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The boys laugh and for a while they work in silence—
Shanker and the others rapidly with practiced motions, Akash
laborious and painstakingly.
“Hey, rookie! That’s not how you handle this stuff. Watch.”
Shanker whistles and winks at another boy working nearby.
The boy grins and ambles over. Shanker suddenly grabs the
brown case that Akash has kept on the ground, heaves it with a
jerk and sweeps his arms around. And then he lets it fly.
“Hey! Watch out! It looks delicate!” Akash cries out in
dismay. But the other boy is standing by alert to the action and
catches the case just before it hits the ground and eases it down
gently. Akash lets out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.
“What clowns you guys are. What if something had broken”
“Nah. Nothing will happen. That’s the only way to move
these big fat cases of the big fat rich people. Otherwise you’ll be
working here till midnight,” replies Shanker nonchalantly. “Now
you try.”
“No way.”
“Oh, don’t be such a pansy. C’mon. Trust me.”
“Are you sure I don’t feel very comfortable with this.”
“Of course. Look, would I want to get you into trouble Go
on. It’s easy. And fun!”
“Well, okay. Hungph!” Akash lifts another brown case
marked ‘Fragile’ and swings it.
Crash!
A thousand glass bottles smash into smithereens.
The world freezes.
Akash’s blood runs cold.
Shanker and his friend bark with laughter.
“You muppet! You should’ve warned which one of us you
were throwing it to! Now you’re going to get it.”
“Hee hee, what a muppet!”
Akash hears the crash in silence. He hears his dream of
flying in an aeroplane shattering with it.
February 2014 73