Mum – Dad please forgive me, I may be wrong but my intentions are… I am going to Chandigarh to settle he murmured to himself.
Perhaps, his father had accepted the poem by Kahlil Gibran-
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Shyam was overwhelmed by emotions.
*
Archana told him that she would assist in finding him a room to rent, she also assured him help financially if the need arises. He arrived at Palanpur late at night expecting the remainder of the trip to take only forty-five minutes. To his great annoyance, he learned the Bandra-Chandigarh express was to come in three hours later due to a delay. He dozed off in the company of an older couple and a tea vendor that had fallen asleep on his stall.
Shyam bored waiting for the train but as it arrived, he stepped in the compartment of sleeper coach S-5. He found his berth with help of the berth number printed on his ticket. He chained his bag with the seat and locked both the chain and the bag.
He moved to switch on the fan as it was hot inside the coach but the fan was missing.
Do the drunken who are used to breaking the fan also travel by train? He sighed and stretched his legs to rest his body. He didn’t know the fan was uprooted during the brawl between Agent Malik and Simon.
Shyam pushed another switch for a second fan. He started to ponder in the cool breeze of the fan. He was so tired that he fell asleep. He didn’t notice when the train moved and the cool wind rushed in the coach through the open windows.
He was awoken by Archana’s call when the train reached Delhi.
*
Shyam was to reach at 4:00 pm at Chandigarh but he could be able to reach at 8:00 pm as the train was late for four hours. It was half-past eight when he arrived at sector-17.
Archana had managed to arrange a rented room for Shyam. The room was in the same area where Archana was dwelling only two 100 yards away from her room.
Archana had introduced Shyam as a Gujarati friend of her co-worker named Ajay in her office. Archana had explained to him while he was in the train and instructed him to pretend in presence of the landlord that they were unfamiliar with each other.
Shyam’s greatest worry was removed as he got a rented room.
It was 9:00 pm when he reached where Archana was living. He got down from the auto and reached near Archana’s room. He found out the house no-83. The gate of the house no-83 was open. He entered the gate.
“Come” on seeing him a gentleman almost of fifty came out from the door.
“I am from Gujarat...”
“You are very late. The girl living at the opposite door has come and booked the room for you.” He interrupted Shyam’s words.
His wife also came out from the room.
“A girl? I am a friend of Ajay. He gave me this address- Khuda Ali Sher, the house no. 83.” Shyam tried to be unaware of the girl.
“You are at the right place, Sagarji. That girl and your friend Ajay work in the same office. Ajay had asked her for a room. She booked the room for you. You can only get a room on rent, it’s a via-via process in Chandigarh.” The landlord spoke with a gentle laughter.
“You spoke of a girl hence I doubted I was at the correct address perhaps.”
The landlord laughed again and took both the bags from his hands directing Shyam to the room. It was 10 by 15 square feet room but Archana told him the rent was only Rs. 1500 so the room seemed to him perfect. The room consists of only a chair as part of the furniture. He perched on the chair. Uncle put the bags on the floor.
The landlord left the room. Shyam opened his bags. The room had two cupboards, neither had any door or curtains. He set his clothes in one cupboard and the books in another.
“haven’t You brought the bed sheet and a quilt?” Shyam didn’t notice when the aunty had come in.
“I was already heavy with these books and clothes. I will buy them and some other materials from the market tomorrow.” Shyam replied.
He had brought only a thin shawl as there was hot in Gujarat but he was feeling cold here. The aunt gave him a warm blanket and a bed sheet. He was utterly spent, he spread the bed sheet on the floor and fell asleep. He was so tired of travelling that he couldn’t feel any hunger and slept without dinner.
*
Shyam awoke very late in the morning as he was exhausted on the previous night due to the long journey from Gujarat to Chandigarh. He enquired the aunty and found Khuda Ali Sher is a small village.
Khuda had just nine or ten shops and most shops are food corner offering facility for lunch and dinner. The rest were provision shops. Two km far from Khuda located a village named Naya Gaav which was in the territory of Punjab state. Naya Gaav had a market and one could buy grocery, clothes, utensils and other home-maker items from there. You can buy TVs, fridges etc from the market of Naya Gaav.
Just ahead of Naya Gaav, the sector -11 and then PGI. On the other side of Khuda, there are buildings of secretariats and houses of assembly of Haryana and Punjab government. A village named Kansal is also that side of Khuda which comes under Punjab state. Khuda has farming fields and meadows on the third side and the fourth side is surrounded by mountains. Khuda is situated in the lap of mountains. The line of houses ends and you can see a temple of Goddess Durga on the peak of the mountain.
Shyam reached Naya Gaav after gathering information from aunty. He bought a bedsheet, a quilt, some utensils, a camper for water and some other items. There were few shops offering only pure veg food in Khuda and Naya Gaav. There was a pure veg shop near Gurudwara in Khuda as nonveg is banned near the Gurudwara. Shyam ate at that veg shop. He paid fifty rupees note for a full plate. The full plate consists of six chapattis, two bowls of different vegetables. Here vegetables mean not leafy vegetables but white gram, Indian gram, rajma, and split pulses.
*
At evening the landlord uncle and his both sons had returned from work. The Uncle and Shyam went to Archana's room. The uncle introduced Shyam to Archana and Archana to Shyam. However, they, both, knew each other very well.
Shyam thanked Archana for helping to find the room on rent. Archana asked Shyam questions like ‘from where are you?’ and ‘what do you do?’ keeping secret the fact they knew each other.
***
To be continue...
