Sankaran

I was about 12 years of age, then studying in the eighth standard when I first met Sankaran.

I still vividly remember the day he had joined our school. It was two months after the commencement of the academic session. The teacher introduced him to the class and asked us to help him catch up with the previous lessons. 

He was a plain looking boy and definitely looked older than all the rest of us. None of my classmates went out of their way to offer him a seat. He looked around and then sat near me.

But within a few days, he had become a sort of cult hero, after we came to know that he had been quite a rebel.

You see, till then all of us had been leading a rather ordinary life that was limited to playing childish pranks. But with the teenage years knocking on the door, the need to do something rebellious was starting to brew inside us. The hippie cult, the Beatles, West Side Story were some of the iconic elements, then.

Then one day one of my classmates brought a scoop.

“Hey, do you guys know that Sankaran was thrown out from his last school,” he said, rolling his eyes.

That evening, after school, we canceled our gully (alley) cricket and tailed Sankaran. After a 15-minute walk, he went into a small South Indian restaurant. When we entered the restaurant after some time, we saw him waiting at the tables. We were stunned.

Sankaran gradually became an integral part of our group. Bit by bit we learnt about his tumultuous past.

He came from a poor family, but his parents had managed to send him to one of the best schools in a town in South India.

From an early age, he had not been interested in studies. Instead, he only wished to make money. He failed in his exams quite a few times and also fell into some bad company.

Meanwhile, he also got entangled in local politics. Then, one day, he was arrested along with a few others for participating in a protest march against the government. However, being a minor, the police took him back to the school and handed him over to the Principal.

Being a strict disciplinarian, the Principal immediately expelled him. Fearing retribution at home he caught the first train out of town, without even bothering to know its destination.

Two days later he reached Calcutta ( a city in the eastern part of India now known as Kolkata). He did not know Hindi and his English was rusty. A kindly taxi driver, who could make out that he was a South Indian, dropped him at the said South Indian restaurant.

The restaurant owner, a kind man, took him in and gave him a job and a place to stay. He also got him admitted to school.

Within a few days, it seemed, Sankaran had adjusted to his new life in Calcutta.

A few of my classmates always hung out at the restaurant on holidays. Sankaran always treated them with snacks. Somehow, I never cared to join this group. However, I was the only one he approached when he needed help with his studies.

Slowly Sankaran became very much attached to me and to my parents as well. As he was elder to me, I saw an older brother in him. My parents treated him very kindly and were sympathetic to the fact that he had to work so hard at this tender age. But they were appreciative of his tenacity in pursuing studies.

He became a regular visitor to our house. He confided in my parents before taking any important decision. For him, my parents' support was a great source of strength to carry on with his otherwise dreary life.

On many occasions, he had dinner with us at our home. We shared with him whatever we had, which in fact was not much, as our family was not all that well-off.

 Sometimes he used to bring us snacks from the restaurant, saying that they were a gift from his employer. But he stopped when my father strictly forbade him from doing so.

The years rolled by. After passing the Board examination I joined college for my degree course. Sankaran, alas, had failed in the Board examination. But that did not break him. He secured a job as a stenographer in a private firm as he was very proficient in typing & shorthand.

Then one day he came to my house and announced that his big break had finally arrived. He had got a job in a big firm abroad, thanks to the recommendation of his present employer. We were overjoyed for him.

Afterwards, I lost touch with him for quite a long time. Again, in those days, communication was only through letters and I did not have his contact address.

One day I met one of my schoolmates and the topic got around to the whereabouts of Sankaran. He told me that he was still abroad. I learnt that he had got married and now had a kid also.

After a couple of years, having finished my graduation, I joined a multinational firm in Calcutta itself.

It was a Diwali (Festival of Lights) night when Sankaran made a surprise visit to our home. We learnt that he had come back to India for good. He said that his wife could not get used to the climate abroad and had become seriously ill. So, he had given up his job and was now running a small trading business in Chennai ( a city in the southern part of India).

He said that his wife was still bed-ridden. Seeing our sad faces, he laughed and told us not to worry and that God would always show a way. My mother was amazed at his will power to laugh and take life in his stride, despite all the odds. It would have broken any other person. She even went on to compare him to the mythical phoenix bird.

 Years passed and although we did not meet in person, we kept in touch through the exchange of greeting cards and occasional letters. He wrote enthusiastically about the improvement in his wife’s health. But his main pride was in the academic performance of his daughter, who I learnt, always stood first in her school. Every year he would proudly send me a copy of his daughter’s achievements in school. 

Then, during a school reunion in Calcutta, I met a few of my old classmates. The topic got around to the fun we had had in those days and finally rested with news of Sankaran.

Two of them were aware of his wife’s illness, but they said that this was not the actual reason for his returning to India. They said that he had actually been dismissed from his earlier job, because of some nefarious deals. Also, they said that his present business was nothing but purchasing smuggled computer spare parts from the Northeast and selling them at a huge profit in the South. I was shocked but did not believe them. In fact, these were the same ‘friends’ who had always been seen in their school days, shamelessly hanging out with Sankaran to enjoy eating at his expense. So I brushed aside their allegations as pure slander.

Meanwhile my career was flourishing and I was promoted to a senior managerial position. At the same time, I was transferred to Chennai.

Sankaran was overjoyed when I met him in Chennai. He was a great help in getting me settled in my new place, as my parents were by then old and ailing.

One day I visited his residence and was shocked to see him living with his family in a cramped, rented apartment in a low-income group housing complex. He told me that business was dull and what with his wife’s medical expenses, he was unable to afford a better place. His wife was a little better now but could move only with great difficulty. She complained about him constantly and said that she had never seen such a useless fellow and it was her misfortune that she was married to him. She went on to say that the only good thing he had done in his life was to have befriended a successful person like me. 

I was very embarrassed. But, as usual, Sankaran broke the gloomy atmosphere with a bright smile and said that in a couple of years, his daughter would finish her studies and get a job and then all his worries would be over.

I offered to help him out financially, but he said that he could manage, but if the need arose he would definitely approach me. I told him that he should stop being so proud and at least should not hesitate in seeking help from me.

Tears welled up in his eyes and he said that he had always considered me as the younger brother he had never had.

Three more years had passed since I had come to Chennai.

During this period, on every festival day, Sankaran would come to our home, loaded with a lot of home-made goodies. I told him that he should not put so much strain on his wife by asking her to make these goodies. He said that she was aware of our friendship and that was only too glad to do something for me and my family.

His daughter used to come to my house with him on every festive occasion. I grew very much attached to the child and lavished her with gifts. Sankaran protested every time, but I did not pay heed to him. I always considered his family as part of my own and did not hesitate to tell him this. On such occasions, both of us used to get very sentimental.

My father, by that time, had become very sick and had to be hospitalized several times. Sankaran offered to stay by my father’s side at the hospital so that I could attend the office and take care of my mother. His offer was actually a great relief for me, but I did not accept it, because I knew he also needed to take care of his wife. Luckily we had a very helpful neighbor who was willing to look after my mother whenever I was at the hospital by my father’s side.

It was during the month of March in the year 1997, my fourth year in Chennai. For several days I had not got any calls or visits from Sankaran. I was also busy with the year-end work at the office and therefore did not have time to even think about anything else.

So, I was shocked when one day Sankaran’s wife called me to say that he was very sick. I immediately left the office and rushed to his house. I saw him lying in bed, looking a pale shadow of himself. He tried to smile his usual bright smile, but I could see he was in pain. He told me that he was suffering from viral fever and severe back pain. The local doctor had given him some medicines and he would be alright in a couple of days. His wife and daughter were worried and told me that he had been neglecting his health.

I advised him to take rest and not to venture out till he had fully recovered. He said that he could not afford to stay away from his shop for too long  lest he loses his customers to competitors. I then offered to support him financially till he got fully cured but he simply laughed and said that I should not worry so much.

After spending some time with him I took leave and walked to the bus stop to catch a bus and return home. I found that I was having some difficulty in reading the bus numbers when I remembered that I had left my spectacles in Sankaran’s house.

Just as I was about to knock on the door, I heard his wife’s raised voice,

“…you were a fool not to accept your friend’s help. How many times do you expect me to borrow from my brother? I am ashamed to even show my face to any of my relatives. I have seen nothing but misery and grief after marrying you.”

Sankaran mumbled something, but I could not hear his reply.

His wife continued in the same angry tone, “for every festival you made me prepare all these snacks for your friend and his family even though you were aware of my great physical inability. You tell me that he is like your brother. Well, if you are so proud to ask him I will call him…….”

I realized with remorse that till now I had not done anything to help him ease his financial misery, even though I was very well off.

At that moment I heard Sankaran answer back in a raised voice, “You fool! Do you think I am an idiot! Don’t I know that if I ask him for help, he will immediately give it? What we need now is only a few thousand and if I take this small change from him, he will be relieved that he has reciprocated. And the next time, when I need his help, he may no longer feel obligated. I am not going to allow him to release his burden of friendship so easily. Have you forgotten that in a couple of years from now, we have to marry off our daughter? That is when I am going to approach him. He has made a lot of money and is single. I am very well aware that he is a sentimental fool and I am going to say that my daughter is like his own. Then he will not be able to refuse whatever we ask for. That way, I could easily relieve him of a few lakhs, which will not only take care of our daughter’s marriage expenses but will also leave us enough for our future……”

Sankaran continued on in a voice that I could barely recognize as belonging to my childhood friend. There was a numbing pain in my heart and I felt like throwing up. I could not understand whether he had changed of late or whether I had been a fool not to have seen through him earlier. But all this did not matter to me now.

As I walked back to the bus stop I suddenly realized, I was able to see better even without my spectacles.

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