Heavy Artillery

“Well, what have we here...?”

He thought for the umpteenth time.

“There’s Shyam, Viru and…” he thought

“… and Rekha…”

“Aaah, Rekha…” and he was lost for half an hour.

Rekha was the new office goddess - to be succinct. She had just joined the floor some days back.

To be verbose – she was the sublime beauty that ruled the hear t of many a men on the floor. Many had laid down their lives willingly for this Apsara descended from the heavens. Raghu was one of them. If he was a cat, it would be his seventh life right now…

Rekha – with the golden tresses (bleached) and never ending eyelashes (fake). With the flowing fingers and creamy skin (original). With the voice that stirs the soul and brings forth a melody that invigorates the senses (debatable).

Raghu’s heart ached.

“That bastard Shyam, I really want to kill him” he thought. Shyam had managed to pip Raghu in wishing her a ‘good morning’ today.

“He even called her ‘Sunshine’ bloody characterless pig!” Raghu was livid.

As is evident, Raghu was pretty much in love with Rekha. So were Shyam and Dinesh (some insignificant guy) and Viru.

Rekha on the other hand favored only Raghu and Shyam to a certain extent. There was a power struggle between the two.

“Viru’s small change. But fun to have around” she had thought socialite-ly once. Work wasn’t boring – no – not for Rekha and pretty many other people on the floor.

The floor belonged to Symmetrix – One of the ubiquitous BPO’s that had many employees in Navi Mumbai.

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Shyam briskly walked in. he had perfected this art from his mentor. His mentor had told him – “Shyam! To be successful and make an impression – you don’t have to work hard! All you need to do is to dress sharply and look important – even if you want to talk to your girlfriend, talk in a highly animated fashion. Like you are discussing the deal of the year…”

He had told him many other things as well but they are too complicated to get into right now.

So Shyam strode in. he did not walk. He did not glide. He strode. Striding was his signature style. He sidled towards Rekha even as Raghu’s eyes screamed murder.

“Hi sunshine…” he began pompously.

“Hmmm…” Rekha replied, her boss had evidently given her work. Or so Shyam thought. He was leaning nonchalantly on the cubicle wall. He could not see what she was up to. But given her fierce concentration – he was sure it was important. He deflated.

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Viru had just pinged. “Ah! Viru…” she thought.

“He is so clever with his words…so very entertaining”

She gave a slight sniff…

“A strain on the eyes though…” she smiled with the evil thought.

And a very interesting chat conversation ensued – the details of which shall always be shrouded in mystery. If older folk with reserved sensibilities only read what Rekha was capable of writing on chat – they would balk and those with artificial pacemakers would collapse. And suddenly there was Shyam perched atop the cubicle wall in all his grinning glory.

“And here’s the strain on the brain…” she thought to herself and gave her characteristic little sniff.

Shyam kept grinning for a while and after he realized that Rekha wasn’t going to look up - sidled away. This was not the way he hoped to be treated! After all he reserved his ‘Sunshine’and the ‘the thousand watt smile’ (a.k.a the grin) routine only for special people!

“No matter…” he thought.

“Time for the heavy artillery…” and he sidled off to the nearest shop to buy a gargantuan collection of flora that could inspire Rekha to start a second hand florist business.

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The eyes were watering by now and Raghu had to blink. He was joyous that Shyam was given the short end of the stick, but was highly disturbed owing to the smug expression that now rested on the face of his sidling adversary.

“Evil man has a plan…” he thought.

It took some highly sophisticated sleuth work of making a phone call to the pani puri wala standing outside that Raghu came to know what Shyam was upto. It horrified the living daylights out of the poor soul.

“OMG! She will be his… OMG! She will be his… OMG! She will be his…”

The floor witnessed a profusely sweating and incoherently muttering Raghu make a beeline towards the supermarket. He had to do something!

“Time to bring in the heavy artillery…”

Any self respecting man adequately proficient in the art of wooing women would have easily guessed that Raghu was going to buy chocolates.

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Viru was sweating as well. Rekha had mysteriously stopped responding on chat. This was unlikely. For eons (2 days) she responded with a ‘Hiiiii’ and a smiley. But no more. Viru’s linguistic skills were not upto the mark??

“No no no no no …” he rubbished the thought with a smattering of negatives.

“Time to bring in the heavy artillery…” he thought resolutely.

Viru ignored the gossiping les miserables and swiftly embarked upon stringing apparently similar sounding words together in order to create a poem that could – he thought – bring her back to chat. His heart would twitter merrily even as the window would ping with her lovely messages. Although - sometimes she could be deliciously nasty as well.

If only all this resolve would be directed towards work – Viru would have been floor manager. But again – that’s speculation and a more conducive environment minus Rekha.

Speaking of environment – the rest of the species (less fortunate females) spewed ugly venom whenever they were not within earshot of the girl. They imagined and indulged in downright Neanderthal discussions regarding her character and demeanor.

Viru’s heart ached – he wanted a look at sublimity. He leaned backwards (he could see her cubicle). Horror of horrors – she was talking to somebody on the phone and curling her hair with fingers!!!

“This can’t be – it just can’t be…”

He looked around wildly for his adversaries. Shyam and Raghu were nowhere to be seen. He shifted uncomfortably on the other cheek. She was apparently oblivious to the instant poem that he had created. In fact, she was packing up for the day.

“Oh for the love of God, she’s going without even looking at the poem…”

Viru fired up the printer but then indulged in some virtual coaxing by uttering sweet nothings to it after it wheezed and died on him. He did not waste an instant and pulled out his trusty pen drive to get a printout and show his labor of love to the love of his life.

“Where’s Viru off in such a hurry?!” thought Rekha as a hyperventilating Viru dashed out right in front of her looking very psychotic.

She click – clacked on the floor towards the elevator. There was nobody since she was leaving a little early because of the phone call. (Ahem Ahem)

She descended gently onto the ground floor and click – clacked her way towards the sliding doors of Symmetrix BPO.

From nowhere three vortices emerged with a frenzied energy. One looked like a bedraggled bouquet holding wilting flowers, the other holding five squelched chocolates and waving them about in an aphrodisiacal manner. And the third waving sheaf’s of paper with literature on them adept at wooing cows.

She smiled kindly at all of them even as a Beamer pulled up near her. Dinesh (the insignificant guy) stepped out it.

“Guys, meet my fiancé!” she trilled merrily - Again giving her characteristic sniff.

There were three loud pops

Hanuman II

A tense silence hung in the air even as the dying fire cast myriad shadows on the trees beyond. Hanuman sat still although his body was taut, the gun had begun to feel a little heavy now. The night was cool yet he felt awkwardly uncomfortable.

The stillness was deafening. Hanuman heard rustling in the undergrowth again. He focused. And, then the fire died out.

With bated breath he waited; the next few seconds were anguish. Nothing happened.

An owl hooted far away.

Hanuman lowered his rifle. Everything seemed quiet. The rustling in the undergrowth had stopped. Puzzled he got up and put his rifle on the ground. Unsheathing his knife from its holster, he made his way towards where he thought the noise came from.

He squinted in the moonlight; there was nothing that seemed out of order. The leaves seemed undisturbed and the twigs as if they had fallen right off the trees. Everything seemed perfectly normal.

Questioning his faculties, Hanuman returned to the camp.

The others were rising. There were more important things at hand. There was a caravan that was headed towards the palace; having enough resources in it for his brothers to last for days to come. And, there was not a moment to lose, it would be heavily guarded, a strategic position would be ineffective if the timing was not perfect and all his troops were not in place.

Tehmul came running. A lightly built buy of fourteen, he was quick on his feet and nimble to the extreme, only Hanuman could rival Tehmul in his agility. He loved him like his own son.

Tehmul was panting from running hard - "They come..."

Hanuman cast an eye towards his troops, they were milling around, all of them waiting for his instructions. He gave a low whistle and the men quickly stationed themselves at premeditated positions.

The area he had earmarked for attack was located on the oft tread path that the Englishmen used to ferry goods. It was located in a clearing that was a respite from the dense jungle. The clearing was surrounded by hills on all sides with sheer walls. This is where Hanuman stationed his men for a surprise attack. The bad light and mist would be a silent cover to the attack. The enemy would not know what hit them.

He and Tehmul were themselves perched atop a cliff that faced the clearing. They lay hidden amongst some bushes where they could see the path emerging from the woods.

The lights of the caravan shone through the trees. It made its way slowly. Tehmul saw the scout approach into the clearing; he was atop a white horse and was holding a lantern.
Hanuman was getting up. He had selected the spear much to Tehmul’s surprise.

“It feels just right…” he answered Tehmul’s questioning look.

He took three powerful steps and heaved the spear into the air his muscles rippling from the strain.

There was a whoosh of air and the spear disappeared into the black of the night. A moment later it found its mark. The Scout dropped limply from the horse - that bolted frightened.

Hanuman was already making his way down the cliff in a flash. An unsaddled horse would have the Englishmen swarming through the jungle in no time. He was running through the shrubs his eyes riveted on the   creature that was bolting wildly.

Tehmul watched as Hanuman drew parallel to the horse and gracefully caught his reigns even as he swung over the running horse to calm him down. He spoke softly stroking the white mane of the Beast.

“Quiet my dear, quiet…”

The animal fell silent. Hanuman understood animals better than he understood humans.
Nature - his Mother had taught him many things.

“Kali is most kind…” he thought to himself looking up at the star spangled sky. There was a low hoot which he recognized as an all clear signal.

He made his way to the caravan where his men had done a tidy job, Tehmul at his side.He made a quick headcount, something was amiss.

"Where's Macchindra?" he growled. The others looked around.

"Check his gear, he should be here!"

A sinking feeling gripped Hanuman's stomach as he recalled the event earlier that night...

To be contd..