Foreword…
Life, sometimes, poses you with a difficult choice…
What you choose – defines who you are… What you are…
This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to anyone (living or dead) or any incident (occurred at any place) is, but a pure coincidence… or… maybe… your wild imagination…
This line seems mandatory nowadays… J
The story is based on a world which currently is not such a good place – where humans aren’t humans – they are various countries, religions, races, colours, castes, sects, languages and beliefs… and, filthy politicians around the World are using these to divide people further… This story is based around such an Imaginary Town.
I have a simple dream…
“One World – One Human Race”…
The issue with this book is, I wrote this book somewhere in 2016 and hosted it on Kindle platform – This was the first time I did it and didn’t know that I would lose money by making it FREE to read on that platform. Then, somewhere in Jan 2020, I removed it from there and got a print version under the name The Conducer – again, as the destiny would have it – the World had to go under a Lockdown due to the chinese virus and I couldn’t promote the book. That’s the reason, when the website was launched, I decided to post the book here… Enjoy the story…
I would like to start the book with the Glossary of Words and Terms used – They are basic Indian Traditional words and linguistic terms which will allow you to understand what they mean when you read them during the course of the story…
Bhai – This means “Brother” and normally used in conversations by suffixing a name – Instead of Mr Jim Smith – it’s Smith Bhai or Jim Bhai…
Di / Dee / Didi – Similarly, this is a suffix normally used for women elder to you meaning “Elder Sister”. e.g. Florence_di
Chulha – Is an ancient stone platform cooking meals. Normally a hollow rod is used to blow, lighting the fire up. This could be a platform or 3-4 stones of similar height like people do use when on camping on which the utensils are kept for heating under burning sticks of wood.
Dulha – Means “Groom” or husband.
Lathi – Is a stout wooden staff used in various ways – like support when walking, using it to carry bales of belongings, also used as a weapon in case of any danger. One can see display of use of this as a weapon at few carnivals in India.
Dupatta – This is a traditional cloth used by many women in India – similar to the stole used with modern dresses. (Stole is a shorter version.) It’s basically wound around bosom to fend off any untoward glance by men with wrong intentions though women use it for various purposes like a handy towel, to collect fruits and groceries if they forgot to bring a bag along with them, to protect their child from direct sunlight, etc.
Adivasi – Means a Tribal person or an aboriginal to the territory.
Gathari – Is a way of binding up one’s belongings neatly in a cloth / sheet and tying them up as a bale – easy to pick up and carry it around.
Bazaar – means Market.
Roti – Is homemade bread using Wheat or cereals. Normally, it is round in shape and flat.
Machan – A platform for watching and protecting fields, erected in the middle of a fields.
Tonga – means a two wheeled horse cart used as a local transport.