Biju

The face of the cliff was sheer and the drop more than a thousand feet.  The wind felt cool on his face, and the noonday sun had just adorned its' throne.  He stood on the edge of the cliff and took in the scene around him.  A single eagle stood out in the sky, as it soared majestically on the wind currents.  The valley was laid out below him, as if someone had suddenly opened a closed fist to reveal the most precious of all pearls. 

He wanted this moment to last forever and watched the eagle with envy as it flapped its' wings effortlessly and rose higher.  Ah! to fly and to live a life like that, without fear and without responsibility.  It was a clear sunny day and he could see far into the horizon. The meandering road ran like a black silk thread around the hills and boughs towards the distant city.  He could make the outline of the chimney's as the smoke rose from the roof tops and he wondered about all the things that he could do in the city.  He was pulled back into reality as Bijali neighed.  For a moment he wavered and took a deep sigh as he looked at the scene before him,  but he knew he didn't have much time.  He turned around and jumped.

He came here whenever time permitted,  it was a spot that he had discovered when he was 10 years old and he had kept the secret to himself.  Not that other's didn't know about it.  But it was off the thoroughfare used by most horse keepers.  A cursory glance wouldn't even reveal a path,  but it was right there and he had explored it on his lunch break.  The path was covered with shrubs and sloped precipitously downwards and then turned around unexpectedly  only to reveal a small opening of clear ground.  It stretched out to the face off the cliff and ended at a huge boulder at the very edge of the cliff.  The clearing  was big enough for a horse and him.  It was convenient as it was not too far from the chauk(junction where four roads meet) and was just a five minute brisk run.

Biju worried that he might have been gone for too long and he didn't want to invite Babba's wrath. Babba would be furious with him if he had had to say no to a customer who had come looking for a ride.  Bijali ( Lightning) had as usual devoured his lunch and wanted more.  Biju gave him some water from the goatskin.  Bijali took in some big gupls but he was also in no mood to move leave alone trotting. Biju gave him the few chunks of jaggery(unrefined sugar chunks made from sugar cane) that he kept on him to bribe Bijali and when Bijali couldn't get anything more out of Biju he gave a disgusted grunt and began a gentle trot. 

As he got closer to the chauk he tried to gauge his father's mood from a distance.  Shakti(Power) their other horse was not to be seen, so he must be out with a customer. But other horses along with Bazi(Bet) the most handsome of them all were still there.  The grooms were also idol and were not busy negotiating deals with customers.  At fourteen years of age Biju knew every expression on his father's face. 

He couldn't afford not to.  His father had a mercurial temper and it was best to be wary of him.  In rage he had been known to whip with a crop and he was merciless. Biju  had been the subject of Babba's whipping on just a couple of occasions and as hard as he tried to remember the reason, he couldn't.  All he remembered was the crop reigning down on him from all different directions. 

Biju slowed himself down to a walk and held Bijali's reign,  Babba didn't like to sweat his horses until they had a paying customer on their back.  Babba had his eyes set on the other end of the Mall road(the thoroughfare) and wasn't searching from him, which was always a good sign.  Ramu was standing next to a pole feeding and grooming Badal(cloud) and he smiled when he saw Biju, another good sign.  Biju dismounted just as Babba turned around. 

He came over and looked at Bijali,  then he sniffed the air around Biju for any tobacco smoke and turned and walked away.  Babba had warned him to stay away from Bidis and cigarettes.  Babba hardly ever smoked himself, but it was a very common amongst his people and even the women smoked.  But  Babba believed that you couldn't be a good horse keeper if  you smoked and most of the other horse keepers seemed to agree with him on that, though few kept away from it like Babba did. 

The business of running horses for the customers in the hills at a height of more than 6000 feet is not for the faint of heart. Most of the customers were tourists who had very little idea about the terrain,  and there was not enough space on the trails to take more than three or four horses at a time. Add to that the various restrictions and fines that the local government had put in place to control the thorough fares from being jammed with horse riders.  It was not a viable option to send the customers with the horses by themselves and if the horse keeper could run  they could have one more paying customer.    It was a two mile trail and even if the horses ran at a gentle trot(it was never allowed anything more than that), it was enough to put a grown man out of his breath. 

No one could run the trail as fast or as many times as Biju's Babba could.  In-fact Babba was happiest running the trail, with sweat running down his cheeks and his broad chest, heaving in super human effort to drink in the thin air of the mountains.  Nothing could upset Babba after one of these good runs and Babba had told him that as soon as he turned sixteen he would have to start running the trail too.  To start him off Babba had recently given him the permission to accompany him when there was a someone old enough to ride a pony in the company, which was actually quite often. 

This last week itself he had  gone out on the trail with Babba almost twice a day.  Not that they always had to run, most often people were just happy if the horses just walked.  But as Biju had discovered even walking with a horse up and down the trails was a lot of work.  He hated admitting it even to himself but his first thought had been, "I wiil never be able to finish the trail at such a brisk pace".  But slowly he was getting used to it.

He wondered if there would be anyone wanting to ride a pony today.  He hadn't even gone out once.  It was a Wednesday and the Mall road was not full off people.  Schools were on summer vacations now and often they got a good crowd on week days,  but the biggest crowds were always on weekends.  From his years of working at the chauk, Biju knew that it would be a few weeks before  the tourist frenzy would reach its peak.  It would get so busy that Babba wouldn't even get the time to go home and get his lunch and Biju would have to go home and get it for him.  Biju wondered what they would do this year, as he himself had started going on the trail.  That made him think of food. 

The halwaiee across the chauk was frying a batch of fresh samosas(fried Indian bread stuffed with spicy potatoe or mince meat mixture), and the cooks at Kishan Dhaba  were frying spicy potato patties.  He wondered if Baba would give him money for a plate of potato patties,  every once in while he would.  But one look at Babba's face made him change his mind.

Biju was tempted to sneak away to Kishan Dhaba  and beg the head cook Mohan for a plate of potato patties as they were his favorite. He knew Babba didn't like him to beg and thought it a nasty habit.  The head cook also was unpredictable,  sometimes he would happily give him a plate and at other times he would wave at him with his spatula and scare him with threats of how he had mind of telling Biju's Babba about what a begging rascal his son was. 

Biju was pondering on the thought of taking Ramu's assistance when, from a distance, he heard the sound of horse hooves hitting the road at the pace of a fast gallop. Everyone around him had heard the sound at the same time and they all turned  to look at the rider.  The runners allowed a horse to gallop only on the rare occasion when they were the ones' riding the horse, and that certainly was never the case on a crowded afternoon. 

Biju was still trying to figure out the identity of the rider but the rider was in strange garbs.  The rider had a cap, high leather boots,  a well fitted jacket, and was wearing a patloon(Indian term for trousers) which was tucked inside the boots.  There was also a black automobile behind the rider which was giving the rider a chase. Most automobiles stayed away from the Mall Road as it cost twenty rupees(which to Biju was a fortune) to drive an automobile on the Mall Road and it was barely two miles long.  But apparently this  driver had no problem spending twenty rupees.  The horse was none other than his own Shakti.  Bijus' eyes immediately started looking for Baldev,  the runner who usually went out with Shakti.  But Baldev was nowhere to be seen. 

While Biju's eyes had been searching for Baldev,  the automobile had drawn closer to the horse.  But the rider was very accomplished.  Shakti responded and picked up the pace when the rider leaned further onto the neck of the horse to decrease the strain.  Across the length of the mall,  a murmur went up and then it was taken up as a cheering shout.  People were shouting cries of encouragement and they were all cheering for the rider.  Everyone moved away from the road  to allow the race smooth passage. 

The rider with deft use of the reigns managed to take the shortest route and stay an arm's length ahead of the beastly machine.  Biju was proud of Shakti but even he couldn't stop himself from wondering,  'how long could Shakti keep ahead of that machine?  What took a supreme effort for Shakti was so easy for the machine,  but at that moment the rider crossed the Chauk and apparently that was the agreed upon endpoint for the race. 

The car stopped and waited for the rider to bring back Shakti.  The rider brought Shakti to a halt, dismounted effortlessly and then took of the cap.  Biju's world came to a halt when he saw the jet black hair tumble over the shoulders.  It had never even occurred to him that a girl could ride a horse,  leave alone ride it to a full gallop.  He had heard of the brave feats of the Rani of Jhansi but she was a grown woman and a queen who was fighting the British.  This rider was probably as old as him and had the fair skin of a maiden who belonged more in the comforts of cool palaces than horsebacks. 

But she was already walking the horse back towards the Chauk.  Like Biju everyone else at the chuak was surprised to discover that the rider was a girl.  At that moment the door of the car opened and a man in uniform stepped out.  He was wearing the livery of a driver. He looked at all of them with a contemptuous  glance,  as if it was beneath his dignity to talk to them, and without addressing anyone in particular  he asked in Hindi,  whose horse is this?  Biju's babba stepped in-front to face him.  He informed Babba, ''sahib wants to talk to you" and the window of the passenger seat rolled down.  The sahib beconed Babba and very soon Babba was involved in a serious discussion with the sahib.  Biju caught words like horse and rupaiyah in fluent Hindi.  But Biju couldn't catch enough of the conversation to make sense of it.

Meanwhile the girl had reached the chauk and by instinct she handed Shakti's reigns to Biju.  She said 'thank you' in English to him, and then added in Hindi,  "these fifty ruppes are for the horse buy him some good food he worked very hard on that hill".
Biju couldn't find any words for he had none.  He was mesmerized by the eyes and the rich voice.  The crass manner of address that the driver used for him brought him back to another reality with a jolt, as the girl disappeared inside the automobile.  But the next few words that the driver uttered were to hurt even more,  'Hey,  you street monger,  why do you look at my memsahib like that with your eyes wide open,  get going now,  haven't you any work to do or will you stand here just gapping at her for the rest of the day'. 

As soon as the words were uttered Biju  knew, his staring eyes and gaping mouth would be the subject of all jokes amongst the horse runners and his friends.  But there was nothing he could do about it now.  He could already hear stifled sniggers around him.  Babba tried to salvage the situation by ruffling his hair in an affectionate manner but that only made it worse for Biju.  He didn't like it any more when Babba ruffled his hair and it made him stiff, he wanted to be treated like a grown up and not like a little boy.  When Babba tried to console him by saying, 'all such things keep happening in business' it didn't make any sense neither did it take away the pain of the insult. 

By now the car had driven away and the crowd in the chauk was beginning to break up.  Some of the horse runners and other shop owners had gathered around Babba to ask him about the conversation he had with the 'sahib' in the car.  Biju didn't want to be around any one and so amidst the commotion he just slowly slipped away from the chauk.  No one was going to miss him not even Babba. All the runners were back and there were not many customers. 

As he was walking away from the chauk, Biju inadvertently looked down at his hand and was surprised to see that his fist was still clenched.  He slowly opened it and there it was still  in his hand the fifty rupee note.  It was no longer crisp as the sweat of his palm had made it moist,  but it hadn't disappeared.  It was not a dream,  the rider had actually given him the money.  In all the excitement no one had probably noticed the girl handing him the money along with the reigns. 

Biju knew that the money was not for him to keep.  There were only three horse owners who worked the chauk,  Biju's babba,  Mukhaiya and Munshi.  The runners were gathered from the immediate and extended family.  It was an unwritten code of conduct that the money had to go to the owner of the horse even if it was a tip over and above the usual fees.  As Biju's babba ran the trail himself at least a couple of times a day it made even more sense to give the money to him.  The horse owners generally distributed the money based upon their needs and wants and their relationships with the runners.  There was no fixed rate or daily wages as such and often payments were made in kind.  But Biju knew fifty rupees were more than the daily wages of the highest paid runner on any day. 

Biju intended to turn around and give the money to his father but he felt the first urge of rebellion beat in his heart.  Biju didn't realize that evil was at his door and so he gave into thoughts of what he could do with that money.  The embarrassment of being caught while staring at a girl, the abrasive nature of insults that were hurled at him and the helplessness to defend himself in any manner what so ever had hurt his pride.  He wanted to have his way.  The halwai's shop stood out in the chowk as the place that could put right all his hurt and satisfy his cravings. 

Bijus surveyed the halwai with grave eyes.  He sat at the front entrance, cross legged on a comfrotable mattress.  His seat was right next to a top loading clay oven and a clay range, which were build into the floor.  With sweat runnning down his face which was as red as oven baked clay he was indeed the main fixture of the shop.Looking at him, Biju once again wondered how he ever managed to stand up or bend over.  The halwai's belly hung over his legs and reached out to the floor.  The tight half sleeve cotton vest that he wore didn't do much to diguise the huge mass underneath it.

Biju had learned the hard way not to underestimate the halwai.  The halwai had grown a sixth sense for smelling trouble and there was nothing that happened in his shop that he was not aware of.  It appeared that the frying pan and the oven infornt of the halwai occupied all his attention but that was certainly not the case as several boys in the street could attest too.  They couldn't even walk into his shop without the halwai calling them out by thier name and asking them, ' kis wasta aya hai'? (what are you here for?). 

But today Biju didn't have to feel sheepish and afraid.  The money in his hand made him bold.