Short stories inspired from life

  Puffs & Cashews! Back in our school days, the moment the evening school bell rang, we would rush home faster than anyone else—not because we were eager to get home, but for one simple reason: to collect fallen cashew nuts from the roadside before anyone else. That was our only source of pocket money, since all we received otherwise was just bus fare.😁 And what did we do with this hard-earned wealth? Egg puffs and lime juice on weekends—the ultimate luxury. Life was good... until the cashew season ended. No cashews meant no money, and no money meant no egg puffs.  This was a crisis—a serious one. So one weekend, we all decided to figure out a solution for it, and the discussion turned more intense than any corporate board meeting. Ideas were thrown around, rejected, and argued over, but none made sense. Just when hope was fading, fate arrived in the form of a loud voice from an auto rickshaw announcing, “Tomorrow is the day… your lucky day! Bumper lottery!” We looked at ...

Internship Tales – Week 1: Plains to mountains 😀   I was fortunate to pursue my master’s at a reputed college in Mumbai. As part of the curriculum, we were supposed to do a compulsory summer internship at the end of our first year. An opportunity designed to give us real-world exposure and a chance to apply what we had learned in classrooms. In fact, it was common for companies to absorb well-performing interns into permanent positions as well. So for many, this internship wasn’t just a requirement—it was a jackpot.  Thus, the most awaited internship season arrived. Naturally, most of my classmates did the most sensible thing—choosing their dream companies or nearby MNCs, stepping into structured roles with predictable routines… and of course with a modest stipend too. Meanwhile, my roommate and I—armed with startup dreams and very little interest in joining such firms—decided to ignore all good advice. Without fully thinking it through, we went looking for an opportuni...

  Hartal Special🐟 Let me take you back 15 years—to my college days. Back then, our campus was famous for two things: student politics and hostel fights. Especially during final-year season, clashes between groups were almost… scheduled events. Since we were first-years who preferred peace, food, and survival, my friends and I stayed neutral. Instead of picking sides, we built something far more useful—a spy network. Thanks to an Orkut group, updates about when and where the next fight might break out reached us at 2G speed. But since my roommate was the spy chief , I got the info in 5G 😎 One evening, we received an alert:  “Fight expected near the hostel mess.” Now, watching seniors fight using mini-drafters and smashing thick textbooks could be entertaining… but there was one serious problem. Every time a fight happened, the college council would shut down the mess for a week. Apparently, their theory was: a hungry engineer is a peaceful engineer 😂 Luckily, I got the...

 “Chips & The Jungle — A Deal I Should Have Never Made.” During my BTech days — 3rd year exam study holidays — I was stuck in that frustrating gap between exams and badly needed a break. So I decided to visit a small hill nearby that had a small church on top. The plan was simple: trek up for an hour, pray, light a few candles, and hopefully get some good grades. 😅 When I reached the top, I noticed a lush green jungle behind the church. My explorer instincts immediately kicked in, but I was too scared to go alone. I waited there wondering what to do… and luckily, a few local kids suddenly appeared from the jungle like they had just finished a trek. The adventurer inside me woke up. I asked if they could guide me through the forest. They hesitated at first… but when they saw the packet of potato chips in my hand, a deal was quickly made. Probably one of the most questionable negotiations of my life. From the kids I came to know that the trail was a loop covering two hills and s...

  'Story of a trek lead by a dog and two idiots who followed'      3 years ago, on this same day, somewhere in the outskirts of Pune, my friend and I decided to do what we enjoy the most — chase uncertainty.      With no proper route, no map, and just a random peak in sight, we parked the car and started trekking. A dog appeared out of nowhere and began walking ahead of us as if it knew exactly where we wanted to go. Naturally, we assumed we had found our guide.      For a while, it felt perfect. The dog confidently led the way and we followed, feeling like seasoned adventurers with our loyal trail guide.      Then suddenly, the dog left the main path and moved through a strange route. We trusted our “guide” completely… until we reached a massive valley — the kind where one wrong step means game over. And just like that, the dog vanished.      Now it was just two educated adults sitting on a rock, lost, with...