by Ruskin Bond
Sreekanth returned about ten minutes later. After entering the laboratory he looked at Virendra's table to see whether the draft was ready; he found Virendra still working on it. On noticing Sreekanth's entry, Virendra said without looking at him, 'Sit down.' Sreekanth sat down again on the chair to Virendra's right, and waited keenly. A moment later after jotting something more on the draft, Virendra picked up the paper and handed it over to Sreekanth and said, 'Here. Read this.'
Sreekanth took the paper and pored over it. There were only five sentences, with corrections here and there. A matter-of-fact statement of what took place during the day and a final sentence that summed up the totally unsatisfactory state of affairs regarding the installation, and urging immediate redress. Sreekanth read it once, reread it, and then he said, 'It is good. Should I type it?'
'Yes,' Virendra said, 'there is little point in being verbose. This particular problem is unlikely to be solved by a long letter.'
Sreekanth nodded, got up and walked to the typewriter. He placed sheets of the letterhead, paper and carbon into the machine, and soon he was typing. When he was through, he read the matter again for any errors while the paper was still on the machine; when he detected none, he took them out of the typewriter, separated the carbon and then walked to Virendra.
Virendra read and checked it again and then signed on both the copies. He handed over both the copies to Sreekanth and said, 'Leave one copy here for Dr Brennan and put the other copy in our files. I am resting here for a while; Dr Brennan could pick up the report when he is through with the machine. And be there, at least you will have some idea about what is being done.'
Sreekanth picked the papers up, left the original copy on the table, and took the other copy for putting in the file. As he was doing this, the door slowly opened, and Brennan entered. 'Could I come in?' he asked from the door and halted there. Virendra got up and said, 'Yes, of course. Do come in.'
Brennan walked in, pulled the chair Sreekanth was sitting on earlier, and sat down. In the meantime, Sreekanth had taken down a file from the glass cupboard and had placed the copy of the report in it. He put the file back in the cupboard and left the laboratory walking past both Brennan and Virendra.
Brennan glanced at the report lying on the table, but he did not try to read it – he did not seem to be particularly interested in it. He remained silent for a while even after Sreekanth had left the laboratory; then he spoke, 'Over there I have sealed back the vacuum system, and also set right the original connections of the control unit. Your students have seen how they were done.' He paused. Virendra remained silent. Virendra and Brennan were sitting against each other but at an angle, not quite face to face. Virendra looked at Brennan's face gravely from time to time as Brennan spoke; Brennan, in contrast, was talking mostly looking at the table. Brennan continued, 'I understand your situation; I understand how you feel. We had a similar situation when I was at the university.' This statement surprised Virendra; he did not expect any such sentiments coming from a person who was in a mood of total confrontation just a little while ago. He gazed at Brennan's face intently, but still remained silent.
'I have some idea about what we should do to get out of the present situation, but cannot discuss it here at present. I have to talk and clear it first with my management; I have no authority to take unilateral decisions. But I shall immediately talk to the management and then communicate the outcome.' Brennan stopped. Virendra listened attentively but did not respond.
There was silence for a few seconds. Then Virendra spoke, 'Here is the report you needed. Check whether it meets your requirements.' Brennan picked up the piece of paper from the table and read with concentration. When he was through, he started folding the paper neatly and said, 'Yes, this will do.'
As Brennan completed his comment, Virendra said, 'Since you say you understand the situation, you would probably be able to present our views properly. I would just reiterate that MatTech by not checking the machine for its performance before it left their factory acted most improperly. It has collected our money, and the machine has done nothing for us. And these three years of inaction under some pretext or other, has totally demolished a research programme. We have been extremely patient all along, but the response from MatTech has been shoddy.' Virendra stopped.
'I shall communicate your feelings.' Brennan did not react at all to the very sharp words Virendra used. Brennan waited for a few moments and then got up and said, 'We must now prepare to go. Mr Agarwal is already impatient.'
'Do you have transportation?' Virendra asked.
'Mr Agarwal said that he went and checked some time ago. The taxi is waiting at the parking lot.'
Virendra also got up and both of them came to the front room. Mr Agarwal was already set to go, ready with his briefcase. The students were standing along with him. Brennan walked forward and picked up his briefcase from the table. Virendra's eyes fell on the machine, now once again standing as it was in the morning, but actually it had gone back in time much further. The only change was that someone had put on the console the stainless parts made in town. There were no other changes. A sigh came to Virendra, but he suppressed it.
Through the glass wall the outer door and its adjacent table caught Virendra's attention. On the table was a flask, which he recognised as his own from home, and a lunch box. He faced Brennan and said, 'Overwhelmed by the problems of the machine I forgot to ask you whether you had a bite of lunch. Did you?'
'Yes, thank you,' Brennan said. 'We had sandwiches and tea. I liked both.'
Agarwal quickly joined Brennan. 'You took so much trouble for us, Doctor saab.' At the same time he made a movement of his feet to get towards the glass door.
Brennan approached Virendra and extended his hand. Virendra reciprocated and shook hands. 'I am pleased to have met you. I shall keep you informed about the progress,' Brennan said.
Agarwal was already out of the glass door and waiting at the opened main door. Brennan made a move to leave. He went through the glass door and joined Agarwal. He waved to the students who were following Virendra. Brennan looked at Virendra and smiled, his arm still up in the air. Virendra's body and mind were filled with dejection; any other time he would have felt like accompanying them to their car. Virendra smiled and halted. The visitors by then were out of sight.
The warm air from outside had filled the entrance. Virendra walked one more step forward and pulled the door. The door shut and latched. He turned around and returned to the laboratory through the glass door. The students were already back inside waiting for Virendra.
Virendra had been feeling physically exhausted for quite some time but was forcing himself to go on with a polite show. The need for that was now over. Despite the deep dejection that was overwhelming him there was now a feeling of relief which filled his body and mind. He could be himself again. Virendra walked to the laboratory table, moved the clutter of parts and paraphernalia away, and sat on the table with his legs hanging. The students were familiar with this mood of abandon; in periods of informality and relaxation, all of them did that. Virendra said aloud, 'God, what a day! What a mess! Come sit down here. It is over for today.'
The students came close. Sreekanth and Mukul pulled chairs and sat down on them, while Varma decided to sit on the floor. Varma said, 'Sir, it was too much waiting in the workshop at the gate trying to get those parts machined. It was hot like a furnace. Those fellows had no idea about tolerances of parts; I had several quarrels. All to no avail.'
'I am sorry to have put you through all that,' Virendra said, 'but then did we have a choice? They had thrown a spanner or challenge, whichever way you like to describe it. If we did not put in the effort, and suppose the turbo did not fail, how would we have felt? Think about that!'
'Sir, I am still not sure how the turbo control blew,' Mukul said, 'he was checking wires and connections from the back and also checking the vacuum pressure from the front once in a while. And all of a sudden he said that the turbo was gone.'
'Never mind, those are matters of detail. Just take it as objectively as we can. Think that we have tried our best, and yet we have been defeated. Perhaps it is a curse. Perhaps we should forget all these experiments and crank some computer programs somewhere and obtain scores of plots and be through with it.' Virendra paused. Then he turned to Sreekanth and said, 'Sreekanth, cheer up! Don't worry; we will see you through, come what may. We have done several difficult jobs, and we will cross this hurdle also. There will be bruises, but we shall share them with you all the way.'
Sreekanth ordinarily talked little, and this was surely no occasion to be talkative. He just nodded in agreement, but his face was showing for quite some time now that he was deeply disturbed.
Virendra continued, 'It is not clear how these people will now react. I suppose that Dr Brennan takes back with him two things. First, that we understand the machine thoroughly and cannot be deceived into accepting any junk, and second, that we do not give up so easily. He might have recognised the design faults in the machine which MatTech thus far has steadfastly refused to accept – that would be communicated to the MatTech management, and also a projection that unless a thorough change in the design is undertaken the machine would not provide terminal specifications that were quoted in the order.'
'But sir,' Mukul said, 'if they admit a design fault, and even undertake to rectify the faults, it would take quite a long time to have the machine in operational form.'
'There is little doubt about that, but is there any alternative? The only hope would be that they realised it early and did something about it soon. Once they realise that we will take them to task and their cost will go on increasing the more time they pass casually, they will expedite.'
'Can MatTech and Crescent both be blacklisted?'
'There is a clear case for that, but beyond that it will depend on our official legal advisers. Actually there could be further charges, because some accessories they have provided are not what they actually labelled them as. But that is when we totally give up.'
'Sir, it seemed Dr Brennan wavered between a blind MatTech employee and an open-eyed scientist,' Varma said.
'Yes. Fresh from the university, that is why! It may not last very long. But he is quite competent. A good product of his university,' Virendra paused. Then he looked around the laboratory and said, 'Anyway, gentlemen, let us clean up the physical mess this day has caused our laboratory, and call it a day.'
Virendra sort of jumped down from his sitting position; the students also got up from their seats. The table was full of parts, accessories, electronic measuring equipment, and assembly drawings of the MatTech machine. They started sorting them out, throwing away useless material, paper, and parts, and within half an hour, the laboratory was again clean. Sreekanth was cleaning the console; he picked up the parts that Virendra had got machined in town and asked, 'What do we do with these ?'
Virendra looked at them and returned a rather sorrowful smile. 'Leave them there. We shall decide tomorrow. They will be archival pieces!' Sreekanth left them on the console.
Soon they were ready to leave. Virendra called out, 'Let's go. I feel like taking a bath and going to sleep for several days in a row. But in this heat, even that alternative does not exist.'
Mukul and Varma had already gone out opening the glass door to the outer door. Sreekanth and Virendra followed them. In the outer section, the flask from Virendra's house rested on the work table. First Virendra thought that he would take it with him and picked it up, then he decided not to and put it down.
Sreekanth was turning the power to the laboratory off. The air conditioners had been already turned off, then the fans went, now the lights one by one. There was one last light that remained. When Sreekanth saw that Virendra had put down the flask and was not going to take it with him, he asked, 'Shall I turn the light off?'
Virendra looked around. He did not notice anything that was still to be done. When he looked inside again his gaze stopped at the top of the console; the lone light was falling on it in a way that the parts brought from the workshop shone against a diffuse background. It amused Virendra – those were the only positive output of the day. He smiled sadly, and responded to Sreekanth by saying 'Yes.' The light went out, and in the darkness he and Sreekanth came out of the laboratory.
They walked through the warm semidark corridor and came to the landing. Mukul and Varma had already taken the staircase down; Sreekanth followed them; Virendra followed Sreekanth. Downstairs the students paused next to a cluster of bicycles; they probably waited for Virendra in case he wished to say something. When Virendra reached them he noticed that and said, 'Do all of you have bikes here?' They nodded. 'In that case go ahead, I shall decide what I shall do.'
They took the suggestion, and one by one brought out their bicycles and got started. Sreekanth was the last one to take off. After he was on the bike and the bike started rolling, Virendra said from behind, 'See you tomorrow morning.' Sreekanth applied the brakes to slow down, nodded, and then pedalled off. Virendra walked forward under the catwalk.
He did not know where to go or what to do. He felt like having a bath and some rest, but he had to rule that out. It was meaningless to return home, it would be a furnace now. Further, there was nobody at home, he could not get a glass of cold water or tea. Parvati would not return until it was dark.
There was not even a single cool place where he could go and sit down. Just outside the southeastern gate of the academic area there was a students' canteen run by an outside contractor, but that would be hot too. Virendra was feeling thirsty and he was walking through hot air and was pressed for a decision. He had by then gone past the main building and was still walking without a destination. The library building came to his view towards the left. He could go there and sit down in the first floor which was relatively cool, but he did not like the idea. He had had enough of academics today, he wanted to get away from all that. Perhaps the students' canteen was the best that was available. He reluctantly decided to go to the canteen.
He took a left turn towards the library with the intention of walking through the library quadrangle and exiting through the southeastern gate. The two pools of water were to his right; one of the fountains was sprinkling water through its vertical nozzles, scum and all; the green water in the other had ripples caused by an occasional draught. As he was walking past the library he saw two students, a boy and a girl coming down the stairs hurriedly. There were bicycles parked under the library portico; Virendra walked through them avoiding bumping into them. But he was acting mindlessly; he was tired, he just wanted to sit down somewhere and have some rest.
'Sir,' there was a call from behind. Virendra halted and turned back. The same boy and the girl who were coming down the library staircase – well, they were Rajendra and Urmi from this year's graduating Master's class. Strange. He had not recognised them.
'Sir,' Urmi said, 'we were just going to your house to see you and chat for a while. We are leaving the campus tonight; we leave Delhi two weeks from tomorrow. We went to your house at the lunch hour also, but you were not there.'
It was a reminder of a bad experience. 'Yes, I had to go out. Sorry that you went to see me in the midday sun and had to return.' Virendra was not sure what else he could say. Clearly they were keen to sit down with him for a while, but Virendra had so little energy to talk now. But it would disappoint them so much if Virendra said a summary no. What was to be done?
'Well, right now it would be useless to go home. It would be hot, and Parvati won't be there to make something for you. In fact I myself was going to the students' canteen for a sip of something; would you like to join me?'
'Gladly, sir,' Rajendra said.
'Well then, come along.'
'Just a minute sir, let us pick up our bikes from here. Actually we have already sold the bikes, but until tonight they are with us,' Urmi said.
They went back to bring their bicycles. Virendra waited. This was a situation of mixed feeling. Vi
rendra tried to look at the positive side of it. Two young people with the whole life in front of them, full of enthusiasm and dreams. Even their company, totally unrelated to the day's events, could have a relaxing and rejuvenating effect. And they were so unaware of what Virendra had been through today, and would remain so if Virendra chose not to say anything about that. Virendra took a decision not to say anything. He would just absorb their optimism about the future.
Urmi and Rajendra returned with their bicycles. They started walking together towards the gate. They were obviously happy to have got hold of Virendra. 'We are so very happy that we saw you now accidentally, because if we went to your home now, once again we would not have found you,' Urmi said. Virendra said nothing. His tired face only expressed a satisfaction.
They went through the gate, crossed the street, and walked into a fenced area, in which stood the students' activities centre and the students' canteen.
SEVEN
THE STUDENTS' CANTEEN WAS A FAIRLY LARGE ROOM WITH about ten to fifteen tables. At one side of the room there was a long high counter at which the manager sat, and behind him stood a door that led to the kitchen. The long vertical strips of windows all around were narrow; as a result the room remained rather dark even in daytime. During summer middays when the curtains were drawn, it became darker, making it necessary to switch on the lights inside. When Virendra and the students entered the canteen, nobody was there except a lone waiter. The desert cooler was whining away and sucking in hot air from outside, nobody had cared to notice that the water tray in the cooler had long gone dry.