The New Boss, and the parked Blue Scooty.

“Hurry up people would soon start lining up!” shouted Suraj.

It was an early Saturday morning, Suraj the Vegetable vendor had come along with his group to arrange his vegetable stalls. He would need to finish arranging all stalls before noon to display his fresh stock before people start pouring in.

Every Saturday Suraj would come to sell vegetables at the basement of the Sagar building in the KCF government colony in Mumbai.  KCF colony near Chembur has several government employees who would flock to the Sagar building on Saturday. Due to subsidised rates of vegetables fixed by the local cooperative society, it was the best place for employees to buy fresh vegetables. The long line would start forming from the afternoon only, with people always in a hurry to get their hands first on the fresh vegetables.

But Saturdays were a nightmare for the residents of Sagar Building, especially Gopal who lived on the fourth floor of the building and whose Car parking lot would be mostly occupied by Suraj to put his vegetable stall. His parking lot was a perfect place for people in a hurry to quickly park their vehicles and pick up the vegetables. Gopal would often get into arguments with people who would park their vehicles in his designated parking lot.

The Building Committee had recently put up a big signboard on the gate of the building, “Outside vehicles not allowed to park” but the situation remained unchanged. A stickler for rules Gopal would find it irritating that this would happen in the colony with highly educated people.

“Is it needed to go to Vashi today? It’s Saturday and I am sure someone will occupy our parking lot when we are out!” said a reluctant Gopal to his wife Sheetal but then gave in to Sheetal’s demand.

Gopal and his wife Sheetal went to Inorbit Mall at Vashi for their monthly shopping. Gopal was tired after roaming in the mall for 4 hours and was looking to get back home and enjoy a good cup of tea. Luck was not on his side today, there was heavy traffic while returning, and it took him more than an hour to cover a normal twenty-minute drive.

On reaching his building, Gopal saw a Scooty – a Blue Activa parked right in the middle of his Parking lot. The place buzzed with people who were busy picking their vegetables from Suraj’s stall. The owner of the Blue Activa was nowhere in the sight.

Gopal parked his car on the road and rushed towards Suraj shouting, “Whose Scooter is this Suraj, why can’t you tell people to park their vehicles outside?”

Suraj in his usual style of being servile and polite said “Sir, I always tell them, they don’t listen”. He didn’t want this commotion to impact his sales. To make the situation better he shouted in his broken English “Blue Activa in front, please remove!”.

Meanwhile, Rakesh who was busy selecting the perfectly ripe red tomatoes heard this commotion. He had come along with his wife Geeta for vegetable shopping. They have been living in the RCF colony for over 25 years. With kids moving out to Pune for studies they didn’t have much to do on weekends and Saturday vegetable buying was one of the activities they looked forward to.

Rakesh moved out of trance and quickly realised that it was his Blue Activa which Suraj was referring to. He saw an upset Gopal near the Scooty, and quickly moved towards Gopal, explained to him that he would move out the Scooty soon. This added fuel to the fire and Gopal lost all his cool,  and shouted at the top of his voice “How can you park your scooter in this place, can’t you see the big signboard from the society?”.

Meanwhile, Sheetal came out of the car carrying all the shopping bags in her hand. She was on mobile phone, in discussion with her colleague, about her new department and boss, she first did not bother to notice with whom Gopal was in argument as it was a regular feature every week, but was shocked when she saw it was Rakesh at whom Gopal was shouting his lungs out. She immediately kept the shopping bags on the floor and rushed towards Gopal and pulled his hand, and requested him to get back home. She quickly apologised to Rakesh and made a quick eye gesture to Gopal to stop the argument. Gopal was in no mood to listen but finally gave in and went up the stairs.

After entering the home, Gopal saw Sheetal was in tears, she was quickly typing a message on her phone. Gopal got back to his senses and tried consoling her.

Sheetal said, “Pick up your phone and type an apology message to the number I just shared with you”.

Gopal was confused when he realised the number Sheetal has shared was of Rakesh. He was about to protest suddenly he saw another forwarded message from Sheetal. It was a copy of an office order informing Sheetal about her new boss. Gopal got a shock of his life when he read the message “Rakesh Kumar is being appointed as head of Operations with immediate notice.”

Gaurav Gandhi