Appearing Interview

‘Where is Chile?’ his words were hardly percolating through his thick jungle of moustache. ‘Chili?’ I was more than confused. Already I was feeling tremendously uneasy. The chilly atmosphere in the reception & here in the cabin of interviewer had filled my urinary bladder & it was pressing my already tightened leather belt. The tie was perhaps tied more tightly than required it seemed, it was almost chocking my neck. Since the volley of all those uneasy & unexpected questions were seemingly making it hard to gulp my saliva. ‘Chili must be there in the chili field or in the kitchen’ I wiped my sweat from below the left ear in that chilly air. It was more than an hour waiting outside the cabin in the reception & some fifteen minutes here inside the cabin; my lungs were deprived of smoke. Want of smoke was making my head unclear too. ‘Young man, I meant, Chile the country, where it is?’ It was not the effect of chilly air but his question which sent shiver through my spine; was he planning to send me to Chile or what? ‘You have branch there sir, in Chile?’ I gathered guts to ask him back. ‘No no, I was testing your GK’.

Straight I visited toilet to satisfy my lungs & reprieve my bladder at once. Then first thing I bought was the sphere of earth, who knows someone might ask me where is Madagascar, Peru,…. ‘Which are basic colours?’ ‘How many satellites are there in the solar system’, ‘Who invented cigarettes?’ one should be ready to face all such question during interviews especially when you are going to seek a job of industrial marketing & your specialization is chemistry. When I couldn’t answer the name of cigarette inventor it was a matter of shame for me. Having turned thousands of cigarettes into ashes I must know its inventor. I felt deep pity on me; grief of loosing job was nothing then. Later I postulated that the fellow must have got stumbled over these questions volleyed by his young son or daughter at home. So he’s quenching his thirst this way. But one thing, he wouldn’t ask the relevant questions which he knows he knew them little. By being in dry administration, his touch with basics has faded away.

Many a times you shouldn’t speak your mind but lie especially in the interview, I learnt a hard lesson at the cost of loosing a good job. ‘Strom the structure’ was my flat answer to the years of nagging problem of Ayodhaya during my early interview for a good post in the cement company. I was declined the job. ‘Anywhere but in Punjab’ on, if I could be transferred anywhere, I answered to the interviewer of the leading courier company during Punjab’s worst days in history. I never got reply neither the job.

What they gauge in the interview is really a big question. Since all those forward & bright friends of mine have mugged up & conditioned their brains to ‘lie & only big lie’. While they were preparing to lie I used to pray the god to collect my courage to stand & sit there confidently & answer them. ‘You fool, they don’t listen what you answer; they see how you answer’. You have to bullshit there yet confidently’. My flamboyant & fearless friend said bellowing while puffing borrowed cigarette from me patting my back. Till I breath my last I can not forget his advice.

‘Can you come for the interview on seventeen? To this call just after that advise, I fearlessly said, ‘just a moment, let me check my diary’ took two three puffs then refused to meet the date & asked for delayed date. To my amazement the fellow agreed, plus offered to & fro air fair too. I purposely visited the venue fifteen minutes late & regretted with putting blame on the limo which was supposed to carry me from airport to office. On the contrary I’d visited the place previous night by state transport bus, stayed with friend free of cost. Sat in the chair more comfortable than the interviewer himself. After initial talks it seemed like he was convincing me to join his company & I was reluctant at the post & package he was willing to offer. In the end he paid me more & gave bigger post too.

Perhaps I spoke sheer nonsense which fetch me job with more than hundred & fifty percent jump. Thanks to opening economy, all those bulls & bears are running forward only.

Hats off to my friend who taught me to lie yet confidently.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

EXAMS

‘But it is almost seventeen years I appeared for any exams,…’ I was arguing with psychiatrist during our first meet. He listened to me with all the attention I deserved making me sit on the easy chair for more than sixty five minutes. While he was quietly listening to me as if he’d no other work left in the whole world to do. ‘Well, you get nightmares due to your fear of exams which you used to appear for?’ he was trying to simplify me. ‘No no, not exactly that’ I cut him short; actually he was not understanding the gravity of the situation. ‘Look, I get literally drenched in the sweat in the mid of my sleep, many a times I cry, shiver in utter fear of not being able to solve the sums in my dreams…’. ‘These are the capsules & take them properly’ before letting me complete my explanation to let him understand the gravity of my nightmares he scribbled a few lines on his letterhead & handed over to me. ‘You may make payment at the reception’ he didn’t forget to make me remember of his fees while lifting his intercom; must be to inform the girl at the reception for the amount.

Declaration of my sentence date might not sink me so deep than the declaration of my exam date. Exams have really filled me with tremendous fear as if it was going to the end of the world. I’d collect all those notebooks & text books, loose papers, journals, drawings just everything. Sit & make schedule of the studies as per the respective subjects’ exam dates. Start solving previous year’s questions papers as much as possible. ‘Tonight it’ll be seventh paper I’d be solving for all the subjects’ my classmate quipped a week before our first paper. That much was sufficient for me to pop in fever pills; actually there should have been fear pills since I’d solved only five papers then.

I’d take a bath in cold water even if I run shivering fever contemplating, if I don’t take a bath it would not be auspicious, with a fear of failure peeping in. Then apply Tilak on the forehead, wear the previous day clothes if that paper was satisfactorily solved else fresh clothes; many a times for all those ten days I could be seen in the same dirty stinking shirt & pants. Till the last bell or till the examiner pulls the book from my hand & throw them in the hall corner I’d be glued to the books & read. Who the hell knows which question is going to appear in the exams? Even after solving all those papers satisfactorily if someone comes up with his own theory of papers being sent to tough paper checker or to some other district. I’d just pray god to save my papers from getting lost in transit, eaten away by cattle, wet in water, burnt in fire & even go in the hands of tough & miser paper checker. My biggest worry was my own handwriting. I’d read somewhere, ‘mans’ own enemy is he himself’, whilst my own enemy was my own handwriting; even doctors can scribble legible than me. During my education years I was fed up with my handwriting.

But all are not equally fool like me. There were great souls with whom I’d shared the same time space, class space & even exam-hall space. ‘Write that answer, will you?’ & meekly I’d hide my paper below my closest exam hall-mates’ paper & write the answer for him. Just to keep myself exam writable for the next days’ exams looking at his muscle popping up from his half sleeve shirt. ‘No the answer page is torn from this guide’ I’d given the guide back to my fellow student, later realizing had I been caught with the guide in my own hand than?

‘Squad’ used to be cruelest entity living on the earth then. They were permitted to barge inside any hall, search any girl of boy writing exams. During those days only I truly understood the meaning of discovery as witnessing these squad would discover copies hidden at various places. Inside ear, shirt collar, blouse, skirt, shirt seam, pants seam, inside innerwear, compass box, behind the ruler, inside socks, inside hollow of shoe hill, written on hands, palms, thighs in details or in abbreviations the list is long. Many forward guys & girls would visit toilets in the mid of exams many a time & get back loaded& get back loaded, while I’d be seen begging god for some more time,.

Even in the freedom struggle I’d have fought against rulers with much ease than fear of exams. My teen has been spoiled by these exams; I could not even make any girl friend forget about loving one, these exams never left any time for all such things. Weekly, monthly, quarterly & yearly exams & on the top of it surprise exams had left me shattered. Those who say college life is the best life, god bless them. For me it was hell, just like having asked for all that gold from the god & out of fear of it getting stolen away making it to be seen by self only in the second & the last wish. Upon granting the wish when the god disappears with a chuckle, you realize what is left behind.

Exams left behind all those notebooks & text books, loose papers, journals, drawings plus one more roll of yellow paper with a red engraving onto it, my degree certificate. Leaving me grope for the job in the mid of jungle.

I put my first step on the footpath out of the psychiatrists’ clinic assuring myself popping these pills might get me rid of that haunting exam-phobia.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

AT MISERS' CLUB

‘…even he doesn’t buy daily news paper but gets stale one from the waste-paper bin…’ I overheard my neighbour whispering to his friend & I doubt it he must be referring to me. Since at my inkling he stopped chattering. ‘Whatever people say about me but why should I change my lifestyle?’ I made my point to my friend who had trouble with me. He’d heard somebody mentioning that I switch on lights till it is too dark & at home bang my head on the wall. Or I don’t miss any dinner invitation, have no car still uses thirty six years old fathers’ bicycle, didn’t marry, didn’t paint walls & now the bricks beneath are visible, ….

‘It is very simple truth; you need more time to earn than to blow off your hard earned money so why spend?’ I chose to speak the sentence while preparing my speech at the ‘Idealists’ club’ instituted by me only some fifteen years back. Few fools call it as ‘misers’ club’ instead, well we never felt bad about it. Since then many people joined & due to our hard restrictions & exclusivity many self proclaimed hard core misers had to quit their memberships. One such spendthrift was thinking of shifting the present venue of our meeting to some other ‘at least’ non stinking place, it was shame on us & we unanimously decided to remove him. How can we abandon our meeting place which was slaughter house before we occupied, since they felt it was unhealthy for them. How can he ignore that the place doesn’t need to pay any taxes, no lights to be burnt & nobody comes here too. Apart from this we can plan our investments meticulously.

One member on whose inclusion I was responsible & really feel ashamed on my decision & even apologized a many times to my fellow members. The rascal wanted tea to be served during our fortnightly meeting at ‘Idealists’ club’ & that too at our own cost. Whenever I’ve sipped tea it is always at somebody else’s place or at party wherein I was invited. How could he think of such largesse? Since it was the thumb-rule of our club was to ‘fill our stomach at somebody else’s expenses be it a party, canteen, office etc. & if we’ve to eat buying our own food do not eat more than the body requires to burn the calories in four hours time. Our junior member only, who chose to open the door before our meeting time & close after the meeting, kicked one of our members who bought new clothes. We congratulated him profusely on his timely decision, since it could have been detrimental to our code of conduct. Since, one of our senior & illustrious member fainted down at the news as he never bought clothes. He stays naked at his home, a single occupant, goes out for work in factory uniform & for the meeting in his school days clothes stitched & stitched & altered at many times by his pet tailor who is also our member. Having such an apostle of miserliness how can our club member dare to spend money on new clothes?

I’d postulated our three point regulations & all our members had to stand by it if not better it.

Don’t buy.
Don’t spend.
Invest as per the club guidelines.

These were the main points which were easy to remember. Other less important points were even written with a piece of coal on the wall against the window were:

1. Eat less at our own expenses. It will save us money as well as getting sick since we eat more & burn our calories less. Many of our valued members have shown restraints of not eating for four days in row once they’ve filled themselves at some party with no gifts.
2. Dress & undress only when required, you might tear off your pants while putting it on & off frequently.
3. Never go out unnecessarily since it calls for expenses. If at all go out never carry cash & it will help you from spending it.
4. Do not maintain relationship with relatives. If possible don’t marry; having made a mistake don’t dare have kids.
5. Don’t spend big money on wife’s ailments you may have another at that cost.
6. Water & earth the soil are the best medicine try them & you get rid of all the ailments. Walk & walking will keep you fit & spend nothing.

I’d many other & noble ideas too to make life better & richer. Who can boast of being rich; the only one who has riches. Who can count money spent; but one can easily count money held!

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

FUN

‘Seen eunuch die of heart attack?’ the question stunned all fifteen plus of us gathered to have fun at my friends’ place that night. Few splashed their drinks from their glasses, few stumbled to something kept in the hall at their feet, and almost all remained openmouthed with the most unexpected question from him. He was known for such jugglery right from his half pants days. ‘Remember their way of clapping, they in a way are doing acupressure & avoid dieing of heart attack’. He although finished with serious note, the whole hall was over flown with great laughter. ‘Why on earth someone goes to see how the eunuch has died?’ my friend quipped struggling hard to keep his laughter beneath his teeth. Yet, ‘his mere presence is fun’ somebody spoke in low tone clearly honouring his great sense of humor.

‘What is there in life? Have fun’ my other lighthearted friend is known to enjoy each minute of his living. Even our greatest funny moments are filled with his memories only. He’d just clean shave his head neck up even his thick moustaches; he’d not even spared his eyebrows too loosing his bet on winning India to Pakistan. Just after the match was over in the evening the fellow lived up to his bet & headed for his home. ‘Whom do you want?’ the obvious question was from his own father with specs on who opened the door. It was another close shave at home. He was the true connoisseur & true fan of James Bond 007. Who otherwise can buy all those eighteen (then) CDs of James Bond sees them in one single stretch. in pursuit of aping him barge his scooter on half feet width & eight feet long wooden board with speed of eighty into his home which was four & half feet high from the ground. And, expectedly, broke his right leg with multiple fractures in his right arm with scooter onto him? We still call him bond.

One of such would follow allegedly egoistic girl who’d never even look at any of us always sitting onto the cement benches & gazing closely to each bypassing girl as if that was the sole work left onto earth outside our college then. He’d follow the girl so much that the girl then complained to principal who warned him of dire consequences yet the fellow didn’t budge & remained after her. He’d keep watching her below her building in pouring rain just to get her glimpse. Lastly the goddess of beauty & blonde came down to earth from her heaven to ask him in her mesmerizing honey drenched voice, ‘what you want? Why you follow me’ thinking he’d fell on knees & plead for her love. I literally fell on the ground form the same cement bench & got my head injured listening his answer. He’d said to the girl, ‘what you think of yourself, you look so lousy & dumb…’. While he could’ve otherwise said, ‘I love you’ which I must have. I’d no courage to ask him on what was the girls’ reaction?

We were on numerous occasion caught in the exam hall for, truly, not copying yet helping those deprived copy, ran away from the table after stomach full snacks without paying & got caught at the very counter & headed for the kitchen for washing utensils. We’ve even won cricket matches with huge margins on scoreboard & not on ground & got hit with the same stumps & bats. Once even tried traveling WT on train & whole five hundred plus kilometer there was no inkling of TT. Police squad caught us at the station on charges of crossing tracks & not using stairs.

Life has been fun just like dollops ice cream, enjoy if before it melts away from hand.

I madly loved a stunningly beautiful girl next door & with all the sincerity had decided to marry her. Keeping the same aim in life, I tried to excel myself each day & year since I gained adolescence just to be able to be her life partner. With bit of a complex in mind if she refuses I settled with her not so great looking younger sister. ‘Actually sisi wanted to marry you from the core of her heart since her girlhood, she loved you so much. But you chose me how lucky I’m…. My newly wedded wife was electrocuting me on our honeymoon night.

It was fun!!!

By
Vijay Yelmelwar

SWINDLE

‘You miser bum you’d even think miserly!’ my closest friend was showering his immense praise on me. Fed up with the mundane life we were discussing trying something different which would refresh us & provide money as well. Being good at thinking I coined the idea of deceiving common people & earning through it. Actually it would have been the nicest changeover I thought of. With absolutely no risk & high to very high returns. Say, trap a youth convincing him of getting job in say Railways. What it takes to print the letter-head, visiting cards, identity card & make few stamps? What all it takes to fool & deceive a job seeking youth? I can easily swindle him for say fifty thousand bucks. Ten youths a district & so many districts around I see my future is truly bright. To this idea my friend expressed his rather frank opinion about my colossal idea frankly. Over a Wada-Paav & milk mixed black tea he thought swindling say fifty youth for couple of hundred thousands was a miserly act.

Well, I’d considered myself in the act with my forty seven kilogram weight at forty two years of age with obvious spectacles & ageing brittle bones. My friend with his shirt & pants which would bring shame to circus tent, hundred & thirty five kilogram weight & takes hundred & thirty six seconds to get up from the steel chair, I don’t let him sit on wooden chair at my home. We’d to do something wherein we don’t have to do something which we really can’t do say running, getting bitten up in red & blue with the lathis of police etc. Plus with few hundred thousands in the pocket we can easily buy ever thirsty & lusty police, can take care of ever lying lawyers & manage a couple of judges, if at all we get caught. We’d to do something soft.

‘So what the hell you think you dumb?’ I was irritated at him. Since getting such a nice idea in the graying brains takes lot of brilliance. ‘Shut up, just shut up’ he shouted at me, everybody around in that dull, soot smeared ceiling roadside restaurant started staring at us must be thinking, why the thin guy visibly irritating the fat one which is just not good for his own health. Even I considered my merits at fighting physically with him & paper thin chances of winning. We then thought of duping banks with stolen credit card or demand drafts, snatching chains on road & in the running trains, fooling casinos, stealing information from the processing plant or FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) & selling to their competitors. Even we spent time to think on our capacities & abilities of kidnapping kids for hefty ransoms, threatening calls to filthy rich movie men & business men. But both of us were not convinced with the money, thrill & risk associated with the ad(verse)venture. ‘How about hijacking a passenger plane?’ I’m always popping up with the fresh ideas. ‘Even a kid will knock you down with single blow, look at you in the mirror’ my big friend was getting more vocal than he should, with him on the board the plane wouldn’t even take off. Well I gulped my thought with saliva.

‘Have you heard of Albert Einstein & Robert Oppenheimer? My friend chuckled with twinkling eyes’. I couldn’t note what he meant, rather I stared into his eyeball for visible stupidity; otherwise why on earth he’s talking of nuclear physicists while we discuss on something rather serious issue of swindling & minting fast bucks. ‘Look’, he changed his posture on the cracking steel stool at the rusty restaurant leaning almost to my face he revealed his idea sprinkling his saliva on my face. It took me some time to understand him & when I got him, I reached for my purse to get coins to pay at the counter & started walking. He chased & caught me with all his elephantine body & with elephantine efforts. Considering the big & really big bucks involved, we started making blue print of our plot.

It was simple! All we’d to do is to learn more about making of the atomic bomb. Window to the world was open in internet to us. Rest of the missing links was easy to link. For the missing links we’d decided to make a few trips to Pakistan, Iran, Korea, Vietnam & we’d even thought of visiting Iraq but later dropped the idea. Collect the information with some material such as enriched Thorium, Plutonium or any radio active material with bit longer stability. Having collected all this we’d to just get the information passed onto the internet just plainly with no ambiguity.

We’d listed a large number of takers including unstable nations, failing economies who wanted to twist arms of their rich neighbors & obviously if nobody turns up than our very own fixed customer was Osama bin Laden.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

WE PAINT

‘I’m dreaming, yes I’m…’ and the whole hall plunged in the laughter. I was aghast to see, they all stood up & started clapping in my praise or to be specific in my humility. Actually I was getting truthful not humble. I hadn’t painted the painting & the auction was done showering really real big bucks on me. Somebody one who called himself painting connoisseur bought my painting for almost big buck.

It was a free weekend for me The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City was the obvious choice then. Truly speaking I was longing to visit the place since my School days. I’d one duplicate Rembrandt, one original Raja Ravi Varma both were my priced possession. Especially Rembrandt self portrait was in true sense since I used to brag its ownership saying it was the original one. ‘Can we too come with you this time?’ I just couldn’t refuse my daughters’ cute & pleading gesture & took both, her mother, too to my forthcoming official visit to New York City. It was nice till we were passing through titans of art world like Frida Kahlos’ self portrait, Andre Derain. Andrea Mantegna, Vinci’s’ work, religious & emotional work by Rogier van der Walden, Jen Fouguet. Even my daughter liked Albrecht Durers’ Head of an Apostle I took longer before Peter Paul Rubens’ The Judgment of Paris while my wife lingered before Nocturnal Composition of Georges de La Tour. ‘Dad’ she shouted & caught everybody’s’ attention around. I reached her leaving the Judgment being passed on those beautiful ladies behind. ‘I can draw this Milk Pouring maidservant’ she was pointing her finger towards Jan Vermeer’s’ all time great. I admonished her to keep quiet & the first frame caught my attention was Eugene Delacroises’ Liberty Leading the People while my daughter was spending some more time in front of abstracts of Turner, Kenneth Noland, Jackson Pollock & of course of Pablo Picasso. Wife had switched her position to ‘A wheat field with cypresses’ obviously by Vincent van Gogh.

‘Will you teach me to paint?’ kids can ask for anything pulverizing parents’ ego to shame. Her dad & mom took few minutes to shut their mouth while we were returning from the museum. I had to lower the glass to get some ice cold breeze to bring my senses to normal. ‘I can buy canvas, brush, paints & that’s all my baby; I can’t even hold a brush’ the truth is you can shamelessly express your inability before kids only. ‘Well, get me those dad’ she was more than reluctant to resort to means than the end. I was actually an accomplished painter in my own right & my limits were drawing two to three hill tops with sun rising from behind any two of them, with a blue stretch of river as if originating from the ball of sun. To fill the canvas I might paint a hut or two with a number of flying objects which might resemble with birds & yes coconut trees. With such accomplishment what can I say or do before the kid who had seen the worlds’ best brush men?

To really quench her thirst I bought a dozen canvas of different sizes with heap full of water colours & oil paints with different sized brushes, stands etc. etc. my wife cleared our store room for her paintings & we took a dip sigh as the summer was going to be rather cool. But my first evening after office hours at home was going to be just different. Not only canvas but entire home was drenched in water colours & oil paints. Each of walls turned into frescoes by my darling daughter. Her mother was laying on sofa seemingly popping painkiller for her obvious headache. She had to be taught to use brush & paints on the canvas only. To teach her we too started to try our skill at the brush. Later on our golden Labrador too tried its luck by intruding himself in the store room & churned himself on the laying canvas. Our mewing cat too then followed the suit like her big foe turned friend. Meanwhile even the black coffee got splashed onto the very canvas while my wife slipped on the soiled floor. I then took the decision to keep the canvas onto the terrace to dry it as early as possible. Yet the plight of the canvas war far from its end. It had got drenched in rain showers that summer night.

Contemplating her priced painting closely the little kid said, ‘Dad can we keep our painting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art?’ I was more that stunned even it was me & my wife to hear our sweet & innocent little daughter. Yet, to please her I took a nice photograph of the canvas which was terribly spoiled & far from getting anybody’s attention. Mailed my daughters’ creation to all of our relatives. Her aunt at Orleans called back to enquire more about the painting. Behind me my wife lied to her elder sister saying the painting was done by me. How can her daughter do such a damn thing?

My sister in law had arranged all that at Paris even the auction of our painting contributed by us all including our lab & cat even the rain showers in painting it. ‘Frame it with the best of wooden borders’ she didn’t forget to ensure through her numerous calls & e-mails.

I was sinking in shame while the auction was going on. My wife, her sister & her husband were more than happy dreaming of owning big bucks. Daughter was happy too; her painting was kept on silver stand.

Art connoisseurs were examining the canvas with their sharp eyes covered with spectacles & lenses in their hands. Their delight was spreading through their upward curved lips. I was nervous, with my downward curved lips.

By

Vijay Yelmelwar

MALL

‘…but Dad, you can buy pin to plane there’. My twelve year old one was trying his best to convince me. I could clearly see his stretched face; bow shaped strained eyebrows his body language everything spilling his obvious frustrations. I could gauge all that, as if he wanted to tell his adamant father that is me, ‘you ignorant old man you don’t know what the Mall is. Just open your eyes & try to look where the world is moving…’. Truly speaking I didn’t know much about the Mall & I hadn’t seen any before; neither I was interested. Actually I was in a teasing mood, ‘look sonny, I don’t need any pin & I can’t afford the plane either. So why go, you better study exams are coming up’. He left room thumping his feet as hard as he could. My ‘study’ plot was just right weapon to unarm him. ‘Let’s go the Mall today evening, can’t we?’. Exactly third minute my son disappeared from before me, I heard a sweetest possible voice from the kitchen side. He was my son after all; he’d filed his petition in the high court, from where he knows judgments are issued without any hearing. I folded the Sunday Times to take all that valuable afternoon nap. The request from the kitchen side wasn’t so, it was an order. Any obedient, not so obedient, harsh or a man who calls himself husband can easily understand. So why not take a sweet nap before getting raided?

‘Deposit your baggage there’ a strong & sturdy lady in uniform advised us in as politely as an hundred & thirty kilogram weighing six feet heighten coal dark coloured woman would in her voice resembling five quintal weighing snoring sick ox with common cold in the stable. I meekly obeyed her whispering into my sons ear, ‘but if we have to buy something inside?’ ‘They give us different bags inside’ now my son apparently started distancing himself from his ignorant dad.

It was too a big space inside bigger than my whole company where I go to work to be a part in manufacturing automobiles. It was posh & chilled than my managing directors’ cabin. ‘How’d they afford to sale table salt in here?’ now afraid of my sons body language I filled in my wife’s ear with my ignorance. She too walked swiftly behind her son leaving me behind, keeping me unanswered. Whole of my life till then I was never neglected like this, thanks to development & changing culture. I was used to buy table salt in kilogram bags full for my monthly requirement from regular grocery shop standing outside the counter in hot sun while the fellow inside fill the grocery duly weighing. Here every woman customer barring my sari clad wife were half naked & men barring myself & my son were in half pants & T shirts. They were taking things from the shelves & stuffing into their wheeled carriers as if they were not buying but burgling the mall. It had all that I’d seen & much much more than that. Imported chocolates to dog chains, designer bras, only my stupidity revealed it was bra, ‘what’s that cobweb like?’ when I asked to sales girl I’d never seen through my naked eyes to woolen over coat which may not be useful till the ice age comes or in place suitable like Siberia, Alaska etc.

Mall was filled with items just stuffed with. I was thanking myself for getting chance to see all those things in one place & having discovered living so far without those too. ‘You’d have to cross the road outside the mall there in that restaurant you’ll get water, we keep only cold drinks’ a beautiful film actress material sweet girl was explaining me. Tired of walking inside those by lanes while I’d quenched my thirst just looking at her only. Finally I decided to buy a bottle of cold drink to really quench my thirst which that sweet girl did with opening the bottle in my hand. ‘How much you get here?’ I popped up a question to her taking undue advantage of my gray hairs. Sometimes simple decisions can change the life. I’d refused to buy the costly dye & decided to remain old looking man till I get my economy pack usual dye. Her answer almost fainted me. She was getting much more salary as sales girl than what I was getting as production manager in my company. And foolishly I was thinking I was a successful man.

My whole brain below my gray hairs filled with repentance. Why did I chose to be an engineer, why production, why this company,… lastly I even repented to take birth as a man & why not like that girl? While I was sinking like ship in the deep ocean my son & wife who’d made me realized the truth came with pushing their wheel carriers crammed with innumerable items I’d never seen before & not going to use in rest of my life. Yet, I was calm, perhaps after true realization great souls get calm like me. I handed over my wallet itself to my wife & dragged myself out of the Mall. They noticed just nothing about the thunder in my mind.

Nobody noted, that night after everybody slept I put my computer on silence mode & trying to log on to web sites of Wall mart, Reliance Fresh,….

By
Vijay Yelmelwar