Not Updating Since Some time.. Will come back Soon..

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Chapter 5

Chapter 5


            The travel from the airport to home was as long as my flight till here.. Quickly reaching home.. I got ready to leave for the meeting…Many things had changed in the past few months.. the auto prices, the vegetation.. the metro work..it was nice being back home.. the feeling was great..

            The meeting got over.. and I came out of the office.. I decided to have a snack at a burger joint..
I took an auto to get to M.G road.. once I got there..I walked a distance to get to the joint.. I saw a big crowd at a place.. I asked a fellow onlooker whats the rush..He said that the sweet store was going to be built on a very old plant.. only few of them were actually left in this part of the continent…Another onlooker then clarified that it was a old plant.. not a tree.. but a plant..” hmmm!!” that really generates some interest. I decided to stay close by till the time the store owner payed few officals and begin the sweet tasting.


I went into the joint and stood in the queue,after half an hour of waiting I finally got my order .. I decided to seat myself next to a window to have a clear view of the new sweet store.. pivoting my head like I was watching a live tennis match I finally noticed the seat of my liking.. while I walked towards it I could very faintly notice something outside the window- one hawaldar was running towards the head police offical..The police officials decided it was time to leave, the hawaldar was given some instructions.. he simply nodded his head went upto the jeep..reversed the police vehicle and everyone left the scene.

Three jeeps rushed from every side and the drivers hit the brakes hard enough to leave dark tyre streaks on the road.. many middle aged men and women dressed in kurtas and jeans jumped out of the jeep.. All of them gathered near the store and formed a chain few metres in front of the “plant”. They all  looked towards the last jeep, where one person still seated, was busy talking on the phone. This individual was moderately built. From the joint I could only see his back. His glasses dint help me to recognize him, he got up and finally ended the call.He unwrapped his hand on his cloth bag and kept it on his seat.he walked with a slow pace..taking quick stares at the trees nearby and then at the store owner. i decided to have another burger while this story unfolds.The guy walked up slowly, swaying from side to side.The group standing in the chain looked at this guy with pride, he seemed like a big personality.Walking ahead.. he took his right hand and shrugged his kurta..slowly rubbing his left hand. He went upto  the owner.. the owner stood there nervously. The closer the guy went, the owner shivered even more. He went upto the owner.. and out of no where slapped the owner with the back of his left hand, the owner went back and fell on the ground. The group cheered him on. After the slap, the guy shaked his hand to shake off the pain from the impact. He bent down and caught hold of the owners kurta, the left hand was again ready for harder impact, everyone was anticipating some blood. As his fist cut threw the air, a girl screamed from the crowd. I could make this out by the crowd turning around and looking at someone on the middle of the road. She walked and released the owner from the guys clutches. The guy looked at her with disgust. The group standing close to the plant grew restless they broke the chain and moved forward.The girl just pointed at the group and they stood still.

After finishing my 2nd round of burger. I decide to enjoy the story from nearby.Back on the road amidst all the commotion the guy and the girl were still yelling at each other, it seemed strange that no one did anything about it. I stopped. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Could it really be. Oh yes! After so long..- The sweet tasting had begun.. I rushed in the front of the pack to get the best sweets first, the owner asked which one would you like.. like a small kid with a big smile I replied “one of each !!“ , simultaneously a thought ran the owner and I my mind. “I could become a regular customer.”
            As I was taking bites of the juicy malai chum chum I turned around to see how the screaming row was holding up.. The guy in the white kurta, with a deep scar on his left hand, horn rimmed glasses seemed familiar. The girl on the other hand with a colourful kurta, long braided hair and geeky glasses seemed quite prudish but she sure could scream..the tall guy and medium sized girl did look funny.. While my plate was almost empty on the sweets, I sneezed. This sneeze came as a rude shock to the two people arguing.
            The girl looked at me and yelled ,” see look at him.. a normal citizen like he cares about an old tree.. why don’t you allow normal people enjoy their food,you should really find better things to do Mr.Abhishek”  Being dragged into a fight dint really feel nice. So I said “who me, what did I do…” Abhishek with the most straight face he could pull off  “replied , yah a person who doesn’t care about anything but chicken or sweets will care about a plant”  Both silent.. looking at me. The crowd behind them waiting… the owner staring at me.. and with a half open mouth and the jelabi hanging in the air .. I dint know whose side to take, I looked both sides.. the crowd grew restless.. someone from the back yelled, “ oye mr.hungry decide quickly” , the sudden scream from the crowd startled me and I dropped my plate, even before I could show any signs of disappointment, abhishek came close . held both my arms and said “I am proud of you.. you are the citizen who cares about the environment” the girl walked away in disgust. Abhishek came close to hug me and whispered in my ear, “ bewakuf yaha kya kar raha hai, and don’t worry ill get you some sweets” He excused himself for a minute and walked towards the owner.. after few minutes of discussion he came back with a smile.

The crowd had dispersed now. He introduced me to the rest of his kurta wearing counter parts. He decided to drop me home. While sitting on the back seats of a no roof jeep I told him to take me to s.p road instead so that I could pick up some computer parts.
Abhi co-owns a company with his older brother. How I understood it, His company deals with making other companys products compact ergo make it miniature. Pretty amazing next generation work sector, which does not require so much work. So abhi is part of an NGO called “Tree and Chemistry” which deals with saving trees and everything that can harm the environment.. On one of his protests a factory was illegally dumping harmful chemicals into the nearby forest. His then only 4 member NGO, got into a fist fight with the factory workers. The scar on his arm is a grave reminer of that. Since then his NGO has gone about not only cleaning the environment but also disbanding many other NGO’s which fund in enormous amount of money in the name of goodwill
I asked him, “fine but who was she..” Abhi with a smile on his face “ you forget so quickly”
he grinned and replied she is from the ngo called “ Samasth Sristhi” . The name came with a cold chill running down my spine.. after few seconds pause I said, “ its her..  ur nemesis.. oh this is so exciting .. its Prachi.. ! “
           
            On reaching s.p road,I decided to bid him farewell. Instead abhi decided to wait for me to finishing my shopping.I knew how he felt. It feels great to speak with an old friend.Quickly returning and back on the jeep,Abhi continued his side of story.

            Prachi was an old nemesis of my dear friend. Since school, they had been rivals in debates, singing, painting and any cultural events. If he ever beat him in the annual exams, she would cry and argue with the lectures for the much needed marks. It was a funny situation seeing that the old rivallry had still not died. I knew there was much more than hate in their story, I told him,”yaar why do you always fight. Hate and anger is just a way to hide real feelings.. go up to her.. patch things, it will be great if she turns out to be an ally” I smiled wickedly.. Abhi clearly knew what I was hinting at.. he smiled back.

He dint have anything else to say, instead he said,” you not staying here..for whom are you buying the RAM chips” He dint know who rishab was, so I told him everything about saloni and saloni’s family. Hearing my recent encounter with the drunk family member , Abhi struck an idea. He always needed more people who could volunteer in his NGO. He was in a need of man power to get some schools running in the east coast. If the information what I had about Saloni’s dad was correct. He would be a good man for the job.i urged abhi, if he was sure about giving a job to him. Abhi replied,”mujhe kya hai , tujhe apne father in law ko maska karna hai.” Both of us burst laughing.My home arrived. I got down and said,” alright ill get him to work only if you speak to Prachi”,He replied,”Mission Conquer Hate is it”

 I smiled and his group of jeeps blew some dust and drove away. Mission Conquer hate for him.. Mission Conquer Drunk man for me.. was the last thought that ran to my mind.

________________________________________________________________________________________
To stop the music click below.
Credit of song to be given to its owner.
________________________________________________________________________________________
its great to see , the reaction everyone expected it to be pinky or deepu.. but its someone else..

5 comments:

  1. Deepu...noh,Novae..noh,Lokesh...noh,aah...its Abhishek....even i din expct dis!tis is wat i call as a real surprise!
    Saving trees, incidents with prachi,punchin de owner..........its a nice going! * lipi winks

    ReplyDelete
  2. hey i voted for abhi, but your imagination of abhi hitting hard was just too much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ah my guess was spot on....its shake...love to read Shakes reaction.....and i expected the above reactions abt shake but that hitting hard was fine....coz it did suit his character (real and reel life)....good job rk....

    ReplyDelete
  4. wat deepu ur guess was spot on... i already told u i was coming next...liers... Thanks rk hope someday this becomes true..but why the stupid love angle....

    ReplyDelete
  5. heee, yup. you did tell us that you were next.

    ReplyDelete