When souls drift - Part I

“Vikramraj Sardesai”! He calmly moved his fingers over the small plate that bore this name and which was nailed to the beautiful gold frame. The elegant and dynamic Vikramraj looked handsome even at the age of 52 and this photograph was a proof of that man’s stature and personality. His father was a great man, he knew it, and all that he could think of at that point in time, was every single moment that he had spent with him; especially before his father breathed his last. Wiping off the tears he picked up the heavy photo-frame and hung it on the wall of his swanky cabin. Very calmly he then lit the diya kept on the brown teak plank in front of the huge frame. The fragrance of the agarbatti mixed with that of the garland, then filled the entire room. Clasping his hands tightly he kept on staring at his father’s eyes and all of a sudden burst out in tears. “Rajendra Sardesai” – Age-26, Times-Businessman of the Year and a huge corporate celebrity was finally crying his heart out after avoiding the shutterbugs that wanted to cover his father’s funeral. Out of all the moments, the only ones to run through his mind were the last few hours that he had spent with his father in the ICU. His father had talked for 15 minutes before the cardiogram went totally silent. Vikramraj was an idol for generations and Rajendra (Raj) was his biggest admirer. A huge secret was let out in those 15 minutes; a secret that made a sharp impact on his father’s image. With a final shaky sigh he raised his head and after a brief glance at his father’s portrait he turned back and left the room. The entire staff was about to leave for the day. Without caring about anyone’s good-byes & greetings he just trotted out of the office and towards the parking lot.

‘Bahadur’, his driver had just lit his cigarette and was resting his back against the black shining Mercedes. Raj suddenly appeared before him, and startled by this sudden appearance of the big boss, the man nervously dropped the cigarette. Looking at the red eyes, the driver went speechless and doddering with utter fear he simply dropped the cigarette. He had done nothing wrong; even he knew it. But the sheer presence of his ‘Chote Sahib’ took the hell out of him. A few seconds went very silent. Raj looked at the fallen cigarette and bent down to pick it up. Bahadur stepped back a bit. Raj held the cigarette in front of him. It was still burning.

“Take this…there’s nothing to fear about” he assured Bahadur with utter coldness in his voice.

Shaking and still not sure about what he was doing, Bahadur simply took the half-crippled, half –lit nicotine stick.

“Keys” Raj asked with a raised hand.

“I…I…I am sorry Sahib! I won’t smoke again. This won’t happen ever again.” Bahadur was almost on his feet.

“I said Relax! Just give me the car keys. I would be driving the car myself today. There’s nothing to worry about.” Raj said this with a very shaky voice. The redness of his eyes had grown now.

“Sahib…you relax sahib…Tell me where we have to go. I’ll take you there. You don’t seem to be in…”

“Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyssssssss” Raj yelled so harshly that the entire parking lot echoed with his voice. A few other people, who were leaving for the day, started looking at the two men; as if Bahadur was being fired by his boss. Stunned by this sudden hysteric verbal attack, Bahadur stumbled to get the keys out of his pocket and handed them over to Raj. Ina few minutes, the black machine raced out of the parking lot.