Taken for Granted Chapter 2 - Taken was not just my name

There is a reason why each person takes birth. My purpose of being born was to stimulate change. I have to be demonized for the world to be a better place.

Flashback: Dalhousie was certainly the place to live in. There were these old roads which Britishers had built, old buildings and lots of pine trees. Everyone knew each other and of course everyone knew me. They would call me Taken and I was always taking up new activities to do. I remember the time when Katha, Shankar and me decided to raise funds for Cancer affected people and the response we got was bad. Yeah! after 4 days of fundraising we had collected only 125 rupees. Now 125 rupees in 1995 was not as bad as in 2010 but it was still a very small amount. 

Cut to: I am in the market to get some supplies like food, medicines and magazines. Its been a year since I have been running from law. Its morning time and I don't expect to find any police at this hour but its always good to be prepared. My hand was over my pocket and I felt re-assured. I still had 125 rupees. Enough to bribe a constable.

Flashback: So after a low collection. Shankar and Taken (that's me) sat outside every shop in town and sang sad songs with really bad voices. We managed to annoy the shoppers and thus the shop keepers. Eventually 4 notes of 500 rupees was offered to us. That was more than what we aimed for. We had raised the money through manipulation through irritating others and people in town started saying -Taken will do anything to make things work, if you don't give him what he wants, he will take it.

Cut to: Posters of the latest movie Chandana are posted near the walls of the market. The Heroine of the movie stares at me through her grey eyes. Katha had grey eyes. She used to stare at me and I used to love that. The Heroine stares at something in the poster and I walk ahead. I am missing her a lot and those eyes keep coming back to my head.

Flashback: Shankar had a fight with his father and he came to my house for the night. I managed to sneak him in my room with out letting my parents know. My brother Arunte - AR saw us sneak in. We managed to convince him to keep mum. AR was a cool brother to have. He would know when to follow Omerta. This was one of those times. In the morning Shankar's Dad came and he created a scene in front of my parents. He said Shankar was becoming a nuisance maker. I defended Shankar. I had taken his side. I did not care if the stand I had taken was right or wrong. I guess I was too young then.