Awesome Blossoms: Horn OK Please (14 page)

“Why do you want to see my house?”

“Well, this is the first time I’ve come to this part of the world and it might even be the last time. I don’t know much about you, but I’m very interested in seeing what people do here, where they live, how their daily life is, and things like that. I come from the city and back there everyone has pretty much the same life. We go to work, we come back home and we go out sometimes. Here, all I can see are these shops, but I can see no houses; so I was wondering where you live. I hope you don’t mind my asking you this question.”

“Not at all! That’s okay. It was just that nobody has asked me this
before. I can show you my place.”

Just then, his friend woke up and sat on the
mat for a bit. He looked around for a bit, snorting. He yawned a few times and stretched himself- his head still inside that strange hood-sweater. I could see a bright yellow shirt on the inside of his sweater.

The two guys spoke in English. I’d heard the language on the old transistor before and recognized it. The
guy, who just woke up, went and washed his face at the blue drum and got a cup of tea for himself. Just then two more guys came by to the tea stall. Only one of them had tea, the other asked for hot milk and they all sat drinking from their cups and talking in English.

After a few minutes, the guy in the hood-sweater and the guy with the orange scarf got up and asked me if I would take them to my house. Without any hesitation I walked ahead of them, although I really wanted to run. I’ve noticed how most men don’t want to run and although these guys didn’t look like most men from my village, I knew they were old enough to be called men. When I grow up I’m sure I’m going to keep running.

So, we walked past the shop towards my house. While walking, the guy asked me to wait for a bit. He clicked some pictures of the place; I have no idea what he saw. All I ever saw was sand till the eyes could see, a few shrubs and bushes around and somewhere in the distance, a very stunted tree. It had gotten brighter and it was getting a little hot as well. But definitely not something I’d never seen before.

“You guys have so much of open space out here! I can’t even see a house from around here. Back there in the city it’s all so congested, in some areas you can’t even find a place to dig for mud. Houses
are built right next to each other with no space in between, people live in house on top of another. Some buildings in the city of Mumbai even go up to the 60th floor!”

“Really? Why does anybody live like that? Here nobody cares about the land. There’s enough and more as you can see. If you want, you could also build a place for yourself and stay here. Nobody will question you.” I continued
to walk; the two of them followed me, talking to each other. I was feeling uncomfortable about taking them home. I wasn’t sure if my mother would be awake. They didn’t seem like robbers, just that I’m not used to having people over at home, especially people who’ve lived in cities all their lives with buildings 60 floors high. I don’t even know what a floor is.

“Look, I need to tell you guys something.” I stopped walking and turned towards them. “This is a really small town. There are not more than 30 houses
and not more than 30 families. Everyone is very suspicious of everyone else out here. So I can’t really take you to my house. They will even go down to thinking that I’m trying to sell you my house or the women in my house so I will only show you my house from far. Please don’t mind but that’s how it is in small towns, I don’t know how it goes in big cities but here everybody knows everything and your reputation matters the most. People lose trust very easily here.”

“Listen, we don’t want to cause any kind of trouble for you. If you can’t show us your place it’s okay, we’ll go back. It’s completely fine.”

“No, my place is just around the corner, I can show you from just up ahead. You can see it from far and get back. You’ve come so far, you might as well see it.” And I continued to walk.

They followed without saying anything, even to each other.
After a bit I could see my house behind the shrub. My father had decided to build the house behind this overgrowth of shrubs. It covered most of the house and you could barely see a structure. I pointed in that direction.

“That’s where I live. It has two rooms”

They had a big smile on their faces and the guy with the scarf took some pictures. They barely stood there a minute.

“We should go back now. We don’t want you to get into any trouble.”

I suddenly didn’t want to say much and I couldn’t smile either. I felt weird. I walked with them for a bit and showed them the way to the shop.

“It’s best if they don’t see me with you back at the shop. I should go now.” I turned around and began to run. I just wanted to run for a bit so I ran past my house. I think I must’ve run for almost 20 minutes before I got tired. I didn’t ever know how to say goodbye to these people who halt at the village every now and then in their bikes or in their cars.

I never saw those guys again…

***

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

By Pradnya Mazagaonkar

***

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

- John F. Kennedy

An Illuminating Night

“N
o!” she said in a stern yet perturbed tone. Anuj gave her a puzzled look for a moment that matured into a broad smile and pulled her left hand close to his. She retracted her hand instantaneously, gazing deeply into his eyes with anguish. Failing to understand the situation, he rose from his genuflecting position and glared at her in disbelief. He tried to find logical reasoning to such a revoked reaction from Kiara. After numerous unsuccessful attempts at doing so, he broke the silence and questioned her “Are you kidding me?”

She looked away in exasperation, breathing rhythmically with the blinking of her eyelids. She had no escape. She had to define her erratic behavior to him. She reminisced the wonderful moments of their relationship to push back her anger and pacified her mind to speak intelligibly.

She said “Anuj, we’ve known each other for close to five years now. We’ve always influenced each other’s lives in a positive manner. Don’t you think it is too early for us to get married? We’ve just graduated! We have a million dreams to chase, a trillion achievements to accomplish and an aim in life that cannot be led astray. Have you ever thought of what you want to become in life? Successful, I’m sure. Everybody wants success; but at what cost? You need to pay a price for success; the price of diligence. For Christ’s sake Anuj, you have not even thought of what you would do next after college? You have no answer to any of my questions that start from higher studies and end at entrepreneurship. You need to give yourself a thought. Come back to me only when you have the answers to my questions, else I’m afraid this may be the last time I’ll be seeing you.”

Shattered to the core, Anuj stood in silence as he saw her walk away. His rebellious attitude failed to surface to the stark truth that lay shadow
-less in front of him. He gulped down the tiny tear that rolled down his eyes. The salty liquid choked his throat. He carefully put the ring in the box and walked down the sunset point towards his car. Her last words kept twirling in his head on his way back home. On reaching home, he slammed the door of his room behind himself. He sat on his bed with knees tucked in his arms and eyes fixed on the starry roof of his room. Her thoughts kept creeping in and her words kept creating ire in his mind. He finally succumbed to the emotion and wept till he fell asleep.

He saw the same dream yet again. Carrying the injured body of his colleague to the emergency aid area, he fired two rounds of bullets for cover. He then rushed back and joined the troop. The firing continued till he saw a huge blaze in the sky. The sequence of the events in the dream hadn’t changed shape since the time he had seen the dream for the
very first time. The blaze lit up the dreary night and grabbed the attention of everyone on that battleground. The moment he shifted his gaze to the beautifully lit sky, his chest was filled with an excruciating pain as he straightway landed on the ground.

Suddenly, the knock at
the door was a juggernaut for bringing him back to reality. He sat up in his bed sweating profusely from head to toe. There was a second knock that seemed thunderous and provoked him to open the door. He opened the door to a raged mother waiting for her son to dine with his family. He quickly ended the conversation with his mom so as to avoid making an eye contact with her. Letting his mom see him in such a devastated state was the last thing he wanted in his life. He washed his face and headed downstairs to the dining room.

With each morsel, ran thousands of thoughts in his mind.
Kiara’s words had hit him hard; hard enough to make some strong decisions. There lay two motives behind his decision-making. First, he had to prove his worth to Kiara and second, he had to prove his worth to himself. He knew he needed some time on his own and staying home with his parents or being with Kiara all the time would be his biggest barrier in achieving his goal. And then, he thought about his dream. He tried to retrospect the dream and attempted to associate a meaning to it. In an instance, everything started to fall in place. He dropped his cutlery in his plate, looked up at his parents and said, “I want to join the Army.”

Leaving his speechless parents at the dining table, he walked straight to his room, switched on his laptop and br
owsed hundreds of pages on the Internet to obtain a comprehensive picture of the most impulsive career decision he had made in his life. The dates for SSB seemed as if they were designed to accommodate his abrupt decision. He scanned through all the possible study material for the interview. His determination became stronger as the date for the interview closed in. He was blinded by the thought of getting back to Kiara and proving her wrong.

SSB, Allahabad was thronged with people on that scorching Thursday afternoon. Anuj was nervous yet confident. There was not even a hint of manifestation of his inner turmoil on his face. He walked into the interview cabin and knew that the interview was cracked when he answered the first question. The gentleman in the panel asked him “How old are you?” He smiled and said “I’m 21 years young sir!” He awaited the interview results in high desperation. Sleepless nights had become customary to him. Deep down inside, he knew this career decision was one of the biggest gambles in his life. But he was destined to board this ship. He cleared the SSB and had to report to the academy in a span of less than forty five days.

The journey to the most impetuous decision of his life began at the gates of IMA- Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He made an entry with countless inexpressive emotions that lay buried in the deepest corners of his mind. The first few sleepless nights were enough to throw Kiara’s thoughts out of his mind. The training at the academy was far from his imagination. He was taken aback by the rules and regulations followed at the academy. Surviving that level of training was not a layman’s job. But his perseverance to prove himself made him cross all the barriers to don the uniform.    

A transformation of 11 months gleamed at the entrance of the academy. His radiant persona was highly evident. His strong built backed by his invincible maturity caught his parents by surprise when they visited the academy for the passing out parade. Pride reflected prominently on their faces with a glint in their eye. He missed Kiara’s presence that day. He wanted her to see the changed human being he had become and thank her for making him this person.

Freshly commissioned, he was the most wanted person in the army unit. The unit was in Jalandhar, Punjab. He was molded appropriately to fit into the culture. However, like the fate of every other newly commissioned officer, his too was a beginning of great remembrance. Playing pranks on a bachelor officer had always been a trend in the army. He was introduced to a lady as a senior officer’s sister-in-law. Beautiful to the core, she exhibited excellent communication skills that could drag the observation of everyone in a room. Highly impressed with the lady’s beauty and her intelligence, he made a coy attempt to approach her. The conversation had struck the right chord. The lady was trained to communicate accordingly. He ended their dialogue with a coffee request for the coming evening. His face lit up with an impish smile and he beamed. It was much awaited by all the officers. The teasing continued till the truth was revealed to him. He smiled timidly in embarrassment and took the prank in his stride.

He kept himself busy with the daily chores in the unit. His routine was monotonous. Morning exercise, office, lunch, games, back to office and dinner was his recurring drill. On one such morning, while he was sorting out some files, the office phone rang. He answered the phone in a jiffy. “Lt Anuj Nanda Sir” he said attentively. “Sir, Yes Sir. The troop will be ready
, Sir. Jai Hind, Sir” he said before disconnecting the call. Immediately after that call, he made a few calls here and there and briskly walked out of his cabin. He headed to the Commanding Officer’s cabin. “Jai Hind, Sir” he said thumping his left foot on the ground and raising his right hand slightly above the brow. Getting back into the ‘stand-at-ease’ position, he took a closer look at the sweat beads trickling down the forehead of his Commanding Officer. He stayed quiet and awaited the orders that he had already anticipated. After a discussion of exactly two minutes and forty-seven seconds, he repeated his entry salute and walked out of the cabin. His feet did not stop until he reached the Quarter Guard. The phone calls that he had made initially were orders for all the unit members to assemble at the Quarter Guard.

The orders that lay at hand were intense and pivotal. Every eye in that room was hooked to Anuj. His straight face camouflaged every ounce of emotion. He raised his voice, looked at each one of them straight in their eyes and said
, “We leave for Rajouri, Jammu exactly at 21:30 hours. The brigade has issued orders for immediate presence there. We will not be having any communication with media post 21:30 hours. We have exactly six and a half hours to depart from here. Get the vehicles ready for departure.” The story behind the movement of the unit was unknown to all of them. Yet all of them followed their officer’s order unquestionably. This uniqueness of command could only be witnessed in the army. The battalion needed to travel to
Rajouri
for back up support. Kashmir was on red-alert due to terrorist activity observed in Awantipora. A sudden outrage was expected which required immense back up from the other battalions. Anuj’s unit had to reach there to necessitate this demand. The unit members knew the sensitivity of the situation. Jammu & Kashmir had always been on the radar. Equipped with the ammunition, the vehicles were readied to roll out. The unit members awaited the next orders by their seniors.

Rajouri
was not very far from the city of
Jalandhar
. But the six-hour journey was worth remembering. Anuj was accompanied by thirteen soldiers of his unit in one vehicle along with the driver. The convoy followed them. They departed from Jalandhar exactly at 21:30 hours. The night was long and dark. He overheard the conversations of the
Jawans
(soldiers) in the vehicle. They were discussing about random things like movies, families, marriage, etc. None spoke about their mission ahead, the difficulties that were lined up for them the next day. A sense of pride emerged on Anuj’s face listening to their carefree conversation. He hopped to the back of the vehicle to join them. Silence prevailed as soon as he made an entry in their discussion. He immediately comprehended the discomfort and cracked a joke to break the ice and set the mood on a lighter note.

He initia
ted the talk with a few of the
Jawans
who were more familiar to him than the others. He asked one “How was your leave Sharma? Did you finalize any girl for marriage?” Sharma sheepishly smiled and reluctantly answered with a yes. Everyone laughed and patted Sharma on his back teasing him lightly. He then shifted to Kumar and asked him “How is your wife doing? Did you send her to her parent’s place for the delivery?” Kumar fell silent. He bent his head downwards and looked towards the ground. “Is everything alright Kumar?” Anuj enquired with distress. Kumar’s voice narrowed down to a thin tone rather than his usual loud expression for every small thing. He looked up at Anuj and said “She had a miscarriage, Sir”. Anuj was shocked to hear this. Nobody in the unit knew about this. Two weeks ago, he had gone on a leave to take his wife to the hospital as she was facing some minor pregnancy complications. His wife experienced a miscarriage two days after he had returned to the unit. At 00:30 hours, he expressed his feeling of devastation in front of fourteen other people. He was unable to define what made him feel worse; the fact that he had lost his future baby or that he couldn’t be by his wife’s side when she needed him the most. Every person in the vehicle went speechless. Anuj was about to pay his condolences to Kumar, when Tyagi spoke up “Sir, my mother stays in our village with my sister. She is suffering from cancer. My sister is
unmarried and takes care of her. I am trying to get married so that my wife will be able to look after her. Then I could also get my sister married. But no girl wants to marry me as I will not be able to give time to her.”

Anuj worryingly listened to each story emerge from the backdrop of a laughter filled conversation. He did not stop anyone from speaking their hearts out that night. He stayed extremely quiet and allowed each one of them to burst their bubble of emotions. He was getting to see their sensitive sides for the first time ever. No soon
er had Tyagi finished his story; More chipped in “My sister got married six months back. Two months after her marriage, on her first visit home, she had a swollen face and burn marks all over her body. On investigating a lot, she revealed with teary eyes that her husband had been beating her up right from day one of their marriage. Her husband drinks and beats her up for no reason at all. I feel ashamed of myself for not being a good brother to her.” All the stories saw the light of the day. None of them slept that night. Everyone stayed wide awake and listened to each one’s grievance with patience and distress.

The vehicle stopped at the post of Rajouri. Everyone stepped out of the vehicle and assembled for the fall-in at the post. The ammunition was transported from the vehicle to the armament area. Anuj stepped into his tent and sat down with the thoughts of last night that still revolved in his head. He thought of his last conversation with Kiara. When he tried to balance the problems in life, the things he heard last night outweighed them hands down. He realized the intensity of situations faced by his men in his unit. Lost in these thoughts, he was startled by a salute at the door of his tent. Kumar, Tyagi and More stood in attention positions. He asked them to relax and cleared his throat to talk when Kumar spoke up “Sir, we came here to tell you one thing. The stories that started in the night have gone away with the light of the day. This day begins with setting up at the post and running down the terrorists with all the bullets that fit into our guns. The focus is clear and will not stray. We will do what we are supposed to do. My wife still smiles when I speak to her. Never discusses her miscarriage. I too respond to her with love and care.” Tyagi said “I’m sure I did not get married till now because God is still finding that perfect girl for me
, Sir.” Finally More spoke up “After this mission, I will go home and give my brother-in-law some hard time, Sir” Anuj smiled at all three of them and dismissed them.