Taken for Granted Chapter 4 - AR the elder brother

If you want to sell refrigerator to Eskimo, pen to an illiterate or contact lens to a blind man you may need a lot of luck. But brother AR could sell ice to Eskimo and Statistics to a statistics professor.

CUT TO: In jail the only thing you own is your past. The rest they take away. The inmates in jail hate me as I look very polished. They think that I might be a spy or informer. The officers in jail hate me because I am supposed to have links with terror outfits. The torture just goes on.

FLASHBACK: The torture called Statistics had just began and the only average I was concerned with was average of Sachin and Lara. But Mr. Lalwani our teacher had other ideas and he used terms like sigma, variance etc. The very idea that numbers can be useful leave alone exciting was alien to me. I made bored faces. Suddenly in middle of the class I was asked to show my homework. Shankar smiled as he thought that I was going to get creamed today. Katha was concerned. She had not helped me with my homework this time. But my homework was perfect, it was rather exceptional. Of course I had not done it. AR did it for me. In return I had to say his taught lines in front of his girlfriends convincingly. They were things like what a great brother he was or how sensitive he was. But since I was getting my work done, I didn't care. Like the Sprite Ad says - Give Money (do homework in my case) to people and they would say anything.

CUT TO: A tall man stares at me. He has me alone in a interrogation room. He is telling me that if I           co-operate they would let me go. But I don't have any terror links. He tells me that I can help myself. He tells me to reveal all I know. He says that he is like my elder brother. That I can trust him.

FLASHBACK:  My Stats oral exams were near. Mr. Lalwani thought now that I was a brilliant student and I did not want to change that impression. The only problem was that I was horrible in Stats. AR told me that I can help myself, all I needed was some trust in myself and Cricket. I did not believe in him. But Cricket and AR can actually sell Statistics to a Statistics professor. Mr. Lalwani never expected the bouncer we were going to deliver. AR explained to me that difference in the average of first innings and second innings of a batsman in a test match -(say Sachin) is Variance in comparison to his overall average. The most common score he gets is mode and the scores arranged in sequence of no of runs scored would have a median. When I presented this in my oral exam, Mr Lalwani was very happy.He was thrilled to hear about practical implementation of stats.  He still uses my examples in class. I liked the fact that I sold stats to a stats professor that day. I also liked the fact that my elder brother was there to protect me and guide me. 

 

Taken for Granted - Chapter 3. Shankar always finds a way.

They say that desperate times lead to desperate measures. It does not matter who takes those. It was one of those times.
FLASHBACK: The hockey match was tied 3-3 and the penalty shoot out had started. Shankar had a really bad day as a goalkeeper where his hands were slippery. Our team had a field meeting and Shankar decided that he will only try to stop goals on the left side. It was the risk which worked and we won the game.After this game, I and AR went inside the changing room where Shankar introduced me to the coach. The Coach knew AR but not me. He was amused by my name Taken.

CUT TO: I called Katha.She picked up the phone but immediately slammed it shut realising it was me. She is right in her way. If only I could explain.

FLASHBACK: Katha used to wait for me in the library. She thought library was the knowledge center. I thought Library was the place where you sat only because you wanted to have silent whispering conversations. I felt those were very romantic. The best part was when I tilted my head slightly and she while touching her face and neck with her palm smiled.

CUT TO: The only smile in my life was Smile toothpaste in my bag. A Police man stopped me suddenly and 125 rupees which I had were not enough to bribe him. I am now in a police van being taken to a jail. (Imagine the news headline : Taken being taken to jail). If only I could think like Shankar, If only I could get out of this jail...

FLASHBACK: Shankar always loved the fact that he could think out of the box. He had proved it to our Maths teacher many times by getting right answers using wrong formulas. He believed everything was based on percentages. As to how he manged to get right answers, no one knows.

No one also knows when he started smoking, drinking and gambling. But he did do all these things. His father had issues with him. His father had his own drinking problem to deal with. But I knew that Shankar was a good kid. So did my parents and my brother AR. We liked him the way he was. Easy going, enthusiastic about life.

Then one day Shankar showed up in school drunk. I tried to control his antics but he was like a clown let loose. Finally Father Pinto -(Father of the Church and Principal of our school) caught him. Father Pinto was strict. I was scared that he might rusticate Shankar. After 2 hours Shankar came out of the Father Pinto's office smiling. I was curious and so was rest of the school. As it latter turned out -- Shankar found out that the wines shop in town was suffering in the off season time. Shankar gave his word to help his business. He offered to buy the wine in bulk for Church for Sunday morning communal. He thus tasted different types of wines to decide which one to select. That's why he was drunk. In other words he was drunk because he had given his word. Father Pinto respected people who kept their word. He was a man of principle. Shankar was not punished but he was rewarded. He received a gold star ribbon on annual day function that year.

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.     

Taken for Granted Chapter 1 - About Katha

I am an Idiot. Here's why...

• My girlfriend thinks I am a pervert.
• My best friend is angry with me.
• My Brother has left me to fend for myself.
• CBI is after me as they think I am a terror suspect.

FLASHBACK:  I lived in a small town called Dalhousie. My family owned a hotel near Nehru Road and we were well to do. I attended school with two of my best friends, Shankar and Katha. Shankar was very close to me. We bonded, helped each other, did a lot of guy stuff. Katha was a friend who was girl and she later slowly became my Girl friend. My name is Takarwat. But everyone calls me Taken.

CUT TO: I am running between the pinetrees away from the police who are after me. I just hope I reach to the cave. They don't know the multiple hidden places in it. Only I and Katha know about it.

FLASHBACK:  We were in ninth standard and Shankar played hockey for our school. He was our goal keeper and he was very good. Being a star player he was allowed to slack in studies, grow long hair and occasionally bunk classes. I was an average student like him,(I was actually a bit better than him) but I was not a athlete and hence I was always considered as good for nothing. Katha was a mugger. She would mug for 10 hours each day and possibly entire day on exam days. But she was nice. She talked with me while twriling her hair, did my homework and explained me the method to do it. She was not smashing hot but she was not a ordinary looking girl either. 

CUT TO: I am hiding in the cave. The moon is making various different patterns in sky. It reminds me of Katha.

FLASHBACK: It was Dec 31 and after midnight we were all sitting outside with a bonfire. I looked up at the Moon lying on the ground. I closed my eyes. I opened them and I saw Katha's face really close to me. She kissed me and then kept staring at me. The moon gave her an aura from behind and I felt she was an angel.