“Vignesh Thakur, you do realize you're being offered the opportunity of a lifetime?”
“Look, Coach, I’ve already told you. I don’t want to meet this guy.”
“Why not?” The coach slammed his fist on the table.
I replied, “Look, there are plenty of other people offering sponsorships. I’m sure they’ll be more than willing to match the amount he’s offering.”
The coach looked me dead in the eyes.
“It’s not about the money, lad. It’s about fame. Imagine being sponsored by Deviest. Just imagine the—”
I stopped listening. The truth was, I knew the CEO and founder of Deviest personally. Two years ago, when I was barely twelve, Jitendar Kumar and my father had been chatting over drinks in our house. Back then, he was just a software engineer. Mid-conversation, he’d turned to my dad and said,
“Your kid has a heck of a future in computer science. I mean, just look at his marks!”
My dad frowned.
“He’s actually more interested in running.”
Jitendar laughed.“Yeah, but you know what I mean as a career, a future, not childhood hobbies.”
Dad didn’t laugh.
“I understood what you meant the first time.”Jitendar stopped mid-laugh. His eyes lost their humor.
“So what you have in mind for your child is... running races? Amusing audiences like dogs?”
“What I have in mind for my child is for him to be happy, which means doing whatever he wants,” my dad replied coldly.
Jitendar leaned forward, his tone dead serious.
“Arjun, listen to me. Don’t let this madness ruin your child’s life like it ruined mine. Please. Your son can do better than this. I’ll help him with whatever he likes.”
My father’s expression softened.
“I’m really sorry about your daughter. But you have to understand that was an extremely rare case.”
Jitendar didn’t respond. He stood, gripped my shoulder as he left, and said:
“Don’t be blinded by the lure of fame in sports. I assure you, it will ruin your life.”
He walked out of our house — and our lives.
I had tried to tell Jitendar I didn’t want fame. I just wanted to enjoy the sport. But the words wouldn’t come.
Partly because I was scared.
Partly because... I wasn’t sure that was even true. Ever since I started winning championships at age eleven, I’d eagerly flipped through the newspaper, searching for my name. I was exceptional — and I wanted to be recognized for it. Just last September, I qualified for the Asiad 200m. That’s when the sponsorships started rolling in. Headlines read:
"Vignesh Thakur — Young Sensation from India."
Interview invites poured in. I skipped most of them. Because deep down, I feared Jitendar was right — that I’d lose myself in the fame, forget why I loved the sport in the first place.
Actually... he never said that. But he implied it. I didn’t want to meet Jitendar. Didn’t want to take his money or advertise his brand. That would make me his poster boy — the very thing he warned against
I never heard from him again. Until now.
“Thakur?”
I snapped back to reality. “Yes, sir?” “I asked if you know Jitendar Kumar?” ”My pulse quickened.”
He knows.
But... he couldn’t possibly know.
“No, sir.”
“Well, I’ve heard he’s a nice guy. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Jitendar had started a company just two months after he left our home. It sold phones. Within a year, the brand exploded. Now, Deviest is the biggest phone company in the world.
I tried their phones. I’ll admit — they’re cool. The price is cheap, the camera? Don’t even get me started on it. Smooth doesn’t cover it. The photos are unreal. Actually, they’re pretty realistic. But you get what I mean. So yeah — he made it big.
The man who once tried to steer me away from sport is now sponsoring athletes. He’s probably sitting in an air-conditioned office, sipping a smoothie, while I’m out here — running like my life depends on it.
Dang, he really made an impression on me.
“Look,” Coach said, “you’re going to Hyderabad, talking to him, and getting that sponsorship. End of discussion.”
“But—”
“No buts.”
“I—”
“Run along now. The flight is on Sunday, 8 AM. Just you and me. Pack well.”
And so, I found myself bundled into a flight from Ranchi to Hyderabad — on a Sunday morning, no less! — headed straight for the one person I never wanted to see again. Plus, I get airsick. So all in all, life could’ve been better.
The first thing I noticed when I landed was the sheer vastness of the airport.
Crowds everywhere. Cafés. Bookstores. Shops. Basically, you name it — they had it.
On the way to the hotel, I spotted the Charminar. It wasn’t the tallest building I’d ever seen, but it radiated beauty. It was impressive in another way. For the first time in my life, I understood the phrase, ”Size doesn’t matter”. I felt strangely drawn to it.
After we reached the hotel. I fell on the bed.
The coach said. “Rest up. Tomorrow, we are going to meet the CEO of the-”
“I know, coach,” I interrupted. The coach frowned, “Okay, well. If you want to take a nap. Feel free. I’ll wake you up for lunch. I’m in the room next door. Knock if you need anything.”
“Ok”
After he left. I started using my pillow as a punching bag. “Stupid - dumb - son- of - a -”
The coach popped his head in. “Hey, there’s a race on channel 56, in case you’re interested.”
I sighed exasperatedly, “At least knock, coach.”
After he left, I locked the door, then proceeded to beat up my pillow. After about 2 minutes, I was fast asleep.
The lunch was amazing. It almost lifted my mood. Almost. Same with dinner. At night, the coach warned me to sleep, I needed to make a good impression tomorrow. I wondered if it was too late to tell the coach I had cancer.
He’d probably say, “Well, is that my fault? Brush it off and get to sleep!”
With that comforting thought, I collapsed on the bed and slept for 10 hours straight. In the morning. I sat up on my bed, shivering.
I felt like I might throw up. The coach knocked. I wondered what would happen if I simply refused to go, if I just sat here unmoving.
Just go and talk to him. You’ve done harder things!
But still, I couldn’t shake off my nerves. I hadn’t been this nervous before the Asiad. I remembered my father’s reaction when I told him who I was taking this sponsorship from. His jawline had hardened. His eyes narrowed. But he told me to do whatever I thought was right. I told him, “Yeah ,but what do you suggest I do?” He smiled and replied, “This is your call, beta. I don’t want to cloud your judgement with my advice”
My parents are great and all. But it is at these sorts of moments I want to bang my head against the wall and yell, “Why not a straight answer for once in my life!”
I wondered what on Earth I had been thinking. I couldn’t take a sponsorship from the man who’d… What, told me not to pursue my dream? Told me not to ruin my life? Well, according to him, I had ruined my life. And he was offering to ruin it even further! What a great guy! For the umpteenth time, I wondered what had happened to his daughter. My father never told me. I supposed she’d died while boxing or something. That would explain why he was so against sports.
The coach knocked again. I got up and answered the door. He was grinning from ear to ear. “You ready?” He was dressed in a black suit. I’d never seen him dressed formally before. The sight was so comical, I almost laughed. “Give me a minute.”
Half an hour later. I was sitting in the back seat of a taxi, dressed in an emerald green suit, which the coach told me really brought out the brown in my eyes. I’d teased him for knowing so much about fashion. He’d replied, in a grave voice,“Jack of all, master of none.”
I’d called shotgun, but it hadn’t really mattered. The coach offered me an arm-wrestling match to decide. But I took one look at his biceps and decided that the backseat didn’t sound so bad after all.
When we reached the building, my nerves hit me hard. It was at least 150 feet. It towered over the other buildings. As if saying, “Bow to me, I am superior to you.”
“Coac, h“ I groaned, “I need to use the restroom.”
The coach replied, “Suit yourself. We’re early anyways.”
He was nearly jumping up and down with excitement. After a painful 10 minutes in the toilet. I got out and entered the building.
It was as impressive from the inside as the outside. Offices were everywhere. I counted 11 Lifts. Vending machines were lined against the wall. A bar was at the end of the floor.
The coach dragged me to the lifts. “We’re on the fifth floor.”
There was no elevator music, which I found a relief.
The doors clanged open, and I stepped out, expecting the floor to be 20 times better than the first one. But I was wrong. The walls were covered in maps and pictures of a girl who looked around 18. And some other faces. The floor was made of simple white marble. Tables were scattered around the floor, covered in old newspapers, some complex maps, and blueprints.
At the very end of the room, Jitendar Kumar sat on a chair, wearing a broad smile, or a better word would be smug. “Welcome! Please, sit.” He sounded so enthusiastic, I couldn’t help feeling the same way. I took a seat. He smiled at me. “Vignesh Thakur. I’ve heard all about you, of course.”
I gripped the armrests of my chair. All this time, I had been dreading this meeting. Now, when I finally saw him, I realized he must have had different intentions rather than supporting me. “What do you want, Jitendar? You tried to stop me from entering sports, and now you are encouraging me? What are you doing?”
The coach said through gritted teeth, ”Vignesh.”
Jitendar said, “Well, now, is that how you greet someone you haven’t met in years?
The coach looked from him to me, “Now, hold on, are you sa -“
Sir, could you excuse us for a moment?” Jitendar cut across him.
The coach said, “Oh, um, I’m not sure that would be wise. ”
Jitendar laughed, “Oh, you don’t have to worry. I just want to ask him a few personal questions, I’m sure he would like to discuss it alone. Won’t you?” He smiled at me expectantly.
“Yeah, coach, please leave,” I growled. My nerves had been replaced by anger. I wasn’t even sure where the rage was coming from. Probably from that stupid smile on his face.
The coach got up and left. I waited till he got in the lift. Then I wheeled on Jitendar, “What’s your game?” I snarled.
Jitendar spread his arms wide, “Now. You’re a sharp lad, aren’t you? Well, Vignesh. You want to know my game? Fine. I’ll tell you. The thing which we call sports is nothing but a waste of time and perfectly good intellects. Tell me, what is the use of sports? Everything has a purpose; that’s what makes it valuable. The purpose of cars is to make travel easier, the purpose of search engines is to make searching easier, et cetera. What is the use of sports?”
He stood up and started to pace the length of the room. I tried to answer, but I couldn’t think of one.
“No?” He sounded sympathetic. “Well, let me tell you. Sports has only one use - Entertainment.” He spat the last word in my face.
“That’s not true,” I managed through my constricted throat. “It helps keep you in shape.”
Jitendar laughed again, but this time there was no humor in it. “Let me tell you a fun fact, Vignesh. Sport causes more injuries than it cures. And you are only considering one aspect of fitness. What about mental fitness? You know what happened to my daughter? Don’t you?” He studied my face, “Ah, your father never told you, understandable. Well, let me tell you. She was an amazing gymnast.. She won a few championships, and she loved the news reports about her. She couldn’t get enough of the crowd swooning for her. She would have gone on to be a professional. But when she was fifteen, she was practicing, and she - she twisted her spinal cord. She got paralysed from the waist down -” His voice cracked. “She couldn’t bear it. The world didn’t care about her anymore. She didn’t want to open the newspaper and see everyone talking about someone else. She’d become used to opening the sports page and seeing her face. And you know what happened then? She started drinking behind my back. Everyone forgot about her. Her coach, her friends,” He was crying now. She stopped going to school. Then one night, as I helped her get into bed, she told me, ”Dad, I love you, no matter what happens. I haven’t thanked you enough.” I didn’t realize what was going on. “ He gulped. “Then, in the middle of the night, I realized what she meant. I ran to her bedroom, but it was too late.” He was sobbing now.
I listened to all this, sitting there paralyzed. I wanted to cry too. I felt his pain. If I felt this bad just listening to this, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard it must have been for him.
“But now, Vignesh, I shall avenge her. ” He’d stopped crying. He looked me dead in the eyes, “You asked me my plan? My plan is that I will brainwash the whole world, teach them a new life, where they will learn to value the most valuable gifts they have been given, their intellect.”
The idea was so ridiculous, I had to fight the urge to laugh.”Even if you somehow managed that, how do you plan to control 8 billion people?”
Jitendar smiled, “Ah, I forgot to mention the key part. I’ll be wiping out every country off the map except India. So I’ll only have to control a billion people! ”
________________________________________________________________
This time, I couldn’t hold my laugh in
“Are you out of your mind?” I asked him, “There is no way you can do tha.t”
Jitendar replied, “I have the necessary equipment. I can redirect all the asteroids in orbit with one click of a button. And as for the memory erasing part, I have several satellites in outer space for exactly that purpose.”
‘“And how exactly do you plan to control a billion people?” I asked
“I have several big billboards that will broadcast me live all over India, reaching every part of it. The waves will, ah, reprogram the hippocampus and the cortex, make them more gullible. I don’t like to brag, but I am the only person in the entire world who has the ability to build something so subtle and yet dangerous. I have made my own version of the gravity tractor. It is better, faster, and more effective. As soon as I click a button, all the asteroids will be pulled towards the Earth with deadly precision. The people will learn to look up to me as a god, they will start a new life, benefiting from my expertise. So you don’t have to worry about my preparations. Now I’m sure you’re wondering, why are you here? Well, I wanted you to witness the greatest event in history with me! ”
I felt dread in my stomach. “And then?”
“You die, of course!”
________________________________________________________________
I lunged at him, but two robotic arms knocked me back. I thrashed in my chair, but ropes had come out of the chair and begun to wrap around my legs, then my torso and arms. They stopped at my neck.
Jitendar smiled, “Perfect! Now you can watch history being rewritten with me.”.He took a remote control red button out of his pocket. Why are all death buttons red? - He pressed the power button on the remote and a screen flickered on behind his back. It showed a 3d image of the globe.
“You’re a madman. ” I screamed, “The world won’t respect you for this, there’s a better way. Do the right thing, Jitendar.”
Jitendar turned around. My mind raced. I had to do something while his back was turned. But the ropes were tight, I couldn’t wiggle out of them. Then I silently cursed myself. I should have done the obvious thing: called for the coach. I wasn’t sure if he could do any good, but it would be good to have him with me.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, “COACH, HELP!”
Jitendar spun around on his chair. “The room is soundproof, but thanks for bursting my eardrums,” He sounded genuinely annoyed.
I tried to talk to him, “Jitendar, is this really what you wa–? .”
“Oh, shut him up.” Jitendar waved his hand, a gag appeared and pushed itself into my mouth.
He smiled, “Let me savor this moment.” He pressed the button with his index finger.
At first, nothing happened. I hoped it had malfunctioned
Please let it not work.
But alas, no such luck. I was forced to watch, dumbfounded, every single country being wiped off the globe, literally. I couldn’t believe how quiet it was in the office. As if nothing had happened.As if almost the whole world hadn’t been destroyed.
At that exact moment the coach entered the room. I had never been so glad to see someone in my life. He looked around the room. He saw me tied up.
He said, ”Sire, what is going on?”
I wanted to yell at him to stop Jitendar, but I was gagged.
Jitendar wheeled around and saw the coach. He took a walkie-talkie from his belt and spoke into it, “Guards, arrest the coach.” Immediately, guards entered the room and took the coach by the arms. But they underestimated him. All it took was two punches and both of them went down.
Then the coach lunged at Jitendar. The robotic arms tried to stop him, but he ripped through them and crashed into Jitendar.
Jitendar fell down from his chair, dazed. But he took out a microphone and spoke into it in a hoarse voice, “Command:Activate.” A robotic female voice emerged from the microphone,” Command Activate set in action.”
I screamed “NO!” but the damage was done. Jitendar fell unconscious.
Coach said, “What on ea -”
I cut through him. My voice was surprisingly calm. “Untie me.”
The coach obeyed. “What happened, Thakur?”
I replied, “Later, coach.”
As soon as I was untied, I picked up the microphone from where Jitendar had dropped it.
I spoke into it, trying to stop my voice from shaking,” Command:Deactivate.”
Nothing happened. I cursed and tried again. No luck. I tried other words like stop, finish, destroy, self-destruct. Nothing worked. I watched the 3D projection of the globe as waves passed over the only country that had remained untouched till now.
I put my head in my hands. The coach continued to ask questions, like “What happened, Why are you crying, Brush it off!”
I had trouble processing the magnitude of what had just happened. I tried to pull it together, but I just couldn’t. The coach spotted the projection and became dead silent.
Then, after about a minute, he whispered, “That isn’t true, is it?”
I didn’t reply. But the coach must have understood.
He said in a shaky voice, “I have a son who is in America.”
That was it for me. I completely broke down then. The coach hugged me. I should have been the one comforting him, but instead it was he telling me things like “It’ll be okay, we’ll get through this.”
Meaningless words. From behind us, Jitendar groaned. I got up, “I wanna throttle him with my bare hands,” I growled.
The coach said nothing. I got up, walked over to where Jitendar lay, collapsed, and took him by the throat. I started to tighten my grip. But then he choked out, “Wait - I -can - fix ”
“Why should I believe you, you bastard? ” I snarled, tightening my grip.
He said “No -choice”
I dropped him. I really hate it when people other than myself make good points.
“So how will yo -”
The coach had come to his senses. He walked over and said, “I’ll kill you, Jitendar Kumar. ”
I said, “Coach, let’s listen to him first; he may be helpful.”
The coach ignored me. He said, “I had a son in America, I’ll kill you for what you did.”
I yelled, “Coach, no!”
The coach jumped at Jitendar. There was nothing I could do. It was a nasty sight, I’ll spare you the details. But Jitendar was dead within a minute.
The coach calmed down and started to pace the room. Then all of a sudden. He punched the wall, making a hole in it. But then I realized that the wall was hollow. The coach said, “What the - “ I peered inside the hole. Inside was the weirdest machine I had ever seen. It was a big ball, with wires and some other stuff I don’t know the names of covering it. It was like a huge disco ball, it glittered with colors.
I was about to tell the coach to break the wall, but before I could, the robotic voice said, “Live in 60 seconds”.
I jumped. I remembered what Jitendar had told me. He had huge billboards all over India that would broadcast him live. I tried to think of a plan. I could talk to the people and tell them they had lost their memories or I could just hide out of view.
Before I could decide, the robotic voice - Man, I hate robotic voices - said “Live in 10 seconds”
I had forgotten all about the coach. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. But before I could think of anything, that damned voice said
“Live in 3,2,1”
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