Good evening...!
This is the tenth episode of the story, Disguised-the unseen faces.
Happy reading...!
Episode10:
“Ting tong!!” The door bell
rang at Sandesh’s house. Savita opened the door and saw Pradeep standing there.
“Pradeep beta, come in”
“Namaste, aunty”
“Come, sit. Sandesh’s
upstairs. I’ll call him”
“It’s okay, aunty. I’ll
go meet him there itself. It’s been three days since he last came to office. He
wasn’t even answering our calls. So, thought of visiting him personally”
“Don’t know what
happened to him. He remained locked inside his room for two days. Only
yesterday night he came down to drink water. He neither talks nor responds to
our questions. His father’s terrified watching him like this. Even I’m worried”
“There’s nothing to
worry, aunty. He has gone through a lot in office. Maybe he’s trying to relax
and get out of that stress”
Savita remained silent,
staring blankly at the empty wall. Pradeep accompanied her in her silence and
went upstairs saying, “I’ll just go and check him”. He went up to Sandesh’s
room and knocked on the door. “What!?” Sandesh responded in a low voice after
hearing rapid knocks on the door.
“It’s me, Pradeep”
He stood there silently
for few seconds. Then he heard Sandesh walking towards the door. Sandesh came,
opened the door and without even lifting his gaze, went back to his bed. Pradeep entered the room, closed the door
behind him and moved near the bed. He saw Sandesh’s cell-phone lying on the
floor; dissected.
“What the hell happened
to you, bro?”
There was no response
from Sandesh. Pradeep pulled a chair near to the bed and continued as he sat,
“Listen, Sandy. I know how
it feels. You’ll have to get over it, bro”
“Oh! You do?”
Sandesh replied in a
faint voice and turned to look at Pradeep. A wry smile covered his face.
Pradeep remained silent. Sandesh continued,
“Now, I’ve a flirty
friend in my room, enlightening me about love”
“Well, you can call me
that. But, I wasn’t always flirty”
“Don’t tell me that. I
know you more than anyone else”
“That means you don’t
know me enough”
Now it was Sandesh’s
turn to embrace silence.
“I became alone after
losing my parents. I had only a bit of love before they passed on. I was eager
to taste. In fact, I yearned for it. Then I came across a girl who I thought
would give me enough love for the rest of my life; Nirmala. She lived the
neighbourhood. We became close day by day. So close that we even had physical
relationship. I thought my life’s complete. But, I was wrong. She had
relationship with many men. She was a pervert. I was just a tool to satisfy her
lust. Depression took me in. It took months for me to come out of that. Then
came Aarthi. She was the one who helped me come out of that depression. But,
she too left after a couple of months. After that there were many girls. I
hardly remember their names. By then I was sure; there’s no LOVE left in this
world. There’s only LUST...”
“So, you’re telling me
all women are bitches?”
“Nah! Not just women.
Even men are of that kind. There are hardly countable human beings left in this
world who adore true love. But, they get cheated easily, like you. You must be
extremely lucky to find such persons as your life partner. World has changed,
bro. And so do people. They love THINGS and use HEARTS rather than doing it the
other way around. There’s only one rule in this modern love world; fuck and
forget”
“I’m not that type”
“I know. But, you got
cheated be that kind of woman. So, let go of her. She isn’t worth it”
“I just can’t, man. I
simply can’t. Every single thing I do is somehow connected to the memories of
her. I can’t flush them that easily”
“I can understand,
Sandy. But, you’ve to try harder. Locking yourself inside your room won’t help
you in that. You’ve to move out and clear your thoughts. Let other thoughts
take the place of those shitty memories”
Sandesh was silent.
Pradeep’s words have started transforming his mind slowly. Pradeep looked at
Sandesh’s face. There was immense display of emotions. But, confusion ruled
them with upper hand. Pradeep spoke again,
“Look Sandy, if you keep
mind and heart busy thinking about that cheap woman, you might miss the
opportunity of welcoming your true love. So, just clear your mind and relax.
And let that true love find its way to you”
It made some sense.
Pradeep noticed his words doing the magic. It was the right time to bring the
building to the ground. He got up pulling Sandesh off his bed,
“C’mon, get up. I know a
place that’ll boost your soul”
For the next thirty
minutes he made Sandesh get ready. They came downstairs and started walking out
of the house. Noticing some movement, Savita rushed out of her room. Pradeep
turned back and waved at her with a broad smile on his face which stated,
‘mission accomplished’. Savita was
delighted to see her son getting back to normal condition. She could now sigh
out a deep relief.
* * * *
“Wow! This bike’s a beast,
man” Pradeep exclaimed riding Sandesh’s new Enfield. Sandesh was sitting on the
back seat. Noticing his silence, Pradeep was trying to keep him busy with
talks, to which he either got a one word reply or a simple ‘hmmm’ as a response
from Sandesh. The Enfield entered the Mahatma Gandhi road (or the M.G.road as
the modern Bengaluru calls it). Looking around, Sandesh asked,
“Where’re we going?”
“You’ll see”
Pradeep moved deeper
into the area. He seemed to know a lot about that place. He turned to a narrow
street and squeezed the bike forward. After covering several yards, the Enfield
came to a halt.
“This is it” said
Pradeep indicating to a small door. The sign board above the door read, ‘GALAXY
pub’ with the word ‘pub’ written in smallest possible
alphabets. After parking the vehicle, they moved towards what seemed to be the
entrance. There were two well-built men standing near the door. They gave a
warm smile to Pradeep. Pradeep lead Sandesh through the door. They walked
through a silent, dim lit, narrow corridor. Sandesh saw another door right
ahead of them for about fifteen feet away. It was guarded by a masculine
figure. As they approached the door, a faint music reached their ears. They
went through the door and now the music was loud enough to tear their ear
drums. It looked as if Pradeep visited that place quite often. Because finding
that very place itself is hard for any other person. And the guards near the
entrance door didn’t stop them from entering the pub.
The place was extremely dark
with only colourful laser rays sweeping around. It took few minutes for their
eyes to adjust to the darkness. Loud music covered their ears. They could see a
huge crowd dancing violently to the beat. The space that the pub covered seemed
to be vast with bar counter, seating arrangements and a wide dance floor.
Pradeep moved through the dancing crowd towards a table; almost dancing to the
rhythm. Sandesh followed him silently. As they sat, a waiter appeared out of
nowhere. Pradeep ordered for beer and turned to Sandesh saying, “Let’s start
with beer” and winked at him. Sandesh gave away a small smile in response. After a while, the waiter reappeared with two
large glass mugs of beer. Pradeep grabbed a mug and holding it high in the air
shouted, “To break-ups”.
Sandesh was silently sipping
the beer. Noticing this, Pradeep started his speech.
“You should let this
place in, bro. Only then you can enjoy it to the core. Look at this place; this
is heaven”
Sandesh smiled and
looked around blankly. Pradeep moved close to Sandesh and continued,
“You see those girls in
mini-skirts, wearing red glowing bands? They are the bar dancers. I mean not
officially, but they do work here”
“You mean, this’s a live-band
pub?!”
“Not exactly. As you
know, such places can’t exist, legally. So, the owners of live bands found out
a way to keep their income hooked. And this’s that idea. They converted live
bands into dance pubs. Those bar dancers will be like any other persons
visiting this place. In case of a police ride, they move out with the crowd
making it look like they’re just other customers”
“Hmmm. So, these places
survived against the odds”
“They had to. After all,
it’s the only source of income for those girls and their families”
“But, what’s the use of
earning money through prostitution?”
“Hold your horses! These
dancers are not prostitutes. They just dance along and cheer you up, that’s
all. It’s us who misbehave with them and ruin their image. Besides, it’s good
money. And they’ve their reasons”
Pradeep was explaining
the things and a female voice broke their conversation.
“Looks like we have a
new guest here”
Pradeep and Sandesh
turned to see the figure that interrupted their conversation. There was a
gorgeous girl standing behind them. She was in her mid-twenties and was wearing
jeans and T-shirt. There was no sign of any other make-up, or it might’ve gone
off by the sweat that covered her entire body. Sandesh’s eyes fell on her right
wrist. She was wearing a red, glow band. She was a bar dancer.
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