Part 32
The sun had come out and Babuji asked Khalid to serve the
tea in the lawn. This was the first time I was having a look at my favourite
playing ground. Many of my memories were associated with this lawn. It had not
changed much, it was well maintained, the grass was green, and there were
hardly any grayish patches. It was evident that Babuji had not lost any of his
old enthusiasm for gardening.
“Who looks after the lawn now, Babuji?”
“Khalid and me, who else is there? I enjoy gardening and it
also keeps me busy so I don’t feel the need of getting any outside help” Khalid
came with the tea and said that he was going out to get milk and curd. We
sipped our tea and both of us had a lot on our minds. I was wondering what the consequences
of my action would be. I knew I had taken a huge risk and that too in a state
of overpowering emotion. My feelings for my grandparents had clouded my reason
or had they? I was aware I had left Anita to deal with her own problems but did
I have any other alternative? Babuji was a practical man but a man with a soft heart,
the only thing was he did not wear his emotions on his sleeve. No matter what
he might have said about my going back, I knew he was happy at what I had done,
for himself and more so for Amma. He was deeply attached to his wife but he
kept his feelings well within control.
“Bittuji, what will you have for lunch? I want to make
something special for you today” While we were having tea, Amma had come out
and joined us.
“Anything you like Amma, you know my choice very well”
“Then I am going to make gogji suen, I know you love it”
Gogji meant turnips and suen was generally used for mutton. This was a
combination which all non Kashmiris thought was a strange one. Kashmiris are
fond of mutton. Every Kashmiri family had mutton, at least once a day. I
recalled the old days when we were kids and the house used to be full of people.
Buying mutton for a household of nearly thirty people was an expensive
proposition. The cooking was done with a lot of gravy and we were served lots
of gravy and our share of mutton would be just one small piece. The male elders
would get the lion’s share and the women folk had to be satisfied with whatever
was left, which, at times, could be only gravy.
“Aren’t you worried about your career?” Babuji suddenly
asked me.
“There’s nothing to worry about. I know I will get a good job.
What’s the hurry?” Babuji simply nodded his head.
“By the way, who was the girl who rang you up that night?”
The question caught me completely by surprise; I thought Babuji had forgotten
all about it.
“Just a friend, Babuji, she used to study with me”
“But why ring up so late in the night; she could have called
you up the next morning?”
“Ohh, she wanted to know whether I had reached Srinagar. Friends
can also get worried, Babuji, can’t they?”
“Don’t you have any male friends?”
“Of course I have, most of my friends are males”
“Why wasn’t anyone of them worried about you, why only this
girl?”
“The others must also have been worried but they didn’t have
my Srinagar number”
“I see, you gave this number to a girl but forgot to give it
to the others, Right?” This inquisition of sorts had started making me nervous.
I was running out of false answers.
“I didn’t forget, Babuji, the fact was that this girl asked
me for the number and the others didn’t, very simple.”
“Very simple indeed! Out of all your friends, this girl was
the only one interested in knowing your Srinagar telephone number; I don’t find
anything simple about it at all, my dear Bittuji”
“It is not my fault, Babuji, she asked for my number and I
couldn’t very well refuse, could I?”
“Come on, now, tell me the truth. You talked for almost ten minutes,
if she had wanted to know about whether you had reached this place safely, a
couple of minutes would have been enough for that. I may be old but I still
have a wise head on my shoulders. Is she a friend or more than a friend?” I was
trapped. Babuji had shut down all escape routes for me. What could I say now?
How was it possible for me to talk about Anita with Babuji?
“I am waiting for an answer and I will be happy if you tell
me the truth. You are no longer a kid now, you are a young man now and you can
talk to me as a friend” Talk to Babuji as a friend? That too, about matters of
the heart? It was unimaginable!
“Babuji, we will talk about it later. Let’s have breakfast
first”
“No, we will not have breakfast unless you tell me
everything about this girl”
“Well, her name is Anita, we used to stay in the same colony
and we became very good friends”
“What do you mean by very good friends? Will you be more
specific in your answers?” Babuji seemed to have made up his mind to dig up the
truth and he would not stop until he arrived at the whole truth.
“We are in love Babuji” The moment the words tumbled out of
my mouth, I felt terribly embarrassed, I was blushing like a girl.
“Does that mean you want to marry that girl, whatever her
name is?”
“Yes, Babuji, that’s right” It took a lot of courage on my
part to say this.
“Do Lalaji and Bahuji know about it?”
“Yes, they do”
“What about her parents, do they know?”
“They also know, Babuji”
“Is your relationship acceptable to them?”
“No, Babuji, it isn’t” This conversation was going too far
now. I had never thought that Babuji would ask me such questions and that too,
so frankly.
“Why do they oppose this proposed union of yours?”
“I don’t know”
“If you don’t know, who knows? That girl, whatever her name
is, must know!” By now, I had become exasperated; I had reached a stage where I
was unable to tolerate this interrogation.
“Babuji, the girl’s name is Anita so don’t keep on saying’
whatever her name is’, she wants to marry me but her parents want her to marry
a boy of her own caste. Another reason is that they want to marry her off
immediately and I can’t marry her yet because I don’t have a job. Babuji, it is
her engagement on the tenth, day after tomorrow, I had promised her I would be
there before that and bring her to my home and you know the rest”
“Does that mean you were planning to elope with that girl,
whatever her,oh sorry, I mean Anita?”
“Elope is not the right word to use, Babuji. Her parents are
forcing her to marry someone against her wishes and that is injustice. I want
to stop this injustice from taking place. Is there anything wrong with that,
Babuji?” I had deliberately used the word injustice because I knew Babuji’s
hatred for all kinds of injustice.
“Now that you have decided to stay here, how do you plan to
stop this injustice from taking place?”
“I can’t do anything now; I can only hope that Anita will
stick to her promise”
“And what was that promise?” The question had a slightly
sarcastic tone to it.
“She has promised me she will never agree to marry anyone
else and I have faith in her promise”
“You fools of the new generation, which world do you live
in? Do you seriously believe she will have the will and the strength to resist
her parents? In our society, such things don’t happen; she will have to accept
the wishes of her parents. She is getting engaged in a day’s time and within a
month she will be married and you won’t be able to do anything”
“No, she will not marry anyone else. I have full faith in
her”
“Your faith be damned, you are not just a fool, you are a
moron, an idiot” This was the first time I had heard Babuji use a swear word
and he was furious.
“Come with me”, he pulled me by the hand and literally
dragged me straight into the drawing room. He took me to the spot where the
telephone was kept.
“Dial her number”
“I can’t, Babuji, I can’t. Her father will be at home at
this time and he is the one who will answer the phone” By now I had started
sweating, sweating with fear and nervousness.
“Are you afraid of her father? What has happened to the
youth of today, they have become a bunch of cowards. You talk about the
greatness of love, about love fighting all restrictions and when it comes to
the crunch you forget all the lofty words you ever uttered and give in to the
wishes of your parents. You have no guts and you have the temerity to blame our
generation! Do you know that I had to fight an entire society to marry your
Amma? I was more than six feet in height, your Amma was not even four but I
loved her and was determined to marry her. The whole family, all my relatives
tried to stop me but I stood firm and so did your Amma. We were not cowards, we
had the courage to fight for our convictions and fight I did till everyone
agreed.” I had never heard all this before. Babuji and Amma’s marriage, a love
marriage? I was stunned into speechlessness.
“Now will you dial the number or not?”
“But Babuji what purpose will it serve? Her father is a man
of ill temper; he will surely say something insulting to you. Babuji,please don’t
talk to him, it will hurt me terribly if he says anything wrong to you or if he
uses any insulting language. Babuji, let Anita get married, I don’t care but I care
for you. I will not be able to tolerate anybody hurting my Babuji in any way!”
“Let him say whatever he wants to, I am going to try and
stop this engagement. Dial, I say” I had never heard Babuji shout so loudly and
with such anger. Amma and Khalid rushed into the room.
“Oh my god, oh my god, what happened why are you shouting at
my son?” There was panic in Amma’s
voice.
“You keep out of this, will you” Babuji was now beyond control.
He again asked me to dial Anita’s number. I picked up the receiver and started dialing,
slowly, very slowly. It was all out of my hands now. I had no idea what was
going to happen, I hoped and prayed that Mr Suri would not be the one to pick up the phone.
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