So here's another excerpt from "Mr. Bandookwala, M.B.A., Harvard":
"Adi says he is busy with some client who has arrived from Delhi, but since it is a Wala-mulaqat he will meet us at 8 p.m. He said he will inform Screw about it. I look at my watch, 6.30 p.m. Standing in the huge artificially-cooled glassed atrium I stare at the cerulean waves that toss outside on Marine Drive, it's violence now dulled by the distance. For a moment I imagine the violence of the waves against the shore as it would appear from close by. A thought crosses my mind that violence manifests in everything, every living being unless controlled. It's been hot and raining these few days. Some beggars are going from people to people begging for coins. I can see their pitiful imploring faces snarl when they don't get even a small coin tossed into their hands. They curse! They curse the worst regional curses there are. "May you rot and your body be ridden with maggots!" The huge glass panel shields me at the moment from the anarchy of weather and the tugging feeling of human poverty outside. It's an artificial security. In fact, I feel vulnerable. A soft music plays on the public address system, which soothes me a little. Not for long. A temporary inertia comes over me, an inertia bought by money which comes from a well-paying job. It's such environments that the rich live which make them callous to the poverty that exists outside. The temporary sense of dread and vulnerability washes over me again. It's a momentary feeling, a feeling which comes and is gone in a second when I feel an ominous dread overcoming me. It subsides. I let myself relax and think of Evita and my childhood. I am excited. I am meeting Adi and Screw after a long time. It is excitement tinged with sadness as I will miss Tyre and Mosquito."
As usual, comments are welcome!
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