Survivors by Anamika Mukherjee

Author:Anamika Mukherjee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Published: 2016-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

I’ve made up my mind: I will start tomorrow.

Things have gone well since my last entry here, so many months ago. Our daughter was born three weeks ago. We’ve called her Asha – she’s beautiful and it almost breaks my heart to leave her, but leave I must. The people from Bhalswa have been wonderful, absolutely wonderful. Six of their women came to help with the delivery. Two of them were young, unmarried women, Bhavana and Bindu. I think they were sisters, or perhaps first cousins. I’m fairly sure they will be back here soon, as companions for Nishant and Praveen. The best part is, they’ve gifted us a cow! After months and months without it, we all got a tiny bit of milk to drink. It’s mostly for the baby – though Kiran is nursing too, of course.

The other big news is the harvest. It’s unbelievable – who would have thought that such a small area of rice could yield so much grain? Everyone was surprised, even the women from Bhalswa – even by their standards, we had a bumper harvest. They’ve gone back vowing to adopt some of the techniques that Kiran implemented here.

After we had harvested the rice, we had a grand celebration. After all our hard work, it was hugely satisfying to know that our supply of rice is assured for months to come, and we now have straw for bedding and husk for our compost pot and fodder for our cow. We also have another reason to celebrate – Amrit is expecting a baby and Neha is only a few weeks away from her delivery. Kiran told me that she had suggested to Zeenat that she should ‘let one of the others into her room sometimes’, but Zeenat was shocked and upset at the suggestion. ‘It’s just practical,’ Kiran said to me some weeks ago. ‘Maybe there’s a problem with Prashant. And I know that Abhishek and Anand would do almost anything for the privilege,’ she added. But Zeenat wouldn’t hear of it, and personally, I could relate to that. Kiran’s liberal – and slightly insensitive – attitude to relationships still takes me by surprise.

As the months go by, we have less and less to worry about. Now that we have Asha to think of, and another two babies on the way, we have a lot to look forward to, a lot to plan for. Nobody in our group is a child any more. None of them look like the hapless college students they were last April, when our lives were turned upside down. When they talk to me, they still call me ‘Sir’, but now it’s just my name. I’m hardly their teacher, much less their leader now. Prashant seems to be much more a first among equals than I ever was. Kiran is the undisputed queen. In the early days, so long ago now, they looked to me for the final word on almost everything. Now, they don’t need to. In a way it’s sad, but come to think of it, it’s a relief.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.