At Last & Other Stories
By Raja Sharma
Copyright@2011Students’ Academy
Smashwords Edition
Chapter 1: At Last
A thick veil of fog had kept the town of Norebro in Denmark covered for two weeks but it was nothing new. Chilly draughts of wind are the inevitable part of Denmark’s long and lethargic winter. But, when the sun rays succeed in penetrating the cover of clouds to reach the earth, not only the people, but also animals and vegetation welcome the warmth with extreme hospitality. The deserted lanes and roads begin to show the signs of human activity and faces seem to be smiling. Everything is suddenly and magically changed. It looks very pleasing to the eyes and senses.
On one such morning, when Yash removed the curtain of his flat window on the third floor of Johnsons Apartments, he could not avoid the sunrays which were so eager to enter the room and make the ambiance lively and sunny. He was startled but he felt as if a new kind of energy had been infused into his dull existence. He had been sleeping very badly of late and for a few days he had been feeling quite lethargic, especially in the morning. His body would not support his mind which wanted him to get up and get dressed. It was different today and everything seemed to have changed.
Last night he had gone to bed later than usual and like many previous nights, he was unable to sleep well. He decided not to go to work in the morning. According to him, people there did not know how to rest; only work and work was everything. All had their limited worlds and they moved in circles in their worlds.
He had concluded that no one in this world reached his destination because times and moods keep on changing. His past was a perfect example of all this. Having left his small village in Punjab, India, when he had reached Norebro in Denmark, he found that life was full of jubilations. At first he had felt that the happiness which he got was there in Denmark but now he thinks that delight and happiness was embedded in his ambitions and aspirations. His brother desired that after the completion of his education, he should get involved in the family business of sports goods but Yash believed that it was not possible to make a career in India where sportsmen were not respected. It was all in the past now.
He left India and made his wonderful career in Denmark. He has a well established business of handicrafts and he imports and exports goods. He is a well known name in that business. He has made his share of money and he has travelled more than half of the world. Eastern Europe is like his home. The word ‘home’ distracts him for a while and he realized that he had to meet a client from Germany. Mr. Anis Khan was an exporter of Indian goods. He had an appointment at 11:00 am, and it meant he could not rest at home.
He left his bedroom and entered the bathroom. Standing in front of the wash-basin, he looked in the mirror. He looked very carefully and realized that there were only a few tufts of hair left on his head. He was almost bald. The flesh hanging below his chin made him realize that he was growing old. Though his face was red, he knew that his body was changing rapidly. He was a very circumspect drinker and he ate moderately.
He got fresh, heated his breakfast, ate hurriedly, and left the apartment.
He was always attracted to a flat in the building opposite to his own. He had almost got that flat but his agent informed that a senior citizen Miss Capri had been given that flat. He liked that flat because the sun warmed the balcony directly, and heat in any form, specially got from the sunrays, was welcome in Denmark. Decency demanded of him to forget about that flat but he could not. Perhaps, he was attracted to the flat because of Miss Capri. He knew only two things: one, she had chosen the same flat which he had liked, and the second was the presence of Miss Capri in the balcony every morning. There has never been any exchange of greetings between them but Yash believes that she keeps an eye on all his activities. He likes it. Now he is so much habitual to seeing Miss Capri from the balcony of his flat that her absence disturbs him. He has felt an invisible bond with her.
It was impossible to guess Capri’s age from her face, for only her eyes behind a pair of broad framed glasses could be recognized from the maze of wrinkles. While going to office every morning, he felt as if she were trying to gather the shattered dreams from her past, sitting in a chair at her balcony. Her presence reminded him of his own past life. His mother must have been like Capri during her last days. He had not heard anything from home for ten years. His brother’s business had gone down and there was financial crisis in the family. His brother had asked for help but Yash could not help him because it was the time when he had started his new business of export and import. His brother went bankrupt and after that a distance was created between them. The distance continued to increase and he felt sad but in the excitement of his new business he did not mind it much. Then the contact was broken. In the course of his business, he met Nancy and she began to live with him. Yash wanted to marry her but she was not ready for it. The involvement in his business and growing number of clients did not provide him enough time to think about his relationship with Nancy. She had entered his life like a gust of wind and she departed in the same way. After his separation from Nancy, Liza, Rosy, Sarah, and Marrie came into his life but there was no constancy with any one of them. Meanwhile he got the news that his mother had passed away.
While descending the stairs, he saw Capri in her balcony. She reminded of his mother but he knew that his mother was not alive. May be, Capri is also waiting for her last moments. He felt sorry for her. She was alone, quite forlorn and forgotten by the rest of the world.
His mother was not alone in her last moments. His brother was there and he knew that his elder sister must have come there. When his elder sister would die, his brother would be with her. All other relatives and their children would be there.
Suddenly, he realized that he was all alone here though he had everything here. He was a rich and successful businessman but in that crowd of faces he was alone. Had he got married, it would have been different. Capri may not have married and that is why she was alone.
The torturing thought of loneliness brought him back to himself and he realized that he was standing at the bottom of the staircase. He composed himself and moved on.
He completed all his assignments in his office and the deal with the client was also successful but Capri’s face haunted him everywhere. After Capri, his mother’s face troubled him.
He remembered his old house in his village. It was the house built by his grandfather. He remembered his school and the ground where he used to play with his friends. After his school education, he was sent to Delhi to live with his father’s friend. He had stayed in Delhi for six years and from there he flew to Europe. He has never gone back to his village despite many letters sent to him by his brother.
He had started as a salesman in a departmental store in Denmark but he had high ambitions. He started selling the goods of other companies and he was given handsome commission on every sale. He did not look back and everything he touched turned into gold. In a few years, he was a known importer and exporter with a luxurious office in a very popular business locality.
In the evening, while coming back to his apartment, he was happy, humming the tune of an old song. Before unlocking the door, he turned and looked in the direction of Capri’s flat. She was sitting in the same posture in which he had left her in the morning. He watched her carefully and then unlocked his door; he did not know why but he wanted to talk to her. In last five years he had not rallied courage to go near her but now suddenly he wanted to go and talk to her. How he was going to begin was a question that troubled him. What he was going to talk about was not sketched in his mind.
Generally, he noticed that on his return, her face revealed that she had noticed him and she was watching him but today it was quite different. She had not buzzed from her seat and there was no sign which suggested that she had noticed his return. May be she was lost in her beautiful dreams of the past.
He made his drink and switched on TV. He entered the bathroom to get fresh. After a while, he was sitting on his sofa, enjoying his drink and watching a programme on TV. He slept early that night.
Next morning, he got ready early in the morning and tidied his flat a bit. While going out, he did not notice Capri but he was sure that she was present there. He was in a hurry to meet one of his clients. He started the car and moved on. He had thoughts taking shape in his mind, the thoughts which frightened him. He felt that he was a prisoner of his own circumstances. He wanted to run away somewhere to seek company. The thought that he would also be alone in his flat, waiting for his death, sent a chill down his spine. Most of old age people died in the same way in Europe, away from their near and dear ones, away from their relatives, in their flats, counting the last hours of their remaining life. Some fortunate ones died in their luxurious apartments but they died lonely death too. Thousands died in Old Age Homes.
That evening, he came back home later than usual time. He had eaten out and the stupor of drinks was still there. He had completed a big business deal successfully. Next day, it was holiday and he got up late.
At about 1:00 pm, he got dressed and left his apartment. As always, his eyes moved in the direction of Capri’s balcony. She was still there, sitting in her chair. He could not resist and he moved in the direction of her flat. He pressed the button of the door bell but there was no response. He tried again but the result was the same. He did not have her phone number. He decided to find the number of that flat in telephone directory. Finally, he had the number and he dialed the number but there was no response. The bell continued to ring but no one replied. His suspicion changed into certainty: Capri had passed away.
Yes, Capri had died. He called the Fire Brigade and gave them the number of the flat. A crane was brought and a fireman climbed onto the balcony. Her dead body was brought down from the balcony. There was nothing unusual in her death because many incidents like that were reported in Denmark. In some cases, dead bodies were said to have been recovered after two or three weeks after the death. They had accepted it as a part of their social life. Yash was not ready to be like them and her death, in the manner in which she had passed away, was troubling him. He was not from Denmark and he was not ready to believe that old people could be so much neglected.
Her dead body had been taken from there but his grief was with him. Millions of thoughts were rising in his mind. He missed his breakfast and lunch that day. He tried to eat something in the evening but the very first morsel got stuck in his throat. He tried to sleep but sleep was miles away from his eyes. He began to search his old diaries and papers to find the phone numbers of his brother and relatives. He found a few numbers but he was informed that the numbers were not functioning. He had to contact them and he knew it was necessary. He felt he would never wake up if he slept that night. If he died in his apartment, they would know only through the stench of the dead body. It was different in the case of Capri. She had died in her balcony. Yash was perspiring though it was very cold and he had switched on the heating system.
Next morning, he made hundreds of phone calls and finally succeeded in finding his brother’s mobile number. He knew that most of the people back home had mobiles nowadays.
“Hello…”
“Hello…”
“This is Yash, brother…”
“Yash! Are you all right?” his brother’s voice expressed delight and anxiousness at the same time.
“Yes, I am all right. How are you?”
“I am fine. I am trying to rebuild my business…”
“No, brother, you will not do anything from now. I will do everything,” said Yash, tears in his eyes.
“What? What are you saying? Are your coming?
“Yes, brother, I am coming there and I will start my business there with you,” said Yash.
“I am dying to see you, Yash. And my children want to meet their foreigner Yash uncle…”
“I will do everything. I will bring you all here. We will stay here for some days and then go back. I am leaving tomorrow. I will call you before I catch the flight,” Yash was speaking as if a child had got its dream fulfilled.
“Come brother, we are waiting for you. Welcome back home!”
Yash knew that he was definitely not going to die like Capri.
Chapter 2: Back to Social Cage
That must have been a strange day when she decided to take that unprecedented decision, for she had been silently bearing all the atrocities, without ever uttering a word of protest. Her fate had been sealed by her parents when she was sent away with a husband, double her age. His only virtue was his extreme richness. She had been suffering for long but now she had taken a strong decision to seek at least one day’s freedom from that social cage.
There was a parrot in a cage hanging in her bedroom. Her husband loved that parrot very much. The parrot used to imitate the sounds made by the inmates of the house. That day, immediately after waking up, she unlocked the door of the cage and freed the bird. The bird came out timidly but after a while it flew out of the window into a new world of liberty.
She had never tried to bring disrespect to her in-laws and her parents but the things had been quite unbearable of late.
She descended the stairs hurriedly and looked at the people sitting in the drawing room. They were having tea, busily talking about their problems of everyday reality, though most of the problems were their own creations but they were endeavouring to prove superiority over each other by coming up with instant solutions. She paused for a second and then began to whistle, not paying attention to the people there, almost behaving like a stranger. She began to walk towards the outer door.
When they saw her, they were shocked because she was in her night dress, hair disheveled, and face unwashed. She had never presented herself without a proper dress whenever she appeared in front of her father-in-law and other senior members of the Gupta family. She was the daughter-in-law and her sudden appearance there was shocking because the elders were supposed to be respected and she was supposed to cover her head with her shawl in front of them. But she did not pay attention to them and continued walking. Her whistling was the most shocking revelation to them.
She was in her mood, quite unknown to all of them. She came onto the porch and reached near the car.
Dolly Gupta remembered that as a child she had often been dominated by her elder brothers. They used to come out of the house together; they would be whistling while picking their bicycles to go to the football ground. She wanted to whistle too and go with them but they would pull her inside the house and lock her in a room. She used to remain in that room for many hours but her parents never tried to free her. Her mother, though a loving woman, loved her sons more and often neglected her. Dolly was supposed to behave like other girls but she was more interested in games and sports which boys played. As a result, she had to be caged, and sometimes beaten by her elder brothers and often by her mother. She could never say that childhood happens to be a glorious period in a person’s life. In fact, she wanted to erase every single memory of her childhood and find a new world for herself.
Now she was Mrs. Dolly Gupta, the wife of Mr. Ramesh Gupta, a very rich businessman. When she reached the car, she found that the car was locked. The car had been gifted to her for her services which she provided to her husband in bed, and she was not ashamed of that. She was happy that she was worth at least that much. She whistled again and gestured to her husband. He was supposed to come to her to give her the car-keys but today he did not get up from the sofa, maybe too timid to get up in the presence of his parents and other elders present in the drawing room.
Mr. Gupta looked worried and angry and he said, “What is all this? Why aren’t you dressed properly?”
She knew that he was trying to show his manhood in front of his people. She knew how much of a man he was! He licked her feet at night, licked her spit, and begged her on his knees. But, today, in the daylight he had changed his colours. Dolly wanted to shout at him and open his secrets loudly in front of the people present there but something held her back.
He came near her and got hold of her arm; though she tried to resist, he pushed her inside the house. She staggered and controlled herself. Her anger was beyond control and it burst out, “Bastard!” She slapped her husband very hard on his face. It was totally unexpected and he immediately retreated. Dolly kicked the car-door and ran towards the main gate.
“Guards! Catch her!” shouted Mr. Gupta.
Now Dolly began to run, beyond the reach of anybody. She did not want to be caught to be kept inside that house. She did not want to miss one day’s liberty. It had taken her many months to come to this decision. She was happy that it was her own decision and she was on her own, with no one to order or guide her.
Her former friends and relatives thought that she was very lucky, for she had found a very rich husband but she knew well how fortunate she was. Her impotent husband had treated her like an item that was kept on display in the rich society. The tag, Mrs. Gupta, had been forced upon her, though she was happy as Dolly.
Having left the house, she entered a congested locality and she did not know how many streets and by lanes she crossed. Since it was office going time, people were hurrying on their way, children were going to schools, and vendors were selling their goods on the pavements.
Dolly thought about women who must be washing, cleaning, or cooking in their houses, having suffered the physical torture given by their husbands. They were confined like her too. She spat angrily onto the ground. Suddenly, her eyes fell on a tea-stall by the road. She wanted to have a cup of tea. Women usually don’t visit such tea stalls because rowdies and eve-teasers crowd those tea-stalls whence they pass dirty comments to the girls and women passing by.
Dolly stopped in front of the tea-stall and said, “Give me a tea and a packet of biscuits.”
She did not mind the presence of the young men there and she began to hum. This particular act of hers was enough to convince the young men that she was not like other girls, she was really something. Some of them passed comments which she took very lightly.
The shopkeeper gave her a cup of tea and biscuits. She seated herself on a wooden bench and kept the tea on table in front of her. A fellow from a nearby table said, “Where are you coming from?”
“From her lover’s bed!” added another of the customers.
Dolly smiled and said, “Yes, you are right! But, how do you know?”
“We are your lovers too, will you come with us?” said one of them and caught her arm in his firm grip and kissed her hand.
Dolly replied, “No, not today. Some other day.”
“Give me a kiss and I will pay for the tea,” said one of them.
“No, you are too ugly for that,” said Dolly with a big smile and paid the tea-seller.
They went quiet because they had not expected such an answer from her.
Dolly continued her adventure and she did not know how many hours passed in this way. She did not know where she had reached; she was exhausted on account of continuous walking. She was habitual to driving her car through big roads and streets. She had never seen this world before.
Dolly’s marriage was the result of her parents’ choice. Mr. Gupta was almost double her age but he was extremely rich. She had protested but to no avail. After the marriage, she realized that her husband was not only older, but also not a good performer in bed. His body odour was disgusting and his breath stank. Dolly was forced to tolerate him. In return he would give her expensive gifts, and her car was also one of them. She wanted to run away, to fly like a free bird, to see the world through her own eyes, to meet people, to talk to them, to find someone who could understand her but the caged bird was literally caged in the social cage of parents’ respect, her in-laws prestige, and her inferiority of being a woman.
A cobbler was mending shoes sitting beside the road. She was tired so she sat down on a wooden box kept near the cobbler.
“Eh…what do you want?”
“Nothing, I am a bit tired,” said Dolly.