Awesome Blossoms: Horn OK Please (12 page)

He’d turned and walked away without looking back. Many years passed and one fine day at the Border check post, Rahul received a telegram. It had taken the wind out of him. Ananya had died in a road accident. It was the end of the world for him. The woman he had loved the most, he had taken her life away while she was alive and now she was gone, never to return.

***

The long autumn sunset was dying. The narrow crimson slit glowing
at the edge of the horizon, between bluish clouds and earth, faded out. Moths fluttered against the glass hoods over the candles.

Back in the village, he clumsily struggled to reach the
top of the rock. He placed the crutch beside him and stared at the ugly stump that used to be a leg once upon a time. He had lost his leg as a misplaced landmine had gone off. He struggled somewhat to pull out a black bag and placed it beside him.

He could see his father in the vast field in front of him. The crop was ripe. Life had been tough but back on top of Rumpelstiltskin’s house, everything was fine, life was perfect once again. The evening sky looked beautiful as the cool breeze brought in memories of childhood when Ananya was still alive.

His vacant stare into nothingness once again brought back his childhood innocence. He could see the imaginary beings, the fairies and other magical creatures he used to see along with Ananya when they were children.

He opened the black bag and pulled out a loaded gun. He held it tight, just the way Ananya had held the brick of cheese. He stared at it for some time.

He was finally at peace. Everything would be fine again.

Soon, he would be with Ananya at Rupestiltskin’s house.
Only this time, it would be forever.

***

CHAPTER ELEVEN

By Harshit Kumar

***

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls that look like work.

- Thomas E. Edison

Straight From The Heart

A
mit & Mohit were close friends who lived in Lucknow. It’s a city that happens to be the capital of Uttar Pradesh, the largest State of India. They were born and brought up there. I just happened to know them. They went to the same school. I was there too. This is their story as seen by an outsider. It was a typical middle class school and we all belonged to the same strata of society. Just that, unlike me, they were brilliant; they never gave their parents a reason to worry.

Mohit
was a voracious reader and science exhibitions were right up his alley. He reveled in winning geeky contests. He was a born technologist with an entrepreneurial streak in him. He graduated from high school and went to one of India’s premier educational institute called IIT, Delhi. IIT stands for the Indian Institute of Technology and it’s one of the toughest nuts to crack for any aspiring student in high school.

My friend,
Amit, on the other hand was more interested in academics and had a penchant for scholarly pursuits. Quite much an academic rat, he thrived in the rat race and was always after his standing among other students. He had to be number one. He always was. He was nerdy and geeky, always the professors delight. He made it to IIT, Bombay, that is known for its intellectual ability.

One has to take the Joint Entrance Exam known as JEE to the academic types. Both made it to the IITs in the first round itself. While Amit went on to become a Computer Science graduate from IIT Bombay, Mohit took up Mechanical Engineering at IIT Delhi.
Nerdy Amit continued his geeky path and chose to take the safe path of following his seniors and slogged it.

It was the safe approach down the beaten path to get an engineering degree to start with and chase it down with a Management degree from another institute of repute, if not pursuing a Doctorate program in a very specialized field. All for a well
-paying job. One can draw a Microsoft Visio diagram out of any geek’s life.

Mohit
, on the other hand, the renegade that he was, wanted to experiment with his own life and chose to explore. So instead of following conventional wisdom that had been passed on by graduating seniors, he started off on an entrepreneurial trip. He would choose to break down complicated mechanical and electronic devices in the laboratory and reassemble them. Sometimes, they would function again and at times they would refuse to follow Mohit’s cerebral commands.

Mohit wasn’t a high scorer in
college and neither was he much interested in getting good grades. His trip in college was to learn and not worry about his scores. On the contrary, he went about taking courses in human psychology and other topics that had nothing to do with Mechanical Engineering in the first place. His electives were completely random. They didn’t fit the typical pattern of a graduate at all. He lived a different ideological vision; he believed that during his college days he had all the time for experimenting.

Life was good in Delhi as well as Mumbai for them. Final year
happened and it was time for real Projects. They’re quite different from the regular classroom courses in a semester. Meanwhile, during his training days Mohit enrolled himself for a Project funded by an innovation company named ‘Tesla’ that was involved in testing battery operated engines for future cars.

T
echnology was still at a nascent stage and not at all cost effective. It was an experiment in alternative fuels and if commercialized, it had the potential to benefit the environment. Apart from reducing the dependency on the fossil fuels, it held the promise of reducing carbon footprint of man in society. With his sharp business acumen and entrepreneurial skills, Mohit was able to worm into a project that had team members from around the globe.

It was a research project,
a one of a kind initiative and his Professors were very much impressed with what Mohit brought to the table. They invited him to a covetous institute elsewhere to continue working on the research post his graduation.

On the other side, Amit had
got the best GMAT score 800/800 and that’s supposed to be a real good score. It doesn’t get any better. It was a proud moment for him; it had only happened a few times that a candidate had scored full marks in GMAT. He was cruising down the beaten path just the way he wanted. His professors were happy to recommend him to any Ivy League college of his choice. He finally decided to go to Stanford.

For Amit, it was the
dream destination. But when he looked back at the years of his graduation, he couldn’t really assimilate as to what he had learnt. He had good grades for sure, but something was not right, he wasn’t satisfied. Nevertheless, it was not introspection that was needed at the moment but celebration. After all only a handful made it to Stanford, he reasoned.

Placement season
happened. Most of the students took up cushy, high-paying jobs in IT companies. The role obviously had little or nothing to do with their specialization.

After graduating, Mohit and Amit
caught up briefly and decided to meet in Lucknow before embarking on their respective journeys. It was one hot summer afternoon in the month of May when the two friends finally met after a long time.

Amit seemed to have become more s
uavé and sophisticated post the grueling years whereas Mohit remained the rustic. Amit seemed to believe that he had won the race and had left Mohit behind in the fabled race of rats. He had, after all, kept the tradition of ranking alive and won at the game.

Mohit, on the other hand,
concluded that he would be doing a research Project in one of the Tesla Labs and it would be a rich experience for him as they would be working on cutting edge technology that would improve the efficiency of the engine operated by battery and would reduce the dependency on oil. Amit was hardly impressed; he wasn’t even listening.

To him, anything that didn’t produce immediate money was not worth following. He was already chasing the dollar dream. In simple terms he couldn’t relate to the research project as it was a different territory altogether. His path was already tried & tested by many of his seniors. It was lucrative.

A month had passed by and Amit went to the US for his MBA program and a fortnight later Mohit also flew to the US to continue his work on the Research project. For Mohit, this was the new world full of challenges and yet it was exciting. He performed his new role full faith and honesty. His work started to get appreciation from his seniors. He used the courses of Psychology and Design thinking at his work. He did not, for a moment, regret his taking these courses in lieu of good grades.

On the other hand, Amit continue
d to do well in his academics. He undertook all the courses which would enable him to get placed into the top financial institutions. After engineering he was now running after finance. Somewhere deep down, he was not able to justify as to what forced him to invest four years in engineering. To him, it seemed a loss. Well, finance was all about profit & loss and this subject indeed was taking a toll on him.

Over a period of time, at Tesla, Mohit realized that working on cars was his true passion. He liked opening up the bonnet and taking charge of what lay inside. His hands used to get soiled with grease while working on the engine and other parts but that didn’t bother him even for a moment. He would
collaborate with everyone and would seek to learn. He was inquisitive, would pose questions and would gather answers.

He would rather respond th
an react, if anything sought his attention. Soon, he learnt the science of automobiles and thereafter he came up with design suggestions that would increase the efficiency of the engine by thirty percent. This was a big win, a moment of achievement for him. He had shared this news with Amit, his only friend in the US. There was no response at the other end.

Amit was a star performer at Stanford. He was the smartest of them all. He would complete all his assignments on time and would be amongst the top in the grades as well. He knew the art of achieving good grades very well by now. His long schedules of studies too
k a toll on his health. His eye-sight became weak, his sleep was disturbed and he started suffering from hair loss due to excessive stress. But these were only superficial issues for him, his target was to get the esteemed job in McKinsey and he was willing to risk his health for the same.

Neither did it bother him that much nor
did it bother the folks around him because everyone was running a race and had no time to ponder or wait for anyone.

Last six months for Amit were real tough. He had to put all his might and all his concentration during this time. He cut himself off from the rest of the world in order to overcome this challenge.  His only focus remained on completing his MBA program in a grand style and getting a high payin
g job at McKinsey.

Finally, his effort bore fruits and not only was
he able to successfully complete his MBA, he got the much desired job as well. During these months he was so engrossed that he had lost touch with his social circuit. He remembered Mohit and also that there was a voice message from him sometime back. He tried calling him but the number seemed out of service or non-existent.

Amit moved in to a new job and became busier. He started working late night shifts and meanwhile forgot everything else. Once, he clocked ninety hours a week and his boss patted his back. He was encouraged to put more hours in office. He soon rose in ranks and got promoted. Colleagues who joined with him soon started reporting to him. He felt accomplished but this wasn’t enough.

He started clocking hundred hours a week and still it wasn’t enough for him. He became prisoner of his own image. He was always running after something or the other.  Dark circles emerged under his eyes, slowly. Insomnia gripped him, in order to sleep; he started taking pills. He started getting back pain, but would still continue to work unabated.

Months passed like this but he always remembered Mohit. There was no news from
him, not even an email. He was worried for a while. He drafted an Email and sent it to an ID that he could vaguely remember. His memory seemed to have taken a dip because of undue stress.

After a fortnight when it was mid night in the US, and Amit was still in office, he received a call from India. He soon recognized the voice coming from other end. It was Mohit, his child
hood friend.

Suddenly with a gush of nostalgia Amit felt a lump in his throat. His eyes were moist throughout the conversation. He was listening more and speaking less.  He smiled after a very long time, perhaps months. That night he slept peacefully without any pill. Such is the effect when one’s heart is at peace and mind is given a chill pill.

Amit didn’t get to work the next day. He was thinking hard and probably from his heart for the first time. He thought of going back to India. His conversation with Mohit last night made him realize how much he had lost out over the past few years.

He realized that there were elements in life other than work. He realized that he was
close to social bankruptcy and that apart from office colleagues no one else recognized him, not even his next-door neighbor. Even at work, he was someone who clocked hundred hours a week, was this an accomplishment or a punishment, he asked himself?

Amidst these thought
s his phone rang and it was from office. His secretary reminded him that there were urgent meeting to be attended and that there were decisions pending with him. He told her that it would not be possible for him to turn up in office that day and asked her to postpone the meetings accordingly. His boss had called up for urgent meeting and he replied the same, although it didn’t go well with him.

The next
day when he reached the workplace, Amit was determined to end this soon before it got too late. He requested his manager to grant him leave for two weeks so that he could visit his home, India. They had a heated argument over it as this was unplanned and there were piles of important works unfinished on Amit’s desk. Better sense prevailed and the leave was granted. Amit was ecstatic. His joy knew no bounds. He came back home and started packing, his eyes turned moist again.

He landed at
the New Delhi airport a couple of days later. He took the cab and asked the driver to take him to
Karol Bagh
, where Mohit had started his own Startup. His mind started to wander in the by lanes of Delhi. The traffic, the noise and the uneven bumps on the road, complete landscape of India is a color-riot in itself. He had missed this in the US.

Soon, he reached
Karol Bagh
, and he figured out the company of his friend without even using Google. In India, GPRS and all such gizmos bite the dust in front of ubiquitous Pan shop owners who seem to have mugged up all the Bus Route numbers and somehow know all the nearby addresses.  If all their knowledge is converted into a soft copy it would beat Wikipedia hands down, any day.

Jugaad
(Make-do) Innovations & Re-Pair was the name of Mohit’s startup where he still used to do hands on job even if it meant getting completely soiled with grease. When Amit called up Mohit, it was an emotional moment.

Over a
conversation, Mohit told his friend how he was able to successfully complete his Project at Tesla and later he realized that his passion was to fix cars, open up the bonnet and do everything by himself. And at once he realized that he wanted to return back to India, open up his company and follow his passion. He listened to his heart and was happy and satisfied with his life. He had a social life and was very active in a collaborative community.