When Anand Loved Razia

  Anand and Razia were a beautiful pair, ardently in love with each other. They were neighbours and as infants both of them slept in the same cradle. As little children they shared the same cot.
That long bondage between the two blossomed into tender love. Anand’s father Raghaviah and Razia’s father Ahmed were aware of their love for each other but adopted an indulgent attitude over it.

  Their love was to have borne fruit under their paternal nourishment but …

  “But Anand,” Razia said sadly “I don’t think even in my dreams that the village head would agree to our marriage.”

  Anand did not reply. He was throwing pebbles into the river and when they created small ripples, he muttered something under his breath. “Yes, Razia, how could he?” he said slowly as if talking to himself. “The cursed religions”he clenched his teeth. He was quite alarmed about the communal tensions gradually enveloping the village because of their love.

  “Anand!” Razia put her arm around his shoulder,”don’t be disheartened. You’re a man and my man. You must find a way out of this.”

  Razia’s soothing words injected new strength into him. “Razia!”He said resolutely,”we will persuade our parents to talk to the elders of the village. He took her hand into his. They both walked along the bank of the river and turned to the right to reach the lane that led to their houses.

  The river flowing majestically meant a lot for the young lovers.  They were initiated into the majestic presence of the river when they were children. While Anand’s father Raghaviah and Razia’s father Ahmed sat on the sands of the bank of the river and talked over the affairs of the village,  Anand and Razia played hide and seek games there.

  As young lovers they muttered sweet nothings to each other on the river bank on full moon nights. The river kindled the spirit of their love and now exhorted them to take the right action to consummate their love.

  Having been pressurized, Raghaviah and Ahmed met the elders under the banyan tree which served as the local court for the village and half a dozen hamlets around. 

  The elders of the village gave them a patient hearing. No doubt, they also had a soft corner for the  young lovers. But they were helpless in the face of the communal passions, gradually overtaking the village. The villagers of both the communities have no objection to this inter faith marriage. But the village heads of both the religions have their instructions from above to thwart this marriage.

  So despite the tearful pleadings of Anand and Razia and their respective parents, the banyan court of the village decreed that the inter faith marriage should not take place. It was also decreed at the banyan tree court that both Anand and Razia should be married separately within their respective religions within three months. That is - Anand should be married; with an eligible girl of his community and Razia with a suitable bridegroom of her community.

  Both Raghaviah and Ahmed had anticipated this decree. So they accepted their fate stoically. But the hot blooded young pair revolted against the decree of the village banyan court.

  That night both Anand and Razia met on the banks of the river. Razia, in spite of her heroic pretence, buried her head in Anand’s chest and wept bitterly. But Anand did not join her in her sorrow for he was a real man now.

  “Razia” he said firmly, “our wedding will be performed at ten o'clock  tomorrow morning, Come what may.”

  “But Anand…”Razia was startled. She was very much worried about Anand’s safety. She wanted to express her doubts and fears. But Anand stopped her. “No ifs and buts Razee,”he said, “even if the heavens fall down, the wedding will take place at the appointed hour.

  Love, devotion and gratitude overwhelmed her and she bent down to touch his feet. “No, Razee,”Anand raised her and hugged her. “The rightful place of my lady is my heart, not my feet.”

  A little while after that rapturous mood, “Anand said,”Razee it’s already half past nine. Let’s get along. I’ll see you home.”

  The next morning the entire village was agog with the revolutionary decision of the young lovers. People began to gather at the village Ramalayam and the adjoining mosque as Anand announced that the marriage would take place at the mosque according to Islamic traditions and later at the Ramalayam according to Hindu customs.

  Just before the wedding at the mosque and at the temple later, villagers gathered there in large numbers. There were discussions and heated exchanges as to what should be done now.

  They were all agitated over the possible future result of this interfaith wedding, as communal clashes were already taking place in nearby towns.

  Suddenly as if a bolt from blue, a farm hand came there running. He was panting for breath as he ran about a mile non stop. He reached Ahmed in one long stride and cried,”Goodas are going to attack our village. They’re coming this way.

  At this unexpected turn, the villagers who gathered at the temple and the adjacent mosque, began to run helter-skelter fearing for their lives.

  Raghaviah expected the impending attack beforehand. So he was least perturbed. He turned to Ahmed, now his brother-in-law and said,”brother, “let’s take the challenge. But we must be composed.”

  Then he looked at the fear-stricken and dispersing villagers from the temple and the mosque. Both Raghaviah and Ahmed mobilised the villagers who were fleeing. They asked the villagers to gather at the river bank, the border of the village with their women and children.

  Shortly an army of men, women and children gathered at the bank of the river with weapons of various descriptions from swords, knives, sticks, pestles and baskets filled with stones. A sizable army of boys were also at the scene with catapults. Only a signal from Raghaviah and Ahmed, they were ready to charge.

  On the other side of the river, there were about twenty ruffians with swords, sticks and country; made bombs. Their initial plan was to indulge in looting and arson in the village and then kill the bride groom and kidnap the bride. 

  But now they were frightened and perspired profusely as they were badly outnumbered. It also dawned on them that as long as the majority community and the minority community were united under the bondage; of love and oneness, no evil force could attack them.

  Had they crossed the river, they were sure to be lynched to death.

  As they took a last, timid look at the vast army of the villagers, the better part of their discretion prevailed on them to do the right thing and they took to their heels.

  Unfortunately our hero Anand had been deprived of the opportunity to show his heroism.

  Thus the crisis was over without any bloodshed.

                                            The April Fool

  I always remember All Fools Day with a sentimental regard. It was this day of fools that had saved me from a romantic embarrassment. When I was found out to be a liar by my father-in-law, instead of kicking me out of the wedlock with his daughter, he forgave me pleasantly and blessed me.

 It all happened when I was a lecturer in English in a co-educational college a decade ago. Usually the girls sat in the front rows and the boys on the back benches in the class. 

  Lakshmi was one of my students for whom I fell in love from head to toe. She was tall, slim and oval faced with a classic nose and ear to ear smile on her lips.

  She always sat in the front row and when I took the platform and began to lecture, my concentration was often disturbed by her bewitching looks, emanating from her big round eyes which were transfixed on mine. The result was - I fumbled with the lesson and the girls giggled, chorussed by the cat-calls from the boys.

  That day also her gaze met mine and I lost track of my lesson again. I blabbered ‘Somerset Maugham’s Hamlet…” The instant response was giggles and catcalls. 

  “What has come over you all of a sudden?” I cried.

  “Nothing serious sir,”Lakshmi said, getting up from her seat, “we all believe that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. But now you seem to contradict it.”

  “Well said,’the other students tittered.

  If it were any other student, I would have sent him out of the class, charging him with indiscipline. But now I was not all offended. Instead, I felt elated because I was made a fool of myself by a heavenly creature. 

  Lakshmi’s body language and her cryptic comments on my lectures convinced me that she was in love with me. I thought that it would not be chivalrous on my part not to return her love.

  On a pleasant spring evening I invited her for a cup of coffee in the canteen. That was the Alpha of our love.

  Months rolled on and all the film houses, restaurants and gardens in the town brought us closer day by day.

  But the inevitable had happened one day.

  Lakshmi met me in the college library. “Rao,”she said in a depressed tone.”My father wants to get me married to my damned cousin, who is a foreign returned. 

 “Rao,”she continued, her voice choking with emotion.”Can’t you be chivalrous enough to kidnap me  and marry me like Prithviraj Chauhan did in the case of Samyukta.?”

  “My dear,”I replied, “I am not lacking in chivalry. But the hard truth is …if I kidnap you, I will find myself in the police lockup.”

  I paused for a while and continued,”class distinction hinders our marriage. Doesn’t it.?”

  She nodded, making scratches on the library card with her long, polished nails.

  “Don’t worry,”I assured her, “I have a head that can hatch instant plans.”

  My plan was a success and I tricked Lakshmi’s father into believing me that I was a reasonably rich guy.

  The wedding and the honeymoon were over and that bright morning myself and Lakshmi were having coffee in a recently rented spacious apartment. Suddenly some six or seven of my students burst into my study. “Hi! My boys” I greeted them and asked them to sit down. But my students seemed to be very angry. I knew very well why they were angry. I asked my wife to get them  coffee. 

  But they were still angry. “Courtesies can wait”they blurted. “Sir, we’ve come to demand our money which we gave you as a feigned tuition fee in the presence of your father-in-law when he met you. You said that you would return our money in a week. But you failed to keep your promise.”

  It was all a ruse. I planned that some of my students should pay me a thousand rupees each as a monthly tuition fee when my future father-in-law met me, so that he would believe I was reasonably well off.

  Now, to make an honest confession, I lavished all that money on buying gifts for my in-laws. I wanted to create a grand image that I was a rich bridegroom.

  I was trying to placate my boys. “Come my pets,”I coaxed them, “don’t you believe in your teacher? Next month I will repay the debts to all of you, believe me.Without your help I wouldn’t have married your classmate Lakshmi at all. Would I forget all this? No, I wouldn’t.”

 My students were satisfied with my explanation and apology and left finally.

  “You cheat,”my father-in-law cried. He stood at the entrance while the entire ugly scene was going on. “You’ve given me the impression that you earn thousands of rupees every month through tuitions, when I met you to consider the alliance. But you…”he stopped half-way as he gasped for breath.

  I kept silent till his hissing subsided. Then I faced my father-in-law calmly. “In fact, it is my moral principle not to engage in tuitions for my students. I offer free coaching to my students off my class hours. I loved your daughter deeply from the depths of my heart. No doubt, you can get a rich guy. But you can’t get a more loving husband than I am. So, it is up to you whether to bless us or leave us as we are. Anyway,” I continued with a wry humour,”Today is April Fools Day and in a way we all fooled one another. I tried to fool you by pretending that I was a rich guy. On your part you wanted to fool me by giving away your daughter in marriage to some other rich guy. Can’t we pardon each other?”

  All of a sudden Lakshmi appeared there from nowhere. She whispered something into her father’s ear.

  Immediately he changed his countenance from that of anger to happiness. He gathered me and his daughter into his arms and said,”give me a little April Fool soon.”

 The Predicament

Vijaya can be cordial to her sister-in-law Saraswati if the latter refrained from passing adverse comments on the former. Sarawati comments that Vijaya goes on jolly rides with her husband on the scooter, that she is a fashion peacock and that she behaves impudently in the presence of her grown up children.

  As neither of the in-laws relents to patch up, Vijaya’s husband Bhaskar is the poor victim of their long wordy duels. 

  Vijaya feels that her husband should be on her side while Saraswati thinks that her brother should support her.

  Usually such wordy duels of the in-laws spark off severe storms in the otherwise happy married life of Vijaya and Bhaskar. The estrangement that follows such storms is quite unbearable for him and he prays to God that his sister Saraswati who lives nearby should visit him less frequently. His personal request to God would be that his sister should not visit him especially whenever he is about to have a pleasant outing with his wife Vijaya.

  But God seems to have a peculiar inclination to counter what the poor creature Bhaskar proposes to do.

  That evening Bhaskar returned home with a grand plan of going to a movie with his wife Vijaya.

  “Hai Vijji,” Bhaskar entered home and had given Vijaya a bear hug,”get ready, quick, we’ve got to go to a movie.” 

 “Movie!”exclaimed Vijaya,”I’d love to. But what about the kids? Anil and Sunil will be late home today as they’ve cricket match at school.”

  “Don’t worry my dear Vijji, give the keys to our neighbour. Ask her to tell our kids what to eat and what to drink. Go, dress up, quick.”Bhaskar said, releasing her from his embrace.

  Vijaya went into the dressing room and closed the door behind her.

  Bhaskar was pacing up and down the hall, looking at his watch every now and then.”Vijji,”he cried teasingly,”If you don’t dress up and come out quickly, I’ll rush in and give you another bear hug.”

 “Hush, don’t cry like that. What’ll the neighbours think?” Vijaya said, coming out of the dressing room in her favourite Georgette saree and tight silk blouse which suited her slim figure well.

  “Vijji,” Bhaskar said rapturously, “how pretty you are in this dress! So fresh as a rose! Nobody would think that you are the mother of two grown up children.”

  “Oh, darling, keep your romantic prattling to our bed time. Hurry up, by the time we reach any movie house, the show would’ve begun.”

  Just then the door-bell rang. Bhaskar’s sister Saraswati was at the entrance. Her husband was standing behind her.”Brother and sister-in-law are in the mood for an outing, I suppose.” Saraswati said, “We wish we hadn’t come now,”She said again,”But your brother-in-law insisted that we should visit you now. He wants to discuss some shares and stocks with you.”

  But it was Saraswati who proposed the visit to her brother’s house to upset her brother’s evening program. She knows very well that Bhaskar would take Vijaya out almost every evening. But Sarawati made her husband the scapegoat. She looked at her husband tauntingly, who sat beside her meekly. “Didn’t I tell you that my brother and sister-in-law would be going out in the evenings? But you thought that your shares and stocks were more important.”

Saraswati was secretly happy for upsetting her brother’s outing. But she said aloud,”You should’ve married a share broker instead of me.” She blew her nose in feigned anger. 

  Saraswati’s outburst embarrassed Bhakar. He was aware that his sister’s money mindedness made his brother-in-law unhappy too. It was Saraswati’s love of money which made her husband preoccupied with shares and stocks. This made him an introvert and he would not take his wife out during the evenings. Saraswati knew that it was she who drove her husband into the shares business more and more which ultimately became his first love.

  “Bhaskar,” began his brother-in-law, driving his fingers into his thin hair.”I want to buy shares of the ABC Mills for ten thousand rupees. Will the company come up or will it go down?”.

  Bhaskar did not give an immediate reply. His attention was not there. He was thinking about the conversation that was going on between his wife and his sister in the adjoining room. He did not have to eavesdrop to know what they were talking to each other. The result would be known when Vijaya would finish her kitchen chores in the night and come to the bedroom, blowing her nose and rubbing her swollen and reddened eyes due to weeping. She would sit on the edge of the bed and begin,”Your sister said that I was a filthy snob because I had become rich suddenly by marrying you. Why should she be jealous of me? Isn't she rich? She finds fault with me because I go on jolly rides with you. Am I a fashion peacock? Do I behave impudently before our children? Tell me.” She paused for a while and continued with sobs, “If your sister’s husband doesn't understand her properly, doesn’t buy a scooter and doesn’t take her out, it is not my fault. If she hasn’t borne a child till now, let her curse God for it, not me. Why should she say that our children look like scamps?”

  Bhaskar would advise her gently to adjust and patch up. But it would make matters worse. She would become furious and break down sobbing,”you always support her, because she is your sister.

  Bhaskar couldn’t be even a bit rude to his sister for she was his only surviving sister. His position was so delicate that he often found himself in a quandary, as to whom to side with.

  Good night,” his brother-in-law got up,’you look tired now. Think about the shares of ABC Mills and tell me your opinion.”

  A year rolled by without any let up in the quarrels between the in-laws.

  It was the first day of the new year. When Bhaskar returned home after wishing happy new year to one of his close friends, to his surprise, he found his sister chatting with his wife, and the two boys pulling their paternal aunt by her arms to play a game of carroms. 

  “Happy new year,”Bhaskar greeted his sister.

  “Bhaskar, why are you breaking in now,”Vijaya cried jovially.”while we in-laws are discussing the menu for dinner”

  “O.K. carry on, I shouldn’t have disturbed you.” Bhaskar said and left the room. He reclined on a cement bench in the garden. He smiled to himself. The previous night after his sister and brother-in-law left Bhaskar’s house after one of their usual visits, he did not go out to buy cigarettes only. He bought two new year greeting cards at a nearby stationery store. He forged the signatures of his wife and sister and posted them to each other’s address.

  The next morning, on getting the greeting cards by post,  each of them thought that the other person sent the card to bury the past on a new year’s day and became in-laws in the true sense of the word.

  What else could Bhaskar wish for on a new year’s eve?