Topper

Chapter I

"Preethi Agarwal, Second rank," announced the teacher.

The room was brightly lit, with the evening sun warmly shining through the windows.

The blackboard read: No. on roll = 45, No. present = 41, Date = Oct 30th - 2008, Day = Thursday. The class was clapping fervently. Preethi, with the trademark smile on her face, walked to the podium with an intense excitement gleaming in her eyes, to collect the coveted Second rank badge.

"Congratulations, Preethi. You have improved so much in academics lately. Keep it up," the teacher said, handing her the report card and the badge.

"Thank you, mam," she chuckled and turned around to show a thumbs up to the class. They started to cheer her even more.
"And, as usual, we know who the topper is," the teacher said, "the unbeaten, Raghunath Kashyap."

Raghu clenched his fist and walked up to collect the report card and the same badge he had been wearing since the start of the year - the topper’s badge. There were steady but dull claps from the crowd of students. That was nothing surprising for them. They already knew who the topper would be.

"Good work Raghu, expecting the same spectacular results from you in the boards too," the teacher said with a wide smile.
"Th-Thank you, mam. I will," Raghu said and returned to his seat, on the bench before the last.

That was not a surprise for Raghu, too. He had been studying really hard, waking up at 5 am every day, and he had been doing that for three straight years. His mom would wake him up daily, with a light kiss on his forehead and a cup of milk in hand. He put all of the efforts he could to achieve the only grand goal he had all the time - to be a topper, and he had been continuously achieving it too. His parents, relatives and friends were in awe with him for that and adored him like a celebrity. After all, being an unbeatable kid in academics, in an Olympic-level competitive school was just only a daydream for many, while Raghu was a living reality.

"Well, well, the Second ranker got more cheers than the topper though," said Sushan, a lanky fellow with a funky hair, who was Raghu’s neighbour and his best friend.
"Ha! Preethi is just famous for her looks, y-you know," Raghu said with a smirk.
"Obviously, she is better looking than you, fatso!", Sushan snickered.
They giggled and started to pack their things as the day was over. Preethi was still getting handshakes and high-fives from girls around. After a while, with chatter and murmur, the students of Class 12 began dispersing for it was the end of the day.

In the corridor, Raghu waited just a bit longer to get a moment with Preethi, away from the surrounding crowd of girls. After a long while, he got to meet her and said, "Hello, uh... Preethi, Congrats!"
"Oh, hero! Congrats to you," said Preethi with a giggle, "You sure are tough to beat. So, what are your plans ahead?"
"Nothing big..., just tuitions?"
"No, I meant, what are your plans for the future?"
"Oh that, I want to be a C-Computer engineer. Dad expects much from me. So... What about you?"
"Me? I don't know," Preethi thought for a while and said, "an artist, maybe?"
"An artist? Not something professional like a doctor, an engineer or ..."
She cut him short in the middle and said, "Well, I like creating something more than studying about circuits and pills."

Raghu was taken aback. Everyone he had met wanted to be an engineer, but this girl. He had not expected that from a freaking second rank holder.
"I am not sure how it is going to turn out though," Preethi continued, "but something in me says that I don’t yet know what I want to become, but I will figure out." The smile never went out of her face.
"Oh. Glad to hear that," Raghu said, waving his hand, "Alright, see you later. Bye."
"Bye, champ. Good luck!"
Just as she was turning to leave, Raghu interrupted her and said, "Uh... I wanted to ask if..."
"Well, ask away then. What is it?", said Preethi, staring at him.
"C-Can we, maybe stay in touch, maybe...", he stuttered.
"Ha ha ha ha, so much fear to ask out for a phone number", said Preethi with a wink.

She quickly pulled a notebook, tore a page, jotted her number down and handed it over to him. He took it with shaky hands and departed from there to home slowly, not knowing what else to say.

"Proud of you again, beta," said Raghu’s dad, as soon as he entered. His mom stuffed his mouth with a burfi and said proudly, "My Raghu is the best, always."
Pampered, as always, being the only child, and a child-prodigy at that, his parents let him know of no discomfort.

The whole family, with happiness in their hearts, began to go on to continue their routines, his mom to the kitchen, dad to the hall to watch the News and Raghu lingered there for a moment to catch a glimpse of the news as well. He was watching inattentively when the words said by Preethi flashed through his mind, 'I don’t yet know what I want to become...'
"Today, 81 people were killed and nearly 470 injured in a shocking series of eleven bomb blasts in quick succession, in the city of Guwahati of India’s troubled northeastern Assam state...", announced the news reporter.
"Bhaap re! This is terrible news", exclaimed Raghu’s Dad. Raghu himself was stunned and was looking blankly at the Television screen, happy that they were living in a city so far away and were alive at the moment.

Chapter II

He returned to his cubicle seat, with the trophy that he had just received in his hand. "Employee of the quarter - Raghunath Kashyap", its nameplate read. The view outside was gorgeous, with the bank of Lake Sammamish just barely visible from the window nearby his cubicle of the Microsoft's HQ at Redmond. His life had unfolded in a near-perfect manner. He had aced the JEE, had got admitted to IIT-B. He had been the topper throughout the course, a pet kid for the professors and had spent most of his free hours at the lab. A Red in TopCoder as early as the second year, competitive programming had been just a cakewalk for him. He had even managed to hold two solid defensive publications under his belt at the end of third year. He had rejected a juicy job offer and had opted to do Masters abroad and had got admitted to the Carnegie Mellon University. With success being his second nature, he accumulated awards and accolades and a popular name for himself in the community there. Finally, there he was, having completed almost two years in his first lucrative job at Microsoft, and had already been recognized as "The employee of the quarter". Raghunath, the King Kashyap, second to none. A story of prestigious success.

With a short sigh, he placed the trophy in his hand on the desk, nearby the only two framed photos present there. In one, he was with his beloved family and in the other, with his only two close friends Sushan and Preethi. Preethi - she had been successful too, but in her own sweet way. To everyone's dismay, she had taken a year's break after schooling. She then proceeded to get a literature degree in English, after much arguments with her parents. She had gradually began to prioritize networking over grades, had represented and led her batch in a plethora of cultural fests. Her social media wall was filled with a ton of photos from the fests and friends, and she had only been becoming more happier with every picture. None of her friends had ever seen her dejected or disappointed, nor had she allowed anyone near her to be. Heck, she had even flunked a few papers. She lived life on the edge, contented at heart. She then proceeded to get Masters in Communication, interned at The Hindu, did a short stint at a leading global marketing firm. She then quit that and enjoyed her freedom as a freelance content writer. Sure, she was nowhere as legendary as Raghu, but was great in her own way, in her own skin. With the flood of these thoughts running in Raghu's mind, he glanced at the cover page of the neatly folded New York Times daily, dated August 6, 2017. The headlines read, "In an early morning bomb explosion at the the Dar Al Farooq mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota, property damage was observed, although no casualties or injuries were reported. It appeared to have been an intended attack..."

"Great job mate, you nailed it!", Raghu's colleague interrupted him, showing thumbs up with a wide grin. "We gotta keep the winning streak in the coming months too, Raghu, my man."

"We will, Jim. No doubt in that, no freaking doubt," replied Raghu, mirroring his hand gesture, while Jim proceeded to leave for the day waving a bye.

'No doubt, yeah, no doubt,' Raghu thought. 'I will achieve targets this year, the year after that and then the year after that, for a decade, maybe even more, but to what end?'

As much as everyone saw Raghu as the prefect idol, there was a side to him that nobody knew. On that side, he was a Raghu who was stressed and disappointed with himself. A Raghu who had run the race so fast, the fastest one he was, but he had not thought of where he was headed with all that speed. There was a Raghu who had lived close to a quarter of a century just to please the people around him - parents, teachers, relatives, professors, everyone except his lonely and dejected conscience. There was a Raghu who was crying inside everyday, who had meticulously tackled every problem that life threw at him without asking the purpose of it. He hadn't even given proper time for his parents or his only friends, just lived as a success-chasing-machine. Sure, he was receiving a hefty paycheck but he doubted whether even the MS Office stack that he was working on will matter, in the coming years. The things he was slogging for daily, they were well established products and it seemed like he was making little to no difference. All he needed was a purpose to his life, but where would he find one? His parents back home were so proud of him and were bragging to everyone about how perfect a life he was living. But here was a Raghu who had no spirit left in him, here was a Raghu who had faced failure for the first time in his life, the one who had won every single battle yet failed in the great war.

Chapter III

"This boy has gone mad, I'm telling you, really mad", Raghu's mother scorned at him, while he was staring at the floor, not meeting her eyes. "Taking any decision simply without consulting us, this is not the Raghu we know and love."

"Why, Raghu? Why did you have to quit your dream job? We were so proud and happy that you were living your perfect life. What was so wrong, eh?" yelled his angry mother.

"I just, just... couldn't take it anymore ma. I'm tired of this... my whole life," replied a tired and downhearted Raghu. He had expected his parents to be understanding and supportive but all they were doing was to critisize his decisions since his return to India a day ago. The suitcase and backpack still remained only half unpacked, with Raghu unable to focus on anything, even the simple chores. He couldn't eat much although he was hungry, couldn't sleep much although jetlag was piercing his eyelids. There he was, sitting on the sofa with his head hanging down while both of his parents were pounding him with questions and scorns.

"This was so sudden, beta. I mean, have you even decided what to do with your life yet?", asked his disgruntled dad.

"Not yet, Dad. But I w-will, I guess," Raghu replied. "I think i just need.. need some time alone, to think."

"Time? The time in which you should have been searching for a beautiful bride. All of our relatives are asking for when the big day would be coming and I had proudly told them, 'Soon'. Now look at this boy, sitting here with nothing to do ahead, such a shame on us", his mom accused him, getting angrier by the minute.

"I'm tired of fighting with you. I'm going out to meet my friends," Raghu screamed and stormed out of the house, grabbing his bike keys and wiping the tiny tear drop from his cheek.

The sun was just setting, the roads shining with a beautiful orange tint and the air was filled with the sound of chirping birds returning back to their nests happily. But Raghu could notice none of it, his thoughts were elsewhere - 'And the best outgoing student is...'
He was riding like a zombie, his face just an emotionless mask.
'You are bringing pride to our college, Raghu, to all of us...'
He saw everything on the streets, yet observing nothing.
'Happy 2018! You're going to make it big in life, Raghu. So big...'

"Here, your parking card, sir," the security at the mall interrupted his thoughts, handing him the card at the parking lot. After climbing a flight of stairs to the entrance, he walked towards the resto-bar while the security was scanning him with a hand-held metal detector. Raghu wondered whether even it worked or whether the security personnel cared if it sent out beeps. It wasn't the time to ponder over all that, he would be meeting his friends in five minutes and he would be forgetting all his worries for a short while.

"7:00 PM, March 13 - Slide to unlock", read his iPhone, while Raghu waited for his friends to arrive. 'Late, as always,' he thought and fired up Inshorts news app to pass some time.
"K'wood celebs at Sridevi's prayer function at Crowne Plaza..."
Swipe.
"SBI sold 50% of its educational loans to ARCs, shows ministry data..."
Swipe.
"9 CRPF personnel killed, 6 injured today in Maoist bombing of a mine-protected vehicle..."

"Fatso! Super-puntual, as always," said Sushan with a high-pitched laughter, slapping hard on Raghu's back. "You're late, not my fault," said Raghu punching lightly on Sushan's stomach while getting up from his seat and giving him a huge hug.
"Missed you, Sushan."
"Me too, fatso. Not so much though," said Sushan with laughter.

"Yeah, and forget me standing here," said Preethi standing with hands on her hips and staring at Raghu.
"Preethi! Arrey yaar, missed you too," pounced Raghu for a high-five.

After an hour of drinks, food and nostalgic sweet banter, Raghu asked, "Preethi, what you've been up to?"
With the usual excitement in her tone, she replied, "Been working at this high school as a teacher. You wouldn't believe me, the students adore me and I, them. The creative gifts and compliments they give me, they sweep me off my feet." Her trademark smile, gleaming again.

Sushan then asked the dreaded question, the one they've been postponing so far throughout the evening, "So, fatso, what the hell were you thinking, to quit your job so suddenly?"

A few minutes of silence wafted through them, with the noise of the restaurant crowd in the background.
"I couldn't go on like that, dude. It was... was like a race without a purpose. I was w-winning, no doubt, but then... ah, all my victories were worthless, my friend," Raghu broke the silence.
"The **** is wrong with you, man? Didn't they pay you and treat you well?", the anguish in Sushan's voice was clearly audible.

"It's not about money, Sushan. My heart... it wasn't meeting true happiness."

"To the hell with your heart meeting happiness, fatso. Do you know how hard it is, to just make ends meet, for a failure like me?", asked Sushan, staring straight into the window behind Raghu's back.

Sushan hadn't passed his schooling with flying colours. He had lost his father at an early age. He had got admitted to a not-so-good college and grudgingly managed to finish his engineering degree. He had then got a small job, which he did anyway to earn bread and butter for his family. He had switched jobs here and there, but nothing very shiny. He endured 8 hours of boredom daily at his day job to finally meet the one and only biggest love of his life: Cricket. From school, Sushan was too keen into cricket, bunking several classes to play or even to watch cricket matches. He liked to be called 'Sushan Lee', for he idolised the Australian pace bowler Brett Lee. He had dyed his hair yellow and changed his bowling style to be as similar to that of his role model, Brett Lee. He was, like many other students, pushed into engineering by social pressure. At the end of four years of education, he had accumulated a ton of trophies for himself and his team and along with them, a slurry of backlogs. It took one more year of arrear examinations to clear them all and he was presented with the question of whether to follow his passion of cricket or to take a day job. He couldn't deny reality any longer so he took whatever job that he got and played passionately in the remaining hours which also left him tired and exhausted. He was slowly, very slowly rising in ranks among the teams and the big guns had just started to realize his potential, after so many years. From the point of view of someone who had to struggle so hard for just survival, his anger against Raghu's stupid decisions were completely justified.

"But mate, y-you wouldn't understand my struggle. Because unlike me, you know where your h-heart is and you're at it already," blurted Raghu.

Just then, Sushan got a call -
"**** it's my coach. Can't hear **** in here, Im'ma go out and pick it up fellas. You keep chattin' on," he told and rushed out.

Preethi was the first to break the few minutes of uncomfortable silence that ensued, saying, "Ha ha, such a crazy fellow, you are!"
"Ha ha, really one, um.. ain't I?", Raghu winked.
"Yeah, seriously dude. I'm actually proud of what you've done."
"Errmm... Preethi? Excuse me? People have only been roasting me continuously for days on end, and you... you're proud?"
"Chuck people, Raghu. I don't believe in people and their fancy ideas. I'm a believer of passion - and this shows your first ever tiny baby steps in that direction. Change is hard and people never respond to any change positively - first time for anything, eh?"
"You're the only.. only one who has told anything good about my decision. Thanks, Preethi," said Raghu with a first true wide smile of the evening.

Raghu clinked his bowl several times with his fork and asked, "Well, your life is all set. Are your parents l-looking for a groom at all? Or do we have a cheeky romance story b-behind this crazy girl?"

"Ha ha ha, romance. I used to have one - it’s long gone now. Shoot that, now is no time to talk about that. My parents, yeah, they’ve been busy in the groom-search department. But I’m not so keen, you know, I’m not that type I guess. But someday, I’ll have to acquise, you never know," replied Preethi in her fast but clear tone. They were finishing up the last bits of their food.
"Look, Raghu," Preethi inched forward and looked straight into his eyes. "I’ve always liked you, champ. And this decision - has only made my respect for you get to a higher ground. I just wish, you know, that you took more independent decisions like this, Raghu, do you understand?"
What could he understand? He was used to solving the most complex of algorithms but girls' subtle hints were a far unknown territory for him. He kept staring into her eyes, when Sushan finally entered, broke their stance and said, "**** guys. Our semis got preponed as another team ******* scratched out. My match is tomorrow, bloody early morning. Let’s call it a day and rush to our sweet beds now, shall we?"

Chapter IV

Water had seeped through his shoes and had reached his socks - they were soaking wet - he could feel them. He was panting heavily while he stood in front of the front door. The ground suddenly lit up with the light from a lightning bolt that flashed up in the sky. He held his finger on the calling bell but didn't press it yet. He waited, one.. two... three.. four.. five.. six, and then - Boom! The sound of the thunder cracked in the air and his breath sped up even more. He pressed the switch and the bell buzzed.

From inside came Sushan. He opened the door, looked at the man outside and yelled, "Raghu? Fatso! What the **** are you doing at this hour, in this heavy rain man?"
Raghu showed him some kind of folded envelope and told, "Got something to t-tell you, Sushan."
"Thank God it was me who attended the door - mom is asleep. Well then, shove your *** in quick."

They reached Sushan's bedroom where he threw a towel and a shorts at Raghu for him to change. Raghu took a glance at his bedroom - a small room with a bed, a small table and it's chair knocked down - some cricket gear thrown carelessly in the corner. A rope line was running from one corner of the room to another, on it were draped some dirty, sweaty sports clothes which appeared to have become a little wet because of the rain. Across the wall was stuck a huge poster - it showed a smiling Brett Lee with a ball being tossed in the air from his right arm and in the top right corner of the poster was the word 'Hero' written in Sushan's scribbly handwriting. A lewd picture of a popular actress was also stuck in the wall near his bed.

"The **** is wrong with you? Someone dead? What’s up with that envelope in your hand?" inquired Sushan.

"Got some good news. I came here because, your phone... the line said it was switched off", replied an excited Raghu.

"Well mate, I've got some ******* great news as well, but I ain't running in the rain like a ***** to tell you, aye?"
"Really? W-What is it?"
"Arrr... Your Sushee got selected in the team for Ranji-ee. Has been a dream for years, fatso. I think I can consider quitting my job finally, yay! And begin hitting some feeble heads with my bouncers, eh?"

"Wow! This is fantastic, Sushan. I'm really proud of you," smiled Raghu who was still struggling to catch his breath.

"T-Thank you, my man," blushed Sushan and continued, "I think this may get me out of my sucking day job finally, man. I'm so happy about this but shut up, fatso. I'm not used to being in the limelight, he he. So you tell me then, you ******* came here running like that to tell me what?"

Raghu stretched out the envelope he was holding, for Sushan to reach out and handed it over. "T-That's an offer from the DRDO (The Defense Research and Development Organisation). Three months after we had met in the mall, I had applied and presented... a concept actually, to the DRDO. They have taken their own sweet time of another month and now, they have accepted my.. my project proposal and are hiring me as an intern. If it's a success - they will be hiring me as a scientist, to complete and implement the project across the country."

"Ah, that's some news, fatso. Now you were saying, a project, eh?"

"Yes, Sushan. I've developed some devices - they detect the presence of explosives - bombs and the like. They sense and communicate with each other through a complex network of IoT and throw a red alert through the nearest audio medium available - it could be your mobile phone or anything that can produce sound. Then, the devices start issuing instructions to the people, sensing and guiding them away from the threat area till they're safe. Meanwhile, it intimates the bomb squad and the nearest police about the degree of possible threat. And all this without the intervention of a single human being, everything completely automated. Think about it Sushan, it's just in a prototype stage but this will help save countless lives if it's a success. People's safety is the overriding priority, mate. I'm dead set on this - I don't even want a permanent job. I just want to see it happen and I don't even want my name to be inscribed on this system. I just want. Want. To. Save. Some.
Lives," finished Raghu with an intense excitement never seen before.

"Errr... Sciency stuff. I didn't understand half of that. But whatever it is mate, I'm sure you're ******* on it, I've never seen you talk continuously ever like that," said Sushan, gesturing him to calm down and take a seat on the bed. He took a seat, they looked into each others eyes and didn't say a word - they knew - both of them were now very much on the way of achieving their passionate goals.

"You be sittin' here chattin' with my gurl," he gestured towards the picture of the actress, "I be going to the kitchen to make some not-so-terrible tea."

The rain and thunder outside had stopped but Raghu could still hear water splashing, the leftover from the roofs, although he couldn't see it. He took his mobile out and opened Facebook to pass some time.

"Preethi Agarwal has updated her profile picture," the first post on his news feed read. It showed the ever happy and glowing Preethi, standing with a cute smile amidst the crowd of her students, their numerous gifts in her hand. For the first time in his life, Raghu reacted 'Love' for her picture and smiled. For he was happy, for he was contented at heart. He was no longer a Topper. He had - not stardom but a purpose now. His life mattered. <3

-- A scribble by Chidambaram Manivannan --

Edit: The unfortunate bombing incidents and their dates mentioned in this story are real, in our actual world.

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