Unlike usual it was a hectic day in my office. Since it was the last day of month so I had to close all loan disbursal files. 11 pm, when I finished my work and Mr Sanjeev Aggarwal my boss came to me.
“Come with me, I’ll drop you home” he said.
“Okay” I said and turned off my computer and took out one helmet from lowest drawer.
I was working in Kotak Mahindra as a branch sales coordinator in Personnel loan department at Kingsway Camp branch. Whenever I got late in office Mr Sanjeev Agarwal used to drop me at Shastri Nagar Metro station just near and walking distance to my place Anand Parbat. It was on his way to his home. I had my own metro worker yellow helmet which he gave me especially for the drop-home-rides.
It was a huge traffic jam due to a procession of sikh community as it was guruparva when we crossed north campus one of the sexiest place of Delhi and reached Shakti Nagar redlight. Any how we managed to reach Rajauri Garden metro station through some diverted route.
“Vikalp you can get a metro to Jhandewalan from here and from there you can easily get to your place.” He said
“Alright n thanx by the way.”
“No no you need not to say thanks, you are the only coordinator among all branches in Delhi who works till 11 in night so I should say thanks to you.”
“That’s so sweet of you sir but you can also say that may be I am the only one who never finish his work on time that’s why I always work till 11 during month ends.”
“You never take appreciation smart boy. You know what, I have been working in this industry when you were probably enrolling in your high school exams and I have an instinct of identifying talent right from the body language. If this was the case with you, I would have not hired you and the volume of disbursal at Kingsway camp Branch is exactly the double of what all Delhi branches do.”
“No sir, now you are abashing me” I said.
“See again you are doing the same thing. Any way goodnight n see you tomorrow, and do not forget to give me a text from your brother’s cell when you reach home” and he kicked off his bike to Janakpuri, his place. I waved my hand in reply.
I rushed to the token counter and purchased one for Jhandewalan.
“Hurry up beta or you will miss your last train, it is right there at platform” one CISF officer with shining silver hairs told me. I was wondering why is he working in a job of protecting people when he itself need a nurse to take care of himself. At his age he would have retired twice. I climbed up to the platform like contesting a race with someone the same way as Salman and Shahrukh Khan did in a song in Karan Arjun. But the moment I reached there the train was just passing through my eyes.
11:40 was the time reflecting on the metro clock hanging in the platform when I realized.
“Shit I missed 11:40 KI LAST METRO.” I said to myself.
I came downstairs and dropped the token at metro gate pass. Mr shining-silver-hair gave me a sympathetic look but I replied him with a disappointed smile. I came down from metro station and start looking for a bus.
Since I was never been to that place before so I was unaware of which bus to pick for Anand Parbat. I kept asking conductor of the every next bus if he was going to Anand Parbat or not but every body was going to every single place of Delhi except Anand Parbat. After waiting along for almost half an hour a conductor replied me that he was going to my place. I had around 25 bucks left in my pocket. My BIG B (Elder Brother) used to give me 50 bucks every day for essential expenses like bus fair and daily meal. And I had already wasted 10 Rs for the metro token so now I was left with only 15 bucks but than I purchased a ticket for 7 Rs and finally left with 8 Rs in my pocket. Since it was a blue line bus so people were stuffed inside like a rooster coop and the smell of that cheap desi liquor was all over, I hate that bloody smell. “Sawari apna ang bahar na nikale” was written just above the window which means “passengers are requested not to take out their body parts out (from window)” but somebody scrubbed na and it says “Sawari apna ang bahar nikale”. Any how after a while the conductor informed me about the stand but when I looked around I saw that it was totally unfamiliar place when I asked him that this is not Anand Parbat after deboarding his bus.
“Don’t you know this is another stand of Anand Parbat? Ask anybody and he’ll guide you to your place.” he replied spitting down gutka in the middle of the road.
Now it was almost midnight when I was standing in the middle of the road in a totally unfamiliar place of Delhi and didn’t even know how to reach home. Since those were the early days of my struggle in Delhi (However I am still strugglingJ) GPS was still to invent in cell phones, I didn’t even had a cell phone. All the PCO’s were gulped by the cheap call rates of private mobile service provider companies so I could not even call my brother or anybody for help.
After looking around awhile I saw a group of 3-4 guys chit-chatting by roadside so I went near them and asked if they could help me out. First they didn’t notice me. Then I asked them again.
“Excuse me. Actually I got stuck here and I really don’t know how to reach Anand Parbat, if anybody can please help me out.’
“Just wait for 5 five minutes, me too going there, will guide you”
One of them replied me with his half opened eyes.
And after 5 minutes when his friends left for their own homes, he came to me and put his hands across my shoulders and asked “where do you stay?”
“Its Gali no 9 near CNG filling station” I replied.
“Not too far from hear we just have to cross this foot over Railway Bridge and it’s just the other side of Sarai Rohilla Railway Station.”
“Is it Sarai Rohilla Railway Station?” I asked him
“Yeah, about 100 meters from here”
“So how you got stuck here?” He asked and than I explained him the whole story.
He also smelled the same kind of liquor the kind of people in bus was. They all have probably returned from a booze party. He was wearing a check shirt over a plain red T with “MY DAD IS MY ATM” written over it and blue denim with simple puma flotter. Had a diamond ring in his middle finger, few inches taller than me and his entire organic structure was exactly like Ishant Sharma (Pacer of Indian cricket team).
“Engaged?” I asked.
“No.”
“Why did you ask that?”
“The diamond ring”
“No, My girlfriend gifted me” he replied.
I was wondering that the diamond ring was something which is supposed to gift to girls from guys. Lucky bastard.
“Seems like a student?” I asked.
“Naah …. Just quite studying”
“Why so?”
“Some family obligations….mmm…. actually its none of your business.” He replied with completely different look this time
“No no its okay… Even I didn’t like to know. Just thinking of starting a conversation” I replied trying to recover the damage.
“Look, I am sorry. I am really sorry. Actually I do not like to open up to anybody so early” He said.
“Its okay. By the way I am Vikalp”
“Sidharth, or call me Sid.”
“So Sidharth.. I mean Sid how come you here in midnight?” shot another shamelessly.
“Actually we just returned from a booze party” he replied and then I realized that I got him.
So we both were started talking about ourselves while I was noticing the life beside a railway station.
I tell you there is a whole world of another human species used to live beside a railway station in every city of India. Women were fighting for water in midnight on a public tap barely high enough from ground to put a normal bucket down it. Even I have seen that kind of riots over water in my hometown as well but not at least in sleeping hours. Open public toilets without urinals and flush with fumes of highly concentrated anhydrous ammonia. Empty condom vending machines hanging outside with their mouth wide open since from the time they all were first installed. People were watching old movies of Amitabh and Mithun within their tent homes. Some homeless immigrants sleeping by footpath like dead bodies.
Suddenly I heard footstep of 2-3 men following us from behind and when I turned back all of them quickly turned to a narrow street to their right. Sid stopped right there with a sudden excitement in his eyes.
“What was that?” I asked him.
“Nothing” he said.
“Okay…. I need you to stay here, I am coming back in a while” he told me and handed over his diamond ring to me.
“But why you telling me to stay here? What am I supposed to do with this ring? And where the hell are you going? Who are these people?” I suddenly threw a lot of questions.
“You just stay here. Give it back to me when I come back.. okay” and he got in the same narrow street.
After a while when he didn’t came back I tried to locate him with the corner of my eyes than I saw. Two men were sitting inside an auto and three were standing outside one of them had a physique like a Gym trainer and tattoo of lord Shiva on the back of his neck and now I can easily listen their conversation too.
“So where is the stuff?” Sid asked the men in the auto and that man took out a transparent packet with some grass like thing in it. At first I didn’t get what that grass like thing was but suddenly I realized that it was not just grass. It was MARIJUANA (ganja). Fuck, this guy is fucking charsi. It reminds me one of Robert De Nero’s dialogue from Taxi Driver that ‘All animals come out in night.’
“Got the money?” the man with curved mustache in the auto asked Sid.
“Actually I will pay all your balance. Just gimme some time” Sid replied but that south Indian actor looking like guy snatched back that packet from him.
“You are not paying us almost from 2 months behenchod. And now we know how to deal with you. ”
“Takeout his cloths, teach a lesson to this fucking bastard.” The tattoo guy ordered everybody from outside and took out a knife from his shoes. The other one was unzipping his pant.
I was almost pissed off in my pants the moment he put that knife to his neck. I didn’t know what to do. I cursed myself for asking his help. I didn’t want myself to put in to that mess.
Suddenly one of them pointed me out there and asked with his friends “Who is this?”
“I think he is with him, catch him too.”
I don’t know what happened to me but the moment I heard that voice I just collected all my stamina and started running like Hussain Bolt but soon I realized that I can’t beat a gym trainer just by running so I took a left turn in a muddy narrow street and hide myself behind a closed tea stall. He came behind me, ran after that stall, looked around. I was still sitting behind the stall holding my breath. He sniffed like a snoop dog for a while but then went back but I still not had enough courage to come out of that place. I took another ten minutes there sitting against the wall behind the stall recitingHanuman Chalisa in my mind. I got out from that place when silence got all over, Looked around and realized that it is safe now to escape. I quickly ran over to the foot over railway bridge and went down the station. 14:30 was the time on the station clock. I washed my face from the public sink of station and thanked Lord Hanuman for saving my ass. I reached my pocket for handkerchief when I got that diamond ring which Sid gave me before going to buy that grass.
I took out that ring, held out in my hand. I was confused what to do with the ring. Should I keep it with me? I can easily buy an N series mobile the one which is widely used for watching porn and clicking photos and forget about that fucking bastard and that charsi quite deserve to be in this situation anyway. He was the one for which I could have been ended up being either gang raped or giving blowjob to that south Indian actor looking man.
“Did you like my gift” a girl standing behind me asking her boyfriend over phone.
“No no I didn’t borrow from anybody. In fact I was saving some money from my salary” she answered the question from the other side which I couldn’t listen.
And then I thought at first he was the one who was ready to help me, second he trusted me enough to hand over that costly thing, and last but not the least it was a present of love which was given by her girlfriend and I have no right to get a cell phone for watching porn by reselling it.
There were two RPF constables sitting there. I explained them whole story.
First they sent a message to the PCR through the wireless and sent a constable with me to that place.
“Don’t worry the PCR will be there even before u reach. We have a chowki just near to that place. ” One of them said.
By the time I reached there all of them were already caught by police and parceled to the Karol Bagh Police station. Sid was standing there answering some formal questions to the inspector. He hugged me tightly and said
“Thank you yaar…”
I returned his ring and then he again thanked me.
“Bus kar pagle ab rulayega kya” I said.
“And yes do not buy GRASS again, otherwise you’ll lose your girlfriend and ring both.” I whispered in his year.