Stories / Novel – The Halo Reams      
The Appointment
by TA Ramesh

The next Saturday evening Kannan was walking on the pavement towards the Venus Café. People were seen moving in and out of the show rooms and the shops. He stood in a place for a moment to see the movements of the vehicles in the traffic there. Then he went on with a steady pace observing the fashionable people, cars of different models and the fanciful articles of each and every show room in that street. At last he entered the Venus café and took a chair in one corner of the hall.

“What do you want, Sir?” asked the waiter in white uniform dress with a green turban on his head.

“Please come after a few minutes,” said Kannan, “I am waiting for my friends.”

For him it seemed that the café was the best rendezvous for young people. The cigarette smoke was occupying the whole area. It induced everyone to start smoking, when they entered the café. No one bothered about the injury it did to the lungs. It is one of the aspects of our modern civilisation. After a few minutes, Balu arrived there, sat by the side of Kannan and proffered a Wills Flake cigarette pack. He also took one cigarette. Balu showed the burning match stick to the cigarettes and they started smoking.

“It is better to smoke than to inhale the black smoke emitted by the people around here. Where are our friends, Balu?”

“They have gone to Gopal’s house and will come soon. What shall we have in the meantime?”

They ordered for a plate of potato chips. By the time the chips came to the table all the other Haloens had come there and exchanged wishes among themselves. Then glasses of cold water came to the table. The waiter got orders for vegetable cut-let, egg-omelette and hot coffee from them.

There was decisiveness and finality in the way Kannan pressed the cigarette butt into the ash tray. While slicing the vegetable cutlet, he spoke, “I have obtained an appointment letter from the office of THE TREASURE magazine this morning. I am supposed to report to this office next Monday. After meeting the proprietor of that office in Madras, I shall know the names of the places I have to visit in South India. Then only it seems, a programme can be fixed by them.”

After eating the last piece of the vegetable cutlet Balu said, “The way it goes, I think, you may have to write reports on the places you are going to visit. What is the idea you have regarding this?”

“The proprietor of THE TREASURE knows well about my taste in writing. More than this he knows also that I am interested in writing something new and innovative. He is a man of such thoughts too. So, there shall be something special in this appointment. But I feel that I will be writing only articles with some modifications according to his editorial policy.”

After giving his reply to the question of Balu, Kannan drank a mouthful of water from the glass in one gulp. He dragged near to his side one plate containing egg omelette and started applying pepper and salt to the yellow stuff. Tasting a small piece of the omelette, he turned to Vaithianathan who had started eating egg omelette before everyone.

“What Mr. Vaithianathan,” asked he, “you are not saying anything today like Mr. Gopal and Mr. Selvam? Say something interesting. I want to hear your views very much.”

Stopping his busy activity for a while, he said, “It is a remarkable thing for me to be in your company. I like to listen to you. My dilemma now is that I have to choose between law and job. I have applied for the law course here. If I get a job I shall discontinue the course and go out somewhere like you and work for my livelihood. That is the position of my story now.”

But Kannan said, “There is no dilemma in your case. You can continue your study of law in the correspondence course even if you join in any work anywhere or by taking study leave after a few months perhaps.”

Disappointed Selvam intervened in their talk and said, “All are going out to some place you like. But what about the meet of our Halo… when and where and how?”

In that connection Balu said, “I wonder Selvam is also much concerned with the break of our Halo! I would like to say that I may also go out of home if I got an appointment in the government office as I have written one UDC Exam recently. This is mainly because I am not satisfied with the present salary I am getting and another thing is I can be away from my troublesome relatives of my family.”

“So, I am the only person who may have to look after The Halo with Selvam in this town, it seems,” said Gopal in a pathetic mood.

Again to maintain the good tempo of their talk, Kannan said, “Humour is the spice of life. Nothing is great unless there is a sense of humour. Our group is not lacking this sense. That is good. We have to keep this situation up forever. But at the same time we should not forget that our motto is integrity of thoughts, words and deeds. If we think one thing and say one thing and do some other thing, it will not be becoming of a good Haloen. So, Gopal you should not forget what you have just now said and should not fail to do so even if myself, Balu and our Vaithianathan leave the town immediately.”

By saying so Kannan with a suppressed smile looked at Selvam and then at Balu. Before anyone raised his voice, the waiter stood before them and waited for further orders. With the consultation of his friends Kannan ordered the waiter for hot coffee and a few more glasses of water. Then Kannan took up the question put forth by Selvam to offer his opinion.

He said, “The question Selvam has raised regarding the meeting of our Halo is relevant. You can continue the meetings in the Sundays as usual. The thing is one has to put down in writing what you have discussed and post it to me so that I can write my views too and send it to you for your perusal. I will be meeting you in paper rather than in person. So, there is no incumbent to be dealt with and we can very well enrich our knowledge, develop our character and make ourselves have a clear voice over any issue. By this way we can develop our personality, which is quite unique to this Halo!”

The table was cleared and cups of coffee were placed for all to enjoy. Everyone took one cup and started sipping the hot flavoured coffee. Balu, who got some ideas, put forth his suggestions to them.

“It is a good thing if we write down what we discuss every week so that we can understand how far we have progressed in our way to attain our cherished goals. In addition to this every month we can publish a magazine for our private circulation. This will be an interesting work for our Halo. As you all know that ‘Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man!’ we can start this magazine work from the next month onwards so that we can slowly develop our integrity of thoughts, words and deeds. This will make us perfect one day.”

For clarification Vaithianathan asked, “It is interesting to hear your new suggestion, Balu. Could you explain the essential features of this magazine?”

In his explanation Balu said, “This magazine is just like any other simple magazine you can find in our town. The objective of this magazine is to express what we know, feel ad what we like to criticise, comment and correct. You can write anything you like. This magazine will contain one Editorial, articles, newspaper cuttings, etc. The topics we discuss every week can be written in the form of a report which will be included as one of the articles of this magazine.”

Selvam had his own doubts. He enquired, “Who is the Editor and who is the Reporter for this magazine?”

In reply Balu said, “Anyone can be the editor and anyone can be the reporter. I have said about the feature of the magazine and we can all decide who the editor will be and who the reporter will be.”

“I don’t think that this will be an easy work,” opined Gopal. “Some are interested in writing and some have no taste at all for that. And besides, where is the time to write when we have got so many works at home and out?”

Balu said simply, “Where there is a well, there is a way! Let us see what Kannan can say about this work.”

In order to make his point clear Kannan said, “This is not bad! Magazine is a wonderful media to exchange our knowledge and ideas! There should not be compulsion over anyone. It should be a voluntary work. No serious thought is necessary for this work. This is a friendly magazine and is meant for limited circulation only. So, who bothers if anyone goes wrong anywhere…? Size of the articles can be left to the privilege of the contributors. Everyone can become an editor one by one and so also for the post of reporter.”

Balu said, “This is now clear to everyone, I think. So, let us choose the first editor and the first reporter for the first issue which will be released on the first day of next month.”

“By the way, what will be the name of the magazine?” asked Vaithianathan.

“Why? It is the name of our group – THE HALO,” swiftly said Balu. “THE HALO is the name of our magazine too.”

In support of that name Kannan said, “Let the editorial work be allotted to Balu as he has suggested the wonderful idea of starting a magazine for the improvement of this Halo group and let me take up the report writing work for the first issue. And other Haloens may contribute their articles. I think Vaithianathan can be the Associate Editor to compile the magazine. In the second issue Selvam and Gopal have to take up the works of the Editor and the Reporter respectively. And the cycle has to be continued by turn. This will be a kind of child’s play and so, there won’t be much difficulty for anyone.”

All accepted this proposal. The waiter brought the Bill to the table. Balu paid the bill. The wall clock of the Venus Café showed 7 p.m. The Halo group left the Venus Café and then straight away went to the Bharat Library in the White town.

They saw the young and old people of the Ashram were hurrying to the play ground to perform the meditation work. The purity of the mind and the body were keeping them fresh and free and were slowly leading them to the state of spiritual enlightenment as days passed on. The white town area was also occupied by the French and Anglo-Indian people. In some of the houses, which were quite colossal, notes of different musical instruments were heard. The young people were seen playing cards with glasses of some drinks they preferred. The place was quite calm and serene. The Bharat Library was a tall roofed building near a good old French church built nearly two centuries ago.

The Haloens put their signatures in the reception booth and entered into the Library hall. The chief librarian, a stout and tall old man by the name Ganesan was writing something. His smoking pipe was lying on the table near his left hand. When he saw them, Mr. Ganesan invited them and showed them to sit on the chairs around his big table.

Mr. Ganesan said to Kannan and his friends, “First of all I have to thank you very much for your out standing fund collection for the development and the extension of this library. This is an official thanks to you Kannan. Personally I convey my hearty wishes for your literary ventures!”

Kannan cut short the matter. While briefing his opinion he said, “This is only a common thing when education develops enormously in our country. For this, such a great praise is not necessary. Though library is a part of educational equipment, it has to improve and develop much to shackle off the ties of ignorance in our country. This will go a long way to eradicate poverty and curb diseases.

My point of visit with my friends to your office at this hour is to inform you that I have become a journalist. I have got an appointment in THE TREASURE and so, I won’t be available here from the next Monday onwards. I may or may not come here for the inauguration of the new extension of this library.”

“But Kannan,” said Ganesan, “the construction work will take time. I never thought that so soon you will have to leave this place. But any way the profession you have chosen is praise worthy one. Usually journalists are called the fourth columnists because of their social importance. It is an old saying that doctors burry their mistakes, lawyers hang them, but journalists put them on the front page. This is because journalists are quite frank and point blank in conveying truth to the public whenever they came across anywhere in the world. It is said of the journalists that they have the soul of an artist and the mind of a scientist. So, it can be said that journalism is the science of art. So much is there for journalism. And I wish you success in all your ventures once again!”

“It is giving me much inspiration, Mr. Ganesan. I thank you very much for giving so high an importance to this profession.”

Taking out a paper slip, Mr. Ganesan wrote something and handed it over to Kannan. While he was going through it, Mr. Ganesan proceeded with his talk.

“This professor working in Lords College is a friend of mine. Please meet him if possible. He will guide you on matters which are testing you much. He can talk on any subject hours together. I hope you can understand and make use of him.”

The Halo group took leave of him and left the office in no minute. “Bhoom! Bhoom!” The horn sound of a Ship leaving the port was heard. They were also walking towards the port office. On their way they asked what supper would be available in the Chinese restaurant. Then they continued their walk.

“It is not necessary that I should meet Mr. Ganesan,” said Kannan to his friends. “His voice is quite inspiring. Whenever I see him and hear his voice a sense of responsibility comes to me and invigorates me to do some mighty work. It is known that 1% of inspiration and 99% of perspiration are required to do a work successfully. This one percent of inspiration is the drive required to make 99% of hard work to yield the result – a thing of achievement. This one percent inspiration is obtained from persons like Mr. Ganesan. That is why I called on him today.”

Vaithianathan said, “Your departure is going to be felt very much by us. Though we may write letters to you, it would not be as interesting and effective as personal discussion.”

Balu opined, “That is correct. But we cannot hope so always. We are not born together. When we die we are not going to die together. It is quite natural to everyone. But promise, friendship and love are irreplaceable. We have to stick to it. If we do that, it will be sufficient and that is the thing we are expected to do.”

Then Kannan opined, “Wherever I go I consider myself to be the representative of THE HALO. Whatever I come across I shall share with you. I will act according to our motto and I shall send all possible useful information to you for your development. That will be my prime work in this mission.”

When they reached the port, they made their way to the sand. Most of the people were getting up and leaving the place. When they settled there, Gopal lit a cigarette and gave the packet to Balu, who proffered them to rest of the crew.

As the smoke was coming through his nostrils Gopal said, “That Ganesan has also attracted me much. I have seen him smoking his pipe very often. I like to enjoy smoking the pipe one day.”

In retaliation Selvam said, “I am not much old to smoke pipe. But cigarette is handy. What do you say Kannan?”

With laughter Kannan smoked for sometime. He said, “It is left to the individual’s choice. Anything is preferable to me.”

Time was moving without notice. One hour passed. The friends got up and left for the Chinese restaurant. They enjoyed the supper listening to some French light music. Then they The harbour was bright with lights. Loading and unloading work was going on. Small motor boats were seen nearing the harbour and stopping there safely. Some people came out of the boats. Diesel Locomotive connected with a chain of goods wagon started moving from the harbour. A few more people got into the motor boats from the pier. Two motor boats started the engines and left for the three ships anchored a furlong from the pier. The sound of the Locomotive disappeared soon. It was silent then. The motor boats were tossing up and down on the lulling water. The sea was dark. The lights in the ships were shining like yellow diamonds. The breeze was heavy and cool.

They left the place in two cycle rickshaws.

– Continued

October 7, 2007

The Halo Dreams : A Novel 
Writing a Novel | The Park | Philosophy | The Confusion | The Conversation
The Appointment | The Journey | The First Publication | The Change
The Secret | The Painted Veil | The Halo Magazine | The Debts | The Break
A Letter | A Surprise Letter | The Literary Muse | The Souvenir | The Questionnaire
The Reconciliation | The Lake | The Final Meets | The Surprise | The Settlements
The Result 

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