Fathers and Sons (Short Story)

Samarth Kumar was heartbroken. The call had not come. He had begun to realize that he was mistaken to think that his academic qualifications and his intellectual capabilities would always compensate for his humble background. But he had not lost confidence. He was pursuing his passion and had adequate faith in himself. I can’t change my destiny, he hopelessly convinced himself before beginning to consume dinner. I just hope it doesn’t take too long, he murmured aloud before filling the registration form of monster.com later.

*

Vishnu Agarwal was feeling a bit guilty. He had allowed his personal life to influence his professional decisions that day. He had liked Samarth a lot. No other candidate had neither better qualifications nor better sharpness and smartness than him. But his decade old friendship with X’s father had led him to choose X (who he had always found just about average) over Samarth. His friend’s phone-call the previous evening had left just two options before him: introducing awkwardness and fissures in his friendship with the caller or cementing it even further. Not surprisingly for anyone around him, he had immediately chosen the latter.

*

X was both happy and despondent. Though now he was officially settled and was soon going to start earning, he knew he would have to forget his ambitious plans of becoming a professional model, he would have to let go of his passion. The way his father had asked him to go for the interview, he had understood that not only he would have to go for the interview, but also that he would be selected courtesy his father’s connection. He took solace in the fact that he will not have to spend years struggling now and that he would begin to earn big money soon. He convinced himself that he would somehow evoke interest in accounts and economics soon. His days of independence were about to begin. But there was hollowness inside him already.

*

X ate up a lot of time in grasping the tricks of the trade. He contributed little in the projects he was made a part of but boasted generously among his friends when those projects became successful. Since everybody at Bolllytics Pvt. Ltd used to appreciate and encourage him out of respect which they had for his father’s professional excellence, he began to think that he was really good and deserved everything that was being bestowed on him. In less than one year, he was laughing at himself for having ever thought of taking up modeling as a career. Everyone in the company loved his father so much that they never criticized him despite the fact that they almost hated him for his incompetence.

While X remained employed in the company until he retired, Vivek took up a less-than-satisfactory and a not-that-well-paying job in a smaller firm. Vivek never managed to earn as much as X managed, he never became as successful as X.

*

I had a number of names in my mind for X’s character. But, since I was unable to zero on any one of them, I decided to go ahead with X. Few of the names that I had in my mind were: Abhishek Bachchan, Tusshar Kapoor, Rahul Gandhi, Imran Khan, Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan.