The Knock Down
I was born in Pune and my dad used to work as a revenue administrative officer. His last posting was in Mahableshwar and he liked the place so much that he decided to settle there after his retirement. I used to love it too, and hence after retiring as a branch manager, I too, shifted with my wife to Mahableshwar in the small but comfortable bungalow which my father had left us after his dismissal and which we had used as a weekend getaway house for all these years. Life was peaceful. My only son was working in London after completing his studies.
It was one of those nights when I'd won the annual billiards tournament held at the local Gymkhana. It was a happy moment for me and I partied with the lads till midnight. I was walking back to my place. I was longing for this lone time. The night was cold and nice. I always loved the nights. I felt kind of connected to them. I lit my first and the only cigarette of the day as I did every night after dinner while having a nice pleasant walk.
I crossed the market area and was approaching my lane. When I saw something in the darkness. Was someone trying to climb over my bungalow's gate? My wife must have locked the main gate of our house at 10pm as usual. I had the spare keys. Yes, someone was trying to climb the gate. A thief? A robber? I was excited and scared at the same time. Scared because obviously my wife was sleeping alone inside. And someone was climbing the main gate of our house. But why was I excited?
My mind travelled back to the time when dad used to work in Pune and stay with us. We had a huge house in Pune. Two storeyed with nice two balconies in the front. I was a movie fanatic and loved watching movies. And as I've already told you, I loved the night. But I'd a curfew of 8pm at my house. I'd to be home before that. If I didn't reach on time my dad would be very angry. So I was left with only one option, sneak out of my house at night and watch the late night shows with my friends. I was also caught on a couple of occasions. Once when I came home drunk after sneaking out and made a lot of noise while sneaking in and once when Mr.Sharma had seen me in the theatre with my friends and mentioned it to dad sometime later. He forgot to mention how he was with somebody else rather than Mrs.Sharma and how the female he was with, was half his age and feeding him popcorn. But dad only cared about the part that I'd sneaked out. So my sneaking out wasn't new to him.
One such night when I was actually sleeping peacefully in my room for a change, dad suddenly stormed into my room. I woke up by the sudden noise. And before I could realise anything dad ran back to his room's balcony and started shouting "thief, thief" at the top of his voice. Even I ran towards the balcony. Dad stared at me angrily and said "only if you didn't have the habit of sneaking out I'd have caught the thief."
What actually happened was that mom had removed all the extra ornaments from the bank locker the previous day as it was my cousins wedding. She had kept all the ornaments on the dressing table next to their bed. Unfortunately there was a power cut that night and dad had kept the balcony door and the windows open for ventilation. The thief had used a ladder, thanks to the construction site right next to our bungalow and had comfortably climbed the balcony. He came inside and found the ornaments. But dad woke up at the same time and before he could do anything the thief directly jumped down from the balcony and fled. Now my dad thought that, it must have been my new technique of sneaking out as he used to lock the main door and keep the keys with him to break my habit (little did he know that I had the spare keys). So his first reaction was that he checked my room if I was there. And I was blamed for the whole incident. I'd to hear about it for many more years.
Since that day I was waiting for an opportunity to catch a thief red handed. And it had come to me after a wait of thirty five damn years. I tried remembering the karate training I'd taken during my school days. Not that I remembered much, I was just a green belt holder. But that wasn't going to stop me from catching this thief and beating the hell out of him. I started tip toeing as I was approaching my target. The trophy I'd just won was a strong bronze one and was perfect to be used like a weapon. I wore my hood. I don't know why I did that. I wasn't the one who was trespassing someone else's property. And as I was going to pounce on him, I had a sudden adrenaline rush and gave out a small battle cry. It warned the thief and before I could do anything he punched me on my face with his elbow twice and turned around and gave me a kick on my chest. I was knocked out.
Moments later I woke up in my house. Was it a dream? But my eye was swollen. "Are you alright dad? I'm so sorry. I thought some random person had attacked me. I didn't mean to hurt you."
Yes. I was knocked by my own son who had dropped in from London to give us a surprise. He obviously didn't have the front gate key and so was climbing the gate. Oh, and he was a black belt holder and knew his martial arts well unlike me. I was the laughing stock of my wife and son for the next few days. Its been a month that he's gone back now and I'm writing this because its my hobby. Wait I just heard something. Is it another thief. A real one maybe this time? I better see. Hope I'll catch someone this time. And yes no battle cries this time.
V A R U N
S A D A V A R T E.
