Vikram, Betaal and the story of Lookalikes...
Dear Friends,
After my final MBA exams got over, I am getting ample time to concentrate on my hobbies. Needless to say one of them is known to you as you are reading this blog. This is not my first post on my Blog page, but definitely the first story I am writing. Reading, Listening and Watching Stories are always fascinating for me and trust me writing is a far more fascinating but indeed a challenging job. As is the case with most of us, I fell into this trap of stories in my early childhood itself. My earlier stint with reading stories was mainly about Indian Mythology. I admire all those stories and among them the two characters which are most dear to me are Vikram and Betaal. I believe the Indian readers need no introduction to these characters. But Still to brief you – Vikram was a great King whose capital was Ujjain. He was brave, fearless, brilliant, and popular and had a strong will. You can call him as the one who possessed all the values and skills which people expect their King should have. As per promise to a mendicant, Vikram took an ominous task to get into dark woods at night to bring the other character Betaal who was a wily ghost residing in a corpse to the place where the mendicant had asked. As soon as Vikram took the corpse on his shoulder, Betaal used to start narrating a story. The condition is Vikram should not utter a word during the journey, else Betaal would escape and fly back to its original place, but even tougher condition was at the end of the story, Betaal would ask a question, and if Vikram knew and didn’t answer his head would be exploded into 100 pieces. What a condition! Sorry my main theme is not to explain about Vikram and Betaal but I am seeking their help to narrate my story. Let’s start now
That day was also not different. Vikram in his ritual manner took the corpse on his shoulders and started walking towards the destination. Betaal opened his mouth “King Vikram, you rule a large kingdom and for sure you might have seen or heard about twins or lookalikes. To keep you entertained during our journey, today I will tell you a story of two lookalikes. First one to get introduced is Dheeraj, a boy in his early Twenties. He was from a middle class but well educated family with a very caring and cultured parents and a younger brother. He was tall, handsome, slim with good physique, but his dressing sense and grooming habits were too modest for his height and physique. Throughout his education years, he had been a brilliant student with very good scores on marks sheet to showcase. He completed his graduation and his excellent academic credentials won him a handsome job in a leading Multi-national company (MNC). He had to leave his hometown for the job, and during his initial days, he was pretty much excited about the new environment. Having come from Small Town, Middle Class background, he was so awed to see the World Class facilities offered by his company. Looking at his academic credentials, He was put into a challenging project with a big team where he made few good friends and also started liking his work as it catered to his passion and interest.
Times started moving, Dheeraj was at home with his work, his routine were to come to office in morning, hang out with colleagues during breaks, work till late evening, go back to his shared apartment and watch TV. His pastime were reading novels, watching sports, and listening to Bollywood songs. On weekends he used to visit Temples, Parks, Historical places, monuments and tourist spots. In short, he was a Simple Happy Guy till one day, when a girl stepped into not only his company and project but also into his mind and heart. That was Monday, and as a weekly routine his Project Lead (PL) had called for a Status Meeting. Dheeraj was surprised to see some new fresh faces; he gazed all of them but stopped at one girl. PL introduced the new faces to rest of the team and the girl of Dheeraj’s interest was Shalini. PL also apprised the team on which module Shalini and co. will be working. As most of the Boys usually aspire but often turn out to be luckless, Shalini was put into a module totally unrelated to Dheeraj. Poor guy, rued at his luck, but thinking that the whole team belongs to the single Project, and there would be still interactions possible, he felt a bit consoled. You might have got the clue by this time; let me introduce Shalini to you, she was a beautiful Damsel, hailing from New Delhi. With height of 5’5” and athletic body she looked attractive. Adding to that was her dressing sense; any dress would suit her, mainly the dark ones in which her fair complexion glow like anything.
Dheeraj didn’t own a vehicle, neither did he knew how to ride one. He used to travel by Government Bus from his apartment to office and vice versa, seldom he took auto also. Just next day after the entry of Shalini into his Project team (you can say into his mind) when he was travelling in his routine bus sitting on window seat, he saw her boarding the same bus through front door. The bus was full with standing passengers and he wasn’t able to get a glance of her in the bus as he was near the rear side of bus. He thought he would talk to her once they get down at the office stop. But by the time he got down she was near to office gate and had almost entered the office premises. Again ruing his luck he also approached the gate. For the next one hour only Shalini had filled in his mind. It was only during coffee break that Dheeraj’s attention was drawn away from Shalini as one of his friends told he had bought a new bike with 220cc Engine and 50kmph mileage and great looks. Dheeraj though listened with pretty much interest but again held back his anxiety because of his own inability in riding a two wheeler. Other colleagues started teasing the friend asking for treat and when he would get a girlfriend to take her on Bike for long ride.
Few days passed, Dheeraj was getting very much attracted towards Shalini, but due to his shy nature, leave aside talking, he was not able to win a glance from her. One morning Shalini was waiting in her Bus Stand, in fact from long time, and there were no autos also. She was cursing herself for getting up 15 minutes late. Suddenly a bike came and stopped 2-3 feet away from her. The Bike was a new one and had great looks, the biker was wearing a full Helmet covering his head except the face portion, but that portion was also covered with a big pair of Sunglasses the biker was wearing. The biker removed his glasses and helmet, took his mobile out and started attending a call. By what Shalini overheard about his conversation on phone, it was evident that he was working in the same company and at that moment he was heading towards office. He was having good stature, well groomed and was handsome enough for Shalini to give another look at him. After the call, he glanced towards Shalini, and looking at her office tag, he politely offered lift. She hesitantly agreed, and sat on his bike as pillion. This guy is our third character, Suraj, a lookalike of Dheeraj in both appearance and stature but well groomed and dynamic in nature. There were no further talks during the ride, but after reaching the office Shalini spoke a word of Thanks to Suraj, who asked her name and she happily told and didn’t forget to ask his.
Next day was also not different, this time Suraj stopped his bike right in front of Shalini and she happily took the lift. This became a routine in some time and no prizes for guessing Suraj and Shalini became very good friends. As time passed they kept on hanging around together on weekends visiting parks, monuments, historical places, restaurants and occasional movies.
Meanwhile our main protagonist was feeling like living in wilderness, not because of Shalini’s new friendship but because of his own inability to cut the ice. Shalini in project team was selectively friendly, she had made some friends in her own working module and she used to avoid moving out with boys. She had her own set of friends working in other departments and her work routine was also very straight forward. As a fresher she was having less complex work, but she used to complete her assignments diligently within office hours and leave for her house by 6PM in evening. As mentioned earlier about Dheeraj’s routine, her case was totally opposite to his; he was into a complex module and had to work till late evening. One day when almost every member of the team took coffee break at the same time, the PL (of Project where Dheeraj and Shalini both worked) asked everyone about a team outing to a famous place ‘Players Arena’ which hosts the games like Go-carting, bowling, video games, dance bar and restaurant. Everyone got excited about this, especially Shalini who told she loved doing go-carting and dancing. PL delegated one of Dheeraj’s colleagues on checking the feasibility and arranging for an outing after 3 weeks. Everyone got charged up and after coffee went on with their routine work. Next evening when Shalini was going towards her office bus stop suddenly Suraj came with bike and stopped beside her. Shalini was taken aback, gave a shocking look at Suraj, when realized it was he, and started patting Suraj on his shoulders for his act. Suraj was enjoying all this and when she stopped he said he was going to ‘Players Arena’ for enjoying the game of bowling. Shalini’s eyes lit up and asked with whom he was going. Suraj told he was going alone, with a hope of finding an instant friend over there. Shalini asked if she could join and no prizes for guessing, he told yes and next moment they were both heading towards ‘Players Arena’. They tried many games – go-carting, bowling and even danced as a pair on the dance lounge. After enjoying thoroughly they had dinner at the in-house restaurant and returned back. Suraj dropped Shalini to her house and went towards his apartment.
Six months passed but Dheeraj couldn’t go beyond ‘Hi-Bye’ conversations with Shalini. But his eyes were always on her whenever she passed by. It was appraisal season in office and everyone were getting appraised on their work done for the past six months. As Dheeraj was working on a complex module and had put lot of extra hours and delivered well, his appraiser was very much Happy with him and gave him very good ratings. Dheeraj was very happy with this and was hoping to get an early promotion and good salary hike. The appraisals took the center stage in the coffee time discussions. Someone told Shalini was very upset after coming out of her Appraisal discussion and she was almost in tears. It was sad news for Dheeraj and wanted to console Shalini, but how would he do? They never had any interactions other than exchanging occasional pleasantries. He went towards her seat but she had already left for the day.
As rightly said by Dheeraj’s colleague Shalini was very upset with Appraisal discussion and couldn’t work anymore that day and left early. She met Suraj on the way and looking at her sad face, Suraj insisted her to come with him, and they both went out to a restaurant for a cup of coffee. When asked why she was wearing a sad look, Shalini explained how she was not given the rating she deserved and her appraiser was critical of her for not taking any initiatives and responsibilities outside her work. Tears came out while she was explaining. Suraj was listening with calm demeanor and once Shalini was done with her narration, he just smiled and told there was no reason for Shalini to crib. He explained the way the company worked, how the ratings are done and expectations of more initiatives from employees. He even told some tricks of trade so that she could do better in her next appraisal. Shalini was convinced by his suggestions and retuned to normalcy. Again Suraj dropped Shalini to her house and went on his way.
More than a year passed, and Dheeraj was able to have a casual chat with Shalini. She used to ask some technical help from him and occasionally she started going for coffee with him and his friends. They even shared jokes during team events like team lunch, awards function etc. But it never extended to the level of friendship Shalini had with Suraj and the meetings (similar to the ones mentioned in above instances) between Suraj and Shalini continued with good frequency.
During Diwali, Shalini took a long leave and went to New Delhi, her hometown. Dheeraj also took break but a short one as his home town was not so far. He celebrated Diwali at home, sent Diwali wishes to all his team members through SMS and of course special one to Shalini. He got even more excited after receiving one in return from Shalini’s mobile phone. After getting back to office he was feeling very uncomfortable and though he tried hard but the uneasiness prevailed in him during Shalini’s absence. After three weeks, on Monday when Dheeraj stepped into office he saw there was a big gathering of his team mates at Shalini’s desk. Anticipating her return, he also started walking towards Shalini’s seat. After seeing him she gave a big smile, and said HI with dramatic excitement. Dheeraj also smiled and they exchanged pleasantries. Then she offered sweets, and he took one Burfee and started eating. Someone from his team pricked him to ask Shalini for the reason for offering sweets. Hesitantly Dheeraj asked about the reason, her cheeks became red, and after a second she told she had got engaged. For a moment, Dheeraj stood petrified but in the uproar from the team mates after she told the reason, no one noticed his change of expression. He somehow regained his composure and asked who the lucky person was. She answered with a brief description of his profession (he was a Project Manager, in an MNC, and settled in USA) and told his name as ‘Gaurav Kapoor’. With heavy heart, Dheeraj congratulated her, and went back to his desk, the whole day he wasn’t able to work, and for the first time he left early from office. He went home, changed his dress, came out of his house, and with a heavy pall of gloom, he started moving towards the park in front of his house. As Sun was about to set, there were few elderly people assembled in park, some enjoying an evening walk and others were just sitting and relaxing. He approached a bench situated at the corner of the park and sat down on one side of the bench. When he turned towards the other side of the bench he saw Suraj sitting with a wry smile on his face”
Betaal stopped narrating the story and had a side way look at Vikram’s face. There was an unusual smile on King’s face. Betaal continued – “My beloved King, I am done with the story and I hope you enjoyed. There are two questions for you to be answer, first one being, if Dheeraj and Suraj are lookalikes and used to work for the same company, why didn’t they meet each other? Also as Shalini had seen both of them, how didn’t she make out? Second question is, Dheeraj was an introvert and couldn’t express his love, but what about Suraj? Though Shalini and Suraj were very close to each other, why didn’t Shalini consider Suraj as her life partner?” Now King’s smile turned into a light laughter, but Betaal in serious tone “King, I know you have the answers, if you don’t tell as per our condition, your head will be slashed to 100 pieces”. But the King didn’t stop laughing, and after a while, regaining his composure and explained – “Betaal, in your story, there weren’t three characters but only two. Dheeraj’s character is a typical one which is found in small town boys. Though he was very much infatuated by Shalini, he couldn’t express his feelings. His introvert nature and may be a kind of inferiority feeling held him back in reality. But his mind kept on weaving different kind of threads, the result was Suraj who was never real in your story. He was just an imagination or you can say ‘Want to be’ character of Dheeraj. If we trace back to the story you told three instances of Suraj in company of Shalini – first one giving lift on his Bike to Shalini in bus stop. This was done only after Dheeraj got to know that Shalini comes by bus and she stays near to his house, and also after Dheeraj’s colleague told about his new and stylish bike. Dheeraj though not knowing how to ride but wanted to own a stylish bike and he somehow felt girls have awe towards bikers with stylish bike. Second instance, it came to life only after Dheeraj’s PL put forth the idea of having a team outing in ‘Players Arena’ and Shalini’s self-confessed interest in go-carting and dancing. In both the instances Dheeraj had just imagined the scenarios. He imagined of owning a stylish bike, which would help him in gaining the friendship of Shalini. Betaal, you mentioned both Suraj and Shalini used to hang out together on weekends visiting parks, monuments, historical places, restaurants and occasional movies, given the nature of Dheeraj all these places were of his interest. He just imagined taking Shalini to all these places. But in second scenario as Shalini expressed interest in go-carting and dancing, Suraj immediately found interest in those things also. The third scenario is quite simple one as Dheeraj himself went to console her after the appraisal but she was not there at her desk, again his imaginary character Suraj came and did the consolation. Since there was no real Suraj existed, the point of Dheeraj meeting Suraj didn’t arise. With the same reason, Shalini never met Suraj and there was no point of her marrying Suraj”.
Now it was time for Betaal to start laughing, but he asked King on what should happen to Dheeraj now. Vikram answered “Betaal, for Dheeraj’s condition, he himself was to blame. First of all your story doesn’t convey if he really loved her or it was just an infatuation. In both the cases, he would have taken an extra step in motivating himself to make friendship with Shalini. For getting a girl, one need not own a stylist bike or share the same interests as hers. If he would have befriended her, who knows what would have happened! Now Dheeraj shouldn’t take this too much to heart, and as he is a very good worker he should continue concentrating on his work and not worry about Shalini as she is out of equation. But yes, next time if another Shalini comes in his life, it should not be Suraj but he who has to make friendship with her”. Betaal again started laughing, but paused to complement his carrier. “King, once again you proved how best are you in knowing the problems or feelings of people. This makes you stand apart from all the other Kings. That is the reason why people are living so happily in your kingdom. But you spoke, and I have to leave, TU BOLA AUR MAIN CHALAA, bye bye King, See you again, AAAHHHAAA, AHHHAAAA…” Betaal was flying now and Vikram couldn’t help but just watch Betaal flying towards his destination. He just smiled and started going towards his palace. One more effort has gone in vain for the King, but one more lesson to be learnt from him…
Thank you for patient reading,
Regards,
Chetan
P.S - All the instances and characters appearing in this story are just fictitious. If any character bears any resemblance with any living or dead person then it would be just coincidence.
After my final MBA exams got over, I am getting ample time to concentrate on my hobbies. Needless to say one of them is known to you as you are reading this blog. This is not my first post on my Blog page, but definitely the first story I am writing. Reading, Listening and Watching Stories are always fascinating for me and trust me writing is a far more fascinating but indeed a challenging job. As is the case with most of us, I fell into this trap of stories in my early childhood itself. My earlier stint with reading stories was mainly about Indian Mythology. I admire all those stories and among them the two characters which are most dear to me are Vikram and Betaal. I believe the Indian readers need no introduction to these characters. But Still to brief you – Vikram was a great King whose capital was Ujjain. He was brave, fearless, brilliant, and popular and had a strong will. You can call him as the one who possessed all the values and skills which people expect their King should have. As per promise to a mendicant, Vikram took an ominous task to get into dark woods at night to bring the other character Betaal who was a wily ghost residing in a corpse to the place where the mendicant had asked. As soon as Vikram took the corpse on his shoulder, Betaal used to start narrating a story. The condition is Vikram should not utter a word during the journey, else Betaal would escape and fly back to its original place, but even tougher condition was at the end of the story, Betaal would ask a question, and if Vikram knew and didn’t answer his head would be exploded into 100 pieces. What a condition! Sorry my main theme is not to explain about Vikram and Betaal but I am seeking their help to narrate my story. Let’s start now
That day was also not different. Vikram in his ritual manner took the corpse on his shoulders and started walking towards the destination. Betaal opened his mouth “King Vikram, you rule a large kingdom and for sure you might have seen or heard about twins or lookalikes. To keep you entertained during our journey, today I will tell you a story of two lookalikes. First one to get introduced is Dheeraj, a boy in his early Twenties. He was from a middle class but well educated family with a very caring and cultured parents and a younger brother. He was tall, handsome, slim with good physique, but his dressing sense and grooming habits were too modest for his height and physique. Throughout his education years, he had been a brilliant student with very good scores on marks sheet to showcase. He completed his graduation and his excellent academic credentials won him a handsome job in a leading Multi-national company (MNC). He had to leave his hometown for the job, and during his initial days, he was pretty much excited about the new environment. Having come from Small Town, Middle Class background, he was so awed to see the World Class facilities offered by his company. Looking at his academic credentials, He was put into a challenging project with a big team where he made few good friends and also started liking his work as it catered to his passion and interest.
Times started moving, Dheeraj was at home with his work, his routine were to come to office in morning, hang out with colleagues during breaks, work till late evening, go back to his shared apartment and watch TV. His pastime were reading novels, watching sports, and listening to Bollywood songs. On weekends he used to visit Temples, Parks, Historical places, monuments and tourist spots. In short, he was a Simple Happy Guy till one day, when a girl stepped into not only his company and project but also into his mind and heart. That was Monday, and as a weekly routine his Project Lead (PL) had called for a Status Meeting. Dheeraj was surprised to see some new fresh faces; he gazed all of them but stopped at one girl. PL introduced the new faces to rest of the team and the girl of Dheeraj’s interest was Shalini. PL also apprised the team on which module Shalini and co. will be working. As most of the Boys usually aspire but often turn out to be luckless, Shalini was put into a module totally unrelated to Dheeraj. Poor guy, rued at his luck, but thinking that the whole team belongs to the single Project, and there would be still interactions possible, he felt a bit consoled. You might have got the clue by this time; let me introduce Shalini to you, she was a beautiful Damsel, hailing from New Delhi. With height of 5’5” and athletic body she looked attractive. Adding to that was her dressing sense; any dress would suit her, mainly the dark ones in which her fair complexion glow like anything.
Dheeraj didn’t own a vehicle, neither did he knew how to ride one. He used to travel by Government Bus from his apartment to office and vice versa, seldom he took auto also. Just next day after the entry of Shalini into his Project team (you can say into his mind) when he was travelling in his routine bus sitting on window seat, he saw her boarding the same bus through front door. The bus was full with standing passengers and he wasn’t able to get a glance of her in the bus as he was near the rear side of bus. He thought he would talk to her once they get down at the office stop. But by the time he got down she was near to office gate and had almost entered the office premises. Again ruing his luck he also approached the gate. For the next one hour only Shalini had filled in his mind. It was only during coffee break that Dheeraj’s attention was drawn away from Shalini as one of his friends told he had bought a new bike with 220cc Engine and 50kmph mileage and great looks. Dheeraj though listened with pretty much interest but again held back his anxiety because of his own inability in riding a two wheeler. Other colleagues started teasing the friend asking for treat and when he would get a girlfriend to take her on Bike for long ride.
Few days passed, Dheeraj was getting very much attracted towards Shalini, but due to his shy nature, leave aside talking, he was not able to win a glance from her. One morning Shalini was waiting in her Bus Stand, in fact from long time, and there were no autos also. She was cursing herself for getting up 15 minutes late. Suddenly a bike came and stopped 2-3 feet away from her. The Bike was a new one and had great looks, the biker was wearing a full Helmet covering his head except the face portion, but that portion was also covered with a big pair of Sunglasses the biker was wearing. The biker removed his glasses and helmet, took his mobile out and started attending a call. By what Shalini overheard about his conversation on phone, it was evident that he was working in the same company and at that moment he was heading towards office. He was having good stature, well groomed and was handsome enough for Shalini to give another look at him. After the call, he glanced towards Shalini, and looking at her office tag, he politely offered lift. She hesitantly agreed, and sat on his bike as pillion. This guy is our third character, Suraj, a lookalike of Dheeraj in both appearance and stature but well groomed and dynamic in nature. There were no further talks during the ride, but after reaching the office Shalini spoke a word of Thanks to Suraj, who asked her name and she happily told and didn’t forget to ask his.
Next day was also not different, this time Suraj stopped his bike right in front of Shalini and she happily took the lift. This became a routine in some time and no prizes for guessing Suraj and Shalini became very good friends. As time passed they kept on hanging around together on weekends visiting parks, monuments, historical places, restaurants and occasional movies.
Meanwhile our main protagonist was feeling like living in wilderness, not because of Shalini’s new friendship but because of his own inability to cut the ice. Shalini in project team was selectively friendly, she had made some friends in her own working module and she used to avoid moving out with boys. She had her own set of friends working in other departments and her work routine was also very straight forward. As a fresher she was having less complex work, but she used to complete her assignments diligently within office hours and leave for her house by 6PM in evening. As mentioned earlier about Dheeraj’s routine, her case was totally opposite to his; he was into a complex module and had to work till late evening. One day when almost every member of the team took coffee break at the same time, the PL (of Project where Dheeraj and Shalini both worked) asked everyone about a team outing to a famous place ‘Players Arena’ which hosts the games like Go-carting, bowling, video games, dance bar and restaurant. Everyone got excited about this, especially Shalini who told she loved doing go-carting and dancing. PL delegated one of Dheeraj’s colleagues on checking the feasibility and arranging for an outing after 3 weeks. Everyone got charged up and after coffee went on with their routine work. Next evening when Shalini was going towards her office bus stop suddenly Suraj came with bike and stopped beside her. Shalini was taken aback, gave a shocking look at Suraj, when realized it was he, and started patting Suraj on his shoulders for his act. Suraj was enjoying all this and when she stopped he said he was going to ‘Players Arena’ for enjoying the game of bowling. Shalini’s eyes lit up and asked with whom he was going. Suraj told he was going alone, with a hope of finding an instant friend over there. Shalini asked if she could join and no prizes for guessing, he told yes and next moment they were both heading towards ‘Players Arena’. They tried many games – go-carting, bowling and even danced as a pair on the dance lounge. After enjoying thoroughly they had dinner at the in-house restaurant and returned back. Suraj dropped Shalini to her house and went towards his apartment.
Six months passed but Dheeraj couldn’t go beyond ‘Hi-Bye’ conversations with Shalini. But his eyes were always on her whenever she passed by. It was appraisal season in office and everyone were getting appraised on their work done for the past six months. As Dheeraj was working on a complex module and had put lot of extra hours and delivered well, his appraiser was very much Happy with him and gave him very good ratings. Dheeraj was very happy with this and was hoping to get an early promotion and good salary hike. The appraisals took the center stage in the coffee time discussions. Someone told Shalini was very upset after coming out of her Appraisal discussion and she was almost in tears. It was sad news for Dheeraj and wanted to console Shalini, but how would he do? They never had any interactions other than exchanging occasional pleasantries. He went towards her seat but she had already left for the day.
As rightly said by Dheeraj’s colleague Shalini was very upset with Appraisal discussion and couldn’t work anymore that day and left early. She met Suraj on the way and looking at her sad face, Suraj insisted her to come with him, and they both went out to a restaurant for a cup of coffee. When asked why she was wearing a sad look, Shalini explained how she was not given the rating she deserved and her appraiser was critical of her for not taking any initiatives and responsibilities outside her work. Tears came out while she was explaining. Suraj was listening with calm demeanor and once Shalini was done with her narration, he just smiled and told there was no reason for Shalini to crib. He explained the way the company worked, how the ratings are done and expectations of more initiatives from employees. He even told some tricks of trade so that she could do better in her next appraisal. Shalini was convinced by his suggestions and retuned to normalcy. Again Suraj dropped Shalini to her house and went on his way.
More than a year passed, and Dheeraj was able to have a casual chat with Shalini. She used to ask some technical help from him and occasionally she started going for coffee with him and his friends. They even shared jokes during team events like team lunch, awards function etc. But it never extended to the level of friendship Shalini had with Suraj and the meetings (similar to the ones mentioned in above instances) between Suraj and Shalini continued with good frequency.
During Diwali, Shalini took a long leave and went to New Delhi, her hometown. Dheeraj also took break but a short one as his home town was not so far. He celebrated Diwali at home, sent Diwali wishes to all his team members through SMS and of course special one to Shalini. He got even more excited after receiving one in return from Shalini’s mobile phone. After getting back to office he was feeling very uncomfortable and though he tried hard but the uneasiness prevailed in him during Shalini’s absence. After three weeks, on Monday when Dheeraj stepped into office he saw there was a big gathering of his team mates at Shalini’s desk. Anticipating her return, he also started walking towards Shalini’s seat. After seeing him she gave a big smile, and said HI with dramatic excitement. Dheeraj also smiled and they exchanged pleasantries. Then she offered sweets, and he took one Burfee and started eating. Someone from his team pricked him to ask Shalini for the reason for offering sweets. Hesitantly Dheeraj asked about the reason, her cheeks became red, and after a second she told she had got engaged. For a moment, Dheeraj stood petrified but in the uproar from the team mates after she told the reason, no one noticed his change of expression. He somehow regained his composure and asked who the lucky person was. She answered with a brief description of his profession (he was a Project Manager, in an MNC, and settled in USA) and told his name as ‘Gaurav Kapoor’. With heavy heart, Dheeraj congratulated her, and went back to his desk, the whole day he wasn’t able to work, and for the first time he left early from office. He went home, changed his dress, came out of his house, and with a heavy pall of gloom, he started moving towards the park in front of his house. As Sun was about to set, there were few elderly people assembled in park, some enjoying an evening walk and others were just sitting and relaxing. He approached a bench situated at the corner of the park and sat down on one side of the bench. When he turned towards the other side of the bench he saw Suraj sitting with a wry smile on his face”
Betaal stopped narrating the story and had a side way look at Vikram’s face. There was an unusual smile on King’s face. Betaal continued – “My beloved King, I am done with the story and I hope you enjoyed. There are two questions for you to be answer, first one being, if Dheeraj and Suraj are lookalikes and used to work for the same company, why didn’t they meet each other? Also as Shalini had seen both of them, how didn’t she make out? Second question is, Dheeraj was an introvert and couldn’t express his love, but what about Suraj? Though Shalini and Suraj were very close to each other, why didn’t Shalini consider Suraj as her life partner?” Now King’s smile turned into a light laughter, but Betaal in serious tone “King, I know you have the answers, if you don’t tell as per our condition, your head will be slashed to 100 pieces”. But the King didn’t stop laughing, and after a while, regaining his composure and explained – “Betaal, in your story, there weren’t three characters but only two. Dheeraj’s character is a typical one which is found in small town boys. Though he was very much infatuated by Shalini, he couldn’t express his feelings. His introvert nature and may be a kind of inferiority feeling held him back in reality. But his mind kept on weaving different kind of threads, the result was Suraj who was never real in your story. He was just an imagination or you can say ‘Want to be’ character of Dheeraj. If we trace back to the story you told three instances of Suraj in company of Shalini – first one giving lift on his Bike to Shalini in bus stop. This was done only after Dheeraj got to know that Shalini comes by bus and she stays near to his house, and also after Dheeraj’s colleague told about his new and stylish bike. Dheeraj though not knowing how to ride but wanted to own a stylish bike and he somehow felt girls have awe towards bikers with stylish bike. Second instance, it came to life only after Dheeraj’s PL put forth the idea of having a team outing in ‘Players Arena’ and Shalini’s self-confessed interest in go-carting and dancing. In both the instances Dheeraj had just imagined the scenarios. He imagined of owning a stylish bike, which would help him in gaining the friendship of Shalini. Betaal, you mentioned both Suraj and Shalini used to hang out together on weekends visiting parks, monuments, historical places, restaurants and occasional movies, given the nature of Dheeraj all these places were of his interest. He just imagined taking Shalini to all these places. But in second scenario as Shalini expressed interest in go-carting and dancing, Suraj immediately found interest in those things also. The third scenario is quite simple one as Dheeraj himself went to console her after the appraisal but she was not there at her desk, again his imaginary character Suraj came and did the consolation. Since there was no real Suraj existed, the point of Dheeraj meeting Suraj didn’t arise. With the same reason, Shalini never met Suraj and there was no point of her marrying Suraj”.
Now it was time for Betaal to start laughing, but he asked King on what should happen to Dheeraj now. Vikram answered “Betaal, for Dheeraj’s condition, he himself was to blame. First of all your story doesn’t convey if he really loved her or it was just an infatuation. In both the cases, he would have taken an extra step in motivating himself to make friendship with Shalini. For getting a girl, one need not own a stylist bike or share the same interests as hers. If he would have befriended her, who knows what would have happened! Now Dheeraj shouldn’t take this too much to heart, and as he is a very good worker he should continue concentrating on his work and not worry about Shalini as she is out of equation. But yes, next time if another Shalini comes in his life, it should not be Suraj but he who has to make friendship with her”. Betaal again started laughing, but paused to complement his carrier. “King, once again you proved how best are you in knowing the problems or feelings of people. This makes you stand apart from all the other Kings. That is the reason why people are living so happily in your kingdom. But you spoke, and I have to leave, TU BOLA AUR MAIN CHALAA, bye bye King, See you again, AAAHHHAAA, AHHHAAAA…” Betaal was flying now and Vikram couldn’t help but just watch Betaal flying towards his destination. He just smiled and started going towards his palace. One more effort has gone in vain for the King, but one more lesson to be learnt from him…
Thank you for patient reading,
Regards,
Chetan
P.S - All the instances and characters appearing in this story are just fictitious. If any character bears any resemblance with any living or dead person then it would be just coincidence.
Labels: Story
posted by Chetan | 11:07 AM
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