As he looked at the swollen eyes and tear-stained face of the boy, Melu’s bapu’s defences crumbled. His eyes turned misty and when he wiped them with a corner of his turban, it was soaking wet.

  Pala was still insisting on the same thing. Turning a deaf ear to him, Dharma asked Melu’s bapu, ‘How is your son, the one who lives in town?’

  ‘He’s all right. May he live happily, regardless of where he is!’ Melu’s bapu replied in an emotion-choked voice. Silent for a while, he shot a question at Dharma this time, ‘How did all this come about? How did this misfortune befall you overnight?’

  ‘Now, bhai, how should I tell you what happened?’ Dharma replied, eyes downcast. ‘It’s nothing but destiny. That’s the way they put it, I suppose…’

  Before he could complete his sentence, Pala turned towards Melu’s bapu and snapped, ‘Do you live in this village or elsewhere? Say it? O you fool, it’s been months since this trouble started and you want to know what the matter is? That’s well said—I must say!’

  But Dharma, as indifferent to Pala as before, turned to Melu’s bapu and spoke, in a rather subdued voice, ‘We’ve been here for the past seven years. Wadhawa Singh entered into a secret deal with Gopal Singh and sold off these sixteen acres of land to some factory owner. All we said was that we should be allowed to make an alternative arrangement, only then would we shift out of here. But last night, those factory owners came and pulled down our mud huts. Not just that they also walked away with some of our belongings. We did raise a loud protest, but who bothers? Did anyone come from the village to help us…?’

  ‘Where were your sons, then?’ Melu’s bapu asked, surprise mingling with despair as he spoke.

  ‘They have been in jail for the past five days. But now the very people who did that seem to have had them released.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Now how do we answer this, “why”?’ Pala intervened once again. ‘If someone says that “your beard shakes while eating”, what explanation can you offer for that? Those people simply wanted to ruin them, and they knew quite well that if it happened in the presence of his young sons, it would create trouble, even lead to a brawl or something. So they got them arrested on the charges of possessing two bottles of liquor and a pistol, which had obviously been planted. Now as you know, for people like them, this is not difficult to do with support from the police.’

  Melu’s bapu couldn’t think of anything to say, completely unaware as he was of all these goings-on.

  That moment, they saw a jeep racing down the recently tarred road. Whizzing past the mound of earth, it turned left and drew up where they sat. Then speeding through Surjit’s fields (the ones that had been levelled out after the harvesting of the cotton crop), it came rushing towards them. All three of them simply stared wide-eyed, fear lurking in their eyes. Even the women and children turned their attention towards it. Whirring up clouds of dust, the jeep came through the fields and pulled up near a dyke, beside a huge beri.

  That very instant, all of them stood up straight, but Melu’s bapu simply hung around, his arms locked behind his back. Dharma and Pala tightened their blankets around themselves. Stepping out of the jeep, three people came towards them, silence dogging their steps. A tall, strapping sardar, with a long, curling moustache was walking ahead. Two fellows were bringing up the rear, one slightly plump, striding confidently while running his fingers through his oily hair in a bid to settle it; and the other was kicking up huge clouds of dust as he walked. The latter was a thanedaar, a man of average height. Three constables too stepped out of the jeep, and as soon as they did, they began brushing the dust off their clothes and adjusting their belts.

  ‘Why, tell me, bhai, of you three, who is Dharma?’ Spoke the plump sardar as he came closer, peering hard at all three of them with his light-brown, cat-like eyes.

  ‘It is me, janaab.’ Dharma responded.

  ‘And these two?’

  ‘They are from my community, janaab.’

  ‘Bhai, you both get going. I say, just scoot from here.’

  Pala and Melu’s bapu, too confused to react, just backed away a step or two and stood rooted, their arms akimbo. The officer glowered at them and said, ‘Do I speak Pashto? Didn’t you hear what I just said?’

  ‘Janaab, they aren’t here to carry “your” stuff away.’ It was Dharma rather than the other two who spoke in a somewhat acerbic tone, ‘They belong to my community. And they must share my joys and sorrows.’

  ‘It is this kind of solidarity that makes you people lose your mind. Left to yourself, you would have settled this problem long ago, isn’t it?’

  ‘We don’t even have a mind, janaab. You can lose your mind only if you have one.’

  Rather than respond to Dharma, the officer once again turned towards Pala and Melu’s bapu and spoke with the same authority as before, ‘Didn’t you two hear me? Go and sit under that keekar. Once I’m through with him, you can console him whichever way you want.’

  Without demur, Melu’s bapu proceeded towards the keekar tree. Pala too followed him reluctantly, muttering to himself as he went. Rather than walk towards the keekar, he settled on a dyke nearby. Melu’s bapu obediently went off to stand under the keekar tree.

  ‘So, bhai, what have you decided now?’ The officer fired this question, his legs placed wide apart. Feeling his moustache, he twisted it on the left side with the fingers of his right hand. Hollowing out his left cheek and peering over his moustache with an almost-squinting left eye, he said, ‘You’d better remove all your knick-knacks from here right away. And if you don’t have a house to move to, a residential plot could be allotted to you. You’ll also get some subsidy to build a house. And if you do own a house, make sure you make your way there quietly. If you try and act tough, then we know how to “soften” you up. Do you understand?’

  ‘He has his own house in the vehra, janaab.’ When the thanedaar, who was standing right behind the officer, stepped forward and spoke up, Dharma saw that he was the same man who had arrested his sons and led them away.

  ‘Why, bhai?’ The officer’s voice had a strange menacing tone to it.

  ‘Janaab, we have been living here for the past seven years. We did have an old, dilapidated kothra. When we came here, we used up parts of it to build this small tenement. Now, tell us, where do we go?’ Dharma spoke in such a gruff manner that the officer’s brown, cat-like eyes immediately began to smoulder. For a while, he just stared at Dharma, fixedly. Then casting a fleeting glance towards his left and right, he spoke in a voice harsher than before, ‘Are you out of your mind? Do you know who you are speaking to?’

  ‘First you arrested my sons. Then, you razed my house to the ground. How do you expect me to be in my senses, janaab? Only Jagjit Singh or you, janaab, can be in your senses.’

  ‘Janaab, this fellow has always been very insolent.’ Stepping forward, the thanedaar spoke up in an unusually stentorian manner.

  ‘Don’t you worry!’ The officer spoke as though with clenched teeth, ‘As they say, “When the dog snarls, it’s not at you, but at your master!”’

  ‘Where are the masters, janaab, who will protect us?’ This time round, Dharma, too, spoke in riddles the way the officer had spoken. ‘If we had someone to protect us, janaab, things wouldn’t have come to such a pass.’

  This time, the third person standing next to the officer spoke up, ‘We have been pleading with you for more than two months now, that you make some other arrangements and leave us to our devices. And if you wish to get your face smeared with more dust, then do tell us. Now who is at fault, you or we?’

  Tucking in the loose end of his grimy turban, Dharma stared at the man, who now stood talking to him in a rather familiar tone, for he had not seen him before. He couldn’t even understand what the fellow was trying to hint at.

  ‘Barely a hundred-yard-long rope and that too, knotted at one end.’ The officer’s voice was harsher than usual, ‘Either you carry your stuff away by the evening, or I’ll come around again, perhaps, the last time…Then I’ll see how you refuse to vacate this place. Do you understand?’

  ‘You have done your worst, already. And as far as the question of smearing dust on the face is concerned, I think it should be done to all those who first tempted us into moving here, all because they wanted to bleach our bones dry, and having done that, they are now asking us to vacate this plot, measuring less than five hundred square yards. Or let the dust be smeared on the faces of all those who couldn’t put the barriers fifty yards away, and instead chose to demolish our kothas today. Not just that, they’ve also taken away all the wood, even nuts and bolts; perhaps, because they need it all to burn down their own havelis.’ After speaking in this gruff, aggressive manner, Dharma suddenly fell silent, as though out of breath, or as if he had choked on his words. When he tried to tuck in the loose end of his turban that lay hanging off his neck with his tremulous gnarled hands, the officer once again hollowed out his cheek as he caressed the left side of his moustache. Then he twisted around to look at the third person accompanying him, as if to say, ‘Now, you say, what is to be done?’

  ‘There is no way you can force us to vacate this land. You may throw all our belongings in the field close by, but once you leave, we shall return. As long as justice is not done by us, we won’t budge from here.’ Wiping his eyes, Dharma spoke in a subdued tone of resistance, as though he were declaring his final verdict.

  That very moment, the glowering officer announced his verdict as he turned towards the thanedaar and said, ‘All right, SI Sahab, if this is the way it is, then let things be settled right away. Throw all the utensils and clothes a hundred yards away from the pillars, and then I’ll see how they bring their stuff back again.’

  ‘All right janaab.’ With these words, the thanedaar turned back, signalling to his constables to execute the orders of the officer.

  Looking fixedly in their direction, Dharma’s wife and daughter-in-law were perhaps waiting for this very moment. Both of them heaved themselves up, dark fears looming large in their eyes. Seeing the thanedaar and the constables approach, the children, who until then had sat huddled close to them, now burst into loud, heart-rending wails, as sudden as they were persistent. Their screams of ‘hai baba’, ‘hai bebe’ and ‘hai bapu’ had now begun to pierce the atmosphere, making it somewhat sombre and fearful, once again. But Dharma just stood there, like a stolid pillar fixed in the earth; his hands locked behind his back, his eyes downcast.

  ‘Hurry up, bhai. Finish the job.’ The officer signalled to the constables, and then along with the other fellow, whom he had beckoned in a somewhat gruff voice, he marched towards the jeep, and started looking in the direction of the newly tarred patch of road. Pushing the wailing women aside as the constables were carrying a manji stacked with utensils towards the keekar where Melu’s bapu stood, another jeep hove into sight, approaching from the left side of the track loader. It too pulled up next to the first jeep. A contingent of five or six constables got out this time, and the havaldaar who was accompanying them, hurriedly walked up to the officer and saluted him. Still lost in conversation with the other fellow, the officer simply signalled to him, with a wave, to go towards the thanedaar.

  After sharing a word with the thanedaar, he returned and then signalling two of his constables to follow him, he proceeded to the place where Dharma’s belongings lay scattered. Within no time, they gathered all that was left there, and threw it away under the keekar tree. Muttering all this while, Pala was first seen pacing up and down restlessly, pleading with the constables, and then, he was heard admonishing Dharma’s wailing daughter-in-law and children to shut up. But it seemed as though none were prepared to pay heed to him.

  By now, Dharma’s wife had started beating her chest in despair, and each time she did so, she let out the name of one or the other relative of Surjit or Wadhawa, hurling mouthfuls of curses upon them all. Dharma’s grandson and his two granddaughters stood clutching their sobbing mother’s clothes, howling intermittently at the top of their voices. Unable to contain the irrepressible fear exploding inside them, it was as though their eyes were about to burst, with tears streaming down their faces.

  Then Pala and Melu’s bapu started walking towards Dharma, ever so slowly. After throwing all the stuff away, the constables, havaldaar and thanedaar proceeded towards the jeep for another round of instructions, after which the officer went off to sit inside the vehicle, along with the man accompanying him. As soon as he was seated, the jeep reversed and then clambering up the mound, it hit the road.

  That very moment, the thanedaar ordered the havaldaar and his constables to arrest Dharma. Two of the constables stepped forward, pushed Dharma aside, and then gripped him by the arm to walk him along. As Dharma was walking demurely along with them, one of the constables suddenly muttered a filthy abuse and gripped Dharma’s arm, giving it such a twist that he nearly lost his balance. Then God knows what came over them that they suddenly held both his arms and started dragging him along, as if he was just a dead dog. And then they sped towards the jeep as if they had stumbled upon a game. Pala, too, ran towards the jeep, shouting and screaming loudly, ‘Oye, don’t do this to him! You, O respectful ones! Don’t be so cruel… Oye, God above is watching you! Just think of his family. Have some mercy on them.’

  But much before Pala and the breast-beating women of Dharma’s family could even run across to the jeep, it had already been reversed and was on the road. All of them were left behind, watching helplessly. Next to the pillar from where they had dragged Dharma away, Melu’s bapu was standing, transfixed, his eyes gazing fearfully at the trail of Dharma’s prints, left by his feet as he was dragged.

  It was as if everything was over in the twinkling of an eye. Turning back, Pala began to console Dharma’s wife and daughter-in-law in a weak, dispirited voice, ‘Have some patience…have patience. Keep quiet, now. Don’t worry, God above is watching it all. You go and sit next to your belongings. We’ll go to the village dharamshala and discuss everything with the panchayat. Moreover, I’ll arrange for some food and ask my daughters to deliver it here. You’d better look after these children now. If you give up hope, it won’t help. Don’t worry! God will do justice by us. Don’t be foolish, this is not the end of the road!’

  For some time, Dharma’s wife and daughter-in-law continued to sit alongside the trough made by the wheels of the jeep, crying and wailing loudly, and then, on their own, they wiped their faces with the edges of their chunnis, and started collecting and assembling their scattered belongings.

  Walking across to Melu’s bapu, Pala spoke in hurried tones, ‘Come on, bhai, let’s go. You’d better walk fast now.’

  And walking ahead of him, Pala kept talking to himself compulsively, though Melu’s bapu remained unmindful of it all. All he could see ahead of him was the long, deep trail left in the ground by Dharma, as he was dragged along. The loud wails and howls of Dharma’s wife, daughter-in-law and children had now become a constant buzz in his ears. Tightening the blanket around himself, he raised his head, and saw that the sun now hung a little above the keekar on the mound in Surjit’s fields. Though the fog had melted away a bit, the sharp rays of the sun had only made the chill a shade worse.

  ‘Paliya, what is going to happen now?’ Melu’s bapu asked as they neared the pond, as though the seriousness of it all had sunk in, just then.

  ‘What will happen?’ Pala spoke as if he was still lost, ‘Don’t worry, you simpleton. They can’t hang him just like that. They can’t, henh? Now when the entire panchayat goes and presents a petition to the DC Sahab, he will have to respond to it, no? He can’t just turn us away. Henh! You tell me this, will he just rebuke us, and send us all packing? What right does he have to ignore the will of the panchayat? These days, the panchayats have a lot of rights. Why won’t he listen to us?’

  Melu’s bapu felt as though Pala was just shooting his mouth off, because whatever had to happen had already come to pass, and now no one was going to pay much heed to whatever they had to say. As this thought crossed his mind, a cold sigh escaped him and he cast a glance, straight ahead, at the dharamshala, where all the members of the panchayat, including the panch had gathered inside, and were busy talking loudly to each other. Sidling up to them, Pala started narrating everything to them, right from the very beginning.

  For some time, Melu’s bapu just stood next to the platform outside the dharamshala, looking stunned, and then he returned home, as dazed as ever.

  ‘Dyalo, bhai, do you have enough dough for five–six rotis?’ He asked in a dispirited voice, as soon as he entered.

  ‘Why, what’s the matter, bapu?’ Dyalo asked, surprised, ‘Do you want me to make rotis?’

  ‘Hanh! Their children are crying of sheer hunger. If you were to make a few rotis, I could go and give them to the children.’

  While lighting the chulha, when Dyalo heard someone’s footfalls outside, she turned around and saw a woman dressed in a new pair of clothes, a long veil drawn over her face, stepping into their house. Dyalo recognized her instantly. She was Melu’s bahoo. Bringing up the rear was her brother, a huge bundle resting on his head, and in he walked along with two of her sons.

  ‘Sat Sri Akal, massra!’ he said, as soon as he walked in. ‘What say you? Henh, are you well?’

  The moment Melu’s bapu set eyes upon him, he simply kept staring, so completely befuddled that he couldn’t even respond to his ‘Sat Sri Akal’ in a proper manner. That very moment, Melu’s bahoo first touched his feet and then after scratching her feet against the chulha, where Dyalo sat, she walked into the kothri. Her brother, too, followed her in, and leaving the bundle inside, came out, and spoke again, in the same booming voice, ‘So, massar sian, are you well?’

  ‘Yes, I’m strong as a heifer.’ Melu’s bapu first glanced at him and then looked around, ‘Why don’t you pull that manja down? So, how is everyone at your end?’