2 Friends-Part 3

We went ahead discussing our lives, our wives, our kids (he lost his kid whom he had enlisted as part of a forcible enlistment camp in the interior forests) and finally he spoke of his mentor who had baptised him into the party. He spoke about the Comrade Sawant whose charisma had drawn him to millions and finally he spoke of seeing a gas camp where he had personally executed traitors to the cause. I wondered why he bore his heart out like this to me. I probably knew why. He was just as unsatisfied with his life as much as I was. He needed a punching bag to vent out and I was to play that prop whether I liked it or not (no individual choice in Redlands).


I spoke to him about finishing my degree once my dad died. But I soon realised that education alone was not going to be good enough. I moved to a blue city on a rainy night long before comrade Sawant built the wall to fortify the Redlands and to stop many of us refugees to escape into the other side. One of the red guards had caught me crossing a ridge where the wall was weak but I bribed him with my mom’s solitary jewellery (it was to help me sustain my first year). I also told Ravi about my first job in a factory and how much it humiliated me but I had to do it for the money. I wrote during my free time. I taught kids in my area the benefits of English literature and helped a lot of illiterates at the post office (which were fast becoming obsolete) who dictated letters for me to write. They all were down but they all had hopes that what lay in front of them was a life that was better than where they were right now. I had by then a steady income and then a friend of mine asked me to submit an article for an essay contest in the area newspaper. The newspaper was known for free press and open criticism of anyone (something which he couldn’t conceive was humanly possible and might have landed me at a gas camp). I got a call and won the contest. The prize was to work under a great writing mentor of my choice in the city. I choose Mr. Dandekar, my favourite writer since childhood. I wondered from his writings how life in a blue city would be like. (His books were banned in our red area during my childhood but the local black market was good enough to source them).


For six months I worked under him, closing envelopes, fixing appointments, going to readings and re drafting his work into manuscripts. Finally one day he saw a stray writing of mine on his desk (I had kept it deliberately amongst his file on my first month but he never noticed it). He was so impressed that he recommended me to another friend of his. This guy was Mr. Sequeira from Goa. He ran a publishing house and he was shoring up his space and needed new people in the sales team to get him more work. I got a chance as part of my job to interact with the best writers in town and my job was to convince them to get their work published with the Sequiera Press. I got a better offer as a manager in their competitor with a better pay called Cinderella publishers. This was a children’s only publishing house and it allowed me to have some time of my own. I decided to write seriously and having written my own first novel I sent it (as I was now well aware of the channels of distribution in the publishing world) to the same place where I worked. My boss was so impressed he commissioned the publishing very soon and the work got green lighted within a year. Within six months I was on the best sellers list and I got a book deal in New Jersey. I grabbed this chance and went there to work for New Universe Publishers Ltd. not as a manager or a sales guy but as a writer. The next five novels were to be done with this publisher but since I didn’t want to lose my independence I asked for a lower pay but just a one book deal. I wrote the second book called Freedom Day and it won me rave reviews. I took time off. Got married to an American girl called Diana and also have a son (who looks more like her than me). I came back after my parents funeral and during my sisters marriage but since my family moved to Navi Mumbai I never got a chance to meet up with you and come down here to reminisce my good old days in Panvel. So here I am----.


“Hmm” he looked at me clearly admiring my presence around him more than he did a few minutes back. Somewhere we both knew that despite the difference between our places in life, despite the wall between our worlds we were both products of human frailty. We were both unsatiated and equally hungry. We had a heavy lunch, munched paan, shared biddis (he also tried my cigar) and I finally felt very little time passed by the time I heard the familiar sound of the train engine whistle past us. My time had come I must go back to take my rightfully earned place and he had to do the same though he was given the same by forceful natures at play. I took my luggage and he helped me with it. I went inside the train. He got inside, hugged me and said I had changed his life. I looked at him gave him another hug. He asked me for one favour before I went. I told him I would be glad to do so.


He said please give me that Cuban Cigar case that you have if you don’t mind. I asked him if he just wanted the case or the cigars too. He patted me playfully and I gave him a box of ten cigars. For you alone I beamed. Then I asked him “would you not land in trouble in your place for using something upmarket like this”. He smiled you don’t get it do you, they would worship me for having this. I thought for a moment and then on realising what he meant flashed a chuckle. He left a very different man and I knew I had changed another life forever- The life of his son.