‘You rascal, this is the fourth time’, Kirorimal was shouting at top of his voice. Customers and fellow salesmen too sighting from the corner of their eye while attending their customers.
‘Sorry Seth’ said Rajat, his eyes looking at the ground.
‘Sorry?’ Seth Kirorimal yelled again, ‘Don’t use this word again in front of me. Tomorrow you will give away all these Saris for free and say Sorry? ’
‘Seth, Deduct the loss from my Salary’ said Rajat, his eyes still staring at ground.
‘Thanks for your permission, Rajat Babu. I have already given you multiple times and this is your last warning. If you do this again, you better not show your face to me. Now go back to your work.’ Furious Kirorimal went back to dig into his account books. Other Salesmen too resumed their work.
In the evening after closing the shop, Mohan asked Rajat.
‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know why this Muchhad (big mustached) Seth doesn’t understand a bit’
‘In fact, why don’t you try to understand a simple fact that Seth is running this shop to make money, not for the charity? If you dare selling one more Sari in loss, he would definitely kick you out of the shop.’ warned Mohan.
‘To hell with him’ was the blunt response from Rajat.
‘I know you are the kindest person alive on this earth’ Mohan smiled ‘So who was the beneficiary of your benevolence today?’
‘An old woman, she wanted to buy a Sari for her daughter who has come to meet her in summer vacation. The Sari cost was 480 Rs but the poor lady had only 400 in her purse.‘
‘And you gave her the Sari for 400?’
‘No, for 380’ his eyes turning away from Mohan.
‘380, Why?’ Mohan gave a surprised look to Rajat.
‘Twenty Rupees for her to pay her rickshaw fare back home.’
‘Wonderful. And why had you not spared her another twenty rupees for her dinner tonight?’
‘You are also a heartless creature like that Muchhad Seth.’
‘OK. OK. My dear big hearted friend, Can we go for dinner now?’
And they left for dinner and then to their one room rented house which they both were sharing.
Mohan knew that he could not change Rajat who was always ready to help any needy one without even considering all the facts about them. He was afraid that someday someone would take advantage of him.
One morning Rajat returned home from his morning walk with a small boy.
‘Who is this boy?’ demanded Mohan, who had just woken up.
‘He is Billu’ said Rajat ‘and from now onwards he will stay with us’
‘Where did you find him?’ Mohan eyes becoming wider
‘He was sitting at the bench of the park where I go for morning walk. The poor chap has no one in this world. So I thought I should help him until the boy finds some source to feed himself.’
‘Are you out of your mind? You relied on what he said to you. He must be cooking story to get you in his trap. By the way, do you think we have any extra space for another person in this ten by ten room?’ Now it was getting difficult for Mohan to control his rage.
‘How much space a small nine years old would need? You don’t worry; I can share my cot with him.’
‘And who will pay for his food and other things?’ Mohan asked.
‘If you don’t what to share, I am fine with that. I will bear all his expenses’ Rajat replied.
Seeing that Rajat would not give up, Mohan agreed to keep the boy with them but on a condition that the boy would do all the daily chores in the house and would cook for both of them.
Rajat reluctantly agreed on this condition.
That day onwards, Billu started to live with them. In return, he used to clean the room, wash their clothes and cook food for them.
Few days later, one evening when Mohan and Rajat returned from shop, they saw that the room door was open which was very unusual because they had instructed Billu to keep the door closed whole day. Their surprised eyes got stunned when they entered the room. Their clothes and utensils were lying on the floor in a scattered way. There was no sign of Billu. The lock of Rajat’s cupboard was broken. His heart sunk when he saw his savings of twenty thousand rupees that he was saving from last one and half year was missing. No other things were taken out from there.
Rajat sat there with both hands on his head. Mohan had advised him many times to deposit his savings in a bank as he himself was doing but Rajat never took his advice seriously.
Rajat had saved this money for his brother’s higher education who wanted to take admission in engineering college this year. His dreams shattered like that broken cupboard. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. This was not the first time he had paid a price of helping others but this act cost him his own dreams of making his brother an engineer. He cursed the day he brought Billu to stay with them. Rajat apologized to Mohan many times for ignoring all his advices.
A day after the incidence, Rajat gathered all his courage and called his brother to tell him that he would not be able to pay his college fee and described him the entire incidence. He was speaking in a low apologetic voice. His brother was taken aback. All his effort of two years in preparing for the engineering entrance exam had gone waste.
It took Rajat ample time to recover from that loss. He was still helping others but in his own limits and stopped going out of the way in the process. This was a lesson well learnt from that awful event.
A month later, Mohan went to Post office to send a money order of twenty thousand rupees in the name of Rajesh Chaturvedi, brother of Rajat Chaturvedi. On the way back home, he met Billu at his tea stall and paid him five hundred rupees; a small price for teaching his friend a lesson that he would never forget in his entire life.
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---Kawal
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