The Wake-up Call

Chapter 2

In the brightness of the 130-watts bulb, the restroom mirror reflected the image of an average built man with a cucumber-shaped face, curly, uncombed hair and wheat brown skin in a light yellow T-shirt. As he thought about his Project Manager Pratap, he went into moody silence. In the restroom mirror, he also saw the faces of all people known to him in Bankata where he worked and lived. Pratap, a man with tight upper lip and bald head accompanied by his Man Friday Krupakaran Pappayya aka ‘Crap’. His colleague-c*m-roommate Rock, a studious guy, usually seen with his spectacles glided down his nose and who later turned his rival. Aisha, a beautiful colleague many of his male colleagues tried to woo. And finally, Captain, a tall and lean roommate who often hung around with both Pandu and Rock. Pandu remembered the day he had his first bitter experience with manager Pratap while he was working in CPT Pvt. Ltd in the IT hub Bankata. “It was on a Monday evening in February...” he recalled.

“Hey wait, proceed no further. I don’t like to revisit the past now,” his heart resented as it always wanted to remain cool. But by then, the entire thought process had already started.

“Come on dude, wake up...” this was his mind alerting him before his father might get provoked due to Pandu's laziness and might fling open the restroom door to reveal a half-n***d Pandu to the world and damage his reputation.

“Who cares?” Pandu muttered to himself, “I have more amount of time than any other person in this world. I can be slow and steady. No need to rush. After all, it is for these simple joys in life that one is living on this earth.” Sitting on the lavatory seat, Pandu pacified his mind and defended himself against the current enemy, his dad. “Okay, dad might get angry if I am a bit slow. So what? Nothing is going to bother me. I am like the protagonist Neo from the movie ‘The Matrix’,” he started boasting of himself. A few moments later, he whistled one of his favorite tunes, the sound of which irritated his father sitting in the living room.

The conscience of Gopal appeared again and sat along with him on the living room sofa. It said, “Once the neighbors come to know of your son’s actions, they will mock you and laugh at your inability to influence him.”

Hardly did the conscience completed when a neighbor knocked on the door. “Gopal... Gopal... It’s me, Raghavan.”

“Raghavan!” Gopal jumped up on hearing the voice. However, he put on a brave face and opened the door. He had made up his mind to send Raghavan back from the door step itself.

“Hey Raghavan,” Gopal greeted the man in a dull shirt and a slightly dirty lungi.

“Has our software engineer arrived home?” Raghavan enquired half-mockingly.

Gopal thought, “It seems he has come directly from the bed without caring to brush his teeth or wash his face.” He replied, “Yeah, yeah. He came today around 4 am.”

“How is he? How is the climate in Bankata?”

“Yeah he is fine as always,” he said and thought, “...only we are not fine because of him.”

“Where is he now?” Raghavan’s eyes searched for Pandu inside the house.

“He just got up and is in the bathroom now,” Gopal said.

“Oh, is it? I just wanted to say hello. Okay, I will meet him sometime later,” Raghavan , waved his hand and departed.

Gopal cursed Raghavan, “Envious fellow. Our miseries are mainly because of these green-eyed people in the town”

“Is that Raghavan?” asked Pandu’s mom Vidya Gopal from the kitchen.

“Yes, the same snoopy Raghavan,” Gopal said. He remembered the conversation he had with Raghavan around five years back that made him form an opinion about his jealous neighbor.

                              #

Gopal was seated in his plastic chair in the living room. There was a power cut at that time. He was flapping the newspaper over his face to get some air when suddenly he saw Raghavan rushing into his house without even bothering to knock on the door before stepping inside.

“Hey yaar, I heard that Pandu got admission in ‘Bankata Institute of Technology’. Is it true?” Raghavan enquired, breathing heavily. It seemed he came running all the way as soon as he heard the news.

“Yeah, he joined Electronics & Communication,” said Gopal, sounding happy about his son’s achievement.

“Hey that is great yaar. Congrats!”

“Thank you! Well, sit down,” he offered his chair and shifted to the sofa.

“What are his cut-off marks?” Raghavan sounded keen to know more about how his son got the seat at BIT, a very famous college on the outskirts of Bankata.

“Err... he got around 215 out of 300. I don’t remember the exact figure but I am sure that he got around 215 only,” Gopal said vaguely and called out to his son, “Hey Pandu, what are your marks?”

Before Pandu could answer, Raghavan continued, “Hey but my daughter Nandini’s cut-off mark is 260. And they told me there is no seat in BIT. How is that possible?” he was astonished and his pupils dilated.

“Is it? Did you check with the counselors properly?” Gopal asked.

“Yeah they said there is no seat for our girl, Nandini. Finally we chose the local college in Aluva itself,” Raghavan said ruefully.

“Oh man. The local college doesn’t have any campus placement, right? How are you going to manage the issue?” Gopal said.

Raghavan skipped the question and after a short pause, he enquired, “You are BC or MBC?” It seemed he was more concerned about Pandu’s success than his daughter’s future.

Gopal answered proudly, “We belong to UMBC - Ultra-Most Backward Caste.”

“UMBC? You are really lucky. We are just BC – Backward Class,” said the crestfallen Raghavan. But only Gopal knew how he walked from pillar to post to get that fake certificate done.

Later that night, Gopal insisted his wife Vidya perform the traditional ritual of removing the evil eyes by passing a handful of salt around Pandu’s head three times and then tossing the salt into the fire.

                               #

Cut to the present: 

Gopal let out his anguish, “I don’t know why these freaks interfere in other’s affairs,” after making sure Raghavan left the place already.

Vidya spoke loudly from the kitchen, “I think...”

“What?”

“I think he wants to get his daughter married to our son.”

“Yeah. If he comes to know about your great son’s adventures, both his daughter and he will vanish from Aluva,” he said.

Vidya kept mum. Then asked, “Pandu, do you want coffee or tea?” she asked from the kitchen.

“Yeah. That is the need of the hour. Let’s go and serve the Lord,” Gopal said derisively.

Meanwhile, Pandu was still in the washroom brushing his teeth. The toothbrush moved in his mouth like a dog in search of food, pulling out the garbage from the dustbin. Irked by the conversation, he shouted from the bathroom, “Give anything.”

“Tell him there are other people in this house waiting to finish their morning chores. Ask him to co-operate,” Gopal said loudly to his wife so that Pandu could also hear it.

Pandu indeed heard the complaint. Though he heard his dad, all that lingered in his mind was the last word his dad uttered – co-operate.

“Co-operate,” he whispered. While he was in Bankata, it was the very same word that triggered a cold war between Rock and him. His mind wished to travel back to the days in Bankata and revisit those days once again. But the memories of Rock’s scary glare from behind his spectacles shook away the wish. “Let’s get out of the washroom quickly,” his mind commanded.