He first met her at a bangle shop. The head of the bangle seller there often felt like a nuisance to him. His head was bobbing up and down. He was giving someone bangles. That’s when she went there. He was buying vegetables from the other side of the road. She was saying something to the bangle seller. She was holding several red bangles in her hand. Realizing that someone was with her, he looked away. Started buying vegetables. He didn’t buy much.
When he turned around, she was nowhere to be seen.
He looked at his watch and noted the time.
The next day he stood around the same place. So it continued for a few days.
One day she came again. He looked at her. She was buying flowers that day. Friends also bought flowers.
He slowly approached the person who was selling flowers with fear. He saw nothing else, only her.
She also saw him and she was terrified. She hastened to leave place. Her friends were still buying flowers.
Some old newspapers were hung there to wrap the flowers. She pulled out a piece of paper from it. She took the pen which found in the shopkeeper’s pocket and wrote something on the paper. Hastily she threw the pen into the pile of flowers. The paper was also thrown at him.
It was written like this: “Kamala, Galli 25, Kamathipura, It is danger”, was all that was written on it. That’s it.
Kamala and some of her friends ran and got into the Ambassador taxi which was parked nearby. He said “I am Gopal…” two or three times. She didn’t listen either. It was lost in the sound of vehicles and the crowd of vendors.
He felt a little happy that day, knowing her name. At the same time, he felt sad too. “Kamathipura … it is not a small place. How can I find Kamala from there? Gully 25, oh…isn’t this the red street..”
Gopal did not buy any vegetables that day. He bought a half bottle of “Sandra” from a desi liquor store he saw on the way. (Sandra is a state government owned liquor brand)
He drank it all. Sometime during the night he slept off.
When he woke up in the morning, he realized that he slept without even closing the door.
After a few days, Gopal saw Kamala again. Close to Bandra Market. Gopal looked at her. Kamala gestured something with her hand.. Gopal thought “Are you ok” .. but she asked “Why didn’t you come”. However she asked in the sign language “May I come” and she understood.. Kamala said “Come tomorrow”.
Kamala got into the car and it went away.
That day too Gopal bought “Sandra”.. a whole bottle. He decided to call his friend today ..or else go there.
Called Sajith from Hari’s hotel, he told him to go to his place.
The places of residence of both of them are near. Just Five minutes walking distance.
So they decided to meet there that night.
Sajith told a story.
One day an outsider came to see the church gate area. He is new to Bombay.. saw a building there, the Bombay Stock Exchange.. and started counting its floors. Suddenly someone, a goon came and asked “What are you doing?” Outsider said, “Counting the floors of this”.
Goon angrily said: “You shouldn’t count the floors of this.. You have to pay ten rupees for counting each floor. How many floors did you count?”
Outsider said “I have counted five floors.. By the time you called me”
Goon said “ok take fifty rupees” he gave him the fifty rupees and walked away.
The person who bought that money laughed.. He was also walking and laughing.. Why?
Gopal said he didn’t know..
Sajith : He had counted to ten floors.. The outsider lied to him.. That’s why he laughed..
Gopal asked: “Then why that Goon laughed?”
Sajith: “You fool, He might thought that someone like you will come one day…”
Gopal said: “Bro, I want to go to Kamathipura tomorrow..
Sajith is shocked : “Why?”
Gopal : “To meet someone.”
Sajith: “No, it is not good.”
Both of them argued that each of them was right.
Next day Gopal reached Kamathipura.
Kamathipura is a very spacious place. If you enter there from one side, the place where you go down will be some other place. Feels like losing sense of time and place. For example, say you are entering Kamathipura from the Grand Road side, sometimes you walk into Chor Bazaar, or “Navajeevan” side , sometimes near Maharashtra College. If you walk to another side, you will also reach the “Gol Devil Mandir” or Islampura Mosque. But if you want to go down the way you went up, you have to ask someone.
Gopal wandered around that whole day. In the evening, Gopal reached the 25th street.
asked Kamala.
The girls there laughed. Gopal did not understand.
“There are many girls with the name “Kamala”, If you want we also can pretend like a Kamala. What do you say Handsome”
Gopal tried to understand them. “That kind eyed, flowery, long haired ….”
They laughed again and one of them asked, “Look at me, don’t I have eyes, don’t I have long hair, my name is Kamala.”
She pulled him inside. Gopal stopped her..
“I want the Kamala I mean”
Then one of them told the other privately..
She laughed..”Oho.. you are a little chief.. handsome… you want that Kamala, don’t you”
Few of them pulled him inside. He sat on the bed in the centre courtyard. As they walked away, she came towards him. Yes, Kamala really came close him. Gopal slowly got up from the bed thinking whether to smile or not. Automatically Gopal walked with her. He walked away without speaking. Kamala took him to the room.
They talked for a while that night. They decided to live together.. and go somewhere else. Go and live in any village.
Kamala said, “It’s difficult to get out here. When you go out, someone will be with you, and you will see one or two goons. You cannot make out that they are goons. They will be watching us from a distance. If we try to run away, it’s over.. and then.. death is certain.”
Gopal asked: “Then how will you get out?”
Kamala “After six months Ganesha Festival is coming.. then there will be more people here, then we can go”
Gopal thought, that is good, we will get six months, in that time we can decide where to go and escape.
Gopal said: “Next I will come back only on Ganesha Festival day.. You must find a way to jump out on that day. Some hoe you will have to escape from here on that day”
Kamala agreed.
He wrote his address on a hundred rupee note..
“No. 25, Kolwari Village Road, Bandra East”
They talked until dawn. There are quite a lot of women here, some of them send their children to school to educate them. Some boys go into theft and gang activity. Apart from ‘Sandra’ liquor, there is also home-brewed liquor everywhere. Some ladies start selling such alcohol as they grow older. Some girls continue their mother’s work. Many other children become mechanics. Kids who know how to repair bikes, cars etc. It is said that many of them are car thieves, or learn to steal cars.
She once asked: “I’m a whore, don’t you mind?”
Gopal said: “That is your past life. .. I don’t want to know that. Don’t ask this question anymore.”
Gopal handed over some money to her that night and said : “You keep it with you”
The next morning he went straight to meet Ajith.
Gopal told Sajith everything that happened yesterday.
Sajith heard everything with lots of surprise. Sajith banged his hand on his head when he heard that Gopal gave her all the money he had.
Since then Kamala has been waiting for that day. Those who are with her said that Kamala is very happy..
Her thought was something else.. Where will Gopal take her?.. She should leave this city of Bombay. Forever.. But how to jump out of here? That is a problem.
The main entrance here is a large hall. There are rooms on all sides of the hall, and few windows too. There is good light in this hall. A big bed in the middle and four or five chairs around it. A spittoon can be found under the cot. There will still be a fat lady in that bed, and she’s the operator.
A window on the east side opens to the road. But there are two windows on the north side, the window bars are as thick as a chapati spreader stick, and the windows are not very high from the ground, both of which open into an alleyway, and that alleyway stretches up to the Maharashtra School.
Kamala always pinches some salt in both hands after having lunch and rubs it on these three window bars.
So the months passed one by one.
Gopal visited Kamathipura every month..
He will go in the morning and walk around the whole place throughout the day. Will meet Kamala in the evening. They tell stories at night, give all the money he have, and go back to his room in the morning.
And Ganesh festival day has come.
Gopal reached Kamathipura early in the morning. He walked around there for a while.
Kamala was not seen. Walked along on 25th Street. Some of the call girls who were there felt familiar.. They called Gopal. But did not find Kamala.
Kamala had cut the bar of a window early in the morning and jumped out. She was able to slaughter it very easily because it was weakened by the salt coating.
She looked at that old hundred rupee note again and again.. 25 , Kolvari Village Road, Bandra .. She ran.. She ran across the railway tracks..
She found the house number 25. An old two-storied house, houses next to each other, houses without a gap, lined up. He asked a person below, “Where does Gopal live?”
He gestured that above ..
A small rusted and broken ladder ..
Kamala climbed the stairs with great hope and a little trepidation. No lock placed.. She thought he must inside. She knocked at the door.. no one opened the door.. a small push.. no.. no one. The door opened with a loud thump.
Unexpectedly, when she opened the door, she stumbled… She went to the wall and fell. First she saw a bank’s calendar, March 1995, now it’s August 1996.
Kamala thought for a moment, why did Evan set the calendar for a year and a half back?
She looked at another wall.. She was shocked.. Gopal’s wedding photo on it.
A beautiful girl.
Kamala thought that he got married.. she got angry.. she tore all the papers of the calendar in her hand. Only the spine wire in the calendar was in her hand.. She searched the entire small house.. She found two bags.. under the old iron cot..
Ohh.. Kamala felt that he is going to leave the country..
She unknowingly straightened the folds in the calendar spine wire.. it was about a centimeter wide when she straightened the folds. She waved it like a knife.. walked here and there. Went to the cooking corner, checked…nope, nothing. Didn’t even get a piece of bread..
She was hungry, she started running since in the morning.. She drank water from a bucket and sat there.. Her hands moved.. The wire of the calendar in her hand fell on the ground.. Not knowing.. She was confused as to what to do..
She didn’t know how long she sat there.
In the evening, she was shocked to hear a sound.
She was sure that it would be Gopal.. She hid behind the door.
When Gopal entered, she pulled the calendar wire around his neck.
Gopal fell inside with a loud scream and a thud.
He asked in a hoarse voice “Kamala where were you, I was walking in Kamathipura looking for you”
Kamala asked: “Why, you have another one..”, she showed him the photo which is on the wall..
Gopal continued: “She was my wife. She was abducted or missing a year and a half ago. Hearing that she was there, I came to Kamathipura in search of her.”
Blood spread all over the room.. Kamala’s sari too..
Gopal’s eyes started departing..
Kamala didn’t believe it.. “Then where are you planning to go after packing your bags?”
He started: “For you and me to go…somewhere else, where no one recognises us.”
