September’
2003,
GCP, Nassau County, NY.
Malcolm looked to be disappointed. His sad face said it all and Aryan was curious to know what had happened to him, “Mr. Malcolm, something wrong?” he checked on his intuition.
“Yeah, it’s the competition,” He confirmed climbing inside the car.
Though Aryan felt not to bring the talk on to the table for discussion he couldn’t allow himself to be tied down. Nearly after fifteen minutes of time in the journey, “May I ask what is the problem,” He looked back for a glimpse of him and continued, “…If you don’t mind,” he said. Hadn’t he asked Malcolm waldman after the brief period of silence, the days thereafter might had been different from the days that happened to him after he asked him about the problem.
“It’s a major one young man,” Malcolm took stance to give it a reason, “No company is willing to offer us the sponsorship,” he put the sadness into words, “not a single one. The university had no prior experience in FSAE, and the investors are afraid to sponsor the project.” He paused. Aryan made no attempt to interpose himself in the situation. Malcolm thought for a while and continued, “You have something to say Mr.”, and he was at his wit’s end. He didn’t know Aryan’s name. Since the day he started boarding his cab he had only addressed him with different names, young man, gentle man, tough boy, dude, buddy, the list never ended. Aryan took pleasure in being called by many names and went along with the appellations he choose to call him. The time has reached its zenith where Aryan had to introduce himself to him. “I am Tony”, Aryan said as he named himself at that very moment to hide the identity as a Hadar. His intention for a sobriquet other than the Hadar was not a haste instead it was thoughtful from Aryan.
“Yeah! Young man,” he reverted and didn’t mind not calling his name again, “you tell me. I agree that we don’t have prior experience but to gain experience we need a start. And to start we need a fund and to get the fund we need experience. And to have experience we need to start. You see dear? We go nowhere but circle around. When every company we approach has the same answer, how could we even start? How would one get to have that experience?” he was saddened by the bleared choices, “there are no window of opportunities buddy,” he said.
“You mean there is no way out?” Aryan enquired.
“I don’t think so. The present blurs my vision to foresee an answer. It is the time that will decide, I strongly believe that there exists a way out. There should be a solution for every problem in this world. There should definitely be a way out for this too,” He believed in his staunch.
“I agree with you,” Aryan opined to take a brief digression, “how are your students doing with the project?” he asked.
“So far so good. They are learning to take steps, it might take a while before they start running. They are yet to decide on the suspension system, the base for the vehicle,” he answered.
“Good to hear on it. By the way, which of the suspension are they planning on? Is it a double wishbone or push rod or pull rod?” Aryan walked himself into the perimeter by which Malcolm was taken by a little surprise, “oh boy! You know them?” He asked with a surmise.
“Yes sir,” an instant reply was shot from Aryan.
“Good. I presume we can safely speak the language,” he said.
“Ah! You bet,” Aryan uttered.
“We are planning for a push rod!” He replied.
“Oh but why?” Aryan enquired on the choice as he hold a different opinion.
“Because, the rolling resistance is convincing and the design is compact,” he said.
“But a double wishbone with its roll centre just above the ground can give you the best suspension geometry,” Aryan said, “It can give you the ease to design the geometry in the later stage of design.”
“Smart approach. Haven’t given it a much thought though. Did you have had any prior experience in this field?” he asked.
What should I say? Aryan asked himself, few days back he would have taken me for a fool if I said I had experience, and now what he would think? Let’s take it. He pushed his mettle.
“Yep, I did had exposure to the spare parts. In fact I have successfully designed a chassis with an excellent fatigue strength,” Aryan backed himself.
“Is it? It looks you have got a lot to enlighten me about. Where and when did you work on the chassis?” For the very first time Aryan felt that fate had intervened in his life. Aryan wasn’t prepared for Malcolm’s question and before he could answer him the hackney reached his stop, “Oh we reached… Alright young man, we will continue the talk tomorrow,” he said getting down the cab.
“Excuse me Prof. Malcolm,” Aryan called the aged man, “Yes,” he swivelled towards Aryan, “I know a way out,” Aryan said. “Sorry?” he asked. “Sponsorship, I know a way out,” Aryan voiced out hesitating. “You?” Malcolm said. It didn’t take him by surprise and instead looked at him with a hope, “what is it?” he checked on the notion.
“Will start tomorrow early morning, 6’0 clock. Trust me, I have a way out.” Aryan assured the aged man and Malcolm signed with his thumbs up.
In pursuit of a happy life, Aryan choose to consider things at their own pace. He didn’t wanted to hurry and later regret for what he had done. He rather intended to approach a situation or a problem naturally, as when the right time rolled in, he gave it a whacking blow, an accurate blow in a single shot.
Next morning… 06:00 Hrs…
“So gentle man, where are you taking me?” Malcolm climbed the car, “To the JAPMI,” Aryan said handing him over a material, “here is the card and the envelope,”
He got hold of the card, “Justin Amell, head of automation R&D, JAPMI”, he read it out, “who is he? How do you know him?” He questioned Aryan. “I don’t know him. One of my travel friend by name Mr. Aryan, just like you who took a hire of my cab back then knows Justin and as he said, they were close friends,” Aryan made up the content, “It is a long story how I have the visiting card and to cut it short, on a busy day on his calendar, Aryan dropped his wallet in my cab and the card was slipped out. I’ve returned the wallet in the next hour on the same day but the card, it was underneath the back seat and I found it a couple of days later when I was at the car wash. When he boarded my cab the following day, I let him know of my finding but he shrugged it off. So, it was always there with me and that’s how I got to know of JAPMI and Justin as well. I’ve never imagine that I would make a good use of it but it somehow made it to reach me for a purpose,”
“Don’t you think we should go meet Aryan first before we head to JAPMI for the head?” he lacked in certainty.
“Mr. Aryan left the city. I had him driven to the airport on the day of his final ride in my cab. He informed me of his unavailability thereafter and so…” Aryan clarified his scepticism and also added, “Oh… it was outta my sight. Please do mention that you are friend of Aryan. Just in case the head asks for any details, tell him you are a pen friend.”
“No worries Boy! I will look into it,” Malcolm assured him.
“You may want to get some sleep. We have a big day ahead,” Aryan said. “Uh-huh,” Malcolm replied dozing off.
It’s been a few days by then Aryan had found out the unsolved mystery of Anusha’s death. He took the opportunity for making an inquest in the sojourn to his hometown. The time now seems to be right to dig in deep about the mystery Aryan thought. He had made up his mind the previous night to meet with the inspector who had investigated the case back then under the invocation of Dayanand. It was Friday early in the morning the duo started driving to the home city. That was the first time ever Aryan left home without an intimation of the purpose to Rekha. But for all that, Shalini was aware where he was leaving for. Shalu will take care of mom, if she feels worried of my late arrival. I will drop the professor at the industry and I will lead my way to the police station. That’s the itinerary for the day.
Power and Pelf 