old joey's puzzles

narayn rao was a buissness man who lost everything with no fault of him. then he found a magazine-old joey's puzzles. In a series of comical events, learn how rao decided to go to bombay

                 

 

In 1954 , Narayan Rao was living a comfortable life without any worries or regrets and with a moderate amount of money in his bank account. He lived in his own 2 storey house with his wife and 4 children in a decent neighbour and with his own car parked on a small gravel road inside the walls of his walls. His children went to the fancy private kindergarten school and his wife was the part of atleast four kitty party clubs. And most importantly, he had a constant source of income.

This source of income was very different from the things what people did to earn a living. he was a lazy man and made for the “job”. He had a few shares in a radio manufacturing company and they were not small. He had invested a lot of money in the company. All of that money had come to him when he sold his share of the farms of his father and moved to the Natrangpur, where he decided he would start his own business. One day while drinking tea on a tea stall he met jumpy young fellow who said he with some other of his friends was going to start their own business, but they were in needs of some more funds. In the next two days, Narayan rao had become a good friend of all the members of the board of the company.

Narayan rao invested a lot of money- close to 10000 rupees �" in the company. Soon, production began. The company was doing extremely well, and earned a lot of profit. In twenty years, Rao got  back all the money he had invested. The company operated for 20 years more.

But gods in the heaven make sure that everything comes to an end, how ever peaceful or pure it is.

 

                                    ***

It was a fine summer morning when Narayan rao got the news. He had been walking in the backyard( which was very big), when a postman in a khadi uniform came up on the boundry of the plot. Rao walked up to him.

“why are you? Why have you come here?”
“postman, sir. I have come to give a letter to one Narayan rao.”

Narayan rao took the envelope and signed on a paper. He went in to the study and sat down on his desk. He scanned the envelope, as if trying to read its contents without tearing the envelope open. It was addressed to him, and it had come from the company. He wondered what was in it.

He took a letter opener and cut the envelope open. Inside was a single sheet of paper. Narayan rao took it out .

Not much was written on it. Only a few lines in black typewriter ink.

Mr. Narayan Rao, we regretfully inform you that our company J.J. RADIOS, has shut down. The total value of your shares will be transferred to your bank account within a week.  Truly yours, the chairman.

Rao sank down I the chair. He was too shocked to react. Sometime later his wife came by to see on him. Seeing him in this state, she too sank down on the floor and started sobbing, without bothering to find out the reason.

                          ***

Three months later….

Rao sat down on a rickety wooden stool in the public library. It was nearing day-end, the sun was disappearing behind a building on the horizon. Brilliant shades of oranges and reds were swept across the sky. A cool wind was blowing by the river, though it did not enter the library.

The library was very quiet that day. Overhead, ceiling fans rotated with a soft, monotonous hum. Rao sat dejectedly on the stool. Another day had ended with no success in  finding a job.

Rao had been searching for a job for a long time now. But it was extremely tough for a man approaching 40 to find a job, especially if he hadn’t done a job all his life.

Everywhere he went, he explained his situation to them. After telling his tale, he would ask them wether they had any job for him. Everyone would say the same thing, “oh there is nothing for you right now, rao. But as soon as there is an opportunity, I will inform you at the earliest.”

His savings were running low. At first, he had moved out of his house in kopal street to a one bhk in kannan street. he rented out his old house for 90 a month. He withdrew his children from the wealthy elementary school and admitted them to the free public school. They started living a life of great hardship.

A constant worry troubled him all the time. He thought that the tenants may decide to leave any moment. This would end even their merge income from the house.

Sitting there in the library, rao thought about how life used to be. Suddenly, a stack of magazines caught his eyes. He ran through the titles quickly. A magazine by the name of the old joey’s puzzles amused him.

He opened the magazine carefully so as to not make any creases on the pages. To his delight, he found that the  magazine was entirely dedicated to crossword puzzles. It was from some strange place that rao  didn’t know. He found that each month, three persons who had sent there answer to the magzine’s headquarters would be given a sum of 2000 ruppes.

The idea of earning so much money made rao as excited a child. He immediately began to solve the puzzle there. He took the magazine home without the librarian noticing it. In the next two days, rao had solved the crossword and sent his answer to the headquarters. He waited for one week, then went to the magazine distributors shop to buy the latest issue. He took the magazine back home and scanned it minutely. His name was not in the winners list. Someone from Pondicherry, delhi and ahemdabad had won. This made rao extremely agitated. this cycle continued month after month. Everytime the result was declared, rao’s   name didn’t come in it. Every month rao would go into a day long mourning. Every time he tried harder than before. But his efforts didn’t yield any result.

 

                    ***

 

Rao had recovered from another shock of his defeat. He once again began to solve the month’s cross word. This time the crossword was very special. A special prize of ten thousand rupees had been announced. Rao was more exiceted than ever. He had only 1 doubtful corner in the crossword, he wasn’t able to decide what was the answer between rope, dope and hope. That meant he had to send three enetries which would cost 12 rupees.

He went to his better half and said, “listen. This time you must give me 12 ruppes”

His wife was aghast. 12 rupees was equivalent to one week of food. But before she could say anything to him, rao went out to seek a better spot to solve the crossword in silence.

 

                       ***

 

One week later……

 

Rao waited impatiently outside the magazine distributer’s shop, fidgeting with his shirt. He kept walking here and there like a child waiting to get his gift. Today, the result of last week’s crossword was arriving.

Rao kept glancing at the shop. It was an old, dusty and unattractive building with plaster coming off the ceiling and paint so diminished that it appeared that the walls were never painted. The place was filled with thousands of magazines. It smelled of mothballs and old paper.

The owner of the shop was as depressing as the shop. He had a thin line of a moustache, an kempt stubble, salt and pepper hair, and a gargantuan pot belly. At one point in his life, he had been an optimistic fellow, a person who loved reading, but after a series of quire events, he started to hate books.(it is tale for another time).

Presently, a white van with huge back doors arrived, kicking up swirls of dust. Rao coughed lightly. A large no. of magazines were unloaded from the cavity inside the van. Rao was jumping with impatience.

Rao paid for the magazine, and quickly walked to the old bridge. It was a deserted bridge on the outskirts of the town. It was built over a stream, which dried up in the summer, leaving the ground bare under the bridge. A little away from the bridge was a mattress factory.

It was well after sundown when rao reached the place. He sat down on the low railing, and lit up a lighter. He carefully opened the magazine and went directly to the winners section.  He scanned the names. His name was nowhere to be seen. Panick began to build up inside him, like steam in a pressure cooker.  He read and reread the names.

The dam of months of stress and despair and disappointment burst open. He began crying silently. What kind of father and husband was he, who could not take care of his own family, who solved crosswords to earn a living, who could not provide his family a good place to live in? he was a shome on society, a disappointment. He didn’t deserve to live in this world.

The last thought stayed on his mind for a while. It made perfect sense to him. He shouldn’t live. Somewhere deep in his heart, he had always believed it. Now that part had come up from the depths and was showing itself to him.

Rao got up swiftly. He switched off the lighter, and slipped it into his pocket. Even with the lighter, he wasn’t able to see much. He estimated the height of the bridge. It must have been a drop of atleast 27 feet. rao hesitated for a moment. Then he jumped.

 

Rao landed with a great thud. He had landed on something soft and smooth. He slipped out the lighter from his pocket and switched it on. As his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, he realised he had landed on a pile of defective mattresses that had been discarded by the mattress factory.

 

“ayyo, god kept these mattresses here so that nothing happened to me. Ayyo, he saved me!! He didn’t want me to die! O thank the lord!” he  started screaming, and ran away towards his home.

 

               ***

 

“where were you? I was dieing with worry. Even the children were terrified. They just went to sleep.” Rao’s wife said to him when rao reached home.

“it dosen’t  matter. You need not worry where I went.” Rao replied saucily.

“come, have your dinner” his wife said.

 

After rao had finished his dinner, he sat at the pyol of the house and chewed a paan delightfully. Stars were shining like diamonds in the sky. The moon had hid his face away. A cool breeze was blowing in from the north. A little distance away, the mighty river narmada murmured into the night. Rao and his wife were alone now, their sweet little children were sleeping on a cotton mattress in the inner chamber of the house. Rao told her about the result. He didn’t tell her about the jumping- from-the-bridge part. He thought that his simple wife would worry her head out about his behaviour. She remained silent. After a long time, she said to rao “the tenants came today to meet you when you were gone away.”

“what did they say?” rao enquired.

“they asked wether we wanted to sell the house.”

Rao carried out some calculations in his mind. At present, he could get about 5000 for the house. 6000 if he bargained hard. Of that, he would take 500 and go to Bombay to find some work there. The rest he would give to his wife to run the house. But first, they would shift to a better locality.

“I will meet them tomorrow and talk to them. I will take some money with me to Bombay to start a buissness there.” Rao said after speculating for a long time.

“will you spend any more money on the magazine?” his wife asked reluctantly.

“ oh, I will never do that again. Never.” Rao promised.

 

Rao stayed true to his promise. He became a great buissness man again, but it is an epic in itself, for some other time.