It was not just another regular dawn for Bhupathy. He has been waiting for this day ever since he married. The weather was chilly and there was a steady gust at 7.00 A.M. in the morning, not surprising for a June day in Bangalore. He was washing his 12 year old bicycle for the third time in an hour. It was 90 minutes to the most important moment in his life. He then went inside his hut to boil water. His hut, located in the outskirts of the city, demanded a 15 minute ride to the venue. He was thinking what shirt he must wear, though he had only two, when the alarm went off without warning. It was 7.30 A.M.
As a kid, Bhupathy grew within the walls of his village. His father was a porter in the village's railway station. On a good day, he earned Rs. 20. A meagre sum to feed hi family, let alone educate Bhupathy. Bhupathy never went to school. He never worried about that. He would play kabaddi and ko-ko when other kids went to school and did their home works. He had nothing to worry about. No teachers, no exams, no home works and no results. Life was just fun. He enjoyed every bit of it. At least until he was 12.
It was 1991. One day his father on his way back home read a hoarding about a company which was hiring. It was a German factory tapping the low cost unskilled labour of India. They were turning out raw iron into machines for exporting overseas. Bhupathy's father felt this was the right time for his son to get his hands dirty. The next day, Bhupathy found himself as a helper boy of the factory. His Father joined as a welder. Their combined wage a day was Rs 35 per day. Life didn't change much for Bhupathy except he was earning now. As ever, Bhupathy continued to be this playful kid. And suddenly one day this happened.
He was on his way to the factory. He saw a lady and her son. The lady was dressed in washed clothes in a fashionable manner. He has never seen his mother dressed that way. The next moment he saw the lady's son. Dressed neatly in white and grey, with a piece of cloth around his neck, for which Bhupathy knew no name, with combed hair and powdered face, the kid, almost his age, looked like an alien to him. He looked at his own dirty shirt, torn short, unoiled hair and worn out chappals. He felt inferior. The kid was fighting with his mother for a 10 rupee pocket money and went happy only when she gave him that. Life wasn't that easy for Bhupathy. He had to do some fucking work for 8 hrs to earn his 5 Rupees. He thought how nice it would be to get twice that amount for just some violent pull of mother's saree. Suddenly, He liked everything about the kid's life and hated everything about his own life. Tears rolled down his face. It was a full weak before he returned back to his normal self.
But however life moved on for Bhupathy. He was 20 and was working as a welder in the same German firm. His father had died in an accident last year and since then he has been promoted to the welder job. He was earning Rs 50 per day, enough to feed him and his mother.
One Saturday, he was in a park relaxing after the day's work. In T-shirt and Jeans, two men were coming towards him. It was not until they came close he realised that one was a girl. They were in their teen ages, university students probably lovers, Bhupathy thought and fixed his gaze on the girl. She was tall, lean and beautiful. Bhupathy eyed every curve in her body head to foot. Soon he became addicted to wet dreams. A yer later, he went up to his mother, found a girl and got married.
The new family-man status required him to earn more. He resigned his welder job and joined as a maintenance staff in a software company. His job was to clean the cafeteria and lift empty glasses form engineer's cubes, fill coffee machines and so on. Four months into his job, he started envying the engineers, their cool life style, their big wallets and bank balances, and above all the respect they got. He made up his mind. He set an ambition for himself. He did not discuss it with his wife, she may discourage him saying that the mountain was too high to climb.
Bhupathy climbed into his bicycle. Gowtham got into the back seat. Bhupathy pedalled the bicycle. Gowtham was staring at his new black covering over his feat. He did not know what it was. But he liked it. It was new. The father and the son duo crossed Bhupathy's work place. Gowtham for the moment turned his gaze away from the black thing and looked at the car that was entering the campus. He said, "One day, I want to become like that papa". Bhupathy responded, "And I will help you become one my son".
Gowtham looked at his dad and smiled. He was dressed neatly in white and grey, with a small cloth around his neck for which he didn't know the name yet. It was his first day to school.
1 comments:
Awesome!!! (but for your grammar ;-))
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