This post is a piece of fiction and resemblance to any people or events thereof is completely unintentional and inadvertent.
==================
Keshav was the main speechwriter for Singh Saab, the General Secretary and the Prime Ministerial candidate of the largest party in the country. His job therefore was not an easy one and was constantly under scrutiny, not only by party big-wigs but also by all forms of information media in the country. After all, we are living in the age of the information highway, aren’t we? And the fact remained that the media hung on every word that came out of the mouth of somebody as important and influential as Singh Saab.
Although August 15th had traditionally been reserved for the Prime Minister’s speech and the entire world focused on this particular event of the day, this year was going to be a little different. Singh Saab was scheduled to speak at the Party Headquarters around an hour after the PM’s speech this year. The brains behind this was the Party President’s. His thought process was that if Singh Saab managed to upstage the PM’s speech on this particular day, then the chances of the party coming to power and Singh Saab becoming the PM were all the more brighter.
This particular speech therefore had to be Keshav’s best yet. And for added measure, the Party President also offered the services of his own speechwriter Malini. Given that Keshav had always had a soft spot for Malini, he didn’t mind that at all, in fact he enjoyed the experience of having an opportunity to work with his ‘lady love’.
What he did not anticipate nor notice was the fact that although Malini’s grasp of English and her command over the words were awesome, her grounding in history was at best very shaky and dicey. Despite the fact that his history was rock solid and this was probably the most important speech that Singh Saab was about to give, Keshav inadvertently allowed a few mistakes to creep into it.
On August 15th, at around 1 PM, when Singh Saab started speaking in front of all the assembled television and press crews, Keshav’s heart swelled in pride. The diction, command over language the Singh Saab displayed was exemplary. The first few minutes of the speech went off beautifully well, so much so that Keshav was very impressed with himself and his speech-writing abilities. And then it happened.
Singh Saab in an attempt to compare himself with earlier PMs of the country had requested for a reference to the Indo-Pak conflicts and that portion of the speech began. “During the 1962 India Pakistan war…” Singh Saab said. Keshav cringed at the huge blunder that had made its way into the speech. 1962 was the year in which the Sino-Indian war had happened and not the India Pakistan war. Keshav cursed himself for allowing his infatuation with Malini for allowing her to draft this part of the speech and not proof reading it himself because “he believed in her abilities to write an effective speech.”
Now, his job was in jeopardy due to this mistake which would anyway be replayed on national and international television for the next few days. The Opposition Parties would have a field day in criticizing Singh Saab and his hold on national history. Something monumentally big had to happen to divert public and media attention away from this mistake of his.
And as luck or fate would have it, the Indian Parliament House was attacked in the evening that day. The terrorist group who took responsibility wanted to prove that despite the fact that August 15th enjoyed the best security that the country could offer, they could beat any arrangements and attack any place at will. This particular incident allowed Singh Saab to digress from the topic of his “historical gaffe” during the Independence Day speech, and for the next few days, he would answer any questions on that gaffe by referring to the Parliament House attack and how the evil of terrorism had to be combated in the country.
And as for Keshav, after being fired from his job, he moved back to his hometown Chennai and was now the Chief Reporter for The Adyar Times. Although a huge step down from his earlier job, the fact remained that he could at least enjoy some awesome sambar and rice cooked by Malini, who also doubled up as a Junior Correspondent for the same newspaper.
============
Image courtesy: wildfirewire.com
============
This post has been written for The Three Word Wednesday prompt where the post had to include blunder, cringe and digress, which is why these words have been highlighted with a separate color.
