Rishi put his chin on his fist and leaned in on it. No one would know if he closed his eyes, he thought. Indeed they may think that he was listening with even more concentration. Yes, just for a few seconds. His eyes closed. He jolted them open in a few seconds when everyone suddenly clapped.

Rest was out of question. Rishi sighed and slumped down in his chair some more. These weekly meetings by his boring boss Rao was becoming more and more torturous by the day. Rao would chair these endless meetings. This one was going on for more than an hour now. Rao would not allow anyone else to speak and he would carry on taking credit for all the good work put in by his team. The management would get the minutes of these meetings where it looked as if no one else contributed except for Rao. How Rishi hated these meetings!

In the beginning, Rishi had tried to present at least his work of the project. But every time Rao would interrupt and take over. It is not as if Rishi was singled out for this treatment, everybody in the team suffered from it. The only exceptions being Ankur and Cindy. Oh! how Rishi hated them! May be a tad bit less than Rao, just a tad. These two were the two yes men to Rao, nodding at everything he said, laughing at his inane jokes, taking copious notes of whatever nonsense Rao spouted. Rishi once read the notes that Cindy had written. It was Rao’s speech written down verbatim!

Well, thought Rishi, Rao is welcome to the simpering Ankur and Cindy, thank you very much. He could not stomach the thought of being like them just to get ahead in work.

Just a few more days of this torture, Rishi mused as he swiveled a little on his chair just to keep himself awake. He was being moved to another project very soon upon his request and Rishi was glad of that. Just to be rid of Rao was something to look forward to.

At least listen to what he is saying now, told his brain. So Rishi tuned out his thoughts and looked at Rao. Rao was gesturing to the whiteboard where he had written something. Cindy was standing on one side with her clipboard and Ankur was nodding away at the other.

As Rishi looked on, slowly, unbelievably, Rao sprouted a tail and slowly turned into Sugreeva, the monkey king. Rao was now had a hairy chest and had a crown on his head. How did Rishi know that Rao was now Sugreeva? Well, duh! he had a name tag! How convenient! The graphs he had been showing just a moment ago were now maps of Kishkinda and its surrounding hilly regions. Cindy was now looking like a tiny vanara with a fan instead of her clipboard.

Rishi rubbed his eyes, thinking that he had gone to sleep and was now in a bizarre dream of some sort. But no, the scene remained the same. He looked around. The conference room was now a legit cave with lit torches set around to shine light. All other team members were vanaras too. None of them looked even a little bit perturbed about this new change of scene. Only he seemed to be discomfited. He looked at himself. Rishi too was wearing a turban on his head like all other team members and he too had a tail and a hairy body. They were all sitting on the floor looking up at the map drawn on the whiteboard which now had changed to a plain wall.

How did this happen?! Rishi was in Ramayana?

Rishi was fully awake now paying complete attention to what was being said. Rao or is that Sugreeva, was detailing a plan to raid Vali’s court. Oh! so that was where they were now in the story of Ramayana! They had not yet met Lord Rama, then. Ok. Now Rishi had context. He was fully invested now.

He listened carefully to the plan of action and then piped in with a suggestion of going on a secret spy mission to find out the lay of the land before launching any attack on the mighty Vali.

Rao/Sugreeva seemed surprised with Rishi’s suggestion for a moment and then said……

……. “Great, alright then! Rishi has agreed to see to the next stage of this project and I am glad he chooses to remain with us for this.”

…. Wait!

What?!!!!

What!!!!!

Rao was no longer Sugreeva and they were back in the conference hall! No one was a monkey anymore and the Ramayana theme was cancelled!

Everyone was smiling up at Rishi now. The meeting broke up. Some clapped Rishi on his back and some said that they were glad he was back.

Back?!

Back from where?

From the Ramayana pages or back to the old project?!

What had he agreed to?

Oh! Good lord!

Jump Discontinuity

We know that all algebraic equations can be plotted on a graph paper. These can be a straight lines or a curved lines like a parabola etc. There are some equations which are broken up in graph, meaning, the function jumps or steps from one point on the graph to another point, thus splitting the graph into 2 parts. This is called Jump Discontinuity.

This graph is one such example,

Today’s genre: Magical Realism

In this genre, the story moves seamlessly from real and matter of fact narrative to mythical or fantastical elements and then back again. It blurs the lines between reality and fantasy seamlessly. The highly detailed realistic setting blends into something too strange to be true but the reader is so drawn into this world that all the strangeness makes good sense. Here all magical, impossible and marvelous things happen in a world that looks and feels so real.

This genre can take the reader on quite an adventure.

Disclaimer: All plots, people, places and situations are a product of my imagination. No identification with actual people, places etc. are to be inferred. Any resemblances if any are mere coincidences. Thank you!

In this year’s A2Z, I am attempting to write fiction whose titles are based on mathematical concepts. I have randomly assigned a genre of writing to each letter. This way I will be able try my hand at all types of genres.

Read my A2Z till now here.

This is a part of the #BlogchatterA2Z 2023 challenge. Check out all other awesome entries from other awesome bloggers here.