'Sorry, woke up late. I didn't get time and...'
'Do your rounds,' Ish said and stood in the centre of the bank's courtyard.
When Ali finished his rounds, Ish unwrapped a new bat for him.
'For you, brand new from Kashmir. Like it?'
Ali nodded without interest. 'Can I leave early today?'
'Why?' Ish snapped.
'There is a marble competition in my pol.' 'And what about cricket?' Ali shrugged.
'First you come late, then you want to go early. What is the point of marbles?'
Ish said as he signalled him to take the crease. One of the three other boys became the bowler.
'We will start with catching practice. Ali, no shots, give them catches.'
Ali's self-control had become better after training for a few months. Ish had taught him to play defensive and avoid getting out. With better diet and exercise, Ali's stamina had improved. He gained the strength to hit the ball rather than rely on momentum. Once Ali faced five balls in a restrained manner, he could sharpen his focus to use his gift. The trick was to use his ability at a lever that scored yet sustained him at the crease. One ball an over worked well. Ish now wanted him to get to two balls an over.
'Switch. Paras to bat, Ali to field,' Ish shouted after three overs. Ali didn't hit any big shots. Disappointed, he threw the bat on| the crease.
'Hey, watch it. It is a new bat,' Ish said.
Paras batted a catch towards Ali, whose hands were busy tightening the cords of his pajama. The ball thunked down on the ground.
'You sleeping or what?' Ish said but Ali ignored him. Three balls later, Paras set up a catch for Ali again. 'Hey, Ali, catch,' Ish screamed from his position at the umpire.
Ali had one hand in his pocket. He noticed Ish staring at him and lifted up his hand in a cursory manner. Two steps and he could have caught the ball. He didn't, and the ball landed on the ground.
'Hey,' Ish shook Ali's shoulder hard. 'You dreaming?' 'I want to leave early,' Ali said, rubbing his shoulder. 'Finish practice first.'
'Here Ali, bat,' Paras said as he came close to Ali. 'No he has to field,' Ish said.
'It is ok, Ish bhaiya. I know he wants to bat,' Paras said and gave Ali the bat.
And I want to practice more catches. I need to get good before my school match.'
Ali took the bat, walked to the crease without looking up. Disconcerted by this insolence, Ish rued spoiling the boy with gifts - sometimes kits, sometimes bats.
Ish allowed Ali to bat again upon Paras' insistence. 'Lift it for I'aras, gentle to the left.'
The ball arrived, Ali whacked it hard. Like his spirit, the ball Hew out of the bank. 'I want to go.' Ali stared at Ish with his green eyes.
'I don't care about your stupid marble tournament. No marble player ever became great,' Ish shouted.
'Well, you also never became great,' Ali said. Ouch, kids and their bitter truth.
Ish froze. His arm trembled. With perfect timing like Ali's bat, Ish's right hand swung and slapped Ali's face hard. The impact and shock made Ali fall on the ground.
Everyone stood erect as they heard the slap.
Ali sat up on the ground and sucked his breath to fight tears.
'Go play your fucking marbles,' Ish said and deposited a slap again. I ran behind to pull Ish's elbow. Ali broke into tears. I bent down to pick up Ali. I tried to hug him, as his less-strict maths tutor. He pushed me away.
'Go away,' Ali said, crying as he kicked me with his tiny legs, I don't want you.'
'Ali, quiet buddy. Come, let's go up, we will do some fun sums,' I said. Oops, wrong thing to say to a kid who had just been whacked.
'I don't want to do sums,' Ali glared back at me.
'Yeah, don't want to field. Don't want to do sums. Lazy freak show wants to play marbles all day,' Ish spat out.
I felt it was stupid of Ish to argue with a twelve-year-old.
'Everyone go home, we practice tomorrow,' I said.
'No, we have to...,' Ish to said.
'Ish, go inside the bank,' I said.
'I don't like him,' Ali said, still in tears.
'Ali behave. This is no way to speak to your coach. Now go home,' I said.
I exhaled a deep breath as everyone left. Maybe God sent me here to be everyone's parent.
★
'What the fuck is wrong with you? He is a kid,' I said to Ish after everyone left. I made lemonade in the kitchen to calm Ish down Ish stood next to me.
'Brat, thinks he has a gift,' Ish said.
'He does,' I said and passed him his drink, 'hey, can you order another LPG
cylinder. This one is almost over,' I said. We did have a kerosene stove, but it was a pain to cook on that.
We came to the cashier's waiting area to sit on the sofas.
Ish kept quiet. He held back something. I wasn't sure if it was tears, as I had never seen Ish cry.
'I shouldn't have hit him,' he said after drinking half a glass.
I nodded.
'But did you see his attitude? "You never became great." Can you imagine if I had said it to my coach?'
'He is just a twelve-year-old. Don't take him seriously,'
'He doesn't care man. He has it in him to make to the national team. But all he wants to do is play his fucking marbles.'
'He enjoys marbles. He doesn't enjoy cricket, yet.'
Ish finished his drink and tossed the plastic glass in the kitchen sink. We locked the bank's main door and the gate and walked towards our shop.
'It is so fucking unfair,' Ish said, 'I slaved for years. I gave up my future for this game. Nothing came of it. And you have this kid who is born with this talent he doesn't even care about.'
'What do you mean nothing came of it? You were the best player in school for years.'
'Yeah, in Belrampur Municipal School, that's like saying Vidya is the Preity Zinta of our pol. Who cares?'
'What?' I said and couldn't control a smile.
'Nothing, our aunt once called her that, and I keep teasing her on it,' Ish said.
His mood lightened up a little. We came close to our shop. The temple dome became visible.
'Why does God do this Govind?' Ish said.
'Do what?'
'Give so much talent to some people. And people like me have none.'
'You are talented.'
'Not enough. Not as much as Ali. I love this game, but have no gifts. I pushed myself - woke up at 4 a.m. everyday, training for hours, practice and more practice. I gave up studies, and now that I think of it, even my future. And then comes this marble player who has this freakish gift. I could never see the ball and whack it like Ali. Why Govind?'
Continuing my job as the parent of my friends, I had to try and answer every silly question of his. 'I don't know. God gives talent so that the ordinary person can become extraordinary. Talent is the only way the poor can become rich.
Otherwise, in this world the rich would remain rich and the poor would remain poor. This unfair talent actually creates a balance, helps to make the world fair,' I said. I reflected on my own statement a little.
'So why doesn't he care? Marbles? Can you believe the boy is more interested in marbles?'
'He hasn't seen what he can get out of cricket. Right now he is the marble champ in his pol and loves that position. Once he experiences the same success in cricket, he will value his gift Until now, he was a four ball freak show. You will turn him into a player Ish,' I said.
We reached the shop. Omi had reached before us and swept the floor. He missed coming to coaching, but he had promised his Mama to attend the morning rallies at least twice a week. Today was one of those days.
'Good practice?' Omi asked idly as he ordered tea.
Ish went inside. I put a finger on my lips to signal Omi to be quiet.
A ten-year-old came with thirty coins to buy a cricket ball.
'A leather ball is twenty-five bucks. You only have twenty-one,' I said as I finished the painful task of counting the coins.
'I broke the piggy bank. I don't have anymore,' the boy said very seriously.
'Then come later,' I said as Ish interrupted me.
'Take it,' Ish said and gave the boy the ball.
The boy grabbed it and ran away.
'Fuck you Ish,' I said.
'Fuck you businessman,' Ish said and continued to sulk about Ali in the corner.
It took Ish one box of chocolates, two dozen marbles and a new sports cap to woo Ali back. Ali missed us, too. His mother told us he cried for two hours that day and never attended the marble tournament. He hadn't come for practice the next two days either. Ish's guilt pangs had turned into an obsession. Ali had an apology ready - probably stage-managed by his mother. He touched Ish's feet and said sorry for insulting his guru. Ish hugged him and Have the gifts. Ish said he'd cut off his hand rather than hit him again. All too melodramatic if you ask me.
The point was Ali came back, this time more serious, and Ish mellowed somewhat. Ali's cricket improved, and other students suggested we take him to the district trials.
Ish vetoed the idea. 'No way, the selection people will destroy him. If they reject him, he is going to be disappointed forever. If they accept him, they will make him play useless matches for several years. He will go for selections, but only the big one - the national team.'
'Really? You confident he will make it,' Omi said, passing us lassi in steel glasses after practice.
'He will be a player like India never had,' Ish announced. It sounded a bit mad, but we had seen Ali demolish the best of bowlers, even if for a few balls. Two more years and Ish could well be right.
'Don't talk about Ali's gift at all. I don't trust anyone.' Ish wiped his lassi moustache.
'Excuses don't clear exams, Vidya. If you study this, it will help. Nothing else will.' I opened the chemistry book again.
'I tried,' she said and pushed back her open hair. She had not bathed. She had a track pant on that I think she had been wearing since she was thirteen and a pink T-shirt that said 'fairy queen' or something. How can a grown-up woman wear something that says 'fairy queen'? How can anyone wear something that says 'fairy queen'?
'I pray everyday. That should help,' she said.
I didn't know whether to laugh or flip my fuse again at her nonchalance. Maybe if she didn't look like a cute ragdoll in those clothes, I would have lost my temper again.
'Don't leave it to God, nothing like reading organic chemistry yourself,' I said.
She nodded and moved her chair, as a bottle fell over on the ground.
'Oops,' she said and bent down.
'What?' I stood up in reflex. It was a bottle of coconut oil, fortunately closed.
'Nothing, I thought I'll oil my hair,' she said and lifted the blue bottle.
I looked at her face. My gaze lasted a quarter second more than necessary.
There is an optimal time for looking at women before it gets counted as a stare. I had crossed that threshold. Self-consciously she tugged at the T-shirt's neckline as she sat back up. The tug was totally due to me. I didn't look there at all, but she thought I did. I felt sick.
'Coconut oil,' I said, probably the dumbest thing to say but it changed the topic.
'Yes, a bit of organic chemistry for my head. Maybe this will help.'
I flipped the book's pages to see how benzene became oxidised.
'When is your birthday?' she said. '14 March,' I replied. 'Pi Day.' 'What day?'
'Pi Day. You see, Pi approximates to 3.14 so 14 March is the same date. It is Einstein's birthday, too. Cool, isn't it?'
'A day for Pi? How can you have a day for something so horrible?'
'Excuse me? It is an important day for maths lovers. We never make it public though. You can say you love literature, you can say you love music but you can't say you feel the same way for maths.'
'Why not?'
'People label you a geek.'
'That you are,' she giggled.
She pulled the oil bottle cap close.
'Can you help me oil my hair? I can't reach the back.'
My tongue slipped like it was coated in that oil as I tried to speak. 'Vidya, we should study now.'
'Yeah, yeah, almost done. Just above the back of my neck, please.'
She twisted on her chair so her back faced me. She held up the cap of the oil bottle.
What the hell, I thought. I dipped my index finger in the oil and brought it to her neck.
'Not here,' she giggled again. 'It tickles. Higher, yes at the roots.'
She told me to dip three fingers instead of one and press harder. I followed her instructions in a daze. The best maths tutor in town had become a champi man.
'How's the new shop coming?' she said.
'Great, I paid the deposit and three months advance rent,' I said. 'Fifty thousand bucks, cash. We will have the best location in the mall'
'I can't wait,' she said.
'Two more months,' I said. 'Ok, that's enough. You do it yourself now, I will hold the cap for you.'
She turned to look at me, dipped her fingers in the oil and applied it to her head.
'I wish I were a boy,' she said, rubbing oil vigorously.
'Why? Easier to oil hair?' I said, holding up the cap in my hand even though my wrist ached.
'So much easier for you to achieve your passions. I won't be allowed to open such a shop,' she said.
I kept quiet.
'There, hopefully my brain would have woken up now,' she said, tying back her hair and placing the chemistry book at the centre of the table.
'1 don't want to study this,' she said.
"Vidya, as your teacher my role is...'
'Yeah, what is your role as my teacher? Teach me how to reach my dreams or how to be a drone?'
I kept quiet. She placed her left foot on her lap. I noticed the tiny teddy bears all over her pajamas.
'Well, I am not your teacher. I am your tutor, your maths tutor. And as far as I know, there are no dream tutors.'
'Are you not my friend?'
'Well, sort of.'
'Ok, sort-of-friend, what do you think I should do? Crush my passion and surround myself with hydrocarbon molecules forever?'
I kept quiet.
'Say something. I should lump these lessons even if I have no interest in them whatsoever as that is what all good Indian students do?'
I kept quiet.
'What?' she prodded me again.
'The problem is you think I am this geek who solves probability problems for thrills. Well, maybe I do, but that is not all of me. I am a tutor, it is a job. But never fucking accuse me of crushing your passion.' Too late I realised I had used the F-word. 'Sorry for the language.'
'Cursing is an act of passion.'
I smiled and turned away from her.
'So there you go,' she said, 'my tutor-friend, I want to make an admission to you. I want to go to Mumbai, but not to cut cadavers. I want to study PR.'
I banged my fist on the table. 'Then do it. Don't give me this wish-I-was-a-boy and I'm-trapped-in-a-cage nonsense. Ok, so you are in a cage, but you have a nice, big, oiled brain that is not pea-sized like a bird's. So use it to find the key out.'
'Medical college is one key, but not for me,' she said.
'In that case, break the cage,' I said.
'How?'
'What makes the cage? Your parents, right? Do you have to listen to them all the time?'
'Of course not. I've been lying to them since I was five.'
'Really? Wow,' I said and collected myself. 'Passion versus parents is a tough call. But if you have to choose, passion should win. Humanity wouldn't have progressed if people listened to their parents all the time.'
'Exactly. Our parents are not innocent either. Weren't we all conceived in a moment of passion?' I looked at her innocent -looking face, shocked. This girl is out of control. Maybe it isn't such a good idea to get her out of her cage.
Nine
26 January is a happy day for all Indians. Whether or not you feel patriotic, it is a guaranteed holiday in the first month of the year. I remember thinking it would be the last holiday at our temple shop since we were scheduled to move to the new mall on Valentine's Day. Apart from the deposit, we had spent another sixty thousand to fit out the interiors. I borrowed ten thousand from my mother, purely as a loan. Ish's dad refused to give any money. Omi, even though I had said no, took the rest in loan from Bittoo Mama.
The night before Republic Day, I lay in bed with my thoughts. I had invested a hundred and ten thousand rupees. My business had already reached lakhs.
Should we do a turf carpet throughout? Now that would be cool for a sports shop.
I dreamed of my chain of stores the whole night.
'Stop shaking me mom, I want to sleep,' I screamed. Can't the world let a businessman sleep on a rare holiday.
But mom didn't shake me. I moved on my own. I opened my eyes. My bed went back and forth too. I looked at the wall clock. It had fallen on the floor. The room furniture, fan and windows vibrated violently.
I rubbed my eyes, what was this? Nightmares?
I stood up and went to the window. People on the street ran haphazardly in random directions.
'Govind,' my mother screamed from the other room, 'hide under the table. It is an earthquake.'
'What?' I said and ducked under the side table kept by the window in reflex. I could see the havoc outside. Three TV antennas horn the opposite building fell down. A telephone pole broke and collapsed on the ground.
The tremors lasted for forty-five seconds, the most destructive and longest forty-five seconds of my life. Of course, I did not know n then. A strange silence followed the earthquake.
'Mom,' I screamed.
'Govind, don't move,' she screamed back.
'It is gone,' I said after ten more minutes had passed, 'you ok?'
I came out to the living room. Everything on the wall -I alendars, paintings and lampshades, lay on the floor.
'Govind,' my mother came and hugged me. Yes, I was fine. My mother was fine too.
'Let's get out,' she said.
'Why?'
'The building might collapse.'
'I don't think so,' I said as my mother dragged me out in my pajamas. The street was full of people.
'Is it a bomb?' a man spoke to the other in whispers.
'Earthquake. It's coming on TV. It started in Bhuj,' a man on the street said.
'Bad?' the other man said.
'We felt the tremors hundreds of kilometres away, imagine the situation in Bhuj,' another old man said.
We stood out for an hour. No, the foundation of our building, or for that matter any in our pol had not come loose. Meanwhile, rumours and gossip spread fast.
Some said more earthquakes could come. Some said India had tested a nuclear bomb. A few parts of Ahmedabad reported property damage. Stories rippled through the street.
I re-entered my house after two hours and switched on the TV. Every channel covered the earthquake. It epicentred in Bhuj, though it affected many parts of Gujarat.
'Reports suggest that while most of Ahmedabad is safe, many new and upcoming buildings have suffered severe damage...,' the reporter said as tingles went down my spine.
'No, no, no...,' I mumbled to myself.
'What?' my mother said as she brought me tea and toast.
'I have to go out.'
'Where?'
'Navrangpura ... now,' I said and wore my slippers. Are you mad?' she said.
'My shop mom, my shop,' is all 1 said as I ran out of the house.
The whole city was shut. I couldn't find any autos or buses. I decided to run the seven-kilometre stretch. I had to see if my new store was ok. Yes, I just wanted that to be ok.
It took me an hour to get there. I saw the devastation en-route. The new city areas like Satellite suffered heavy damage. Almost every building had their windows broken. Those buildings that were under construction had crumbled to rubble. I entered Navrangpura. Signs of plush shops lay on the road. I reasoned that my new, ultra-modern building would have earthquake safety features. I gasped for breath as I ran the last hundred metres. Sweat covered my entire body.
Did I miss the building? I said as I reached my lane. The mayhem on the street and the broken signs made it hard to identify addresses.
I retreated, catching my breath.
'Where is the building?' I said to myself as I kept circling my lane.
I found it, finally. Only that the six storeys that were intact a day ago had now turned into a concrete heap. I could not concentrate. I felt intense thirst. I looked for water, but I only saw rubble, rubble and more rubble. My stomach hurt. I grabbed it with my left hand and sat on a broken bench to keep my consciousness.
The police pulled out a labourer, with bruises all over. Cement hags had fallen on him and crushed his legs. The sight of blood made me vomit. No one in the crowd noticed me. One lakh and ten thousand, the number spun in my head.
Unrelated images of the day my dad left us flashed in my head. Those images had not come for years. The look on his face as he shut the living room door on the way out. My mother's silent tears for the next few hours, which continued for the next few years. I don't know why that past scene came to me. I think the brain has a special box where it keeps crappy memories. It stays shut, but everytime a new entry has to be added, it opens and you can look at what is inside. I felt anger at my dad, totally misplaced as I should have felt anger at the earthquake. Or at myself, for betting so much money. Anger for making the first big mistake of my life.
My body trembled with violent intensity.
'Don't worry, God will protect us,' someone tapped my shoulder.
'Oh really, then who the hell sent it in the first place?' I said and pushed the stranger away. I didn't need sympathy, I wanted my shop.
Two years of scrimping and saving, twenty years of dreams - all wiped away in twenty seconds. The 'Navrangpura Mall's' neon sign, once placed at the top of the six floor building, now licked the ground. Maybe this was God's way of saying something - that we shouldn't have these malls. We were destined to remain a small town and we shouldn't even try to be like the big cities. I don't know why I thought of God, I was agnostic. But who else do you blame earthquakes on?
Of course, I could blame the builder of the Navrangpura mall. For the hundred-year-old buildings in the old city pols remained standing. Omi's two-hundred-year-old temple stood intact. Then why did my fucking mall collapse? What did he make it with? Sand?
I needed someone to blame. I needed to hit someone, something. I lifted a brick, and threw it at an already smashed window. The remaining glass broke into little bits.
'What are you doing? Haven't we seen enough destruction?' said someone next to me.
I couldn't make out his face, or anyone's face. My heart beat at double the normal rate. Surely, we could sue the builder, my heart said. The builder would have run away, my head said. And no one would get their money back.
'Govind, Govind,' Ish said. He screamed in my ear when I finally noticed him.
'What the hell are you doing here man? It is dangerous to be out, let's go home'
Ish said.
I kept looking at the rubble like I had for the last four hours.
'Govind,' Ish said, 'we can't do anything. Let's go.' 'We are finished Ish,' I said, feeling moist in my eyes for the first time in a decade.
'It's ok buddy. We have to go,' Ish said. 'We lost everything. Look, our business collapsed even before IT opened...'
I broke down. I never cried the day my father left us. I never cried when my hand had got burnt one Diwali and Dr Verma had TO give me sedatives to go to sleep. I never cried when India lost a match. I never cried when I couldn't join engineering college. I never cried when we barely made any money for the first three months of business. But that day, when God slapped my city for no reason, I cried and cried. Ish held me and let me use his shirt to absorb my tears.
'Govi, let's go home,' Ish said. He never shortened my name before. He'd never seen me like that too. Their CEO and parent had broken down.
'We are cursed man. I saved, and I saved and I fucking saved. And we took loans. But then, this? Ish, I don't want to see that smug look on Bittoo Mama's face. I will work on the roadside,' I said as Ish dragged me away to an auto.
People must have thought I had lost a child. But when a businessman loses his business, it is similar. It is one thing when you take a business risk and suffer a loss, but this was unfair. Someone out there needed to realise this was fucking unfair.
Ish bought a Frooti to calm me. It helped, especially since I didn't eat anything else for the next two days. I think the rest of the Ambavadis didn't either.
I found out later that over thirty thousand people lost their lives. That is a stadium full of people. In Bhuj, ninety per cent of homes were destroyed. Schools and hospitals flattened to the ground. Overall in Gujarat, the quake damaged a million structures. One of those million structures included my future shop. In the large scheme of things, my loss was statistically irrelevant. In the narrow, selfish scheme of things, I suffered the most. The old city fared better than the new city. Somehow our grandfathers believed in cement more than the new mall owners.
Compared to Gujarat, Ahmedabad had better luck, the Ty channels said. The new city lost only fifty multi-storey buildings, They said only a few hundred people died in Ahmedabad compared to tens of thousands elsewhere. It is funny when hundreds of people dying is tagged with 'only'. Each of those people would have had families, and hopes and aspirations all shattered in forty* five seconds.
But that is how maths works - compared to thirty thousand, hundreds is a rounding error.
★
I had not left home for a week. For the first three days I had burning fever, and for the next four my body felt stone cold.
'Your fever is gone.' Dr Verma checked my pulse.
I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
'You haven't gone to the shop?'
I shook my head, still horizontal on bed.
'I didn't expect this from you. You have heard of Navaldharis Dr Verma said.
I kept quiet.
'You can talk. I haven't put a thermometer in your mouth.' 'No, who are they?'
'Navaldharis is a hardcore entrepreneur community in Gujarat Everyone there does business. And they say, a true Navaldhari businessman is one who can rise after being razed to t