One day later
Om woke up quite early today. Why? Obviously, because he was nervous. Today was the day he had do Stand-Up comedy in the FICCI KK Birla Auditorium. He was nervous not because he didn't had any confidence in the performance he was going to do instead, he didn't have much confidence in himself. The last time he performed, he had given his all to make everyone laugh because of the severity of the situation. However, he didn't know if he could perform like that once again.
Thinking about this made Om even more nervous. So, he just shook his head and got ready to leave for his office. First, he had to go and meet Ayush so that he could inform him about various things. And only then would he leave for the FICCI KK Birla Auditorium. After having a simple breakfast, Om locked his doors and went straight to the All India Comedy Company.
After taking the metro, Om took the yellow line which took Om to Rajiv Chowk. There, Om had to wait for a while under the scorching sunlight for a taxi. After who knows how many years, Om finally managed to find an empty auto rickshaw. After 5 minutes, Om was standing outside the company.
[A.N- Rajiv Chowk is one of the places in Connaught Place and Auto rickshaw is a motorized, three-wheeled rickshaw for public hire.]
As Om entered through the main entrance of the company, he immediately felt that he was in heavens. The cool air from the ACs were like air blown by the angels. The scorching sunlight outside was so hot that the temperature had reached 40 degree Celsius outside. This much heat was enough to roast a person into a literal hot-dog. But after entering the Company, all the heat disappeared suddenly and instead, it was very cool inside which gave Om a huge sense of comfort.
Still not stopping, Om nodded and smiled lightly towards the female receptionist whose name was Varsha. She was the one who had taken Om to the Ayush's office yesterday. Om took the elevator to the 12th floor. As soon as Om knocked on the door, he heard a voice saying, "Come in."
[A.N- Ayush means Age; duration of life; lineage" in Hindi]
Om entered the office and immediately joined his hand in front of his chest and said with a bow, "Namaste, boss. How are you doing today?"
[A.N- The literal translation of the word "Namaste" breaks down into three sections...[Nama] means bow; [as] means I; and, [te] means you. Thus, I bow to you. The gesture is one of greeting in India.]
"Hahaha…I am fine. Come here and sit. We have a few things to discuss."
Om nodded and walked a little and sat in front of Ayush. Ayush said, "First of all Om, tell me, how much confidence do you have in your today's performance?"
"I am very confident in my performance, but I am a bit nervous." Om said shyly.
"Hmm…It's very normal to be nervous. So, when you are on stage, just think about the day you performed in front of so many people in the auditorium that day. If you weren't nervous then, you shouldn't be now too. And it's good that you have so much confidence. I am looking forwards to your performance. Don't disappoint me, alright?" Ayush said smilingly.
When Om heard that someone was looking forward to his performance, he was delighted. He swore in his heart that he was going to give his all to not disappoint Ayush. So, after that, Ayush told Om that he won't be the only one performing their and his chance to go on the stage was third. When Om asked how many people would be performing there, Ayush said, "There would be only 4 people performing."
Hearing this, Om said with a wry smile, "I have to go on the third place which is the second last performance. You might as well let the last one to perform before me."
"No. That can't do. The person going last is a very well-known Stand-Up comedian. We told him to go last so that he could end the whole show with his performance as he is the one who is in demand right now. So, it would be best to let the people try the side dishes first and let the main dish for the last. Do you understand?"
"So, I am a side dish, boss?" Om said half-jokingly.
"No, no. You are a talented person who would even surpass Pratham, that well-known Stand-Up comedian. But for now, you have to start from the beginning. Getting fame requires both time and effort."
"Thank you, boss for encouraging me. I understand what you mean." Om said.
"Haha….go now. It is about time that the show starts." Ayush said laughing.
Om got up and hurriedly went out of the door. He once again took the elevator and reached the ground floor. After getting out of the company, Om sat on an auto rickshaw and told him to go to Tansen Mark, KK Birla Auditorium.
[A.N- Another place in Connaught Place.]
After 10 min of sitting inside a 'stove', Om reached the place he was going to perform today. It was quite a huge building. There were many vehicles that were parked in the parking zone and many people were rushing inside the auditorium at this time. It seemed like they all came there for the Stand-Up comedy.
Om also made his way inside the huge building. When he went inside, he realized that it was not completely an auditorium. It had many different rooms for different purposes too. So, Om had to ask a worker there about the direction of the auditorium. After memorizing the way, Om walked a little and turned left and then right. Soon, he saw a big door. Above the door there was something written which read "Auditorium".
When Om was about to push the doors open, he was stopped by a young man of about 27-28 years old. He said, "You are Om, right? Hello, I am Mohan. Boss Ayush have already informed me about you coming. So, I am here to pick you up and take you to the backstage."
[A.N- Mohan is a Hindu name from Sanskrit mohana which means 'fascinating', 'infatuating', an epithet of the god Krishna.]
"Ah! Hello, Mohan. Nice to meet you. And thank you for coming here to pick me up." Om said as he shook hands with Mohan.
"Well, we have to hurry. Almost all the seats are full and the show is going to start soon. Let's go." Mohan said, looking at his watch.
"Alright. Let's go." Om nodded.
Then, they hurriedly made their way towards the backstage where they found people rushing here and there. When Om entered the room, everyone's eyes fell on his body which made him a little uncomfortable. But soon everyone returned back to what they were doing earlier. After seeing who it was, they no longer bothered themselves to watch a newbie. They had other more popular people to attend to.
Seeing this, Om felt nothing. He knew that they were very busy at this time as the show was about to start and they had to double check to make sure that everything goes well during the show. So, after just looking at him they went back to their work. This was a very normal reaction in Om's mind. So, he didn't bother anyone and just took a seat at a corner and waited for a make-up artist to do a little bit make-up for him.
Soon, the people running around had slowed down. It seemed as if everything was in check. Only now did he see three other men who were having their make-up done at this time. When their make-up was done, they looked at each other and started laughing.
"Hey Pratham, you look a lot 'handsome' now." Laughed one of them.
"You too Ghotak. You look more and more like a horse now. HAHAHAHA" Said Pratham.
[A.N- Ghotak means Horse in Hindi.]
"Hahahahah.." As the third one heard this, he also started laughing.
Well, if you looked carefully, you would also see that the one who was called Ghotak, actually looked like a horse. He had long and thin face with bulging eyes. He also had a thick nose. But what actually made him look like a horse was his hairs. His whole head was shaved clean without a single hair. Only hairs in the middle were left which were very long and shiny. They started from his forehead and grew all the way to the back of his head. These hairs looked like the mane of the horse which if seen along with his other facial feature made him look like a human-like horse.
Seeing this, Om also couldn't hold his laugh back.
"Pfft…"
"Hey, what are you laughing at?" Asked Ghotak angrily as he looked at Om.
"I am laughing at you." Om pointed at Ghotak's 'mane'.
Seeing Om being so straightforward, Ghotak was speechless. He knew Om was going to debut today as a stand-up comedian. He also knew that Ayush boss also had high expectation from him. But this all the more made him angry. 'I have been doing shows with you company for more than three years, made countless of your shows hit, but I still didn't hear a single word of praise from you, much less a direct meeting with you twice. And my salary is only Rs 20,000 per month now, but when I started it was only Rs 7,000. So, why does he get twice the amount I used to get? Even after joining this company, it took me 1-2 months before I got an opportunity to perform once. And this little shit? It is his second day! What does he have that I don't have? He isn't as popular as me. He isn't as handsome as me (Woah! Stop right there dude. You? And handsome? PFFT!!). Then why?'
These thoughts were spinning in his mind right now. And when he saw that Om was still laughing at him, he was enraged. When he was about to step forward to punch Om, he was held back by Pratham. So, he just looked at Om with disdain and said, "Laugh as much as you want, but when you go out, it will be our turn to laugh at you. I hope you perform well."
After saying this, the trio left. Seeing them leave, Om was speechless. He realized that laughing at the wrong moment really causes one to fall into trouble. Om just shook his head and stopped thinking about it. He wanted to once again rehearse everything in his mind so, he just closed his eyes and started rehearsing. He didn't know that when he was busy rehearsing in his head, three people were plotting against him at this time.
"Listen, Ramu. I want you to mess with Om's mic, okay?" Said Ghotak aggresively.
"B-But sir, Ayush Boss will get angry if he knows that I had messed with sir Om's mic," Ramu said hesitatingly. He was the guy who was responsible for all the things that had to do with sounds. In other words, he was also responsible for the mics of the performers. As he was one of the most important person in the crew, he was very serious about his work. So, when Ghotak came along with Pratham and Akash to tell him to mess with Om's mic, he was very hesitant. He didn't want to do it but after being pressurized by the trio, he had to agree.
[A.N- Akash, in hindi means 'The Sky'.]
Seeing Ramu agree, the trio went out with satisfaction. Why would Akash, Ghotak, and Pratham want to mess with Om you ask? Akash, like Ghotak, had Rs 7,000 as his salary and he got the chance to perform even later than Ghotak. And after he heard that Om was going to get Rs 15,000 as his starting salary and got the chance to perform so early, he was incomparably jealous. He felt like if he didn't get those perks, he wouldn't let anyone else have them too. He wanted to thoroughly shame Om on the stage so that today's performance becomes his worst nightmare.
These vicious thoughts are the most harmful things in the world, even more harmful than a nuclear bomb. These types of thought harm not only others but self too. And here too, because of these thoughts, they are going to suffer. But that is a story for some time later.
As for Pratham, he just played along with them because of their friendship. Although he was just playing along with the two, he felt that what they were doing was a little excessive. So, even if it seemed like he was with them, he didn't say anything from start to end.
After about 15 min, the show began. The host first said a few lines and the audience began to clap. There were about 400 people in the auditorium and the sound of their applause reverberated in the whole auditorium like thunder. After seeing that the atmosphere in the auditorium had reached its peak, the host immediately called for the first performer, Akash.