Death Of The Chairman
A Poem By Jaykumar Shah
Part 1 - DOTC
There was an excitement, palpable in air,
A new board meeting, something to bare,
Is he planning to sell his stocks to market?,
Or is it about the new acquisition target ?
For employees here are consumers too,
And the top management they look up to,
In the WORLD’s company there is lot to prod,
And they worship with heart chairman GOD,
Today, it seems, he has a new story to share,
A new board meeting, has something to bare,
Chairman was working overtime in his room,
Everyone else waited in the big board room,
A man thin and feeble, Chairman’s close ally,
Entered the dais, came from backstage alley,
“Virtue, why do you look so shocked and sad?”
“Folks, I just found that our chairman is dead!”
“For GOD’s sake, he cannot die you are lying!”
A short pudgy man, a police, then came flying,
“Gentleman and ladies,” said the pudgy man,“
You chairman is dead, it is all going insane,
I doubt treason, a cold blooded kill it looks,
Clues we search here, in corners and nooks,
Murderer we suspect, from this group he hailed
We need to find the one whose morality failed”
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Part 2 - DOTC
The board, some employees and a competitor,
were all to be questioned by the interrogator,
All aghast knew not what in the WORLD to believe,
All feared worst, “Oh GOD, do they think it’s me?”
The short pudgy man had evidences few,
Guesses and trick he had to use here new,
He went to visit the scene of the big crime,
Saw, a paper, a pen and half-glass of lime,
The hands had the cuts with blood flowing,
On paper it ran, with paper clarity blowing,
In between the red, “Dear D....”read blue,
The letter, he knew, would give a big clue,
The pen was cheap and wasn’t of a rich men,
The doors and windows were unusually open,
There was a knife in GOD’s heart, stabbed plain,
Someone killed GOD, It’s an act of out-of –brain,
GOD was lying with his eyes closed and face calm,
Pudgy man felt bad, to pray he brought up his palm,
The best in the business of hearing prayers was dead,
Confused he paused and saw the wound had not bled,
Saw a few muddy footsteps of local shoe on the floor,
To and fro it ran, between GOD’s chair and open door
For questioning he knew he was now better equipped,
He checked the CCTV footage, real time it had blipped,
The fingerprints on all objects he had to analyze,
He got the list of men who met GOD since sunrise.
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Part 3 - DOTC
He went back to a room for interrogation,
Called one by one, everyone for a question,
He knew he had to find a good motive to kill,
In the WORLD had to measure GOD’s goodwill,
First came in a man, with a typical colorful look,
“I am religion” he started , as the hands shook,
“Not just a boss, a good friend he always had been”,
Pudgy noticed his Saffron tie and the glasses green,
He stared Religion and asked a question straight,
“Did you kill him? On his death supremacy you get!”
“Oh surely he hated me for bringing me on board,”
His reply started like a sincere but out-of-tune bard,
“People, the employees and the consumer all alike,
Followed me blindly, as I was his face and his mic,”
Pudgy got the point that rivalry they both could have had,
But religion overpowered GOD, and did not find him bad,
“Tell me Frankly Mr.Religion, will the followers miss him?”
“Not at all, they never followed him”, he said with a grin
Pudgy did not like him, he thought better to follow reason,
He checked his shoes, asked for the pen, and his liaison
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Part 4 - DOTC
Then came a man in his red suit and fiery red eyes,
Pudgy could hear his mind let out a few scary cries,
“How come a competitor is here, without his will?”
He brought out his ugly hands from red, “I, DEVIL” ,
His smiling teeth were brown or were it blood red,
His smell paralyzed pudgy as the questioning he led,
“you want to ask why I am where I should not be?”“
Answer is simple, I had to be here, as he called me,”
“Why? I know is what you would be your question next,
because my daughters work here, would put it to rest.”
Money, Love, gluttony and knowledge, all work here,
When they will grow unbarred, they will join me there,
I understand it wasn’t them he wanted to discuss with me,
It was some silly chap “Human”, that was supposed to be,
More I know not, but I want to assure you a thing one,
I could not have killed him, Never I will kill that person,
For he was the reason I exist, he completed me to core,
Frankly, if he is dead, I want this WORLD of his no more.”
Silent Pudgy got a chance to speak, “Sir,” with respect,
“We had got a letter from the place that we did inspect”
It said, “Dear D…. and a few words that we are yet to read,
Is it by any chance a mention for us, which to you can lead?
“Oh My GOD!”, “If it is for me, I feel sorry now for the word,
“Dear”?! He said relishing the after taste of the GOD’s word,
“Let me be straight, I will,
It is not me, who did kill,
If it were me, aloud I would have said,
As, the only one above me is now laid.”
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Part 5 - DOTC
Something told Pudgy that the man was sincere,
But to trust him would be the last thing to fear,
“Bring in his daughters,” asked pudgy in a thought,
The four beautiful damsels were slowly brought,
Love invoked in him desires through her skin dark,
Money sweet, made his heart, miss a beating mark,
Gluttony was fat, but he knew she had her skills,
Fourth was smart, like a dame from Boons and mills,
“Sisters!”, pudgy found it difficult to speak that word,
“Who amongst you could have idea of the killing bird?”
Innocent they looked as they made those dovey eyes,
“Not us” was their elaborate answer made concise,
“I came in today morning to meet the chairman”
Money said, “we were attended by the barman”
“As I reported, I took a cup of tea, he his usual lime,
I could not have thought that there would be crime
There was also to discuss a matter personal,
I don’t want to share, it had nothing criminal,”
Pudgy did not say a word to press the bell,
he knew what was it that she did not tell,
The letter that the GOD was writing was decoded,
And the Human in doubt was now to be recorded
“Ladies,” he said, with a softness not known,
“Thank you for the time and interest shown”
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Part 6 - DOTC
The simple employee, the Human, was called in blunt,
“Welcome sir, you are the last but the most important”
The man in his ragged clothes, bearded, looked so hungry,
He did all asked by GOD and his board, few things sundry,
“You have any idea about the death of the Chariman?”
“I have but I fear you would say that I killed my man!”
“No, don’t worry”, is how he assured the poor chap,
“I know you can’t kill, you loved him, it’s a mishap.”
“I had met him in the morning, after the rains stopped,
I had come here to submit my resignation but flopped,
With his head on the table I saw him on my visit short,
No cross but with a cut on his arms and stab in his heart,
I felt I am losing all the faith that I had in life,
My GOD was dead taking in a wound of knife,
“Trust me I did not kill him, How could I have,
All I have, All I ever had, all is all that he gave,”
“Why did you want to resign?” Human did not see it coming,
“That was for reasons personal,” it reminded Pudgy something,
“And I guess you would not like that to share” smiling said he,
“Yes you are right, I would not like that” was the reply to be.
“Thank you Human, for being a Man
For telling your part of the story then”
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Part 7 - DOTC
Now as Pudgy sat, opposite the dead body of the great,
He thought of the evidences from the people he had met,
He closed his eyes and thought of the great GOD’s morning,
He saw him get off his car, and enter the building, singing,
He thought of him making usual errands, and a special call,
Then he saw him taking up a paper and to write the pen-ball,
“Dear DEVIL,” He must have wrote, for the invitee he had got,
“This is about my man who loves your daughter,” he wrote,
He then thought of Money entering the office in time,
And as she reported, barman brought a tea and a lime,
He did not finish the lime as he talked, the cup of tea was taken,
The one who came next would have been in rage and little shaken,
What happened in between he did see clearly now,
And he went to the room to tell it to the others in row,
“Friends, it would be good if you can tell me,
If anyone was involved in killing the Big G.
If You don’t, I know the story in total,
About a love story and hate full throttle”
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Part 8 - DOTC
“I don’t want to be embarrassed”, said the Human coming forward,
I went there to kill him, but someone already had, in day light broad,
I was bought in by the DEVIL for my love for his eldest daughter money”,
He then turned to her to say, “I really, really, really loved you honey”
But she had a different grin on her face, For him a look full of disgust,
Pudgy looked at Human with sympathy, ‘She was not worth your trust’
“Well before you went and after the usual calls, Money was called to GOD,
Money would you like to take the tea and the lime story a little forward?"
“Yes, I know you have found it for all to see,
In his lime there was poison added by - me,
Human loved me, though I used him for joy
Look at him, he cries for me like a silly boy ”
The money thought of the good man dead,
But her blood of DEVIL’s was not that well bred,
“Beautiful, you will be shocked to know it wasn’t you
And Mr. Religion, It wasn’t the knife that You used too”
“Oh GOD! You knew I was the one to stab said him,
“Chances of anyone else doing it in rage was slim”
“In hurry you did not notice those cuts on GOD’s hands,
And also not the blood that ran on the letter bands,
you did not notice that there was poison in his glass,
Not even that without him you hardly have any class
I wish I could have arrested you for killing the GOD,
But I could not in name of duty, kill this GODless rot,
He saw his man, dear Human, you, giving him up for money,
He saw his girls, born out of DEVIL working for him act funny,
He saw the DEVIL working on GOD’s blood with his own,
He wanted to give away the WORLD, to paths he had shown,
He wanted to keep you away religion, out of the mess,
But it was you who kept hitting the already dead dress,
He could not see his WORLD, taking a moral slide,
For you all, he left the WORLD committing a suicide”
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