A man came back from work late one evening, but instead of going home he went to park nearby. A few years ago this park use to be neat and beautifully kept, people from other colonies use to come just to see it. But now its rundown and overgrown into a mini wilderness, with no direction, trying anything and everything to survive. A bit like the man's life, he use to be the pride of his mother, who introduced him to everyone as her little star. Now he is all grownup married with two kids and a 9 to 9 job. Life did treat him good - he married his childhood sweetheart, had a well paying job, two beautiful kids. But still majority of the days he would feel, is this what the rest of my life will be. Every day he would sit a little longer in the park, before coming home. His wife could see him walking towards the mini wilderness, she never asked why, but she worried as he seemed to sit longer and longer. Today had been particularly tough on him, he seem to hit a brick wall in his career, he was seeing everyone move up, leaving him behind. But he couldn't blame anyone but himself, he didn't like his job, he worked hard but the desire that every manager looks for, was missing in him. Today he sat for almost half an hour in the park. Looking at his toes, holding his head in his hands, listening to the noise of the crickets, letting the wind comfort him. While the man was outside, lost in thought, the phone in the house started ringing ..... The wife answered the phone,
"Hello, Dasguptas residence"
"Haallo, dhananjoy achai?" (translation : is dhananjoy there?)
"Noi"
There ended the north Indian wife's knowledge of Bengali. After being married to one for 3 years and being his best friend for almost 20 years, it’s kind of symbolic she only learned 'Noi' or No.
"Oh, Smriti, it is you?, where is he?, he should be back from office by now?" ... said the mother in-law.
"He is back from office"
"Then where did he go?" ... asked the concerned mother
"Your son is sitting in the park"
"What is he doing in the park?"
"I don’t know?"
"Is everything ok? What have you made for dinner?"
"Yes everything is fine and what does dinner have to do with it?"
"Then why is he sitting in the park?"
"I will call you back, when he is inside"..... Clank the receiver is kept back.
Smriti went towards the window, watching her husband sitting in the park, and thinking: What should I do with this stupid fellow, even when he was nine he sat in the park if he had any problems. Why didn’t he become a gardener!
The next day dhananjoy again had a bad day in office, he saw some more people getting promoted, and this time he sat in the park even longer. While he was contemplating about his future looking at his shoes, he suddenly heard a voice, a manly voice,
"What is wrong my old friend?"
He raised his head and looked around for the voice. It seemed to be coming from a rock in the mini jungle. But when he went there, he couldn’t find anyone.
"What is wrong, why are you so upset" said the voice.
"Kuppi, is that you?".... Said dhananjoy
"Yes, how have you been?" said the deep manly voice.
"Where did you go?, everyone thought I had dreamt you up as a kid, no one believed me when I told them about you"
"Ah yes, you didn’t need me anymore, but now you do, so here I am"
"I don’t know what to do, I see my life, stuck in the same routine. I go to office and come home. I love my family, but the ten hours that I am away from them, is hell"
"What happened?"
"I have a lousy job, I hate it but I need to earn for my family, I even work hard, everyone says I work hard. My boss said dhananjoy you must take some time off, you work too hard. But then the ass doesn’t promote me"
"Ah, the oldest story in the book, isn’t it?" said the deep voice. "I also have the same problem, I counsel kids, even the man on top said, I am good at it, but now look where I am. Back at the same point, counselling the same kid!" ... said the deep voice.
"Sorry Kuppi"
"Ah, it’s ok. Go back inside, rest a bit, have good night sleep. This sort of thing happens to everyone, even to angels. It’s actually worse for us, we can’t even retire. Now go to sleep, with a fresh mind we might be able to solve this problem, just like we did when you were 9."
"Goodnight Kuppi, thanks for coming, you are the first good thing today"
"Goodnight kid"
Next morning dhananjoy got up early in the morning and went to the park to meet his old friend.
"Kuppi are you there?"
"Yes, yes where will I go"
"Ok so what should I do?"
"Hmm, let’s see, it looks like your boss doesn’t see you?"
"Yes, doesn’t matter what I do"
"And you don’t even like the work" .... said the deep voice
"No, I like the work it’s not that bad, but I hate the way I am being treated"
"Ok, so why don’t you call your boss home"
"I don’t think that will help"
"You never know, he might see you in a new light, family man, social fellow"
"Hmmm, ok let see kuppi, I will do it.... but what if this doesn’t work?"
"Then we will go to plan B"
"Which is?"
"To be executed after plan A fails. Now go to office"
"Ok, Ok"
So dhananjoy went to office and invited the boss to his home for dinner.
"Boss, I would like to invite you to my home, for dinner, tomorrow"
"Any special occasion?"
"No, no just wanted to introduce you to my family"
"Hmm..... ok tomorrow you say, I think I can make it at 8. But my wife will not be coming, she has gone to her in-laws"
"Oh, that’s too bad, maybe we could do another dinner again, when she is back"
"Sounds good, I guess we could leave together tomorrow for your home"
"Yes boss, call me when you are ready to leave"
Sometime later in office, dhananjoy called his wife to inform her about the dinner.
"Smriti, my boss will be coming for dinner tomorrow"
"What, why? this is too short notice, at least you should have discussed it first"
"I am sorry, but it totally slipped from my mind that I didn't ask you"
"Yes, everything related to me seems to slip your mind"
"Ha ha, you know that's not true, I love you"
"Yes, yes, I will try to come up with something, provided your mother doesn't call, she has already called three times to know what I am making for dinner!"
"Ah, she is like that only, relax"
"Yes, why not, I should relax, with a husband from whose mind I keep slipping and a mother in law, who will make my mind slip one day"
"Ha ha bye now, need to get back to work"
"Byee"
Later that evening dhananjoy came back from work, with a slight bounce in his step and went straight to the park.
"Kuppi you there?"
"Yes, yes, you invited the boss?"
"Yup he is coming tomorrow"
"Good, now we put plan A into action, you need to be as relaxed as possible, be yourself. Behave like you are hosting dinner for friends. Crack a few jokes, a few smiles and lots of good food... voila one very happy boss"
"I hope so kuppi"
" Don't worry this will work, remember when you were nine and you wanted to talk to Smriti, but you were just too shy and I told you to be yourself. Do you remember?"
"Yes, that did workout didn't it, goodnight kuppi and thanks coming back"
"ah that's fine, what are angels for, good night"
The next day, Smriti was working tirelessly to come up with a three course dinner. Her modus operandi was slightly strange, it went chop chop, fry fry and curse her husband, chop chop, grind grind. One perpetual thought in her head: Why did he have to invite him the very next day, why couldn't he do it on a weekend?
In the evening, dhananjoy came with his boss. Smriti opened the door to invite them in, but she was quite taken aback. The fellow looked like yacht in full sail. I mean how can a man look like a walking letter D. She quickly tried to hide her astonishment and hoped she had made enough food for him.They had a few drinks, a few laughs, just like Kuppi said.
"Dhananjoy I never knew you were such a funny guy, even after working with you for so many years" .... Said the boss in a thick voice.
"Ah, yes we should have done this ages back"
"And Smriti, the food was amazing, we should call the whole team to your house, to enjoy your cooking"
"No, no ... you are being too kind"
"That's a really good idea, we should do that this weekend, something like a team outing" ... said dhananjoy .
On hearing this, the same astonished expression that had come on Smriti's face on seeing the boat, or more accurately a ship of a boss, returned.She kept thinking: What is wrong with him, a whole team for dinner, I am going to kill him.
"Why don’t you do a movie night, there are so many good movies on this week" ... said a still in shock Smriti.
"No, no I think dinner at home is a good idea by dhananjoy, everyone will be relaxed, and we will all bond. Excellent idea dhananjoy"
"Thank you boss"
Later that evening as dhananjoy was seeing off his boss, Smriti was pacing up and down the hall and thinking: The whole team! Everyone will be relaxed my foot, what about me, this very weekend, I am going to kill him. We will all bond, he says, while I will end up bonding with the frying pan.
That night dhananjoy went to the park to update his friend about the evening's success. But Kuppi was nowhere to be seen. A little worried dhananjoy went back inside his home and hoped to see his friend in the morning.
The next day frantic preparation began in the Dasguptas' residence, with Smriti trying her best to cook for 10 people. She stuck to her strange modus operandi ... cutting, chopping, kneading, frying and cursing dhananjoy. Even her mother in law joined in by calling her 5 times on Friday. Despite the combined family effort, the dinner didn’t quite make it to the finish line. Come Saturday, only one of the three courses was ready, but all of the ten guests had already arrived. In a moment of panic Smriti dragged her husband from the guests to tell him the state of affairs. Dhananjoy had been so busy with inviting people, hobnobbing as they say, in the corporate jungle, he forgot one small detail, Smriti has never cooked for so many people. Therein lay the demise of plan A. It was too late to call food from outside, 10 people with such short notice and at this time of night.
As Smriti was bringing her husband upto date with the dinner debacle, when she noticed a strange calm look on his face. Normally, he is generally the first to panic, even when they had their second kid, he managed to panic even more than he did the first time. But this calm exterior, didn’t make any sense to her, but dhananjoy in a very calm tone replied,
“Don’t worry Kuppi will find a way out, wait right here”
“What the ... where are you going? .... oh god not the park again”
“trust me” ... said a smiling dhananjoy.
In pitch darkness dhananjoy went into the mini wilderness, looking for his friend.
“Kuppi, I need your help, we don’t have any main course to feed the guests and we are almost through the starters”
For sometime he got no answer but then suddenly the angel spoke in a gasping voice.
“Oh that is not good, maybe we could try ordering food”
“Too late it’s already 11 and why are you gasping for breath, did you come running?”
“Oh... yes, yes I did actually, from another counselling secession”
“Oh ok, could you use some magic Kuppi? All we need is a main course and sweet dish”
“Sorry I am not allowed to do magic, only give advice, maybe you can ask help from our neighbours”
“No, no how will that help?”
“Maybe you get them all drunk so by the time the main course comes they all pass out, awesome idea no?
“No! I can’t have drunk men in the house, there are women present plus my wife”
“Oh shit, true even I am there” ... said a lady’s voice
“What?”
“Oh, I mean even I am there, you can’t have drunk people in your house when I am on watch” ... said an even deeper voice.
“Smriti, what are you doing here and where did kuppi go?”
“ I, I don’t know, I just followed you in the park”
“Oh my god you tricked me, you pretended to be kuppi. You have been tricking me since I was nine!”
“ I wasn’t tricking you, I couldn't help it, you were so shy, I though you will take till college to talk to me, so I improvised”
A very odd expression spread over dhananjoy face, the corners of his mouth seem to contract a bit, his eyes seem to go a bit smaller. Smriti didn’t know how he was going to react and then suddenly, he started laughing.
“I am sorry, I couldn’t see you sitting in the park everyday”... said Smriti
“How did you manage to come up with such a deep voice, it was even deeper than mine?”
“Your voice is not exactly deep”
“What rubbish!” laughing a little more he said, “Oh now I remember you were so angry when I invited my boss but you couldn’t say much, at first I thought it was strange, I was sure you would strangle me. But now I get it, it was your own idea.
“Yes but when did I say, the very next day!” ... said Smriti
Dhananjoy couldn’t stop laughing and Smriti did want to strangle him.
“What are we supposed to do?” ... said the lady
“Hmm, yes we need to deal with this dinner first, I know we will order a couple of soft drinks and serve it in a glass with icecream floating on top. That will take care of sweet dish”
“And main course?”
“Hmm, I wish you were Kuppi right now, I know forget main course we order lots and lots of snacks from the shop nearby. After sometime, everyone’s stomach will be filled and then we will hit them with soft drink and icecream.”
“What type of dinner party, has no dinner?”
“Ours, stop wasting time we need to make the order quick” ...said dhananjoy running back to the house.
The dinner party went off quite well under the circumstances and the young couple breathe a sigh of relief. Kuppi’s plan of showing the boss a different side of his personality, didn’t result in any change in dhananjoy’s work life yet. But his sitting in the park finally stopped and even if he had a bad day at office, he came back with a bounce in his step. He was coming home to his angel, but the angel in this story still got mortified by her mother in law.
*The End*
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