A SOLDIER, A BEGGAR, AN OFFICER, A MAULVI

The hobbit looked back at me in a strange way. Those horrible eyes had a strange affect on me. And an equally spine-chilling smile cracked on its crinkled face. I froze mid-way. Oh God, please! This is not happening to me! I tried to prop myself onto the pillow but my eyes were too heavy with sleep and I allowed my body to be taken over by whatever strange feeling was now coursing through it. The last thing I saw was the hobbit moving towards me, cackling in glee and frothing in the mouth.

It must have been an infinite expanse of time when I just kept floating in and out of a bizarre dream. However, in a while I was flying as fast as possible high up through the sky, the wind painfully stinging my face. In a bat of an eyelid I was amongst a group of noisy men accoutred in war armour, riding horses and brandishing sharp shiny sabres. I looked around and found myself in an army of people who were all shouting slogans while waving their swords towards the sky. I too was doing the same. “Let’s show the enemy our might! They cannot take over us! Hail to our country!” My thoughts were incoherent! A thousand questions crossed my mind! However, in a fraction of a second, at the general’s command, we all charged forward in our horses. In front of me, I could see a dust storm charging at us and in no time at all, the deafening clanging of swords. It was a bloody battle where many of my comrades lost their lives. But the enemy retreated and we kept our land! I was elated and sad as I slept in my tent that night!

The rain started to pour heavily just before dawn and I woke up with a start to the clap of loud thunder. My little shack at the corner of the footpath, below the temple stairs was flooded and whatever clothes I had bundled in a plastic packet was soaked, which would probably not dry for the next couple of days. I started shivering. Oh God, for some respite! At the crack of dawn, I gathered the tattered blanket some Samaritan had donated a couple of months back around me and walked a short distance to the bank of the river to relieve myself. My associates were there too and we all started talking about how people these days have become stingy about giving. Yes, there are some good people but they too come occasionally to donate food, their old clothes and shoes. Oh, how we wished the government would do something for beggars like us! If I was a Minister, I would have done a lot for down-trodden people, one of my associates blurted, with an evil smirk on his face. The sun was trying to peep through the clouds and I decided to hang out my clothes on the railing of the footpath! I leaned against the stone wall lining the footpath, with my hands stretched out, expecting alms from the visitors to the temple, while my tummy growled in anticipation! I fell asleep again, with open palms, resting on my knee!

The car screeched to a halt! I woke up and found my driver looking back at me, with a stricken look on his face. “What happened?” He stammered that there was a cat which crossed the road and so he was now waiting for another car to cross over first! I told him to move on even though he was hesitant. As the car swung through the office gate, I found a lot of people peeping through the car window and then hastily following it. I gestured them to come to my office room. As I got off the car, they barraged me with a lot of questions! I said nothing, nodding and shaking my head at intervals! My files were arranged in front of me. I unwrapped the paan from a small piece of torn newspaper and greedily put it into my mouth. Now for some personal phone-calls. After skimming through the headlines of the newspaper, I called the peon to send in the visitors one by one. Most of them wanted work, contracts, business deals. I listened half-heartedly, looking up only once, savouring my paan all the time, spitting time and again into the dustbin! One of them wanted to meet me in private and while handing me a brown envelope, promised to give me more if only I gave him the tender. Okay, I said, come home tonight! Let’s talk! Well, well! Who do we have here? As this young lithe twenty something girl walked into my office room, saying she wanted to work, my face lit up, a little too lecherously!

The Church bell rang and I jumped up with a start. In the distance, I could hear the temple playing the Gayatri Mantra. I looked at the clock near my bed. It had stopped at 1.15am. I have to change the battery. I turned around to put my arms around my wife, when I realised that the space was empty. Where has she gone at this hour? I switched on the lights of the room. Oh, what is this? Where am I? I was in a single-bedded room with a kitchen accommodation in the far corner. As I looked around, I found that the room also had a small prayer area, with a maroon coloured velvet mat on the floor, with the top right hand corner folded at an angle. The ajaan in a mosque drifted romantically in the light breeze outside. That’s the time I realised I had to announce for prayer too. I quickly went through the ritualistic ablutions and called for prayer. In a couple of minutes, the mosque was swarming with people from the neighbourhood. After the prayers, a few persons stayed back to discuss about ideas to improve the syllabus in the Madrassas, something that is the need of the hour.

It was well past noon when I woke up with the remote lying on my chest and my legs at an obnoxious angle. The Hobbit was no longer there on the screen but the channel was playing a new movie, “Frozen”.