PART III
(HISTORY)
“Here, we
reached.” said Shantaram to his wife Kaminibai and her daughter Shobha, giving
them a hand to get down from the cart. Shantaram came to Nombay a city with
full of opportunities to try his luck and setup a new life for the better
future of his children. He gave a look at the area from where he was standing.
All he could see was a dairy setup and many huts for those who had been here
from a while for the same reason as Shantaram. By taking his support Kaminibai
got down from the cart very carefully, as she had a child in her womb one month
away from coming into this world. A man with a light brown kurta and a white
dhoti came running down the road just to help Shantaram from offloading the
bags from the cart. Shantaram gave him a surprised look and asked him, “Excuse
me my friend may I know who you are?” to which the man replied, “Good morning
Sir, my name is Kishan and I am here to help you as per the orders given by my
Maalik Mr. Prakash Singh.” To which Shantaram gave a broad smile and both
started to walk towards the house. Shanatram and Kaminibai followed Kishan
along with Shobha and reached towards the house of the Maalik. He was so called
as Maalik as he was the owner of the chawl were Shantaram was going to setup
his new life along with his two ladies and the new comer.
They entered
the house of Mr. Prakash Singh. Kishan came along with a glass of water and
offered it to them asking them to have a seat, the Gaura family sat down and
had water peacefully. Mr. Prakash came after sometime, he was a big guy, with
everything as big as the word BIG really is. He was offered a chair by one of
his servant, a special chair though, that will be of his size to fit onto. As
soon as Mr. Prakash had his seat, Shantaram did a normal Namaste to which Mr.
Prakash responded with a smile. “Guruvendra told me about you and your family
and I am pleased to have you here, do make yourself comfortable here as all these
people are very kind and would easily accept you into our chawl. If you find
any difficulties in anything, Kishan is always here to help you as he looks
around the chawl for me. Kishan will also lead you to your hut and would give
you some tips about how to stay in this city. Else everything is fine over
here, water comes in the morning at around 4 am and we also have load-shedding
problem, light goes in the evening from 5-7pm for two hours and also from
9am-9pm on Friday only. As you have your job so you don’t have to worry about
the earnings and I hope you also won’t make a delay in paying the rent. If you
have any problem regarding that as well feel free to talk with me, we’ll surely
land on to something acceptable for both of us. Electric bill is common for all
and that’s Rs.1/- per month. I guess I have made all things clear and you don’t
have any doubts. Right?” by saying this Mr. Prakash ended his speech to which
Shantaram just gave a nod by again doing a Namaste. He got up and started to
leave. “Wait” said Mr. Prakash, he got up from his chair came forward and moved
his hand forward to shake hand with Shantaram. Shantaram responded positively
by shaking hands with him with a grin on his face and said, “Thank you very
much for such a warm welcome and being so kind Mr. Prakash. It was nice meeting
you and I’ll make sure that you won’t get any complain about me and will live
and let live in chawl peacefully.” “That was expected Mr. Shantaram.” Said Mr.
Prakash with a smile and ordered Kishan to show them their hut.
The Gaura
family once again started following Kishan. On the way they spotted a temple of
Mahadeo and the Gaura family kept the bags down and bowed to one of the
Trinity. As they stood up Kishan said, “This is the centre of the chawl and every
morning at 6am and 7pm in the evening there’s an aarti, if you wish to join us
do come on time.” And started walking towards the hut. As the Gaura’s were
walking on the road to their new hut that went passing the huts in the chawl,
every member came out and welcomed them with a smile and a Namaste to which the
Gaura’s also responded. Kishan told everyone that these are our new members and
that do show your love to them. After some puzzled road, they reached to their
hut, Kishan dropped their bags and with a smile he said, “ This is your new
house Mr.Shantaram, here is the key.” He handed the key to Shantaram and also
wished him luck to start his new life in this city and went away.
Shantaram
was nostalgic now, he was getting all the glimpse of his past and how he
succeeded to lead his life and come in a city. Nombay was very popular and had
the most facility than any city in the country. Yet he managed to get a hut in
this city and soon will be joining onto his factory. Shantaram kept his bag
down and was going to open the lock but a hand stopped him from doing so. That
hand was too rough to say that it was of Kaminibai, his eyes glued to his
hands, soon he followed the arm leading to that man who stopped him from
opening the door. As Shantaram looked into his eyes, they were giving a
screaming introduction. He understood that the person who is holding his hand
is a Gunda(Goon/Hooligan) and would demand from him. Shantaram still managed a
smile on his face and asked him, “Any problem my friend.” “Yes” replied the
Gunda. “My name is Tekdi, I come here to collect money from those who reside
here, I came to know that it’s your first day today, so came here to tell you
that don’t mess or forget to give money to my men who will come here to collect
it. They will come down from next month as this is your first month.” Said
Tekdi introducing himself and letting him know the rules to stay here. As soon
as he’s done, he departed. Shantaram turned around to see the reaction of
Kaminibai and saw a horrified look, her face was showing that she was totally
frightened and that sweat was dripping down her face. Shantaram came near her
and gave her a hug saying everything’s gonna be alright and went onto open the
door.
He opened
the door, moved his hand towards Kaminibai and taking her hand in his hand he
said, “Forget the past and lets start our new life.” And entered the house
together. Kishan had already cleaned the hut. It was only 13 x 13 feet room,
with the kitchen at the entrance. They kept their bags at the corner of the
room and started to remove their clothes and necessary things. Kaminibai was
setting up the kitchen with Shobha giving her a helping hand, her father
Shantaram was busy setting up other things. They were busy setting up till the
afternoon and then Kaminibai started to make Bhakri’s and a chatni for them as
a lunch. They all ate and took a nap. It was 4 pm now and Shobha opened her
eyes with a curiosity. She thought she heard some voices, but it faded away
soon. She closed her eyes again, but soon after she heard it again, and woke
up. She opened the door and went outside following the voice, it sounded like
there was a group of girls who were playing nearby and hence she was more
curious about it as she too wanted to join them. So she walked a bit and saw
some 4-5 girls were playing the game of langadi. Shobha was observing them and
had an urge to play with them but was too shy to ask for it. So she was just
standing there observing them playing. Soon a girl noticed her standing and she
gathered her other friends and was telling them something by pointing it
towards Shobha. As she pointed her finger, all the girls were looking at Shobha
and started coming towards her, Shobha was confused, what to do, should I run
or should I wait to see what are they going to do. She chose to wait as the
girls reached and one of them spoke, “ Hi, my name is Akruti, I know you are
new here and have come today only, and that you were observing us from here, do
you wish to join us?” Shobha was very happy and thought that these girls are
very good at heart and accepted their invitation and soon Shobha started
playing with them.
It was 6pm
and Shobha was returning to her house. As she entered she saw a worried mother,
Kaminibai was crying. Shobha was shocked, “Aai(mother)!” said Shobha. Kaminibai
turned quickly and ran towards her and took her in her arms and asked “Where
have you been?” to that she replied, “I was here, behind our house, playing
with my new friends, they are good and took me to play with them.” And told her
about the incident. Soon Shantaram came running towards his house and saw them
having conversation. Shobha turned and saw anger in her father’s eye and
started crying and apologized for going out without telling anyone. Shantaram
was very angry but did not utter a word and just sat outside his house closing
his eyes and thinking about how his first day in the city was. Soon he went
inside caught Shobha by her hand and told her that they are new in this city
and that she should never ever go anywhere without telling them or else she’ll
be having it from him. Shobha was frightened and nodded with tear in her eyes.
Soon the day
ended, they had dinner, Kaminibai and Shobha were cleaning the utensils in which
they had their supper and Shantaram was making bed ready for all to sleep.
After all the completion of work, Kaminibai and Shantaram laid themselves down
on to their bed with Shobha in between them. Kaminibai and Shobha slept soon
but Shantaram was yet awake thinking how bad his day went, that Gunda
approaching even before he could open the doors of his new house, how his
daughter was not in the house in this new city when they got up after a nap in
the afternoon . It was one of those horrible days he would never forget.
Shantaram was also worried as to when will he start working and that how is he
suppose to manage with such a small amount of money that he is left with,
Shobha’s admission to her new school, etc. Soon Shantaram slept while thinking
about all these things and hoping that everything goes well ahead.
To Be
Continued…
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