The doors of the elevator opened and Mr Naidu stepped in with his son Janak. A silence pursued and neither of them made any effort to end it. While Janak looked a little worried, Mr Naidu had an expression of frustration.
Mr Naidu had been quite busy for the past few years with his work in the field of backend development. Especially after the promotion, the workload had increased, but he didn’t mind, the income was great and even if it didn’t afford him enough time with his family, it afforded him many other things in life that others were usually worried about.
The elevator descended and Mr Naidu had a quick glance at his son who avoided responding in any manner. Mr Naidu had been out for 4 days for work purposes; on his return he found what he felt like a disaster waiting for him and Janak told him about how he was responsible for it.
The left doors of the car were partially bent inwards, the scraped paint and other scratches were very dominantly visible and they had spread wide.
“You don’t even know how to drive. Then why?” asked Mr Naidu
“I know how to drive,” said Janak in a low tone
“Where did you learn?” Mr Naidu asked a little surprised, somewhere in his mind he had it in among the things to do in life
“A year back. Bhanu’s father was teaching him how to drive, so Bhanu asked me to come as well. I learnt there,” said Janak
“Why didn’t you just tell me? Where did you take it?”
“I just drove it nearby, took mother to a physiotherapist for her back pain”
“Back pain? Physiotherapist? Since when has she been going?”
“A little more than a month,” said Janak, “You don’t know?”
Mr Naidu did know, she had told him, did he really forget? He stood silent looking at the damage on his car. He realised how life was proceeding whether he was part of it or not and with itself it took away the time.
“Take off today, I will also not go to work. Let’s go to the showroom and get it repaired, you can see for yourself how things are done,” said Mr Naidu with a faint smile of belief in change of life
Janak thought about it and then looked at his father who was expecting an answer, and maybe it was intentional but he said, “I am a bit busy this week. Maybe next time when you take it for servicing.”
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 