93 A Question of Faith (1/2)
”Everything will work out,” Madan said.
Samir gave him a grateful look. He turned to Rani and said:
”You see. Madan agrees with me. I think you let your initial dislike of Sunil influence your judgment.”
The three of them were squatting by the entrance to Kulaba's communal cookhouse. When Samir returned to his home in Mumbai, Rani was already stretched out on the mat, with Amrita awake and watching over her. Amrita was bubbling with happiness. The New World was wonderful! She loved it there! She wanted to go back as soon as possible.
Samir sourly instructed her to stay awake and alert, and to wake him and Rani an hour before dawn. That gave him three full days in the New World. Then he lay down, and called a meeting the moment he entered his second self in the New World. Madan's wife, Kali, did not participate. She always left the decision-making to Madan, and anyway there was no shortage of tasks to attend to: the infants, the goats, repairing the fishing net, gathering firewood, foraging for wild foods...
Rani looked at Samir and Madan. They were both staring at her as if they were trying to will her into agreement. Was she really stupidly prejudiced against Sunil? She tried to tell herself she was but no matter how hard she tried, deep inside she still mistrusted him. There was something false, something phony about Sunil. It bothered her.
”Does it matter what I think? I'm outvoted anyway,” she said.
”Of course it matters what you think,” said Madan.
”What you think is very important,” said Samir.
Rani smiled to herself. Had Samir really valued her opinion, he would have never recruited Sunil in the first place. She said:
”I think we're wasting time. What's done is done, Sunil and his family will be joining us in a few days. They'll all need a roof over their heads, and basic clothing. On top of that, there are all the commitments Samir has made. We'll have to produce ten times more food than we do to meet them. So please excuse me, I have to help Kali with the net.”
Samir and Madan didn't move when Rani left. They remained squatting by the cookhouse entrance, squinting in the sunlight at what they could see of their settlement. After a short discussion, they decided to convert the storage shed they'd built earlier into a home for Sunil and his family.
”We'll be sending home practically all the food we've got stored there anyway, given your commitments,” said Madan, and Samir thought he could hear censure in his voice.
Samir was silent for a while. Then he said:
”Listen, Madan. I told you many times you should move closer to us in Mumbai. You are wasting a lot of time here on all those trips to send food from the platform you've got at your old place. Now that I have a house, you could move in with us for a while. And later on, after we've made some money, you could get a house nearby. From what I've seen, it won't be hard to find one.”
”Rani won't object?”
”She was the one who had the idea first. She's told you should move, too.”
Madan looked uneasy. After a while, he said:
”It's going to take a while. We will have to walk all the way from Khalapur.”
”You don't have bicycles?”
Madan shook his head.
”Remember what I told you about the street gang that took over my first settlement?” he said. ”They paid me a visit in Khalapur, too. I had to bribe them to leave us alone. I had no money when they came, so they took some other things. My bicycle was one of those things.”
”That's another very good reason why you should move to Mumbai.”
”Kali's family is in Khalapur,” Madan said. ”She won't like that.”
”She prefers to live in a place where you're terrorized by a street gang? A gang that took over your New World settlement, raped her, and turned you two into slaves?”
”That gang doesn't really exist any more. Soldiers shot a few when they were looting a store, and killed the leader. A couple more were arrested.”
”But you didn't get your bicycle back?”
”No.”
Samir sighed.
”Madan,” he said. ”You really must move to Mumbai. It's the only reasonable solution. Now let's get started on that shed.”
They only had a few hours left before sunset, but they managed to assemble most of the building materials they would need for the construction work. They also got started on taking their stores out of the shed. Samir could still feel Madan's resentment at the fact that most of the communal food would be sent to pay for Samir's purchase of the house.
But Madan's attitude changed when, over supper, Kali voiced enthusiastic approval for their proposed move to Mumbai. She thought it was a great idea.
”But I remember you saying you don't want to leave your family,” Madan protested.
”My family is here,” Kali said, and Rani was so moved she felt her eyes moisten.
Everything was finalized before they split up to go to sleep. Samir took that chance to tell Amrita in Mumbai about the big shipment of food that would be coming. She didn't expect him to be around - after all, he'd told her to wake him an hour before it dawned in Mumbai. And so he caught her standing just outside the house, and chatting to a boy he'd never seen before.
”I told you to keep watch,” Samir growled.
”But I AM keeping watch! He is helping me.”
Samir examined the boy. At the moment, the boy looked like he wouldn't be any help to anyone: he was badly scared. He was roughly Amrita's age, maybe a little older. He was taller than her by a head, and terribly thin. Samir noticed that the boy kept one of his hands hidden behind his back, and he instantly guessed what had been going on: Amrita had been giving him food.
”What's your name?” he asked.
”Neil.”
”Your family lives around here?”
”No.”