The Bike Ride...

Raghu was sitting bored on the balcony. He was depressed and angry because his iPad was snatched from him by his sister, Raghavi. He was thinking how boring life is without a screen. Suddenly, he heard footsteps and saw his Grandpa Raghavan walking towards him. Grandpa seeing him depressed said, "Come here Raghu. I will tell you a story of Vikram Betaal". But Raghu was in no mood and said that he had already read the ebook on Vikram Betaal. 

Grandpa said, "But you do not know what happened to them in modern times" and that caught Raghu's attention. 

Raghu eagerly came to Grandpa and was all ears as Grandpa began to tell the story. Grandpa told him that in modern times, Vikram rides a bike and Betal was the pillion rider. The catch here was that Vikram had to continue to ride and not stop anywhere till he answered Betaal's questions.

So, here goes the story...

Vikram was driving his electronics powered heavy-duty bike and heading towards DamDama lake for chilling out when suddenly a guy running along with jumps into his pillion seat. Vikram tries to apply brakes but the bike keeps going. The guy identifies himself as Betaal and says, "Hi Vikram, How are you? Many centuries no see?" 

Vikram recollects the flashback in circles and replies, "Hi Betaal, dude still pillion riding? Thought you would have at least got yourself an e-bike."

"Not funny," says Betaal, "but understand one thing, I just hacked into your systems and jammed the brakes, and the bike will not stop till you answer my 3 questions."

Vikram says, "That's not fair. At this speed and rate, by the time you finish your story and ask questions, we would have reached Alwar."

Betaal says, "Times have changed, I have stopped telling stories as they are all available in some plagiarised form or the other in various ebooks and social media accounts besides WhatsApp forwards."

"Instead, I will straight ask you three questions and you have to tell a story quickly for it. Ok, listen carefully now,

1. Can a man get thrashed for saying Yes to someone?

2. Can he be thrashed again for saying No to someone? 

3. Can he be thrashed again for saying very good?"

Vikram was mindful that his chilling out destination was fast approaching but fortunately the flyover construction work had created a bit of diversion here and there and increased the journey to his destination. 

He quickly said, "There was a man who believed more in what his astrologer told him than even himself and his common sense. One day, his astrologer told him that whoever speaks to you today first say 'Yes' then ' and then 'Very good' for whatever they say.

The man walked past the local Pehalwans shop. The Pehalwan says, "Hey, you look suspicious. Did you steal my apples?"

The man replies and says, "yes" and he gets a sound thrashing for that. 

The Pehalwan says, "Hope you will remember this thrashing" and then the man replies, "No" for which he got thrashed again. 

Suddenly, the Pehalwan's assistant comes running and says, "Looks like someone stole some money from the cash box" and the man says, "Very Good" and he gets thrashed again.

"Moral of the story is to believe in yourself and use common sense," says Vikram. 

As he says this, the systems in the bike start working and the bike stops. Betaal then says, "Correct" and hops on to a State Government roadways bus going in the opposite direction towards Delhi.

Raghu loved the story and hugs his Grandpa laughing. He had never laughed for a long while and realized there is life beyond a screen that has laughter, happiness, and warmth that the virtual world can never give to a human.