ARJUN - SUSHMA AND THE GENIE - 613

 JEEBOOMBAA - BETTER HALF - NO PRIZES  FOR GUESSING THE                          WINNER 

NOT SO HAPPY STORY OF A 

WORK FROM HOME COUPLE

This is a  story of Arjun and Sushma who are a  middle aged couple living in their Apartment Complex Home in Mambalam  Chennai and  who originally hailed  from the  non descript  Agasthiarpatty, a small hamlet in the Tirunelveli District of Tamilnadu very close to both Ambasamudram and VK Puram .
Both of them were employed in the IT Sector on a WORK FROM HOME MODULE .

Sushma always  felt that Arjun was  having an easy time with his Work From Home  Schedule . As is normal in any household   there were frequent scuffles between the two with regard to the household chores and division of Work between the two. 

 One such recent scuffle almost had all the ingredients of a blockbuster stunt movie .

 The verbal duel soon turned out  into a volatile confrontation with not only  harsh words but also many of the utensils in the kitchen rack trading places and getting dented at many places by virtue of coming into contact with something not very soft . 

 Better counsel however prevailed upon  Arjun and he kept a comparatively lower profile until the situation got back to normal .

With the approaching FESTIVAL SEASON AHEAD,  Sushma persuaded and  finally got Arjun to get the Brass Artefacts from the Attic and get them scrubbed with Brasso to get back  their shiny and polished look. 

Arjun reluctantly got the brass items out of the attic . One item of particular interest was the ancestral Brass Lamp or KUTRU VILAKKU . Arjun was the Sixth in line of descendant in the family  hierarchy to hold the esteemed and precious  lamp in his hands .

The first scrub of the BRASSO and PITAMBARI POWDER  and the Genie was out of the lamp and in all servitude remarked ,

 " MASTER I AM AT YOUR SERVICE , YOU HAVE GIVEN ME A NEW LIFE , YOU SEEM TO BE IN A SPOT OF BOTHER  - WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE YOU HAPPY " .

Arjun was overjoyed . He saw a chance to  get rid of this chore  which Sushma had so unceremoniously dumped  upon his shoulders  .

 " Genie ,  all that you need to do is to get Sushma my wife off my back and stop her from getting me to do all the household chores  during my already busy  WORK FROM HOME SCHEDULE .  This is truely turning out to be a big pain on  my back " . 

The Genie never imagined 
 that  he  would be given such an easy job in the first place . He went straight to Sushma and said , 

" Madam , I am prepared to do all the work that you have earmarked for your husband Arjun , I assure you that I will do a much better job of it than your husband ,  I am here to  take his place , please release him of all his daily chores "

How could Sushma ever let this happen . Without the daily Wordly scuffle with her husband and other such  petty exchanges both verbal and otherwise  , her life would become absolutely  meaningless and one  big bore . There would be  nothing to talk about in the neighborhood ladies chat sessions , how can she ever allow that ,  So she said

" OK GENIE , I WILL AGREE TO THAT ONLY ON ONE CONDITION . YOU SHOULD FIND THE ONE ITEM THAT I AM GOING TO  DROP IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES IN THE WATER TANK , IF YOU ARE ABLE TO GET IT BACK FOR ME , FINE , ARJUN NEED NOT DO ANY HOME RELATED WORK , OTHERWISE YOU GO BACK INTO THE LAMP FROM WHERE YOU CAME AND ARJUN  GOES BACK TO HELPING ME WITH THE WORK THAT I OCCASIONALLY  ASSIGN HIM " . 

GENIE READILY AGREED TO THE CHALLENGE WHICH SEEMED FAR TOO EASY 

She took him to the water tank and opened her hand and  dropped an ITEM  inside the tank 

After a while she asked the Genie to get the ITEM back .

The Genie inspite of all his sustained effort and physical strain could not locate the item dropped by Sushma and with a heavy heart remarked

" MADAM I ADMIT MY DEFEAT , I AM UNABLE TO FIND THE ITEM DROPPED BY YOU .  I MYSELF SAW YOU DROP THE SAME  WITH MY OWN EYES IN THE WATER TANK . YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND DO AS YOU WISH WITH YOUR HUSBAND ARJUN, I SHALL GO BACK IN TO THE BRASS LAMP FROM WHERE I CAME . BUT MADAM. PLEASE DO ME A FAVOUR , PLEASE  TELL ME , WHAT WAS IT  THAT YOU DROPPED IN  THE TANK , I HAVE NEVER FAILED TO DO A JOB ENTRUSTED TO ME  BY MY MASTERS BEFORE , MADAM DO  PLEASE TELL ME "

Sushma Replied ,

" Now that you are going back into the lamp where you seem to have stayed so happily all these years , I will tell you ,  the item I dropped inside the water tank was nothing but 

AN ASPRIN TABLET , 

which got dissolved in the water and hence you were unable to find ".

Arjun is still busy on the scrubbing job even as I write this piece . Poor Genie is back in the place, where he always belonged 

 POMBALAI NAA SUMMA VAA

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A LADY

AURAT KO KABHI KUM NAA SAMAJHNAA

AADAVAALLU ANI YEMI ANUKONNAROO

BEN NAA SOO SUMJAUCHO 

H Ganesh