Once back, Amar couldn’t stop praising Sajjan, his good thoughts, his ways of convincing people, over and over again. Lajjo’s mind filled with increased respect for Sajjan while Leela had tough time controlling the race of her heartbeats. Sajjan was modest and said that he was only following the mission of his life. He and Leela started to walk toward the outhouse when Amar received a call on his mobile phone.
“Sajjanbhai”, he called out excitedly, “People of Bhama called. The farmers have agreed to do whatever you tell them to do with all their heart and complete trust within themselves.”
Sajjan had a smile of satisfaction as he reminded Amar that they would be visiting as many areas they could within a week and Amar nodded in agreement.
As they entered the outhouse, Leela hugged him happily, “See – my prayers do work. I hope they work for me too.”
“I’ve prayed for you as well.” Sajjan smiled at her.
“Then I hope our prayers work.” she laughed, “I’ll serve the meal in ten minutes. Go and freshen up till then.”
“You said you’ll teach me the work.” she said in complaining tone after the meal, “I thought, I’ll be accompanying you everywhere.”
“I’d love to teach, however, I don’t think it’s yet safe for you to travel around. You may still be in danger.”
She made a wry face knowing in her heart what Sajjan said made sense. She was not out of danger yet…
“I wonder”, he said, “How do you pass your time when I’m not around.”
“Oh! That’s simple.” she laughed, “I go into Amarbhai’s fields and roam around talking to them, telling them how I feel. I even ask birds to go to the jungle to let my parents know that I’m safe and happy here. That I met someone wonderful, who cares for me, makes me feel happy. I ask them to tell my father to come here and meet you. I know – he’ll like you – you are a very good person – and – …” she bit her lip blushing away to herself.
“And…” he prodded her teasingly.
“And – then –…” she thought hard and quick, “when the sun shines bright, I sit under the shade of machan. Then I return, have my lunch. Then I play with little Leela who returns from her school. She becomes my teacher and starts teaching me whatever she learns at school. After that, we play games like hide n seek or something similar. Then I take her to Lajjodi who puts her to sleep. Then I and Lajjodi chat for a while. I come back to wash our clothes; clean the house and the utensils. Start making preparation for our evening meal. Then I sit in the backyard and watch the sunset. By the time I finish cooking, you are here.” she looked at him.
‘How boring for this young girl, have to think how to get her busy with some work of her liking.’ he thought. “Lets’ go out to the machan for our regular evening stroll.” he suggested. She happily agreed – this was the first time Sajjan had suggested to go out to machan with her.
Next day, Sajjan walked out to Amar’s house. He had few people visiting him and seemed busy discussing with them.
“I’ll be delayed today.” Amar said looking at the couple amongst a group of farmers sitting in front of him. He introduced Sajjan to them. “Sajjanbhai, I’ve been dealing with these two young men for about 5 years now. He is Birju and the other is his younger brother.”
Sajjan sat next to Amar facing the two.
“These brothers belong to one of the tribes in the jungle. They have been sponsored by Rajasaab and have been educated in Dheemapur. They are now trying to complete their graduation in the college, run by a trust sponsored by Rajasaab. Their initial education was sponsored by Rana, one of the assistants of Rajasaab. This was a part of tribal development plans run by Rajasaab.”
“Oh!” Sajjan said recognizing Birju as the person who was teased by his friends at the tea stall in the market, “That’s good. I hope you will want to continue with this development plan and sponsor more children from the tribes.” he said this looking at Birju. He was a bit dark and had a good, heavy build. Something in his eyes wasn’t correct. His expression was not cool, calm or comfortable. His eyes were consistently on alert as if looking for something or someone or some sort of trouble. Sajjan had an uncomfortable thought that Leela had perhaps been on run from these men. His thoughts were arrested as Amar continued.
“Sajjanbhai, you do know that I’ve developed a manure based fertilizer which has worked wonders and yielded good harvests. Many farmers from Dheemapur, Bhama and beyond have benefitted using this fertilizer. One of the ingredients in that fertilizer, are leaves of a specific kind, dried in sun. Those trees are abundantly found in the jungle where these two belong. So, I made a deal with these two. Every month they get me a consignment of those and I pay them.”
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- Prasad Deshpandehttps://storiesandme.com/author/prasad/
- Prasad Deshpandehttps://storiesandme.com/author/prasad/
- Prasad Deshpandehttps://storiesandme.com/author/prasad/
- Prasad Deshpandehttps://storiesandme.com/author/prasad/