Saturday 7 January 2017

1980’s Breakfast at Big Ben.


Stefan’s eyes met Lucy’s through his mom’s bakery’s glass pane yet again. He knew nothing about her, except her name, which he had gotten to know only because she was a regular costumer. Every Tuesday, like clockwork, she came into the shop, they exchanged glances and blushed. It was a quiet relationship yet a very real one. “Ma, that Lucy girl’s here again. But it’s Monday...I wonder why she’s come a day early this week” Stefan said. “I’ll ask her on my way out. I have some work outside the village. You’ll take care of the shop for one night, sonny, won’t you?” she said as she handed a receipt to an old woman and smiled at her. “What? Huh, um, yes, yes, okay, sure” Stefan hadn’t completely been paying attention to the conversation; he had been too busy staring into Lucy’s eyes. Fifteen minutes later, everyone had left the shop but Lucy had been standing still like a cat, not taking her eyes off Stefan. Stefan had been packing things up and looking at Lucy in the intervals. Lucy stepped into the shop. “Evening, sir. I know you’re closed but I was wondering if a ravenous girl such as myself could get some food here.” She said. As soon as Stefan lifted his lip to reply, she added “Plus..I’d love to finally hear your voice, I’ve been looking at you for weeks”
An introductory conversation later, Stefan was kneading dough to make her dinner, because she turned out to be quite a demanding woman who demanded fresh dough. “I think there’s someone at the door” Lucy said when Stefan’s hands were stuck in dough. “Really? I didn’t hear a knock” he said. “No, I’m positive. I’ll go check” she said as she pushed the table away, got up and left the kitchen. Stefan was done with the dough just then.

“I’m sorry I took so long” she said when she came back. “There was no-one at the door but I saw the way to the washroom and thought I might as well get refreshed, I hope that’s not a problem” she continued.  They both sat down for some tea and reached out their hands for the packet of biscuits at the same time. Their hands met and Lucy blushed. Stefan suddenly grabbed her hand and she got startled. “The police are on the way” he said. “Huh..I’m sorry?” she said with fear in her eyes. She snatched her hand back and then looked more relaxed. “I didn’t call them, you know? Our neighbours are some very nosey people. They saw you stealing the chandelier. Tell you what, take the chandelier out of your bag and place it on the floor and flee. I’ll tell them the neighbours are idiots and there’s nobody except me here..and that I was the one taking the chandelier off because I wanted to replace it with a new one” he said. “Assuming that what you’re saying is true..why would you want to help a thief such as myself?” she asked. “Because this is not the end for us. I know you’re a thief and you probably also have a gun with you at this very moment. But of what I’ve seen of your eyes these past weeks..I’ve come to love” he said. She looked like she thought he was joking. “I’m doing this on the condition that this is not the end for us. You’re going to meet me. In London. At the cafe in front of Big Ben” he said as he grabbed a pink post-it and wrote down the exact location, date and time. “If you really want to help me, when your neighbours tell the police about the bundles of cash missing from their houses, don’t mention I ever came into your shop today. Also, how did you know? You were cooking and I..I thought I had you fooled” she said. “I can’t believe you saw me taking it. You were cooking..h-how did you know.. “ she said, looking at the ground in shock.     
“Oh, sweetie..I never took my eyes off you” he replied.

And then she was gone.
                                                                                                   
Then there were sirens, two officers and an explanation.


2 months later. 2 p.m. cafe before Big Ben.


Stefan called the lead officer on the case from the phone booth, his phone had been stolen the previous night. He had been in London for two days now. “It’s been two hours, she still hasn’t showed up. I don’t think she will” he said. “Tell you what, if she doesn’t show up in another forty-five minutes, you can leave and we’ll come up with another plan to catch her.  She didn’t steal anything from you, anyway. You really lucked out that she believed your story and left that chandelier. Beautiful, that damn thing. And priceless, too” the officer said. Stefan was annoyed. He knew his chandelier very well, what he didn’t know was why Lucy didn’t show up. She couldn’t have known of his plan and she was too smart of a woman to be stuck somewhere she didn’t want to be. So where was she?
When Stefan returned to the cafe, he saw a woman inside who seemed to be looking for someone. It was his mother. “Mother, what are you doing here?” he asked her when they were done embracing. “I was out of our shop thirty, thirty-five minutes, at the most, today” she said. “Huh? So?” he was confused.
“Stefan..our chandelier’s been stolen.”
Back at the shop, just like Stefan’s mum had said-no chandelier. Just a note written on a pink post-it : “I never took my eyes off you, either, hon.”

“I don’t mix business with pleasure.”
What defines me?

Scratched knees, chapped lips, adrenaline in my veins
My own people left me out drenching in the rain
I was playing with fire, knowing I’d get burnt
But I foolishly jumped in with both feet, oh, the lessons I learnt!

Yet, when I look back on my journey, the battles I’ve fought,
tried to be hopeful in the rain, was left heartbroken in the drought
I see the demons I’ve overcome; my broken bones might just heal
I’m taking back the things their beautiful yet blazing fire did steal

I see that it is indeed the wars we fight that define us; irrespective of losses
And the hearts that continue to remain kind, they know how risky each toss is

The strongest souls trust after being deceived,
Love even when their affection isn’t received

And that is what defines us, not the whispers behind our backs
Not the shoes ruined by tumbling in the tracks
But the number of times we get back up, being reborn from the fires that turn us to ashes,
And the times we establish ourselves from rock bottom and the crashes

Saturday 1 October 2016

ABOUT ME

Name- Srishti Uppal
Class- X-F
Hobbies- Singing, Reading, Writing
Aim- To be happy, to make others happy, to become a psychologist, to write more
Hometown- New Delhi
Favourite Celebrities- Taylor Swift, Amitabh Bachchan, Cara Delvigne, Gigi Hadid, Karlie Kloss, Avril Lavigne
Very fond of English literature
Favourite shows- Grey's anatomy, Scandal, House
Favourite YouTubers- jacksfilms, danisnotonfire, domics, just between us
Favourite writer-I LOVE JOHN GREEN
i aM a Big BelieVer iN RandOm CaPitAlizatIon
My favourite band is Twenty One Pilots and I love instrumental music
I absolutely love to cook, write, sing and research.
Like I've mentioned before, literature is quite a big part of my life. There's this thing that I call 'Writers' Itch'. It's the itch a writer feels in their brain until they've penned their thoughts down. Writing is pretty much everything to me. And if I could make a living out of that, it would be my absolute dream.
I live with my parents, sister, grandma, aunt and uncle. I love doing volunteer work and hope I get to do more of it in the future. That's all for me! I hope you like my following posts, I write about anything and everything, thank you for reading :)