NOOR

Sharmita asked indignantly, ‘where have you been all these days..? I was looking for you, she said as she took the vegetables from the vendor without looking at his fatigued, sudorific face. It is not a customary anyway that she buys things from the ‘poor vendors’. Sharmita works in a Foreign Company as Assistant Manager, a post which she likes well and thinks that it has a reputable position in the locality. She lives with her husband in Gandhi Colony, where people of different cultures live harmoniously, the majority, in fact, is poor and vendors. Her house, which is surrounded by tall wall furnished with white color, stands aloof in the centre of the Colony. The gate, which opens towards crimson tiles pave all over the courtyard, is enclosed with a bluish red bougainvillea.
She normally gets things from the city mall and she is very proud of getting foreign things with high price, in fact, she chooses this to demonstrate her pompousness. She never takes Auto even when she fails to get her car and will pay three hundred rupees for the taxi as she has to pay only thirty rupees.

‘Keep the change’, she would say alluringly, though there is hardly any and would walk away seductively towards the gate.
She doesn’t like the people around the colony. When Gopal and his wife take their child to the Hospital and pass the Gate, they bow with utmost civility as they think Sharmita’s Family is a reputed family in the locality, but she never pays attention to them and tries to control her smile, which forcefully comes and resides on the corner of her face.
And today she has no other option in this quarantine days but accept the fate stoically detached. ‘This one too, take the ripe one,… oh that’s ok… enough you ….!, she said loudly as if the other person is far away.
 Abdul Noor is one of the important vendors of that area. He is a migrant of Kashmir, settled there for the past eight years. He is a nice and amiable fellow. He is lovable because he is very loyal to the relationship and his profession.
‘What else would you like madam’? He asked unassumingly as he has no suitable words to put.
Sharmita doesn’t look at him and resumes, ‘Enough you .. man, give me a cover and take this amount… leave quick…?’
Noor tries to smile and drags his wagon. His sweet shout dissipates in the thick air. Sharmita turns right at the corner and passes the gate, rails against no one as she moves along with the same contempt. Mr. Ram is reading newspaper when she comes. He folds up the papers abruptly and faces her with sheer respect. Ram is at his early fifties and unemployed. They have only one son named Govardhan, a young and healthy boy. He is a soldier practicing in the boarder of Kashmir. They are very proud of their son, who, being an employer of Central Government, is always looked after well and never denied anything.
He comes only twice in a year, he calls once in a week. He, actually, doesn’t like joining Army, but it’s because of his mother’s insistence that he joined Army. They do everything for him, sending him enough money, though he doesn’t need those at all, and arranging local guardians there etc.
One day, when he called in the weekend, he detailed about the distressing situations of the camp and he was almost on the verge of crying. Sharmita tried to solace him by saying about the life and privilege of a soldier; she added that if he became a soldier how proud would they be in the society. Govardhan, then spoke about the routines of the camp and other particulars briefly and at last asked her mother something. It was a dire need especially at their gun practice, which he said recently started.
‘What do we do?, she asked Ram shadily as they take their supper. Ram never said anything and he knew well about the meaninglessness of talking. He was quite sure that whatever he replied would not be taken for granted and the final decision, anyway, would be her words.   
  In the next morning, Sharmita waited for Sucheta Nair, who resided very next to her. Sucheta was a divorcee and was disinherited because of her own child. Her husband Mohan, who worked as a manager in Co-operative Bank, was a nice person, with long hair and bright eyes, always wore pants and tight cotton shirt, which he never took off until he went to bed in the late night after completing the online business transaction and other instructions to the staff. He was very loyal to his profession. He generally would finish his backlogs in time and insist others to do the same. There were a handful of members in her family. Mohan had a brother who was liked and loved by his child more than anyone in the family. The child showed more love to his brother and clung on him always. Suspicion shaped in his mind and he started thinking about his wife and brother, at last ended in divorce and the child with Mohan.   
It’s been a long days since they met each other. Sharmita deliberately kept a short distance between them.
‘Oh good morning  ... have you prepared your breakfast, haven’t you?, Sharmita asked reluctantly to start a conversation. ‘do you know somebody who has a monkey with? Sharmita asked instantly without any hesitation and strangeness. Sucheta felt a wild wonder at first but she neither demonstrated it nor ready to yield. She retorted rather obscurely, ‘Why, what for..’?
Sharmita put the case. ‘My son feels isolated there, they are not allowed anything outside. But you know with the request of my local guardian there I got the permission to have a pet at least’. ‘It was granted but where could I get one from, she resumed with great excitement, do you have any idea, haven’t you? Sucheta tried to recollect a vague record when Noor, the vendor, brought a monkey to the colony. The colony was literally embarrassed first but later it was a great festival for them because the monkey he had brought from his native land was puckish, playful and lovable. ‘But I don’t know whether they spare it or not’ she remarked contemplatively.
In the evening Sharmita went to Noor’s house stealthily but returned very soon in half way. Her consciousness never allowed begging those silly people.
The next day Ram was sent to ask for the same. He was forced to do as he couldn’t tolerate the bickering and also in a state of fear that he wouldn’t get food in the night. Sharmita was so glad with the appearance of Ram when he came with the Monkey but her face wrinkled soon when she had beheld Noor, who followed Ram all the way and appeared sorrowful. Sharmita knew that it cannot be rejected by him. ‘he was a member of our family, he was really a companion of my children, I took him without informing them… they wouldn’t allow if I told them, anyway, he would be happy there, right madam’ , he said without taking eyes on it and sighed. He left there with watery eyes. Ram seemed helpless as he couldn’t say ‘NO’ to Sharmita and he knew the secret motive of Sharmita. Ram didn’t want to see the monkey as scapegoat but he kept the inevitable silence.

The next morning Noor came to Sucheta. His eyes seemed reddish and muddled as if he was waiting for them the whole night without taking a short snap. He asked for the monkey immediately. An indispensable fright ran in the mind of Sharmita for she was afraid that whether he came there for the monkey or not. Noor snatched the monkey and kissed several times. Sharmita looked disdainfully and embarrassed with the weird gesture. ‘I am going home tomorrow, can I take him with me…could you please give me the address of your son,  I hope I can go along with him.. I can be with him at least..’ he said it though he was hesitant to recommend. This was what Sharmita really wanted for she had been thinking of reaching there since last night. It would be lock down after this week so reaching there would be a great difficult.
Noor took the monkey with him in the prospect of a good life. Sharmita had waited at the gate till the two apparitions disappeared in the air.
Two weeks later, a parcel had been received by Sharmita.  In the same night Noor had a strange dream. An army of soldiers trod back and forth wearily in the forest nearby, searching for Monkeys and Roddents. They were carrying sacks like junk-dealers in the street. After the long search some of them left for Camp. Noor was searching Govardhan, but he was not there in the Army. Govardhan alone was standing at the corner of the ground. Soldiers who came there after the search had already taken position line by line and were waiting for their turn. Noor was searching his Monkey around the premise. It was caught sighted after a few minutes later. The monkey was roped in front of the two sticks, which were tangled tight amidst the trees. Noor’s Monkey was hanging like a swing. Noor could hear the palpitation, which was beating rapidly and strongly, of his beloved companion. It was shaking its hands and legs as if it was asking for a help. Govardhan’s indifferent face flickered at one moment, but his mind stuck with the face, which begged for quite a bit of clemency from those hearts. Then he heard a loud sound of a gun and a feeble moan, which lasted only for fleeting seconds. Govardhan smeared the hot, young blood on his face. That was the customary there to have a living being and wiped the fear and disgust off to become bold and hardy. Noor was extremely shocked and awakened by the splash of blood and resumed his sleep and enjoyed the ease of sleep with the thought of this as a mere DREAM.

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SHAMEEM  EDAKKARA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPT. OF ENGLISH
IDEAL COLLEGE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES
THAVANUR, MALAPPURAM
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