Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Deuce

Drawing a Parallel

Ron stormed into his room after having witnessed yet another day of raging activity at home. He slammed his bedroom door and buried himself into his pillow. He had been (and is) a victim of emotional torture: personal and familial. On the personal side, it is like every other teenager dealing with misunderstandings in a relationship. But being true to himself, he was furious with God who he largely trusted in.

Karen opened her bedroom door with the faintest of noises after yet another day of silence. There hasn’t been any sound of a word within her living boundaries for a week. She cried to herself silently as she watched her parents go by their work with no human expression. She was a part of an emotionally wrecked family that had long forgotten the expression of emotion. A cold war within the family loomed large. Karen didn’t want to risk her life falling into a relationship with another guy in these circumstances. She never believed in God.

I haven’t been in touch with two of my closest friends, Ron and Karen. Fourteen years passed. When we were nine, we used to ride together on the same bike, going around dashing walls and forcing ourselves to lose control and eventually fall off. Karen used to laugh her guts out when the bike just stood after the consciously planned impact. Ron was all praise for having the most control of the bike. He just smiled. After the little incident that we got used to, Ron’s mom called us in for a snack. Karen remarked his mom shouts when his dad shouts. It feels so sloppy. I love her lemonade though. Goodbye Ron. Goodbye you, she waved with a bright smile. He quietly sipped his lemonade. I faintly heard his dad speak when his mom placed the jar of lemonade with a thud. Tears rolled down his cheek. I whispered a thank you and left.

Today, I understand the reason behind Ron’s moist eyes while he had his glass of lemonade. Today, I understand the reason behind Karen’s remark. Innocent knowledge!

Thanks to Cricinfo. The end comment- hope you had a great time, it’s been terrific entertainment with the six-hitting. Do join us again. This is Ron Fanly signing off… took me to Ron again. Forget the odds of the right Ron Fanly.

Thanks to DHL. The column Business Requirement document v1.0, first review by Karen Heins took me to Karen again. What are the chances!

Karen’s mobile beeped .You won’t believe it’s ‘You’. Hoping to see you. Her nickname ‘you’ for me brought her the much needed smile. Ron’s mobile beeped too. I tried the dash with the bike. I managed to lose control. Why don’t you teach me to hold steady?

It was Karen I met first. She began…

My dad was based in California then. My mom here. Mom’s location was rather static unlike dad’s. Dad kept shuffling places. ‘Live the World’, he used to say. Mom found it tough to manage me by herself. ‘Live in ‘this’ world’ she says. Seven years passed in silence. Mom and dad were far apart. Being with mom while she worked to keep this little world of ours going…without dad, silence just kept getting bigger. She goes, lectures at work, attends seminars, reviews documents and signs them off. No sign of dad and even if there was any, I didn’t get to know. My young years passed in a Lifeless world. And now, dad’s back. He’d forced himself to do that for he stays only at one place …wanting to prove mom a point, the point that goes way beyond any stubborn egoistic knowledge ‘life is where true work is. My true work isn’t here.’ And mom..mom..has another belief ‘God brought us together. World has to be made around it.’ you know…there has been too much of ‘World’ and ‘Belief’, the years are spent sulking this way. I have opted to add to their egoistic and unbelievable clashes of the mind… trying to do a mix of both. And now at an age of being with a guy to share my thoughts, I beg to differ with them. It makes me want to take that step back. The sun set and the night just began to look beautiful.

I planned a moonlit dinner with Ron. He took a sip of lemon soda and began…

My dad had warned my mom about his passion for cricket before they got married. He played for his county and he forgets the world around him when a match is on. His adrenaline rush is always on the high and it occasionally affected his human expression of emotion...I hope you understand what I mean... and mom, being a writer, used to keep to herself in the initial years. My dad has been a fan of hers, plots of romance and often involving a divorce in her story line…female dominance more than feminism. With passage of time and work load taking the toll, dad’s passion slipped and also took the rush away with it. He realized real expression loses the right meaning when excessive passion or obsession slips out into the real world… on the flip side, this realization has sowed the seed of suspicion. Suspicion that is baseless. He feels real life incidents inspire great novels like a legend inspires a young one. She has written novels for years now and my dad fears this success of hers would change her mind...he fears they will end up divorced. My mother lives in her own novel world trying to make stories, trying to push herself to go beyond the limits of fame. Fear in silence grew into fear in argument, arguing for the very purpose of life. For dad it has been a passion that had to be killed. And while that took time to die, a new passion began to take life within my mom…. giving rise to another obsession. They are so alike but the likes have come years apart. It has only destroyed their ways of thought. You know… I am tired of being part of this nonsensical world of living… Not until my mom retires from writing and my dad stops worrying for all the wrong reasons. I just pray to see this phase off. I hope this is just a phase…! I sensed his tone. The moon shone bright.

I wasn’t sure if Karen and Ron had managed to keep in touch but I gave Karen a call. For Karen and Ron too, this was the first meeting in fourteen years. Little did I know that it would take so long to know how life still remained the same since the whispering thank you.

Still at deuce…


[This post had long been in the making.Took some time off to finish it today.There will be another story in the near future, not in this genre though.]

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOah....I loved the two substories, especially these lines, "life is where true work is. My true work isn’t here.’ And mom..mom..has another belief ‘God brought us together. World has to be made around it.’ you know…there has been too much of ‘World’ and ‘Belief’, the years are spent sulking this way." The one about World is something which I have heard too often by my mom too!!..:P

Great story dude! Definitely looking for more!..:)

Unknown said...

Sensible, realistic plot!! Sensibly handled...

Rajeev Turlapati said...

@hemanth: Honored.
@karthik: thanks a lot buddy.

Vijayturlapati said...

absolutely fabulous...reminds me of the hindi story starring zeenat aman..Pholon ka taron ka..Great work

Akshaya said...

Soooper! Nice ya.

And yeah different genre, heavy emotions happening.

Rajeev Turlapati said...

@vijay: thanks bro..oh i didn't watch that film.shall check it out.may be dad knows it.
@aksy:yep.i have an idea.lets see where it goes and how long it takes...

Sridhar said...

Kiraak...:)

renu said...

really well-written ...njoyed it......write the next one soon...

Rajeev Turlapati said...

@sridhar: Mashallah
@renu: sweet

supraja suresh said...

good job!!i liked this line "‘Live the World’, he used to say. Mom found it tough to manage me by herself. ‘Live in ‘this’ world’ she says."-clearly shows how ppl's preceptions and priorities differ and this matters!!.

Rajeev Turlapati said...

@sups: nandri nandri...

Anonymous said...

toooo good...its so realistic...