THE CANCER OF religious strife hadn’t even spared the city’s hospitals, with doctors, nurses, and pharmacists all falling prey to its malignant influence. If a Hindu or Sikh doctor was stitching the wounds of a Muslim patient, his face gave the impression that he would like each stitch to send the poor soul closer to his final destination instead of healing him. The same was true for Muslim doctors treating their Hindu or Sikh patients.
Unfortunately, this particular hospital had both patients and doctors belonging to all three faiths. As a result, there was no dearth of rumours of patients arriving at the hospital with wounds inflicted by kirpans or daggers and being relieved permanently of their pain and misery on account of the intervention of our compassionate doctors.
Satnam was acutely aware of the situation. An old friend of his was on duty at the hospital and Satnam had requested him to pay personal attention to Yusuf’s treatment. He had also taken the extra precaution of deploying two council members to stay with Yusuf.
And yet, they were on edge. Yusuf now had a special status in their eyes. He wasn’t just a vital pillar of their council; he was also on the verge of becoming Satnam’s brother-in-law and that made his life even more precious. A friend of theirs procured a countrymade revolver and quietly passed it on to Yusuf as a measure of last resort for his protection. It was a sign of the times that weapons like these could be purchased with ease.
It had been an unusually hectic day for Satnam, moving Krishna and the Baba to the villa, rushing to the camp in Putlighar to bring Rukman over with all her belongings and finally making sure that the house was stocked up with anything that the family might need over the next few days. Satnam had also picked up reports that Sudarshan was raising hell in their neighbourhood. Apprehension that his fanaticism could pose a fresh danger for Krishna had imparted an added sense of urgency. Satnam wanted to make sure that they were moved quickly to the relative safety of the new house. He and the Baba were also keen that a civil marriage should be arranged as soon as Yusuf had recovered.
It was the night of 13th August—a night as shadowy as the plan of an assassin, as dark as the intent of the enemy. A thick cover of clouds was spreading over the sky to snuff out the faint light of the stars and add to the gloom. The impending rain had driven everyone indoors but on Krishna’s insistence, Kanhaiya had taken her cot to the rooftop.
It was around nine and Krishna was on the roof, pacing restlessly alongside the parapet. Satnam had left for the hospital in the evening and should have been back by then. Her eyes flitted towards the gate each time she looked over the parapet.
Her mood mimicked the gentle ebb and flow of a river, rising one moment with a cheery optimism and falling the next with a strange foreboding. Each flickering emotion was reflected in her luminescent eyes as they transitioned from a radiant brilliance to a dull stillness.
The jeep honked as it approached the gate and she heard the subdued clang of its handle as it swung open to admit Satnam’s silhouette. She wanted to call out and ask him to join her upstairs but thought better of it, knowing that he would be coming in any case. Her conjecture turned out to be accurate and it wasn’t long before Satnam was on the rooftop.
‘Bhaji! How come you are so late? You’d said you’d be back before eight!’ she commented as she walked up to him.
‘I got delayed due to some work,’ Satnam replied as he sat down on the cot. A sliver of lightning flashed across the sky and allowed Krishna to catch a glimpse of the melancholy writ large on his face. She was taken aback! He’d been so cheerful over the last couple of days and the events today should have multiplied his joy. Baba ji had recovered his vision, his wealth had been restored to him, he had gladly given his consent for Krishna’s marriage with Yusuf and Rukman bhabhi was back with them. How could Satnam look so disconsolate in the midst of so many unexpected pleasures. She sat down next to him on the cot to probe the matter further and had barely turned towards him to ask when he spoke, ‘Krishna! What’s wrong? Why do you look a bit down in the dumps today? Is there still a cause that might be pulling you down?’
‘But that’s exactly the question that I was going to pose to you.’
‘Why? What’s wrong with me? My happiness today knows no bounds.’
‘Not really, Bhaji. You don’t have to lie to me. For some reason, you aren’t happy today.’
‘Krishna! Why have you become so sceptical?’
‘You can call me sceptical or whatever you like. But you know that I have an intuition about these things. You’ve tried this out more than once.’
Satnam was silent.
‘Why don’t you say something?’
‘You really are a clairvoyant, Krishna.’
‘And you are trying to fib with me even though you know about my intuition in these matters?’
‘You are right. I was lying, Krishna.’
‘So, can you please come clean now?’
‘Do I have to?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘In that case, listen carefully,’ he replied earnestly. ‘But if you really do have such a great intuition, why do you need to ask me about this? Why can’t you simply deduce it yourself?’
‘Maybe I can deduce it, and maybe I’ve already done so. But hearing it from you is so much better than arriving at my own conclusions.’
‘In that case, give me your hand.’ As Krishna proffered her right hand, Satnam clasped it and placed it on the left side of his chest. ‘Here, Krishna! Can you feel something beating?’
‘Of course. If it’s your heart, it must be beating.’
‘And if I’ve lost my heart?’
‘What are you talking about, Bhaji?’
‘I haven’t said anything wrong, Krishna. I want to expose my heart to you today. May God bless Yusuf who has created this opportunity for me. Otherwise, I would have carried the secrets of my heart to the cremation grounds.’
Satnam expected Krishna to react with shock and horror, but he was wrong. There was no change in her expression, her attention apparently focused on some other topic.
‘Are you listening to me, Krishna?’
‘Yes,’ she replied with the same lack of interest.
A flash of lightning in the distance was followed by the muffled sound of thunder. Satnam looked up at the sky and back at Krishna to discern if she was distracted by the celestial activity. Not finding an answer, he placed his hand on her shoulder and persisted, ‘No, Krishna! You aren’t really paying attention.’
Krishna blinked her eyes, offering confirmation that her mind had drifted elsewhere.
‘Please go ahead,’ she said as she made a determined effort to pull herself back. ‘Sorry I was momentarily distracted. What were you saying?’
‘What’s the point of my saying anything if you don’t want to listen to me.’
‘No, no! I do want to listen. I was merely wondering if I already have a fair idea of what’s coming.’
‘So, we are back to your sixth sense and prophesies?’
‘We are, Bhaji. Haven’t I told you that I do have a strong intuition about some things?’
‘Great! Why don’t you go ahead and tell me what I was going to say? That way, we can also test your intuition.’
Krishna was quiet for a minute or two as she tried to compose her thoughts before speaking. ‘By placing my hand on your heart, you wanted to tell me that it is deeply in love with someone.’
Satnam was quiet but his eyes were eloquent.
‘What do you say? Did I get that right?’
‘You could have guessed that quite easily from my words. What’s the big deal about intuition in all this?’ Satnam said.
An unspoken tension hung in the air, lightened only when one of them brought up the subject of intuition. Krishna’s face was showing the signs of a struggle with a complex problem, but Satnam’s reference to intuition again triggered a smile that quickly spread from her eyes to her lips. ‘So, you really want me to show you the wonders of intuition?’
‘Indeed,’ Satnam replied with the same blend of seriousness and a smile.
‘Here goes! You are dying to ask me the name of the girl that your heart loves so deeply. Did my intuition work? Did I get that right?’
‘You did,’ Satnam said with a tremor in his voice.
‘And should I also tell you the name of that girl?’
Satnam opened his mouth to respond but stopped. He looked searchingly at Krishna’s face, hoping that her eyes might provide a response to the question. She was teasing him, he concluded. She would soon come out with the name of his fiancée and have a good laugh at his expense. His train of thought was interrupted as she continued, ‘Come on! What’s my reward if I give you the right answer?’
‘Reward?’ Satnam asked with a nonplussed look, his tone sombre as he replied, ‘If I have anything left with me, I’ll be happy to give it as a reward, Krishna. But to be honest, I am in no mood for this kind of banter right now.’
‘I thought as much the moment I saw you step out of the jeep and enter the house. But I’m not joking, let me assure you. Let’s just be clear about the reward I’ll get.’
Satnam snapped his fingers as he looked up with the expression of one who’s just remembered something important. ‘I’ll have a really nice reward for you if your intuition turns out to be correct.’
‘And what would that be?’
‘I can’t disclose that right now.’
‘No problem! I’ll take your word on that. So, listen carefully! I’ll reveal the name of the girl that you love, the name that you wouldn’t have taken without adding all manner of seasoning and embellishment.’
‘I’m waiting,’ Satnam could feel his heart thumping in his chest as he spoke.
‘The girl actually has two names, not one.’
Satnam lowered his eyes and froze in embarrassment as Krishna continued, ‘If you want more evidence, let me provide that too. The girl’s first name is Naseem and her second name is Krishna.’
Satnam lifted his eyes to look at Krishna’s face. What was this girl up to, he wondered? What’s made her reveal an intensely personal matter without the slightest discomfiture. Would any unmarried girl speak so freely about something like this, no matter how familiar they are with each other? The way she had conducted herself in this episode appeared so unlike the Krishna he knew.
His lips, however, remained glued to each other as Krishna nudged him once again, ‘Tell me, Bhaji! What do you have to say about my intuitions now?’
‘I am stunned, Krishna,’ Satnam cleared his throat as he spoke. ‘I am still trying to figure this out. What exactly are you?’
‘Me?’ she replied with a gentle smile. ‘I am what you’ve never really tried to understand.’
‘That’s not true,’ Satnam protested. ‘Let’s say that you are something that I’ve failed to understand, despite my best efforts.’
‘Isn’t it high time you acknowledge that I am clairvoyant? There are things that you wanted to say but never brought to your tongue. And yet, your heart was always telling me everything in a hundred different ways.’
‘You are right, Krishna. You truly are clairvoyant.’
‘In that case, please give me my reward.’
‘Before the reward, please clarify one more thing for me, Krishna.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘Whatever you’ve said or understood about me is a hundred per cent true, but there’s something I must know. What do you think of me as a person?’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I mean … how terrible am I as a person, in your opinion? I want your honest answer, please. Take an oath that you won’t hide the truth from me.’
‘There’s no reason for me to hide anything from you. I believe that you are no ordinary human being. You are an angel.’
‘An angel or a devil?’
Krishna flared up and replied angrily, ‘Enough, Bhaji. Don’t you dare use that word again. If the same description had been used by a stranger, I would have pulled his tongue out.’
‘Ah! Krishna!’ Satnam sighed. ‘You are the one who has all the virtues of an angel because you are able to forgive a person with such an immoral character.’
‘No, no. I am not exaggerating in any way. This is a voice straight from my heart saying that you are an angel in every sense of the word.’
‘And what about nursing these feelings of love and affection towards one who has no word for you other than “Bhaji, Bhaji”? What kind of angel would do something like that?’
‘If a brother doesn’t have the right to feel love and affection towards his sister, I don’t know who does?’
‘Krishna! I do get the impression that either you are utterly naive or you are a spiritual soul from a different world. I won’t hide the sinful nature of my feelings towards you. My love … my love for you can never be the kind that exists between a brother and a sister.’
‘I’m aware of that too.’
‘You’re aware of that?’
‘Yes.’
‘And yet, you don’t hate me for it?’
‘Why would I hate you? Don’t I know that every young man’s heart throbs to choose an ideal partner for himself?’
‘And what about one whose partner has already been chosen?’
‘I know that your partner has been chosen, that you are engaged to her and are likely to be married soon. I am aware of that.’
‘And despite being aware of that you … you…’
‘There’s nothing extraordinary about that,’ she interjected.
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I mean that I do understand your feelings towards me. You have often thought that if Krishna’s Bapu ji were to agree, you would prevail upon Maasi ji to break off your engagement. But you are held back by your innate sensitivity. You also worry that if Krishna ever learnt of your true intentions, she would start hating you. And you don’t want that to happen under any circumstance. And so, you’ve persuaded yourself that no matter what, you will never try to put into practice what your heart is asking you to do.
‘I can’t speak too much about this subject but let me just say that if your heart was telling you about your deep love for Krishna, hers too was overflowing with its love for you. But I’ve also tried to stay true to my duties and obligations. For one thing, I realized that religion would be a major impediment if we ever wanted to unite. And even if we were to defy the boundaries set by religious norms, there was the problem posed by your engagement. The third obstacle was posed by the gap in social status. I acknowledge that this matter of social status would never bother you, nor am I concerned by it. But your extended family would certainly talk about it. And if we managed to surmount these three obstacles, there is still a fourth one that is impossible to overcome.’
‘And what’s that?’ Satnam asked.
‘That one pertains to Bapu ji. I’ve told you earlier that my Abba and Bapu ji were thicker than real brothers. Abba left my brother and I in the care of Bapu ji. There isn’t very much left of our family now. Ma passed away and then God decided to call brother Aziz away while he was in his prime. And though Bapu ji doesn’t have to think of Aziz, I am still around. I am acutely aware that he is drowning himself in a sea of worries as he agonizes over my marriage.’
‘Why should he be worried to that extent?’
‘Because he really wanted to organize my wedding in great style, but he no longer had the wealth to do so. He’d often say that “I had some twenty-five or thirty thousand when I left my village. If I’d managed to save even a fraction of that amount, it would have been sufficient for a decent dowry. But the marauders took away everything and I’ve got nothing left for you.” I’ve often tried to reason with him that he should get over this obsession about the dowry, that he means more to me than any dowry or fortune. But those arguments fall on deaf ears. He would often take me into his arms and cry, saying, “Look at our fate! You’ve been placed in the care of this miserable man who can’t even afford to give you four bangles for your wedding.”’
Krishna’s eyes became moist as she recalled the memories and a deep silence descended over the room until she continued, ‘I’d say that even this matter about the dowry wasn’t the biggest challenge. The main issue was an altogether different one and Bapu ji was so deeply committed to it that it simply couldn’t be resolved.’
‘And what was that?’
‘He was determined that I should be married into a Muslim family, and you’ve also heard him speak about it today. I was in the adjacent room when you were discussing this with Bapu ji and I overheard your conversation.’
‘Indeed,’ Satnam appeared to be in a daze as he responded. ‘Whatever God does is ultimately for our own benefit. I am particularly happy that from your perspective, the Almighty has relieved me as well as Bapu ji of our burden. I was constantly haunted by this fear that any moral weakness from my side would forever lower me in your eyes. Mercifully, the Waheguru has sorted everything out in His own way. But please remember that you still have a responsibility, Krishna. Don’t you ever abandon me or else…’ Satnam choked over his words and stopped mid-sentence.
‘I’ll never let an ill wind touch my brother,’ Krishna assured him as she stepped forward to cradle his head in her arms. Both had tears in their eyes.
Satnam steadied himself before continuing, ‘But we’ve strayed away from my initial query. You still haven’t answered that.’
‘What’s that?’
‘I’d asked you why you looked down in the dumps today.’
‘If I could use the power of my intuition to guess why you were upset, you can also do the same.’
‘No, no! My powers of intuition are no match for yours. It’s better that you explain it yourself.’
‘What can I say, Bhaji?’ Krishna sighed. ‘If you really want to know the truth, you were the real reason for my sadness today.’
‘Me?’
‘That’s right.’
‘And how’s that, Krishna?’
‘Because you’ve been trying to drive me out of your home. Do you have any idea how attached I’ve become to everyone in the family? It tears me apart, each time I think about it.’
‘Oh! Don’t be an idiot,’ Satnam stroked her head as he spoke. ‘That was bound to happen sooner or later. We should all be grateful to the Waheguru for giving us a crown in which this precious diamond of ours can be set.’
Krishna blushed in embarrassment and lowered her eyes.
‘And here I was wondering what on earth could be wrong,’ Satnam smiled. ‘The girl should be grateful that she’s found a fellow as handsome as the moon.’
‘Stop it now,’ Krishna protested as she punched his shoulder. ‘Or I won’t speak with you.’
A bomb went off somewhere close by, followed by bloodcurdling cries and terrifying sounds of bullets bringing their conversation to an abrupt halt. The air was thick with shouts of ‘Kill them … set them on fire … don’t let a single Musla escape!’
Satnam got up with a start and ran downstairs towards the gate without saying another word. Krishna stayed near the parapet, her legs trembling and heart thumping as she peered into the darkness of the street below.