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The Finger
"WHERE IS HE?" shouting those words the angry scholar slammed through the door.
The secretary outside the main office disappeared somewhere behind her own desk, the scholar didn't care. He had no business with her today. After a whole month of unnecessary line ups and suppresive regulations, he had had enough of that annoying nasal secretary voice. But he did pass a glaring glance of raging aura when he passed through her table. Enough to make the hair on the back of her neck stand in terror.
The handful of people in the hall steered clear of his path. They knew the cause of his rage, they thought him to be in the right and that getting in his way would be morally wrong. Not that anyone even dared entertaining the idea of physically stopping him in that moment. He looked like a vengeful wounded tiger.
He reached the end of the hall to the main office door and he punched it open.
"How dare you..." Grouled the man sitting inside the office. The man of most prominence in the vicinity, garnished with suit and tie and the largest table in the building. He was about to continue, but was inturupted by,
"Shut up!"
Having been conditioned by people around him always talking in softer tones, the harshness of the words shut him up.
"You have said enough these past days" the scholar said with a commanding tone, "Now its my turn."
The prominent man shocked in his seat, obeyingly listened.
With a deep breath calming his rage to form proper words, the scholar started,
"These past few days you have hassled me, used me, manipulated me, and now you have betrayed me."
The prominent man tried to say something but was halted sternly by the show of a palm.
"And I get it." the scholar continued, "You want your children to succeed in the world, its only natural" he coupled this with a gesture of lifting his hands above his head, to emphasise what he said. "And I have no problem with that..."
"You want to give free entry to your daughter, go ahead, wanna give her first position, go ahead...I don't care."
He slams the table in between him and the prominent man scaring him into leaning back into his office chair, and says, "But!"
"Don't cut me off of the list."
"I have the best stats in the whole area... I know you are cutting me off just to make space for your daughter, and I get that...(pauses a little to calm his tone) just let me in as well."
The prominent man, the head of the university, understood completely the reason and argument of the scholar, he knew what he himself had done, and he HAD DONE what he was being accused of. And he wasn't feeling guilt at all. He did that all the time. To him, this was a norm.
Normally if someone had brought their grievences in normal tone. He would have ignored them or reprimanded them. But this time, he was quiet, due to shock. The shock of having to hear such words, of such stress and vigour, from one of those who he thinks would never even raise their eyebrows in front of him.
To you and me, what he (the head/ the prominent man) did would seem unethical. But to himself, all he could think of was, how? How does a scholar, a mere scholar, talk to him like that. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't, out of awe, or perhaps fear.
And after a long pause of silence, and since the head of the university was not saying anything either, the scholar thought of something after remembering a piece from "Mahabharata", and said,
"Look... Have your Arjuna, have your favourites, let me be Ekalavya, hate me with all your might...but teach me, even if you are unwilling, teach me. I want to learn, so do your duty."
Then with a smile the scholar said,
"The only difference is that in the end, since this is Kalyug, when you ask for a finger, instead of cutting off my good finger, I might just give you THE FINGER."
© Kai1992
The secretary outside the main office disappeared somewhere behind her own desk, the scholar didn't care. He had no business with her today. After a whole month of unnecessary line ups and suppresive regulations, he had had enough of that annoying nasal secretary voice. But he did pass a glaring glance of raging aura when he passed through her table. Enough to make the hair on the back of her neck stand in terror.
The handful of people in the hall steered clear of his path. They knew the cause of his rage, they thought him to be in the right and that getting in his way would be morally wrong. Not that anyone even dared entertaining the idea of physically stopping him in that moment. He looked like a vengeful wounded tiger.
He reached the end of the hall to the main office door and he punched it open.
"How dare you..." Grouled the man sitting inside the office. The man of most prominence in the vicinity, garnished with suit and tie and the largest table in the building. He was about to continue, but was inturupted by,
"Shut up!"
Having been conditioned by people around him always talking in softer tones, the harshness of the words shut him up.
"You have said enough these past days" the scholar said with a commanding tone, "Now its my turn."
The prominent man shocked in his seat, obeyingly listened.
With a deep breath calming his rage to form proper words, the scholar started,
"These past few days you have hassled me, used me, manipulated me, and now you have betrayed me."
The prominent man tried to say something but was halted sternly by the show of a palm.
"And I get it." the scholar continued, "You want your children to succeed in the world, its only natural" he coupled this with a gesture of lifting his hands above his head, to emphasise what he said. "And I have no problem with that..."
"You want to give free entry to your daughter, go ahead, wanna give her first position, go ahead...I don't care."
He slams the table in between him and the prominent man scaring him into leaning back into his office chair, and says, "But!"
"Don't cut me off of the list."
"I have the best stats in the whole area... I know you are cutting me off just to make space for your daughter, and I get that...(pauses a little to calm his tone) just let me in as well."
The prominent man, the head of the university, understood completely the reason and argument of the scholar, he knew what he himself had done, and he HAD DONE what he was being accused of. And he wasn't feeling guilt at all. He did that all the time. To him, this was a norm.
Normally if someone had brought their grievences in normal tone. He would have ignored them or reprimanded them. But this time, he was quiet, due to shock. The shock of having to hear such words, of such stress and vigour, from one of those who he thinks would never even raise their eyebrows in front of him.
To you and me, what he (the head/ the prominent man) did would seem unethical. But to himself, all he could think of was, how? How does a scholar, a mere scholar, talk to him like that. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't, out of awe, or perhaps fear.
And after a long pause of silence, and since the head of the university was not saying anything either, the scholar thought of something after remembering a piece from "Mahabharata", and said,
"Look... Have your Arjuna, have your favourites, let me be Ekalavya, hate me with all your might...but teach me, even if you are unwilling, teach me. I want to learn, so do your duty."
Then with a smile the scholar said,
"The only difference is that in the end, since this is Kalyug, when you ask for a finger, instead of cutting off my good finger, I might just give you THE FINGER."
© Kai1992
