University

-1-

He was a very bright student from his village. They said that he would be an IAS. He had the opportunity to study in the best university of his province. But the university could not offer much to him. He enrolled with the masses. Went to the dusty countryside to study economics. It was good time. Two failed crops in the last as many years have trained people in economics. He was having a good time.

Universities nowadays, and governments always, do not like absconders. He deserved to be punished. They got him last month. He was charged with sedition and conspiracy, and waging war against the state. To serve, he was enrolled in another university. His old university friends called it by a name, Ara sub-jail.

His friend, another student, told me that his mother and brother had gone to meet him in jail. She told, they wanted to go and tell those who have kept him that he was just a research student, and had never hit anyone. The only blasts he enjoyed were the small firecrackers that his brother burst during diwali while he was still very young school student. And that he was a really good student, scoring high marks. And he wanted to study more.

The jailor's head swung up and down while he listened to them. Then he looked at them from his chair and asked, in a very cold voice, what business has he got to do with those farmers, who still have not taken their lives or left for far away places in search of bread, on a parched earth under an almost dead tree. That was not expected of a bright university research student. Thus pronounced guilty. Courts will carry out orders later.

-2-

It was a two hour long journey as a second pillion rider on a motorcycle in a dry, very hot afternoon. After the hustle-bustle of the city and some small towns on the way, we took a long, relatively newly carpeted road heading straight into the setting sun. Sunrays, still very hot, were burning our faces and we looked down as much as possible. Very soon the surface of the road became bumpy and three of us adjusted ourselves carefully on the seat. Just before the dusk we reached a small market stretched for about 200 meters and he stopped the bike. He was his younger brother.

It was a coincidence. Just as we were talking about how could I go for a small field trip to do a quick survey of peasantry in central Bihar, his brother informed him that he would be coming to Patna next day. It did not take more than a few minutes to decide that I was to leave with him. Now that we were straightening ourselves after a two-hour long drive, he offered that I must eat some snacks and sweets before we set out for his village which we could see from this place at a distance.

By the time we reached his house, at the edge of the village, it was almost dark and a kerosene lantern was being wiped clean to be hung on a brick wall. A cow was already moved inside the house to rest at night. A little while later we slept on the rooftop. The surface was still very hot despite the two buckets of water poured on it.

His house did not have curtains at the door. His mother, the only woman in the house, lived with his brother and his nephew. His father have long been away to work, more than two thousand kilometers far. He only occasionally came. His labour of last many years had earned just enough to make a portion of the house pucca, with brick walls and a concrete roof. His nephew was a sweet 12 years old boy with very bright eyes. In the next twelve days that I shared the house with them, he very often turned up with his books to clarify things. He had an unusual degree of curiosity about geography, about earth, moon, stars, rivers and mountains. But more often he dug dip into maps to fish out surprising details. He wanted to know how is an entire landmass, or oceans, countries and continents, could be shrunk to the length and breadth of a page. Almost everyday in the hot afternoons, when 47 degree Celsius wind burnt the dust on the road, we played ludo inside. It was a very old ludo board colours of which had faded, the two torn sides were fastened with a cello-tape, and old shirt buttons had replaced the lost pointers.

His mother was old and not keeping well. She said that her knees were not strong enough and they pained. She got up very early in the morning, took the cow out in the open, gave her fodder, then put fire in the stove which emitted a cloud of dark smoke burning her eyes, cooked, and cleaned the entire house before taking bath. She said that she is tired of doing it all alone and he should marry so that the younger brother could also marry, so that she had a companion and someone who could share this back breaking work. She complained that all the boys of his age were already married with children, and that she could not understand why he is so reluctant to get married. She asked if I was married. She was a little apprehensive when she asked me to convince him to get married, when I answered in negative. She lamented, “He is so intelligent that he outclassed all of them at school. Everybody says that he can easily become an IAS. But he is not interested in any job. Now he doesn't even come to village. He asks his brother to bring me to him in the city when I need to see the doctor.” She could not understand what was taking so much of time in settling down with a family and a job.

-3-

For long I have been thinking of sending a big wooden globe for his nephew. But I fear he will start searching for his uncle on the smooth slippery surface of the globe.