Sandeep
looked at his watch and it was the last 5 minutes of the hour. The crescent shaped scar ending right under
his watch rekindled the defeat in his head. He gritted his teeth and put his
hand in his pocket, he slowly pulled out his hand along with a gleaming brand
new cycle chain which he had kept coiled. He gave it a glance and put it right
back in. The bell rang.
Andy
was the first to walk out; he went to end of the corridor and waited. Sandeep
came out keeping long strides but wasn’t walking fast he was gathering himself
in the process in his mind preparing his moves. He tightened the leather bracelet
in his hand and wrapped is bandanna around it and tied the ends around his fist
and clasped his hand. He joined Andy and both of them walked out toward the
bike stand.
Andy rode and Sandeep checked his mobile in the pillion, the light
of the mobile screen flashed on his helmet vizer, he had received 3 sms, he saw
the names, it was from Pundit, Guru and Adi and all said the same thing “Rdy
& waiting, b there in 30”. Sandeep had a smug smile coming across his face
he gripped Andy’s shoulder, Andy got the message and revved the engine, the bike
did a slight wheelie and jumped into the front traffic, they were gone weaving
through the gaps like water on rapids.
The mall was buzzing with activity as it was a long weekend Friday
evening. Every shop was full and the shoppers were walking all over the aisles,
the escalators were full and some were even taking the stairs to reach their
favorite shops. There was big open space in the middle of the mall were some
random music was getting played with a big stage arranged as there was a movie
roadshow planned later. The lead actors were expected around 6 in the evening.
Many TV crew with their cameras on tripods had assembled around the stage
waiting for the event to start.
Sandeep and Andy stood at the corner of a coffee shop waiting for
the others right in front of the big open space; the music was reverberating
across the mall. Sandeep’s phone buzzed again and the 3 sms followed one after
the other in succession “I’m here”. He replied back to them all saying “Be
ready, anytime now”.
Sandeep looked at Andy and said, “you know why this is happening,
it wasn’t easy but this is the only chance to get back for everything they said
and did, I can see the other gang is already here, they are right at the far
end of the open space and we have to strike, yes it’s in front of everyone but
we don’t have any choice. I want you to know that anything can happen, anything
goes wrong just don’t worry about me and split. We will meet at Chikki’s and
then decide what next”. Andy gave a hug
to Sandeep in acknowledgement and then he sat down and opened his bag. Passed
on a baseball cap, a skull faced balaclava and a t-shirt to Sandeep; took one
pair each for himself. They didn’t want anybody to know at that time.
It was around 6, there was a hustle bustle at the entrance and the
event team around the stage ran towards the entrance as the actors had arrived.
At the same time someone wearing a baseball cap walked by the DJ console which
was unmanned and slipped a new disc in one of the DJ pods and increased the
volume to full and walked away.
The actors got on stage and greeted and waved at all the people in
the mall and cameras were capturing every moment. The DJ from the event team
came back and was waiting for his cue from the stage director. The actors
screamed a caption of the movie in the mike and which was the cue for the DJ
and dancers who came along with the actors to start a routine. The DJ clicked
on the play button.
Sandeep pulled out the cycle chain from his pocket and the next 3
minutes the entire mall stood stunned. Sandeep, Andy, Pundit, Guru and Adi
jumped on the stage from nowhere and danced their best street mix flash mob
right in front of the entire mall and through the TV cameras, the world. Nobody
wanted to stop them and the entire mall reverberated with the claps. Most
thought it was part of the event. All the people in the mall were trying to do
the moves, it was inspiring. The routine ended and Guru pulled out a scroll
from the back of his head and ended the routine by showing it to the cameras.
It read;
“This is for you
We Got Talent
From the Musters”
…and then they all scrambled away into the crowd.
WGT was a reality television where they had participated 2 months
ago after practicing for a year. During the routine, Sandeep was to flip over
Andy and he missed the timing crashing on the edge of the stage and injuring
his wrist with a crescent scar. The time was only 3 minutes and they couldn’t
gather themselves back to finish the routine and even with many pleadings for
one more chance the judges rejected them. It was a year’s practice which went
down. The dance group in the mall who were to perform in the roadshow had also
participated on the same day and they had been selected. They had even mocked
at Sandeep and his team for the poor performance.
Sandeep called themselves ‘the musters’, as a group of peacocks
are called a muster, it’s very rare to see a group of peacocks dance and
it can happen only when it rains or when they bring the rains.
These musters didn’t want their second chance, they didn’t wait
for the rain, they created it they created the rain. They had danced, they had
got their revenge.
It was drizzling outside chikki’s, their favorite chai shop as
they sat sipping their tea. They all looked at each other and smiled. Sandeep was
satisfied, but was worried, as he had put them all in a situation; he was
worried about the actions from various authorities as it was an illegal
performance in a public place. Sandeep’s phone buzzed, he looked at the phone
and it was blinking “Director WGT”. He picked up and said “Hello”.
They not only went on to win WGT that year but also got a special
song sequence in the movie too with the lead actors.
The Musters
Sandeep ~ Sandy
Andy ~ Anand
Pundit ~ Rishi
Guru
~ Guru
Adi ~ Aditi
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