CONTAGION

The big boss was looking tired when he came back home from the head
office. The Lady of the house felt surprised when the Orderly brought
in a Two-in-one and a pressure cooker along with the Sahab's
briefcase.
"Whose is all this?" She asked her husband.
"Whose else?....The chief's!" he was plainly annoyed as he uttered
those words." As I was about to leave after the meeting,he said, "My
Two-in-one and the pressure Cooker have been out of order for quite
some time.There is a good shop in your town. Send them back after
getting the faults removed."
"Our tape recorder has also been in need of repair since long. Don't
foget to send it along with these things," said she..."O,yes, I now
remember; be strict with Ram Khilawan...he has started stealing."
"What has he done?"
"I went to Virmani Store today. There I casually mentioned that we
had been charged excessively for the repair of our mixy. I was told
that Ram Khilawan got a few rupees added in the bill."
A moment Later, the peon, Ram Khilawan, returned from the grinding
mill with the flour.
"Ram Khilawan", shrieked the boss, "Since when have you been stealing?"
"I haven't understood you, Sir," he said without any sign of perturbation.
"Virmani was telling that you made him add a few rupees in the bill
related to that tube light."
"O, that?" said Ram Khilawan. "That day in the evening you had given
me the mixy to get it repaired.
The store was closed. I took the mixy home. Sir, my wife is quite a
sharp-witted person. She asked me' what it is, whose it is' and so on.
I had to tell her all...yes, all. After that...nobody could stop her.
She came down on me like an avalanche, saying, who knows what and how
many things acquired at goverment cost are taken home by the officers.
She insisted that she too wanted a stone slab and a stone pestle. Sir,
it was to meet the cost of these two things that I got a few rupees
added to the cost of repair of your mixy." After a brief pause during
which he cast a defiant look, first at his boss and then at the mem
sahab, Ram Khilawan assertively said, "Would that be called
stealing...Sir?
"You have started talking glibly. Go and do your work." This time the
boss's voice sounded hollow.

MIRROR

"Congratulations!" Said the tall mirror.
"Thanks, but you....?" He checked himself from what he was about to say.
"Your novel has won a prestigious award today...., but still you are
not happy."
"No, no!......I am very happy. It's a lucky day for us today. My work
has been rewarded, and my wife has been sworn in as a minister."
"Then why are you so off colour?"
"What nonsense are you talking?" he said in a sharp tone. "There will
be a party at our place today. We will feed the poor of the whole city
as well. This is how we celebrate a happy event."
"You are hiding something," Said the mirror with the faint appearance
of a ironical smile on its lips. "May I....remind you of something?"
"Start barking," he growled.
"Today, in the morning, when you saw your son and your servant,
Chhotu, sitting together on the sofa, each feeding the other with his
hand, you had flared up in a fiery rage. Chhotu's cheeks still bear
the print of your fingers."
"Rubbish!" He laughed mirthlessly. "Can such a small matter make one
sad? Now stop yapping. I have an awful lot to do...; guests will start
coming any time."
"Chhotu!..........Ramdeen!" Starting at the mirror, he cried. "Take
the mirror away this instant and dump it in the storeroom. Put my
enlarged photograph up here instead to create a decorative effect.
This must be done before the guests begin to arrive.

MOTHER'S BABY

SUKESH SAHNI
"Haven't I told you? The train is late by six hours," said the station Master. " It won't come before that anyway; now go.....you have been pestering me since yesterday."
"Babu ji, don't be angry," said the village woman with joined hands. "I am very perturbed; it is three days since my son left the home....he should have returned by yesterday. It's the first time he went out all alone."
"But why did you send the boy all alone in the first place?" touched by her pitiable solicitude, he asked.
"I must have lost my head." She was on the verge of crying. "The boy is fatherless. I meet the household expenses by weaving carpets. He had been insisting since the last few days that he, too, would do some work. He left with a basketful of roasted grams."
"Don't be upset....he will come back," the stationmaster consoled her.
"Babu ji, he is very plain and uninformed. He doesn't even sleep alone.....he sleeps in my bed with me. O my God! How would he have spent the last two nights! It is so cold and he has no wollen clothes with him." She started sobbing.
The station master had resumed his routine. She began walking restlessly up and down the platform. Darkness and silence had completely engulfed that small station in the rural section. She had decided in her mind she would never again let her baby-boy be away from by himself.
At long last, the passenger train came up jingling noisily and stopped at that dismal, God-forsaken station. She was intently looking with bated breath towards the carriages.
A shadowy from looming out of the darkness came running towards her. From nearness she saw…….a straight stiff neck....big confident eyes....tight jaws....a thin line of smile on the lips....
"Ma, You shouldn't have come here at this late hour in the night." The grave, anxious voice of her son entered her ears.
She remained dumbfounded for a while and appeared to be disbelieving her eyes. How has her son grown so big in these three days?

SCHOOLING

:SUKESH SAHNI
"May I come in, Sir?" He shook with fear as he sought permission to enter the class-room.
"Late again today?" Go and stand up on your seat."
He rapidly advanced towards his seat... "Stop!" The teacher's stentorian from behind hit his ears like a projectile fired from a mortar. His feet took root on the spot. He sensed fast approaching steps. "What have you got in your pocket? Take it out!"
His bulging pockets became the focal points of everyone's eyes in the class room. He began to take out the contents of his pockets one by one....marbles, pebbles of various hues and shapes, coloured pieces of paper cut out from magazines and Dailies, a broken electricity tester, some rusted screws and machine parts........
"What other things are there? I will myself search you." His strong hands started feeling for things in the small pockets. In the course of frisking, his hands started crawling from the neck upward to the head. "What have you concealed here?” His hard fingers bored into the skull and began to poke every where in the brain.
He shrieked out in pain and woke up.
"What happened, my son?" his mother anxiously inquired.
"Mother, I am having a severe pain in my belly."
He lied to his mother for the first time.
"I won't go to the school today."

COLD QUILT

SUKESH SAHNI

"Who was it"? he asked, warming his hands over the brazier. "The same one from the opposite house." His wife, mimicking Sushila, added, "Sister, lend us a quilt. My husband's friends have come to stay for a night." Covering herself with the quilt, she mumbled, "they are not ashamed of asking for some such thing every other day. I flatly refused, saying we, too were expecting some one." "You did well," nestling under the quilt he said. "This is the only way to deal with such people." There was silence in the room for some time. "It is awfully cold," he grumbled. "My hands and feet, too, are numb with cold," the wife, moving her cot closer to the brazier, said. "The quilt is cold like ice; how can one sleep?" turning sideways, he murmured. "It really is impossible to sleep," moaned the wife. "Cold has made my quilt ineffective, too." When sleep kept eluding them for a long time, they sat up and began to warm their hands on the brazier. "May I say something? I hope you won't mind it," the husband asked. "You don't have to ask. Go ahead, speak." "It is freezing cold today. Guests have come to stay in the house facing us. They must be shivering because of the shortage of quilts there." "Yes, well?" She peered at her husband, hoping he would say what she herself wished to hear. "I was thinking....I mean....that.....we do have a spare quilt." "You have really said something which was upper most in my own mind. A day's use will not spoil it." She sprang to her feet, "I will take the quilt to Sushila at once and be back in a jiffy." On her return she noticed with surprise that he was already fast asleep. Yawning, she too crept under her quilt. It gave her a pleasant surprise to find her quilt quite warm.

KINSHIP

SUKESH SAHNI

"Babu!" As I stepped down from the car, I was startled on being accosted my childhood name. The thought of meeting with an old acquaintance vexed me. Ignoring the call, Idrove past the parking lot.
"O, you Babu!" Some one called loudly this time. I couldn't help looking back. He was approaching me with long strides. Because of the prominent black mole below his right eye, it did not take me long to recongnise Sita Ram, my friend of the boyhood days. His brisk approach showed that he would hug me warmly on coming close. I was,I feared, in the danger of going down in the esteem of the people in the crowded South-Ex....The fool doesn't know I am not the same old beggarly 'Babu' now. Iam now B.K. the owner of a number of factories. I deliberately thrust my hands in my pockets.
Observing my cold attitude, he had winced a little on coming close to me. Raising my eyes with a good deal of effort, I noticed his hand extended towards me.
"How are you, Sita Ram?" Overlooking his extended hand, I patronisingly inquired as if he was one of my factory workers.
"O, you are in Delhi and I have no knowledge of it," said he with unsuppressed fervour despite my cold behaviour...
"I am in a bit of hurry just now," I said. Trying to remain formal with him made me perspire from head to foot. I looked anxiouly all around me. Thank God, nobody was observing us. To get rid of him, I said, "Come to my office sometime. We shall then talk at leisure."
"We have met after so many years. I won't let you go so easily," he said. "Come, I will take you to my show-rooms.....Fabrica…….Fashion Inn.......these belong to yours truly, i.e. me."
I was dumbfounded. This chap.....Sita Ram!......the sole owner of two magnificient show-rooms in the posh South Extention! It means something great.
"O, you fatty, you have become a very big man," I said joyfully and patted his paunch playfully. The next moment, with arms around each other's waist, we were on our way to the Fabrica.