The Morning after

It is a small and dingy room. The last rays of the day’s sun are gliding into it through a little window located rather close to the ceiling. The walls of the stuffy room are poorly plastered and the floor is almost bare. In the left corner, a middle aged man is sitting on a white cloth that he has placed on the floor. He is wearing a white kurta pyjaama and an intricately woven cotton cap on his head. He is facing the wall and performing his daily namaaz.

Just then there is a commotion outside his room. A hawaldar with a rather large underbelly opens the lock to the cell. He pushes in a small, thin man.

Enter Hawaldar and the new prisoner.

Hawaldar: There you go. Now, yours is an open and shut case and you'll be free six months from now. You will get two meals a day to your cell. Once a week you will get some fresh air and help provide free labour to the mining factory. Ok?

Without waiting for a reply, he hurriedly locks the cell and gives him a warning look.

Exit Hawaldar.

Five minutes later

Middle aged man: Call me Khalid. Tell me, what story have you brought with yourself?

Prisoner (sitting down against the wall and staring at his jail mate curiously): It doesn’t concern you.

Khalid (smirking): Hmm…you have to live here with me for one year, I understand. You don’t look like a criminal to me. What have you done?

Prisoner (mindlessly staring at a speck of dirt on the floor): I am accused of stealing Mrs. Agarwal’s daughter’s gold necklace. It was missing after the party last night. There was a big hullabaloo about it. The main rooms of the house were searched but it didn’t turn up. Today morning, Mrs. Nita, Mrs. Agarwal’s childhood friend, suggested that my room be checked.

Khalid: ..and it was found. Did you steal it?

Prisoner: No. I would never dream of it. I have worked for them for 7 years now. How easily they suspected me. An outsider comes in and within the day, all the love and kindness they showed me in years is replaced by mistrust. Mrs. Nita’s room wasn’t checked. I am sure she took it. They are a little hard up. Her daughter is getting married next week and they are falling short of money. When she realized she might get caught, she conveniently slipped it into my room.

Khalid: What is your name?

Prisoner: Harish

Khalid: your family is not the culprit. It is their mindset which the society has moulded. How could they possibly oppose a friend of the same status as themselves to protect a mere servant?

Harish: It’s the same everywhere, is it? My father owned a small shoe polishing shop. He could never really get beyond that. I, annoyed with the treatment that was meted out him, left him, in search of a better life. I planned to educate myself and make money. Things didn’t work out right though. If only I had a fairer skin colour.

Khalid (laughing): That isn’t the solution, young man. There was obviously somewhere you went wrong. If you did the right thing the right way, no one could have stopped you from getting educated and making it big. Think beyond the colour, caste and creed shit the society gives you.

Harish (after a two minute silence): It’s done now. I tried as much as I could. It isn’t in my fate.

Khalid: So, you believe in fate?

Harish: (nodding in affirmative): Fate decides how I live and what I do. The only thing fate doesn’t decide is till when I live…

Khalid (raising eyebrows): Oh, is it so? Young lad, these are just phases of life that teach you how to deal with it. If this is how you choose to learn these lessons, both the world and your ‘fate’ will be in for a nice shock.

You need to go back and fight for your innocence. Go back and confidently request them to confront their friend. If ‘fate’ is on your side, the truth will clear all things up. If that doesn’t happen, then it’s an episode of your life that has toughened you. You should move on to live other better episodes. Nothing is really worth challenging your existence. Nothing.

Harish is still staring at the spot on the floor. He murmurs something to himself and a deep silence follows.

Khalid gets ready to sleep. He lays out a sheet on the floor, says his prayers and lies down to sleep. Harish sits slackly against the wall, almost asleep.

Eight and half hours later.

Enter two Hawaldars.

Hawaldar: Khalid bhai. It is time.

Khalid (saying prayers): Yes. Two minutes.

Five minutes later, the two Hawaldars and Khalid are walking toward the gallow. Meanwhile, Harish wakes up and notices his roommate missing. There is a deadly silence in the room. The clock tower ominously strikes six, when he hears a loud clicking sound followed by a muffled shriek.