8/2/2019 Son of Bear-Bull: Chapter 2- Part II

1/4

Chapter 2: Part II

While giving coffee to him, Poornima (Mrs Stocks) affectionately

planted a kiss on his forehead. That had the same flavour and feel

that he first experienced 30 years ago. But, that time she was just

17 years old. 12 years younger to him.

She had just passed her intermediate. Not the ripe age for marriage

in many places.

But at the sleepy village dotted with just green farm lands and 50

km away from the nearest town of Madurai, 17-year-old girl was

already over-ripen.

But for a foreign course that Mr Stocks attended, she would have

not have gone over-ripen. Like her peers, she also would have born

fruits by then, at least a couple.

Their families had fixed their wedding even when she was born. She

was the daughter of Mr Stocks eldest sister Malathi. That is the

age-old tradition of his place. Not many options for the groom and

bride, irrespective the marriage brokers preying around.

Mr Stocks had a life stark contrary to that of Poornima. He was

raised up in big cities, went to convent schools and passed civil

services in the first attempt itself.

But Poornima never went beyond Madurai till her marriage. She

could not speak more than `what is your name or `thank you in

English.

Obviously, it was natural. Mr Stocks father was an Army officer,

shuttling from one place to another while Poornimas father was an

ordinary farmer who never faced the threats of transfers. Mr Stocks

father talked about war heroics always while Poornimas father

could never understand anything but farm strategies.

8/2/2019 Son of Bear-Bull: Chapter 2- Part II

2/4

Her mother was the only one among her siblings who stayed put in

the ancestral village.

Perhaps that was why Mr Stocks also did not want to dishearten his

sister by opting out for a modern girl from a city.

She was the most affectionate among his four siblings and he was

too sensitive to say no to her when she proposed it to him.

Anyway, years proved that it was not a bad choice.

If marriage is a lottery, as many elders say, Mr Stocks surely won

one.

That is why he can still feel fresh after a coffee accompanied by akiss from Poornima every morning.

Mr Stocks was still stuck on the first page of the pink paper itself.

Because, he did not want to venture out the aura that Poornima left

with a kiss.

She lived upto the high expectations like most of the girls from her

place.

A life dedicated to the husband.

``SEBI Chief Meets FM

The two-column headline suddenly refilled again the pink colour of

the paper in his eyes. It was about his meeting with the Finance

Minister on Saturday.

But, after reading the first paragraph itself, he found it to be as

another half-baked story.

Beating around the bush with mere speculations, as usual.

Competition forces the journalists to play one-upmanship and the

result often is such less-truth-more-speculation story.

8/2/2019 Son of Bear-Bull: Chapter 2- Part II

3/4

But he does not hate this modern bunch of journalists. Over the

years, he learnt about their compulsions and only grew

compassionate for them.

Instead of reading further, he decided to go to his favourite ComfortRoom.

He sat on the bowl and lit the cigarette. That is another bad habit of

him. (It does not mean, he has too many.)

After a deep puff in, he would always hail that unknown man who

named the CR.

For Mr Stocks, it was not just comfort room, but it was his Creative

Room too.

He can in fact relieve of his discomforts. And he gets his most

sparking thoughts and ideas in that room.

Some people get up in the night with a lightning thought and idea.

Mr Stocks can always come out of CR with lots of ideas.

He would plan the day well and make decisions there. He can even

scan, mentally, through the files that would appear on his tablelater in the day.

And the decision-making process keeps him seated there for upto

30 minutes sometimes.

During the initial days, he would shudder out of thoughts only

when Poornima would frantically knock on the door.

But as she learnt his habits, she would sound panicky even if he

sits there for an hour.

As streams of puffs went in and out, suddenly one name shot back

into the frame of thoughts.

B. BOS!

8/2/2019 Son of Bear-Bull: Chapter 2- Part II

4/4

Even the rising smoke rings seemed forming into a few lettersB B

O S.

Exhauster could not deform them.

That name was haunting him ever since the intrusion of two cops

into his room.

Many questions kept springing up whenever he got some time for

himself, especially in the comfort rooms.

Who, What, Why, How ?

The more he tried to push it aside, it bounced back further.

An undefined proximity tied him to that name.

He could not define it.