It was quarter to seven in the evening when Madhav entered
his home.
“Pallavi, my darling, please get me a cup of ginger tea and
some snacks. It’s been a hectic day for me. And it’s still not over. I have a conference
call to attend in next fifteen minutes. That will run for an hour.”
“Madhav, don’t forget that we have to go to Varun’s place
for dinner. His sister got engaged last week. And they want to introduce Gaurav,
her Fiancé, to our friend circle. Gaurav just completed his management course
from IIM Bangalore. He is running a supply chain start-up here in Pune, he additionally
runs a creche for the babies of the construction workers, free of cost, as a
social service. Such a smart and noble young man. I am eager to meet him. But Madhav, what’s the matter
with you? You look tired. Is it just the office work or something else?”
Pallavi asked.
“Nothing much, had some trouble in the traffic while driving
back” replied Madhav.
As a seasoned professional Madhav was expert in wearing
masks. While he had been using that at work, lately he had started practicing
in day to day life as well.
While waiting for tea, Madhav started his monologue.
“Was it really the right thing to do? The sudden appearance
of the dog at the secluded Y point on the Arthur Road, my desperate attempt
to avoid a collision, the sudden breaking of the car, the clueless bike rider coming
from behind, his inability to control his bike, followed by banging his bike on
my car from behind, the fall of the rider and his nose & knee injuries,
everything happening in a split second. What a mess it was, the frightened dog,
the unconscious rider and me, not knowing what to do …There was nobody watching
me on the road. I guess I did it right.”
“Madhav there goes your tea and the fresh samosa’s”, Madhav’s
monologue was broken by Pallavi. “Please finish this before you start with your
meeting. And remember, we are going to Varun’s dinner party. In the mean time I
will get Keshav ready, he just came back from his school”.
While Pallavi went to the study room, Madhav kept wondering “What
would have happened to the bike rider? Was it really the right thing to do? Anyway
it’s 7 o’clock, time to join the conference call”
The conference call was dull, to say the least. There was
hardly anything for Madhav to contribute.
Filled with a sense of restlessness over the event in the
evening, his mind went back in time, around 25 years back. He was a school kid
that time. Studying in the 7th standard. It was evening time. Madhav’s
had just finished his evening snacks when his mother came in the dining room.
“Mother, what will you do if you found out that the valve of
the bicycle is open, and the air is leaking from it?” asked Madhav.
“Close the valve and stop the leakage of air, isn’t it the
right thing to do?” replied his mother. “What did you do my little prince?”
“Mother, I am not little. And by
the way I did the same thing. When the school bell rang, I came out of the
class running, went to the bicycle parking, saw Shridhar opening the valve of rear
wheel of Santosh’s bicycle. He is such a naughty boy. While I was closing the
valve, Santosh saw me near his bicycle, playing with the valve, saw the tyre of
his bicycle partially deflated, thought that I did open the valve. I did try to
tell him that the valve was opened by Shridhar, and I was trying to close it.
But he did not believe me and slapped me in front of everyone. He took me to
the supervisor madam and complained. I tried to explain but the mam did not
believe me. She even scolded me and gave a warning. Mother, did I do the right
thing?”
Not knowing what to say, mother murmured
“Probably! ….”
“Madhav, can you travel to the US
in the third week of March?”, Madhav’s thought process was broken by an unexpected
question from Robert, on the conference call. And he had to rush back to the
present. “Oh yes, I need to think, I will let you know sometime next week. Is that
OK Robert?” replied Madhav, mostly to buy time.
“That works Madhav! Team, we are
done with today’s agenda. Unless anyone has any questions, we can drop off, and
connect next week the same time. And by the way we finished the call early, so you
get 15 minutes of your life back.” clear indication that the call was over.
Madhav was still engrossed with
his thoughts and the events that connected his past with present.
“Some
experiences are not just written upon our memory, they are stamped there with a
die. We assign meaning to them. Yes, we define our experiences and then
eventually the experiences define us. They define what we become”, but the
question persisted “Did I do the right thing today?”
“Get ready Madhav, we have to
leave in few minutes. We don’t want to be late for the party at Varun’s place”,
Pallavi reminded.
“I will be ready in a few
minutes” Madhav replied.
Suddenly the phone rang. It was a call from
Varun. Madhav picked up the phone and said energetically “Yes Varun, we are coming
to your place in next few minutes”. There was a long pause on the other side. After
an awkward silence and in a solemn & deeply pained voice Varun said
“Madhav, the party is cancelled. Gaurav met with a road accident an hour ago. Did
not get medical help in time. He is no more.”
Madhav was stunned to hear this,
he could barely say “I am so sorry, it’s really unfortunate. Where did it
happen”. He hoped it’s not near the Y point on Arthur Road.
“Near the Y point on Arthur Road” Varun replied.