Transformation

Transformation
*************


When I returned from my office around eight thirty, tired and exhausted, was astonished not to find my son in front of the television set .After I changed my clothes and refreshed my self for a cup of coffee, I asked my wife Sunita where is Sandip?
‘Oh he is busy with an air riffle he has brought through his credit card.
‘But what the hell he is doing with a riffle at home?’
‘He wants to become a shooter” my wife Sunita replied.
“But he wanted to become a cricketer like Dhoni for which we brought goods worth forty five thousands for what?”
‘Call him for dinner, I will ask him what’s this all about?’
“Sandip are you mad or what? Shooting in side house?”
“Dad, don’t you follow the Olympics?’
“Yes I do”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to tell you, first you change my name which should start with a capital A and then send me for training to Texas’
“Then what about your cricket?”
“That’s a team game I may be dropped like Ganguly, here there is no such thing”
“But I am not rich like Bindra’s father?”
‘So what I have already arranged for my mentor and sponsors.’
‘But who will be your mentor and financier?
“Of course Lalu Prasad will be my mentor cum coach and Mittal will finance me”
“But why Lalu Prasad?”
“He knows all the tricks of the game so I am going to win the next gold at Delhi common wealth games.”
“What about your studies?”
“Dad, how much our grandfather, uncles, you and all your other sons, who all became professors after twenty years of job have earned? In the same breath he told it may not touch few lakhs or at best few crores.”
“But what that has to do with your studies?”
“That’s exactly what I was going to tell you. Have you ever been invited to meet the PM or the President of India in his official residence for dinner? No never, not in near future, but they will call me to have a photograph with me not the other way round when you the senior professors make a stampede for a photo when they visit your university’
“But, it needs lots of practice and dedication?’
“Yes, after years and years of hard labour and high marks there is no escape from the reservation menace, there is no guarantee of a bright future but getting selected for the commonwealth games and olympics means a lot.’
“But what is the guarantee of your selection?’
“Leave that to me I will manage” was my son’s prompt reply.
“So you want to become an Olympian?
“Yes dad, exactly that?’
“Do you know the price of a gold medal?’ I asked my son.
“Yes, it’s only $300”
“But getting one is really difficult, son,”
So what, I get free train ride, all chief ministers will pay few lacs for cheap popularity, Mittals will donate crores, Tata will donate it’s first NANO to me, I do not have to pay income tax, steel products will be sold at a subsided rates to me, I will get a “Bharat Ratna” award and media and TV channels will flash your photos along with all my brothers and sisters for months and I will write my autobiography “How to win a gold medal”, then I will become an USA citizen and migrate. What more you want from your so called good for nothing fellow son?’
Sunita shouted” Are you dreaming? You are getting late for office.”
Dr.sanjoy Kumar satpathy,Bhubaneswar, Orissa,India