(A short story)
By Sandeep Datta
That evening was an quite unusual evening for my new friend Subeer , an MBBS by degree but still unregistered to be called an offical Doctor.I still remember it was Tuesday, 7.50(evening).Usually, around this time my working friends visit my house for a little bit of chatting with each other.
I had just returned from my office and was about to change clothes after chatting with girls on my PC for a few minutes. As I switched on my Computer, a husky voice fell into my ears, ‘Sandeep’, ‘Sandeep’. My eye brows got raised thinking who this daring fellow could be ,as ,hardly anyone had ever shouted my name that way?
I came out of my room and looked down in the street , from the first floor of my house. It was dark there in the street , the reason, usual, the street light wasn’t working. Any way, as I tried to concentrate on the shape of this visitor of mine ,he shouted once again ‘Sandeep’,Abe Khol’(open the door).
This time I got him ,he was my new friend ‘Subeer’. I went down through stairs running very fastly fearing lest this visitor screams using any abuse in his sentence and my entire image in my colony should come down to zero.
So, scared of loosing already little left reputation among neighbourhood children, I
opened the door.
There he was. Standing with a smile and carrying a bag on his left shoulder. I extended my hand for a handshake with a smile on my face but without giving any attention to that he just entered my house. He climbed stairs to reach my room.
Though I felt awkward,but thinking he was my new friend I just didn’t mind. I closed the main door and followed him.
Soon he was inside my room, situated on the first floor of my house.He turned back to me and asked ‘Isn’t Bedi here’?,
I said , ‘no, not yet, but what happened’? Cutting me in the middle of my sentence and stopping me from going further he enquired, ‘ Where that ass has gone today’?. I thought something was wrong with him today.In the next moment,I noticed, he was shaking a bit while standing. He was, perhaps,drunk I thought.
Anyhow,asked him to sit but my this suggestion fell on deaf ears. ‘No, where is Bedi?present him before me’, shouted Subeer.
Fearing from his drunk state I said , ‘O.K-O.K sahib,sit for a minute’ and I looked out from my room towards Bedi’s room.
Bedi is our common friend , an unemployed student Fashion Designer, lives in a small rented house in my adjacent building on the third floor.His room is quite small for his 6’3 height but full of semi nude posters of fashion models and ,frankly speaking, I avoid going into his room of explosives.
Anyhow, I ran for his room climbing all the steps to the third floor like a sprint race. Reaching there ,I was breathing asthmatically, obviously,the reason being I was ordered to produce him at the earliest.
I found him standing pasting a few more posters on the wall ,I just held him from his wrist and dragged him with me., ‘Where , Where , Where you taking me to’? He kept on asking. ‘Let me at least shut my door if not lock it’,he pleaded ,but, I refused to listen anything.I just kept on pulling him with me like somebody kidnaps someone from his house.While running with him I told him Subeer was drunk and wanted to see him immediately. ‘ I didn’t know why?’I told him.
I was trembling with fear not just because Subeer was the first friend of mine, entering my home in a drunk condition but the fear of being noticed by parents was literally shaking me from head to bottom.For,the rules of my home don’t permit that.
Even the thought of getting caught with such a friend was frightening for me . The reason being that ours was a Hindu,Brahmin family where even mentioning of egg or liquor was considered as a sin.
So, in any eventuality, if my friend got caught, then it wouldn’t be him but me to be kicked out of my house.And,I didn’t want that to happen to me in such a cold night.
O my Lord! Even the thought of that scene,me , standing outside my house in cold and begging to be taken back was very awesomely scary.
I was feeling scared just as much as any teenage boy does when gets caught red handed by his parents while watching a pornographic movie.No, No,No this shouldn’t happen to me’, I kept on mumbling to myself while running back to my room with Bedi.
Alas! I reached my room with Bedi still arrested in my hands. I pushed him in and shouted, ‘here’s your ‘ Bedi Ass’. By that time,Subir was watching Fashion T.V keeping my room’s door wide open.Bomb after Bomb,I felt, he was planting for me.
As he listened my voice, turned back with a broad smile on his face and while standing up from my bed, he shouted with joy, ‘Congratulate me Buddies I have become a registered doctor today’. For a moment,I forgot all of my fears and raised my arms imitating Bedi towards our registered doctor-friend,Dr. Subeer.
Doctor sahib embraced us both though it’s another thing that I got squeezed between both of these huge bodies.Anyway, I didn’t feel that much.For, it generally happens to me because of my short height.I am five foot high.Please don’t laugh!
Trying to stand still, Subeer showed us , by acting himself, the way he would be called by other folks from that day on, ‘Doctor Sahib’instead of ‘Subeer Bhai’.
After all that clone Jokeracting, he said , ‘Bedi, open this bag, look what I have got for you’.Bedi,sensing something exciting,unzipped the bag quickly. There he brought out a fresh bottle of whisky with his eyes wide open because it was English brand.And,that was his favorite one.
Just getting it’s first glimpse,I don’t know how numerous wrinkles emerged on my forehead with in a second. ‘Oh my God!the main bomb still remaining to explode’,was my immediate reaction.And why shouldn’t have I thought that way,after all, it would be ultimately me standing outside in such a cold. ‘No, No, No, I should stop them in some way’.I thought.
Thank God! Bedi wasn’t drunk that day ,by chance, and sensing that, I looked up towards his face. He immediately understood my condition because he knew my family’s rules and regulations as well.
Thank God ! he got my point that day and saved me from the certain troubles.And, persuading Subir for going to his own room Bedi took him there.
As for the sake of company and a co-partner in the hour of celebration I had to go with him to his room.Soon all the three of us were in his room.The mood was totally galla and the stereo was switched on and its volume, raised to the loudest.
Now,the bottle was opened and three pegs were made.One for Bedi,One for Dr Subeer himself and the last one raised towards me. I just refuted it making an excuse that I didn’t drink.Listening my excuse Subir laughed heartily saying , ‘you don’t drink’.Ha! Ha! Ha! Sandeep is still a baby’.
That didn’t hurt me in any way as I was used to of that kind of remarks for my being a teetotaller. And,saying that,subeer had his first peg making a ‘bottoms up’ with Bedi.
Within a few minutes he had his three pegs inside and then I asked him, ‘ so how it does it feel after becoming a Registered Doctor Sahab’?
He paused for a minute ,perhaps, searching for the precise words to answer me how agonisingly he spent the last two years in unemployment even after getting an MBBS degree.His eyes welled up with tears.For, even the mere mention of that period of sitting idle was frightening for him.He spoke in a broken voice, ‘ Sandeep that was too much, really too much for me.
Only I know how agonisingly I passed my each day of the year answering all the hooting gestures of so called friends and relatives back at home, he explained while tears kept falling down from his eyes.
This was the first time that I was watching a grown up man like him weeping like a child in nostalgia. I could feel his state of mind which was of a man feeling completely Relieved after proving to everyone around him that yes, he had the real guts of becoming a Registered Doctor.
That day he could retire into his bed without fearing of the occasional nightmares of ending up as a flop despite striving so hard in career.
On that day, I returned home very touched,somehow,feeling his pain in my own heart. I asked myself, ‘don’t we turn completely savage and cruel when we laugh at somebody’s unsuccessful period of life’.I felt, we all needed a bit of Introspection!Don’t we?
By Sandeep Datta
That evening was an quite unusual evening for my new friend Subeer , an MBBS by degree but still unregistered to be called an offical Doctor.I still remember it was Tuesday, 7.50(evening).Usually, around this time my working friends visit my house for a little bit of chatting with each other.
I had just returned from my office and was about to change clothes after chatting with girls on my PC for a few minutes. As I switched on my Computer, a husky voice fell into my ears, ‘Sandeep’, ‘Sandeep’. My eye brows got raised thinking who this daring fellow could be ,as ,hardly anyone had ever shouted my name that way?
I came out of my room and looked down in the street , from the first floor of my house. It was dark there in the street , the reason, usual, the street light wasn’t working. Any way, as I tried to concentrate on the shape of this visitor of mine ,he shouted once again ‘Sandeep’,Abe Khol’(open the door).
This time I got him ,he was my new friend ‘Subeer’. I went down through stairs running very fastly fearing lest this visitor screams using any abuse in his sentence and my entire image in my colony should come down to zero.
So, scared of loosing already little left reputation among neighbourhood children, I
opened the door.
There he was. Standing with a smile and carrying a bag on his left shoulder. I extended my hand for a handshake with a smile on my face but without giving any attention to that he just entered my house. He climbed stairs to reach my room.
Though I felt awkward,but thinking he was my new friend I just didn’t mind. I closed the main door and followed him.
Soon he was inside my room, situated on the first floor of my house.He turned back to me and asked ‘Isn’t Bedi here’?,
I said , ‘no, not yet, but what happened’? Cutting me in the middle of my sentence and stopping me from going further he enquired, ‘ Where that ass has gone today’?. I thought something was wrong with him today.In the next moment,I noticed, he was shaking a bit while standing. He was, perhaps,drunk I thought.
Anyhow,asked him to sit but my this suggestion fell on deaf ears. ‘No, where is Bedi?present him before me’, shouted Subeer.
Fearing from his drunk state I said , ‘O.K-O.K sahib,sit for a minute’ and I looked out from my room towards Bedi’s room.
Bedi is our common friend , an unemployed student Fashion Designer, lives in a small rented house in my adjacent building on the third floor.His room is quite small for his 6’3 height but full of semi nude posters of fashion models and ,frankly speaking, I avoid going into his room of explosives.
Anyhow, I ran for his room climbing all the steps to the third floor like a sprint race. Reaching there ,I was breathing asthmatically, obviously,the reason being I was ordered to produce him at the earliest.
I found him standing pasting a few more posters on the wall ,I just held him from his wrist and dragged him with me., ‘Where , Where , Where you taking me to’? He kept on asking. ‘Let me at least shut my door if not lock it’,he pleaded ,but, I refused to listen anything.I just kept on pulling him with me like somebody kidnaps someone from his house.While running with him I told him Subeer was drunk and wanted to see him immediately. ‘ I didn’t know why?’I told him.
I was trembling with fear not just because Subeer was the first friend of mine, entering my home in a drunk condition but the fear of being noticed by parents was literally shaking me from head to bottom.For,the rules of my home don’t permit that.
Even the thought of getting caught with such a friend was frightening for me . The reason being that ours was a Hindu,Brahmin family where even mentioning of egg or liquor was considered as a sin.
So, in any eventuality, if my friend got caught, then it wouldn’t be him but me to be kicked out of my house.And,I didn’t want that to happen to me in such a cold night.
O my Lord! Even the thought of that scene,me , standing outside my house in cold and begging to be taken back was very awesomely scary.
I was feeling scared just as much as any teenage boy does when gets caught red handed by his parents while watching a pornographic movie.No, No,No this shouldn’t happen to me’, I kept on mumbling to myself while running back to my room with Bedi.
Alas! I reached my room with Bedi still arrested in my hands. I pushed him in and shouted, ‘here’s your ‘ Bedi Ass’. By that time,Subir was watching Fashion T.V keeping my room’s door wide open.Bomb after Bomb,I felt, he was planting for me.
As he listened my voice, turned back with a broad smile on his face and while standing up from my bed, he shouted with joy, ‘Congratulate me Buddies I have become a registered doctor today’. For a moment,I forgot all of my fears and raised my arms imitating Bedi towards our registered doctor-friend,Dr. Subeer.
Doctor sahib embraced us both though it’s another thing that I got squeezed between both of these huge bodies.Anyway, I didn’t feel that much.For, it generally happens to me because of my short height.I am five foot high.Please don’t laugh!
Trying to stand still, Subeer showed us , by acting himself, the way he would be called by other folks from that day on, ‘Doctor Sahib’instead of ‘Subeer Bhai’.
After all that clone Jokeracting, he said , ‘Bedi, open this bag, look what I have got for you’.Bedi,sensing something exciting,unzipped the bag quickly. There he brought out a fresh bottle of whisky with his eyes wide open because it was English brand.And,that was his favorite one.
Just getting it’s first glimpse,I don’t know how numerous wrinkles emerged on my forehead with in a second. ‘Oh my God!the main bomb still remaining to explode’,was my immediate reaction.And why shouldn’t have I thought that way,after all, it would be ultimately me standing outside in such a cold. ‘No, No, No, I should stop them in some way’.I thought.
Thank God! Bedi wasn’t drunk that day ,by chance, and sensing that, I looked up towards his face. He immediately understood my condition because he knew my family’s rules and regulations as well.
Thank God ! he got my point that day and saved me from the certain troubles.And, persuading Subir for going to his own room Bedi took him there.
As for the sake of company and a co-partner in the hour of celebration I had to go with him to his room.Soon all the three of us were in his room.The mood was totally galla and the stereo was switched on and its volume, raised to the loudest.
Now,the bottle was opened and three pegs were made.One for Bedi,One for Dr Subeer himself and the last one raised towards me. I just refuted it making an excuse that I didn’t drink.Listening my excuse Subir laughed heartily saying , ‘you don’t drink’.Ha! Ha! Ha! Sandeep is still a baby’.
That didn’t hurt me in any way as I was used to of that kind of remarks for my being a teetotaller. And,saying that,subeer had his first peg making a ‘bottoms up’ with Bedi.
Within a few minutes he had his three pegs inside and then I asked him, ‘ so how it does it feel after becoming a Registered Doctor Sahab’?
He paused for a minute ,perhaps, searching for the precise words to answer me how agonisingly he spent the last two years in unemployment even after getting an MBBS degree.His eyes welled up with tears.For, even the mere mention of that period of sitting idle was frightening for him.He spoke in a broken voice, ‘ Sandeep that was too much, really too much for me.
Only I know how agonisingly I passed my each day of the year answering all the hooting gestures of so called friends and relatives back at home, he explained while tears kept falling down from his eyes.
This was the first time that I was watching a grown up man like him weeping like a child in nostalgia. I could feel his state of mind which was of a man feeling completely Relieved after proving to everyone around him that yes, he had the real guts of becoming a Registered Doctor.
That day he could retire into his bed without fearing of the occasional nightmares of ending up as a flop despite striving so hard in career.
On that day, I returned home very touched,somehow,feeling his pain in my own heart. I asked myself, ‘don’t we turn completely savage and cruel when we laugh at somebody’s unsuccessful period of life’.I felt, we all needed a bit of Introspection!Don’t we?
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