A luxury driver

We removed our bags from the auto and gave the auto driver his money. The iron gate creaked and a small lean boy with his face full of excitement ran forward.

‘Ilaas tumhi??’ he welcomed us in Malvani. Mom and dad smiled at him.

I squinted at him trying to rack my brains if we had met before. I saw our neighboring lady hurrying to get our luggage and it dawned on me that he must be her son.

I am not one of the people who get along with the new people easily.

I tried to give a warm smile to the kid, which I later thought must have looked awkward.

‘Valaakhlas naay maaka??’ He asked me if I did not recognize him.

Before I could answer his question, he started talking enthusiastically.

‘I recognized you. You are Ketaki Taai. Shraddha Taai didn’t come?’

I was pleasantly shocked. I hadn’t been at that place for around six years. I had never seen him; well my sister had been there last year. She has a way with people so I thought they might have played together. I wondered how he knew my name and how he recognized me without having seen me before.

I ruffled his hair.

A lot had changed after six years. The Madhumalati tree bearing flowers that filled our yard with maddening fragrance was cut short. My favorite Hibiscus bush was no more. The house looked dusty and derelict. Moss and termites had adorned most of the walls.

Within an hour or two, mom-dad made the house worth sleeping in, with the help of the neighbors. I relaxed on a chair in the front-yard looking around. Smooth sand tickled my feet. He appeared out of nowhere and removed something from his pocket.

‘What is that?’ I asked him with curiosity.

‘I got a Cadbury! See!!’ He showed me.

It had a wrapper that looked similar to that of the Cadbury.

‘You want to taste that?’ before I could say anything, he had already torn the wrapper apart and given a piece to me.

My tongue gone used to the taste of Cadbury hated the taste of that cheaper version of Cadbury.

‘You liked it?’ he asked innocently with the gleam in his eyes. It was too hard to be a killjoy.

‘Umm… yeah! It is good!’ I smiled at him.

‘Oh then I bring some more for you!’

The next second he was running past the coconut tree, past the Madhumalati, beyond the gate, past the small houses with red slanting roofs, into the paddy fields.

‘Heyyyy wait! Where are you getting money from?? Come back!’ I shouted at him.

He had disappeared.

He only came back with the chocolate and sweet tamarind.

‘It costs only a rupee,’ he informed me while eating a piece of chocolate greedily, ‘I sit at the counter of our shop and I keep 10 rs aside.’ He said.

They ran shop of bangles. While his mother returned home to cook, he would sit there for a while and attend the customers.

‘Oh you cheat your mother?’

He bit his tongue and looked a little guilty.

‘My mom knows that!’ he said with a grin.

‘Do you want something else?’ he asked me, ‘Banana? Ravisells bananas beside our shop. He doesn’t even know how sometimes I steal a banana and eat!’ he had a naughty proud grin on his face.

For him, stealing a banana was an achievement. It was fun. He was just too innocent to know that it is a bad thing. The kids in the village are like that. Far from malicious intentions… There is a kind of sweetness in their wrongdoings. Even Ravi would know where his bananas go, I thought. He was just letting the kid have fun and boast about his achievements.

‘…. Or some sweet tamarind??? Or raw mango? Shobha’s mom has kept some to dry in the sun! Or would you like a guava? I can climb the tree in Rawale’s yard and get it!’

All this time he was listing all the items he could bring for me.

‘Do you know English?’ he asked me, looking at a novel in my hand.

‘What is this book about? Would you teach me English?’

He never gave me time to answer.

‘We have English too. I am in fifth standard. I want to learn English and go to Mumbai.’

I laughed. ‘You don’t have to learn English to go to Mumbai!’

‘Really?’ his big eyes filled with a mixture of curiosity and happiness, ‘I have never been there. Is it very costly, going there? How much was your ticket?’

I laughed.

That evening he came at my house with his English book in his hand. He sat beside me n kept the opened book in my lap.

‘Teach me!’ he sat with determination.

I read a paragraph for him and explained him the meaning. He looked satisfied.

‘Aaaah I am hungry!’ I told mom.

‘Oh! I can bring you something!’ his eyes had the usual gleam.

Before I could stop him, he was already on the run. Past the coconut tree, past the Madhumalati, beyond the gate, past the small houses with red slanting roofs, into the paddy fields…

He came back with his mom squeezing his ears.

‘Why on earth did u go running there in the dark!!!!’ she screamed.

He stood in a corner fuming at her.

The next day he and another smart girl in the neighborhood accompanied me to a temple at the nearby beach. They were chattering all the time, dancing around me as I walked, taking my hands, he requesting me to come to buy bangles from his shops, asking me stupid questions.

‘Wow a luxury bus!!!’ He stopped suddenly when he saw a luxury bus to Mumbai made a stylish royal entry on the village road.

His eyes became dreamy.

‘Oh this goes to Thane right?’ he asked me. I had not expected him to know this. Looked like he hadn’t just seen, he had observed. He had been observing.

‘You know taai, I want to become an engineer like you!’ the smart girl said, ‘My uncle is one. He is at Mumbai too.’ She said with her nose in the air.

I couldn’t believe she was only seven.

Children in the village act more than their ages.

He was still lost. We were almost home.

‘Heyy! What do you want to become???’ I asked him.

‘A luxury driver!’ he said dreamily.

The girl burst into a cheeky laugh. ‘Hahahaha! You should become an engineer. Or doctor. They earn a lot of money!’ she said folding her arms over her chest, her eyes rolling as if she couldn’t believe anyone could be so unreasonable.

‘No!' He said sternly. 'A luxury driver!' He was totally unperturbed.

‘Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooommmmmmm!’ he acted like a driver and sprinted.

Past the coconut tree, past the Madhumalati, beyond the gate, past the small houses with red slanting roofs, into the paddy fields…