ENDANGERED and other stories - krishand (read me like a book TXT) 📗

ENGANGERED

and other stories

Krishand


1 . ENDANGERED


2 PS: Some Simpler Concepts


3. Being Elite In the RAin


ENDANGERED

About 30% of the fresh water that reaches home is used to flush toilets. That’s why he didn’t flush it. He left it unattended. He saved his share of water.
Reading about the environmental impacts that his breed has imposed on nature he evolved into a concerned mammal.
All of a sudden he started attending seminars and symposium on how to save earth. A lot of information was shared. Heavy topics like Global warming, Polar ice caps, Oil eating bacteria, annual rainfall, CFC’s, Poverty,H1N1and Energy conservation were discussed in a 7000 square feet room centrally air conditioned and attended by 17-20 people. The breaks were unbelievably gregarious with oily dishes and boxes of tissue papers with people squatting about their ruthless bosses and the latest movies released.
“A news paper costs a tree.” The chief guest of the meeting had made the audience think. Does tissue paper cost trees as well?
He stared at a chart erected on a metal frame at the centre of the hall. It had a immense data for his underdeveloped, orthodox, typical engineer brain to process.
Every minute 55,757 barrel of petrol is used. (A few days later he brought a cycle.)
Every minute there are 107deaths and 15die from starvation.(He gave up Dominoe’s)

The meeting ended with the chief guest leaving abruptly between heated arguments. A few photographers took snaps of the dignitaries on the stage whispering to each other.

He couldn’t sleep that night. The pictures of scantly clad African kids scavenging amidst war debris for food packets and Rajasthani women traveling 20 km to get fresh water kept reeling in his head. He got up to tighten the leaky tap at the end of the hallway in his ‘1 BHK’ apartment. He switched of his refrigerator. Rain was beating against his window. ‘Huge drops of fresh water’ he thought. Rain water harnessing was a topic of discussion when he was in college. He remembered how is college had a rain water storage tank. (a concrete wall was built around a naturally occurring pond). Rain water should be harnessed. He went to his bathroom and took a green bucket and ran to his terrace. The terrace was slippery and a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. The next morning he would have harnessed a bucket of water. Fresh. Cool. Yellow, with dust and a particular taste.

He did not press his shirts today. The tie was left numb and lazy, hanging across his neck. ‘Iron boxes, washing machines and vacuum cleaners burn electricity’. Nobody in his office gave a damn about what he wore. He knew that even if he walked in his manager would fire him only for not meeting dead lines and the diplomats in his nearby cubicles would give their daily nodes. He, like any average IT person in India, makes 0.025 $ a minute 300% less than his US counterpart.

The afternoon lunch was totally herbal. He didn’t eat chicken or meat. He drank barely enough water. He didn’t waste food. He looked outside the window at the pale greenery blurred in the midday sun. ‘It must be raining somewhere else in the world’.

A guy in a funny tie handed him a pamphlet as he walked out of his office. “God is watching you”. A pamphlet cost a tree. ‘But god made trees’ he thought. The pamphlet ended with the remark “make ten copies of this pamphlet or the wrath of heaven shall come upon thee”.

He walked into his room and drank a glass of rainwater he had saved earlier. The rest of the bucket was used to flush his toilet. There was an envelope from the bank. ‘Pay the interest on the housing loan at the earliest’. ‘Does Envelops cost trees??’. He switched on the TV. Half a dozen bombings in Pakistan. He didn’t seem perturbed.

The northwest sky turned into an eerie glow. The twilight subsided and he was left in the yellow light of room. The scent of boredom filled the single bedroom. He took out a piece of paper from his notepad. He started writing on it.

‘ I don’t know why I am doing this. I don’t think there is any point in pursuing a meaningless life. No one else is responsible for my death’.

Rain was beating against his window. ‘Huge drops of fresh water’ he thought. He left the note near the table lamp.
Suicide note on a piece of paper …. that’s one tree lesser…


PS: SOME SIMPLER CONCEPTS


Abhinav: What’s the movie this weekend?
Sarath: I guess they are playing some regional movie – Telgu
Abhinav: I guess, I might learn the portions for the test on Monday.
Sarath: Dude….I don’t have any concepts
Abhinav: You don’t?!!!...you better!
Sarath: I have…..but I am not sure
Abhinav: You need to develop it bro,..work on it.


PS: Everyone in the company talks about concept. It’s like spirituality. If you have it it’s good. If you don’t You better develop it.The corporate training is all based on building concepts. It’s funny…that no one really has it but everyone seems to be building it.

Abhinav: Hey did you get the mail about the guy who shot himself?
Sarath: Which one? The one with the brain splattered on the floor or the one with the half a face?
Abhinav: Brain on the floor??!!! I didn’t get that forward!!
Sarath: Its awesome dude. Chill man! Crazy!
Abhinav: Send it to me..bro!!
Sarath: Let me check it I have it. Yep! It’s on its way bro..!


PS: Corporate training is about forwarding forwards(mails) and receiving forwards. Your mailboxes are always full. The topics in the mails areTrivial though sometimes they appear. Occasionally people get serious mails from HR and they find themselves out of the company. Once in a bluemoon mails with indecent exposure makes us realize that we are humans after all.


Abhinav: Hey, I guess he is wearing a ZOD.
Sarath: What is a ZOD?
Abhinav: You don’t know ZOD?
Sarath: I do!! It’s a….
Abhinav: Shirt!
Sarath: Yeah..branded, costly. I went to buy it the other day, but had to be content with Van Heuseun
Abhinav: I have 6 of them
Sarath: You do? I have 2. The other three are Loui..


PS: You are judged by what you wear.(At least what you wear on the outside) If you can get brands-then they are the bests for niche. If you Can get rejects or duplicates which looks exactly like the original, you learn the basics of economic management. Alternate trends need not be followed because they may be non branded.


Sarath: She is gorgeous
Abhinav: Yup…may be 28
Sarath: She ain’t that old…may be 22
Abhinav: I was talking about her waist size, you idiot!!
Sarath: She is 30
Piyush: Yes, she is 30 for sure
Ahinav: see..Sarath: see…
Piyush: see…30.

PS: Gals dress really good. In the first month they start to wear kurta and jeans ( a neo Indian culture presser..?? yet modern outfit). In the second month they start wearing Tshirts and straighten their hair. In the third month T shirts become tighter, jeans show more curves and accent changes. In the fourth month….


Sarath: Hey did you pay the Vodafone bill?
Abhinav: I paid it online
Sarath: Good..I brought a T Shirt online.
Abhinav: You did! I encountered a small problem while transferring money online.
Sarath: Oh, it always happen…friggin Banks.
Abhinav: My ID is kinda blocked.


PS: Everything is done online. You are expected to do everything online. If your computer or flush don’t work, you are supposed to Notify online. If you die..you are supposed to deregister from the intranet and apply log leave. Swipe out is a must. Single swipes wont be accepted.


Piyush: Where is Abhinav?
Sarath: He got fired yesterday!
Piyush: Why?
Sarath: He flunked in a few tests and has low scores.
Piyush: I am glad he took it in the right sense and didn’t commit suicide like that Bengali.
Sarath: Yeah…whats the movie this weekend?
Piyush: I guess they are playing a regional movie-Kannada

PS: No comments.


(all characters are fictional again.)


BEING ELITE IN THE RAIN

Throughout Onam it rained and then it rained again and again. All the portholes filled, manholes overflowed, drainage blocked, shallow ‘bog recovered real estate land’ oozed crimson mud and stray dogs learnt to swim. I couldn’t dry my new sandals, so I quit the idea of going out. The TV was never switched on. The bathroom light flickered with every sudden downpour which seemed to temporarily disrupt the continuous shower. It’s not monsoon. It’s not the mango shower but it was raining chaos on boredom.
Waking up was the toughest part. The rain will squeeze the last drop of sleep out of you. For a moment I was glad that I had no office to report to at 9.30 in the morning. Finally when I get up at noon and the breakfast would be set on the table and no one would be around. The lonely cold coffee cup and the newspaper were set next to it. The tooth paste is almost done.
“its raining again, there might be flood “,
“mmm.. chewing down the stiff rock hard steam cake and the dry curry I would node to my mother.
“any news on the date of joining ?” the question that my numb ears have grown used to. It didn’t bother me anymore
“mmmm…no “ and I chew the gumption down to the deepest chambers of my head.
“ I heard their shares collapsed” she would add salt to burn.
“mmmm..”
“I heard they threw 200 engineers out. Sent them home “. She wouldn’t stop.
“mmmm…..”
“the IT industry has collapsed” she would coil up the last round.
“mmmm..yes”
“Why don’t you search for some other job”
“mmmm…yes”
I leave the dining table in haste. To run to my trench, my room, my only resort.
“Why don’t you go and pay the electricity bill??!”
Act like I didn’t hear it. It’s