Gunpoint: Part 1

The gun was pointed at my head. There were perhaps a lot of other things also happening in the room. But the most significant and terrifying thing to me, was the feel of that cold metal against my forehead. 

“Tijori kidhar hai??” the man in the black mask said.

They don’t teach you how to deal with this kind of a situation, in the bank manager trainee program. I guess it’s the sort of thing, you have to learn on the spur of the moment. 

I was never really a good learner.

But I loved my new job. I had just secured the position of assistant manager, in one of the most reputed banks of Mumbai. The job basically involved, getting other people to do their work and signing stuff here and there. But if things went wrong down the line, I guess I would be the one to get the blame.

Ten minutes ago, as I had been walking happily towards my office, I felt something cold pressed against my head. And then I encountered this guy and his five team members in black masks. As they lead me to the ground floor, I saw the five security guards nicely tied up in one corner. 

Great! So the one time, they had something more important to do, than just opening doors, this is what happens.

“Abbe bol chu****!” snapped the guy in the black mask.

Maybe this is not the best time to relapse into a flashback story. Oh by the way, my name is Sanjay Paranjape.

Still unsure about what to do, I stared at the dark brown eyes peeking out of the slits in the black mask. They were not particularly beautiful. I mean if the eyes were this ugly, I could only imagine how horrible the rest of the face was. Maybe when you are this hideous, robbery is the only profession open to you.

Thwack!!

The black masked guy laid a punch in my gut. My stomach hurt slightly, but I pretended it hurt a lot, so that I could get a few more moments to think things through. 

There were five trigger alarms in the bank. One at the entry security check post, one at the cash counter, one near the bank safe and one each in the general manager and chairman’s office(Both currently chilling in the Delhi branch. Perhaps not chilling exactly. But at least they weren’t in this mess.)

My best bet was to lead the robbers to the bank safe and raise the trigger without alerting them. They might get to rob the safe. But hopefully the police should be here before they can escape.

Wow, not bad thinking huh?

“Uhh...Let me show you where the safe is.” I said

With the gun now pointed at my back, I lead them to the safe, underneath the ground floor.

Next to the huge steel slab forming the safe entry, was a small electronic keypad. When I entered a particular sequence, the safe door would open. However when I entered another sequence, the safe door would open and an emergency message would be sent to the local police unit. 

I paused in front of the electronic keypad, not wanting to seem too eager. And when I was tapped again on my back with the tip of the gun barrel, I took it as my cue to enter the code.

The safe door opened. The leader, five other men and yours truly entered the safe. The leader stood with the gun held to my head as the rest of his team got to work. It seems that they had already collected the keys from the cash counter, for the lockers within the safe.

I suddenly remembered that Jyotsna sits at the cash counter. I hoped she was okay. Yes, I like her. Though I don’t know what she exactly feels about me. 

So for the next fifteen minutes, I watched as the five men emptied all the lockers, I was supposed to be safeguarding as a manager. But if the police got here in time, hopefully there wouldn’t be any problem.

The leader looked at his watch and said “Oye bohot time ho gaya. Pack it up boys. Nikalte hai.”

Again with the barrel of a gun at my back, our merry group of robbers led me to the bank lobby. As I turned around and looked at the leader, I could see in those ugly eyes a certain sense of joy and accomplishment. 

He raised the butt of his gun to hit me and said “Chal bye, chu****…”

I guess being well mannered, is not a very important criteria to become a robber.

As the butt of the gun almost struck my head, we all heard the distant sound of a siren. Whew, the police were here! As in, almost here I guess. 

The leader stared at me angrily “Police ko kaise pata chala?? Tune kya kiya be?”

He struck an angry blow to my jaw.

“Shana samajhta hai khudko? Hamari marega sale bh******? Chal ab aur thoda shana ban aur police ko bhaga..Nahi toh..”

The leader fired a bullet and my left shoulder seared with pain, as a bullet passed through the fleshy area, missing the bone.

As I hit the ground almost senseless with pain, the leader crouched by me and said “Agar hum logo ko nahi bachayega..toh tu bhi nahi bachega..”

Damn. This guy watches too many Hindi films.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Take It Easy

Ashish opened his eyes. Then he shut them. Then again he opened them.

Another morning in his life had begun. 

He looked at his watch and realized that it was already 11.30am. He had again missed the first two lectures. He sluggishly got up, changed his shirt.

The college campus was a ten minute walk from the hostel. It took Ashish twenty minutes to get there. And in another five minutes he reached the first floor. As he turned down the corridor to reach his class, someone tapped him on the back.

And that’s when Ashish lost all of his sluggishness. Because standing behind him, was his father Ganesh Patil. 

Ashish’s father was one of the most successful sugarcane farmers in India, while also being an amazingly energetic, positive and happy person.

“Kay re? Surprised?” Ganesh said gleefully, as he smiled at his son.

“Baba tumhi? What are you doing here?” replied Ashish.

Ganesh wrapped his arm around his sons shoulder and said “Sangto! But first let’s go get something to eat. Looking at you I don’t think you have eaten either.”

“But Baba I have a lecture…”

“What you can bunk the first two lectures? But you can’t go late to spend some time with your father?”

Ashish blushed. “No its…uhh…okay I guess.”

“Good! Please lead me to your canteen.”

They reached the canteen and placed their order. As they sat by the table near the back of the canteen, Ashish wondered what this could be about. His father did come to Mumbai once a while but he never came like this unannounced. Ganesh Patil was a very cheerful and jolly person, but he was also always very well organized.

Ganesh looked kindly at his son’s face and he realized that Ashish looked like a younger image of himself. But he felt that Ashish had more of his mother’s kind nature in his heart. This made Ganesh all the more happy.

Quietly Ganesh said “Ashish beta I have been getting a lot of calls from the college management. They say that you have been missing a lot of the lectures and that your marks have only been getting worse in the last few months. Is there some problem?”

Ashish couldn’t get himself to look at his father.  

“No Baba there is no problem..It’s just that…I don’t know…but I just feel that I would like to take it easy for a while…”

Ganesh smiled. Maybe Ashish was more like him after all.

“Well Ashish, so far no one has been able to beat my record at ‘taking it easy’ in the Patil family. I failed in the fifth, sixth and seventh standard. Then I failed in tenth. Your grandfather paid a lot to help me clear my board exams and get admitted in a junior college. And after that, there were worse things to come.”

“Oh.” Said Ashish.

Ganesh continued “Then I got into a bad relationship. I learnt my lesson. And then, again I got into another bad relationship. This happened a lot over the next few months. A lot of alcohol, smoking and ahem other things also happened. I don’t know how, but somehow I cleared my junior college. I was too messed up to study further. So I came back to the village and decided to help with the farming.”

Curiously Ashish asked “So how did you become this different person Baba?”

Ganesh chuckled. “For a long time I didn’t. I married your mother and I was the same care free idiotic person as ever. But then your sister was born. The day I held her in my arms, and looked into her eyes, I realized that I had to get my act together. I wanted to do everything I could to make sure that she always got what she needed.”

“And it was only at this point, that for the first time in my life I felt a sense of purpose. Then when I started working seriously on developing the farm, I realized that I actually enjoyed hard work. Since then I guess I never looked back.”

Ashish asked uncertainly “So what would you advice me?”

Ganesh looked at him kindly and said “Today I haven’t come here to advice you. There are just a few more things that I want you to know. Firstly I’m relieved that you are not as messed up as I was, and are a better son than I ever was to your grandfather. Secondly I want you to always remember, that no matter what happens, I’ll be there for you. I don’t care how many times you fail. Together we’ll find a way. Always.”

Ashish felt touched. “Ha Baba…” he said.

Then Ganesh said mischievously “And also very importantly, I’m leaving now to meet a few of my friends. It could involve some drinking. Your mother should not know of this.”

Ashish smiled. “She won’t.”

Ganesh tousled his son’s hair affectionately and left the canteen. Ashish walked back to the class.

The next morning Ashish woke up at 8am. He didn’t miss any lecture that day. He couldn’t explain why, but he no longer felt like taking it easy all the time any longer.

Accidents Happen

Aruna smiled as she looked at her mobile screen. So many comments on her new facebook profile picture. Though she wondered why this time there weren’t that many likes.

Not that it matters really.

She looked out of the bus window, as it drove down the Mumbai-Pune expressway. She needed to reach Pune in the next two hours for the meeting. And everything was going just as per schedule. 

Until now.

Because now a silver Honda had just overtaken the bus. The man driving the Honda was a good man with a few bad habits. One among them, was driving while being quite thoroughly intoxicated.

And so when the Honda swerved uncontrollably to its left and then to its right and then flipped over in the middle of the road, the bus driver Keshav was understandably pissed. With an experience of five years of driving this route, Keshav hit the brakes real hard and the bus halted with a soft thud against the Honda.

Behind the bus another fifteen cars, three trucks and six buses came to a halt. 

In the bus, Aruna was feeling nervous. As a HR manager in Qualdo, a pharmaceutical company, you don’t get into bus accidents every day. 

Slowly the minutes turned to an hour. And Aruna’s initial shock over having survived an accident, gradually turned to impatience.

I need to reach this meeting. Six months of hard work and now this!

The bus driver announced that the bus had suffered some damage while braking and a replacement vehicle would be arranged in sometime. 

Another forty minutes dragged by and Keshav again assured the passengers that another bus would definitely be coming in ‘some time’. Aruna’s boss was not happy with ‘some time’.  There were very few things that he was ever happy about. Aruna assured him that she would definitely reach the meeting.

Aruna got out of the bus and started to look around for a taxi. There were none. And after waiting for fifteen minutes, there were still none. From the bus driver she learnt that there was a taxi stand some one kilometer ahead.

With an extreme urgency of purpose, Aruna started to walk down the road. 

During all this time she had managed to communicate her plight on facebook, twitter, whatsapp and a few other social media portals. Though she didn’t get any help, she was getting a whole lot of sympathy.

And it was at this moment, as she had covered about half a kilometer that it started raining. Slowly at first, but then suddenly pouring very heavily.

Aruna was completely drenched. And worried that the water would get into the purse, containing her mobile.

Finally she reached the taxi stand.

Looking at her, a kind soul would have seen a poor girl in dire need. But the taxi drivers saw an opportunity to earn an extra buck. 

 

Aruna stared incredibly at the taxi driver.

“Six thousand? But Uncle, Pune is only about an hour away!!”

The taxi driver felt something in his heart. Guilt, shame and the voice of his conscience. Then he realized that Aruna had just called him an uncle.

He raised the rate to seven thousand.

As Aruna argued with the driver, a black Volvo bus passed by. And Aruna realized, that she would have been in that bus, if she had not decided to walk to the  taxi stand.

Suddenly Aruna realized that water was seeping out of her purse. Apparently it was not as water proof as the salesman made her believe.With tears in her eyes, she saw that her five month old phone was completely soaked in water.

She was going to miss the meeting she had worked on for six months. The one opportunity she had to prove herself to the board of directors. And now she had also lost her phone.

Aruna stood crying in the rain, wondering why the hell was God being so cruel to her.

A tow truck passed her dragging the silver Honda behind. She looked angrily at it.In the back seat of the Honda was the man who had been driving it. With growing astonishment Aruna recognized Avinash Upadhyay, the son of the CEO of Qualdo Pharmaceuticals.

Aruna ran after the tow truck, screaming, “MR.UPADHYAY!! I’M AN EMPLOYEE OF QUALDO! PLEASE STOP!!!”

The tow truck stopped. A very hung over looking Avinash stared with a dazed expression. Was he imagining this? Aruna assured him that he wasn’t.

Over the next hour that it took to get to the Qualdo office in Pune, Aruna assured him about keeping this matter private. Avinash was quite grateful. As was his father.

Aruna didn’t make it to the meeting but she managed to secure an appointment with the CEO for the next day. Aruna’s boss couldn’t understand what was happening. But he did understand that somehow he was not in trouble with the management. So he was happy.

Aruna stood in the office lobby with a hot cup of coffee, trying to make sense of everything that had happened. Suddenly she realized that she had not checked her phone for any messages. 

In her slightly wet purse she found her now non operational phone.

That night the Qualdo office cleaner Gopal, considered himself lucky to have found a smart phone in the dust bin. Gopal thought that he could probably get some cash for it. Even though the phone didn’t seem to be working.

Also that very night, Aruna got into a train heading back to Mumbai.

I am done with buses!! Well...at least for a while I guess…

Lying comfortably in the AC train compartment, Aruna didn’t think of how many likes her facebook profile picture would have got by now. She didn’t think of how many messages had been sent to her on whatsapp. Or what would now be trending on twitter.

She just slept. Peacefully.

New Dawn

So many things unsaid, at the back of my mind,

Some people that went away, and some that were left behind,

Come back once a while, bringing some pain,

Because it sometimes hurts, when you walk down memory lane,

But you grow, you learn, you change, and find a reason to go on,

With a smile on your face and a hope, that there will be a new dawn. 

Angel of Death

Sarvesh could walk no further in the desert. His feet gave in and he slumped on the ground.

Before him appeared an old man with red eyes, covered in dark robes. An angel of death. In a very business like tone he spoke ‘ Name: Sarvesh Jadhav. Age: Twenty four years, five months, two weeks, three days and twenty nine seconds. Cause of death: Dehydration. Time of..’

‘Wait! Please wait!’ Sarvesh uttered. ‘I don’t want to die yet. I CANNOT die so soon.’

Very calmly the death angel said ‘Yes. You can.’

Desperately Sarvesh said ‘But look I have done so many good things in my life! Why can’t you consider that and give me a second chance?’

As the angel looked into Sarvesh’s  dark brown eyes, he could see that this boy had not done anyone any good deed in his life. Everything was done with a selfish motive. This boy needs to be taught a lesson.

 ‘Very well Sarvesh. I give you three days to live. If you survive at the end of the third day, you shall live for another fifty years.’

As the angel said that, Sarvesh felt his surroundings blur and his eyes get heavy.

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Sarvesh snapped awake and looked around to realize that he was in his bed. Was it all a dream?

As he looked out of the window he saw the clouds move to form four words, Three days to go.

Shit, shit, shit. Not a dream.

Sarvesh had thought that the photo shoot in the Sahara desert would really help his career. It would have, if he hadn’t been stupid enough, to go around scouting on his own for a location. Now he wondered, how will he explain to his boss that he had suddenly returned to Mumbai. Freshening up quickly, he left for office. 

The boss was not very pleased. With a lot of pleading Sarvesh managed to secure his next assignment.

 If there was one thing that Sarvesh was good at, it was how to manipulate people , to get things to work his way.

Great, he would be covering a photo shoot of Madhuri Dixit. She’s getting old, but people seem to like her. He thought.

Sarvesh sat down at his desk to have some break fast. As he began eating the large paper masala dosa, his mind turned back to his near death escape. Why did that guy be so kind to me?

He happened to glance at his dosa, and to his horror saw that out of the masala, there was a hoard of small tarantula’s creeping out. He quickly threw the dosa out of the window.

What the f*ck?

Sarvesh wanted to go home and lock himself in his bedroom. But how would he explain this to his boss? Damn, I have to go to the photo shoot.

Nervously looking around, scared out of his wits he walked down the pavement leading to the studio.

He reached the studio and with a shivering hand he started to set up his equipment. Suddenly he felt an instinct tell him that he should not stand where he is standing.  And as he quickly leaped away, a replica of a yellow IAF Mig-29 crashed on the exact spot where he had stood.

A crane operator came running towards him. ‘Arre Sirji, aap thik ho? Sorry woh crane shayad thoda kharab ho gaya.’

Sarvesh ran away. He ran like is life depended on it. Then realizing that running perhaps won’t help, he stopped. Looked around and locked himself in a toilet cubicle.

There must be a way to beat that b*stard. There must be..There must be..

He started crying and suddenly started laughing hysterically.

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The angel of death sat somewhere in the Himalayas away from humanity and its stink, when he heard someone call to him. 

Listen, I give up. I give up. Just come and kill me..I..I can’t take this..kill me..KILL ME.

He smiled. The boy has learned.

As Sarvesh was washing his face in the basin of the public toilet, the angel appeared. 

The angel solemnly said ‘So I understand that we are ready to go.’

A worn out looking Sarvesh turned around. He gazed at the angel and said ‘I guess, when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.’

‘Indeed.’ agreed the angel.

‘Except,’ said Sarvesh now smiling coolly, ‘Its not me who is going.’

For the first time the angel felt confused. And as he looked on, he saw Sarvesh’s eyes change from dark brown to red. The color of the eyes of a death angel. 

Sarvesh now adorned in dark robes, looked on at the angel. He said ‘Satan requires a young, energetic motivated employee. And apparently according to him, I fit the bill better than you.’

‘It is time for you, my old friend  to die.’

The old man now stood with no shred of cloth on his body and stripped of his eyesight. 

‘But wait! NO! YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME!! I’m a loyal servant!!! I HAVE served well!! YOU CANNOT DO THIS!’

The old man ranted and raved. Then suddenly, he stopped ranting and raving. Forever.

As Sarvesh carried the old man’s soul to hell, he thought to himself, Now this is what I call job satisfaction.