Bargain

 Bargain

 Suresh Kodoor

It was a long day at office for Dian. She was feeling hungry and terribly exhausted. She had to miss her regular lunch break in the afternoon as she was too busy to step out and had to content with a piece of sandwich Liza brought her. No surprise, she was by now badly looking forward to the close of the day. But she knew she will have to wait a little while more before she could call it a day.

Her Company had just announced layoff the other day. As part of the HR team, it was on her to take all the affected employees through the separation process.  She in fact hates the job. This is the second time she is doing this since she joined the Company.  The job wasn’t still any easier for her. She has to get everyone sign the documents, verify the papers, answer all their questions, explain the separation package, empathize with them and even give them a shoulder to cry on, …; the list was long. It is always difficult to deal with employees who get the `pink-slip’. It was emotionally draining for Dian too, especially when it came to dealing with senior employees with fifteen and twenty odd years of service with the Company.  

‘How could they do this to me?  All these years of my life I gave to this company and all of a sudden they don’t want me anymore?’  

Many of them shouted at Dian as if it was her decision. A few of them were simply uncontrollable. At times, Dian too wanted to shout back. But she was strictly instructed not to tell anything back to the employees. She could only try to console them. 

“Don’t worry. You will easily get another job. Moreover, the separation package is pretty good. You will get three months salary as part of the package. You don’t need to, rather you cannot, come to office tomorrow onwards. However, you can make use of our training center facility for your job search. You can also attend classes on how to cope with termination, how to face interviews etc. After all, the Company wants to be with you to make this difficult period less painful as possible for you”

Dian must have repeated the same to so many of them. 

“Liza, how many more are there to finish?”

“We are almost done, Dian. Only a few more are waiting”. 

Dian was relieved. ‘I should take off tomorrow. This is too draining’. She said to herself. 

“Good evening”.  Dian’s thoughts got disrupted as Kevin pulled the chair in front of her and settled in. 

“So, you don’t want me anymore, huh?!  I am useless for you, right?”  Kevin was trying to be sarcastic, but his pain was for all to see. 

Dian didn’t say anything. She looked at him with a consoling smile. 

“Kevin, don’t worry. You are quite young. You will easily get a job. Think about those who are much older to you. You are in a much better position”.

“Yeah yeah, I would need to start the drill all over again, you know. I am too frustrated of this crap.  May be… may be, I may land up with something, somewhere I hope”

“Sure, Kevin. You will. Don’t be so dejected”. Dian wanted to finish the process quick. She moved the bunch of documents to him. 

“Please sign the documents. I will explain the separation package meanwhile”.

“Yeah, you do your job. I know you too are like me. One day they will ask you also to go”.

Dian didn’t react to that. 

“As part of separation, you will be given an amount equivalent to your three months salary. You will also get paid for all your unused vacation or leaves. You don’t need to come to office starting tomorrow. You need to return your ID card. But you can use our training center for your job search”.

Kevin looked at his ID card for a moment. The piece of plastic was like part of his body during all these years. He ran his fingers gently over it as if to bid good bye one last time.

“Ok, now this is the release contract document”. Dian picked a set of papers from another bunch on the table. 

“You agree to waive your right to sue the company, giving up any legal claim”. Dian tried her best to make it look it as trivial as possible.  

“Well, of course not for free. You will get extra severance pay for signing the release agreement”.

‘What?!”.  Kevin didn’t understand.

“This is just a formality, you know. You are agreeing that you will not sue the company for your termination. This is just a legal requirement, nothing special. You will get another extra five grand, if you sign this document. Either you can sign it now or you can drop it in a couple of day’s time. Remember, the five grand will be given only after you submit the document”

‘You mean five thousand dollars for agreeing not to sue the company?” 

“That is correct”. Dian kept her face as straight as possible.

“hmm… ok. You know what? I won’t sign it now. Let me think over”

“There is nothing much to think over it, Kevin”. Dian tried to bring a smile on her face. “But, yeah, you can take your time and drop in may be tomorrow or day after”.

As Kevin started walking out, Dian put a red line under Kevin’s name on her list.

Dian’s teammates were also very exhausted like her by the time they finished up with all the employees. 

“Liza, did everybody sign the release contracts?” Dian checked with her colleague.

“Yes. All of them”.

“hmm.. I have one case. He has not signed”.

“Oh!! What he wants? Is he planning to go legal?”

“Don’t know. He just said he will think over and sign. He is the only one who has not signed”.

‘Ok, why don’t you check with Carl’?

Dian was also planning to check with Carl on how to deal with Kevin. Carl is her director and she was sure he will find a way.

Next day as soon as Dian reached office, Kevin called.

“Hi Kevin. You want to drop the document today?”

“No, Dian. I want to discuss”

“Hmm.. what you want to discuss, Kevin? What is in there to discuss?”

“Well, I don’t want to just sign the release for five grand. I will talk to you in person. I will come and meet you today at 3”. Before Dian could respond, Kevin closed the call.

Dian was now concerned. ‘What if this guy doesn’t sign the release? Will I be the only one who couldn’t get the release signed from everyone?’. She was trying hard to find answers to her own questions while walking towards Carl’s office.

Dian explained Carl whatever happened till then. 

“Carl, Kevin is coming here at 3 to discuss. What should I tell him?”

Carl too wasn’t sure. It took a while for him to suggest a way.  

“If he is adamant in not signing the release, why don’t we offer, may be another 3 months’ salary extra as additional severance pay?”

“That will amount to around twenty five grand, Carl”.

“Dian, money is not what I am concerned. At any cost, I don’t want him to go legal”.

“What if he is not happy with three months?”

“Ok, worst case; offer him six months’ salary”

“Really?!!”. Dian was a little surprised. She never had thought the release document was so important. 

“Yes. You have my approval for up to six month’s salary. You negotiate with him. But don’t leave him without signing the agreement. Start with three months’ salary extra, but can go up to six months. If he asks still more, you call me. We will think about it then”.

Dian felt confident after meeting with Carl. 

“Who wouldn’t sign if offered with fifty grand?”. Dian couldn’t help smiling to herself as she walked towards her office. 

As Dian was rehearsing the lines for Kevin in her mind, he showed his face at her door sharp at 3.

“Hi, Kevin, come by. Hope you have brought the release document signed”.

“No, Dian. I want to discuss on the same”. Kevin pulled a chair and sat opposite to Dian. He glanced at her for a moment and then started wandering his eyes all around.  

“Sure, Kevin. Tell me what you want to discuss.” Dian was a little nervous. She was in her own world wondering if he can be bought with three months’ salary or she will have to shell out everything she has.

“Dian, I know you said you will give me five grand for signing this release. But I want one more thing”. 

‘Kevin, this is as per the company policy. You shouldn’t force me to do any favor only for you. But anyway tell me what you want. I will try my level best with my Director. Remember, this is only for you”

“Thanks, Dian. You know…”

“Yeah, go ahead”. Dian was getting impatient.

“I mean.. I know I will get 5k. But …”. Kevin wasn’t looking at Dian. He kept looking down.

“Whatever it is, tell Kevin. I will try my best”.

“You know, I want a laptop”.

Dian almost fell off her chair! For a moment, she opened her mouth wide and stared at him in utter disbelief.

`This guy wants just a laptop to sign the release? Why on earth did I go to Carl to deal with this?’  Dian couldn’t wait to tell Carl how she saved him fifty grand.

She quickly gathered herself as she watched Kevin slowly raising his head to look at her for her reaction to his demand.  

“Kevin, you mean you want a laptop as well in addition to the five grand?”

“Yes. Can you?”

“Kevin, I am not sure. But let me promise you that I will try my level best. I am sure Carl will listen to me. But I would need the signed document if I have to ask Carl. Please sign the document now. Call me tomorrow; I will surely have good news for you.”

As Kevin started moving his pen on the dotted lines, he failed to notice a mischievous smile escaping through the corners of Dian’s tightly closed lips.

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Suresh Kodoor

28/5/2012

Deja Vu

Deja Vu

Balachandran Nair had just opened the doors of his shop in the morning and was busy arranging the medicine bottles on the shelves when the man appeared at the doorstep. He raised his head hearing the footsteps. A man in black pants, white full sleeve shirt and a dark blue tie stood there smiling. 

The man smiled at Mr.Nair as if he knew him for ages. Nair however wore the look of somebody meeting a stranger. Before Nair could ask him anything, the man threw the question.

‘This is Balanji’s house, right?’ 

This time it was Nair who was in for a surprise.  

‘A stranger calling me Balanji?’ that sounded to him a little unusual. He became a little curious too by now. Only those who were very close to him used that name. Here was a total stranger, who was seeing him for the first time, calling him by that name. 

“He must be someone who knows me well” thought Nair while simply nodding to the guest to answer his question in affirmative.

Usually people call him Mr.Nair. Only his very few close friends call him ‘Balanji’. He has been living in that gully for almost last thirty five years, ever since he first migrated to the city of Mumbai from a village in Kerala. These days he has been running a small ayurvedic medicine shop on the first floor of an old building at Dombivili, a crowded suburb in Mumbai. In fact we should not even call it a shop as it housed his home too. A living room, a kitchen and small toilet constituted his house. Even at noon it requires the bulb to be put on for light as the small wooden windows always remain closed. The yellow dim light only added to the antic look of the things kept in the room, though there weren’t too many of them to count. He hardly ever opened the side windows for the fear of them hitting the wall of the adjacent building.  He uses the front living room as his shop cum clinic during the day time. He hardly had any business worth mentioning to justify a separate place for his shop anyway. 

Since the guests as well as the customers for the clinic use the same door to come in, he was not sure at first whether this man standing outside the door was a customer or a guest. 

The man was still standing outside the door. He put his head a little inside holding the sides of the door and asked again, a little louder this time. 

“You are Balanji, am I right?’

It took a while for Nair to come out of his stream of thoughts.

“Yes. But sorry, I could not recognize you. Please come inside”

Nair offered him one of the old chairs lying there which are usually used by the visiting patients. The room looked much in disarray. Bottles, books and papers, were  lying all over table and the floor. It looked as if they were not touched since ages. Nair felt a little embarrassed.

“Sorry, this place is a little small. In fact, this is my consulting room and also our living place. That is why it looks a bit tardy and unclean.” 

“Not a problem, don’t worry”, the man smiled and pulled the chair towards him. He then took out his coat and carefully placed behind the chair.

“Please give me a second. Let me get my specs. I can’t see anything clearly without my glasses”

Nair went inside looking for his spectacles.

 It took him a little while to spot his glasses kept on the table at the corner of the kitchen. He was about to turn back after picking his glasses when his wife Bhavani came blocking his way. She was holding a long wooden spoon in her hand as she hurriedly walked from near the stove where she was fixing the breakfast. As she walked by, he felt she looked like a dark monsoon cloud waiting to burst open. Something must be wrong, he said to himself. He doesn’t remember seeing a smile on her face ever for the last so many years in fact.

“Listen to me. I am telling you again though you never listen to me. Don’t keep talking for hours to whoever comes to your shop. Just give the medicine and send them away. I don’t want to be stuck in this kitchen for long, not being able to come to the front room”. Her voice was too sharp. He didn’t utter a word. She started walking back to the stove as the burning smell of dosa forced her to do so. 

“Daily I repeat this sermon. But who listens to my words! You are always waiting to get someone to start your old rotten stories”.  She was not one to stop her grumblings. As he walked towards the front room, he could hear the mugs crashing loud on the floor in the kitchen. 

He could not blame her too. A one room apartment is a not a good place to entertain a guest or a customer for too long.  She has never been able to cope with the reality that this one room flat itself is a luxury in the city. As a newlywed and a young girl grown up in a remote village in Kerala, it was with lots of dreams and hopes that she came to his life some twenty five years back. There wasn’t a moment in those early days when she had not expressed her desire to move into a bigger house. But then slowly she had lost hope in him. It didn’t take long for him to become the villain in her dreams from being the hero. The last straw was an evening almost eight years ago when he came home defeated with a termination letter in his hand. That day he was dismissed from the mills and was discarded from her heart. He knew that she had long back bid farewell to her dreams, burying them deep inside her heart, until recently when he has started noticing the shine coming back in her eyes after Rajan secured a job recently. He was glad to see her starting to rebuild her dreams once again, this time around her son. 

The guest by now had become a little restless waiting; and he made it known by muttering under his breath loud enough for Nair to get out of his reverie.

“Sorry, I was searching for my glass”, Nair walked hurriedly to the guest apologizing. He then settled on his seat. 

His guest was still sitting straight looking a little serious. As Nair looked on, he tightened his tie a little more, adjusted his spectacle and raised his hand to look straight at his golden citizen watch to note the time without moving his head, even slightly. He then got up suddenly and walked to the backside of the chair to take his coat. Nair watched him as he put his coat on and walked back to the chair and settled sitting cross legged this time, leaning back a little. 

Nair was by now getting increasingly nervous. 

“Sorry, I have not asked yet who you are. I guess you have not come here for medicines”

The guest cleared his throat, leaned a little forward and then spoke in a very heavy voice.

“I am coming from Parasuram cotton mills’ 

Nair’s heart missed a beat! 

‘Did you say Parasuram mills?” he wasn’t sure of what he had just heard

“Yes”

“Are you an employee of the mills”?

“I am the new General Manager of the mills. My name is Satyapalan”

Nair suddenly jumped out of his chair, as if driven by the old habit. Words got stuck in his mouth. It took him a while to recover.

“Sorry, Sir. I didn’t recognize you”

“No problem Comrade. It is alright. You may please sit”

Nair stood there speechless. It took him a while before he could utter something. 

“Nobody calls me like that since long, Sir. I myself have forgotten the last time I heard someone calling me ‘Comrade’. Now people know me by this shop. I too had come to accept the same over all these years”

Satyapalan only smiled.

“I had worked there for over 20 years. This month I complete eight years since I retired from the mills. I haven’t been enquiring about the mills since many years now”

‘Retired or dismissed”?

Nair was suddenly a little shaken. Slowly shook his head and mumbled

“Well…with many mills being closed down and employees being terminated, I also was a victim. I too was dismissed from the company.”

He stopped at that. He did not tell he was in the frontline of the workers union. He didn’t tell that he was among those workers who fought demanding eight hour work schedule. He didn’t dare to mention that he was involved in the union strike demanding wages on time or to get overtime wages or to stop terminating workers without any reason. He wished to forget that he was leading the struggle to stop the practice of managers calling women employees for night shifts. He was not sure if all those would be counted as achievements in the present. Also, he was afraid if Bhavani was listening. 

“I know everything. Whatever the Company did to you was totally unfair. The company has decided to make amends for the mistake and injustice done to you, even if a little late now.  That is why I myself came here to inform you in person.”  Satyapalan then took out a white envelope from his coat pocket.  

“Please accept this. This is the new appointment order. Our company needs you today more than before.” 

Nair could not believe what was happening around him. “Can this all be true?” he was still struggling to come to terms with what he had just heard.  

Satyapalan slowly placed the cover on Nair’s sweating, shivering hands. He didn’t know how to react. He stood there staring at the letter in silence until his tears started falling on the cover making the letters blurred. 

He accompanied Satyapalan till outside the door. As the door closed behind, he slowly ran his fingers over his name written on the cover. 

After many years, Bhavani served him a special dish for lunch. 

“I am actually not able to believe this, Bhavani. Can you believe the company calling me back to work after these many years?! Must be our good times. You remember? So many times I had received the best operator award from our then Managing Director Mr.Deshmukh. I am sure they might have checked my credentials from the old records. That is probably why they are inviting me again to rejoin”

“Yeah yeah. Don’t make me say something nasty! I am sure all the notoriety that you showed at the company gate is also in those records! The strikes, picketing, fasting, demonstrations… You should be thanking them for calling you back despite your vendetta. If you learn from your mistakes, it would be good for you“

“Those are all old times, Bhavani. It’s all over long back. Now I don’t think there would be any need for such strikes and struggles. Anyway let me consult with our Sekharan as well”

Bhavani’s face became red with anger. 

“You will never learn! Don’t even take that name in front of me. It is only because of the association with him that you are in this state today! Useless ones.’

She threw the mug on the floor with a bang to vent her anger. Nair regretted taking Sekharan’s name in front of her. But he knew he couldn’t take any decision without asking Sekharan. He was the one who always stood with Nair in all his struggles. When Nair tore the termination letter into pieces and threw on the face of Deshmukh, it was only Sekharan who walked out with him. When Nair started building his life all over again with his clinic, Sekharan challenged life head-on choosing to set up a vegetable shop close by. They never missed an evening to meet and spend some time sharing the day’s news and gossips. 

As usual when Sekharan walked up the steps that evening, Nair was in a different zone. He was quite overwhelmed and brimming with joy, waiting eagerly to share the news with Sekharan.

As Sekharan slowly settled onto his chair, Nair started the conversation with a mischievous smile on his face.

‘Sekharan, there is a special news for you today”  

Nair wanted to keep Sekharan guessing. He just wanted to see the curiousness in Sekharan’s eyes grow. He deliberately paused and looked at Sekharan as if to tease him. Shekharan wasn’t playing along however. He looked away, as if not wanting to look at Nair, and asked him in a sober voice,

“Satyapalan came to you too, didn’t he?”

That took Nair by surprise and he was disappointed. He felt as if Sekharan struck a big balloon with a small pin in less than a second! He was even a little annoyed.

“How did you come to know?” Nair’s voice fully reflected his resentment.

“He came to my place too; early in the morning. And, gave me too the appointment letter”

‘Oh…. Very good!”  At once Nair gathered all the lost enthusiasm. 

“I am very happy to hear that, Shekaran. I am sure then they would have approached all our old colleagues. This new General Manager looks very smart. A young and very efficient man he seems. I am sure now the company would do much better. He was quite a gentleman.” 

Sekharan sat still without any reaction. He kept staring at Nair for a while and then slowly opened his mouth.

“Satyapalan is mad”

Nair didn’t hear it. Sekharan repeated.

“Satyapalan is a mental patient”

“What?!!  Sekharan, what did you say?!!”  For a while the earth revolved faster around Nair. After some time when Sekharan slowly placed his cold fingers on his shoulder, Nair got himself back. He was sweating all over.

“What are you saying, Sekharan? Nobody will suspect him of anything of that sort. He looked so perfect a gentleman”

“But what I am telling is true, Balanji. I enquired about Satyapalan. It is now almost a year and half since the mill has closed down”

Sekharan continued as if he was narrating the story of some movie. Nair quietly listened to his words.

“Satyapalan was an employee at the mills. I heard from someone that he even had to shell out huge amount to an agent to get the job. When the company closed down, they didn’t even pay his salary dues and he was in dire financial trouble. Four months ago his wife poisoned her child and hung herself from the kitchen roof. That was the trigger for Satyapalan to lose his mental balance”

By the time Sekharan finished, Nair was in a state of numbness. Both his body and mind were in shatters. He kept silent. As time passed, silence grew monstrous between them. Both were wandering in their own thoughts for long. 

Suddenly the phone rang. Neither of them was in a state to pick up the phone. Bhavani rather came running from the kitchen and picked the phone. It hardly took a few seconds before she banged it on the cradle and started walking back. She was grumbling a little louder as she walked.

“It is him, Rajan. My sweet son!” She couldn’t conceal her frustration. “Today also he is going to be late from office. Says he has lot of work and will be quite late” 

Nair and Sekharan could hear her hard footsteps. She started clearing the table where she had kept dinner ready for Rajan.  Another glass mug went crashing on the floor as she continued to curse everyone around. 

‘Don’t these IT kids need to eat or sleep? Don’t they ever think of their family back home? I wish I had sent him to be a school teacher.” she was not in a mood to stop. 

“Cant these kids come home in time at least for food?” Nair asked himself turning to Sekharan

.  

“This has become a regular routine for him, you know. He goes early in the morning and comes home long after we both go to bed. For the last three or four weeks he has never reached home before midnight. And, he would be out early morning. Every night she waits for him with dinner and then ends up going to bed without him turning up. I tell her not keep dinner for him, but she never listens.”

Sekharan just smiled and sunk into silence. As the silence started growing bigger between them, he asked Nair.

‘Balanji, do you remember those days when we used to lead strikes and shout slogans demanding eight hour work and fare wages? I strongly doubt if anybody today would be willing even to raise those slogans anymore.”

Before Nair got the chance to nod in agreement, Bhavani walked in. 

“You old folks don’t seem to like today’s kids doing good, do you? You guys better leave them alone”. She didn’t even spare Sekharan from her sharp stare. 

Sekharan didn’t wait to hear the rest. He slowly started walking down the steps. The sad smile on his face was not to be seen in the darkness outside. Nair silently stood there for long watching him disappearing into the darkness. Then he started slowly arranging the bottles back on the shelves, getting ready to close the shop for the day. 

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Deja Vu: Story by Suresh Kodoor

Papa's Love

Papa’s Love

My friend Ram Mohan works as a senior project manager in an Indian multi-national IT company. He lives in Bangalore for the last 10 years or so. He was my colleague in my previous company, a UK multi-national software firm, and that is how I knew him. We worked together at their Bangalore office. A few years back he quit and joined his present company while I quit and started my own start up venture. We still meet occasionally and catch up over a beer or coffee. Some of our common friends also would join us once in a while. These are the occasions where we share stories from our work places as well as on our new harmless adventures.  This is one such story Ram Mohan shared when we met last week.

We were generally discussing about our busy schedules and how we many times miss important events in the life of our loved ones. Travel, late night calls, important deliveries, the list goes on and on. All of us had pretty much same common reasons and excuses for missing birthdays, anniversaries, school events, parent teacher meetings, kid’s convocations, mom’s 84^th birthday, onam, diwali or pongal like festivities; you name it, we have it in our list.

“Talking about busy schedules and late working? Guys, listen to this. This incident in fact really touched me a bit”, Ram Mohan suddenly announced the preface for his story. His voice was a little louder than his usual. He suddenly sounded a little emotional too. I thought he probably finished his second bottle a little too soon while we were still working on our first!

‘Suresh, you remember how we used to tell our team not to stay in office after 7? Well, that has all become old golden lines now yaar. These days I myself never get to leave before 10. Project delivery is always behind the schedule. Most of the team members also pretty much stay till late evening with me”

‘Yeah’, I nodded. I remember him in team meetings suggesting the team should not stay late. Ram Mohan is a good task master, in fact better than me in extracting work from the team members. I usually consider myself pretty good in working with team. But Ram Mohan had impressed me with his style of dealing with the teams. He is strict with the deliverables, but still never supported people having to work till late in the night. He would always advise his team to have a life outside office too. And, I never had seen him missing any project deadlines. Both of us had this line pasted in our cabins;

“Don’t take your girl friend home, your wife wont like her”. Of course the girl friend is the ‘work’.

So, when he says he is dealing with missing project timelines I could imagine the situation he must be in.

 “This is about one of my team leads. In fact, I should say I am also responsible for it in a way”. Ram Mohan got into his story.

“This guy Sanjay is one of my team leads. Quite a smart and hard working guy. That is why in fact I made him the lead for our new US project”.

“This guy has two kids, Twin boys. I know his wife also. She works as a school teacher. Actually they were without kids for long after their marriage. They were trying for a child for more than some 10 or 12 years, before they finally had the babies. There wasn’t anything that they had not tried. Doctors, temples, poojas, all that…”  Ram Mohan paused for a while as if he was empathizing with the couple on their past agony.

All of us by now had become curious. All our eyes and ears were on Ram Mohan! That is him. He is a very good story teller. He got a special knack of making anything dramatic and interesting.

“So, couple of weeks back Sanjay asked me for a day’s leave, I think for Wednesday or Thursday. The day was his kid’s fifth birthday. He was planning to celebrate calling all of us and so wanted to take leave. Unfortunately I could not allow that. First of all our director was here from the US and he was to leave on Friday. We were all frantically trying to release the beta version and demo it to him before he leaves. I was concerned about not only his absence, but I was also concerned about the rest of the team going for the party. If he keeps the celebration on a working day, I was sure at least half a day would be gone for the entire team as well, as they all would have to attend the party. So, I suggested him to move the birthday celebration to the weekend”.

“Sanjay agreed. I am not sure, if he was ok with it or he did because he didn’t have any option”. Ram Mohan glanced at all of us. May be he was expecting an approval nod from us, I wasn’t sure.

“Well, what option he would have had anyway, Ram?”, Anil’s comment was perhaps what we all wanted to tell too.

“I thought I was a bit harsh on him, you know. Told him he shouldn’t forget about his responsibilities at office. He didn’t say anything when I refused him leave on a working day.  Well, what can I do? I didn’t want to favour anyone. Others also will then start asking for the same, especially not when those US guys are around”

“So, Sanjay moved the party is it?”

“yeah, he kept the party on Saturday. We all went; our entire team. The party was at his new house. In fact party for his new house also was pending. I guess he combined both, the birthday and house treats. He has a nice flat, you know. Nice complex and a big flat. I am sure it might have cost him at least some 80-85 lakhs”

“Man!! That is a big EMI nightmare for him for the next 20 years at least!”  Exclaimed Vivek. Vivek is our group’s EMI calculator. For anyone taking any loans, first consultant is Vivek.

“We were there at his party that day, the whole team from the office. And you know his kids are very smart. Very cute and jolly kids; Suman and Sohan”. Nothing distracted Ram though from continuing with his story.

“And, you know, I just called Sohan near me and asked him who is papa’s kid, he or Suman. Whom does dad love more, I asked.”

‘Neither me nor Sohan, uncle’. Came the reply from Suman who was standing next by, that too quite loud.

‘Oh, I know. He loves your mom more huh?’

“Suddenly both the kids laughed so loud as if I did ask something stupid, you know”.

‘No, uncle, not mom. I will show you who papa loves the most’. Suman went running and Sohan followed him.

“We all were quite curious by now. I became a bit tensed also. What if the kid brings in some neighbor aunty!  That would be really embarrassing for Sanjay, I thought”.

By then both the kids came to the hall, as if making a grand appearance in style.  

‘Here is papa’s lover!’  Sohan made the announcement and in his hands was Sanjay’s office laptop!

“I was sort of relieved. Rest all had a loud and hearty laugh. Sohan stood in the middle smiling victoriously and lifting the laptop over his head”.

“Sanjay was obviously embarrassed and hurriedly grabbed the laptop and went to his room to keep it safe. Within minutes everything was back to usual”

Ram Mohan paused. He started sipping from his glass and sat quiet. We all felt a little awkward. May be everybody suddenly had fallen into an introspective mood.

“Forget man, this is nothing new. Don’t be so sensitive. C’mon, have one more”. Manu, who was sitting next to Ram, broke the silence first. He filled Ram’s glass. Suddenly we all busted into loud laugher while Ram Mohan joined us with a cheers lifting his full glass.

Papa's Love:  Story by Suresh Kodoor

sureshkodoor@gmail.com