I'll Do The Talking Tonight

Ch. 2 - OMI

PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. I WROTE THIS BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL. IT NEEDS EDITING

ALSO THE CHAPTER HAS BIASES AND STEREOTYPES I COULD NOT  COMPREHEND BACK WHEN I WROTE THIS. NO FLAK PLEASE.

Like every morning, Anna the don of East Delhi would come by the shop exactly at 5:30 driving his jeep. His sweaty dark complexion, fat bulging from every wrong direction, and a constant long white tilak on his forehead was something a person with half sight would not forget. He never liked people staring at him. Rumors has it, once he shot a legislator in his eyes because he was staring at him for far too long. People were supposed to look down in his presence.

He was the biggest dealer of drugs in the entire Delhi. He had spoiled life of several people , especially college kids. Drugs was his stepping stone into crime . It was common knowledge that he killed his father because he didn't let him have drugs, that was his first crime, his first murder. And then when police sought to find evidence of the crime, he murdered each of the four eye witnesses, his neighbors with whom he had shared warm relations until then. 

"Bastard, get me a cup of tea." shouted Anna

Within a minute he'd shout again "Fast mother fucker, I am already late."

No matter what the tea, when he was done half drinking, he would throw the cup on my face or sometimes on the ground  "What tea is it? My urine would taste better than this. Close your stall if you don't know how to make one. Bloody Bluff. I wont pay for this". 

Like always he'd never pay.

"and listen sourpuss, if I find even a scratch on my jeep while I'm gone, you are gone."

He would then drag his overweight body towards the clumsy areas of Old Delhi, famous for its shadiness, famous for selling everything a person could imagine, in fact even a person. Drugs? That street could supply drugs to the entire nation. Murders? More people died than flies of the street. Even police would not bother taking matters of the street, those who did were sold off in open auctions. News reporters put a blind eye to the place.

On one such morning, Anna came to the shop along with his other partner punks, riding several jeep.

"Get us nice ginger tea; make it fast."

It was probably the first time he didn't abuse me.

"What tea is this? Close your stall if you don't know how to make one, bloody bluff, I wont pay for this stuff." He threw the cup full of hot tea aiming at my face and then others followed.

**Nothing below this has been edited** 

For a moment I felt nothing, but then a sharp pain passed through my spine concentrating on the side of my forehead. Some broken glass pieces had pierced there. Next thing I saw was hospital. Doctors had mask on their face and were shouting things. I could faintly hear them "he has come to life, oh god, give him anesthesia, operation isn't over yet". I dont want to live was all I could murmur before fainted again.

"Oh god, he is back.; isn't he the same boy who used to sell tea? ; oh and he used to steal things too; isnt he the son of that prostitude?; is he not the one who called himself lover of delhi?" a lot of mixed sounds entered my ears. I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by a group of neighbors surrounding my bed. How I wished I was dead.

That whole day I kept on thinking, why was I so helpless? If I continue to lick other's feet , would Delhi love me back? But how can I tackle people with revolvers. Who after hitting me that day , killed almost 15 people in the thief market , that was the work they had to do.

That night at around nine I had put some nails near India gate, a place which used to be frequent by rich car owners, and used to be barren at that point of time. But to my surprise there already where nails scattered all over. Is there someone else using my trick? I inspected the area carefully and then sat on the footpath waiting for my hit when I saw this big car coming to a halt just before where the nails had been placed. *burst* 2 flat tyres. Half the job already done, now just waiting to hear a call for help. Two men got out of the car and went in opposite directions, I assumed to get help for tyres. Then two more men got out of the back seat of the car. They had a typical rich man look about them. One of them was old while the other seemed to be around 30. I saw another car stop there and after some chit chatting with the driver of the other car, both the rich men of the first car started to get into the other car. I think one of the men saw me, but I sat there still glaring.

Everything seemed normal till then but then suddenly, the man who was driving the second car put something around the nose of the old man, and he fell flat on his face. The other rich man was meanwhile doing something with the boots of the two cars and as soon as the old man fell flat, he got into the second car and pulled up the windows. They were jet black and I could not see inside. There was a bit of firing between men from both the cars, but then the other car almost vanished within seconds.

I pulled up my loose half pants and terrified, ran away. After running for about 10 minutes, sure that I was not being followed, I stopped, puffing.

A smile crept on my face and then I started laughing. Now I knew why Delhi loved some people more than others. Because those people made an effort to seduce her, and that day I decided that I had treaded the path of honesty too long. I needed to get myself dirty for the city to love me. If cheating was the way people become rich and get big cars then I would cheat, I would do anything for the city to love me. And definitely for a good luck start it has to be Anna.

Before that I practiced stealing things from people for around three to four days. At first my target would be women but I decided to attack men and not only women as they always did carry more money.

Out of all things, the most important thing you miss out on learning when you don't go to school is fear. There is no fear of not doing homework, there's no fear of the bully beating you up, there is no fear of getting caught staring at the girls you love, and fear was something I had never known in life , and that is what changed it.

After successful attempts on around a dozen men , my confidence was sky high. I decided to play my luck with Anna. He would never suspect a tea seller to have so much gut to make an attempt in his house. I managed to get inside his fencing. Security was sleeping on the chair and other seemed  too drunk to bother about happenings around them, and why not, in their illustrious career of securing Anna, not one person had dared to come near his house. Hit was big and quite easy. There was a suitcase with tag *to Ethan - Mumbai* written on it and I knew what such suitcases mean. They mean a hell lot of money. And while I was on my way out with the biggest loot of my life, in the excitement I tripped and fell over a bottle of bear. It broke and the sleeping guard woke up. I somehow managed to run from there, but I had this eerie feeling that he had seen my face.

I got home terrified. I was very young and wasn't sure what to do. Should I run away? But that was not an option as my mother could not move around much. Should I go underground for some days? But then that was again not an option as anna would realize that his money had been stolen, and would also realize that I had been missing. It would not have been so difficult to put two and two together. I decided that I would act normal and open my stall like every other day and try and be calm.

But being calm at that point was difficult. That too to a person who had shot an MLA just because he was staring at him. What if the guard had actually seen him?

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