Ek Pyar Ka Naghma Hai

Chapter 1

"Ek pyar ka naghma hai

Maujon ki rawani hai

Zindagi aur kuchh bhi nahi

Teri meri kahani hai"

(It's a song of love, a rhythm of waves, life is nothing but our story)

Kartik Singh. Sixteen. "At his prime" apparently. Doing sit ups as a punishment for failing.

"Papa ghar mein light nahi hoti kaise padhta?" Kartik says as he comes up, eyes welling up with tears.

*Tadak*another slap across his face. Kartik goes down again as a reflex. A lot of people will tell Kartik to laugh it off and move on, especially the adults, but you can't make a sixteen year old understand that hits from his own father are supposed to be funny, that the debilitating fear he feels finding its place every part of his body is supposed to be funny, that him feeling so small is supposed to be funny, that the heart that sinks, the blood that boils, the brain that freezes, that the hands that want to come up to defend never do due to the fear of being rendered badtameez, that the helplessness he feels, the powerlessness, the feeling of not having autonomy over your own body, is all supposed to be funny. And this happened every time he did something, even something as harmless as coloring his hair blue, his father didn't approve of. He had just wanted to assert his identity as an Ambedkarite through his hair, he still didn't understand what was so wrong with that.

Aman Tripathi. Sixteen. Feels a speck of something yellow on the back of his hand and realizes that his father has spat the dal on the cemented floor of the Tripathis's aangan.

"Kya ho gaya ji? Aur kuchh banane ka time nahi tha toh ab dal chawal hi khane padenge", says Sunita Tripathi.

"Woh toh theek hai par dal mein namak toh daal diya karo." At which the entire khandan tastes a spoonful of dal as if it was not the Tripathis's aangan but the Supreme Court and the Tripathis, all a part of the jury.

"Champa, namak toh tujhe daalne ko bola tha na"

"Didi, aapne toh aisa kabhi na bola. Goggal tu toh thi na rasoi mein, tu bata sabko."

Rajni keeps mum.

"Achha toh ab bacche mujhe jhootha aur saccha batayenge. Yahi parvarish dena chahti ho tum apni beti ko? Aman Keshav ko lekar andar jaa."

"Par kha.." Keshav tries to speak but is interrupted by Champa Chachi.

"Achha hai didi, kardiya na aapne apna paraya."

"Arrey Champa aisa nahi hai, muh mat ghumao, bhabhi ka woh matlab nahi tha haina bhabhi?"

"Humne koi maze mein muh nahi ghumaya hai, hum roothkar baithe hain"

"Nahi, mera toh wahi matlab tha jo yeh samjhi hai, ab agar apne hi ghar walon ko apne iraadon ka vishwas dilana pade toh kya apne aur kya paraye."

"Arrey mummy yaar Chachi ka woh matlab nahi tha" says Aman, trying to stop his family from jumping from one topic to another. One meal. All he wanted was a single meal without any tu-tu-main-main. But of-course that wasn't possible in the Tripathi household. As the whole parivaar erupts into a non-sensical chaotic debate, Aman zones out to imagine what would it be like to live in a nuclear family. His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a chamcha hitting the ground. Turns out Sunita Tripathi had thrown a chamcha at Champa in the heat of the moment. The two of them, bubbling with anger, would have torn each other apart if not for the others in the family. As the others held them back, Aman situated himself between his mother and his aunt hands out so as to stop them from charging at each other with their one-woman armies and bartan for weapons. At that moment, a smooth but raw voice (as Aman would describe it) shouts from the gate of the house, "Chachi, aapka tawa bana laya."

"Arrey woh luhar ka beta hoga, Aman wahan se paise utha aur usko de aa. Tawa neeche rakhwa lena usse aur tu paise rakh dena neeche, matlab haath mat lagana", Sunita Tripathi says without realizing that she's asking his son to commit a crime. (Article 17 of the constitution abolishes the practice of untouchability. The practice of untouchability is an offence and anyone doing so is punishable by law.)

"Arrey mummy yaar, abhi ruko yahan ladai suljhaun ya tawa lun. Radha didi, aap lelo please usse jaakar." He says as he passes on twenty rupees to Radha, the house help and then goes back to resolving the fight.

Aman picks up the namak himself from the kitchen, adds the right amount to everyone's dal and just stands there, hands on his waist.

"Ab ho gaya ho sabka toh baithkar shanti se khana khaalein? Hadd ho matlab sabke sab." At this all the adults sit down, ashamed, while Rajni bursts out laughing, Keshav joins in, so does Aman and in a matter of minutes the aangan is bustling with laughter and the usual domestic discussions. Aman realizes that he wouldn't have it any other way. He has once again saved his family's hearts from breaking but has unknowingly broken someone's whose heart will soon matter the most to him: Kartik. As Kartik walks away from the Tripathi's double storied house, he once again realizes his status in the casteist society of Allahabad. As he saw the other boy's mother give him the money and tell him something, he had known that he will be asked once again to keep the tawa on the ground and pick the money from the ground, as if reminding him that he belongs to the dirt, but what he hadn't know was that the Tripathi's son wouldn't even want to get anywhere near him and would send the house help to get the tawa. Kartik was not surprised but he was heartbroken.

"Zara mulk ke rehbaron ko bulao

Yeh kuche, yeh galiyan, yeh manzar dikhao

Jinhe naaz hai hind par unko laao

Jinhe naaz hai hind par woh kahan hain"

(Call the guides of the country, show them these nooks, these streets, these scenes, bring the ones who are proud of this country, where are the ones who are proud of this country)