsewhere, to things more terrestr...

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“HEY RAM, HELLO RAHIM” by Neel Anil Panicker

The crowd looked on as the man gingerly walked towards the main square.As the man, frail and old, bamboo staff in left hand, turned towards them, the group nearest to him peered even more closely.Who is this man? Do they know him? Has anyone seen him around? In this village, this man was a stranger. The villagers looked at one another, the unsaid question that sat on their lips begged for answer.As the feeble old man ambled by, he turned to his right, towards the motley group that was boring its eyes towards him, whispering, mumbling half s...

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“HIT ON THE ROAD” by Neel Anil Panicker

The first time he'd chosen to ignore it. Another riff raff, one among the multitude nomadics who had hit the road, just one more faceless, directionless soul that had fallen off the radar of civisles world, now mindlessly floating from godforsaken landscape to other-was what Karuneshwar aka Kaka, the ageing trucker surmised whilst sterring his massive eight axle truck to the nearest petrol station a few miles away from Tirupur town. It was while driving back after filling gas and partaking of a quick more water less brew chai from the...

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“DREAMS DIE YOUNG ” by Neel Anil Panicker

Why do have to drink when you have me to drink all your life, she had said very early in the marriage and John had nodded his head. He had looked up at her as she stood there in front of the mirror, running wet comb over her just bathed curly jet black hair that extended all the way down to her back.She smiled through the glass, two perfectly round dimples that served as 100 watt light bulbs, instantly bathing their bedroom in a sea of noon day sunshine.She was gorgeously beautiful, no doubt, and he had acknowledged it by walking up and...

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“TO CATCH A KILLER ” by Neel Anil Panicker

I DIDN'T KILL MY WIFE- The newspaper headlines screamed the morning after his wife's death. The morning paper, News of the World (its critics preferred to call it Screws of the World) followed that up by a six column middle spread on the whys and wherefores, the what's and hows, the who's and whitches (pun fully intended!)-laying bare, in full multi colour splendour the insides details behind the 'sudden tragic death' of one of 'Bollywood's most beautiful actresses of all times. Fatima Sheigh aka Honey to her legions of fans was as much th...

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“A FRESH PAIR OF EYES ” by Neel Anil Panicker

Sheena looked at her mother, her beautiful black button eyes burning with faux pas rage."How can you tell that to me, Mamma? It's downright insultful. Hema and the gang would throw a fit if their mothers were to say such a thing to them?"From inside the kitchen, her Mamma, Aruna's voice, calm as an ocean, wafted over the dining room and landed on Sheena's table."That's because my dear you're my daughter, my only child to boot. If I don't have..."Sheena's eyes darted towards the kitchen where her mother had been closeted for the better p...

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“LUST FOR LOVE ” by Neel Anil Panicker

Submitted to Contest #105

tw:suicideRoy says, girls are untrustworthy creatures. He takes another swig of the beer. "Wouldn't it be great if there was a God that punishes people who break promises?"Yeah, sure man, I respond. That would be great. This world is full of folks who violate others' feelings, breach others' faith. I mean, just look around us_ politicians, rulers, bureaucrats, sellers, marketeers, firms, companies...all stand gulty. And if God were to get busy and set them right, put them in their places, punish them for all their umpteen acts of commission ...

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“TWO TO TANGO ” by Neel Anil Panicker

Submitted to Contest #104

'Are you coming tonight'?Anna almost texted back, 'Yes, I will'. Then, better sense prevailed. She had remembered something her mother had told her year ago: "Remember my baby, when you want to say NO to a man, make it sound like a YES."The wisdom in her dear departed mother's adage had served the thirty year old well.Three marriages, over a baker's dozen live ins, and umpteen slam bam fortuitous encounters were proof that she had been an industrious student. In the game of hearts and darts, the    sultry siren ...

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“No Second Chances ” by Neel Anil Panicker

Submitted to Contest #103

TW: rape, suicide   The first time she said it, the phrase sounded so inconsequential. I mean you wouldn't, who would rather, notice or read more into a sentence meant to provide direction.   Get off the train, take the 45, count the stops to 14. Alight. Look up. You see a Shiva Temple. Walk towards it. Take a left past Turning Point. From thereon, it's a hop, skip, and jump. Third house to the right.   Right!   You remember saying right. You remember doing all she told you. You followed her instructions to a T. You ...

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“MORALLY YOURS - PART 1 ” by Neel Anil Panicker

"Sir, now the ball is in their court. It is he who has to decide. And we have four to five hours. It's almost dawn. Sir, I most humbly request you to take rest. You haven't slept for the past 49 hours. At your age..."From across the heavily carpeted room, seventy one year Daya Patil aka DP stared back. On a regular day, that glare, those blood shot eagle eyes that sat royally under a bushel of thick set black as coal eyebrows would have been enough to make a ordinary mortal tremble. Such was the omnipotent, intimidation that the si...

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