FICTION

ROOM NO 406: PRADOOMATH

 Kamla Nagar is a well known place in Delhi. Just in some corner of it lies the Gargi Boys Hostel and in the lesser known corners of this hostel lies the room number 406. The name

‘Gargi’ frequently becomes a laughing stalk among the friends of the residents yet it was comfortable to live in and much cheaper as compared to the exorbitant amount the other hostels take. Delhi University provides hostels for a very few members and as a result the hike in private hostel fees has increased manifold around the North Campus. But who listens to the student’s woes?    

“Is this for sale too?” asked Pawan, pointing to the T-shirt that lay hapless on the floor. And with a groan of exasperation, Pradoomath nodded an affirmative. Pawan did not even care to stroll his eyes on other items which were spread hither and thither all over Pradoomath’s room - Room No. 406. From blackberry phones to apple I-pods to branded tees, to kettle, game discs and bags, the room resembled closely to a burglarised warehouse; much to the contrary no one was weeping at his loss. Pawan’s physique couldn’t gain to its optimized level; an uncommon 4 ft tall brown lad known for his voracious appetite. But not much to his dismay his tiny, shrinking body did accommodate a crafty brain. Pawan wasn’t the lone buyer in that pretty unusual trade hub that particular night in room 406. Be it Prashant Kumar, the guy whose voice was yet to get familiarized among his fellow hostellers owing to his introvert nature, or Arnav, whom many other would have refused to identify as a resident of that hostel owing to the busy schedule he followed or in a single word his ‘extrovert’ nature but that night in particular every resident of the hostel who sniffed the whiff of this unusual night sale lured up to Pradoomath’s room; struck with curiosity and at times impregnable greed. To sum up with, room 406 was a place of absolute mayhem. 

Pawan picked up the T-shirt from the floor and had to dust it to have a proper glimpse of the material it was made with. Ah! Denizen - the tag on the neck appealed it loud.  “It’s time. My tricky brain, get to work”, Pawan muttered to himself. “What price do you put up for this, Pradoomath?” and he gazed at Pradoomath with a view to applying his wily mathematics.

Pradoomath, who was busy negotiating with another customer over his I-pod nano, gazed over a couple of seconds more as he finally turned towards Pawan.

“So, how much for this?” a curious voice of Pawan enquired.

“This is Denizen right?”

Denizen is the new name for Levi Strauss’ Signature wing.

“The tag says so... Hmmm but never heard of such a brand before” Pawan replied without a second thought.

“Hah! Come on man Denizen”, Pradoomath growled in his south Indian accent. He looked around the room expecting for others approval. In a bunch of dozen, a half stood with blank expression; may be wondering what price they should offer for the stuff they were holding; a few still continued to search for something that they could buy so as to remember this event in the years to follow and boast in front of their friends that they did taste a piece, and a few firmly denied at the existence of such a brand named Denizen. But the crowd had at least one thing in common: a smile at the thought of how nondescript a person can be as Pradoomath was...and they smiled again.

Pradoomath continued, “I brought it for 1700 bucks and I agree to sell it for 500....500 at the least” Pradoomath emphasised with a diluted voice this time.

“500 bucks no way. I give you 100 bucks for this nameless brand.  Make a deal.”

“Pradoomath even 100 bucks are worth for you. If it was me, not even a ha’p’orth would have been dropped from my wallet. ” Someone from the crowd muttered it loud. As Pradoomath raised his head to view the speaker he could see everyone nodding positive to the anonymous speaker. And the words were even over heard, “What is denizen by the way?”

 Left with no option to nullify the crowd’s affirmation to what he thought was an unjust deal, he did seal the deal. Injustice indeed! But who would do justice? Prashant, whose raving eyes were locked at the fastrack bag and an electric kettle, or Sugandh, who just stood there? And so Pawan did pay 500 bucks; not for that Denizen Tee alone. His wily mathematics helped him pile five of them in a lot. Why is he selling all his daily stuff? Did he steal it from somewhere??? Each of the buyers had their own sets of doubts but why to waste their valuable time and above all the golden opportunity of this exploited handicap sale; Pradoomath Vs Rest of Gargi.           

Room 209; Ahab had just finished the second season of the American TV series, ‘The Castle’ - ‘The deadly game’, the last episode of the season still hovering over his mind. Not just Ahab, most of today’s college goers have a new trend of watching American T.V. shows like ‘How I met your mother’, ‘The big band theory’, F.R.I.E.N.D.S., ‘Two and a half men’, etc with their usual acronym ‘HIMYM’, ‘BBT’ and the list continues. What a crazy fan does is that they not only treasure the seasons but even trade them for upgraded seasons of other shows. It’s like buying stocks from the share market. Such a crazy fan Ahab was for the Castle series. He tried hard to imitate the mindset of Richard Castle, the lead hero who assists Detective Kate Beckett in her case. In idleness he used to wonder about an exciting life in becoming a detective.  

A loud knock at Ahab’s door. The winter just started a few days ago, so Ahab draped a blanket around him. The task of unbolting the door was no less than a nightmare; he cringed for  having bolted his door. “Wait I’m coming....wait”, Ahab shouted as the door knock continued. The bangs on the door did not seem damping but were coupled with periodic forced vibrations as Ahab would have thought; after all he was a devoted Physicist but certainly not nerdy, as Physicists are portrayed in T.V. soaps. On unbolting the door, Sugandh stood firm at the edge of the door. “Hi” and without waiting for Ahab’s reply he continued, “Have you heard the breaking news at Gargi?”   

“No, why any fight that I missed?”

“No, not a fight. It’s a grand sale that has been put up by Pradoomath in his room.”

“Sale? But he is leaving Delhi for good....and I saw him the other day carrying a huge oversized suitcase down the staircase”.

“Yep. He is leaving Delhi. And he is going back to his home town Chennai and above all he is selling all his stuff here in his room. Now let’s go and try to grab our piece. I have heard he is selling branded Tees for just a mere 100 bucks!” exclaimed Sugandh with a heap of joy.

“Only tees?”

“No I have heard even two blackberry phones, I-pod shuffle, I-pod nano, fastrack bags, PSP and a lot more.”

“What? Why sell all these stuff? Does all those stuff belong to him or he stole them from somewhere else? I mean I never knew he was rich enough to acquire such property?” and Ahab posed another set of questions.

“How do I know? For all queries and information just contact your dealer Pradoomath. Happy to help you. Thank you” mocked Sugandh and laughed, not before he realised that his joke was of no concern for Ahab who seemed to have indulged in his complex world of shuffled thoughts. Sugandh continued, “See, he cited the reason that his parents are splitting and so he wants to make a fresh start in his hometown. He has got admission in Chennai University there.”

“By fresh start you mean selling your own stuff that you used to love or stuff that you used daily” Ahab interrupted and after a pause he continued, “And you mentioned PSP. No, no I can’t believe this. I still don’t have faith in you”.

“I’m not forcing you to believe me....you still have a chance to have a glimpse of the sale. And I’m still insisting let’s go upstairs”

As the two stood at the doorway of room 209, Dubb, a fellow hosteller from the neighbouring room joined the conversation.

“Yeah Ahab, Sugha is right” with his fingers pointing on the T-shirt that he was wearing. He paved his pride by adding, “I bought this Addidas sports ware for 150 bucks”. “Original.” With these words Dubb had a broad smile in his face as he has accomplished a task with due credits.

Ahab and Sugandh hurried to the 4^th floor. As the corridor ends, to the left is Pradoomath’s room.

Yes there was a sale indeed. A miasma of stale, filthy substances hung around the room but that did not provoke the buyers from not scratching every nook and corner searching for things that adhered to their taste. And yes the room was indeed mayhem of branded stuff.

But why was he selling all his stuff? If his parents were so rich than why live in Gargi? He could have opted for a hostel with rent exceeding 10,000 rupees a month. One after another question did pop up in Ahab’s mind but amidst all the glitter of Pradoomath’s world, the question buried as just a mere question. He did not return empty handed. He brought a large Samsonite suitcase for Rs. 300.

That night before going to bed the set of question did appear again before Ahab. He imagined Pradoomath to be involved in some drug addict gang and selling his stuff to get a few of such doses. But his thoughts were succumbed by his dreams as he fell asleep.

Not only that night, in most of his solitude, Ahab does try to figure why someone would sell his belongings? Why was Pradoomath so desperate in selling his own stuff? He may be rich but that didn’t imply you sell your stuff. Why? At times Ahab did try to imagine Pradoomath as a person who was going to commit suicide or change his identity because of his failures in life or going to join an extremist group and by selling his stuff no agency in the world would trace him. “Res Ipsa Loquitur” the thing speaks for itself, Ahab would mutter these words of his favourite character Kate Beckett of ‘Castle’ trying to figure out the actual reason but never had he been successful. Ahab in his idleness used to wonder about an exciting life in becoming a detective. Adventurous he assumed; but unaware that it was just another mere teenage dream.

As in Castle infected Ahab’s mind, the whole hostel had a hot recipe of discussion on the topic. But with time’s spinning yarn the topic, that once echoed around the walls of the hostel, had a deceitful death among the lot but it still lingers in a few minds as Ahab - Why did Pradoomath sell all his belongings?  

None could, can you cite a reason why?




Image Courtesy: Google




KNOW YOUR FRIEND FROM DU 

Name: Syed Wasbir Subhani

Nick name: Aquazir

College: Ramjas College, University of Delhi

Course: Physics

Hobbies: Syed doesn't like to work. He likes to read novels and play some sport.
 

Interests: He loves writing and doing all chores that are forbidden to him.