Page 30 - You Only Live Once [BooksLD]
P. 30

don’t dare to be themselves. I believe that death should come only when
                I’ve exhausted my fuel.

                   I call up Ricky as I pack my stuff at the desk and move towards the cab.
                He doesn’t even have a smartphone. Calling on the club’s landline number
                is the only option.
                   ‘Hello,’ Sheen, the club manager, responds from the other end.

                   ‘Hello! Can you please call Uncle Ricky?’

                   Next, I hear Ricky’s ever-enthusiastic voice, ‘Hello, dude!’
                   ‘Uncle, why the heck did you tell my boss about my gig?’

                   ‘I want you to be honest to everyone. You need not hide your passion for
                telling jokes. It’s a story that needs to be told out loud.’
                   ‘I can help myself. Please don’t do this again. You have put my job in

                jeopardy.’
                   ‘That’s the idea. I want you to move to the club full-time. I will try my
                best to keep doing that.’

                   ‘I’m fortunate that Akshaye is unlike other IT team leads who suck the
                blood  out  of  their  team  members.  He’s  arranged  for  a  meeting  near  the
                station to help me reach Goa.’

                   ‘By the way, you’ve got another surprise waiting for you.’
                   ‘What’s that?’ I inquire.

                   He hangs up on me. Uncle Ricky has helped me in a lot of ways. I owe
                him big time for being so supportive of my art. But he tends to act weird at
                times. What scares me more is his love for  alcohol. I  want him to die a
                happy  and  peaceful  death,  which  he  claims  that  he  will,  but  I  somehow
                don’t find myself convinced of that.

                   Uncle  Ricky  never  got  married.  At  the  peak  of  his  youth,  he  was  a
                drummer at The Hippie Trail Cafe and has performed percussion with the
                famous Elisha. Elisha is one of the finest singers Goa has ever had, but she
                disappeared  in  the  late  90s.  Unfortunately,  people  discovered  her  music
                days after she passed away.

                   What happened to her? Everyone has their own theory, but no one has an
                answer. Ricky’s Beach Shack often plays her music. Her songs transform
                you to fight for your dreams, stand up for who you are. She was definitely
                ahead of her time and her songs will continue to inspire millions for ages to

                come. That’s the thing about art. It never dies. I want to make people laugh.
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