Y point on Arthur Road

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 7^th 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.