I Am My Grandfather

April 24, 2014 Ramu Das 5 Comments

The life of a Salesman ain’t easy. Should you be one you will certainly know what it is to be a Salesman. You will know how difficult it is to earn and make ends meet. After a hard day’s labour, and having been abused by my boss for not meeting my sales target, I decided to leave the job once and for all.

By the time I reached home, everyone in my house, except my father who was not home yet, were asleep. It was quite late in the night. I did not have the appetite to eat anything, so I skipped dinner, which my mother laid on a plate in the table.

I lay in my bed, trying to catch some sleep, but sleep seemed quite a foreign thing to me. I shifted a little to the right, and a little to the left. I did everything I could but by no means could I fall asleep. Then I curled and squeezed myself under my blanket, and lay in the bed absolutely motionless, pretending to have fallen asleep.

I heard some noise. The source of the noise was my father. He was in a drunken state, and was blabbering something, as he entered the house. “All sleeping!” he yelled. “Have you all nothing to do but sleep, sleep and sleep?”

I thought his question would fall on deaf ears, but I was wrong. My mother was not asleep, after all. Or perhaps it was the noise that woke her up. “Oh, yes,” said my mother, and sighed a sigh of exasperation. “Yes,” she resumed, “we have nothing to do but sleep, sleep and sleep, and you have nothing better to do than drink, drink, and drink.” An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is the policy between my mom and dad.

My father came to my room; he wanted to wake me up. He pulled the blanket from me and instead of saying Rohan, – which, by the way, is my name – he said Pop, which is the name by which my grandfather was known in the family, who passed away some years ago. “My God! My God!” my father cried, “Pop, it is you. Where have you been, Pop? And where is my son, Rohan?”

I know what it is when a person is fully drunk, so to cut the whole damn thing short, I said, “Dad, I have no time for all this nonsense. Go back to your room and sleep, and leave me alone if you will.” I had a bad day. I was worried about what was going to become of me. The prospect of finding a job was pretty dim; it concerned me a great deal, now that I don’t have a job.

“But Pop,” said my father, “why are you calling me Dad?” I acted as if I did not hear what he had said. Had I made any interaction with him at that point of time, he could have gone on speaking till the morning and he would have tried to find some point in all pointless things. He mumbled something for a few minutes, and then he went back to his room.

My restlessness was gone, and somehow, I slept. I have the habit of rising with the sun, no matter how late I sleep in the night. I went to the bathroom and washed my face. Then I looked in the mirror, and – oh my god! – what an unsettling sight presented itself before my eyes. It was not my face any longer; my grandfather was staring at me. “Hey Rohan, it’s me, Pop,” he said, and then and there I fainted.

VIEWS AND OPINIONS

When Words Make Me Angry

April 18, 2014 Ramu Das 2 Comments

There are words that are too disturbing for the senses, obscene words for example, though some people may not use them at all. And there are other words which may not seem censorial, yet to some, like me, such words may seem too offensive.

Below are some words worth mentioning that pisses me off:

K: Yes that is it. The letter k, which in other words means OK or okay. You will come across this letter when you receive text messages from friends and your near and dear ones. You make some jolly good statement such as:

“After a long time I’m hearing from you and it feels really good.”

Or:

“I’ll be away for a few weeks. I know we would miss each other like crazy, but I’m sure you do understand that this trip is very important. I will bring you some gift, and don’t you be sad, I will be with you shortly. I will miss you.”

To all these jolly good statement what reply do you get? You think k. Yes, k, indeed.

Awesome: What can I do – can I wave a magic wand or something – so that people can forget this awesome word once and for all. Every time I access the internet and try reading stuff, the word awesome is the most prominent one. For anything and everything people say awesome.

Ma: This is a very stupid way of writing my. Some people think – perhaps inspired by Rap music – that it’s cool to write ma instead of my.

The list of such words can go on. I am sure you must have come across words that you dislike with all your heart. So, may I be so bold as to ask you what words you hate the most.