- Guard Grandma
In the afternoon of May, Sushma, wrapped in an old sari, was sitting at the door of her one-room house, looking outside. Suddenly Gullu came shouting Grandma-Grandma and got stuck on his mother’s leg and fell down. Sushma did not get scared. But Grandma shouted from the cot, “Can’t you walk by looking, is it necessary to always run”? Oh Grandma! Bittu ran a blade on the seat of the auto, Gullu told while crying. I will teach this useless fellow a lesson, Grandma said while getting up slowly. When she got out and saw, the back seat of the auto was torn in the middle. Grandma knocked on the door of Abhimanyu’s house, who lived two houses away. Abhimanyu’s wife came out rubbing her eyes. Before Gullu’s grandmother could say anything, she said, “Today, no vegetables were cooked at our place, the dal-bhaat that was cooked is finished”. Grandma came to complain about Bittu but went away with her head bowed without saying anything.
Gullu come and have your food, Grandma shouted, call your mother too. Sushma was still sitting at the door. Fifteen days ago Gullu’s father had parked the auto at the house in the evening to get ration and died of a heart attack while returning. Since then Sushma has had the same routine, she wakes up in the morning and sits at the door, neither cries nor speaks anything, just keeps looking outside. Mummy-Mummy, come on, Grandma is calling, Gullu called her many times but she did not even move. Grandma, leaving the tawa, came in anger and started shaking Sushma’s neck and said, “He has gone, leaving us all, he will not come back now, if you also want to die then drink acid and make us drink it too. It is better to end everything in one day than dying every day. I am the most stubborn, I should have died the day Gullu’s grandfather died. I would not have been alive today nor would I have seen such great sorrow. Suddenly Sushma got up and put the Harpic box kept in the bathroom to her mouth. Grandma reached there quickly and slapped them 3-4 times and all three started crying again. They kept crying hugging each other for half an hour. Suddenly Gullu said, Grandma, I am very hungry, I have been since morning. Grandma got up and brought three-four rotis, onions and salt-water in a plate. Everyone ate one roti each while sobbing. While lying down, Grandma said, “Now it is enough, we have to live again from tomorrow, I will go to find work”. Sushma again said while crying, “Amma, why will you go, I will go myself, I can get work in the society next door, sweeping, mopping, washing utensils…, Grandma interrupted her and said, “Let me find work, you take care of Gullu, tell me he will go to school from tomorrow. If he studies, he might be able to get out of this hell, and tomorrow we will tell Anwar to take his auto, I had told him three days ago that he has not taken it yet, every day there is some loss or the other”.
In the morning, grandmother went to look for work. After a while, Sushma got Gullu ready and dropped him to school and she herself set out to look for work. The guards of two nearby societies did not let her enter, saying that the sahabs here hire servants and maids from a company, no one hires them directly. When she asked about the company, she came to know that it was 20 kilometers away from there. When she went to another society at some distance, the guard standing outside told her that Sahu ji on the eighth floor needs a maid. Sushma went and rang the doorbell, and a middle-aged man wearing a lungi opened the door. “Sir, do you need a maid”, Sushma asked with her eyes down. When there was no response for a while, Sushma looked up. Sahu ji was staring at Sushma. Sushma said again, “Sir”. Pretending to come to his senses, Sahu ji said, “Yes, I need a maid, come inside, there is a lot of work”. “Sir, I will come from tomorrow”, saying this Sushma ran towards the lift. She did not even look back. Looking at her white face in the mirror in the lift, Sushma started crying. Perhaps it was after a long time that she saw her face without bindi and sindoor. Now Sushma went straight to her house. After a while Gullu also came. When Sushma opened the flour tin to make roti, there was nothing in it. Then she remembered that a month ago Gullu’s father had brought two big packs of Parle G biscuits, inside which there are many small packs, Gullu had eaten one whole packet but one was kept unopened in a cloth bag. As soon as she picked up the cloth bag, her eyes became moist again. The scene came before her when she had cut Gullu’s father’s favourite pants and made a bag out of it and when he got angry, Sushma had said laughingly that the condition of the pants was such that it would last for two to four months only but the bag would last for years. Anyway, she tore open the biscuit packet and took out two small packets and heated water and gave one glass to Gullu and took one glass herself, then both of them started eating by dipping biscuits in their glasses. It was dark by the time grandmother came, Sushma was sitting at the door and Gullu was in her lap. In such a sorrow, if someone talks with a little enthusiasm then it seems that the pain has reduced. As soon as grandmother called Gullu, O Gullu, Sushma and Gullu’s eyes automatically looked up. “Take some vegetables and two kilos of flour, go and make rotis” said grandmother while handing over two separate polythene bags. While eating food, Sushma asked, “Amma, from whom have you borrowed the money?” “I did not take any loan, I have got a job of sweeping and washing utensils somewhere, so I have brought the advance”. Sometimes we want to say something but do not say it, because it seems that even if we say it, what will change. Sushma also wanted to tell where she went today, but she turned on one side on the mat and slept.
The next morning was different from the previous few mornings, there was no fog and the sun was shining, and yes, tea was made after a long time.