Champak

It is the height of summer. Champak sits in his chair.  It is barely ten in the morning. But beads of sweat have already semi drenched his uniform. He curses under his breath. In his entire  four years of service he had never seen a summer this severe. He had been sitting in that chair every week day from Nine in the morning to six in the evening. His job was to keep the miscreants at the paldi riverfront at bay. The riverfront was a new area that had been recently opened by the government in a bid to open more areas for the public in order to eventually increase the happiness quotient and make their presence felt.

It was a large concrete pathway that was erected along the banks of the Sabarmati river. There were tall streetlights and concrete benches that were laid out too. The people of the city usually thronged this space in the cool of the evening and sat on these benches immersed in conversation. Children ran about, families exchanged stories, lovers managed to steal a few moments of romance, the roadside ruffians played cricket. This was the scene that opened to champak every day of his life.

Champak was a rotund balding middle aged man of dark complexion. He had an equally rotund wife who ran a tiffin business from her kitchen and one son who went to the local school. He loved his family dearly. His double chin, protruding belly and heavyset arms were all proof of his wife’s butter paratha’s, stuffed potatoes and oil samosa’s. He had taken up this job primarily because it didn’t require too much physical stress and that the family really needed the money. Champak never went to school. He had gotten by with various odd jobs. He could never stick to a job. But when jignesh’s school fees was increasing rapidly, his wife thought champak had better get  a move on.

Besides, Champak really liked the job. He didn’t have to talk to anyone. He didn’t have to use his head too much. He just had to sit on his chair and be authoritative. This too, champak found that if he yelled loud enough and waved around his stick, people would listen. So he did that profusely.

On normal days, Champak loved his job. But today, the heat was just intolerable. He couldn’t sit there. on that plastic chair, beneath the shade of the largest neem tree in the vicinity. Champak was a little bit of a softie and one could say even though he could not afford it, he did like the pleasures of life. He was not used to living too harsh a life. He decides to take a walk to the seat of the other guard, a 500 mtrs away.

he is surprised by what he sees.

“ are! Hari! Where did you get this from?” champak picks up the mobile battery operated fan kept beside hari.

“ Sunday market. That too only for 100 rs. Can you believe it? I took an extra job cleaning a water tank and bought this for myself. My wife thought we should buy an iron instead. But I’m saying comfort first…..”

Champak was half listening by now. He was inspecting the fan. He knew he had to have it. It would make his life a lot easier. He decided he had to have it.

That evening while his wife was serving out hot chappati’s with Dal, he broached the topic.  She dismissed it outright saying that they didn’t even have the money to buy salt and dal, a fan for comfort was a long shot.

Champak went a week in that heat. By the end of it, he knew he couldn’t stand it anymore. He had to do something.

It was hotter than all the other days put together. Champak could feel himself melting away. He wanted to scream. He had taken off his shirt and was wearing just his torn in- shirt.  A young boy came up to him.

“ we have a cricket match this Saturday”. He said.

“ you are not allowed to play cricket near the river area. Only by the sand area you can play”

Champak was ready to dismiss him as another one of those boys who had come to plead in order to play by the river.

“ the match is in the sand area only.” The boy looked at him straight in the eye. Champak was getting irritated.

“ ok. So what do you want me to do?”

“ Referee” he said. Quite simply.

Champak’s patience was hitting all new heights.

“ I have a job here boy. I’m not exactly sitting idle. I may look it, but being a guard is full time work….”

“ you’ll get 100 rs. At the end of the day.” He said it in the same simple manner.

Champak’s ears perked up. He could finally buy the fan! The fan he wanted for so long!

“ all I’ll have to do is referee?”

“yes”

Champak nodded silently.

“ Next Tuesday. Morning. Seven thirty. “

The boy walked away.

Champak didn’t want to tell his wife, suman about it. He knew being away from his work during working hours would cost him his job.

Champak went five days in complete bliss. The thought of the fan that was going to be beside his chair was enough to make the heat a little less intolerable.

“thud!. Thud!”

It was the middle of the night. The entire street was dead asleep. Suman woke up first to the sounds at the door. She quickly nudged her husband. She clutched the blanket in fear. Who could it be at this time?

Champak goes to the door. In their one room shanty, another thud and the house could come crashing down.

Five young men stood there. out on Champak’s door.

“ we’ll give you 500 rs. You need to make sure team A wins. And if anything goes wrong, we know where you stay”

Champak couldn’t make out who was saying what. The absence of light played perfectly to their advantage. He didn’t see any of their faces. He couldn’t rather. They walked away into the darkness.

So much for a cricket game? Champak’s mind was riddled with questions. When Suman asked, he said it was no one. What had he gotten himself into? There was a bigger picture to this. He couldn’t sleep at night. Or the night to follow. Even on duty, he struggled to figure out who those youths were among the crowds of young people playing cricket. He had no clue.

Monday night came. Champak told suman that he had to be at work early that day and retired to bed.

“ thud!thud!”

It was the same knock on the door at midnight. This time. Luckily for champak, suman did not stir. Maybe she was too tired from her work.

“we’ll give you 1000 rs. Make sure team B wins.”

This time, they held him by the collar. And then gave his neck a tight squeeze and walked off.

Champak could not sleep anymore.

He walked onto the sand area a little skeptically. There was a large group waiting for him. the tension in the air was palpable.

The game began.

As the game played out, champak began to disregard,  gradually the threats that came out to him the previous night.  They were just a bunch of kids afterall. Champak played fair.

It was lunchtime. Champak began walking to his tiffin box that was kept on the other side of where his chair was kept.

A boy came up to him. he was the batsman of team B. he looked like just another teenager. Dark skinned,  beady eyes. But there was an iciness in his voice.

“ where do you think your wife is right now?” – his voice had such a coldness that made champak stop dead in his tracks.

“ excuse me?”

“ go home now. You wont find her at home. Play safe. You might not find her at all. Play by our rules, you’ll see her in the evening.”

Champak had no clue how he managed to reach his home in ten minutes flat. Suman was no where to be found. Champak looked everywhere. He even asked the neighbours. No one had seen her.

Champak came back to the cricket game. Despite shouts and cries, he ensured his bias lied with the B team.

At the end of the game the B team won.

The boy came up to him.

“ your money is at your house.”

Champak travelled faster than he could to his house. Everything was a blur.

“ was there any money delivered?”

“no!” – suman had never been more confused.

“ where were you in the afternoon?”

“ I went to the market! My god! Whats with you these days?”

Champak never received any money. Nor saw any of their faces. However, he did get fired the next day for being away from his work.