MADAN AMARNATH CHOKSI - MAC
Madan is a boy from a middle class family. Average in studies but smart and hardworking. Completed his Diploma and joined a job to support his family. His father (Amarnath Choksi) is a clerk at a private firm. He works hard to earn just enough to run his family. Due to all the tension at work and at home, he is always angry with one thing or the other. He is not very happy with Madan. He thinks that Madan would not be able to do anything on his own. On the other hand Madan feels that his father hates him. He feels bad whenever his father discourages him and every time this happens he promises himself to do something and show his father. The one negative point of Madan is that he lacks self-confidence.
Life goes on like this as usual. Many times when Amarnath scolds Madan, he would just leave the house and return late when everybody is asleep. Sometimes he cries in front of his mother and sometimes in front of his friend, the only one good friend he has.
One day Madan read about call centers in newspaper. He found it interesting that these call centers take people with good English even if they are not graduates. And the most important thing, they pay good amount of money. He did research on the call centers from newspapers, friends, TV, Internet, etc. so he told his friend about this and they both started looking for call center job.
It was not easy for Madan to clear interviews. Though his English was good he was not able to clear interviews because of his lack of self confidence. But he worked hard and finally managed to get a job in a very good company. And to his good luck, the company sent Madan and few more people to US for training. Madan performed so well during the training that the company offered him job in US. Madan readily accepted the position as now he had chance to do something and show his father that he is not useless. He started his new life, first of all changing his name. He didn’t like his name, Madan, as such and so he accepted the name with his initials – MAC.
It is about a year since MAC has come to US. He has now become a Team Manager. He keeps on calling his home (INDIA) regularly and mostly talks to his mother. He speaks very less to his father. His mother keeps telling him that they are very happy with his progress. She also tells him many times that his father is now very proud of him and talks with friends, relatives and neighbors proudly about him. MAC is also very happy to hear this but he is never able to gather enough guts to talk with his father freely.
MAC now stays in a very good apartment in a very good city. He stays with an Indian girl who works in his office and they both love each other and have plans to get married in future. The girl’s name is Priya.
One day early in the morning the doorbell rang continuously many times. Priya opens the door and finds an old man with quite some luggage standing over there. She asks him what does he want and the old man says that he has come to meet Madan. Priya says that there is no Madan living there and tries to close the door. But the old man stops her and says that he is Amarnath from India and that he is Madan’s father. Priya, now irritated, shouts at him to go away or she’ll call police and slams the door behind. Priya sits filling tea in cups while MAC enters. He had heard the doorbell and then loud voice of Priya from the bathroom. He asks about it to Priya and she says that there was some stupid old man from India asking about some stupid Madan. MAC was shocked on hearing this and some tea spilled out of his mouth. He then hold’s Priya’s hand eagerly and asks if the old man told his name. Priya surprised by this sudden strange behavior of MAC, says that it was some Amarkant or Amarlal or something. MAC confirmed if it was Amarnath and ran to go out. He opened the door and saw his father sitting near the door with tears in his eyes. He brought him in the house and introduced him to Priya. He was embarrassed with his father suddenly coming without informing. He didn’t talk much and left for the office. Priya stayed at home. She apologized for being rude and said that she didn’t know MAC’s real name is Madan. In very less time Amarnath came to know that Priya is a very nice and cultured girl from a very good family. He felt odd about them staying together without getting married but didn’t speak anything at that moment.
Couple of days passes by. Not much of talking between father and son. MAC and Priya both went to office in the morning and came in the evening. Amarnath watched TV and rested most of the time. He had called India and talked to his wife that he has reached safely. He also tells her about Priya and to his surprise, comes to know that MAC has already talked to her mother about Priya but had requested her to hide it from his father for some time.
On Sunday morning, while having tea, MAC says that they’ll take his father around the city. But Amarnath insisted on staying at home and said that he just wanted to talk to MAC. Priya also agrees and says that she’ll prepare some good food and goes into the kitchen. Amarnath sits beside Madan and for the first time in a long time, keeps his hand on Madan’s shoulder and talks everything about days he was rude with Madan. He said he had always loved him but he released his frustration on him and he felt very bad after Madan left. His eyes became wet while talking all these things. Madan’s eyes were also filled with tears listening to his father. He said that he also loved his father but was always afraid of him he never wanted any help but what he needed was this hand on his shoulder and few words of encouragement. But he also said that it was because of the rude behavior of his father that he decided to come to US, and so that rude behavior was blessing in disguise. He also accepted that he never wanted to leave his family and his country, but he was afraid to come back to India. So he struggled through hard days and reached a good position. But was now ready to come back and stay with family.
By this time, lunch was ready. While having lunch MAC told Priya that he wished to go back to India and stay with his family. He also asked her to come with him so that they can live together forever. Priya became angry and told them that she would not go to India with MAC. But she also said that if Madan proposes her to marry then she would readily agree to go to India. They all laugh.
