Part 4 – Baby’s day out
Sitting amidst the chaos, I waited in the sweltering heat for him to fix the front punctured tyre on my scooter. I pulled out my earphones, my ears tuned right into the traffic noise. A car passed by me, then a street dog went by, then a cow came sniffing, and a few hundred scooters honked in sequence in a matter of five seconds. A bead of sweat inched closer to my brow and a crow sat on a branch on a tree opposite to me, it looked right in my eye. An impulse, a harmonic from another dimension from some distant flap of a butterfly, had come wafting into my mind.
The crow flew settled on a branch of a different tree, all the way maintaining eye contact. Black balls of beads, staring into my black balls of beads, I stood up and followed it. It flew, to another tree, and I towed its path on the ground with my eyes fixed on the bird. Cars, scooters, people, animals, and lots of trash passed by all around me, never touching me, but still affecting me. The crow then took to the sky, and started flying towards the sun, and I picked up my pace to a jog and crossed a big and dangerous main road while sticking to the crow’s path. The crow flew straight as a crow flies and I soon found myself, sweating and panting, in front of Whitefield Railway Station. The crow began circling over the station building and I stared hard at the sign. A train blew its whistle and announced its departure from the platform.
As the train slithered out slowly, the crow ducked and disappeared forever. Another impulse, from another beat of a colorful butterfly from somewhere across the distant galaxies, brought with it the force to convince me to run towards the moving platform. The universe beckoned for me to step forward, and board the crooked train. I ran. And I ran. And I boarded it. As soon as I boarded the train, a Eunuch clutched my crotch and demanded money. I gave ten rupees, inserting into the bra, and swirling some coins around the head, and blessing it, the Eunuch returned 1 rupee in the form of a shining silver coin. I kept the coin in my pocket and forgot about it.
A weathered down farmer stood near the door next to me. I asked him where the train was heading to, and he said the train was going to City Central. Alright, I said and peered my head out of the door and caught the sun and the wind in their strides. Freedom. Today I wanted to smell freedom. It came as mysteriously as the crow came, and just like that I had left my scooter and found myself in a train in the middle of a working day. I was bunking office. Like bunking college. Funny, I thought, how I held College and Office in the same light.
The train stopped a while later at City Central, I noticed that I had missed 3 calls from my team mate with whom I was supposed to ‘onboard’ a few interns by giving them KT. As soon as I got out of the station, I bought some hot roasted peanuts and popping one peanut after another, I walked along the road towards Freedom Park.
I had never been to Freedom Park museum, so I was excited to visit it today. I wanted to know what I could about Freedom. I reached and found that the park was closed and there was not a soul around for me to enquire from. Tough luck, I thought, and continued walking in the heat towards Cubbon Park, which is a little ways ahead from Freedom Park. Reaching Cubbon Park, I walked around the immense gardens and finally ended up somehow in front of Bangalore Central Library. The old building is one of the last remaining beauties of Bangalore from its glory years. I stepped in, from a squeaky back door, the inside was dull and dusty and smelt of aging wisdom and paper. I picked the first book I laid my eyes on and noticed the cover, it read,
’Preeti’, the title said,
And below,
‘By K.G. Arjun.’
My name.
A sharp pointy object was poking my right arm, and I woke up, and disoriented, looked around, and found myself on the 29th floor of my office. My teammate stood beside me, impatiently shaking me,
‘Wake up. Wake up fuker.’ He repeated.
‘Huh?! What time is it?’ I asked still reeling from that hyper realistic dream.
’12:30. Come. We are late for the KT. The interns are waiting.’
‘Right. Right. Thanks for waking me.’
We made our way into the meeting room. As we entered, I saw that there were 4 young and bright looking interns seated in the room. A certain radiant face called to me with its femininity and I, turning to look her in the eye, our eyes locked and almost instantly fell in love. Slaves are different from prisoners in the fact the prisoners can escape and slaves cannot. It was an animal like instinct, I did not want to let her work in this place. No. I would not let her waste her life here. In that turbulent moment, I made my mind that I would break her out from this place and I would free myself as well in process. Turning towards her, staring her intently, I asked her with an assertive tone,
‘What’s your name?’
And she said,
‘Preeti’.
Part 5 is out!
