Copyright © 2022 Amrut Gajawada All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or any electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior permission of the author, in case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author at the address given below. ISBN: 978-93-93635-27-3 (Paperback) Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names characters and places are the product of the author’s imagination. Published by: Beeja House First Printing Edition 2022 Author Email: [email protected]

Contents PART I ........................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ................................................................ 3 Chapter 2............................................................... 11 Chapter 3............................................................. 20 Chapter 4 ............................................................ 30 Chapter 5.............................................................. 32 Chapter 6 ............................................................ 40 Chapter 7..............................................................46 Chapter 8 ............................................................. 54 Chapter 9 ............................................................. 61 Chapter 10 ........................................................... 68 PART II ....................................................... 75 Chapter 11 ............................................................. 77 Chapter 12 ............................................................83 Chapter 13 ........................................................... 90 Chapter 14 ............................................................96 Chapter 15 .......................................................... 103 Chapter 16 ........................................................... 113 PART III .................................................... 125 Chapter 17 .......................................................... 127 Chapter 18 ........................................................... 131 Chapter 19 .......................................................... 137 Chapter 20 ......................................................... 143 About the author ............................................... 147

I would like to dedicate this book to my sweet mother, Lalitha; my not-so-sweet father, Ashok; and my little sister, Vyshu, who annoys me but I think she's just being herself.

A big fat thanks go to everyone who helped me in this journey, especially my parents who motivated me to give it a try. Second, I would like to thank my editor, Apoorva, who was patient enough to listen to me and make it happen and worked with me as a team. Last, but definitely not least, my mentor, Geetika Saigal, for giving me the confidence I needed. I would also like to thank my friends who asked, “Can you write a book?” Now I can say that yes I can! Thank you all for encouraging me throughout!

 Satisfied: a thought in your head only amplifies over time if you have the passion for it! It was 2:00 am and blood was dropping out of my nose profusely. My legs were sore and I could feel every muscle in my body. My white linen shirt was now all red. Outside it was raining and I could hear the dogs barking. I got up from my chair, went ahead, and sat down on the floor. I leaned on the wall but I couldn’t tell what happened to my back as I could hear a few cracks. I leaned onto the wall and closed my eyes for a few seconds. Everything went black. I couldn’t recall anything that happened and after a while, I walked to the crockery unit, which was in the hall, and took the black glass from it. I got the glass in my right hand and walked to the kitchen, switched on the light, opened the refrigerator, and in the bottom, found my ‘friend as of now’ Corona beer. I took out my beer but while taking it out, all the items above the beer fell and created a mess on the floor. I could see cabbage, Amul butter in a Tupperware box, and three cucumbers falling off the fridge but I didn’t really want to pick them up as my body had no energy to work. I closed the fridge door as I couldn’t bend down and I think some of the items in the fridge has fallen inside after I slammed it. I kept my beer and the glass on the kitchen platform,

opened the beer with the opener which was on the kitchen platform lying in the corner, I poured beer into my glass and took both glass and my beer to my favourite spot in the house that is right outside my room door, in the passageway. After reaching my favourite spot, I sat down, leaned onto the wall, and placed my beer. However, while keeping it down it shook a bit, got out of balance, and spilt. I cursed and punched the floor with my left hand and that gave me immense pain as my left knuckles were already bleeding and that punch on the floor made the pain worse. Nonetheless, I still got that half glass of beer and as I took the first sip and I could feel the cold soda and the beer going down my throat and eventually, in my stomach. The first sip always feels magical and when you are thirsty it always is fulfilling your mouth and taste buds. As soon as I took my first sip, I felt comfortable and stretched my legs and hands out while holding the glass of beer, truly hoping I wouldn't drop it again. It's fine to drop the glass but not when the beer is in it, and not completely fine to get my ass off the floor and go to the fridge and get another beer because my body can’t do it now. Soon after that I felt better and drank my leftover beer. After finishing my glass of beer, I stayed there for like minutes. Oh god, that was so comforting and pleasurable! I could hear the thunder out there getting louder outside. I opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling which was also dark now. I couldn't make sense of what was happening and everything I looked at was a blur. I got up while taking the support of the wall, which didn't really help me. My legs were super weak and I couldn't stand straight. I

walked slowly like a crippled person as I had no idea how my body was then. I switched on the lights, but a few lights didn't turn on as those were not connected to the inverter.I presumed there was a power cut because of the weather outside. I walked back to the same spot and sat down for a while because the more I tried to stand the more my legs ache. Honestly, I couldn't identify the hall as only a few lights were on. Though I tried to open my eyes I couldn’t because they were aching so bad. I tried to adjust my legs with my hands but soon I sensed a massive pain in the back. I tried to manage and touch my back to know what happened there but both my hands couldn't reach. I tried but it was not happening. I couldn't touch my back with both of my hands. Normally, my hand would touch the middle of the back but this time something felt wrong with my body. While I took the glass which was on the floor still, I could see blood rolling down from the wall to the floor and that was from my back, I guess. It was all messy. I went to the crockery unit in the hall, opened it, and put the glass back inside the crockery unit. It had a mirror in the back and got four shelves which could hold cups, glasses and other cooking ware. At this point, I saw myself in the mirror. My face was completely covered with cuts and wounds. My shirt was torn off and a few cuts were visible on the shirt. There was a cut at the bottom of the shirt, one more cut was near the left abdomen, and one more was on the chest. My black pant also had a few cuts but I couldn't see anything. I had serious injuries, and swelling on the face, body and hair, well it is not certainly the same hairstyle I had.

A phone rang; an iPhone 12 Pro was lying there on the floor. I walked to the phone. I really didn’t want to bend but I had to respond. But as I bent, I experienced the pain in the back and I couldn’t help it. I picked it up to see who was calling. It was an unknown number. I slide my right thumb to answer and I hear Sabasta saying, “Is Amish injured, or have you guys scared the hell out of him with your beatings?” I listened for a while and went to the kitchen. However, I slightly slipped because of the mess on the floor I had made while removing the beer. With the fridge’s support, I managed not to fall, though that slip gave me immense pain in my lower back and hamstring. Meanwhile, Sabastha kept on yelling, “Hey, are you guys? There? Come on, answer me, useless creeps! Who is on the other side of the call? Are you deaf? Answer me and what the hell happened to Amish?” While listening, I took the beer from my fridge and opened the beer. My face still had blood and was dripping even more after I opened the beer cap with my mouth as I couldn't find the stupid bottle opener. I yelled in pain because my teeth were severely aching after opening the bottle. Sabastha asked again, “Hey, who is it, answer me” I replied Amish and he laughed. I could sense fear in his fake laugh. He said, “I won’t leave you. I am going to pull you out from wherever you are, onto the roads and hit you in front of everyone in the same spot you hit me.” He yelled and abused me. He screamed all the foul words, told me he was going to make me suffer, and make my parents watch me while I bleed on the road. He then talked about my sister and

the moment I heard this, I yelled at him. Now there was complete silence. We both could hear rain and thunder. I again took a sip from my beer. After that sip, I slowly replied, “I am not Amish Joshi if I am not breaking your Asees (tells in his mother tongue),” before he could utter any word. I kept my beer on the kitchen platform and saw it turn red because the blood seeped right into it and Sabastha was talking a lot on the phone and at that moment I have no intention to reply to him. I see a mixer grinder on the platform. I switched on the mixer grinder and opened the jar. I could hear him say something but I didn’t care what he was saying. I dropped the phone in the jar and churned the phone into pieces. He kept yelling while I turned the regulator to three. In a few seconds, there was complete silence. I came to the hall with my beer in my right hand, took a long sip, looked towards the sitting room passageway, and then towards my parents’ room. Now I could see things clearly — just blood everywhere. A few people lay down in the sitting room, hall passageway and some bodies were seriously injured. Perhaps, they were dead. There were a lot of objects — a goodnight machine, a globe, a pen — and other things I saw people lying down in strange positions with heads and legs twisted. I took another long sip of beer and tried to balance my body and managed to stand somehow. I walked to the corner of the sofa in the hall and dialled Aahan’s number on the telephone. It kept on ringing and when I was about to cut the call, I heard his voice. He said, “Hello, who is it?” I told him that I am Amish and can you please come to my home immediately?

“Sorry, who are you?” he replied. The next moment I heard Vaini’s voice. I smiled and tried to stay balanced this time but I couldn’t. “Hey, it's Vaini. Where are you?” she said. I tried to talk but I couldn’t. I fell and watched my beer getting out of the bottle and getting wasted. I saw that for 3 seconds before everything blacked out and that made me calm.

Amrut Gajawada

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