Twelve There is some junk around here. But it will be a great store for your shop,' Mama said, opening the door of a dilapidated godown. Sunlight hit the room for the first time in years. Two rats scurried across on unsteady legs. We navigated our way through empty gunnybags, stacks of bricks and abandoned masonry. 'It will take weeks to organise this. Omi, we will need six lights on the ceiling,' I said. 'It's fifteen feet by fifteen feet. A good size,' Mama said. 'Mama, what rent do you want for this?' I said. I had decided to go into wholesale business. I was quite certain that the recent cricket series would increase demand bigtime. As long as I could secure goods on credit, I could make money. 'Nonsense. A father does not take rent from his son,' Mama said. I hated such form of benevolence. I had estimated the godown's rent as half of the shop. It had no frontage to make it suitable for retail. 'And speaking of sons, I want you to meet my son today,' Mama said and shouted.'Dhiraj! Dhiraj!' Dhiraj, Mama's fourteen-year-old son, came running from the temple compound. His Spiderman T-shirt and jeans contrasted with the plate of vermillion and saffron paste that he was carrying in his hand. 'Baba, here you are. Let me put the tilak,' Dhiraj said. Dhiraj put a tilak on Mama's forehead. 'Meet your brothers, Mama said. 'Govind, Ishaan and, of course, Omi.' 'Hi,' I said. 'The cricket shop owners. I love cricket,' the boy said in a voice that had just broken into adolescence. 'So young, yet he helps me with my campaign after school,' Mama said with pride in his voice. 'Two trips to Ayodhya already. Put tilak on your brothers, son.' Dhiraj put tilak on our foreheads too. 'I have to finish puja. Ish bhaiya, you have to give me cricket tips someday' 'Sure, run along,' Mama said. We came out of the godown. Mama bolted the door. 'How is it going, Mama? You need me?' Omi said. 'Flections are only six months away. In a few months, the rallies will start. I have to show Parekh-ji what a brilliant job I can do.' I took out ten one-hundred-rupee notes and placed them in Mama's hand. 'Rent for the godown, Mama,' I said. 'Leave it no,' he said. 'Don't say no, Mama. 1 am already obligated to you. Business is looking up. We will repay your loan soon, too,' 1 said.
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'Hello, Pandit-ji? Can you hear me?' 1 said. 1 received a call from Pandit-ji a month alter 1 had opened the godown. The temple bells made it hard to talk and I had to strain my ears to hear his voice on the horrible line. 'I have had enough, Govind. I want to marry my daughters off and go back to my Kashmir.' 'I know Pandit-ji,' I said. He had told me this story a dozen nines.