Chapter Two
Young Jalal jumped for joy when his mother finally permitted him to go out with Jaimal. He generally looked forward to these mini excursions with his Mamu. His biological father, Humayun Khan had passed away when he was too young to even remember it. Jaimal was the father-figure around whom his childhood revolved. He still remembered how his Mamu had shielded him at every juncture when he needed him.
They had shifted to the estate bungalow only two years back. Before that, they all used to live in Jaimal's haveli! When the older boys used to bully him, push him or refuse to play with him citing that he was too small for them, he instantly jumped to his defense and took them to task. Whenever he would go on tours or pilgrimages, he would surely buy some toy or gift for Jalal. How Jalal used to wait for these occasions!
Both Jalal and Jaimal had a favorite personal game between both of them. It was the candy game. Jaimal would show his empty hands and then close his fists asking him to guess in which palm of the hand the candy was. Invariably, Jalal always managed to guess the palm which held the candy. Perhaps it was because Jaimal wanted Jalal to find the hand which held the candy.
Even today as they were seated in the jeep and about to leave, Jaimal held out his empty palms before closing his fists.
Jaimal: Ready for some magic Champ?
Young Jalal began giggling away. He knew what was awaiting him, the mouth-watering candy!
Jalal: What Mamu? Why don't you give me the candy straight away? I know this is not some magic. It is a trick. Bashir told me that's how you do it!
Jaimal: This Bashir spoilt all the fun, didn't he? As long as you didn't know, it was beautiful and magical. Now it looks very ordinary and commonplace. Life is also like that. How you look at the world, the world also becomes like that! If you look at its beauty, it is beautiful. If you look at its magic, it is magical. If you see its ordinariness, it is ordinary. How does my Champ want his world to be? Beautiful or ordinary!
Jalal: Of course, Mamu! I want my world to be beautiful!
Jalal found the palm in which the candy was this time too. Jaimal began driving the jeep to the orphanage. Nibbling away the candy and his mouth full of its sweetness, Jalal asked Jaimal, "Mamu does the world become bright and beautiful just because I see its beauty? What if the person beside me doesn't think like that? If he thinks the world is bad and ugly and makes my world bad?
Jaimal: Champ who do you think make up the world?
Jalal: Ammi, Bakshi, you, Mamiji, my friends, teachers, the watchman of our school, our workers, employees, the children at the orphanage, the Sisters of the Convent,...
Jaimal: So in other words, you are telling about all the people whom you know. There are many out there whom you might not have known or never seen. The world in simple words is made up of people like you and me. What you give to the world, you get back. If you give sweetness like this candy, you will get back sweetness. If you give happiness, you get back happiness. If you give sorrow, you will get sorrow. It is as simple as that. We should give what we want.
Jalal: Mamu what if we get bitterness even after giving sweetness?
Jaimal: Even then, you have to continue what you are doing! Someday that person who gave you unhappiness will realize that he is wrong. Just because the person next to you is bad doesn't justify your being bad either. Two bad things cumulatively result in twenty two bad things. But one good action begets a hundred good results. Only good begets good.
Jalal hugged Jaimal effusively telling, "That's why you are my best Mamu! There is nobody like you! I love you Mamu!"
Jaimal: Love you too, Champ!
When they were half way through to the orphanage, their jeep broke down. Jaimal somehow managed to maneuver and stop the jeep to the side of the sinuous, winding, mountainous road. He got down to examine what was wrong with it. Jalal was still sitting in the jeep when he observed a huge group of men coming that way.
They were heavily wrapped in shawls. There seemed to be something sharp and pointed protruding beneath those shawls. He had no idea who they were. He hadn't seen them here before this. They looked like complete strangers. Jalal was reminded of the vague menace in Hamida's words before she sent him off with Jaimal when he caught a glimpse of this group.
For some unknown reason, a wave of panic and fear washed over Jalal when he saw these men advancing by slow degrees towards their jeep intricately observing him and the person who was now hidden from their view. Jaimal had by now finished examining what was wrong with the jeep. The engine had become too hot. He shouted out to Jalal who was sitting in the jeep, "Pass me the water bottle Jalal! The engine is too hot!"
It seemed as though they had heard the word "Jalal" and as if it made an impact on these men. They didn't seem interested in him or his companion now. Jalal jumped down the jeep with the water bottle. By the time both he and Jaimal looked up from the engine which had cooled down, the group of men had quietly passed by. Jalal heaved a sigh of relief. He said, "Bahut ajeeb theh woh log, Mamu! Pehle kabhi nahin dekha aise logon ko!" (Those people were very strange! I never saw such people around here before this!)
Jaimal, who had neither seen nor observed them, said, "Shayad tourists theh!" (Perhaps they were tourists!)
Little Jalal didn't seem very convinced with this explanation. Those men looked terribly scary and horrifying. He contented himself by telling a half-hearted, "Shayad, Mamu! Aise tourists aaye hi naa toh achcha! Koi ithna batsurat bhi dikh saktha yeh mujhe aaj patha chala!"(Perhaps Mamu! It would be better if such tourists don't come at all! That one could look so ugly, I got to know only today!)
Ironically, most of the men in that group were more than six-feet tall, fair, handsome, with sharp, pointed and angular features and penetrating eyes. All these in ordinary and common thinking would be considered as perfect examples of manly handsomeness and external physical beauty. Why then did Jalal instinctively feel that they were ugly?
However, the jeep had restarted and Jalal happily brushed what he had seen on the roadside to one corner of his mind and began concentrating once again on what lay ahead of him, playing with the children of the orphanage! Jaimal went in to greet the Sisters of the Convent and give them the things Hamida had sent for the children. Jalal insisted that he was going to distribute the sweets they had brought all by himself.
All the children had swarmed round Jalal. He was a great favorite with the kids of the orphanage. They almost held him up with eyes glittering with hero worship. They literally idolized him. He had finished distributing whatever sweets he had brought along with him. Even after he had finished giving them to everyone there, there were still some more boxes left. He kept them aside thinking he would keep them for himself and Bakshi, his sister, and eat then after going home.
The whole group, including Jalal were playing in the garden making such a loud and raucous noise. It was as if all of them had got independence only today. They shouted, jumped and clapped their hands in gay abandon. They played hide-and-seek, kho-kho, running and catching, etc, until they were all dead-tired and panting for breath.
All this while, the window opposite to them had been open. Though Jalal could not exactly see who sat behind the window, he could see a vague outline. It was a small girl in a pink frock wearing two long pig tails.
What was she doing inside when all of them were outside having such a gala time? He didn't remember giving the sweets to this girl. So he ought to give her too if she was living in the same orphanage. He was about to go to the window and invite her too to join the other children in their play when the widow suddenly shut tight on his nose!
Jalal was terribly shocked and confused by the girl's behavior. He turned to his other friends and asked, "Kaun thi woh? Nayi hai Kya?" (Who is she? Is she new here?)
One of the inmates of the orphanage said, "Woh Jodha hain! Jab seh aayi hain kisi seh baath nahin karthi!" (She is Jodha! Ever since she has come, she talks with nobody!)
Jalal was very astonished and curious by this revelation, "Kisi seh nahin?"
Another child chipped in here, "Haan! Kisi seh nahin...(after a small pause) sivai Sister Susan!" (Yes! With nobody...except Sister Susan!)
Jalal was definitely interested by now, "Kisi ne kosish ki use bulane ki? Woh aisi hi hai ya woh aathi nahin kyunki tum log use bhulathe nahin ho?"(Did any of you try calling out to her? Is she like this only or she doesn't come because you guys don't include her?)
One of the children said, "If you want, you can try! All of us have tried but in vain. She won't come out! Darpok hai woh!"(She is a coward!)
Jalal came up to the closed window and gave it a gentle tap saying, "Kya tum meri dost banogi? Tum khelogi hum sab ke saath? (Will you be my friend? Will you play with us?)
There was no noise or movement from within. Everything was still and silent. It seemed as though the room was completely empty and there was nobody within. However, Jalal did not go away from there. He stood his ground.
A long moment passed like this, when Jalal asked, "Tum ho na wahan? Ya chali gayi?" ( Are you still there? Or did you go away?)
After this query, an even longer pause ensued. Jalal was getting impatient and irritated by now, "Tumhe sunayi nahin dethi hai kya? Bairi ho tum? Ya aur jor seh bolun?" ( Can't you hear!? You are deaf or what? Should I shout even more?)
At this the window opened a very slight degree and a fearful and timid Jodha hesitantly peered out of it. There was a hunted look of fear on her face as she said, "Nahin! Tum yahan seh jao! Mujhe khelna nahin hain! Mujhe tum seh baath nahin karni!" (No! You go from here! I don't want to play! I don't want to talk to you!)
While the rest of the inmates were surprised that the girl who never spoke a single word to any of them, spoke this long stretch of conversation to Jalal even if it was to refuse him, Jalal himself was irked by the attitude of the girl! He spoke something very rude and offending at this juncture to assuage his hurt feelings at his offer of friendship being refused like this by the girl in such a peremptory manner.
Jalal: Kya samajthi ho apne aap ko? Kahin ki Rajkumari ho kya? Anaadh ho tum! (What do you think of yourself. You're the princess of some place? You're an orphan!)
The window opened a slight degree when this remark escaped out of his mouth and the girl within ventured a very meek, "Anaadh kya hota hai?" (What does being an orphan mean?)
At the other end, Jaimal who had finished giving whatever he had brought to the Sisters rejoined Jalal at the precise moment when he made this remark. His eyes full of reproach at whatever he had heard him saying, Jaimal said, "Mafi mango Jalal! Abhi ke abhi!" (Ask sorry, Jalal! Immediately!)
Jalal tried to argue a bit saying, "Par Mamu, woh ladki bhi..." (But Mamu, this girl too...)
Jaimal: Par var kuch nahin! Tum galat ho mathlab tum galat ho! Uska galat hona tumhara sahi hona sabit nahin kartha! MAFI MANGO JALAL! (Nothing doing! You are wrong means you are wrong! Her being wrong doesn't prove you right! Say sorry, Jalal!)
Jalal in a reluctant manner said, "Maaf kar do! Mujhe aisa kehna nahin chahiye tha!" (Sorry! I shouldn't have said that!)
Jodha did not say anything in reply to this sorry. But she was curious to know what this new word she heard the boy telling meant. So she reiterated again, "Anaadh ka matlab kya hota hai?"
The boy did not say anything to this nor did the man beside him who looked angry with him for saying that. The boy ran back to the box of sweets that were left that he had kept aside for himself and Bakshi and said, "Yeh lelo! Bahut tasty hain!"
The girl did not advance her hand forward to take it. But neither did she shut the window again on his face as she had done earlier. The boy stood undecided whether to give the sweets or take it back with him when he found the little girl licking her lips as though she really wanted the sweets but was too afraid to take it from him.
Jalal left the sweet box carefully balanced on the window ledge before he left from there along with Jaimal. As his figure started receding in the failing light of the day, Jodha sat pondering whether to take the sweet box or not without closing the window for quite a while. She finally took the box in her hands before shutting the window. Nothing threatening had happened except a new word, "ANAADH!"
As night fell, she quietly dipped her hands into the box and filled her mouth with the mouth watering sweets. She closed her eyes and savored and relished them to her heart's fill. But they were gone by now leaving her with nothing but darkness and emptiness. But it had been so good while they lasted.
For the first time in many days, her thoughts had been pleasant and sweet even if it was for a little while. She forgot the nightmares that constantly pursued her for those ten odd minutes she had been eating them. As she lay down to bed, Jodha wondered what that word "Anaadh" meant and why the man beside the boy had been so angry to hear the boy using it. Perhaps it was a dirty cuss word! Jodha told to herself, "Jodha, anaadh is a dirty cuss word one shouldn't use!"
PS: My ongoing FF on Chandini: Written by Destiny and Etched in Blood
Edited by shailusri1983 - 8 years ago
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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