Arulappa
He could not believe his ears!! He had heard about the news through the grapevine initially but now it was confirmed! That new Assistant Commissioner fellow Ravi Kumar was moving out of the department! Chellamuthu had just confirmed that the order had been received. The man was going to leave by the end of the week!
Arulappa, thanked the almighty for his grace. All these months, he had been very stressed about the matters that were getting unearthed in the department. That fellow had already suspended four officers and there was no telling what might have happened further.
But now the coast was clear! There was no immediate replacement in sight. The Commissioner was busy with larger policy issues to intervene in the day today functioning of the department. So it was obviously going to be a free for all until someone joined. And if lady luck continued to smile on him it might take another few months before THAT happened. He skipped around his table thinking about the various possibilities!
“ I must give an appropriate gift for this fellow. After all, he has indirectly done us all a favor by leaving” thought Arulappa with a smile.
He wondered what he should give? Had to be something worthy! Something that showed this man that he, Arulappa was not exactly a brain less moron who was only interested in taking bribes!
Ravi Kumar
Ravi Kumar IAS , was busy stacking his things into a carton before getting ready to leave for the day. He was relieved that he was getting out of this minefield of corruption. And he was sure most of the people here were also glad to see him go- though of course those hypocrites had waxed eloquent at the farewell function about what a loss it had been to the department to see him go.
He was glad that he had been able to find a posting in same district where Mita was the Collector. It was nothing high profile – he would be Project director for a World Bank supported water and sanitation program that covered her district and the two surrounding ones. Hardly any work.. ! But he had had to use all the good will that he had in the state civil services to swing that posting! He was glad that the Chief Secretary liked him. It had been difficult explaining matters to him. But he had managed – family issues, his son’s behavior in school etc. The Chief Secretary was initially reluctant ,suggesting instead that he could recommend Mitali’s transfer to the State Capital. But Ravi had hastily intervened telling him about how much she liked the district and how well she was performing there..! He had not seemed very convinced. But Ravi had persisted- after all he could not exactly tell him that his wife had left him thinking he was reading books on kinky sex and moving to where she was posted was the only way to save his marriage!
He picked up a framed photo of Mitali and Amit from his table and wiped it before putting it back into the carton. He was missing both of them terribly. He knew, it would not be easy to convincing her but then his going there would certainly be signal enough to her that he was willing to make amends- though for what he was not exactly sure! He wished, his wife did not have such a fertile imagination!
Just as he bent down to shut one of the drawers, he heard a knock on the door.
“Saar. Can I come in” asked Arulappa
“ Yes. What is it?” asked Ravi impatiently
“ Saar, I have a small gift for you, which I wanted to hand over to you personally” said Arulappa, extending a gift wrapped parcel towards him.
“ Look, I don’t accept gifts” said Ravi getting ready to leave.
“But Saar, you will definitely appreciate this gift” said Arulappa thrusting the parcel back at him.
Ravi, sighed! He had better accept this thing- whatever it was and leave quickly before another herd descended on him with gifts!
“ Thank you” he said putting it back into the carton.
“Saar please open it” said Arulappa with an ingratiating smile.
Ravi shook his head impatiently and tore open the wrapping.He might as well get this over with!
His hands froze as did his gaze when he saw what was inside … There were three books- obviously a trilogy
“Fifty Shades of Grey” , “Fifty shades darker” and “Fifty shades freed”
( Concluded)
( Fifty Shades of Grey is the first among a trilogy of books of a category called “erotica”. It is the story of Anastasia and Christian Grey featuring explicit scenes of Bondage, dominance and sado masochism. I am giving below the link to a post that I did in my other blog on this http://meerareflections.blogspot.in/2012/10/fifty-shades-too-weird.html. Those are my views on the book. However you might like to read up Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shades_of_Grey for more objective facts on the “hero” of this story:) )