The Punishment - I

Arun
7-11-2006



Recently I keep getting this weird feeling, that the things I see or hear, I have experienced them before. Dejavu? I do not know. But some times, when me and my room mates are chattering together, I find some of the things they say, I feel I have heard those things before. But it might be my own imagination, since most of the times I am alone in my room, and my thoughts sway like a small piece of cloth in the air. When I am sitting alone my room, I feel lonely and depressed. At times my mind gets philosophical and tries to find the reasons for human sufferings. And I feel my roommates share the same thoughts some times. So I obviously think that I have heard the same thing already. But the same thing might already have been said by some one else. Who knows?

We five people share this room. Me, my cousin brother Moorthy, Six years older than me, works in TCS. He joined TCS some two years back. Before that, he was working in a small company, and was doing his MCA in correspondence. Ravi, who is also from my native, and Bala work in a start up company. And also there is Venkatesh and Sakthi. Except Moorthy, I do not share a good rapport with the others. Not that I hate them, but I cant say they are my friends.

I joined them only six months back. But the others were staying there for almost two years I guess. In chennai, you wont get this big a house for 4500. The reason for this is, there was a suicide, just before these guys moved here. Love failure is the reason, I heard. Thery had found the decomposed body only after a week it seems. Police came, they questioned the owner about the details of the tenant, like address and phone number. Usually software guys tell the owner that, only 2 people will stay while moving in, but there will be 4 or 5 people staying in that room. So obviously she did not know even the guy's name. They got heavy bribe from the owner and asked her to take care of sending the body to the hospital, she was tellng me. The body was hanging here for a week in the same room I am sitting now, alone.

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Recently, Venktesh started behaving in a strange way. I definitely feel some thing is wrong with him. That day I kept all my shirts for washing. I, Venkatesh and Sakthi were planning to go have our breakfast in a nearby mess. I just took one of venkatesh's shirts hanging there, and wore it. He saw that, and started shouting at me. I just said that I have only three shirts and I kept them all for washing. After shouting for some 10 mins he started giving me advice. I dont remember each and every word, but some of them I can never forget. It went like this,

"Hey dont use my shorts da! I will tell you once and only once! You are always sitting in the room staring out at the window. Why dont you wash your clothes. Why are you testing our patience."

"Enjoy your present, but be prepared for its consequences!"

Then I dont remember what the hell had happened. I was lying on the ground. Both of them were staring at me angrily. He had hit me! Hit me! After that I stopped talking with both of them. I started getting their murmurings behind me, when I cross them. To make matters worse, Ravi has joined them, it seems. Over time I realized that, he is the one, who was spreading this hatred against me, since he does not like me for some reasons, which I didnt know, I felt.

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After a month or so, Venkatesh and sakthi left our room. They moved to Triplicane I heard, but I didnt care much. To my terror, Ravi's behavior has changed drastically. Some two weeks after the two left, one sunday morning he came and was searching in all his shirts' pockets. He was restless. I was reading Hindu.

"Dey, Did you see the Five hundred rupees note I kept in my shirt pocket?"

"No da, Check properly. You would have kept it somewhere else forgottenly."

"Sledging is part and parcel of the game. But there is a line defined by the ICC code of conducts, that should not be crossed. - Rahul Dravid"

"No, I checked properly. I clearly remember keeping it in my shirt."

"Any way, go and have a look into your cupboard."

"We welcome Honorable Kalpanath Rai, Union Petroleum minister!"

"Ngothaa! You are the only one sitting in this room. No one else has entered here. Give me my money back da."

We were rolling on the ground, grabbing each others shirt. Moorthy came running and was trying to pacify us. Ravi's hands were trembling. He was sweating like hell. He left. Evening he came, took his things and vacated the room. While taking his washed clothes, which were hanging outside of the room, that 500 rupee note fell down from one of the shirts' pocket. He took it, turned back and looked at me, and left.

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I started believing that some thing was wrong in our room. The way the other guys behaved. Even though we were not very thick friends, we had a good understanding. But some thing was wrong. I could not see it at that point of time. I was so afraid to stay in my room, alone. So for the next few days, once Moorthy leaves for office, I go out and roam around chennai. Most of the times by walk. Everyone in the city is in a hurry it seems. Then at the evening time I return to my room weary of walking for so long.

That day I came back to my room, and was sitting there staring outside through the window for some time. Then I saw that the daily Calendar was showing an old date. So I started tearing the dates one by one. Moorthy entered the room.

"You are early today?"
"Our release was over yesterday itself. So today I was so free."

"23-1-2005"

"Hey, I am so afraid to stay here alone. Today I was searching for a room in adambakkam area. And saw a room there. Shall we move there?"

"Jan-Sat"

"What? Why are you searching for a room now? Whats wrong here? Why are you afraid? You are alone in the room only in the day time. "

"Nethaji Subash Chandra Bose Birthday Today"

"You stay here alone in the day time once, you will understand then"

"Arun, Dont test my patience!"

"There is nothing called present, there is only recent past and immediate future."

Then I dont know what happened. But I saw I was grabbing him by his shirt.
Oh dear! It was me! Some thing was wrong with ME! Not with the others! Not with this house! I had roughed them up all and sent them out of this room one by one! I started crying. I took my hands off him slowly. He didnt look so angry. I was weeping. Then to my astonishment, he started consoling me. He knows my problem already!

-Continued in the next post, which is here-