A pleasant surprise

Tina got out of the shower, her hair dripping wet. She rubbed the ends dry with a towel, rushing to get to her phone. It had beeped; it must be a message from Arun. He'd been working late many nights in a row. To make up for it, he'd plan a magical dinner date the next night he thought he might be free, but he ended up having to deal with some last minute work again, cancelling on her. That cycle had repeated more than once in the past couple of weeks, so Tina was worried that it'd be the same tonight, when she'd heard her phone beep from inside the shower.

But what she saw puzzled her; it was a message from Arun, that had nothing except the directions to some location that seemed to be very near her house. She switched on navigation, slipped on a pair of PJ's and went outside the house, following the voice in her phone. She had stepped out of her apartment, went down the stairs, and across the street to another apartment, and -

"Please turn to your right," the woman's voice said. Tina turned right and walked three steps before the voice said, "You are now at your destination." She looked up, bewildered. There was nothing there except the watchman and a package in his hand.

"This is for you," he said, handing it to her. She took it, thanked him, and went back to her apartment, smiling to herself. This is what she loved about Arun; when it came to surprises, he went all out!

Tina went back home, ripped open the cover and opened it. There was a beautiful red dress inside. She threw it on as fast as possible and looked into the mirror. She couldn't help but let a small gasp escape her lips; she looked stunning. She busied herself with make up and accessories, waiting for Arun to turn up. But he didn't; all that she got was another beep in her phone, with new directions!

This time, the place was rather far away. Tina got into her Tata Zica, entered the coordinates and drove wherever navigation took her. She drove on for almost forty minutes, and finally, at the end of a long, straight road, she heard the words, "You are now at your destination." She breathed a sigh of relief and got out of the car.

And there he was, the most handsome man in the world as she knew it.
"Arun!" she said, getting out of the car. "This place is absolutely beautiful!"
They were standing at the side of a lake, with a small stage set up for them, and a dinner table on it with a candle on top. There was also what looked like a lovely meal!
"Tina," Arun said, going down on one knee. "Will you marry me?"
He was holding out the most beautiful ring she'd ever seen in her life.
"Oh, my!" Tina said, too shocked for words. She paused a few seconds before she could reply.
"Yes. Yes! Yes, oh my God!" She exclaimed, letting him slip the ring on to her finger and enveloping him in a hug.

What a wonderful way navigation was to surprise someone!

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

The time when we were lost

It was a bright, sunny morning in the summer of 2015. We were all getting ready to go to watch Khaleja. I was a big fan of Mahesh Babu and so were my friends. We were a gang of seven, so we decided to take two cars; three in one car and four in another. We had planned to reach the hall within half an hour; however, the story unfolded very differently.

The car which I was in led the way, and we only assumed that the second car was following us. That was true for a while, but in some time, we turned around to see that we had lost them. We went on with trying to find our way to the theatre anyway; they would ask someone along the way to guide them and make it there as well. There's no dearth of people walking on the road to ask directions from in India, anyway. Only after twenty minutes did we realize that they weren't the ones we had to be worried about. We were lost!

We tried asking the pedestrians for directions but none of them could explain the way with clarity and we kept getting into narrower lanes. At one point I felt like we were just going around in circles, until we finally hit a dead end. It was then that a kind old stranger offered to guide us back to the main road. He rode on his two wheeler and we followed him, breathing a sigh of relief at the first wide road that we hit. We thanked him and then went our way. With the help of another two or three people, we finally managed to reach the cinema hall just in time.

But alas! The tickets were sold out. We called our friends to inform them that there were no tickets and they could turn around and go back home no matter where they were. But to our surprise they were sitting in the cinema hall and munching popcorn! They had taken tickets for us too, and told us the seat numbers and asked us to come as soon as possible, since the trailers were almost over.

After we finally settled in our seats, we got around to talking about how they had found their way and managed to reach the cinema hall so quickly.
"Nisha, how did you figure out the route to get here? I thought you guys were lost!"
"What?" Nisha laughed. "It was actually pretty simple, Sameera!"
"How? We got lost in some crazy maze of roads," I told her, only to hear some more laughing.
"Didn't you use navigation?" Nisha asked. And that's when I realized how unfortunate it was not to have inbuilt navigation in our car.
"Well, no," I told her. "We don't have a Tata Zica now, do we?"

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Little Tom gets kidnapped

Little Tom's muffled screams were audible outside the van that was taking him away. Amarnath was a strong and able business man, and for the first time in his career, a tiff at work lead to interference in his personal life. His arch rival had hired goons to kidnap his son, take him to his farm house in Nellore, and demand ransom.

Tommy was frightened, even more than when his playschool teacher threatened to hit him with a long, iron scale. This was the scariest time of his life. The big men around him weren't treating him nicely at all, and he was doing all that he could; screaming with all his might, even though his mouth was covered by someone's hand. The hand was partly suffocating him. He couldn't stop squirming around, which annoyed the goons even more.

Tommy wasn't too worried, though. He'd seen his father's car following them, a little while ago, in the distance. Daddy was out to get these bad men, and when he did, they would all be pulverized to death.

...

A little behind the van was Amarnath, driving his car, with a high rank police officer sitting next to him. The police van was on it's way, but further behind.

"Did we lose them?" The officer asked.

"Oh no, don't say that," Amarnath said, frowning. But he was right; there was no car ahead of them. Nevertheless, he kept driving on the straight road.

Amarnath did know that Srinath, his rival had a farm house in Nellore, one that he was rumoured to carry out illegal businesses. He was rumoured to be guilty of six kidnaps and four murders since the start of his career, and those numbers were the reason for Amarnath's worry.

...

"Get out," the leader of the gang ordered his subordinate. "Get out and flip that boards."

They were at crossroads. There was a pole placed at the center, with arrows that directed travellers to their destination. Nellore was to the right, and Badvel to the left; the leader's idea was to reverse the directions and mislead Amarnath and the police.

One of the goons in the backseat got out, and managed to dig up, reverse the pole, and bury it back in the mud, leaving it looking like it hadn't ever been touched.

"Let's drink chai," the gang leader said, in the van. "Let's celebrate!" He laughed, proud of his idea to mislead the police. Now they didn't have to hurry.

...

"Damn it," Amaranth cursed. Poor Tommy must be so scared, he thought.

They approached a junction.

"To the left," the policeman said.

"Are you sure?" Amarnath asked.

"Yeah, look there," he said pointing at the signboard. "It says Nellore to the left."

"My navigation says Nellore to the right," Amarnath frowned, pointing at the small screen in his car.

"Okay I guess that's more reliable," the police officer agreed. They took a right, and continued searching for the van.

They found it parked outside a small dhaba. Soon enough, the police van behind them caught up as well. The police arrested the goons and Amarnath went to the Van to hug his son.

 "Daddy! I knew you would come," Tommy said, running into his father's arms.

"Yes, son. I am your saviour, and Navigation is mine. Thank god we have inbuilt navigation in our Tata Zica!"

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.