Extract from my second book

To give you an idea of how the story goes, here is an extract from my second book “He Sees Everything & Other Short Stories”. Hope you will like the book!

“How much longer can I work like this?” asked Satish. “The cost of living in Bangalore is increasing by the day. Being a lower level Government official is no fun. Every one seems to be making pots of money, either from the IT/BPO industry or from real estate.” Some of his colleagues seldom came to work. They were busy making money elsewhere, mainly as middlemen for land deals. There were undoubtedly people who made money honestly but many others did it dishonestly. Some of the stories he heard in his office would have shocked his parents. He too would have been shocked a few years ago, but not any longer.

Just the other day his son, Rithesh, had asked him for money to take his friends to the mall. How much did he want? Only 5000 rupees! And he was only18. Lakshmi could understand how her husband felt. 5000 was a lot of money. She, for one, would have made it stretch for a long while. She would not blow it up all in one evening, like her son. Lakshmi was beginning to feel the strain of the new world. Her son’s friends wanted to work in call centers. They talked of things and in ways she didn’t understand. “We want to make lots of money, Aunty.” they said. She sometimes felt jealous of their new found wealth, while she had to scrape together to get by month after month. At one time, the family she had got married into was considered quite well off. She shouldn’t really be thinking like this she felt with a tinge of remorse but it did look like many neighbors had shot ahead in the social scale. Another source of worry was her husband’s new boss. He was proving to be a terror. No, it wasn’t that he frowned upon making some money on the side. He wasn’t righteous or anything of that sort. It was just that he was hogging the largest part of the cake leaving the crumbs to the likes of Satish who did the dirty work.

Satish told his wife “The only way out of this is to sell this old house.”

“Can you get two apartments in the new complex for us from the builder? One can be for us and the other for Rithesh when he grows up. We can rent it out for the time being. That would be so nice!”

“I daresay the building itself is worthless but the land can get us a good amount. I will be a tough negotiator and definitely get us a premium from the buyer.”

“But what about the others like your younger brother Suresh and poor Manjula your widowed elder sister?”

“Leave that to me,” said Satish. “The first step is to get the papers adjusted. Appa was well meaning but lazy. He did not bother about the documentation. I know one fellow who will make the property records in our name for a small percentage. It’s well worth it at today’s prices.”

The thought of how wealthy they would become overcame her guilt. Yet she had to voice her concerns. “What about Suresh? What about Manjula?” asked Lakshmi again.

“What about them?” snapped Satish. “Suresh’s children are in the US and are doing very well. Didn’t I get them admission in engineering colleges? They cannot forget how I helped them. Besides, Suresh and his wife went on a world tour last year. As far as Manjula is concerned, Appa got her married into a family much richer than ours. He almost went broke after her marriage. Is it my fault that she is a widow now? She lived like a queen for many years. Did she worry about us when her husband was alive? Now it’s our turn to be happy.”

Also see: https://www.facebook.com/PremRao.StoryTeller.and.Author