Karma

 ‘I have to leave.’ Said Sanjay to his assistant Palak, with a frustrated look on his face. ‘But why, it’s not your problem. Why do you even put up with her?’

 

‘You know about her right, she won’t get off of our backs until she gets answers. Just cancel my appointments, I’ll be back in no time and then we’ll go to that new restaurant you like so much.’ Sanjay winked at Palak then he kissed her and left. Palak looked worried as she had a bad feeling about it.

 

What the hell is going on between my husband and that b***h?’ Maya’s patience was at it’s lowest ebb and she was ready to burst.

 

Sanjay knew that she was serious. ‘Look, Maya. There is nothing going on between the two of them. Just a little bit of healthy flirting, I’d say.’

 

‘Flirting? Healthy Flirting? Really Sanjay... ‘ she rolled her eyes in disgust. That’s what you men call it? There is nothing healthy about flirting, Sanjay, not for a married man.

 

Healthy flirting is a term introduced by perverted men who want to lend legitimacy to their extramarital dalliances. Flirting invariably has a sexual connotation to it. ‘She got up from her seat and walked around the room gesticulating and muttering something to herself. Suddenly she stopped, turned back, looked at Sanjay and asked, ‘Did my husband sleep with her? You are his friend. Did he ever tell you anything about it?’

 

Sanjay saw desperation in Maya. ‘Stop blowing things out of proportions, you are overreacting. There’s nothing going on between him and Palak, trust me. Just take your meds and rest for a while. Do you think I would let something like this happen?’

 

Maya took a deep breath and then she was lost in her own thoughts. Sanjay called for the doctor several times to take care of her and prepared to leave then suddenly Maya got up and said, ‘I want to meet her.’

Sanjay skipped a beat; you could see the expression from a mile away. He contained himself as he didn’t want Maya to see he is distressed. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, by doing this you would lose your husband’s trust. You are already dealing with so much you don’t need this. I’ll take care of it.’

 

Maya felt helpless as she could not convince Sanjay. Suddenly the nurse entered the room and looked at Sanjay with an expression of confusion spread all over her face. Before the nurse could even say a word Sanjay interrupted her in an angry tone and said, ‘what the hell kind of a hospital is this?! It’s about time someone showed up.

 

The nurse felt guilty and apologised for the delay. Sanjay then gave a smug look to the nurse and said, ‘Just make sure she rests while I am not here.’ The nurse nodded and started preparing Maya’s bed.

 

Sanjay left for his office and on his way he stopped for some flowers. ‘What should I write in the greeting card sir?’ The Florist asked Sanjay. ‘The love of my life, Palak.’ replied Sanjay while giggling. Sanjay left straight for his office after collecting the flowers.

 

He entered the premises with a big smile on his face along with the flowers while looking for his assistant Palak but he could not find her. ‘Have you seen Palak?’ asked Sanjay from his colleague, who replied him negatively. He then called her several times and even left some messages but got no reply.

 

‘The boss is on the line for you Sanjay’, said the receptionist. Sanjay ran towards the phone worried sick. ‘Yes sir, I am sorry sir, actually I had to leave because I had a family emergency. You will have your report by the end of the day sir.’ Sanjay’s boss then hung up the phone leaving him sweaty and shaky.

 

Sanjay forgot all about Palak and ran straight towards his desk while knocking the receptionist’s files accidently which lead to a mess in her cabin. ‘Typical ungrateful b*****d’, said the receptionist to herself.

Sanjay forgot about everything and then worked for hours on his report without any human contact. ‘The boss is not happy, he wants the report now or there will be consequences’, said the clerk with a grin on his face as he despised Sanjay. ‘Tell him I am on my way’, said Sanjay with a straight face.

 

‘Where my file with the statistics is’, shouted Sanjay at the receptionist as he could not find that file. The receptionist handed him the file in hurry as he looked red with anger. Sanjay shouted, ‘Why the hell do you even pretend to work here’?! Sanjay then took the file and ran towards his boss’s office leaving the receptionist shocked.

 

‘There you go’, everything is as it is you wanted it sir. Sanjay said that with a fake smile on his face. His boss didn’t even care to look at him as he pretended to some other work. ‘Sir, I would be very grateful if you considered me for that promotion’, Sanjay kept the fake smile as he kept going on. His boss then gave him a stern look and replied in an irritating, ‘Hmm, Let see.’

 

Sanjay left his Boss’s cabin murmuring curse words to his boss. He then sat in his chair and started collecting his breath as he ordered the clerk to bring him water as he was sweating and gasping. The Clerk pretended that he couldn’t hear Sanjay and left, which made Sanjay even angrier, but he couldn’t express it because he was too tired and frustrated. So he just chose to ignore him.

 

Sanjay then looked at a picture of himself with Palak and realised that it’s been too late and he never got any reply from Palak. ‘Only when I need to take some frustration out, she is unavailable’. Sanjay said to himself with a frustrated expression.

 

Sanjay murmured to himself, ‘where the hell did she go now, even after I told her that I would be back shortly.’ He then tried calling her number a few times but it went straight to voicemail. He looked kind of worried as it was not something like Palak would do.

 

He then called Abhishek, who worked in the IT department of his company, and asked him to get the location of Palak by tracking her mobile phone. Abhishek disagreed as he felt it was not up to his moral standards. ‘You do as I say, you got that! You owe me.

 

You want to talk about moral standards? Huh? So is it fine if I tell your boss what you did last year? About those transactions?! Sanjay replied furiously. ‘Alright, alright, this is the last time I am doing something for you. After this I owe you s**t! Abhishek was furious too but he knew he could not do anything about it. So he just went along with Sanjay.

 

‘The signal is coming from an apartment near the office.’ Abhishek gave this information to Sanjay, which left Sanjay confused as he lived nowhere near the office and Palak lived in the opposite direction. Sanjay then asked Abhishek to text him the address so that he could investigate this further.

 

‘Remember, we are even now, and if you bother me anymore I swear to God I’ll be your worst enemy!’ shouted Abhishek just before hanging up the phone. Sanjay was annoyed by this but ignored Abhishek as he thought about finding Palak first.

 

Sanjay rang the bell of the address which Abhishek texted him and was shocked to see his colleague answer the door. ‘What the hell!’ exclaimed Sanjay as heard Palak’s voice in the back. Sanjay then barged in pushing the guy and went straight for the bedroom and was enraged to see Palak without clothes in the bed.

 

‘While I was out there worried sick about you, you were busy whoring yourself out! , Screamed Sanjay. ‘Let’s talk about this later and first stop shouting you jerk! It’s not like you were going to marry me or something. I know men like you perfectly well; you were there just for the physical stuff’! , retaliated Palak furiously. ‘Now get out before I call the damn police!’

 

Sanjay left screaming, ‘I Left my wife for you, you b***h and you betrayed me! I loved you! As Sanjay left the building with teary eyes he got a message from his office that the boss wants to see him immediately and it’s not good news.

 

Sanjay wiped his tears and left straight for the office. ‘Do you think this company is damn joke, you idiot! , shouted his boss before throwing his file at his face. ‘This file is blank, and so is your future. YOU ARE FIRED! Screamed his boss. Sanjay was shocked as he picked up the empty file.

 

He then cleared up his desk without saying anything and when he was leaving he looked at the receptionist who handed him the wrong file, with a blank face. His mental state was destroyed so he couldn’t even say a word to the receptionist and left.

 

The doctor called the nurse and asked if there were any visitors for Maya. The nurse replied, ‘Just his husband, Sanjay.’ 

Author's Note

I am new at this, so feedback would be really helpful. Please ignore grammar problems as English is not my first language.
I don't know why but I am nervous.

Reviews

[Ruby Heggie (PB Jacobs)]

Documentation
4/6/18
2:58 PM U.S. CST
"My Review of Karma by Abhishek Bhardwaj, A Fellow Writer's Café Author"
by PB Jacobs (www.writerscafe.org)

Hey!

Sound's like you are figuring out how to screw someone over? I'm not sure, and that's why I put a question mark at the end of my sentence. Yeah, could this be Nuisance Psychology that's old, worn out, and old hat, to everyone going out the window? Those who Criminally Tithe love Nuisance Psychology, or the fine art of figuring out how to screw people over, and eventually out of everything, including the shirt off of their back.

Sound's like a bunch of idiots' last stand. That's my first impression of your work.

I see scam signature written all over it, but is it?

I love, and I mean love the fact that someone on this website writes the word idiot, besides me. Excellent. I'm giving you a few extra rating points for that.

Yeah, I'm seeing scam psychology galore, that amounts to Master and Dog thinking, as Cop's don't want to get busted. Am I correct? I wonder if Cop's think and/or say the phrase "Busted by the Cop's." Hmmmm.....

Your piece is a get me thinking kind of thing...

PB Jacobs