Story: Swaminathan Kannan and Alpana Mandal
Script: Alpana Mandal and Swaminathan Kannan
Name of blog post inspired by Rajesh Bhadra
SCENE 1
It was Sivaraman's last working day at Arnold Jameson Consulting Pvt. Ltd. It was dark outside and the hour hand pointed at 8 on the clock on the empty office wall. He had finished all his formalities, given back the company laptop and cleared his desk of all belongings. As he stood up and looked around, he saw Priya at her desk. "Wow I'm gonna miss seeing her every day", he thought. And he would. She was stunning to look at. Clients and colleagues alike would be mesmerised by her words when she spoke. It wasn't what she said, but the way she said it. It was her eyes, her nose, her luscious lips. It was the way her hair bounced when she opened it after she was back in office and finished with all client meetings for the day. It was the way she walked. It was everything about her that spelt
attractive.
And she was his boss.
He walked towards her, feeling naked. After ages, he had no bag to carry back home, no files, no paper. Emptiness. None of his close colleagues were in the city on his last day at AJC. He wasn't feeling so good. He needed reassurance, confidence, clarity about his future. And a woman. The biggest thing missing in his life now was a relationship.
"Hi Priya. So this is it. My last day," he said.
She turned, smiled and got up from her chair. "So, where's your farewell party today?"
"Nowhere. Nobody's in town. All this money to spend and nobody to spend it on!" He looked down as he noticed her shirt slightly stretched on the second button.
"No way! Your last day and no celebrations?!"
"Well we
could go out for a couple of drinks if you're not doing anything," he half-expectantly said.
"Hmm," she looked at her laptop and then looked back at him, "Yeah sure, why not. I could do with some free booze!"
SCENE 2 - will make you go "yeah right"
Meanwhile, Tharki, who was photocopying the Kingfisher calendar at the other end of the office, heard the magic words that induced a chemical reaction in his body - "free booze". His face started to twitch, his hands automatically moved in a blur and in a few seconds where Tharki stood, now stood a new man. He wore a blue lycra body suit with a red cape and red overpants (if you know what I mean!). Tharkiman.
In a flash, he was across the office to where Sivaraman and Priya stood. "Dude!!" he screamed with excitement to Sivaraman, "Isn't it your last day at AJC? Do I smell a farewell? And to think I would have almost missed it!" Sivaraman wasn't very pleased with this turn of events. This weirdo with a "T" written over his chest and red underpants worn over his body-hugging, beer belly showing suit was ruining what would have been an opportunity to get with Priya.
"Of course. Come along. The more the merrier," he faked.
SCENE 3 - hold your breaths!
All the popular night spots were packed and the three of them had to go to Laxmi Palace. There were women dancing in skimpy
saris and
lehengas. The drinks menu was cheap and after a few drinks, all lost track of time. In a couple of hours, Tharki was on the dance floor with his cape wrapped around him suggestively and Sivaraman holding a bundle of 100 rupee notes in his left hand and flicking them on to Tharki with his right index finger.
And all this time, Priya kept looking at the two of them.
All this money to spend and nobody to spend it on.
And he was spending it on Tharki. Her blood boiled. She had two options. She could sleep with Tharki and be the benefactor of all this money. Or she could kill him. Or...
She walked up to Tharki, put her hand in his and said, "I know a place where you can get free beer."
"Free? Where, where??"
"Follow me."
She took the drunk Tharki to the ladies room and pushed him against the wall.
"Where's the beer?" he mumbled incoherently.
"Oops! Well there's a mug," she picked up the plastic mug lying around, "But I can't find the tap. Though...I think you might have one."
Tharki was getting the drift of this. This was gonna be his lucky day!
"Well yeah, I have a tap, but I don't have a full barrel, darling."
"I can take care of that..." her voice went farther as she got on her knees.
Five minutes later, Priya walked out of the washroom straightening her shirt and putting her hair in place. She went back to Sivaraman who was sitting at the bar, looking lost.
"Hey there!" she ran her hand down his arm.
He looked up at her, "Where have you been??"
"Just outside, on the phone."
Just then, a loud shriek was heard from the ladies room. Sivaraman rushed to see what had happened. A woman was standing with her back facing the door, her hands over her cheeks. As Sivaraman moved ahead, he saw the naked body of a man on the floor. His face was disfigured, but he still had the red cape tied around his neck. Tharki!
Sivaraman looked at the woman.
Rujuta...what is she doing here? This didn't make any sense!
"Rujuta. Stand back!" he screamed.
Priya was standing behind, gaping at Tharki's body. Then she looked at Sivaraman and ran out. He ran after her, across the road and farther. She kept running. After they crossed two blocks, she stopped, panting. As he caught up with her, she said "I need to get out of here. I can't handle this." They were in front of Not Just Jazz By The Bay now.
"I need to have a drink," she gasped for air
"I think I'm already drunk," said Sivaraman.
Meanwhile, Rujuta held Tharki's hand, thinking of all the good times they had. He had always been a good friend. And he was dead now. But she didn't know that Tharki was no ordinary man. As a child, he was infected by a Martian worm that made him Tharkiman every time he heard of free booze or free women. And as she held his hand, the parasitic worm made way out of the dead body into its new living host. Rujuta felt something piercing through her wrist, but paid no attention. She was far too aggrieved.
After the cops came, she had to move away from the body. She looked around and realized that neither Sivaraman nor Priya were around.
The bastards! They’re out partying even after everything that has happened!
SCENE 4
At Not Just Jazz By the Bay, Sivaraman swirled his scotch on the rocks while Priya sipped on her martini. Shaken and stirred. The DJ was playing retro bollywood music –
sarkailo khatiya was on. He looked at her picking up the toothpick with the olive and touching it to her lips. She gently wrapped her lips around it and kept it there for a few seconds. Then with a quick motion, she sucked it in, all the time looking straight into Sivaraman’s eyes. With the olive gone, she slowly moved the toothpick in and out of her mouth, her lips pouting. Sivaraman knew that if he had to make a move, it was now. They were both sufficiently drunk and the Tharkiman situation had left Priya feeling vulnerable and in need of a man’s support.
“I know better things that you can put in your mouth,” he drawled, inebriated.
She smiled. Bingo!
“And with two olives,” he didn’t know where to stop the dirty talk.
But just then, Rujuta stormed into the pub. She couldn’t understand how her feet took her there...it almost seemed like somebody was making her act in a certain way. And she wasn’t far from the truth. The worm was taking over her body. It had nestled itself in her wrist just below the thumb. She could see a thin, long swelling there, but she had no clue what it was.
She walked up to the couple who were getting very touchy feely by now.
“What the fuck do you guys think you are doing??” she screamed.
Sivaraman couldn’t believe his bad luck. Every time he would get close to any action, something or somebody would ruin it.
“I’m just trying to make Priya feel better. She’s been really tense since the incident at Laxmi Palace.”
“If you really want to feel better, Priya, then let’s go to Tharki’s apartment and tell his parents about what happened. Nobody has informed them!”
Reluctant and totally drunk by now, Sivaraman and Priya got up and followed Rujuta, who still wondered if her actions and words were being controlled by herself or someone else.
SCENE 5
They stood in front of the apartment door at Matunga. As Sivaraman knocked on it, the door opened with a creak. The whole place was dark and smelled of moistness. Priya switched on the lights. It was an abandoned house. There was minimal furniture – those which were left because they were too old and rickety. There was one table in the hall and an old bed in another room. But of course, Tharki’s parents had moved to Chembur!
In the corner, was a rack with wine bottles. Rujuta picked one up and saw a price sticker from SAQ, Montreal. Tharki had billed all this wine to an old client of AJC!
Just then, Rujuta’s phone rang. It was her husband, waking up from his sleep at 3 am and not finding her in bed.
“Rujuta, are you okay? It’s 3 am and you’re not at home!”
“I’m fine. Sivaraman, Priya and I are at Tharki’s apartment.”
“At this time? Are you mad? Come home, now!”
“You don’t understand...”
“You’re damn right I don’t understand! I want you to come home now!”
She didn’t want to argue in front of the others and so she stepped out of the building on to the street below. While she continued her animated discussion with her husband, she didn’t notice the speeding BEST bus that was coming her way.
Honk! Thud! Whoosh!
And Rujuta lay in a pool of blood.
SCENE 6
Oblivious to what had happened outside, Sivaraman and Priya were gulping down all the wine. She held his hand and said, “Let’s go inside”. He could not control his excitement. He was brimming with eagerness to experience what he hadn’t experienced for a long time now. The last woman he was with was 2 years back. She had left him for Tharki.
That bastard! He deserved what came to him today.
In the bedroom, Priya caught Sivaraman by the collar and threw him on the bed. She took off her shirt and showed the perfectly formed bosom held tight within a red lacy bra. But Sivaraman was disoriented with the throw.
Shouldn’t have drunk so much, he thought. She jumped on to him and rubbed vigorously. Suddenly, he wasn’t really enjoying this. He wanted to be the man, but she was doing all the work. She was being too aggressive. Plus, he was drunk and wanted to go slow. His head was spinning. He screamed.
“No! No! Stop! Get off me!”
And then he passed out.
The next morning, he woke up with a severe headache. Rubbing his forehead, he looked to his side and saw Priya sleeping soundly. He quickly woke up, put on his clothes and ran out of the wretched apartment. He had no recollection of what had happened the last night. All he knew was that he didn’t want to see Priya ever again.
SCENE 7
But sometimes, things can go awry. Unknown to the both of them, Tharki had a webcam set up in his bedroom which led to a live streaming channel on youtube. Tharki was not called Tharki for no reason. He wanted to capture every woman he banged and showcase it to the world. The webcam was motion sensitive and every time it detected movement in the room, it switched on, detected the light intensity in the room, selected the right mode and started recording.
However, Tharki was having a dry patch of late and all live streaming consisted of him jacking off, much to the delight of Naresh. He was a manager with AJC who worked closely with Tharki. He was married, but always had an inexplicable attraction for Tharki. He had subscribed to Tharki’s youtube channel and found himself deeply aroused when he saw videos of Tharki jacking off. But today, he saw something different. He saw Sivaraman and Priya!
SCENE 8
A few years later, Sivaraman, Swami and I sat at Global Fusion to catch up over some sushi.
“You know,” Sivaraman said, “Long time back, there was this one crazy night that I had. I was so drunk, that all I remember is that when I woke up, I was in somebody else’s bed!”
“And whose bed was that?” Swami asked.
“Some chick. She was a senior of mine.”
“What was her name?!?!” I shrieked.
“Let bygones be bygones. It doesn’t matter. She’s history to me. I’m gonna get more sushi.” And he left the table. Swami and I looked at each other and smiled. Of course we knew who she was. We knew the whole story. We knew details that even Sivaraman didn’t know.
Who killed Tharki?
What happened to Rujuta?
Where did the worm go?
What really happened between Sivaraman and Priya that night?
What did Naresh do with the video?
We knew. We clinked our beer bottles.
“Cheers, Swami.”
“Cheers, bitch.”
