(A Short Story)
It’s been a hectic week at work, with each day getting worse than the other. We were at the brink of concluding one of the massive projects ever attempted in the country in the recent times. No one has tried something of this magnitude with such aggressive time lines before. This project will boost my resume such that I can just walk into any organisation and print my own appointment letter!
I have been on marathon meetings the whole day and I was desperate for a smoke and a cup of tea. My frustration level went up when I got to know that I’d left my cigarette pack at home that day. It was in the least of my intentions and interests to be seen in office after working non stop for 14 hours especially considering that I started work at 4AM, which is very unusual.
I wasted no time in leaving my floor but just when I got closer to my car at the basement, I was apprehended by a colleague for about 15 minutes. This dude was thanking me for roping him into this project and what a great learning experience it was blah blah blah. I artificially simulated certain body languages to subtly tell him that he is chewing my brains / wasting my time but I don’t think he caught any of it. I even tried yawning a couple of times but it was of no use, those 15 minutes felt like fifteen years! So just when the sixteenth year started, I told him I’m, getting late and could wait no longer, I finally fled!
There is this chai shop on my way home where I’ve made quite a few pit stops in the past, mostly for cigarettes and tea. Like Naseeruddin Shah says in ‘A Wednesday’ there are some people you don’t know by name but just by a Hi & a Hello, that’s the kind of relationship I share with this guy who runs this chai shop.
I was put through a series of ‘tests of patience’ from signal to signal, as if crawling inch by inch in one of the most powerful cars in the country wasn’t a punishment enough. At the speed at which the traffic was moving, one could update their Facebook status message at least 5 times between each signal. Talking of Facebook, I pulled out my blackberry to kill some time. While I was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, I managed to sign 3 petitions for green peace, one for BT Brinjal, one opposing the Dharma Port project in Orissa and one against the nuclear liability bill.
Finally I got to the pit stop, got myself a 20s pack kings and a cup of chai, man it felt so great. The guy at the chai shop just started making hot bajjis and vadas that tempted me to stay back and grab a few bites. Well considering how hungry I was I would actually need to have kilo bites and mega bites! I also thought I’ll get the puncture done on my spare wheel that I have been putting off for months now. While the guy at the chai shop was busy making bajjis and vadas, I walked across the road to this mechanic shop to get the guy to come over and fix my spare wheel.
The guy at the mechanic shop looked pretty decent and knowledgeable, must have done a diploma in automobile engineering I guess. After listening to me patiently, he smiled and said he’ll send his boy in a couple of minutes to get the spare wheel from my car. His shop looked pretty well equipped and clean. As I walked back to the tea stall, ordered my snacks and went over to my car to open the boot and have it ready, I saw this small kid emerge out of the mechanic shop.
He must be about 10 – 12 years of age and was holding a long spanner in one hand that made him look like a cricketer walking out of the dugout with a mongoose bat. He wore a Chennai Super Kings T-Shirt and from the Reebok branding on the t-shirt one could easily conclude that it was picked up from a roadside seller. There were a few glimpses of bright yellow still visible in the grease tainted t-shirt. The kid carefully crossed the road and came over to my car; he appeared weak, probably malnourished. It looked like the black thread he’d tied on his right arm gave him more strength than the meal he gets to eat everyday.
The Kid greeted me with a smile just like the owner of the mechanic shop, I said to my self “reflection of the manager!” He peeped into my car’s boot and tried to pull the spare wheel out and I must say it was bit of a struggle for him. Presuming it’s too heavy for him, I helped him out with getting the wheel out of the boot. He rolled the wheel back to the shop and started working on it along with his boss.
By then my snack was ready, as I munched through the bhajjis and vada I was watching the kid and his boss fix my wheel. The kid first looked for any nails on the tyre, removed all the small stones stuck to the tyre and skilfully opened the tyre and started working on the puncture. It looked like the kid was very well trained and is a professional at what he did. While he was at it, a motorist stopped by and asked the kid to help with tightening the breaks. The kid helped the motorist with a smile and did not take money for what he did. I could see that the kid and his boss were exchanging a few laughs as they worked through the puncture, looks like that kid has been working there for quite some time. I was wondering why that guy would employ a kid in his mechanic shop. I mean the guy looked pretty decent and educated, doesn’t he know that child labour is illegal? I was now curious to find out if that kid actually works there or if he is the owner’s relative who helps him out in between school.
In a few minutes, the kid was back with my spare wheel, as we were putting the wheel back into the boot, I started a conversation with him in the local language,
“Do you work here?”
“________”
“You don’t go to school?”
“________”
The kid just put my wheel back in the boot, did not look me in the eye and walked back straight into his shop without uttering a word to me or to his boss. He sat beside his boss and started working on an old car battery. The guy at the chai shop then told me that the kid works there and he does not go to school.
I walked over to the kid’s boss and paid him for the puncture; I then reached out to the kid and gave him 50 bucks. To my astonishment the kid refused to take the money, I tried telling him that I liked his work that’s why I’m tipping him but he bluntly asked me to pay his boss if that was the case.
As I walked back to my car, I was feeling bad for the kid. Such a nice kid – honest and hardworking, I thought he definitely deserves better things in life. I’m sure if we put this guy in school, he will do a fabulous job. I don’t know why I felt that way but sometimes you get that hunch when you look at people and that turns out to be so damn right later. Wanting to do something for this kid, I was trying really hard to remember the child help line number, I remember seeing those numbers put up inside town buses during my collage days but darn I can’t remember it now.
I thought it would be better if I simply called the cops than trusting my memory, I made the call. A little later did I realise that I could’ve looked up the Child Helpline number on Google, sometimes my thought process is so old fashioned. Nevertheless, I’ve called the cops and I was sure they will inform the child relief authorities. I was just thinking, these are the kids who grow up as illiterates and evolve into extremists or terrorists.
The person I spoke to, took details of the location, description of the shop, owner, kid and my discussion with the kid. He asked me to wait there till the cops arrived, so I ordered for some more snacks and waited. The cops where there in less than 15 minutes, I was impressed! They walked straight to the mechanic shop and in no time the owner and the kid were in the back of the jeep.
One of the cops pulled out his cell phone, dialled some number and started looking around as he waited for the number to get connected. Assuming he was looking for me, I walked up to the cop. As I got closer to him my phone rang, the cop called out my name upon seeing me and I confirmed that it was me who made that phone call. The cop thanked me and was about to take leave but I held him back for a small Q & A session.
I asked the cop, what’s next and the cop confirmed that they will do an enquiry with the boss and the kid and based on their responses they will take the necessary action. I asked him if they are going to refer the kid to child relief or something, the cop said in some cases yes, but it depends on how the enquiry goes. He told me that generally they take such kids back to their homes, counsel their parents and probably watch over that kid for a few days. In either case they will inform me on what happened. I thanked the cop and got back to crawling between signals.
Work continued to be hectic, a week passed by and I haven’t heard from the cop yet, nor did I try to find out what happened. I did not have any case number and I hadn’t saved that cop’s phone number as well. All I knew was that cop’s name was Rajashekar, pretty common name for a cop! I thought I should call up 100 once I get home that night and see if they can provide me any details.
The day was tiring enough, more so because I forgot to have lunch again. I left office a bit early and went over to my pit stop. It took me 30 minutes to get to the chai shop, with a total driving time of 5 minutes and a total ‘signal wait time’ of 25 minutes. After I got my cigarettes and chai, I asked the chai shop owner if he knows what happened to the kid. The guy said he was not sure what happened to the kid but the owner of the mechanic shop came back couple of hours after the cops took him that evening. I was certain that the mechanic bribed the cops and got out.
I shouldn’t have called the cops, the guy who should be punished got away easily and now no news of the kid. I was upset, I started to wonder what kind of society we live in, how irresponsible and selfish people can be, so on and so forth. While I sat there and wondered what I should do next, I heard a loud noise followed by my car’s auto cop siren. I turned around and realised that the noise came from my windscreen when it cracked. I saw that kid who used to work in the mechanic shop running towards my car from behind a tree. As he ran past my car, he scratched the car from head to tail on one side with a stone and fled.
I was furious, I tried to help that stupid kid and he smashes my car!? The kid ran so fast that I did not have anytime to react but just stare at the cracked windscreen and the scratch. Suddenly the chai shop’s occupancy went up with more bums on benches. All sitting with a glass of chai and wondering what happened to my car. Some of them were reacting as if it was their car; I actually checked the license plate, just to be sure.
It was already quarter past six and I wasn’t sure if the service station was still open and if they could fix the windscreen the same day. I was already having a tough time and the last person I wanted to face came over and stood beside me – the mechanic! I did feel a bit awkward and a bit scared but thought its better I break the ice with this guy. So I told him,
“Sorry about what happened the other day; I didn’t mean to get you in trouble but was simply worried about the kid.”
“It’s ok Sir. It wasn’t a big problem for me either. 50 bucks I paid the cop and he let me go in a couple of hours. I know you are wondering why that kid will smash your car when all you did was to help the kid”
“Yes! Absolutely, why doesn’t the kid see what I’m trying to do for him?”
“Its simple, his family was having 3 three meals a day till the time this kid was working in my mechanic shed. After the cops got involved, I can’t employ this kid anymore, nor can the kid be seen working anywhere else – the cops are watching us. Now the kid’s family only gets to eat two meals a day. You are thinking of the future but the kid and his family need to live for the day. If his parents had to start funding this kid’s education how are they going to feed the family? I hope you now understand the kid’s anger.”
“_______.”
I walked back to my car without saying a word; I did not have an answer to the mechanic’s question nor did I have a solution to the kid’s problem. For the first time in my life I felt ashamed of the same thing that I felt proud of a week ago. Life teaches us lessons the hard way; I just wished it did not teach me a lesson at the cost of someone else’s livelihood. I was clear in my mind that I will work on providing a sensible contribution from now on, I don’t know how yet, but I will.
It’s been a hectic week at work, with each day getting worse than the other. We were at the brink of concluding one of the massive projects ever attempted in the country in the recent times. No one has tried something of this magnitude with such aggressive time lines before. This project will boost my resume such that I can just walk into any organisation and print my own appointment letter!
I have been on marathon meetings the whole day and I was desperate for a smoke and a cup of tea. My frustration level went up when I got to know that I’d left my cigarette pack at home that day. It was in the least of my intentions and interests to be seen in office after working non stop for 14 hours especially considering that I started work at 4AM, which is very unusual.
I wasted no time in leaving my floor but just when I got closer to my car at the basement, I was apprehended by a colleague for about 15 minutes. This dude was thanking me for roping him into this project and what a great learning experience it was blah blah blah. I artificially simulated certain body languages to subtly tell him that he is chewing my brains / wasting my time but I don’t think he caught any of it. I even tried yawning a couple of times but it was of no use, those 15 minutes felt like fifteen years! So just when the sixteenth year started, I told him I’m, getting late and could wait no longer, I finally fled!
There is this chai shop on my way home where I’ve made quite a few pit stops in the past, mostly for cigarettes and tea. Like Naseeruddin Shah says in ‘A Wednesday’ there are some people you don’t know by name but just by a Hi & a Hello, that’s the kind of relationship I share with this guy who runs this chai shop.
I was put through a series of ‘tests of patience’ from signal to signal, as if crawling inch by inch in one of the most powerful cars in the country wasn’t a punishment enough. At the speed at which the traffic was moving, one could update their Facebook status message at least 5 times between each signal. Talking of Facebook, I pulled out my blackberry to kill some time. While I was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, I managed to sign 3 petitions for green peace, one for BT Brinjal, one opposing the Dharma Port project in Orissa and one against the nuclear liability bill.
The guy at the mechanic shop looked pretty decent and knowledgeable, must have done a diploma in automobile engineering I guess. After listening to me patiently, he smiled and said he’ll send his boy in a couple of minutes to get the spare wheel from my car. His shop looked pretty well equipped and clean. As I walked back to the tea stall, ordered my snacks and went over to my car to open the boot and have it ready, I saw this small kid emerge out of the mechanic shop.
He must be about 10 – 12 years of age and was holding a long spanner in one hand that made him look like a cricketer walking out of the dugout with a mongoose bat. He wore a Chennai Super Kings T-Shirt and from the Reebok branding on the t-shirt one could easily conclude that it was picked up from a roadside seller. There were a few glimpses of bright yellow still visible in the grease tainted t-shirt. The kid carefully crossed the road and came over to my car; he appeared weak, probably malnourished. It looked like the black thread he’d tied on his right arm gave him more strength than the meal he gets to eat everyday.
The Kid greeted me with a smile just like the owner of the mechanic shop, I said to my self “reflection of the manager!” He peeped into my car’s boot and tried to pull the spare wheel out and I must say it was bit of a struggle for him. Presuming it’s too heavy for him, I helped him out with getting the wheel out of the boot. He rolled the wheel back to the shop and started working on it along with his boss.
By then my snack was ready, as I munched through the bhajjis and vada I was watching the kid and his boss fix my wheel. The kid first looked for any nails on the tyre, removed all the small stones stuck to the tyre and skilfully opened the tyre and started working on the puncture. It looked like the kid was very well trained and is a professional at what he did. While he was at it, a motorist stopped by and asked the kid to help with tightening the breaks. The kid helped the motorist with a smile and did not take money for what he did. I could see that the kid and his boss were exchanging a few laughs as they worked through the puncture, looks like that kid has been working there for quite some time. I was wondering why that guy would employ a kid in his mechanic shop. I mean the guy looked pretty decent and educated, doesn’t he know that child labour is illegal? I was now curious to find out if that kid actually works there or if he is the owner’s relative who helps him out in between school.
In a few minutes, the kid was back with my spare wheel, as we were putting the wheel back into the boot, I started a conversation with him in the local language,
“Do you work here?”
“________”
“You don’t go to school?”
“________”
The kid just put my wheel back in the boot, did not look me in the eye and walked back straight into his shop without uttering a word to me or to his boss. He sat beside his boss and started working on an old car battery. The guy at the chai shop then told me that the kid works there and he does not go to school.
I walked over to the kid’s boss and paid him for the puncture; I then reached out to the kid and gave him 50 bucks. To my astonishment the kid refused to take the money, I tried telling him that I liked his work that’s why I’m tipping him but he bluntly asked me to pay his boss if that was the case.
As I walked back to my car, I was feeling bad for the kid. Such a nice kid – honest and hardworking, I thought he definitely deserves better things in life. I’m sure if we put this guy in school, he will do a fabulous job. I don’t know why I felt that way but sometimes you get that hunch when you look at people and that turns out to be so damn right later. Wanting to do something for this kid, I was trying really hard to remember the child help line number, I remember seeing those numbers put up inside town buses during my collage days but darn I can’t remember it now.
I thought it would be better if I simply called the cops than trusting my memory, I made the call. A little later did I realise that I could’ve looked up the Child Helpline number on Google, sometimes my thought process is so old fashioned. Nevertheless, I’ve called the cops and I was sure they will inform the child relief authorities. I was just thinking, these are the kids who grow up as illiterates and evolve into extremists or terrorists.
The person I spoke to, took details of the location, description of the shop, owner, kid and my discussion with the kid. He asked me to wait there till the cops arrived, so I ordered for some more snacks and waited. The cops where there in less than 15 minutes, I was impressed! They walked straight to the mechanic shop and in no time the owner and the kid were in the back of the jeep.
One of the cops pulled out his cell phone, dialled some number and started looking around as he waited for the number to get connected. Assuming he was looking for me, I walked up to the cop. As I got closer to him my phone rang, the cop called out my name upon seeing me and I confirmed that it was me who made that phone call. The cop thanked me and was about to take leave but I held him back for a small Q & A session.
I asked the cop, what’s next and the cop confirmed that they will do an enquiry with the boss and the kid and based on their responses they will take the necessary action. I asked him if they are going to refer the kid to child relief or something, the cop said in some cases yes, but it depends on how the enquiry goes. He told me that generally they take such kids back to their homes, counsel their parents and probably watch over that kid for a few days. In either case they will inform me on what happened. I thanked the cop and got back to crawling between signals.
Work continued to be hectic, a week passed by and I haven’t heard from the cop yet, nor did I try to find out what happened. I did not have any case number and I hadn’t saved that cop’s phone number as well. All I knew was that cop’s name was Rajashekar, pretty common name for a cop! I thought I should call up 100 once I get home that night and see if they can provide me any details.
The day was tiring enough, more so because I forgot to have lunch again. I left office a bit early and went over to my pit stop. It took me 30 minutes to get to the chai shop, with a total driving time of 5 minutes and a total ‘signal wait time’ of 25 minutes. After I got my cigarettes and chai, I asked the chai shop owner if he knows what happened to the kid. The guy said he was not sure what happened to the kid but the owner of the mechanic shop came back couple of hours after the cops took him that evening. I was certain that the mechanic bribed the cops and got out.
I shouldn’t have called the cops, the guy who should be punished got away easily and now no news of the kid. I was upset, I started to wonder what kind of society we live in, how irresponsible and selfish people can be, so on and so forth. While I sat there and wondered what I should do next, I heard a loud noise followed by my car’s auto cop siren. I turned around and realised that the noise came from my windscreen when it cracked. I saw that kid who used to work in the mechanic shop running towards my car from behind a tree. As he ran past my car, he scratched the car from head to tail on one side with a stone and fled.
I was furious, I tried to help that stupid kid and he smashes my car!? The kid ran so fast that I did not have anytime to react but just stare at the cracked windscreen and the scratch. Suddenly the chai shop’s occupancy went up with more bums on benches. All sitting with a glass of chai and wondering what happened to my car. Some of them were reacting as if it was their car; I actually checked the license plate, just to be sure.
It was already quarter past six and I wasn’t sure if the service station was still open and if they could fix the windscreen the same day. I was already having a tough time and the last person I wanted to face came over and stood beside me – the mechanic! I did feel a bit awkward and a bit scared but thought its better I break the ice with this guy. So I told him,
“Sorry about what happened the other day; I didn’t mean to get you in trouble but was simply worried about the kid.”
“It’s ok Sir. It wasn’t a big problem for me either. 50 bucks I paid the cop and he let me go in a couple of hours. I know you are wondering why that kid will smash your car when all you did was to help the kid”
“Yes! Absolutely, why doesn’t the kid see what I’m trying to do for him?”
“Its simple, his family was having 3 three meals a day till the time this kid was working in my mechanic shed. After the cops got involved, I can’t employ this kid anymore, nor can the kid be seen working anywhere else – the cops are watching us. Now the kid’s family only gets to eat two meals a day. You are thinking of the future but the kid and his family need to live for the day. If his parents had to start funding this kid’s education how are they going to feed the family? I hope you now understand the kid’s anger.”
“_______.”
I walked back to my car without saying a word; I did not have an answer to the mechanic’s question nor did I have a solution to the kid’s problem. For the first time in my life I felt ashamed of the same thing that I felt proud of a week ago. Life teaches us lessons the hard way; I just wished it did not teach me a lesson at the cost of someone else’s livelihood. I was clear in my mind that I will work on providing a sensible contribution from now on, I don’t know how yet, but I will.
