Two versions of the same story. Do tell which one you like better.
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I)

Ornate, simple, detailed and simultaneously beautiful. A circle, supposed to symbolize never-ending love, wrought in the exact colours and way she used to like. A gold circlet, breaking up into 2 bands to hold a triangle of diamonds, with one of the bands being white gold.
“
Try it on. It fits. It’s for you.
“
Big grins and hugs.

She tilted her hand and carefully slid it on to the polished glass counter. It hit the counter with a soft tinkle.

Ma’am, we can give you so much for it. Although it is our own design, wrought by us, you have to understand it’s more than 2 decades old. We will have to break it and mould it agai..

Sighing, she got to her feet. Yes, I understand, Dahlia. I don’t really care how much it brings. Credit it to my account.

After all, it was another life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John Doe

Longish post. You have been warned.

He’d moved recently into the neighbourhood. He was rumoured to be very rich. No one knew exactly how they knew, nor who had first pointed it out, but that’s how rumours start. The outward trappings of wealth were apparent though he never flashed it himself. But it is difficult to hide your two latest porsches from a curious populace, especially if you live in a part of town which holds only 1 millionaire (you) and a majority of the working class. Even then, he was friendly with everyone, always up for a chat, or drinks with his neighbours. The wealthy have many wannabe friends, and not all those wannabes actually get lucky enough to sip drinks with their idol at the local bar.

Strangely enough, he was not very forthcoming about his business, or how he came to be rich, but people  forgave him that. His name was Martin Warth, though he asked his many friends to call him Marv, short for  Marvin. When asked why, he used to smile and say ” What’s in a name? wrote the bard. I agree with it myself. You are so much more than what you are named. If tommorrow someone tells you I am not Martin, it won’t hurt me, or you, or anyone, for everyone will have known me as Marv.” And so eccentricity was added to his list of virtues, for the rich are always humoured. 

wanderlust

She found maneuvering the car on a narrow ribbon of a road so difficult. there were steep cliffs on both sides. you had to be extra careful if you didn’t want to bump your car into the hillside. if you did, you were a goner. you’d sit and block the road for ages until someone came along and rescued you. For this was no well-traversed and highly frequented road she was on. she always travelled to far-flung places, with little or no signs of humanity or civilization around. she preferred it that way. people always came and spoiled everything. laughed at her. told her to get out of their way. she didn’t mind animals though. why, on her last trip, the cutest little deer had cut across her. well, there was no chance of that today, she thought. there would be no deer here, in this cold valley, with its snowy peaks towering high above her on both sides. Nope, no cute lil creatures here. a snow leopard or bear maybe, but she didn’t really want to imagine them.

there was a bend in the road ahead of her. she advanced slowly. she didn’t want to plunge ahead at full speed only to discover there was a steep downslope. she had had that experience too. She had had a lot of experiences, which was surprising given her age.

Un-archived

She almost cried with the pain of it, the injustice. He was to be mine, for now, for ever. We were to marry, so what if he never asked, it was an irrefutable truth. We both knew it, so why did he turn aside, deny it? What, indeed, went wrong?

So lost in her turmoil was she that she barely noticed she bumped into someone. She looked at him, though looked through him would be a better term, muttered an indistinct sorry, and drifted away towards the bus stop.

The guy who was rushing along, late for an appointment, halted to catch a breath. He looked behind at the girl who had put him off-balance. She seemed lost in her own world. Shaking his head in a wordly-wise way, he said to his friend “such nut-cases around these days. Barely look where they are walking to. She might come across Adonis and not see him, the way she was going. Anyway, as i was saying, i have to study Longfellow for tomorrow, something he wrote about Ships that pass in the night…”

Yes, yet another ghost from the past. My “drafts” folder must be feeling lighter already.

man vs man

Cut back 300 years:

a hubbub all around – they’ve discovered methane on that planet. Organics, life, intelligence , aliens. We might not be alone.

Cut forward 100 years from then:

Press release – it is confirmed that there is indeed, some form of life on the planet xxx , about 30 light years from us. Though not an advanced life form, is very similar to that which existed on earth before any of the higher forms of life evolved. There is hope of sentient alien life soon. Heard in a whisper ” Those critters are far more sentient than our microbes were at that stage. Why, no sooner did our craft sweep over the “lake”, they all moved away. YOu could see the “water” changing colour where they congregated.” We, very soon, might not be alone.

Cut forward another 50:

Breaking news – sentient, aware, organic life forms have been detected on the planet yyy circling the sun qqq, in a star system 50 years from earth. We will attempt to establish some form of communication with them. This is discovery beyond all belief. WE ARE NOT ALONE.

Cut to present:

ALARM! ALERT! ALARM! ALL HANDS ON BOARD! ALL OFFICERS CONVENE!
Reply to dispatch sent to planet yyy – Hey you. Finally you communicated with us. We have been watching you for ages. We might have made the first move, except there was no urgency then. There is, now. We have run out of space (not to mention resources) on planet yyy. There’s no oxygen, the atmosphere is thinning, we have burnt all the “trees” out, the land is almost drowned in the oceans and we have food left just for another journey. Which we will make soon, to your planet. Your enviroment is exactly what we most like to live in. The food origins are different, but we will make do. The other conditions on your planet suit us perfectly. We are transporting all our people to, yes, Earth. So make yourselves scarce, because your planet cannot hold both races and you cannot barricade us out.

Yes, you are not alone.

This was unearthed from my drafts where it was languishing for close to 6 months. It needed finishing touches which I was too lazy to give. Finally though, it’s seen this blog (yes, still without those finishing touches)

Very short stories

If they can even be called stories..

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~~~~~~~~~~

As the door opened and people walked in, a bouquet of outrageous perfumes of the women mixed with the sweat, fear and competition of the men saturated the air. The smells swirled potently under the garish lights and heightened the suffocative feeling of the place.

It was the last time she visited that eatery.

~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~

They met over a lunch. Not alone, there were several chaperones. It was a business lunch afterall. He was struck by her presence soon as he saw her. Their first words to each other were “Hello” (hers) and “Are you married?” (his).

And that was how their love story started.