Dreamer: Ashort story...

after a couple of b'day eulogies ...here i come back again.....i wrote a couple of stories, when i was waiting for my mba course to start at iit delhi.....i had a couple of months when i was completely vella....had nothing to do.....so i turned a couple of ideas i had into short stories...mind u this short story was written when i had nothin better to do...so dont expect masterpeices...but this was my first effort at writing a short story......so read on..and comments will be appreciated....

DREAMER .......

" Venky get up and clean the tables" Subbiah's baritone voice rang through the kitchen causing Venky to jump out of his sleep. He got up cursing the college canteen owner who had shaken him out of dream when he was just about to eat the mangoes he had stolen out of Veeru’s grove.

Venky was the cleaner in Subbiah's canteen. His name was actually Venkatiah but after coming to the city he had shortened it to Venky. He liked being called Venky since it sort of sounded trendy. It had been only a month since he had joined the job. Before that village had been his world. With its groves and fields where he used to roam with abandon, it had made him a part of it. But the city with all its variegated hues and multifaceted features made him seem trivial and out of place. He had lost his parents in a fire accident when he was an infant . His grandmother had brought him up.When he was around nineteen years old she too passed away. After her death one of his neighbours sent him to Subbiah who took pity on him and gave him a job in his canteen.

Venky was not exactly a good lookin guy, but he wasnot ugly either. He had a earnest smile which he used to flash often. He was quite thin for his age but he had a great deal of stamina and agility in his work. People say God bestows upon everyone some unique skill or talent as they call it. Venky had also come across people saying this but he could not decide what he was good at. Yes he was better at doing some things than others. He could play cricket better than football. He could swim better than most of the boys at his village. He used to sing to his hearts content but he wasnot exactly blessed with a mellifluous voice. He did not excel sufficiently in anything that he could claim that his future lay in it.

But there was one thing he did often and he did it pretty well. He used to day dream a lot. I say that he did it well because he really did let his imagination flourish. It was not like most others dreams,he used to construct his reverie to amazing detail. And he did not restrict his dreams about anything. Like after a day spent in playing cricket, especially if he managed a decent innings with bat or a tidy spell with the ball in the gully cicket he played with his friends, he would sit and fantasize himself playing in the test side against some country. He would constructing his fantasy to such details that he would imagine himself playing shot after shot and he would conjure all the score details including the extras. He had great enjoyment in imagining himself playing a shot against a bowler and he would also imagine the commentary in the match. And his dreams were not constrained to cricket .It could depend on how he spent his day.

His new job introduced him to a whole new world. It was a new experience to him. All the students , the way they moved around in their gizmo cars and bikes, the sophistication with they behaved was all a new experience for him. He had a keen sense of observation. He used to observe at the canteen different kinds of people. He used to admire the group of boys who always moved around wearing short t -shirts and flaunting their muscles. He wondered at the bespectacled student who always used to have his head buried in a book. He was amused at a group of girls always giggling among themselves. He used to see freshers who used to come into the canteen with frightened expressions on their faces like they were entering on to an exploration into a unknown cave. He also got used to boys settling down in a corner where they would not be visible to others and puff away their cigarettes. He used to observe all sorts of people in the canteen as he quietly went about his work of cleaning the tables. This job had changed his life. But one thing still was unchanged. He still day dreamed , only change was he built castles in air about new things.



Venky went about his routine daily without giving any one a chance to complain about his work. It was pretty much the same cleaning the tables, helping around in petty works in kitchen and cleaning dishes. Then one day he saw her . No it was not "love at first sight" stuff you find in the movies. He just was impressed with her. As he saw her he felt like looking at her again . Then he felt like looking at her from close quarters. More he saw her more he felt like seeing her. No it was not her beauty that captivated him ,he had seen more beautiful girls and he had forgotten them after they passed by. She was different , she had a certain gentleness about her. The way she moved, it seemed to him like a delicate branch swaying in the breeze. The way she talked , her voice was not harsh nor was it meek it was sweet like a lullaby. The way she used to look at something it was very fleeting glance like a muslin cloth slipping over a marble statue. Everything about her seemed poetic to him. She reminded him of the angels in the stories told by his grandma.



In a few days she was all he could think of. He used to wait all the day waiting for the moment she would step into the canteen. He used to feel a surge of energy on seeing her. At the same time he was mesmerized by her. He used to move around her the time she was in canteen. He would go to bed disappointed on the days she failed to turn up. He went home dancing on the day she asked him to get the tomato sauce. He could gather from the conversation of the group of students that her name was Gita and she was a student of science group. He observed she always used to order the costliest items and she used to tip the waiters quite generously. He could make out that she came from a well-to -do family. He used to observe every little detail about her like the way she ate ,the way she drank water and so on.



He knew at the bottom of his heart that all this madness meant nothing. But he used to sit and imagine himself talking to her, saying all the sweet things to her, singing songs to her and he used to feel exhilarated. He never used to lust after her. He sort of worshipped her, he deified her. He kept her on such a pedestal that he knew he would not be able to reach her. Yet dreams were his only solace, he derived his joy and happiness from them. His world of dreams was the only place where he enjoyed himself. All the free time he got was spent in conjuring up a new fantasy or re-experiencing an old one.He used to think of ways he would go and talk to her, the way he would impress her and the situations in which she would come to know about his merits and fall in love with her. But such situations never came up and it should not be surprising because if such things would happen in real life no one would perhaps imagine them in the first place. The moment he saw her he felt himself shrinking. He would feel so small in her presence. He used to be overawed by her presence.



Life moved on such terms. One day he watched an Eastman color film in which as is the usual formula the hero rescues the heroine from the goons and love used to sprout between them. As his wont he sat down after the film in a corner in the kitchen and started building his castles. He imagined that she would be waiting in the bus stop for the bus. Then a few goons would come and start eve teasing her. She would be feeling harassed. Then he would make his appearance like a hero and start beating the goons. He further went on imagining. He would kick one of them in his stomach and punch the other in his face. He would pick up a third one and throw him to the ground. Soon all the people would join him and soon beat those guys to pulp. Gita would look at him with admiration. He would go up to her and ask her if she was ok. And that would start their acquaintance which would soon blossom into a beautiful relationship. And so on he dreamed.

It was time to go home and he packed his belongings and started for his home. He stayed with Seethaiah the chief cook. As he approached the bus stop along with Seethaiah he saw Gita there. He was reminded of his latest daydream. He smiled to himself. Then he saw a few goons approaching her .His first reaction was one of shock. Then as he envisaged they started harassing her. He did not know what to do. For all his fantasizing Venky knew he was not exactly the muscular honcho who could bash up 3 to 4 people at a time. Then he realized that what was happening was the exact way he had fantasized. Perhaps God had decided to make his dream a reality. If that was the case the rest of his dream would also go the way he had dreamt of. This thought filled him with a great deal of energy. He dropped his belongings And he ran at the goons .He kicked one of them and punched the other one. "YES", he thought, "this is the way the dream went ,let me go on further" He tried to lift the third one but he couldnot move him. Instead the guy grabbed him. Soon all other people in the bus stop were rushing at them. Venky thought " Leave the aberration , the other people would help me beat these goons" . But the people started beating him instead. This was not the way the dream was supposed to go. All of them were raining blows on him. He saw Gita then. The look on her face was not one of admiration, but of shock and disgust. He just could not understand. As he was thinking her image began dimming before his eyes. Soon he passed out.



When he came back to his senses, he was on a hospital bed. He was bandaged at several places. He looked around; his eyes were searching for Gita .He could find only Seethaiah standing in the room. He mustered his voice and asked Seethaiah what had happened. Seethaiah flew into a rage and shouted back at him "What do you mean by asking me? what happened to you? Why did you rush at the students and start beating them up? They were after all harmlessly discussing their studies. What made you to pick up a fight with them? All the other students would not sit and watch if you were beating their fellow students. Subbaiah has asked me to hand over your belongings and the money for the work you have done till now. There that finishes my work I am going .You go your way after these people discharge you".After handing over his belongings Seethaiah went away.



Venky realized that after all there were no goons. He had still been in his dreams as he mistook the students for the goons and tried his hand at bashing them up. He had been living so much in his dreams that he had failed to distinguish between dreams and reality. Now life in all its reality stared him in the face. He had lost his job. He had no one in this world. He had no place to go. He could not go back to that college after all this hullabaloo. But more than all this what rankled him was the thought that he could never see Gita again. That thought made him mad, caused him a lot of pain more than what his wounds caused him. He spent his days at the hospital thinking about her. He always used to keep looking at the entrance in the hope that she would come. Not only her but no one ever came to see him.



After a few days they discharged him from the hospital. As he limped out on his way out from the hospital, he realized that he had no one to take him and he had nowhere to go. When he came out of the hospital he got the shock of his life .For there on the road Gita was standing holding a flower bouquet in her hands .He slowly moved towards her. When he came up to her she leaned forward and said " I know why you behaved like that on that day at the bus stop. It was your love and devotion for me which made you to fight like that. All the people mistook you ." Then after a pause she looked into his eyes and said " But I understand you and your love for me" Then she suddenly shouted "honk" .Venky could not fathom it. Why did she shout like that in between such a sweet moment? He looked into her eyes . Then she shouted again "Honk honk honk" .This time so loudly that Venky threw his head back and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes he saw not Gita but a large vehicle standing before him on the road and the driver was honking his horn loudly and shouting angrily at him. Then Venky realized " Oh My God! I was dreaming again".