Bhagwaan and the "surprise gift" - Part 2

The story so far...

Bhagwaan has been asked by Bhagyawaan to buy her a "surprise" gift of more than 12 lakhs since Priya has been gifted a diamond necklace by her husband J. He is now travelling to Bangalore to buy it from the same jeweler on MG Road. The problem is that Bhagwaan has no money but does not have the guts to tell his bitter..sorry..better half..Now read on

After a sleepless night on the train, Bhagwaan finally reached Yeshwantpur at about 9 am in the morning. The train was late as usual. The only good thing was the pleasant weather in Bangalore. He caught an auto to go to his friend's house in Sahakaranagar (after the usual haggling & arguments over "50 rupees extra" which he lost). One he reached his friend's house, he had his bath and breakfast. He decided to visit the jewelry shop to see if he can get something for a bargain.

Suddenly, he heard a ring of the temple bell as he was walking outside - it suddenly stuck him. His friend  Ganesha! He had helped out in the past and Bhagwaan had completely forgotten about him. He went inside the temple and prayed to him with the usual terms and conditions (Rs 101/- and coconuts/banana). Feeling a bit more relieved, he walked towards the auto stand to get an auto to go to MG Road.As usual, the auto drivers were sitting around playing cards ignoring the customers. He hesitantly asked them if they could please take him to MG Road. A couple of them were nice enough and said they were going to Yelahanka and could deign to take him there, if he wanted. Finally, one of them took pity on him and said he will take him (wont get passenger from there Saar - hence one and half times of meter Saar!).

He reached MG Road and entered the jewelry shop. A beautiful young lady did a namaskar to him and asked him if he wanted coffee/tea/fruit juice. They promptly took him to the necklace section. The glittering lights and ambiance made the necklaces shine brighter than what they actually were..He liked one and pointed it to the salesman. He was pleasantly surprised to see that the price was very reasonable and he could actually afford it. The pleasure was short lived when the salesman said "That Saar is the making charges which is 10% of the total charges". He realized that he had no hope and Ganesha was his only resort. He quickly slipped away from the shop. As he was going out, there seemed to some sort of commotion near the entrance. He thought there must be some film shooting going on since some actors were dressed like cops. He quickly went back to his friend's house, again paying 1.5 times the meter fare (no passengers getting from that side Saar!).

Bhagwaan took the train back to Hyderabad (with the usual berth exchange with an old man who said he could not climb up to the upper berth). He reached home riding home an auto of a ruffian who seemed to double up as a auto driver.

He reached home prepared for the worst. As he entered the house, he saw Priya and J in the house with Bhagyawaan. What was most unusual was that Priya was crying and J was trying to console her and Priya was actually blasting off J. He was dumbfounded to see the scene. Slowly, he understood what had transpired. Apparently, the necklace gifted by J which was shining brightly at the beginning was slowly losing its color and now looked more like silver in color. The necklace was fake! 

Bhagyawaan asked him "Did you buy my necklace? I hope you did not because I understand the shop was selling fake jewellery and was raided by the police yesterday"

Bhagwaan (quickly recovering): "Oh yes. The minute I saw the necklace, I realized it was a fake. Only a trained eye can easily make out the difference and only fools will make a mistake" (giving a meaningful glance to J).

Bhagyawaan was so thrilled by his intellect and let me just close the curtains on the scenes afterwards since some kids occasionally come to my blog!

The next day, Bhagwaan woke up feeling relaxed and stress free after quite a few days. He glanced at the news paper and here is what he saw

He had a second look - Ganesh Gowda, Vignesh! Then it stuck him - his prayers to Ganesha had been answered! He thanked Ganesha again for pulling him out of a major crisis again. Of course, he will ensure that the agreed terms and conditions will be met.

He went back to his emails to check if that widow had transferred her husband's fortune to him but alas....!!

Bhagwaan and the "surprise gift" - Part 1

It was a very despondent Bhagwaan standing at the Secunderabad Railway Station waiting for the Garib Rath to take him to Bangalore. For once, I will ensure that I do not start from the middle and have you wonder - who is this Bhagwaan and why is he taking a train? Here is the background

Bhagwaan is  a middle aged (read old)  IT professional trying desperately to keep his sanity with Bhagyawaan (his wife of 18 years) He has two kids - Badu (his son of 14 going on 10) and Choti (his daughter of 9 going on 18).  There – I made a good start…

Yes – I have still not answered the second part of the question. If you are one of the three readers who actually read my blog, you might remember Bhagyawaan’s elder sister – Priya from an earlier story. She is the HR manager of a large organization and always seems to be appraising people. She is the one who makes evil Catbert (from the Dilbert series) look like a saint. Priya had married another HR professional who went by an unusual name of J. J seems to have gone up the corporate escalator and was now the HR Director of a large MNC. Now modesty and J did not go together. He ensured that he let everyone know (especially Bhagwaan) about his wealth and lifestyle. J had recently bought a diamond necklace worth 12 lakhs from a famous jeweler in Bangalore as a surprise gift for his wife. Priya was ecstatic & had spent no time in bragging about it thus ensuring that Bhagyawaan was bitten by the green eyed monster. Bhagyawaan immediately asked Bhagwaan to buy her a more expensive necklace from the same shop in Bangalore in a show of one-upmanship. Hence, Bhagwaan was travelling to Bangalore to do as he was bidden. See – we got that all straightened out, isn’t it?

Now you might still ask – why despondent? There are two reasons – 1) I wanted to show off my knowledge of English by using words that I had never heard before 2) Recently, Bhagwaan had lent some money to a widow (based on an email) whose husband had left a large fortune apparently but she needed some money first to transfer the money to Bhagwaan. Bhagwaan empathized with her situation and had promptly given the money. He had not heard from her from a long time and hence was quite broke. Given that background, he could not even tell the truth to Bhagyawaan.

Good – we got all of that sorted out. Bhagyawaan had come to the station and was giving him precise details on the kind of necklace she wanted to be “gifted”. Bhagwaan was half listening and hence was looking around the bustling Railway Station. Now I am not sure if you have seen the normal scene which you will find in most Indian stations. Let me give you a glimpse of some of typical things you will see...

·   A stray dog was moving around as if he owned the station. He was eyeing a small poodle who had come to the station with her owner. The poodle was also eyeing him surreptitiously – she might be French and pedigreed but a handsome man is a man!

·   A porter was sitting on his haunches, smoking a bidi (ignoring the No Smoking sign) and intermittently scratching his groin

·   A boy of around 20 looking at the reservation charts to see if there was girl of his age in the compartment. His face glowed when it showed that Vanisri F 19 on seat number 62. He was of course disappointed when he saw a lady of 55 on the seat (since Vanisri had already eloped with her boyfriend and hence did not turn up).

·   His friend who was pretending to look at the books of Vivekananda in the book stall but was actually eyeing some sleazy literature and trying to gather up courage to buy it.

·   A big family seeing off a nervous but excited kid who was going to Saudi Arabia for a job. He was wearing a tight suit in the Hyderabad heat and sweating profusely. He was surrounded by a group of crying women who were giving him advice while hugging him.

·   A loudspeaker announcement which came on intermittently to announce the arrival and departure of trains. Unfortunately, none of the announcements helped since the actual platform number could never be deciphered.

·   A leak in the roof led to a dripping of water of unknown sources to form a puddle on the ground

·   A beggar who was sleeping on the floor and woke up whenever he felt he could ask someone for money. Otherwise, he was playing games on his smart phone

·   A family of four where the kids were running around everywhere ignoring the threats and shouts of the parents

·   A newly married couple who were lost in each other and oblivious to the rest of the world

Hopefully, that gave you an idea of what Bhagwaan was seeing while Bhagyawaan kept rattling away. Finally, the green signal was given and Bhagwaan got into the train having promptly forgotten all of Bhagyawaan’s instructions. He sat on his seat and looked around at his co passengers.

Now passengers on Indian trains come in different varieties (for the Top 10 of them read this post). Bhagwaan was happy since he preferred a lower berth and had actually got it. In a few minutes, the newly married couple approached him. The girl with a sweet smile on her face asked “Uncle – can you exchange your berth with us?”  The husband stood in the background realizing that the bride was better at such negotiations. Bhagwaan always had a softer side to him and promptly agreed (although the Uncle piece of it rankled him). He regretted it when he saw it was the middle one of the side berths very near the toilets. Now, every time someone opened the door, the stink of urine would reach his nostrils.

He did not get much sleep that day wondering how he could manage to a buy the necklace when he had no money.

Will Bhagwaan come out of this predicament? Will he take help from his friend Ganesha? Or will it be the end of the Bhagwaan stories? Watch this space for the concluding part….