Sunday 3 May 2015

The Ride Home

( As part of a blogging initiative by 27Coupons )

"I didn't get it." 
Samir spoke into the phone and sighed, preparing himself to face a barrage of questions and a spate of "I told you so!"s. Throughout the phone call, he mostly kept silent, while the volume of the voices at the other end kept growing. He wished fervently that his parents would stop talking. Finally, he cut the call and heaved a sigh of relief. Now, he was dreading the trip back home. Everything about his life sucked. Actually, it wasn't everything. It was just his job. That didn't exist yet. He had tried every possible trick in the book, sent his resumes to multifarious organizations, attended countless interviews but Lady Luck had continued to evade him. On top of it, the expectations of his parents from him,since he was their only child and a son at that, had created a pressure that he could not sustain. It had got him worked up and highly strung. He simply wanted out. He wished he could defer returning home.
His dad had paid for the travel fare and the accommodation when he came here to appear in the interview for this job that he eventually didn't manage to get. He could only imagine what a reception he would get the next day when he got home. The thought of humiliation and rejection haunted him the entire night as well as the next day when he boarded the train. When he finally alighted at the station, he started searching for a low-cost vehicle that would take him home, although all he wanted was to somehow stay out by any means. He just could not face his father, who would surely be furious with him or his mother, who would be, at best, disappointed. He was thinking of ways to evade the probing questions that would be put up by his dad when-
"This side son..." 
A familiar voice hailed him, and he turned around. He saw his dad waving to him, standing beside a sedan, which had a huge sticker of OlaCabs plastered all over its door. Samir could hardly believe his eyes. Reaching the car, he looked at his father incredulously.
"Come, let's go." His father beckoned him to sit, and the driver took off.
Samir felt that now he would be sounded out really bad.
"How was the city?" his dad asked him. He thought he would go mad with all the suspense. Why on earth would his dad come to receive him, especially at a time when he had let him down so badly? And now he was asking him about the trip and the city as if it was some holiday he had been on.
"It was nice, pretty good." Samir replied. He didn't what else to say so he continued, "I could have come home myself, Dad. You didn't need to-" 
"Cut it. It's okay. You need all the support we can give you, son. Don't you worry about jobs and all. You are brilliant. You will get one sooner or later. For now, let's go home and rest." 
Samir was sort of dumbfounded at his father's reaction. He didn't know what to say but he tried anyway. 
"Why did you take the trouble to book cabs and all...I could have travelled by bus..."
His father waived it all away saying, "Oh it was nothing! Just a click on the app and lo! The carriage appears! And anyway, I managed to get a few discounts from 27Coupons!" His father added with a twinkle in his eyes while pointing towards the OlaCabs app he had recently downloaded in his phone. Suddenly, Samir's mood lifted. He felt that he could do anything, be anything... A single gesture had worked wonders for his confidence. He would go out again tomorrow.

"Can I book a cab for tomorrow, dad?" he asked his father. "I am going for a walk-in."  
His dad smiled and patted his head.
'I will make sure I get a job this time', he said to himself.  


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