“Alcom wants to send something to u... gimme ur address” ...Ajith said
“Why not u... y not u give ur address”... I say
“I don’t like taking up responsibilities”... says he
“What about others” ... I ask
“Everybody has reasons”...says he... hmm...
And lo! The courier came... I thought the “box” has come... but no... they were papers... I call up Blue Dart and ask what I am supposed to do with the papers...
And the race begins... against time and against fate...
The process was simple... we had to get the sales tax clearance for the consignment (or the “box”... our protagonist) and then submit the clearance in the airport to take over the box...
It was 4.30 Friday evening that we get to know all this... and we were in the “royal” state of West Bengal where govt. offices have 5-day-a-week policy and officers leave by 5.30 PM at the maximum
4.45PM: Ajith out of office... poor soul with his bits and pieces of Hindi, finds a taxi that would take us to Beliaghatta with great difficulty
4.55 PM: I find myself a victim of wierd looks from people passing by as I wait outside my office...
5.00 PM: I am guiding Ajith and “Dada” (the taxiwallah ofcourse) to my place
5.05 PM: More than 5 min gone...confusion and ecstatic conversation prevails on both sides...
5.10 PM: I find them finally!!!...passing by...
I clamber into the taxi and say “Dada, Beliaghatta jaldi se pahuncha dena...please”
Says he... “pehle suru hona tha...aur pachaas lagenge”...hmm... din’t expect anything better...
“Dada...100 hi bahut hai pehle se... aur pachaas?”... tussle goes on and then...
“Accha pahuncha tho deejiye pehle...phir dedenge ”...
We know it ain’t far as he stops over coolly to drink water...damned... taken for a ride again.... It wasn’t as if we were least expecting it...
5.20 PM: We reach the office... I rush to the first floor
5.22 PM: We need to go to the sixth floor of another building... guided in half Hindi and half Bengali...
And about the building...long and winding corridors with lots of corners... and come a corner... it’s a literal dump yard of waste...
Rooms were lined up in these corridors with “Chatterjee”s and “Bhattacharjee”s pasted on them
Enter the room and reams of paper work...covered with black dust are stacked up in the cupboards
And...the phone...straight from Graham Bells laboratory...as Ajith would say... uses the same technology that Bell originally used...
5.25 PM: Three men surround us... everyone more than willing to help... make me fill forms and thrust a few more to be filled up and say “kal 11 baje ayyiyega...aapka kaam hojayega”
“abhi nahi hosakta?”
“Abhi officer saab chale gaye na...” hmm...
“kal tho aapka kaam ho jayega waise to Saturday bandh hai lekin aap ke liye kar rahe hain”...how privileged!!!
And the wierdos 4% sales tax calculation on 2635 comes to 1054!!!
5.35 PM: Ajith and me find ourselves on the roads of Beliaghatta
People taking bath under the roadside taps, SBI ATMs used for playing hide-and-seek.... and Ajith would say “this place was made before God ever created the world”...
We say no to all the taxis passing by and exploring the place (It was my crazy idea though...) and finally walk to a place where taxis didn’t stop by for us...
We finally get into a bus that would take us to salt lake after a drawn out one hour... Reach salt lake and we looked like haggards... being hungry, we have an early dinner at Hangout...
Now the papers were still with me... peeping out of the cover of apples... apples straight from the roads of Beliaghatta
We wait for Suchen and Roshan to come and they come and then out of nowhere comes the suggestion of going to Caught n Bowled...
Everyone was ecstatic... Mumbai Indians crush the Knight Riders...finishing the match in just over five overs...
Back to the PG and lo! the papers are gone... frantic calls are made... me to Ajith, Roshan... and they to Caught n Bowled...
Poor souls Ajith and Roshy, rush back to the place and get hold of those papers; papers and sanity...both restored... everyone's at peace... hardly knowing what was to come upon us, the next day n for days to come...
This is still the story of the mere papers... the "box" is yet to play its role...
