L'infidélité - III

A week later, on a breezy evening
“Yogi. I would be late tonight. If possible get us both something for dinner.” Abinaya talked to Yogi over the phone. “No problem dear. I will cook something light. Bye. Take care” He ended the call. The house looked messy. They had moved to a new house and nothing was set. He decided to clean up the mess and sort things. While cleaning up, he noticed a JVC video cassette player. He considered it as a prestigious thing and had possessed it with pride when he was in school. He changed his clothes and decided to buy some groceries for dinner. On the way back, an old Book-cum-Video library caught his attention. “How can I help you sir?” The librarian greeted him with warmth. “No I was just looking for some good books. Or may be some classic English movies” He said. “It has been many years I’ve seen people looking for video cassettes. I’ve got a lot of good English collections starting from 1920s. May be you could browse through the shelf in the first floor sir” He said.
After browsing through the rack, he took The Apartment movie and examined the condition of the cassette. It looked fine. He billed for the cassette and returned home.
Jack Lemmon’s acting as an officer for an insurance company in the New York City with managers of different companies taking turns commandeering Lemmon’s apartment, which for their various extramarital liaisons was overwhelming. They promised him a promotion and after a long wait he gets what he was waiting for. The TV screen then suddenly went blank. 30 minutes of the movie was remaining and he tried to eject the cassette and play it again. But it did not work. Yogi felt irritated and he felt it was time for supper. So he switched off the TV and walked towards the kitchen

The following morning
“Can you please drop by my cubicle?” His Manager asked him. “Sure” He replied.
“Yogi. I have a news for you. You have been performing consistently exceptional. So I have recommended you for a promotion to the senior board of Members. There has been no official confirmation yet. You can expect it in a day or two” He delighted him. He felt like he was on top of the world and called Abinaya and shared the news. He left for home early that day to celebrate with her but to his dismay she informed him that she would be late again as there were some project hiccups.
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“The cassette which I took yesterday didn’t play fully sir” He showed his anger to the shop keeper. “Let us check it rightaway sir” He said politely and played the cassette in his Video Player. He was Flabbergasted when he saw the video running fully till the very end. The shopkeeper looked at him scornfully. Yogi was puzzled if it was the fault of his player. He decided to check it up and went to the first floor to look for some other movies.
Forrest Gump, his all time favorite movie was in the rack. Without second thoughts he took it home
The print was excellent but it stuck in many places. “Must have been used atleast a million times” He thought. The war in Vietnam was captured so well even in the 90s. Bubba, Gump’s best pal was hurt bad and Gump carried him all the way till the river side far from the reach of enemies. Bubba spoke a few words to Gump and finally died on his lap.
The screen froze yet again. Yogi cursed the Shopkeeper and not wasting any time he rushed to the video shop again.

************* *************
Gump sends his son to the school and the feather gently lifts up and flies high in the sky followed by the end credits.
The shop keeper lifted his head and looked at him. “Sir, what is your problem? Is this some kind of joke to negotiate on the 20 Bucks” He said.
“No, it was… I got the…” Yogi stumbled. He felt humiliated and not wanting to stay any longer, he immediately paid for the cassette and rushed back home

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The next morning
“Yogi” Purushothaman called him over the phone. Purushothaman was his best pal Rajesh’s dad. “Hi Uncle. What a surprise!!! How are you?” He asked him. There was silence on the other end and he heard him sobbing. “Uncle is anything wrong? What happened?” He asked.
After a long pause, he spoke. “Rajesh was killed yesterday”. “What?” He almost dropped his mobile. “He got shot by a bullet in the Siachen border”

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Yogi returned home after the rituals. He sank to the sofa and stared at the ceiling fan. Abinaya had already left for her office and he felt lonely. Suddenly everything started to gush in. His Promotion, Rajesh’s death and THE VIDEOSHOP!!! These three had a correlation. Whatever he saw in the movie, reflected in his Life!!! “Is this a co-incidence or just my imagination” He decided to take off for the day and called his boss to inform his leave.
After a quick shower, his legs went straight to the video shop.

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The shop keeper refused to smile at him. For him, he was a mere trouble maker. “How can I help you today, sir?” He asked in a pretentious tone. “No I skipped office today and thought of watching a movie or two” He replied and went straight to the classics section. This time it was Casablanca
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“This movie sure will not have an impact in my life. It’s just a war movie and my only friend in army is no more. Let me watch it fully” He pondered.
It was a nice movie which revolved around the German occupied France in a small city called Casablanca. Rick Blaine is a bitter, cynical American expatriate living in Casablanca owns and runs "Rick's Café Américain. He meets his ex-girlfriend Ilsa Lund with her husband Victor Laszlo in Casablanca. On a lonely night, he recollects their affair in Paris. Her husband was taken away by the German Army to a Nazi concentration camp and as time passes she meets Rick, falls for him and eventually they share a physical intimacy. Then one fine day, when they were about to move out of Paris in a train, she dumps him leaving rick alone in the Railway station.
The cassette stuck as usual and Yogi didn’t feel anything bad about it as if he had been expecting this. He took the cassette to the video shop, paid the amount and left home without a word to the shop keeper.