Ethical Prasad

After taking six puffs of small gold, Madhav threw away the half-burnt cigarette and extinguished it under his feet. Then, like every day, he tore open a packet of Pass Pass, mouth freshener, put the contents in his left hand and rubbed it with his right hand. Half the content of his hand was pressed inside the mouth and the other half was blown into the air. Then he rubbed his mustache with the hand. He knew pretty well that if his cigarette addiction was detected in his house, the image created in the past 22 years would be tarnished in a moment.

Father Prasad was a scholar and openly boycotted such bad habits. He believed that these habits are part of Western civilization and have a detrimental effect on health. Grandfather had lost his life due to cigarette addiction so the father did not want this incident to happen again in the house. But all these things were made up, and in real life neither it had any significance nor did life become colorless without it. After all, what harm a cigarette would cause? It was so because my father was a victim of conservative thoughts. To date, neither any Western-style was adopted nor was anyone allowed to get addicted to the house. He inculcated this habit in Madhav since his childhood. After getting up early in the morning he must take a bath and engage himself in worship, before getting involved with any other work.

He considered these habits as a key to his success. In the last 22 years, Madhav had not seen his father going astray from these habits. Madhav was also a young man with strong determination like his father. Once he decided something, it was his nature to achieve it. Because of this habit, he used to look different in the crowd of his friends, and they used to mock Madhav. But how long will a hungry man resist his temptation and not keep his hands on goodies kept in front of him.

“What harm will it do if I take once” prompted Madhav to become a victim of the cigarette addiction. Gradually this addiction picked up to take him from one to four cigarettes which he could not even imagine. Instead of the smoke of the incense, now it was the smoke of a cigarette. On the pretext of cricket, going out was an opportunity to smoke and release rings. All this happened without his knowledge. Madhav handed over a tenner to the owner of the panshop, making an entry of Rs 1/- in his ledger and proceeded towards home. While passing through the market, he realized that he had to get coffee powder for his mother. He thought of buying the powder from Kasaliwal's shop

Today, it was February 14th, and all over the country lovers were engaged in expressing their love. Someone gave roses, someone a gift. There were various types of gifts available in the market. Gift from a teddy bear to the locket, spitting in two parts, ranging from Rs 40 to Rs 400 and even costlier gifts were available for which there was no dearth of buyers. When Madhav stopped at Kasaliwal's shop, a fast-moving car came from behind, brushing him aside with a steep turn. The boy from inside the car abused him, "Are you blind? Look before you stop.”

Madhav kept looking at him confused for a moment and then raised his hand up as if he was apologizing. It was not his fault as he had parked his bike on the side of the road, so seeing that boy’s rude behavior he said nothing. The boy had a turban wrapped at his neck, and with zarda in his mouth, he was wandering with a face which looked as if he was in search of someone belonging to his party. For a moment Madhav felt that he should reply but several vehicles came making a loud noise while passing by his side. All the vehicles were together and it looked as if the election was due or they were going for hunting.  The whole party had arranged a rally today against Valentine's Day. Every year on this day, these jathas raided the gardens of the locality, beating the pairs of lovers reminding them of our glorious culture. Every year, this group becomes active and some times become even violent.

Madhav took the packet of coffee and seeing the roses kept in the left side counter asked for its price.

“Rs 50 each. Should I give you?”The shopkeeper asked.

“I don’t need it”

“Please take it. I will give two for Rs 80”

“I don’t require, brother”.

“You are the son of a Pundit. Why are you shy? Take it. I shall not tell your father.”

 “Not required, brother. What shall I do with it? Why are you after me?”

“Well, don’t take. But this is the cheapest in the whole Gol Bazaar. All lovers of this place buy from me.”

“Yes, there is none”.Madhav got irritated and handed over Rs 20 to Kasliwal. He did not talk any further. He casually glanced at the roses and moved ahead.

Madhav sat on the cycle, as it was on level ground, and pulled the standoff by his other leg. For a moment he glanced downwards which went through his shirt showing him the ground below. Suddenly he felt that he had gone thinner. Often people saw Madhav's lean body and assumed that he would certainly be taking drugs, but no one had asked him directly. On suspicion, his father had also asked him but Madhav avoided telling the truth. He made excuses saying that he played more. Also that he was not taking meat to build his body, otherwise he was going to the gym regularly.Pundit Ji got excited on hearing this and said,” Give up your life, but don’t give up the righteousness”.There was only one rule in this house, “Don’t eat meat and to some extent even Madhav endorsed it... Why should we kill the innocent animals and eat them. His friends made fun of him and persuaded him to eat meat at least once. But he did not yield. There were many reasons for that. He got only Rs 50 as pocket money daily which he could have spent either on tea and cigarette or meat for half the belly. Madhav could have violated the rules of his father only in one way.

Madhav started pedaling the cycle. Due to the water on the pedal, the oil on the wheel and chain got washed away. Because of this, the pedal made a noise like Chai Chai with every round. Towards the left side on the way was the Dusshera Maidan. Today, some boys, belonging to the party, were standing around a lover couple. The boy was trembling and requesting with folded hands “Leave me, brother; we will not do it anymore." His appearance had a strange mix of despair and fear. On the other side, the man double his size held his collar and asked, "Shall, I tell your father?"They send you for studies thinking that the son will study, become intelligent and help in removing the poverty of the family. And what do you do here? 

“Brother, please leave me.”If you want I shall pay you money. But please don’t tell my father.

“Now, you will pay me money? Have you grown so big? Is your father an Officer? When you knew about a poster released yesterday against the Valentine’s Day celebration, what I find you doing here? The girl standing next to him was trying to cover her face, then another person standing there brought her hands down giving a jerk and said, "What are you covering for? Did you get screwed up? We have not removed the camera yet. "In the fear of getting a bad name, the frustrated girl did only one thing in whispering tone “Brother let me go, please. I will never do it again. God promise, brother.”

This continued for some time and lastly, the party members took the number of fathers of both and took their photograph. During this period the boy got a few slaps. The boy wasn't so much scared because normally people getting defamed before strangers are not so much scared than those who are defamed before family members.

 Madhav noticed that his bicycle was stationery and he was looking at it as if he was seeing a movie. He bowed his head down, looked through his shirt and saw the ground below. "To lecture on Indian culture is one thing and to enforce on someone is another thing. After all, what is the use of enforcing it with ill will and fight? The man will not be able to learn anything while the rage of revenge burns inside. Well, what is there for me! It is good that I have no girlfriend, or else I would have got trapped in flirtation- losing money and respect.

"Madhav moved towards his house. He placed his bicycle leaning to a banyan tree and knocked on the door. There was no reply. After waiting for two minutes he again knocked on the door and shouted” Please open the door mom, dad. A sound of Tak Tak came from inside hearing which he felt that someone will open. Five minutes passed but still, the door was not opened. Madhav became anxious and he moved towards the window to explore. It had never happened like this before. What is going on inside?

Well, it is Valentine’s Day today. However great my father might be as a scholar or an intellectual, everyone gets the temptation. It was broad daylight now. It appears that father is becoming progressive-minded. Madhav did not think it proper to peep through the window and wanted to pay a little respect to his parents. As Madhav turned back to go he saw his mother coming from the other side of the street. Suddenly the door of the house opened and from inside his father and the cook, Bhiku Prasad came outside in a semi-nude condition.

END

तरक्कीप्रसाद

Tragedy

 https://storymirror.com/read/story/hindi/milhxsxp/trkkii-prsaad

© Gulshan Sahu