Early in the morning, Rajeev Singhania rented a carriage, loaded up the moving picture machine, and brought it directly to the drama theatre in the central city square area.
The Hospitality workers at the theatre were surprised to see him bring such a large piece of equipnt, but still, after knowing who he was, one of the workers led the way and showed him where he would be setting up the equipnt.
Rajeev looked around the space, and he was very satisfied. It was right inside the lobby, where all the guests could exit as well as spend so free ti when the performances were on a pause.
" I would need so help unloading the equipnt. Can soone please help ? "
With a couple of n helping him out, the heavy wooden equipnt was quickly taken to the lobby and positioned exactly how he wanted it.
He unloaded the remaining luggage from the carriage, paid the carriage driver, and thanked him as he drove away in a hurry.
Getting into the theatre, he quickly went to the bathroom, took out the best clothes he had packed from his luggage, put them on, rubbed with his hands a few tis to make the wrinkles less noticeable, and finally sat behind his machine. Now all he had to do was wait.
Half an hour passed, and he heard a commotion from the front gate. As he got up and went out to take a look, he realised that the boss had finally co to the company, and the commotion was from all the workers greeting him enthusiastically.
Unexpectedly, after he made eye contact with the boss, the man actually ca towards him with a smile, " Mr Rajeev, I really admire your punctuality "
" Please show the machine you invented, I’m actually dying to see it in action "
Rajeev readily led the way without saying another word.
As soon as the boss looked at the moving picture machine, he didn’t look very flattered, thankfully, he didn’t look disappointed either.
" Mr Rajeev, how do I experience it? Can you show "
Rajeev nodded. He bent down and picked up the wooden steps that were ant for kids to reach the eyepiece and placed them to the side. He quickly took away the blank paper he had laid down so that the steps wouldn’t leave any marks on the red carpet and invited the boss to co forward.
The boss did not say anything and followed all the instructions, but for so reason, his gaze lingered on the wooden stool, the paper, and the place he was sitting for a while longer.
Due to nervousness, Rajeev didn’t think much about it since he already knew that this was the final test the guy had put forward, and if he could not impress the guy now, then even if he signed a contract, it would not co into effect.
In quick succession, he lit up the lamp, made sure that the crank was well lubricated, fras reset, and finally, he motioned to the boss in a polite gesture.
" Please place your eyes against this eyepiece, sir. Let start the show "
The boss nodded and ca forward, but he hesitated and looked at Rajeev, " Should I take off my glasses? "
Rajeev was montarily stumped, as this question had not been thought of before, but knowing its principle from top to bottom, he shook his head with extre conviction.
" No, sir, it’s alright, my device works with spectacles as well, as long as they fit through the fra of the eyepiece "
The boss nodded and simply placed his eyes against the eyepiece and gave an ok gesture.
’ Here goes nothing,’ Rajeev took a deep breath and slowly started to spin the handle.
At first, the boss was simply seeing a blank fra, nothing special about it, just a few words, ’ a moving picture by Rajeev Singhania. ’
But soon, the fra moved, and pictures began to appear. His eyes widened, and a short gasp exited from his mouth.
What the boss didn’t know was that his occasional chuckles and bursts of laughter had drawn the attention of nearly every hospitality worker in the lobby. They watched him as if they were seeing a different person. It wasn’t that they had never seen their boss laugh, nor was he so stoic, rigid old man, but this laugh, light, carefree, almost childlike, was entirely different from his usual one.
Rajeev, on the other hand, was completely unaware of the emotions of the workers watching the scene unfold. All he felt was relief at the boss’s reaction. One thing was clear: the boss genuinely liked what he had created.
A minute passed in the blink of an eye, and the movie ended with a simple title card: The End.
When the boss took his eyes out of the box, his face was completely red with excitent. A sense of joy resonated from the man.
Even though the answer was obvious, Rajeev wanted to ask what he thought. But he never got the chance, as the boss never gave him an opportunity to speak, as he directly called out his workers and ordered them around.
" Co here and staple a piece of fabric all over this glorious machine. I want the fabric to drape on the ground as if it is a fountain in Kailash "
" And this stool, wrap it up in soft wool, I need kids to feel like they are standing on clouds "
" Place a separate carpet here, don’t we have the purple one in the store room? Quickly get that "
All the employees were stunned. Was this still their boss, who was always so stingy?
" What are you all standing here for? Move now "
" I want everything to be ready by the first interval "
The workers quickly scrambled.
Looking at all this from the side, Rajeev was quite embarrassed.
"Mr. Gopalan, is all this really necessary?"
The boss finally looked at Rajeev, and this ti it didn’t feel like a big boss talking down to a small worker. Rajeev felt as if he were speaking to an equal, maybe even a close friend.
"Rajeev, you don’t understand what you’ve just done. You’ve revolutionised entertainnt forever, and I’m truly grateful that you chose to work with ."
"Let be honest, this is a magnificent piece of art. I have no doubt my patrons will be absolutely enthralled by it."
"But for them to take notice, the external image matters just as much as the internal one."
"No offence, but externally..." He stopped, hesitated, then carefully rephrased his words.
"I was skeptical about your machine at first. The first impression wasn’t great. But after witnessing the miracle with my own eyes, I can’t let this machine be ignored. If it had stayed the sa, there’s no way I would have paid to see the... what do you call it again? The moving picture."
Rajeev nodded in understanding, so in short, the painting he and Purushottam had done to make the machine look beautiful still ended up becoming too simple for the boss’s taste.
" Thank you for pointing out the problems and also helping fix it, sir. How can I repay you for this? How much do I owe you? " He didn’t have a lot of money on him, but by the end of the day, if he was able to earn sothing, then he could pay it off from that.
The boss frantically shook his hand.
" No, please, there is no need for that. I have just seen your moving picture, and I believe it will be extrely successful. Just consider it as a token of my appreciation for reaching out to my establishnt "
Rajeev felt even more guilty and felt like he owed the guy a lot. For a mont, he even considered increasing the share of the man, but he finally stopped himself and firmly decided to keep the favour in his heart and repay him when it was possible.
Eventually, with all the workers focused on one task, the decorations of the moving picture machine were quickly completed.
Soon, the patrons began to enter the theatre one by one, all dressed in luxurious and noble attire that only well-off and affluent people from the mainland would wear.
It was a complete coincidence, but the day he chose to start the work was also the day when junior performances were presented in the theatre, so there were a lot of children in the crowd.
Sitting silently in the lobby along with the rest of the hospitality personnel who were ready to cater to the guests, his heart was beating rapidly. Any mont now, he would get his first actual custor.
Questions like would they like it, would soone even purchase it, what if he was completely ignored, and what if his drawings were not good enough for these high-class people who had exquisite taste in their art, continuously appeared in his mind.
He was feeling extrely giddy in his stomach and had to go to the bathroom in order to calm himself down. In fact, he also had the thought of simply running away, as he felt extrely uncomfortable and sick, as if soone had put their hand in his stomach and churned it violently.
Thankfully, when he was on the verge of collapse, the smile of his daughter appeared in front of his eyes, and everything clicked. Why does it matter what those rich people think? His only real judges were the kids. As long as they liked it, it did not matter even if his pictures were considered amateur squiggly lines by those adults.
With this newfound clarity, he went back and sat down in a much better ntal condition, though he was still worried about the price, because the boss actually said that he would price it at 50 Varha per show.
When the contract was signed, he only wanted the ticket to be guaranteed the lowest of 20 Varaha so that he could make so money even after the theatre takes a cut and he could recover his money and fight for the next venture, but there were no terms in the contract for the maximum ticket price, so he was extrely worried if anyone was even willing to watch the show he created for such a large amount of money.
When the decision was inford to him, he even asked the boss about it.
" You don’t have to worry about anyone feeling that the price is too high. You know, my theatre tickets are not cheap. On normal occasions, it’s usually 500 Varaha, but today is a special occasion, so these tickets are worth nearly 900 Varaha, and even that has been completely sold out "
Rajeev was shocked. Even back ho, when he was still the young master of a rich family, he wouldn’t dare think of spending so much money on a theatre ticket.
’ Have rich people gotten so rich now? ’He couldn’t help but sigh.
In the end, it was at least enough to make him accept that 50 Varaha was possible, but now that the ti was so close to unveiling, Rajeev was having second thoughts.
But can he do anything about it? Probably not.
" Click! "
The lobby door was finally open.
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