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Though everyone will tell that Disco is the worst thing that can happen to you at II, no matter how groovy it might sound, I wasn’t much worried about its decision. I do not claim to be some super-cool toughie that can not be shimmied by the severest of storms. But here I was, a man confronted by two storms who has no option but to worry about the storm more lethal, which, here, undoubtedly was the one that threatened my union with my inamorata. It may sound a bit strange but that’s how it is. A man in the throes of this queer thing called love doesn’t worry about trifles such as suspensions. There are graver things in life to worry. He just waves his hand and says, “Ah, we’ll deal with triflings later.”

I had a vague feeling that we’d get away as we, from which I exclude Tanker, had really done nothing, save being present at the place of calamity; but how I would get away from Pappi was a question I didn’t want to think about. Things definitely looked bleak. Pappi still had my application with him. It hadn’t been signed and wouldn’t be signed, I could scarcely believe my misfortune. How on earth could they convene a ridiculous body called SALAD and make the Industrial Tour Head its president! There were thousands of professors and even more butlers for this rummy thing called SALAD. And how on earth could I be caught for an offence of drinking when I had just wetted my lips. And how on earth could a guy go mad like that to bathe his teachers in soda and then go about offering them drinks! I had only heard that people lose their marbles on an overdose of hooch, but never had I expected to witness marbles so utterly lost.

I couldn’t sleep the whole night thinking about the absurdity of it all. Once or twice, I thought of calling Shreya but did not. To worry a girl at three in the night with such ghastly shockers is not the conduct of gallant men. I reflected how sometimes one is just a spectator to his fate. I remembered a movie where Ram, as innocent a man as ever was born, goes to his friend Shyam’s house early in the morning for their routine walk. He finds the house open and is surprised. He walks in as any close friend will and is shocked to see Shyam dead in a pool of blood. Scarcely does he turn in an effort to call the police that he finds it already there with Inspector Vijay merrily dangling the handcuffs in the air and muttering, “I knew you would have return.” I was feeling exactly how Ram must have felt about the whole damn business but what brought solace was that Ram was acquitted in the end.