Short Story

The first paragraph is one I found in a "Times" article inviting aspiring writers to complete the story......so if you thought you read it somewhere dont call me a copycat.
As I dab my hands in the realms of uncertainties in fiction I request my readers to actually read the story as a story with some substance than just as a critic ready to pounce on a mistake I might have commited.I just wanted to say this before anyone attempts to read the following story.Also forgive me for awkward names( if it seems so) in the story. And yeah the whole thing is fiction and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental......

The Other Face(s?)…

The alarm crowed. A lusty king of the farmyard cock-a-doodle-do. He shut the mobile up. One hour and five minutes was all he had before his day began. He would steal 5 minutes from that. Look the other way, he told that frowning creature in his soul. I do it all the time. A little corruption, a little bribery. I negotiate with the world 24/7. So why not an extra 5 minutes of sleep? He told himself and buried his head under the pillow. And so began another day in the life of an Indian.

Gundanna was a husky man, a little under forty and a man with a lot of worries. He finally opened his eyes drearily to the sunlight pouring in through the window on his left. He spent three more minutes in the same position, gazing out at the dying plant visible just outside his house. What a start! he thought. He shifted uneasily in his fifteen-year old bed. His eyes fell on the ceiling. The paint was peeling away. Great going! He said to himself.

Twenty-five minutes later, he had finished his ablutions and just as he was about to walk into the 8x8 living room, noticed the ajar door on his right - his younger brother. He opened the door fully and found him still cuddled up on his bed and snoring. Gundanna shook his head and closed the door behind him as he walked out. All efforts to get him educated had gone in vain. Stories of his school, versions of his and his teachers (oceans apart) were numerous. He had dropped out of 7th standard, 15 years ago. Gundanna had tried to get him occupied in his own office, also in vain.

Now he walked into the living room and picked up his office materials. A pen and some money from his grand father’s drawer. He sighed to himself and sat down on the cane chair in the middle of the room. He closed his eyes. He was tired already.

“Leaving already?” said a very wavery voice behind him.
Gundanna opened his eyes and looked back at an old woman walking towards him.
“No Amma”, he said as he helped her to another chair, “I’m waiting for Sita to cook me some breakfast and it’s already 9:30 if you didn’t realize” he ended.
“How should I realize? I never learnt to tell time”, she said
“I know Amma, You’ve already told me”, he said and got up.
“Sita” he shouted.

A girl in her mid-twenties walked out of the kitchen with a tray laden with the morning breakfast. Gundanna took the plate and started eating immediately.

“You should start thinking about the girl also, you know. She is already 25. We won’t find suitors for her if we don’t start looking now”, said Gundanna’s mother.

That was all he could take. He walked out without speaking and left the half eaten breakfast on the floor. He pocketed his ancient mobile phone and treaded outside to his also ancient scooter. He thought of his wife and his little daughter. May be they would have shown some concern towards him. His daughter would have been a solace. But his wife was now pregnant with his second child and lived with her mother in the adjacent town.
For the past so many years , ever since his father’s death, his life had been on tenterhooks.The whole burden of his family-an uneducated mother, a vagabond brother , and a little sister with no interest in employment-had fallen into his hands.
*******

He went back nearly 20 years as soon as he caught sight of his workplace.

It was raining heavily. His father’s demise just a week old. It was his uncle, his father’s brother, who had brought him to this workplace. He had got the job of a clerk. Over the 19 years he had risen amazingly and had held the office for a year now.

Though his post was a commanding one, his salary was meager. Not even enough for his brother’s and sister’s education in a good school let alone their marriages.

He walked into his “office” and sat down. He finished his morning prayer there in fine minutes. He hit the table bell and a small boy came running.

“Let the first person in”, he said.

Five minutes later a man in a black Gandhi cap, an overcoat and white dhoti walked in with his file. He was a cheeky little man with a humped walk and had an eerie malicious smile about him. Gundanna took no second glance at him. He knew the look too well.

Gundanna opened the file, placed in front of him as the man sat down in front of his desk.

“Mmmm….”, he said.

The man started speaking.

“I had lent a good sum of money to Srinivasaiah and Lakkavva a year ago, Sir. The time for repayment according to the bonds got over yesterday. According to the bond he had to give his land of 5 acres. The part of land to be given, determined by the amount to be repaid. So…”

The man opened a few more pages and showed a small area of blankness for signature.

“You’ll have to sign here, sir” said the man pointing.

Gundanna’s experienced eye looked through the bond and a few numbers here and there. The amount given was Rs.5 lakhs. Gundanna picked up a small calculator from his office desk drawer and made some calculation. The amount of land to be given was about 3.85 acrees, according to the current listing of prices.

Gundanna looked at the bond again and it was already filled up. It said that Srinivasaiah and Lakkavva of Kallur owed that man 5 acres of land. Gundanna understood perfectly.
This man was just as he had guessed.A cheater. Trying to gobble up nearly 2 acres of land . The ethics of Gundanna was, at this point, non-existent.All he could see in front of him was a family , almost in disaster , and a new prospect of money.He had learnt over the past year atleast , not to care for such things as God and ethics…..
With a perfectly composed and meaningful tone he said, “So… the other party not here?”, he looked above his spectacles, halfway through his nose, at that man.
The other man just grinned. Gundanna coughed. Oddly, it sounded practised, experienced and croaked. Apparently, the man in front caught the meaning too, because he opened a small purse filled with money. Gundanna smiled for the first time that day.

Gundanna caught the names, Srinivasaiah and Lakkavva of Kallur just before he opened the cap of his pen.

******

It was amazing how time had flown since then. It was already evening.

Now, Gundanna was walking to the Town Fair.

He had planned this shopping just after he had got his day’s first payment. He would buy somethings for his wife and his 7 year old daughter and would go over to the next town.

Just as he was going through the assortment of bangles, necklaces and ear rings, he heard a girl crying.

An old man was carrying a girl about his daughter’s age.

“No..No…No…”, the old man was saying to the girl.

“The shopkeeper doesn’t give the necklace for less than 20 Rs. I don’t have that much.20 Rs is a very big amount for me! I haven’t even bought the supplies to the house. I don’t think I’ll be able to buy any seeds this year. No No No 20.Rs is too much. I have only 35.Rs!!”.

The girl wouldn’t give up. The old man let her down tiredly.

Gundanna thought for a moment and walked to the girl. He smiled and bought the small 20 Rs. Necklace. He tied it around the girl’s neck who stopped crying immediately. She smiled innocently and said softly “Thank you”.
“You needn’t have done that, sir. You’re very kind” said the old man.

Gundanna just smiled.

The old man continued,“Sir, please do come to our house when you visit our village, Kallur. Our village is just 2 kms. down that road. Just ask for Srinivasaiah or Lakkavva”, he said.

The names struck Gundanna like lightning .How he remembered the names!! He watched in disbelief as the old man walked, carrying the little girl, on bare feet. He couldn’t move and just stared. Five minutes later he stared through his moist eyes at the sky, where the black was enveloping the scarlet and gold in the distant horizon. A simile struck him.