INDI A

SINGAPORE

M A L AY S I A

Notion Press Media Pvt Ltd No. 50, Chettiyar Agaram Main Road, Vanagaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu – 600 095 First Published by Notion Press 2021 Copyright © Urja Aklecha 2021 All Rights Reserved. ISBN 978-1-68509-640-3 This book has been published with all efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. However, the author and the publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. While every effort has been made to avoid any mistake or omission, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that neither the author nor the publishers or printers would be liable in any manner to any person by reason of any mistake or omission in this publication or for any action taken or omitted to be taken or advice rendered or accepted on the basis of this work. For any defect in printing or binding the publishers will be liable only to replace the defective copy by another copy of this work then available.

A Tribute To

My Grandpa Late Govind Prasad Aklecha

Dedicated To

My Dad Jayjeet who nurtured me with intoning innumerable stories and has made me write my own. & My Mom Jyoti who always supported my decisions and encouraged me to write this book.

Special Thanks To

My friend Yashika Sinha & Brother Ojas who always appreciated and encouraged me for writing. & Prakhar Saxena who drew a tremendous sketch for the Cover.

Contents

1. Dream������������������������������������������������������������������9 2. The War��������������������������������������������������������������17 3. Here Goes Nothing���������������������������������������������29 4. The End�������������������������������������������������������������39 5. The Beginning����������������������������������������������������48 6. ASG��������������������������������������������������������������������59 7. Separation�����������������������������������������������������������74 8. Worst Surprise����������������������������������������������������83 9. Two Choices�������������������������������������������������������99 10. Hoodlum Dorms����������������������������������������������111 11. Darcia���������������������������������������������������������������119 12. A New News�����������������������������������������������������125 13. The Game���������������������������������������������������������138 14. Celebration�������������������������������������������������������152 15. The Forgotten Twin������������������������������������������159 16. A Trip To Earth�������������������������������������������������170 17. Meeting My Grandmother��������������������������������180 18. I Fought With My Grandma�����������������������������190 19. Waking Up�������������������������������������������������������199 7

Chapter 1

Dream

What! I’m in my dreams again? Wait a minute. What! This time I’m not dying again. It would be the 11th time if I lay dead on the same strange street. Oh! I can see a huge bull, black as coal is rushing towards me. It’s coming closer. Wait…! Why am I not running away? Why does my body feel so stiff and numb? …And boom! The Bull has stabbed me with his hard horn. Blood is flowing heavily. But I’m not feeling pain. The bull is jerking me away so that he could free his horns and attack again. And there he goes. He has pulled away finally. And now he is going to attack me again. Well, again he stabbed me with horns. The only difference is that I feel pain this time. My wound is looking like a hole in my body. The pain has started increasing. It is increasing and increasing more and more. I’m losing my breath. My heart beats are slowing down. And “damm”…! I’m dead again. I saw myself lying there, blood spilled on the ground and the bull pulled away his horns and rushed away... 9

Thousand Feet Above

“Avni! Avni!” The voice grew louder. “Avni! wake the sleepy head up.” That’s when the voice changed from that of a rough male voice into a soft humble female voice, which was rather turned into a whisper. “Avni! Wake up! If you don’t want detentions”. I jumped up right on my bench and that’s when I realized that I was sitting in 9th C, my classroom. Whole class of 35 roared into laughter. “Miss Avni Sharma, sorry to disturb you from your hibernation on the first day of your 9th class, but if you don’t mind, please read page number 15 of your Physics text book,” said a small chubby man with a long nose. He is my Physics teacher. His name is Karan Singh. He is renowned as the most detention giving, mean and the rudest teacher of my school. Students even nicknamed him as ‘Pumpkin Head Bastard’, PHB in short. “Growing conflict between the Provisional Governments...”, I began and the whole class started laughing again. “Miss Sharma, you’re lucky that it is your first day of the school. If it wasn’t the first day I would have given you anti sleeping pills before you went on hibernation”, he warned. I looked down at my book. It was my history book I took out in the last period. Mr. Singh let me go this time as it was the first day of the school. 10

Urja Aklecha

“You must not cause any trouble this year”, said Vani after the class. “That PHB guy deserves it”, argued my other friend Rahul. “Guys, please stop it. It’s my fault that I slept in his class,” I said as we walked to our gym class. Vani is a short heighted girl with curly hair. Sorry to say but her head looks like brown broccoli. Whereas Rahul is pretty tall. He is 5.10” and Vani is 5.3”. I am somewhat between them, probably 5.6”. Anyway, on the way to gym class, I told them about the new dream. “Alright!” Vani began. She listed out how I died 10 other times on the same street. 1) A bunch of snakes’ bites. 2) Plane crashed into me. 3) Slipped and broke my head. 4) Elephant crushed me. 5) Sports car drivers ran over me. 6) Lightning struck me. 7) Huge water wave took me away. 8) Died of hunger. 9) Someone stabbed me from behind. 10) I ate a poisonous apple. 11

Thousand Feet Above

“Don’t you think these are very weird ways for you to die?”, said Rahul. “Anything can happen in this bizarre world of dreams”, I said. “Anyways, I’m going to play volleyball. Avni, are you coming?”, asked Vani. “No! I’m going for soccer”, I said. “Okay girls! You both go ahead. I’ll sit and read a Chemistry book. We have UT tests in the coming five months.” “You are such a nerd Rahul”, said Vani. “So, what! I’m a very wise person”, he replied. “Wise my ass!” “Guys I’ll get going”, I said as I headed towards the soccer field. “Come on Avni, move fast!”, said one of my soccer mates. “You are in the team red”, shouted the team captain. As the game began, our team played defensively because our opponent had a bunch of powerful strikers. The game was going on and now it was our turn to attack that damn team blue, so the strikers went forward. I was still at defense when my mind got diverted towards my dream. 12

Urja Aklecha

“Hmmm, why on the earth, I have such dreams?”, I was thinking with both hands on my knees. “Avni! Avni! Look up you sleepy head”, shouted the defender, but it was too late. Soccer ball already smacked my face. I lost my senses. And when I opened my eyes, I was in the school infirmary lying on the bed. “Ma’am! ma’am! She has sensed!”, I heard a familiar voice. It was the voice of Rahul and Vani who were standing nearby. “Oh! This girl should take care of herself while playing a life risking sport like soccer”, said Rahul. “Shut up! She is not like you. Coward!”, said Vani. “Hugh! What happened to me?”, I asked. “Well, look at you”, said Vani, holding the mirror. “Whatttttt the heck!”, I shouted in such an outrageous way that the guy in coma on the 12th floor of the hospital nearby would have woken up. “Why is there a huge purplish-blue bruise on my forehead?”, I asked. “Don’t you remember that you got smacked by that soccer ball?”, said Rahul. “What were you thinking at that time?”, inquired Vani. “Nothing! By the way, who smacked my face?”, I asked. 13

Thousand Feet Above

“Pratik”, said Raghav from behind. “And he meant to do this. I saw him doing signs to his friends while you were absent minded”, said Ahamad beside Raghav. Pratik has been my enemy since 6th grade. “Ohh... I will kill that bastard”, I said as I got out of bed. I just went down to confront him. I wanted to ask him what his problem was? But I was stopped by my friends. “Dear, let him go today”, said Vani. As I went into my classroom, a huge crowd gathered near my desk. As I rushed forward, what I saw on my table was worse. There was a huge pile of sticky notes on my table. I picked one of the sticky notes and it read“May you rot in heaven. Oh!! There is no space in heaven for you. Sorry, may you rot in hell you bubble brain.” Such messages were written on sticky notes. When I tried to open my desk drawer it was jammed. I tried hard and it finally opened. The drawer was stucked with chewed up chewing gum. I knew the person who always plays such dumb pranks on me. “PRATIK”. I got up, took a quick walk to visit our neighbor’s classroom with my face as red as a tomato. As I entered I found Pratik. He is a tall boy with pretty handsome looks but opposite personality. Consider him a 14

Urja Aklecha

rich bratty princess. He was as usual surrounded by girls and a couple of his friends. “Nice bruise Sharma!”, he said coming out of the group. “You utterly disgusting bogeyman!”, I shouted.

guttersnipe,

louche

“Damn it Sharma! I guess you got your surprise. By the way, did you read a dictionary before saying these words?”, he asked smugly. I scoffed. There is no way I’m dealing with this shit again. “I don’t think you want a tight slap on your so-called beautiful face, so that the next moment you’ll be licking the floor on the first day of your school? Do you?”, I replied with a heavy tone of bitterness. “Huh? Didn’t your parents teach you how to talk with people?”, he said, smirking. Oh! How I wish I could rip this smirk off his face. “Don’t you dare to say a single word about my parents Mr. Chopra”, I threatened. “Oh! What will you do? Go and complain to your teacher…?” I punched him so hard on his gut that he landed on the floor. “What happened dude. Did that hurt you?”, I threw my words like acid of sarcasm. 15

Thousand FeeT above I heard some whimpering sounds and opened my eyes in a f lash. I got up feeling very light. and what I saw was really weird. There was a crowd around. I saw my parents in it. They were weeping. But why? My mom suddenly bent down. It was me lying there on the ground. Blood was scattered around me. My cycle was also there in abject condition. “My poor baby!” I heard my mom murmuring sorry. My father was also crying beside her. This is the 12th time I was dying on the same street; the street where I had died 11 times before. This is the story of a 14-year-old teenage girl, avni, who is not very talented in her studies but has a varied ‘spark.’ The fantasy of Thousand Feet Above will take you on the journey of a very different world. let’s go with avni!

Urja aklecha is a writer of the new era, who understands the appetite of young readers. She reads a lot but writes less. and when she writes, her stories create magic. She wanted to be a footballer but missed all shots to the goal. Then she realized her talent and took the computer’s keyboard. This is her first novel, which does not seem first. Price 229