Future perfect - short story

Future perfect

“One year off! Wow!” I met Rajesh in a small hotel in Gangtok, when I had gone there for a short holiday. I had managed to wangle a couple of weeks holiday from the office and rushed off for a backpacking trip. I was modestly proud of my travel achievements in that trip - last minute flight to Calcutta, staying in seedy backpacker accommodation in Calcutta, a sudden trip to Shantiniketan, Train to New Jalpaigudi, a stay in Gangtok, Sikkim…but this young man had knocked my trip into nothingness. Indian backpackers are quite rare, one finds mostly firangs traipsing all over India. Solitary Indian backpackers are even rarer…individual travel is not really an Indian thing. But Solitary Indian backpackers who have taken a complete break from work is the rarest thing, this was the first specimen I had come across. We got chatting over a drink in the evening, and took to each other from the first. He had been working in the same city as me, and that created a bond between us. One fine day, he had decided that enough is enough, and chucked his job and set out to see the world. I had also traveled a bit in India, but I was not in his class. Since his sabbatical had started, he had been to Corbett national pack, Auli skiing course, Hampi, Kedartal and Valley of Flowers. The best part of his trip was that it was not a hurried, cramped holiday; but a relaxed introspective floating trip, with all the time in the world. He had been able to truly enjoy and caress the beautiful sights and sounds in his mind. After that he had decided to check out surrounding countries, so he set out to explore Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. He had spent half a year floating around these places, and had an amazing time. Costs were low, sights were plenty and people were nice. With a lonely planet in one hand and a few dollars in the other, its amazing how much one can enjoy a place. He had finally entered India through Calcutta airport, and immediately hot footed it to Sikkim, and had ended up drinking beer with me at hotel Tibet in Gangtok. We had been chatting for a long time, and the dead soldiers of the beer bottles littered the terrace of that hotel. We had taken pity on the tired waiters and sent them off, and were helping ourselves directly from the freezer. It was a fine night, cool and crisp, and the full moon was bathing Gangtok in a relaxing white light. It was absolutely silent, even the dogs had stopped howling, the only sound was the birds rustling occasionally in the nearby tree. Rajesh had just finished describing the feeling of floating down the Meking in full moon, and both of us were still in that spell. On the spur of the moment, I said “Rajesh, your horoscope must be fascinating! I would love to study it.” Rajesh raised his eyebrows at me, and smiled. “Do you read horoscopes then?” “Yes. I am not a master at it, but I find it quite an interesting study. One can find out some interesting things about a person.” “Yes…even I had a very interesting experience with an astrologer once.” “Where? During the course of your travels?” “Actually, no. It was before I went on my sabbatical. Have you heard of Nadi Jyotishya?” “Only a little…but please carry on. Tell me about it.” Rajesh leaned back in his chair, and stretched out his legs. “Well it was about a year and a half ago…” It was a totally random happenstance; I had no idea that I would be going to Bangalore that month. But there was a business exigency, and my boss shipped me off to Bangalore to deal with it. I was planning to stay in a hotel, but at the last moment I decided to stay in the company guest house. There I met another person, a Mr. Kumar. Kumar was an auditor, and he had come down to check our branch accounts there. He was from the Madras branch of our auditors, so we had never met before. I came home slightly early in the evening, and was sitting there wondering what to do. The TV was not working, and I had nothing to read, and I was not in the mood to go wandering around alone. That was when Kumar and me started chatting. Somehow the conversation shifted to Astrology, and Kumar asked me if I had ever heard of a branch of astrology called “Nadi Jyotishya” “Nadi…sounds familiar, but no…I don’t really know anything much about it.” “Oh, its really something…it can get scary sometimes.” I had a fairly open mind about astrology. Though all the scientific community mocks it, I have seen astrologers and palmists come out with pretty surprising things over the years. Since then, I had maintained that “if don’t know, don’t scoff” attitude. However, I didn’t know too much about this “Nadi Jyotish” stuff. Kumar took a sip of tea and continued telling me about it. “Well, the legend of Nadi Jyotish is like this. All of humanity are the progeny of the Lord Shankar and Parvati. One day Parvati asked Shankar, tell me – how will my children do in life? What does the future hold for them? Shankar said – listen then – and started telling her the future of all generations of humanity. Sometime during the recital, Parvati was swamped and she fell asleep, so Shankar stopped at some point. The whole thing was overheard by a pair of doves, and they went and told it to the Saptarishis, who wrote it down. Thus, the theory is that the future of every man and woman on the planet is written down somewhere. The palm leaves on which this was written are preserved in some temple in the South, and now there are some copies with select people. We, the lay people, can access them from there.” I was fascinated by the concept. “Really, and how does this work? How do you find your leaf?” “The person doing the reading takes an imprint of your thumb print – right thumb for males and left for females, and then he goes and matches it with his database inside. Then he brings out a selection of documents and selects your manuscript from there.” “How?” “Er…by asking questions…possibly I am not the best explainer. Would you like to try it for yourself?” “Really? Is it possible?” “Yes. There is a person in Bangalore. In fact I went to meet him the other day. I can take you there if you wish; I am free tonight.” Kumar went off to phone, and I could hear snatches of their conversation. He came back and said, “Come, if want to come – we have to leave now. He was cribbing that he wants to wind up by 8PM. Its already 7.15, and I promised him that we will be there by 7.30.” We left immediately, and went by auto through labyrinthine gullies, and stopped at an entirely nondescript house in a nondescript locality. During our journey, we didn’t exchange a word – both us were engrossed in our own thoughts. As we dismounted from the auto, Kumar took me by the arm. “Rajesh saab – remember one thing. Be sure that you really want to know the future, before getting into this house.” “Arre, don’t worry. Come on.” We were greeted at the door by a small, dark man – the astrologer’s companion- and we took off our shoes before entering the house. It was a small, bare and dusty room- Old fashioned concrete flooring, high ceiling, yellow light from the bulbs on the walls. The fan old, and with a long rod – the kind you see in old government offices – and was emitting breeze and creaky sounds in equal measure. There was a temple alcove in the corner, with a variety of idols and pictures of gods and goddesses. It shone from the evening puja, with light of the lamps, the smoldering agarbattis and the fresh flowers at the deities feet. There was a small money box there, like a donation box in a temple. There were no tables or chairs, the sitting arrangements were a cloth on the ground for the astrologer and the customers. Sitting there, expecting us, was the astrologer – Mr. Ramulu. I had gone expecting an ascetic looking person with a long white beard, and vibhuti on his forehead – but this was a small, dark tamilian in a white shirt and mundu, looking like any normal person on the street. We exchanged greetings, and chatted for a minute. His Hindi and English weren’t too good, and the person who had greeted us at the door acted as the interpreter. Ramulu explained that he was not an astrologer, but merely a reader - a filing clerk, if you will. His job was simply to zero down on your scroll and nothing more – he could offer no explanations. The charges were quite modest, and one paid only if his scroll was found. If the scroll was not found, there would be no charge. I agreed, and we started the procedure. He took my thumb print and went into an inner room. After ten-fifteen minutes he returned with an armful of scrolls and sat in front of me. “Saar, I will ask you various questions. You must answer only ‘yes’ or ‘no’. This is the process to zero down on your prediction.” “You are from the North” “Yes” “You are the eldest son” I was startled. “Yes.” “You are the eldest son, but you had an elder sister who was stillborn.” There could be no answer to this. I couldn’t answer without consulting my mother, but if I calculate the date of my parents’ marriage and my date of birth, it was unlikely. “No.” “OK.” He put away the scroll. “You are of the ‘Shwan’ gotra.” “Yes” “Your father is a teacher.” “Er…” I hesitated. My father had retired some time back, and was now teaching part-time in some schools. Well, he is a teacher now, isn’t he?  “Yes” “His name is of three syllables.” “Yes.” “He is one of three brothers.” “Yes” this was absolutely fantastic. “He is the eldest brother.” “No.” I was relieved. This was too close for comfort. “Ok.” He put away the scroll, and picked up another one. “His name has three syllables. The first syllable is “Ra”, the second is “Dha”. The third is the same as the first or the second.” I was speechless. I had told neither Kumar nor Ramulu, and this guy had got within an ace of my dads name - Randhir. “Yes.” I whispered. My lips were feeling dry. “Your mother is a vaid – a doctor.” “Yes” “She is the youngest daughter.” “Yes” “Her name has four syllables.” Here, I was flummoxed. Moms name before marriage was Madhavi, but after marriage, it had been changed to Snehlata – which was four syllables. I decided to go with the latter. “Yes.” “The first syllable starts with ‘sa’, the second is ‘ha’, the third is ‘la’ and the last is ‘ta’.” “Yes.” I whispered. I was beginning to sweat, and the hairs on the back of my neck were beginning to stand erect. “Your mother’s brother has been in prison on a false charge, and hence was released.” “!” This was something no one could ever know. It was faintly possible that Kumar knew my parents names, and had communicated to Ramulu for some dark purpose of his own – but this! My families’ inner most secrets! “Y-yes.” “You have had an operation of the stomach three years ago.” My fingers went of their own volition to the appendectomy scar on my abdomen. This was before I joined this company. “Yes.” “You are unmarried.” “Yes.” “But you have had sexual experiences, and picked up a venereal disease.” “!!”  I was aghast. This was something no one – NO ONE, except me and the doctor – knew. “Y-yes” “You have landed property.” “Yes.” I had purchased a flat a couple of years before. “This is your horoscope.” Ramulu showed me a diagram which was written on the old Tamil manuscript. And seeing it, there was no doubt left. It was accurate to the last detail. He was through with his questioning, and he stood up, gathering his documents. “Sir, please go and have your food, and come back after half an hour. It will take that much time to find your scroll.” I hurried outside and lit a cigarette, and found that my hands were trembling. My muscles were all tense, and the back of my shirt was soaked with sweat. I took a deep drag, and smiled nervously at Kumar. He must have been through the same feeling in his earlier visit, and he smiled back at me. “Scares the shit out of you, doesn’t he?” “I tell you. And the worst part is that he does it in his calm, sing song voice, as if he was reciting his shopping list.” At this point, Rajesh broke off and burped a long and satisfying beer burp. I suddenly realized that I had been sitting there, holding an empty bottle for god knows how long. I got up and got us both fresh beers from the freezer. The owner was going to be really happy tomorrow, I thought, we have nearly cleaned out the fridge. “Well? What happened next? Did he tell you your future accurately?” Rajesh started laughing. “That’s a good one. How can I know whether the prediction is right or no? He made some statements, but it can be proved only in the future. But you got to admit, that the build up was impressive.” “But, what did he predict?” Rajesh was silent. “Did he predict that you will be taking this major sabbatical and roam all over the place?” “No…not really.” “No? I thought he would give a detailed day be day prediction till the day you die. What major prediction did he make? He had scared you properly in his build up, didn’t he?” “Oh, he scared me a lot more after that.” “Oh? What did he say?” “He said that I would die within a year.” “What?!!!” There didn’t seem to be anything to say after that. I looked at him, and he looked at his beer bottle. The bright moonlight was casting weird shadows on the terrace. A cool breeze blew, and made us shiver. That broke the tension building up, and we smiled at each other. “Did you believe him?” “As I said earlier, who can say? All I can say is that his build up was impressive.” “Then what did you do?” “Yaar, I decided that if he was right, then there was no point in grinding away at that sickening job of mine. If life is worth living, it is worth living well. I liquidated all my investments, and decided to spend the next year roaming around the world. If he was right, then I don’t want to spend my life doing something I don’t want to do. I want to live life to the full. If he was wrong, then so what? I took a sabbatical which I would not have the guts to take otherwise, and I will definitely get a job when I decide to get back to corporate life. So I decided to do all the things I had always wanted to do – but did not dare. I went bungee jumping, white water rafting, para sailing, cave exploration… I tried out various kinds of kinky stuff – wild parties, group sex, soft drugs… activities I would not have ordinarily tried, but I didn’t want to die regretting that I did not try something out. Of course, one thing I was careful of is that I should be healthy and hale until the day I do die, so I did take care of my health.” “Hmm.” “One good thing about future reading though…it helps you to plan well.” “Eh? Plan for what?” “Death, of course. I don’t want my family to be left helpless in the event of my death, but I don’t want to restrict myself to saving and hoarding money when I have so little time left. So I worked out the optimal solution. I liquidated all my investments to give me liquid cash to enjoy my holiday. And to take care of the family in case of death, I took a huge life insurance cover. So now I am freaking out in life in the here and now, yet am totally relaxed, knowing that my family will be comfortably off in event of my death.” He leaned over to grab a beer and relaxed back into his chair, totally relaxed. “Ahhh! That’s what I call future perfect.”