Angad and his friends - a short story

Hi folks. In one of my changing moods, I thought of writing a short story. Angad and friends is a result. It's slightly longish for a title of a short story. I do hope you will all ignore my idiosyncrasy and try and read this. Your comments will be an added bonus. Here I go:

Angad and friends:

It was a cold winter morning and Angad was in a dream when he was awakened by the incessant ringing of the telephone. He woke up with a curse. It was his boss asking totally unexpected questions about something which seemed very irrelevant and rude especially on a December morning cold when everyone else was inside that nice contraption called “rajai”.

Angad had no illusions about his boss, or for that matter anything that was concerned with his life. He was a product, brought up strictly on a heavy diet of fatalism; this birth is a result of omissions and commissions of his past life, and enduring all visitations of hardships along with steadfast devotion to the faith is the only way to salvation kind of message was drilled into him from childhood days. The boss’s unhappiness expressed crudely at the ungodly hour in the morning, his own inability to rebut him etc, all were all smugly fitted into the “bad fate” paradigm.

Around the same time the worldly wise, Charuvaka was getting ready to go for his morning jog more to be in sync with the trends than any firm belief. He was well read, be it in the spiritual realm or in matters related to pure mundane material terms, and knew precisely how to use them to his advantage, by suitably modifying them to suit any argument that finds favor with a majority. He was liked by his bosses, and his pet belief was in the “where there is a will there is a way” paradigm, perfectly in sync with all who just are in fascination with such cliques.

The third protagonist in this friend’s circle is Appundu (Meaning: Naïve and probably a “Lallu” in Hindi) He is a simpleton; he just goes with the tide, without any hint or being suspected of a bias, and has no flamboyance. His limitations however do not hinder his meticulous plans for a comfortable future, which are never too ambitious.

All the three are a part of a regional set-up of a large corporate entity, and being in the same department, there is this forced friendship, with nothing greatly common or for that matter anything resembling respect or love for each other. For Angad it was fate, for Charuvaka it was a convenient arrangement, as with Appundu on his side, he can always get a better deal with the company’s bosses. And for Appundu it really did not matter as he was never unusually bothered about having strong views on anything. “Just prudently save for future” kind of resolve enveloped him.

Angad is quite reconciled to this fate as far as office matters went, but when it came to matters more spiritual, he was quite pissed off when the glib talking Charuvaka got all the attention and accolades from the general public. To him, this facet of his fate, was just not understandable.

So it was a sort of a surprise and one of those rare foreboding of better times, when these three were the chosen ones to undertake a specific task involving a regimen of orthodoxy. The occasion was the consecration of a temple during the visit of a spiritual big-wig to their city. For Angad this was probably a redemption time, and was full of enthusiasm and faith. For Charuvaka it was recognition of his status. As for Appundu this was just another routine, which invited no specific emotions.

The three had to go to Benares to fetch some idols for the temple to be constructed and consecrated in the august presence of the Swamiji. Angad with his strict orthodox up-bringing was feeling overwhelmed about Lord’s grace in choosing him for such a noble task and though initially uncomfortable with the feeling that the other two also qualified similarly, later he was not only surprised but completely bowled over with Charuvaka’s sheer sophistry of talking about how fortunate he was, to be a part of a team to do this noble “seva”, etc,

It so happened that the rules prescribed during the period of journey till handing over to the temple priests were strict; like for instance, partaking outside food was prohibited during the journey, with fruits being exceptions. But as it was quite common with all such rules, interpretations varied depending on family traditions, which went by the famous name “kulaachaaram”. Angad being more a product of a fundamentalist mind-set, meticulously planned and had taken enough home-made food for the journey. Charu was more practical, as he was quite convinced that he could come up with solutions. Appundu just depended on the other two and left all details to them.

During the up-ward journey as Angad’s food was more than adequate, for all the three, they encountered no great problems. Trouble arose however on the way back. Angad was quite contented with fruits. Charuvaka was clearly uncomfortable. Being well read, he was able to quote parallels from texts and use the arguments of his family traditions to give convincing and validly justifiable exceptions to prescribed norms and with Appundu quite willing, there was no problem in merrily eating away food of choice. Angad remained however steadfast in his faith and avoided all such temptations.

Angad’s discomfort with these two again surfaced, but his up-bringing came handy, as he chose not to make this an issue, and to complain to others at large, when they arrived back in town. However innately there was this illogical flicker of a hope in his mind that Swamiji- the all-knowing- will somehow know about this and he was almost hoping that he would get a kind of message on this from the swamiji, when the three of them get a special audience with him.

The darshan finally came about. For Angad it turned out to be a huge disappointment. Charuvaka it turned out, had excellent contacts who knew Swamiji well, and the audience with him turned out to be a one-to-one with him. No wonder then Charu came out full of beans, with every one swooning over him to repeatedly narrate his conversation with the Swamiji.

Angad was just bewildered, but strangely not for a moment was he angry. His faith still intact, he could only bemoan his terrible fate; how could he be so overwhelmingly denied “grace”? This was something for which he had no answer. Charu meanwhile had become a devout ‘bhakhtha” , well respected, always in demand whenever any important event had to be organized. Appundu was however unaffected by any of these, and had no problem getting on with life as usual.

Years passed. All of them had retired. Charu had a daughter who turned out to be a great doctor, married to a gem of a boy, who was devoted to his parents –in-law. His son was in the US well settled, with a fine wife and two lovely children, a boy and a girl. Life was great and blissful, and Charu the quintessential man-of –the world could not ask for more. He was also so public savvy who knew those precise mandatory symbols which help enhancing public esteem and assiduously made these a part of his persona. For instance there would be MS’s suprapadham,&sahasranamam permeating the entire house in the mornings and evenings, he would have great words of ecstatic wonder at Balamurali’s genius, he will also have a rare collection of K.L. Saigals songs, and finally his house will have a huge portrait of Swamiji in the drawing room all of which he knew will give him an aura of greatness, which they did, and he savored, loved every moment of this exalted life-style.

Appundu had more or less a similar fortune. His daughter was married to an excellent boy and both of them were working with comfortable positions, and his son who had done exceedingly well in academics was a senior manager in an MNC. With his meticulous planning Appundu had bought a nice flat big enough for his and his son’s family and with regular family get-together, there were always pleasant times. Lallu even became a knowledgeable senior citizen, by virtue of his affluence.

For Angad however, times were hard. His savings at the end of the day were far from adequate, let alone comfortable. He never took those extra pains to buy a house for himself, in the sublime hope that Lord’s grace will take care of all his needs, but alas, which was unfortunately not to be. His daughter was married but there was nothing great to write home about. His son was just about doing well, and life on the whole was a monotonous affair with nothing to break this routine.

Yet the faith was never truly shaken. The major regret was when these unease- which were not infrequent- were to be countered, either the process itself was found to be in the genre of a non-permitted kind or every time peace was restored, these were invariably followed by some huge setback. For instance, when things go very bad beyond a point one tends to laugh out aloud. So if humor is such a reliever, he found it amazing that this remedy found no place in any mythological stories. If he came to a “whatever has to happen will happen” kind of a wise conclusion, it was almost certain that a huge setback followed as if to mock him.

Another handicap was the realization that whatever appeared to be his unique tastes in his younger days was slowly beginning to become oddities in this old age, especially when viewed against his current standing, besides the fact that tastes change as time changes. At rare times he even began to wonder if his entire life had not been a wasted affair, both in secular and spiritual terms.

So it was in this mood that Angad was listless in bed one night, with sleep eluding him. By very late night, he is in a bad dream; a man with arms is trying to attack him after forcefully entering his house. His mouth is dry; he is just unable to yell for help. His mother wakes up and hearing some disturbing sounds from her son, asks him as to what is the problem. Angad is still living his dream.

In the real world his wife who is sleeping besides him hears some murmur, and knows clearly that her husband is in a dream. She tries to wake him up to reality. A strange situation arises; Angad in his dream hears his mother and is trying to tell her about the danger. At the same time he vaguely perceives that this is only a dream, and simultaneously the calls of his wife to wake up. He is neither able to wake up, nor to shake off the dream which appears all too real. The dream sequence wins, and for a few seconds Angad is terrified. Finally unable to bear the terrible possibility any longer, he lets out a huge loud yelling even as he is awake fully. Back to reality there is peace and he confirms to his wife that it indeed was a bad dream. Peace having returned, within a few moments thereafter he goes to a comfortable sleep.

Next morning as he awakes, he perceives a message. His life, the Charus, Appundus are all part of a dream; and to know the nature of his self, its existence etc he has to wake up. Though there is help as from his wife, waking up is not easy till it is no longer possible to bear the dream, and one ultimately yells out in realization. There was this vague understanding, but like in the dream till he wakes up and realizes, there is no peace. When, & how, and will it ever happen was the immediately frightening afterthought.

Strangely this led to reminiscing about his friends; Charu did not figure much in these thoughts, as there was this supercilious pride about his being more evolved . The more however he remembered Appundu, the more he starts warming up to and even liking him. Here was a man who was uncomplicated, having no pretense to any great erudition or wisdom, with absolutely no pretenses, and above all was at peace with himself all the time. The Gods seemed to like him also, going by the shower of His Grace on him and his family.

Charus cleverness, his own orthodoxy, pride in his faith being superior to others, trying to unravel mysteries of life etc suddenly appeared to him as meaningless, if peace were to elude him constantly. In spite of himself, his next day prayer to Lord after a very long time included a favor, which he had quite forgotten to ask Him, so steadfast was his belief that He Knows. Today his prayer was to be kind and make him a “Lallu”!!, understanding, liberation, realization et al, can all come later.

Will the Lord deem it appropriate to bless him? Angad after a very long time felt something akin to peace……..

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