The Davis Cup Double

All the news channels were broadcasting India's enthralling Davis cup victory. It was India's maiden Davis cup win. The Odyssey began with a victory over China and ended with a gruelling encounter with the US. Prithvi was the hero of the day. The day marked the culmination of his sporting career. He defeated the insurmountable Andrew in a weary final which lasted 5 sets. The last set score stood 25-23.

The coach Krishnan was on cloud nine after the victory. The last singles match between Prithvi and Andrew was the decider and it was played aptly at kolkata. Prithvi was cheered for every point. Everybody believed that defeating Andrew was chimerical. But the chivalrous Prithvi did the impossible. Coach krishnan returned home with lot of wishes and gifts pouring. He went into his room and stood in the balcony. He felt the balmy breeze across the balcony. He was clearly not happy. He looked a very sad man with full of guilt. He recollected those moments.

It was his plan to have a medical timeout in the middle of the third set. Prithvi had lost 2 sets and had won one by that time. Clearly he was not fit to play a five setter. That was when coach krishnan signalled him to have a medical time out. Prithvi went to the changing room and he came back fresh and won the match. Only krishnan and Prithvi knew who came back and played. It was Prithvi's double Sanjay. Krishnan had to do this for national pride. He wanted to be the first coach to bring home a davis cup and he was ready to do anything for it. He groomed Prithvi and Sanjay stealthily and it was their first davis cup. It was the beginning of the fantastic career of Prithvi as a player and krishnan as a coach.

The bland magician

The whole city of bangalore was going agog about the magic show that was about to happen that day. John, the greatest magician of his times was going to perform the show. The show was titled "Magic Journey". John was planning to take the audience for a ride with his bountiful tricks. The show was all set to begin. It began with a prelude from Mohan, one of John's best buddies. Then the stage was all John's. John began with the trick of "Disembodied Princess". It was performed to utmost perfection. He expected a thunderous applause from the audience. Oddly enough the audience remained silent. John did not give up. He followed it up with a brilliant execution of the "vanishing bird cage" trick. To his utter dismay there was no response from the audience again. He then conjured up a series of tricks. But the audience were obstinately silent. His final trick "bullet catch" was over. No response yet. John was totally abased by the audience. Even though it was a brilliant performance by John, the response from the crowd made it a bland magic show.
It was time for the valedictory address. Mohan was back again on the stage. As soon as he uttered the word "Now", the whole audience stood up on their feet and they gave a standing ovation to John. Now John started realizing the situation. It was all Mohan's trickery. He had requested the audience in his prelude not to laud John's performance. Mohan wanted to give a pleasant shock to John as his birthday present. Yes that day was John's birthday.

Pin drop silence

It was a saturday morning. I reached coimbatore. I reached quite late at around 9.30 in the morning. It was a day of tamil new year. Usually all of my family members meet at my home that day. When i reached home almost all my relatives were there. All the kids were there. I expected complete fun there with lot of noise. But to my surprise there was pin drop silence.
Everyone was whispering to each other. I felt that something was wrong there. My grandfather was weak. So i thought may be he had fallen sick and that is why everyone is silent. At one corner of the house i saw my sister looking sad. Then i realized that her results were out that day. May be she has flunked and got nicely from everyone. That is why may be there was dead silence. My elder brother was standing at the other end of the room with a blank face. I thought may be he had revealed his love affair and that had created pandemonium. Finally i decided to ask my mother about the silence. I asked her. She whispered that my 5 year old niece had just fallen asleep and that was why everybody was silent. I then noticed the child sleeping on my uncle's lap. I slowly moved into my room with pin drop silence.