‘There’s no need for that. Thanks to the Lord, I earn enough to take care of my family.’
‘It is this very attitude which does not allow us to rise.’
‘Arre, money earned like this isn’t easy to stomach, let alone handle.’
‘Only people who aren’t able to earn such money say these things to please themselves. You need to have guts to stomach such things. A cricket ball gets seasoned only when it is played for many overs.’
‘I will not allow myself to be in such a situation. Never!’ I said with a note of finality.
‘Never say never…’
I didn’t imagine Kelkar’s prophecy would come true so quickly. I was transferred to the same place as Gokhale. Kelkar was the first to accost me.
‘So, I hope you’ll tell me the secret after learning it from him.’
I asked naïvely,
‘What secret?’
‘The secret to laughing like Gokhale!’
I decided to keep quiet.
I disliked Jaisingh from the moment I saw him. The contract for constructing a school building at Bhandup had been awarded to a big firm by the name of Messrs Mehta and Mehta. Jaisingh was their supervisor. He was a smart aleck. I didn’t like anything about him – the way he walked, the way he talked, the way he looked at others. It had been a while since I had taken the job, but I’d met Gokhale just a few times. He was busy with some other tasks, so the responsibility of supervising Jaisingh fell to me. He wouldn’t listen to my instructions, but would mutter something like, ‘Let me ask Gokhale saheb. If he agrees, we’ll go ahead.’ This irritated me no end. I had no real reason to complain against him, though, so I waited for my chance.
Soon enough, lady luck smiled upon me. There were instructions to cover the school floor with tiles that were three-quarters of an inch thick, but the tiles that arrived were only half an inch thick. When I mentioned this to Gokhale, he casually dismissed it, saying there must have been some mistake. ‘After all, there are hundreds of trucks carrying tiles everywhere. We’ll send these tiles back,’ he said.
I was not convinced. Soon, I discovered that those same tiles were being laid on the floor. I went in search of Gokhale but he was nowhere to be seen. I ordered the work to stop. ‘Gokhale saheb is aware of this’ was Jaisingh’s refrain as he went on with the work without taking my orders seriously. I decided to file a written report. I had barely completed writing it when I saw Gokhale arrive. I showed him my report. He read it, then called Jaisingh and said something to him.
‘Come, Kulkarni saheb,’ he said, getting up.
He took me to the hotel opposite the construction site, and we sat down for a cup of tea. He tore the report to pieces.
‘You can’t make this report.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s for your own good.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Don’t be silly. You’re not a kid.’
‘But…’
‘There are no buts. Once the tiles are set into the concrete, no one can make out whether they are an inch thick or less. It doesn’t really matter.’
I said, hesitant, ‘But it’s not right, is it?’
‘You need to make it right. The world has changed. You, too, need to change. We go around searching for right and wrong and other such nonsensical words, while people out there earn lakhs of rupees.’
‘But it still doesn’t feel right.’
‘You’ll feel better after a while. It takes time.’
‘But what’s wrong with the way I am right now?’
‘Well. It’s one way to convince yourself. Tell me honestly, don’t you feel jealous of people who earn much more than you? But we go about stifling our desires, and teaching our wives and children to do the same. If we don’t have much, we find a way to console ourselves by saying things like, “The Lord has given me enough, why do I need such money?”’
I didn’t realize Gokhale had thought about the subject in such great depth. I kept staring at him.
‘What are you staring at? It’s not that you’ll make a lot. At the most, a few hundred bucks. Don’t expect much.’
He talked about a few hundred rupees so casually! I kept staring at my cup of tea. He continued,
‘In the old days, when Shankar and Parvati saw a poor man suffering, they’d take pity on him and he’d miraculously discover a pot of gold while tilling the land. Now there’s no Shankar or Parvati to help us. We need to find our own pot of gold. The world is changing, but you’re still where you were.’
Seeing my blank face, he continued,
‘It’s difficult in the beginning. I was also nervous the very first time. My wife was pregnant and my elder son was three years old. He couldn’t tolerate the Mumbai heat, and I didn’t have the money to buy a ceiling fan. But then I decided to test my luck. I was deputed to a work site on Pinto Road. I earned two hundred rupees for doing something similar. I bought a fan that very day. But – you won’t believe me – I didn’t dare sleep under the fan lest it fall on our heads. I was worried that the fan I’d bought with dirty money would be the cause of our destruction. But then I got used to it.’
‘I’m still not convinced.’
‘It’s fine. Just try not to read too much into my smile, okay?’
That got me flustered. He had read me well.
The half-inch tiles were laid down as planned. At an opportune moment, Jaisingh stuffed a hundred-rupee note into my shirt pocket and walked away nonchalantly. I hid the note guiltily – the same sort of guilt with which I’d wiped my lips after having my first drink. Seeing my embarrassment, Gokhale whistled a film song and walked past. The transaction hadn’t taken more than a few seconds,
