He Grows Up... The day Monty finishes his Higher Secondary Exam before late afternoon, his school friends celebrate with him sipping each a Coke. As the froth of freedom starts bottling out of their long tension of exams , all the young faces seem to be reaching an euphoric state. They jostle , cry out in shrill voice, tease each other without caring a damn about the passers by around. The smoke of cigarettes lacks direction same as the smokers do. At the end of the great chatting session , the boys reach a topic afloat about how to spend their dose of holidays till the result is out. Out of so many proposals pouring in like Raja, the tycoon�s son intending for a trip to Mauritius, or Tukun going for a Cricket Camp of under 19 or Milind to start for his native place in Nasik to attend a family marriage, even Sukhbir ,the Punjabi lad planning for his third time visit to Golden temple for placing prayer , Monty has nothing to ventilate of his plan as he knows that his coming holidays will be spent same way as before, only except studies. He ,with the eyes set down to his shoes, has a deep sigh. Monty reaches home by the family car at overcrowded Shyambazar. Like everyday, it takes fifteen minutes for the car to enter the gate of their house at Nalini Sarkar Street from Bidhan Sarani during evening time. Their house. large spacious one is inherited by the joint family of three brothers with their families and family feud. The house of Roy Chowdhury is headed by Monty�s grandfather. Once, they had opulence beyond assessment. In the early fifties, his entrepreneurial venture in sanitary napkins under the brand of �Diana� was a huge commercial success. He had a track record in export also. In those days, he was regarded by elite business community of Bengal as a man extraordinaire�, who could figure out the possible reality from the remotest options by his sense of practicality. This brand ruled for more than twenty five years before gradually thrown out of market by the popular brands of MNCs in Healthcare products. Now, all three brothers with family are separated. They presently share business income and the roof but not the daily life. Each one may not be as lonely as Monty, but looks dry and unhappy. And the air breathes of huge dose of criticism on each other. Monty issue has a major share in it, who literally is treated as appendix to the dynasty of Roychowdhury. Monty knows that. The crowded road hardly can visualise that the Roy Choudhurys do possess not only a palace but a well done green lawn which is unseen behind the huge brick-wall . Monty�s beloved place of relaxing on a small piece of nature. His playground as a toddler. His open studio of producing sketches and a few love-poems. Most of the time, it remains forlorn when the clan of Accord , Ikon or Esteem etc. speed off in & out. All of a sudden, a thought comes into his mind flashing �� is he not also a person like the lawn just protected but forlorn behind the wall of apathy ? His mind shrugs��.. �Bullshit! Who cares!!!� The car drove in. In the drawing room, dida, the old lady is standing with a sad smile in pure cotton, as dadu, sitting at an easy couch. Her eyes are too glossy with tears as his mother Avanti, with no expression looks to her son from the garlanded photo-frame, hanging on the wall. Her long suffering for sixteen days after ninety percent burn injury might not be more than the suffering of sixteen years of seeing his only son grow from behind the glass of the photo without a single word of wish or kiss of blessing on the forehead. Dida comes close to say ,� Why so late, Baapi ? Was last exam okay? Tapumama sent blessings-telegram long before your exam. But see, it has come so late at the end. Tapu joined a new firm in Austria.� Monty takes the telegram, reads it and smiles, � So, dida, can I expect another telegram saying �Congrats. for passing the exam. � well after I join college ? � Both of the old couple enjoys the joke as dida takes him inside for tiffin. Ramadi, the cook, places a large dish of luchi - aloordum and sandesh under the watch of dida, who just passes the very expected remark with a deep sigh, � If your mom would have been here today !� while wiping eyes with her aanchal. �What about my Dad, then ? On a probable evening stroll on the adjacent park at Defence Colony in New Delhi.� A routine phone call from him just at nine is also expected. Phone call at nine reminds him to watch for a precious gift , he has ever received. A genuine Swiss Watch from Tapumama just before the exam. A sleek but gorgeous gift came on flying from the land of mystic superiority in craftsmanship in a sparkling white gift pack with a small card on the top of it, which said ,� Have a nice time �. Monty had thought of his hand to get crystal before he started wearing the watch. He was sure that the watch might have cost Tapumama some few thousands in Indian currency. What a sensation to see the watch at exam hall ! He could not stop watching it, once he had a look at it and so he failed to manage time. His small room has a well done bed and well arranged mosquito net under bedcover, a reading table ,bookshelf, a wall cabinet and at a corner a long necked earthen water-jug. Monty with a cigarette between fingers lying on back with a deep stare at the ceiling remembers his favorite dialogue in Titanic , just before a scintillating love scene inside a standing car down at the bottom line of the ship, when the two lovers kept on asking each other about the destination they were heading to, as Jack said with his hand on the steering,� Where to ,Miss ? � And the answer came as a whisper from Rose from the backseat with a strong pull of collar of Jack to drag him close to her ,� To the stars !!! � They were talking about stars down at the bottom of the ship. Then, they sunk into deep sea of making love. What a prolific dreamers those two lovers were, Monty thinks !!! Before he can close his eyes, he senses a desperate attitude of spending the holidays ahead the way he will prefer to choose. � To the stars !!!� It causes a fight between Dida and Dadu not on the issue of Monty�s going out for his friend�s place but on the issue of use of their family car, which is available for others� use too for all practical reasons. Dadu wins the fight by the basic logic that Monty is not a spoon-fed child anymore. He is to be given freedom to move that will gain him needed confidence. Finally Monty is gifted man�s freedom ! So, he is sure that he is not a boy anymore. . After taking meal at noon, Monty uses to come out by taking permission from Dida & Dadu to spend afternoons in the friend�s house at Salt Lake. Instead, he spends alone several leisurely hours around Esplanade, near Hogg Market on Lindsay Street, Free School Street, on window shopping and eating out. He has been to Park Street at evening. He has noticed the riot of colors, tasted �HOT KATI ROLL�, bought a few Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon and CDs of western music. One afternoon, he walks from Esplanade to Kingsway, then moves along the stretch of the riverbank , occupied a window seat in Scoop at Outram Ghat with a Hot-Pizza and an ice cream to enjoy sunset on the backdrop of Vidyasagar Setu. As a loner, he moves around in his city to see and feel of what it is all about the way he has never seen before. The fear of moving lonely is gone. The known stretch of five kms from his house and school seems to him now of the size of a small worm. His emotion may be out of control or not in enjoying lonely hours as a growing adult, his daily return home by 7 p.m. was ever under control of his Swiss watch and In- home criticism. As his lonesome adventure takes him from crowded market place to river bank , so the call of sprawling green of Garer Maath ( Large green field under the charge of Army) can not be far behind. He eventually reaches Moidaan and the Victoria Memorial in a cloudy afternoon, as this time he is watched not by his Swiss Watch only but also by a plain ordinary woman with deep cut blouse , cheap lipstick and gripping small eyes. Kalpana is needing a client to hang on. At the side of the left gate, she is struck by the innocently set large dreamy eyes of Monty and spontaneously responds to him by a throw of easiest question to start all that talking ,� Excuse me, What is the time please?� As Monty is looking at the time, Kalpana snaps a steel photo of him at a sharp glance to memorize the young man in her mind wearing an imported jeans , a brand T- Shirt with a crocodile looks on over the left arm and down at the wrist , a spectacular watch of foreign origin on smooth tender skin. She is sure of a good background he is hailing from and the purposelessness, he is suffering from. Like every other working day ,the sprawling green under almost all trees of Victoria then is occupied by couples chatting. The voice of one couple can easily be overheard by the other from back of the tree. Monty has a quick round from inside and returns to the gate to see the woman still standing with a welcome � smile at him. She puts forward her right hand smartly and a question, �So, can we be friends?� Monty reaches for her palm being magically charmed to her smartness. � Sure. Why not?� �Let�s proceed then!� She says. �Where to , Miss ?� �To the green lawn ahead !� She blinks her eyes and says. For Monty, journey to the stars has just begun from the green lawn at Victoria. From next day on, Monty has one place to reach in time , one friend to sit with, one dream to ask for and one body with feminine curves to come closer passionately. Two days of talking to know their different worlds, spontaneous touching of cheeks, one palm in another palm, her confession of struggle from hardship due to her father�s death or Monty losing his mother in infancy and walking alone or finding out a perfect match with sensitive mind like Monty, are so powerful motivating capsules that Monty can hardly resist himself from not falling in deep love with Kalpana. An amazing girl, so smart, sensitive yet tough. She may be older in age but her desire to be loved is there in her. She has a great sense of humor also. Some of the jokes they exchange were adult ones , Monty has observed her to be absolutely free from any feminine bias. In the dark, she gave him his first taste of tongue twisting kiss, a passionate hug , Monty had watched only in Hollywood Movies so many times. Even, before departure , she puts his hand on her breasts to let him feel as to how her heart has been constantly pounding to say �Dhak�. Dhak� I love you, Monty � Dhak� Dhak��. Monty assumes that he is knocked down, that too, without spending an one rupee note. Another quality of this simple girl is to see him off daily at the bus stand, just opposite to Birla Planetarium. She has been staying at Beckbagan, matter of fifteen minutes by walking. Her waiving hand, smile, even a flying kiss can be enough for an adolescent like Monty to be at the height of enthusiasm on the way back. After Monty�s departure, Kalpana has to meet a thin and weak man at the bus stand. While she is taking few puffs from a cheap cigarette ,the thin old man appears silently from behind to say � Kya re Chameli, kuch hua ? � The girl has a sharp smile only, � Kaal iska final ho jayega. Ab ghar chalo ji , Baachhe raah dekh rahein hai � (Tomorrow will be final. Now, let�s go home, the children are awaiting�.) Kalpana with a strong grip of her ailing husband crosses the road, full of vehicular traffic then. Next day, being Sunday, Monty in a white kurta - pajama meets her at the same spot. Under the tree, Monty�s palm is resting on the Kalpana�s palm as they are deep in love-chat. While toying with his fingers, Kalpana is smilingly listening to Monty , expressing his feelings after his return last evening. His restless night was so excitingly different, as if, all of his friends would regard him for having the best holidays one could ever dream of. �Believe me, Kalpana, my own attitude to myself as a forlorn creature has disappeared. Everything around me has started to be in order and colorful. Even, the lawn in our premises looks greener than ever before.� Monty explains. Kalpana promptly snaps a humorous remark indicating with her index finger , �If that�s so, then what would you like that moving pari on the top of this Victoria Memorial ( the moving fairy on the top of Victoria Memorial ) to be � darker than ever before and the color of water of this tank ?� And both giggle. Kalpana expresses praise a number of times for Monty�s brilliant possession, that is the wrist watch. �Monty, what a fantastic piece of watch, naa ? May I wear it to see how does this beauty look at my wrist?� With a burning cigarette between the lips, Monty fits the band on her thin wrist. �Oh, God! It�s really incredibly fabulous. I can�t even identify this being my wrist at all.� She laughs. Then only, Monty notices that she does not have a wrist watch to wear. However, they have a break in conversation by sipping tea from small plastic cups off the tea-seller loitering around. Kalpana asks Monty,� Can we have a stroll around at least to make our limbs in tune ? Since we have been squatting on green for so long�.� They together move around on the pathways of stones, passing by the metal statues of yesteryears .They stand by the waterfront, watch the children playing Badminton. This way, they do walk for more than ten minutes and Monty discovers that they are out of the gate near Academy of Fine Arts. It is around five then. After that, some thing happens that has never happened before. Kalpana sharpens her eyes to see right and left of the road ahead in search of a moving transport and increases her pace in walking .Then she starts running leaving Monty as if thunderstruck. Monty comes to his senses a minute later and starts running from behind screaming, � Kalpana! Kalpana !! What �re you doing ? Give my watch back !!� As a single decker north bound bus from the left approached near the girl, she makes no mistake in boarding at the first door with risk of her life. Monty follows her as a part of reflex action and boards at the next gate being quite bewildered. He is then completely out of sense. She gets a ladies� seat in not so crowded bus. Monty shouted at her, � You ! Give me my watch back ! Right now !!� Kalpana looks at him as if completely surprised and embarrassed ,� Watch ? Me!! What �re you telling ,Sir ! � She hardly loses control .� This is crazy ! I don�t know you, what to say of your watch !! Monty shouts in deep anguish ,� Shut up! You thief !! You behave as if you don�t know me , Right ? Give my watch back, please !!! � He vehemently engages himself in a scuffle with her. Madly . Monty puts pressure on her arm to remove the watch from her wrist. The scene is so awkward and sudden, that all the passengers are stunned for a while. Then , being horrified, some women folk puts up shrill cries , � Stop all these nonsense !Hooliganism under daylight? Stop ! Stop !! � Children cry out of fear. Male members have resisted the scuffle. Monty is pulled back from the person of Kalpana and out of the big pull, all present in the bus watch on a flight of a high priced golden watch over Monty�s head. To every body�s surprise, one handsome gentleman carrying small baby on his arms has made no mistake in grabbing the watch out of the air. His wife has shouted immediately ,�Sunil, don�t take that piece of nonsense at all. Throw it away. Don�t involve yourself in this bloody tangle��.� The bus was speeding by Indian Museum then. Both of the disputing parties have been pressing the man to hand over the watch to him or her . Sunil, the catcher has decided with others not to take decision himself but to forward it to any police station, coming on the way. So, the bus has stopped at Hare St. Police Station. What a fantastic procession of heterogeneous characters it is , heading towards police station for seeking justice on the sultry Sunday afternoon ! A sizable curious and fun loving crowd follows Sunil and his wife. The driver is the last person to enter the police station for parking the bus. A police station in the office area on Sunday afternoon seems to be a forlorn graveyard. The Station House Officer being called the O/C , is enjoying his afternoon before TV at his residence above . Spurred by the telephonic S.O.S , he came down to face such a bizarre situation. O/C , a middle aged person in Brand T Shirt with well combed short hair, protruded bulge and explicit display of disgust at the corners of his mouth appears. He puts his heavy back on a towel covered chair in the chamber after folding his hands before a garlanded picture of Goddess Kali for her blessings. He calls the duty officer , Sunil , his wife , the disputing parties and few others. He hears in brief of the facts as narrated by the duty officer. Then he closes eyes and holds his head back, relaxed. Then, he throws out the question in thunderous voice., � Where is the watch? Who are the claimants, girl and the boy ?� Sunil quickly places the watch before him. He examines it thoroughly and remarks �Oh! What an exquisite piece it is ! expensive too. At least ten thousand bucks in INR.� He then has had a glimpse on Monty and Kalpana. � What a perfect couple ! The boy seems to be from good family. But, you, girl, what �s your name? Don�t you often stand near Maidan area in the evening ?� � No., Sir ! I never do that. I am Chameli, Chameli Routh. Mother of two children. Husband is supervisor in a leather factory. I work in a tailoring shop near home at Park Circus. This watch is mine, gifted by my brother. He works in Dubai. You can check up details.� O/C�s eyes are full of disbelief. Still, he asks, � If it is yours, fine. Then , how could the boy raise his claim on it ? �She replies,� While I am coming back from Govt. Hospital after seeing my ailing relative , this man starts following me and tries snatching this watch, even in the bus a number of times. Ask them. They can tell you. Must be a drug addict although it seems that he is hailing from a good family. She concludes. Monty is speechless. He is dumbfounded as if a dry lump has blocked the pipeline of his throat. He is feeling a pain down at the abdomen. First time ever, he is at a police station for a crime not committed by him. O/C now turns his face to him.� What�s your name ? How do you know her ?� Monty narrates the story in brief to emphasize as to how the girl has played with him. While narrating, he has broken into tears. He sobs while saying how important the watch is as a gift and the harsh possibility of family scandal, what to say of criticism from near and dear ones. He claims to be the victim but not the culprit. All present there have been silent as emotionally struck. The girl only continues her vocal protest at every part of his story. � Now , this is the hour of justice.� O/C positions himself and addresses, �Listen, you, all. core issue is the ownership of the watch only. Here , proof is must. Proof can be either documentary or circumstantial. Cash Memo is of first type. Can anyone show?� Both have denied to have the same. �Now, comes the second type. Can anyone of you tell us of a number grooved on the back of the watch ? Or, can you put some relatives or friends as reference , who could confirm that this watch was worn by you. You boy, tell me first. � Monty has no idea of that number so he can not speak out . Referring the matter to his residence or relatives is simply out of question. It is a clear case of walk over. He stands silent with his chin touching his chest and eyes closed. Chameli pulls out a tiny diary from her purse and shows the number of the watch. The number tallies with that of the watch. She refers two names. One, the tailor. Two, her neighbor . Under advice of O/C, duty officer rings up twice. Tailor can not be contacted for shop being closed. on Sunday. Neighbor is available and on the line, who confirms. �The hard test is over. The girl seems to have done her homework well. But the boy simply has cut a terribly sorry figure. And the judgement goes in favor of Ms. Chameli for satisfying all of us with better proof.� O/C confirms his resolution as Sunil and others have agreed on it. Against an application, Chameli is handed over the watch. She puts it carefully in the purse. Then, gracefully, she has sought permission from O/C to leave. �Barababu, many thanks, Can I take leave ? � She does not pay a single glimpse at the boy standing at the gate ,crest fallen but walks out of the police station in firm steps . Bus passengers are all back to their seats while discussing amongst themselves about the matter. The bus has sped out at a high pick up leaving behind emotion and a boy deeply sunk in it. Monty returns home around nine. He can see the half done pillars on the well dug up land that all used to call as lawn � green lawn. The green smooth surface was turned as a rapture carpet soiled with mud and cement. The green lawn is no more. This mind is not the one, he has had with him so far. Now, what he is carrying in him as his mind is not better than a tiny piece of shattered windscreen after a head � on collision. While carrying his left wrist only with a tan mark on , he throws his steps rampantly in the dark living room. Completely exhausted. Gradually darkness is turning to be easier but silence heavier. The phone rings up. Monty is sure of time. Just nine. His father speaks, �Hallo, son, How �re you ? How �re the holidays ? � He asks in his mind. What should be the right answer ? Will it be a kid�s true but sobbing reply �Dad, I�m not well. I�m lost.� Or a man�s maturity to come out of failures through false but firm answer �Yes, Dad. I �m fine. Holidays are quite enjoyable.� Monty looks on through the window to the night sky , and decides to go for the second option��.. ______________ OOO ______________
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