Srinivas Cv

Comedy Drama Inspirational

4.5  

Srinivas Cv

Comedy Drama Inspirational

Daag Acche Hai

Daag Acche Hai

6 mins
479


Fight of the century

Charan was having the "fight of the century" with his best friend, Ravi. No one knows when it started and what it was about. The conversation also did not make any sense.


"As if your father knows everything", said Charan.

"Don't bring in my father. If I start to talk about your father, it will turn ugly", replied Ravi.

"Try it and see you will wish that your father never gave birth to you."

"Like how your father feels every day for giving birth to you."


Sasi could feel tempers raising. He felt if left for a few more minutes they might both come to blows. So, he stepped in and separated them.


Flags - before the fight

Charan, Ravi, and Sasi were childhood friends. For 18 years they remained together through thick and thin. They studied in the same school, played together all the time and even chased girls together. It was always a ritual to spend festivals together as well.


That was election season in the town and youth was a big part of the election campaigns. Timely snacks, lunch, dinner arrangements, and cricket kits at the end of the campaign made sure of that. The street where the three lived used to stick together in voting, meaning only one campaign office. Which meant all three remained in the same party office all the time. That year, however, was different, two flags, two campaign offices which split the three into two groups. Sasi and Ravi in the old campaign office, Charan in the new one.


Unanswered questions - after the fight

Sasi walked behind Ravi, who was heading into the campaign office. Ravi angrily picking the pamphlets lying on the table, started to tear them. Sasi tried stopping him. Ravi was in no mood to listen. But he should not let Ravi tear more pamphlets, tearing them was going to get them into trouble. He pulled Ravi hard and made him sit down on one of the chairs.


Ravi started to calm down after a while. Sasi then asked Ravi what happened between him and Charan.


"Don't ask me that. That guy was an idiot.", said Ravi.

"You too are best friends. What could have made you angry like that?" asked Sasi

"I don't want to talk about that."

"Okay, why are you tearing off the pamphlets. Is it because you are angry with Charan?"

"No."

"Then, why?"

"One of the people from the opposition campaign commented on the pamphlets. "

"What was it?"

"Your party man does not fix the roads in front of his house but spend lakhs on pamphlets critiquing opposition candidate."


Sasi kept thinking all evening trying to understand the depth of the comment.


Friends vs Enemies


The next morning Sasi was still not confident entering the campaign office. The comment from yesterday was still haunting him. If verified without any prejudice, the answer was simple, the candidate was not worth the vote. But the man had been winning for the four terms. His father has been campaigning for the man all the while. Sasi, too was a youth member, at a very young age. On one of the previous occasions, Sasi gave a fraudulent vote for the candidate to win. Just shifting parties now was not easy.


In all this confusion a new surprise was waiting for Sasi. Ravi was not there in the campaign office. But he does not have to search long to find him. He was with Charan in the opposition campaign office. Sasi wanted to ask Ravi why? But he could not, he was worried he might have to change his opinion too. It was not easy to accept that he was wrong for so many years. He needed more research before he was ready to do that.


Daag


The election day was before them, Sasi was in the booth. He was handing over the poll slips. The morning hours were usually hectic in the job. There will be a long queue of enthusiastic voters. His job was simple, search for the person's polling booth number and serial number. Then write it down on a slip and hand over the voting-slip. All this he was able to do like a machine. A thing, that, he used to do even when he was young was asking them to vote for their candidate. This year he could not get himself to say it. That comment about pamphlets was relatively a small thing. But Ravi leaving to join, even after a horrible fight, made him indecisive. He was handing over the slips and was guiding people for voting. But his heart was not in the work which made the hours feel really long.


As the crowd started to come down, his father reminded him that he needs to vote. He picked his voting slip and headed to the booth. The 100 meters to the booth felt like the longest journey he ever had to take. As he entered the gate, he noticed, Ravi and Charan coming out after having a Daag on their hand. That reminded all the doubts he had. If the person cannot do a small thing as fixing the road in front of his house, how can he be an MLA? How was it, that my father who was thorough about even a sock I buy never commented about this? Do Ravi and Charan have more information that made them change their choice. With all this in his mind, he got near the voting office.


He walked into the voting booth and pressed the EVM button against the opposition candidate.


The Results

Charan, Ravi came that morning to call out Sasi for a cricket match. The last few weeks had been busy with politics. So, they had no chance to go out and play. The new cricket kit received that morning just cannot be left waiting. Sasi heard Ravi calling him. He walked out, but he still felt he was an outsider in the group. Sasi felt Ravi and Charan kept their prejudices away quickly and campaigned for the right candidate. Even though he voted for the right candidate, Sasi felt, the prejudice stopped Sasi from moving to the opposition campaign office. So, he wanted to know what made Ravi's choice easy.


He asked Ravi, "What convinced you to campaign for the opposition?"

"Chicken pakora", replied Ravi.

"What?"

"Our campaign office remained vegetarian all the time. The opposition campaign office was serving chicken pakora, and I went into that office."


Sasi felt stupid at first. But he later found out his doubts were proved right. The opposition candidate was better. He won the election. He immediately laid roads, got drainage repaired, which were pending works for many years. The man went on to later become the CM of the state. Even though trivial things like a Chicken pakora made him question himself. That experience taught Sasi, to question every choice and prejudice frequently. From that day he can't wait for real questions that might change him completely. He doesn't know he will be happy with it. But he knows he will be ready to accept it.




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