You know how the legend goes about that pipsqueak who hammed and vibrato-mmmed his way to superstardom? The same guy whose talent has been surpassed by countless others ever since but never acknowledged? The same guy whose works make millions when truly praiseworthy material goes unnoticed? The Krypt GAHs at him. Not out of jealousy, just out of plain frustration. Of course, it wasn't HIS fault, just that his luck was ridiculously awesome.
You see, in an ideal world talent would've far outweighed luck. Heh, but a world which our species have been running for thousands of years - destroying everything and going all out against the foundation of time, space and nature - can hardly be called ideal. Ordeal, maybe for a clever, pretentious guy who wants to show off his word play, but Ideal, no.
Ok, Nozzie's giving The Krypt looks, so he'll stop ranting. So, under this folder in his diary section called recommendations, The Krypt will be doling out works of people he thinks are extremely talented and phenomenally underexposed. What does he stand to gain? Or what's his purpose? He doesn't know. It's probably his own way of 'ideal'izing things. Ah, well.
This is a short story by a very talented young writer friend of his. An intriguingly creative and original voice, he reckons. Please do give it a read. Sit back. And enjoy.
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Interpret The World
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I
The maître de at “Ka-Ching” had been harrowedby the long queue outside his restaurant. Though, contrary to what his restaurant’s name suggests, hedidn’t want to mint useless money. Evidently, the complete chaos outside his shop unsettled him a little, but the numbers growing in his head bestowed on him a gloating smile. He was goading his cooks to cook faster; his waiters to serve quicker and cashier to prepare the bills more swiftly. According to our bright man, quality could go to the gallows; quantity was the rule of the hour. The lucky bastarrd that he was, he still had people streaming into his restaurant.
II
Timpo didn’t like this abominable job. In his hometown he was a postman, but a poorly paid one. Dearth of money and the taunts of his family drove him down south to look out for a decently paying job. However in retrospect, the greed to go out for money has not proved to be worthwhile. The only good part about this job was the ocean. He never got tired of the ocean; it felt like home. He often felt like drowning himself in these very waves, but the thought of his wife and kids always forced him to live. He regretted having gotten married- for him a responsibility, a liability. But, the sensitive man that he was, he felt guilty about having thought this way and in turn tried to make himself believe that he actually regretted taking up this job.
However, we don’t have time to delve deeper into his thoughts . It’s time to get down to work, kill some whales and send them to the place he worked for.
III
As dawn broke on December 26, 2004, it appeared that this Sunday would be no different than other weekend days .That changed when the most powerful earthquake in more than 40 years struck under the Indian Ocean. The ensuing massive tsunamis wiped out cities and killed tens of thousands of people in a dozen countries.
IV
Back in 2003, Our humble restaurateur owned a huge plastic manufacturing factory with over 1000 workers. But as mentioned earlier, he was not interested in minting money, which is why he was very generous to his workers. He paid them not more than 100 rupees per day for working for about 12 hrs. The workers couldn’t stand his generosity anymore, and went on a strike. But, our humble erstwhile factory owner had contacts to the top and brought force to submerge the cries of criticism lashing out from the trade union. He got his workers beaten up mercilessly; rendering many wives widows and kids orphans. However, the trade union was adamant and to avenge the tyranny of the owner, burnt the factory down.
Our man was an intelligent businessman, and had his factory insured. But, from the insurance money he couldn’t dare to open another factory and thus “Ka-Ching” took birth. The praises of his generosity have been sung before, therefore I needn’t reiterate further. So, even in his restaurant, he sold whale meat as different varieties of fish, especially dolphins, because it proved to be cheaper.
-continued in the comments-
