How Rs.10 brought me Rs.535
I hadn’t witnessed any fairy tale in
the real life till yesterday but today was not meant to be usual for several
reasons. First of all, I completed all formalities for the hostel re –
admissions in the college without any major hiccup and we had an entire day to
do whatever we wished (Of course, the
first 10 to 15 days of every semester is obviously meant for that), thereby
adding my continuous ‘being idle’
days to 57. Voila! I am going to be a senior at college. I wanted that
astounding pride to reverberate through the whole of my heart and soul again
and again.
As nobody among us was in a mood to
set things in order in our new room, we decide to wash and rinse our sins at
the Elliots Beach (OK, no brags here. It is nothing but the
Besant Nagar Beach). Although I was angry with my friends for not accepting
my plan to go to a movie, whatsoever, I was really bubbling out there with
Vikram, Barath, Sandy, Karthik, Venky and others. That was the spot where I
always get the nostalgia about the Silver
Beach at Cuddalore, my hometown. I never give up in stressing the
importance of my native place in this regard.
To be with your close friends after
some gap is emotional and blissful. It was the same here as we started teasing
and tormenting each other to the full. There are always contrasting characters
in every gang I have been part of since my childhood, and it continues till
date. There is this mockery of comparison
between the tallest (Ok, here I admit.
It’s ME) and shortest, and the fattest and leanest. We spoke about how
difficult it was to miss home and the cookeries over there, and there were deep
discussions about crushes. And again, friends can also be classified based on
this: There are certain guys who say, ‘Machi,
I am seriously crazy about her’ whenever they spot a hottie and there are
also others, who keep their passionate poetries within their heart, pretending
like, ‘I’ve seen many more like them.
It’s just boring and usual, mahn’. There is also a rare third category
which is really disinterested in girls (I
don’t know how. Probably, it’s a medical miracle, I say).
Luckily, we hadn’t got anyone of the
last kind so we began our Call of Duty.
I am a combo of both the first and second types. Sometimes, there is the explosion
of Shakespeares and Vairamuthus inside myself, making me to mutter
unconsciously, ‘Wow…. She’s awesome’,
creating a wave of embarrassment around that vibe; at other junctures, I just
try and manage to keep calm, playing only the silent, calm symphonies of
Beethoven and Ilayarajaa within me, and get irritated when someone ‘wow’s her.
This was all happening today, too.
There was one girl of this ‘mindboggling’ kind. While I was choosing mine from
the crowd (thinking of the expressions of
my GF if she was beside me), there was an interruption. A beggar-woman was
imploring. I couldn’t tolerate her yells so I just looked for some coins in my
wallet. Though there was not a single coin, I just did it to attract attention.
But then, she said, ‘May your mother live
long if there’s something for you to offer this ignorant soul!’ I was
shaken literally because mom had already told me in the morning that she was
down with low Blood Pressure and that she needed a day off entirely to rest and
sleep. Impulse and sentiment forced me to give away 10 rupees. ‘This is for the whole of our gang’, I
told her, with my inner voice stating, ‘This
is for your good, ma. Miss you very much.’ She then looked at me and the
‘mind-blowing’ girl in periodic miniscule intervals of one second and said
sarcastically, ‘May God bless you to get
married soon and have many children.’When she had gone to a considerable
distance that she had no practical odds of hearing me, I said to the others, ‘Gosh, these girls always make me artificial.
Why did I ever search for something which I didn’t really have? Moreover, five
is a little too big for a normal family.’ Others were really happy
eventually as they had had the last laugh in the battle of girls; I couldn’t
attract them effectively.
One guy thanked me for giving her
something, adding, ‘These women will
curse us surely if we don’t give them. And, congrats for becoming a family man
so soon.’Then, we enjoyed a bit in the water, pulling each other’s legs and
falling in the sand. Since there were a few dudes who were not interested in
coming, they were simply chatting; we had given our purses, mobiles, ID cards and
everything to them. After a 20 minute glittering entertainment, we went in a
mad rush of eating everything we could find, right from bajjis to bhel puri.
Since the night would not end without a real dinner (i.e. the regular South Indian stuff like idlis and dosas), we dined
at a veg hotel.
When I was fulfilling my hunger hunt
with aloo puri, there was a call from
an unknown number to my mobile. A man told me in an alerted tone that my college
ID was with him. Shock! I was terrified. It was a very serious matter. Missing
an ID card meant that I had to face numerous tortures to attend lab classes,
implied I would miss several late – night outings with my buddies and last but
not the least, I had to wander throughout the college to several offices
searching with sheer hope to get a new ID for me. So, I thanked him and said I
would be back there at the beach within five minutes.When I went to the place, there
was a man who was entirely the opposite figure from what I had imagined
earlier. He was about 35, and dressed in a manner, which could neither be
termed as flamboyant nor too simple. I thought, on seeing his face-cut, that he
was going to abuse and scold me severely to the extent that thoughts of suicide
would arise in my mind. But he, in a soft and serene voice, advised me and gave
the ID. Shock transformed to surprise within minutes! I had got my ID back;
that stranger – turned – acquaintance had saved me 535 bucks (A Demand Draft for 500 plus bank charges 35)
