It's 8 in the night and i am doing what i usually do at 8 on a day when there is college: cursing the college,

cursing my luck, cursing my neighbourhood dog(what for, don't ask me, its just random: i need to curse and

blame someone and too bad the dog gets the rap!!) and cursing...well lets leave it at that, i am also

fanatasising(no no my friends, you won't get to know about what!!) and also am thinking about what sort of

excuse to make for all the things i should have done but have not done till now. Well i could go on and on

about this but lets cut to the chase..ummm lets just say lets move on. So i switched on the tv and and some

idiotic english channel was running and to top that it was running a adaptation of the "christmas carol" by

charles dickens(i don't mind charles dickens, but its jan 17, a bit too late for christmas stroies).

I look closely, the scene when scrooge is told that three ghosts will visit him is currently on, disintrested i

turn back to my thoughts and i look start reflecting on the past few years, its been one presentation( they

call me ajay 'ppt' singh in college!) and exam(just too many, i have lost count) after the other, i have

missed(or just attended for such a short time that at one time, a treasure hunt was organised to spot me at a

wedding) family weddings, parties and perhaps all those moments that i should have spent with my family and

friends, how many times have i shirked away from helping somebody who really needed it, countless times

perhaps....i again turn back to the TV and what the..the scrooge scene is STILL ON!!!argh, i should have

listened to shah rukh khan when he said "thoda aur wish karo" instead of sticking to my silly cablewallah, i

switch the channel and.....lo!!! Star Plus is running the same scene!!! What is happening...I furiously skip

channels and all the channels are running it!! I decide to watch the scene maybe my cablewallah wants me to see

it(i am seriously lunatic to believe this!)

A bespectacled man on the screen says " listen carefully, starting at 9:00pm today and uptil tomorrow morning

you will be visited by three ghosts, heed their call or you will be doomed like me...hahahahaha",he says ending

his line with cruel, mocking laughter, suddenly the normal programming routine starts on all channels...this is

a first, how did this happen, ah well chuck it I think and i turn the TV off. I have nothing to do, my exams

are over and nobody is at home so i decide to doze off on the couch.

at around 9:00

tik tak..dhum..Whats the noise?? i wake up with a start and i see a shabbily clothed figure standing beside the

couch, startled i ask him.

"who are you and how did you get in".

"Lad,I am the ghost of lohri(i hope you know this festival, i am saying this not the ghost!!) past, didin't you

get the message we were arriving" He answered while having a look around the room.

"What ghost of Lohri past??, was the message on the TV for me ?? and if you are that ghost are you not supposed

to a ghost of "christmas" past and what do you mean by "we"?? I retort back.

"Easy lad easy, that message was for you and i am the ghost of christmas past but since you are a north indian

i have orders to act like the ghost of "lohri" past because the actual ghost of lohri past drank a patiala peg

too many, these north indian ghosts argh.., so you see i am doing overtime covering his a**, and just like the

tale there are three of us: Ghosts of christmas er..lohri past, present and future" he says with a bit of anger in his voice.

i look around stunned, dazed i think i am still in sleep...

Suddenly he interupts rudely and says "close your eyes i am leading you to back to your past"

The year 2003:

My mom is dropping me to school, ohhh what surprise, i can see myself as a kid. We(me and my mom, that is) arrive at the school gate and i see myself getting of the car all the while ranting about how i am late because of her(my mom) and then i run into the school...The ghost grabs my hand and leads me to where my mom is standing near the car.....and what my mom has tripped and she is looking towards the school and smiling in her pain, i try to help her up but my arm passes right through her...the ghost shouts from behind "u will be an illusion in all your trips, you can't be seen, touched or heard". shaks! i see my kid form running into school not even once do i look back towards mom...how ungrateful and uncaring suudnely the ghost grabs me and leads me into my class in the school and i see myself at the last desk, a girl approaches me and says hi, i glare at her and do not respond, she syas hi again but i remain silent...i sheepishly ask the ghost "why am i silent, this girl used to be best friend, i even liked her a bit" The ghost retorts back "don't you rmember you had a fight but you refused to forgive her and that ended the feelings she had for you, only if you could have been less stupid, things would have been different"

Year 2006

I see myself stting on the couch watching TV, i check the calender while my 2006 form watches TV, its a day before my board exams and my past form is watching TV!! The ghost says "your parents left and you watched TV all day, only if you had studied and not betrayed their trust, but come i must lead you back to the present"

I land on my couch