D - Dhruv

Dhruv

Gomti and Giri were my friends. They were so cute. Those days ___ I was
a young kid, not into my school life and these two younger than me. So,
all my spare time was spent in their company. Though both were much
younger to me yet we were very friendly and close to one another. I was
very much attached to my mother; Gomti and Giri were also very close to
their mother Padmavati.

Not only I, but Gomti and Giri were also the darling of our household.
My mother was very fond of them. She had put around their necks, a
necklace of red and black beads and cute little brass bells, with the
help of red cords. So whenever they made any movement, the sweet
musical sound of the bells could be heard. On the other hand for
Padmavati my mother had made a necklace of bigger beads with bigger
bells that made a different sound. It was easy to know whether it was
the mother or the children, from the sound of the bells.

The main person very closely related to Padmavati and her kids was
Dhruv. So Dhruv's importance comes into picture.

***

Dhruv was a whole-time helping hand in our household. To call him a
servant would be very mean on my part for he had been associated with
us for such a long time that he was considered a part of our family.
Dhruv had joined our household long before I was born. So when I
started talking I was told by my elders, especially by Ma, to call him
as Dhruv kaka (Dhruv Uncle). He had cared for me when I was a baby.
Dhruv kaka had carried me on his shoulders and taken me to the
riverside. Both of us had spent a lot of time by the riverside during
the long hot summer evenings. There Dhruv kaka would be joined by his
friends. They talked and laughed and they also ate some black globules.
I never knew what they were.

Dhruv kaka loved me very much. He was a bachelor, not particularly in
his middle age but just sliding over and crossing into the boundaries
of old age. His hair was turning grey and so also his thick moustache.
The skin of his palms had hardened with work and whenever he massaged
oil on my soft and tender body, it did hurt me a lot. So I preferred
Ma's hands to his. He cleaned me up when I dirtied myself, changed my
clothes and played the game "horse, horse" with me. He would kneel and
put out one of his palm and I would place my tiny foot on it and climb
on his back and sit up, then caught hold of his bent shoulders with my
hands and felt as though I was riding on a horse-back.

Apart from all this Dhruv kaka did all the odd jobs in the house. He
took utmost care of our garden which was always in full bloom. So
colourful was our garden, throughout the year, of course washed with
the labour of Dhruv kaka. Dhruv kaka took utmost care of my father's
Ford car. He always kept it so clean that its shine sparkled. Whenever
we went out by car, Ma always took Dhruv kaka along with us for she
knew how useful he could be to her. While buying vegetables he always
gave his expert advice clearly accepted by Ma. For each and every small
thing Dhruv kaka was called.

Dhruv kaka lived in the outhouse of my father's official bungalow. A
small cosy room, kept neat and tidy. His clothes, his bed and
everything in the room kept in a very orderly fashion. For food he was
included in our kitchen's daily fooding.

One thing I noticed in Dhruv kaka was that he would doze off at
untimely hours. Time and again he opened a small box, which he always
had with him, and gobbled up one or two of those black globules. At
times his eyes would become red and the expression of drowsiness could
clearly be read on his face. Ma would get very angry with him at times
and scold him. She would threaten to throw him out of his job if he did
not leave his bad habit. I did not find any bad habits in Dhruv kaka
but as I grew older I came to know that he was an opium addict. It was
this opium that he ate ---- those black globules!

Enough has been said about Dhruv kaka. Now I want to move on to
Padmavati, Gomti and Giri. One day Ma had related the story of
Padmavati. She had said that when Padmavati was very small, she had
been brought into this household. Everyone took utmost care of her.
Suddenly one day Dhruv kaka had said that he would like to be the
foster father of the new kid. He named her as Padmavati, and thus she
got a name. From that day onwards Dhruv kaka took utmost care of his
daughter Padmavati. Ma attached two bells to a cord and tied it round
Padmavati's neck. So whenever she moved about the tingle informed
everyone of her presence. Soon days passed into weeks, to months and
then into years. Dhruv now came to know that he was going to become a
grandpa very soon.

***

By this time, opium started eating up Dhruv. His consumption of the
quantity of opium increased a lot. Buying opium was an expensive affair
and without opium life for Dhruv kaka was nothing. By hook or by crook
he needed it. After all it is an addiction and he was getting rolled
into and trapped deeper in the love of opium. He began to pester Ma to
give him money now and then. His association with our family had been
for so long that though Ma wanted to dismiss Dhruv from his job, yet
she could not do it as he was of so much of help to her.

After repeated threats of losing his job, Dhruv could not leave his
love for opium. This time, my father interfered and told Dhruv that he
would put him behind the bars, which was of course a verbal threat.
Dhruv knew that his master could, as he held a very high post of office
and was the senior most bureaucrat and could exercise his influence. So
for some days, it seemed, Dhruv was changing over a new leaf as he
stopped taking opium. But by this way, Dhruv became very lazy, showed
no interest in his work, lost his appetite and also began to lose
weight. He looked very sickly but Ma provided him with good food and
also did not mind his staying away from his usual duties.

***

During this time Padmavati gave birth to two kids. Dhruv was very
excited on becoming a grandfather. He kept himself engaged with
Padmavati and named the kids as Gomti and Giri. The rest of the work of
adorning their necks with colourful beads and bells was done by Ma. On
the other hand Dhruv nurtured these two kids and tried to keep himself
away from opium. But he was again lured into addiction by his friends.
These suspicious looking fellows started visiting him and they spent a
lot of time in his room.

As days passed Gomti and Giri began to grow up and as I was a child
then, I became very close to them. They were my playmates. We ran,
jumped and played together.

Suddenly, one day, some policemen came to our house in search of Dhruv.
They told my dad that Dhruv was involved in a robbery case and was
under arrest. He was carried away by the policemen and as he went out,
his head was bent and his eyes looked down, which showed that he felt
guilty and ashamed. On my Ma's pursuance, my dad went and released
Dhruv after he had stayed behind the bars for a couple of days. This
time he was given a harsh warning with stern threats. All this he had
done for the sake of money which he needed for his pleasure of
opium.

Some days passed Giri and Gomti and I, had become so friendly that we
always wanted to be in the company of each other. One lovely thing that
Padmavati gave us after child birth was her milk. The quantity was very
little yet my mother used it for making tea only. Gomti and Giri fed on
their mother's milk whenever they wanted. Being their friend I also
wanted to do the same. Sometimes I nagged Ma to such an extent that she
gave me a hot cup of Padmavati's milk to drink. It did smell a little
different from the milk that I drank regularly.

One fine morning I found Gomti and Giri were missing for they did not
turn up to play with me. Dhruv kaka was questioned by my Ma and Dad.
But he feigned total innocence. Everyone in our house searched up and
down for Gomti and Giri. They were not to be found. This missing case
was reported at the police station. After investigation it was found
that Dhruv kaka had sold his grand children Gomti and Giri to a butcher
for merely two hundred and fifty rupees.

This time Dad was very annoyed. He said, "This stupid man has no love
for his so called grand children. Opium has an upper hand for him. He
should be punished." Dhruv was charged for stealing, and was sent to
jail for a few days.

Gomti and Giri were brought back to our house by paying the butcher the
sum that he had paid Dhruv. While Dhruv was in jail, Ma was disgusted
and called a person and sold off Padmavati, Gomti and Giri.

The loss was great for me. I missed my best friends, Gomti and Giri and
Padmavati. Although Padmavati, Gomti and Giri were not humans yet I
missed them a lot. They were goats, Padmavati, the mother and Gomti and
Giri her little ones.

When Ma sold off her favourite Padmavati, Gomti and Giri, I did not
know the pangs that she suffered from. I overheard her telling my dad
that she had sold them off because she wanted to teach Dhruv a lesson
and she had lost faith in Dhruv because of his opium addiction.

Dhruv kaka was back from jail after a month and a half. He looked weak
and older. A great change seemed to have come over him as the
expressions on his face showed. Leaving aside his opium addiction and
his bad deed of selling off his grandchildren Gomti and Giri, he was
still a favourite in our household. On his return home we all welcomed
him with smiling faces. Ma was happy again to see him back home. He had
been a part of her daily efforts with the help he had given her,
leaving aside the thought that he was paid for it. It was his vices
that did irritate Ma.

Stepping into the house the first thing he did was he ran to the
backyard to meet his family - his daughter and grandchildren. But the
place stood empty. His searching eyes looked all around for them but
could not find them. Tears filled his eyes and with a quivering voice
he started calling out loudly, "Padmavati, Gomti, Giri, my darlings,
where are you?' His repeated calls trailed off in the air but did not
reach the ears of his loved ones and his eyes looked far beyond to
catch sight of them again.