Sorry,
I’m taken
ACHUTH MOHANDAS
Dedication
Love might give you happiness, sadness, confidence, success, failure, determination or even depression at some stage. Whatever it gives, we will have to accept it as what it is. Simply, Love is what it does.
People often define the end point of their love as Love Failure. But here, I have something else to say; LOVE NEVER FAILS, THE PEOPLE IN IT DOES. This story is dedicated to everyone who had been in love and refused to fail in it.
First published in 2016
Copyright © Achuth B 2016
www.achuth.in
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly circulated without the author’s prior consent. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this book may be a direct infringement of the author’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
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Acknowledgements
SORRY, I’M TAKEN is my first book and I must say that I never thought I would be able to write a story and publish it. For better stories, experience is what we need as the first tool and I could do my part when my plate of experiences was served. First of all, I’d like to thank the Unique Universal Energy for making me strong enough to re-live the past and write it down. If I and the people around me weren’t strong enough to face whatever happened, this book wouldn’t have been real. As somebody said, whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger and this book is a perfect example of that.
Then I’d like to thank Mrs. Vandana Manu for all the support that she had extended as the proofreader of this book. She found time in her timelessness and helped me with creative suggestions to make this experience more beautiful than expected.
Dr. Sharmila was one of the first readers of this book and she provided me with a genuine and unbiased review of the book. Even though her bookshelf was full of medical books and her head full of medical terms, she managed to keep each moment of the book in her mind and gave me a creative review on each word. There are many more friends who helped and supported me in the process of publishing this book and I am thankful to every one of them for their support.
Last but not the least; I’d want to thank my family for their extensive support that I’ve received throughout my life. Their support is priceless, yet commendable, as their support had played a relevant role in keeping me strong on my falls and rises. I’d also like to express my sincere sorry to them for keeping them in the dark until I finish my book. Now the book is here and I hope they’ll forgive me for keeping them uninformed.
Now, it’s time to unfold the story. With a ton of expectations, I begin.
About The Author
Achuth Mohandas was a Radio Jockey (RJ) with Red FM 93.5, Trivandrum Station. He is a graduate in physics and started his career in the entertainment industry when he was just nineteen years old while pursuing his final year degree course. He was also a Video Jockey (VJ) with Jai Hind TV, SS Entertainment Channel, Victers TV Channel, Today TV and hosted several shows for them. He left his career in the radio industry after spending more than five years of his time in it and served other corporate companies in top-level positions of their creative departments. Achuth has also acted in two movies of Malayalam language.
After witnessing a painful love story, which shook many lives, he decided to write it down and his first book SORRY, I’M TAKEN was born. Currently, he is dedicating most of his time in writing and he is a conceptualizer of advertisements also.
To know more about Achuth, you can connect with him via the following links.
Facebook : www.facebook.com/achuth.mohandas
Twitter : www.twitter.com/achuthb
Website : www.achuth.in
E-Mail : [email protected]
Contents
Prologue
I, Me, Myself
Who’s That Girl?
The First Meeting
The Rail Trial
The Chennai Saga
Hardships Of Distance
Agni Pareeksha
Meet the Parent
The Airport
The Chennai Saga - 2
MBA - A Distant Dream
How About a Ride?
The Chennai Saga- 3
The Great Indian Pizza Circus
The Job Hunt
I Quit - I Start
The Break-up
The Chennai Saga 4 - Plan A
The Church Adventure - Plan B
The Confession
The Truth
Life Has To Go On
Epilogue
Prologue
The evening was so golden, not just with the opportunity that I was provided with, but also in appearance. The sun above us resembled an archer, who had millions of golden arrows in his quiver and sending them out as if we were his targets. His bright, strong arrows had made the whole scene soaked in a divine golden colour that he was spreading all over. My wristwatch showed 5:30 in the evening.
We were sitting on a bench made of black granite on the banks of the Arabian Sea and yes, that was the only portion of the man-divided sea that I had ever seen in my lifetime. The bench was almost six feet long and we were sitting on both ends of that bench. The space between us was giving an impression like we were waiting for someone else to come and occupy that space. I was at the leftmost end of the bench and she was at the other. I knew that she is always right and that was the only reason why I was spending the leftover time of that day with her.
The girl with me was Archana, a very close friend of mine for the time being. She was a young, beautiful and independent professional of almost twenty-three years of age. Archana was a clinical psychologist and I was introduced to her a couple of months before by one of our mutual friends. She completed her post-graduation in Psychology from Delhi University and already became a well-known name in the society because of her various appearances in some national television channels. She was a specialist in Corporate Psychology and used to give psychological support for people suffering from stress, strain and other mental difficulties that occur due to their corporate work culture. She had successfully completed her last assignment for a leading food supplement manufacturer in Mumbai and came all the way to Trivandrum to meet me. I had been meeting her for the last three weeks taking my stress related issues and I knew that the cause of my mental stress was some of the events that had occurred in my past, but I was not being able to control the overflowing stress that followed it. As I was not a person who speaks out so easily, she couldn’t figure out what my actual problem was; in the past three weeks. That was the only reason why she wanted to talk to me in detail in an open atmosphere. That decision ended up at the beach for a much-expected casual talk.
I was looking down at the golden sand since I started sitting there on the bench. After so much boredom pumped into the occasion, I slightly tilted my head and looked at her. She was looking at the sea like she was counting the waves till infinity. She was wearing a White Kurti and a Blue Jeans. Her light brown hair was flying in the wind, as she was not wearing a hair band. She looked so beautiful with that flying hair, but I knew how hard it is to leave long hair untied; then only that she noticed me looking at her all the while.
She opened her handbag, took out a white hair band, smiled at me and asked – ‘What?’
‘What what? Why did you bring me h
ere?’ – I answered with another question while she was tying her hair with that hairband. The process of tying her hair was something to be seen. She kept the hair band between her teeth and caught her hair with both the hands. Then moved her right hand in circles, making her hair wandered and wore that hair band on her hair; her hair was not disturbing her thoughts anymore.
‘Arjun, you wanted to talk to me and I am here with you.’ – She said.
‘I agree, but I didn’t bring you here. I just suggested this place and you were driving the car, right?’ – I asked without any second thought.
Sitting on the bench, she turned towards me and placed her left thigh on the bench. She explained with an expression of getting annoyed – ‘I brought you here to ask you about her.’
I took my eyes off her face and looked at the sea thinking about a strategy to avoid that question of hers, but she was not ready to stop there and kept on asking.
‘As far as I know, this girl initiated all your problems. I want to know who she is and how could she be the root of all your stress.’ – I felt a little bit of aggression in her voice when she said this.
‘Archana, I have told you a hundred times not to ask me anything about her. Can’t you help me without knowing her whereabouts?’ – My voice was getting raised. Therefore, I stopped and continued looking at the never-ending sea with a clear expression of frustration in my eyes.
Archana changed her position from the most right to just near me and grabbed my right hand. I was literally shocked by that act of hers, but I couldn’t pull my hand back from her firm grip and her face looked like she had some important things to ask and tell.
I could not say anything but she could. – ‘Please understand that she is the sole reason for all your problems. No one can solve your problem without knowing about her. I just want to help you and that’s why I’m asking all these.’
I didn’t want to talk about that SHE whom she referred to, but I could not avoid that question. I had no idea what to say, but I understood that I should be telling her what all happened in my life. I really needed Archana’s help to get over my problems.
‘If this is the only way through which she can help me, I must tell her about everything.’ – I said to myself.
I pulled my hand back and asked – ‘What if I’m not going to tell you about her?’
‘You know what I can and what I cannot, if you don’t tell me. Will you please open up?’ – Her voice was stumbling with impatience.
‘Yes, I will.’ – I said because I had no other option than accepting it.
‘Go ahead.’ – She said with a pleasant smile and that smile was more than enough for me to solve almost all my problems; I meant ALMOST, but not all.
I, Me, Myself
AUGUST 1, 2005
That was my first day in college. When I joined the college, I was just seventeen years old and the probability of me being the youngest guy in the college was very high. Most of the students who joined the first year courses in my college fell between the age group of eighteen and twenty-one; however, there were some students who were of ages twenty-two, twenty-five, etc. I still remember my first day at my college. My dad came with me to drop me at the college and he was really happy that I got admitted to that particular college as it was one of the most reputed colleges in our city. I was born and brought up in Trivandrum city, which is the capital of Kerala state. Also, I must say that it is one of the most ancient cities in India and people often call it “The Royal City of Kerala”. The college I got admitted for my graduation was “Mahatma Gandhi College” which had a huge statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing in front of the main block of the college. In fact, that was the only statue of Gandhiji without a stick that I have ever seen in my entire life.
‘This is your future and fortune. Do whatever you want to do with it, but never let it down.’ – My dad told me with elation.
‘Yes, Dad! I understand.’ – I replied and turned towards the main building of my college and walked away from him.
I knew that he was still standing there and looking at me as I go inside, but I didn’t look at him because I knew the hardships he had to face to make both ends meet; I didn’t want to show him my wet eyes either.
There were so many girls and boys walking randomly inside the main building of the college and some of them had already started building friend packs. It was really nice to see people making new friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, crushes, etc. From a notice pasted on the notice board, I found my classroom number and in less than five minutes, I could enter my classroom.
The classroom was like a very big hall with heavy benches and desks. There were so many rows and two columns into which the seating for boys and girls were arranged. As a South Indian boy, who was studying in gender-differentiated classrooms, I could easily understand that one column is definitely reserved for girls and the other one is for boys. The fellow students who reached the class before I had, had already made that gender-differentiation happen and they themselves divided into two columns and got seated on their respective seating columns.
I was so bored of that system. I studied in a boys-only school until my tenth level and I found it very difficult to socialize with girls after that. My eleventh and twelfth levels were in a mixed gender school, but I could never hold that strength to talk to a girl in my class. That was the reason, which made me hate the whole gender-discriminated educational system.
‘If education couldn’t give me enough strength to talk to a person of the opposite gender, what is the purpose of education that I have got?’ was the most perplexing question, which I had in my mind during that time. Even after getting the world so advanced and science emerging like never before, the little state where I lived continued to consider boys and girls as two different materials, which are not supposed to be brought together. In my twelfth level chemistry, I had studied that sodium is always kept inside kerosene because it is highly reactive with water. Similar to that, the educational system in our state believed that all boy-girl contacts would be highly reactive.
When I entered the classroom, some inter-gender conversations were happening and I sat in the third row of the boy’s column. That was my first day in college, but the other days that followed weren’t any different. I made neither friends nor girlfriends and I always remained stuck onto the self-made policy “I-Me-Myself”.
I was from a middle-class family. At home, I had my father, mother and a younger sister who was six years younger than I was. My father was a government employee and mother was working with a private firm. We had lived almost happily every day despite the problems we had. Our lives seemed to be so good those days. We lived in a rented house and it was my mother’s biggest dream to live and die in a house of our own. That middle-classed lifestyle had managed to induce the flames of inferiority complex in my mind, which drew me away from socializing with people around me.
I finished my schooling in the year 2005 and took every step to join a good college in the same year itself. I collected so many reviews about good colleges, did some research on the courses that they offered, inquired about the quality of teaching, filled up applications, mailed them to the colleges and waited for my turn to come. My option was science and to be specific, I must say Physics. I was looking forward to joining a well-known college for a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics. Nothing happened; I got no response to my applications. I waited for almost two months to get a response from a college, but the result remained unchanged. My expectation of joining a reputed college was like a young boy asking for a Ferrari even though he doesn’t know how to drive it.
Two months later, it seemed like some students found Physics to be the toughest subject that they could ever get into and changed their favourite subject from Physics to something else. They moved to some other batch leaving their seats in the physics batch vacant. I was really thankful for all those students who had left the Physics course, because if they hadn’t changed their favourite, I would have lost a year
in my academic timeline. They left their seats blank and the second round of interviews was conducted for filling up the unoccupied seats. By that interview, I was admitted to one of the most reputed colleges in my city; Mahatma Gandhi College. The college was named after the management’s respect toward the Father of our Nation and it was one of the largest and most popular Arts & Science Colleges of our city. I joined that college in the year 2005.
Days passed; I became one in thousands and one of the insignificant fellows in my college. I was neither involved in arts nor sports. I wasn’t too bright in my studies and I didn’t have a cool attitude or hot looks. These descriptions were enough to make me a perfect geek for the college. I really wanted to do big things, but I lacked the courage. I longed for a girlfriend in my college, but I was so nervous about that because of the same old gender-differentiation that was injected into my mind from my very first day in the society. Sometimes, I had seen some other guys proposing the girls whom I liked and joining hearts with them. I was frustrated with life and it didn’t take too much time for me to realise that I was an unwanted object in the college.
Two and a half years of my college life got over and I was in the middle of my final year classes. There were only six or seven months left to finish my course and it made me totally confused about my career. After two and half years of experimentation with physics, I found that I am not good in becoming a scientist and I never thought of myself being a science teacher. I had only one question to ask myself – ‘Why did I opt to graduate in physics?’
I had no clue about my future or my career. I felt like I was simply wasting three years of my life, studying physics and practicing the experiments. Then came the twist of my life; when I was in my third year at college, the central government sanctioned some private FM Radio stations to operate in our city and I found their advertisements in newspapers inviting application for Radio Jockeys. I was actually fascinated with the entertainment industry and movies from a very young age and decided to apply for that job. After different rounds of auditions and interviews, I got selected for the job of a Radio Jockey (RJ) by one of those radio stations. My job as a radio jockey was to present live radio shows, interact with the callers and interview celebrities. As I was a final year student, they let me join them as a part-time employee and the company gave me the opportunity to work and present shows before and after my college hours.
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