KISSING FORTUNE A HAPPILY EVER AFTER…
Yash saw his last rupee disappear, he had spent all he had on his gravely sick mother. More than fifty percent of her body was paralysed ever since she slipped in the stairs. It was a hot may summer morning. He was standing in a pharmacy with a prescription and the last money in one hand, saved from his accountant job at the local cloth shop and the other hand, rolled to a fist, trying to grab something, time maybe. Only he knew how badly he desired to reverse time. He never really liked his job. Inside his body lived an actor, a brilliant one of a kind. He was the first choice for every single school and college theatre show. With expressions so fearless and free spirited, this “star” kid was every director’s dream. But destiny had chosen his path already. As his father died in a road accident, misery somehow grabbed him hard. With shackling duties of home and his mother’s ailment the star refused to shine any further and what was left of the boy served the monotonous job.
“You’re short of a rupee, Sir”, said the pharmacist and there disappeared the last rupee. He was no longer an accountant as there was no longer the shop. “No heir”, said his aged boss shrugging, as the shutter rolled down last time and the words were sharp enough to tear apart the boy’s soul. He searched for work like a maniac but luck always seemed to run against him. Every single day pushed him towards the aghast that was today. “maybe there’s something I saved at home” he thought, praying for some saving to find back home, but he knew the truth very well. The rations needed an immediate refill, the landlord kept poking for a vacant apartment, the money was gone and all he was left with was a prescription, his mother’s medicines and the pain strangulating him harder with every passing second.
He could not take this anymore. His spirits were shattered. Sitting at the bus stand, he closed his eyes and went back to his golden memories. The thundering applause, enough to shake every single auditorium window, his whistling friends hushed by the college faculty, the nodding guests who were simply flattered admiring every aspect of the act the boy had offered and his overwhelmed theatre fellows. He could spend all his time seeing this view. A strange horn passed by waking him back to his reality. The bright sunlight made the tears easier to flow. A strange power drove him. He got up and started walking towards the passing full paced vehicles, as if he were blind. He was walking towards a humongous bus as if pulled to be its bait by choice. It was just a moment away, hardly giving time to blink eyes but somehow he was invisible to many and there was no stopping. A horn blew, maybe to warn Yash to save himself from the blow when suddenly someone grabbed his arm and pulled him against his destined track.
No one noticed what catastrophe was about to happen on that fast paced road that bright Wednesday morning. A man dressed all white saved him. One could mistake him as an angel but the white driver’s hat distinguished him a saviour. The medicines were crushed be the bus tire. A thought passed by Yash’s mind of him being crushed the same way and it made him nauseous. The man in white pulled towards the roadside and asked him to sit, a command Yash followed nodding. “ Do you realise what you were about to do”, said the driver, “you’re lucky my boss noticed you, otherwise God only knows what might would’ve happened”. The driver was struggling to know whether the boy was in his senses. “ I’m Raju, what’s your name”, the driver tried to get some voice from Yash, meanwhile his boss was all ears with curiosity. He was struggling with the boy’s face. “I’ve seen him before, but where?” he wondered. “Yash”, the boy replied, panting and an image of a young boy taking the stage with him appeared to him. Yash, how is this possible, that brilliant kid. He noticed the boy carefully. Those hypnotizing hazel eyes, that fair face, that same 6 feet height, however, the face reflected more pale and those gorgeous eyes were mostly hiding behind two dark circles.
“Yash, where were you all these years”, said the man. It took Yash a moment to recognise Director Pawan Verma, the same director who was the alumni of his college, a chief guest, a man who never missed Yash’s performance. He offered Yash his big break to the world of cinema, way before he even thought of searching, which he respectfully refused as his parents were adamant about finishing studies. Director Verma had given him his number, whenever Yash was ready, which he noted in his diary. A diary which was somewhere laid in dust like his many other dream. “What happened to you boy and where were you all these years” asked Pawan. The words broke him and he cried his soul out until tears refused to form. Pawan offered him water and asked Raju to help him take boy to the car to get to his home. [Stay connected as the next chapter will be shared tomorrow.]
