‘No doubt.’
‘His family should’ve been more careful. They shouldn’t have allowed him to come to work.’
‘How do you know that his mental state is not good?’
‘Does anyone in a normal state of mind come to work in such a situation?’
‘We shouldn’t crowd around here. Karkhanis will feel awkward. Let’s not show that we know. Let’s act normal. Absolutely normal.’
‘What do you mean by normal?’
‘We will speak normally and, during some casual conversation, ask him to go home.’
‘I don’t have the courage to talk to him.’
‘Let’s go and tell the boss.’
‘We will simply say that Karkhanis is attending office today.’
‘Just a minute. Karkhanis seems quite normal. He’ll surely go the boss’s cabin with his files.’
‘That won’t happen now. You know how particular he is about protocol. He’ll take the files at eleven-fifteen sharp.’
‘Then we should inform the boss before eleven-fifteen.’
‘Correct.’
A few of them volunteered for the task.
‘Yes, what is it?’ the boss asked.
‘Sir, Karkhanis is attending office today.’
The boss, too, was taken aback. Taking his glasses off, he asked,
‘How? I mean, he shouldn’t have come in.’
Seeing his reaction, the representative group got some encouragement. Anjarlekar said,
‘Saheb, just imagine. His son passed away three days ago. In fact, it’s the third day today.’
‘I’ll talk to him. Send him in.’
They all came out of the cabin.
Karkhanis went in to meet the boss. The boss was trying to find the right words to say to Karkhanis, who was much older than him.
‘Come in. Please sit down.’
Karkhanis sat down.
The boss didn’t know where to begin. It becomes really difficult if you start with other topics. Coming to the point then becomes not only embarrassing but, at times, impossible. It becomes a stressful exercise. Sometimes you don’t come to the point at all. It’s better to be direct. The person you’re talking to can also see that you have something else on your mind. He, too, is keen that you come to the point right away.
The boss decided to just say it.
‘Karkhanis, you shouldn’t have come to office today.’
‘I’m quite all right.’
‘One feels that way. But it’s just a feeling. Everyone in the office has been affected, including me. You, quite obviously, are the most badly affected. Everyone knows it.’
‘Sir, I’m fully aware of that. But how do I explain? I … I’m quite fine, actually. I’m really keeping well. I was stressed. But that was when Kumar was alive. He died three days ago. Now I feel relaxed. Believe me, now I am relaxed.’
The boss couldn’t believe him.
A few thoughts crossed his mind. The first being that perhaps Karkhanis and his son Kumar hadn’t been on good terms.
Karkhanis continued, ‘Do you know why I feel relieved?’
‘No.’
‘Sir, no one knows this, but Kumar troubled me all my life. I spent many a night worried sick, unable to sleep. He troubled me a lot. He can’t trouble me now.’
‘Can I ask you something? Did you and your son not get along?’
‘I wish it were so. I could have ended our relationship in one stroke. But the problem was affection. People with whom we don’t get along at all don’t trouble us. Their praise doesn’t fool us, their taunts don’t hurt. It’s the ones who are close that make your life miserable. Kumar was very dear to me and troubled me all his life.’
The boss was dumbfounded. His assumption had clearly been wrong. Another thought crept into his mind. Maybe Kumar was a rotten, spoilt brat. And Karkhanis might not have been able to mend Kumar’s wayward behaviour or cut him off.
The boss was clearly confused, unable to fathom Karkhanis’s true state of mind.
Karkhanis sat there looking at the boss. He could see the confusion writ large on his face.
Karkhanis continued, ‘Saheb, you don’t know. When he was just six months old, Kumar escaped from the jaws of death.’
‘How did that happen?’ the boss asked, coming out of his reverie.
‘He had a mild fever, and we thought someone must have cast an evil eye on him. All kinds of negative thoughts crossed my mind. When his fever didn’t subside after three days, I got worried. In those days, smallpox was pretty common. I saw small goosebump-like eruptions all over his body. I couldn’t sleep. My mind kept telling me that it was small pox. I imagined my boy, his face pockmarked and spoiled for life because of the scars left by the disease. In some cases, I was told, people lost their eyesight. I was restless. I would dream of blind people standing in a row. They would walk holding each other for support. It was the first time Kumar had fallen ill. Luckily, the illness turned to out to be chickenpox. It was a great relief. But the happy moments only lasted for a few days. The anxieties soon returned.’
‘What happened?’
‘Kumar started walking very early, when he was ten months old. But it created a new set of problems for my wife, especially when she worked in the kitchen. He’d stand near the stove and watch her cook. She would worry that the water boiling on the stove would fall on him. Kumar used to love playing with water. The big vessel would be bubbling with hot water. She would worry that he’d try to peep into the vessel and fall headlong into the boiling water. I imagined seeing a completely scalded child when I returned from work. Thankfully, that imagined accident never happened. But new anxieties surfaced as he grew older.’
Karkhanis paused here, trying to gather his thoughts.
The boss’s curiosity had increased and he wanted to hear more. He said,
‘Anxieties and worries decrease as a child grows up.’
‘That’s what everyone feels, saheb. But it’s not like that. Let me give you an example.’
‘What happened?’
‘We got him a tricycle. There was no place for him to cycle in our chawl. We decided to pay our servant a little extra so that he would take Kumar and his tricycle for a ride outside.’
‘That makes sense. After all, the servant would be
