My regular departure timing from the office was 8 pm, as an intern in a technical company, I had to collect all the documents and arrange them into parts plus settle them in the manager's office room. Honestly, I've never seen who our manager was but rumors' say he's the counterpart of Devdas. If Devdas movie hadn't worked well, his stories would have won a Film Fare . Many of the employees just vacated because of him or don't like to approach him because of something like this - as if a big poster of warning was there. Assumedly, I was the only hen among all the cocks - everyone left their documents for me to collect and submit.
Just like every regular day - the last person to leave the office was me - the intern, Shashank Solanki (yeah, that's me).
8 May 2012, was exact. (7:35 pm) | assembled the documents and grabbed my bag to leave the office. My phone pinged,
8 PM - FRESHERS GET TOGETHER -DONT MISS! *
*YOU ARE COMING RIGHT ? *
*BRO, FINALLY PARTY!!, SEE YOU AT THE VENUE !
I shut the phone and headed inside the Manager's office room.
The FUCK! I saw the Manager !
He was sitting in front of a big name-plate of Mr. Aron, rolling a pen around his index finger, he noticed and called me inside . I entered the room with the heap of documents. He pulled out a steel tiffin box from his old Dell bag. I was amazed to see what the man is trying to do with a steel tiffin or maybe he was just hungry like me, but who talks and eat at this moment (I became nervous) but again alike me till 8 pm , all the body nutrients can be easily absorbed or used up by working all day long .
The dripping sweat in front of the computer screen, yeah , hunger is normal for that extent . He offered me a seat . I wondered why people make so much rumors about this sane man. He folded his wrinkled fingers to open the steel tiffin and smirked at me slightly .
There were two roshogollas [ a kind of Indian sweet ] in the tiffin dripping with sugar water. This is Pune, Maharashtra , almost 2000 kilometers plus away from the state of Bengal [ where roshogollas are famous ] , I wonder where is he getting such analogous perfect rounded and sweet scented roshogollas here. I thought. He looked at me with a smile and slide the tiffin in towards me. I was facing him but my mind wasn't there. I stared at the roshogollas,
Mr. Aron : Have one Shashank! I smiled awkwardly (I really want to have one but ..)
'No, sir that's alright! ' I responded.
( what kind of question was that - that's why I denied but he only insisted , what a weird man!)
Mr. Aron : Then I request you something in place of the sweet you had. Yes, sure sir! I trembled.
Mr. Aron : Aren't they looking delicious? My wife made them.
I pressed my lips (I knew it, now that it has come to review and wife thing. I should have them all but.. formalities first .) 'Sir, I will have just one.' I responded.
I picked a roshogolla from the tiffin that was dripping sugar water, shivered it and laid it into my mouth gently - the whole big roshogolla, just like the perfect shape, it tasted delicious - soft, spongy and melted effortlessly in my mouth. It reminded me of my Bengali friend who used to bring me roshogollas when we were in middle school. His mother was very conservative and he was a whole opposite of her wills , which is why we used to emptify sweet plates during poojas .
Mr. Aron: So, Shashank how's it?
I whacked my head back to the reality. 'Amazing sir! I've never had such a roshogolla. Please thank ma'am from my side'. I acknowledged.
Mr. Aron : Well, you don't need to thank ma'am, ( did I offended him? I assumed so ) .
Do you think Shashank you can bring back the roshogolla you just had?
'Sir ,I can make one, for you.' I replied with amazement.
Mr. Aron : Shashank answer me technically, you know how even 0.001% accuracy can alter the whole thing. Come on! I've been to IIT man. ( what kind of question was that - that's why I denied but he only insisted , what a weird man! Shit! where am I ? what am I even doing ? )
Mr. Aron : Then I request you something in place.
'Sure sir ? ' . Mr. Aron : Either you bring back the same roshogolla or you help me keeping some letters safe .
[ Indeed I agreed to his second term and Mr. Aron handed me an old box of letters . He asked me to keep them safe .]
As till now you already have predicted how exhausted I was that night but the box of letters triggered my curiosity and I finally opened the box that night. Although I should not touch others keep-sakes but I couldn't stop thinking about it. Apart from all this , that decision of mine was the worst decision ever. I wish I shouldn't have opened the box and just observed it from a distance. It just caused a huge chaos in my silent life ...
- to be continued