Horrific Night After Dinner

I've been staying in Pune for the past two and a half years, that is, ever since i started by engineering course. The city is fairly peaceful, though I can say I have very rarely felt at peace here. Guess I miss home. This incident took place one night when I was returning home from a friend’s birthday treat. We had gone for dinner to a KFC outlet a few kilometres away from home. We had packed a nice dinner and were feeling pretty satisfied. We thanked our friend for the awesome treat and started for our place on my friend’s Pulsar. We decided to take a longer route home and enjoy the slight cool about the city. What we did fail to check was the fact that we were running low on fuel. Luckily there was a small gas station along the way where we decided to tank up.

While my friend, Rohan, was getting his bike refuelled, I decided to take a stroll about and take a look around. There wasn’t much to look about though. There were dense trees on either side of the road. Looked pretty creepy at night too. I was just turning back, when I heard sounds of whispering. Now I’m not the one to normally eavesdrop on any random stranger’s conversation, but in this case I was lucky I did. They were 2 men loaded with tobacco (disgusting). Both dark and buff. The look at those arms made me gulp. They looked like they could snap my neck like a twig. They were conversing in Marathi. Being from Mumbai, I could slightly comprehend what they were saying, the basic words at least (I’ve been born and brought up in Mumbai, but can’t speak Marathi to save my life, go figure).

What I heard, gave me a near heart attack. The goons were discussing my friend standing by his motorcycle. They were planning to mug us when we left the place. I could see the big oaf, one of them; take out his knife and wiping it with a dirty cloth. That thing was HUGE! I had to bite my tongue from crying out loud. We didn’t stand a chance against these goons. Unless we had an advantage. I checked that the two men were busy with their planning and observing Rohan. I had to act fast. It was time for action.

I walked towards Rohan who looked cross. I had been gone for some time. I told him the situation and watched as all the colour drained from his cheeks. He started fumbling with his keys and planned on out racing the goons. I told him that could be risky. I was terrified like crazy too, but it was time for calmness. I formulated a plan and calmed Rohan down with a pep talk and words of encouragement. Even I was surprised with the words flowing out of my mouth. Fiery. But self-appreciation could wait we had a plan to put into action. Rohan parked his bike at the gas station exit and wandered about as if to take a leak. I walked up to the small shop at the gas station, where the attendant was busy listening to music on his radio. The goons were there too. They stopped talking as I walked in. This was a risk. If the attendant was in on their plan, I was dead meat. I took my chance. I started speaking in hindi to the attendant about how he had cheated my friend of his money. The guy got angry and started screaming about how he was an honest man and that he could do nothing if the fuel prices were on the rise. I lashed out calling him all sorts of names and creating a ruckus. Even I was surprised at the words flowing out of my mouth like flaming arrows. The goons sitting at the corner were grinning to themselves apparently amused by the show. That was my purpose. Seeing them distracted, I kept on ranting like a madman and I guess it got quite serious. Well that was good.

While I put up a show for goons, Rohan managed to find a wedge and a few tools lying around. Utter chaos. It was time. Until now it was a loud discussion. Now it had to get louder. I started shouting at the top of my voice about how innocent students were being cheated in the name of fuel. My voice and the loud radio pretty much drowned away all the other noises, including the noise of Rohan hammering holes into the fuel tank at the bottom. I saw him move towards our bike after one last swear, stormed out leaving the attendant fuming. We started on our way praying the goons don’t follow. Well even if they did, we were prepared. Soon enough, we saw their bike at a distance behind us and frightfully, it was closing in. They hadn’t noticed the hole at the bottom, and were asking us to pull over or that we would pay.  Yeah right!!

We went on faster. After five tense minutes, their bike started spluttering and broke down as they looked puzzled. We zoomed away, leaving the goons cursing behind us. WHEW!!


This post has been put up for the KFC "Set's you on fire!!" contest. Hope you like this story, imaginary as it is...