The Hell Games (Kalki Chronicles)

Olden days

It was a cold dense morning on Friday, 13th of September 2012. Samaira shares her happiness with her mother, Rita, who often held that "Untying knots of everyday life is better than an idle life".

Her mother hailed from a poor Sindhi family of Prayag. Like all mothers, she has been living her life for her children. She has been the only pillar of strength due to which the family could cross the tides of bad times. Problems are never too big. It can be overcome by sheer patience, she often used to say. She had a belief that when the storm blows one must not stand and face the storm but lie low for the storm to pass.

Recollecting the olden times, Samaira continues – "Do you remember your old times, mother? How badly we have been tortured by our joint family?

"How can anybody forget those times? A joint family as is known is marked by petty differences and disputes but injustice, unnecessary harassment, domination, slavery, and mental torture cannot be tolerated at any cost. It pains me to relate such incidents where a soul is compelled by circumstances to cry for justice, liberation, peace, and in all, right to life.

Rome was never built in a day is the most famous saying....here too a series of events ignited the first change. We were victims of those events.

I remember how much I have hated my grandmother, cried Samaira.

Rita smiled and continued - The only irritant in your grandmother's eye was my poor social background. I wasn't treated as a newly wedded bride in the house upon my marriage but as a free maid, a slave for life. I was a slave to everyone in the family including your father who was amongst those who substituted love with dominance.

I hated Dad because of the treatment he gave you. It is such an irony. I often wonder how you were looked upon with respect from the outsiders while inside the family you were taken for granted. All used you - emotionally, physically, mentally, and in all respects.

Sometimes I wonder where would you vent up all your anger. It used to be vent out on me. I was the victim of your anger which disturbed my emotional and mental frame of mind immensely. My childhood was therefore bereft of your love and affection. You always held my uncle in good light despite his evil endeavors. You always maintained that he was not evil enough to take such a strong measure of creating havoc in our lives. His evil intentions were aired by his aides - my aunt, and my uncle's close friend, Mr. Amit Gupta who was an accountant in the partnership firm.

His aides had an impressive list of those including the auditor of the firm with the help of whom he fabricated the accounts of the firm and cheated his brothers to see them at his mercy throughout their life.

I never liked him. He always wanted our family to be dependent on him for our necessities and therefore lead our life at his mercy. He wanted us to be his slaves with no wishes and rights of our own. Our opposition could at no cost be tolerated by him and hence the big change.

Your teachings of Simple living and high thinking gradually became a part of our life.

The shortage of money and the resultant showdown seemed frustrating to us but in the long run, made us realize many things. We realized that the world is a temporary union of have and have not's and the man-made differences cannot be removed overnight. These differences are harsh lessons that have to be lived with and cannot be ignored. The greed of money or ego or vanity of my uncle...whatever is the reason, affected our lives in one way or the other. Not one but all of us were made to think in a certain way about the finances.

I clearly remember how your uncle conspired against your father and filled the office space with all unnecessary suit material to be supplied at fake costs thereby creating trouble for your father. He created an atmosphere whereby his brothers would be compelled to leave the office and the assets at his disposal to be enjoyed and exploited by him. Formally, the partners (the three brothers) prepared minutes of the meeting for the retirement of the partners wherein it was expressly stated that the retiring partners would be given a share as per the tentative division of share done for all the partners in the meeting. Your youngest uncle chose to take his share while my father opted for keeping the share as a loan with the firm on which we were to receive a percentage of interest in terms of the minutes of the meeting. It was also agreed that the partners would get the amount of share as provided in the first balance sheet to be prepared by the firm after retirement. This constituted the main germ of the dispute in the future as your uncle chose to cheat us by siphoning our funds and not showing a true and correct amount in the balance sheet thereby fabricating the balance sheet.

We were never given complete papers of separation. Not to mention we were not even made aware as to what was going on. We were very naive. It was when you became a lawyer that we figured out the deception of your uncle.

Your father couldn't do much except taking a share of what was given to him by the partners. The share was though, kept with the firm and in particular, with your uncle as a loan whilst we were enjoying the interest receivable out of the share.

I remember how I completed my school and college education partly on the basis of the interest we received from the share and partly from the loan taken from banks and some of my relatives from the maternal side. My education was thus very expensive and truly, hard-earned. We separated from the joint family in 2000 and were partially independent to lead our lives. It was the biggest change for all of us. However, every month we had to beg and call up my uncle several times before he would send us the money, our money to us. The money also not being sufficient for the whole family, there were many mouths to feed but no hands to work.

The relatives who favored your uncle never wanted to see my family grow. They always saw us in bad light. It was out of such jealousy that once your father's sister pointed out to me "My daughter could never clear the entrance exam of law, then how could your daughter clear the exam". To this, I was left with nothing to reply but merely pass an agreeable smile. It was you who was madly in love with Law. You pursued it with strong determination. It was the only savior and hope for us. We realized it very late. You were destined to be a lawyer and so you became. The process has been very difficult.

We had many apprehensions about you undergoing legal education. All of which to start with had something to do with fees. The rest of the apprehensions were regarding your living alone in a distant place and staying away from the family.

I remember, for the first time, I was going to stay away from my family. It was even more difficult for me to leave my family as I would be left all alone in a distant city whereas my family had the togetherness of each other. I knew I had to be tough and keep going in any case. It was that day and it is now when the seeds sown in my past bore the fruits today. I passed the law course with flying colors. That flight took five years to complete though...

You have proved your mettle once again and secured a good job for yourself. Congratulations.

Thanks mom.

Samaira puts down the receiver. Immediately thereafter, she receives a call from the Learner Coaching Institute -

"Mam, we have arranged three lectures for you tomorrow. Rest of the details will be provided to you in the institute". Saying so, they ended the conversation.

As for Samaira, she expressed her gratitude to the whole universe, god's, goddesses, humans, even the demons, who were detested and frowned upon since time immemorial. It was her daily chore before going off to sleep. Thanking the almighty for all good and bad, she goes off to sleep. However, fixing her mind to a point in meditation for a long time was difficult for her. She did not even try.

Few hours later. She wakes up. It was 3 am. "Devil's hour," she thought. It is not a good thing to wake at this time of the hour. Why do I get up around this time only? I don't feel nice. Oh my gosh, what is happening? I feel somebody is there. Somebody is watching me.