Page 75 of A Shimla Affair
I thought the Gods were supposed to bring us together, not push us apart. I shook my head in disappointment and sorrow, and she passed us by.
The guards would soon be behind us, and it was almost as if I were in a trance. Charles told me to jump on the count of three. No, he would not join, he kept insisting, he loved me far too much to stop the car from moving. As long as the car keeps driving, he is able to buy just a bit more time for us, for the sepoys to think we are still in the car. ‘You must crawl through the crowds Nalini, ask them to push you forward, they will help you, you will see.’
One … ‘Nalini, don’t cry it’s not the time …’
Two … ‘Take care of him, or her …’
Three … I looked up in the sky, the sun on my face, and joined my hands in prayer, knowing that I had only seconds to say my words:Lord, let there be love for who is willing to die to saveme. Let there be freedom for each one. Let there be life, and a life of dignity.
This was my sacrifice and even if I knew it would end like this, I would do it again, a hundred times, for what is worth living for, is also worth dying for.
We jumped and were immediately helped up by people. Hands urgently shoved us forward, and everything was a blur. I tried to catch a last glimpse of Charles but it was too late. At least I could feel Khushilalji and Noor close to me. I know they were also being pushed forward. Far into the crowds, I saw another face that terrified me once again: Wagner, anger writ on his face, closing in. I hurried forwards, jostling past the people, letting them push me.
I craned my neck to look for the others, Afreen and Ratan Babu, but saw nothing. We were getting ahead and far, simply through the crowds. And then, there were gunshots.
‘Wait for me, I’m coming!’ I called out to the others. I had been momentarily distracted by the parakeet family in the tree. In the summer, they fluttered about fearlessly, the colours on their body standing out in the forest greens.
I hurried up the trail, pulling up the ends of my sari, following the laughing voices of my sisters and Ratan Babu. It made me happy to see how Noor had taken to Ratan Babu by now, trusting him completely, her earlier misgivings completely forgotten.
‘So, what are we going to do after?’ I asked them, and they looked at me in confusion. ‘After all this! After Guruji has killed the Viceroy, Mr Sood helps us escape, some weeks go by and then let’s suppose we are free. What will we do after?’
I saw my sisters exchange a look.
‘We will have to go to Bombay … right?’ I saw that Afreen was talking to Ratan Babu, and not me.
‘Oh yes … right,’ I realized she was married. ‘I will come with you. We will, right? Where else, as long as the hotel is not returned to us?’
The lights of the Bombay talkies beckoned me again, and I felt a secret thrill about it being our next natural destination. If nothing else, going for the talkies would be so easy there.
‘We should, it would be a good plan,’ Noor said. ‘There, we can find you a nice, suitable man, there are so many Parsis in Bombay …’
I groaned; not that again. Truly, my sisters had overused this topic, when will they learn that I was simply not that interested in any Parsi men?
‘Are you blushing, Nalini?’ Afreen asked, extending a hand towards my cheek, trying to pull it. I slapped her hand away, and she laughed, trying to pinch whatever part of me she could reach.
‘Stop it! Ratan Babu, control your woman!’
‘Oh, I gave up on that long ago,’ he said with a sigh, moving ahead with Noor as Afreen and I continued struggling.
‘Wait till your children trouble you, Afreen; I will just sit in the corner, sip my tea and watch; oh it will be so much fun …’
Afreen laughed, ‘Oh you have no idea, my children will be very well-disciplined. They will not dare.’
‘I will teach them to trouble you.’
‘As if you could … I’ll teach them to gang up on you.’
‘How many do you want?’
‘Four at least, no less,’ she answered.
I smiled at the thought of them surrounded by their four children who inherited their disregard for rules, for order, for tradition. That would be one chaotic household.
‘I can’t wait,’ I told her happily, and she smiled at me, her eyes dreamy.
‘Hurry up!’ Noor called us from further up the path, and I saw the hotel silhouetted against the evening light. I held Afreen by the hand, almost home.
Epilogue
