The Hunter and the Hunted

Hi All. Before I start to continue I will like to thank all of you who took their time out to read my previous story "Weird Weird ..." and also left your comments whether via mail or comments. A lot of you have requested a change in my writing style. Someone even branded me a male chauvinist as my stories never have a female character, so I have decided to give it a try. This one may not make you laugh like my previous ones. It is my first attempt to try a sort of serious story, so You may not like it specially if you have been accustomed to my previous writings. But still give it a patient read and let me know your rsponse. Regd. the previous story, I got a lot of mails that it was not as good as some previous ones. Thanks to all who have actually taken the pain of comparing the stories, and I will take your feedback into the account next time.


Life it is said is a great settler. Nothing could have been closer to the truth now for Praveen Sarkar. Some time back he had nothing except a few friends for whom he would have given his whole life and a dream to make it big in his life. It was with these dreams and some money he had earned that he had moved from a small town in West Bengal to the glamorous city of Bangalore to try his luck in a small enterprise. If Mumbai was the city of dreams for every small town Indian few years back, this place is now slowly being taken by Bangalore especially for the budding entrepreneurs. Praveen had never liked the concept of working under someone and he always wanted to start a business. His father didn’t like the idea but still he supported him by providing him a sum to start up his venture. Once he came to Bangalore his luck has soared. Whatever he touched had turned to Gold. He started with a small coffee shop and soon turned it into a restaurant. He tried his hand in a travel agency and soon that too hit success due to the IT boom and the increasing number of Call Centers and BPO’s in the city. After 3 years he also tried his hand in the construction business and that too worked. In a matter of mere four years he had made himself quiet a name. While his restaurant chain named “Swad” had become a hit among large number of north Indians living in the city, his “Sarkar travels” boasted of more than 20 cars and provided pick up and drop services to some of the Top MNC employees in the city.



But today all his employees were finding him unusually quiet and lost. He sat himself down on a small bench outside his restaurant placed conveniently on the always busy ITPL road. It seemed he desperately needed to talk his heart out to someone but then everyone realized that he actually has no friends there. He had never felt the need to have one. He didn’t realize till now that he has become a loner. That is the dark truth of this city. It can give you everything you want, but for all that it will take away your life. But that generally is a small price to pay for most people. He looked down on the rushing traffic below. He vividly remembered that this was the place where he first opened a small coffee shop and hired four persons. A person who made the coffee, one who took the order, one who did the cleaning and the fourth one was he himself, who managed the accounts and the markets. The other three were nowhere in sight now and the small coffee shop named “Relish” was also nowhere to be seen. The sun had set and dusk had fallen over the city. He at times showed a strong urge to go back to his home town, but soon he rejected the idea, as he knew that was not an option. He had disagreements from his parents following his decision to try his luck in travel business and he hadn’t talked to his parents since then. He remembered it had been more than 1 year. He stood at the railing and looked into the far horizon. It was beginning to get dark and rush to his restaurant was increasing. Friday night always was one of the best days of business. Husbands and Wives, Small families, a group of friends or a boyfriend and girlfriend and at times an occasional loner visited his restaurants and seemed to speak their hearts out over meal. Although he had four restaurants in Bangalore, he preferred to spend his evenings at this one for it always reminded him of his roots. He wanted to take a puff but he could not break his own rules. He took out his cell phone to look at the time. He didn’t prefer to keep a wrist watch and even his phone was a primitive model. He had once tried a Nokia N97 but found it too complicated and he had gone back to his good old Nokia 1600. There are some people who take to new technology like fish to water. He certainly was not one of them. It was 18:45. He took a corner seat on the restaurant and took out his balance sheet with a hope that it will keep him engaged. It didn’t. His staff mostly consisted of waiters from different corners of North India and only one female was her manager Reema. Reema had been his best hire whom he had hired last year following his last manager’s Deepti’s decision to quit the job. Her skills of dealing with uncomfortable and embarrassing situations were exemplary. Just some time ago a man in a black suit had walked in complaining that why has his table not been booked. Once again she dealt with the situation nicely. She went and politely asked a couple sitting on a table to move to a smaller table in corner, which they agreed and then got two tables joined to meet the black suit’s requirement and all the while she managed to keep smiling. Someone had once told Praveen that this skill was called interpersonal skills and for sure Reema Sahay had it in her. He was initially skeptical about hiring her for this job. But as it turned out, it was a great decision for she was highly efficient and even some rowdy customers behaved better in her presence. Reema was also beautiful and her cheeks formed a naughty dimple when she smiled and there were many customers who came to hotel only to get a chance to fall in those dimples. But her boss never seemed to notice her. Reema had also noticed his boss looking glum since last day as if he was still thinking about what transpired the last day.



It was around the same time on previous day that a person wearing a light blue shirt and cotton pants had walked to his restaurant and got seated in a corner. He was talking to a waiter that he had reserved a table for two here. On asking his name he had replied “Deepak. Deepak Gupta.” Hearing this name had ringed a bell in Praveen’s ears. He looked at him intently. It was unmistakable; he was his old friend Deepu. Reema saw Praveen walked straight to him and said, “Hey Deepak! Good to see you. Remember me?” She was privileged enough to overhear all their conversations.
Deepak had looked lost. He strained his eyes and wrinkled his forehead, and after some time said, “Praveen? What the hell? Where had you been?” They embraced each other and sat down at a table.
“How come you are here?” Deepak asked.
“I should ask you that, for I own this restaurant.” Praveen said.
“Stop Kidding”
“I am not kidding. I am the owner of Swad restaurant chains” Praveen said with an air of pride in his voice.
“Unbelievable man!” said Deepak as he brushed his hairs and added “So I and my wife get some discount tonight.”
“Wife? You got married.”
“Yes. 6 months back. Love marriage” he replied.
“Asshole. You did not even call me?”
“What the hell. No contact of you was available with anyone. You had disappeared after college. Neither are you on Orkut.” He said.
“Orkut. What’s that?”
Deepak looked stunned. It seemed as if he couldn’t believe that Praveen has still not heard about the Social Networking site that had around 100 million users, despite living in the IT Hub but he did not want to go into detail and Reema knew that Praveen may not even know what social networking was.
“Forget it. You tell me why you didn’t get married or you have?” he said
“Cut the cliché. You tell me the name of the unlucky girl.” Praveen joked.
“Wait for it. She will be here in some time. You will be surprised as you know her. She has just left office, will be here in 5 minutes.” Deepak said.
“Oh where does she work? And do you work as well?” He joked again.
“For sure I do. I work in Flextronics and she is in Tata Consultancy services” he replied.
“Great” said Praveen. He didn’t want to talk more about technical things for his knowledge was severely limited in this field. Reema had noticed that Deepak looked much younger than Praveen but she was sure that Deepak’s salary would be no way even near to what Praveen makes in a month. They talked about their home town Asansol and their college and relived some forgotten moments until Deepak suddenly looked over to the gate and exclaimed, “Hey! Here she comes” and waved his hand. Praveen turned back instantly and once he saw her, Reema saw Praveen’s eyes froze as if some lightning had struck him. A lady entered the Restaurant. She was wearing a white chiffon kurta and blue jeans. She was slim and tall and her eyes were twinkling and she wore a mischievous smile on her amazingly beautiful face. Her hair was straightened and fell elegantly over her shoulders and some of it covered the side of her left cheek, and those eyes, well, they were just beautiful. Deepak got up, took her hand in his and placed his left hand on her back and said, “Hey darling! Meet him. Do you remember him?”
She looked at Praveen closely and her eyes got wider as she said “Praveen! Unbelievable.”
“You know my name, Priyanka? I thought you didn’t” Praveen said, trying to look away from her.
“Of course I do. The back bencher right?” she said and winked and both of them sat beside him. Praveen hadn’t bothered to get up all this while.
“You know Priya! This chain of restaurants is his.” Deepak informed.
“Is it?” Her eyes went wide again “You must be kidding” she said and giggled.
“I am serious.” Deepak confirmed.
“That is great. You really made it big in life. Congratulations” she said as she extended a hand to Praveen.
“Thanks!” he told as he took her soft hands in his and added “and of course, congrats to both of you too. You look great together.” Reema understood he didn’t mean it. This was the way he was. It was very difficult for him to give complements. “So what do you suggest we can have in your restaurant? And I hope it’s free” Deepak said.
Reema wanted to kick Deepak out of her restaurant and show everyone how wretched this guy was to use his friendship to have a free meal.
“Hey!!! Where is your attention?” said Priyanka as she waved her hand in front of his eyes.
“Nothing” he said and smiled and suggested them some items. They dined together and talked about their past, but all the while Praveen remained mostly silent, just adding a word here and there. Reema noticed it but she found it rather usual as he had always been of a reserved and soft-spoken personality. After a sumptuous dinner they got up to leave and Praveen watched fixedly as Deepak put a hand on Priyanka’s waist as they walked out of restaurant.



Praveen went to the rather empty open air restaurant on the roof top and sat down in a corner. He wanted to smoke and for an instance decided to do it. After all it was his restaurant, and he can break the rules at least. He took a cigarette and placed it into his lips. He was about to reach for his lighter but just then he saw some people looking at him and also the No smoking sign behind him. Off course they did not know that he owned this place for going by his appearance, he was wearing a cotton shirt, black terry coat trousers and old fashioned sandals; he looked no more than a small broker. He took the cigarette out of his lips and threw it aside.
He took out his mobile again and looked at the time. It was showing 20:02. Two persons sitting at the near table had broken into a discussion about how his restaurant has increased prices.


Well, he had to increase prices as the price of all commodities had increased. One of them wondered how a poor person will afford food if food prices keep hitting sky high. Other end of the roof consisted of a noisy group of seven friends probably fresh college grads celebrating their first salary. They seemed to be having some real fun and some dirty jokes. He looked at them for some time and then looked down at the traffic which seemed to be settling down now. He took a magazine from the magazine stand, ordered the waiter for a tea and started reading some article. The rush was slowly decreasing in his restaurant. There were more empty tables to be seen. The staff looked more relaxed now. The noise levels had decreased. He looked at his cell again which was showing 21:32. In half an hour he would have to close the orders and 22:30 he will have to close according to some stupid government rule which wanted to stop dinner at a time when one should ideally have dinner. He roamed around a bit and finally stood at the railing again looking at the darkness.


After some fifteen minutes, he felt someone came by his side and said “Sir, Should we close early today? I don’t see anyone coming now.” He turned and looked at Reema standing beside him. She had taken off her coat and was now wearing the white shirt and knee length black skirt. The top button of her shirt was too low for his comfort and for the first time he looked into her eyes, which actually looked weary as expected at the end of the day.


He looked around and said “Yeah! I think so. Mubarak! Closed!” he said to his gatekeeper signaling him to change the label on door. He remembered all his staffs’ names.


“You will like to have dinner?” Reema asked him.

This was not the first time Reema had asked him. Every other time he will say yes and Reema will ask some waiter to give him food and take her leave. But his reply this time was “Yeah! I think so. Why don’t you join me for dinner? I will drop you to your house today.” It was then she realized that how desperate he was to talk to someone.
“Are you sure sir?” Reema asked.
“Yes! And stop calling me sir now. Work hours are over now.”
“Ok sir, I will get the food.” She said and went in and after some five minutes returned with a waiter carrying some food in a trolley and some plates. She sat down opposite to Praveen and the waiter served some food in plates.
“Bahadur! You can have food and leave now. We don’t need anything else.” Praveen said to waiter.


Praveen looked uncomfortable. Reema realized that it might be because it was the first time he was having dinner with a girl. He looked at Reema who was serving some curry on his plate. Her white satin shirt revealed her chiseled figure and her face glowed in the candle light. She had undone her hair which now blew loosely all over her face and covered the better part of her left cheek. He tried to look away from her but something made him look at her legs, nicely rounded and waxed. He turned his gaze quickly realizing Reema might be looking at him. Reema had finished serving and was waiting for him to start. He took the fork and spoon and signaled her to start.
Reema ate slowly, as her mind was working fast. She had finally got the opportunity she had been looking for quite some time now. Belonging to a small town in U.P, she always dreamt of money, and to her the shortest way was to marry someone rich and famous. Right from the time she had joined the Restaurant she has been trying to get her boss’ attention but the person seemed to be a jerk, not picking any of her signals. She had almost given up, but today seemed different. Her boss appeared perplexed and it was in this time she had to pick her spot. She had to seize this moment. She had caught him looking at her body and she knew this was the time. But she had to be very careful.


“Don’t you think we should also start serving some south Indian cuisines? It will bring us more customers.” Reema knew she had to start conversation.
“No way! Have you seen the way they eat? They will piss off north Indian customers and anyway most of them never visit restaurants. They are the biggest misers on earth” said Praveen. He had his disliking for the food and life-style of south which had accumulated over the past, but this was the first time he had expressed it openly.

“Is everything ok, Praveen?”said Reema in very measured tone and the ‘Praveen’ was spoken even slower to leave some effect, which sir couldn’t.

“Why?”

“No you look very disturbed today? I haven’t seen you so dejected before.” It was going according to her plan now.

Praveen thought for a moment. It seemed he desperately wanted to speak out his heart but said “Nothing serious. Just a mood swing.”

“Come on! You can tell me. Consider me your friend.” She said, all the while looking very sympathetically and invitingly into his eyes.

Reema had played her move perfectly. Praveen seemed to have been caught off guard. Just half an hour ago, Praveen had been his boss, now he has become a friend. “Give a troubled person a good listening and then he can give you everything”, someone had once told her and that is what she did for other ten minutes as Praveen opened his life story in front of her. He told her everything about Priyanka. She had been love of his life but he had never dared to tell his feelings. He had fell in love with her right from the first day in college, but had never dared to approach her as he was an introvert who loved sitting on the back bench while she was the glam queen, popular and always in demand. He had hung around her many times hoping to get a word from her. But as fate would have it, she never quite noticed him. Every day he used to plan of a way to start a conversation from her, but as soon as he went near her, his diffidence got better of him. She never noticed him in all three years. There is a strange thing about girls, on all social networking sites and in every slam book they will enter their perfect match as someone who should be honest, mature, genuine and not fake things, but in reality they will never notice these guys and will often fall for guys who are loud mouthed snobs and pure attention seekers. Even after coming to Bangalore he kept thinking about her during the lonely nights. He would consider calling her, but he kept on procrastinating it, always planning to be a little more successful before he calls her. For some mysterious reason in the world he had imagined that Priyanka would still be in that small city waiting for him. But today it had struck him like a bolt from the blue. He told her about Deepak and their marriage. He told her about his parents to whom he was not talking anymore. He told her how lonely he was in the big city. He told her about his hate for this place and his longing to go back home. Reema heard it all patiently all the while not believing her luck. She had struck the iron just when it was red hot.


Praveen suddenly seemed much better as if a monkey was off his back. Reema knew that sometimes a patient ear works more wonder than soothing words. He relaxed down and Reema had noticed it. She just needed to get some soothing words out now.


“Why do you think you are wrong? Couldn’t you see that that girl did not even notice you in college? You say you didn’t call her but did you not notice that even she didn’t call you. She is a loser and she didn’t recognize your value. She fell for a man just because he is more suave. She just wasn’t cut out for you. You are worth much more.”


These words seemed to put things in a new perspective for Praveen. He seemed to just have realized that Reema was right. “Thanks! I think you are right. I didn’t think about it this way” He finally smiled and Reema had noticed that he slowly looked down at her again. Then they started talking about a variety of things. Reema told her a lot of things about herself that he did not know. They talked on every subject over the dinner regarding how he started an enterprise, how she came to Bangalore and lot more. Praveen seemed to relax more each passing moment and also it appeared as if he was getting more enchanted with Reema. Reema looked beautiful, she sounded childish and her ever inviting smile could have caught anyone off guard. He just didn’t take his eyes off her for all this while. Reema knew this had gone well. Now only one final nail in coffin was needed, that was SEX. This was going to be tricky and may well backfire. She was sure once they had sex Praveen would propose her next day and even if he doesn’t she didn’t lose anything as she had already lost her virginity when she was just 19. The problem was how to get him into that situation. Reema had thought her plan. She excused herself for going to washroom, and very silently called her roommate Deepti to spend the night somewhere else tonight as Deepti had often done with her whenever she brought her boyfriend home. Then she touched up her makeup, pulled her shirt a little lower and walked back to her boss who looked more relaxed now.


She saw Praveen had just washed his hands and looked much cheerful. She walked towards him and said, “I’ll leave now. You don’t worry I will take an auto.” This was another one which could have backfired, for knowing Praveen, he could well have said yes. She was relieved when he said “No no! I’ll drop you. It’s late now. You wait on the gate, I’ll get the car”


She waited on gate as he went to get the car. She felt nervous and could almost hear her heart beat. She had set this up perfectly. Her prey was in range now, but she knew just one mistake and that would be it. He got the car in front of her and opened the front door and signaled her to sit. To many people’s amazement Praveen still preferred to drive a Maruti 800 despite the fact that he could have afford at least Tata Indigo. But Reema knew he was down to earth. She sat down and fastened her seat belt. She reached her house in fifteen minutes drive. He hadn’t spoken much on the way but she had caught him looking at her from the corner of his eye on many occasions.


She got down and asked, “Would you like to come in and have some coffee?”

“At this time?” Praveen looked surprised.

“Ugggggghhhhhh!!!! How dumb?” Reema thought but added, “Yes! It’s rather cold out here.”

He took out his mobile, looked at time and said “It’s rather late.”

“Come on! It will hardly be 10 minutes” she said. As it turned out it took more than 10 hours before he left.

Reema lay triumphantly in bed after he had left in the morning. He had not proposed her and had looked rather embarrassed over what conspired the last night. But she knew it had gone well and there was no reason to panic. He was just like that. It would take some time for him to accept that he had fallen in love with her. She would help him do it. Moreover, he hadn’t been bad at all considering it might well have been his first time. She got up and took a pill, drank some water and looked at herself in the mirror. It had taken time but her plan had finally worked out. She stood some time before the mirror and admired her masterpiece of a figure. All those hours in the gym, the strict diet regimes had finally been worth it. She realized that she didn’t need to rush to her work now. After all, the restaurant will soon be hers in a few days. She went back to bed, pulled her blanket over her face and went to sleep totally at peace with herself.

Praveen drove back home and opened the door and sat down on a chair in his balcony. He felt tired but content. He took out his cell and dialed a number. After some time he heard a “Hello”

“Hello Deepak! Good Morning” Praveen said.

“Hey !!!Good Morning, Praveen. I didn’t expect you to call back so soon” the voice came.

“Just wanted to tell you something”

“What?”

“You know what! The Deepak and Priyanka story worked once again, for the third time in third year. 100% success rate.” Praveen said.

“Don’t tell me! So you had her?”

“Yes. Money has been transferred to your account.”

“Thanks man! Praveen, Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“It’s bizarre man! You could have done that an year ago without any such long drama but you chose to set her up. I still don’t get it”

“It’s just a nice sport man. All the while she felt that she had set me up. It’s a great hunt when all the while the hunted feels that it is the hunter. She will feel that she had earned me. She will feel that she had pushed me into this, but in reality I just let her push me into it. Now, she will never be able to blame me for this and after some time she’ll rather feel guilty about it. She will again and again plot a similar night each time with the hope that I will give her that coveted ring and in course of time she will realize that I am rather dumb and will move on still unable to blame me. So while she will still believe that she had hunted a dumb rabbit the reality that she had been hunted stupid cow.”

“You are too wicked man. Riya, Deepti and now Reema. I wonder what’s next or rather, who is next?”

“I am not wicked. I just enjoy showing the schemers like Reema how much do they really suck, It’s they who plan and scheme and finally get trapped into it.”

“Ok buddy! Next time at least do find a better Priyanka, this one was a headache to train”

“Sure. Bye and take care” he said and hung up.

He made himself a coffee and just for a moment thought what Reema must be thinking now. He couldn’t help himself having a nice laugh.

Weird, Weird Varun Shyamak

Before I get on with the story, I would like to thank all the people who read and gave their comments on my previous story "Pursuit of Madness". Some of you preferred to use mail rather than giving your comments here. I would still like you all to leave your reactions on blog, no matter whatever it is. Some of you felt that it was a true story, which it was not. True, some names matched with people but it was coincidental. Even this story may use names that may sound heard. So I would like to confirm that it is a fiction work and please do not draw parallels. So read on and enjoy. And also Wish you a very happy and prosperous Diwali...



There are strange people, then there are stranger people and then there are people like Varun Shyamak. I met Varun when I was staying in a men’s hostel in Bangalore some one year back and we were friends for some six months. A Chemical Engineer from Mysore, he was as weird as weird could get. All his activities ranged from funny to strange to bizarre to hilarious to irritating. He would repeatedly talk to himself, laugh all of a sudden and most of the time appeared to be in a different world. His mood swings were mysterious, as one moment he will sound jolly, sober and intellectual only to become depressed and idiotic in the next. One day he will go and spend a lot of money on inconsequential things and the next day he will turn a miser and not even spend a penny. He was psychotic about cleanliness of room and will often land into verbal duels with roommates over it. At times he would wake up at 1 A.M in the night and start reading newspaper intently much to the chagrin of his roommates. At times he will switch on T.V in late night to try his luck on some channels. Some of the roommates still swear that they had caught him doing it in late night. One night he had also woken up shouting in middle of night for some reason which still remains a mystery. In short, he seemed to be a nature’s prodigy, but still for some reason he was a good friend to have for he seemed to be of a clean conscience.
But things reached an extreme when we planned a two day vacation. While we were planning where to go, Varun said to me, “Hey Jeet, how about Jog falls? It’s a nice place and I have been there before.” He preferred to call me Jeet rather than Abhijeet which was my name or Abhi which others preferred. Saurav and Rachit, who were his neighbors, appreciated the idea. Ramesh who happened to be our organizer for each such outing took it upon himself to make sure that more people join us, which he believed would be a memorable one. When Ramesh is out to convince people, you bet he will be successful, and this time was no exception. He made sure that his friend and colleague, Harpreet Singh, a well buit Jat from Haryana with a great sense of humour and jolly mood, joined us. Along with them, Vikash Kishore, the senior most among us, also agreed to come. He was the only married person in the hostel and was here for a short term before he shifted his family to Bangalore. Vikash Sir, as we affectionately called him, had a very subtle sense of humor. In my words, he could peel the skin of other without him noticing it. Ramesh, meanwhile arranged a Qualis for the trip and also got the list of places that must be visited along with the order in which they would be most economical. This was his specialty, the awesome knack of getting things done. The trip was to start at Friday night and we planned to be back by Sunday night. “This is going to be great. We will remember it all our life”, Varun had said. He was serious.

The car arrived sharp at 10 P.M on Friday and with it started Varun’s mellow drama. While everyone got seated in the car in 5 minutes, Varun was nowhere to be heard of or seen. Ramesh tried his cell fanatically just to get no response. I and Rachit went to his room only to find him sitting and watching TV, with a shoe cleaner in his hand, as if he had forgotten how to clean his shoes and was waiting for some divine intervention. I wanted to shout but held myself back as it is never a good idea to start a holiday on a negative note.
“Come down Varun, everyone is waiting”, Rachit begged.
Varun looked up as if he had been woken up right in the mid of a dream. “Yar, give me two minutes. I need to clean my shoe” he said.
“You should have done it earlier”, I couldn’t hide my irritation.
“Yes, but it would have got dirty by now. I always clean my shoes just before wearing” he said. It was very difficult to argue his logistics for he added some subtle reason for all his weird activities.
“Ok. Hurry up! We will wait in car. Come down fast.” I said.
“Ya! I will be down in two minutes”, he said.
We went down and sat in car. Ramesh was getting frustrated each passing moment. Finally after five minutes, he shouted, “Whose idea was it to bring this jerk with us?” I pointed to Saurav, who was sitting very innocently in the back seat. “Fuck you! This guy will create trouble everywhere. He will play spoilsport at all occasions. We will want to do something and he will be counting pennies or will be giving his ideologies.”Ramesh prophesied. Ramesh didn’t like Varun and he had his reasons. Some time back Varun had invited four of us, comprising me, Ramesh, Rachit and my ex-roommate Sushant to his treat as he had got a job. Though the hotel was very small, in fact it was more of a roadside eateries, we still agreed and after dinner the expenses came to just around 300 bucks. But what happened after that was simply incredible. Varun refused to pay the whole amount. He paid 100 Rupees and said, “I put in 100, now all of you put in at least 50 each. 100 Rupees is enough for the party.” As expected it had infuriated us and the relation had got strained. Sushant never talked to Varun again after that. Ramesh was always bent on pulling his legs with vengeance rather than anything else. I and Rachit however tried to remain same despite that, but still even we couldn’t forget that.

After waiting another fifteen minutes, Saurav decided to go and look for him again. I accompanied him to Varun’s room, where we saw him frantically searching for something. Saurav asked him what had happened. “I can’t find my magazines. I kept them somewhere yesterday. I’ll just find it and come.” He explained rather calmly.

“Are yar! Everyone is waiting for you. Leave the magazine. Come now” Saurav protested, probably feeling guilty to include him in the plan.

“Just two minutes yar. There is no need to hurry. We will reach in 5 hours drive. I will just find the magazine and come”

“Leave it yar. Buy some magazine on the way.” I was beginning to get frustrated.

“No that magazine is expensive one and is not available everywhere. Just give me two minutes. You sit in the car, I will be there soon.”

“Ok come soon or we leave without you” I could stand it no further.

“Why are you behaving like that? I am just asking for two minutes” he said too calmly for comfort.
Saurav left and asked me to join him, which I did, thereby diffusing a potential bomb. “He is a freak and sure he is needed on the trip for more fun.” Saurav was trying to cheer me up.

On seeing me and Saurav return without Varun, Ramesh lost it. He said “Let’s go! Leave the weirdo. It’s more than half an hour. He is not a VIP.”

“He is searching some magazine and says he will reach in 5 minutes” Saurav said rather apologetically.

“Cool down Ramesh. You know those types of magazines are his medicines. He can live without food, not without them.” Harpreet said, in his typical casual humorous style.

“Correctly said Daljeet!” Vikash Sir said. For some reason, he could not remember Harpreet’s name and each time he called him with different name ranging from Preet to Paramjeet to Manjeet. I was sure that this wasn’t accidental and Vikash sir had very innocently found a way to rag Harpreet.

“Come on! My name is Harpreet. Har—pree—t. Please sir.” He said holding his head.

“Oh, I am so sorry, Parmeet” said Vikash and this had everybody including Ramesh burst out laughing, while Rachit started rolling.

“Are yar! Let’s start without him. Fuck Varun” I said as the laughter died down. The driver too was getting impatient for I could see him playing with the key.

“Right. It’s 10:45. We have waited for him more than 30 minutes now. Whoever wants to wait for him can get out and wait. We will leave now.” Ramesh said.

“Let’s wait five more minutes Ramesh now that we have waited so long. And you do remember how much fun we had when we went to Koorg and he was there” Vikash sir was trying desperately to cool him down.

All of us had gone to Koorg some time back where Varun’s weird acts had made it a memorable one. Most of the time we had kept pulling his leg and some great banter were exchanged. Above all it was Varun’s comedy of errors that had really given some hilarious moments. While all of us marveled the natural beauty from the car, Varun spent it sleeping on mine or Harpreet’s soldier. Even when we got down at some places his attention was more on skinny beauty rather than Scenic beauty, a memorable one being one at Raja Seat. While all of us where engrossed in watching breathtaking scenery, Varun spotted a beautiful girl, rather a beautiful woman, who walked to other side of the hill. Varun said to us “Let’s go and see the scenery from there” as if we didn’t know what scenery he wanted to see. We disagreed but Varun, slowly followed her path, while trying to show as if he wasn’t. He put one finger in nose and slowly and nonchalantly continued in her direction very innocently, still believing that no one knows what he is up to. His fore finger was in his nose and he was seeing the lady from corner of eye and somehow still believing that no one can understand what he is doing. Vikash Sir looked on and joked, “His fingers are either in his nose or his underwear”. As he disappeared, we kept an eye on him using our binoculars. We spotted him standing on the edge of a cliff some 20 meters from the lady, and trying desperately to strike a cool pose. He had put his hands in the pocket and was looking straight at the horizon with the eye of an aesthete. The lady, however, seemed to give him no attention. Finally after trying for around 10 minutes, he gave up and came back to our place and said intellectually, “Are yar! We have come for a tour. Don’t sit at one place. You should go and check out all places. View is also very beautiful from there. You people should have come.” Rachit could not help his laughter and he burst out following which everyone had burst out. “We also saw the view Varun” Saurav had said. Similar instances occurred at a lot of places after that when he disappeared for feeding fishes, taking picture, reading inscriptions or spotting better view but none of the girl had given him any attention. “Probably the sooner he realizes that he is not as cool as he thinks, it would be better for him” Rachit had said. He was damn right.


“Five minutes it is. I am not waiting a second longer” Ramesh warned.

“Right. Even I can’t take it any longer” I said.

To everyone’s relief we saw Varun coming with a copy of National Geographic journal in his hand.
“Why the hell do you need that in journey?” asked Harpreet.

“It’s really good yar. It has very deep insights.” Replied Varun.

“Strange, but not surprising” I whispered to Rachit. “He is a snob” Rachit whispered back, “I bet he won’t read more than a page but he wants to show he is intellectual. Don’t you remember Koorg trip?”he added. “I do remember that” I said and we smiled.

Varun had carried two copies of discovery channel’s journal in Koorg trip. He would take it out in the car, each time we sat down. Will open a page but never complete it. Then when we had to get down, he will keep everyone waiting, while he struggled to keep it back in his bag, which had been kept behind the seat. In fact this habit of his had almost resulted in him losing his buttocks. It happened so, that at one place we had to get down at a temple. The temple being on other side of road, the driver stopped on main road and asked us to get down fast, following which he will take a U turn and park it. Everyone got down quickly, but as expected Varun was still struggling with his journal and bag and was also blocking Rachit. After waiting for some time the driver had to move on and Vikash Sir banged the door on him and what we saw was Varun’s ass was hanging outside the window of the car as the car moved on and found the parking. Everyone had turned furious at Varun’s act, but Vikash sir once again calmed it up by a well timed joke saying “People clean it, yours almost got cleaned up”.


“Sit down. We would have left in another five minutes” said Ramesh as he sat in the front seat. I too took my seat and left the door open for Varun. We were eager that finally it would start. But to our horror Varun was still standing at the door, holding it with one hand, and looking in some other direction smiling at some strange object which only he could see. “Abe sit, you asshole!” I shouted. He again looked back calmly, again turned his gaze in the same direction and after some 30 seconds replied, “Did we get some snacks to eat in the way?”

“You sit first! We will get something on the way” Saurav was pleading now.

He slowly kept his bag at the back, then again stood there waiting some time and then much to everyone’s frustration, said “I have some packets of potato chips and biscuits. I’ll just go and get them”.

“Leave it Varun. We will buy it” even Vikash sir protested.

“Why do you want to waste money, when I already have it?” Varun reasoned.

Anger was slowly turning into exasperation. “Varun dear, please sit down. You have already taken an hour. It’s 11, let us leave” Ramesh begged. When he starts pleading, one thing for sure is that he has no option left.

“Are yar, just two minutes? What is the big deal? I’ll get it.” And he rushed inside, leaving all of us furious.

“We will make sure that he has his worst journey of life. What say Abhi?” said Ramesh.

“Absolutely. If Koorg was trailer this would be the climax.” I said.

“Listen Vikash. I am still telling we should leave without him” Ramesh suggested.

“Let him get the chips no. It would be only a minute” Harpreet said.

“You bet. Only thing predictable about him is his unpredictability. I doubt he will be back in a minute.” I prophesied.

“Yes, right. Even I doubt that.” Rachit said.

We waited and waited and waited. After another 15 minutes Harpreet said, “Somebody go and check. I hope he is not cooking the chips”.

Saurav was about to get up, when Ramesh said, “You sit. I’ll go and see. Abhi you come.” He sounded determined.

Ramesh looked serious and I was sure that this was going to be dirty. He did not say a single word to me on the way. As expected, Varun was not looking for eatables. He had got a steam iron in his hand, had opened his previous T-shirt, and another T-shirt was on the bed, and he was looking out of window with the forefinger of other hand in his nose.

“Pray what are you up to?” Ramesh asked.

Varun blinked, waited some 10 seconds, looked out again and said, “I spilled something on that shirt, I just noticed that. Give me two minutes”.

“You stay there and you press your shirt, eat your chips and munch your biscuits. For we leave now.” I declared.

“What do you mean by that? I have also paid for the car” he said as he kept the iron on the stand and came two steps forward.

Ramesh instantly took out a five hundred note and thundered “Have it. Here is your money. You take it, fuck it and sleep with it.”

I took out a one rupee coin and place it with the five hundred note and said “And here is your tip for finally relieving us”

“This is insulting yar. I am getting angry now. What do you people mean? I am really getting angry now” he said.

“Ok, you are getting angry; I know how to cool you down” Ramesh said as he picked up a glass of water kept on table nearby and threw all the water on Varun’s face.

Varun charged towards Ramesh to retaliate, but I halted him and I landed a tight slap on his left cheek with my sinister hand which left my palm warm for some time. Ramesh did the same thing on his right cheek with his right hand. Varun was stunned and aghast. Tears filled in his eyes.

“What the hell do you think, you are some VIP that we will keep waiting for you the whole night?” said Ramesh as he landed another slap.

“And on top you say, you are getting angry. What the fuck will you do by getting angry?” I said and picked up his magazine and threw it away.

“Now sit here silently. And if Vikash and Rachit call don’t dare you pickup” Ramesh ordered.

We went back to the car and announced, “Varun has refused to come. He says he is not feeling well”

“Shit! Why the hell did he made us wait so long?” someone said.

“Fuck him! Let’s enjoy our vacation. At the end of the day what that guy needed was attention and he got it. Forget what happened.” I said as we sat down and the car started.

“Ya fine. But I still wish he had come. The trip would have been a lot of fun with him” Saurav said.

Ramesh looked back at me and winked. One thing we were certain of was that Varun will never tell anyone about what happened in the closed room for it would not go with his image.

“Even I wish that he had come. It sure would have been fun”, I said and winked back at Ramesh and lay back on my seat with my hands behind my head and closed my eyes. For us, we have had our fun, the fun of teaching him a lesson and with it a sweet revenge.

Pursuit of Madness

“Wanna Have a Beer?” Whenever I hear this question my pulse start racing and a feeling of nostalgia mixed with a tingling feeling of horror and humor overtakes me, and I end up replying “I don’t”. Though a lot of time had passed and a lot of water has flown under the bridge, the memories of that fateful night are still fresh in my mind.



It was around the time I had just graduated and had both more energy and more wildness in me. I had moved to Bangalore to start my career as a system engineer in a software giant and a simple and unassuming Akshay has overnight turned into an arrogant and wild Mr. Sharma. While looking for accommodation I had met Prem, who was also a fresher and working as a game designer, who introduced me to Gaurav and Amit who were freshly graduated Chartered Accountants and Rajat who was a network administrator in another MNC. We happened to rent a house, which I must tell you, is quite an accomplishment in this city. Although quite different from each other we bonded well and became great friends. It was sometime two months into the new job when slowly the work pressure had started mounting on us and the rosy beds were slowly turning thorny and the optimism was slowly dying that this Friday night changed our life forever.

Every Friday night prior to that one, we used to watch a movie or a cricket match, talk some crap and complain about our work or the south Indian food before going to sleep. Things were looking similar that night too, till Prem came out with this wild idea. We had just finished India vs. West Indies T20 cricket match that India had lost and I and Amit had broken out into an argument about Dhoni’s captaincy. Just then, out of nowhere, Prem asked “How about getting some beer?” To my surprise, he was serious and Amit and Gaurav were actually considering. I looked at my expensive Fast Track watch, which I had bought out of my first salary, and it showed 11:30. “No Chance! It’s too late. This is not Delhi or Pune. This is a faltoo city. Forget about beer we wouldn’t even get a bottle of medicine at this time.” I explained. The one thing that often surprised me and continues to surprise me about this city is that on one hand it claims to be one of the most advanced cities in the country on the other it is being ruled by and is overcrowded with people who refuse to move forward and don’t want others to move forward in the name of Indian values and culture. Leaving aside all important problems concerned to the public they are bent on ensuring that city dies at 11. They don’t have problem with people working whole night for earning small wages but they have problems with people wanting to enjoy a little bit. “I know a place. We can get it” added Amit. I actually doubted he did for I had often seen him claiming things which he didn’t do, but there is one thing that a man can’t kill, and that is temptation. I decided to give it a try. Gaurav also agreed almost instantly. Rajat now was the only problem. One look at Rajat and one could be pardoned for believing that there is something seriously wrong with him or that he suffers from malnutrition, as he weighed only forty eight kilograms and sported a horn rimmed spectacle. I often used to joke that he was a nature’s mistake and he was actually meant to be a girl but a software bug in some part of the code of God’s software resulted in him becoming a boy, and it led to the programmer being fired. He was a typical bookworm and had no hobbies whatsoever. No music, no movies, no fun was his way of living and thus convincing him for a beer would be Herculean task. No matter what argument we used to convince him he simply kept making faces and shaking his head in a haphazard manner saying “No, I don’t like its smell.” I tried the clichés like “You must taste everything at least once in life” and “These days even the girls drink”, but for no avail. Finally we gave up and decided that four of us will carry on and Rajat will stay back and sleep with his books. As it turned out to be, Rajat had taken a smart decision.




Amit and Prem were the only ones who could afford a bike. While Gaurav sat behind Prem, I preferred to sit behind Amit as he was a sensible driver unlike Prem, who loved the accelerator more than his life. I again looked at my Fast Track in which all the three hands had just met, and date was on verge of being changed. The bikes had started roaring and soon we were ripping through the empty streets. There is a strange sense of pleasure in riding a bike after midnight on empty streets. The sound of roaring and the cool wind slapping the face give rise to a strange sensation of ecstasy caused by the rush of adrenaline through the whole body. Both of them had soon crossed 100 Kmph with Prem even performing some stunts and Gaurav silently chanting the Hanuman chalisa.

“Where the hell do we get the beer from?” Amit asked. I wanted to kick him hard at a place where it hurts most, for he was the one who some time ago had claimed that he knew a place. “Pubs would have closed, so roadside wine shops are our only bets”, Gaurav explained. He had a unique capability to simplify complicated things and complicate simple things. We went through various streets, but all we could find were closed shops as if laughing on us, and beggars sleeping on footpaths getting awake by the bike noise. It was only after traveling around one hour that we saw a shop with a Foster’s label and somebody sleeping near it. Amit went and woke him up. He got up and gave us a surprised look. He was well over six feet with red eyes and thick moustache and a belly threatening to tear his shirt. Before we could say something he asked “Beer?” “Great”, I thought.
“One forty ka ek” he said.
“What ekdum double. Hundred Kafi hai” I said.
“ Night. Risky. 140” he said.
“5 Bottles lene hai.Correct bolo” Amit said.
“130 last”
“120. Dena hai to bolo?” Prem added.
“Ok”
“Great. Deal done” I thought.
Prem took out a five hundred rupee note and said “Five Kingfisher Premium. Chilled.” The man tool the note folded it and touched it to his eye, returned Prem 100 rupee note and was just about to open the shutter and slip out bottles, when almost out of nowhere a police patrol party consisting of two bikers arrived on scene, probably to do some moral policing. On seeing them the man disappeared without even returning our money. Before we could do something one of the bikes was just in our way. One of them was short, stout and middle aged and was wearing a leather jacket while the other was younger but looked rather weary.

“Guys. Give me a good reason for you people being here at one in the night and I’ll let you off” asked the younger man. “Probably he has copied a dialogue from a Hollywood movie” I thought and said “We had gone for 10 to 12 show of the movie” and was instantly amazed that how did I get this idea.
“Which movie?”
“Fast and Furious 2” I said, hoping that this could be one movie which have the least chances of him having seen it, lest he might ask us the storyline.

But he had other ideas. “Show me the tickets.” He delivered a googly and left me stumped. “You think we are fools. Right?” he mocked. “Where are your DLs?” the older one demanded. While Amit took it out instantly, I could see Prem’s face getting pale. As expected he was once again the trouble maker. He had forgotten to carry it.
“All four of you, to the station” he said. “One night there will get you back on track”

“Sir we just came for a ride and we missed the DL. If you allow one of us to go, he will get the DL” Gaurav requested.

“NO”

“Is there any other way out?” Prem asked rather hesistantly.

“One thousand!”

“Sir we don’t have that much. We only have 250”Amit lied.

“Don’t you fuck around with me? You want me to believe that four of you came for drink with only 200.”

“Sir, that guy did not return our money.” I added.

“Chalo 500 de do” the older one said.

“We can maximum give 300. If you don’t agree arrest us.” Amit exclaimed rather calmly leaving us all agape.

“Chalo lao. I have to go home.” The older one signed off.

I gave him three hundred rupee notes. He took it, wetted his thumb from his tongue and counted the notes twice and very silently slipped it in his back pocket. All the while the young one was watching him intently. “Fuck off! I don’t want to see you here again. I won’t leave you the next time.” He said before finally starting his bike and leaving.

I watched them disappearing into the darkness and turned back and said “Let’s go back! It’s enough. We have lost 800 rupees and there is no chance of getting a beer.”

“Yes! He is right Let’s go back” Gaurav protested.

“No way!” Amit almost shouted. “There is no way I am returning without it today. Now that we have come this far I will take it at any cost.”

“You are right. Let’s try M.G road.” Said Prem

“But….” Before I could say something, Prem said “If you two don’t want to come, you can fuck off. Take one bike, we will take the other.” He said in a harsh tone. We reluctantly agreed to come. The clock had struck two and the chances of finding beer were anything, but realistic. We searched for another half hour trying our luck at every corner but found nothing. We had lost money, were almost jailed and Gaurav had has his heart in his mouth on many occasions. Finally, we had lost hope. Amit had lost it, he stopped the bike, got down and rip down a poster reading “Bangalore Rocks” and torn it down into pieces and broke out. “Fuck this city. This city sucks, the people suck. It only wants to see people destroying themselves with work, work and more work. Salla what do these bastards expect people to do after working from 9 A.M to 10 P.M by closing down everything at 11. Do they expect us to come back home after being screwed all day and sit and watch the Big Ass TV and listen to these assholes?” He said and sat down on a footpath nearby with his face between his palms.

Just then, like an angel from heaven, an auto-driver reached the scene. He took a look at us and said “Bottles chahiye. I can arrange. Every bottle 30 jyada lagega.”

Amit got up as if some energy had flown into him and had a spring in his step and a song on his lips. “Chalo done. Paanch bottle lao.”

“OK. Follow me...” He said as he started his auto and took a turn into a small lane. We had lost all powers of reasoning and logic. We simply followed him until we reached a dead end, but there were no shops or houses there. Before we could realize anything six more people appeared and two of them had pistols pointed on mine and Gaurav’s heads.
All of them looked rather well built and were carrying some weapons.

“Make any sound and I will blow off you head. Get off the bikes” One with the gun said.

We had no options but obeying. Another man took his hand into our pockets and took out our cellphones and wallets. “Open your watch” he ordered me. I hesitated, and he pushed me hard and snatched it out. “Your Jacket” He said to Prem and Prem innocently took it off and handed it to him. I for a second wished him to shoot Prem for it was because of him we landed into this. We watched helplessly as four of them sat in our bikes and other two boarded the auto and fled leaving us cashless about 20KM away from home, and no means to contact anyone at 3 in the morning.

“Luckily they didn’t kill us” Prem had lost everything except his sense of humor. “You want to die?” said Amit. “Cut the crap. How the hell we get out of here. We don’t have a single penny and no means to reach anyone. Worse, we can’t trust anyone” I said.

“Let’s wait for 2 hours. At around 5 A.M we will take an auto to home and will pay him when we reach home” Gaurav simplified. We waited for around two hours sitting on the same footpath where Amit did an excellent dialogue delivery some time ago. It was only during those hours that all of us decided that we will never drink again. Finally, at 5 we hired an auto and reached home by 6:30 to find a worried Rajat at door and he paid the auto-driver. We explained the story to Rajat who instead of sympathizing with us started laughing aloud. I kicked him hard; he fell down but still continued laughing like a hysteric. I wanted to strangulate him to death. He laughed for around 10 minutes, leaving us infuriated. He finally stopped looked at me and said “You must taste everything at least once in life” and started laughing again for another 10 minutes adding insult to injury.

It has now been two years to that event. All of us have moved out of Bangalore and hear very little from each other. But one thing I can assure is all of us had never tried to drink beer again. Even Prem, one who used to gulp down 3 bottles in 10 minutes hasn’t drunk it for past two years. It is another thing that now he drinks on the rocks whisky. Gaurav and Amit moved to Pune while Rajat is now settled abroad. However, whenever he meets me, he does just one thing. He laughs aloud.
So folks if you want to have beer in night and don’t have one in the fridge, Think again.