There was a contest in TCS to write a fictional story for 500 words max

which would start with the line ” On a dark and foggy night, a small figure

lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Chennai station ”

This is what a guy wrote for the contest……. and surprisingly, it was

adjudged the best short story :

On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway

tracks leading to the Chennai station. At once I was held back to see

someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With

curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to

investigate it. There was blood all over the body which was lying face

down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused

the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age.

Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was

fluttering in the midnight wind. Carefully I took the blood stained

envelope and was surprised to see the phrase “appraisal letter” on it.

With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the

envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag

around the body’s neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that

he might be a software engineer. I opened the envelope to find a shining

paper on which the appraisal details where typed in flying colors.

Thunders broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the

appraisal amount of the dead guy!!!!! My God, it was not even, as much as

the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed…. My

heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind

saying “no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death”… As a fellow

worker in the same industry, I thought I should mourn for him for the sake

of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that

he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter

in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have

gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his

salary.

While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see the

employee’s name in the appraisal letter… hey, what a strange

co-incidence, this guy’s name is same as mine, including the initials.

This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside

down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name,

but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name…. it

was me who was dead there!!!!!!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt

someone patting on my shoulders. My heart stopped completely, I could not

breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind……… splash!!! Went

the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to

see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying,

“wake up man? Come to meeting room number two. I have your appraisal

letter ready”.