Full Circle

The hot summer sun blazed down sending a trickle of sweat down his spine. Shrugging off the sticky sensation it produced, Deepak pedalled on. Avoiding a pothole with a professional turn of the handlebars, he cast half a glance at the sky. ‘Must be about 11’, he guesstimated, quite accurately.
A few minutes later he surrendered to the sun. Panting a little, he parked the cycle near a house and rapped on the door.

‘Madam?’

No answer. He waited, straining his ears to hear if someone was approaching the door. He could hear the faint metallic sound of steel utensils. ‘Someone’s in there, washing dishes.’ He called again, ‘Madam?’
He heard someone shout: ‘Who is it?’
‘Postman. Mrs. Raj, could you…’
‘Leave it near the door.’
‘Madam, a little water?’ his voice trailed away.

No answer.
He shrugged his shoulders and went out. One got used to these things with time. The sun seemed to mock him as he wiped his forehead on his sleeve, marking it with sweat. He looked up, fervently praying for a cool breeze to blow. But the sun just smiled at him even more brightly. Picking up his cycle, he pedalled back home.

Exhausted, he lay down on his bed and turned on the fan. It whirred in slow motion. Reluctantly, he got up and turned it to full speed. It complained and groaned a little and proceeded to run a little faster. He reached out for the pot of water on his table and emptied it at one go. ‘Drat that woman. Couldn’t even fetch a glass of water. Wretched creature’, he cursed. Fuming a little, he looked around for his spectacles. ‘Never there when I need them’, he muttered, pessimistically.

Crash!

He heard the sound of something fall. Filled with alarm, he opened the door and ran out. Looking down, he saw a small muddy looking creature gaze sheepishly at him.

‘Stealing mangoes again? You naughty boy!’
The boy grinned lazily from where he was lying, not even bothering to get up. ‘He knows me well’, Deepak thought.
He pulled the boy to his feet, roughly but not unkindly and watched him wipe the mud off his shorts with little success. ‘Why should you steal? Can’t you ask me instead?’
The boy grinned a little more, a grin that spoke of familiarity with a person’s actions.
He was Rohan, Mr. Raj’s son, a real scamp but absolutely adorable. He was the neighbourhood prankster but no one ever seemed to mind. He was scolded and shooed away, only to be welcomed with warm words the next time he came.

‘Here. Take this stick and knock down as many mangoes as you like. The ones on the lower branch are nice and ripe. See?’ he pointed.
Without answering, Rohan moved towards the tree. Deepak watched him for a while before the telephone rang. ‘I’ll be back in a minute’, he said and went in.
When he came back there was no one in sight. ‘Couldn’t even say thank you’, Deepak muttered to himself.

‘Hey’, he heard Rohan shout. He looked up to see Rohan dangling from the tree with his pockets full of mangoes.
‘Get down, you scamp!’ he shouted.

It was a beautiful tree that looked like it was out of a painting. The height was just right and the branches were evenly spread out in all directions. Lush green leaves sprung from it, dancing merrily when the wind cared to caress it. Half-way up the tree was a curiously bent branch. It was flattish and curved to form a semi-circle making it a kid’s hotspot. It was Rohan’s hiding place where he hid from his mother to avoid homework, baths and the like.

‘Get down, you monkey or you’ll fall.’
‘Ha ha, monkeys don’t fall off trees!’, Rohan shouted.

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Next morning was as hot as ever. Deepak dragged himself out of bed and slowly made his way to the bathroom. He noticed that his movements were slower than usual. Attributing it to the previous day’s exhaustion, he splashed cold water on his face. As he looked into the mirror, he thought sleepily that he was looking paler than usual. The clock struck seven and he hurried to dress, thinking no more about it.

He reached the post-office. Looking at his watch, he noticed he was five minutes late. ‘I wonder why, I always leave home at the same time’, he mused.

--------------

He opened his eyes. ‘Why am I lying down in this weird place?’ A small group of anxious eyes looked down at him. ‘Come on, let us take him to the hospital. He doesn’t look very well.’

Feeling rather dull, he followed two people to an auto-rickshaw waiting outside. ‘I’m going somewhere.

Oh, this is the way to the hospital.’

‘He’s fallen asleep.’
‘Wake him up. He looks like he needs a doctor.’

They nudged Deepak till he woke up and dragged him to the doctor’s room.

‘What do you think is wrong with him?’
‘I think it’s jaundice. You know, my son had it once and he couldn’t attend school for days. And then the principal…’

Deepak came out. ‘It’s ok. It’s just jaundice. I overheard the doctor tell the nurse.’
‘Just jaundice?’

Just then the doctor came out. ‘Here’s the list of medicines you have to take. Take good rest. You may not be able to work for about two to three weeks. Take care.’
‘What? Two weeks? I can’t take leave for so many days.’
‘Well, you have no choice’, he said dryly and went off.

Two weeks passed by and he still didn’t feel energetic enough to cycle and deliver the post. Another week dully went by. A few days later, a friend of his at the post-office came over to visit him.
‘Um, I have to tell you something.’
‘Yes?’
‘Your sick leave got exhausted. You’ll have to go without a month’s pay. It’s almost been a month now, you know.’
Deepak covered his face with his hands. He’d been expecting this. Illness and irritation made way for frustration and he wrung his hands in despair. He took a decision in a split-second.

‘I’m giving up this job.’
‘What? Are you mad? What will you do?’
‘I will go to the city and find some work there. No more of this routine for me.’
‘Listen, don’t take hasty decisions. You have a good job and…’
‘I have made up my mind. I will give my resignation letter tomorrow’, Deepak said determinedly.
‘You are being foolish. I have nothing else to say. I hope you change your mind by tomorrow.’
‘Meet you tomorrow in the office.’
‘Bye.’

---------------

Jauntily, Deepak set out for the city. ‘Finding a job may be difficult, but, what the heck!’ he thought, recklessly. ‘Besides, if my friends can rent out my house like I told them it will give me enough money’, he thought, happily, lost in dreams.

A month passed by and three more. As his colleague had warned, finding a job in the city wasn’t easy. And his old house had been rejected by tenants as it was ill-maintained. ‘Maybe I should have stayed there’, Deepak thought dejectedly. ‘Let me go back and see. Maybe my friends haven’t tried hard enough to find a tenant. I’m sure I know just the person who’ll agree’, he thought. Deciding thus, he packed his bags and set off home.

Back home, nothing had changed. After awkwardly answering his neighbours’ questions about his life in the city, he set out in search of a tenant. Luck frowned on him and he returned, exhausted. ‘I don’t think I was ever meant to be anything other than a postman’, he sighed.

As he was coming back, he saw Rohan standing outside his house with a tall man he’d never seen earlier. ‘Now, who could this be?’ he thought.
As he came towards them, the man smiled. ‘I’m Mr. Khan. I would like to have a few words with you. May I come in?’
I looked at him and then at Rohan and said, ‘Uh, sure.’
He sat down opposite Deepak on a chair and said, ‘Will you sell your house to me?’
‘WHAT?’
‘He wants to buy my house?’
‘Well, I wasn’t thinking of selling it. I’d rather rent it out. Uh, I need the money.’
‘I would really like to buy this little house. I’ll tell you why.’
‘I’m Rohan’s grandfather’s neighbour. When Rohan came to visit him over the holidays, I heard about this house.’
‘What is so special about this house?’
‘This was my childhood home, the house where I spent the happiest moments of my life. We were four children- three brothers and one sister. Oh what fun we had!’
‘If so, why didn’t you come back before this to buy it? Why now?’
‘I thought the house would have been demolished by now. I didn’t want to come and see a new house in its place. That would have saddened me. When I heard Rohan telling me about his hiding-place at the top of the tree I knew that my house was still alive! That tree was my favourite. How we used to fight for that one branch!’
‘Ok, coming down to more serious matters. How much do you want for this house?’
‘Uh, I don’t know’, Deepak said, dazed.
‘Will five lakhs do?’
‘FIVE LAKHS?’ Deepak said, incredulously. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Quite.’
‘I need the money, yes, but I still can’t believe that you’ll pay me such a huge sum for this old house.’
‘Ha, I will. Get the documents tomorrow and we’ll finalise everything. I’ll be so glad to own this house again…’
‘Five lakhs’, Deepak muttered to himself.
Mr. Khan smiled. ‘You know, there are some things worth more than money.’
Deepak smiled back, ‘I hope I’m rich enough to say that one day.’
‘Oh, ha ha. You know, I feel like climbing that tree again.’
‘Come uncle, I will show you the easiest way to climb it. I know two ways to climb it, you know. One way is by putting my foot on this branch and then…’