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Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
hi! This BLOG is a collection of short stories authored by me. I'm new to writing and take it as a means to explore the ungiven. I hope you enjoy the stories and look forward to your comments, queries and/or criticisms. Enjoy! :)

Friday, September 23, 2011

Experiment Of Change

Vinit reached the Sector17 market to buy a gift for Rahul. He had ordered a Swiss wool jacket imported from abroad. He entered WLS lifestyle and asked the shopkeeper for his order. It was ready. The shopkeeper opened the cover and from there one could see the gleaming black jacket with the high-collar and clean streaks shine under the incandescent bulbs. It was a rare piece. Definitely worth a quarter of a lakh, one would reckon.

Vinit was the head of Strategic Initiatives of a Marketing firm. He was earning quite a sum. He was a carefree dude. It was not his temperament to respond to people's criticisms. His friends tried to drill into his head that there could be a better Vinit but he wouldn't budge. He always twisted the conversation to their mistakes and they were humble enough to accept their blame and so the point of any conversation that involved any kind of thoughts against him was lost. He thought he was the best and no one better than him. He thought he was king.

Rahul and Vinit were friends for quite a long time. Both of them studied together since primary in Chandigarh and even now, since both of them were settled in Chandigarh, they met atleast once a week over a beer and talked a lot of things. Some people thought Vinit was closer to Rahul than his wife!

Vinit had forgotten his wallet in the car and so he stepped out to the parking to get his wallet. He unlocked it. As he picked up the wallet, his phone rang.

It was Arjun- Rahul’s brother. The party was going to be started, they were waiting for Vinit.

“Yes man. Wait for 15 minutes, I’ll be there.”, Vinit said in his snobbish tone.

He walked back to the store, swiped his card, picked up the jacket and came back to his car. He switched on the ignition and drove off.

The parking guy stopped him for the parking ticket. Vinit couldn’t locate it. He checked all the chambers of his car but couldn’t locate it. He had probably misplaced it. The parking guy asked him to park the car along the sidewalk and pay the fine.

Vinit realized enough time had already been wasted and this was really uncalled for. His temper was rising. He was a person who could shout at anyone for no fault of theirs if he was angry.

Vinit got out of the car and settled the amount. His brows were contracted. His frustration had reached the brink. It hadn’t overflown…yet.

To top it all off- a transgender walked towards Vinit.

“Aye chikne! De naa. Tere bachche ke liye. Aisa aashirwaad dungi ki aishwarya rai paida hogi!!”, he finished his gimmick with the usual clapping of palms that is characteristic of them.

No one was around. It was very silent. Only one street light was on and one couldn’t see very clearly in that. It was god’s enigmatic way of making things less awkward, more.

Vinit, since birth felt a little weird in their presence, “kuch nahin hai”, he signaled the guy with his hand impetuously.

Some eeriness had crept into the air. Abrogation was evident. He was on the verge of flipping out and the transgender was unaware of the consequences.

The transgender gave another attempt, “Apni biwi ka toh khayal; kar. Uske liye dede. Agar nahin dega toh tera khada hi nahin hoga.”

Vinit was inexorable by this attempt as well. Though he was very angry, he held himself.

“bola na nahin. Ab jaa apna kaam kar.”, he said acting as calm as possible.

Somewhere he started feeling some sort of a danger from this guy. Diffidence sneaked in somewhere as he opened the door of his car to step in.

But the transgender wouldn’t leave. He came closer to Vinint, less than a foot away.

“De naa…. agar…” before he could complete it, Vinit lost all his clemency and slapped the transgender across the face. It was hard, not only physically, even metaphorically.

The transgender had worn a wig, which came out of his head and fell to one side. He was a man with short hair, now.

The guy stood there bewildered and astounded with delirium. He didn’t know what to do. Vinit, also for one of the few moments of his life thought it was wrong on his part to slap. He realized he was wrong, something that he seldom missed out. He didn’t mean to showcase his loathing against such people but couldn’t help himself. And now, the reality was evident.

The guy looked up with teary eyes, in what Vinit thought was shame. It was actually helplessness.

“App kya jaano, humse bhi ye koi karvata hai, sahib….” And that struck Vinit, He got goosebumps. A vivid picture of how these people were pulled into such acts; of how downtrodden they were; of why they did what they did, revolved in front of Vinit. He felt like being dragged in a maze with no way out.

“Ab bhi meharbaani karke dedo. Kuch bhi hai toh dedo”

The desperation showed and how, Vinit thought. Even though his reality was disclosed- he was asking for money. He was genuinely forced to do this. And for what? Money! That is why this guy sold off everything he had? Is it really that important? Or is it the love of his family held hostage somewhere, in some part of the world that is driving him to do this for money? Either ways, it boils down to a couple of notes, doesn’t it?

Vinit checked his wallet only to find no cash. All was gone to the parking guy.

He opened the back gate of his car, took out the jacket and threw it at the transgender, whose name he still didn’t know. He didn’t think twice before doing it. He didn’t know how much that would help the guy but he did it because he felt that this guy will value it more than Rahul and he felt so instinctively. Not much thought went in.

He then opened the driver’s gate, sat in and kept staring at the face of the man standing under the streetlight in his back-mirror until the phone rang.
“Where dammit? You ass- we are all waiting for you” , said Arjun, also angry but for different reasons.

“Yea. Coming. Just collecting change from the shopkeeper”, said Vinit impulsively.

“Fuck it dude! Is money that important? We are all waiting for you. Now come fast!”, said Arjun and hung up.

Ironically, it was an important question that Arjun had put forth and both Vinit and Arjun knew the correct answers to that question.

The difference was that both answers were contrary! And the one that each knew, was the correct one…