OF ANGELS & DEMONS

“Bhai jaldi ghar aa jao…Mataji  lagta hai off ho gayi hain.”

The man on the other side softly said in a voice that had resigned and reconciled to the event that had occurred, “Shanti tum wait karo. Main jaldi aata hoon.”

The man who was strolling in the afternoon sun post lunch with a colleague went up to his work station, went up to his boss, informed him and left for home. While on his way to home in the local train he called up Shanti once more to reconfirm that the end had come and there appeared no sign of life in his ailing mother who he had left home in the custody and care of Shanti who had been there for nearly a year between 8 am to 7 pm when others went to work and school.

Today’s morning was different. The man’s wife had left for Kolkata a day before on an official training for a week. So the morning chores of preparing breakfast and sending the teenage daughter to school was his. This was the least of his worries. The mother had been ailing for over two months now and was bedridden and lately her condition was worsening. This was the time Shanti had become indispensible to the family. She had to be kept in good humour and many of her shortcomings were to be overlooked for the greater good she was doing. Today he could not take a day off and take extra care of the mother as there was an important meeting where an overseas visitor from Dubai had come to do a business review. So, reluctantly, he wore a tie and a suit, something he abhorred on regular days, but this was a special occasion and he quickly left home as soon as Shanti arrived.

As the train moved from station to station, he tried hard to hold back tears for he knew there was much to do now and it had to be all done alone since the wife was also away. He dialed a colleague of his at Kolkata to inform him of the happening and requested him to convey the message to his wife as well as arrange for her immediate return ticket.  He got off the train, took an auto home and knocked on the door. He went straight to the mother lying still. The doctor was called and he came quickly, did a quick check and wrote down the death certificate and left.

By now the daughter had returned home from school. The man asked her to wait in the house with Shanti as he went out to the nearest cremation ground, took their time and then collected the bare essentials like flowers, dhoop, chandan and went back home. As he entered the house, he saw Shanti taking off the gold bangles in the old woman’s hands and putting them in a small box lying nearby. She explained that all ornaments had to be removed before the body was put on the pyre. Two of her sons had also arrived to help the man in preparing for the last rites. A couple of office colleagues too arrived and arranged for the hearse. And soon the last journey from home to the crematorium and from there to the fire happened with the son performing the rites, his crying daughter staying back at home in the comfort of a few family friends while wife was rushing to airport to catch the earliest flight home.

It was midnight when the lady of the house returned and by then everything was done. Shanti agreed to stay back in the room where the old woman lived as a mark of respect to her and as an act of solidarity with the bereaved family which had treated her well all through…from money, to clothes to allowing her leave when she wanted and respect she got from all for the noble work she was doing. Very early next morning when the couple awoke, after a few snatches of sleep, they found Shanti all set to leave for home. She had packed her clothes and a lunch box with all the non-vegetarian food which the family would not be touching for some time. The son and his wife took out two months pay and gave it to her and then bowed down to touch her feet as a mark of ultimate respect and thankfulness to someone who had done so much in their absence.  Shanti was told by them to come again after four days when a small puja would be arranged. “ Tumko aana hi hoga.” “ Haan zuroor aaungi,” she said and left. The couple went back to their room and thanked their stars for having sent them an angel in the form of Shanti or else one of them would have had to quit work to nurse the mother.

After some time the man went back to his mother’s room to see and feel the little things in the mother’s almirah…her sarees, the tiny box containing her zarda, her medicines, bags….when he realized that the box where Shanti was keeping the gold bangles and other ornaments on his mother’s body was missing. He searched frantically but couldn’t trace it. The wife joined the search but in vain….Oh no..Shanti leaving in a hurry in the morning, something to which they had not given a thought, now appeared very strange and fishy. The man rang up Shanti on her mobile number and every time the ring went unanswered. Finally after many a try he got through, “ Shanti ma ke gehne kahan rakhey hain?” (“where have you kept Ma’s ornaments?”) She went completely blank and denied knowing of any ornaments. She calmly said she could not remove them from the body which had developed a swelling after a couple of hours of her passing away. The man kept on saying that there was no ornament on his mother’s body as the priest had asked him to check the body fully before lighting the pyre. The man kept pleading, she kept on denying.

One day he went to Shanti’s house to make one last plea. He offered to give her money to compensate her handsomely and he would forget the whole episode. She stoically and solidly denied it all. “Mere pass kuchh bhi nahin hai.” The man made one last request, “ Shanti you keep everything just return me her gold ring with the blue moonstone embedded. This is something I have seen her wearing since the time I was born and she never took it off ever in her lifetime. It was the one thing that always remains in my mind when I think of her for she had said that her father had got the rare stone from Burma where he worked.” The man’s tears failed to melt the woman across and, heartbroken and empty handed he left for home.

As was expected, Shanti never came home for the puja. Soon it was life as usual for the family. Parents running after Mumbai locals, office work and home chores while daughter coping with tons of books and reading materials. One day when she was reading the biology chapter on animal kingdom, the father happened to glance….” scavengers are those who feed on dead animals. The book spoke of birds like vultures and animals like hyenas” ….he walked by and wondered shouldn’t children be taught about human beings who should also be a part of the same chapter? For what others do we humans can do it better, after all we are an evolved specie, who can use the grey matter better than any other with little qualms to pick up from the dead carcass.

SS