Prize Winning Story: Room Number 20

Ram turned the pages of the magazine restlessly. He felt hot & stuffy in the room. He got up impatiently and pushed the windows wide open,then returned to his position on the bed. There was nothing but darkness outside. The darkness only succeeded in making him more restless. He went back to close and bolt the windows .The wrist watch showed the time to be 11.30 in the night. But he just could not sleep. Not after what he had heard that evening. He cursed the bloody room boy for not choosing the daytime for such talk. But he could not remain like that the whole night. He had to get some sleep. The next day he was to make another tiring journey by train. His job demanded such horrible trips every now and then. Atfirst, it had been fun. Now the strain had begun to tell on his health.

His case was similar to that of that wicked room boy, with no promotion since ages. However, he had never dreamt of harming his organization. Moreover, he was stuck with the company. He had no hope of getting a new job were he to get on the wrong side of his employers. He switched off the light and returned to the bed, his feet shaking all the while. He lay on the bed without breathing when his eyes caught sight of the ceiling fan, which was performing its duty efficiently. He stared at the object for a few seconds and then turned away quickly to face the wall, a shiver running down his back. He closed his eyes tightly but he simply could not conquer sleep. He got off the bed and almost ran towards the switchboard to switch on the light.

The next morning the person behind the counter was surprised to see Ram with his luggage all set to leave at six in the morning. He said, “Sir, you are leaving now? But you said you were catching the 11.15 train."

"No, no I have changed my mind, there are one or two persons I want to meet." said Ram hastily.

He immediately settled his accounts and arranged to get to the railway station. Ram felt pity for himself. If he had known a single person in the city, he would not have had to waste or rather suffer through five dragging hours. There was no question of spending one minute more in that room. Therefore, Ram sat gloomily with his luggage on a bench of the railway platform.

 As he sat there, his mind went back to the occurrences of the previous day. Ram had checked in at the Star Hotel at about three in the afternoon. He had taken a bath and had dozed off for a while. At 6 PM with tea in hand, he was reading the evening newspaper when that ‘wretched’ room boy entered. He said, “You have chosen the wrong lodge sir. Do you know you have been cheated?" Ram looked at him completely taken aback and surprised. On seeing the expression on his face, the boy, or rather young man said, "I would not have spoken like this two weeks back sir. But now, I am fed up! 

I am quitting this junk. They do not treat me well. They do not know my real worth. Do you know sir, that a fellow committed suicide in this very room? Hanged himself on this fan here.Oh, God what an odour was there! Yet, I suffered through all that. Served these people for years and what do I get? Bad treatment- treatment, one would not give a dog sir! I have worked here sincerely for years and yet I remain a room boy even after 10-15 years of service. You know sir; they gave an accountant's post to a fellow who came yesterday. He had no better qualification than I did academically. His chief qualification was that he was related to the manager.

They set aside a person like me with years of experience for an inexperienced scoundrel. And what did they get? They got what they deserved sir! The fellow left with about one Lakh Rupees and bought himself a respectable plot in some village. I can bear anything but not mistrust. Imagine sir, I have laboured for this hotel for years and the proprietor does not trust me.I gave hints several times that the organization is being looted. However, he simply refused to believe me.You know sir, a fellow drawing a meagre salary was equipping himself with latest electronic gadgets!  He wore the trendiest clothes! Any fool could see that he was dishonest! 

Finally, I personally showed the proprietor the fellow and his friends, lying heavily drunk in his room. It was only after this that the fellow was dismissed; but by then he had made enough. I have had enough of this junk house. I am quitting all right!You bet I am quitting. There are people in this city who will pay me highly for my experience"

The fellow had then gone on to speak exhaustively of the suicide. He said that the person who committed suicide had been from a small village in Andhra. He had been a very hefty & well-built young man.In fact it had taken about five people to carry the dead body. The police officer who had come at about 10 in the night was not interested in working late. He preferred to lock the room & return in the morning.     By morning, a horrible odour had spread all over the place. It had been quite a job to get rid of the foul smell. 

The deceased had been a very strong man. He first took an overdose of sleeping pills but it had no effect on him. Then he had consumed a bottle of Tik 20 (rat poison). This also did nothing to the powerful body. He then self-injected Tik 20 in to his body but this also proved ineffective. It was as a last resort that he had hanged himself on the fan. The hanging body had been quite a sight. The toes of the deceased were almost touching the floor. 

After relating all this, the room boy had got out of the room with a smile. While going down the steps, he thought that it would be nice to pay a visit to room number 4 as well. When his conscience tried to protest, he said to himself "After all, these are not lies. Being a religious Hindu, I have always abided by the truth. I am only telling a fact. It is not as if I am committing a big crime."

A year later Ram got down at the Central railway station. He was feeling extremely tired. By force of habit, he asked to be taken to the "Star hotel". In spite of that dreadful experience on the previous occasion, he had a soft corner for that place. The staff there could speak Hindi and made him feel at home. Of course, he would avoid room no 20 like the plague. As he got down at the entrance, he was surprised to see the 'wretched ‘room boy running hastily towards him. In spite of his tall talk, he was very much there. He said "Sir, please do not tell anyone of our talk on that day. Not a word to other customers. We will lose our business. I spoke to you then more out of emotion than reason sir. I hope you will not cause me any harm... by the way, I am now the bill writer here sir. I have been promoted on my good work."

Ram smiled lightly and walked over to the counter. He was informed that the only room available was room no 4.He accepted it immediately and followed the room boy with the baggage. So tired was he that he did not notice the bill writer trying to hide a grin that blossomed at the corners of his mouth.    

NB: This short story won the Third prize in the Asian Literary Society organized Prasanna Jena Memorial Award 2019 and has been included in the book " ALS- 2019 An Anthology of Short Stories". 

Note: A few readers had contacted and asked questions as clarification on the story. I would advice them to read and reread Para 10 of the story which would remove all doubts.