LION’S DEN (A SHORT STORY)

LION’S DEN (A SHORT STORY)

The crowd swelled up by evening. Almost the entire afternoon he was alone in that watering hole. Sukumar’s face was deep immersed in a smoke screen left behind by his burning cigarettes, as he sipped mugs after mugs of chilled beer. Nestled between array of shops selling discounted clothes, Lion’s Den has a notorious reputation. They say it was the first official pub to come up in the city way back in the 50s.

Before that public drinking was a rarity. The elite would drink behind guarded walls of clubs, and poor would indulge in merry-making in pavements itself. The pub polluted the educated middle-class. Now, they have a space to indulge in immorality, as liquor freely flowed from delicately designed imported bottles.

They say pub opened up innumerable doors for criminals to indulge in heinous activities. While drinkers swallowed their money and homely happiness in Lion’s Den, criminals with their puckered faces and equally puckered intentions went after their hunts with utmost successes. It jolted the public from their normal routine. Now they have to be extra alert. The alert cops were equally jolted. But they were helpless.

They could not do much, except for registering rise in crime rate in their notebook. Instances of rape, which were earlier unheard of, strangulated the city out of its pace. A thin flimsy layer of fear lurks over the city’s horizon. Unseen fear, fear residing inside the bushes of neighbourhood, fear in public spaces, fear in deserted alleys, fear in high society parties, fear in mind and body, fear even started breeding alongside mosquitoes in dirty stinking drains spread across the city.

One place that was happy and laughing aloud was Lion’s Den. Making profit in millions. It inspired many to open up similar ventures. Milk might be in scare in the city, but not alcohol. Was it happy hour from 11am to 6pm, boldly engraved in a huge yellow and green board hanging at the entrance of Lion’s Den that had hypnotised him to revisit the place after 15 years of gap, or was it intentional judging by recent events of his life?

“Whatever,” Sukumar mumbled between his breathe. “Excuse me Sir, you need something?” the young bartender attending him all this while, came rushing in to please his client. “Do me a favour. Leave me alone.” Sukumar realised his mistake of being rude. But he did not feel like asking for an apology.

“That way I would end up rendering apologies to the whole world,” he smiled to himself. The only table that had been left empty in the 30-sitter room was occupied by a love stuck couple. The huge clock hanging in the distant wall declared—10pm. “I can drink for one more hour, before it shuts down,” Sukumar settled for another beer pitcher.


*******************


He was nervous and laughing awkwardly. Perhaps in the garb of a happy face he was hiding his inner turmoil. Two most important events of his life awaited him. “Would I get the job? Would she marry me, or succumb to the pressure of her parents and marry her NRI fiancé?”

Volcano of thoughts exploded Sukumar’s bearing. His friends--Ajay and Surya--broke into first few stanzas of “Everything I do, I do it for you..”, perhaps the only English song known by his friend circle. Adithya, Rakesh, and Mohan clapped enthusiastically to keep the momentum of the song alive. Sukumar was lost in his world. His physical presence was a clever pretension.

He hoodwinked everyone in believing that he was part of the youthful gang. He was attached and detached at the same time. He beautifully managed to portray a fake smile, as part of his participation in the roller coaster ride. They all had saved for a month to come to Lion’s Den, to mark the end of their university days. They had asked for whiskey, the finest for their pockets to endure.

Sukumar’s priorities had changed. He wanted the corporate job desperately. The interview was long and grilling. Job opportunities were few and far between. Liberalisation was almost a decade away in India. His father could not afford to pay for the bribe a local politician was asking for to fix his job in a government department. Owning a business enterprise was deemed lowly in his family of academicians and doctors.

“If I don’t get this job, Jaya has to marry her fiancé,” Sukumar blurted out all of a sudden. Song came to an abrupt halt. Friends looked anxiously at him. “All will be fine. Don’t worry you will get the job. Trust us. Now, enjoy your drink,” the five almost sang in unison. The comical timing of his friends’ consolation genuinely touched his happy chord. He smiled, this time from his heart.

**********


Jaya had never expressed her displeasure at Sukumar’s drinking habit. She had adjusted herself well with the fact that in a high flying corporate job her husband had to drink, to be part of the crowd. Sukumar has always been a moderate drinker, but he drinks almost every day. Past few months saw some unpleasant changes. Sukumar would sit alone in his reading room and drink till the wee hours of morning. Initially Jaya would ignore it as work related stress.

However, the day she found her husband lying unconscious on the floor, surrounded in a pool of undigested food materials, which probably he had thrown out from his mouth, everything changed between Sukumar and Jaya. The sight appalled her. But, it was Sukumar’s indifference towards the whole episode which appalled her the most. The next day he was again found in his reading room drinking.

“Sukumar you need to mend your ways. You’re on bed rest, but still drinking. What’s wrong with you?” Jaya could not stop her irritation. “Leave me alone. I am fine,” is what Sukumar managed to reply back. Present is perfect, future too seems rosy. Then what is wrong with Sukumar. It was his past, a past episode that haunted him.

Sukumar had kept the secret to himself. In the rigmarole of his life it was buried in the deep abyss of memories. He could not believe himself that suddenly it would resurface into the forefront. First it had re-entered into his life. Then slowly it started following him everywhere. Now the secret has taken the form of a shadow in itself. His secret has grown bigger than him.

So, big that it has dwarfed him into a pigmy. Nobody can see him now. He too was almost blind to his surroundings. He left his job. Then Jaya left him with their two children. His house was sold off to pay his surmounting bills. His penury was talk of the corporate circle. Unbelievable, the most shining star of corporate world of Bangalore fading away into oblivion,” his peers would wonder. He however was not surprised. His priorities had changed again.

*************


Sukumar’s regularity at Lion’s Den is a legend by now. He is the most loyal patron of the pub. Earlier he would be the first one to arrive at Lion’s Den every afternoon, and the last to leave at night. As unpaid bills piled on, managerial decision of Lion’s Den barred Sukumar from making his entry.

The ban had no effect on him. He stuck to his routine. Every afternoon he would buy packets of arrack (the cheap local brew) and sit in front of entry point of Lion’s Den and drink to his delight. As a custom he would greet visitors before they could enter Lion’s Den. “Cheers!”