Short Story “Unsuspecting Accomplices” an excerpt

Excerpt from “Unsuspecting Accomplices”

         

        Mr. Robbins liked Tathayya who was immaculately groomed with an air of quiet dignity dressed in a spotless white dhoti with a thin woven border, his coat well pressed and holding a pocket watch on a slim gold chain, silk angavastram draped over the right shoulder, black pundit cap on his head. His black shoes gleamed at all times. Ammamma had read that the English bosses were sticklers for proper dressing so whether in office or on camp Tathayya was impeccably turned out.

         Camp meant Tathayya travelling fifteen days a month by horse carriage or bullock cart to the schools in the district along with his staff. His personal valet looked after the wardrobe upkeep, getting the daily personal toilette together and pressing down the washed mull dhoti with a heavy hot water filled brass vessel to iron out the creases, fixing the mosquito net, checking the cot for insects and bugs and placing the four legs in empty wax tins filled with kerosene to ward off crawling scorpions. In his satchel Tathayya carried a heavy torch and when he had to use the out house at night, he would venture out swinging the torch in front of him from side to side and singing in his loud sonorous voice, “fee- fi- fo- fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.” 

        The commissary was managed by the camp cook who carted a partitioned wooden chest of provisions and condiments, oil, ghee and pickles, another chest to hold the pots and pans and a third to hold the primus stove. Wherever Tathayya stopped for the night, camp cook, a devout Brahmin would first bathe and then start on the evening meal. Ammamma made sure the provision chest was well stocked with a variety of pickles and chutneys. Along with steamed rice, vegetables, lentils and yogurt and many tasty delicacies, Tathayya had two scrumptious meals a day. The water carrier, a crucial member of the staff, drew up pots and pots of water from the well for cooking, bathing, washing and cleaning of the establishment.

         The Education department provides Tathayya with a personal peon and a camp clerk. These officials had the custody of the two locked steel trunks carrying reports, files, books, tomes and despatches, besides ink bottles, pens, nibs, pencils, blotters, carbon paper, foot ruler, postal stationary, stamps, rubber stamps and seals and all the paraphernalia that went into keeping the Macaulay system of education on track with discipline and to the highest standards. No personal item was ever placed in the official steel trunks, which were meticulously laid out ready for inspection. While Tathayya dictated many notes to the camp clerk, the official registers were personally filed in his massive cursive hand, reports entered without a single smudge or correction, the “y’s” all neatly looped and the “t’s” all crossed at the right place. Little wonder that Mr Robbins had a soft spot for Tathayya who kept immaculate records and handed in his tour expense statement at the Department, even before dropping off his luggage at home. Tathayya was dependable and trust worthy without guile or shrewdness and the Englishman recognised in him, what was characterised as ‘a gentleman of noble character’.

        The third reason Mr Robbins was partial towards Tathayya was his passion for  “words” be it prose, poetry, upanishad hymns, bible or ditties, Tathayya loved to read aloud passages from literature, verse, philosophy, walking around his circular library lined from floor to ceiling with gilt bound tomes in locked glass fronted rosewood cupboards. His clear sonorous voice would resonate like the temple bell and hold a listener spell bound with its timbre, uplifting and celestial. In his library Tathayya would read for hours on end sometimes chuckling, at other times tears streaming down his cheeks as a particular phase or passage wrenched his heart with the beauty of its composition. Mr Robbins shared the passion but being a superior and having to maintain the hateful stiff upper lip he had no way of giving vent to the unbridled joy of reading aloud and releasing his emotions. Of course he never spoke on any of this to Tathayya but the two shared the secret as kindred souls.

       Tathayya was nearing retirement and Ammamma had gone into menopause when tragedy called on the family. Baby had turned ten, a delicate pixyish girl with two thick braids and gangly long legs when she started a fever. The fever persisted for days rising sharply and no compress, mixture or compounds seemed to bring it down. For a while they suspected typhoid but the doctor diagnosed it as rheumatic fever, which could prove fatal or severely damage the heart. Tathayya and Ammamma were shattered, then collected themselves to keep vigil at Baby’s bedside, nursing her with great tenderness and devotion. Ammamma who was accustomed to a routine of leisure threw all her strength into getting Baby well and strong. Tathayya would hold cold compresses’ on her brow, tenderly massage her legs and carry her around the room in his arms to give her aching body some respite. The fever ravaged for a month but Ammamma and Tathayya won and Baby turned the corner. The illness had robbed Baby of her stamina and she was started on a sedentary routine of home schooling, attending a regular school only in her matriculation year. If she was pampered as a child, Baby was even more indulged after her illness.

        Tathayya retired as Baby was nearing high school. His days of Camp were over and he now looked forward to uninterrupted hours in his library. Several changes had occurred in his ancestral home. After his father had died, the large undivided family struggled to stay together, then, like well washed bed sheets starting a rent, the unwieldy economics of maintaining a common establishment created domestic fissures. The brothers confabulated and partitioned the house into four as willed by their father. For a while it ran thus four hearths within one gigantic structure. The town was expanding rapidly and with increasing congestion on the main Town Hall Road, Tathayya decided to relocate to a quieter residence. The question was from where to fund the new house construction? Tathayya had spent all his earnings in the education of his children, the lands which yielded paddy, oil and sugar cane had gone into litigation and there were absolutely no savings for the new house to be built.

( to be continued )