This is a story originally written by me. I had sent it as an entry to a short story competition. But didn't make it. Thought I will share it here in my blog.
It was the 28th of September. The date brought some disturbances in me. I was afraid, I was getting back some dreaded memories which I wanted to forget. But as intended, they came back and haunted me. I just closed my eyes, leaned back and moved the cursor across my memory and it started on the 28th September of 1986.
The winter had started and all the boys at the orphanage jumped out of their beds to get dressed up to attract childless couple to take them home. In those days, adoption was less popular and not preferred by many families even though they were childless. The boys were around 8-12 years old. Everyone wore their best outfits, stood in a line and looked confident. It was not the case with me, as I was always the unwanted, due to my crippled leg. I was at the orphanage ever since I remember things. Whenever I saw young couples get out of their expensive cars, heading towards the orphanage, I would pray God that they take me home. But even before they came to me, I knew it wouldn’t happen.
I could not speak much to anyone due to my insecurity. I did not mingle with the other boys during studying or playing. Though I was extremely good at studying, I could not make an impact even with the boys at the orphanage. I stayed alone most of the time with my books and crutches. Few days ago, a new boy joined the orphanage. He had a bed next to mine. He always consoled me when the other boys teased me for my leg. I realized that he is the one to spend my time with, Ajay.
A couple got down their Ford, the woman in her late twenties and the man in his early thirties. As they got down, a smile lit the young faces. Everyone wanted rich parents. We both went too. I was standing before him in the line. The person in charge of the adoptions introduced all the boys in the line.
“Satish, aged 10, good at volleyball, bad at studies”
“Vimal, aged 8, a bit naughty”
The list continued for the next twenty boys and finally came to me.
“Rohan, aged 10, extremely intelligent but...” and stopped.
I put my eyes down. I had started my prayers before they reached the first boy. The prayer stopped when they moved to Ajay.
“Ajay, aged 9, a young and handsome boy, good at studies too”.
I could see the flicker of motherhood in the woman’s eyes. I had not seen it before in any other women; but for Ajay. I did not want him to go. He was my only friend at the orphanage. I was never jealous of anybody else getting adopted. He had aroused the strength in me and he was the one who made me feel low again. I realized my inability now.
I was waiting outside while Ajay was in the office for some formalities to be fulfilled. I saw him run towards the room. He started packing his bags, with a broad smile on his face. He was surrounded by boys, who were congratulating him. His smile was intact. He lifted his face. The moment he saw me, he rushed towards me and hugged. He was extremely excited about the new turn his life was taking. I forced a smile on my face though I cried deep in my heart. I could see the loneliness engulfing me with his departure.
Years had passed by, I was 23, but still at the orphanage. I never showed up to childless couples after the day I was rejected for Ajay. I stood up with the help of my crutches and moved to the mirror. I saw a handsome face with hazel eyes and dark hair. I could not see my legs in the mirror. Maybe, that was the reason I appeared presentable. I was expecting my results that day. If this too was positive, I would be awarded with an MBA certificate. I had done extremely well throughout my academics and was sure of completing it with flying colors. I had very badly wanted to take up some job and earn for myself. I had lived my whole life on charity and wanted to end this.
I was happy to find out I had cleared it very well, well enough to secure a job with one of the MNCs and support myself. I started applying wherever possible the very next day itself. Many offers I got would be ruined for my crippled leg. The reason would be ‘physically unfit’ though I don’t remember lying down due to a fever. I debated within myself that my inability to walk without crutches cannot be called physically unfit. But they had their reasons.
Finally, I was selected by a small company, for a lesser pay than I expected but just enough for renting a new home. I worked there for around six months, giving a part of my salary to the orphanage and saving the rest for a shelter. I finally rented a house with just a kitchen and a bathroom with the money I had saved. I moved into this place within three days as I liked the locality very much and it was also nearer to my work. My job was also going on good. I was happy with my life until I met the person I never wanted to see in my life. The person I hated.
It was a tiresome Tuesday. I came home around 7.30 p.m. and found a man in front of my door. I was surprised as I never expected any guests. As I moved closer, I could see the man’s face more clearly but not clear enough to identify.
He said, “Hello Rohan, remember me?”
I stared at him for a few seconds. I was shocked to see him.
“Ajay!! Is that you? I never expected to see you. I am surprised. Come in”.
We entered and I made 2 cups of coffee and gave him one. Like our first meeting, he broke the silence between us.
“So, how is life?”
“I am doing fine. I am much better now, staying away from free food. I am happy about my job, home, actually everything. How about you? How did you find me?”
“I am doing fine too. The company you are working with is my dad’s. I recognized you when the new employees list was sent. My family is in Mumbai. I came to Bangalore this morning to meet you. As soon as I landed here, I went to the orphanage. They directed me to this place. I will be taking over the company soon. I thought I might take you with me, as you are much more intelligent than me. You will get a good position in the company. Will you come with me?”
I was shocked.
“What? I need time to think. I can’t take such a big decision in just a day”.
“C’mon Rohan, you know me. Why do you need time? I told you everything is fixed. We are going.”
I felt a closeness I never felt before after he said this. I looked down for a second or two and lifted my eyes. He understood what I wanted to say. Yes. He was very happy. He took out two tickets to Mumbai from his pocket. We left Bangalore the same night. I wonder if it is the faith he had in me or in himself to convince me to do this.
I still remember the night we landed in Mumbai. I was a lot happier but showed very little on my face. I did not want to seem desperate. The family, Ajay’s dad and mom, accepted me and forced me to call them ‘Dad’ and ‘Mom’ too. The very next day, dad wanted me to know about the company. I wondered what the hurry was. I thought I would be spending some time in the city, the only city which I had seen other than Bangalore.
Ours was a software company, having numerous businesses worldwide. Though I was not trained for building software, I was good at management, in which Ajay was bad. On the insistence of dad, I enrolled in some of the classes that provided education on it. Ajay neither had knowledge about administration, finance, taxes etc., nor at computers. Sometimes I even wondered whether he completed college.
I was at the helm in the company and the annual reports reflected my performance than anyone else. The company recorded the highest profit ever; I couldn’t take the credit for this. Whenever there were any lucrative projects, Ajay would go for it and return empty handed, mostly. He lacked the confidence to speak and was horrible at marketing.
One day, I was surprised when I saw Ajay in the office around 12 noon. He usually never turns up. He came straightly to my cabin and took some papers out and said,
“Dad wants to retire. I want you to sign some papers.”
“What papers?”
“Applications for change of nominee to all my bank accounts. It was actually my dad who was the nominee, but he wanted me to change it to you due to some reason.”
“Nominee? Fine. No problem.” I signed it.
“You didn’t even bother to read it? That’s bad for the company. Don’t tell me you sign papers without reading them.”
“I trust you.” I don’t know where those words came from. Maybe, it was just to prove I was not foolish enough to sign it like that.
He laughed at it and left the office.
The next day, the newspapers, featured an interview of Ajay. He was the ‘Businessman of the Year’. I was angry and stormed into his room. He was still asleep; I woke him and asked about it. He said,
“I came home around 11 last night. I came to your room to tell you but you were sleeping. So, thought of telling you today.”
Sleeping? I had not closed my eyes for a second last night. But still I didn’t want to tell him. I smiled at him with great difficulty and came out of his room. He called me.
“You know what? Our company has recorded the highest profit this year. I feel great.”
I had slogged for it and knew the figures by heart and this fellow gets up in the middle of his sleep and tells me we have made profit.
In the car, I joined the pieces together. He always took advantage of me. I came to know that he had brought me here to look after his company. He just wanted to enjoy his life. He misled me. I slogged for his company and he enjoyed the limelight. I was disappointed.
Days passed by, It was a Monday. I started for work pretty early as I had a seminar on banking. The purpose was to improve the newly appointed staff’s knowledge on banking. They usually would have just passed out of college.
I was happy to see a good number in the audience when I started the presentation. In the front row were dad, Ajay and some senior officials. I started with all the greetings, introductions and slides and also spoke about loans, sureties among other things. While I was saying,
“A nominee is a person who the client of the bank appoints. The nominee will be able to claim the money if the client dies.”
The words ‘nominee’ and ‘dies’ rang a bell in me. I suddenly remembered I was the nominee to Ajay’s accounts. I was calculating something when I saw something move in front of me. It occurred to me I was onstage. Ajay had gestured, I continued. I wound up early and got back to my cabin.
Ajay had never been a reason for my smiles since he was adopted. But now, he was. The rest of the day, I was thinking of some ways to gobble up his money. But I don’t know why I couldn’t wait till he came of age and died. I came up with a simple plan to kill him. I was also confident I would not be held for his death even by his parents.
The day had finally come. He was at the dinner table, coughing a lot. He must have been smoking of late. I told them I had a bad day at work and needed some rest. They were still at the table. I stealthily went to Ajay’s room. I emptied all of the toxins got from the roadside pesticide seller into the bottle of the cough syrup lying on his bedside table. I wanted him dead. The road to heaven was open. I hurried back to my room.
I was excited. I could hear him cough for a while. After that, silence. Dead silence. I was curious to see what happened but didn’t want to. Now that it was confirmed he was dead, I was afraid. I didn’t know what to do. I could easily escape from the hands of law. But still, I was a murderer. I put all that aside and thought of the things I would have. First of all, lots of money and then, a nice wife. We would have kids. Maybe, I would even adopt a kid from the orphanage. I don’t know when I slept.
Finally, it was morning. I took a hot bath and came down. Ajay was not there. I was not even expecting him. Dad was reading the newspaper and mom was in the kitchen. They had not yet been to his room. Time passed by. It was 10 a.m. Ajay had not yet turned up. Mom went to his room to wake him up. I could feel sweat trickling from almost all parts of my body. I was expecting a loud cry anytime. But nothing happened. I looked up. I could see mom with a dumb-struck expression. She was trying to tell something. No words came out. Finally, we could hear the words.
“It’s all over now.”
Dad was horrified too. “Is it? But the doctor told he still has 3-4 months left.”
Mom started crying. She didn’t even bother to hear what dad was speaking. I could not understand what dad was speaking about. We rushed to his room. He saw me confused and took me out of the room.
“I need to tell you something, Rohan. Ajay was diagnosed with a severe kidney problem 3 years back. He was undergoing dialysis every week. He used to take treatment in London once in every three months. The doctor gave him 4-5 years to live. It was then he wanted us to have another son as he could not live longer. He told us about you. Fortunately, we found you in Bangalore and brought you here. I wanted you to look after the company. If he had told you all this before, Ajay thought, you would never accept it. He changed the nominee in all his banks and I transferred my property to you. Everything is yours now. We don’t want to live luxuriously without our son. He was everything to us. I am sorry if I hurt you by not considering you as my son. I trust you with the company and money. Just the way Ajay trusted you.”
I was speechless. The word ‘trust’ had a very bad impact on me that I could not bring myself back to senses. Dad went back to Ajay’s room. I followed him. I saw a different person on the bed now. He was pure in his thoughts. He was not misusing anyone. He lay peacefully in the bed. My world had come to an end. It was not he who died, it was me. I was left all alone again on charity throughout my life.
After all the rituals, dad told me they would be on a spiritual trip from now on and never come back. I was an orphan again; due to my greediness. My life completed a circle and came back to the starting point, the point where I belong. I spent all the money and built an orphanage in his memory. That was the only way I could repay him.
Even today, after 5 years, I could not take him out of my mind. I was lost in thoughts when I heard a tap on the desk. I looked up. I saw a person with a boy. I was at the orphanage. The person told,
“Sir, this boy is my neighbor. He lost his parents due to a flood. I heard from a friend that you provide good education, good clothes and food to the kids here. Please do the needful.”
“That is not a problem. Just give me his parent’s death certificates and fill in the application form here.”
“Sure, sir.”
I looked at the boy. He was smart. He must have been around 6 years.
“What is your name?”
“Ajay.”
“Come to me.”
He held his crutches and dragged himself near me.
The person told, “The boy is a cripple, sir. He lost his leg in the flood.”
