Excerpt – Tantu: The Loom of Life
Ravindra worked until half past seven and asked for the proofs to be brought to him. As he was about to leave for home, Lobo rang him up and said: ‘Sir, sorry to disturb you. The city’s Assistant Police Commissioner is on the line. He wants to speak to you right away.’
Ravindra picked up the phone. Someone asked: ‘Is this Mr Ravindra? I’m the APC. Could you possibly come to the canton’s police station right away? There’s a little matter that needs to be settled.’ ‘Should I come myself? I’ll see if the city reporter is around. Can you hang on a minute? I’ll send someone.’
‘The press has already gone. It has to do with your son. We raided a cabaret on Brigade Road at half past three today. We’d been informed that the dancers were stripping beyond the permissible legal limit. We arrested three cabaret girls, the owner, and four members of the orchestra. Incidentally, there were three fourteen-year-old boys in the audience …..’
Even before the APC had completed his sentence, Ravindra knew that one of the boys was Anup. ‘One of the boys is your son,’ the APC continued. ‘His name is Anup, isn’t it? Anyway, we’re laying a separate charge against the management for allowing young boys entry. However, please come and see your boy. When he was asked whose son he was, he apparently mentioned your name …’
Ravindra wanted to tell the APC that he wouldn’t come, that the boy should be punished according to the law, and that the he should rough him up if he wanted to. However, when Ravindra spoke, he didn’t voice these thoughts. Since the APC was also in a hurry, Ravindra ended the conversation by simply saying: ‘Alright. Good evening.’
Ravindra was furious. The best punishment would be for the police to give Anup a good hiding. ‘I won’t go,’ he thought. ‘I’ll just go home. But if I go home I’ll have to tell Kanti. They’ll probably phone in half an hour or so anyway.’ Ravindra wanted to get into his car, drive to Cubbon Park, and just sit on a bench for a while. He didn’t want to stay in the office in case the phone rang again, so he grabbed his briefcase and walked out. The liftboy respectfully opened the elevator door and took him down. He parked the car next to a street in Cubbon Park and without getting out, sat holding onto the steering wheel. He had thought Anup’s problems had been solved when he had been separated from his companions. Anup was just fourteen. Ravindra felt that his current escapade of going to cabaret shows where girls slowly stripped until they were stark naked was decidedly worse than just eating meat. He suspected that even if the police beat Anup, it still wouldn’t bring him around. Something more drastic would have to be done.
The park was almost deserted and most of the benches were empty. The streetlights emphasised the dark. Ravindra looked at his watch. It was a quarter past eight. He had to go to the station, as it didn’t seem like a good idea to make them wait. He started the car.
At the police station, there were two benches, both of which were packed with people, while a number of others were standing, leaning against the wall. There were about fifteen to twenty people in all and Ravindra guessed that at least some of them were probably there in connection with the cabaret. It was quite usual to see people like this. He remembered that in cities where he had worked like Patna and Jaipur, those who were going to be interviewed would gather at the station in the evenings. As Ravindra reflected that he hadn’t seen anything like this before in Karnataka, he noticed two men standing near the wall talking to each other. The chubby face and safari suit gave one of them away—it was Aroda of Shakthi Electrical. The other man was Sabharwal, the developer and builder. The last time they had met, Sabharwal had been wearing a tunic and pajama. This time, he was wearing a shirt and trousers. The two of them were happily talking away as if nothing was the matter and as if it were all just part of their daily routine. Since the APC had told Ravindra that three boys of the same age had been caught, he surmised that Anup had gone to the cabaret with Jagadish Aroda and Om Prakash Sabharwal. Putting the boys in different sections had obviously not stopped them from meeting. Ravindra surmised that these parents had been summoned, just as he had. He moved towards them with the intention of talking to them, but changed his mind and instead moved alongside them. The two were talking in Punjabi, probably because they knew that if they spoke Hindi, other people would understand. However, since they were talking in Punjabi, they were happily talking out loud.
‘The police aren’t going about it the right way,’ Aroda was saying. ‘They should tell us up front how much it’ll cost. Having sent for us, they make us wait and cower before them until-like they’re doing us some big favour-they’ll bargain about how much they should be paid. We do most of our business in the evenings. Who’s going to compensate us for the loss we make while we stand here?’ ‘What I want to know is why should we pay now? Sure, young boys shouldn’t go to cabarets and if they do, the people who admitted them should be punished. They can’t touch the boys. Besides, they only looked. They didn’t do anything. After all, they’re too young to do anything,’ Sabharwal added, shaking all over with laughter.
