The Plight

I have never been on the other side of the prison. I have always chosen to be on the safe side of the life avoiding the unnecessary risks. But recently, I have been getting a nice spanking from my boss due to the declining position of our company. I assured that this decline is short-termed and inevitable, but he doesn’t seem to care. Today again he started raging on me when I was driving the car home. My mood was totally off after a hard day’s work and the fury caught me. I jumped two red-lights and almost ran over a pedestrian before the traffic police caught me. And my madness was not over yet because I slapped him hard before he could slam me with any charges.
So, my car was confiscated the same moment and I was deported to the nearest police station on charges of Rash Driving, culpable homicide and hitting of a police officer on duty. I was sitting in the prison and it was my worst day of my life. My morning started with a quarrel with my wife, then with my boss and now a police officer for all the wrong reasons. I was not fancying a dirty room filled with all the disgusting criminals, so I preferred standing aloof at one corner.
‘You are here not by will, are you?’ I was startled by a voice speaking English in the room but I chose not to answer. I looked around and no one seem to me enough capable to speak such a difficult language. Difficult because it took me 6 months of intense practice and hard work to master this language. And all this because I had to clear the CAT examinations on the same year I completed my graduation to save my family from an economic slump. Today, I am the youngest happily married successful manager in my company and many people envy me for this very reason.
‘You don’t seem interested in talking with anybody here.’ I looked around and saw a person in tattered clothes speaking English as fluently as possible. It was amazing to see a human so good with literature involved in crime.
‘I don’t prefer talking with criminals. You don’t deserve to live on this earth.’
‘Hmmm…. Frankly speaking I am not angry with what you spoke just now. Come sit. These words don’t suit you as you are on the same side of the world as me.’
I don’t know why but some part of me pulled me to that persona. I sat by his side.
‘So, why are you here? Inspecting the scenario from inside?’
My eyes was meanwhile scrutinizing this guy. Medium built in his thirties or early forties. Scars all over the body, wearing stale prison clothes but carrying a glimpse in his eyes.
‘May I ask you a question?’
‘Sure. Shoot.’
‘What made you land here? You don’t seem to me that foolish to do something you are not supposed to.’
‘Do you think we are all here by choice? We don’t choose this life, it chooses us. And the person making this choice is always left with one option.’
‘We always have options in life, on every field, on every moment. What matters is our wise decisions at that moment.’
‘Is it? I was a senior manager at the Lehman Brothers, USA for almost eight years. And my life was most luxurious of all my friends I grew up with. A green card holder, with a 3-floor home at Nariman Point, happily married. I was on a dream ride. But in September, all my dreams crashed with the company. I had to come back in India with no work. I tried to start a business in here but the economic slowdown in the world also twitched my business. All my savings were lost. I had to sell the my house at Nariman Point in not so good price and which could support my family for three months only. The life couldn’t get worse till my wife was detected with a stomach cancer. I was helpless. I went to banks, for a loan, but wasn’t allowed. None of the companies in India offered me a job. My friends refused to help me in my time of crisis. My life showed me the best and the worst in a moment. My wife’s health was deteriorating. I could devise no other method to save my world but to step into a robbery. I raided a bank to loot some cash but couldn’t. The police caught me midway and I was arrested. For three days, I cried in the jail, pleading the officer to get me to my ailing wife, but was beaten to pulp. On the fourth day, the officer came to me to inform that my wife lost her breath in the hospital. I was allowed to come out of the jail to go for my wife’s funeral. I was standing with just the security officials accompanying me, no friends no relatives. Today I am helpless with no friends. No one likes to be a friend of a outlaw. My lawyer is fighting hard to reduce my sentence to the least as possible. But you know what, I don’t want to get back. Outside, I will be alone fighting with the souls carrying innumerable questions with no answers. And my inner self will haunt me doubting my abilities to do was I was supposed to.’

‘Aaditya Raajan. Aaditya Raajan. Come, you are being bailed.’
My brother was standing. His eyes were asking me reasons. I couldn’t speak a word with him and moved out.