THE MAGICAL PALACE (37 page)

I was at my desk, covering my text books with brown paper and labelling my new notebooks. ‘Why do we have to lose our home?’ I asked, irritated. My voice jumped an octave and then broke. I hated my voice these days—it was impossible to speak in normal tones. Clenching my jaw in frustration, I stopped folding paper for a moment. I was tired of being pushed all the time. ‘Why don’t you stop them from demolishing the palace?’ I said, trying to sound persuasive like Rani.

Baba’s voice was a whiplash. ‘Have I not made myself clear? Enough of that talk. As I said, the matter is settled and out of my hands and I have applied for a transfer.’ He sent me a warning look. ‘In any case, you will have to study hard this year.’

I remained quiet as I folded the edge of the brown paper, making sharp creases that would protect the cover of my Social Studies book, stubbornly refusing to agree.

Baba sighed. ‘We will be leaving for Bombay as soon as I get transferred. It will be fun in Bombay. It is a great city and you will make lots of friends.’

There was obviously nothing I could say to change my father’s mind, to stop the destruction of the palace.

‘Unless of course you want to stay behind and be a boarding school student?’ Baba asked, surprising me.

I thought of being at school day and night, dressing like all the other boarders, in their uniform during the day and the formal dinner jackets every night. I thought of being discovered as a homo. If I left the Hyderabad Royal Academy
and started all over again at a new place, no one would know about me. If I was expelled from the Academy, on the other hand, I would not be able to bear the humiliation for myself or my family.

‘No, Baba, I don’t want to stay behind.’

‘Are you sure? Won’t you miss your friends?’

‘No … I mean, yes …’

I would probably have opted to stay behind if I did have any friends. But I had none any more and could not share with my father the escalation in harassment over the past few months.

‘I have heard of dirty things that go on in the dormitories, so I am glad you have decided not to stay behind,’ Baba said. ‘Do you know what I am talking about?’ He was looking at me carefully over the top of the newspaper, his reading glasses perched at the end of his nose.

‘Oh …’ I didn’t know whether to agree with him or not. I was sure that, acting on Professor Khosla’s suggestion, Baba was testing me to see if I had been exposed to any ‘corrupting influences’.

‘Well?’ Eyes narrowed, Baba put down the paper, taking his glasses off.

‘No, I don’t know what you mean,’ I lied, squaring my shoulders and widening my eyes innocently as I looked at him. I had learnt well at school how to pretend.

Baba relaxed and said, ‘Glad we can talk man-to-man now, eh?’ He smiled. ‘I will have to teach you how to shave soon, and get rid of the scraggly beard. It is beginning to look untidy.’

I touched my face and felt the down-like fuzz and longer stray strands that covered my chin and upper lip. ‘I would like that,’ I said, relieved at the shift in conversation. I knew,
however, that I would never be able to talk to him man-to-man about how I felt, about the things I had done.

Baba looked at his watch and pushed his chair back, ending the conversation. ‘It is time to go to the office.’ He wore a satisfied expression on his face as he left.

The phone rang, shrill sound strident in the silence. Rani ran to get it, but my mother beat her to it.

‘Oh, Mallika, how are you? It has been such a long time!’ Ma’s voice was warm. ‘This evening? Yes, we will be at home. Rahul will be so happy to have you visit. Rani is going to a friend’s party.’ She lowered her voice. ‘After I heard the parents of his friends talk about the bad influence in school, we have been worried about him. And now this … He has always spent so much time playing in the gardens. You know it will be impossible to find a paradise like this anywhere, let alone in Bombay.’ She nodded her head a few times and added, ‘I don’t know how he will adjust.’

That evening, my father left to drop Rani at her friend’s party and then visit with his friends. Mallika arrived soon after. She was dressed in a beautiful, green silk sari with a red border. A Kashmiri shawl with heavy paisley embroidery in maroon and yellow was wrapped around her shoulders.

I had not been with Mallika since we had played Snakes and Ladders in the kitchen at Anjali Mashi and Binesh Kaku’s house. I was shocked at the way she looked. Her eyes looked twice as large in her wasted face. The skin over her cheekbones was stretched taut and thin, accentuating them. The dark circles under her eyes were hidden expertly by make-up, but her face looked hollow and gaunt.

‘Mallika Didi!’ I cried out.

She wrapped her thin arms around me and hugged me to her chest. I held her so hard that it must have hurt, but she
did not let go. There was so much to tell her, but I dared not. The secrets, the betrayal, the shame—I desperately needed a confidante. But I knew that it could not be Mallika—she looked fragile, ready to break.

‘Oh, Rahul! It is so good to see you,’ she murmured. Holding me at arm’s length, she tilted her head back to look at me. ‘I can barely recognize you, you know. You are growing into such a handsome man!’ She put her hand on my cheek.

My mother carried in a tray laden with tea and snacks. ‘So, Mallika, how are you?’ she asked.

‘Mashi, I am all right.’ Mallika lost her smile for a moment, looking pensive, and then changed the subject. ‘How are you?’

‘We are fine. It is a very exciting time for us. You know, Rahul’s father is going to be transferred to Bombay? It is a very big promotion.’

‘Mallika Didi, the government is having the palace demolished. And the gardens. There will be a factory here.’ The words rushed out and my voice broke again, annoying me—I wanted to sound grown-up and even-toned to Mallika.

‘Mashi, it is so beautiful here. It will be so sad if that happens.’

‘The government wants the Mint to be increased in size and double its daily production. This is the only way it can be done. Even Rahul’s father has been unable to sway the government in this matter.’ Ma sounded frustrated.

‘Oh, I will talk to Chatterjee Mesho. There has to be another way. I have not been here for so long, Mashi … Everything is changing so fast.’ Mallika’s voice was filled with despair.

I thought of how much had happened in the past six months and silently agreed.

‘Mallika, what is the matter? Why are you so thin? And these shadows under your eyes … Are you well?’

‘Yes, yes. I am fine, Mashi. I have been very busy lately … taking care of my mother-in-law, who is suffering from high blood pressure.’ She turned towards me. ‘I have a surprise for you.’ The familiar twinkle was back in her eyes as she pulled out a game of Snakes and Ladders from her bag.

It felt good to be with Mallika again. That night, we played many games of Snakes and Ladders. Time was running out for both of us and we clung eagerly to each throw of the dice, each move of the blue-and-yellow counters on the squares on the board. In a few months, I would be in Bombay, far away from Hyderabad, from the palace and all that I loved.

I went upstairs to see Colonel Uncle the next day. I wanted to know where he would go when the palace was demolished.

Rani was busy reading and did not notice me leave. It was late in the afternoon and I hoped that Colonel Uncle would be home. He had been gone most of the winter vacation and I had missed him.

I climbed up the wrought-iron stairs. It took me a moment to recognize the terrace. It looked very different from the last time I was there. Gone were the twigs and branches. Someone had swept the terrace. I gingerly stepped towards the bat room. I could smell the odour and felt relieved. The colony was still there. But the urns and pots full of flowering plants the last time I had been here had only a few shrivelled stalks. It felt as if everything was in limbo, waiting for some sign to start living again.

I went up to Colonel Uncle’s door and knocked confidently. An early evening mist hung in the chilly air and the doomed peepal tree looked like a gargantuan skeleton, its bare branches splintered the watery sky, and steel gray shards hung in space, suspended in jagged slices, changing colour with the setting sun. It was dormant for now—a sleeping giant that would awake soon for the last time and rule the grounds both above and below the earth, its massive root system deciding what would grow and where. A few birds still chirped, but the deathly silence of January shrouded the palace grounds. The frogs and crickets were somewhere deep below the earth, waiting for spring to break their slumber. But that was still a few months away. I wondered what would happen to all of them. Would they be stifled to death under a blanket of concrete? Would powerful bulldozers and shovels destroy their homes too?

A pair of squirrels raced around, their fluffy grey tails raised in the air, their graceful, smooth bodies gliding past me. I saw the flash of their stripes as they chased each other and remembered the story about why they were special. ‘Legend has it that the grey-white stripes on their bodies were left by Lord Rama as he lovingly stroked their backs in the jungle when he was banished for fourteen years,’ my mother had told me once. I loved the way they flicked their tails and ran away when I got too close and how they chased each other in an unending game of hide-and-seek. What would happen to them?

The door opened.

‘Rahul! Come in.’

Colonel Uncle was dressed in a charcoal-coloured suit. His maroon silk tie was knotted expertly.

‘Colonel Uncle, are you going out?

‘Yes, I am going to a wedding reception. But you can come in for a little while. What would you like to drink? I have Coca Cola and Fanta.’

‘I would like some Fanta, please.’

I heard him open the refrigerator in the kitchen. It was chilly in his room and I shivered in spite of my prickly woollen sweater and muffler.

‘Sorry it is so cold. Let me turn on the heater.’ Colonel Uncle switched on the heating lamp. The lights in the sitting room dimmed as soon as the lamp came on and it soon felt warm and cosy.

‘So, how are you, Rahul?’

‘Colonel Uncle, do you know the palace is to be demolished. And the gardens. Can you stop the government, please?’ I spoke fast, wanting to tell him everything. Surely Colonel Uncle could talk to someone in the government and save the palace just like he had saved me at school?

Colonel Uncle listened to me patiently. He looked sad when I finished. His face was dark and weary when he spoke. ‘Yes, I know. I have been told that I have to leave because of the demolition. Before independence, the British destroyed our forests and animals for fun and money. Now, we Indians are doing the same thing because we want to be powerful in the world. Right now, the plan to build a factory here is a very big project.’ He stopped and sighed, ‘Nothing lasts forever, not even this palace.’

‘Where are you going to live, Colonel Uncle?’

Suddenly, Colonel Uncle’s face glowed. ‘Remember my friend Claudio? His wife died last year and his sons are in Rome and Milan. He has invited me to stay with him. After
living here on and off for so many years, I don’t think I can live anywhere else in Hyderabad, except Mint House. So I am going to Italy instead.’

‘Oh no!’ I exclaimed. ‘You will go so far away …’ My heart grew heavy even though I knew that Colonel Uncle was going to be very happy with his beloved Claudio.

‘Yes, Rahul, I will be far away. But you can always come and stay with me, no matter where I live. And I will come back from time to time.’

‘What will happen to the birds and animals that live here when all of this is gone?’

‘They too will go away and find new homes. Nature will guide them to a safe place, Rahul. There will be a home for everyone. Don’t worry.’ Colonel Uncle put his arm around my shoulder and gave me a squeeze.

It was wonderful, I thought, that Colonel Uncle always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better.

February 1974. Hyderabad.

As the winter vacation came to a close, I began to dread the beginning of classes more and more. I badly wanted the next few months to be free of any incident. Too soon, school had started again, and there I was, waiting for the bus every morning. But I took comfort in the fact that the familiar blue-and-gold of the bus also heralded my last few months at Hyderabad Royal Academy. At school, I avoided Ranjan and his gang as much as possible.

‘Remember, you have to do very well in the second half of your school year. Otherwise you will not get admission into St Stephens’s School in Bombay,’ Baba told me sternly.
‘It is the best school for boys, you know.’ His concerns were predictable and annoying, but I just nodded my head. Anything to avoid yet another lecture.

The days passed by and, back at the palace, the first stirrings of spring sent vibrations of life echoing through the entire garden. Tiny green leaves appeared everywhere and the team of gardeners, led by Shankar, got busy planting seedlings in the scores of flowerbeds.

The air smelt sweet and clean again. The faint, misty haze that had shrouded the afternoons and evenings these last months was now replaced by bright sunshine and blue skies, followed by orange-gold sunsets. The crows cawed, the sparrows chirped and the butterflies flitted around the gardens like liquid splashes of colour. The days grew warmer and, as I ran through the palace grounds, looking to see if everything was fine after the long, cold winter, I saw that everything was fresh and full of life. It was as if every flower bloomed longer, every tree grew fuller and every bird sang harder to appease the gods. Even though the gods had determined an unhappy destiny for my magical palace with their hearts of stone.

I was consumed by the demands of my teachers in the first few weeks of February. There was hours of homework every day. Each weekend, however, I spent time in the palace grounds, making note of the thickening foliage and the sound of the wind as it breathed life into the canopies of green. The ornamental lake fed by rainwater in the monsoons was one of my most favourite spots at this time. Thousands of dragonflies fluttered above the water as it got warmer, their wings creating a shimmering lattice of iridescence. Turtles sunned themselves on the rocks, extending their wrinkled faces to the warm sunshine.