HUNDRED LITTLE FLAMES

By Preeti shenoy

 

Ayan has graduated recently from symbiosis institute, was placed in a good company & he was doing very well in his job.

 

One day his boss organises a party using company’s expenses for the celebration of increase in quarterly targets. Ayan leaves the party by midnight, as he has to prepare the presentation for the next day. He prepares the presentation by putting all his efforts and presents it to the clients and converts the deal and his boss was very much impressed with him.

 

On a typical day, his company HR Leena, calls him & asks him whether he attended the party , has he went with the girls, at what time he leaves the party & does he know anything else about the party ? , He replies calmly to her & asks her why is she asking all these questions all of a sudden and what exactly has happened? And she tells him that the girls who attended the party were escorts and some of the employees have used marijuana-joints and posted the pictures on social media, which has become viral and all these are totally against the company’s ethics and policies. Hence, they have to sack out each and every one who attended the party and tells him to give his resignation as soon as possible. He explains her that he is innocent and to consider his request but she tells him that these are company’s policy and she can't do anything about it.

 

On the other side, his Muttachan (grandfather) living in Thekke madom in Kerala has fell down and has got serious injuries.

 

After giving resignation, he applies for new jobs but he couldn't get any as the incident has become quite famous. So, he rushes to Thekke madom to take care of his Muttachan as suggested by his father.

 

When he comes to Thekke madom, he gasps in delight while seeing long-long green patches of paddy field which was contrasting with the light blue sky with slowly moving fluffy clouds. The air is filled with cardamom fragrance and the rubber trees are swaying with 'whoosh' sound and thinks that this is why Kerala is called as God's own country.

 

While his stay at Kerala he finds the personal diary of his Muttachan and starts reading them and unveils several incidents. During this he comes to know about 'Rohini' his grandfather's lady-love. They had a true, genuine love for each other from their childhood but she gets married to someone else. Even after marriage they had maintained their relationship but one day Rohini's husband comes to know about all these and requests Gopal Shankar (Ayan's Muttachan) to stay away from her wife, then he stops talking to Rohini. It was hard for him to move on but he moves on and marries Padmaja and had two kids named Jairaj who is an elder son and Shailaja a younger daughter. Later Shailaja was married and was living in Delhi and Jairaj too had married and went to Bahrain & since then Gopal Shankar had lived alone in his ancestral home at Thekke madom.

 

Jairaj wanted to sell their ancestral home as it will fetch him very good price and will help him to expand his business in Bahrain but Gopal Shankar denies his suggestion without giving it a second thought. So, Jairaj tricks his father by telling him that, they will be visiting doctor and dumps him into an old-age ashram in a far-off place without letting anyone know about it.

 

Unaware of all these , Ayan was waiting for his grandfather & when he didn't turn up he calls his father and then comes to know that his father has dumped his grandfather, he yells at his own father for doing this and somehow finds the old-age ashram and brings back his Muttachan & helps him to recover (both mentally and physically).

 

Ayan finds Rohini on Facebook and he talks to her and tell her that she & Muttachan should meet once for which she readily agrees and they plan to meet at Pondicherry where they both had bought a beautiful penthouse earlier. Ayan and Gopal Shankar reach Pondicherry. Sitting in the backseat of the taxi, looking at those French houses of Pondicherry reminds Gopal Shankar of his old days where he enjoyed his time with Rohini and their meetings and thinks how quickly time had changed everything. He never thought he will ever meet Rohini again, but today here he is, on his way to meet her with the same excitement as earlier and finally reaches the apartment.

 

Gopal Shankar was slowly climbing the stairs as he has grown old and was finding difficult to climb them. Somehow he reaches the second floor and there he was stumbling, unbalanced and was trying to catch the railing but he misses it and hits his head to balustrade & falls flat on land without any slight trace of movements. They took him to the hospital; doctors examined him and declared him as dead. Ayan performs his final rites there and comes back to Thekke madom and lives there peacefully.

 

Take aways

1. Spend quality time with your loved ones (especially with your grandfather and grandmother)

2. Always encourage right things in life (here Ayan made the right decision to bring his grandfather back to Thekke madom opposing his father's order)