Newyork Minute I

Prologue:
1. Clairvoyance, a 17th century French word with clair meaning “clear” and voyance meaning “visibility”. It is “seeing” images and objects. It can be color, shape and position of the object. It is often referred to the “Third eye”
2. Precognition, a Latin word is “Pre seeing” or “before seeing” or perceiving something which is going to happen in the near future. It’s a form of extra sensory Perception
3. Telepathy, a Greek word with tele meaning “distant’ and patheia meaning “to be affected by”

National September 11 Memorial & Museum, NYC Sep 11, 2011 09:11hrs
Lake placid was overflowing on a drizzling, dull Sunday morning. NYC seemed too busy and terribly crowded, ignoring the rain or the Sunday. Cars, buses, all kinds of locomotives and pedestrians from everywhere were flooding the city. Everything was black in the surrounding: Men and women dressed in black.

10 years later, the poignant memory lied beneath the city. Everyone was dreamy and there was no charm in the atmosphere. Every single heart carried remorse in someway.
“May your soul Rest in peace, dear William. Love, Mom and Dad”. An old couple was holding a neat cardboard with the lines engraved on it.
"To my sweet and loving husband. R.I.P. We miss you at home. You finally made peace with God. Love Alicia and the kids” A women from Michigan, in her early thirties was holding a card
There were many people who had not lost their loved ones, but was there to shed tears and say their prayers. They were carrying Scented Flowers, Flag of United states of America, Bouquets and Funeral crowns. The memorial inauguration began with the address by the President of the US. With a heavy heart he was reminded of his good friend whom he had lost 10 years ago. Few Indian faces were seen in the memorial. 54 Indians who had worked in the WTC had died and few were from Tamil Nadu. A Congressman was reading the list of people who died. “We pay our deep condolence to the families of all the Indians who had lost their lives here in our mother land. Let the almighty give the strength and peace to the family members”. He started reading the names of the people
Janani Ananth (25)
Rajesh Patnaik (31)
Santhosh S.R. (5)
Abhishek Nair (32)
Vijayshankar Ragupathy (34)
Augustine (29)
Ekambaram S (21)
Banumathi (45)
Chandra (34)
Ravi Arumugam (27)
Daniel R (35)
Annapoorni (27)
Narendran Krishnamachari (29)
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Boston Nov 12 2000 Sun 23:14 Hrs
“Hi Naren. How are you doing today? Hope you had a great day. Call me back. Anna” Annapoorni recorded the message. She was trying to reach him, but he was having a tough day. They had known each other for 127 days 2 hrs 19 min and 31 seconds.
Narendran Krishnamachari from a well known family in Ambasamudiram had dreamt of a life in America right from his school days. He also had a passion towards art and Photography. He got into Illinois College of Photography, a dream for anyone’s aspiration of becoming a professional photographer. He preferred Lenswork, PCPhoto, Digital PhotoPro, Cosmopolitan and Vogue to Playboy. College had gone very fast and good for Naren. He got recruited for a well known firm in Chicago. In less than 3 years he started his own Ad agency. Though he had spent most of the time with the best models in America, he had not found his girl yet. Life had been so normal until he met Anna in a chat room…

Boston Nov 13 2000 Mon 00:13 hrs
Naren stepped out of the Huge Steam Shower Cubicle in his bathrobe. Anna’s message brought a smile on his face. He headed towards the refrigerator to find something cool to drink. He had this unusual habit of drinking something cold, before he dozes off. He sank into a bean bag in the wide hall. His huge collection of DVDs included Romance, Drama, Horror, Thriller and Classics. Being choosy was natural when it came to movies and music.

As he was sipping his drink and changing channels, memories about Anna rushed his thoughts. They got introduced on a Saturday night -21:03 hrs

Anna or Annapoorni was from Coimbatore. The only thing common between Naren and Anna was they were from Tamil Nadu. Otherwise, their taste did not match. Be it movies or music or books. He sounded American in everything. She was Desi. For him the best thing to do on a Friday night was to watch a Classic movie or Rugby or Baseball. For her, it was The Tonight show with Jay Leno and she would very much lose herself in the Ghazals of Jagjit Singh. She had felt music fascinating her than movies.

Surfing channels only pained his fingers. None of his movies fascinated him at the moment. He took his laptop wishing her to be online. He knew very well, she can’t stay online for a long time. She was offline as expected. He thought of returning her call back, but felt absurd to call her at midnight. “Let her sleep”, he said to himself.

NYC July 8 2000 Sat 20:58 hrs
“Hey Anna, come check this out”, Rachel called Anna. Anna, not interested to take her eyes off the laptop, asked her “What is it?” Rachel was from Chennai. After few break ups and dating a few good men, the plan of doing MS sounded refreshing.
A guy, whom Rachel has met in chat sometime back, has sent his photo. The guy resembled Orlando Bloom!
Suddenly somebody caught Anna’s attention in a public chat room. Unlike Rachel, Anna rarely ventured the public chats when none of her contacts were online.
Naren: I am Narendran. I would like to be called Naren
Anna: I am Annapoorni. People call me Anna
Naren: What if I call you Poorni
Anna: I don’t have issues. No one yet has called me so
Naren: Where are you put up?
Anna: Gobichettipalayam, near Erode. And where are you put up?
Naren: Ambasamudiram near Tirunelveli. So Poorni, are you working?”
Anna: I look after my kids and husband
Naren: Oh, Married is it?
Anna: I guess, yes. J How about you? Single/ married/ Separated/ Widower?
Naren: Am a widower, with a small kid who just managed combing his hair properly. He is turning 5 next month. I call him Arvind
Anna: I have seen the movie. Try something else.
Naren: Actually No. I am here to find a momma for my son
Anna: Guess you’ve got a wrong person. My kids need me. So tell me, what you do for your living?
Naren: I rob hotels and Banks. Sometimes casinos
Anna: Oh you have casinos opened in Ambasamudiram is it? :-p
Naren: Well Yeah. Haven’t you been to my town before?
Anna: What’s so special about it?
Naren: River Tamiraparani J Well, actually it has never dried till date.
Anna: Oh just like our River Siruvani is it? It was nice talking to you. I got to go. Need to wake up early. Got work tomorrow
Naren: Work? What work? I never remember you saying, you do something apart from cooking and cleaning. What other work can there be? Huh?
Anna: Why should I be telling you everything? Nice talking to you. Bye
Naren: No, no. Wait. I am from Boston. I run a business here- A modeling company. I am a Professional Photographer. Although Am from Ambasamudiram.
Anna: Why do you want to waste time with me? Go to bed soon Naren. Let god be with you. Good night
Naren: wait…
Naren: U there?
No reply. He sat there staring at his laptop…