Its not the end...

Darkness was at its extreme, his eyes got open with a strange sound. The sound of leather shoes, which his master used to wear and roam in this big house. The sound was turning louder and louder, that means his master is coming in his direction. His throat felt a drought and he found a drop of sweat running down behind his right ear.

It has been nine years working in this house, for this fourteen year boy. He knew that his master has bought him from his father for two hundred and eighty rupees, when he was five, so that his father could pay to the land lord and save his mother from being a keep of him. He doesn’t know what has happened after that to his family, his master never told him anything else, now all he knows is washing clothes, utensils, floor and polishing shoes, making drinks, cleaning tables and to add he knows the beatings, be it from a belt, a stick or legs covered with same leather shoes.

Next moment his master was in front of him. Carrying the same leather belt in his hand which he used to beat him. He started crying, but that made no difference, his master started beating him with the belt, when his hand were tired, he kicked him, when his legs got tired, again the belt made his way. Whole house was filled with loud cries of pain, but he knew no one is listening, not even his master. He could feel his skin getting torn, his abdomen bleed, his eyes swollen, and his legs numb. Once his master was done, he shouted, ‘you son of a bitch, how dare you tried to kill me, take it as a lesson you mother f***r, next time I will kill you bastard’

He left, leaving him in intense pain, but his mind was not worried about the wounds, it was worried about the words his master said ‘how dare you tried to kill me’ he was struggling to recall. It was not that he has not thought about killing his master for beating him like animals but never let this thought convert in an act. He tried hard and was again back to last night.

His master just came in and asked him to prepare drinks. He did. It was the fifth time he was pouring the whisky in the glass, his master put his legs on the table and with the jerk he trembled and bottle smashed on the ground with an intense sound, sharp smell of whisky all over. Next moment he found himself on the ground, two big hands pressing hard on his throat, he was not able to breath, lungs dying in lack of air, heart slowing down, eye bulging out, mouth opened to its extreme to find some air, legs started pounding the ground, hands moving all over the glass pieces and grabbing a big one tightly…Next moment there was no sound, not even sound of breathing, everything went silent.    

He felt present was more painful than the last night; he just closed his eyes and kept waiting for the morning, when he heard few people walking and someone saying, ‘they both killed each other it seems, send the bodies for postmortem’

He came out dragging his left leg, wiping blood from his eyes and saw few policemen taking out his and his master’s body out, his master sitting on the chair, with the belt still in his hand, drinking, smiling.


He understood the meaning of his smile, 'Its not the end...'

Once upon a time !!

I have heard lot of stories from my grandmother. She had so many varieties of them and the way she narrated those stints that somehow I started feeling those were not stories but incidents. Thought of sharing one of them, ignoring the fact that some of you might already know it. And yes like all Grandma Stories it also starts with…

‘Once upon a time… Husband and wife started their journey for their native which was across few villages. They took the only donkey which they had and loaded the luggage on its back. There was enough space for both of them to sit on it. The donkey was old but kind of royal treatment it got from its owner, he was still fit enough to carry both of them.

Journey started, but it was not long that they found people around; staring at them as if the luggage loaded on the donkey was theirs. ‘But I was sure that I loaded my own stuff’ he thought. He saw a bunch of people standing in a group ahead and murmuring something. He wanted to hear but old age has shown enough harm on his ears, but his wife’s ears were sharp like hare, she always hears the cuss words which are not even out of my mouth. So he said to his wife, ‘why don’t you try and listen what those staring people are talking about?’ and with no much wait she replied, ‘the poor old donkey is dying beneath two cruel ugly looking people that is us’ she replied. ‘What did you say you hippo?’ the man got angry more by the word ugly rather than the tone of his wife.

‘That’s what those people are saying not me’ she added immediately. Now there was a silence for a while and the next moment he was on the ground walking beside the donkey, his wife enjoying the ride alone.

It was not long that his wife started asking him to stop; but his weak ears and the people on the way who were still staring and smiling on him, made him walk few steps more before stopping. As soon as he stopped his wife got down and asked him to sit on the donkey. The man got impressed by her wife’s courtesy which was a rare occurrence and only happens when all the planets in the solar system are aligned in a straight line. He looked up to the sky, smiled and almost jumped on the back of the donkey.

‘Thank You’ he said but she was not even looking at him but staring at couple of people going the other direction. ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked. ‘These buggers were saying that I am a horrible wife making my husband walk on the ground while I was comfortable on the donkey’ she said and the man unsuccessfully tried to control his laugh.

But all his contentment was lost when an old lady threw a pebble on him cursing, ‘don’t you have any shame? Letting your wife walk while you ride…disgusting ‘. Next moment both of them were walking beside the donkey, two of them smiling, I meant his wife and the donkey.   

They found many people laughing at them in further journey. Eventually they heard someone saying, ‘look at those fools, they are having a donkey with them still walking, as if the donkey is their ancestor’

They both looked at each other and smiled. And when they reached to their destination, both were sitting on the donkey…’

Moral of the story??? There are many, one of it is the first line of the song from movie Amar Prem, sung By Mr. Kishore Kumar and featuring Mr. Rajesh Khanna…. Hope you guessed it right...

eh?

She ordered two cups of coffee and turned to me, ‘It’s after long time that we both are meeting and none of your friends are here to disturb’ she said. I just smiled and shook my head in agreement.

‘I was really thrilled when I saw your message that you wanted to meet me’ she added and I just kept smiling. ‘I like your smile’ she said and the smile which I had maintained, vanished. ‘No more smile’ my brain shouted.

I heard my mind and prepared myself for the task which I had promised my friend. Before I could start a conversation from my end, she said again, ‘Is everything alright? I mean you are you so silent?’

‘Oh yes, I am fine…it’s just that I wanted to tell you something but I don’t know how to start it…I am afraid how you might take it’ I said.

She smiled and kept her hand on my hand, ‘weird’ I thought. ‘You can tell me anything’ she said. ‘Okay, then here it goes’ I thought and started,

‘You are a good friend of mine. So thought that it would be better if I talk to you about it first and then we can come on any further conclusion’ I stopped to look at her reactions. She was smiling or blushing or both, it was hard to guess. ‘Weird’ I thought. Ignoring her, I thought I should directly come to the point, I started,

‘See, there is this guy and he likes you very much but is afraid of telling directly to you, for obvious reasons…so….’ Before I could end the sentence, she said,

‘I know; I know this guy and I think he is real cute, even I like him very much and I also know that the guy is present in this cafe’

‘eh?’ was my reply. Then I saw my friend sitting at the far corner.

Flashback

‘I know you are the only one who would be able to do this for me’ he said passing the glass of tea to me. He is my friend and I know him from the time when we use to wear half pants in school.

‘I love her so much yaar and thanks to lord hanuman that she is a good friend of yours’. He was praying lord Hanuman, for a girl, forgetting that Lord himself was a brahmchari, funny I thought. ‘You just have to talk to her and convey the message, I will handle there after’ he said.

‘Please yaar, after all you are my best friend’ he showed all his yellowish teeth to me, which left no choice but to agree.

‘Okay okay, I will do it, but yes or no is totally her choice, I will just inform about you, that’s it’ I said. He was so happy that he threw himself on me to hug me. I took my cell phone and messaged to her, ‘Hey hi, how r u? Are you free this evening, need to talk about something’ there was an instant reply with the time and venue, which made him jump almost a feet in air. ‘I will also come, but not with you’ he said.

‘Eh?’ was my reply.

Back to current

 I was surprised and also happy that whatever complications, we thought would occur, none of those happened. I was going to stretch my hand to congratulate her but stopped myself as she said,

‘You don’t need to make it round and round to tell me something, you can directly say, but I loved the way you have put all this things in place, I really liked it.’ I smiled in agreement.

‘I may also do the same, telling that a friend of mine likes you very much but that will be a bit repetitive now, so here it goes, even I like you very much and always wanted to tell you but your friends made it difficult and whenever I tried to talk to you they will interfere, specially the one with long hair’. She was talking about him, the one for whom I was playing messenger.

‘But today all my wishes have come true, you yourself said what I wanted to tell you, I love you too’ she said, and I was like,

‘Eh?’

.........