The Cost of Values - 1

 I have been writing blogs that are generally events or my experiences. I have hardly ever attempted to write a story. However, for a change, I thought I should write a story - not a short story that can be completed within a blog post; but a 'serialized' story that I will continue every week. 

I remember the serialized stories by accomplished writers in Tamil weeklies like Ananda Vikatan that were very popular decades ago, but have lost flavour since. Let this story be a serialized blog story! Hope the readers like the attempt and the story too!

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CHAPTER - 1

Ramu decided that he would restart his morning walk on the first of the month and well, that day had arrived. He woke up at 5, as promised to himself, prepared coffee for himself, his wife, and the maid, and finished his morning ablutions and rituals. While sipping his coffee and admiring the view from his 15th floor balcony, he wondered whether he could delay resuming his walk by one more day. Such thoughts assailed Ramu often enough - not only in such mundane tasks, but also in important project activities and that had created quite a few problems for him in recent times. During project review meetings, he would get questioned about this; but his explanation that those activities couldn't be taken up on the planned day because of resource non-availability or some other constraints, would be accepted. Not without any reason, for Ramu was a diligent manager and projects under his watch would always get delivered on time and within budget and customers were always happy with Ramu and his management style.

Today was one of those days when Ramu felt lethargic and wanted to delay restarting his walk. Was it hot? Absolutely not. He lived in Bangalore and it was the first week of August, when the weather was balmy, the sun, though up in the sky, was being prevented by a blanket of clouds from peeping out and bathing the city in its warm glow. It was one of those mornings when even a conscientious person would be tempted to let go and relax, probably read a book, or do crossword, or attempt the Wordle of the day.

With some effort, Ramu conquered all the temptations and set out. Prema, his wife of 27 years, was still asleep. His two sons were in US, and the mornings weren't any longer the 'peak hour' in terms of 'traffic' at home. Things happened at a leisurely pace and the rest was well earned by Prema. Ramu remembered the hectic buzz at home when his two children - a boy and a girl - were young and in school. The morning hour from 5 am to 7.30 am when the school bus arrived at the gate, were called 'peak hour' by Ramu and many of his friends took that term and referred to the time similarly in their family circles. The preparation of snacks and packing their lunch boxes was the task specially delegated to Ramu by Prema and not without any reason. Ramu was good and accomplished the tasks with patience and sometimes inventiveness. If the vegetables to go with the roti were not ready that day, he would apply jam on one roti, and a bit of tomato ketchup on another; roll the roti and cut them into bite sized pieces and arrange them neatly in the tiffin boxes. The children, while having their breakfast, would observe these and Ramu would hope that they imbibed some of these qualities later in their life. Now his mornings were more relaxed and most days since he worked from home, the commute to workspot and back missing, the 'peak hour' had become a 'relaxed hour'.

But back to the present.... Ramu had a habit of walking alone and detested company. He preferred to listen to podcasts or songs on YouTube or Spotify and generally keep his mouth shut. That is why Prema and Ramu hardly ever went for their walks together. Suited both of them. Prema was gregarious and preferred chatting with friends and if there were no friends in sight, she had the capacity to make friends. In the society where Ramu and Prema lived, having moved here 5 years ago, Prema had made at least about 30 friends and Ramu by himself had 0. The only friends Ramu had were the husbands of Prema's friends.

He got a call from an unknown number. Generally Ramu disliked picking up calls from unknown numbers since most of the times they were marketing calls from some bank or insurance company trying to sell their products. However, on occasion, he needed to pick calls from unknown numbers since they could be from the client company by someone who had a problem to report. Should he pick the call or let it be? Wasn't the holiday well earned by him, he thought? If the person had a problem, he could call the office and someone would respond and redirect the call or let the concerned person know about the problem, whatever that problem was. But Ramu being Ramu, he took the call. Maybe he shouldn't have. That call was to change his life forever. What was the call about? Who was calling him on a holiday? Why?

To be continued next Sunday - 16-July-2023.