The Beast
“Hey stop!”shouting so furiously made my throat hurt. A stupid biker had almost brushed my Honda City. I seriously believe it’s time we ban two-wheelers in India. More than the religious extremists, more than the murderers, the rapists, these two-wheeler bikers are a threat to the nation. I can take out stats from the internet and easily prove my allegation but by that time I would be killed by an over-speeding bike, so, let’s not go there.
“How did you overtake from left? Are you insane? Do you even know that it’s against the rules? Or are the rules just a joke to you? Your life surely is, that I can tell”, I bellowed.
He was standing there like a last bencher school boy caught cheating. Too many last benchers roaming around these days. I signaled to the Traffic Policeman to come down.
The biker started pleading, ”Sorry sir! I had to reach office early, there’s a client call in 15 minutes. I was in a hurry. Sorry! Won’t happen again! I really need to go right now." Client call in 15 minutes and he was still on the way. This was as if he was TRYING to get me enraged.
”No. You need to remember this as a lesson. This is for your own good.” I said plainly.
The policeman had arrived.
”He tried to overtake me from left. That’s 500. Also, I am sure he was way beyond the speed limit. So 500 more. Handle him“, I looked at the watch, it was 8:30, I realized I was getting late for work. ”I better get going, unlike him I actually have serious work to attend.” I informed the policeman and drove away.
This world is going to dogs. Infected, ugly, dirty dogs. I don’t even remember when was the last time I had a full ride without swearing at someone on the road. Forget traffic rules, look at people spitting, pissing, doing whatever they want, wherever they want. It’s a myth that Kapil Sharma is the greatest comedian we have. As far as I know, we laugh the most at our Government Rules. Regulations are the biggest jokers here. I was engulfed in thoughts as my phone beeped.
“Sir my mother is not feeling well. I will come late today”. Read the SMS from Swapnil.
He might as well have just added a ‘ROFL’ at the end there and it wouldn’t have mattered. Lying piece of shit.
No way were we going to meet the deadlines if we moved like this. I replied, “I want you in the office by 9:30. We have to finish the architecture design by today EOD”. I finished typing, the lift dinged. I had reached my ODC. Almost like a norm, I was the first to reach.
Enough was enough. The company is not paying you for lying around the bed till 8. Market is down. Competition is nip and tuck. We have targets, we have clients. I started drafting a mail to the whole team keeping the project HR Lisa in CC.
“Dear Team,
Our official company timings are 9 AM to 6 PM. Any inconsistency observed in this can result into serious after-effects. Even compensation deduction. And still, in the last few days it has been observed that nobody is inside the ODC till 9:15 or even 9:20. After my last intimation yesterday I have no option but to escalate this to HR.
Dear Lisa,
Please consider this as an official complaint against Poonam, Bharat, Ronak, Nakul and Pranali. Request you to take the necessary action.”
The mail was sent. Within 15 minutes, all the team members flocked the ODC. Wearing faces like the dead flies. I figured the mail had been read by everyone. The pin-drop silence much unlike everyday’s fish market chit-chats felt really peaceful. I could almost hear the echoes of silent curses, the loud muted swears. I knew my reputation was of an evil in my Project Team. I also knew reputation doesn’t deliver a project, hard-work does.
I am Akhilesh Jain, a Senior Consultant at a reputed firm. And I have reached here by sheer hard work. By slogging days and nights. So, I don’t think it’s unfair on my part if I want others to respond the same way. We are not in a wonderland. We are in the Darwin Land. And only the fittest survive.
As the evening progressed, team members started slipping away one by one. Locking their systems, lifting their bags ever so slowly. As if I am deaf. Sneaking away like thieves. Girls would be the first to go. If you call them and ask to stay, they would say ‘I have to cook dinner’, ‘My family doesn’t allow me to stay so late in office’, ‘It’s not safe around this area after 9’, blah and blah and blah. Then go home and whatsapp their boyfriends till dawn. There is always traffic jam to blame for being late next morning.
At least with guys, you can scare them with bad performance ratings, low appraisals. Girls are unaffected. They don’t care. They know, all this job thing will last for max 2-3 years. After that, there’s that set pattern to follow. Spot a bomb-earning genius NRI, get engaged, fall in love via skype, pay some ridiculous dowry amount, abra-ca-dabra you are on an all expense paid world tour for life. Just one word. Unfair.
“Ronak!” I called out, noticing him walk. Ronak was one of the few disciplined guys I had.
”Yes .. Yes sir!“, he came down running.
”Leaving?"
”No no.. I was going to the washroom.. I have committed the User Management code by the way. I will come early tomorrow and finish the Forget Password screen as well"
”Ok“, understanding his sign language I replied, ”you can leave now, but finish that screen by tomorrow lunch. We have to give the demo asap.”
”Yes yes sure” he said and walked away briskly.
I started packing too. I had to leave for Chennai the next morning to attend a Client Meet.
It was almost midnight when I reached home. The housing society had transformed itself into a horror movie set. Like every night, Crickets and Dogs sang welcome songs for me. I had just moved in the area. Initially, I had bought this 1 BHK for investment purpose, but later ended up living here myself. Gardens, Pools, Tennis Courts, Club Houses - the township had all the amenities I didn’t use but paid for. I was left with no other option. My old PG was increasingly becoming intolerable. All previous friendly flat-mates were either married and/or had gone abroad. And the young fresher blokes were irritating as hell. Of course, I had enough of them in my office to know that. The scent of deos was over-powering the scent of agarbattis. It was time to move.
I checked my phone. There were 4 Missed Calls from Mother. 4 missed calls from anyone else – It’s an emergency. 4 missed calls from my Ma - She wants to say ‘Hi’. I dialed back.
”Ate something?“, ‘Ate something?’ was my Ma’s version of ‘Hello’
”Yes Ma... Why are you not asleep yet?“, I replied.
”I was waiting for your call.”
”Hmm..I was busy in office when you had called"
”Ohh ok! I thought so! But your Dad is such a stubborn man! He asked me to keep calling."
”Why? What happened?" I asked.
”Nothing special.. We were just missing you"
“Hmm ok .. how is everything?” ”Everything’s ok.. Heat is too much these days.. Not good for us old people"
”Hmm.. Buy an AC.. I will pay if you want"
”No no.. Don’t worry about us.. We are fine.. You tell.. How was your day? What was in the lunch today?"
“Same old Ma. Its really late, you should sleep.”“Achha listen, you remember Vijay Nagar waale Munnu chacha?”“Yeah I guess ... whose son has settled in Paris right?”“Yes yes Paris waale! His daughter-in-law is so good-looking na!”“Hmm.. What happened to him? Dead?”“No! God-forbid! Not Dead! Arre, today we just stumbled upon each other at Shri Durgashankar Maharaj’s Satsang. Very good people you know.”“Ok”“Munnu said his daughter-in-law has a younger sister as well. And now their family is looking out for her marriage. They even showed us her pic. She is really beautiful beta.”“Ma how many times I have told you I dont want to get married now!”“But she looks like Sridevi!!”“Bye Ma!”“People have started to talk beta. You are 38 now. If you have some girl-friend or something tell me. I will persuade Papa. But get married now. Please. Swear on me, you will get married this year.”“Haha! No way I am getting married this year!” She started crying profusely. “What do you want Akku? You want us to die like this? Thinking that we couldn’t marry off our only Son. Denied from the happiness of having a daughter-in-law. We are on our death beds, we can’t wait much longer.”“Ma you are hardly 60. I am really sleepy now. Let us continue this drama tomorrow? Ok? Bye.”“Ok. Apply that hair-oil I gave you before sleeping. Baba said, if hairs don’t regrow he will refund the money. Just keep the receipt beta”. I cut the phone.
I entered the flat. It smelled of sweaty socks and parched cigarettes. I headed straight to the bathroom. The late night showers are the best thing in my life right now. The only stress-free moments in my otherwise pot-boiling day. I freshened up and came in front of a mirror. I never liked to look at myself, but that day I did.
And there I was. A perfect example of the most ineligible bachelor in this world. The water dripped down the body. Slowly. If at all, it could wash away the ugliness. They say, “Time kills beauty”. But what Time does to mediocrity is something even worse. To put it mildly, I am hideous now. 5 feet long, pot-bellied... dark.... bald. A perfect imperfection. Any girl in her right senses would not marry an ugly imp. Although, I have money. So you never know. Free world tour and all. Anyway, the marriage thing is certainly not on my mind for the next 3-4 years. I am not the one to mask my physical needs by the name of companionship and get married. Right now, all I want is to grow in my career.
“Twinkle twinkle little star,How I wonder what you are,Up above the world so high,Like a diamond in the sky”
A squeaky sharp voice broke my train of thoughts. It was 1 AM. I adjusted my towel quickly, wondering which kid at this point of time would be awake. I looked out, a small girl wearing a bright green frock and a yellow scarf was sitting on the lawn. Looking at the sky. Evidently counting stars by her fingers. One more reason I didn’t want to get married.
Kids.
She kept counting the stars even when I had finished my third consecutive cigarette. This was plain crazy. Who was she? What was she doing out in the open at this time of night? Where were her parents? I thought of going down. But, I had an early flight to catch. A project to deliver. A career to build. I switched off the lights.
