Seasons of Change PART 7

Such were the times when I met Keith Hubbard. Keith was a voluntary worker with a US based charitable group which supported various orphanages around the country. The foundation had requested our channel for coverage for a program they were sponsoring. Strangely, if I call it the ways of fate, the office suddenly wanted me to cover the story. From being a plain news reader I was now playing journalist, and that made me even more awkward and nervous. We had a staff shortage, and I was referred for the job since I had some experience close to it.

When the office manager called me to offer this job I had plainly said yes without many enquiries, just because it would mean a pay hike. But then as I waited in the lobby of the group’s office I felt my feet go numb. It was a warm afternoon in mid January and I could see Madras live the day through the glass window in the room. On the other side of the road sat a strange looking man with a parrot and some cards. Trying to read the future! I wondered with the progress in age how many people still believed the roadside astrologer. But somehow the man wasn’t without customers.

I was losing my nervousness to thoughts when a young girl entered the lobby and walked towards me. “Ms.Aruna, we are so sorry to have kept you waiting. Dr.Hubbard had hurried off for some urgent work and has just arrived. Please come along with me.” I mumbled something incomprehensible that fortunately was unheard, and I silently followed her.

I was seated in a fairly comfortable room which had few cosy chairs and a computer flashed its screensaver from across the table in a far corner. The walls were adored with crayon sketched artwork by children of the orphanages the group worked for, and an old air conditioner attempted to cool the room that afternoon. Regardless of the temperature, I could feel my palms sweating.

“Dr.Hubbard would be here any moment”, said the girl and left the room closing the door behind her. I tried to divert my mind by observing the artwork hung around, and when it didn’t seem to work I closed my eyes and tried hard to concentrate. A good job at this might be a good career move. After all I wanted to make a good mark in media and moreover I needed the money. Maa’s medicines had to be looked after and I wished to reduce the load on Payal where she shuttled between a part time job,studies and taking care of the house. I didn’t realize how long I stayed this way, but when I opened my eyes a brown haired and grey eyed white man was looking at me quite intently sitting on a chair placed in front of me. I stood up startled unsure of what to say. The man stood up and flashed a big smile, “Keith Hubbard… I think I scared you!”

For some moments I was frozen and stood still, when suddenly the man started laughing. For an instant I thought he was insane, and the puzzled expression on my face made him laugh harder. After sometime he controlled himself and beckoned me to my chair, “I am sorry young lady, let’s get the story done!” He pulled out some loose sheets from a file and handed them over to me.

“Here are the details of the program we wanted you to cover. I have made sure I included all details. I hope this helps.”

I don’t remember how the interview went or the program details now. The camera team had arrived soon after and we managed to record the interview wholly minus any other maniacal laughter outbursts from Dr.Hubbard. But when I got up to leave the room Keith had an important question for me, “Ms. Aruna when was the last time you ever laughed?”

For some reason, I found the question weird and simply said, “Our office would let you know when we air the interview” and left in a hurry. When I left his office I had puzzled thoughts troubling my mind. It sure did have a lot of effect on me as I suddenly walked up to the fortune teller on the road side to make an attempt to know my future. The parrot picked up a colored card from the set the fortune teller spread ahead of him. It was a picture card depicting a hindu god. “You have troubles in life and today is not the end of it. But you have the strength to move on. A drastic change is awaited in your life, you will meet someone very important today.”

As I walked into my team’s van to get back to office, I was thinking, “Someone important…Keith Hubbard??.....bah…the madman affected my brains! Why did I even walk to the fortune teller…and why the hell am I pondering over his predictions!”