Fish out of Water
As long as Dinesh's father was alive, his mother Muniya refused to budge out of Agra. Both Dinesh and his wife Mridula are working, and they knew that keeping old parents at home would create many hassles, and yet, the risk of their falling or suddenly becoming sick in their old house in Agra troubled them. Dinesh tried many times to bring them to Chennai. With his highly understanding wife, he had made detailed plans of how to look after their comforts. Now that Muniya was left alone, Dinesh refused to listen to her. So, as soon as the condolence period for his father's death was over, he packed his mother's luggage and brought her along.
Muniya found the seventh floor flat of her son to be the worst prison she could think of. In Agra she had a circle. Here she was absolutely alone. Her son and daughter-in-law would sometimes sit with her and chat, but the conversation induced no interest in her. They never talked of subjects of her interest. Their 10-year old son knew only English and Tamil. Muniya would make him sit near her and keep touching him --- holding his hand or running her fingers through his hair.
One major preoccupation of Muniya in Agra was to go to Kharaiti's shop to buy vegetables. Kharaiti was originally from Punjab. As a child he could not understand mathematics and English. The parents during those days believed that children who could not understand Maths and English did so in order to spite their parents. Kharaiti's father, whenever he beat Kharaiti would say, "If you don't learn, I will take the skin off your body!" Once a cousin came to their house. He taught Kharaiti the basics and the beating by his father began to produce results on Kharaiti. But once the cousin had left, Kharaiti slid back to his earlier dumbness.
One day Kharaiti ran from his house. He boarded a train without bothering where it was going. He jumped from one train to another till he was caught by the TTE. The TTE made him sit in his cabin and when the train halted at Agra, he took Kharaiti to hand him over to the police. The young boy took to his heels and disappeared into crowds only to appear in the evening to a vegetable shop-wallah. who sang as he sold vegetables डार्लिंग डार्लिग दिल क्यूं तोड़ा, गोभी और बैंगन का साथ क्यूं छोड़ा। In the Dhurandhar style, Kharaiti asked, "Can I get a job?" The shopkeeper, whose name was Rehman, said, "Go and come tomorrow morning".
While Rehman was closing his shop, some goondas came and tried to kidnap Kharaiti but then police came and they had to run away.
Next morning, Rehman made Kharaiti sit at the shop. After a few days Rehman died under mysterious circumstances. The police suspected Kharaiti. Here, we must realise one thing: a talent acquired at some stage of life comes handy in later stages. This is what Steve Jobs called Connecting the Dots. He showed how the art of calligraphy he had acquired as a young child became the foundation of the Apple company.
Kharaiti's talent, cultivated in him by his father, was his ability to take physical beating. Now, he could make the policeman tired and yet not confess to the murder. Some human rights organisations helped Kharaiti and he got free of the case and now became the owner of Kharaiti and Sons Vegetable Shop.
At Agra this shop was Muniya's favourite resort. She would sit with Kharaiti and pass on to him all the information she gathered from her house-maid Seeta Lakshmi.
Here in Chennai she missed Kharaiti and Seeta Lakshmi. Vegetables were purchased online and the housemaid, although she knew Hindi, would run from house to house and had no time for gapshap.
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