E 11 : Ethics Gone Wrong

PREVIOUSLY on TCOE....

Rudra, a handsome and talented young boy aged 18, gives up his almost set dream career in Dance to do a course in Engineering. Meanwhile, Miraya, a girl who seems to be affected by something in her past, chooses her engineering college in such a way so that she doesn’t have to live in the same house and the same town -Panvel. But even when they wer already destined to their dream colleges, their fates make both them end up in the same college – SCOE. Since the first day itself, Miraya is unnaturally rude towards Rudra, who would in turn make it a point to irritate and bring out her rude nature even more. But Miraya on the other hand is gentle with all her other friends- Ishaani the Tomboy girl, Hari Sadu the comedian who is pitied and Aryan the computer geek. On observing Miraya, Rudra finds out that she is not what she seems, and promises to himself that he’ll make her ‘really’ smile. So he somehow manages to get a stubborn Miraya to participate in ‘Mr. And Ms. Freshers’, and they both win. Miraya is starting to enjoy her new life at SCOE , but something doesn’t allow her to really live up to it.

Meanwhile many incidences happen, the haunted story of Hari Sadu and the hostel drama, Miraya falling off the stairs and Rudra meeting her fierce brother Rajesh, INFRA meet announcement where Ishaani swears smoothly before 50 guys, Kashish entering the story yet again on Marine Drive, Navya starting to like Aryan, Miraya's relation with her dad and her feelings for Arya Tech, Aryan getting a new taste for football and he along with Rudra bunking lectures everyday to play football, and..... lastly, Eeshwar Subramanium being caught by his sister while surfing the internet...

"Hey Eesh! What's up bro?" Ishaani called out. Eeshwar Subramanium was sitting alone on a table in the crowded canteen, sipping soda and seemed lost in his own world.

"Hi", his voice was hollow.

"All okay?" Ishaani sat down on the bench, facing him. Miraya sat beside her. Rudra sat beside Eeshwar.

"Of course!" Eesh said in the same hollow tone.

"You are lying dude!" Rudra said.

"No Rudra...just leave me alone."

"Tell na.. I sense something wrong." Miraya said in her sweet voice.

Eeshwar’s face brightened up, traces of life visible and surfacing again. "Ohh Miraaa... what to say... my sister caught me yesterday night while I was surfing the internet." He said regretfully.

"Really... for what?" Miraya was curious.

"How should I tell you, especially YOU this... it's... it’s embarrassing... leave it..." Eeshwar lowered his eyes and went on sipping soda again.

"Wait! You were busted for...THAT?" Ishaani’s eyes popped out and her jaw dropped.

"No, not only that! My parents came to know!" Eeshwar confessed.

"Fu** man!!", Ishaani gasped.

“Yeah I swear!” Rudra added.

"Hey hey little fella! It is okay, you know. Shit happens. And, I mean, most of the young adults do it! So chill." Ishaani pitied and consoled him.

"No, not everyone. And those who aren’t mature do it in really wrong ways. While on the other hand, I was trying to learn it ethically, that too only for knowledge. And my parents thought I was doing it unethically! I don’t know how to explain them the dilemma.”

“What... it can be done ethically too??” Rudra raised an eyebrow, really interested now.

Eeshwar gestured them to close in. Everybody closed in and listened carefully, it seemed like a secret was being let out.

“Yes, very much. There are many sources on internet that teach you to do it ethically. In fact everybody should do it! I can teach even you if you want,” he said looking straight towards Ishaani, “It seems difficult at first; anybody would want to avert their eyes. But with time you want to know more and more about it. And then a point arrives where you just want to indulge into it and do nothing else!” Eeshwar’s expression was ecstatic and his eyes twinkled as if they were drowned in lust.

Ishaani lost her mind then. She took the soda bottle off Eeshwar's hands and banged it on table and stood up, mumbled in the air and sat down again ,“Listen Eeshwar Subramanium! Now, you are crossing limits! First you say that porn can be watched ethically and then you want me to learn it.... yikes... from you!?? Sick!”

"Sheee!" Miraya finally understood the conversation.

"How dare you talk like that to a girl!" Rudra too got up.

“Aiyo Ishaani... I wasn’t talking about that dirty vulgarity that starts with ‘p’. I was talking about HACKING!” He looked at them with an ‘unbelievable’ expression and all the three of them threw the same look back at him.

“How on the earth... would you expect a normal person like me to think about hacking, when you tell that you were embarrassed when your sister caught you red-handed while surfing internet?! Jeez.” Ishaani was feeling irritated.

“Well, a 'normal' engineer who knows me, my ethics and my cultural background would have come across the ‘h’ word in her mind instantly!” Eeshwar defended as if his point was invincible!

She let out a helpless sigh, “My god! Well" she paused for a moment. "Damn, it was just hacking! You ruined the conversation. Anyways your fantasies are just...just perfect for you bro. Way to go! Bye!”

Miraya and Rudra laughed. “We’re so sorry for Eeshwar. Bye!” And then, adding more to his misery, the three of them left him alone.

“Hey, why don’t you come with us via Kurla?” Rudra asked Miraya .

“No way! I hate that station. And it would cost me more half hour. Reaching Panvel anyways takes my 50 minutes in train from Tilaknagar. I don't want to make the travel time one and half hour” Miraya shrugged.

“Well okay! See ya on Monday! Happy Weekend!”

“Happy Weekend!” She smiled and waved and they parted ways.

________________________________________________________________________

 Rudra reached home around 11 pm that day. His dad received him at the door.

“You’re late.”

“Yeah, I had dance class in the evening and then was out for a friend’s birthday dinner. Man, I’m tired.” He threw his bag over sofa first and then threw himself on it and relaxed, closing his eyes.

“You are a scientist’s son, do you realize that Rudra?” His dad got angrier.

Rudra opened his eyes and went about to keep his belongings on proper place, “Yes, I am made realized of that fact everyday!”

“Why can’t you inculcate some rules and habits in your life? Follow a definite routine? In my opinion you aren’t disciplined.” His dad went back to reading newspaper, putting is glasses on.

“But in my opinion, I exercise in form of dance, I do my studies in college itself, I play football almost everyday, I give a good amount of time to my family and friends. I think I am quite balanced.”

“That is not discipline. In my opinion, those are your sheer selfish deeds.” His dad looked at him from the space above his glasses.

“Dad, every opinion has an equal and opposite opinion. Just like...that law! Every action has an equal and opposite reaction!” Rudra smiled, he was proud of his awesomely framed statement.

“There you go wrong again...” Mr. Agnihotri nodded his head

“I thought that was a wonderful statement!” his shoulder’s dropped.

“You bring shame to both Mr. Newton and me! The Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that ‘For....” he stressed again on the word 'for' gain, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction! Not the terrible statement that you just made!”

“But, it means the same...”

And then his dad went about explaining and digging in every precise detail of every word stated in Newton’s Third Law of Motion. Whom am I arguing with? Rudra thought and chuckled in his mind.

So, meet Rudra’s dad. A stringent follower of Hinduism and a preacher of Science; respected and feared by everybody in BARC. Respect and fear is the rarest and the most powerful combination that a man can possess. His colleagues respected him for his ideologies and his work, but they feared the way he made them work with his discipline and his set of rules. The kids playing in his building compound would run away and hide if they saw him approaching. Every kid carried a whistle and signalled 3 times if ‘Betaal Uncle’ was spotted in the arena, alarming others to run away. If any unlucky ‘Vikram’ was caught by this 'Betaal Uncle', that kid would be then questioned like a criminal based on his school grade and, of course, his dad’s post!

Mr. Agnihotri was ashamed to know that his son had got a scholarship for learning DANCE in a reputed academy!!  He was just so furious over the fact that he had warned him not to tell anybody in BARC Township, or else his reputation would be at stake! He had performed a secret puja devoted to Goddess Saraswati to bring his son back to the path of knowledge. And he belived that it was fruit of that puja due to which Rudra was doing Engineering. Such is Rudra’s dad...

________________________________________________________________________

The weekend’s last day found Miraya in Bandra. She always wanted to visit the Mount Mary Church there, so when she found out that her school friends Mercy and Joyce were visiting, she decided to join them.

After visiting the church, the girls went for shopping on Hill Road- the Fashion Street of Bandra. Instead of going for shopping, Miraya thought to surprise her dad. She just called him to check whether he was in his office or not and so pretended that she was calling from home.

Miraya - “Hey dad!”

Dad -“Hi beta. Everything okay?”

M -“Yeah! Mom wanted to ask where her ATM card is.”

D -“Tell her it is in the second wardrobe’s drawer.”

M -“Okay cool... Where are you? I mean there is no meeting?”

D -“No dear... Today I am just in my office cabin, reviewing the projects.”

M -“Okay, had lunch?”

D -“Not yet, I’ll order in a while.”

M -“Okay. Byee!”

Confirmed! I can surprise him at office!

“Listen you both! I’m leaving for my dad’s office for lunch. It is just around the corner.” Miraya announced her friends.

“Cool! See ya!”

Miraya hugged them both and waved goodbye, “Enjoy!”

She then purchased Chinese from a famous restaurant and left for the tall glass building of Arya Tech. She walked through the familiar lobby to the reception counter. Even after all these years the feel of it was fresh in her veins.

“Good Afternoon! How may I help you?” the beautiful receptionist asked with a corporate smile.

“I’m here to see my dad, Mr Sanjay Acharya.” Miraya smiled back.

“You’re... Miraya! OMG? You’ve grown up to become a beautiful girl! Last time I met you, you were too young!” Jennifer was so happy to see her.

“Thanks. Yeah, I was in 5^th grade the last time I visited here. And yeah, you still look the same.”

“Thank you dear. But your dad is not in the office. Did you call him before coming here?”

But he told me that he was in office only. Miraya paused for a moment and gave a thoughtful reply, “Uh, no... I was just passing by...uh, so I thought to drop by. You know, revive old memories.”

“Oh darling, good you came. But he did not come to office today. He is away for a few meetings in South Mumbai and Suburbs. He would return home directly, I don’t think he is coming here today.”

“Ah... that’s... that's okay. No problem.” Miraya forced a smile.

“You want to talk to him over phone ?” Jennifer was almost ready to dial him up.

“Wait. No no, I’ll call him later. Got to go. Friends are waiting. ”She winked.

“Okay! It was nice to see you after such a long time!” Jennifer smiled heartily.

“The pleasure was all mine! Bye.”

A confused and upset Miraya walked out of the familiar lobby, out into the sunlight. The bag of their packed lunch swaying in her hand.Why would he lie? Should I call him back or not?  Something's wrong...

(To Be Continued...)