The shrill clamor of the phone forced Aayush up. Fumbling
with the touchscreen in his sleep, he tried to answer the call. By the time his
fingers coherently swiped across the screen, the other person had hung up.
Aayush forced himself awake and saw the time on his cell phone display – 10: 50
AM.
Taking a gulp of water from his bottle on the dressing
table, which incidentally, also had his now empty whisky bottles from last
night, Aayush hoped for the blasting hangover to recede. “Or maybe it just
doesn’t matter anymore,” Aayush muttered under his breath.
Absent mindedly, he opened the Facebook app on his phone.
The first thing that came up was a post from four years ago, where his wife
Richa had uploaded a photo of the both of them together holding the trophy he
had just won.
“Stand Up Comic of the Year” the trophy read. A sad smile
worked its way onto his face. Richa and he had been so happy in their marriage
– a true match made in heaven. She had been incredibly supportive of him when
he gave up a cushy white collar job and ventured into the world of open mics
and stand-up comedy ten years ago. The fact that she was a successful lawyer
helped.
Within a few years, he had become a familiar face and one of
the most loved stand up artists in the country. Shows at corporate conferences,
college fests and offsites followed. It seemed almost unreal to Aayush how
lucky he had been. And there was no better feeling than the nervous tingles he
felt each time before performing followed by the euphoria of hearing the
audience’s thunderous applause. It was a high he couldn’t get enough of.
However, a year ago, all that changed when he lost Richa in
a car accident. Aayush heard of it when he was out of town for a show. Richa
was attending to one of her matters in Pune. They say that there was nothing
Richa could have done. The car in front of her spun out of control due to a
tyre burst and took her car out as well. She died instantly.
From that day on, Aayush could never bring himself to
perform again. The ready laughter inside of him had dried up and he couldn’t
bring himself to take to the stage. He had taken to drinking heavily on almost
a nightly basis. He had stopped returning calls for shows. Nothing seemed to
interest him.
-X-X-X-X
He was just about to toss the phone away when it rang again.
It was Juhi, one of his wife’s closest friends. He remembered it was her who
had called earlier as well.
Just then his twelve-year-old son Kartik also walked in. He
sat at a distance from his father, wanting to avoid any outburst of anger from
Aayush. His own son now sat away from his father, a renowned comedian, for fear
of a scolding. The irony of the situation was not lost on Aayush.
On the call, Juhi was droning on. She had been calling him
time & again for doing shows at corporate events. He had always rebuffed
her well meaning efforts and had told her he wasn’t ready.
He was going to use the excuse that he wasn’t going to be in
town this time , “11th December you say? Well doing a show at the Marriott
does seem amazing but unfortunately…”
Aayush stopped in mid sentence when he saw the expressions
change on his son’s face. Kartik went from being hopeful to pleading to
disgruntled and then to a state of resignation in the space of one sentence. Aayush
knew Kartik would never say anything but it pained him to see his father waste
away.
Aayush was on the path of snuffing out the flame of his
talent and let down the only family he had left. Some serious course correction
was needed. “Actually, you know what.. That’s perfect.. I’ll get working on my
set immediately,” Aayush said.
-X-X-X-X
His hands were sweaty and shaky as he combed through his cue
cards a few minutes before his entry. The nervous tingles were back – he felt
more alive now than he had at any point in the past year. He felt a sense of
purpose and hadn’t had anything to drink since that day. Truly, making others
laugh was the best medicine for him. After a hilarious performance which had the
audience in splits, father & son hugged it on stage. The alcohol didn’t flow
then – only the applause from the audience did.
