The Indian Donut

A Short Story

It was small tea stall, about 23 kilometers from Chennai City on the way to Bangalore. While the morning news in the radio was at the best of its decibel, the villagers sitting at the tea stall had evenly distributed the pages of Daily Thanthi amongst themselves in an attempt to validate the radio news. A few were interested in knowing where the country is headed while the rest had much more important things like gossips, Kanni theevu (translated virgin islands) and Sindbad cartoon strips to catch up on.


The guy at the kitchen was busy filling and refilling the empty glasses with beverages, with unimaginable speed and accuracy. A kid, about 10 or 12 years of age, was busy sweeping the place around. The number of cigarette butts thrown around kind of gave an impression that the tea stall was in the middle of an ash tray.

A little away from the crowd stood an old man, with a stick in one hand and an empty vessel in the other, staring at the crowd with a hope that one of them will take care of his breakfast. The old man was wearing a torn full sleeve shirt and dark brown trousers that was of uneven length. He didn’t have any shoes but had wrapped a cloth to his feet. The dirt on his body, his beard, his uncombed hair and dull eyes indicated that he is one among the thousands in this country who live on others generosity.

It was safe to assume that it would’ve been two days since he had his last meal as he could barely stand on his own for long. For a man who stood there amidst the early morning cold breeze with a bit of shiver in his body and a lot of hope in his eyes, the only thing he managed to get was a half smoked and still lit cigarette that someone had thrown away in a hurry to leave. The old man took the cigarette in his hand, had a couple of drags, put if off and safely kept the remaining cigarette in his shirt pocket. Who knows if something like this will ever come his way again. The people in the tea stall were indulged in their own activities as if this old man was either invisible or as if he was a billboard on the side of the road.

A black Hyundai Accent drove in and parked in front of the tea stall amidst the trucks that were parked there. As the doors of the car opened, the loud music that was playing in the car grabbed the attention of the people at the tea stall. Two men walked out of the car and came up to the counter in the tea stall; they were comfortably dressed in shorts and t-shirts. The people at the tea stall looked at the two men as if they were aliens and since the Hyundai Accent had a KA registration, couple of them at the tea stall even gave them a dirty stare. Not seemed to be bothered by any of this, the two men started ordering their snacks & beverages.

“Boss, two chai. Should be Strong.”
“Raghu, you’ll have an Indian Donut?”
“Indian Donut?!”
“Well, they call it the Vada.”
“oh no I don’t want.”
“ok. Boss one vada.” The guy at the tea stall handed over a vada wrapped in a piece of newspaper.
“Thanks. how is the road from here?”
“It’s good, the road was made very latest.”

Raghu took the match box from the shopkeeper, lit his cigarette and picked up his tea glass as he waked to the side of the tea stall with Sethu.

“Sethu, how do you think our presentation went? Do you think we’ll get this
business?”
“Well the way those guys reacted to our presentation, I guess they were convinced but the problem is they are going to talk to some more vendors before they leave India. If this deal comes through we have a very good chance to move to the next level.”
“Hmm that will happen only if our senior management folks don’t come up with some stupid stuff on pricing and project planning.”
“That is there, because of some idiots in the top we've lost so many deals at the last moment. If our company continues at this rate we’ll never be able to move to the next level.”
“I’ll see for another 6 months, if things don’t progress I’ll quit my job and join Maniratnam as an assistant director.”
“Well if you didn’t know, Maniratnam has planned to make one more movie after which he will retire and settle down in Kodaikanal.”
“Aw God.”

Sethu noticed the old man who stood at a distance and watched them, as he reached out to his wallet, the old man walked up to Sethu with a hope of getting something. Sethu pulled out a 50/- rupee note from his wallet and handed over the same to the old man. Raghu appeared a bit confused seeing this,

“You gave 50 bucks to the beggar! That’s a little too much.”
“Why what’s wrong?”
“Look at this guy, he is not handicapped. He could very well work somewhere and earn his bread rather than standing in the street and begging.”
“Look at him, the only kind of job he can get are the ones that require physical labor. Looking at his age, no one would employ him? So for elderly people like him the only hope is the money they get from people like us. That's why.”
“Ya you are right, why did I not look at it this way? Let me also do the right thing by giving the guy another 50 bucks.”

The old man thanked Sethu & Raghu by putting his hands together and raising his hands above his head (that’s one way of thanking people in India).

“What is your name?” Raghu asked the old man.
“Mahadevan.” said the old man in his trembling voice.
“Mahadevan is an old fashioned name, change it to Madhavan it will be more stylish.”
“Started, don’t get too hyper mate?”
“Sethu, let me stand with him can you take a picture of the both of us?”

As Sethu pulled out his phone to take a picture Raghu put his arm around the old man’s shoulder and got ready for the picture. While Raghu was smiling for the camera, the old man was staring at the money in his hand and smiling. Sethu and Raghu showed the photograph to the old man, paid for their tea & vada and returned to their car. With the money in his hand, the old man didn’t seem to pay attention to anything that was happening around him. He surely didn’t pay attention to Raghu waiving from the car as they left or the guy who said “What luck for the beggar” as he left the tea stall.

The old man walked straight to the tea stall staring at the vadas he’s been staring at for a long time now. As he stood there staring at the vadas without blinking his eyes, the guy at the tea stall appeared a bit uncomfortable having the old man there.

“Hey old man, you’re back again to ruin my business? Go away from here, stand in that corner, I’ll give you something later.” The old man didn’t move an inch, it appeared as though he didn’t hear a word the shopkeeper said.
“Listen up old man. What do you want?” screamed the shopkeeper. The old man
handed over the two 50/- rupee notes to the shopkeeper while he was still staring at the vadas.
“Look at his luck, for a guy who doesn’t even know what money is. Here take these vadas and here is the change. Happy?” said the shopkeeper as he took the two 50/- rupee notes from the old man and handed over a vada and a two rupee coin in return. He then put the two 50/- rupee notes in his shirt pocket and resumed his work.

Happy with the fact that he got something to eat and that the shopkeeper gave him some money back, Mahadevan waived at some random black car that passed by, with a big smile in his face.