The matter had already escalated out of his hands now so, Arjun couldn't do anything except letting Om continue. So, he nodded and said, "Yes, Om. You may continue."
As soon as he said this, Om smiled a bit. He looked at the crowd slowly and said, "So, let's continue where we left off, shall we?"
The crowd shouted in unison, "Yes!"
Seeing this, Om was feeling happy but this happiness was a little different. When the crowd was shouting to make him come back, he felt like….he belonged to that stage. And now that he was standing on the stage, facing a large number of people, he was feeling very happy as if he had found a place he belonged to.
Om started to speak once again and the crowd went wild with laughter once again. But to the side, there were two people at this time who were not so happy right now. It was Ravindra and Arnav.
'First, people interrupted my performance for him and now he has completely snatched my limelight. He didn't even say 'sorry to interrupt your performance' and directly ignored me. Who does he think he is? Is he better than me? No! Then, why is it that people are calling for him, not me? I am going to leave. There is no point in me staying here.' Arnav thought angrily in his mind.
Ravindra was even more depressed. He didn't expect any of this to happen. This was the first time in his that he had felt such a coaster of emotions. He had lost count of how many times he had felt happiness in his heart and also how many time that happiness had been crushed by Om time and time again.
As for the host of this event, Arjun, he was enjoying Om's performance now. He didn't give a sh*t about who was the one on the stage as long as he entertains the whole crowd. In his heart, he had been calculating something all this while.
....
…..
…
.
As Om reached the end of his performance, people tidied themselves as they stood up from the ground. Om looked funnily at the crowd and said, "Thank you for listening till end. I am very happy to perform for you guys."
"Ah! No! It should be us thanking you. We had such a laugh today just because of you."
"Yes! This was the first time in my life that I have laughed so much."
"Thank Om for you performance."
"Thanks Om for your hardwork."
"Thanks."
"Thanks."
Slowly, everyone shouted to thank Om and they started clapping. The sound of the applause was reverberating throughout the whole auditorium waves after waves. Listening to these applause made the every single drop of blood in Om's body to seethe in excitement. This feeling of being praised and loved was a very new concept for him as in his earlier life he had been an introvert who loved watching movies and songs, games, etc. Since a small age he hadn't participated in any type of competitions or public events too because of his nature. So, now that he had experienced what it felt like to be praised by someone, he felt incomparable happy. He felt happy that is he could make people laugh. He felt happy because people like him for that.
Under the shower of applause, Om went down the stage. After greeting the boss, he left the auditorium.
As soon as he left, a crowd of people immediately rushed towards Arjun.
"Hey, was that an employee in your company? If not, I want to hire him."
"Hey Arjun, why didn't you tell us that you had such a talent working in your company?"
"Your eyes really can identify a diamond from a bunch of ordinary rocks. Such a talent that little fellow is."
"Arjun, you have to invite us again if you host a event like this again."
Hearing all these praise, even the emotional less face of Arjun had a faint smile on his face. He thanked everyone politely and talked with other people then. He looked around and beckoned at Ravindra who was standing at a corner with a dark face.
When Ravindra saw someone beckoning at him, he turned his head a bit and saw that it was Arjun who was calling him. Ravindra hurriedly made his way towards Arjun with a pleasing smile on his face.
As soon as he came beside him, Arjun hugged Ravindra's shoulder and said, "It was this trusted subordinate of mine who dug out such a talent."
Arjun introduced Ravindra to his other business partners and Ravindra happily talked to each one of them. When everyone had left the auditorium, Arjun said to Ravindra, "Ravindra. I want you to give Om a reward of Rs 30,000 as soon as you meet him. No, it will be better if you give him now"
"Understood, sir,"
"It's good that you have understood. Now, inform Om that I want to see him in my office tomorrow morning at 8:30 sharp. Well then, I'll be going."
As soon as Arjun finished speaking, he hurriedly left too, leaving behind Ravindra who was gritting his teeth angrily. 'It took me so much effort to make Om become a dead dog. So, much time was spent. But because of just a single mistake of mine, all my hard work went down the drain. AAAHH!!! Why did you do that, god? I wanted to see Om suffer...Why god? why?"
And here was a devotee of god who was blaming the god for not helping him in his 'quest' to make people suffer(God: F*ck you).