The Day The State Split Asunder - 6

Eleven hours from now, he will be seated inside the APSRTC bus, cruising at a speed of about seventy miles per hour apparently on a six-lane Hyderabad-Bangalore Highway, which will land him six hundred kilometres away from his home to begin his career as a Software Engineer at ZenWings IT Solutions.

By the time he woke up, it's already nine. He was staring at the ceiling of the roof in complete silence, pondering deeply as if he had been asked to solve the intricate questions on Quantum Mechanics. His busy thoughts started wandering whithersoever they wanted.

Did I endure all those rejections only to face a situation like this… to stay away from my parents? What kind of a predicament is this? Maybe I should have tried attending interviews in between…

Today was one of those days where he honestly felt like he was imprisoned in a quandary situation which involved making a difficult choice, especially ones that are equally undesirable.

After rolling around on the bed for ten minutes, he stepped out of his bed and turned to the window, lifted the curtains to get the view of the outside. The sky looked grey and cloudy again after a week. Looks like the rain is going to come down in buckets. Why do I get to see such kind of events only on days like these?

After having completed his shower, he put on the black silk T-shirt and track pants, looked at his reflection in the mirror. It was showing a happy man who looked like he had just won the lottery - but not the undefined feeling of bewilderment assailing him with a bludgeon of choice.

He had spent all morning watching the movies on YouTube, going through the updates on social media, and chatting with one of his friends - 'Raghu' who talked about how he had been nominated for 'Employee of the year'. Although Karthik mentioned he was happy for him, he was also slightly jealous as his friend started his career earlier than him.

This guy had two backlogs and he bagged a job on campus. I got ninety percent, but still, it took one year for me to get in a job. This is completely a travesty of justice…

Ten minutes later, it started raining outside. Hard streaks of lightning were dancing across the sky, and rain bullets were beating across the windowpane. By the time he was about to press the enter button to send a message to his friend, the power went off and the internet got disconnected. He stood up and gently strode towards the window and naturally went on with his thoughts. The reflections of his entire childhood memories started playing in front of him.

He knew that his life was bound to be different from tomorrow. His heart started fluttering and wanted to say "I am thankful for the job and I hate staying away from my parents…." but the words got locked in his throat.

An hour later, he walked into the kitchen. His mother sang along to the melody of devotional songs being played on her mobile, the music punctuated by the sound of spluttering oil and the steady rhythmic beat of her knife dicing the potatoes on the chopping board.

He stood beside her looking at the vegetables, plates, and other dishes scattered here and there.

"What happened?" asked his mother, looking at his enervated eyes.

"Nothing Amma!"

His mother glanced up."If there's nothing, then why there's a deflated expression on your face?"

"I don't know, but I am feeling a surge in my chest," said Karthik, looking slightly crestfallen."Did I make the right choice?"

"Karthik! It is difficult to clamp down on thoughts assailing in our head with the feelings in our heart because only one of them is right."

"Come on… Now, even you have started speaking in riddles like dad."

"This is not a riddle."

"Then what?"

"Whenever we experience a change, we explore all possible ways to forestall it. We hate change and love it at the same time. What we ultimately want is for things to remain the same but get better."

"You're right Amma! My mind is oscillating between the sharp horns of two extreme emotions - wrong and correct."

"And the best thing to do now is," said his mother, "Just remain silent. Stop thinking and start moving, because no supreme force in this universe can come to the rescue in negotiating a ceasefire agreement for a battle between heart and head."

"So, what shall I do now?"

"Nothing! Just pack your luggage. I told you yesterday to take out the travel bag from the attic. Did you do it?"

"No, Amma! I forgot about it. Don't worry there's still lots of time."

"Why you always do things at the last minute? I told you a hundred times yesterday."

"Don't worry Amma, I will start packing now."

"Karthik!"As he was about to trace his steps back to his room, his mother called him again."What are you going to purchase me with your first salary?"

She asked him purposefully to diffuse the agitation going on in his mind.

"Amma! You do one thing, pick up the best designer saree on Amazon. Add it to the wish list. I will place it as soon as the salary gets credited into my account."

After having said that he retired back to his room, dragged the big stool from the corner, placed it in a position so that he can shuffle the items in the attic easily with his hands. The travel bag was visible in the attic and there are lots of other stuff scattered pell-mell everywhere. He caught hold of the holders of the bag on the sides and tried pulling it out of the attic carefully. Few of the items fell on the floor in the process which included a sky blue envelope with 'Sarathi Photo Studios' printed upon it in red ink.

The sight of a blue envelope on the floor aroused his curiosity. It was completely dressed in the dust. He carefully stepped down from the big-stool, placed the black coloured Safari trolley bag on the floor, bent down, and took the envelope in his hands.

He sat down on the floor, dusted the envelope with a cloth, opened it with his nimble fingers, and happened to see a bunch of photographs inside, a few in colour and few in black and white.

OMG! I can't believe it…

To be continued...