Friday, May 29, 2015

Night Ride


It took Rahul twenty five minutes to get to the car door from the front door of his house, which was hardly twenty five meters.

‘It’s only four hours to Mumbai and I will come next week before going to US’ was all that he was repeating again and again, but his family would not understand and with all the learning’s from the soap operas it had become more difficult to make them understand.

Everyone was crying for different reasons. The most difficult of all was Bunty aunty. She had an expression as if Rahul was walking into some devils mouth and would never come back again, between all the sobbing and consoling Rahul could hear fragments of her

‘Beta you can leave early morning, it’s not ….beta you can leave early morning’

‘How can he drive in night, on that road?’

Rahul gave a thought and turned to Bunty Aunty and asked

‘What is wrong with the road?’

Everyone looked at her for an intelligent answer, some knew what was coming.

‘That road is not safe at night, I have heard stories’ she turned to Rahul’s Mother as if she required some backing when She did not get any support, she continued

‘There are stories of ghost, that road is not safe I am telling you’

Even Rahul’s uneducated grandmother laughed and with the embarrassment and again the set of byes Rahul set of for Mumbai on that unsafe road.

It was actually late when he started. But as it was only four hours journey and he had to be in the US embassy the next day for some paper work he decided to start at night.

The watch on his right hand stuck 12 when he made the engine of his car live.

He has also heard some stories about what Bunty Aunty was mentioning. The route was simple, broad and crowed and with many stops in between so no point in giving it an another thought, with this Rahul gave his half crying half asleep parents the last look and pressed his foot on the escalator.

It was November and the temperature was pleasant Rahul switched off the AC and rolled down the car window to let the cool breeze come in. He enjoyed it.

When you are alone you get first horny ideas and then unpleasant ideas and then at last loneliness fills. As soon as he was out of the road tax booth and on the highway, he opened his shirt; he drove the car couple of miles and wore his shirt back when he understood the awkwardness of his idea. The next thought haunted him was that of the ghost stories and now as he continued thinking of the stories, Bunty Aunty’s face kept popping up in his mind with her warnings and at 1:20 at night her warning seems so scary.

The traffic was less than usual, which raised more doubts in Rahul’s mind. He looked at front no sign of car. He looked at the rear side, still no sign. It was pitch black as black it can be on a deserted highway.  His heart started to beat faster. He wished he had stayed. He brushed the ideas and laughed at his own stupidity. What was he thinking?

Then it happened. Rahul got a jerk and then the second one and then a noise as if some snake hissed inside the bonnet and then the car came to a sudden halt.

Rahul hit his head three times on the steering wheel and got down from the car. The smoke came right into his lungs when he opened the bonnet. He moved back.

It took him a minute to realize that there are no cars on the road in his visible spectrum and another minute to realize what shit was he into. He kicked the car with full energy and as if the car’s feelings got hurt by it, it vent out more smoke.

It was surprising and funny and that Rahul has heard many times that his friends have stuck whole night waiting and now this has happened to him as well. He laughed. He was angry. He was frustrated. He was scared.

He waited for another five minutes, this was only he could wait outside; there was no sign of car. He cursed and crawled inside the car. The cold breeze which he was enjoying five minutes back, turned into some mystical source of noises from some another world and his imagination not letting him down gave him more horrific ideas of the sources of the sounds.

 He rolled the windows up, locked the car and sat in silence looking everywhere for any sign of life. He remembered as a kid how is used to get scared of dark. The kid in him came back. He could no longer look around and the dark was becoming darker.

He tried to close his eyes, which added to the darkness. He tried to put his head on the steering wheels and promised himself to remain like that as long as the help comes. He could not.

He does not know when he fell asleep, as he had lost the track of time. He woke up by a gentle knock on the car door. He jumped back, only to realize that an old man is standing near his car. He looked around, no sign of other vehicle. He looked at the old man again. He was still there. He was holding a large bag and signaling him to come out.

Rahul came out. Before he could ask about him the old man said.

‘I live nearby I can help you with the car’

He had a very harsh voice and thick black hair, not suiting his age. With his muscular body structure and a big hump on his back, he looked nothing more than poor villager to Rahul and he did not give any further thought on it. At least he was not alone now.

The old man walked towards the car engine and submerged himself into it. Rahul paid less attention. The power nap had left him sleepier.

It was five minutes later the old man emerged from the engine and came to Rahul.

‘The job is done sahib’ he said proudly.

Rahul did not believe him. He went to the driver’s side and started the engine. It worked.

‘Very good, thanks, take this’ he turned, took out his wallet and handed the old man a 100 RS note

It fell to the ground. Rahul bend to the ground to pick it up.

‘Don’t worry about it sahib, I will pick it up’ the old man said and gestured that he should go and he will take care of the note.

‘Today is my birthday also’ he said shyly.

Rahul congratulated him, looked at his strange face again, said thanks, sat in the car and started it. What a relief he thought.

He looked from the rear mirror, the man was becoming smaller and smaller, until he vanished out of the sight. 

Rahul could hardly sleep for two hours, as he had plenty of pending things to finish. He quickly got up and after a quicker shower, he went to collect the newspaper from the front door with coffee mug in one hand he opened the newspaper. The coffee mug and the newspaper fell simultaneously from his hands.

The newspaper and picture of the man was get wet slowly with the spilled coffee. It was a picture of an old man, the same man who helped Rahul the last night underneath a headline which read.

110 birth anniversary of Sudhakar shetty.

Two Things


 Two things happened that night.

Two things which changed Maria and Tony’s lives completely.

Hospital guards walked lazily towards the phone. It rang more number of times today than it rung in the past one year.

‘Hello’ he knew who the caller was, but he still wanted to hear that bastard pleading for more.

‘Patrao what is happening, where have they taken her’ Tony bombarded him with questions without even bothering to respond to his bitterness. He needed him today; he needed him more than he needed his father at a school fight when he was sixteen.

‘You are not the only one having a baby in this god damn world’ he barked.

‘But I am having it for the first time’ what started as a shout came to a humble beseeching in the end.

‘Please I only have you’ he said softly.

‘Don’t worry, they had just taken her in’ he replied.

Tony put the receiver down and took a long breadth.

He turned to Peter and said ‘Its time’

Peter folded his hands in prayer.

Maria looked at her mother, her face saddened as she had not met Tony for two months now. She remained silent, apart from frequent pressing of teeth and sound which let a shiver inside her mother. Her mother was more worried than her.

Maria looked at her mother and said in a feeble voice, it was the last thing she said before the tedious process began

‘You still don’t like Tony, you don’t understand my love’ her eyes were moist with the pain of separation.

Her mother wanted to tell her side of the story, how she fought with all other members of the family but all in vain and in the end she was the first person whom her daughter blamed  and there is nothing she could do about it apart from staying silent and crying out alone.

‘Should i call her now? I will call her now’ Tony asked for peters approval.

He knew, like every time peter would back him, if not for him, Maria and Tony would not have been married, would not have been able to fight the world.

‘Not now, it would take time’ he said sympathetically.

Saying No or asking Tony to hold back is like digging one’s own grave, but Peter and Maria can bluntly say or do whatever they feel like without getting killed.

Tony looked at Peter ready to throw a counter argument but decided to keep quite. He went and sat in his usual chair below the painting which he stole for Maria and gave her as a gift when he proposed her. 

It was the painting of a man cutting trees, nothing great about it, but back then it symbolized that Tony was ready to leave  his current life as one of would-be gangster and would lead a life as Maria wanted him to.

Peter in Tony’s would-be gangster days was his closest Ally, who helped him establish his own small business when he had decided to quit, helped in proposing to Maria, fought with his and her family for them.  

‘Please call him, please call Tony’Maria was shouting in pain. Family and doctors were trying to pacify her. It was not going to be easy on her. It was premature delivery and doctors before hand warned they may go for an operation also. The family was ready for it, Maria was not.

Her mother looked from a small window, which was glassed out in the operation theatre room for the family members to see and be assured that the daughters, wives or mothers are still doing just fine. She remembered the first time her daughter came late from collage, first time her daughter shouted back at her, first time her husband slapped her daughter, first time she used blade against her veins, first time she saw her leaving her home not to come back again, now when she is having her first baby the other firsts looked extremely meaningless. She cried for all those firsts and their lost lives. she cried silently yet again as her daughter struggles for life on a hospital bed in next room.

 Tony signaled Peter to get another bear, who was already high with his four now.  He do not have the stomach to drink big as Maria pokes him the next day after he vomits everywhere the night before and comes for a hot coffee next morning, he did not bother Maria troubling him as long as he gets his coffee.   

Peter struggled to get up and walked sleepily to the store room. All pleasant memories comes in front of you in hard time, as if you have missed something then and it adds to the pain many folds. With his last gulp Tony went back in time when he first saw Maria. She was in a heavenly blue dress with a smile of an angle on her face. She walked past him without noticing him but her sent had left him dazzled for the next four days, till he saw her again. Tony did not wasted any more time. He grabbed her by her hand and proposed her. Everyone knew Tony, who he was and what he does, Maria also did.

 She was not afraid of him like other girls, she faced him, probably this is the character which Tony admire in Maria of all. He asked Tony to get himself sorted first and then think of proposing  her in a nice way. She knew that he would not change and if he continues he would not have guts to face her. She was wrong. Tony with Peter opened a shop in three weeks and when Tony met Maria at <beach name> beach, he was in a rented suit a bunch of red roses in his one hand and a painting in another.

He told Maria that the painting is his last crime and she laughed.

A smile came across Tony’s face as he remembered the most beautiful phase of his life, his life with Maria.

Peter walked in, this time holding the full carat.

‘Its now or never man’ Tony said his hands wet with nervousness, which he has never imagined in his entire life.

‘Its now or never for me also man’ Peter replied and looked straight into Tony’s eyes. For the first time Tony did not understand what he meant.

 Maria’s father kept a tough and uninterested face. He had hardly spoken to her daughter in past two months.  He still cannot forget the dread full day when Tony stabbed broken beer bottle after a huge argument and lots of swearing at each other, into his elder son James stomach just missing inches from the kidney, after James caught Tony and Maria kissing behind  <Some place in GOA >, he nearly died with the attack. If it had been the kidney no one could help him, the doctors said later, if that had been the case he would have lost his son. 

 He still loved his daughter. He was there when they got married, hiding behind the tree and giving his blessing from distance and why not he prayed for a daughter for very long time and only after she had four brothers she decided to join the family.

He would flinch every time he heard her daughter screams and turn her face away from the room. After an eternity he walked to James and said

‘We should call him’

James gave a painful smile. He had forgiven Tony long back.

Tony’s phone rang. He picked up with a trembling hands. In two years of their marriage no one from Maria and his family has directly contacted him. Why now?. Is everything alright.

‘hello’ his voice drunken and shaken.

‘you should ....’ before James could finish his sentence screaming of Maria grew louder and more painful, as if she is getting tourchered.

‘What is happening?, Why is she shouting? What is hapening’

And then he heard it, he was the first one to hear it and he would always boast about it, he heard the most pleasant cry he had ever heard and waited for. He heard the baby, his baby crying for the first time in this world, it was crying as if it wanted his father.

Tony feel on the ground, his hands shaking more with the joy now. Peter rushed towards him, asking, wanting to know more. Tony’s face was wet with tears. He wanted to shout, he wanted to scream, he wanted to celebrate. He could not say a word. Peter kept on pushing. Things happened quickly of which Tony would remember little next morning, he remember mentioning his baby, a kiss on his lips, not momentary a planned one. Hitting Peter with the beer bottle on his head, blood on his drawing room walls and carpet, another call, hospital van, thrown out of the hospital’s emergency room, a bright tube light needling into his eyes a hand and then nothing, nothing but dark, dark as black.

Maria opened her eyes, her mother was holding her baby, it was a boy. Maria looked at her with a sad smile. Her happiness was not complete without her husband. She took it into her hands and stared at him.

‘little tony’ she laughed at her own joke, tears rolling down her cheeks.

‘I understand your love for Tony, I will welcome him into our family’

 Maria looked up. Her mother was smiling.

Two things happened that night.