Fiction: A retired man is forced to return to work after builders foil his attempts to buy a house

Shivaswamy shouldn’t have gone to that interview. A man of sixty- two should have at least a tiny semblance of reality. It was an act of self-flagellation, really. He had known what might happen, but he had never imagined it would hurt him this much. He cursed himself a thousand times for going there.

It was not just the interview; nothing went his way that day. Bad luck stalked him throughout the day – the kind of day astrologers call a Shani Dosha, filled with unheard-of difficulties.

For the first time in the history of the Bengaluru Metro, all the trains on the Green Line were stopped for nearly forty-five minutes because of a technical glitch. When the trains resumed service, the station was overwhelmed by a crowd large enough to fill ten trains. The unbearable heat outside was intensified by the delayed monsoon. The black coat, soaked in sweat, clung to his body after years of disuse. The crowd was noisy, and the child beside him cried incessantly.

He decided to call the company to let them know he was running late. He dialled the number of the person who had arranged the interview. She didn’t answer. Frantically, he looked up the company’s details on his mobile...

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