CIGARETTE STORIES 2 - THE GOLD CHAIN

By Sai Nihar

She just finished mopping and cleaning the 4th house and final house of the day and was looking pale and tired. As she comes out of the rich suburban house in the outskirts of Mumbai, all she can think was to go have a smoke and let go the tension of today. She was sitting near the beach road looking at the sunset, smoking her beedi and taking out a small book and an almost used up pencil and wrote down the savings 5,20,000 and she still needed 2 lacs to build a house. She sat there for a while and was dreading to go back to her small Dharavi house, where they were no space to even breathe. As she headed back home it was silent, no one was around she started to look around the colony, shops every place but she couldn’t find her mother sister and brother anywhere. One of the neighbours came running down and told her “Teri amma ko aspataal le Gaye!

Jaldi jaa rei!!!!” She was shivering, she could hear her heart pounding! Her feet feeling as though they're welded to the floor! She calmed herself down ran down to the hospital and saw her mother lying down at the emergency ward with a doctor and few nurses around, her brother and sister came running and hugged her and her eyes welled up as she watched her mother lying down unconscious. The doctor informed her that her mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer and needs 7lacs for the operation, chemotherapy etc and he gave her 1 week to make the complete payment in order to start the treatment. She was in confusion she was running short of 1,80,000. She came back to her hut and lit up a bedee and sighed out loud not knowing what to do! They didn’t have any gold, no insurances, nothing to even think of. She went around the neighbourhood and asked money and somehow, she managed to get 25000. The next day she went to work and she had too much of pride to ask help from her rich owners where she cleans the houses. So, she somehow managed to hide her tears and started to clean the first house of the day. She was in the master bedroom of the house and saw the cupboard open and saw a stack of cash on the clothes, she knew she was going to take it! but she couldn’t afford to steal the entire stack so smartly she cut down a paper in the size of a note and replaced them with stack panicking and sweating. It usually takes her 30 mins to mop the place but today she was dreading there for an hour. The same way she started to take money from the other houses she was working, the only taught in her head was her mother! One day left for the payment and she was running short of 50,000 she had to do something! The 4th house she was cleaning always had a lot of gold lying around and the owner was alone in the hall his wife went for a trip. As she went in one of the rooms to check, she found a gold necklace on the bedside she looked around and without any hesitation she was going to take it and suddenly she could feel someone holding her hip from behind! “Saar! Kya kar Rahe ho! Chodo!” Her owner grabbed her from behind and was touching her all over! She was scared and pushing him away! He started to tell her “Ek baar please! Madam bhi nahi hein ghaar mein! Pleaseeee manjao!” She was shocked and scared she found a vase around the bedroom and was ready to break the fuckers head and then he said “Mein Paisa bhi dunga tumko!” She looked at the gold chain and she looked at him! “Mereko 50,000 chahiye!” The owner had a dirty smirk and told her that she was not worth so much, she closed her eyes gathered her taughts and said “Mein chilavungi! Madam ko boldungi, tv channal ke pass jaungi!” He smirked more he went to the cupboard and removed a stack of cash and put it near the gold chain. He undressed her and pushed her on the bed, he got on top of her and kissed her and choked her and started to abuse her she just turned her face and was looking at the stack of cash. The owner was moaning “Randi Hain tu!” And she closed her eyes and went back into the past where she was a little girl sick and sleeping at one corner and her mother was a daily wage worker at some site, her mother was taking care of her all along and was worried that something might happen to her little daughter! Her father was a drunk and he left the house when she was a year old. She was laying down in her small torn frock and was barely in her senses, her mother brought the contractor inside they hut and started to get undressed, she was scared and wanted to get up and kill the contractor but she was so small and weak! As soon as the contractor was done he threw money at her mother’s face and said “Rakle Randi’ and she suddenly opened her eyes came back into her senses and the owners sweat was dripping on her forehead and he was done! He took the stack of cash and threw it on her face and said “Rakle Randi’! She got up crying and thinking what did she do! But she was not feeling a thing because her taught was that her mother did it for her and she did it for her mother simple. She went to the bank withdrew the money and rushed to the hospital, as she reached the hospital she saw her brother and sister crying! The doctor came up to her and said her mother passed away. She was blank, she came outside the hospital, spotted a cigarette shop took a bedee and sat down holding the cash in bag. She finished smoking and took out the small book and put a tick near the house to be built.

By Sai Nihar