April,
2003,
East Side, Manhattan Borough, NY.
Couple
of days later…
It
was six in the evening. “Shalu look after her. I will be back in an
hour,” he said donning a tweed jacket. “Where are you leaving
for?” Shalini thwarted in his course, “Nowhere,” he answered
shoving her aside mindfully, “Got to go get some fresh air. I will
be back, don’t be worried”, he assured her that he will be fine and
only then she allowed him to leave. Shalini could see how dejected
and dolorous Aryan was since his arrival in the house. She took a
concern over him being down in the dumps and closely monitored on his
general activity.
He
walked down the main street, a busy commercial street crowded with
people and automobiles hovering around with no let-up, horns buzzed
loudly every minute from one or the other vehicle and People? It goes
without saying a word of the public on a mercantile street. Yet
Aryan heard no din while he tootled along the thoroughfare. It
appeared that he was in a vacuum sealed ambience as he wended his way
in to his past.
I
cannot go back to the college. I wouldn’t be admitted in any
context due to my failure of abiding to the university policies
during the internship. Maybe I would let them know of Nemo’s demise
and that should compel the university on my admission. Fuck, it is
too late. I lived by my intuition that University would reject if I
propose for a re-instating and now I suffer the repercussions. I
flunked in junior school, while I just managed to clear the high
school with an average percentage. No bright background in education
except that I was serious in the sophomore year but why? Oh! Because
of my passion towards cars. That’s quite a shitload in the dump
yard. What good does it do? It doesn’t supply a criteria to be
eligible for a job outside in a company.
Several
other thoughts over floated in his mind. He was occluded further when
he heard two juveniles talk about smoking.
“Dude,
why do you smoke?” one of them asked. “It releases stress, takes
pressure off of you. You find contentment and then you drown in the
rhapsody,” the other answered him, “it feels good to smoke,
smoke!” he said and blew out smoke rings.
Aryan
found a vape shop hundred meters down the lane. He walked up to the
place, “Boardwalk elixir Vapors,” he read out loud and ambled on
the drugget inside the shop. A vapologist helped him with the
nicotine liquid cartridge. “Flavour?” the vapologist asked Aryan,
“Get me your choice,” he blurted. He finally had the stick, let’s
do it He
tapped the e-cigarette on his chest and slipped it in his mouth. He
waited before he drew the puff from the e-cig and recalled the
instructions No
quick short drags, it should be slow and a long one. Nice and easy,
wait until the smoke fills your mouth. Nice and easy. Before
he proceed to his primer puff, he was intercepted by his phone. He
pulled it out of his jacket.
Kalki
calling…
“Before
you talk, I have to tell you this,” he voiced out quickly before
she uttered any shrilling vocable, “I am sorry that I couldn’t
answer your calls and respond to your messages. I am going through a
lot right now and I will break it down to explain the situation when
time permits me to do it”. While he was prepared to hear on an
acerbic rant, he wasn’t aware of an approaching allocution. The
response she delivered soberly blew up his mind, “Honey, it took me
sometime to understand that you too have a life. You expect, nope”,
she tsk-tsked and continued, “you hope that I give you some space
for it,” She said, “So darling, you don’t have to be sorry. I am
perfectly alright” she said and kissed him. “You know what? I
never knew why I had fallen for you but for now I see something, a
reason if you wanna name it,” he paused. “What is it?” she
asked. Aryan answered, “Your sentience” and kissed her back.
That
kiss and her honeyed voice worked like a puff of smoke. He had never
smoked before in his entire life till to that point of tending to
smoke. He loved Kalki helping him refrain from doing it. He realised
why there was no need of a smoke when he had the love.
Although
JAPMI was well reputed company in the nation it was not acknowledged
by many of the people but Dayanand achieved a tremendous recognition
for his contribution in the industry. It was the good deeds of
Dayanand which made the communication agencies step back from
telecasting the news over the county and state. None of the
citizenry, including Kalki, were aware of what had happened with the
family of Hadars. Aryan decided to inform her but only by cutting it
short in effacing the douce which would make her feel anxious and
faze.
“Honey,
I have to tell you something,” Aryan fumbled saying it. “What is
it, Aryan”, she asked with no sign of tautness. “Our company
faced a huge crisis. It all came up to the surface couple of days
ago,” he paused and an emotional reticence prevailed for a brief
moment, “our house and other assets were seized. We are grappling
to save ourselves from some trouble,” she intervened before Aryan
had completed, “What? How? Where are you? Aryan I am tensed”, She
asked with surcease. Aryan moved by her perturbation pitched in,
“Honey! Hold on. The present seems to favour us and I tell you
there is no need for worry,” he took the edge off of her with his
trumped up assertion. “You sure?” Kalki enquired getting in
tizzy, “I am worried for you Aryan,” She said and silence hold
sway yet another moment.
Stupefied
Kalki uttered, “Aryan I am gonna come see you tomorrow. Why don’t
you tell me where you are?”
Sweetheart
it’s complicated and I am not at my liberty to tell you truths
right away Aryan
muttered to himself and continued, “Sweetheart, listen. Let me tell
you, this is not the right time for you to come here. I will come see
you after I am in possession of all my faculties. It’s gonna take a
while, until then. Take care of yourself, we will be fine too,” he
assured her.
“You
better say it true to your words and remember, I will be waiting for
your arrival,” she said in a suppressed tone.
“You
knew me better than I know myself. I got to go now” He said. “Keep
in touch, promise me that you gonna talk day by day” she asked.
“I
cannot make a promise that I can’t keep but I will try the best of
possible and probable,” he hanged up on the call.
Talking
to her was a medicine to his mental illness. If he tried and made it
to hear her voice for few minutes on a daily status, Aryan thought
that it would give him positive energy that could just hold him onto
be in more power and help him to continue to do what he intended to
do.
By
then Aryan had already stepped out from the vape shop onto the
pavement across the avenue walking back with the progression of his
talk on phone. While he had just decided to return home, a sign of
hope laid bare in a voice.
“Hello
sir,” the voice from his behind called him while he was on his way
back. Aryan was sceptical when he first heard the calling but
momentarily he tumbled on to reckon that he was in the know about the
voice. He swivelled to clap eyes on the unknown. No
one
Aryan left a grimace. He noticed nobody on the trail, am
I in a dream? He
asked himself and continued with his pace on his way. “Excuse me
Sir. I am here,” The voice said. He turned back and looked around;
he found a man sitting inside a cab. You
calling me? Aryan
gesticulated in a soliloquy Oh
wait… you chum…
Aryan
got nearer to the car, “I bet you are the same guy”, he said to
the man sitting in the driver’s seat of the hackney.
“Yeah!
I am that same guy who you think the same guy I am. Get in the car,
sir” he said and started the engine. Aryan climbed into the back
seat of the car.
As
the car pulled over its engine, Aryan recollected instances from the
past. “I guess I was riding in the same car few months ago,” he
said.
“Precisely
sir” the man replied and Aryan continued, “You drove me to my
home on the day of my grandfather’s demise. Thank you Mr. Akbar
Farrukhsiyar,” he cleared his throat.
“I
was intending to ask you the same Sir but I revoked on the notion,”
before Akbar uttered further Aryan interposed, “You don’t have to
call me sir. I am Aryan, just Aryan. I like us to be friends calling
names,” Aryan said, “how are you friend? How’s everything?”
Aryan paused staring outside the window, “I’ve never conceived
that I would see you again. Of course I do remember on the visiting
card that I’ve given you but that’s a different story all
together. It’s a licence to see my father,”
“Oh
Aryan, Never mind… I am fine with my happy business, and I am able
to earn a living for my family. ” Akbar seemed to find a great
pleasure in the company of Aryan, “how are you doing dear?” he
asked in return and said, “That might just be a stupid question to
the rich men but I’d like to admire courtesy,”
“I
am okay. By the way, you have your business? ” Aryan asked.
“Yes
Aryan. The endowment of fifteen grands from you back then had a
significant impression on my livelihood. I have opened a car mechanic
shed. It may be a small shop but the returns are satisfactory and I
am happy educating my children alongside with a part time job of
driving my cab”, said the man, “Aryan, out of curiosity. May I
ask? You are okay…” he took a glimpse of Aryan, “you mean…
just… okay or absolutely okay..?”
“Well
that’s always been my Achilles heel and I probably biting off more
than I can chew. Whatever, to answer you… Yeah! Kind of. Life’s
become hard to live, lately.” He said.
Akbar
decelerated the car and it eventually halted on the pathway inside a
narrow lane, “Aryan, it is the rich men like you guys who’d
rejoice in every other thing and it is the lame life of a cab driver
or an equivalent job holder’s life which is hard to live by,” he
said and turned back, “by the way, This is my home”, he raised
his chin and drifted sideways to show him a house on the right side
of the cab. They both climbed down the car, “I disagree friend.
Everybody’s got hurdles at one or other point of time in their
lives,” Aryan said walking abreast Akbar. “The way you say it,”
said Akbar giggling as they walked in.
Aryan
revealed to him about the tragedy. He was terrified after hearing to
what Aryan had told him. It was scarcely credible to him on what had
happened with the family of Hadars. Aryan had requested to lend his
cab and Akbar complied with no hesitation in letting Aryan make the
use of it. He had decided to drive his hackney for taking home a few
dollars to fetch provisions for the family. At that very point of
time in his life, Aryan believed, that the only choice was to drive
the hackney.
The
other day Aryan told him to come see him if he needed any help at any
time and then, even before he consummated on it, he was in his house
for a solicitation.
Life is not hard until you find a way to live on our own. Aryan
thought Life
is not hard when you have people around you who can drop by to offer
you their services when you are falling. Life is a challenge, I
realised. I see it now, why mama always suggested me to live on my
own and not to rely on the inheritance of deep pockets.
That
day in his life was to be a sad but a memorable day as it made his
presence in the confessions of reality, how the life of an average
family would be and why those people fought for a single penny. He
was happy as he started to be one among them learning to live by
himself, Welcome
to the second phase of life, Aryan,
he said to myself, let’s
face it.
He got hold of the keys and drove back home.
Power and Pelf 