U - TURN

During the lockdown, I had almost forgotten that my bike servicing was due. Today, early morning, I went to the service station and gave my bike. On my way back home, I had to book an OLA cab. 

As a habit, I sat next to the driver, and to my surprise, he was Sandesh Waghmare, a college friend. We both were happy to see each other after 15 years. After conversing about family and old friends and after avoiding Modi Vs Rahul debate, when he came to know about me (that I am the Principal of a school), I could see his eyes sparkle with delight, but he could not control the words that came out of his mouth, "You are doing extremely well, and I am in this mess. Fate. Nothing more."

Sandesh was a left-handed batsman in our college and was very famous for his winning sixes. I was never successful in taking his wicket during practice sessions. While chatting over a tea, Sandesh would hold the cigarette in the corner of his lips and would imitate Ajay Devgan's Malik from the movie Company, and would say, "This cricket is just for fun. I want to be a PSI. Police Sub Inspector." We had seen him working hard for his dream. He was the first one to come to the college ground. Till the time we arrived, he would bathe in sweat. Even after exercising for almost one and a half hour, he would be left with enough energy to hit the balls out of boundaries. Long jump, volleyball, kabaddi, kho-kho and whatnot, he participated and was excellent in all the sports. 

During exam times, he would bribe me for Kheema Paav, and while sitting in the canteen, I would help him learn English and Mathematics. He would say, "I would pass the Physical test for PSI very easily, but Amit, only you can help me pass the written test. You are very good at Maths." Laughingly, I would say, "You can't do it. You are good for nothing." 

All these memories flashed like a bullet train in front of my eyes. 

He might have realized that I would ask him about his dream of becoming a PSI and mock him, so he said, "You know I wanted to be a PSI. In 2006, riots broke in Maharashtra due to Khairlanji massacre - the massacre that witnessed the atrocity against Dalits and the deaths of four. They have been doing this to us since ages. They couldn't see that our people are getting education and are becoming officers. They burnt the entire family alive. That time, in Uttar Pradesh, Babasaheb's statue was vandalized. This very news was enough for me to come on the streets asking for justice. We gathered at the Collector's Office near Pune Station. We were shouting slogans with our blue flags in hands. Things turned worst and we got arrested - arrested for protesting, arrested for asking for the justice. I was in custody for two days. My bail was granted."

"For the next two years, I worked hard for the PSI exam, attended the classes as well. I was an inch closer to my dream, but when I was asked to submit a character certificate and police verification certificate, I was proven as the defaulter. My application to appear for the exam was rejected; not once but for forever."

He paused for a while. I could listen to him sniffing a tear. How it feels to see your dreams getting destroyed, I experienced its horror's into that 30  seconds silence in the cab. 

After dropping me at my society's gate, I asked him to come for a tea, but he refused by saying, "Next time." I saw his cab disappearing behind the society walls. 

I still could feel the silence. To gather myself up, I sat on the garden bench, and I remembered. 

"December 2006. I too was angry when I heard about the Khairlanji Massacre and the news of Babasaheb's statue vandalized in Uttar Pradesh. I too left my house in anger, took my bike, and went to join the protest. I too felt like burning the entire city down with the same fire that was burning inside me, making me more explosive with each passing moment. Suddenly I realized that I had to submit my B.Ed. practicals and I was left with hardly any time. The books borrowed from the library were due the next day. I took a u-turn, and came home to study."

When I sit in my armchair and think about this event, I ask myself a question, "Who was right? Sandesh or me?" I think we both were right. 

But who was wrong then? I would say, "System - the same system that promotes such incidents like Khairlanji and vandalizing of Babasaheb's statue. The same system that makes sure that we, the people of marginalized sections of the society come on the roads for our rights. The same system that then arrests us and put us behind bars. The same system that has crushed thousands of dreams, thousands of Sandeshs' careers. 

Sandesh was a driver now, and not a PSI, but now, there is less sympathy and more respect for him. 

Author - Amit Kharat

A Night At A Morgue

"Do you think it is easy to work in a morgue?"

The word 'morgue' caught our attention. We kids had heard this word from the adults and we were also aware of what it stands for, but we never dared to ask anyone more about it. While playing around in the chawl, we overheard Sanjay bhaiya saying this. '

"It is not as simple as electric welding or breaking an iron bar into two. You people live a safe life. Go to the office or your fabrication workshop, come back, eat and sleep. There is no fear, no danger at all." Sanjay Bhaiya said while taking a beedi from someone else's hand and smoking a puff. 

"My job is full of thrills. You know only brave people are recruited for such posts. If you are scared of ghosts and have weaker hearts, dude, then this is not your cup of tea. Have you seen an open dead body?" He asked the crowd of five to six people gathered around him and listening to him with pin-drop silence. He realized that nobody had understood his question, so he rephrased it and said, "Dude, I am asking if you have seen a dead body cut opened from head to waist?" The people looked at each others' faces nodding their heads. With one more puff of beedi, he unbuttoned his shirt. His pot like belly was now clearly visible, stuffed behind that white coloured vest. While rubbing the curly chest hair, he said, "Let me tell you what happened one night."

This sentence was enough to make everyone aware of the upcoming story-telling session. Everyone sat on the ground. Some squatted while some sat on the wooden logs kept aside. Appa, one of the listeners loudly asked his wife to make tea for everyone. 

"Sanju bhaiya, you were saying something about 'that night'", Appa said while handing over a cup of tea to him.

Sanju bhaiya took a sip of tea and instantly expression on his face changed saying that he didn't like its taste. He continued.

"It was Karthiki Amavasya, the darkest night of the year. It is said that people should not leave their houses in this night as mighty demons and spirits roam around. Being the only brave ward boy of Sassoon Hospital's morgue section, I was asked to do the night shift for that particular night. Other colleagues gave reasons and got an off. Gopal said that his grandmother died the previous day and he had to attend her funeral. I don't know how many grandmothers Gopal have. Every month, his grandmother dies." He grinned. "Subhash said that he had to leave as there was some puja at his home. Dr Gandhi said that he had to go to Mumbai to attend his sister-in-law's engagement. But they didn't know that I knew that they were scared. You need to be a real man to face such problems. I could have easily given any dumb reason and taken an off, but fear, thy name is Sanju." He said while squeezing the ends of his tiny moustache. 

"Then?" asked one of us. 

"It was ten in the night. I went inside the morgue. Sassoon's morgue always has a dead body or two. But that night, there were four dead bodies. They are dead. They don't do anything to you. And you know, I am a Hanuman-bhakt", he said while flaunting the locket around his neck with Hanuman's image in it. "I know Hanuman Chalisa by heart. So, I am scared of none." 

"I sat down, opened my tiffin, ate my food, and was on the verge of switching the radio on, and suddenly I heard a thud as if something fell down. I turned around to see what that was." He whispered. 

We kids were so scared that our bladders were about to burst. But look at our desire to get scared to death, we stood there like a Rambhakt Hanuman, listening to his Sanju bhaiya's story. 

"There was no one. I went to fill my water bottle up from the tap, and again I heard the same sound. I went in the direction of the sound. A hand of a dead body was moved, maybe because of the wind. I went closer to keep the hand properly. As I held that hand, the lights went off. There was pitch black darkness in the morgue except for her eyes. The hand I was holding was of a woman's dead body, and her eyes were wide opened. In the darkness, her eyes seemed white as the full moon. It seemed as if she was still alive. I thought that the very next moment, she would rise from the bed and tell me the story behind her death. Was I scared?" 

We didn't understand whether it was a rhetoric question. He again flaunted the Hanuman locket around his neck, "I was not. I placed her hand properly on the bed, recited Hanuman Chalisa, and with my own hands, I shut her wide-opened eyes."

The entire chawl was silent. From Shinde Mama's house, we could hear the twelfth stroke of the clock, and before he could tell the further part of the story, the lights in the chawl went off. We fumbled to hold each others' hands. 

"Baaki ki story baad me (the next part of the story will be told later)" said Sanju bhaiya while cleaning the dirt off his pants. 

The kids ran to their houses and shut the doors. Almost everybody left for the bed except Sanju bhaiya and Prakash bhaiya. Prakash bhaiya said, "Good night, Sanju!" Sanju bhaiya held his hand tightly and said, "Come with me. I have to go to the toilet. Just stand outside."

"Are you scared of ghosts, Sanju?" Prakash bhaiya asked. 

"No. not of ghosts, but of darkness," Sanju whispered. 

"I can't come with you, dear. I neither have a Hanuman locket nor do I know Hanuman Chalisa." Prakash bhaiya replied and quickly disappeared inside his house.