Chapter 2

Chapter1

I reached home. I live in a small studio apartment. One room with my bed, cupboard, TV and most of the luggage packed in there respective corners. There is a kitchen which I occassionally use to make maggi. I dont like eating maggi a lot. But I dont know anything else. And I hate cooking. My mom cooks well. But all that is unnecessary blabber. There is a full length mirror attached to the cupboard. I love looking at myself in it. Surely Narcissus will pale in front of me.
Now that I was back again in my one room suite, I took out my Gun and stood in front of the mirror. First, James Bond style. Then mumbHai style. I checked if there were any bullets inside. It was the new kind of gun, not the old revolver; you know where the bullet compartment revolves to get the new bullet ready. This had a magazine inserted in the handle. I have seen in movies, people pressing the gun and the magazine comes out. I tried that in several ways, but it won’t come out. There had to be something. I couldn't find it anywhere. A surefire way to know whether bullets were there or not was to fire. But if I fire then people will hear and they may call the police.

But wont I love to fire it once. Just to hear how it sounds and to see the sparks fly. Maybe if I went to a deserted place and fired no one will hear. I aimed my gun towards the sky through the window and ting tong. An electric shock went through my body starting from the legs through the trunk to my head and the arms and the gun fell from my hand. There was someone at the door. What to do? I slid the gun under the bed and ran to open the door. By this time I was breathing heavily, not so much from the running as from the shock. There's not much room to run anyways.

I opened the door to reveal the secretary of the society where I stay. He is a middle-aged man, most probably in his early 40s. Big thick mustache on a big round face. Most of the things about him were round. He had a well-rounded belly. Round shoulders and round eyes. Really I had never seen anyone with that kind of eyes before I met him. It was as if he was permanently staring with either a mix of surprise and terror or surprise and anger at you. Maybe the poor fellow never had any eyelids.

He seemed more of angry right now than terrorized. But one could never discern. He opened his mouth to say something, and suddenly stopped. Then he looked behind me into the room. He put his neck in through the door and surveyed the whole place as if I was hiding something. Could it be possible that he knew about the gun? No he was inside his flat when I came up. He couldn't have seen me. It must be something else.Finally he uttered something. Said, "We live in a society. Family. You bachelors! What do you think you are doing? Coming whenever you like and going whenever you like. Bringing girl friends. You also bring drinks. Don’t you?"

Let me clarify here that I have never brought any girl friends here. But I believe the previous occupant had brought some lady of dubious origins and had been thrown out for the same reason. And ever since I have been getting the punishment he deserved. But the fatass was right about the drinks. I do get my friends to come over to my place for drinks. We have quite a gala time. Come weekend and we plan it out. A full bottle of whiskey, 2 liters of coke, lots of snacks, lots of chicken and lots of food. The laptop is connected to the big speakers and the party starts. Its great fun to be bachelors. I don’t know why people want to get married.

I am sure it was this that had put a nail in the oldies head. We had a party on Saturday night, Sunday I was away with my friends and the fool got hold of me now on Monday evening. I couldn't think of what to say, while he started again, "You young people are the future of our country. Hah! Our country will go to the gallows. This breed is all alike. They have no responsibilities and all they do is drink and dance and make noise." At this point he had started shouting and my two neighbors had opened their doors to see what was going on. Now he hollered, "If you do not stop this, I will throw you out. I will call the police. What kind of parents has reared children like you". The bastard was testing my patience now. I swear I would have hit him hard on the nose or poked his round eyes out if it had not been for those ladies watching.

I said, "Listen Mr. Satyanath, everyone here knows how great a person you yourself are. You don’t have to shout at me. Shout as much as you want to your wife. We all know how much you beat her". This last sentence was said almost in a whisper, because it was such a sensitive issue. This ignited the old bastard, and he flew at me. But I was ready for any such assault and jabbed my right fist right in his belly. That dazed him for a moment. And then he kept swearing at me. But I closed the door and came back. I swear to God, if I were a gangster I would have killed him. If someday I do turn a gangster, he will be the first one I will kill. Gangster! Gun! I had a gun. The bastard beats his wife. Even if I kill him it wont be considered a sin. At least not up there. As for down here, I could always take him in some dark alley.

Oh no! What am I thinking? This gun it seems will make me murder someone someday. Why am I thinking of killing people? This is horrible. I must throw the damn thing. Yes I will give it to the police first thing tomorrow morning. Surely. I switched on the TV thinking thus. I like watching songs. Music channels are my second most favorites. The favorites being the movie channels. Discovery comes a close third. Although in academic circles I would like to put forth myself as an ardent admirer of discovery.

Chapter3