Chapter 50: The Hramdaa is Born
One day the police showed up at the Bungalow to arrest Hassan, Jagat's "fourth son". Under a bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan about reuniting people separate in the melee of partition from the refugee families Hassan was to be taken away by the police to send him to Pakistan where he may be able to find his family. Hassan bowled his eyes out saying,
"Jagat Chacha please save me from the cops. I don't want to leave you and my brothers, please chacha."
Jagat wiped his tears, sniffled and pleaded with the police, "Please don't take him; he's my child. If you can say you'll find his family, find it and then take him. I don't want him to be orphaned again."
"Chacha everyone says you're brave, do something!"
Hassan cried himself hoarse. There wasn't a dry eye in the bungalow but the police had orders to follow. He was dragged away, kicking and screaming. At the first opportunity he escaped, ran back to the bungalow and told a teary eyed Jagat,
"Chacha, the bad police, I told them I had to relieve myself; they pointed a field with a waist high crop. I slithered though the fields and farms; please hide me; I don't want to go."
Jagat held him his embrace for a long time.
Jagat and others in the family had tried asking him his name or any names or place he remembered from his childhood. He only remembered two names: Zulu and Dheedo. Jagat had it drilled into his memory that the day Jagat found him he wore two silver bracelets and two shirts, one upon the other--in case someone asked for a boy with those attributes lost in the raullay. Jagat wanted to hide his Hassan from the police but he certainly didn't want to hide Hassan from his family in Pakistan if he could find them; and what if the police took him and he found his family in Pakistan? Why should Jagat foreclose that possibility?
Hassan screamed and begged to stay; police showed up and hauled him away.
their leaders do or not but the countries have no hearts.
Jagat and Ratno sat in the yard, Jagat reading the Tribune, Ratno sipping tea, both still grieving the snatching of Hassan by the police when Sameer and Jaggi ready for college joined them in the yard. Putting away the Tribune Jagat asked Sameer whether he had reconsidered his decision regarding England.
"Yes I have but haven't changed my mind; it's suffocating here and the dreams of the poor are still born; leaving such a country can't be betrayal. But Papa, I won't go if you give me the money but no consent," said Sameer, "Dadee and mom never forbade you jail for liberty; Thought it's selfish, you must bless my rebellion."
Ratno sensed Sameer's deep conviction and focused pursuit and Jaggi was taken aback by his directness with Jagat. One of the few times in his life Jagat was speechless.
Unable to bear the tense silence Ratno said, "Jagat, Jaggi and Sameer have grown up. We need to listen to them. Sameer puttar, I'll speak to papa."
"Alright mom," said Sameer before leaving for college with Jaggi; mimicking Jaggi he had started calling Ratno mom.
Jagat drove Ratno to School. Not a word passed their lips. The car stopped in front of Ratno's office.
"I can't allow my son to betray the country."
"The sons are grown men with minds of their own. I'm sure you didn't intend to rear dummies? At Sameer's age you're my hero precisely because you're a rebel. Had he been alive your father would've been afraid for your future too."
Ratno stepped out and into her office and as Jagat sped away, the silence in the car was drowned out by the horns of trucks, buses and bicycle bells. At war with the emerging India and growing sons the once indefatigable Jagat quietly walked past Shiv Singh. Shiv Singh walked into the office and said,
"Principal ji, unlike you to quietly pass me by. Shall I get you some tea?"
"Chacha, sure a tea would do me some good. But more tea I need your counsel," said Jagat and described what was on his mind. Shiv Singh thought for a moment and said,
"My Principal Child, you fought for the freedom of the country, Sameer is fighting for his freedom. Let go his freedom before he snatches it; like you snatched it, for the whole country, from an Empire where the Sun never set."
Ratno helped Jagat scrounge enough cash for Sameer's ticket to Britain. Jaggi helped Sameer select blue woolen fabric for a suit, his first ever before the latter went away to Zillapur, for saying last minute goodbyes to Sujata ma, Teg and Eesa Chacha.
At night Jaggi awoke with excruciating pain in his crotch; next to his penis was a pimple-like growth, painful to touch. Shy of showing the spot to his mother, holding loose pajamas around his buttocks and shrieking he barged through the unlocked doors into Jagat's bedroom.
"Jaggi what happened," asked Ratno followed by Jagat saying, "Son, what happened? Are you alright?"
"Pain in my crotch but the two of you in bed, forget it! I'm so ashamed! You, the man I admired, you turned out to be so low, a fraud....," as his yelling trailed off they could hear he was crying.
"You can't say that about Jagat, he's a good man," Ratno was shouting.
"Why can't I? He sleeps with a women from his own village. He should be ashamed and so should you," the anger rising in Jaggi's voice.
"Say what you want about me but you can't insult your father, period."
"My bloody father, he's dead; you told me he's dead. The man in bed with can't be my father, you wouldn't have lied to me."
Jaggi's pajamas resting around his ankles, his hands wiping the tears flooding his cheeks and the nascent beard, he stood wailing. She put on her kameez, switched the bulb on and its rays beamed down on them; Jagat lying in bed, Jaggi standing half naked, Ratno sitting in the bed, speechless. Reminding Jaggi how he had once deduced his name by adding Jag from Jagat to Ratn from Ratno, she asked, "Do you now believe he's your father?"
Without answering her question Jaggi left the room.
The Sun had been up for some time, the kitchen sat quiet and facing the front outer wall, Jaggi sat in the yard. In the gloominess he felt all around him the red and pink roses
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