He looked at her go to sleep again and looked at the watch. It was almost 5am. Heaving a Ho! – He decided it was his time to wake up. There was no point in going back to bed.
He put the lights out and entered the bathroom and freshened up. Once done. He entered the kitchen and started searching for ingredients he needed to make his cup of morning tea. With some methodical search, he found them. He managed to light up the chulha when he heard a knock on the main door.
He opened the door with a smile anticipating the little girl ‘Leela’ but saw Lajjo instead with the jug full of milk, her eyes searching for Leela.
“She’s still sleeping.” He said with a smile, “Please tell Amar to be ready in an hour.”
She nodded and left. He walked into the kitchen, closing the main door behind him.
Leela walked out of the bedroom stifling a yawn, “I told you to let me know what you want from the kitchen. That’s my department. I’m supposed to do all the work in the kitchen.”
He handed the jug of the milk to her with a smile and started to get ready to go out with Amar.
“You ready so early?” she asked him in surprise looking at him all dressed up, handing the cup of tea to him.
“Yes. I got to start working. Don’t have time to lose. I got only 90 days to finish what I came here for.”
“What kind of work?” she asked curiously.
“Oh! The normal help that, I deliver to various people. I would like to teach that to you as well so that you can help the tribes in the jungle. Of course, I won’t be able to teach you everything, I’ll definitely try and teach you what you would be able to use in the jungle.”
“I’ll get ready a.s.a.p.” she said in an excited tone. She was excited at the thought of roaming around the town than being holed up in that outhouse.
“No. Not today.” he said curtly, “Not in this week either.”
“Why?” she asked, her enthusiasm a bit dampened.
“Sweetheart,” he said in an explanatory tone, “You heard Amar say that it’s not safe for women at the moment to be outside homes. So, you stay put here till it’s safe for you to venture out.”
He walked out toward Amar’s house leaving her a bit agitated at the thought of staying within the four walls. Amar greeted him almost immediately. He was ready.
“Sorry. This doesn’t seem to be my business, but I’m curious to know why Leela was screaming sometime ago.”
Sajjan knew that Lajjo was eavesdropping behind the door. He explained about the nightmare of Leela , in a voice loud enough for Lajjo to hear and laughed. They both walked out of the main gate.
“I have a tractor and a bike for us to travel around. What is your preference?”
“I’ll prefer buses and trains” he looked at an astonished Amar, “that way, I’ll be able to interact with local people and it will help my work.”
“Okay – as you please” Amar shrugged, “how do you want to start?”
Sajjan said “Any government office. I want to get hold of detailed maps of this region.”
“You don’t have to go there. You can get all details in the mobile phone.”
“I don’t use a mobile phone. You do know – that for most of the time, I work in remote areas and mobiles don’t work there. I hardly visit towns or cities. So – I haven’t bought one. I came to this town on your invitation – else – I’d be somewhere at some remote location helping those people.”
“I’m so happy that you could make it here in the town. You can use my phone.”
“Thanks. But I’m used to these old fashioned ways – show me where we can get the maps. I want to keep copies of what I need.”
“Okay … Let’s go to the little Leela’s school. I’ve seen a room full of maps there. They also have a photocopier. You can make as many copies, the way you want to. The principal there is my friend.”
“Great” Sajjan smiled and they walked to the school. On the way Sajjan picked up a bar of chocolate for little Leela.
The principal looked at them as they entered his cabin. He got up from his seat behind his desk and profusely greeted Amar, who in turn, introduced Sajjan to him and explained his reason to be in the town.
The principal looked at Sajjan and warmly greeted him, “I really must thank you. The people here definitely need your help.” he rang the bell on his desk and asked the peon who entered the cabin to show Sajjan the room where the maps were kept. “Make as many copies as you want – but – please do help the poor people of this region.”
“Thank you. I’ll do whatever is possible.” he walked to the room where the maps were kept – the Geography department. He carefully scanned the map room and selected the maps of his desire. He saw a photocopier in the corner and proceeded to make copies of the areas he wanted, carefully folding them and zoomed on those specific areas. He had seen and studied the map of this region before he had started off on his journey to reach here.
“Is there a book binding machine around?” he asked the peon who was standing around who immediately pulled it out of a shelf. Sajjan carefully arranged the copies he had made and neatly bound them into two neat books. He marked a star on one of those. He thanked the peon neatly stacking the maps back into their respective shelves. Satisfied at the copies he had made, he made his way back to the principal’s cabin. He bumped into a group of tiny girls. One of them stopped in astonishment of seeing him in the school. It was little Leela.
“What are you doing in my school?” she asked.
He put his hand in the pocket and quickly gave the bar of chocolate to her, “I came here to give you this.” He smiled at her.
“Ooohh!” she chirped happily, “This means I got two of these today.”
“How?”
“You gave me one and the uncle who visits our house, every month, gave me one. He also is nice uncle – just like you.” she started chatting with him in her excitement when she heard her teacher call out her name, “oops – I forgot. I’m in school – bye.” she raced away to her classroom.
Sajjan smiled at the vanishing little girl and walked back to the principals’ cabin.
“Thank you so much for your help.” he entered the cabin, “these maps will indeed help me a lot in my effort to do something good and worthwhile for the people of Dheemapur.”
“You are most welcome, Sir.” The principal beamed at him, “Drop in anytime. Any help from my side or from the school – consider it to be there with you already.”
“Thank you.” Sajjan said to the principal wondering, “I really am curious to know how this place got its name – Dheemapur.”
“Maybe, people who live here are slow, they live a relaxed life and have all the time in the world to think and act nonsense. They don’t look at development.” Amar jested.
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