Chapter 1
It was about 10 minutes past 4 in the evening. All I could hear was school kids screaming while they were playing in the ground. Me, Anantan and Sagar were sitting in our van. Then you might be thinking who the hell am i, well you would have to wait for a few more minutes and then i will show you who am i.
All I could see was this security guy who was sitting in front of the school gate. He would sit there with his mobile and would watch something about which I have no idea. I always wonder why they appoint these old people as security; I mean they are supposed to protect these institutions, but I can't imagine a single scenario where these guys could fight anyone. I mean this guy is in his 60′s or something and he looks way older than my father. Even my father can easily confront this dude; definitely with some minor injuries but yeah he would succeed. But look at this dude; he can’t even rise from his chair without pressing his hand on his thigh. It makes me question whether the job was created first or the employee.
I mean, let’s take a hypothetical situation where 3 bad guys are right in front of a school, waiting for dismissal so that they can kidnap a 10 year old on his way to the school and blackmail his father who is none other than the respected police inspector of the area. Now as you have imagined this hypothetical situation, that’s exactly what's going to happen now.
15 minutes past 4. Still the kids were not there. Schools are not the same as it used to be. Yeah, I've went to school and even have a degree in a thing called as hotel management; yeah pretty useful if your father owns a restaurant, but luckily my father who spent more than 30 years in a hotel working as a cook, doesn't even own a tea stall. I mean if you are living in Chennai you must have heard about his biriyani.
If there is anything God has given me besides poverty and stupidity, it is the chance to have the biriyani he prepares. I mean, the hotel in which he was working in was famous just because of his recipe. Even he told the recipe to his fellow cooks but no one could even come close to the flavour which he created. They even said that there is something of a secret ingredient which he has not told anyone.
Even he agreed there was something missing which he would tell me only when I reach that level. But guess what; I don't care about it right now. Even though he was the head chef of that hotel, he could barely afford anything. All the credit goes to the hotel owner Muttu. He couldn't even afford to send me to the school trip. He already knew that he couldn't make enough for his family and that's why he asked me to go and learn hotel management so that I could be something of a hotel manager and earn enough.
And guess what; me and Muttu's son learned together. I got some form of scholarship based on my school marks. And this Muttu's son who barely passed from school and also from the college is now working in a 4 star resort in coimbatore. And I got the job of a waiter in a hotel; yeah not in the place of my father, but one in Coimbatore.
Father told me to wait and work hard and then you will one day become a manager in a big hotel. And then I asked about Muttu's son and why he didn't have to wait these many years; why was it all easy for him. Then he just told me one thing; "we don't belong to the same world".
That just struck me like an iron axe on my head. Whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever we think, we are who we are born. If you are born lucky then good for you, otherwise kid you are gone..........
"Heh.... heh..... Selvam, look school is dismissed", said Sagar. There were a lot of them. Lot means a lot like bees coming out from the hive. You know there was this huge bee hive near to a tree our house, one day what happened was that..............
Oh sorry; just got carried away by the memory. I mean it's my problem, if I get something in my mind I will just get carried by it. By the way there were a lot of them; looked like they were of 2nd or 3rd standard, this kid would be in 5th standard or something if he had not failed... hmm.
All we had was this one photo of that dude and no way in hell could we pick this dude up. Sagar told that he would go and pick him up and asked us to take the van with us. He moved to a little away from the school as we didn't want to make a scene in front of the school.
He took out the photo and started showing some kids if they know this kid and told him that he was his uncle. No response for a minute. I started doubting whether the kid was absent to school.. Imagine if the inspector knew about the plan and suddenly appeared out from know where and beat the shit out of us.
But by God's grace everything happened fine. Asking for God's grace for the devil's work; what an irony.
He went to another kid and he turned around and pointed his finger to somewhere behind and then there comes the kid for whom we have been here for an hour approximately. Sagar walked towards him and was saying something to him .There was one kid next to him putting his hand over his shoulder.
Then you see Sagar and our kid walking towards the van. I mean that's it; no violence, no threatning, no long talks, just Sagar doing what he is best at, that is convincing someone to do something. Sagar is no less than a mentalist, he could do such things in just a snap of a second.
One day I remember, we were carrying 2 bags full of cash, which our system calls it as black money since they haven't got a share from it. We were just caught at the checkpost. Usually Swami used to arrange everything with the police, but that day some new SI took the charge, and as you might have guessed he was this furious young man who wants to clean the city from people like us.
Me and Anantan were taken to the police station. We told him that swami has made the arrangments and he would give him whatever he wants. And then this guy 6 feet, young and full of muscles waved his hand over my ear. Yes it's the truth; he just waved his hand and that was enough for me to go deaf for 5 minutes.
Murugan sir who was the head constable couldn't even speak a single word. He couldn't even look at this. They were all scared of him. Although I'd got the beating Anantan was the most scared one. He's always been the scared one. Earlier I'd told about that boy who put his hand over the inspector's son's shoulder. For me, that boy was Anantan. We were childhood friends. Anantan stopped his education after 12th and started working with his father in their old workshop.
And I have to say he entered this business because of him and because I promised him that we will have a better future. We couldn't do anything in the station, our mobile phones were taken away from us. And then there comes Sagar. Came into the police station like he owned it. Even tthe police felt his presence.
He talked with Murugan sir, put his hand over sir's shoulder and tapped on his shoulder and went into the SI's room. It took barely 5 minutes then there came Sagar out of the room walked towards us and and told us casually "COME. LET'S GO."
I mean that's it. Bro came into a police station and took us out within 5 minutes. He even told us that Swami arranged it beforehand. But I couldn't believe it. The man has come kind of power to convince someone. That was again proven when he got the kid into the van without any strain. He could convince that he was actually his uncle. Like an uncle who came out suddently from no where.
He entered the van with him in driving seat and the kid sitting in the back seat along with Anantan. I turned around and asked him what his name was.
He said, "Shiva, what's yours?"
"George, my name is George."
It just came to my mind. I heard that name in some English movie. It sounded good to me.
"George. But you don't look like a George. You have that Hindu locket in your neck."
I was shocked. The kid just noticed my locket just like what a police officer would have asked. This kid is super smart.
"Oh.. that's because I believe in all religions."
"Oh.. me too , my papa also believe in all religion. I mean we all are the same species. The purpose of religion should be to unite us, not to separate us.''
What the hell did I just hear. The kid who is just 10 years old is now talking like some philosopher. I mean he is more matured than our teachers. I rememeber what we used to do when I was 10. Me and Anantan would run through the rod with our cycle tyres, rolling it with a stick. That was the only thing we knew. We didn't even know who the prime minister was. Forget the prime minister, we didn't even know which year it was.
"But you didn't tell me your name."
"My name. You and my uncle came together to pick me up from school, and you don't know my name."
"Oh I know, I know. I just wanted you to introduce yourself."
"Oh. Then say it?"
The kid was just dominating all of us. I looked at Sagar's face. He had no clue about his name.
"Oh boy, I know your name. Further what's there in a name. We all are flesh and blood. We all are supposed to die. No matter your name is this, your name is that, it's all the same.''
I just spit out the limited philosophy that I knew.
"That's all fine and cool. But for namesake, can you just spit out my name."
"Arjun. That's your name right?"
A sound came from behind. It was none other than the almighty Anantan.
All I could predict was that Anantan just looked into his id card which he had put in his pocket. Anantan has this special ability to turn his eyeball to the corner and look into something without moving his head. He used to be the cheating expert in our class and he used to do it without bringing a single cheat paper.
He could turn his eyeball to such a level that he could just peek into the paper in his side. One day our teacher got frightened by him in the exam hall, because he rotated his eyes so much that the black thing got entirely disappeared.
