‘No, Maharaj. With your blessings I got good wages.’
‘But there are only sixty rupees!’
‘Yes, Maharaj, take this now. The rest I’ll pay in the next two or three months. Please release me.’
‘You’ll be released when you pay every paisa of mine. Go and bring me fifteen rupees.’
‘Maharaj, show me some mercy. I do not have anything to eat in the evening. I live in this village; I’ll pay you sometime in the future.’
‘I do not appreciate these excuses, nor do I care for such glib talk. If you do not pay the entire amount, you will have to pay interest at the rate of three per cent from today. You can keep your money with you or leave it here.’
‘All right. Please keep the amount I’ve brought you. I’ll go and try to manage fifteen rupees from somewhere.’
Shankar tried everyone in the village but no one gave him money. This was not because they did not trust Shankar or they did not have money to lend. It was because no one had the courage to interfere with the Brahmin’s prey.4
Reaction after an action is a principle of nature. When Shankar could not free himself after the hard work of an entire year his hope turned into despair. He realized that even after undergoing so much hardship if he could not collect more than sixty rupees, he had no other means through which he could earn double the amount. If he had to carry the burden of debt on his head how did it matter whether the burden was big or small? His enthusiasm waned and he began to despise hard work. Hope begets enthusiasm, hope is strength, hope is life. It is hope that moves the world. Devoid of hope, Shankar became listless. The necessities of life that he had ignored the entire year could not be ignored any more. There was a limit to the patches he could stitch on his rags. Now if he got some money, he bought clothes or some foodstuff. He’d smoked tobacco earlier, now he added hemp and weeds to it. He was no longer worried about paying off the loan. He behaved as though he had no debt at all! Earlier, he’d go to work without fail even if he was sick. Now he looked for excuses to shirk work.
Three years passed in this way. The Brahmin did not ask him to pay up even once. Like an expert hunter he wanted to target his prey unawares. To forewarn the prey was against his principle.
One day Panditji called Shankar and showed him the accounts. After deducting the sixty rupees that Shankar had paid earlier, the balance now stood at one hundred and twenty.
‘I can’t pay this much money in this birth, I’ll pay you in my next birth.’
‘I’ll take it right in this birth. If not the principal, you must pay the interest.’
‘I have just one ox, take it. I have a hut, take it. What else do I have?’
‘What shall I do with your ox or hut? You have a lot to give me.’
‘What do I have, Maharaj?’
‘If nothing, you at least have your own self. After all, you go to work for others for wages. I also have to employ labourers for my fields. You can work for me to pay the interest. Whenever it is convenient, you can pay the principal. Honestly, you cannot go to work to other places as long as you haven’t paid my money. You have no property of your own. How can I leave such a huge debt without any security? Who can guarantee that you’ll pay me interest every month? When you couldn’t pay me the interest by working elsewhere, how can you pay the principal?’
‘Maharaj, I’ll work to pay the interest, but what shall I eat?’
‘You have your wife and sons. Will they sit idle? As for me, I’ll give you half a ser of maize every day, and you’ll get one blanket per year. A mirzai, too. What else do you need? It’s true that others give you six annas a day. But I do not require your full services. I am keeping you so that you can pay back the loan.’
Shankar thought deeply for some time. Then he said, ‘That means bonded labour for life!’
‘Call it slavery or labour, I’m not going to leave you as long as you haven’t paid back the loan. If you run away, your son shall pay. Of course, it’s a different matter when you are no more.’
There was no appeal against this decision. Who was there to bail him out? There was no refuge. Where would he run? He started working at the Brahmin’s household from the next day. Just for one and a quarter ser of wheat he had to wear the fetters of slavery on his feet for life. If the poor fellow could derive some consolation it was from the thought that it was the consequence of his deeds in his previous birth. His wife had to do the kind of jobs she had not done earlier. The children had to beg for every morsel. Shankar could do nothing except watch all this helplessly. Like a curse from a God he couldn’t shake off the burden of the wheat grains from his head for the rest of his life.5
Shankar worked as a bonded labourer for the Brahmin for twenty years before he died. He still had a debt of one hundred and twenty rupees against his name. Panditji did not consider it proper to blame him in the court of God. He was not that unjust or cruel. He grabbed Shankar’s young son. He still works in his house. No one knows when he will be released, or whether he will
