House of Cards (4 page)

The wedding took place the next day—and without any rains. The atmosphere was full of glee. Sanjay gave his gift to the couple and decided to catch the two o’clock bus and leave for Aladahalli. At the bus stand, he saw Mridula standing there. He was astonished to see her in simple clothes—like an ordinary girl. This was the best time to apologize to her. He went near her and said softly, ‘Miss Mridula, I’m sorry.’

She turned back to look at him. Surprised, she said, ‘Why are you here?’

‘I’m sorry for my harsh words.’

‘Yes, you mistook me for a thief. Maybe because of my wet clothes. You were so impatient that you wouldn’t even listen to me, Mr—’

‘I am Sanjay, a doctor from Bombay.’

‘I didn’t ask you for details,’ Mridula answered.

‘I apologize once again.’

‘No, it isn’t your fault. The way a person dresses is important.’

The bus arrived and both of them climbed aboard. This worried Mridula. Sanjay looked handsome and said he was a doctor, but why was he following her? As far as she knew, nobody knew him in Aladahalli. If he followed her to the house, then old-fashioned Rukuma would not keep quiet. She would kill her with her questions and his arrival would be immediately broadcast in the small village. The best way out of this was to send him back right now. Mridula asked Sanjay, ‘Whose house are you visiting in Aladahalli?’

Sanjay looked at her. Her face had given her away. He knew that this innocent girl couldn’t hide her feelings and so he wanted to tease her.

‘Yours.’

‘Why?’

‘I want to meet your parents, explain everything and apologize to them.’

‘I have already forgiven you. You needn’t come for that purpose.’

‘It is my duty to apologize to your parents.’

Mridula got even more worried. When the conductor came, Sanjay bought two tickets to Aladahalli. Mridula felt uncomfortable through the entire journey. She cursed herself, ‘Why did I go upstairs with the candles?’

When the bus reached Aladahalli, she got down quickly.

A young boy, Budansabi, was waiting for her. There was a wound on his leg. He said, ‘Sister, yesterday the bicycle chain hurt me badly and I thought of you so much. Will you look at it and tell me what to do?’

Sanjay wanted to tell the boy to get a tetvac injection immediately. But Mridula recommended, ‘Clean your wound with Dettol and come to my house. I will give you medicine.’

Budansabi said, ‘Okay,’ and went away.

Sanjay was upset. Mridula was beautiful and her family may be rich but she was not a doctor. She should not advise people without knowing the consequences. He could not control himself. ‘Mridula,’ he said, ‘you must not misguide the villagers. Dettol is not the solution. You have to give him a tetvac. It is a necessity. Otherwise, the consequences can be heavy for the boy.’

Mridula smiled and did not mind his words. She said, ‘Oh, is that right?’

‘I don’t know what you have studied, but you don’t have the right to play with somebody’s life. You should have told him to go to a doctor.’

‘Well, I am a teacher but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try to help them. Let’s do this. From this moment on, whenever we get patients, we will send them to Bombay. However, you should pay for their fare.’

Not waiting for an answer, she walked away. Sanjay was offended because Mridula had made fun of his profession.
He thought, ‘She is a careless young girl who is exercising her power because she is from a well-to-do family. I don’t want to get into it. I have come here for a specific purpose—to deliver a package, inquire about Champa Bai and report back to my professor. That’s what I’ll do and then leave quickly.’

A few minutes later, they were passing the Hanuman temple. Mridula was walking ahead of Sanjay. She was worried about what Sanjay would say to her father while Sanjay was wondering why this girl was going in the same direction as him.

At last, they reached Bheemanna’s house. Bheemanna was sitting in the veranda. Sanjay asked, ‘Who is Mr Bheemanna?’

Bheemanna got up and said, ‘I am.’

‘I want to meet Champa Bai Kamitkar.’

‘Oh, she has gone to Naragund.’

‘I am Sanjay Rao, a doctor from Bombay. My professor Dr Jog sent me here to deliver a package.’

Bheemanna was interested in the new visitor. He said enthusiastically, ‘Why are you standing outside? Come here and sit down. Don’t feel shy. Champa Bai will be back in an hour. You can wait here.’

Then Bheemanna looked at his daughter. ‘Why are you standing there like a stranger? See, a doctor has come home. How was the wedding?’

Before Mridula could answer, Bheemanna continued, ‘Sanjay Rao, Mridula is my daughter. She had gone to her friend’s wedding in Hubli. Surekha and she were classmates and I have known Surekha’s father for a long time. Mridula, please make two cups of strong tea for us.’

Mridula went inside and, within a few minutes, brought out two cups of tea. She was smiling. Sanjay took the tea and gave the package to Bheemanna. He said, ‘I think I will go back now. My train is tonight. Kindly give this to Champa Bai.’

‘No, you can’t go like this. You must eat dinner with us. I’ll make sure that you reach the railway station on time. You
are Chandrakant’s student and he’s my good friend. How can I send his assistant back without a meal? What will he think? What will our Champa Bai think?’

Sanjay felt uncomfortable. He said, ‘No, I will go back. I can’t spend so much time here.’

‘You won’t get bored in our village. You must see the Hanuman temple, the big lake and our medicinal garden. Time will fly. Mridula, please get dinner ready. Sanjay and I are going for a stroll in the village and we’ll come back soon.’

Bheemanna made his way out, knowing that Sanjay had no choice but to follow him. Sanjay had never met such an open, straightforward and friendly man and didn’t know how to react. Luckily for Sanjay, Bheemanna started chatting about Mridula. ‘Our Mridula is intelligent. We stay in this remote village and are finding it difficult to find an educated groom for her. My immediate circle consists only of farmers.’

‘You can take Dr Jog’s help.’

‘Yes, you’re right, but it has been more than ten years since Chandrakant came here and Mridula prefers a boy from Karnataka. We have searched for boys, but some of them felt that Mridula is neither a doctor nor an engineer. Some she herself did not like. Our Mridula says, “I don’t mind marrying a man with less money. I can also work. But the boy should be good-natured.” She thinks differently from us.’

Suddenly, Sanjay remembered Budansabi and asked, ‘Does Mridula know anything about medicine?’

‘Yes, she has had medical training. We don’t have a hospital here. So she gives tetvac injections, helps in vaccination camps and takes care of people. She gives excellent first aid too and is of great help to the village women.’

By this time, they were back in front of Bheemanna’s house and found that Champa Bai had returned. Sanjay talked to her and gave her the package. He looked for Mridula but did not see her anywhere. He couldn’t believe that less than twenty-
four hours ago, he had met a beautiful girl who had enchanted him thus.

After Sanjay returned from Hubli, he daydreamed about Mridula almost every day. While unpacking his bag, he found her hairband. He had forgotten to give it to her! He said to himself, ‘I can mail it to her. But I don’t feel like doing that. I may not even meet her again. It is better to throw the hairband in the dustbin.’

But he didn’t do that.

Over the next few days, his work kept him busy and, gradually, he forgot about the hairband.

4

Destiny

The Hubli Teachers’ Association went for a three-week annual trip during the Dussehra holidays. They welcomed teachers from neighbouring villages as well and this year, two teachers from Aladahalli were joining them—Principal Siddarod Hiremath and Mridula.

In the last four years, the Teachers’ Association had visited Delhi, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This year, they planned to go to Maharashtra. All the teachers were enthusiastic and had saved money to spend on the trip. They had reserved an entire railway coach and planned to take a cook with them: that would save them money and the food would be hygienic too. The teachers decided to stay in the local Karnataka Sanghas in the big metros. The tour itinerary included Bombay, Pune, Ajanta, Ellora, Aurangabad, Nasik, Nagpur and a few other towns.

Though Rukuma was not happy, Bheemanna encouraged Mridula’s trip. Mridula had never gone outside north Karnataka and was excited at the prospect of seeing more of India. She was packing her bags when Champa Bai came in the evening to wish her a happy journey. Champa Bai was a seasoned traveller and liked to give travel tips to others. She advised, ‘Mridula, don’t take too many saris. If your first stop is Pune, you can buy a lot of good saris there. Here is Chandrakant’s address and telephone number. It is better to have a doctor’s address in an unknown city. You can stay with him in Bombay if you want to.’

‘Aunty, I saw him twelve years ago and I don’t even remember his face. I can’t speak Marathi either.’

‘Mridula, don’t give me excuses. Call him and tell him that you are Bheemanna’s daughter. Then he will talk to you in Kannada. It is his native language.’

Bheemanna changed the topic: ‘Champa Bai, your nieces are married and are in Karnataka, aren’t they?’

Now, Mridula knew that the conversation would never end and that Champa Bai would eat dinner in their house. So she went to the kitchen to help her mother.

The next morning, Mridula left for her trip.

The first stop was Pune. Mridula was the youngest in the group. They visited Parvati Hill, Chaturshringi Temple, Sambhaji Park, Ganapati Temple and Dagdu Halwai. As per Champa Bai’s instructions, all the lady teachers visited Lakshmi Road for sari shopping. Mridula had thought that Hubli was a big shopping centre, but now she saw how small the Hubli market was compared to Pune.

There were lots of Rasvanti Grahas and these juice shops sold sugar cane juice in style. Sugar cane was not grown in Aladahalli because the land was unsuitable and sugar cane needs a lot of water to grow. The sugar cane juice they got in Hubli tasted different. Here, they added lemon, cardamom and
ginger to the sugar cane juice and kept it on ice. Mridula enjoyed the juice in Pune and drank a lot of it till the day they left.

When they reached Bombay, Mridula got nervous on seeing the huge crowds. The big city, the people and the speed of the trains scared her and she wanted to go back to Aladahalli and its calm. The group stayed at the Karnataka Sangha at Matunga, a locality in central Bombay.

The next day, the group planned to see Elephanta Caves, the Gateway of India and Nariman Point. They hired a bus to take them around the city. But after breakfast, Mridula felt giddy and nauseated. She told the others, ‘I am feeling unwell. But please go ahead. There is a housekeeper and a cook here. They will help me if I need anything. I’ll take some medicine and I should be all right by the time you come back in the evening.’

The group was concerned but Mridula convinced them that she would be fine after a few hours of rest. So they left for the trip after Mridula promised to call them if she felt worse.

Actually, Mridula was scared. She thought that she must have had too much sugar cane juice. Soon, she got fever and it did not subside even after taking the medicine. A little later, she started vomiting and dehydrating. Her stomach was hurting too. She knew that it was better to be on drip and to drink lots of coconut water in such a situation. She felt helpless. ‘If this continues, I will spoil the trip for the rest of the group. People have looked forward to this trip for months. I can stay back in Bombay till I get better—but where will I stay? Had this happened in Aladahalli, things would have been easy. My father would have sent word to a doctor in Shiggaon or Hubli.’

Suddenly, Mridula remembered that Champa Bai had given her Dr Jog’s contact details. Though she was hesitant to contact him, she didn’t know what else to do. With great reluctance, she dialled the number. When the person on the other end spoke in Marathi, she was puzzled. She said in English, ‘I am Mridula, Bheemanna’s daughter from Aladahalli.’

In Kannada, the person said, ‘I am Chandrakant here. Where are you calling from? Are you in Bombay?’

Mridula told him what had happened to her. Dr Jog gently said, ‘Please don’t worry. You may need saline. I am already in the hospital on my rounds. I’ll send my car and you can come here directly.’

After hanging up, Dr Jog looked at all his assistants and spotted Sanjay. He said to him, ‘Sanjay, you are my only assistant who can speak Kannada. You may have met Mridula when you went to Aladahalli. Please go in my car and bring her to the hospital. She may be more comfortable coming here with somebody she knows. Admit her in the women’s ward. Meanwhile, I’ll arrange a special and comfortable room for her. Poor girl, it must be a big culture shock for her to see Bombay and then, to make matters worse, she’s sick too.’

Chandrakant loved his aunt Champa Bai and knew that Bheemanna took care of her. Now, Bheemanna’s daughter was unwell and it was his duty to help her. His wife was out of the country so he decided to keep Mridula in the hospital till she was better and then move her to the women’s hostel till her group came back to Bombay. He thought, ‘Sanjay is a sincere boy—he is from Karnataka and may know her too. I’ll tell him to help her for the next ten days.’