Aadhyantham (From The Beginning Till The End)

Anything for her

Dekargaon Railway Station, Tejpur
There is a train waiting to depart at the Station and it is hardly filled. The train is mostly filled with the tribals of 7 sisters who travel on the train every day for access to city markets and return to their homes in the evening. The Station is touched hardly by 5 trains a day so the only tea seller and the only station master in the station are pretty occupied with the most typical topic that anyone could find in such a place. Politics
“SK is going to win this time sir. I do not doubt it” said the tea vendor. “What? SK? A Christian as the PM of this country? I find it so hard to believe” said the Station master looking at the Cross on his chest. “Arey!!! Why do you think like that? If at all anyone can think in that manner, it has to be Muslims, given the divide between them in the country. But there have been many Muslims in that post. So please don’t think like that Sir. This country is not like that” the tea vendor showered his knowledge. “Arey yaar!!! No Muslim ever held the PM post in India to date. What do you know?” yelled the station master at the tea vendor. “Abdul kalam? Zakir Hussain? Aren’t they Muslims?” asked the tea vendor innocently. “They are presidents. Hold on. I should get my flags” saying this, the station master, vexed, went into his room to get his flags.
The tea vendor tried his luck out to sell at least 10 cups of tea. But he could only sell 5. The Stationmaster saw his plight. So he went to him and asked “Give me the sixth Chai”. He took the tea and sat on a bench near his stall. The tea vendor kept on looking into the train for someone coming for his tea and the Station master kept on looking at the main gate for passengers. The tea vendor failed to find one but the Station master succeeded.
There came a man in his early 30s with a baby in his hands. The Stationmaster saw him walk fast towards the counter and purchase a ticket. He knew that the person is new to the area. He is well-groomed and looked strong. Yet it seems to appear as if something is bothering him. He is looking back frequently as if someone is following him. The train horned. The Stationmaster got startled and took out his green flag and started waving it at the train. The man at the counter saw this and started running towards the train. This caught the eye of the tea vendor and as the person passed by him he put his hand in a bag that is stored on the lower side of his cabin. The person ran and ran, holding the sleeping baby in his hands, caught the moving train, and boarded it. The tea vendor stood still and watched the train leave until it cannot be seen anymore. Then he took out a mobile that is sealed in a plastic bag and called the only number in the contact list. “He’s here,” he said on the phone.
The man walks through the General Compart-ment skipping several empty seats and looking for an ideal place where the baby can sleep peacefully. He finds one such place where there are two empty seats on the side and the other side, there is a family, everyone sleeping, with several baskets made of bamboo. He occupied the vacant seats. The baby is sleeping so calmly hanging on to the shirt of her father unaware of what happened and what is happening. Sleep is also short-lived. It gets disturbed as the train stops with a jerk and the baby wakes up and starts crying.
The cry disturbed the sleeping family in the adjacent seats. He saw that and started doing everything he can to make the baby stop crying. But he is new to the job. He hasn’t done it before. Now it has to be him. “Please don’t cry, baby. We are disturbing others. See” he tried to talk the baby out of crying. But the baby seems to be so adamant in crying. Then he thought of singing a lullaby to her. He tries but fails as he knows none of such.
A cloud of disappointment covers his face. “Eh” someone from the adjacent side shouted at the baby’s cry as his sleep got disturbed. In a state of despair, he takes the baby to the door side of the train and stands there for a while so that the people in the compartment will not be dis-turbed. He looks at the baby with a sorry face as if he couldn’t console her. The baby is crying her heart out. Tears start rolling out of his eyes.
A woman who is a part of the family sitting ad-jacent to them earlier heard the baby’s cry for a while. It looked as if the baby is not going to stop the cry anytime near. So she approaches them and asks the father for the baby in her language. The father could not understand her language but he understood that the woman is asking for the baby and so gave the baby to her.
She, a mother herself, made the baby sleep on her in a particular manner that will be com-fortable for babies. The Mother Master explained to the baby’s father the same on how to hold a baby even though she knows that he cannot understand what she is saying. The baby however seems not to be stopping to cry. Then the woman understood that the baby needs to be fed. So she took the baby to her seat. The father followed.
The woman’s husband is already feeding her son with a milk bottle. The woman said something to him which made him give her the bottle. She started feeding the baby in her arms and said something to the baby’s father who is very visibly confused. The woman’s husband saw this and asked “Do you know English?” “Yeah” the father replied. “My name is Mahanth. My Wife is Mary” he said. The baby’s father smiled and shook his hands. “My wife is apologizing for not being able to feed her normally. She cannot give milk to my son as well” said Mahanth with a smiling face. When the baby’s father turned to the woman, he finds her with an apologetic face. “No mam. Please don’t apologize” he said and sat on his knees at her. “I don’t know if you can understand this but thank you so much,” he said to her with his hands folded.
Mary’s brother who is watching this aside sighed and said “Ah enough man. Can’t you say the same from your seat itself? You people have to come closer to another woman always right?” “No. Sorry. I don’t mean in that way” he returned to his seat. “Be nice to him Jeje. This is my brother-in-law” Mahanth introduced Jeje. “Nice is all, you man. Not me” said Jeje to Mahanth, smiling awkwardly. Two others are sitting beside Jeje who seems to be his friend. They started cracking some jokes in their language while the baby’s father returned to his seat.
The baby finished the bottle and started looking for her dad. Mary gives the baby back to her father and says something. Her husband translates it “She is saying that you are lucky. Even though you haven’t made her sleep or fed her, she still wants to be with you”. This made him lose it. He is visibly looking for strength to control his emotions, takes the baby so care-fully as if it is the first time, and kisses her.
Just when the train is about to leave the station a group of 10 people in suits entered the sta-tion. The train picked the pace and so they could not board in the same Coach as the baby and the father are in. However, they managed to catch one that is just right behind the one they have to enter. As soon as they board the train they start moving toward their targets. A phone call stops them. One of the guys answers the call.
The train passes through the scenic serenity that seems to be coming to life. The train is passing through mountains and tunnels. “Thank you. Can I ask you something? Every time you cry, you take away a piece of my heart, washed in your tears. Please don’t cry for daddy dear. When you grow up and start talking, haha, you will be calling me Daddy or by my name or” takes a pause “Mommy, whatever pleases you. I am dying to see that day when you call me. That day I will tell you what a wonderful mother, my wife would have been to you. And I will ask you whether I am doing enough. I wish you give me some better marks so that I can give my signature on your report card even if you get low marks. Deal?” he said to his baby. The innocent one kept looking at her dad. Mahanth translates it to his wife. They take pity on the father and the daughter and understand that the baby has lost her mother.
The men in suits got an instruction that nothing should happen to the father and daughter. So they cooked up a plan and got split into two teams. 5 of them climbed the train. They jumped from their coach to the coach that they have to enter and started crawling on it. They crawled through the edge and jumped once again onto the next coach. The plan is to attack the baby and the father from both sides leaving them no chance to escape.
Mary asks and takes the baby into her hands. She brings the baby to her son introducing them and making them wave hands at each other. They keep on staring at each other. Everyone in the cabin including Jeje looks at the two adorable kids and smiles but Jeje seems to be disgusted and not so happy about the kids.
The suits enter the compartment from both ends. The father looks at one of the packs and gets tensed. The goons, with metal rods in their hands, start running toward him. He looks at his baby and without thinking further he jumps at them and kicks the guy in the front. As the person falls, he takes the fallen guy’s rod. He hasn’t seen the guys coming from the back. He tries to hit the second guy with the rod that he has taken from the first guy which the second guy dodges and the hit will be taken by the third guy. The guy who dodged gets up and pushes him back. He gets hit on his head and falls. The baby starts crying out loud.
Mary looks at Mahanth asking him to help him. Mahanth looks at the crying baby. The second guy comes to him to hit him with the rod but Mahanth blocks it and kicks him in the belly.
Mary yells at Jeje. It looks like she is asking him to go help them. But Jeje seems disinterested. Instead, Jeje starts yelling at Mahanth for getting into the mess.
The father has already taken the first and third goons. Mahanth has taken down the second guy. The fourth guy finds Mahanth in a perfect position and hits him with his rod on his shoulder. This makes the baby’s father furious and he jumps onto this fourth guy in rage. The fifth guy picks him up and blocks him from his back arresting his movement. The fourth guy gets up and starts punching the baby’s father in his stomach.
Mahanth recovers and picks up the two goons that are hurting the baby’s father and brings them near the door trying to push them out. The baby’s father falls in pain. Mahanth tries his best to push them out. But the one in the back holds the train so hard preventing them from falling out. The other guy will be trying hard to push Mahanth back.
The other 5 goons enter the compartment from the other side. The two friends of Jeje who are sitting on the opposite side look at the incoming five goons from the backside and go towards them. Seeing them the goons think that they are coming to fight with them and so lift their rods trying to hit the first one. The first guy blocks it and shows his little finger to them. So the others lower their rods and allow them to go to the toilets and turns forward. The two go into the respective bathrooms and lock the doors from the inside.
The fourth goon who is trying to push Mahanth calls the 5 goons who are on the other side of the compartment. They start running towards them. Out of nowhere the baby’s father comes and gives a powerful kick to the fourth goon. The two goons fall into the abyss, probably dead.
Mahanth and the father turn towards the in-coming 5 goons who were approaching them a moment ago but find no one except Jeje’s two friends who are standing at the door on the other side of the compartment looking down-ward outside the train. Mahanth understood that these two has pushed those 5 outside. He gives a smile and pats the father telling him to cool and getting back to his seat.
Mary gives the baby to Jeje to attend to her husband. Jeje takes the baby hesitantly and holds her at a distance. The baby’s father sees this, smiles, and asks for the baby. Jeje hands over the baby. The father takes her, hugs her warmly, and makes her sit comfortably on him. No one is hurt. Everyone relaxes along with the built-up heat in the atmosphere.
“What dear? Did you stop crying? You need your father to fight such a big fight to stop you from crying?” says Mahanth to the baby. Everyone in the compartment smiles while Jeje mocks “He-He”. The baby’s father looks at Mahanth and Jeje’s friends to thank them. He is looking for words to say that. Seeing this Mahanth says “It’s okay”.
“So much violence for your peace talks, huh?” says Jeje to Mahanth. “Are you surprised that I chose your way? I am surprised that you chose your father’s way and stayed away from this” replied Mahanth. “Huh. Easy for you to say” answered Jeje defending himself. “And for the violence, even Gandhi allowed violence against the British after a point Jeje. Come on” Mahanth made his statement in an incrementing tone signaling the end of the debate and his victory.
The baby’s father was so confused as who these guys are. They don’t look educated but they feel like ones. Thinking this, he leans back, tired. ‘Baby!!’ he starts talking to the baby in a voice that no one can hear. ‘I have been an atheist. But a gift like you in my life cannot certainly come to me, if not for the mercy of God. You are the only force that is pushing my life to continue. I have no one in this world except you. I will never let them take you to their world. I will not let that world have a look at you either. I will build you another world to live in. This will be my only purpose from the moment. Do you know? I beat a man the day you have fallen in your mother’s womb. That’s the only person that I have ever bet. Today your father went against goons and probably killed one or two it seems. It seems my strength is increasing with your age.' The baby seems to understand what his father was saying to her in his mind. She turned back and started climbing over him towards his shoulder.
“What’s your name?” asked Mahanth. “Vijay” answered the father.
Another voice started following Vijay and his daughter in the air. ‘Vijay!!! I have no one else in this world except you. Please come back. I want to talk to you. I need you. I just realized that everything I am, and everything I have ever done has something to do with you. I cannot do anything without you. Please don’t leave me again’ said the Chairman of P Group, Meenakshi Devi to the incomplete Vijay’s portrait in her office.