Where's the Magic?

Rain drops fall from the sky,

The little tadpole doesn’t wonder why.

Leaves turn yellow every autumn,

It doesn’t bother the fish at the ocean’s bottom.

But birds can sense a storm coming their way,

Bats use high pitched sound to find its prey.

In their natural instincts, the animals put their trust,

They don’t second doubt it, or they would bite the dust.

Man can ponder and worry a lot more,

A lot of times it stops him from opening a door.

Natural instinct is buried under so called logic,

But without it there simply cannot be any magic.

Gunpoint: Part 2

Please read the first part here.

“Agar hum logo ko nahi bachayega..Toh tu bhi nahi bachega..” 

The words of the masked leader, who I thought was probably very ugly looking, echoed through my numb head. If I had known, that getting this job involved being shot at, I would have bargained for a better salary. And a bullet proof vest maybe.

Earlier when the leader punched me, I had to pretend it hurt a lot to get some time to think. This time I really didn’t need to pretend.

Okay, so what were my options now? I guess I could wait for the police to ambush the bank and corner these assholes. But I think on the first sign of a police break-in, Mr. Ugly Eyes would kill me or injure me even more. 

So I have to find a way, to get myself at a distance from the robbers till the police arrive. Or I have to help the robbers escape. Right now I don’t know how to manage either. Time’s running out for me.

Through all the pain and confusion, suddenly something struck me. Maybe it would work.

I looked at the leader and said “On the first floor, behind the chairman’s office..Ek fire exit hai..You can escape from there.”

“Hmm thik hai..Chal exit dikha.” the leader said.

I got up. And fell down again. One of the robbers lifted me by my right shoulder. Touching gesture.

Hoping that this was not the last day of my life, I lead the robbers to the first floor emergency exit. It opened onto a secluded back alley, from where they could easily escape the police. The siren was still pretty distant. And surrounding the entire perimeter of the bank, would take the police some time.

The robber who was supporting my weight, laid me down on the floor in a not so gentle manner. The leader asked his five men to go ahead of him. Then he looked over his shoulder at me. Again his ugly eyes just couldn’t hide their triumph.

Smugly he said “Kabhi baap ke saamne shana nahi banane ka…Samjha?”

With that last retort he shut the fire exit door. And I could feel my mind veering towards unconsciousness.

About ten minutes later, but what felt like much longer, I vaguely saw two police officers accompanied by a worried looking Jyotsna, approaching me.

2 weeks later:

I have never been treated like a hero before. It does feel good though. But what doesn’t feel good, is my left shoulder. The doctor says that I won’t be doing any weight lifting exercises for a few months. I guess for once, I have a real excuse to avoid hitting the gym.

It’s been a two week long stay at the hospital. In a few more days, I’ll be back home. 

Though Jyotsna bringing me lunch every day was great. According to her, we are going to take things slowly. I don’t know what she means by that. But whatever it is we have, it’s good.

Yesterday I saw the bank robber’s faces on the news broadcast. Admittedly, the leader was not as ugly as I thought he would be.

Oh and I also got promoted. It’s the same work. Just a higher designation and better salary. Sigh, it’s all good.

What? Did I miss something out? Oh yes!! My master plan. My brilliant strategy which helped save the day.

Well it’s pretty simple really. I don’t bring my lunch from home. So every day I have my lunch in the back alley of the bank. Reasonable price, good food and female employees from various offices. What else can a bachelor ask for?

So this fire exit was a pretty regularly used short cut for me and a lot of other people in the office. And what we knew, and the robbers didn’t, is about Rocky.

Rocky, is an ex military man who owns a small biryani stall called ‘Army Biryani’. Not a very creative name. But when you are over seven foot tall and have handled some real nasty situations for your country, people tend to let these small things pass.

So what do you think does an ex-military man do, when he sees six men in black masks, with guns in their hands, escaping from the fire exit of a bank?  Well he shows those men, that they chose to mess with the wrong Biryani wala.

Tap tap tap tap...

Are those footsteps I’m hearing?

It must be almost lunch time. I think that might be Jyotsna walking down the corridor. I’m going to pretend to be asleep, so that she gently runs her hand over my face thinking that I’m not aware of it.

Sigh, I live for these small moments.

THE END

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.