A weird thing happened last Thursday night.
Actually, it happened on Friday morning, but I didn’t know then because it was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents–except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by….ah, well, got carried away again. Anyways, I fell asleep at my usual bedtime on Thursday night, at about one AM or thereabouts, and suddenly, I awoke to a strange whishing sound. It was dark in the room, and the first thought that came to my mind was – my Creative speakers had blown. This odd reaction was because I generally leave my computer on at night – with some music playing, and once the playlist is done, it pipes down and goes into standby. A couple of nights ago, there was some kind of a power fluctuation at night, and I had woken up to the sound of my speakers blipping rather irritatingly because the computer was rebooting at about 2 boots per second. That had scared me a lot, and I actually shut my computer down before falling asleep for the next two days.
So with this scary speaker-blowy situation paramount in my sleep-addled mind, I jumped to the wall and switched off the power. And crawled back to bed.
Except the sound was still there, and it was definitely from outside my window. There were also people whispering, quite a few of them. None of these looked too good – it’s never good when your sleepiness disappears at an unholy time of the night.
There were six men outside the window. My apartment is on the ground floor, with a slight elevation, and I could see two of them busy sawing a tree that grew directly opposite apartment, and the rest looking hassled and obviously keeping a lookout. The tree happened to be a Sandalwood tree, and two months ago, a gang of men, armed with guns and knives, had driven inside the apartment complex, cut the telephone wires, held the guard ( an old guy who looks more harmless than my grandpa ) at knife-point and tried to saw off that very tree. Since that time, the gate to the complex would be properly locked at 11 in the night and reopened at 6 the next morning. Obviously, that hadn’t worked. The guard was nowhere to be seen.
Note the point about guns and knives. While I couldn’t really see anything being carried by these guys, it was obviously a bad idea for me to shout out and say – “What on earth is going on?” At the same time, someone on the top floor was yelling something in Kannada – these guys obviously paid no attention, and the sawing continued. I did the logical thing, switched on my light, banged the bedroom door open and went to the living room, which ALSO faced the same tree. The idea was to go and wake my roomies up, and create a ruckus and scare the guys off.
Well, by the time I am in the living room, I look outside, the guys have vanished! Criminals are indeed a cowardly and superstitious lot, it seems, because the lit-up room scared them so much that they dropped everything, including the saw and ran off. Couple of minutes later, the folks from upstairs came down with a torch, I joined them – sadly enough, the tree had been chopped off all the way through. The police came in after about twenty minutes, made a fuss, and were around until at about 10 in the morning, some folks from the Forest Department came and carted the tree away. The guard had been held down by two men, or so he claims. Seems he was asking around for money from the owner for the past few days, and the buzz is that he might be involved in this.
So – my superpower of choice? I drive criminals away by lighting up rooms. Beat that!
Beat. So?
Jay ho, Jay ho.
Superhero
Buzz Light-Here?
Re: Superhero
*groan*
All hail Captain Firefly. :->
At-TEN-shun, laddie!!!
Humm, so they finally got around to cutting the Sandlewood tree..eh? Indeed turning the light on was a brave thing todo, my friend.
Bangalore, I tell you has a lot of people trying to get things without actually paying the “regular” price..
Indeed turning the light on was a brave thing todo, my friend.
Bangalore, I tell you has a lot of people trying to get things without actually paying the “regular” price..
I am still trying to figure out which statement was more sarcastic. ;-)
Speaking of a title?
How does “Beatzo begins” sound like? :-D
Re: Speaking of a title?
Much better than “Beatzo lights up”
Nice one though the tree couldn’t be saved.
Yeah, a real pity.
bravo bravo!! but sorry to hear about the tree.
Me too.
In the time of darkness , the hero lights up a bulb!
(I know it sounds lame!)
Just to nitpick a bit….
it was a tubelight, and not a bulb.
wah mere cheeteh!
You
computerkillingtreehuggingswitchedonmylightscoziwantedtomakesuremypantswerenotwetmusicwhore!
Re: wah mere cheeteh!
You rottenscoundrelthatmakesmelaughuntilmycorneroftheofficeshakesandrumbles!!!
Re: wah mere cheeteh!
have u ever seen anything this fast before?
Re: wah mere cheeteh!
Yes, I have.
Re: wah mere cheeteh!
oh.. i give up!
Re: wah mere cheeteh!
Now I’ve NEVER seen you give up as fast as this. ;-)
Re: wah mere cheeteh!
I’ve become a lil rational now…. I don’t fight a lost battle
Re: wah mere cheeteh!
Bah! Sore lohohohohoser.
Re: wah mere cheeteh!
that’s a new trick I’ve learnt… its called “disappoint and conquer”
I actually shut my computer down before falling asleep for the next two days.
Two day’s sleep must be the superpower recharge.
Erm…
Not fair!
How come you get cowardly intruders and I get stupid security guards?
Damn. And I thought I was the one with the exciting, crime-filled life.
Hee. I am *this* close to laughing hysterically. Had an overdose this morning…
Switcherman, switcherman
turns it on like noone can :-p
Well done, too bad the tree couldn’t be saved.
oooooooooooo. “Turns it on”. I like the sound of that. :-D
My pleasure! We try :-)
i was rather hoping for a mid-summer night’s chipko andolan.:P..well done,i really doubt the superhero powers on blackout nights:d
Then I would take the help of the trusty sidekick, Generator Kid. ;-)
Do you still keep your computer ON at night?
Yes ma’am! :)
Stumbled upon here on a jobless, full-moony and genreally beautifully clear night.. That’s a pretty wild story – this is my dear hometown – Bangalore? Tree-felling seems to quite the fad these days, thieves, the govt. everyone’s joining the party.. Anyways, mind if I add you?
This is Bangalore, all right.
Anyways, mind if I add you?
Of course not.
Whereabouts in B’lore? Just added you..