Pizza Toppings

The Kukkur family was a middle-class one. There were three members, Samrat Kukkur, his wife Sattori Kukkur, and their son Sukkul.

Samrat owned an export business and was doing pretty well for himself and his family. It could be said that success was starting to get into his head.

Anyways, Sattori had been at Samrat’s case of late. She wanted a house servant. She said she was tired of all the chores and would like a servant at her command, especially now that they could afford one.

Soon, the Kukkurs hired an 11-year old boy. Not bothering about the original name of the boy, they named him Gadhesh.

Gadhesh, of course, belonged to a poor family. He had come from a village in Rajasthan and had moved to Delhi when he was 10-years old.

Anyways, the Kukkurs did not treat him well. Sattori kept Gadhesh busy throughout the day with the household tasks while she stayed glued to the television.

At the same time, Samrat would come home in the evening and scold Gadhesh for no rhyme or reason. 

...

One day, the Kukkurs ordered pizza. They had tried pizza just recently and had taken an instant liking to it.

As their usual routine went, they sat on the dinner table and started eating from the boxes, while Gadhesh watched from the corner.

Samrat asked if Gadhesh wanted a slice, and that brought a big smile on the servant’s face. However, Samrat removed all the toppings from Gadhesh’s slice before handing it over. He put all the toppings on his wife’s share.

Gadhesh felt bad. But he did not think much and enjoyed his share. 

…

After a week, the Kukkurs ordered pizza again. The same old routine followed. They sat and started feasting, and Gadhesh watched, this time in anticipation.

The servant’s stares annoyed Samrat.

He took a slice and removed all the topping. Next, he removed most of the cheese. Then, he handed it over to Gadhesh.

This annoyed Gadhesh. He said he wanted the toppings, which angered Samrat big time.

Samrat, in a fit of anger, spat on the slice and then offered it to Gadhesh. “Here’s your topping, you uneducated fool”, he said.

Gadhesh started crying. He probably continued the entire night… and ran away from the house the very next morning.

Gadhesh found another job soon, this time a much better family.

He worked pretty hard for the next 10 years. He worked in houses and did a bit of repair jobs as well.

In the process, he even picked a little English and started earning decently to keep himself going. Most importantly, he learned from his friend how to ride a bike. It was important for him.

Truth is, while working hard all these years, Gadhesh always had an aim. An ambition!

His friend had once casually asked him about it. And all Gadhesh said was, “I want to become a pizza delivery boy”. His friend could not control the laughter. He said, “are you mad?”

“Of course, I am insane”, said Gadhesh. And he laughed too. 

…

A few months later, when he thought the time was right, Gadhesh went to a specific pizza parlor and applied for the job of a delivery boy. As he’d expected with his skills, he got it!

He knew his time would come soon. All he had to do now was to wait.

And soon enough, he got the opportunity. He was handed a couple of boxes to be delivered to a house, a few kilometers away. The bill on the boxes bore the name ‘Samrat Kukkur’. 

… 

Ting Tong

“Sir, your pizza”.

“Thanks, how much?”

“Seven-Hundred Twenty-Four”

“Here you go… keep the change” 

…

Soon, the family finished all the boxes. They loved it!

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Little did they realize that all the toppings had been polished with chunks of saliva.

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This post was written by me as part of 34th Blog-a-Ton. It fetched me no votes. Rightly. And as expected. :)